MMA

7:30 AM ET It comes with the territory at 125 pounds. Not only is UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo tasked with defending his title, but he also needs to draw attention to the weight class — something flyweights have generally struggled to do since the UFC added the division in 2012. Former champion Demetrious Johnson

1:19 PM ET Editor’s note: This has been updated with Thursday’s news that Conor McGregor has signed his bout agreement to face Dustin Poirier on Jan. 23. UFC superstar Conor McGregor will return to the Octagon and face Dustin Poirier as the main event of UFC 257 on Jan. 23. The site has not yet

8:55 AM ET AJ McKee was 12 years old at his childhood home in Long Beach, California, when he wrote himself a mock check for $1 million. The check was from McKee to McKee. The verbiage the then-preteen used to indicate the amount was “1 mil.” “I just always wanted to be a millionaire,” McKee

8:00 AM ET As Joaquin Buckley exited the Octagon on Oct. 10, the UFC middleweight had no idea what he had just accomplished. Not until he ran into a security guard in the Flash Forum in Abu Dhabi, did Buckley get some idea of the magnitude of the moment. “I got out of the cage,

5:12 PM ET Canadian fighter Jesse Ronson, who returned to UFC in July after six years and picked up his first victory in the promotion, has been suspended for 20 months due to a failed drug test, USADA announced Wednesday. The UFC anti-doping partner said Ronson tested positive for a metabolite of the banned substance

7:24 AM ET Will Valentina Shevchenko fight Amanda Nunes in 2021? Will Deiveson Figueiredo breathe new life into the flyweight division? Can Joaquin Buckley sustain the momentum he created with his viral knockout? These are some of the questions surrounding UFC 255 on Saturday in Las Vegas, where Shevchenko defends her flyweight belt against Jennifer

8:40 PM ET Former Bellator MMA champion Michael Chandler is eagerly looking forward to making his UFC debut, but it will not be against Tony Ferguson next month. “There is a 0% chance I’ll fight Tony Ferguson in December,” Chandler told ESPN on Tuesday. “And I 100% know he knew that, because the UFC already

12:35 PM ET Chris Weidman and Uriah Hall are going to run it back more than 10 years after their first meeting. Weidman vs. Hall 2 has been verbally agreed to for UFC 258 on Feb. 13, 2021, multiple sources told ESPN. The fight hasn’t been signed yet, sources said. The duo first met in

8:05 AM ET The UFC men’s flyweight division was all but an afterthought. As recently as last summer, many MMA fans, fighters and media members thought the UFC was going to move on from the weight class. At the time, it seemed improbable that a flyweight bout would headline a major event. Yet that will

2:15 PM ET Jimmy Crute considers himself lucky. By the age of 12 he already knew what he wanted to do in life. The problem was he originally didn’t think he was very good at it. Now 24, Crute (12-1) looks like a future title contender in the UFC’s light heavyweight division, and he is

7:13 AM ET There are prospects who flash their potential by conquering opponents in their own age bracket, and there are those who prove they can handle foes of greater experience and are ready to challenge the elite of their division. ESPN’s second annual list of the top 25 MMA fighters under the age of

11:45 AM ET Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum has signed an exclusive contract to compete in the Professional Fighters League in 2021. Werdum (24-9-1) broke the news to ESPN on Monday. Widely considered one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, Werdum fought out his UFC contract in July, with a submission victory over

11:10 PM ET ESPN’s panel of Ariel Helwani, Marc Raimondi and Jeff Wagenheim breaks down the biggest stories coming out of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card, including a look at Rafael dos Anjos‘ split-decision win over Paul Felder and what it means. Helwani: Let’s make something very clear right off the bat: No one actually

10:26 PM ET Rafael dos Anjos is back in championship form. The former UFC lightweight titleholder returned to his longtime division Saturday and was brilliant in beating Paul Felder via split decision (47-48, 50-45, 50-45) in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas. Dos Anjos showed a well-rounded game, doing damage on

1:56 PM ET The UFC is down a fight on Saturday’s card. Eryk Anders is out of a scheduled bout against Antonio Arroyo at UFC Fight Night: Felder vs. dos Anjos in Las Vegas, Anders announced on social media. 1 Related Anders wrote that his withdrawal is “due to issues concerned with my health.” The

1:21 PM ET UFC is finalizing a light heavyweight matchup between former title challenger Thiago Santos and Aleksandar Rakic on March 6, sources told ESPN. The promotion has not officially announced an event on the date of March 6, nor given a location. Sources said the 205-pound matchup will consist of three rounds and not

4:15 PM ET The two youngest women on the UFC roster put on quite the show. In a back-and-forth, exciting fight, Cory McKenna beat Kay Hansen via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) in a women’s strawweight contest on the UFC Fight Night: Felder vs. dos Anjos main card Saturday in Las Vegas. Both landed hard

8:45 PM ET Nothing like a ranked UFC lightweight accepting a five-round fight … against a former champion … on five days’ notice … to stir up the MMA community. The reaction to Paul Felder (17-5) stepping into Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event against Rafael dos Anjos (29-13) on short notice has been genuinely