Henry Cejudo Becomes Bantamweight Champ and Double Champ In Chicago

Henry Cejudo added his name to the short list of UFC double champions on Saturday after defeating Marlon Moraes for the Bantamweight Championship. After a succession of hammer fist strikes on the ground in the third round the referee stopped the fight, making Cejudo the winner. After his win in Chicago, Illinois at the United Center, Cejudo became the 7th UFC fighter to hold two belts at once.

The first round went more in Moraes’ favour, with his striking being what gave him the edge. In the second round Cejudo landed better strikes, consistently finding success with throwing knees while in a clinch. Cejudo took Moraes to the ground in the third where he tried for a guillotine choke, did elbows from a top position and then did hammerfist punches which lead to the fight’s conclusion.

After the fight he listed Dominick Cruz, Cody Garbrandt and Uriah Faber as who he wants to fight next. He also said he wants to fight at 145 pounds in the future.

Earlier on the card Valentina Shevchenko retained her Flyweight Championship, defeating Jessica Eye with a head kick KO.

All of the website’s coverage of UFC 238 can be found here

Valentina Shevchenko Retains Flyweight Championship With KO Win

Valentina “Bullet” Shevchenko earned her first UFC Flyweight Championship defence on Saturday, defeating Jessica Eye in the second round via head kick. From the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, USA, Shevchenko landed a head kick in just under a minute of the second round, not needing any extra strikes to close out the contest.

The fight was in the co-main event slot of UFC 238, with Henry Cejudo versus Marlon Moraes for the Bantamweight Championship in the main event of the show.

The first round was a dominant one for Shevchenko as well, as she scored a takedown after landing some decent striking, notably body kicks. She stayed in control on the ground until the round ended. The finish of the fight had people worried as Jessica Eye was on the ground for quite some time before getting up.

Valentina Shevchenko earned her championship back in December, defeating Joanna Jędrzejczyk at UFC 231 in Toronto.

For full UFC 238 coverage, head to the website’s MMA frontpage.

Ayaka Hamasaki Retains RIZIN Atomweight Championship In Kobe

Ayaka Hamasaki retained her RIZIN Atomweight Championship in a three-round battle against Jinh Yu Frey on Sunday at RIZIN 16. The two fighters showcased their stand-up in the first and second rounds, with Hamasaki scoring a takedown early in the third and keeping it there for the whole round.

This was not the first time that Ayaka Hamasaki and Jinh Yu Frey have met, with their first meeting in 2016 at Invicta FC 19. While Hamasaki prevailed, it wasn’t in completely decisive fashion as it came via doctors stoppage due to a cut.

Road FC Atomweight Champion Seo Hee Ham was present for the event, delivering flowers to both fighters before the bout. “Hamderlei” recently defended her belt in December, defeating Jung Eun Park in Seoul, South Korea.

Hamasaki earned her Atomweight Championship on Near Year’s Eve at RIZIN 14, defeating Kanna Asakura with a second-round armbar. Before then she fought Mina Kurobe and Alyssa Garcia in RIZIN.

Full coverage of RIZIN 16 can be found here

Nate Diaz set to face Anthony Pettis at UFC 241

Nearly two years after his last MMA fight, Nate Diaz will compete against Anthony Pettis at UFC 241. Reported by Ariel Helwani at ESPN, the news of the matchup came Saturday evening. The fight is scheduled to take place on August 17th at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, USA.

“Showtime” Anthony Pettis is coming off a main event victory over Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, getting his second round victory from a superman punch. Before that he lost to Tony Ferguson after a hand injury made his corner call the bout in-between rounds.

Nate Diaz last fought in 2016 against Conor McGregor, with McGregor tying the rivalry between them after a five round decision victory. The bout before that was his first meeting against “Mystic Mac,” getting a second round rear naked choke victory as a +350 underdog. Diaz originally set to make his return back in November at Madison Square Garden facing Dustin Poirier. The fight was cancelled after Poirier pulled out with an injury.

The August show is scheduled to include Daniel Cormier defending his Heavyweight Championship in a rematch against Stipe Miocic. Their first fight was in July of last year, with Cormier getting a KO victory to become champion. Since then he has defended the belt once, defeating Derrick Lewis in the aforementioned November event at Madison Square Garden, UFC 230. Yoel Romero versus Paulo Costa is also currently scheduled to be on the card.

