ONE ChampionshipChristian Lee called himself the best lightweight fighter in the world prior to ONE on TNT 2, and he did everything possible to back up that statement with a stunning performance to defend his lightweight title on Wednesday night. The 22-year-old phenom needed less than two minutes to dispatch Timofey Nastyukhin with a brutal counter left hand that sent the Russian down to the canvas in the first round. Despite his best attempt to get back up again, Nastyukhin was just getting blitzed with punches from Lee and he never had the chance to recover. The referee stepped into stop the contest at 1:13 into the opening round. View this post on Instagram

Ricardo Ramos will be sidelined after testing positive for COVID-19 ahead of UFC Vegas 24. | Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesUFC Vegas 24 has taken another hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ricardo Ramos, who was scheduled to face Bill Algeo in a featherweight bout at the UFC APEX on Saturday night, has tested positive for the viral infection and was removed from the card, MMA Fighting has learned. MMAjunkie first reported the news. “The test came back positive, unfortunately,” Ramos told MMA Fighting on Wednesday. “Thank God I’m fine and that’s what matters. I have no symptoms, but there’s nothing we can do.” The UFC is currently looking for a replacement to face Algeo (14-5) this weekend in Las Vegas, sources said.

The ONE on TNT II preliminary card got a jolt when Shuo Wang clipped Kyu Sung Kim in the third round of their fight. A right elbow from Wang caught Kim coming in as the two mixed it up in the center of the cage, and Kim toppled to the canvas. Follow-up punches were academic for Wang, who picked up his fourth straight win with back-to-back knockout wins. The official time of stoppage was the 1:51 mark of the third frame. Check out the video below, courtesy of ONE. Wang Shuo with the INCREDIBLE elbow to KO Kim Kyu Sung in Round 3! @tntdrama @brlive #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship #ONEonTNT2 pic.twitter.com/NmUvZrt8nn— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) April 15, 2021 The bantamweight Kim has lost

ONE ChampionshipMMA Fighting has ONE on TNT II results for the Lee vs. Nastyukhin fight card Wednesday night from the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore. In the main event, ONE lightweight champion Christian Lee defends his title against Timofey Nastyukhin. Lee is on a five-fight winning streak that includes capturing the lightweight grand prix in 2019. Nastyukhin has won his past two bouts including a stoppage of ex-UFC champ Eddie Alvarez. Get ONE on TNT results below. Main card (TNT, 10 p.m.) Christian Lee vs. Timofey Nastyukhin - for ONE lightweight title Janet Todd vs. Anne Line Hogstad - kickboxing bout Preliminary Card (B/R Live, 8:30 p.m.) Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg vs. Yoshiki Nakahara Shuo Wang def. Kyu Sung Kim via KO (elbow) - Round 3,

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesBen Askren on Wednesday shot down Jake Paul’s claim that he will forfeit his entire fight purse if he tries any MMA moves in their boxing match. “False,” Askren wrote on Twitter in response to Paul’s claim in an interview with MMA Junkie that his bout agreement contains a clause forbidding MMA moves. Paul added he offered a folkstyle wrestling rematch with Askren after Saturday’s pay-per-view at Triller Fight Club on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. A person with knowledge of the fighters’ contracts told MMA Fighting that Askren will receive “a couple” of warnings and could be disqualified in the event he uses an MMA move in the boxing match. But that would not

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesThe opening betting line in the Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor 3 fight has been released, and one oddsmaker sees a dead heat for the UFC 264. BetOnline has both Poirier and McGregor at -110, meaning an implied winning probability of 52.38 percent; a $100 bet would net a $91 profit. The even odds come three months after Poirier’s knockout win in their second meeting, which took place at UFC 257 in Abu Dhabi. The temperature of the lightweight’s rivalry rose earlier this week over a donation promised by Conor McGregor to Dustin Poirier’s charity. Poirier initially claimed McGregor had reneged only to have McGregor lash out over the accounting of the money.

ONE ChampionshipTimofey Nastyukhin has never minded being the underdog throughout his career but some recognition for the work he’s done wouldn’t hurt. The 31-year-old Russian fighter has been a mainstay on the ONE Championship roster for the past seven years while constantly serving as one of the top contenders in the lightweight division. He’s definitely faced his share of ups and downs including an infamous moment against Kotetsu Boku in 2016 where Nastyukhin suffered a broken leg but refused to stop until the round was over and only then was a doctor able to examine him in order to call a stop to the contest. Perhaps his highest-profile moment came just over two years ago when Nastyukhin was the fighter selected to

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLCDustin Poirier is excited to finish his trilogy with Conor McGregor at UFC 264 in July, but first things first, he had to address the very public spat over a donation that was supposed to be made to his charity. Ahead of their rematch at UFC 257 back in January, McGregor had promised to donate $500,000 to Poirier’s Good Fight Foundation where the Louisiana native has taken on several initiatives over the past few years including digging water wells in Uganda to buying school supplies for children in his home state. A few days ago, Poirier then took to Twitter to call out McGregor for not following through on his donation after the fight. McGregor and his manager

Bellator MMABellator 257 media day features some of the top fighters on Friday’s card, and they will each answer some questions Wednesday afternoon. The Bellator 257 media day video is expected to begin at 1:30 p.m. ET. The following fighters are scheduled to attend media day: Vadim NemkovPhil DavisCorey AndersonDovletdzhan YagshimuradovPaul Daley Sabah HomasiMads Burnell Lance Gibson Jr.Julia Budd

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLCThis is The A-Side Live Chat. For this episode, José Youngs, Mike Heck, and E. Casey Leydon react to some of the biggest news in MMA. Some POSSIBLE topics include the charity drama surrounding the planned rubber match between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor at UFC 264, Jimmy Flick’s recent retirement, and more. The three will also look ahead to the upcoming UFC Vegas 24 card, featuring Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum, ONE on TNT 2, headlined by Christian Lee vs. Timofey Nastyukhin, Bellator 257, featuring the rematch between Vadim Nemkov vs. Phil Davis, and Ben Askren’s upcoming boxing match against Jake Paul. There’s plenty to talk about, so join us at 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m.