MMA News

Tom Taylor - December 31, 2019

Early on Tuesday morning, RIZIN Fighting Federation promoted its final MMA card of the decade in RIZIN 20, and it was an absolute thriller. Topped by a bantamweight title fight between Kai Asakura, who recently stunned Kyoji Horiguchi, and Manel Kape, it also featured appearances from names like Tenshin Nasukawa, Seo Hee Ham, Rena Kubota, Patricky Freire, Jiri Prochazka, and CB Dollaway.

Natasha Hooper - December 31, 2019

Conor McGregor has high ambitions for 2020, and that could potentially include taking Jorge Masvidal’s “BMF” belt, according to Dana White. During an interview with ESPN, UFC president Dana White revealed that Conor McGregor plans to fight three times in 2020. First up on the agenda is the Irish superstar’s Octagon return against Donald Cerrone at UFC 246.

Adam Martin - December 30, 2019

According to a new report, top-ranked UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa was the most-tested athlete on the UFC roster by USADA in 2019. Yahoo! Esportes recently reported that with 14 blood and urine tests, Costa was tested more than any other male fighter on the entire UFC roster by USADA. Women’s strawweight contender Claudia Gadelha tied Costa with 14 USADA tests as the most-tested female fighter on the UFC roster. That means both Costa and Gadelha were tested more than once a month over the last year — and they both passed all of their tests.

Cole Shelton - December 30, 2019

Dana White believes current UFC strawweight champion, Weili Zhang can be one of the biggest stars in UFC history. Zhang had a massive 2019 where she dominated Tecia Torres at UFC 235 and then headlined a UFC event in her home country of China. There, she was taking on Jessica Andrade for the title. She ended up knocking out the Brazilian out in under a minute to become the UFC champ.

Adam Martin - December 30, 2019

UFC president Dana White confirmed that the promotion’s matchmakers are speaking to Nick Diaz about a possible comeback to the Octagon. Diaz has not fought since January 2015 when he fought Anderson Silva to a No Contest (originally a decision loss). He hasn’t fought since then but every so often his name comes back up for a possible comeback fight. Diaz recently remarked that he wants to return to the Octagon after five years away from it.

BJPENN.COM Staff - December 30, 2019

For the first time since 2015, Aung La N Sang didn’t compete three times, but the reigning ONE Middleweight and Light Heavyweight World Champion still had a banner year in 2019. As we await the announcement of “The Burmese Python’s” first bout of 2020, let’s take a moment to look back at what he accomplished in 2019.

Adam Martin - December 30, 2019

UFC president Dana White has confirmed the promotion is working on booking UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya against Yoel Romero. For months we have heard rumors that Adesanya could fight Romero but so far nothing has been made official. White said that he didn’t have anything official to announce just yet, but hinted an announcement for Adesanya vs. Romero could come soon.

Tom Taylor - December 30, 2019

The UFC has always caught flack for fighter pay, which tends to pale in comparison to what athletes make in other similarly dangerous sports like boxing or football. According to UFC President Dana White, however, fighter pay has skyrocketed over recent years — in 2019 in particular.

Natasha Hooper - December 30, 2019

Tyron Woodley has shut down Leon Edwards’ trash-talking on social media by threatening to withdraw from their anticipated fight. Earlier this month, it was announced that the former champ and No. 1 contender Woodley is being targeted for a fight against Leon Edwards at UFC London in March of 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.

Harry Kettle - December 30, 2019

Over the weekend, Bellator made its debut in Japan with an action-packed card. This Bellator Japan card produced some memorable moments, but unfortunately, many of those moments didn’t make it onto our screens, as some segments of the card were not aired outside of Japan.  That included the Bellator Japan postlims. Thankfully, the beauty of the Internet ensured that fans were able to watch the highlights of the postlims from a retrospective point of view.

Tom Taylor - December 30, 2019

There are several MMA stars with claim to 2019’s Fighter of the Year honors. Two of those fighters are Jorge Masvidal and Henry Cejudo. Masvidal had an epic year, first rebounding from a two-fight losing-streak with a knockout of Darren Till, then producing a record-shattering, five-second knockout of Ben Askren, and lastly battering Nate Diaz to a doctor’s stoppage to earn the BMF title.

Thomas Taylor - December 29, 2019

Last week, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones took to Twitter to bash his UFC 247 opponent Dominick Reyes. “Dominic watching your interviews, it’s obvious you think you’re better than me,” Jones wrote. “You never struggled with substance abuse, you have your big degrees, was always team captain at everything. We get it.

Thomas Taylor - December 29, 2019

On Saturday night, in the main event of Bellator MMA’s debut in Japan, former UFC light heavyweight champion Rampage Jackson was knocked out by fellow PRIDE legend Fedor Emelianenko. The fight-ending punch occurred at the 2:44 mark of round one, and admittedly didn’t look like it made all that severe of an impact. The nature of the punch caused some of MMA’s more suspicious fans to suggest that Rampage had intentionally taken a fall in the fight.

Thomas Taylor - December 29, 2019

Former UFC fighter Daron Cruickshank has found himself under fire after racist comments he made during an April visit to Japan have come to light. Cruickshank, who previously competed in the UFC lightweight division, has spent the last few years of his career fighting for Japan’s RIZIN Fighting Federation. During an April visit to Japan, the former UFC fighter made some controversial comments, suggesting that Japanese people eat dogs.

Thomas Taylor - December 29, 2019

At UFC 246, former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor will return to the Octagon for a welterweight clash with the fan favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Ahead of this fight, McGregor has packed on quite a bit of mass, evidently taking full advantage of the fact that he won’t have to cut much weight for the fight. See the buffed-up Conor McGregor below:

Adam Martin - December 29, 2019

Bellator president Scott Coker says that Fedor Emelianenko could get a heavyweight title shot against champion Ryan Bader, but a fight against Josh Barnett is more likely. Emelianenko had one of his most impressive performances in years when he knocked out Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the main event of Bellator Japan. The Russian legend looked fast and powerful in the fight, bouncing back from a first-round knockout loss to Ryan Bader earlier this year in the finals of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix.

Adam D Martin - December 29, 2019

Bellator president Scott Coker said that welterweight contender Lorenz Larkin will get a pass for missing weight at Bellator Japan and could get a title shot next. Larkin weighed in at 173.5lbs for his fight against fellow UFC alum Keita Nakamura on the main card. Larkin went on to dominate the bout en route to winning a lopsided unanimous decision, but the fact he missed weight made some believe he would be knocked down the title shot pecking order for Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima’s belt.