12:54 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Cris Cyborg just keeps rolling along. The Bellator women’s featherweight champion was as dominant as ever in defending her belt for the third time, knocking out Sinead Kavanagh in the first round of the Bellator 271 main event on Friday night in Hollywood, Florida. This fight looked like most of
MMA
12:48 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event between Max Holloway and Yair Rodriguez is officially on, as each fighter successfully made weight on Friday. Holloway (22-6), of Hawaii, tipped the scales at 146 pounds. Rodriguez, who fights out of Chihuahua, Mexico, came in at 145.5 pounds. The featherweight bout will
7:51 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Yair Rodriguez is a walking highlight reel, best known for his stunning last-second knockout of Chan Sung Jung in a 2018 bout that the Mexican was on the verge of losing by decision. The KO came at 4:59 of Round 5 via a no-look, upward-trajectory elbow that collapsed “The Korean
2:55 PM ET The UFC has added a welterweight matchup between Stephen Thompson and Belal Muhammad to its event on Dec. 18 in Las Vegas, both fighters confirmed on Thursday. The 170-pound contest will take place on the final UFC Fight Night event of 2021. Thompson confirmed the news to ESPN and Muhammad confirmed it
7:01 PM ET Loopy Godinez is the busiest woman in the UFC. One month after fighting twice in the span of two weeks — a modern UFC record — Godinez will step in on short notice to fight Loma Lookboonmee at UFC Fight Night on Nov. 20 in Las Vegas, UFC officials confirmed Wednesday with
4:19 PM ET Jeff Wagenheim Cris Cyborg has long been a standard-bearer of women’s MMA. As far back as 2009, when Gina Carano was undefeated and emerging as the first star of the women’s game, Carano was put to the test by being booked against Cristiane Justino, also known as Cyborg, in the first Strikeforce
3:38 PM ET Next month’s highly anticipated welterweight fight between Jorge Masvidal and Leon Edwards is off, UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell told ESPN on Wednesday. Per Campbell, Masvidal (35-15) was forced to withdraw from the UFC 269 bout on Dec. 11 because of an undisclosed injury. There was no update on whether Edwards
1:36 PM ET UFC lightweight Michael Chandler might have lost to Justin Gaethje last weekend in New York — but he appears to have caught Conor McGregor‘s attention in doing so. Chandler (22-7) suffered a unanimous decision loss to Gaethje at UFC 268 on Saturday in a three-round bout that is the likely front-runner for
9:30 AM ET Going into his UFC 268 main event against Colby Covington, welterweight champion Kamaru Usman already was No. 1 in the ESPN men’s pound-for-pound rankings. There was no room for upward movement. However, Usman’s strong performance at Madison Square Garden did earn him the backing of the last holdout on our voting panel.
1:46 AM ET The night ended with Kamaru Usman outlasting Colby Covington in another epic five-round fight, but there was no shortage of action throughout UFC 268. Rose Namajunas successfully defended her strawweight title, Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler did not disappoint and Marlon Vera finished Frankie Edgar with a highlight-reel kick that may have