UFC to return to Paris, France. Paige VanZant reveals serious neck injury – pulls out of Power Slap title fight.
Kevin Lee to sue the GFL for defamation and extortion. Paige VanZant reveals serious neck injury which could cause paralyzation. UFC to return to Paris, France. And more!
Mixed Martial Arts
Full UFC 316 Main Card on June 7, 2025 in Newark, NJ 🇺🇸.
UFC 316 – Dvalishvili vs O’Malley 2 on June 7, 2025 in Newark, NJ for the UFC Bantamweight championship is less than a week away! Check out the full UFC 316 Countdown below; this is a full backgrounder for the main and co-main event (Julianna Pena vs Kayla Harrison for the UFC Women’s Bantamweight championship).
The UFC 316 Embedded Vlog series has released with Ep. 1 up right now. This series follows the fighters competing at UFC 316 in a behind the scenes look on fight week leading up to Saturday's event. It shows their training, nutrition and overall day to day life – pretty cool to see! Generally there’s six Embedded Vlogs that get released over the duration of fight week leading up to Saturday; all of them will be posted here.
Ep. 2 of UFC 316 Embedded: Vlog Series is out now!
Kevin Lee, a former interim UFC title challenger, plans to sue the GFL – the fight promotion he recently signed with. The GFL was set to have a big launch in 2025 having signed big names like Tony Ferguson, Anthony Pettis, Holly Holm, Urijah Faber and more, with two events originally scheduled for May 2025. These events ultimately did not materialize due to a primary investor failing to meet a funding commitment, as per the GFL founder Darren Owen. Lee plans on suing for defamation and extortion.
“The talks were great but there wasn’t no action behind it. I’ll be suing them for some defamation plus some extortion. I think that they used guys like me and used our name in order to get out there and be a major face of the MMA promotion business and nothing ever came from it.”
The UFC is returning to Paris, France with a UFC Fight Night on September 6, 2025 at the Accor Arena. No bouts have been announced at the moment.
Paige VanZant to drop out of her upcoming title match in Power Slap on June 27, 2025 during International Fight Week in Las Vegas, NV due to a severe neck injury. VanZant wishes she could power through and compete however due to its seriousness, she had to seek help from a neurosurgeon immediately after receiving her MRI.
“I have a pretty severe neck injury. If it was not such a big deal, I definitely would still compete, especially because I was just really excited. I have what is called a spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma. It actually didn’t come from training. It is a one in a million, freak, crazy injury that happened in my neck. Basically the neurosurgeon at this point, one is surprised that I don’t have any neurological issues because it’s extremely serious, a lot of times people become paralyzed, start losing function of their arms and legs pretty quickly. I don’t have that, which is a really good sign.”
UFC Women’s Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko is rooting for Julianna Pena to win at UFC 316 on June 7, 2025 where she fights the heavy favourite, Kayla Harrison, in the co-main event. Shevchenko holds a submission win over Pena back in January 2017.
