MMA

6:29 PM ET With 90 seconds left in his fight Saturday, Max Holloway turned away from his opponent, Calvin Kattar, and told the broadcast team cageside that he is the best boxer in the UFC. On ABC, the network that has been a home for boxing since the 1940s, Holloway more than proved his point

3:43 PM ET Undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov left the door open for a return to the Octagon. Promotion president Dana White said that if the two lightweight fights next week — Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier and Dan Hooker vs. Michael Chandler — are spectacular, Nurmagomedov would consider coming back to fight one

8:21 PM ET The UFC’s 2021 debut on ABC was big news for everything that happened inside the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Saturday, and everything that didn’t. Max Holloway put on one of the most punishing, one-sided displays of boxing in UFC history, landing a record 445 significant strikes in

5:57 PM ET Max Holloway is back. After consecutive loses to UFC men’s featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, the former champ defeated Calvin Kattar at UFC Fight Night Saturday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to get closer to another title opportunity. Holloway dominated from the start, and had Kattar in trouble before the round ended.

10:33 AM ET The UFC featherweight title will be defended on March 27, as the promotion has booked champion Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega for UFC 260, sources told ESPN. The hope is for the 145-pound title fight to serve as the co-main event for a card headlined by Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou 2

8:00 AM ET One of the endearing — or perhaps maddening — facts about MMA is there is no set path to a UFC championship. Some paths are very traditional, basically following a straight line up the rankings. Others are unpredictable and at the mercy of a billion factors outside of a fighter’s control. When

3:31 PM ET Ryan Garcia believes he’ll be done with boxing early. He plans to retire at the age of 26. But the red-hot prospect is not saying he’ll give up all combat sport at that time. The popular Garcia said on The Rich Eisen Show on Thursday that he will consider moving over to

7:28 AM ET ESPN’s MMA Insiders As the UFC looks to kick off 2021 with two elements that were sorely lacking for most of 2020 — Conor McGregor and fans in attendance — this brief pause in the calendar offers the perfect window to take stock and look ahead. So who will have the best

2:12 PM ET The UFC has “essentially” struck marijuana as a punishable offense in its anti-doping policy, the promotion and anti-doping partner USADA announced Thursday. Beginning retroactively Jan. 1, a positive drug test for carboxy-THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, will no longer be considered a violation — unless USADA is able to prove that

7:46 AM ET ESPN’s MMA Insiders As the UFC looks to kick off 2021 with two elements that were sorely lacking for most of 2020 — Conor McGregor and fans in attendance — this brief pause in the calendar offers the perfect window to take stock and look ahead. So who will have the best

9:56 PM ET The UFC is looking to get involved with research into psychedelic drugs as a therapy for fighters’ brain health. The promotion has been in contact with Johns Hopkins University about its psychedelics studies with an eye toward seeing if the drugs can be helpful for fighters dealing with brain issues, UFC president

12:08 PM ET Will the third time be the charm for Leon Edwards vs. Khamzat Chimaev? UFC is hoping so. The promotion has rebooked the welterweight fight for March 13, sources confirmed to ESPN. The bout will serve as the main event of a UFC Fight Night card. Edwards-Chimaev was originally set for Dec. 19

7:42 AM ET ESPN’s MMA Insiders As the UFC looks to kick off 2021 with two elements that were sorely lacking for most of 2020 — Conor McGregor and fans in attendance — this brief pause in the calendar offers the perfect window to take stock and look ahead. So who will have the best

5:40 PM ET Pat Miletich, the first-ever UFC welterweight champion and one of the most decorated coaches in MMA history, announced in an Instagram video that he was fired by Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA) for being present at the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The Hall of Famer has been a color

8:07 AM ET When Max Holloway leaves the Octagon after Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event, he could be the loser of three straight and four of five. That would be quite a cliff from which one of the sport’s most prestigious careers would be dangling. Calvin Kattar, meanwhile, is trying to build his resume.

11:24 AM ET Max Holloway and Calvin Kattar kick off 2021 and the UFC’s latest run of events on Fight Island with the men’s featherweight main event of a matinee UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The main card of the promotion’s first event of the year — and the

7:23 AM ET UFC president Dana White says his relationship with Conor McGregor is solid going into 2021, after hitting a “bad place” in the second half of last year. The relationship between the UFC and McGregor started off on a high note in 2020, as McGregor headlined the UFC 246 pay-per-view against Donald “Cowboy”

10:20 AM ET UFC president Dana White is expected to meet with undefeated lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov this week in Abu Dhabi for the first time since Nurmagomedov announced his retirement in October. Nurmagomedov (29-0) is still the UFC’s undisputed 155-pound champion, even though he has stated he does not intend to fight again. White