MMA

9:07 AM ET An old adage in combat sports says that someone is not truly the champion until they defend the title. Well, if that is indeed the case, Leon Edwards cemented himself as the top man at welterweight on Saturday at UFC 286 in London, beating Kamaru Usman for a second straight time with

6:03 PM ET One of the greatest MMA fighters to ever live will finally be immortalized among his legendary peers. Anderson Silva, the former longtime UFC middleweight champion, will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame this summer, the promotion announced Saturday during the UFC 286 broadcast. Silva will go into the Hall as

8:07 PM ET LONDON — Leon Edwards was the first to admit he gave a terrible performance in his welterweight title fight against Kamaru Usman eight months ago. He turned in a much better one against Usman at UFC 286. Edwards (21-3) recorded his first defense of the UFC’s 170-pound championship on Saturday in front

8:44 PM ET Brett Okamoto, Marc Raimondi and Jeff Wagenheim react to the biggest moments at UFC 286 and offer thoughts on what might be ahead for the standouts in London. There’s no doubting the welterweight champ after UFC 286 Wagenheim: Are we supposed to be surprised that at the end of a raucous Saturday

12:24 PM ET Kamaru Usman was well on his way to a sixth title defense and a record-tying 16th straight UFC win last summer. He was the undisputed best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet and about one minute away from another accolade that would vault him into a discussion about the greatest fighters of all

3:22 PM ET UFC fighter Jeff Molina has responded after a private video was leaked of him Thursday on social media. Molina wrote Friday in a statement posted on Twitter that he is bisexual, though this was “not the way” he wanted to announce that fact about his personal life. Molina is the first male

8:00 AM ET Trevor Wittman had one question for former pound-for-pound No. 1 Kamaru Usman in the aftermath of Usman’s knockout loss to Leon Edwards last August at UFC 278: Why did he lay off the gas in the final round? Seven months ago, Usman (20-2) was on the verge of tying Anderson Silva‘s UFC

2:04 PM ET When Conor McGregor broke his leg during a 2021 fight, he said he immediately had some doubts about whether or not he could continue his MMA career. Those concerns, though, were quickly dashed. McGregor, the UFC’s biggest star, felt in the moments following the leg break that as long as he was

1:50 PM ET Leon Edwards started his MMA career by fighting his first nine bouts in his adopted home country of England. And in the time since Edwards, who was born in Jamaica and moved with his family to Birmingham when he was 9, joined the UFC in 2014, he has competed four more times

9:25 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim The UFC first visited London in 2002 for an event dubbed “The Brawl at the Hall.” The hall was hallowed old Royal Albert Hall, which prior to Matt Hughes defending his welterweight title against Carlos Newton that night had been best known for appearances by tenacious fighter Sir Winston Churchill

7:39 PM ET Every weight class in the UFC has its intrigue, but nowhere are the twists and turns as dramatic and volatile at the top as they are in men’s bantamweight. Merab Dvalishvili put on a historic performance in winning a lopsided unanimous decision over former champion Petr Yan in the main event of

9:32 PM ET LAS VEGAS — They truly do not call Merab Dvalishvili “The Machine” for nothing. Dvalishvili (16-4) earned the biggest win of his career on Saturday, as he dominated former champion Petr Yan (16-5) in a five-round unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night inside The Theater at Virgin Hotels. All three judges scored

12:09 AM ET Khabib Nurmagomedov has retired from fighting and coaching. But the Nurmagomedov family name is in more than good hands in MMA. Usman Nurmagomedov, Khabib’s younger cousin, stopped former UFC champion Benson Henderson via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2 minutes, 37 seconds of the first round Friday night in the main event of

9:44 PM ET After some starts and stops, the UFC 288 main event is now official. Aljamain Sterling will defend his UFC bantamweight title against former champ Henry Cejudo on May 6 in Newark, New Jersey, the promotion officially announced Friday. Cejudo is making his return from retirement after three years away. While both men

2:12 PM ET Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou says he has “made amends” with his split from the promotion earlier this year and is focused on booking his professional boxing debut in 2023. Ngannou, 36, was essentially stripped of the UFC heavyweight title in January, when the company said it had failed to come

7:00 AM ET Ryan Hockensmith Close Ryan Hockensmith is a Penn State graduate who joined ESPN in 2001. He is a survivor of bacterial meningitis, which caused him to have multiple amputation surgeries on his feet. He is a proud advocate for those with disabilities and addiction issues. He covers everything from the NFL and

3:26 PM ET ESPN Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print Former UFC men’s bantamweight champion Petr Yan meets hot contender Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas. The fights at the Theater at Virgin Hotels are on ESPN+, with the 6 p.m. ET main card preceded

9:09 AM ET There are 12 weight classes in the UFC. Only three of them have title fights booked. There’s a lot of “TBD” going on at the moment at the very top of MMA’s leading promotion. However, there are plenty of big-stakes fights either on the books, in the works or worth considering as