MMA

7:19 AM ET Dan Ige‘s son, Bam Alexander Ige, was born on April 4, 2021. Just two days before that arrival, Ige signed a contract to face Chan Sung Jung on June 19. Truth be told, that’s not how Ige would have drawn it up. The 29-year-old featherweight fought in March and wanted some time

5:43 PM ET Jeff Wagenheim Will Rory MacDonald continue to live up to the hype as the PFL’s biggest signing? Will fellow welterweight Ray Cooper III show that, after winning the 2019 season championship, this is his division? Can 2019 light heavyweight champ Emiliano Sordi even qualify for this summer’s playoffs? These are a few

9:45 AM ET Carlos Contreras Legaspi Max Holloway has suffered an undisclosed injury and has pulled out of his July 17 bout against Yair Rodriguez, sources told ESPN, postponing one of this summer’s most anticipated fights. The fight between the former UFC 145-pound champion Holloway (22-6) and Rodríguez (13-2) was likely to determine the next

1:44 PM ET Mar Raimondi Bellator will be back on the road with perhaps the best fight it can put on at this moment. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire will meet the undefeated AJ McKee in the finals of the Bellator Featherweight World Grand Prix on July 31 in Inglewood, California, the promotion announced Wednesday. Freire will

10:00 PM ET PHOENIX — UFC title challenger Marvin Vettori was physically removed from a news conference Thursday after a near altercation with his opponent, middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. At the tail end of a prefight news conference, after nearly a half-hour of the two sparring verbally, Vettori got up to confront Adesanya twice with

4:28 PM ET The UFC has added a welterweight matchup between Vicente Luque and Michael Chiesa to UFC 265 in August, sources confirmed to ESPN. The UFC 265 pay-per-view event is slated to take place on Aug. 7. The UFC has not announced a location. It’s an important fight in the division, as Luque and

2:10 PM ET The UFC is finalizing a heavyweight fight between Curtis Blaydes and Jairzinho Rozenstruik for UFC 266 in September, sources confirmed to ESPN. The UFC 266 pay-per-view event is expected to take place on Sept. 25, although the promotion has not officially announced a date or location. MMAFighting.com first reported the matchup. Blaydes

8:00 AM ET Israel Adesanya is back on track. Three months after suffering his first loss in a bid to add the UFC light heavyweight championship to the middleweight title he already owned, Adesanya successfully defended his 185-pound belt against Marvin Vettori over the weekend. It was a dominant performance. The champ won all five

10:49 PM ET Eric GomezMexico writer TIJUANA, Mexico — Brandon Moreno, the first Mexican-born champion in UFC history, received a welcome befitting of a champion at his hometown gym Monday following his UFC flyweight title win over the weekend. Two days removed from defeating Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 263 on Saturday in Glendale, Arizona, Moreno

8:11 AM ET UFC 263 was a night of clear answers to a lot of questions. Israel Adesanya had a much easier time in his rematch against Marvin Vettori, and added to his legacy as middleweight champion. So has he done everything he has to do to prove his greatness in the division, or does

1:09 AM ET Claressa Shields is a novice when it comes to the ground game. But throwing punches? Oh, that’s very much in her wheelhouse. After getting dominated on the ground for two straight rounds, Shields was able to stay in a safe, kneeling position and land huge punches to finish Brittney Elkin by TKO

12:08 AM ET For 24 out of the 25 minutes of their fight at UFC 263, Leon Edwards controlled almost every aspect of the fight. His strikes, kicks and almost everything else he did had caused considerable damage and drew significant blood to Nate Diaz‘s face and body. But as he absorbed that damage, generally

2:13 AM ET Poor Leon Edwards. You see, the record books will forever state Edwards beat Nathan Diaz on Saturday night via unanimous decision. The highlight reels will reveal he dominated Diaz for the majority of their 25-minute fight. Edwards cut up Diaz. He made him bleed. He roughed him up. That’s all very accurate,

1:19 AM ET GLENDALE, Ariz. — Israel Adesanya rotated his right hand and cupped it near his ear, a gesture pro wrestling legend Hulk Hogan used to use to elicit cheers from the crowd. Marvin Vettori was desperately trying to take Adesanya down against the cage at the end of the fourth round. Adesanya’s taunt

12:31 AM ET GLENDALE, Arizona — Brandon Moreno wasn’t even supposed to be competitive with Deiveson Figueiredo the first time they fought in December. And after showing he could be competitive in a majority draw, he still wasn’t supposed to win their rematch on Saturday. No one will count out Brandon Moreno anymore. Moreno (19-5-2)

5:21 PM ET GLENDALE, Ariz. — UFC 263 headliner Israel Adesanya defends his middleweight title against Marvin Vettori in the main event of Saturday’s stacked card. Adesanya defeated Vettori by split decision in 2018, a close fight that was one of Adesanya’s most difficult en route to the title. Vettori firmly believes he won that

8:30 AM ET For the past three years, Marvin Vettori has lived with the belief that he beat Israel Adesanya in a non-title fight back in 2018. This weekend, Adesanya intends to shatter that belief. Adesanya (20-1) will seek his third middleweight title defense at UFC 263 on Saturday, when he meets Vettori (17-3-1) for

12:19 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Yaroslav Amosov found a successful formula early on and went back to it again and again on Friday night, grinding out a dominant decision victory to dethrone Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima in the main event of Bellator 260 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. All three judges scored