MMA

5:45 PM ET Glover Teixeira got a UFC light heavyweight title shot seven years ago and lost, like most everyone else does, to Jon Jones. At that point, Teixeira was already 34 years old and most wrote him off. He had his nice UFC run, many thought, and that would be it. Instead, Teixeira got

5:17 PM ET ABU DHABI — Petr Yan might not be the official champion of the UFC’s bantamweight division — but it sure feels like the weight class belongs to him. Yan (16-2) claimed the interim bantamweight title at UFC 267 on Saturday by defeating Cory Sandhagen (14-4) via unanimous decision. The 135-pound title fight

1:48 PM ET ABU DHABI — In a rare move, UFC removed a referee from its UFC 267 event Saturday, immediately following his performance in a preliminary welterweight bout. The promotion pulled referee Vyacheslav Kiselev from the event after he declined to stop the welterweight bout between Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos and Benoit Saint-Denis. Zaleski

Oct 30, 2021 ABU DHABI — UFC 267 was stacked with some of the biggest names in the sport. The headlining title fights resulted in successes for the 42-year-old Glover Teixeira and Petr Yan who wrapped gold around their waists, but the standout moments happened earlier on the main card with Khamzat Chimaev and Islam

10:25 AM ET ABU DHABI — The UFC has two title fights on tap as it returns to Abu Dhabi for a second event in 2021. Light heavyweight champ Jan Blachowicz (28-8), of Poland, will seek to defend his belt against Brazil’s Glover Teixeira (32-7). Blachowicz won the title in September 2020 with a knockout

5:25 PM ET A celebrity Italian DJ and television presenter says he took his allegations that Conor McGregor punched him in the face to police. Francesco Facchinetti confirmed with ESPN in an interview Thursday that he filed a complaint with Italian law enforcement several days after he claims he was struck by McGregor, the UFC

7:49 AM ET Glover Teixeira boarded a plane from New York to his home country of Brazil on July 5, 2008. Later that night, Forrest Griffin defeated Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to win the UFC light heavyweight title. When Teixeira heard that result, he made a mental note: Griffin would be the one he’d be challenging

3:33 AM ET ABU DHABI — Two UFC championship fights are now official for Saturday’s UFC 267 event on Fight Island, as all four athletes successfully made weight on Friday. Light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz (28-8) and No. 1 contender Glover Teixeira (32-7) each weighed in at 205 pounds. Former bantamweight champion Petr Yan (15-2)

7:40 AM ET FOUR YEARS AGO Majdi Shammas was on the second floor of Allstars Training Center, the martial arts facility he owns in Stockholm, when he heard a disturbance downstairs. It sounded like someone was fighting. And not the kind of fighting that goes on in Shammas’ gym seven days a week. No, it

12:44 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Kayla Harrison‘s dominance of the PFL continues. For the second consecutive season, Harrison has captured the PFL lightweight championship. She did so with ease Wednesday at the Hard Rock Live; she attempted 90 strikes and landed all but five of them en route to an armbar submission

1:29 AM ET Marc Raimondi Mike Coppinger Kayla Harrison can be biggest women’s star in MMA since Ronda Rousey Harrison, the charismatic, trash-talking, one-woman wrecking crew, who coincidentally happens to be Rousey’s former teammate with USA Judo, won her second $1 million PFL championship Wednesday night, beating Taylor Guardado via armbar submission 4 minutes into

11:21 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Claressa Shields has suffered the first defeat of her professional fighting career. In her second MMA bout, Shields was outpointed by Abigail Montes via split decision on Wednesday at Hard Rock Live. One judge scored the bout for Shields, 29-28, overruled by two 29-28 tallies for Montes.

7:40 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Six championship fights. Six life-changing $1 million paydays. The PFL closes out its 2021 season Wednesday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel Casino in Hollywood, Florida (4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2/ESPN+), with the PFL World Championships hosting the high-stakes finals in a half-dozen weight

5:42 PM ET Former UFC fighter Mike Perry, known for action-packed UFC fights, issues outside the cage and having his girlfriend work his corner, has signed a deal with Bare Knuckle FC (BKFC), the promotion announced Tuesday. Perry’s manager Malki Kawa of First Round Management said Perry’s UFC contract expired with his April loss to

8:00 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim “And new!” might be the most thrilling two words in mixed martial arts. They alert everyone within reach of a very loud voice that there has been a change in the power structure. There’s a fresh coat of paint. There’s ascension accompanied by the potential for memorable greatness. Even if

5:51 PM ET The UFC is finalizing a middleweight bout between “The Ultimate Fighter” winner Bryan Battle and Tresean Gore, sources confirmed to ESPN on Monday. The 185-pound bout will take place at a UFC Fight Night on Feb. 5. The UFC has not announced an official venue for that event. MMAJunkie.com first reported the

7:54 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Khamzat Chimaev will compete in his fourth UFC fight on Saturday at UFC 267 (10:30 a.m. ET on ESPN+). He is 3-0 inside the Octagon, 9-0 overall in his MMA career. He has finished every opponent, six of them in the first round. He has never seen a Round 3.

7:53 AM ET The past 18 months have been life-altering for Kayla Harrison, one of the most promising fighters in women’s MMA. Harrison took her niece and nephew, Kyla and Emery, into her home when her stepfather, Bob Nichols, died in May 2020. At that time, the biggest breakout fighter in the Professional Fighters League