5+ day, 11+ hour ago   (1154+ words) Amsterdam born, Tunisian on his father’s side, Dutch on his mother’s. Thirty-four years old and fighting out of Connecticut. Baby Face Assassin, and the face still does most of the work in selling it. Twenty-seven professional kickboxing wins. Three swings…...

5+ day, 11+ hour ago   (1183+ words) Most fighters spend a decade grinding through regional shows before anyone in Las Vegas learns their name. Tommy Gantt did it in a little over a year, and he did it while working a full-time job coaching college wrestlers on…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (958+ words) Brazilian Welterweight out of Rio de Janeiro. Twenty-eight years old, 5 ft 9 in, orthodox, and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who came up under the Nova União banner before shifting his base to Canada. His professional record sits at 8-2, with seven…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (931+ words) Chovancek grew up in Lambton County, close enough to the Michigan border that Detroit radio came in clearer than Toronto. The fishing came first, and it came out of childcare logistics rather than any grand plan. “My mom worked two…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (908+ words) The sport is called mixed martial arts because that is literally what the first competitors were doing, taking a boxer and putting him in against a jiu-jitsu man, or a wrestler in against a kickboxer, to see which style held…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (744+ words) Iranian born, Canadian based, and heavier now than he ever was in a judogi. Javad Mahjoub is 35, stands 6ft 1in and carries his frame at the top of the Heavyweight limit. Five professional MMA fights, five wins, three of them stopped by…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (913+ words) He is not a late bloomer and he is not an overnight arrival. He is a man who has been in the same gym for a decade. Darby was 14 when his brother joined the local kickboxing club in Clongriffin and…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (979+ words) Jonny Parsons spent years in the corner before he ever got his own walkout. He was the Muay Thai coach at one of the busiest gyms in Las Vegas, holding pads for fighters who were living the career he wanted,…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (640+ words) The nickname is Thai Panther, and there is nothing clever behind it. She hits like a Thai fighter because she is one. It worked faster than anyone expected. She had a local fight at fourteen. By sixteen she had made…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (709+ words) The nickname is Silent Killer, and it earns itself. Smiling, soft-spoken, polite to everyone in the building. Then the door shuts. Szabová was born on 23 December 1997 in Bratislava, into a family where combat sport was already sitting at the dinner…...