11:35 PM ET ESPN’s panel of Ariel Helwani, Brett Okamoto, Marc Raimondi and Jeff Wagenheim breaks down the biggest stories coming out of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night, including Stephen Thompson‘s convincing unanimous-decision win over Geoff Neal and two former champions earning key victories. Helwani: “Wonderboy” is no stepping-stone Considering what Geoff Neal overcame just three
MMA
10:43 PM ET Geoff Neal chased Stephen Thompson down near the cage. When he got close, Thompson ripped off a lightning-quick punching combination and then angled off before Neal could even start throwing punches. That sequence — Thompson playing matador and Neal the hapless bull — occurred over and over again Saturday in the main
LAS VEGAS — If Jose Aldo is showing any signs of slowing down at age 34, it was not apparent this weekend in Las Vegas. Aldo (29-7) snapped the longest skid of his career on Saturday, as he picked up his first win in four appearances by defeating Malon Vera (18-7-1) via unanimous decision. All
3:57 PM ET The UFC has arrived at its final event of the year — and despite all the challenges of 2020, the promotion is closing out its schedule on a high note. UFC Fight Night on Saturday from the Apex facility in Las Vegas will feature 10 fighters ranked inside the top 10 of
2:32 PM ET The UFC is finalizing an important bantamweight fight for early 2021, as Cory Sandhagen and Frankie Edgar have verbally agreed to meet on Feb. 6, sources told ESPN on Friday. The fight represents a meeting between two of the best 135-pounders in the world. Sandhagen (13-2) is coming off a second-round TKO
8:50 AM ET The UFC’s final event of 2020, which takes place Saturday in Las Vegas, was originally supposed to feature one of the scariest unranked welterweights on the planet against an established, veteran opponent. Well, even though the main event did change, the storyline around it remained the same. Two-time 170-pound title challenger Stephen
11:10 PM ET Two fights from Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card in Las Vegas have been canceled after positive coronavirus tests, the UFC announced on Thursday. Another bout has been changed this week for an undisclosed reason. On Thursday, Aiemann Zahabi announced on social media that he tested positive for COVID-19 prior to flying to
9:18 AM ET Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson is no stranger to UFC main events, but there is one role the two-time welterweight challenger doesn’t want to get accustomed to: gatekeeper. Thompson faces Geoff Neal in Saturday’s Fight Night headliner in Las Vegas, and it’s the second time in a row Thompson, 37, will be fighting a
11:45 AM ET Yoel Romero said his release from the UFC was “completely unexpected,” explaining that he was training with the hope that he would be one or two wins from another title shot. Instead, Romero will now work toward getting a shot at a Bellator title, and he said there’s a “huge possibility” his
4:52 PM ET UFC strawweight champion Zhang Weili‘s next fight is still up in the air. Most expected Zhang to fight former 115-pound champion Rose Namajunas in 2021, but UFC president Dana White recently told BT Sport that fight wasn’t finalized. “What I’m hearing is Rose does not want a title shot,” White said. “Rose