MMA News

Tom Taylor - June 12, 2019

On Saturday, June 15, in the main event of ONE: Legendary Quest in shimmering Shanghai, China, 18-year-old Muay Thai star Alma Juniku will take on champion Stamp Fairtex for the ONE Atomweight Muay Thai World Title. Ahead of this mammoth Muay Thai showdown, the Albanian-Australian talent had a quick chat with BJPenn.com’s Tom Taylor.

Adam Martin - June 12, 2019

Just a few days ago, former UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta said he was interested in potentially owning an NFL team down the road once an opportunity arises. Now, it appears his former business partner Dana White wants to join him in that venture. The UFC President recently spoke to TMZ Sports and said that if Lorenzo and his brother Frank purchase an NFL team that he would be interested in partnering with them.

Adam Martin - June 12, 2019

Khabib Nurmagomedov has been a dominant force at lightweight and many want him to move up to welterweight at some point, but the UFC lightweight champion has shot down any idea of him moving up a weight class anytime soon. Speaking at the UFC 242 press conference on Wednesday in London, Nurmagomedov told the media that he has no interest in moving up to 170lbs to fight that division’s champion Kamaru Usman.

Mike Pendleton - June 12, 2019

After suffering the first knockout loss of his career, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson will miss out on an opportunity to fight at UFC Greenville, a location he’s always wanted the UFC to visit, but now he’s got new goals set for his comeback. Speaking to media in Chicago during last weekend’s UFC 238 festivities, Thompson spoke about how he’d like to return in the fall of this year at Madison Square Garden and why he’d love to fight a “legend” in Nate Diaz.

Tom Taylor - June 12, 2019

Undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is already one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. To cement himself as the pound-for-pound best fighter alive, however, he believes he needs to defeat three specific opponents. Those opponents are Dustin Poirier, who he’ll meet at UFC 242 on September 7 in Abu Dhabi, his long-time rival Tony Ferguson, and former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre.

BJPENN.COM Staff - June 12, 2019

Myanmar’s Phoe Thaw will step into the unknown on 15 June when he faces off against Indonesian veteran Victorio “Indra” Senduk at ONE: Legendary Quest in Shanghai, China. This contest will be the first matchup that Phoe Thaw has competed in outside of his home country, and the 34-year-old is thrilled that he has been given this chance to showcase his talents to an entirely new set of fans.

Cole Shelton - June 12, 2019

Bellator returns to Madison Square Garden in New York City with the stacked Bellator 222 card this weekend. The card sees two titles on the line and an intriguing light heavyweight matchup between Chael Sonnen and Lyoto Machida. Ahead of the light heavyweight showdown, BJPENN.com reached out to several pro fighters to get their predictions on this light heavyweight matchup. And, the consensus is that Sonnen will use his wrestling and grind out a win.

Tom Taylor - June 12, 2019

Former KSW middleweight and light heavyweight champion Mamed Khalidov, who retired after back-to-back losses in late 2018, has found his way back into the headlines for reasons unrelated to his fighting career. According to a report from Polish outlet TVP.info, Khalidov was recently arrested by the Anti-Terrorist Operations Office in Poland for allegedly forging documents related to the illegal importation of luxury cars. Per RT.com, the cars were apparently purchased in the Czech Republic before being illegally imported into Poland.

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.