MMA News

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).

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.

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.

Tom Taylor - April 16, 2019

UFC 236 was a card to remember. The card was topped by a pair of interim title fights — both of which registered as instant classics in the eyes of pretty much everybody who tuned in.

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

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.

James Lynch - April 16, 2019

Kevin Lee wanted to make history with Rafael Dos Anjos. The 26-year-old asked the UFC if his matchup with Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC Rochester could be the first fight in the promotion’s history at 165-pounds. Instead the “Motown Phenom” has to settle for a welterweight contest instead, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t make a statement about the weight class on May 18. Lee thought about the idea of showing up five pounds less for the welterweight contest to make a statement.