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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The upcoming UFC Atlantic City card has been finalized with 14 total fights set to take place at Boardwalk Hall on March 30.

Flyweights Erin Blanchfield and Manon Fiorot headline the event in a five-round fight that could determine a new No. 1 contender in the division. Both fighters are undefeated in the UFC with a combined 12-0 record in the octagon.

The fight was originally expected to serve as the co-main event, but an injury to Sean Brady prevented him from competing on the card against Vicente Luque in what was initially promoted as the main event. Luque will still compete on the card, but he’ll instead draw Joaquin Buckley in an intriguing welterweight matchup.

As for the new co-main event, former middleweight champion Chris Weidman makes his second appearance after a gruesome broken leg put him out of action for over two years. In his return, he dropped a unanimous decision to Brad Tavares, but he’ll attempt to get back on track when he faces Brazilian slugger Bruno Silva in March.

Loopy Godinez also returns to the cage on March 30 as she looks to extend her current four-fight winning streak, facing Virna Jandiroba in a strawweight fight.

Here’s the current full card for UFC Atlantic City with the full bout order still to be determined:

Main Card (10 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN+)

Erin Blanchfield vs. Manon Fiorot

Chris Weidman vs. Bruno Silva

Vicente Luque vs. Joaquin Buckley

Virna Jandiroba vs. Loopy Godinez

Preliminary Card (7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN+)

Ibo Aslan vs. Anton Turkalj

Nursaltan Ruziboev vs. Sedriques Dumas

Julio Arce vs. Herbert Burns

Pat Sabatini vs. Nate Landwehr

Bill Algeo vs. Kyle Nelson

Dennis Buzukja vs. Connor Matthews

Angel Pacheco vs. Caolon Loughran

Andre Petroski vs. Jacob Malkoun

Chidi Njokuani vs. Rhys McKee

Viktoriia Dudakova vs. Melissa Gatto

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Not true
| BJPenn.com

UFC

Kevin Lee is ready to get back on a hot streak.

The 31-year-old former Lightweight hopeful had all the makings of a future champion during his rise to an interim title opportunity in 2017. Ultimately, Lee fell short against Tony Ferguson via a third round triangle choke and hasn’t performed the same since.

The “Mo-Town Phenom” is 3-5 in his eight bouts post-Ferguson (19-8 overall) and is freshly unretired after less than a year on the shelf. Between finding an appropriate division to compete in, Lee has also battled injuries in recent years and a notable source, according to him, was his loss to Charles Oliveira in March 2020.

“Charles destroyed both my knees in the first round of this fight and we kept fighting, three knee surgeries since and I’m still recovering four years later,” Lee tweeted.

“I didn’t know until weeks later how bad it was,” he continued. Hospitals were shut down. But let me be clear I’m not taking away from Charles’ performance in that fight he did a great job and showed why he’s a champion. Fighting somebody like that is just dangerous [as f—k].”

Lee’s last fight saw him back at Welterweight in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) when he was welcomed by surging prospect, Rinat Fakhretdinov. Unfortunately for Lee, he was put to sleep in less than a minute when the “Gladiator” dropped him and sank in a guillotine choke at the 55-second mark (watch highlights).

The plan for Lee is to give Lightweight another go in this latest chapter of his career, properly dieting and enduring the difficulties he used to at his peak. Ideally, he expects a return in or around the summertime. Meanwhile, the aforementioned former champion, Oliveira, gets set to take on Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 on April 13, 2024.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

PFL on Tuesday announced dates and locations for the first half of its 2024 regular season – and some of the stars expected to headline upcoming events.

The first card is set for April 4 at the Boeing Center in San Antonio, Texas. The event features heavyweights and female flyweights. PFL tourney champ Ante Delija and ex-interim Bellator heavyweight champ Valentin Moldavsky are part of the heavyweight season beginning that night, and Bellator flyweight champion Liz Carmouche makes her debut in the newly added women’s 125-pound class.

PFL returns to Las Vegas the following Friday, April 12, with a show at The Theater at Virgin Hotels the night before UFC 300. The event kicks off the light heavyweight and lightweight seasons, with current PFL champion Impa Kasanganay, PFL Europe titleholder Jakub Nedoh and ex-Bellator champion Phil Davis expected to be part of the card. Additionally, PFL title challenger Clay Collard and former Bellator lightweight champion Patricky Pitbull are expected to compete.

The third card goes down April 19 at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago with 170-pound and 145-pound season match-ups, which feature 2023 PFL champion Magomed Umalatov and former Bellator king Andrey Koreshkov. Jesus Pinedo, the 2023 PFL featherweight champion who withdrew from this weekend’s card in Saudi Arabia due to injury, is expected to be on the show, as well as Timur Khizriev.

“The toughest test in MMA, the PFL regular season, just got tougher with the addition of stars from Bellator,” PFL CEO Peter Murray stated in a release. “The PFL is excited to kick off the 2024 regular season in front of our great fans in San Antonio, Las Vegas and Chicago. This promises to be the biggest regular season in history, with the PFL heading to ten top markets around the country and distribution to 160 countries around the world.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

WWE Hall of Famer ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin would love to see two of the UFC’s biggest stars cross over into the world of sports entertainment.

With WWE and the UFC merged under the TKO Group banner, the barrier between professional wrestling and mixed martial arts is thinning. That much was apparent on Monday night when former Bellator MMA champion ‘Iron’ Michael Chandler showed up on RAW and cut a promo on Conor McGregor. Following the appearance, rumors began circulating that the two fighters could end up involved in some type of feud culminating at the 40th anniversary of WrestleMania, which just so happens to go down one week before UFC 300.

Asked for his opinion on which UFC stars could potentially cross over into the WWE, Attitude Era icon Steve Austin immediately had two names in mind.

“If I’m going right now, I’m going Sean Strickland,” Austin said in an interview with ESPN’s Marc Raimondi. “I like Sean Strickland. Boy, he stays economical in the Octagon. But what a promo!

“Then I go Colby Covington. All the trash talk talk, all the athletic ability. Guy never runs out of gas, he’s always in shape. Talks a mean streak and can back it up. He’s very exciting, he has that X factor that you always look for. He’s double tough.”

Colby Covington would likely make a perfect addition to the WWE roster. After all, he’s been perfecting his ‘Chaos’ persona for years in front of UFC fans. Strickland however, would likely present a PR nightmare for Triple H and Co. Something the WWE certainly wants to avoid these days.

Of course, fans have already seen plenty of stars crossover through the years. After successful runs in the UFC, both Ronda Rousey and Matt Riddle moved to professional wrestling and found further fame. On the flip side, WWE Superstars Brock Lesnar and CM Punk decided to test their mettle inside the Octagon after becoming two of pro wrestling’s biggest names. Brock Lesnar went on to become the UFC heavyweight champion, defeating Randy Couture at UFC 91. He would defend successfully the title against Frank Mir and Shane Carwin.

Punk, on the other hand, went 0-2 inside the Octagon, though his sophomore appearance against Mike Jackson was ultimately overturned to a no-contest after Jackson tested positive for marijuana.

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