MMA

9:04 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim For sports fans, there’s nothing more exhilarating than watching the best of the best perform. Whether it’s LeBron James or Lionel Messi, Serena Williams or Tom Brady, the greats of every sport elevate the viewing experience. So, MMA fans, welcome to UFC 278, a showcase for the pound-for-pound No. 1

3:01 PM ET Rory MacDonald, one of the top welterweight mixed martial artists of the past decade, has announced his retirement at age 33. MacDonald, of British Columbia, made the announcement less than 24 hours after suffering a TKO loss to Dilano Taylor in a 2022 PFL semifinals matchup. After the loss, MacDonald removed his

10:46 PM ET Marlon Vera‘s nickname is “Chito,” a Spanish-language colloquialism that essentially means “shush.” Vera quieted the crowd briefly Saturday, knocking out former two-time champion Dominick Cruz in Cruz’s adopted hometown in the main event of UFC San Diego. Vera landed a left kick to Cruz’s head, putting him out cold in the fourth

4:46 PM ET One week ago, Dilano Taylor‘s 2022 PFL season was officially over. Now, the 25-year-old is headed to the welterweight finals. Taylor (10-2) advanced to the 170-pound championship with a stunning TKO over Rory MacDonald (23-9-1) at 3:59 of the first round of their semifinal matchup Saturday. Taylor initially missed the 2022 playoffs

Aug 11, 2022 The PFL has made several last-minute changes to its 2022 semifinals matchups on Friday in Cardiff, Wales. Top-seeded welterweight Rory MacDonald (23-9-1) was supposed to face Magomed Umalatov (12-0), but will now meet Dilano Taylor (9-2) instead. Additionally, heavyweight Matheus Scheffel (16-8) will look to advance to the finals against late replacement

2:16 PM ET UFC president Dana White says fighter pay in the organization won’t change dramatically while he is in his current position, telling GQ in a video published Thursday that he believes fighters “get paid what they’re supposed to get paid.” The topic of fighter pay has been a hot-button issue in MMA for

9:02 AM ET The UFC men’s bantamweight division will assume center stage over the coming months, as eight of the top 10 contenders have fights booked, including champion Aljamain Sterling. The marquee 135-pound action begins this weekend with a five-round main event between former champion Dominick Cruz (24-3) and Marlon “Chito” Vera (21-7-1) in San

12:19 PM ET UFC flyweight Molly McCann will look to continue her breakout year in 2022, when she takes on Erin Blanchfield in November. The UFC has added a 125-pound contest between McCann (13-4) and Blanchfield (9-1) to its UFC 281 lineup on Nov. 12 in Madison Square Garden. Both flyweights announced the bout on

12:30 PM ET Uriah Hall, a former The Ultimate Fighter runner-up and UFC middleweight contender, has retired from mixed martial arts, he announced Wednesday on Instagram. “Although I did not achieve the rank of world champion I’ve acquired some of my greatest achievements from mixed martial arts and that was facing my fears and being

Aug 9, 2022 Henry Cejudo. Cody Garbrandt. Urijah Faber. Those are some top-shelf bantamweights, and Marlon Vera has a chance to join their exclusive club this weekend. The 135-pounders named above are the only three fighters who own victories over Dominick Cruz. All three of those losses came in title bouts for Cruz, who ruled

12:28 AM ET Cris Cyborg‘s next fight won’t be inside an MMA cage — it’ll be in a boxing ring. Cyborg, one of the best women’s MMA fighters of all time, said on her “The Catchup” YouTube show Monday that she is in the process of finalizing a contract for her professional boxing debut. Cyborg

11:11 PM ET One of the best prospects in all of MMA is on the cusp of a UFC contract. Bo Nickal, a former three-time NCAA Division I wrestling national champion, finished Zack Borrego via submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:02 of the first round Tuesday night on Dana White’s Contender Series at the UFC Apex

11:22 AM ET Bellator MMA has rebooked a featherweight matchup between Aaron Pico and Jeremy Kennedy in October, officials told ESPN on Tuesday. The 145-pound bout will take place at Bellator 286 on Oct. 1 in Long Beach, California. That event is headlined by a featherweight title fight between champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (33-5) and

1:24 PM ET Former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis has broken bones in both hands and will require surgery, he wrote Monday on Instagram. The injuries were sustained in a unanimous decision loss to Stevie Ray in the PFL lightweight semifinals last Friday. Pettis wrote that his left hand and his right thumb are broken.

9:35 AM ET Two of the more unheralded UFC weight classes had a chance to show out last month. In the main event of UFC 277 on July 30, Julianna Peña and Amanda Nunes had their rematch for the UFC women’s bantamweight title, following Peña’s huge upset over Nunes at UFC 269 last December. Former

1:29 AM ET All that was missing from Jamahal Hill‘s rise in the UFC was a signature win. He got it Saturday. Hill stopped former title challenger Thiago Santos via TKO at 2:31 of the fourth round in the main event of UFC Fight Night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Hill dropped Santos

4:04 PM ET UFC welterweight Josh Quinlan was pulled from his UFC Fight Night bout Saturday due to an atypical drug finding, the UFC announced. USADA, the UFC’s anti-doping partner, detected a trace amount of the long-term metabolite (or M3 metabolite) of the steroid dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (DHCMT) in a Quinlan urine sample, the promotion said. The

9:51 PM ET NEW YORK — The PFL had high hopes for Anthony Pettis when it signed him to a multiyear deal in 2021. But for the second consecutive year, Pettis has failed to make it to the tournament finals. Pettis (25-14), a former UFC champion, dropped a unanimous decision to Stevie Ray in the