UFC 302 ended with a familiar sight: Islam Makhachev wearing the lightweight championship around his waist. The win brings Makhachev to the precipice of lightweight championship history. No one has defended the belt four times consecutively.
Conor McGregoris set against Michael Chandler at the UFC’s International Fight Week in June. Although the promotion has yet to officially announce the matchup, it appears as if we’ll see the sport’s biggest star before the second half of 2024.
Facebook co-founder and avid MMA fan Mark Zuckerberg had the time of his life at a private UFC event in Las Vegas this past weekend.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the UFC used its APEX facility in Las Vegas, which holds about 500 people, to keep putting on MMA events for an exclusive audience.
Colby Covington had more bark than bite on Saturday night. Leon Edwards reigned in his emotions, dictated the fight and defended his UFC welterweight title following an ugly build to UFC 296.
Amanda Nunes won a unanimous five-round decision over Julianna Peña in the main event of UFC 277 on Saturday night to regain the women’s bantamweight championship that she lost last December.
Nunes (22-5), nicknamed “The Lioness,” also holds the featherweight belt. The judges’ scoring was 50-45, 50-44 and 50-43.
“Double champ again, baby!” Nunes yelled to the crowd after the fight. “This is the best day ever.”
Makhachev’s win ties him for the third-longest win streak in UFC history (13). The victory brought closure to a rivalry that started when Volkanovski gave Makhachev what might have been the toughest test of his career in their epic 155-pound championship bout at UFC 284 in February.
"PPV buys came over just under 1.8 million globally. Dana White said as much at the post event press conference.
I’m told that 500,000 of those buys came from international, which means ESPN+ logged around 1.3 million buys"
UFC 264, which took place Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, featured McGregor’s (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier (28-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) in the headlining act. It was a highly anticipated rubber match after each man picked up a knockout win over the other, and it’s clear it has the focus of the sports and entertainment world.
Former UFC champion Alex Pereira has always been a massive middleweight, but it looks like he’ll be a pretty huge light heavyweight as well.“He’s 230 lbs right now, and he’s lean! He’s probably at like 8% body fat,” he revealed. “For him to drop to 185, is crazy, crazy.
It is very rare that two global mixed martial arts promotions would work together to co-promote a mega event pitting fighters from both sides against each other. In fact, it has only happened a handful of times in the sport’s history, despite massive interest from hardcore and casual fans alike.
