4:38 PM ET Josh Barnett‘s long-awaited return to the cage has been rebooked. A bout between Barnett, the former UFC heavyweight champion, and Ronny Markes is now targeted for Bellator 241 on March 13 at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun, promotion officials confirmed with ESPN. MMA Fighting was the first to report the news. Barnett, who has

8:05 AM ET Jorge Masvidal has made it very clear that 2019 is in his rear-view mirror. “That f—ing year’s over — 2020 is gonna be better,” the UFC welterweight star said after receiving the Helwani Nose Award for Fighter of the Year. It is hard not to look back and reflect on what Masvidal

7:56 AM ET ESPN’s MMA Insiders The year has already gotten off to a bang. A couple of the biggest stars in the sport — Conor McGregor and Cris Cyborg — have already made headlines with huge TKO stoppages. The next few months don’t slow down at all, with Jon Jones, Israel Adesanya and Khabib

10:19 PM ET Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Lovato Jr.‘s MMA career is on hold due to a brain affliction, Lovato said Wednesday on Joe Rogan’s MMA Show. Lovato said he was diagnosed last year with cavernoma, a condition marked my abnormal clusters of brain cells in the brain or spinal cord, according to the Mayo

3:14 PM ET UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and rival Jorge Masvidal had to be separated after an exchange Wednesday on Super Bowl radio row in Miami. Usman and Masvidal, who have been linked as potential future opponents, ran into one another between radio interviews. Usman provoked Masvidal, saying “do something” repeatedly. The two have

1:32 PM ET UFC women’s strawweight champion Zhang Weili of China doesn’t think the deadly coronavirus affecting areas of her country and beyond is something to laugh about. On Tuesday, Joanna Jedrzejczyk posted an altered version of a UFC fight poster on her Instagram. Jedrzejczyk — who will fight Zhang at UFC 248 on March

12:12 PM ET The PFL has announced a series of new, one-night tournaments around the globe, that will ultimately feed five new athletes into its 2020 regular season roster. The promotion has partnered with five separate organizations in United Arab Emirates, Russia, Germany, Brazil and Australia. Each international promotion will host a four-man tournament in

7:42 AM ET UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic is recovering from eye surgery, and his manager isn’t sure when he’ll be able to fight again. Top contender Daniel Cormier is tired of waiting and said if his trilogy fight with Miocic doesn’t happen by this summer, he could just retire. ESPN’s No. 4 prospect Curtis

4:01 PM ET Daniel Cormier said Monday if he doesn’t get his trilogy bout with heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic by the summer, he would consider retiring. “You can’t wait forever,” Cormier said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “Every day that passes does not benefit me. I’m a realist, I understand that. Either we’re going to

11:00 AM ET The UFC’s heavyweight division got a new title contender during the weekend with Curtis Blaydes emerging after stopping Junior dos Santos. And the division’s top contender, Daniel Cormier, saw it all as he did commentary on the ESPN+ broadcast. Cormier, a former two-division UFC champion, will give his thoughts on that fight