8:05 AM ET Nicknames can be fun or serious, have little meaning or be deeply personal. They can be self-given, coined by a coach or a promotion or in some cases earned based on a performance. Oftentimes a nickname is more ubiquitous than a fighter’s actual name. Such is the way of combat sports, where
MMA
11:10 PM ET One of the biggest grudge matches in UFC history reached its epic conclusion on Saturday, with Colby Covington coming out on top of long-time rival and former teammate Tyron Woodley. In the co-main event, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone fought to the first draw of his career in his 53rd professional fight, against Niko
12:17 AM ET After three years of trash talk on social media, former teammates Colby Covington and Tyron Woodley finally met in the Octagon on Saturday night in the UFC Fight Night main event. But the scrap between the welterweights lacked any drama, with a dominant Covington stopping Woodley early in the fifth round. How
11:21 PM ET Colby Covington settled the score, won bragging rights over his biggest rival and perhaps earned another title shot. The UFC welterweight star defeated Tyron Woodley via TKO at 1 minute, 19 seconds of the fifth round Saturday night in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas. The finish was
6:10 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley delivered a clear message Thursday during a UFC news conference at the company’s Apex facility. Woodley, who is from Ferguson, Missouri, responded with some variation of “Black Lives Matter” to all 10 questions he received from media members. The individual news conference was
3:29 PM ET Tyron Woodley has been in Colby Covington‘s crosshairs for years. The first time Covington started calling out Woodley was in June 2017 when Woodley was the UFC welterweight champion. The fight never came to fruition then or after several other tries over the past few years. On Saturday that changes. The elite
8:05 AM ET Does Tyron Woodley want to fight? It’s a question that has plagued the former welterweight champion — probably unfairly at times — for the better part of a decade. There were moments early in his UFC career — losses to Jake Shields and Rory MacDonald — in which Woodley simply did not
7:49 PM ET UFC light heavyweight Mike Rodriguez is appealing his loss last Saturday to Ed Herman, saying he was penalized for a low blow that never occurred. Herman defeated Rodriguez by third-round submission at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas. Rodriguez’s team filed an appeal Friday with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, asking for
12:23 PM ET LAS VEGAS — The wait for Tyron Woodley vs. Colby Covington is nearly over. Woodley (19-5-1) and Covington (15-2) both successfully made weight on Friday for their highly anticipated welterweight bout at UFC Fight Night on Saturday. Each fighter weighed in at the maximum 171-pound limit. The fight will headline the event,
7:32 AM ET Marc Raimondi Brett Okamoto Close ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Colby Covington was holed up in a St. Louis hotel room. It was early 2014, and Covington was flown in to be part of Tyron Woodley‘s training camp for his
6:29 PM ET UFC champion Israel Adesanya is making some history ahead of his middleweight title defense next weekend. The undefeated Adesanya has signed a multiyear deal with Puma, the company announced Thursday. He will be the face of Puma’s Oceania division but will also be a part of its global marketing plans, sources say.
2:48 PM ET Despite Conor McGregor and the UFC’s insistence that the former two-division champion is retired from the fight game, both parties hinted at a potential comeback Thursday. “We’re actually working on some fun stuff for Conor at the beginning of next year,” UFC president Dana White told SportsCenter on Thursday. “He should be
8:04 AM ET Miguel Baeza was doing a strength-and-conditioning drill, jumping over hurdles at his gym, MMA Masters, in Miami. The up-and-coming UFC welterweight had just completed three rounds of sparring. Fatigue was setting in. On his second and third jumps over the hurdle, he touched the bar. On the fourth and fifth times, he
1:13 PM ET The key light heavyweight fight between Thiago Santos and Glover Teixeira is off — again. Santos has tested positive for the coronavirus and is out of the scheduled Oct. 4 co-main event with Teixeira in Abu Dhabi, Santos’ manager Alex Davis confirmed Wednesday with ESPN. Santos vs. Teixeira was originally booked for
11:52 AM ET As we all know, there’s a big difference between negotiating a contract and not wanting to fight. The entire MMA community — including the UFC brass — knows Dustin Poirier wants the Tony Ferguson fight. To suggest otherwise is simply unfair to Poirier, a veteran who has developed a reputation as the
11:28 PM ET It was a relatively slow night for Dana White’s Contender Series on Tuesday — until the main event. For just the second time in series history, the first four fights of this week’s five-fight card went the distance inside the UFC’s Apex facility in Las Vegas. That left it up to middleweights
8:01 PM ET Daniel Cormier tested positive for COVID-19 less than six weeks before his UFC heavyweight title fight with Stipe Miocic, Cormier confirmed with ESPN on Tuesday. Cormier said one of his training partners tested positive for coronavirus on July 1, prompting the entire team to get tested. In that test, he was negative.
8:44 AM ET The first portion of the fourth season of Dana White’s Contender Series comes to a close Tuesday, as the UFC heads back to Abu Dhabi later this month. So far, 23 UFC contracts have been given out through six weeks this season. There surely will be more Tuesday, with several intriguing names