CombatSports.org

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Spencer Lee had a dog fight on his hands in his final match against Japan’s Rei Higuchi, but ultimately came up short in his bid to capture a gold medal in his first Olympics.

The former Iowa standout had been dominant through the early rounds but met his match in Higuchi, who displayed similar dominance to punch his ticket to the gold medal match. Ultimately it was Higuchi’s speed that countered Lee’s power to win the match 4-2 and clinch the gold for Japan.

Lee, who missed out on the 2020 Olympics due to injury, still goes home with a silver medal following an incredible run where he won the U.S. Olympic trials but still had to qualify for his weight class to even get to Paris.

He had a raucous crowd on his side in the finals thanks to Lee’s mother being a famed French judoka, along with a strong contingency from the United States. While he goes home with a silver medal, Lee also takes the motivation to potentially come back even stronger when the Olympics land in Los Angeles in 2028.

Meanwhile, Helen Maroulis staked her claim as the best women’s wrestler in the history of the United States after she captured her third Olympic medal on Friday with a rapid-fire win in her bronze medal match against Hannah Taylor from Canada.

Maroulis secured an early takedown and then pinned Taylor for the win in just 24 seconds.

Prior to the U.S. Olympic trials, Maroulis, 32, contemplated retirement but decided to make another run at the prestigious tournament after she became the first American woman to win gold in wrestling back in 2016.

For the second straight Olympics, Maroulis wins bronze as she continues to rack up accomplishments in her legendary career.

“This might be my last match ever,” Maroulis said afterward. “It’s hard, I’m getting older. It’s a hard journey.”

Finally, four-time NCAA champion Aaron Brooks secured a bronze medal of his own with a 5-0 shutout victory over Javrail Shapiev from Uzbekistan.

Brooks suffered a stunning upset in the semifinals after a last-second reversal from Magomed Ramazanov, who represented Bulgaria, cost him the match. Ramazanov went on to capture gold with a win over 2016 Olympic gold medalist and 2020 silver medalist Hassan Yazdani from Iran.

On Friday, Brooks powered back to win bronze, but at 24, he’s just now entering the prime of his career as he undoubtedly looks towards the 2028 Olympic Games.

Following the silver from Lee and the bronze medals by Brooks and Maroulis, the U.S. wrestling team has now secured five total medals, including a pair of golds for women’s wrestlers Amit Elor and Sarah Hildebrandt.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

MMA Fighting has UFC Vegas 95 results for the Tybura vs. Spivac 2 fight card and much more from the UFC APEX on Saturday night.

In the main event, Marcin Tybura and Serghei Spivac square off in a heavyweight contest. Both fighters have won three of their past four fights.

Tybura and Spivac fought before at UFC Norfolk on Feb. 29, 2020. On that date, Tybura beat Spivac via unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28).

Damon Jackson and Chepe Mariscal clash in a featherweight contest in the co-main event.

Check out UFC Vegas 95 results below.

Main Card (ESPN/ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET)

Marcin Tybura vs. Serghei Spivac

Damon Jackson vs. Chepe Mariscal

Danny Barlow vs. Nikolay Veretennikov

Chris Gutierrez vs. Quang Le

Yana Santos vs. Chelsea Chandler

Toshiomi Kazama vs. Charalampos Grigoriou

Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+ at 5 p.m. ET)

Karol Rosa vs. Pannie Kianzad

Jhonata Diniz vs. Karl Williams

Youssef Zalal vs. Jarno Errens

Stephanie Luciano vs. Talita Alencar

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Khelif Takes Gold
| BJPenn.com

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Veteran Light Heavyweight contenders are now scheduled to collide, as former title challengers Anthony Smith and Dominick Reyes are booked to throw down at UFC 310 on December 10, 2024.

That breaking news is courtesy of MMAmania’s very own Alex Behunin.

A former title challenger, Smith currently stands at No. 12 in the Light Heavyweight ranks after his fairly recent loss to Middleweight’s Roman Dolidze. “Lionheart” tried to turn a short-notice opportunity into 205-pound momentum, but it backfired in the form of an ugly defeat. Though he scored a major upset in his previous bout opposite Vitor Petrino (watch here), Smith publicly discussed retirement after his last defeat, as his path to the title was becoming increasingly complicated after growing losses to ranked fighters — now we know that he’ll return to action at least one more!

Reyes knows something about bouncing back from adversity. Though he currently stands at the No. 14 spot, Reyes was once an undefeated hotshot prospect who very nearly dethroned Jon Jones. After that controversial decision loss, Reyes lost three more in a row and suffered serious health issues. It wasn’t until June 2024 that “The Devastator” finally bounced back by knocking out Dustin Jacoby in the very first round.

It remains to be seen if he can keep that momentum rolling opposite Smith.

Insomnia

I guess failing a drug test and abusing eye pokes equals out in the end, and therefore Chris Weidman is the rightful winner after all? What a journey.

Yana Santos is already riding a three-fight losing streak heading into UFC Vegas 95, she definitely should not accept this fight.

