Author: Dan Hiergesell

Fatima Kline turned in the first UFC finish of the new year earlier tonight (Sat., Jan. 11, 2025) at UFC Vegas 101 live on ESPN+ from inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, stopping fellow women’s strawweight Viktoriia Dudakova with a brutal second-round TKO (elbows).

This was a weird fight on paper considering both women were coming off the first loss of their professional careers. Fatima’s came in a short-notice debut up a weight class so she was looked at as the heavy betting favorite in this “Prelims” opener. Dudakova isn’t a complete slouch, but most thought she’d be too one-dimensional to walk away with a win.

Well, the oddsmakers were right. After some decent takedown attempts and brief top control, Dudakova’s attacks began to fall short. It allowed Fatima to implement her own offense and start making the Russian pay every time she entered inside. Fatima eventually leaned on her own top game and started to slice Dudakova up with elbows late in the second round. Dudakova was bloodied up and defenseless which forced the referee to step in for the stoppage.

Check out the final moments in the above video player.

Fatima, 24, now has her first official UFC win after competing in her natural weight class. In total, “The Archangel” is now 7-0 in the women’s strawweight division and clearly a rising prospect to keep an eye on here in 2025.

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For complete UFC Vegas 101 results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.

Conor McGregor returned to contact sports earlier Saturday when the former UFC double champion joined a friendly game of soccer to show off his skills.

“Notorious” is no stranger to football after spending much of his childhood in Ireland playing the sport. Of course, McGregor eventually turned to combat sports and honed his skills in boxing and then mixed martial arts (MMA). The UFC superstar is still passionate about the sport of soccer, but fight fans don’t see him play that often.

On Saturday, a video surfaced showing McGregor playing a friendly game of soccer. It was only about 30 seconds long, but that was still enough time for “Notorious” to slide into his opponents twice and then wrestle another player to the ground. It was pretty competitive to say the least, which is exactly what McGregor likes.

Check it out below:

“Today we ball,” wrote McGregor via X.

“I break jaws with my shoulder, and noses. I get the ball any pitch, any where. Moses,” he later added.

McGregor, who has been recently making headlines for all the wrong reasons, is still waiting for his long-awaited return to UFC. The Irish superstar had his comeback scheduled for UFC 303 last June against Michael Chandler, but a broken toe knocked him out of commission.

What are you thoughts, fight fans? Did McGregor go too hard during this friendly game of soccer?

Let us know!

The new year started off with an absolute bang as Friday’s LFA 199 event from inside Tachi Palace Casino Resort in Lemoore, Calif., produced one of the best knockout finishes fight fans will see in 2025.

With other promotions like Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) hosting its first event of the year this weekend and Professional Fighters League (PFL) coming back later this month, Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA) was provided a blank slate to spark the combat calendar with a memorable LFA 199 showcase.

One of the matchups that delivered was a main event bout between featherweights Erick Visconde and Ary Farias. Visconde had won seven of his last eight trips to the cage entering Friday night and was expected to walk out victorious, but nobody anticipated the Brazilian prospect to churn out an early Knockout of the Year candidate.

The stoppage occurred in the second round as the two featherweights came together for an exchange of strikes. As Visconde was entering range he unleashed a ridiculous spinning elbow that connected flush. Farias instantly went out and ended up faceplanting onto the canvas to cap off the ultra-violent sequence.

Check out the finish in the above video player and let us know your thoughts!

Mark Zuckerberg has been making combat headlines over the past few years as he hones his MMA grappling and striking skills alongside some of the best in the sport. However, there was a time when the Meta owner didn’t want anyone to know he was transitioning to combat sports and even ended up disguising himself for a jiu-jitsu tournament.

It’s no secret that Zuckerberg is a massive fan of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The billionaire techy has attended multiple UFC events over the years and has even sparred with the likes of Alex Pereira, Max Holloway, Israel Adesanya, and many more. In turn, Zuckerberg has gained the respect of fighters and fight fans. He may live a one-of-a-kind life off the mat, but when he’s on the mat he’s just one of the guys.

Earlier this week, Zuckerberg made another appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and ended up discussing his early efforts to start learning jiu-jitsu. Given his global status and notoriety, Zuckerberg actually had to hide his identity and wear a disguise for his first official grappling tournament, but that only lasted so long.

“I guess I rolled into this tournament and I registered under my first and middle names so people didn’t know who I was,” revealed Zuckerberg (h/t MMA Fighting). “I had like sunglasses and a hat, and I wore a COVID mask. It wasn’t until they called our names to stop onto the mat that I was like, ‘All right,’ took all the stuff off, and the guy [was] like, ‘Uh, what?’ I think he was trying to figure out what was going on.

