6:55 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim MGM GRAND GARDEN Arena was packed with great fighters that night. It was Sept. 27, 2014, and the headline bout of UFC 178 had a championship at stake. The Las Vegas spotlight was also shining on the return of a long-gone former champ. There were even three future titleholders sprinkled
MMA
8:37 AM ET The last time I spoke to Conor McGregor in person was on Jan. 18, 2020. It was moments after his electrifying 40-second TKO of Donald Cerrone in Las Vegas. We were in his locker room inside the T-Mobile Arena. He was happy, but not overly so. Excited. Somewhat emotional. Most of all,
6:29 PM ET With 90 seconds left in his fight Saturday, Max Holloway turned away from his opponent, Calvin Kattar, and told the broadcast team cageside that he is the best boxer in the UFC. On ABC, the network that has been a home for boxing since the 1940s, Holloway more than proved his point
3:43 PM ET Undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov left the door open for a return to the Octagon. Promotion president Dana White said that if the two lightweight fights next week — Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier and Dan Hooker vs. Michael Chandler — are spectacular, Nurmagomedov would consider coming back to fight one
8:21 PM ET The UFC’s 2021 debut on ABC was big news for everything that happened inside the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Saturday, and everything that didn’t. Max Holloway put on one of the most punishing, one-sided displays of boxing in UFC history, landing a record 445 significant strikes in
7:24 PM ET Maybe Allen Iverson was right after all. Maybe practice is overrated. Or, in the case of MMA, maybe sparring is overrated. Max Holloway told me Wednesday that for the second straight fight, he didn’t spar leading up to it. While other fighters have done this, it’s not common in the sport. Most
11:10 AM ET The former featherweight king is looking for a path back to the crown. Max Holloway will face Calvin Kattar in a pivotal featherweight bout in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is the first UFC show of the year, and the main
8:00 AM ET One of the endearing — or perhaps maddening — facts about MMA is there is no set path to a UFC championship. Some paths are very traditional, basically following a straight line up the rankings. Others are unpredictable and at the mercy of a billion factors outside of a fighter’s control. When
3:31 PM ET Ryan Garcia believes he’ll be done with boxing early. He plans to retire at the age of 26. But the red-hot prospect is not saying he’ll give up all combat sport at that time. The popular Garcia said on The Rich Eisen Show on Thursday that he will consider moving over to
7:28 AM ET ESPN’s MMA Insiders As the UFC looks to kick off 2021 with two elements that were sorely lacking for most of 2020 — Conor McGregor and fans in attendance — this brief pause in the calendar offers the perfect window to take stock and look ahead. So who will have the best