MMA News

J Kindschy - April 25, 2019

Perseverance is undoubtedly a key component to success and arguably the most important. No matter your walk of life or your profession, we all must overcome the odds in some capacity. In seldom few professions is this fact more prevalent than combat sports. Grueling training, weight cutting, competing at the highest level, the painful sting of a loss, and of course injuries. The journey for combat athletes is typically a long and arduous road, which is why, statistically speaking, such a minority of these warriors reach the pinnacle. However, in several cases we have been fortunate enough to witness greatness manifest itself, and in the world of kickboxing, Gokhan Saki epitomizes the moxie of such greatness. Saki amassed an incredible record of 81-16-1 in the realm of striking and has competed against virtually every distinguished kickboxer of our generation. His illustrious career has already afforded him riches and notoriety, but as his aptly named monicker suggests, Gokhan is a rebel, and has always gone against the grain. Many argued that the Turkish-born Dutchmen was undersized to compete at heavyweight with the giants in K-1 and Glory. Yet his ferocious tenacity proved to be unrivaled, silencing his doubters time and time again.

Drake Riggs - April 24, 2019

After taking one of the longer paths to the top, ‘The Diamond,’ Dustin Poirier has stamped his ticket to an undisputed UFC lightweight title fight. At UFC 236 earlier this month, Poirier did so by claiming the interim lightweight title by picking up his second career win over the current featherweight champion, Max Holloway. The two went to war for a full 25 minutes and Poirier would be the one to walk away with the unanimous decision victory.

Drake Riggs - April 24, 2019

UFC Nashville was headlined by a pretty unique match-up, to say the least. The main event of the promotion’s return to the state of Tennessee saw former WEC and UFC lightweight champion, as well as former featherweight hopeful, Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis make his 170-pound welterweight debut. His opponent would be none other than the perennial top five contender, two-time welterweight title challenger, ‘Wonderboy,’ Stephen Thompson. Shockingly, after a pretty dominant showing from Thompson, Pettis would be the one to connect late in the second round to score the massive knockout win. It was the Karate specialist’s first time losing via knockout and Pettis’ first time winning via strikes since January 2013 when he TKO’d Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone with a body kick.

Cole Shelton - April 24, 2019

Marlon Moraes is getting a shot at the vacant UFC bantamweight title, this after T.J. Dillashaw relinquished his belt due to a two-year suspension from USADA. Dillashaw had tested positive for the banned substance EPO in the lead up to his fight with Flyweight champ Henry Cejudo. Although some fighters claim that they always knew TJ Dillashaw was using drugs, Marlon Moraes was still still shocked and disappointed by the news.

Tom Taylor - April 24, 2019

Speaking on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience MMA Show, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan shared his appreciation for ONE Championship and the way the Asian organization promotes mixed martial arts. “I appreciate the way ONE FC handles things,” Rogan said. “They just concentrate on fighters being honorable and fighting their best, and fighting the best fighters they can fight. They don’t emphasize that s**t talking at all. They emphasize the martial arts aspects of it.”

Tom Taylor - April 24, 2019

The official UFC rankings have been updated in the wake of Saturday’s UFC St. Petersburg card, and as expected there have been some notable changes. The biggest change, however, seems to be unrelated to the card, as long absent lightweight star Nate Diaz has finally been ejected from the UFC rankings. In terms of UFC St. Petersburg related changes, Alistair Overeem made a slight climb at heavyweight on the strength of his rousing TKO defeat of Alexey Oleynik.

Tom Taylor - April 24, 2019

Last week, it was announced that Singapore based martial arts powerhouse ONE Championship had signed a partnership with Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts (GAMMA), an independent governing body for the sport of mixed martial arts. The goals of this partnership are multifaceted, but the most notable mission of the two organizations is to bring the sport of MMA to the Olympics.

