MMA News

BJPENN.COM Staff - June 12, 2019

ONE Championship continues to establish itself in mainland China. The next event takes place in Shanghai on 15 June, called ONE: Legendary Quest, and there are five Chinese athletes scheduled to compete on the card. Those warriors will help to set the table for the co-main event, Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Agilan Thani, and the main event between ONE Atomweight Muay Thai World Champion Stamp Fairtex against 18-year-old world prodigy Alma Juniku. The match between Stamp and Juniku has a combined age of just 39, which is a record for a ONE Championship title bout.

Mike Pendleton - June 11, 2019

Former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas hopes to get a rematch with current champion Jessica Andrade, but she’s first looking to take some time off to recover from a neck injury. Following the news that Andrade will face Weili Zhang at UFC China in late August, Namajunas’ manager Brian Butler released a statement to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. Reached out to Rose Namajunas’ (@rosenamajunas) manager Brian Butler (@BrianButler_Au) for their reaction to the Andrade/Zhang title fight. Here’s what Brian told me. pic.twitter.com/cNFjNInAgd

Thomas Taylor - June 11, 2019

Over the weekend, in the middle bout of the UFC 238 main card, Donald Cerrone stepped into the Octagon with streaking lightweight contender Tony Ferguson. This bout was widely expected to capture the card’s Fight of the Night honors, and in the end it did just that. Unfortunately, it did end with a degree of controversy, as Cerrone was deemed unfit to continue fighting between the second and third rounds.

Jordy McElroy - June 11, 2019

Flyweight champion Henry Cejudo stood tall at UFC 238, relentlessly raining down punches and elbows on top of bantamweight contender Marlon Moraes—every concussive blow serving as a mortal wound to the 125 pound division. Help came for Moraes in the form of referee Marc Goddard at 4:51 of the third round, but none is coming for the flyweight division, which is now bereft of life and lying stone cold on the blood-spattered canvas. Demetrious Johnson has already moved on. The UFC already moved on. After winning his third major sports title, Cejudo finally moved on.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2019

Former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor has once again earned a spot on Forbes’ list of highest paid athletes in the world. The Irish MMA star didn’t place in the top-10 this year, instead coming at No.21 with $47M in earnings. McGregor’s former opponent and long-time rival Floyd Mayweather, who held the No.1 spot last year, has vanished from the list all together. The top spot is now occupied by Lionel Messi, while other names in the top-10 include Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Canelo Alvarez, Roger Federer, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Lebron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. No other UFC fighters appear on the list, though boxers like Gennady Golovkin, Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder do.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2019

In the span of a few hours on Sunday, pop star Justin Bieber called for a UFC fight with actor Tom Cruise, and former two-division champion Conor McGregor offered to promote it. Former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, like many members of the MMA community, finds all of this completely ridiculous. In fact, he wishes he could go back in time to an era where things like this were a little less common.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2019

UFC 238 was a big night for the bantamweight division. In the main event, flyweight champion Henry Cejudo captured the vacant bantamweight title with a TKO defeat of Marlon Moraes, while on the prelims, Aljamain Sterling established himself as the division’s top contender with a victory over Brazil’s Pedro Munhoz. While Henry Cejudo followed his bantamweight title win with callouts of Cody Garbrandt, Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber, it seems likely that he’ll find himself defending the title against Aljamain Sterling in the near future.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2019

Over the weekend, former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor made yet another call for a fight with Hollywood actor and UFC shareholder Mark Wahlberg. I challenge Mark Walhberg on the very same card.Back when mark wahlberg was marky mark, I’d’ve still slapped the ears off him and took my ufc shares back.#Shares #Streams #Dazn #Espn McGregor Sports and Entertainment

Cole Shelton - June 11, 2019

At Bellator 222 inside Madison Square Garden, highly touted prospect Aaron Pico will return to the cage to take on Adam Borics. He’ll be looking to rebound from a knockout loss to Henry Corrales. Although Pico is coming off of a loss, he is ready to return and believes he’s taken the perfect amount of time off. With the loss, the highly regarded prospect also decided to take a step back and go back to the drawing board. He even undertook a camp change to JacksonWink MMA.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2019

Henry Cejudo is now the UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion. The former Olympic wrestler has held the flyweight belt since last summer and captured the bantamweight strap with a TKO defeat of Marlon Moraes at UFC 238 last weekend. Yet he’s not resting on his laurels.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2019

Mackenzie Dern is now a mother. The UFC strawweight announced the birth of her first child, a girl, on Instagram on Monday.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2019

Last weekend, on the undercard of UFC 238, former UFC strawweight title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz lost a decision to Mexico’s Alexa Grasso. With this loss, the Polish star fell on to a three-fight skid — which has led her to confront what she calls a “painful” reality. While Karolina Kowalkiewicz intends to continue fighting and putting on fun fights for her fans, she says she believes that her best days are behind her.

Cole Shelton - June 10, 2019

At UFC 234, Robert Whittaker was set to defend his middleweight title against Kelvin Gastelum. It would have been the first time that the Aussie would have defended his belt. However, on the day of the fight, the champ had to pull out of the contest due to health reasons. Fast forward to UFC 236, and in the co-main event, Gastelum was fighting for the interim title against Israel Adesanya. Ultimately, Adesanya beat Gastelum by unanimous decision in what is a front runner for the fight of the year.

Adam Martin - June 10, 2019

One of the top female MMA fighters in the world, Cris Cyborg, will soon be testing the free agent market. The former UFC featherweight champion will test free agency following her bout against Felicia Spencer at UFC 240 this July in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Tom Taylor - June 10, 2019

Hours after bookmakers released the odds for a potential MMA fight between pop star Justin Bieber and Hollywood actor Tom Cruise, we now have have the odds for a potential fight between former two-division UFC champ Conor McGregor and actor Mark Wahlberg. And, well… they’re baffling. The online sportsbook BetOnline has seemingly pegged Conor McGregor, one of the most accomplished mixed martial artists of all time, as a mere -500 favorite against the untrained actor. Wahlberg, meanwhile, has been identified as a +300 underdog.

Tom Taylor - June 10, 2019

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman recently announced his intention to move up to the promotion’s 205-pound light heavyweight division. While Weidman will likely have some work to do before earning himself a title shot against reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, that is of course his ultimate goal in this new weight class. And he believes he poses some real problems for the champion.

BJPENN.COM Staff - June 10, 2019

There is always a ton on the line whenever athletes climb onto the canvas to do battle. Sometimes, depending on the athlete’s current situation, there is even more at stake than usual. On June 15, ONE Championship heads to Shanghai for ONE: Legendary Quest at the Baoshan Arena. The card is topped by an epic ONE Atomweight Muay Thai World Championship bout. The 21-year-old champion Stamp Fairtex of Thailand will defend her title against 18-year-old challenger Alma Juniku of Australia.

Tom Taylor - June 10, 2019

Former UFC heavyweight Tim Hague, who tragically passed away after a boxing match in his native Edmonton, Alberta in 2017, has been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, more widely known as CTE, is a brain condition caused by repeated traumatic blows to the head. This condition, which is unsurprisingly a very real risk for professional boxers and mixed martial artists, can only be diagnosed post-mortem.