MMA

11:19 AM ET Brett Okamoto UFC welterweight Belal Muhammad‘s first appearance in a main event will have to come without his longtime coach and mentor Louis Taylor, due to Taylor’s positive COVID-19 test. Muhammad (18-3) is scheduled to face Leon Edwards (18-3) in a five-round headliner at UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas.

11:00 AM ET Legendary Brazilian heavyweight Fabricio Werdum will make his PFL debut against Renan Ferreira, PFL president Ray Sefo told ESPN. A former UFC champion, Werdum (24-9-1) will headline a PFL event May 6 in Atlantic City. The card will also feature 2019 PFL champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison against Mariana

8:30 AM ET Saturday night’s superfight at UFC 259 did not produce a double champion, but it did provide one of the fighters with a ticket to the ESPN pound-for-pound MMA rankings. Jan Blachowicz came away from the weekend still in possession of the UFC light heavyweight championship and as a new entrant in the

7:17 AM ET With four champions in action, UFC 259 was always going to have an outsized fallout compared to almost any other UFC card. And while Amanda Nunes continued to bolster her GOAT credentials with a thorough defeat of Megan Anderson, that’s as close as pre-show expectations for the three pay-per-view title fights came

12:39 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Amanda Nunes, the most dominant female fighter in mixed martial arts history, did her thing again on Saturday in an absolute thrashing of No. 1 featherweight contender Megan Anderson. Nunes (21-4) forced Anderson (10-5) to tap to an armbar at 2:03 of the opening round of their featherweight title

2:52 PM ET Professional Fighters League has made a late addition to its 2021 return campaign. PFL signed former UFC veteran Antonio Carlos Junior to a contract this week, Carlos Junior’s manager Ali Abdelaziz told ESPN. Carlos Junior fought at middleweight in the UFC, but Abdelaziz said he would be competing as part of PFL’s

3:35 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim There was no new inductee into the UFC’s exclusive champ-champ club on Saturday night. That’s what this UFC 259 main event was all about, right? Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya‘s quest to add the light heavyweight belt to become the fifth fighter to rule two weight divisions simultaneously and push toward

1:24 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Israel Adesanya‘s meteoric rise to UFC superstardom hit an obstacle Saturday night — a large, Polish obstacle. Jan Blachowicz beat the previously undefeated Adesanya by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-45, 49-45) to retain his light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 259. Adesanya, the UFC middleweight champion, was

12:07 AM ET UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan was disqualified after catching a grounded Aljamain Sterling with an illegal knee to the head in the fourth round Saturday night at UFC 259 in Las Vegas. With the disqualification due to an intentional foul, Sterling was crowned the new champion. The fight was stopped at 4

11:32 PM ET ESPN’s panel of Ariel Helwani, Brett Okamoto, Marc Raimondi, Jeff Wagenheim and Phil Murphy breaks down the biggest stories coming out of UFC 259, including Jan Blachowicz‘s dominant win over Israel Adesanya, who was attempting to become just the fifth fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two divisions simultaneously; the

4:54 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Israel Adesanya, who headlines UFC 259 vs. Jan Blachowicz on Saturday, has become one of the most talked-about fighters in the world. “The Last Style Bender” says he is comfortable with the idea that he could one day transcend MMA, like a Conor McGregor or a Ronda Rousey. “It’s

Feb 27, 2021 The UFC is about to hit a compelling stretch of events in which we will see five title fights (featuring six champions) in the span of one calendar month. It starts on Saturday night with UFC 259, which will be the seventh event in UFC history to feature three title fights. In

12:46 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Israel Adesanya will be significantly lighter than Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259. Though, not as much as he indicated earlier this week. Adesanya weighed 200.5 pounds Friday morning at the official UFC 259 weigh-ins at the UFC Apex. He didn’t strip down, as athletes usually do. He just wore

7:06 AM ET In the 27-year history of the UFC, only seven fighters have won championships in multiple weight classes — and only four of those have held both titles simultaneously. Such is the rare air UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (20-0) is hoping to reach Saturday, when he challenges Jan Blachowicz (27-8) for the

6:32 PM ET LAS VEGAS – The UFC has not done a show in the United States outside its home of Las Vegas in more than a year. That could be changing soon, according to UFC president Dana White. White said Thursday at the UFC 259 prefight press conference that as soon as he heard

8:14 AM ET Amanda Nunes will defend her featherweight title at UFC 259 on Saturday, marking her first competition since she and her wife Nina Ansaroff — a UFC strawweight — gave birth to their daughter, Raegan Ann Nunes, on Sept. 24, 2020. Nunes, who is also the bantamweight champ and considered the women’s MMA

7:30 AM ET The UFC is increasing its presence in the sports betting industry in a big way, partnering with DraftKings on a deal that president Dana White says is one of the most important his MMA organization has ever done. The UFC on Thursday named DraftKings as its first official sportsbook and daily fantasy

7:21 AM ET As Petr Yan prepared for his Zoom interview, the UFC bantamweight champion kept getting up and moving around until he found the right spot. The background he finally settled on — sun-drenched palm trees and sparkling ocean water — could not have been more different from the surroundings planned for him just