4:44 PM ET Alistair Overeem calmly weathered an early storm from Alexey Oleynik, before putting him away with knees in the opening round of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event in St. Petersburg, Russia. Overeem (45-17) finished Oleynik (57-12-1) via TKO at the 4:45 mark of the heavyweight bout, which headlined UFC Fight Night in

3:35 PM ET The UFC’s second visit to Russia was headlined by a heavyweight fight between Alistair Overeem and Aleksei Oleinik on Saturday in St. Petersburg, with the heavily favored Overeem taking care of business with a first round TKO. There were surprises elsewhere on the main card, however, as Roxanne Modafferi upset Antonina Shevchenko

7:15 PM ET UFC featherweight Dan Ige says a bizarre set of circumstances led to him supplying blood to a complete stranger early Thursday morning. As an active UFC athlete, Ige, 27, is subject to a random, year-round drug-testing program, which is administered by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). According to Ige, a blood

5:38 PM ET The location of a UFC event can mean as much as, if not more than, the headline fighters themselves — and that just may be the case this weekend. 1 Related The UFC is now on ESPN and ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ to get: exclusive live UFC events, weigh-ins and more; Ariel

4:12 AM ET Roxanne Modafferi is a mixed martial arts pioneer. After learning taekwondo as a teenager, moving to judo and then jiu-jitsu, Modafferi left the United States for Japan and turned professional in 2003 — long before it was a popular career choice for women. “I was always trying to get a fight and

Mar 5, 2019 Jeff Wagenheim Louis Taylor had a better New Year’s Eve than you did. Even though he had to go to work while you maybe went to a party, Taylor was the one who ended the night in the most joyful of celebrations. He was on the job for barely half a minute,

ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Ariel Helwani and Jeff Wagenheim provide their top-10 picks, and their votes produce our consensus men’s and women’s pound-for-pound lists. (You can find Okamoto’s division-by-division rankings here.) Note: Rankings were updated April 16. Men’s pound-for-pound rankings 1. Jon Jones Record: 24-1, 1 NCWeight class: Light heavyweightLast: W (UD) Anthony Smith, March 2Next:

10:07 AM ET It has been over a year since Frankie Edgar risked his guaranteed featherweight title shot against Max Holloway in a last-minute fight against Brian Ortega at UFC 222. Edgar (23-6-1) was scheduled to face Holloway in March 2018, but Holloway was forced to withdraw because of injury. Rather than wait for the

5:37 PM ET Former UFC bantamweight contender Leslie Smith has signed an exclusive deal to compete in Bellator MMA. Smith, 36, confirmed the signing to ESPN on Tuesday, following an initial report by Yahoo! Sports. She does not have a date for her next fight but said she intends to compete in the 145-pound featherweight

Apr 17, 2019 Who is the best fighter regardless of weight class? See ESPN’s P4P rankings. Click here Check out my rankings within each MMA weight division by clicking on the links below. For a list of current UFC champions in all weight classes, click here. Note: Results are current, rankings as of April 16.