Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
All the UFC and Bellator fight announcements 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 or Bellator.
Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie or officially announced by the promotions from Sept. 11-17.
Jamey-Lyn Horth wasn’t going to let a weight miss from Hailey Cowan stop her UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 223 in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Jamey-Lyn Horth[/autotag] beat Hailey Cowan with a unanimous decision Saturday to open up the preliminary card at UFC Fight Night 223 in Las Vegas.
Take a look inside the fight with Horth, who got a win in her UFC debut – and spoiled the promotional debut for Cowan.
Check out the numbers to come out UFC Fight Night 223, where Song Yadong climbed the bantamweight knockout list with a main event finish.
The UFC closed its April schedule Saturday with UFC Fight Night 223 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
The card, which was thin on paper, saw [autotag]Song Yadong[/autotag] (20-7-1 MMA, 9-2-1 UFC) shine in the main event when he outworked and eventually finished [autotag]Ricky Simon[/autotag] (20-4 MMA, 8-3 UFC) with a fifth-round TKO in their bantamweight showdown.
For more on the numbers to come out of the main event, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from UFC Fight Night 223.
UFC Fight Night 223 fighters took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay, a program that continued after the UFC’s deal with Venum.
LAS VEGAS – Fighters from Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 223 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $144,500.
The program, a comprehensive plan that includes outfitting requirements, media obligations and other items under the fighter code of conduct, replaces the previous payments made under the UFC Athlete Outfitting Policy.
UFC Fight Night 223 took place at the UFC Apex. The main card streamed on ESPN+ following prelims on ESPN2.
The full UFC Fight Night 223 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:
* * * *
[autotag]Song Yadong[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Ricky Simon[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Caio Borralho[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Michal Oleksiejczuk[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Rodolfo Vieira[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Cody Brundage[/autotag]: $4,500
[autotag]Fernando Padilla[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Julian Erosa[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Marcos Rogerio de Lima[/autotag]: $16,000
def. [autotag]Waldo Cortes-Acosta[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Trey Waters[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Josh Quinlan[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Martin Buday[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Jake Collier[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Cody Durden[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Charles Johnson[/autotag]: $4,500
[autotag]Irina Alekseeva[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Stephanie Egger[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Marcus McGhee[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Journey Newson[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Jamey-Lyn Horth[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Hailey Cowan[/autotag]: $4,000
Under the UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance program’s payout tiers, which appropriate the money generated by Venum’s multi-year sponsorship with the UFC, fighters are paid based on their total number of UFC bouts, as well as Zuffa-era WEC fights (January 2007 and later) and Zuffa-era Strikeforce bouts (April 2231 and later). Fighters with 1-3 bouts receive $4,000 per appearance; 4-5 bouts get $4,500; 6-10 bouts get $6,000; 11-15 bouts earn $11,000; 16-20 bouts pocket $16,000; and 21 bouts and more get $21,000. Additionally, champions earn $42,000 while title challengers get $32,000.
In addition to experience-based pay, UFC fighters will receive in perpetuity royalty payments amounting to 20-30 percent of any UFC merchandise sold that bears their likeness, according to officials.
Full 2023 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts:
Year-to-date total: $2,556,000
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $17,145,000
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 223.
Check out what the UFC Fight Night 223 winners and guest fighters had to say backstage at Saturday’s event.
LAS VEGAS – UFC Fight Night 223 took place Saturday with 11 bouts on the lineup. We’ve got you covered with backstage winner interviews from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
You can hear from all the UFC Fight Night 223 winners by checking out their post-fight news conferences below.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 223.
Canada, you have a new representative in the UFC and her name is Jamey-Lyn Horth.
“Holy sh*t.”
That’s what LFA champion [autotag]Jamey-Lyn Horth[/autotag] said her reaction was when she finally got the call that she would have a UFC contract in her email inbox in the hours that followed.
“I was almost numb to it,” Horth recently told MMA Junkie ahead of her debut at UFC Fight Night 223. “Whoa – this is actual reality. Then I got a bit emotional on the second and third day, and now it’s just full time back in work mode. It’s crazy. It’s over-the-moon exciting.”
Seemingly every fighter who graces the UFC roster recounts their promotional signing with some ounce of relief, self-recognition, excitement and joy. But for Horth (5-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), a two-year stretch riddled with delays and obstacles outside of her control, made it even sweeter.
