5:34 PM ET Jeff Wagenheim The PFL begins its 2021 season on Friday night in Atlantic City, New Jersey, closing the show with “Showtime.” Former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis makes his PFL debut in the main event at Ocean Casino Resort, taking on a fighter who built his own name in two sports, Clay
MMA
7:13 AM ET Roman ModrowskiESPN.com It was March 16, 2019, and London’s O2 Arena was packed for a UFC Fight Night. Darren Till, a popular local fighter from Liverpool, was facing Jorge Masvidal in the main event. Till was favored to beat Masvidal and then face Ben Askren, who was in attendance, for a shot
8:07 AM ET Anthony Pettis Anthony Pettis is a former UFC and WEC champion and one of the most popular, well-known mixed martial artists of the last decade. The 34-year-old made headlines in late 2020, when he fought out his UFC contract and then signed an exclusive deal with PFL. The move brought a nine-year
10:00 PM ET Australian Jimmy Crute is in little doubt where he’ll be this time next year. Some might call it confidence, others cockiness, but the outside noise matters little to a bloke who spent much of 2020 alone with his thoughts. Alone with his thoughts and dog, Buddha, in the back of a van,
8:09 AM ET Kayla Harrison got a call last year that would change her life forever. Her stepfather, Bob Nichols, died suddenly on May 19, 2020. On top of the grief of losing him, Harrison then had to jump into action for her family. She became the full-time guardian of her niece Kyla, 8, and
8:06 AM ET When Kamaru Usman defends his welterweight title in Saturday’s UFC 261 main event, he’ll be competing against more than just Jorge Masvidal. Usman will be competing against the legacies of the greatest welterweights in MMA history. Usman has put himself in that conversation by winning his first 13 UFC fights, something no
10:00 AM ET Khamzat Chimaev says he is finally on the mend from a very difficult bout with COVID-19 that threatened to end his promising career earlier this year. Chimaev (9-0) was scheduled to face Leon Edwards in a high-profile UFC bout in January and again in March, but he was forced to withdraw both
7:51 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Saturday’s UFC 261 pay-per-view will not be the first card in UFC history to have two women’s championships on the line. That distinction goes to a 2015 event in Melbourne, Australia, which is notable for two other reasons: first, for filling Etihad Stadium with 56,214 fans, the most ever to
7:00 AM ET Fight week for UFC 261 has arrived, and with a card of this magnitude, the stakes could not be much higher. Three title fights could reshape the trajectory of the welterweight, strawweight and women’s flyweight divisions overnight. If Jorge Masvidal defeats Kamaru Usman, they would be 1-1 in title fights. That could
1:58 AM ET The mini-middleweight tournament is over, and after Robert Whittaker dominated Kelvin Gastelum on Saturday night, he’s likely to be the next foe for Israel Adesanya. Whittaker offered a complete performance against one of the toughest fighters in the sport, earning his third straight win since he lost his title to Adesanya in