News
MMA Calendar | April 2023
April brings another stacked month of events with several top promotions putting on some of their biggest events of the year, not to mention the PFL’s 2023 season taking place throughout the month. Strap yourself in, there’s a lot to get into.
Saturday, April 1st
PFL 1: Regular Season 2023
The PFL kicks off on the first day of the month with a big night of sport and entertainment in general with Anthony Joshua in action and Wrestlemania all set for Saturday 1st. The light heavyweights and lightweights are up first in the season’s opening as the UK’s own Brendan Loughnane looks to continue the form that saw him win the bracket last year in the main event. He faces Marlon Moraes as last year’s light heavyweight winner Rob Wilkinson takes on one of the promotion’s big new signings, former UFC title challenger Thiago Santos.
Ireland’s Will Fleury is up against Poland’s Krzysztof Jotko but the other two big featherweight contests are worth your time alone. 2021’s tournament winner the undefeated Movlid Khaybulaev is back after a year off, facing Japan’s Ryoji Kudo who was a dark horse last year. Also, 2022 finalist Bubba Jenkings faces fellow American Chris Wade after both men were defeated by Loughnane as he took home the one million dollars.
Friday, April 7th
PFL 2: Regular Season 2023
The second instalment of PFL’s 2023 season features the big hitters with the heavyweights and women’s featherweights. In the main event, Larissa Pacheco returns to the PFL after shocking the world last year by defeating Kayla Harrison. She faces former Bellator champion Julia Budd. Whilst last year’s heavyweight winner Ante Delija is out with an injury, the other finalist Matheus Scheffel will be in action, as will new signing Yorgan De Castro. Brazil’s Renan Ferreira who enters the cage at a staggering 6’8” is always worth tuning in for also.
Saturday, April 8th
UFC 287
The big event of the month for the MMA leader sees the Octagon return to Miami with a very strong card. In the main event, it’s another highly-anticipated rematch as Israel Adesanya looks to reclaim the middleweight title and get revenge on Alex Pereira at long last. The stakes simply don’t get any bigger than this match-up, reverting back to the question, does Pereira just have Izzy’s number? The co-main event features the king of Miami Jorge Masvidal returning to the cage to face Gilbert Burns in a big fight for the welterweight division.
Adrian Yanez versus Rob Font is exactly why the bantamweight division is so great right now, Kevin Holland versus Ponzinibbio is sure to be a banger and Raul Rosas Jnr is looking for his second win under the UFC banner. As far as fun fighters go, Chris Curtis and Joe Pyfer are two solid picks.
Friday, April 14th
PFL 3: 2023 Regular Season
Up third, the lightweights and welterweights take the centre stage on April 14th with some big match-ups. Last year’s lightweight winner Olivier Aubin-Mercier will face the division’s hottest signing Shane Burgos in a fantastic match-up. The card also features the likes of Sadibou Sy, Scotland’s Stevie Ray, the returning Clay Collard and a match-up between welterweight finalist Dilano Taylor and undefeated Russian Magomed Umalatov.
LFA 156
We will always give a shout to LFA in the MMA Calendar. Their events are easy to watch via UFC Fight Pass and they have a fantastic track record for producing talent that goes on to bigger and better things. This particular instalment features a welterweight main event between Jalin Fuller (7-2) and Trey Waters (6-1) plus the highly anticipated LFA debut of undefeated wrestling specialist Richie Lewis who has been spending time out in Las Vegas training alongside Conor McGrgeor and John Kavanagh.
Saturday, April 15th
Cage Warriors 152
A big night for UK MMA kicks off in Manchester with Cage Warriors 152. As expected with the card’s location, the promotion’s top talent from the north of the UK are all in action. Next Gen MMA is sure to have a big footprint on this show with the likes of Luke Riley, Nathan Fletcher and Adam Cullen all set to compete. In the main event, George Hardwick looks to defend his lightweight title for the second time when he faces KSW vet Yann Liasse in a fantastic match-up between two of Europe’s top competitors.
