12:05 PM ET From an undefeated former UFC fighter to a pair of cousins competing in the same weight class to a featherweight who once won 21 bouts in a year, the Professional Fighters League on Thursday revealed more than two dozen additional participants for its 2019 season. Among the returnees from last season is
MMA
10:44 AM ET When Anthony Pettis challenged Benson Henderson for the UFC lightweight title in 2013, his coach, Duke Roufus, publicly compared him to Michael Jordan. Roufus’ comparison understandably drew some skepticism. Michael Jordan? As in, that Michael Jordan? At the time, Pettis was 26 years old and vying for his first UFC championship. Comparing
10:34 PM ET Holly Holm isn’t going anywhere. The former UFC bantamweight champion has signed a new six-fight contract with the promotion, her agent, Lenny Fresquez, told ESPN. Holm had two fights left on her previous deal. “I’m very happy with the deal,” Fresquez said. “We worked feverishly with the UFC to get this done.”
5:28 PM ET TJ Dillashaw relinquished his UFC bantamweight title championship on Wednesday after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the New York State Athletic Commission informed him of an “adverse analytical finding” in a drug test dating back to his last fight in January in Brooklyn. The NYSAC issued him a one-year suspension and $10,000
4:43 PM ET Rafael dos Anjos will face Kevin Lee in a battle of top welterweights at UFC Fight Night: Rochester on May 18, sources confirmed to ESPN. The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York, first reported the matchup. Dos Anjos is a former UFC lightweight champion who claimed the belt in 2015 in
12:02 PM ET Richard Mann Nearly six years after winning the UFC lightweight title, Anthony Pettis will move up to 170 pounds and face former welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson in the main event of UFC Fight Night: Nashville (ESPN+, main card 8 p.m. ET). The two fighters share multiple stylistic quirks, which results in
10:40 AM ET Former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold will move up to light heavyweight to fight Jan Błachowicz at UFC 239 on July 6 in Las Vegas, multiple sources tell ESPN. Rockhold, also the former Strikeforce middleweight champion, most recently fought for the interim UFC middleweight title against Yoel Romero in February 2018, losing by
6:24 PM ET Phil MurphyESPN Video Great Britain’s first UFC champion is now its first Hall of Famer. The UFC announced Michael Bisping (31-9) as the first inductee of 2019 during Saturday’s event in London. He’s the fifth member of the Hall of Fame’s Modern Wing, joining Forrest Griffin, BJ Penn, Urijah Faber and Ronda
4:04 PM ET ESPN+ will be the exclusive distributor of UFC pay-per-view events in the United States through 2025, ESPN and the UFC announced on Monday. This will make ESPN+ the single point of purchase for consumers for top UFC events, and extends the partnership between the companies for two additional years. The deal begins
12:01 PM ET Derrick Lewis believes he’s been fighting with a torn ACL for the past four years. Lewis told ESPN on Monday that he found out two weeks before his recent loss to Junior dos Santos that he had a torn ACL in his left leg. He informed the UFC of the injury before