Floyd Mayweather Claims He Never Agreed To Fight Tenshin Nasukawa

Days after a press conference in Japan, Floyd Mayweather has claimed that he never agreed to fight on RIZIN’s New Year’s Eve card against Tenshin Nasukawa. On Instagram on Wednesday Mayweather made a lengthy Instagram post where he detailed his side of the story. The full statement reads:

“Now that I am back on U.S. soil after a long and disappointing trip to Tokyo, I now have the time to address you, my fans and the media in regard to the upcoming event on December 31st that was recently announced. First and foremost, I want it to be clear that I, Floyd Mayweather, never agreed to an official bout with Tenshin Nasukawa. In fact (with all due respect) I have never heard of him until this recent trip to Japan. Ultimately, I was asked to participate in a 9 minute exhibition of 3 rounds with an opponent selected by the “Rizen Fighting Federation”. What I was originally informed of by Brent Johnson of “One Entertainment” was that this was to be an exhibition put on for a small group of wealthy spectators for a very large fee. This exhibition was previously arranged as a “Special Bout” purely for entertainment purposes with no intentions of being represented as an official fight card nor televised worldwide. Once I arrived to the press conference, my team and I were completely derailed by the new direction this event was going and we should have put a stop to it immediately. I want to sincerely apologize to my fans for the very misleading information that was announced during this press conference and I can assure you that I too was completely blindsided by the arrangements that were being made without my consent nor approval. For the sake of the several fans and attendees that flew in from all parts of the world to attend this past press conference, I was hesitant to create a huge disturbance by combating what was being said and for that I am truly sorry. I am a retired boxer that earns an unprecedented amount of money, globally, for appearances, speaking engagements and occasional small exhibitions.”

Mayweather’s post on Instagram earlier this week of him wearing a RIZIN MMA and Kickboxing glove has since been deleted. RIZIN, Brent Johnson and Tenshin Nasukawa have yet to put out a statement on the matter.

The mentioned fight put on for a small amount of wealthy spectators is something that has been offered to a boxer before. Heavyweight Tyson Fury mentioned on the “JRE MMA Show” that he was offered a fight on a cruise ship from someone “who wanted to make this a fight exclusive for him and his buddies.”

The ball is in RIZIN’s court at this point as to what they do with their New Year’s Eve show.

Floyd Mayweather and Tenshin Nasukawa To Battle On Rizin’s New Year’s Eve Card

RIZIN’s annual New Year’s Eve just became bigger than ever before. It was announced late Monday at noon in Japan (Sunday night in the west) that undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather will face undefeated kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa. The exact ruleset hasn’t been made clear as of yet, but at the press conference, which both fighters were present at, Mayweather said that it will be announced in the “coming weeks.”

In mid-September articles said that Mayweather expressed interest in fighting in Japan in what would be a tune-up fight before fighting Manny Pacquiao in a sequel matchup. Less than an hour before the press conference had went live, Mayweather teased his partnership with RIZIN by posting an Instagram photo where he wore a RIZIN MMA glove in his left hand and their kickboxing/boxing glove in the other hand.

Both fighters’ last appearances were in crossover events, with Mayweather participating in the highly lucrative boxing bout with MMA star Conor McGregor. In RIZIN’s promotion Tenshin recently battled MMA star in his own right, Kyoji Horiguchi in a kickboxing bout at RIZIN 13.

RIZIN 14 is scheduled to take place on New Year’s Eve at Saitama Super Arena, the unofficial home for RIZIN events. The rest of the card is set to be announced later this week.

Jacare Souza To Replace Luke Rockhold in UFC 230 Co-Main Event

Earlier today news broke that Luke Rockhold is off of the UFC 230 co-main event due to injury. Since then Jacare Souza has announced that he will step in to face Chris Weidman, per ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. He takes this co-main event fight two weeks away from the show, as the show is set to take place on November 3rd at Madison Square Garden.

This change leaves Dave Branch out of a fight. Branch was scheduled to fight Souza on the 230 card but due to the scheduling has been put out of the fight. It was reported that he might have an opponent in Jared Connonier, but nothing is 100% as of yet. As previously mentioned in the original report about Rockhold, this card has experienced tons of cancelled fights for numerous reasons.

Some order is restored to the MMA world after a chaotic headline broke earlier today.