Tom Taylor - April 24, 2019

UFC veterans Chael Sonnen and Lyoto Machida are scheduled to collide in a light heavyweight showdown at Bellator NYC on July 14. Yet on Wednesday afternoon, Sonnen took to Twitter and cast doubt on the status of this matchup. Machida:

Jordy McElroy - April 24, 2019

There is nothing flashy about Justin Gaethje’s style of fighting—no fancy footwork or slick striking techniques. The former World Series of Fighting lightweight champion is more of a bite down on a mouthpiece, march forward relentlessly and shove his fists in your face kind of fighter. Couple that with a criminally underrated ground game, and you have the recipe for big problems for reigning UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. During an appearance on The MMA Hour, Gaethje implied that he would be the “toughest out” for Nurmagomedov out of all the other title contenders, including Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier and Tony Ferguson.

Tom Taylor - April 24, 2019

Back at UFC 236, UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway made his debut in the UFC lightweight division, taking on Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight strap. Unfortunately for the Hawaiian and his ever-growing fanbase, this move to lightweight didn’t go as planned, as he lost a unanimous decision to Poirier and saw his 13-fight win-streak disintegrate in the process. Speaking to MMA Junkie recently, Yancy Medeiros, one of Holloway’s chief training partners, gave his take on Holloway’s lightweight debut.

Tom Taylor - April 24, 2019

If you were hoping to see undefeated middleweight knockout artist Paulo Costa back in the cage soon, well, you might have some waiting to do. According to UFC vice president of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky, Paulo Costa is still being investigated by the United States Anti-Doping Agency after being fined $9,333.33 by the New York State Athletic Commission for an unknown violation.

Tom Taylor - April 24, 2019

New ONE Championship star Sage Northcutt has seemingly caught the acting bug. The fan favorite welterweight can be seen in the newly released trailer for Street Fighter: Genesis, an unauthorized project based on the popular Capcom game. Northcutt plays the fiery-fisted character, Ken. See him in action below:

Drake Riggs - April 24, 2019

Yesterday, USADA announced that four fighters had recently accepted sixth-month suspensions for their positive testings due to ostarine usage. All of which were the result of tainted supplements. One of those fighters happened to be the inaugural UFC flyweight champion, Nicco Montano. Montano has been out of action since she won the title in December 2017 dealing with a severe foot injury. Once she was finally ready to return in September 2018 to defend her title, things still didn’t go as planned as The Ultimate Fighter 26 winner would end up hospitalized during her weight cut. Thus, obviously, canceling her fight and then leading to her being stripped of her title.

Drake Riggs - April 23, 2019

It has been an absolute rollercoaster ride of a career to this point for the inaugural UFC flyweight champion, Nicco Montano. Entering The Ultimate Fighter season 26 as a bright prospect yet consensus underdog, Montano would go on to win the whole show and become the champion as she defeated some of the division’s best. Her crowning moment came on December 1, 2017.

Tom Taylor - April 23, 2019

Like pretty much everybody else inside the MMA bubble, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman has enjoyed watching new interim middleweight champ Israel Adesanya compete inside the Octagon. That being said, he believes he possesses the physical tools and the skills to give the Nigerian-born Kiwi fits inside the cage. Weidman explains why he feels this way on the latest episode of Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.

Tom Taylor - April 23, 2019

UFC President Dana White has previously claimed that he plans to venture into the world of boxing promotion. “I had a meeting in LA yesterday. We are continuing to move forward, and we will absolutely, positively be in the boxing business,” White told ESPN last year. “If you know how I run my business and what I like, yes I want all the best boxers in the world,” he added. “I want them all to fight each other and find out who the real champ is. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Tom Taylor - April 23, 2019

UFC heavyweight Walt Harris has accepted a four-month sanction from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after testing positive for the anabolic agent LGD-4033. In addition, Harris’ UFC 232 split decision victory over former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski has been overturned to a no-contest. USADA announced this news in a release, explaining that Harris’ violation was the result of his use of a tainted supplement:

Cole Shelton - April 23, 2019

Jon Fitch is fighting for the Bellator welterweight title on Saturday night, in the last first-round bout of the Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix. The 41-year-old, who is 1-0 inside the Bellator cage, will be taking on the champion Rory MacDonald in the main event of Bellator 220. Although Fitch is the underdog heading into this fight, the veteran is more than ready to do what he has to do to win.