10:02 PM ET The UFC is close to finalizing a middleweight main event between former title challengers Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori in October, multiple sources told ESPN. The 185-pound bout is expected to headline UFC Fight Night on Oct. 23. UFC officials have not announced an official location for the event. Costa (13-1) has
MMA
7:38 AM ET UFC 265 is set for Saturday and offers an interim heavyweight title clash as the headlining fight. Derrick Lewis faces Ciryl Gane in the main event, and if he’s able to win, Lewis would improve on one of the most impressive heavyweight resumes in UFC history. With so many big wins, including
12:47 AM ET INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Los Angeles, and the sport of mixed martial arts, has a new star athlete. The undefeated A.J. McKee submitted Patricio “Pitbull” Freire via guillotine choke at just 1 minute, 57 seconds of the first round to win the Bellator featherweight title Saturday night in the main event of Bellator
2:50 PM ET One of the biggest events in recent Bellator history is coming to the desert. The Bellator Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix semifinals will take place on the same card Oct. 16 at Footprint Center in Phoenix, sources told ESPN on Saturday. The event will be headlined by the semifinal bout between Bellator
12:01 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim There’s nothing flashy about Sean Strickland, unless you’re counting the punches he relentlessly flashes into the face of his opponent. Strickland won his fifth fight in a row on Saturday night, overwhelming Uriah Hall with five rounds of aggression and nonstop punch output to win a lopsided unanimous decision in
5:34 PM ET The MMA world will feature elite action from Inglewood, California, and Las Vegas on Saturday night as Bellator and the UFC share the combat spotlight. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire will take on A.J. McKee at The Forum in one of the biggest bouts in Bellator history. The fight is the finale of the
2:33 PM ET The UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas has lost two more bouts at the last minute, according to promotional officials. The UFC announced on Saturday that a bantamweight matchup between Rani Yahya and Kyung Ho Kang and a welterweight clash between Niklas Stolze and Jared Gooden have both been removed from the
7:38 PM ET The UFC is adding a lightweight matchup between Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler to its pay-per-view event in November, multiple sources told ESPN on Friday. Contracts have not been signed, but both parties have agreed to the 155-pound contest. The promotion has not officially announced a date or location for UFC 268,
4:14 PM ET The career trajectory of the first-ever UFC women’s flyweight champion continues to be an odd one. Nicco Montano missed weight Friday morning by seven pounds and her women’s bantamweight bout with Wu Yanan was pulled from Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card, the promotion announced. The bout was contracted at a limit of
8:01 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Uriah Hall has won four fights in a row. Sean Strickland has won four fights in a row. On Saturday night, they meet to determine whose momentum will be supercharged. Hall (17-9) has been at center stage under the bright lights before. This weekend’s middleweight fight at the Apex in