Dana White News

bjpenndotcom - 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:

Tom Taylor - November 11, 2016

Earlier this morning, UFC 205‘s stacked main card took a significant hit when welterweight contender Kelvin Gastelum failed to make weight for his planned bout with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Though weigh-in misses do not typically result in the cancelation of a fight outright, Gastelum’s was severe enough that it forced him off the card altogether, leaving Cowboy without an opponent, and depriving fans of a highly anticipated fight. This weight related slip up is unfortunately not Gastelum’s first. In his eight scheduled welterweight bouts with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the 25-year-old has missed weight 3 times, first for a 2014 bout with Nico Musoke, then for a 2015 bout with Tyron Woodley and most recently for this nixed bout with Cowboy. He also very nearly missed weight for a mid-2016 bout with Johny Hendricks.

bjpenndotcom - 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.

bjpenndotcom - 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.

bjpenndotcom - 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:

Chris Taylor - October 25, 2016

Earlier this week, BJPENN.com’s Chris Taylor reported that current UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping was being targeted for a fight at December’s UFC 206 event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I spoke to one of Michael Bisping's coaches who told me thatthe UFC is targeting the champ to return at #UFC206 in Toronto, Canada.

bjpenndotcom - 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.

bjpenndotcom - 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.

Russell Ess - October 13, 2016

With all the fights the UFC puts on every year, UFC President Dana White still finds time to make sure he, himself, is staying in shape. When White appeared shirtless in an episode of “Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight,’ fans were surprised to see the UFC boss with a ripped physique.

bjpenndotcom - 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.

bjpenndotcom - 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.

Tom Taylor - September 30, 2016

Earlier this year, it was announced that the UFC had been sold for more than $4 billion. The organization was purchased by Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG, who would take the reigns from long-time owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta. When news of this massive sale first broke, it was unclear what effect it would have on the company. Today, however, it’s becoming quite clear that WME-IMG plans to push the UFC–and by association, the larger sport of MMA–further into the mainstream sports landscape. The new owners’ latest effort to this end has been the assembly of a group of A-list celebrity investors.

bjpenndotcom - September 28, 2016

Tuesday afternoon, UFC interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo left the MMA community stunned as he requested that the UFC release him from his contract so that he could retire from MMA and move to another sport entirely. Aldo expressed his frustration with the UFC for not making good on their promise to force Conor McGregor to defend his title after his UFC 202 scrap with Nate Diaz. While UFC President Dana White was adamant that McGregor either defend the belt in a title unification fight with Jose Aldo, or vacate the strap, McGregor has now been booked to fight Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight championship in the main event of the UFC’s historic card at the Madison Square Garden.

Russell Ess - September 27, 2016

Let’s face it. Just about every person out there can make an argument for why they should be getting paid more for their job. However, when you look at it from a UFC fighter’s perspective, they are in a pretty unique situation.

bjpenndotcom - September 27, 2016

Dana White sounded off on Roy Nelson’s post-fight kick to referee John McCarthy on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, and he certainly did not mince words. The UFC president repeated that he felt ‘Big Country’ should “be buried” for his actions following his second round knockout win over Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva in Brazil over the weekend.

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

Prior to Mickey Gall’s UFC 203 scrap with CM Punk, it was revealed that UFC President Dana White had blocked Gall’s walkout song. The song in question? ‘Mickey’ by Toni Basil. While Gall stood backstage just moments before his walkout, he was shocked when his walkout song started playing:

Russell Ess - September 11, 2016

Many fans were questioning what happened to the very amusing “Nick the Tooth” character that started the “Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight” YouTube series. Former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra spoke with Bruce Buffer on his “It’s Time” podcast and went into the details of the history of “Nick the Tooth” and the show.