MMA

12:31 AM ET Two of the top women’s flyweight fighters in the world will meet in Brazil. Former UFC women’s strawweight champion Jessica Andrade will face Lauren Murphy at UFC 283 on Jan. 21 in Rio de Janeiro, sources confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday. MMA Fighting first reported the news. Andrade is ranked No. 9

9:30 PM ET Kamaru Usman is willing to travel into potentially hostile territory in an effort to get back the UFC welterweight title. Usman has asked the UFC for a trilogy fight with champion Leon Edwards in London, Usman’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz of Dominance MMA, told ESPN on Tuesday. Edwards is a Jamaican-born fighter who

9:18 AM ET Jeff WagenheimESPN A dominant champion lords over the fight game like a king. There’s respect piled on from all directions, sometimes admiringly, sometimes grudgingly. The champ’s every trip inside the Octagon draws the rapt anticipation of how greatness will manifest itself once again. The fans, even those generally hard to please, stand

9:22 PM ET The UFC will now prohibit its fighters from betting on UFC fights, according to a memo sent to athletes and their teams Monday by UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell. In the letter, obtained by ESPN, Campbell wrote that the UFC athlete code of conduct will now include a prohibition of wagering

Watch the fights live on ESPN+ on the ESPN app. BROOKLYN, N.Y. — When TJ Dillashaw agreed to fight Henry Cejudo for the UFC’s 125-pound title, he weighed 154 pounds with 8 percent body fat. So, how in the world did Dillashaw, the UFC’s 135-pound bantamweight champion, safely cut 29 pounds in the past 12

8:51 AM ET UFC 280 might be the deepest card the promotion has put on so far this year — as it features essential fights in two of the best divisions: lightweight and bantamweight. In the main event, the vacant UFC lightweight title will be decided in a bout between former champion Charles Oliveira and

10:47 PM ET Jeff WagenheimESPN Alexa Grasso showed Saturday she has fully settled in as a flyweight, winning her fourth fight in a row since bulking up from strawweight two years ago. Her conquest in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas came by unanimous decision against a fellow top-10 contender in

2:25 PM ET The UFC has added a light heavyweight championship rematch between Jiri Prochazka and Glover Teixeira to its December pay-per-view event in Las Vegas. Contracts have not been signed, but multiple sources confirmed the bout is close to being finalized. It will take place at UFC 282 on Dec. 10 inside T-Mobile Arena.

Oct 11, 2022 Alexa Grasso and Viviane Araújo meet in a matchup of top-10 women’s flyweights headlining UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas. The fights at UFC Apex are on ESPN+, with the 7 p.m. ET main card preceded by prelims at 4 p.m. You can stream the fights here. Grasso (14-3), a

7:04 PM ET The UFC has added a light heavyweight matchup between former champion Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev to its final pay-per-view of 2022, sources told ESPN on Tuesday. The 205-pound contest will take place at UFC 282 on Dec. 10 in Las Vegas. Blachowicz (29-9) will look to solidify his case for another

11:30 PM ET UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski will serve as the backup to a vacant lightweight title fight at UFC 280 on Oct. 22, Volkanovski announced Monday. The 155-pound title fight features former champion Charles Oliveira (33-8) against Islam Makhachev (22-1). Volkanovski (25-1) will weigh-in at 155 pounds in Abu Dhabi, in the event

10:16 PM ET The UFC has confirmed its return to Australia for the first time since 2019, with the promotion heading back to Perth, Western Australia, in February next year. UFC 284 will be staged at Perth’s RAC Arena on Sunday Feb 12. [Saturday Feb. 11, ET] in what will be the second pay-per-view event

Oct 7, 2022 Marc Raimondi Brett Okamoto Close ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Due to a grinding UFC schedule that features cards nearly every week of the year, it’s tough for every event to feature fighters the world clamors for. As a result

1:52 PM ET The UFC has added a key welterweight matchup between Geoff Neal and Shavkat Rakhmonov to an event on Jan. 14, sources told ESPN on Saturday. Contracts have not been signed but both welterweights have agreed to the three-round contest, sources told ESPN. The UFC Fight Night event is expected to take place

3:44 PM ET UFC lightweight fighter Bobby Green has been suspended six months for failing a drug test, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced Friday. Green, who went public about the adverse finding last month, tested positive for an anabolic androgenic steroid of exogenous origin in a urine sample collected May 16, according to the

7:25 PM ET Former UFC lightweight champion and future Hall of Famer Frankie Edgar has booked the final fight of his career. Edgar (24-10-1) will face Chris Gutierrez in a bantamweight contest at UFC 281 on Nov. 12, according to multiple sources. The pay-per-view event will take place at Madison Square Garden, just north of

10:57 AM ET The UFC has booked a welterweight main event between Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson and Kevin Holland on Dec. 3, officials announced on Wednesday. The 170-pound bout will headline UFC Fight Night at Amway Center in Orlando. Prior to the announcement, Holland (23-8) had spent the entire week announcing his “retirement” from MMA. The

7:56 AM ET Just like in previous seasons, Season 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series brought in MMA prospects from around the world, giving them a chance to make a name for themselves in UFC. After 43 of the competitors earned contracts, the most ever in a season, there are plenty of new names for