Hmm what did he mean by this?

I cannot wait for somebody to put two fingertips on the mat only to get destroyed by a knee.

What’s fun about Merab Dvalishvili is he has a proven track record of doing silly stuff like this even when the cameras are not around.

Got a little carried away …

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Beautiful takedown feint into spinning elbow, the Jon Jones special.

I am reminded of when a Stefan Struve jump knee didn’t go so well back in the day — it’s not good to get punched with zero connection to the floor!

Embarrassing.

Random Land

UFC went into decline as soon as Steven Seagal stopped hanging around.

Midnight Music: Hardcore hip-hop, 1993

I don’t know that many besides me will care or remember, but a decade ago today (Aug. 9, 2014), I made my amateur MMA debut. HERE is the article for the interested and the grainy video can be seen below:

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC middleweight Bruno Silva has accepted a six-month suspension for a “likely unintentional” violation of the promotion’s anti-doping policy.

UFC’s in-house anti-doping partner Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) announced the news Friday, stating that Silva tested positive for the presence of 3a-Hydroxy-2a-methyl-5a-androstan-17-one — a metabolite of drostanolone — in a out-of-competition urine sample collected on April 11, with an estimated concentration of less than 1ng/ml.

Per CSAD, Silva provided a negative in-competition sample on March 30 — the date of his most recent UFC appearance — as well as negative out-of-competition samples on April 30 and June 14. CSAD stated that the source of the metabolite was not located, however Silva’s additional test results and extensive cooperation throughout the investigative process led CSAD to determine the positive test was “indicative of low-level contaminant exposure.”

“CSAD’s science advisor concluded that [Silva’s] sample results alone indicate that the drostanolone was NOT injected, that the exposure was very likely unintentional, and based on the negative ‘bookend’ results surrounding the low-level adverse finding, offered no significant performance enhancing benefit gained from this exposure,” a statement read.

CSAD also noted that because the organization’s science advisor disagreed with previous USADA positions related to Silva’s two-year anti-doping suspension for boldenone in 2019, CSAD did not treat Silva’s latest positive test as a second violation of the UFC anti-doping policy.

Silva’s suspension is retroactive to the date of his positive test, meaning he is cleared to return to active competition on Oct. 11. The 35-year-old UFC veteran has lost three consecutive bouts and five of his past six. He dropped a controversial decision to Chris Weidman in his most recent octagon appearance at UFC Atlantic City.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is accusing U.S. regulators of violating a global code by allowing athletes who violated anti-doping rules to continue to compete in hopes of catching others cheating.

According to a report from Reuters, WADA claims the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) broke the World Anti-Doping Code, which all national anti-doping bodies sign on to, by using athletes as “undercover agents” without notifying WADA “and without there being any provision allowing such a practice under the Code or USADA’s own rules.”

WADA said it was aware of three cases that occurred between 2011 and 2014 in which athletes who “committed serious anti-doping rule violations” competed for years without their violations being published or sanctioned.

However, USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement that WADA was fully aware of the athletes’ cooperation and their return to competition.

“During these investigations, the athletes provided intelligence to federal law enforcement, USADA, and the IF that led to criminal charges and anti-doping rule violations. USADA collaborated closely with WADA and the IF to ensure that those engaging in doping violations, as well as criminal offenses, were identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.

“WADA was notified of the violations and sanction, and WADA did not appeal them, though they had the right to do so. The Code allows for substantial assistance, such as what was provided in this case, and WADA did not initiate a compliance case against USADA as they should have if they truly believed we failed to follow the rules” (h/t NYTimes.com).

WADA acknowledged there is a provision in its code that allows athletes caught cheating who provide “substantial assistance” to appeal for a reduction in any ban they receive. But, it says, allowing athletes to compete after being found guilty of anti-doping violations to attempt to gather evidence against others is not permitted.

Tygart snapped back, justifying the use of “undercover agents” to snuff out bigger systemic problems in a statement to Reuters.

“If you’ve got agents or others who are preying on athletes and trafficking … I think it’s totally appropriate,” he added.

WADA Accuses U.S. Anti-Doping Agency of Threatening the ‘integrity of sporting competition’

The USADA plan “threatened the integrity of sporting competition,” according to a statement from WADA.

“By operating it, USADA was in clear breach of the rules. Contrary to the claims made by USADA, WADA did not sign off on this practice of permitting drug cheats to compete for years on the promise that they would try to obtain incriminating evidence against others.”

Tygart dismissed the report from Reuters as nothing more than a WADA “smear” attempt.

“It is sad to see WADA leaders’ desperate and dangerous attempts to smear others, including informants,” Tygart said.

USADA first partnered with Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2015. After nearly a decade of working together, the two parties split on January 1, 2024, with Tygart claiming that their relationship had become “untenable” amid Conor McGregor’s highly publicized return to the testing pool late last year.

Since then, the UFC has partnered with Drug Free Sport International, the organization that currently handles testing duties for the MLB, NFL, NBA, and the NCAA.

LowKickMMA.com

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts