MMA

11:29 PM ET Jan Blachowicz knew he needed to make a serious statement Saturday to even have the slightest shot at UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. And that’s exactly what he did. Blachowicz (26-8) recorded the 16th finish of his professional career, as he knocked out Corey Anderson (13-5) with a devastating right hand

7:05 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Henry Cejudo is on a quest to cement his MMA legacy, and he has a former champion and a current one in his sights. Cejudo, the UFC bantamweight titleholder and former flyweight champ, told ESPN on Saturday that Jose Aldo is his likely next opponent. He also said he’s

11:44 AM ET A potential light heavyweight title eliminator is officially set. Corey Anderson and Jan Blachowicz both made weight Friday morning for their possible No. 1 contender matchup, which is scheduled for Saturday night in the main event of UFC Rio Rancho in New Mexico. Anderson weighed 205 pounds, while Blachowicz hit the scale

11:38 PM ET It was a fight that had all the potential to be weird. Michel Pereira has one of the most unique offensive games in MMA, a repertoire that includes cartwheels and back flips. Diego Sanchez is one of the toughest men — and most intriguing personalities — in the sport. On the bizarre

7:48 AM ET It was all set up so well for UFC light heavyweight contenders Corey Anderson and Jan Blachowicz. There they were, scheduled to fight each other in a UFC main event, just seven days after Jon Jones was set to defend his title against Dominick Reyes. More than likely, Jones would win (as

7:33 AM ET When Bruce Buffer announces the winner of Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night main event in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, will he be naming the next challenger for light heavyweight champion Jon Jones? That is the most compelling storyline surrounding the Corey Anderson vs. Jan Blachowicz rematch. Jones is coming off a controversial

4:43 PM ET UFC Hall of Famer BJ Penn was in a single-vehicle crash last week and is currently under investigation for possible DUI, a Hawaii Police Department spokesperson confirmed Wednesday with ESPN. There are currently no charges against Penn, 41. Police responded to calls of a black truck speeding, losing control and flipping into

8:16 AM ET Earlier this week, I noted a few MMA phrases that really grind my gears. “To be the champ, you gotta beat the champ,” “championship rounds mean more” and “I can’t believe that was a unanimous decision” are a few of them. You know what’s another one? “Don’t leave it in the hands

5:18 PM ET With the indefinite loss of its middleweight champion, Bellator has moved to a veritable superfight for the vacated belt. Gegard Mousasi will face welterweight champion Douglas Lima for the vacant Bellator middleweight title on May 9 in San Jose, California, Bellator president Scott Coker announced Tuesday on Twitter. The title was relinquished

6:00 PM ET In an evolving sport in which gripes against officiating are commonplace, the Kansas Athletic Commission will experiment with a major change. Beginning March 1, the KAC will offer MMA promoters the option for “real-time” scoring, Kansas boxing commissioner Adam Roorbach told ESPN on Monday. After every round, the score of the fight

4:12 PM ET UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko believes a third fight against Amanda Nunes will happen at some point, but she’s enjoying her reign in the 125-pound division and sees Joanne Calderwood as her likely next opponent. “[Calderwood] makes sense,” Shevchenko said Monday on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “She’s closer for the next

8:00 AM ET RIVER OAKS, Texas — Montana De La Rosa does the standard after-school parenting drill. Piloting her Ford Explorer with her husband, Mark De La Rosa, seated in the passenger seat and her daughter, Zaylyn Woods, in the back, Montana tries to pry the day’s details out of her third-grader. The math test?

3:19 PM ET Dominick Reyes got a chance to talk very briefly with Jon Jones inside the Octagon after their hard-fought UFC light heavyweight title fight last Saturday night. Reyes pushed Jones to the brink, but Jones, the longtime champion, held on for an extremely close unanimous decision win (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) in the main

10:37 AM ET Watch a replay of Monday’s show here. Dominick Reyes took Jon Jones to the limit during the UFC 247 main event. And while Jones made history with his 14th career win in UFC title fights, some experts disagreed with the judges awarding him the unanimous decision victory. What did Reyes think about

10:37 AM ET Dominick Reyes thought he won the first three rounds of the UFC 247 main event Saturday against Jon Jones, but all three judges disagreed. Not knowing that he needed to win the fifth to win the fight, was Reyes as aggressive as he otherwise would have been? Reyes might have been too

2:20 PM ET HOUSTON — Valentina Shevchenko was doing a video interview with UFC Español after her victory at UFC 247 when a friend interrupted her. It wasn’t just any friend, though. The invader was Academy Award winner Halle Berry. The two embraced and Berry congratulated Shevchenko on her third-round TKO win over Katlyn Chookagian

10:32 AM ET Brett Okamoto Close ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Marc Raimondi HOUSTON — The key moment for Jon Jones on Saturday night was the fifth round. It might not have been a surprise that Jones won the fifth round against Dominick

1:59 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim It wasn’t dominant and it wasn’t so pretty, but Jon Jones once again proved himself to be the greatest light heavyweight in the world. After 12 years in the sport, he’s done all he needs to do in order to be remembered as history’s gold standard among 205-pound fighters. It’s