Oktagon 41
Oktagon is another promotion we always give a shine to here because their events are always so entertaining. Live from the Czech Republic, expect a huge show, headlined by the bantamweight title fight unification. As a bonus, if you’ve already signed up to DAZN for the PFL or Matchroom Boxing, you can get it on there.
UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Allen
Live from Kansas City, the UK could gain another title challenger as Arnold Allen takes on former featherweight champ Max Holloway in a must-watch contest. For a fight night card, there are some big match-ups on here. Billy Quarantillo vs Edson Barboza is a guaranteed banger of a fight, Pedro Munhoz vs Chris Gutierrez is a stellar bantamweight match-up and Brandon Royval vs Matheus Nicolau is a huge fight for the flyweight division.
Friday, April 21st
Bellator 294
Bellator have got a double-bill of events for this particular weekend and whilst Friday is by far the weaker of the two cards, there’s still some action worth tuning in for. In the main event Liz Carmouche looks to defend her flyweight title against DeAnna Bennett, Danny Sabatello is sure to generate some headlines on his return and Ireland’s Karl Moore will face Alex Polizzi earlier in the night.
ONE Fight Night 9
If ONE Championship’s track record at the iconic Lumpinee Stadium continues then this will be a night to remember. So far this year, each and every event the promotion has put on inside the legendary martial arts venue has produced classic fights and finishes. For their big event of the month, ONE Championship presents ONE Fight Night 9, available via YouTube for UK fans and Prime Video for the US. The main event should produce an absolute war between the bantamweight Muay Thai king Nong-O Hama and the former flyweight champ Jonathan ‘The General’ Haggerty.
Saturday, April 22nd
UFC Fight Night: Pavlovich vs Blaydes
Another strong fight night card from the UFC arrives on April 22nd, even if it is from the Apex. Curtis Blaydes vs Sergei Pavlovich will likely give us a new heavyweight number one contender, Song Yadong vs Ricky Simon is a really fun featherweight match-up and we are always going to take notice when Bobby Green fights (he faces Jared Gordon on this occasion). Mohammed Usman vs Junior Tafa is an intriguing heavyweight contest also.
Bellator 295
Bellator’s second event in their double header is one of the promotion’s strongest cards in some time. Raufeon Stots versus Patchy Mix is a fantastic final match-up for their bantamweight tournament that really feels like the best outcome. Live from Hawaii, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane is sure to get a great response on her return. Ray Borg vs Kyoji Horiguchi is a very good flyweight match-up, Aaron Pico is back, as is Mads Burnell. As things stand at the time of writing this calendar, this Bellator card is shaping up to be one of their best matched cards in quite a while.
Saturday, April 29th
Cage Warriors 153
Cage Warriors returns to Dublin at the end of the month with a stacked card full of talent from the Emerald Isles. The top three fights in particular are absolute CW classics in the making. Ryan Shelley vs Tobias Harila should be a war, Oban Elliott vs James Sheehan is a huge fight for the division and the main event is one of CW’s best. After shocking the world by winning the interim title by knockout out Matt Figlak, UK MMA legend Jimmy Wallhead will look to keep the Rocky story going when he faces Ireland’s own Rhys McKee who put on the fight of the year last time out.
Oktagon 42
Live from Bratislava, Oktagon 42 is shaping up to be a big event for the promotion. In the main event, undefeated Losene Keita (10-0) faces Mate Sanikidze (9-2) for the featherweight title. Whilst it’s very unfortunate that the grudge match between Vlasto Čepo and Matěj Peňáz is off the card, it’s still a strong one. Next Gen’s Shem Rock will also debut on the card, one to watch for sure.
UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Moicano
Saturday 29th is one of the fight night events with the least big names on it. Whilst the main event is sure to be an entertaining fight, it’s a 5-rounder for the hardcore fans. A lot of this card is made up of unknown quantities in the UFC or fighters that we haven’t seen much of. The one thing to always keep in mind with cards like this, is sometimes they can turn out to be the most exciting events where a bunch of competitors announce themselves in huge ways.
