12:55 AM ET “Pitbull” is not ready to pass the torch just yet. Patricio Freire, Bellator’s franchise fighter, gutted out a unanimous decision win (49-46, 48-47, 4-847) over previously undefeated prodigy AJ McKee to win back the featherweight title in the main event of Bellator 277 on Friday night in San Jose, California. McKee beat
MMA
1:54 PM ET A heavyweight matchup between Alexander Volkov and Jairzinho Rozenstruik will headline a UFC Fight Night card on June 4, UFC president Dana White said Friday. The UFC has not officially announced a location for the event, although the majority of Fight Night events in 2022 have taken place at the Apex facility
Apr 13, 2022 LAKEWOOD, Calif. — AJ McKee remembers being in Southern California gyms as a kid almost every day. His father, Antonio McKee, was one of the toughest fighters on the MMA regional scene, frequently training with some of the sport’s biggest stars — names such as Tito Ortiz, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Randy
3:29 PM ET Marlon Moraes, long one of the best bantamweight fighters in MMA, is retiring from the sport, his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, told ESPN on Wednesday. Moraes, 33, held the World Series of Fighting (WSOF) bantamweight title from 2014 to 2016 before signing with the UFC, racking up five title defenses in WSOF. “Magic”
7:29 AM ET A big victory resulted in a small (but significant) move for Alexander Volkanovski. The UFC men’s bantamweight champion had his way with Chan Sung Jung on Saturday in their UFC 273 title fight, outstriking the South Korean by 152-51 on his way to a one-sided fourth-round TKO. The win, Volkanovski’s 21st in
1:09 PM ET Cain Velasquez has broken his silence for the first time since being charged with attempted murder in a shooting-related incident last month. In a statement posted to his social media, the former two-time UFC heavyweight champion thanked everyone who has given him support and said his case is “complex and slowly unraveling
5:40 PM ET The UFC has decided not to re-sign Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira, an exciting fan favorite in the welterweight division, officials confirmed with ESPN on Monday. Oliveira’s contract expired with his last fight, a loss to Kevin Holland at UFC 272 on March 5. That marked Oliveira’s fourth straight defeat, and the UFC decided
10:37 PM ET Alexander Volkanovski has welcomed Henry Cejudo’s return to the USADA testing pool, but the Australian says he is instead focused on a shift to lightweight and an immediate crack at becoming a two-division UFC champion. Fresh off his domination of Chan Sung Jung at UFC 273, Volkanovski is already mapping out his
Apr 10, 2022 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Aljamain Sterling is the UFC’s undisputed bantamweight champion. Undisputed. Kind of. Sterling (21-3) got the last laugh on Petr Yan (16-3) and all his critics Saturday, as he pulled out a razor-close split decision over Yan. The 135-pound title fight, which was supposed to end any controversy left over
5:04 PM ET Three weeks ago, I wrote that the current featherweight division is the most interesting weight class in the UFC — and after another thrilling event in Jacksonville, Florida, I stand by that. Alexander Volkanovski (24-1) has elevated himself into must-see TV. He has always been a good fighter, as he has just