Sep 28, 2019 ESPN’s MMA contributors break down the biggest takeaways from UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Hermansson: Ariel Helwani’s Fight Night takeaways The year isn’t over yet, but Jared Cannonier has to be on the short list for most improved and breakout fighter of the year. I mean, did you really see this coming?

4:42 PM ET Richard Mann An analysis of multiple statistical categories makes a strong case for interim middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 243 on Saturday in Melbourne, Australia. Per the numbers, he has an advantage when it comes to striking with volume, power and accuracy. However, champion Robert Whittaker is

12:45 PM ET INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Two of Bellator’s biggest prospects won in a matter of seconds. One of the promotion’s best fighters got revenge in a big rematch. The quarterfinals of the Featherweight World Grand Prix were set with a unique twist. It was a wild, mostly successful two days for the promotion —

1:47 AM ET INGLEWOOD, Calif. — It took Gegard Mousasi five years. But he finally got his revenge on Lyoto Machida. Mousasi, one of the world’s best MMA middleweights, beat Machida via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27) in the main event of Bellator 228 on Saturday night at The Forum. It was a rematch of

5:18 PM ET Jared Cannonier is not going away. The former heavyweight — turned light heavyweight, turned middleweight contender — scored perhaps the biggest win of his career on Saturday, as he knocked out Jack Hermansson with ground strikes just 27 seconds into the second round. The 185-pound fight headlined UFC Fight Night at Royal

9:24 PM ET Mark. O. Madsen, the first Danish wrestler to medal at an Olympics since 1948, had plenty of reasons to stick with the wrestling path he’d be on most of his life. Like … so many reasons. The 35-year-old, who took silver in Rio in 2016, is a three-time Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling.

7:47 PM ET It took Mark O. Madsen just 18 months of training mixed martial arts full time to earn a UFC contract — and it took him just 72 seconds to earn his first win in the promotion. Madsen (9-0) easily took down Danilo Belluardo (12-5) in the opening minute of their lightweight bout

Sep 25, 2019 Editor’s note: This has been updated after Cannonier’s second-round TKO win Saturday over Jack Hermansson in UFC Fight Night Copenhagen’s main event. Jared Cannonier was living in Anchorage, Alaska, and doing maintenance on air traffic control equipment for the Federal Aviation Administration. It was 2009, he was almost a year removed from

7:47 PM ET Jack Hermansson takes on Jared Cannonier later today in the middleweight main event of UFC Fight Night in Copenhagen. It is the promotion’s first visit to Denmark. All six previous UFC fight cards in Scandinavia have been in Stockholm, Sweden. Hermansson (20-4) is a Swede but now is based in Oslo, Norway.

7:44 PM ET Cris Cyborg will fight for a title in her Bellator debut. Cyborg, the former UFC women’s featherweight champion, will challenge Bellator women’s featherweight champ Julia Budd on Jan. 25 at The Forum in Inglewood, California, sources confirmed with ESPN on Friday. The Los Angeles Times was the first to report the news.