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UFC returns to Singapore after almost three years, and it will be a numbered event.

UFC is set for a return to Singapore, and the promotion’s first trip to Asia since the pandemic will be a major PPV event.

As officials confirmed, UFC 275 will happen on June 12 (June 11 for US) at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore.

International events have been limited in the last few years, but the UFC has been slowly looking to get back on their travel schedule as more places start to open up. With UFC 275, it would mark almost three years since their last event in the Asian region.

The full fight card for this event has yet to be made official, but it will have two championship bouts: A light heavyweight title bout between Glover Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka and a flyweight title bout in Valentina Shevchenko vs Taila Santos.

This would be the first UFC numbered event in Singapore, and first title fights in South East Asia. With it being a pay-per-view event, it will be hosted Sunday morning in Asia to accommodate the US audience.

The UFC previously ventured to the country four times in the past, hosting Fight Night events in 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019. The most recent one was headlined by Ben Askren vs Demian Maia at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

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Maksym Kagal was a kickboxing champion and member of the controversial Azov regiment, an ultra-nationalist unit of the National Guard of Ukraine that includes neo-Nazis. 

A Ukrainian kickboxing champion was killed while fighting Russian forces in Mariupol.

Maksym Kagal, 30, reportedly died while defending the besieged southern Ukrainian city, which has been subject to constant bombardment since the Russian invasion began last month. His death was later confirmed by his coach, Oleg Skirta.

“Unfortunately, the war takes the best. On 25 March, while defending the city of Mariupol as part of the Azov Separate Special Forces Unit, Maksym ‘Piston’ Kagal died,” Skirta said in a statement on Facebook. “Kagal was the first world kickboxing champion from the glorious city of Kremenchug, the first world champion among adults in the team of Ukraine, and just an honest and decent person.”

The Azov regiment is a far-right former paramilitary group that was upgraded to a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine at the start of Russia’s invasion in February. The group was initially a volunteer militia that formed in May 2014 to fight the Russian separatist forces who had seized portions of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The group has been criticized for propagating neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies, and has also been accused of violating international humanitarian law by the United Nations.

While the Azov regiment does maintain connections to neo-Nazism, the group is at the heart of the Kremlin’s wartime propaganda. Their role in Ukraine has been greatly exaggerated by Russian state media to support the ongoing war, as well as to back up Russian president Vladimir Putin’s goal of “denazification” in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov used the Azovs presence to justify the bombing of a maternity ward in Mariupol, claiming that the regiment was hiding in the building. Russia has since continued its assault on Mariupol, where more than 5000 people, including roughly 210 children, have been killed so far. The city’s infrastructure has also been annihilated, with more than 90 percent of buildings being damaged or destroyed.

Among those killed was Kagal, a resident of Kremenchug who won the World Kickboxing Championship ISKA in 2014. One of the few pictures available of the fighter show him holding up a Ukrainian flag with the Azov logo and a Black Sun. The symbol, which is also known as the sonnerad, is synonymous with far-right groups that traffic in neo-Nazi ideologies. The symbol is based on the ancient sun wheel artifacts that were used by Norse and Germanic tribes as symbols of pagan beliefs. Those ancient symbols resemble the complex symbol of the contemporary Black Sun, which was coopted by Heinrich Himmler, the main architect of the Holocaust.

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More changes to the next UFC pay-per-view.

The opening bout on the UFC 273 main card has been nixed.

UFC officials announced on Monday that middleweight prospect Nassourdine Imavov is unable to make his April 9th showdown with Kelvin Gastelum due to visa issues. No word yet on whether or not Gastelum will remain on the card or if he’ll get a replacement opponent.

Imavov (11-3) has won three of his four UFC appearances, including consecutive TKO finishes of Ian Heinisch and Edmen Shabazyan. His only loss was a decision against Phil Hawes, whom he hurt late but couldn’t put away to avoid going to the scorecards. The latest UFC rankings put the 26-year-old at #11 and not too far away from serious title contention.

Gastelum (16-8, 1 NC) has lost five out of his last six but remains in the middleweight rankings at #10. The Ultimate Fighter season 17 winner is coming off a unanimous decision loss to presumptive next title challenger Jared Cannonier last August. He’d previously suffered a decision loss to former champ Robert Whittaker. His only win since 2019 is a decision over Ian Heinisch.

While one fight fell through, a new one has been added to the card. A heavyweight matchup between Ilir Latifi and Aleksei Oleinik, initially scheduled for last weekend’s UFC Columbus main card before Latifi pulled out on fight day with a non-COVID illness, has been rescheduled for this event.

UFC 273 is headlined by a featherweight title fight between champion Alexander Volkanovski and Chan Sung Jung aka ‘The Korean Zombie.’ Men’s bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling rematches former champ Petr Yan in the co-main.

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All of the lightweight titles will be on the line.

Unified lightweight boxing champion George Kambosos Jr (20-0, 10 KOs) will defend his titles in front of his home fans this June.

