9:22 AM ET UFC bantamweight Cory Sandhagen says he views himself as “an upgraded version of Dominick Cruz.” On the surface, his statement could easily be interpreted one of two ways: Either Sandhagen, 27, is attempting to poke a potential opponent (Cruz), who is ranked ahead of him — or he must be incredibly cocky,

4:44 PM ET Alistair Overeem calmly weathered an early storm from Alexey Oleynik, before putting him away with knees in the opening round of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event in St. Petersburg, Russia. Overeem (45-17) finished Oleynik (57-12-1) via TKO at the 4:45 mark of the heavyweight bout, which headlined UFC Fight Night in

11:00 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim The UFC’s second visit to Russia will be headlined by a heavyweight fight between Alistair Overeem and Aleksei Oleinik on Saturday in St. Petersburg. Before the big guys take to the Octagon, however, there are several fights of note happening at Yubileyny Sports Palace. Here’s how the action has gone

7:15 PM ET UFC featherweight Dan Ige says a bizarre set of circumstances led to him supplying blood to a complete stranger early Thursday morning. As an active UFC athlete, Ige, 27, is subject to a random, year-round drug-testing program, which is administered by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). According to Ige, a blood

5:38 PM ET The location of a UFC event can mean as much as, if not more than, the headline fighters themselves — and that just may be the case this weekend. 1 Related The UFC is now on ESPN and ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ to get: exclusive live UFC events, weigh-ins and more; Ariel

4:12 AM ET Roxanne Modafferi is a mixed martial arts pioneer. After learning taekwondo as a teenager, moving to judo and then jiu-jitsu, Modafferi left the United States for Japan and turned professional in 2003 — long before it was a popular career choice for women. “I was always trying to get a fight and

Mar 5, 2019 Jeff Wagenheim Louis Taylor had a better New Year’s Eve than you did. Even though he had to go to work while you maybe went to a party, Taylor was the one who ended the night in the most joyful of celebrations. He was on the job for barely half a minute,

10:07 AM ET It has been over a year since Frankie Edgar risked his guaranteed featherweight title shot against Max Holloway in a last-minute fight against Brian Ortega at UFC 222. Edgar (23-6-1) was scheduled to face Holloway in March 2018, but Holloway was forced to withdraw because of injury. Rather than wait for the

8:40 AM ET Which MMA fighter is the best, regardless of weight division or fight promotion? ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Ariel Helwani and Jeff Wagenheim provide their top-10 picks, and their votes produce our consensus men’s and women’s pound-for-pound lists. (You can find Okamoto’s division-by-division rankings here.) Note: Rankings were updated April 16. ESPN men’s pound-for-pound

5:37 PM ET Former UFC bantamweight contender Leslie Smith has signed an exclusive deal to compete in Bellator MMA. Smith, 36, confirmed the signing to ESPN on Tuesday, following an initial report by Yahoo! Sports. She does not have a date for her next fight but said she intends to compete in the 145-pound featherweight