MMA

Apr 13, 2022 LAKEWOOD, Calif. — AJ McKee remembers being in Southern California gyms as a kid almost every day. His father, Antonio McKee, was one of the toughest fighters on the MMA regional scene, frequently training with some of the sport’s biggest stars — names such as Tito Ortiz, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Randy

3:29 PM ET Marlon Moraes, long one of the best bantamweight fighters in MMA, is retiring from the sport, his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, told ESPN on Wednesday. Moraes, 33, held the World Series of Fighting (WSOF) bantamweight title from 2014 to 2016 before signing with the UFC, racking up five title defenses in WSOF. “Magic”

7:29 AM ET A big victory resulted in a small (but significant) move for Alexander Volkanovski. The UFC men’s bantamweight champion had his way with Chan Sung Jung on Saturday in their UFC 273 title fight, outstriking the South Korean by 152-51 on his way to a one-sided fourth-round TKO. The win, Volkanovski’s 21st in

1:09 PM ET Cain Velasquez has broken his silence for the first time since being charged with attempted murder in a shooting-related incident last month. In a statement posted to his social media, the former two-time UFC heavyweight champion thanked everyone who has given him support and said his case is “complex and slowly unraveling

Apr 10, 2022 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Aljamain Sterling is the UFC’s undisputed bantamweight champion. Undisputed. Kind of. Sterling (21-3) got the last laugh on Petr Yan (16-3) and all his critics Saturday, as he pulled out a razor-close split decision over Yan. The 135-pound title fight, which was supposed to end any controversy left over

5:40 PM ET The UFC has decided not to re-sign Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira, an exciting fan favorite in the welterweight division, officials confirmed with ESPN on Monday. Oliveira’s contract expired with his last fight, a loss to Kevin Holland at UFC 272 on March 5. That marked Oliveira’s fourth straight defeat, and the UFC decided

10:37 PM ET Alexander Volkanovski has welcomed Henry Cejudo’s return to the USADA testing pool, but the Australian says he is instead focused on a shift to lightweight and an immediate crack at becoming a two-division UFC champion. Fresh off his domination of Chan Sung Jung at UFC 273, Volkanovski is already mapping out his

1:47 AM ET JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Alexander Volkanovski vowed to finish Saturday night, something he has yet to do to an opponent since becoming UFC featherweight champion. One of the world’s top fighters lived up to his promise. Volkanovski stopped “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung via TKO (punches) at 45 seconds of the fourth

5:04 PM ET Three weeks ago, I wrote that the current featherweight division is the most interesting weight class in the UFC — and after another thrilling event in Jacksonville, Florida, I stand by that. Alexander Volkanovski (24-1) has elevated himself into must-see TV. He has always been a good fighter, as he has just

9:59 PM ET One of the only double champions in UFC history seems on his way back to the Octagon. Henry Cejudo will re-enter himself into the USADA drug-testing pool Monday, his manager Ali Abdelaziz of Dominance MMA told ESPN on Sunday. That signifies that Cejudo, a former Olympic gold medalist in wrestling, is on

2:10 AM ET JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Khamzat Chimaev stole the show, as expected, at UFC 273 on Saturday night with a unanimous-decision win over Gilbert Burns in what Dana White called one of the greatest fights he’s ever seen. Featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski put on a show of his own with a fourth-round stoppage of

2:46 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim The screeching sound you may have heard late Saturday night if you were anywhere near Jacksonville, Florida, was the Khamzat Chimaev hype train slowing its roll. Gilbert Burns was the one applying the brakes. Burns had been bloodied and beaten down in a brutal opening round, but he had survived.

2:34 AM ET Alexander Volkanovski said he felt better than ever. He said his self-belief was at an all-time high. He said he would stop Chan Sung Jung. And so it proved on Saturday night in Jacksonville. The Australian turned in a thoroughly dominant display, feeding Jung with a series of heavy shots to the

6:30 PM ET JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Chan Sung Jung knows this might be his last chance. “The Korean Zombie” first challenged for the UFC featherweight title in 2013. On Saturday, Jung will be back with a chance at the belt against champion Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 273 at VyStar Veterans Memorial

1:45 AM ET Arguably the greatest fight in women’s MMA history will be run back later this spring. Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, both former UFC women’s strawweight champions, have verbally agreed to a rematch at UFC 275 on June 11 in Singapore, UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell told ESPN on Saturday. Bout agreements

4:09 PM ET A heavyweight bout between Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Marcin Tybura has been removed from the UFC 273 card because of an illness by Tybura, the UFC announced Friday. Tybura was the second-to-last fighter to weigh in Friday morning, but he was well within the 266-pound, nontitle heavyweight limit, weighing 253 pounds. The UFC

9:24 AM ET JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Alexander Volkanovski‘s latest featherweight title defense is official. Volkanovski and Chan Sung Jung, better known as “The Korean Zombie,” both weighed in Friday at 144.5 pounds. Volkanovski will defend his UFC featherweight belt against Jung in the main event of UFC 273 on Saturday at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.

7:53 AM ET WHEN ALJAMAIN STERLING finally arrived home from the biggest night of his professional career, the first thing he did was apologize to his friends and family. The second thing he did was throw up. It was early morning on March 7, 2021, and Sterling was still dealing with the signs and symptoms