Dana White News

Tom Taylor - December 2, 2016

Earlier this month, Conor McGregor knocked out Eddie Alvarez to win the UFC lightweight title. Given that the Irishman already owned the featherweight crown, this made him the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously. It was a short-lived reign as two-division king. Weeks after winning the lightweight title, McGregor was stripped of the featherweight belt. At the same time, interim featherweight champ Jose Aldo was promoted to undisputed champ, while it was announced that Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis would vie for interim featherweight gold in the new main event of UFC  206.

Russell Ess - November 28, 2016

Over the weekend it was announced that UFC superstar Conor McGregor chose to “relinquish” the UFC featherweight title and hold on to the UFC lightweight strap. “The Notorious” was the first fighter in history to be a concurrent two-division UFC champion after beating Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 earlier this month. McGregor held both the UFC featherweight and lightweight titles for two weeks after winning the belt from Alvarez.

Scott Hernandez - November 16, 2016

Last week, following the ceremonial UFC 205 weigh-ins, the UFC surprised New York fight fans with a surprise staredown between UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes and former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, who will be returning to the Octagon for the first time in over a year at UFC 207, where she hopes to reclaim the women’s bantamweight title.

Scott Hernandez - November 16, 2016

Following Conor McGregor’s historic UFC 205 win over Eddie Alvarez this past weekend that saw McGregor pick up a 2nd round TKO win to claim the lightweight championship, and become the first ever two-division UFC champion, boxing icon Floyd Mayweather heard that people were comparing McGregor to him. That didn’t sit well with ‘Money’:

Tom Taylor - November 13, 2016

UFC 205, which marked the Octagon’s debut in New York City has now come and gone. The highlight of the card was undoubtedly Conor McGregor’s history making knockout of lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. Other highlights included Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson’s unforgettable five round war, which ended in a majority draw, and Yoel Romero’s thunderous knockout of former middleweight champion Chris Weidman. And then, of course, there was the retirement of women’s MMA trailblazer Miesha Tate. Tate kicked off the stacked UFC 205 main card opposite the streaking Raquel Pennington, who she coached several years ago on The Ultimate Fighter. Though Tate has long stood out as one of the best female fighters on the planet, she was soundly outclassed by her foe in New York – on the feet and on the mat. As a result, she ultimately surrendered a unanimous decision.

Tom Taylor - November 13, 2016

UFC 205 was absolutely stacked. Though it was hurt by the last minute losses of a Donald Cerrone vs. Kelvin Gastelum welterweight bout and a Tim Kennedy vs. Rashad Evans middleweight bout, it still stood out as the most talent-rich card in UFC history. The lineup was topped by a lightweight title fight between divisional champ Eddie Alvarez and featherweight king Conor McGregor. Below this title fight were two others: a welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, and a strawweight title fight between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Karolina Kowalkiewicz. The rest of the card, finally, was packed with big names like Yoel Romero, Chris Weidman, Miesha Tate, Raquel Pennington, Frankie Edgar, Jeremy Stephens, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Michael Johnson.

Chris Taylor - November 13, 2016

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley left Madison Square Garden with his title following an epic five-round war with Stephen Thompson in the evenings co-main event. “The Chosen One” and “Wonderboy” battled to a majority draw, this after two judges scored the fight 47-47 and one judge scored the contest in favor of T-Wood 48-47.

Scott Hernandez - November 11, 2016

Earlier this year, reports surfaced that a fighter’s union had officially been formed. With current and former fighters such as UFC legend Randy Couture, UFC women’s bantamweight Leslie Smith, and MMA veteran Cung Le jumping on-board to name just a few of the fighters. Earlier this week however, top ranked UFC welterweight & lightweight, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone weighed-in on the formation of a fighter’s union during a media luncheon, in which he stated:

Scott Hernandez - November 9, 2016

Saturday night in New York, the UFC will host what is being considered the biggest event in the promotion’s history. Headlining the event of course, is a historic lightweight title fight between UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, and UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, in a fight which could potentially see McGregor enter into the UFC history books as the first simultaneous two-division UFC champion. In the past, McGregor has set several UFC records, with his recent UFC 202 fight with Nate Diaz setting the record for most PPV buys, beating out the previous record set by the historic UFC 100 card back in 2009.