“Afterwards, his coach was like, ‘I think that was Mark Zuckerberg who just submitted me,’ and the coach is like, ‘No. No way.’ [The other guy] was like, ‘No, I think that was.’ The coach was like, ‘What? You’re fighting Mark Zuckerberg? Get back in there, go fight him,’ and he was like, ‘No, he just submitted me.’”

Zuckerberg, who recently appointed UFC CEO Dana White to join the Meta board, is feeling rejuvenated ever since taking on some MMA training. The billionaire owner swears it has provided him with a level of balance in a life more stressful than most.

“It’s really important for me for balance,” Zuckerberg explained. “I basically try to train every morning. I’m either doing general fitness, or a kind of MMA [discipline], and do sometimes grappling, sometimes striking, or some both. But it got to the point where I tore my ACL training. At that point, I wasn’t integrated between my weight training and my fighting training, so I think I was probably overdoing it. So now, I’m trying to do this in a cohesive way, which I think will be more sustainable.

“It definitely takes the edge off. After a couple of hours of doing that in the morning, it’s like nothing else that day is going to stress you out that much. You can just deal with it.”

Johnny Walker has unexpectedly been forced to withdraw from his bout with Bogdan Guskov next weekend at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 from Inglewood, Calif., as the UFC light heavyweight veteran took to social media early Saturday to reveal the bad news to his fans.

While there remains some uncertainty if UFC 311 will still be held in California due to the ongoing wildfires fighters are still preparing for battle. If UFC 311 needs to be moved it appears that Las Vegas is a likely alternative, but that remains up in the air.

What fight fans now know for certain is that next weekend’s UFC 311 card will no longer feature Walker. The perennial contender suffered a “bad injury” in the final leg of his camp and has been forced to remove himself from his matchup with Guskov. It was lining up to be a very important bout for Walker after coming up short in his last three trips to the Octagon.

“Hi, guys. Bad news,” said Walker in a recent video posted to Instagram (shown above). “I’ve been pulled out by a bad injury next week at UFC 311 so I’m not going to be competing.

“I’m devastated. A lot of hard work I put in. A few months, train a lot. I really want to come back and do the show for you, but not this time.”

As of now, Guskov remains without an opponent for next weekend’s UFC 311 pay-per-view (PPV) card. However, it’s UFC’s first major event of 2025 so matchmakers shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a short-notice replacement looking to start the new year off with an upset.

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For more UFC 311 fight card news click HERE.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is already discussing the possibility of moving the upcoming UFC 311 pay-per-view (PPV) card from Inglewood, California to Las Vegas, Nevada, as unprecedented wildfires still spread across Los Angeles. As of this writing, UFC 311 is still scheduled to take place inside Intuit Dome on Jan. 18, but the venue just canceled two events for this weekend and fight fans are beginning to worry.

Unfortunately, Los Angeles is still battling ongoing wildfires and the massive destruction that has come as a result. In turn, L.A. and the surrounding areas have begun to go into a bit of a lockdown until the chaos is under control. This includes cancelations of television show tapings, movie production, and now live sporting events and concerts.

On Friday, MMA journalist, Ariel Helwani, revealed that UFC officials are already in talks to move UFC 311 from Inglewood to “Sin City” if the wildfires prevent Inuit Dome from re-opening before next weekend’s PPV event. Luckily, T-Mobile Arena is open to host the event on Jan. 18 so the transition wouldn’t be all too difficult.

“UFC has had talks about the status of UFC 311 next weekend, I’m told.

“UFC 311 is currently slated for the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. Obviously, that region is facing a devastating wildfire crisis at the moment.

“The NFL announced yesterday that they are moving the Rams x Vikings playoff game, scheduled for Monday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood to Glendale, Ariz.

“As of right now, 311 is staying at Intuit. The hope is it remains there. But they are monitoring and ready to move the card, if need be. No talks of delaying the card. Obviously that call needs to happen soon. The event is eight days away.

“Vegas would be the frontrunner. Worth noting: T-Mobile Arena is not booked next Saturday, Jan. 18.”

Helwani posted additional notes below regarding UFC 311’s potential move:

“Nevada State Athletic Commission reps tell me no serious talks about bringing the card to Vegas have transpired at this time.”

Thoughts on all of this? Where do you think UFC 311 will actually take place?

Let us know!