4:38 PM ET The UFC has booked a flyweight matchup between Askar Askarov and Kai Kara-France to a UFC Fight Night on March 26, sources confirmed to ESPN on Monday. The 125-pound contest will likely produce the UFC’s next flyweight title challenger, although the promotion has not officially made that distinction. The UFC has also
MMA
8:00 AM ET Every year in every sport brings ups and downs, memorable performances, the emergence of new stars. In mixed martial arts, the leading fight promotion, the UFC, has eight weight classes for men and four for women and ran 43 fight cards in 2021, making plenty of room available onstage for athletes to
Dec 12, 2021 Jeff Wagenheim Julianna Peña believed. She might have been the only one. Peña entered Saturday night’s UFC 269 co-main event as a 6½-to-1 betting underdog against Amanda Nunes, and who could argue with that? She was up against the greatest fighter in the history of women’s MMA, and a two-division champion. Amanda
1:48 PM ET USADA, the UFC’s anti-doping partner, has suspended fighter Michel Prazeres four years because of a second doping violation, the agency announced Thursday. According to a USADA press release, Prazeres tested positive for multiple prohibited substances: anti-estrogen agent clomiphene, metabolites of the steroid oxandrolone and the exogenous administration of testosterone “and/or its precursors.”
8:00 AM ET Since it first opened its doors in 1999, Staples Center has played host to seven NBA Finals, five WNBA Finals, four UFC pay-per-view cards, two Stanley Cup Finals and countless championship boxing matches. It was the home of the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament for a decade and has seen multiple All-Star games
2:08 AM ET UFC Hall of Famer Rashad Evans is returning from retirement — and now his opponent is set. Evans, the former UFC light heavyweight champion, will face Gabriel Checco on the Eagle FC United States debut card Jan. 28 in Miami, sources told ESPN on Wednesday night. Eagle FC is the MMA promotion
9:00 AM ET This has been one of my annual columns for ESPN for a while now, and it’s always fun to look back at the previous year’s list to see which prospective fights, if any, came to fruition. So, before getting into the MMA fights I want to see in 2022, let’s take a
2:22 PM ET Mixed martial arts fighter Jordan Young died Saturday at age 27, ESPN confirmed Tuesday with the Broward County (Florida) Office of Medical Examiner and Trauma Services. Young, a 6-foot-4 light heavyweight, had most recently fought with PFL. His cause and manner of death are pending, per a medical examiner spokesperson. PFL and
Dec 18, 2021 LAS VEGAS — UFC president Dana White doesn’t know if anything will ever again stress him out in the mixed martial arts business. Not after what he went through in 2020. But this 2021 calendar year was a good one for the UFC, and a lot of that success can be attributed
4:41 PM ET LAS VEGAS — The UFC’s 2021 will wrap up with a heavyweight main event, as Derrick Lewis will meet Chris Daukaus during UFC Fight Night at the Apex on Saturday. It’s a redemption spot for Lewis (25-8), who is coming off a knockout loss to Ciryl Gane in August for the interim