ESPN’s Mike Coppinger reported on Sunday that the Australian will take on 23-year-old American standout Devin Haney (27-0, 15 KOs) at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on June 5th. This will be an afternoon show in Australia, catering to the American primetime audience who would be watching on Saturday, June 4th.

Former lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko originally agreed to a deal to fight Kambosos, but Lomachenko is staying in Ukraine to defend his country from Russia’s ongoing invasion. This paved the way for Haney to step in, and after talks broke down for DAZN to stream the fight, ESPN not only will televise the fight but Haney will now be co-promoted by Top Rank Boxing after his previous co-promotional deal with Matchroom Boxing expired.

Kambosos Jr shocked the world last November when he defeated Teofimo Lopez by split decision in New York. He dropped Lopez in the opening round, survived a late knockdown himself and otherwise outboxed the heavily favored Teofimo en route to taking his WBO, WBA, IBF, and WBC ‘franchise’ titles away. This fight was, of course, delayed several times for various reasons — Triller ended up bailing on promoting the bout and Matchroom picked it up as runners-up in the purse bid — but it all paid off in the end for George.

Haney was an amateur star who turned pro at just 17 years old, and has established himself as one of the premier lightweights in the sport. He’s coming off a unanimous decision over JoJo Diaz, which was preceded by a decision over former world champion Jorge Linares. The WBC champion is known for very slick boxing, fast hands, good defense, but isn’t exactly a big hitter.

Ignoring the stupid WBC “franchise” vs. plain ol’ WBC title, this is an undisputed title fight at 135 lbs. It’s the best fighting the best and props go to both Kambosos for not taking some lay-up defense and instead going head-on against the top of the class. Haney gets his biggest bout to date and he’ll have to go to enemy territory at least once, as there’s a rematch clause should Kambosos lose. No doubt that the atmosphere inside of the Marvel Stadium will be raucous.

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After fighting the last fight in his contract at UFC Columbus, Bryan Barberena says he will ‘hang ‘em up’ if he does not get a contract extension.

Welterweight fighter Bryan Barberena notched a significant win on Saturday at UFC Columbus with a decision victory over beloved veteran Matt Brown. And according to the 32-year-old, it was also the last fight in his UFC contract.

During the post-fight media scrum, “Bam Bam” called for a “talk” with UFC president Dana White to try and strike a new deal. But if the organization decides to go the opposite direction, Barberena says he will likely hang up his gloves for good.

“This is the last fight on my contract. I haven’t been open about that, but this is the last fight on my contract. UFC didn’t say anything about renegotiating, I tried to ask about it,” Barberena told reporters.

“Dana White, let’s talk. I’d love to keep fighting, I’d love to keep putting on shows. I don’t want to fight anywhere else. If this is it, you don’t want me no more, that’s OK. I’ll hang ‘em up here.

“I should’ve left my gloves in the Octagon if that’s the case. But if not, I’d love to keep putting on shows.”

Barberena says he is sure of his decision after talking about it with his wife.

“I’d be done,” he said. “Me and my wife talked about this a lot. UFC’s where I wanna be. It was the goal the whole time. I love being here, they treat me well. I love being in front of these fans.

“It’s the biggest organization out there, the best organization out there, as far as I’m concerned. And if they don’t want me to come out and put on shows anymore, I’ll hang ‘em up. And I’ll go spend my daily at the farm with the family and work on building that.”

Barberena (17-8) also holds wins over the likes of Jake Ellenberger and Sage Northcutt. In November 2020, he suffered internal bleeding in his abdomen, forcing him out of his UFC Vegas 14 fight against Daniel Rodriguez.

The win over Brown earned Barberena a $ 50K bonus for Fight of the Night, his fourth overall in his eight-year UFC run.

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MMA stars reacted to the viral moment.

Sunday night, social media was ablaze when Will Smith struck Chris Rock at the Oscars for making a “GI Jane” quip about Jada Pinkett Smith. MMA personalities all discussed the viral moment, including UFC President Dana White, who praised the comedian’s ability to take a shot.

Several fighters also chimed in, bringing in hot takes and even some quickly made memes.

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Check out the lineup for UFC 273 on April 9th.

The UFC is taking next week off but returns for UFC 273 on April 9th in Jacksonville, Florida. The main event sees featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski put his title on the line against Chan Sung Jung, aka ‘The Korean Zombie.’ In the co-main, Aljamain Sterling makes his first title defense in a rematch vs. Petr Yan, who was memoably disqualified and thus lost his belt after an illegal knee to Sterling’s head in a fight Yan was easily ahead on the scorecards.

The featured non-title fight on the card is a welterweight battle between former title challenger Gilbert Burns and rising sensation Khamzat Chimaev. Rounding out the main card are women’s strawweights Mackenzie Dern and Tecia Torres, as well as middleweight prospect Nassourdine Imavov versus Kelvin Gastelum.

In a notable late change to the prelims, Irene Aldana is injured and Raquel Pennington will instead face Aspen Ladd in a women’s bantamweight showdown.

