MMA

7:02 PM ET Francis Ngannou said he asked for a lot of things from the UFC during a long contract negotiation period. But the former UFC heavyweight champion said he ultimately decided that what the UFC was offering didn’t afford him enough freedom. In an interview Tuesday on “The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani,” Ngannou

9:22 AM ET Jeff WagenheimESPN If Brazil isn’t the birthplace of the UFC, it is at least the playground for the promotion’s formative years. The inaugural event in 1993 took place in Denver, and the company’s first 15 fight cards all happened in the United States. It took the UFC nearly five years before finally

5:40 PM ET The UFC is finalizing a strawweight battle between Michelle Waterson-Gomez and Luana Pinheiro for April, sources told ESPN on Monday. The contest will take place on April 8 at an event that is expected to be UFC 287 on pay-per-view. The UFC has not announced an official date or location for that

5:38 PM ET Muhammad Mokaev, one of the UFC’s top prospects, will take on promotional newcomer Jafel Filho later this year in London. The 125-pound bout will take place at UFC 286 on March 18 at O2 Arena, UFC officials told ESPN. It will mark Mokaev’s fourth appearance in the UFC, three of which have

7:27 AM ET Brett Okamoto Close Brett Okamoto ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Mike Coppinger After more than a year of unsuccessful negotiations with the fight promotion, Francis Ngannou is officially no longer the UFC heavyweight champion. Ngannou (17-3) fought out his UFC

12:15 AM ET A welterweight title trilogy bout between Leon Edwards and former champion Kamaru Usman will take place in the main event of UFC 286 on March 18 in London, UFC president Dana White said Saturday night. Edwards won the title by knocking out Usman in the fifth round of their UFC 278 main

Jan 14, 2023 LAS VEGAS — The UFC finished its event schedule in 2022 on a Sean Strickland loss, and now it has started its event schedule in 2023 on a Sean Strickland win. Strickland (26-5) defeated France’s Nassourdine Imavov (12-4) by unanimous decision in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday. It

Jan 14, 2023 The UFC is finalizing a lightweight bout between Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev to its UFC 286 lineup in London. Contracts have not been signed, but the 155-pound contest is expected to be shored up shortly, multiple sources told ESPN on Saturday. The UFC 286 pay-per-view is scheduled for March 18 from

12:38 AM ET Jon Jones has been talking for years about fighting at heavyweight. For much of his dominant reign as UFC light heavyweight champion, he had one eye fixed on the big boys. Even during the week leading up to his 205-pound title defense against Dominick Reyes in February 2020, Jones seemed more focused

10:51 PM ET Jon Jones, arguably the greatest fighter of all time, will fight Ciryl Gane for the heavyweight championship at UFC 285 on March 4, UFC president Dana White said Saturday. The announcement came after the UFC was unable to come to terms with its now former heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. It will mark

1:09 PM ET Sara CoelloESPN Close Sara Coello is a writer in ESPN’s investigative and enterprise unit. Before joining, they wrote about legal issues and crime for The Charlotte Observer, The Post and Courier and The Dallas Morning News. Coello studied sociology, journalism and Spanish at The University of Dallas. The public is unlikely to

8:52 AM ET The 2023 MMA calendar gets underway this weekend, and it intensifies next week when UFC 283 is headlined by a pair of championship fights. But a truly game-changing moment for the sport arrives next month in a collision of ESPN’s No. 1 and No. 2 pound-for-pound fighters. When UFC men’s featherweight champion

4:45 PM ET A suspended MMA coach at the center of an ongoing betting scandal in the UFC has acted as an agent for an offshore bookmaking operation for years, multiple sources who placed bets with him told ESPN. James Krause, 36, has worked as an agent — the term for a middleman between offshore

Jan 9, 2023 Nassourdine Imavov meets short-notice replacement Sean Strickland in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas. The fights at the UFC Apex are on ESPN+, with the 7 p.m. ET main card preceded by prelims at 4 p.m. Both fighters typically compete at middleweight — Strickland is No.

8:53 AM ET Just days away from UFC’s opening fight card of the new year, ESPN is back with the second installment of its annual MMA Rank. Using a two-step voting process, ESPN’s MMA contributors set out to project which 30 fighters will perform the best in 2023. The final list features fighters from multiple

5:12 PM ET LAS VEGAS — UFC president Dana White told reporters Wednesday that no one should be defending his actions after he was caught on camera on New Year’s Eve in Mexico slapping his wife in a nightclub’s VIP section. Appearing before media members at the UFC’s Apex to answer questions about the physical

3:09 PM ET Jeff WagenheimESPN Usman Nurmagomedov has been Bellator lightweight champion for less than two months, and already he is being asked to run a gantlet of challengers. Bellator MMA announced Wednesday that it will launch a Lightweight World Grand Prix in March, with Nurmagomedov defending his title as part of an eight-fighter field

9:21 AM ET With the UFC returning to action this weekend with its first card of 2023, it’s time once again for ESPN’s annual MMA rank. A two-step voting process involving ESPN’s MMA team set out to project which 30 fighters will have the best 2023. The final list features fighters across multiple promotions —