Olympic silver medallist Sara McMann looks to bounce back from the first loss of her mixed martial arts career when she returns to the cage at UFC Fight Night 47: “Bader vs St. Preux” on August 16th in Bangor, Maine. The standout wrestler faces Invicta FC Bantamweight Champion Lauren Murphy.

UFC officials announced the featured matchup earlier today. McMann fought her way to a UFC title shot against fellow Olympic medallist “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey in February, but succumbed to a knee to the body early in round one. Murphy is unbeaten and she captured the Invicta FC title in December.

Read More…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s second women’s strawweight bout is set to take place on July 26th at UFC on FOX 12: “Lawler vs Brown” in San Jose, California. Unbeaten rising star Joanna Jędrzejczyk will make her Octagon debut against fellow striker Juliana “Ju Thai” de Lima Carneiro.

MMANews.pl first reported on the 115-pound matchup earlier this week. Jędrzejczyk is coming off of her biggest win to date this past month when she knocked out Rosi “The Surgeon” Sexton. Lima rebounded from her first defeat under the Invicta FC banner by stopping Liliani Trolezi in October.

Read More…

This year’s edition of the Shoot Boxing Girls S-Cup tournament is set to take place on August 2nd at Yamano Hall in the Yoyogi district of Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. The 2014 Girls S-Cup includes many of the promotion’s top stars including three-time Girls S-Cup tournament champion Rena Kubota.

Among the other participants confirmed for next month’s Shoot Boxing card is Kubota’s teammate and protégé, two-time Shoot Boxing JKS48 champion Mio Tsumura. Former Shoot Boxing Japan Women’s Flyweight Champion Ai Takahashi, “V.V” Mei Yamaguchi and Madoka Jinnai will also compete.

Read More…

UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson retained his title with a dominant Unanimous Decision victory on June 14th at UFC 174 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Johnson shut out rising star Ali “Puncher” Bagautinov and remains atop the 125-pound flyweight rankings.

In other June bouts, top-ranked strawweight Jessica “Jag” Aguilar made a successful first defence of her WSOF title by outpointing Emi “Kamikaze Angel” Fujino at WSOF 10. Joanna Jędrzejczyk continued her climb up the women’s flyweight rankings by knocking out Rosi “The Surgeon” Sexton.

Read More…

Flyweight prospect DeAnna “The Argentine Assassin” Bennett moved up to 135 pounds and earned another impressive win tonight in front of hometown supporters at Showdown Fights 14: “Heavyweight Collision” in Orem, Utah. Bennett submitted Colleen “The Thoroughbred” Schneider in the first round.

Despite giving up a size advantage to Schneider tonight, Bennett had little trouble in submitting the SFL women’s champ with a rear-naked choke to make it two-for-two against TUF 18 alumni. Bennett previously outpointed TUF 18 winner Julianna “The Venezuelan Vixen” Peña in February 2013.

Read More…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s latest doubleheader of fight cards continued tonight with UFC Fight Night 44: “Swanson vs Stephens” at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. The event was headlined by a featherweight showdown between Cub Swanson and Jeremy “Lil’ Heathen” Stephens.

Also on the card tonight, TUF 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum took on Nicholas “Nico” Musoke in a welterweight matchup. Cezar “Mutante” Ferreira clashed with Andrew “Highlight” Craig in a featured bout in the middleweight division. MMARising.com has live play-by-play for the UFC Fight Night 44 main card.

Read More…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship came to Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand tonight for UFC Fight Night 43: “Te Huna vs Marquardt.” The event was headlined by a middleweight bout between hometown standout James Te Huna and former Strikeforce champ Nate “The Great” Marquardt.

Elsewhere, Soa “The Hulk” Palelei battled Jared “The Big Show” Rosholt in the heavyweight co-feature. Hatsu Hioki faced Charles “Do Bronx” Oliveira in a featherweight matchup and Robert Whittaker met Mike “Biggie” Rhodes at welterweight. MMARising.com has live play-by-play for the main card.

Read More…

Former Shoot Boxing Japan Women’s Flyweight Champion Ai Takahashi picked up a hard-fought victory in her J-Girls kickboxing debut on Sunday night at J-Girls: “The Shining Wild Angels 2nd” in Tokyo, Japan. Takahashi narrowly defeated reigning J-Girls Bantamweight Champion Madoka Jinnai.

The non-title main event bout between Takahashi and Jinnai was an action-packed affair and Takahashi’s aggressive striking was just enough to earn a Split Decision win after an extension round. In her pro debut, highly-touted 16-year-old Yukari Yamaguchi destroyed Megumi Igawa in 68 seconds.

Read More…