The 28-year-old Latino American mixed martial artist’s highly anticipated debut in the UFC will now take place against Lerone Murphy at UFC 319 in Chicago.
Pico (13-4) was supposed to make his first UFC appearance opposite Movsar Evloev (19-0) at UFC Fight Night on Saturday, but Evloev was forced to withdraw earlier this month.
Pico, a longtime standout at Bellator MMA, publicly asked the UFC to rebook him as soon as possible. His 145-pound bout against Murphy (16-0-1) will serve as the UFC 319 co-main event on August 16 in Chicago.
It’s an interesting change for the entire featherweight division. Pico never held a championship in Bellator but has long been viewed as one of the best fighters in the world outside of the UFC.
Pico was once considered arguably the greatest prospect in MMA history, with extensive accolades in amateur wrestling and boxing.
In Evloev, he would’ve been facing the No. 1-ranked contender in the division. He will now turn his attention to Murphy, who is undefeated but ranked lower than Evloev.
The 28-year-old Hispanic American mixed martial artist’s UFC debut will come in the form of a five-round bout against Movsar Evloevon July 26.
The featherweight (145 pounds) pairing will co-headline UFC Fight Night inside Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, a card that will be topped by a middleweight clash between Robert Whittakerand Reinier de Ridder
Pico (13-4) has fought his entire MMA career outside of the UFC to this point.
He signed a developmental contract with Bellator MMA in 2014, three years before making his actual debut.
He is 9-1 in his past 10, and was in line for a featherweight title shot in Bellator when the promotion was absorbed by the PFL earlier this year.
He will face a monster of a challenge in his first UFC appearance. Evloev (19-0), of Russia, holds an undefeated record across over a decade of competition and is currently the UFC’s No. 4-ranked featherweight contender. He would likely have vied for a UFC championship by now, but has struggled to book high profile opportunities, in part due to his high decision rate. All nine of his UFC wins have gone the distance.
The winner of this contest will be a strong candidate for a future UFC title shot. Current champion Alexander Volkanovskihas not yet booked his next title defense.
Anderson Silva is preparing for a highly anticipated rematch… of sorts.
The 49-year-old Brazilian mixed martial artist and professional boxer, a former UFC middleweight champion who holds the record for the longest title reign in UFC history at 2,457 days, is set to renew one of the greatest rivalries in mixed martial arts history next month.
Silva will face Chael Sonnen in a boxing match on June 15 in Brazil, the Spaten Fight Night promotion announced on Sunday.
Silva had been teasing his career finale earlier this week, claiming his final fight would take place next month in his birthplace of Sao Paulo.
Sonnen confirmed his participation via social media.
“Oh Anderson, yoohoo,” Sonnen said. “It’s me again. See you June 15.”
Silva (34-11) and Sonnen (30-17-1) produced one of the most memorable two-fight rivalries in UFC history.
Silva was in the midst of a UFC-record 16 consecutive wins when he ran into Sonnen in 2010. The outspoken title challenger from West Linn, Oregon, was a massive underdog going into their first meeting at UFC 117.
Sonnen shocked the world for 23 minutes of that fight, dominating Silva with takedowns and ground-and-pound before Silva secured a late triangle choke off his back. The UFC is set to induct that fight into its Hall of Fame in late June.
They met again two years later at UFC 148 in a blockbuster rematch in Las Vegas. Silva knocked out Sonnen with a knee to the chest after Sonnen lost balance throwing a spinning backfist.
Silva retired from the UFC in 2020, but has since boxed professionally four times. He is 2-1-1 in the ring, with the only loss coming to Jake Paul via decision in 2022. Sonnen retired from MMA in 2019 after five appearances in Bellator MMA. The former collegiate wrestler has never boxed professionally.
Silva was widely considered the greatest fighter of all time by 2010, but Sonnen’s ability to promote their rivalry with his trash talk of the Brazilian legend helped propel him to stardom.
The 34-year-old Brazilian professional mixed martial artist (13-3) knocked out Bellator MMAheavyweight champion Ryan Bader (31-8) in just 21 seconds on Saturday in the PFL vs. Bellator pay-per-view in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ferreira knocked Bader down with a right hand, before ending the fight with hammerfists on the ground in his fourth consecutive win by knockout, three of which came in the first round.
“I am the real problem,” Ferreira said. “I am the record setter. Francis, where you at? I’m the champion out here. I’ve always been ready to fight with the very best in the world. Francis it can be in [MMA] or boxing, whatever you want to do.”
Following his win, talk has begun about Ferreira’s next potential opponent… Francis Ngannou (17-3), who is scheduled to make his second appearance in professional boxing on March 8 in Saudi Arabia, when he takes on former heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua.
Earlier this week, however, Ngannou told ESPN he still intends to return to MMA with the PFL, and said he would likely face the winner of Saturday’s contest between Ferreira and Bader. Ngannou was present cageside during the main event.
Ferreira didn’t waste the opportunity to impress. The fight was essentially over before it began. He caught Bader with the right hand just moments in, after Bader moved forward with his own punches. Ferreira, who trains out of American Top Team in south Florida, has now recorded five first-round knockouts in the PFL, including finishes of 21 seconds, 50 seconds, 25 seconds and 31 seconds.
Ferreira claimed a “Super Belt” in the process, although he does not take ownership of Bader’s Bellator title. The real reward, however, is a future fight against Ngannou, which will also take place on PFL PPV.
Bader, a former two-weight champion in Bellator, saw a three-fight win streak snapped. He’d lost recently at light heavyweight against Vadim Nemkov and Corey Anderson, but had been dominant at heavyweight, including two wins over the legendary Fedor Emelianenko. It is the shortest loss of Bader’s professional career.
Saturday’s event marked the first PPV since PFL acquired Bellator late last year. Bellator champions fared well overall against their PFL counterparts. Welterweight champion Jason Jackson, middleweight champion Johnny Eblen and former champs Vadim Nemkov and AJ McKee all scored impressive wins over PFL opposition. Yoel Romero also picked up a win against PFL contender Thiago Santos.
Bellator MMA has announced that it has re-signed the 37-year-old Brazilian mixed martial artist, one of the greatest women’s MMA fighters of all time, to a new, multi-fight contract.
Cyborg had been a free agent since last summer, though she has remained the Bellator women’s featherweight champion. She competed in two boxing matches during her time out of contract, winning both.
While Cyborg returning to Bellator has always been the most likely scenario, she was entertaining other opportunities and even attended a PFL event in person recently.
PFL has been trying to make a huge fight between Cyborg and two-time PFL women’s lightweight champion Kayla Harrison for more than a year.
Cyborg re-signing with Bellator doesn’t necessarily completely harpoon that fight, because PFL has expressed a willingness to co-promote with Bellator to make it happen.
“After receiving multiple offers from several promotions, I’m very happy that I was able to come to terms with Bellator and remain the face of their women’s featherweight division,” Cyborg said in a statement. “Scott Coker is a promoter that I’ve worked with and respected for many years. He’s done so much to further women’s MMA and give us a platform to showcase our skills. When making this decision, it was important to me that I was signing with the organization that I felt had the biggest names and the top talent at 145 pounds for me to challenge myself against. There is no question that all the top female featherweights are signed with Bellator and I can’t wait to get back in there and defend my belt.”
Bellator did note in its news release that Cyborg re-signing sets her up for title defenses against Cat Zingano and Sara McMann, two former UFC title challengers who are undefeated since signing with the promotion.
Cyborg (26-2, 1 NC) has lost just once since her pro debut in 2005, a knockout defeat to UFC double champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 232 in December 2018. She lives and trains in California and has been Bellator women’s featherweight champion since 2020 and has four successful title defenses. Cyborg is the only fighter to ever win championships in four different major promotions: the UFC, Bellator, Strikeforce and Invicta FC.
ESPN has her ranked No. 4 pound-for-pound in its women’s MMA rankings.
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire is hoping to make history…
The 35-year-old Brazilian mixed martial artist, who reigns at featherweight and vacated the lightweight title in 2021, will go for a third belt when he takes on bantamweight champ Sergio Pettis at Bellator 297 on June 16 in Chicago.
If he wins, Freire will become the first three-division champ in a major fight promotion.
The bout at Wintrust Arena will serve as the co-main event of another newly announced title fight, in which light heavyweight champ Vadim Nemkov will defend against Yoel Romero. Those two originally were slated to meet in February, but Nemkov withdrew for an undisclosed reason.
The bantamweight title bout will be Pettis’ second defense of a championship he won in 2021. He has won five fights in a row, a run extending back to his time with the UFC, but has not competed since December 2021 because of injury.
Freire, who already is arguably the most accomplished fighter in Bellator MMA history, has won three in a row and 10 of his past 11.
The Pettis-Freire winner is expected to face the winner of the ongoing Bellator Bantamweight World Grand Prix. Interim champ Raufeon Stots and Patchy Mix will meet in the tournament final April 22.
Nemkov is unbeaten in his past 11 fights, most recently winning a decision overCorey Anderson in November for his third successful title defense.
