MMA

2:00 PM ET Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic there was one constant question that plagued Australian MMA fans: When will the UFC return Down Under? This Sunday morning [AEDT], after more than 1,220 days that have come and gone, the Octagon will once again take centre stage on the Australian sporting consciousness when

12:17 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim For the retirement fight of Fedor Emelianenko, one of the greatest ever to compete in mixed martial arts and the icon of an era gone by, there was a who’s who of MMA legends gathered at Bellator 290 in Inglewood, California, on Saturday night to give one of their own

5:15 AM ET Eddie Maisonet The UFC kicked off its February schedule with a heavyweight main event, and Serghei Spivac delivered in a big way. Spivac (16-3) defeated Derrick Lewis (26-11) in the finale of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas. “The Polar Bear” submitted Lewis via armbar in the first round, thus

10:21 AM ET Conor McGregor‘s return has been set, as the former UFC double champion will coach against lightweight star Michael Chandler on the next season of “The Ultimate Fighter” before facing him in the Octagon. UFC president Dana White announced McGregor and Chandler as the coaches on social media Saturday. No date or location

11:15 AM ET After knocking out Tony Ferguson at UFC 274, Michael Chandler thought it might take a lapse in judgment for the UFC to book a fight with him against Conor McGregor. Instead, a coaching opportunity with The Ultimate Fighter helped put the pieces in motion for a megafight later this year. “If Hunter

10:17 PM ET The UFC has shifted a highly anticipated bantamweight main event between Marlon Vera and Cory Sandhagen from Feb. 18 to March 25, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN on Thursday. The bout was originally scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night later this month at the Apex in Las Vegas, but will now serve

5:02 PM ET NEW YORK — Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn didn’t rule out the possibility of a future fight between former boxing heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, he told ESPN on Thursday. Joshua has a fight against Jermaine Franklin on April 1, sources told ESPN’s Mike Coppinger, and

10:29 AM ET The PFL’s 2023 regular season will officially kick off in April, with a three-week series of events at Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas. The season encompasses six weight classes: heavyweight, light heavyweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight and women’s featherweight. The first round of season matchups will take place across three events scheduled on

8:30 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Mixed martial arts is not what it used to be. In its early days, the sport was widely dismissed as a cringey toughman sideshow and relegated to the outcast fringe. For years, MMA was sustained by an obsessive and faithful fan base that mined fight clips from dingy corners of

3:22 PM ET Editor’s note: This story was originally published ahead of UFC 238. Blagoy Ivanov faces Marcin Tybura at UFC Fight Night on Feb. 4. SAN JOSE, Calif. — A bit shaky, Blagoy Ivanov stood in a doorway at Pirogov Hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, on May 19, 2012. Camera flashes were going off. Questions