6:27 PM ET One of the most notable UFC title fights to have ever been canceled has a new date. Former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker (22-5) will face Kelvin Gastelum (17-6) in a five-round main event at UFC Fight Night on April 17 in Las Vegas, multiple sources told ESPN. Gastelum has agreed to replace

7:46 AM ET The bantamweight division is perhaps the deepest and most intriguing in the UFC. Aljamain Sterling‘s recent dethroning of Petr Yan did nothing to clarify the division’s hierarchy. Yan was ahead on two scorecards in the fourth round when he landed an illegal knee to the head of a grounded Sterling, who became

11:26 AM ET Retired two-weight UFC champion Henry Cejudo is not committed to a return to competition, but says there is one name that would entice him to come back more than any other: Max Holloway. Cejudo (16-2) shocked the mixed martial arts world when he announced his retirement last May, following a 135-pound title

12:10 PM ET Paulo Costa is out of the April 17 main event fight against Robert Whittaker, sources told ESPN. The news was first reported by MMAFighting.com. According to sources, Costa is battling the flu, not COVID-19, and as a result had to withdraw from the fight. He’s hoping the UFC will move it to

11:29 PM ET UFC 261 seems to be about giving people what they want. Welterweight champ Kamaru Usman wanted his next defense to be against Jorge Masvidal, and he got it. Masvidal wanted another crack at the title, and he got it. And fans wanted to return to a live UFC event, and they got

8:58 PM ET The UFC will be running its first show in front of a full crowd in more than a year. And the promotion will do so with a huge main event. Kamaru Usman will defend his UFC welterweight title in a rematch against Jorge Masvidal in the headliner of UFC 261 on April

7:23 AM ET Leon Edwards‘ first fight since mid-2019 ended prematurely in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event when he accidentally poked Belal Muhammad in the eye, ending the bout in a no contest. After such a long period of inactivity, one major question hangs in the air — how far away is Edwards from

11:27 PM ET Helwani: Not the type of ending anyone wanted How depressing was that? I mean, I really can’t decide whom I feel worse for at the moment: Belal Muhammad, who just suffered what appears to be a gruesome eye injury in the biggest fight of his life, or Leon Edwards, who had his

Mar 9, 2021 Saturday night’s superfight at UFC 259 did not produce a double champion, but it did provide one of the fighters with a ticket to the ESPN pound-for-pound MMA rankings. Jan Blachowicz came away from the weekend still in possession of the UFC light heavyweight championship and as a new entrant in the

11:01 PM ET Leon Edwards had not competed in nearly two years. This obviously was not the result he’d hoped for in his return. Edwards accidentally poked Belal Muhammad in the right eye in the opening seconds of the second round Saturday in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas. Muhammad dropped