10:20 PM ET UFC Fight Night Sao Paulo has taken another hit. Eryk Anders is stepping in on six days’ notice to fight Thiago Santos in the main event of Saturday night’s card in Brazil, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN. Anders accepted the assignment on Sunday after Jimi Manuwa withdrew from the headliner due to

5:32 PM ET Russian heavyweight and submission specialist Aleksei Oleinik had joked leading up to Saturday’s main event against Mark Hunt that his opponent had no neck to apply one of his signature chokes to. Ultimately, he proved himself incorrect. Oleinik (57-11-1) located Hunt’s neck with a rear-naked choke in the first round at UFC

11:24 AM ET Karim Zidan In December 2016, five months after his Hollywood talent agency had purchased the UFC, Ari Emanuel was on a plane headed to Moscow. The CEO of WME-IMG (now called Endeavor) was with longtime UFC president Dana White, and they were on their way to meet Russia’s then-minister of sport, Vitaly

10:36 PM ET Former two-weight UFC champion BJ Penn will return to the cage at UFC 232 on Dec. 29 in a lightweight bout against Ryan Hall. UFC Tonight announced the 155-pound matchup on Wednesday. UFC 232 will take place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Penn (16-12-2) hasn’t fought since he suffered a majority

12:55 PM ET DALLAS – Kamaru Usman is laying down in his bed inside Room 783 of the Hilton Anatole on Thursday night dreading what the next few hours will be like as he pulls the covers over his body and closes his eyes. “This is going to be a tough weight cut,” Usman said.

1:32 PM ET Lyoto Machida’s Bellator debut is set. The former UFC light heavyweight champion will meet former Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho on Dec. 15 on the promotion’s debut card in Honolulu. The event will be headlined by Hawaii’s Ilima-Lei Macfarlane vs. Valerie Letourneau for the Bellator flyweight title, and it will take place

2:15 PM ET As much as it may feel as if Alistair Overeem has been fighting forever, the veteran heavyweight understands he cannot, in fact, fight forever. Overeem (43-17), a former champion in the Strikeforce and Dream promotions, and in K-1 kickboxing, has been relatively quiet since he suffered a third-round TKO loss to Curtis

10:19 AM ET Bellator MMA has beaten the UFC to the punch by booking the first major mixed martial arts event in Hawaii in a decade. Flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, a native of Honolulu, will defend her belt on Dec. 15 in her hometown, taking on Valerie Letourneau, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani. Flyweight

6:16 PM ET The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has suspended former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum for two years for a failed drug test administered on April 25. USADA announced the two-year sanction on Tuesday. Werdum, 41, will not be eligible to compete in the UFC until May 2020. The Brazilian tested positive for

1:43 PM ET UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley credits much of his success to longtime head coach and retired lightweight Din Thomas, who has been in his corner since 2006. In addition to his relationship with Woodley, Thomas is close with UFC president Dana White. So he has a balanced outlook on what’s often been