11:02 PM ET Luke Rockhold‘s return to the Octagon will have to wait. The former UFC middleweight champion said Monday night in an Instagram story that he has a herniated disk and is out of a scheduled fight with Sean Strickland at UFC 268 on Nov. 6 in New York. It would have been Rockhold’s
MMA
7:12 PM ET The UFC is finalizing a welterweight matchup between Santiago Ponzinibbio and Geoff Neal for UFC 269, multiple sources told ESPN on Monday. Both sides have agreed to the 170-pound contest, and it should be made official shortly. The UFC 269 pay-per-view event is set to take place on Dec. 11. The UFC
Oct 11, 2021 UFC fighter Luis Pena was arrested Saturday on two battery charges after allegedly hitting his girlfriend and another woman, according to a Broward County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson. Pena remains in custody at Broward County (Florida) Detention Center on charges of simple battery and battery domestic violence, both misdemeanors. He is being held
11:18 PM ET City Kickboxing star Brad Riddell has hit out at the “inequality” of the New Zealand sporting scene as he prepares for more than two months away from home in his attempts to crack the top 10 of the UFC’s stacked lightweight division. Riddell [10-1] will fight former Tiger Muai Thai teammate Rafael
7:05 PM ET Throughout the history of combat sports there have been must-see, can’t-miss fights that were on the precipice of happening, but for one reason or another never came to fruition. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the volume of close calls and last-minute cancellations greatly over the past two years, along with the injuries
1:36 PM ET Phil Hawes had the possibility of two opponents this weekend, but neither bout will happen. Deron Winn, Hawes’ scheduled opponent, withdrew from the fight because of an illness, which was not weight cut- or coronavirus-related, UFC announced Friday morning. In Winn’s place, UFC signed MMA veteran Chris Curtis to fight Hawes on
2:45 PM ET The UFC is close to finalizing a barn burner of a main event between Calvin Kattar and Giga Chikadze in January, multiple sources told ESPN. Contracts have not been signed, but the UFC is working on booking the featherweight bout as its headliner for a UFC Fight Night on Jan. 15. Kattar
7:32 AM ET When Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Mackenzie Dern made her full transition into mixed martial arts in 2016, the sheer potential of it was intoxicating. Granted, so many things need to go right for any prospect to fully realize his or her potential, but in the case of Dern, her submission grappling is
8:01 AM ET Mackenzie Dern faces Marina Rodriguez in a meeting of ranked strawweights in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas. The fights at UFC Apex can be seen on ESPN+, with the main card starting at 4 p.m. ET and the prelims at 1 p.m. Dern (11-1) has
4:11 PM ET UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou‘s first title defense will come against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 in January, Ngannou’s manager, Marquel Martin, confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday. Contracts are not yet signed by both parties, however both sides have agreed. The fight is expected to be finalized shortly and headline a pay-per-view