Horth was initially scheduled to fight on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2020, but visa issues scrapped that. As COVID-19 pandemic regulations began to lift and travel opened up, Horth returned to win the LFA title in December 2021.
After she spent months on the shelf as she recovered from injury, Horth had her first scheduled title defense canceled in late 2022 due to an opponent injury. Her career seemed somewhat snakebitten. That’s until the call came.
“Just because of the past and how things have fallen through and how it’s been really tough to find me opponents over the years, I didn’t get too excited about it,” Horth said of the initial hint from manager Jason House that their might be a UFC opportunity incoming. “Whatever would be, would be. Sure enough, like an hour later, we got the call. He’s like, ‘Contract coming tomorrow. You’re in.’
“It was super f*cking surreal. Fighters hit hardships over the years. If I told myself if I hadn’t made it to where I wanted to be by the time I was 33, then I’d reevaluate where I was going with my life. I turned 33 the next Thursday, so they cut it close. They left me a week before I had to make some decisions.”
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Now officially on the UFC roster, the reigning LFA women’s flyweight champion hopes to make an immediate impact as she moves up a weight class Saturday to fight bantamweight Hailey Cowan (7-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
“The short notice of four or five weeks, I kind of thrive in that situation,” Horth said. “I’m training all the time no matter what it is. I’m always on the mats and always in the gym. I’m always looking to work and get better. So really, I’m always ready to go. … I’m just going to go in there and get this win. I just want to prove to the UFC that I belong here, no matter what – 125 or 135. I’m a force to be reckoned with. I’m coming. I’m going to prove why I should’ve been in here a little while ago. I’m excited to showcase me, Jamey Horth, as an athlete – and a UFC fighter.”
The timing of her signing could not be better – not just because she beat her life reassessment deadline, but because of what looms in the future. For the first time since 2019, the UFC has booked a show in Canada, Horth’s home country. UFC 289 takes place June 10 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Horth wants to take part.
“To fight on that card in Canada would be freaking amazing,” Horth said. “Obviously, I want to be as active as possible. After this fight, if I get a quick turnaround and an opponent for fighting locally, it’d be ideal and a dream.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 223.
Find out who joined the UFC in March 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 the increasingly 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 March 2023 list below.
All the UFC and Bellator fight announcements 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 or Bellator.
Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie from March 20-26.
For those who make it to the highest stage, the journey starts long before they strap on UFC or Bellator gloves.
Every champion in MMA history started out somewhere.
For those who make it to the highest stage, the journey begins long before they strap on UFC, Bellator, or PFL gloves. Modern-era fighters progress through the regional ranks with hopes of accomplishing the highest accolades. Many will try, few will succeed.
This month, five fighters on the verge of achieving major promotion notoriety – one for the second time – return to the cage for what could be their stepping-stone fight. There are dozens of fighters close to making the jump in the coming weeks, but these five are particularly exemplary.
Check out the full results of LFA 120 from the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, Minn.
Legacy Fighting Alliance returned for its final event of the year on Friday evening to crown a new women’s flyweight champion.
[autotag]Marya Cantuaria[/autotag] and [autotag]Jamey-Lyn Horth[/autotag] stepped in the cage to battle it out for the vacant LFA title. On an evening that kept the judges very busy, the main event would not need their help in determining a winner.
The event took place at the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, Minn., and aired on UFC Fight Pass.
The main event started off quickly as both women traded strikes. Horth attempted to bring the fight to the canvas and Cantuaria dropped down to attack a kneebar. She came close to locking in the submission attempt, but Horth was able to work her way free. As the round progressed on the mat, Horth gained top position and landed punches as Cantuaria attempted to lock up her opponent’s limbs.
Early in the second round, Horth brought the pain quickly, landing clean punches on Cantuaria, causing her to drop to a knee against the fence. Horth used her momentum to take top position, landing strikes as Cantuaria did her best to survive and slow down the offensive output.
Horth continued her dominance into the third round. After the fight hit the canvas again, Horth worked her way to the back of Cantuaria and locked in a rear-naked choke to force a tap, becoming the new LFA women’s flyweight champion.
We got a new flyweight champ! #LFA120 pic.twitter.com/ZNdUTAaeug
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) December 11, 2021
Also in action on the main card was former NBA player Royce White, who made his professional MMA debut against Daiqwon Buckley in a heavyweight bout. Although White showed some potential as a fighter, Buckley played the role of spoiler with his wrestling skills and won by unanimous decision.
The official results of LFA 120 include:
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