That’s all for April but the first weekend of May is a huge one with Cage Warriors touching down in Rome, ONE Championship arriving in the US and Henry Cejudo returning at UFC 288.
“The Iron Man’s” next fight in ONE Championship is confirmed, and it’ll be under kickboxing rules.
For the first time since January 2023, ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon will lace up the big gloves for a battle with Denis Puric at ONE 167: Stamp vs. Zamboanga on Saturday, 8th June, inside Bangkok, Thailand’s Impact Arena.
Rodtang last competed at ONE Friday Fights 34 in September, where he suffered his first promotional loss in ONE’s striking ranks in a Muay Thai super-fight with flyweight kickboxing king Superlek Kiatmoo9.
Fortunately for the legendary Thai, his gold wasn’t up for grabs that evening as Superlek missed weight. But the pair delivered an iconic clash that rocked the combat sports world nonetheless, with Rodtang missing out by unanimous decision.
“The Iron Man” has been sidelined with a hand injury since then, and he was forced to pull out of his highly anticipated match with Takeru Segawa in his backyard in Tokyo earlier this year as a result.
However, all looks well for him to return in June, and fans are excited to see Puric get the dream fight he’s always wanted.
“The Bosnian Menace” has been amassing momentum in ONE Championship recently.
After quashing Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat’s comeback in December 2023, he scored a dynamic victory over former #2-ranked flyweight Muay Thai contender Jacob Smith at last month’s ONE Fight Night 21 to usurp the Brit’s position.
All the while, Puric has been calling out Rodtang and claiming that he would face him in any discipline.
Now, he gets his wish, and it will be fascinating to see how his never-back-down approach fares against the aggression of “The Iron Man” at ONE 167 on 8th June.
Manchester’s Brendan Loughnane is coming into the 2024 PFL regular season with a point to prove after what many would call a shock, disappointing showing last year.
The PFL thought they had struck gold when they signed Brendan Loughnane straight off the back of his infamous appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series. Coming in with proven ability and a name value in the UK which they had not had until that point, they were right. He made it to the playoffs in 2021, his debut season, narrowly falling in the semi-finals to Movlid Khaybulaev via a split decision.
The following season was where the Featherweight really showed his ability. Two unanimous decision victories took him through the regular season relatively scot-free. A heated semi-final showdown against Chris Wade at London’s Copper Box Arena was next. Wade had lost in the playoffs three seasons in a row, and 30-27 scorecards across the board made that four, and moved Loughnane through to the final for $1m.
It was to be another man competing in his second season, Bubba Jenkins, standing in the way of that cheque. The iconic Theater at Madison Square Garden was the setting for the final, which proved to be the perfect moment for Loughnane to pick up his first finish of the season. In a fight he was clearly leading, a straight right from Loughnane made Jenkins do the splits in the middle of the SmartCage. A few punches on the ground followed by a knee to the chest was enough to make the Mancunian $1m richer.
As the newly minted 2022 PFL featherweight champion, Loughnane started the 2023 season strong, with a second round-TKO of former UFC contender Marlon Moraes earning him five points. A victory that put him, at that point, in good stead to make the playoffs for a third consecutive year. Then came the sophomore fight of the season, a fight in which he closed as a -800 favourite over Jesus Pinedo. What came next was the shock of the season.
Less than ninety seconds in the fight, the Peruvian landed a flush knee off of a clinch which dropped Loughnane seemingly out of nowhere, and four punches later it was over. The face of the 2022 season was not making the playoffs. Pinedo went on to win the season, and of course the $1m.
This gave Brendan Loughnane an elongated break, and in that time came a lot of change within the PFL. The acquisition of Bellator means new competition for the Mancunian, as well as the rest of the PFL roster, and that starts on Friday as he faces former Bellator title challenger Pedro Carvalho, in what is a big fight for the UK and Ireland market.