Romero, a 2000 Olympic silver medalist in wrestling who in 2020 challenged for the UFC middleweight belt, has won two in row, both by knockout. He will be 46 years old on fight night.
Marlon Moraes will be reporting for kick off duty with the Professional Fighters League.
The 34-year-old Brazilian mixed martial artist and former UFC title challenger (23-11-1) will fight Brendan Loughnane (26-4) in April to open the PFL‘s 2023 regular season.
The season will launch with a three-week series of events at Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas.
The season encompasses six weight classes: heavyweight, light heavyweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight and women’s featherweight.
The first round of season matchups will take place across three events scheduled on April 1, 7 and 14.
All three main and co-main slots feature the PFL’s returning 2022 champion.
The featherweight bout between Loughnane and Moraes will headline the first event. In the co-main event, Rob Wilkinson (17-2) will meet another former UFC title challenger in Thiago Santos(22-11).
On April 7, heavyweight Ante Delija (23-5) will meet Yorgan De Castro(9-3). Larissa Pacheco(19-4), who upset two-time women’s lightweight champion Kayla Harrisonin the 2022 finals, will take on former Bellator MMA champion Julia Budd (16-5) in the new women’s featherweight division.
Capping off the first round on April 14, lightweight Olivier Aubin-Mercier(17-5) will take on free agent acquisition Shane Burgos (15-3). Welterweight Sadibou Sy (13-6-2) will face Jarrah Al-Silawi(18-4).
The PFL is the only major MMA promotion to follow a regular-season format, which includes single-elimination playoffs and finals. Additionally, the PFL hosts its Challengers Series for up-and-coming prospects and a recently announced pay-per-view division, which includes professional boxer Jake Paul.
The 30-year-old Latino mixed martial artist and Aaron Pico, two of Bellator MMA‘s top featherweight prospects, have agreed to meet at Bellator 271 on November 12, according to ESPN.
The promotion is finalizing the details for the bout between Gonzales and Pico, which will take place at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The event will air on Showtime. Tickets are expected to go on sale next week.
Pico (8-3) will be seeking his second win of 2021 and fifth consecutive overall. The 25-year-old Latino featherweight made his pro debut in 2017 under extremely high expectations, and got off to a somewhat disappointing 4-3 record. Fighting out of JacksonWink MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he has looked phenomenal during this win streak with four straight finishes.
Gonzales (12-0), of Greeley, Colorado, picked up a split decision win against Tywan Claxton in his Bellator debut in June. Gonzalez, 30, is undefeated since turning pro in 2016. He enjoyed a successful amateur career prior to that dating back to 2012.
The 26-year-old Puerto Rican and Mexican American mixed martial artist, the younger brother of former UFC champion Anthony Pettis, defeated Ricky Bandejas via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) this weekend in the bantamweight main event of Bellator 242.
Bellator, the second-most prominent MMA promotion in the U.S. after the UFC, hadn’t held an event since February 22 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The card took place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, overseen by the Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation.
COVID-19 protocols were implemented, including multiple coronavirus tests and the keeping of fighters, corners and staff within a kind of bubble at the Mohegan Sun resort and casino.
The original Bellator 242 main event was supposed to be a bout for the bantamweight title between Juan Archuleta and Patrick Mix, but Archuleta withdrew. The expectation is that bout will be rebooked for the belt.
During his fight, Pettis put himself in the No. 1 contender conversation. He had an economical performance against Bandejas, outstriking the taller man and piling on the calf kicks through the first two rounds. At one point, Bandejas seemed to lose his footing due to the damage caused by those repeated kicks to the lower part of his left leg.
In the third round, both men opened up. Pettis wasn’t content to cruise to a decision and put forth several flashy techniques, clearly looking for a knockout. Pettis threw spinning kicks, and Bandejas came back with some of his own, including a wheel kick to the head that was just barely blocked by Pettis. Pettis threw another spinning kick with seconds remaining that narrowly missed as well.
Pettis (20-5) has won three straight, including his first two in Bellator. The Milwaukee native left the UFC as a free agent last year with a 9-5 record in the organization, going back and forth between flyweight and bantamweight. Pettis owns a victory over Joseph Benavidez, who just fought for the UFC flyweight title last weekend in Abu Dhabi.
Bandejas (13-4) had a two-fight winning streak snapped. The New Jersey native propelled himself up the Bellator bantamweight ladder in 2018 when he stunningly knocked out Conor McGregor protégé James Gallagher. Bandejas, 28, trains out of the vaunted American Top Team in Florida.
