12:55 PM ET The ambitious Bellator vs. Rizin card on New Year’s Eve has its top fights set — and all are highly competitive, featuring top athletes from both promotions. Bellator star AJ McKee will face Rizin lightweight champion Roberto “Satoshi” de Souza in the main event of the Dec. 31 card at Japan’s Saitama

Oct 26, 2022 Sean O’Malley, who has talked a good game for his entire UFC run, proved his worthiness of being considered among the elite at bantamweight with his UFC 280 victory over former champion Petr Yan last weekend. As a result, “Suga Sean” enters the men’s top-10 in the latest ESPN divisional rankings and

9:00 AM ET The rise of Islam Makhachev in the UFC’s lightweight division culminated on Saturday, when he captured the championship at UFC 280 in a virtuoso performance against Charles Oliveira. But that rise took a while. Makhachev has been in the UFC since 2015, and this past weekend’s bout in Abu Dhabi was his

11:00 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Bellator MMA and Japanese fight promotion Rizin have worked together several times before but never on such a grand scale as what they have planned for New Year’s Eve. The companies announced Monday that they will co-promote a fight card at 36,500-seat Saitama Super Arena outside Tokyo on Dec. 31

9:35 PM ET Two of the best young featherweight fighters in the world will clash before the end of the year. Undefeated rising stars Bryce Mitchell and Ilia Topuria have verbally agreed to fight at UFC 282 on Dec. 10 in Las Vegas, sources confirmed to ESPN on Monday. The website Fight Bananas was the

Oct 22, 2022 ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Ever since Khabib Nurmagomedov retired from mixed martial arts two years ago as an undefeated champion, Islam Makhachev‘s reclaiming that lightweight title felt like a preordained moment. That moment came Saturday. Makhachev (23-1) seized the UFC’s 155-pound championship by submitting Charles Oliveira (33-9) at UFC 280

Oct 24, 2022 After the wild ride that was UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi last weekend, there are still plenty of unanswered questions. What fight should the UFC look to make for new lightweight champ Islam Makhachev, and if the matchup is Alexander Volkanovski, how would that affect the pound-for-pound rankings? Will Sean O’Malley challenge

4:26 PM ET Sean O’Malley and Petr Yan put on a show at UFC 280 ahead of the main and co-main event on the fight card Saturday in Abu Dhabi. What started with trash talk via Twitter led to a shove from Yan at the prematch news conference. Would the theatrics carry into the Octagon?

Oct 22, 2022 Popular English lightweight Paddy Pimblett will face Jared Gordon at UFC 282 on Dec. 10, the promotion announced Saturday. Pimblett (19-3) has been eyeing the UFC 282 date since his last fight in July. The 27-year-old has fought in Las Vegas previously, but never with a crowd. His UFC debut took place

Oct 22, 2022 Aljamain Sterling has had one of the most bizarre title reigns in recent MMA memory, but to his credit none of it has been his own doing — and all he does is keep winning. Sterling beat former champion TJ Dillashaw via TKO at 3:44 of the second round in the co-main