MMA

By his own admission, UFC debutant Ben Sosoli hates working on his major weakness – getting off his back when under fire in the Octagon. The 29-year-old has been called up to fight controversial American knockout artist Greg Hardy in Boston on October 19, a dramatic change of fortunes after Sosoli recently bowed out of

LOS ANGELES — The California State Athletic Commission has taken a major measure in attempting to combat extreme weight cutting. CSAC, one of the largest combat sports regulatory bodies in the world, voted Tuesday to pass a rule that would cancel a fight if a competitor weighed more than 15% above the contracted fight weight

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones took a plea deal Tuesday on a charge stemming from an April incident at a strip club. Jones pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct in Bernalillo (New Mexico) County Metropolitan Court and received a 90-day deferred sentence, per court documents. During that period of time, Jones must avoid arrest

LOS ANGELES — A UFC fighter’s attempt to get a technical knockout loss overturned on the grounds of gender discrimination was denied Tuesday. The California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) voted 3-2 to uphold the TKO result by referee Herb Dean in a fight between Germaine de Randamie and Aspen Ladd from the UFC Sacramento main

Joanna Jedrzejczyk scored a big win for American Top Team on Saturday by beating Michelle Waterson, but she wasn’t sharing that celebration with ATT teammate Colby Covington. Covington will challenge welterweight champ Kamaru Usman on Dec. 14, and his public feuds with ATT teammates Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier have not gone over well with

Tatiana Suarez should be one of the top contenders for the next shot at the UFC strawweight title, with an 8-0 record and five straight wins in the UFC, but all plans are on hold as Suarez deals with a neck injury she aggravated in June. “I’ve always had disk issues,” Suarez told Ariel Helwani’s

A top UFC women’s fighter is appealing a recent knockout loss. Aspen Ladd will go before the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) on Tuesday and argue that her 16-second TKO defeat against Germaine de Randamie was stopped by referee Herb Dean prematurely, CSAC executive officer Andy Foster told ESPN on Sunday. Ladd’s team is hoping

One of the UFC’s best female champions might have earned another shot at gold. Joanna Jedrzejczyk defeated Michelle Waterson by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46) in the main event of UFC Tampa (Florida) on Saturday night at Amalie Arena. Jedrzejczyk was the superior fighter on the feet throughout — much like her title reign —

Demetrious Johnson may no longer be in the UFC, but he is still winning big fights — and he’s still one of the very best fighters on the planet. Johnson beat Danny Kingad via unanimous decision to win the ONE flyweight grand prix Sunday in Tokyo. “Mighty Mouse” has won all three fights in ONE

Cub Swanson landed straight right hands. He landed left hooks. Swanson landed uppercuts and punches to the body. Through it all, Kron Gracie, blood on his face, continued coming forward. Gracie stalked Swanson for three rounds. And for three rounds, Swanson teed off en route to a unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) victory Saturday night

LAS VEGAS — Two prominent MMA managers were involved in a “brief physical altercation where a battery was committed” during the PFL event on Friday night, the Las Vegas Metro Police Department confirmed with ESPN. Abe Kawa, vice president of First Round Management, told ESPN that Ali Abdelaziz, the CEO of Dominance MMA, approached him

When eight welterweights and four women’s lightweights walked into the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas for Night 1 of the 2019 Professional Fighters League playoffs on Friday, there were at least a handful of plausible possibilities for how the night could play out. The result, once everything played out inside of the PFL

One of the PFL’s biggest hooks, besides the $1 million first-place payday, was the fact that five of six divisions required fighters to win twice in one night of playoff action to clinch a spot in the finals. That requirement and the quirks of the PFL’s playoff format and rule set loomed large on Friday

Three nights of fights over the next four weeks at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas will lock in the six finals matchups in the Professional Fighters League playoffs. Friday night’s action kicks it off, as eight welterweight quarterfinalists and four women’s semifinalists vie for one of those coveted spots, with $1 million

LAS VEGAS — One of the greatest MMA heavyweights of all time is now a full-time professional wrestler. Cain Velasquez, the former two-time UFC heavyweight champion, has signed a lucrative, multiyear deal with WWE and has notified the UFC of his retirement, sources told ESPN on Friday. Velasquez has been removed from the UFC’s USADA

Conor McGregor appeared in court on Friday over an alleged assault on a man in a Dublin pub in April. The incident occurred April 6 at the Marble Arch pub. McGregor was captured on camera punching a man, who was sitting at the bar, in the face. The man is in his 50s. In an

The leading mixed martial arts promoter is launching UFC Event Centre in partnership with IMG Arena, the first in-game wagering product from the UFC, UFC president Dana White announced Thursday night. “The UFC Event Centre and its official data feed will be a game changer for how UFC fans engage with our events through sportsbooks

UFC women’s strawweight contender Nina Ansaroff is hitting the pause button on her fighting career. Ansaroff will take one year off from the UFC in an attempt to have her first child with fiancée Amanda Nunes, she told ESPN. Nunes is the UFC women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion. “I’m not pregnant yet, but we are