Jun 11, 2020 Ray Borg has withdrawn from Saturday’s UFC Fight Night bantamweight bout against Merab Dvalishvili because of personal reasons, the UFC said Thursday. Borg’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, told ESPN that Borg had a “family emergency.” Borg was absent from the card’s virtual media day Thursday and his withdrawal was announced after it. New

4:54 PM ET Brett Okamoto Close ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Marc Raimondi LAS VEGAS — After months of frustrating setbacks and cancellations, UFC middleweight Marvin Vettori finally got to fight — and he looked pretty good doing so. Vettori (15-3-1) submitted Karl

8:00 AM ET On Dec. 6, 2019, UFC strawweight Cynthia Calvillo barricaded herself in her Washington, D.C., hotel room and wept, alone, for hours — one day before she was to face an undefeated, surging prospect in Marina Rodriguez. Calvillo, who faces Jessica Eye (15-7) at UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas, was

1:40 PM ET Jessica Eye was one of three fighters to miss weight ahead of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night, with a fourth bowing out before the weigh-in on Friday. Eye, a women’s flyweight contender, came in at 126.25 pounds — a quarter-pound over the limit — for her scheduled main event against Cynthia Calvillo. Calvillo

5:13 PM ET Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos will return to action later this summer. JDS vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik has been verbally agreed to for UFC 252 on Aug. 15, sources told ESPN. Combate first reported the fight. Dos Santos (21-7) will look to snap a two-fight losing streak. He most recently lost

3:10 PM ET UFC president Dana White officially announced his company’s next two events to ESPN on Friday. Both events will take place at the UFC’s Apex facility in Las Vegas. A heavyweight bout between Curtis Blaydes and Alexander Volkov will headline UFC Fight Night on June 20, while a highly anticipated lightweight fight between

7:02 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim When Dana White first brought up the concept of “Fight Island,” it sounded so exotic. The intrigue intensified as the UFC president refused for weeks to share the site’s location or any other details. It was easy to conjure up images of fight teams relaxing on a beach among palm

2:16 AM ET UFC Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has promised to send a message to the critics in his title rematch with Max Holloway, guaranteeing he will put him away inside five rounds when they face off on Fight Island. Volkanovski, 31, is back into full training at his Freestyle Fighting Gym in Australia having

2:12 PM ET UFC president Dana White made some news Tuesday morning, and while much of the focus was on the cards he announced for the highly anticipated Fight Island, he threw in a nugget that arguably dwarfs any other fight mentioned. The trilogy bout between heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic and former two-division champ Daniel

9:11 AM ET Editor’s note: This story was originally published ahead of Jessica Eye’s appearance at UFC 238. Eye lost to Shevchenko in that bout by second-round knockout. The day Jessica Eye decided she’d never go home again was her 26th birthday. She remembers that it was a warm Saturday afternoon in July, three weeks