Scott Hernandez - November 8, 2016

While former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones is widely believed to be the pound for pound kingpin in MMA, Jones has fought just once in nearly two years. After defeating Daniel Cormier in a highly anticipated grudge match in January of 2015, Jones was booked to defend his title against Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson later in the year. Unfortunately, Jones was involved in an infamous hit & run car accident that ultimately saw him stripped of the title, and pulled from the card. Ultimately, after Jones was stripped of the title and pulled from the card, Daniel Cormier stepped in to fight Johnson for the vacant light heavyweight championship, winning the fight via 3rd round submission to claim the vacant light heavyweight championship.

Scott Hernandez - October 29, 2016

Earlier this year, the MMA community rejoiced as New York became the last state to finally legalize MMA. The announcement of MMA’s legalization in New York was followed up by an announcement from the UFC in which is was announced that they would be hosting UFC 205 at the historic arena.

Scott Hernandez - October 28, 2016

Relations between the UFC brass and former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre have continued to be strained over the last few weeks as St-Pierre’s highly anticipated return to the Octagon was once again postponed after negotiations for ‘Rush’ to return at UFC 206 failed. This resulted in St-Pierre revealing in an interview that he had terminated his contract with the UFC after the promotion failed to secure him a fight in a reasonable amount of time. Despite that, rumors of St-Pierre returning to the Octagon at UFC 206 for a fight with Michael Bisping continued to surface, until this week, when St-Pierre sent a message to Bisping via social media, in which he stated:

Scott Hernandez - October 22, 2016

With everything Dana White has had on his plate lately, you’d think he’d be super stressed out. From mass firings at UFC regional offices to disputes with two of the promotion’s most beloved former champions, UFC president Dana White spoke to TMZ.com and touched upon some of the recent issues within the promotion.

Russell Ess - October 20, 2016

Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre may be in the toughest fight of his career and it isn’t even taking place in the Octagon. A battle is currently taking place between St-Pierre and the UFC over contract disputes with St-Pierre and his legal team claiming that they are no longer under contract with the UFC while the promotion claims vice versa.

Tom Taylor - October 16, 2016

https://youtu.be/c-wml71s3I8 Bad news, fight fans. Despite plenty of speculation to the contrary, Georges St-Pierre will not be competing at UFC 206 in Toronto. UFC President Dana White shut down any surviving hope of a GSP comeback in the Ontario capital in a recent interview with FS1’s Jay and Dan.

Scott Hernandez - October 15, 2016

Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg is now 2-0 inside the Octagon, with her most recent win last month being a 2nd round TKO win over Swedish striking ace Lina Lansberg. Although Cyborg is regarded as one of the greatest female mixed martial artists of all time, she fights primarily under the Invicta FC banner due to the fact that the UFC doesn’t have a women’s featherweight division. In her two Octagon appearances, Cyborg fought at a catchweight of 140 pounds, both times enduring a grueling weight-cut in the process of reaching the contracted weight.

Scott Hernandez - October 13, 2016

This week UFC President Dana White announced to MMA fans that former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey would be making her highly anticipated return to the Octagon on December 30th to fight Amanda Nunes in the main event of UFC 207 for the women’s bantamweight championship. The fight will take place over a year after Rousey’s last fight in the Octagon, where she was knocked out by Holly Holm in the main event of UFC 193 to lose the women’s bantamweight championship. Following the fight, UFC President Dana White was more than willing to give Rousey a break from the Octagon given that her loss was attributed in part to a busy media schedule that also saw her working in Hollywood while training to fight.

Scott Hernandez - October 13, 2016

When it was announced that Conor McGregor would be fighting Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight championship at UFC 205, rather than defending his UFC featherweight championship in a rematch against Jose Aldo, who secured a rematch with McGregor when he defeated Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 for the interim featherweight championship, Aldo requested his release from the promotion, expressing a lack of faith in the UFC. UFC President Dana White was quick to shut Aldo down, stating that the promotion would be able to book him a fight at UFC 205 as well. Despite that, Aldo fired back by saying that he doesn’t want a fight, and plans to retire from MMA so as to pursue a career in another professional sport.