MMA

12:38 AM ET Jon Jones has been talking for years about fighting at heavyweight. For much of his dominant reign as UFC light heavyweight champion, he had one eye fixed on the big boys. Even during the week leading up to his 205-pound title defense against Dominick Reyes in February 2020, Jones seemed more focused

1:09 PM ET Sara CoelloESPN Close Sara Coello is a writer in ESPN’s investigative and enterprise unit. Before joining, they wrote about legal issues and crime for The Charlotte Observer, The Post and Courier and The Dallas Morning News. Coello studied sociology, journalism and Spanish at The University of Dallas. The public is unlikely to

8:52 AM ET The 2023 MMA calendar gets underway this weekend, and it intensifies next week when UFC 283 is headlined by a pair of championship fights. But a truly game-changing moment for the sport arrives next month in a collision of ESPN’s No. 1 and No. 2 pound-for-pound fighters. When UFC men’s featherweight champion

4:45 PM ET A suspended MMA coach at the center of an ongoing betting scandal in the UFC has acted as an agent for an offshore bookmaking operation for years, multiple sources who placed bets with him told ESPN. James Krause, 36, has worked as an agent — the term for a middleman between offshore

Jan 9, 2023 Nassourdine Imavov meets short-notice replacement Sean Strickland in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas. The fights at the UFC Apex are on ESPN+, with the 7 p.m. ET main card preceded by prelims at 4 p.m. Both fighters typically compete at middleweight — Strickland is No.

8:53 AM ET Just days away from UFC’s opening fight card of the new year, ESPN is back with the second installment of its annual MMA Rank. Using a two-step voting process, ESPN’s MMA contributors set out to project which 30 fighters will perform the best in 2023. The final list features fighters from multiple

5:12 PM ET LAS VEGAS — UFC president Dana White told reporters Wednesday that no one should be defending his actions after he was caught on camera on New Year’s Eve in Mexico slapping his wife in a nightclub’s VIP section. Appearing before media members at the UFC’s Apex to answer questions about the physical

3:09 PM ET Jeff WagenheimESPN Usman Nurmagomedov has been Bellator lightweight champion for less than two months, and already he is being asked to run a gantlet of challengers. Bellator MMA announced Wednesday that it will launch a Lightweight World Grand Prix in March, with Nurmagomedov defending his title as part of an eight-fighter field

9:21 AM ET With the UFC returning to action this weekend with its first card of 2023, it’s time once again for ESPN’s annual MMA rank. A two-step voting process involving ESPN’s MMA team set out to project which 30 fighters will have the best 2023. The final list features fighters across multiple promotions —

11:35 PM ET Carlos Contreras Legaspi Former MMA fighter Phil Baroni was charged by a state judge in Mexico with aggravated femicide Monday. Baroni, 46, was living in the coastal region of Sayulita and San Francisco in Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit, when he called police Jan. 1, after finding his girlfriend, a woman from Mexico

10:40 PM ET The California Legislative Women’s Caucus on Monday called for the removal of Dana White as UFC president in a public letter addressed to the head of the promotion’s parent company. The letter, sent to Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, comes after video surfaced last week of White slapping his wife, Anne, at a

5:42 PM ET The UFC’s first main event of 2023 has taken a hit, as Kelvin Gastelum has withdrawn from a five-round middleweight bout against Nassourdine Imavov on Saturday in Las Vegas. Gastelum withdrew due to an injury to his mouth, sources told ESPN. Middleweight contender Sean Strickland has agreed to replace Gastelum on the

8:37 AM ET Just days into the new year, MMA has already staked its claim once again for the title of most unpredictable sport. After all, Jake Paul is now an MMA fighter with the PFL. Big questions loom ahead in 2023. What will Nate Diaz’s next move be after stepping away from the UFC

8:16 PM ET Victoria Lee, one of the most promising young prospects in all of mixed martial arts, has died at age 18. Lee, who was the younger sister of ONE Championship’s Angela Lee and Christian Lee, died Dec. 26, according to a social media post made by Angela. Victoria was born in Hawai’i but

4:27 PM ET The televised debut of Dana White’s Power Slap League has been delayed by one week, less than four days after White admitted to a physical altercation with his wife on New Year’s Eve. A UFC official told ESPN that the Power Slap League will now debut Jan. 18 on TBS, rather than

8:21 AM ET So much goes into a “breakout season” in mixed martial arts. One could argue, more so than in any other sport. A breakout season in MMA requires skill and preparation, but it also involves timing, health, luck and maybe a viral moment here and there. If you want to break out in

10:47 AM ET The UFC has rebooked a welterweight matchup between Geoff Neal and Shavkat Rakhmonov for UFC 285 on March 4, multiple sources told ESPN. The 170-pound bout will take place in Las Vegas. It was originally scheduled for a UFC Fight Night on Jan. 14, but Neal was forced to withdraw due to

7:42 PM ET Associated Press MEXICO CITY — Former mixed martial arts fighter Phil Baroni has been arrested in Mexico for allegedly killing his girlfriend, the prosecutors’ office in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit said Wednesday. The office said a woman was found dead on Sunday in the beach town of San Fernando, just