2:20 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Francis Ngannou had just dropped UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic with a jab and had him trapped against the cage. The big man swarmed, a finish seemingly within his grasp. But Miocic escaped with urgency and moved toward the center of the Octagon, where the champ would make his stand.

12:50 AM ET There is a new UFC heavyweight champion and a new combat sports superstar. Francis Ngannou is possibly on his way to owning one of the greatest years in combat sports, and it began Saturday with a brutal knockout of Stipe Miocic, the greatest heavyweight of all time. So what’s next for Ngannou?

7:08 PM ET LAS VEGAS — The storyline going into Saturday’s UFC 260 main event at the Apex is how much has Francis Ngannou improved since he lost in his first bid to dethrone heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic three years ago. Miocic, though, wants to remind people that he hasn’t exactly rested on his laurels

7:01 AM ET Oftentimes, when a UFC champion has enjoyed the level of success that heavyweight Stipe Miocic has, the topic of motivation comes up. For instance, what keeps Miocic going, when he already has defended his title more times than any heavyweight in UFC history? What’s fueling that fire, when he already knows what

10:17 PM ET LAS VEGAS — The UFC is waiving a regulation in its anti-doping policy to make room for the return of Miesha Tate. Hunter Campbell, the UFC’s executive vice president and chief business officer, told ESPN on Friday that Tate will not have to be in the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) drug-testing

7:29 AM ET When UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic walks to the Octagon on Saturday to face Francis Ngannou in the main event of UFC 260, he’ll be accompanied by two sides of a debate that he might finally be able to settle. Is he the greatest heavyweight fighter in MMA history? The old-schoolers say

6:21 PM ET UFC welterweight contender Khamzat Chimaev is now targeting a return to competition in July, according to his manager, Ali Abdelaziz. Chimaev (9-0) was a breakout star for the UFC in 2020, and he was scheduled to face highly ranked welterweight Leon Edwards in a main event on March 13 in Las Vegas.

8:06 PM ET UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya acknowledged he “crossed the line” and apologized Thursday after a back-and-forth exchange on social media with fellow middleweight Kevin Holland ended with Adesanya saying he would “rape” him. Adesanya posted a video on social media earlier this week, responding to trash talk from Holland. In the video,

11:19 AM ET LAS VEGAS — UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic has a gym in the basement of his Cleveland-area home, and occasionally his 2-year-old daughter, Meelah, will walk over and hit the heavy bag a few times. “Punch, punch,” she says. That’s the extent of Meelah’s exposure to her father’s career as a professional

4:12 PM ET One of the biggest stars in the history of female mixed martial arts has decided to make a comeback. Former UFC bantamweight champion Miesha Tate (18-7) told ESPN on Wednesday she has accepted a fight against Marion Reneau (9-7-1) on July 17. In a bit of irony, Reneau told ESPN she has