MMA

12:37 AM ET Cris Cyborg picked up yet another victory in a long, illustrious career. But this one, unlikely many of the others, wasn’t over quickly. Cyborg defended her Bellator women’s featherweight title, beating Leslie Smith by TKO at 4 minutes, 51 seconds of the fifth round in the main event of Bellator 259 on

12:45 PM ET Juliana Velasquez has her first Bellator title defense booked. The new Bellator women’s flyweight champion will face top-tier kickboxer Denise Kielholtz at Bellator 262 on July 16 at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, the promotion announced Friday. The undefeated Velasquez beat Ilima-Lei Macfarlane to win the title this past December. Bellator 262

7:52 AM ET Four years ago, Cody Garbrandt delivered an all-time classic, five-round performance against Dominick Cruz to capture the UFC’s bantamweight championship. Garbrandt hasn’t looked the same since. Going into Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event between Garbrandt (12-3) and Rob Font (18-4) at the Apex in Las Vegas (7 p.m. ET, prelims at

6:12 PM ET Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza is no longer on the UFC roster. The perennial UFC middleweight contender broke his arm in a submission loss to Andre Muniz at UFC 262 last Saturday in Houston. It turns out that it was the final fight on Souza’s UFC contract and he is now a free agent,

3:43 PM ET The UFC is targeting a new date of July 24 for a bantamweight fight between former champion TJ Dillashaw and Cory Sandhagen, multiple sources told ESPN, confirming an MMA Junkie report. Contracts have not been signed, but the UFC is working on finalizing the 135-pound contest. Once official, it will headline a

11:02 AM ET The PFL announced its next round of light heavyweight and welterweight matchups Wednesday, with the June 17 event serving as the final opportunity for fighters in those classes to earn points toward a berth in the 2021 playoffs. Among the most notable matchups, promotion newcomer Rory MacDonald (22-6-1) will face Gleison Tibau

11:01 PM ET There is a deal in place for a boxing match between boxing luminary Oscar De La Hoya and UFC legend Georges St-Pierre. But the fight cannot happen unless the UFC gives its approval, according to Ryan Kavanaugh, who is attempting to promote the bout under his Triller Fight Club banner. Kavanaugh told

3:22 PM ET UFC lightweight Beneil Dariush waited months for Tesla to give him some answers about a brand new car he ordered in 2020. As it turns out, all he needed to do was call out Elon Musk on live television to get the response he was looking for. Dariush, 32, defeated Tony Ferguson

8:03 AM ET Tatiana Suarez, one of the best women’s MMA fighters in the world, is finally close to returning to the Octagon. Suarez told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani in a video interview published Wednesday that she has been medically cleared by doctors and is targeting a return to the UFC in September, or perhaps even

7:30 AM ET It did not look good for Charles Oliveira. Less than a minute into last Saturday’s fight for the UFC lightweight championship, he was trapped in a guillotine choke, and Michael Chandler‘s beefy arms were squeezing the life out of him. Even after he escaped trouble and gained dominant position in control of

7:49 AM ET Charles Oliveira sits atop the UFC’s lightweight division after a thrilling second-round TKO of Michael Chandler in the main event of UFC 262 on Saturday, but did the new champ do enough to surpass Dustin Poirier as the No. 1-ranked fighter in the division? Oliveira wasn’t the only one to make an

10:04 PM ET UFC lightweight Islam Makhachev is set to return to the Octagon in July, according to multiple sources. 1 Related The UFC is close to finalizing a lightweight bout between Makhachev and Thiago Moises at UFC Fight Night on July 17 in Las Vegas, per sources. The bout will consist of three rounds.

12:46 AM ET Charles Oliveira defeated Michael Chandler by TKO in the second round to win the vacant lightweight title Saturday night in the main event of UFC 262 at Toyota Center. The stoppage came at 19 seconds of Round 2. Oliveira becomes the first UFC lightweight champ who isn’t Khabib Nurmagomedov since Conor McGregor

8:46 PM ET HOUSTON — Tony Ferguson‘s wish apparently has been granted. UFC president Dana White made the decision Friday to increase the fight-night bonuses athletes can receive at UFC 262 on Saturday, UFC officials confirmed with ESPN. Typically, fighters can win bonuses for performances of the night, and fight of the night, that are

12:31 PM ET UFC middleweight Uriah Hall has booked his next fight, a three-round matchup against Sean Strickland in August, per multiple sources. Contracts have not been signed, but the 185-pound bout is close to being finalized for UFC 265 on Aug. 7 at a location to be announced. Hall (17-9) is coming off a

12:57 AM ET After a wild first round in the UFC 262 main event between Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira, with both men having moments of significant advantage on the ground and Chandler landing some vicious strikes, Oliveira took control in Round 2. With a series of quick strikes of his own, Oliveira staggered Chandler,

2:04 AM ET Charles Oliveira‘s last defeat came in December 2017, a loss to Paul Felder via second-round TKO. That was his fourth loss in a six-fight stretch. He had missed weight four times in the previous five years and started his UFC career a pedestrian 10-8, with one no contest. I asked Felder on

7:20 PM ET HOUSTON — UFC 262 will usher in a new era in one of the promotion’s premier divisions, as Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler vie for the vacant lightweight title in the main event at the Toyota Center. Saturday night will mark the first time someone other than Khabib Nurmagomedov, who retired last