MMA News

Nolan King - April 29, 2019

Another 145-pound matchup is in the works for this summer’s return of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series. A bout between featherweight up-and-comers Adli Edwards (6-1) and Terrance McKinney (6-1) is in the works for July 23, sources tell BJPenn.com. North Carolina’s Adli Edwards is coming off of four straight victories entering his first Contender Series appearance. In his last outing, Edwards stormed into enemy territory, defeating previously unbeaten Brendon Marotte at Combat Zone 70.

Cole Shelton - April 29, 2019

After Rory MacDonald fought to a majority draw against Jon Fitch in the first round of the welterweight grand prix, his post-fight comments caused quite a stir. “I don’t know what to say,” MacDonald said post-fight. “I landed some good stuff in there, I don’t know. It’s hard to sometimes pull the trigger now. I don’t have that killer inside. It’s really hard to explain. But I hesitate a little bit now. It wasn’t my best performance.”

Drake Riggs - April 29, 2019

Bellator 220 went down on Saturday night as it was headlined by two big title fights in the respective welterweight and flyweight divisions. In the co-main event, we saw “The Ilimanator” Ilima-Lei Macfarlane extend her perfect record to 10-0 as she picked up her third title defense by finishing Veta Arteaga in the third-round by TKO (doctor’s stoppage). Macfarlane landed a vicious elbow to the forehead of her opponent that opened a cut that was too severe for the fight to continue.

Drake Riggs - April 29, 2019

Generally, when an interim champion is crowned, we know exactly what fight will be next for them. That, of course, is none other than the undisputed champion. When “The Last Stylebender” Israel Adesanya (17-0) defeated Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236 in a fight of the year candidate, he became the new UFC interim middleweight champion. Thus making an encounter with the undisputed champ, Robert Whittaker (20-4), inevitable.

Tom Taylor - April 29, 2019

Back in December, an anomaly on a Jon Jones drug test caused the entire UFC 232 card to be moved from Las Vegas to Los Angeles on a weeks’ notice. UFC light heavyweight contender Corey Anderson fought on that card, beating Ilir Latifi by unanimous decision, and was not exactly pleased about this last-minute inconvenience. Given that this was not the first bit of drama caused by Jon Jones over the last few years, it should come as no surprise that Corey Anderson has some strong opinions on the UFC light heavyweight champ — and on the way he’s treated by the UFC.

Tom Taylor - April 29, 2019

Over the weekend, on the main card of Bellator 220, former Bellator light heavyweight champs Phil Davis and Liam McGeary collided in an anticipated rematch. In the end, Davis won this fight when McGeary sustained an apparent jaw injury in the third round.

Tom Taylor - April 29, 2019

Earlier this month, UFC veteran Rodrigo de Lima was reportedly hit and killed by an Uber driver in Belem, Brazil. The driver, Jefferson Roger Maciel Barata, has now confessed to this crime. He has been arrested and will reportedly be charged with murder (via MMA Fighting).

Tom Taylor - April 29, 2019

Jack Hermansson picked up the biggest victory of his career over the weekend, walloping former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza to a unanimous decision victory in the short-notice UFC Fort Lauderdale main event. While this victory surprised a great many onlookers, Hermansson himself sees it as the result of more than a decade of hard work.

Mike Straus - April 29, 2019

UFC Fort Lauderdale is in the books. We learned a lot from last weekend’s 13-fight card from Southeastern Florida. Let’s take a deeper look at the fighters who did themselves the biggest favors over the weekend in Florida.

Tom Taylor - April 29, 2019

On Saturday night, in the main event of UFC Fort Lauderdale, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza risked his promised middleweight title shot in a fight with short-notice replacement opponent Jack Hermansson. Unfortunately for the Brazilian contender and his dedicated fan base, this gamble did not pay off. Instead, the 39-year-old was thumped to a decision loss by his unheralded opponent and his title dreams were once again dashed — perhaps for a final time. Speaking at the UFC Fort Lauderdale post-fight press conference, Jacare issued a few quick comments on this loss. Understandably, he says he’s sad.

Chris Taylor - April 28, 2019

The octagon will return to Abu Dhabi on September 7 for the promotions UFC 242 event and it is expected that Khabib Nurmagomedov will headline the card. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto broke the news moments ago on Twitter.

Drake Riggs - April 28, 2019

The first RIZIN Fighting Federation event of 2019 went down on April 21 with RIZIN 15. It was a great night of fights as per usual from the Japanese based MMA leader. In action, that night was none other than the RIZIN bantamweight king, Kyoji Horiguchi (27-2) who defeated Ben Nguyen via first-round TKO. The dominant 28-year old entered the ring for the first time since he won the title on New Year’s Eve 2018 at RIZIN 14 when he defeated the Bellator champion, Darrion “The Wolf” Caldwell (13-2) in a crazy comeback effort.

Mike Straus - April 28, 2019

Bellator 220, from the SAP Center in San Jose, California, is a wrap. With a whopping 18 fights on the night (including the usual Bellator post-lims) there were plenty of opportunities for fighters to make a statement. Let us take a deeper look and see what fighters showed out in Central Cali.

Thomas Taylor - April 28, 2019

In the span of a few weeks, Sweden’s Jack Hermansson has submitted former World Series of Fighting champion David Branch, and dominated former Strikeforce champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza to a decision. In doing so, the surging middleweight contender has impressed pretty much every member of the MMA community — and that includes UFC commentator Joe Rogan. Rogan, who was not on duty for Saturday night’s UFC Fort Lauderdale card, where Hermansson defeated Jacare, heaped praise on the Swede on Instagram on Sunday afternoon.

Tom Taylor - April 28, 2019

On Sunday, former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor once again hopped onto Twitter and interacted with his fans. As is so often the case, this latest Twitter session provided some interesting insights into the sport’s biggest star. Responding to one fan, McGregor explained that even though he certainly could retire from fighting right now, his love for the sport makes it difficult for him to walk away.

Tom Taylor - April 28, 2019

On Saturday night, on the main card of UFC Fort Lauderdale, “Platinum” Mike Perry returned to the win column with a Fight of the Night winning victory over Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira. With this victory, Perry set himself up for more big fights in the UFC welterweight division — including a long discussed fight with Darren Till. From the sounds of it, this is a fight Perry still wants — though he knows it might not be what the UFC ultimately offers him.

Tom Taylor - April 28, 2019

On Saturday night, in the co-main event of UFC Fort Lauderdale, disgraced NFL veteran Greg Hardy picked up his first victory in the UFC’s Octagon, thumping the outmatched Dmitrii Smoliakov to a TKO win. In the wake of this victory, Hardy is very excited about the future holds, and believes he’s capable of realizing mammoth heights in the cage.

Cole Shelton - April 28, 2019

The Octagon returned to Florida last night for UFC Fort Lauderdale. Originally, this card was supposed to be a big ESPN card, but after numerous changes to the main event — Jack Hermansson ultimately stepped in to take on Jacare Souza — the card was bumped to ESPN+. Hermansson dominated Souza and won four rounds on one judge’s scorecards, while the other two gave him three rounds. It was a performance that should get Hermansson ranked in the top-five. As for Jacare, things are less certain.