MMA

Marc Raimondi, ESPN Staff WriterJun 20, 2023, 04:50 PM ET One of the biggest non-title fights at strawweight the UFC can make will go down this summer. Former UFC women’s strawweight champion Jessica Andrade will face the undefeated Tatiana Suarez in the co-main event of UFC Nashville on Aug. 5, the promotion announced Tuesday. Suarez

Brett Okamoto, ESPN Staff WriterJun 19, 2023, 11:27 PM ET Close MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun The UFC is finalizing a flyweight matchup between Kai Kara-France and Manel Kape for UFC 293 in Sydney, multiple sources told ESPN. The 125-pound bout will take place at UFC

Brett Okamoto, ESPN Staff WriterJun 19, 2023, 09:20 PM ET Close MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun The UFC is adding a pivotal bantamweight contest between former champ Henry Cejudo and Marlon “Chito” Vera to its UFC 292 lineup in August, UFC president Dana White told ESPN

Marc Raimondi, ESPN Staff WriterJun 19, 2023, 06:47 PM ET Bellator fighter Cris Lencioni is currently hospitalized in an intensive care unit after suffering cardiac arrest earlier this month, according to his family. Lencioni, 28, was training at a gym on June 8 when the cardiac event occurred, his wife, Marca, wrote on his Instagram

Jun 19, 2023, 09:29 AM ET After Bellator 297 concluded on Friday night, Scott Coker made a statement about the state of the light heavyweight division across MMA. “Vadim Nemkov, to me, is the best 205-pounder on the planet,” proclaimed the Bellator MMA president. “In any MMA league, including the UFC’s 205ers.” The fact that

Brett Okamoto, ESPN Staff WriterJun 15, 2023, 07:33 PM ET Close MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun A massive heavyweight fight between Ciryl Gane and Serghei Spivac will headline UFC Fight Night on Sept. 2 in Paris, the UFC announced on Thursday. Gane (11-2), who is from

Brett Okamoto, ESPN Staff WriterJun 15, 2023, 07:52 PM ET Close MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway will get his wish, as he’ll face Chan Sung Jung in the main event of UFC Fight Night in August. The UFC announced the

Brett Okamoto, ESPN Staff WriterJun 18, 2023, 01:47 AM ET Close MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Former UFC title challenger Jared Cannonier turned in one of the top performances in middleweight history on Saturday, as he set a new divisional record for strikes landed in a

Brett Okamoto, ESPN Staff WriterJun 17, 2023, 12:44 AM ET Close MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun ATLANTA — Larissa Pacheco shocked the world in 2022, when she upset Kayla Harrison in the lightweight finals to win her first PFL championship. She appears well poised to win

Jun 17, 2023, 12:45 AM ET There’s plenty of action across MMA over the weekend with PFL Regular Season: Heavyweights and Women’s Featherweights and Bellator 297 in Chicago on Friday night and UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas on Saturday. In Friday’s action, defending champions Ante Delija and Larissa Pacheco got wins, but only one

Marc Raimondi, ESPN Staff WriterJun 17, 2023, 12:21 AM ET The story going into the fight was all about Patricio Freire. “Pitbull” is the best fighter in Bellator history, the only athlete on the roster to have four different championship reigns across two weight classes. On Friday night, Freire was trying to make history by

Brett Okamoto, ESPN Staff WriterJun 15, 2023, 07:31 PM ET Close MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun The UFC has booked a bantamweight main event between Cory Sandhagen and Umar Nurmagomedov to headline a UFC Fight Night on Aug. 5 in Nashville, the promotion announced on Thursday.

Marc Raimondi, ESPN Staff WriterJun 16, 2023, 08:48 AM ET Patricio “Pitbull” Freire had just regained his Bellator featherweight title a few minutes earlier when he approached Scott Coker in the bowels of SAP Center in San Jose, California. “Pitbull,” Bellator’s franchise star, had a proposal for Coker, the promotion’s president, that night in April

Jun 14, 2023, 11:22 PM ET Marvin Vettori meets Jared Cannonier in the middleweight main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas. The main card at the UFC Apex is on ESPN and ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET, preceded by prelims on ESPN2 and ESPN+ at 7 p.m. Vettori (19-6-1) has alternated

Marc Raimondi, ESPN Staff WriterJun 15, 2023, 04:33 PM ET UFC star Conor McGregor has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman during an NBA Finals game last week in Miami, according to legal letters obtained Thursday by ESPN. The woman said McGregor “violently” forced himself on her inside a VIP men’s bathroom at Kaseya

Jeff Wagenheim, ESPNJun 15, 2023, 09:10 AM ET Ante Delija headlines Friday’s PFL Regular Season: Heavyweights and Women’s Featherweights in Atlanta, and Larissa Pacheco fights in the co-main event. Both are 2022 champions, and both are familiar faces to fans who have followed the fight promotion’s last couple of seasons. But both Delija and Pacheco

Marc Raimondi, ESPN Staff WriterJun 14, 2023, 12:27 PM ET A major welterweight bout is set for Beantown. Perennial contender Geoff Neal will face the undefeated, up-and-coming Ian Machado Garry at UFC 292 on Aug. 19 in Boston, Garry announced via Instagram. Sources confirmed the matchup to ESPN on Wednesday. Neal is currently No. 9

Brett Okamoto, ESPN Staff WriterJun 14, 2023, 09:00 AM ET Close MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun UFC president Dana White has become extremely committed to being non-committal on future matchups the night of an event. These days, when White gets asked about a division’s landscape, the