The 34-year-old Brazilian mixed martial artist, better known as Cris Cyborg, has signed with Bellator MMA after a three-year run with the Ultimate Fighting Championship ( UFC).
One of the best women’s fighters in the history of the sport is now under a multiyear, multi-bout contract with Bellator, promotion president Scott Coker announced via Twitter. Coker wrote that it was the biggest contract ever given to a women’s MMA fighter.
Cyborg accompanied Bellator’s announcement with a video message to her fans on Facebook.
“My goal is to become the only female fighter to hold four different major titles in the same division,” said Cyborg, who has already held the women’s featherweight title in the UFC, Strikeforce and Invicta FC.
The final fight on Cyborg’s UFC contract came against Felicia Spencer at UFC 240 in July, a bout Cyborg won via unanimous decision.
The fighter and UFC president Dana Whitehave had a long history of butting heads, and White said in the aftermath of that bout the UFC was out of the Cyborg business. The UFC waived its 90-day exclusive negotiating window with the Brazilian knockout artist, making her a free agent.
Cyborg, who is No. 3 pound-for-pound among women in ESPN‘s MMA rankings, won the UFC women’s featherweight title by beating Tonya Evinger by third-round TKO at UFC 214 in July 2017. She dropped the belt to Amanda Nunes, also the UFC’s women’s bantamweight champ, at UFC 232 last December via first-round knockout. That defeat was Cyborg’s first in 13 years, since her pro MMA debut in 2005.
From 2005 until 2018, Cyborg was the most dominating and fearsome force in women’s mixed martial arts. Justino went undefeated and won 17 of 20 victories by finish. Cyborg has beaten the likes of Holly Holm, Marloes Coenen and Gina Carano. Historically, she has also been one of the best-known women’s MMA fighters in the world, drawing solid numbers on television and pay-per-view.
“I have worked with countless athletes over my 30-plus years of promoting combat sports, but there is no one quite like Cyborg,” said Coker, who promoted Justino with Strikeforce. “Her ability to excite the crowd from the moment she makes her walk to the cage is special, and having had the pleasure of promoting several of her fights in the past, I am looking forward to the opportunity of promoting her once again. Cyborg is the most dominant female fighter in the history of the sport and she will be a perfect fit here at Bellator, where champion Julia Budd and the other women that make up best female featherweight division in the world have eagerly awaited her arrival.”
Cyborg was brought into the UFC in 2016 at a catchweight of 140 pounds. She had competed previously at 145 pounds, a more natural weight. The idea at the time was to set up a fight between Cyborg and Ronda Rousey, but it never materialized. Cyborg was too big to get down to Rousey’s 135-pound weight class and Rousey departed the UFC later in 2016.
Cyborg and the UFC had an embattled relationship even before Cyborg was under contract. In 2014, White infamously made fun of Cyborg for her appearance at an MMA awards show, saying she looked like male fighter Wanderlei Silva in a dress. Cyborg took it as White saying she looked like a man; White has said that he was making a comment on Cyborg’s past history with performance-enhancing drugs. Cyborg tested positive for a steroid and was stripped of her Strikeforce title in 2011.
After Nunes beat Cyborg last December, White repeatedly said Cyborg didn’t want a rematch, which Cyborg vehemently denied. Meanwhile, Cyborg said she felt the UFC never truly built out a women’s featherweight division in which she could compete, which was a valid criticism.
On Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show in July, Cyborg said she wanted a public apology from White as a condition of her re-signing with the UFC.
“Of course, he has to apologize,” Justino said. “I think he has family, he has kids. … I don’t know if he has a heart, but I think one thing he’s doing is not just touching me, because he doesn’t like me. He’s touching the people around me, he’s touching my family. It’s not right.”
The rocky relationship came to an end in earnest after UFC 240 when Cyborg’s team posted a doctored video online that inaccurately quoted White in subtitles while talking to Cyborg backstage in Edmonton, Alberta. Cyborg apologized on social media, but White said in an interview on the UFC’s YouTube channel that the promotion was done with Cyborg.
“I’m going to release her from her contract and I will not match any offers [she receives],” White said. “She is free and clear to go to Bellator or any of these other promotions and fight these easy fights she wants. Done. Done deal. I will literally, today, have my lawyer draft a letter to [Justino’s team saying] that she is free and clear.”
In the Bellator release announcing her signing, it makes note of the promotion’s healthy women’s featherweight division, including Budd, who has won 11 straight.
Pico (13-4) was supposed to make his first UFC appearance opposite Movsar Evloev (19-0) at UFC Fight Night on Saturday, but Evloev was forced to withdraw earlier this month.
