Exclusive MMA Interviews News

Cole Shelton - January 20, 2020

Cris Cyborg believes her upcoming fight against Julia Budd will be one of the best ever. In the main event of Bellator 238, Cyborg is making her promotional debut and challenging for the featherweight title. It will no doubt be a tough fight for Cyborg. Yet, she is eager for the challenge and the opportunity to headline the card.

Cole Shelton - January 16, 2020

In the main event of UFC 246, Conor McGregor makes his highly-anticipated return to the Octagon, where he will battle Donald Cerrone. Heading into the fight, the Irishman is a -325 favorite while “Cowboy” is a +250 underdog. Ahead of the fight, BJPENN.com reached out to several pro fighters to get their predictions for the scrap. To some surprise, most are going with the underdog Cerrone to upset McGregor.

Alfredo Zullino - January 16, 2020

Whether you are a connoisseur of European MMA or not, you probably know who Nathaniel Wood is by now. The former Cage Warriors title-holder made his UFC debut just less than two years ago and since then he has racked up three victories in three fights, all won by submission. “The Prospect” is now ready to climb up the UFC bantamweight ladder and in order to do that he needs to face, in his own words, his idols, starting with John Dodson.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2020

Former UFC and Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez was widely expected to blow through the competition in ONE Championship. Timofey Nastyukhin, the man tasked with welcoming Alvarez to the ONE cage back in March of 2019, didn’t get the memo. Instead, Nastyukhin disposed of the decorated MMA champion inside one round, shocking everybody but himself.

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2020

There are a lot of dangerous fighters in the UFC featherweight top-10, and the division’s new champion Alexander Volkanovski is more than happy to fight them all. That, he says, is simply the duty of a UFC champion. “That’s how a champ should do it,” Volkanovski told BJPENN.com, adding that defeating his many featherweight rivals is the best way to cement himself as one of the best ever.

Cole Shelton - January 14, 2020

Alexey Oleynik knows he will have a massive advantage on the ground when he takes on Maurice Green at UFC 246, but isn’t sure he will utilize it. Oleynik is on a two-fight losing streak, having recently been TKO’d by Alistair Overeem and then knocked out in 12 seconds by Walt Harris, and knows this fight is crucial. Yet he may not even use his best tool which is his jiu-jitsu.

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2020

Alexander Volkanovski is exactly one month into his reign as the UFC featherweight champion. While he’s still healing up from an arm injury sustained in his title-winning battle, a unanimous decision win over long-time champ Max Holloway, he’s beginning to look ahead to his first challenge as champion. The options for that challenge are plentiful.

Mike Heck - January 13, 2020

Carlos Condit was hoping to get back on track to end 2019 before an injury forced him to withdraw from his scheduled fight with Mickey Gall at UFC Washington, DC. While the exact reason for the withdrawal hasn’t truly been revealed, Condit’s manager Abe Kawa says that “The Natural Born Killer” didn’t suffer a serious injury and expects to make a full recovery.

Mike Heck - January 10, 2020

Cynthia Calvillo is officially done with the 115-pound weight division. After closing out 2019 fighting Marina Rodriguez to a majority draw — a fight in which she missed weight after her body began to shut down during her cut — Calvillo has made the decision to make the move up to the women’s flyweight division. The 32-year-old Calvillo will return to the division for the first time since her pro debut in August 2016.

Cole Shelton - January 10, 2020

Gilbert Burns believes the welterweight division has become stagnant, just like the lightweight division was when Conor McGregor was the champion. When that was happening, Burns had a hard time getting fights or ranked opponents. So, in 2019 he decided to move up to welterweight. Immediately, he got two short-notice fights against Alexey Kunchenko and Gunnar Nelson, and he won both. But, now with a number beside his name, he feels it is hard to get fights at 170 pounds.

Cole Shelton - January 9, 2020

Claressa Shields is looking to make history on Jan. 10 when she battles Ivana Habazin for the vacant WBC and WBO light middleweight titles. Should she win, the two-time Olympic gold medalist would become a three-weight world champion. Not only would Shields become a three-weight world champion like Canelo Alvarez, Vasyl Lomachenko, Bud Crawford, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao among others, but she would be the fastest to do so. This is only Shields’ 10th professional fight.

Cole Shelton - January 8, 2020

Gilbert Burns got his wish as he will indeed fight Demian Maia in the co-main event of UFC Brasilia. Yet, the fight almost didn’t come to fruition. Burns, who is now 2-0 at welterweight with two short-notice wins over Alexey Kunchenko and Gunnar Nelson says mutual friends between him and Maia said the Brazilian legend didn’t want to take the fight.

Mike Heck - January 7, 2020

To say Devonte Smith’s 2019 was chaotic would be a bit of an understatement. After starting the year off with a highlight reel first round KO win over Dong Hyun Ma at UFC 234 — in the first PPV prelim headliner in UFC history on ESPN — “King Kage” was on everyone’s radars. In fact, the 26-year-old lightweight standout would get matched up with a longtime UFC veteran in John Makdessi for UFC 241 in August.

Cole Shelton - January 6, 2020

Geoff Neal was surprised how the UFC 245 main event between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington played out. It was a battle between two high-level wrestlers, yet there was not one takedown attempt. Instead, they decided to stand and trade until Usman dropped Covington twice in the fifth and earned a TKO win to retain his belt.

Mike Heck - January 3, 2020

After losing the UFC welterweight title to Kamaru Usman at UFC 235, many began to question the motivation of Tyron Woodley. Was he taking on too much? Has he gone “too Hollywood”? Does he still want to fight? All of these questions have been asked by the MMA community. Those questions didn’t just make Woodley more motivated, it’s made him angry heading into 2020, according to his manager Abe Kawa.

Cole Shelton - January 3, 2020

Geoff Neal picked up the biggest win of his career at UFC 245 when he knocked out Mike Perry in the first round. He was also the first person to knock out the fan favorite out in MMA. Neal was confident he would earn a finish but was surprised it happened so soon into the fight.

Mike Heck - January 2, 2020

Whether he was your pick for 2019 Fighter of the Year, or at least in your top-3, no one had a bigger surge over that 12-month stretch than Jorge Masvidal. After losing back-to-back fights in 2017, and not competing at all in 2018, “Gamebred” took the UFC by storm with highlight reel knockouts over Darren Till and Ben Askren before headlining UFC 244 against Nate Diaz, and capturing the created “BMF” title. While 2019 was a banner year for Masvidal, the plan is to enhance the momentum even further throughout 2020.

Cole Shelton - December 30, 2019

After Petr Yan beat Urijah Faber at UFC 245, Faber’s teammate, Cody Garbrandt, accosted the Russian backstage. According to Yan, nothing really happened backstage other than Garbrandt being all talk and not backing up his words.