Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Check out the UFC, PFL, and Bellator fights that were first reported or confirmed by MMA Junkie in the past week.
MMA fight announcements are hard to follow. With so many outlets and channels available, it’s nearly impossible to organize.
But here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got your back.
Each week, we’ll compile all the newly surfaced fights in one spot. Every Monday, expect a feature listing everything you might have missed from the UFC, PFL, and Bellator.
Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie or officially announced by the promotions from Feb. 5-11.
Find out who joined the UFC in September and learn more about them here.
The UFC roster is bigger than ever – and it continues to expand.
Fresh faces appear on nearly every card, whether onboarded as short-notice opening fillers, “Dana White’s Contender Series” signees, or rare straight-up additions. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the hustle and bustle of the mixed martial arts news beat, but here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got you covered.
“Fresh Ink” is your list of fighters added to the UFC roster the previous month and provides background on who they are and where they came from.
Check out the September 2023 list below.
At just 20, Igor da Silva is the newest addition to the UFC flyweight division.
LAS VEGAS – At just 20, [autotag]Igor da Silva[/autotag] is the newest addition to the UFC flyweight division.
Jungle Fight champion da Silva (8-0) earned his contract Tuesday at Dana White’s Contender Series 63 when he finished Jhonata Silva (8-2) by second-round TKO at the UFC Apex.
Despite being so young, the undefeated Brazilian received high praise from UFC CEO Dana White, but da Silva isn’t looking to rush his way to the top. He wants to make his UFC debut against someone with similar experience as him.
“I want to start against someone who perhaps is debuting in the UFC, as well,” da Silva said through an interpreter at the DWCS 63 post-fight press conference. “Or someone who’s got some experience of a couple of fights but not many of them. I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew, but I do feel that I want to start fighting as soon as possible because at the end, I want to be a champion as well.”
Da Silva is open to competing before the end of year and sees UFC Sao Paulo in November as an option.
“I’m going to go home, check if there’s any damage or anything,” da Silva said. “See if everything is alright. I’m going to go back home to training immediately and just recover, regroup a little bit, and if the UFC calls up December, January, I’m ready to go. Maybe UFC in Brazil? I’m ready. Why not?”
Check out the full interview with da Silva in the video above.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Dana White’s Contender Series 63.
MMA Junkie fight analyst Dan Tom takes a closer look at the performances of the five winners from Dana White’s Contender Series 63.
Week 7 of Dana White’s Contender Series (2023) took place on Tuesday in Las Vegas, and we’re grading the winners from the five-fight card, which streamed on ESPN+ from the UFC Apex.
With a simple but digestible format that’s had the MMA fanbase responding, this series has shown to have legs in multiple ways while serving as a crockpot for contenders the UFC matchmakers can use to fill their roster for future events. With that trend in mind, I once again will be taking a look at the winning fighters, regardless of whether or not they won a UFC contract, and grading their performances in regard to their probability of returning to a UFC stage.