Here’s the current bout order for UFC 273. As always, the card is subject to change:

Main Card (10 PM ET, ESPN+ PPV)

Alexander Volkanovski vs. Chan Sung Jung

Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan

Gilbert Burns vs. Khamzat Chimaev

Mackenzie Dern vs. Tecia Torres

Kelvin Gastelum vs. Nassourdine Imavov

Preliminary Card (8 PM ET, ESPN/ESPN+)

Ian Garry vs. Darian Weeks

Raquel Pennington vs. Aspen Ladd

Anthony Hernandez vs. Dricus du Plessis

Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Marcin Tybura

Preliminary Card (6 PM ET, ESPN+)

Mickey Gall vs. Mike Malott

Julio Arce vs. Daniel Santos

Kay Hansen vs. Piera Rodriguez

Mark Madsen vs. Vinc Pichel

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Strickland vs. Pereira has ‘Fight of the Night’ written all over it. 

This is one hell of a fight.

Brett Okamoto of ESPN reported on Saturday that Sean Strickland vs. Alex Pereira is verbally agreed upon for UFC 277, the upcoming pay-per-view event with a location and venue yet to be determined.

A return to middleweight has done wonders for Strickland, who has since emerged as a potential title challenger after rattling off six straight wins in his recent appearances. ‘Tarzan’ defeated Jack Marshman, Brendan Allen and Krzysztof Jotko before being given a step up in competition against top-ranked contenders. The 31-year-old bested Uriah Hall and Jack Hermansson via decision at UFC Vegas 33 and UFC Vegas 47, respectively.

Pereira joined the UFC over a year ago and announced his arrival with a first-round flying knee knockout of Andreas Michailidis at UFC 268. ‘Po Atan’ followed that performance with a unanimous decision over Bruno Silva at UFC Vegas 50 this past March. Following his win over Silva, the former GLORY champion expressed interest in a fight with Jared Cannonier in an attempt to move closer to a shot at current champion and former foe Israel Adesanya. Pereira has two wins over Adesanya in kickboxing, with the Brazilian earning a unanimous decision in 2016 and a third-round knockout in 2017. Though he did not get Cannonier, a win over someone like Strickland could vault him into contention.

No other fights are attached to UFC 277 at this time. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for updates to the event as they become available in the coming weeks.

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Nicolas Pablo Demario imitated Mike Tyson in this weird sequence of events in boxing.

Nicolas Pablo Demario had just floored Josue Vargas on the fifth round of their boxing match and was ahead on the judges scorecards, when he just inexplicably decided to bite his opponent.

Vargas winced in pain, and as the referee paused the action, there was blood and a bite mark on his shoulder. The blatant foul and his reasoning behind it was already bizarre, but to add to the weird situation, the referee just allows the fight to continue.

Instead of an instant disqualification like in other cases of this foul, the referee just decided to dock a point and let the fight go on.

“That’s a DQ, bro. Biting?! That’s a DQ!” the commentator reacted to the point deduction. “Wow. Are you kidding me?”

Demario, who scored a knockdown on the same round, had his sure 10-8 round turned into 9-8. He was still up 47-46 on two scorecards, while one had it 46-46 after the point deduction.

Vargas, who was sporting a bloody bite mark on his shoulder, was able to rally late and win the final three rounds. Demario was lucky he didn’t get disqualified, but he still eventually lost a decision with the scores of 76-73 and 76-74 twice, all for Vargas.

Mike Tyson infamously bit Evander Holyfield in the ear in 1997. He was immediately disqualified then, but he did pivot and turn it into a marketing opportunity decades later.

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It’s likely the end of the road for Berchelt as a high-level fighter.

Miguel Berchelt’s fall from the top of the boxing world has been sharp.

Just a week over 13 months removed from losing his WBC junior lightweight title in a frightening KO loss to Oscar Valdez, Berchelt’s return fight up at lightweight against Namibian puncher Jeremiah Nakathila (23-2, 19 KOs) proved disastrous. Nakathila dropped him with a jab, was quicker to the punch, and repeatedly hurt the Mexican fighter until the doctor at ringside determined Berchelt (38-3, 34 KOs) was in no good shape to continue.

Towards the end of round six, a heavy right sent Berchelt’s mouthpiece flying out and Miguel was looking to the ref to stop the action and pick the mouthpiece up. Nakathila probably should’ve pounced on Berchelt before the referee intervened to call timeout but it didn’t matter, as Berchelt’s legs were a mess throughout the fight, his reflexes looked shot and his punching form and vaunted volume were all over the shop.

Watch the highlights below:

This is a momentous victory for Nakathila, who looked way out of his depth in last year’s dull main event loss to Shakur Stevenson. Even prior to the Stevenson loss his record was not exactly filled with meaningful wins. Well he got his second chance to headline a Top Rank Boxing card, pulled off the big upset, and for all we know may have ended the relevant career (if not his career altogether) of Miguel Berchelt.

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