Luke Rockhold Off UFC 230 Due To Injury

UFC 230 lost it’s co-main event again. This time the fight between Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman has been scrapped. Earlier this evening ESPN’s Brett Okamoto broke the story that Rockhold had withdrawn from his bout due to injury. In the tweet that reported the story he also added that UFC is currently “shuffling things around” because of this.

What was one of the first bouts announced for the show, Nate Diaz versus Dustin Poirier, was also thrown away due to an injury to Poirier. Injuries aside, this card has seen its fair share of shuffling around. Valentina Shevchenko and Sijara Eubanks were set to fight for UFC’s vacant flyweight championship, but Eubanks has been re-booked to fight Roxanne Modafferi on the prelims, with Shevchenko fighting for the belt against Joanna Jędrzejczyk at UFC 231.

People have become wary of undisclosed injuries lately due to the USADA’s new policy. In September it was announced that USADA will no longer announce drug test violations until the case is closed. Fighters now only have to notify the public about their violation if they want to. Recently Sean O’Malley did this once he was taken off of the UFC 229 prelims. While Rockhold’s injury may very well be legitimate, people won’t hesitate to speculate on the situation (and they haven’t).

UFC’s last two appearances at Madison Square Garden came with fewer bumps in the road, with each being supercards in their own right. The promotion’s debut at “The World’s Most Famous Arena” in 2016 consisted of three title fights, with Conor McGregor defeating Eddie Alvarez in the main event. The next year the venue would see another three title event, with George St. Pierre returning to MMA for the first time in four years in the main event.

Currently the main event of 230 is Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier versus Derrick Lewis, who received a huge boost in popularity after UFC 229. On that show he performed a last minute knockout in a bout he would have otherwise lost. Alongside that performance he was praised online for his comedic post-fight interview. As a result, he shot up from around 300 thousand Instagram followers to over a million before the weekend was over.

Jon Jones Issued 15 Month USADA Suspension

This afternoon it was announced formally by USADA that UFC fighter Jon Jones has been issued a 15 month suspension due to his failed UFC 214 drug test. What was originally planned to be a 30 month suspension was shortened to half it’s length after Jon provided USADA with “substantial assistance.” Jones’ suspension is set to expire on October 28.

Jon has since then issued a statement on many social media platforms. He finished his Instagram post about the matter saying “Greatness is what I’m chasing and the path to reclaiming my throne is now officially open. Comeback Season begins now.”

Bellator Fights Reported 8/11/18 – 8/17/18

With a Bellator event this Friday, the promotion has been hot on announcing bouts.

Roy Nelson vs. Sergei Kharitonov – Bellator 207

Sergei Kharitonov and Roy Nelson will both compete in their third Bellator fight against each other at Bellator 207. Before this news was broken by MMAJunkie there was already another Heavyweight clash between Matt Mitrione and Ryan Bader set as the main event of the evening. That fight is a semi-final of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix. The winner meets the winner of a Fedor vs. Sonnen fight.

Benson Henderson vs. Saad Awad – Bellator 208

Benson Henderson and Saad Awad are set to square off in October at Bellator 208 in the promotions third visit to the state of New York. MMAJunkie broke the news Tuesday that this fight will go down. Awad’s last fight was in June, beating Ryan Couture in a first round stoppage. Henderson is also coming off an impressive performance at Bellator 196 beating Roger Huerta in the second round through submission. They will be fighting on the same card as the highly anticipated bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Chael Sonnen in the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix Semi-finals.

Cheick Kongo vs. Timothy Johnson – Bellator 208

On the same card as the previously mentioned Henderson vs. Awad bout is Cheick Kongo versus Timothy Johnson. The story was broken live on ESPN’s Ariel And The Bad Guy talk show. Bellator veteran Cheick Kongo hopes to spoil the welcoming party for Johnson, whose last bout was in the UFC back in February.

Patricio Freire vs. Emmanuel Sanchez – Unnamed Show

Friday afternoon MMAJunkie reported that Patricio Freire will face Emmanuel Sanchez in a November fight in Israel. Bellator has made two trips to Israel, airing tape delayed shows, and aims to do so once again with two Bellator veterans. While a date is set for the fight, the name/number of the Bellator show is not yet known. Freire recently won the sequel bout against Daniel Weichel after going five rounds. Sanchez is on a four fight win streak, recently getting a first round Triangle Choke finish against Sam Sicilia.