MMA News

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.

Tom Taylor - April 28, 2019

UFC Fort Lauderdale and Bellator 220 certainly produced some interesting moments, but the weirdest MMA moment of the weekend came from URCC 77 in the Philippines, which featured a wild, three-on-three brawl. This team MMA bout pitted three fighters from the Philippines and three from China, and ended in bizarre fashion as one fighter seemed to be rattled by an illegal shot to the back of the head. These things tend to happen when there are six people fighting in one cage. See it in the video below:

Tom Taylor - April 28, 2019

On Saturday night, the UFC returned to ESPN+ with the action packed UFC Fort Lauderdale card. As is so often the case with thrilling cards of this sort, the UFC brass had an unenviable task on their hands when it came time to hand out the bonuses for the evening’s best fight, but in the end, they decided on a main card welterweight bout between “Platinum” Mike Perry and Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira. This thrilling showdown, which Mike Perry won by unanimous decision, earned both men $50,000 bonuses.

Tom Taylor - April 28, 2019

After his UFC contract expired, popular cage-side commentator Jimmy Smith was offered a gig with Singapore-based martial arts powerhouse ONE Championship. In the end, however, he accepted a job with North American promotion Invicta Fighting Championship instead. Jimmy Smith explained why he made this decision in a recent post to his YouTube channel.

Drake Riggs - April 28, 2019

The Bellator welterweight title was on the line in the main event of Bellator 220 in San Jose, California on Saturday night. In the bout was the defending champion, Rory MacDonald as he took on the seasoned UFC veteran and former World Series of Fighting champ, Jon Fitch. In a very closely contested battle, the scorecards would reflect that as the fight wound up being a majority draw. Because of the fact that MacDonald didn’t lose, he remained the champion and will advance to the welterweight Grand Prix semifinals to take on Neiman Gracie.

Drake Riggs - April 27, 2019

Bellator has brought back life to their old school style of tournaments with their world title Grand Prix’s. And for the welterweight tournament, Bellator 220 hosted the first title fight as the champion, Rory MacDonald, made his first return after an unsuccessful attempt at capturing middleweight gold in his last time out. The extremely season veteran, Jon Fitch looked to make it two losses in a row for the Canadian. MacDonald rushes forward immediately and cracks Fitch with a hard right hand that stuns him. Fitch retaliates with a single leg attempt. He gets it down slowly as MacDonald threatens with a kimura as he stands back up. Fitch keeps grinding on him but MacDonald goes back for the kimura. They separate and MacDonald throws some shots before defending a Fitch takedown attempt. Another big right from MacDonald lands. Fitch has a cut in his hair somewhere. MacDonald backs Fitch up and is stalking. Fitch shoots for a takedown and gets it big this time. Fitch works ground and pound to the body as the round closes.

Chris Taylor - April 27, 2019

Tonight’s UFC Fort Lauderdale event was headlined by a key middleweight bout featuring perennial contenders Ronaldo Souza and Jack Hermansson. Ronaldo Souza was most previously seen inside the octagon at November’s UFC 230 event, where he scored a spectacular knockout victory over former champ Chris Weidman.

Drake Riggs - April 27, 2019

The first of Bellator 220’s two title fights went down within the always fun flyweight division as the undefeated champ, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane took on the hungry challenger, Veta Arteaga. Arteaga pushes the action instantly but Macfarlane stops the forward momentum with a single leg attempt that takes them to the cage. Arteaga tries to land what she can in tight but Macfarlane eventually gets the action down before Arteaga finds a sprawl to better her position and get back up. Against the fence again they go. Macfarlane pulls her away and gets the takedown. She’s now on Arteaga’s back but gets thrown off fairly quickly. Now working from the bottom, an armbar turns to an ankle lock attempt with Arteaga throwing body punches the whole time. Arteaga stands up with Macfarlane still on her leg. Macfarlane lets go, up to the feet they go. Arteaga continues to be relentless with her attack. She gets Macfarlane to the cage now where she lands knees to the body. The two break and stand in the center. Round ends after Arteaga stops a takedown.

Chris Taylor - April 27, 2019

A heavyweight bout featuring former Dallas Cowboy Greg Hardy taking on Dmitri Smoliakov co-headlined tonight’s UFC Fort Lauderdale event. Greg Hardy (3-1 MMA) entered tonight’s contest looking to rebound, this after suffering a disqualification loss to Allen Crowder in his octagon debut.