MMA News

Tom Taylor - April 18, 2019

Amanda Nunes, who currently owns the UFC bantamweight and featherweight titles, is booked to defend her bantamweight title against Holly Holm at UFC 239 this summer. Should she successfully defend this title against the former bantamweight champion Holm, her plan is to then move back up to featherweight to defend that belt. “For sure (I plan to) defend both,” Nunes told reporters at the recent UFC seasonal press conference during UFC 236 fight week in Atlanta, Georgia (via MMA Junkie). “I will defend my belt at 135 then go up and defend my belt after at 145.”

Tom Taylor - April 18, 2019

ONE Heavyweight World Champion Brandon Vera is currently gearing up for a showdown with ONE Light Heavyweight and Middleweight World Champion Aung La N Sang, which is set to occur in Tokyo this October. This fight with Aung La is currently consuming all of the Filipino-American titleholder’s focus. That being said, he is interested in a bout with new ONE Championship star Vitor Belfort, should the opportunity arise in the future.

Mike Straus - April 18, 2019

The UFC will return to our screens this weekend with UFC St. Petersburg. The card is topped by a heavyweight bout between Alistair Overeem and Alexey Oleynik. A heavyweight bout at the top of the bill is a great way to pull casual fans in. However, upon further review, the seventh offering on the ESPN+ platform promises to entertain on an even deeper level.

Tom Taylor - April 18, 2019

ONE Middleweight and Light Heavyweight World Champion Aung La N Sang last fought at ONE: A New Era on March 31 Tokyo, Japan, when he defended his middleweight strap with a knockout of Ken Hasegawa. On that same night, we witnessed the ONE Championship debuts of two former UFC titleholders in Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson. The former UFC and Bellator champ Alvarez debuted first, and contrary to the widespread expectation among Western fans, he was stopped in the first round by his ferocious opponent Timofey Nastyukhin.

Drake Riggs - April 18, 2019

A new interim UFC middleweight champion was crowned this past Saturday night when Israel Adesanya would defeat Kelvin Gastelum via a thrilling unanimous decision. Prior to the bout, there were brief mentions from Adesanya and current light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones of one another in some interviews. Since then, the two have gone back and forth in a much deeper depth than we could have expected them to.

Cole Shelton - April 17, 2019

Anderson Silva has picked a side in the ongoing feud between Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya. The feud first started when Adesanya called out Jones. Since then the two have been trading shots at each other on frequent occasion. Silva, who fought Adesanya at UFC 234, believes ‘The Last Stylebender’ disrespected Jones with the way he handled the trash-talk.

Drake Riggs - April 17, 2019

If we take a quick glance at the upcoming MMA schedule, there is always an event or collection of fights that will stand out above the rest. And as we head into the mid-way point of 2019, that remains true. Crazy to think that the year is already half-way over, isn’t it? Even if you’re the most hardcore of hardcore fan, it’s still hard to deny that the best upcoming event is probably always going to be a UFC event. And that’s no matter what time of year it is. Right now, that is still an accurate statement to make. Especially as International Fight Week’s big UFC 239 event quickly approaches. And wildly enough, that card isn’t even completed yet.

Drake Riggs - April 17, 2019

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwUog-lDKco/ “Did anyone else have problems with ESPN+?” Brendan Schaub asked on the Below the Belt podcast. “So, I have all the family around. We got food and everything. Everyone ready? Here we go. Click. It goes, ‘This service does not work on this device.’ I’m like, ‘Ok, well, that’s not good.’ Try doing it again. Nothing. Try doing it from my phone. Nothing. “ESPN, UFC, I’m trying to give you $80. And then finally I went, ‘Yo, if I don’t figure this out in five minutes… I’m going to turn to the dark side and have to illegally stream this.’ I must’ve got 2,000 DMs with different links. When I clicked on that link, that thing was better quality than I had on my f*cking… Than ever!

Tom Taylor - April 17, 2019

Last Saturday night, in the main event of UFC 236, Dustin Poirier defeated UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway to earn the UFC interim lightweight title. Having earned this title, he can now look forward to a title-unifier with undisputed lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov — most likely in September, per UFC President Dana White. “Yes, that’s the fight,” White said at the UFC 236 post-fight press conference (via MMA Fighting). “Poirier will fight Khabib next. Probably in September.

Tom Taylor - April 17, 2019

Shortly after Israel Adesanya captured the UFC interim middleweight title by defeating Kelvin Gastelum in the UFC 236 co-main event, he found himself on the receiving end of a social media attack from one of his primary rivals, fellow undefeated middleweight Paulo Costa.

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.

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.

James Lynch - April 17, 2019

Terrible news regarding former UFC strawweight Angela Magana: According to her coach Gabriel Lamastus (via MMAJunkie) Magana went into a coma early Wednesday morning following complications from emergency surgery. The 35-year-old currently lives in Puerto Rico and is staying at University Hospital. According to Lamastus, Magana was experiencing back pain in preparation for her Combate Americas matchup against Kyra Batara on Apr. 26. After a MRI revealed a herniated disc, Magana continued to train until the pain became too much and she was admitted again.

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

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.

Cole Shelton - April 16, 2019

After Kamaru Usman beat Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 to become the new welterweight champion it was expected Colby Covington would be first in line to get the title shot. UFC President, Dana White even said so during the event. But now, Usman wants Covington to beg him for the fight. “Now you have to beg me for that fight,” Usman said backstage at UFC 236 (transcript via MMAJunkie).