MMA News

Tom Taylor - April 30, 2019

Former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub has a stand-up comedy special on the way, and on Tuesday afternoon, he dropped the trailer for this Showtime-backed project. See it below:

Tom Taylor - April 30, 2019

UFC President Dana White has recently laid out plans to venture into the boxing business, and on Monday, he gave us reason to believe these plans could actually be taking shape. On his official Twitter account, the UFC boss shared a photo of himself and English boxing promoter Eddie Hearn meeting at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas.

Tom Taylor - April 30, 2019

On Saturday night, the UFC will return to our screens with its second offering from the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Canada. Featuring a key lightweight contender bout, and some of Canada’s top MMA talent, this UFC Ottawa card looks like it could be a solid night of fights. The card will be topped by a lightweight showdown between ranked contenders Al Iaquinta and Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Iaquinta will look to build on the momentum of a recent defeat of Kevin Lee, while Cowboy, who also fought on the UFC’s first show in Ottawa, will look to make it two in a row after stopping Alex Hernandez in January.

Tom Taylor - April 30, 2019

As the former ONE Championship and Bellator welterweight king, and one of the top contenders in the UFC welterweight division, Ben Askren has already accomplished some incredible things as a fighter. But what could he accomplish if he worked on the other side of the hurt business, as a promoter? He gave us a sense of how he’d handle that role on a recent episode of MMA Junkie Radio. Unsurprisingly, he says he’d work hard to treat the fighters better.

Tom Taylor - April 30, 2019

Over the weekend, disgraced former NFL player Greg Hardy picked up his first UFC victory, thumping the completely passive Dmitrii Smoliakov to a first-round TKO. With this first UFC win in the books, Hardy is already setting his sights on some of the UFC heavyweight division’s premier players, such as former champ Stipe Miocic and former title challenger Derrick Lewis.

Drake Riggs - April 29, 2019

In MMA’s lightest division, the spotlight isn’t too bright in North America, but the fighters are still lighting things up. Leading the way for them in the West is the Invicta FC atomweight champion, Jinh Yu Frey (8-3). After six fights in the promotion, the seventh was her crowning moment when she defeated Minna Grusander via unanimous decision. Since then, Frey has successfully defended the title once by defeating Grusander in their instant rematch.

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

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

Colby Covington recently claimed Mike Perry would be sent back to the regional circuit if he couldn’t get by Alex Oliveira at UFC Fort Lauderdale. In the end, Perry did get past Oliveira, defeating the Brazilian by decision in a Fight of the Night winning scrap. And speaking on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday, he took the opportunity to reply to Covington.

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

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.

Tom Taylor - April 29, 2019

Shortly after battling Jon Fitch to a draw in the main event of Bellator 220, Bellator welterweight champ Rory MacDonald made some comments that cast doubt on his future as a fighter. Most notably, he suggested that he no longer has the desire to hurt people — certainly an issue for those who make their living fighting in a cage.

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.

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.

Thomas Taylor - April 28, 2019

Tony Ferguson and Conor McGregor remain two of the best lightweight fighters in the world, but at the moment, it’s extremely unclear what the future holds for either man. Conor McGregor, making millions through his numerous ventures outside the cage, would seem to have no financial impetus to fight again. Tony Ferguson, on the other hand, is dealing with some personal struggles that have rendered his status uncertain. Yet every fight fan with a pulse is hoping both men fight again soon.