UFC News

Cole Shelton - February 19, 2025

UFC CEO Dana White has made two key welterweight fights official, including Belal Muhammad’s first title defense. On Instagram Live on Wednesday, White announced that Jack Della Maddalena has been pulled from his UFC London main event fight against Leon Edwards. Della Maddalena will now headline UFC 315 in Montreal against Belal Muhammad for the welterweight title. White revealed that Shavkat Rakhmonov is dealing with an injury and will likely face the winner of Muhammad-Della Maddalena.

Cole Shelton - February 19, 2025

UFC CEO Dana White has announced some key fights for UFC 314 on April 12 in Miami, Florida. White went on Instagram Live and announced the card would be headlined by a featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes as Ilia Topuria has vacated the belt.

Cole Shelton - February 19, 2025

In the main event of UFC Seattle, former UFC champ-champ Henry Cejudo takes on Song Yadong. Heading into the fight, Cejudo is a +220 underdog while the eighth-ranked bantamweight is a -295 favorite on FanDuel. Ahead of the scrap, BJPENN.com reached out to several pro-fighters to get their predictions for the bantamweight main event. The pros are nearly unanimous in thinking Song Yadong will get his hand raised and beat Henry Cejudo, likely by decision.

Cole Shelton - February 19, 2025

Rob Font went through a couple of opponents after Dominick Cruz withdrew from their UFC Seattle fight. Font was supposed to take on the former bantamweight champ, but a shoulder injury knocked Cruz out. After Cruz pulled out of the fight, he said the original opponent offered was Raul Rosas Jr., but that didn’t come to fruition.

Josh Evanoff - February 19, 2025

UFC middleweight contender Caio Borralho wants a fight with Nassourdine Imavov next. ‘The Natural’ is quickly rising up the UFC’s 185-pound rankings. Last August, the hard-hitting Brazilian received the biggest test of his career, in the form of a Fight Night main event against Jared Cannonier. There, Caio Borralho passed the test with flying colors, hurting ‘Killa Gorilla’ several times en route to a unanimous decision win.

Josh Evanoff - February 19, 2025

Undefeated flyweight contender Muhammad Mokaev is still focused on a return to the UFC. ‘The Punisher’ became one of the UFC’s most-hyped prospects at 125 pounds starting in 2022. Holding an undefeated 6-0 record, Muhammad Mokaev quickly notched wins over the likes of Charles Johnson, Tim Elliott, and Alex Perez. His winning streak earned him a crack at fellow contender Manel Kape last summer at UFC 304 in Manchester.

Cole Shelton - February 19, 2025

UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis doesn’t think Khamzat Chimaev is the boogeyman people think he is. After Du Plessis defended his middleweight title with a decision win over Sean Strickland, the expectation was he would face Chimaev next. It’s an intriguing matchup as many view Chimaev as the boogeyman,  but he doesn’t think that is the case.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - February 19, 2025

Caio Borralho has weighed in on the Sean Strickland situation with his coach Eric Nicksick. Many fans were surprised by how critical Nicksick was of Strickland during a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. The Xtreme Couture head coach clearly felt Strickland’s effort in his rematch against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312 was uninspired. Nicksick went as far as to say he trains world champions and Strickland needs to decide what he wants to do going forward.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - February 19, 2025

Michael Bisping has an interesting prediction for Alexander Volkanovski’s next fight. Volkanovski was last seen in the Octagon back in February 2024. Volkanovski lost the UFC Featherweight Championship to Ilia Topuria via second-round knockout. It was the second KO loss for Volkanovski in the span of four months. Fight fans are happy to see that “The Great” has taken a year off to regroup.

Harry Kettle - February 19, 2025

UFC flyweight contender Steve Erceg has explained why he’s so excited to battle it out with Brandon Moreno in his next fight. Since arriving in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Steve Erceg has been on quite the rollercoaster ride. Following a 3-0 start, he managed to vault himself into a title fight against Alexandre Pantoja. The two battled it out at UFC 301, and unfortunately for Steve, he came up on the wrong side of a unanimous decision defeat.

Harry Kettle - February 19, 2025

Former UFC flyweight champion Alexa Grasso is set to make her return to the Octagon later this year at UFC 315. Over the course of the last few years, Alexa Grasso’s career has been focused on one person – Valentina Shevchenko. She defeated her for the belt back at UFC 285, then retained the belt as a result of a draw six months later. Then, at UFC 306 in September, Shevchenko was finally able to reclaim the strap at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Harry Kettle - February 19, 2025

Paige VanZant has reacted to her husband Austin Vanderford taking a short notice fight against Nikolay Veretennikov at UFC Seattle. For many years, Austin Vanderford has enjoyed a solid mixed martial arts career outside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He even managed to work his way up to a Bellator title shot against Gegard Mousasi, although he was unable to capture the gold. Still, he’s had a great run in his own right, with a lot of people recognizing him for his own abilities as opposed to him just being married to Paige VanZant.