SBG Ireland’s “The Game”, makes his PFL debut, and along with his contemporaries from Bellator, has been a part of refreshing the PFL regular season roster which was at risk of becoming stale due to the small roster size leading to repeated matchups in the playoffs. Through eleven fights in Bellator, he fought the best that the organisation had to offer including Aaron Pico, Mads Burnell, and organisational GOAT Patricio “Pitbull” Freire, becoming one of the go-to names on their regular events in Dublin, which became a staple of the company over the last few years. A win for him over Loughnane will instantly ensure he is highly thought of in his new organisation and put him in a great position to make it to the playoffs at the first time of asking. As we learned last year however, all can change as the season goes on.
Despite the loss last season, Brendan Loughnane does not feel the pressure coming into the 2024 season. Speaking at media day this week, he said:
“I feel like the pressure’s off. I’ve got the title here, I’m the 2022 champion and I’m just coming here now out of choice and to have fun and I think that makes me very dangerous”.
Loughnane was able to see the positives of his shortened season in 2023.
“I was happy for the layoff. I’m the most experienced guy in my division now and Bubba [Jenkins] so I’ve been in this thing for so long that I didn’t know life outside of this for a while so it was nice to take care of a few things and reset”.
The co-main event tonight between Loughnane and Carvalho promises to be a fight of the night contender. Both men come to throw down every single outing and to many people, especially those on this side of the pond, this is the most anticipated matchup of the first round with whoever prevails putting themselves in a great position and taking that first step towards making the playoffs.
For a fighter to become the best, it helps to remain humble and focused. And if the opportunity to train with world-class athletes arises, they should grab it with both hands. Ahead of her return to ONE Championship next month, ONE Women’s Strawweight Muay Thai World Champion Smilla Sundell has been doing all that.
The Swedish striker is set to return in the main event of ONE Fight Night 22 on Saturday, 4th May, inside Bangkok, Thailand’s Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, where she’ll defend her crown against Russian ruiner Natalia Diachkova.
Sundell has been dominant across four promotional outings. But she knows she’ll have her hands full with Diachkova, so she recently chose to take some tips from ONE Featherweight Muay Thai World Champion Tawanchai PK Saenchai.
“I did his seminar in Bangkok at PK Saenchai with my friend Matt. We went there and wanted to learn some new skills and see how he did seminars because I want to go to America after my fight to do seminars. I’ve done one now, and I like teaching, so it was fun,” Sundell said.
“There’s no competition in it. He’s like a cat playing with a rat. It’s too easy for him sometimes. He doesn’t even try.”
The strawweight Muay Thai queen sharpens her skills at the Fairtex Training Center in Pattaya, Thailand, alongside other world-class striking talents, like three-sport ONE World Champion Stamp Fairtex.
Stamp’s fun-loving nature has rubbed off on Sundell, but it’s her commitment to never backing down that has truly inspired the 19-year-old sensation.
“She’s always been a happy girl and trains hard every day. She’s basically the same funny girl. Still hungry (to get wins),” Sundell explained.
“I think I learned that you can achieve whatever you like as long as you put in the work. But I learned that from my parents, too. But maybe more practical, in a sense, because Stamp did it in martial arts.”
-
News3 years agoKing of Lethwei Dave Leduc BANNED from Myanmar and competing in the sport
-
News3 years agoSam Kapoi, half-brother of Max Holloway, sentenced for meth possession
-
News3 years agoNathias Frederick vs Matthew Bonner revealed for Cage Warriors 123
-
News3 years agoUAE Warriors 19 & 20 fight cards
-
News3 years agoPaige VanZant is seeking a KO victory over Rachael Ostovich
-
News3 years agoThe Latinas of Combate Global set for world domination
-
News2 years agoFans disgusted at inter-gender MMA fight in Poland
-
Interviews2 years ago
VMTV Vaults | EP.38 – Deniz Ilbay