Francis Ngannou reveals he accidentally knocked out Ciryl Gane in training, denies they were ever friends or teammates

Conor McGregor still had a very profitable year, but he’s no longer the highest-paid athlete in sports. That’s according to Forbes, who revealed the top 50 highest-paid athletes’ list for 2022 on Wednesday, with soccer star Lionel Messi at the top after he reportedly earned $130 million through a lucrative contract while playing for Paris Saint-Germain and FC Barcelona along with a multitude of endorsement deals.

Paul Daley is done fighting, for real, with two notable exceptions. On Friday at Bellator 281 in London, Daley bid a fond farewell to MMA competition as he won the final fight of his career with a second-round knockout of Wendell Giacomo in front of an arena packed with English supporters. It was the 64th fight of Daley’s career and his 44th win.

According to boxing legend Floyd Mayweather, his scheduled exhibition boxing match is back on. The undefeated professional boxer took to Instagram on Tuesday to post that The Showcase in the Skies event — as well as his bout with former sparring partner Don Moore — that was originally slated to take place this past weekend will now take place May 21 in Dubai at the Burjal Arab helipad. FITE currently has the event listed on their current schedule for this Saturday.

Tony Ferguson has been surprisingly vocal following his brutal UFC 274 front kick knockout loss to Michael Chandler. Whether he’s speaking about his fighting future or calling out doubters, “El Cucuy” is pulling no punches. Among the more odd interactions that the always-unique Ferguson has had in...

A new season of events featuring up-and-coming fighters looking to earn a spot on the UFC roster is slated to begin in July. On Tuesday, the Nevada Athletic Commission approved 10 events for the sixth season of Dana White’s Contender Series, which takes place at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas and will air Tuesday nights on ESPN+.

Tony Ferguson said his call for health insurance at UFC 274’s pre-fight press conference was not his first such request to his promoter. The ex-interim lightweight champion said he broached the issue because it fell by the wayside in a previous UFC meeting. It also led to an unexpected demand when a short-notice fight with Islam Makhachev at UFC 272 instead became a fight with Chandler at UFC 274.

Bantamweight standouts Jack Shore and Ricky Simon will square off at a UFC event scheduled for July 16. Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the matchup to MMA Fighting after a report from MMA reporter Alex Behunin. The July 16 event’s city and venue have yet to be confirmed.

MMA has always been known for being a world where anything goes, and as far as the UFC is concerned, that also applies to what comes out of fighters’ mouths. On Saturday, Andrea Lee coach and cornerman Tony Kelley drew criticism from media, fans, and fighters, when he made offensive comments about Lee’s opponent Viviane Araujo between rounds. Speaking to Lee, Kelley let her know that he felt Araujo was cheating, saying, “That’s what they’re gonna do. They’re dirty f******* Brazilians. They’re going to f****** cheat like that.”

Dustin Poirier still doesn’t want to fight Colby Covington, but he’s willing to do so if that’s what it takes. In March, Colby Covington defeated his bitter rival and former teammate Jorge Masvidal, winning a dominant decision at UFC 272. Following the win, Covington called for a fight with Poirier, another former teammate with whom he’s had friction, even including Poirier’s family in the callout. Poirier, a lightweight who previously competed at featherweight, shot down Covington’s call out, but things have apparently taken a turn over the past week.

Amanda Nunes is open to facing Kayla Harrison in MMA now that she’s no longer part of American Top Team. In fact, the two-time Olympic gold medalist was part of the reason why Nunes decided to leave the Florida-based gym. Speaking on this week’s episode of MMA Fighting podcast...

Lerone Murphy found himself in the hospital after getting into a cycling accident. The undefeated UFC featherweight posted a picture of himself in a hospital bed on Instagram, accompanied by a caption explaining how he ended up there and how a lengthy wait for medical assistance could have caused the situation to be much worse.

After a mediocre week for UFC Vegas 54, the No Bets Barred podcast returns to dive deep into all the best betting opportunities available for UFC Vegas 55. It’s another 11-fight card on Saturday in the UFC Apex, headlined by a main event fight between Holly Holm and Ketlen Vieira — and like last week, it’s a tough card to find value in. As such, this week Conner Burks declares himself “The Chalk King” by taking seven bets at minus money. Jed Meshew is a little more adventurous this week, taking a couple of underdog bets, including talking himself into a small play on massive underdog odds from the night’s undercard. Jed also lands on the opposite side of Conner in the main event — so once again our two hosts find themselves in a head-to-head battle.

Junior Dos Santos will make his Eagle FC debut on Friday, but it turns out the promotion already has big plans for his future. If the former UFC heavyweight champion is able to get through Yorgan De Castro in the Eagle FC 47 main event, Khabib Nurmagomedov announced plans to pursue a fight that would book Dos Santos against Fedor Emelianenko in the near future.

Manel Kape will still be able to fight at UFC 275 despite a recent drug-testing scare. The 28-year-old flyweight tested positive for trace amounts of the M3 metabolite DHMCT in an out-of-competition drug test administered in Nevada this past April. The M3 metabolite is the same long-term metabolite that has chased former UFC champion Jon Jones and several other UFC fighters in recent years. At a Tuesday meeting in Las Vegas, the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) voted unanimously to monitor Kape’s situation and help the fighter receive a pathway to being re-licensed in the state of Nevada as long as he passes two USADA-administered drug tests by September 30.

Dustin Poirier wants it. Nate Diaz wants it. The fans want to see it. Everybody seems into a potential Poirier vs. Diaz matchup, but for some reason, the UFC isn’t putting it together. Why?. On this episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses that, along...

Brad Riddell will look to get back in the win column and slow down a surging lightweight contender at the UFC’s biggest event of the year. Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that Riddell will face Jalin Turner at UFC 276, which takes place July 2 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and will serve as the capper to the promotion’s International Fight Week. Turner’s management team Iridium Sports first revealed the booking on social media.

The UFC will finally make its highly-anticipated debut in French territory on Sept. 3, setting up the octagon at the Accor Arena. Tickets will go on sale on June 23, the company announced Thursday. The promotion has yet to officially announce any matchups for the card, but middleweights Robert Whittaker...

Jan Blachowicz had to navigate the first round of his fight with Aleksandar Rakic with a serious handicap. Although Blachowicz won the UFC Vegas 54 main event this past Saturday by third-round TKO when Rakic succumbed to a knee injury, he had to deal with an injury of his own when a punch from Rakic damaged his left eye early in the bout.

DAMN! They Were Good is a new podcast where we celebrate the careers of some of our favorite fighters ever, and there is no better place to start than with Carlos Condit. Condit is one of the most exciting fighters in the history of MMA. Aside from being one half of arguably the single greatest fight of all-time — his bout against Robbie Lawler at UFC 195 — the WEC welterweight champion delivered countless unforgettable moments in a career that spanned multiple generations of the sport. Jed Meshew, Shaheen Al-Shatti, and Alexander K. Lee get together to remember those moments and celebrate the career of the only man violent enough to bear the moniker “The Natural Born Killer.”

Michael Page — like most who watched on Friday — wasn’t thrilled with the main event of Bellator 281 when he fought Logan Storley for the interim welterweight title. In the end, Page hopes the disappointing nature of the 25-minute contest could lead to some rule changes, especially when it comes to wrestling.