MMA News

Tom Taylor - April 17, 2019

Israel Adesanya absorbed quite a bit of punishment in his UFC 236 interim middleweight title fight with Kelvin Gastelum, but he also landed plenty of meaningful offense in return. In fact, he landed a record-breaking amount. Shortly after this fight, which Adesanya won by unanimous decision, the UFC announced that the Nigerian-born Kiwi had landed the third most knockdowns ever in a single UFC fight. MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn then added that Adesanya’s four knockdowns landed on Gastelum actually set the record for the most knockdowns in a single title fight.

Nolan King - April 17, 2019

Grandson of the legendary mobster bearing the same name, John Gotti III (3-0) will return to action late next month for CES MMA, the promotion announced Wednesday afternoon. The undefeated welterweight prospect will take to the Connecticut Convention Center on May 31 to take on DeVon Mosley (3-2) at CES 56. The event’s main card will air live and exclusively on UFC Fight Pass.

Tom Taylor - April 17, 2019

Speaking on Twitter, top UFC lightweight contender Tony Ferguson recently divulged that, after some worrying reports, he’s been cleared to compete in the Octagon again. My Team & I Are Ready. UFC Knows I Passed Evals. See You All On The Mat Soon Enough. -Champ 🇺🇸🏆🇲🇽

Cole Shelton - April 17, 2019

Back at UFC Philadelphia, Sodiq Yusuff extended his winning streak to four and improved to 2-0 in the UFC. Following the fight, Yusuff called out Kron Gracie, who is coming off of a submission win over Alex Caceres and is from the legendary jiu-jitsu family.

Tom Taylor - April 17, 2019

The UFC has been crowning a lot of interim champions of late. In fact, it crowned two new interim champions at UFC 236 last weekend, as Dustin Poirier defeated Max Holloway to win the interim lightweight title, and Israel Adesanya defeated Kelvin Gastelum to win the interim middleweight title. Unfortunately, these interim title belts often amount to little more than number one contender belts, guaranteeing the interim a champion a shot at the true, undisputed champion. Sometimes, they don’t even accomplish that — see the cases of Colby Covington and Tony Ferguson.

Tom Taylor - April 17, 2019

Former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw recently tested positive for the injectable only performance-enhancing drug EPO, and was suspended for two years by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) as a result. While this development has slowed his promising career, he’s using his time off to get some long-needed surgeries and do some physical healing. TJ Dillashaw updated his fans on his first surgery on Instagram:

Drake Riggs - April 16, 2019

In the UFC’s 155-pound lightweight division, it’s almost impossible to put together a bad or uninteresting match-up. The division homes several of the sport’s most exciting competitors. Perhaps the most exciting of them all regardless of division is ‘The Highlight,’ Justin Gaethje. With only five fights in the UFC to this point, the former World Series of Fighting champion has gone 3-2 and earned a performance bonus in each of those outings. Thus giving him six in total as his debut against Michael Johnson earned fight and performance of the night honors. His first three bouts were all nominated as a fight of the year candidate as well.

Drake Riggs - April 16, 2019

Wrestlers are rarely made as great as Jordan Burroughs. And in terms of competitors, he’s the purest of the pure. MMA has seen several of the world’s best wrestlers enter into the cage at one point or another. Whether it be from one time occasions with someone like Aleksandr Karelin or to current UFC champions such as Daniel Cormier and Henry Cejudo. All of which found themselves competing in the Olympics prior to their fighting careers and they all had incredible amounts of success. Karelin and Cejudo in particular with gold medals.

Drake Riggs - April 16, 2019

The recent string of UFC main events dating back to March 9 have all been incredibly memorable. The second in that row of fights took place in London, England as two top welterweights went to battle. In one corner, it was a homecoming for the Brit, Darren Till who was looking to rebound off of his first career loss. Standing across from him was an also rebounding Jorge Masvidal. In the end, the returning ‘Gamebred’ would score a devastating two-fight losing streak-snapping knockout in round two.

Drake Riggs - April 16, 2019

Nick Newell (14-2) has captured the hearts of MMA fans around the world with his great fighting skills and story of perseverance. The one-armed Newell is a former World Series of Fighting standout whose lone loss in the organization came in a title fight against the then reigning king, Justin Gaethje. A loss that no one can hang their hat on.

Drake Riggs - April 16, 2019

The last time we saw Leslie Smith compete in MMA was in July 2017. She would pick up a second-round TKO over Amanda Lemos to extend her 135-pound winning streak to three straight. Following the Lemos bout, Smith was lined up to face the undefeated top prospect, Aspen Ladd at UFC Atlantic City in April 2018. The fight was the last on Smith’s contract and unfortunately, Ladd would end up missing weight which led to some negotiating to work things out.

Tom Taylor - April 16, 2019

Shortly after Aung La N Sang defended his ONE Championship Middleweight World Title with a knockout of Ken Hasegawa at ONE: A New Era in March, he was joined in the cage by ONE Heavyweight Champion Brandon Vera and ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong. It was announced right then and there, in front of throngs of Japanese fans, that Aung La would defend his other World Title — the ONE light heavyweight belt — against the heavyweight champ Vera.

Nolan King - April 16, 2019

Invicta FC has officially upped the stakes. Tuesday morning, the promotion announced the winner of their highly anticipated “Phoenix Rising” event will be crowned Invicta FC Strawweight Champion. On Friday, May 3, eight of Invicta’s top 115-pounders will collide in a one-night, eight woman tournament. The quarterfinal matchups are as follows (per a press release):

Tom Taylor - April 16, 2019

Having won the UFC interim middleweight championship with a thrilling decision victory over Kelvin Gastelum in the co-main event of UFC 236 this past Saturday, Israel Adesanya can now look forward to a title-unifying collision with undisputed middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. This clash between New Zealand’s Adesanya and Australia’s Whittaker will likely go down in Australia late this year, per UFC President Dana White.

Tom Taylor - April 16, 2019

Over the weekend, in the co-main event of UFC 236, undefeated UFC middleweight contender Israel Adesanya became the interim champion with a dazzling decision defeat of the dangerous Kelvin Gastelum. Adesanya’s thrilling victory over Gastelum caught the attention of pretty much every member of the MMA community. That includes former middleweight title challenger Yoel Romero, who sent the new interim champion a quick message post fight.

Tom Taylor - April 16, 2019

Dustin Poirier is now the UFC interim lightweight champion. He won this title with a riveting decision defeat of reigning UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway in the UFC 236 main event. With a UFC belt now wrapped round his waist, Dustin Poirier can look forward to a title unifying showdown with undisputed champion Khabib Nurmagomedov — perhaps as soon as September.

Tom Taylor - April 16, 2019

After a long career in the middleweight division — including title wins in the UFC and Strikeforce — Luke Rockhold is headed up to the light heavyweight division. In this new division, he’s hoping to advance through the ranks and ultimately collide with reigning UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones. Should Luke Rockhold earn this opportunity, he believes he’ll be the man to dethrone the seemingly unstoppable champion.

BJPENN.COM Staff - April 16, 2019

In a massive bid to bring amateur mixed martial arts to the Olympics, ONE Championship and Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts (GAMMA) have announced a partnership, in a clear push to develop the sport at the grassroots level. GAMMA is the independent governing body for the sport of mixed martial arts worldwide.