Jan 2, 2020 He’s back. Conor McGregor will be returning to the Octagon for the first time since October 2018 — and only his second MMA fight since November 2016 — when he faces Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in the main event of UFC 246 on Jan. 18 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. McGregor (21-4)

The new year gets right down to big business with next week’s return of Conor McGregor. And that’s just the start for the UFC, which has four championship bouts already booked for the first quarter of 2020. There likely will be another, as Israel Adesanya told ESPN on Monday that he’s close to finalizing his

4:28 PM ET Israel Adesanya is close to finalizing the first defense of his UFC middleweight championship in a March 7 fight against Yoel Romero, Adesanya and his coach told ESPN on Monday. “I have my first guy on the chopping block,” Adesanya said during an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “That’s Yoel. He’s

4:12 PM ET Jorge Masvidal would rather take a big-money fight against Conor McGregor in his next bout than get a title shot against welterweight champ Kamaru Usman. “I know my management without a doubt would say, and I would also say, the Conor fight,” Masvidal said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday. “We’ll

6:41 PM ET The Australian MMA scene continues to go from strength to strength. From the record-breaking UFC 243 at Marvel Stadium to Alexander Volkanovski’s rise to featherweight world champion, 2019 was indeed a year to remember. And 2020 promises to be no different. Here is our pick of five Australian fighters to watch across

11:00 AM ET Behold the 2019 Helwani Nose Awards. This is the seventh year in a row that I’ve done this and I have to say that this might have been the toughest year yet. I agonized over a bunch of these categories for weeks (in particular male and female fighter of the year, coach

11:32 AM ET It didn’t take UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman long to respond to Conor McGregor saying he’s coming after the lightweight and welterweight belts. Usman, known as The Nigerian Nightmare, tweeted early Saturday morning that McGregor shouldn’t even dream of his welterweight belt “because that dream can turn into a Nightmare fast.” My

8:12 AM ET Predictions, like resolutions, are an essential part of looking ahead toward a new year. Also like resolutions, most predictions are doomed to fail. So why not take a swing at them as hard as a Justin Gaethje right cross? With a big UFC pay-per-view slate already set up to start the first

11:46 PM ET NEW YORK — Kayla Harrison entered the 2019 Professional Fighters League season as the face of the organization, and ended the year with $1 million and the PFL women’s lightweight championship in hand on New Year’s Eve. Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was one of six fighters to win titles and

7:45 AM ET When I put together a “Fights I want to see” list going into 2019, the No. 1 matchup was Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson. Well, it didn’t happen, and — spoiler alert — Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson is still the No. 1 fight I want to see. The good news is, as we