MMA News

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.

Tom Taylor - April 16, 2019

UFC 236, which went down last Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia, featured a bevy of impressive finishes and back-and-forth wars. Unfortunately, that means it also produced some significant medical suspensions. Max Holloway, who lost a decision to Dustin Poirier in an interim lightweight title fight in the main event, has been sidelined indefinitely. So too has Kelvin Gastelum, who came up short to Israel Adesanya in an interim middleweight title fight in the UFC 236 co-main event.

BJPENN.COM Staff - April 16, 2019

The highly-stacked ONE: A NEW ERA card in Tokyo last March 31st was by far the most prolific ONE Championship event in the company’s near eight-year history. Loaded with four World Championship bouts and 23 martial arts World Champions featured on the card, the Singapore-based promotion’s maiden show in Japan was dubbed as the biggest martial arts event in history.

Christopher Taylor - April 15, 2019

Alexander Ovechkin is known for his lethal shot and crushing bodychecks but it is rare to see the NHL’s leading goal scorer throwing fists. During tonight’s game three matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes, Washington captain Alexander Ovechkin decided to drop the gloves with Andrei Svechnikov.

Cole Shelton - April 15, 2019

Israel Adesanya became the interim middleweight champion after beating Kelvin Gastelum by unanimous decision at UFC 236. Now, the plan is for Adesanya to unify his belt with current champion, Robert Whittaker, potentially in a stadium in Australia. Although ‘The Last Stylebender’ is undefeated, Whittaker believes it is an easy matchup for him, this after seeing Adesanya get exposed against Gastelum.

Drake Riggs - April 15, 2019

When it comes to the two greatest bantamweight fighters of all time, the two that will come to mind first will surely be former two-time UFC champions, Dominick Cruz and TJ Dillashaw. The former WEC kingpin, Cruz was, of course, the division’s inaugural UFC champion. Since his Octagon debut in 2011, he would go on to defend the title a total of three times across two reigns. For his second reign, he would earn back the belt that he originally lost due to injury by defeating Dillashaw.

Drake Riggs - April 15, 2019

The undefeated Nigerian kickboxing sensation, Israel Adesanya had a star like quality to him that was evident as soon as he made his Octagon debut in February 2018. Five fights later and he’s now the interim champion of the middleweight division. To earn that label, ‘The Last Stylebender’ defeated Kelvin Gastelum in a thrilling fight of the year candidate in UFC 236’s co-main event this past Saturday.

Thomas Taylor - April 15, 2019

Last Saturday night, in the main event of the action-packed UFC 236 card, streaking lightweight contender Dustin Poirier stepped into the cage with reigning UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway to battle for the interim lightweight belt. The result was a riveting, five-round battle that left both men bruised and bloodied. In the end, the judges named Dustin Poirier the victor of this bout. Now the interim lightweight champion, Poirier wants his vanquished foe Max Holloway to know how thankful he is for the fight, which earned them both $50,000 Fight of the Night bonuses.

Tom Taylor - April 15, 2019

Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has not fought since December of 2016, when he surrendered the title to then-undefeated challenger Cody Garbrandt. Absences of this kind, of course, are unfortunately nothing new for Dominick Cruz. The former champion has fought just five times since 2011.

Tom Taylor - April 15, 2019

UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has been angling for a super fight with former heavyweight champ and long-time WWE star Brock Lesnar for some time. Not everybody, however, is a fan of this potential matchup. In fact, some fans outright hate the idea, adamant that Brock Lesnar doesn’t deserve a title shot, and that Daniel Cormier should instead defend his title against a more legitimate heavyweight contender.

Tom Taylor - April 15, 2019

We’re used to seeing Chris Weidman in 4oz. MMA gloves and Reebok fight shorts, but from the sounds of it, he nearly ended up on skates. Speaking to MSG Networks amid the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, the former UFC middleweight champion divulged that he previously planned to try out for the New York Islanders. He hoped to become a high-scoring, physical center for the NHL team.

Tom Taylor - April 15, 2019

Speaking to the media backstage amid the UFC 236 festivities over the weekend, UFC flyweight champ Henry Cejudo divulged that he received warnings about his last opponent TJ Dillashaw’s performance enhancing drug use. “I’ve heard TJ, and I really never brought it up, he was on supposedly in the days prior to USADA, even Cody (Garbrandt), himself, was like, ‘Hey, watch out dude, he’s dirty,’” Cejudo explained (via MMA Junkie). “People would come up to me, and I never really brought it up because I thought that that part of MMA is over, but I think once you find out he’s on it, it’s like, this dude ain’t playing fair.”

Tom Taylor - April 15, 2019

Speaking backstage at UFC 236 over the weekend, UFC President Dana White started hinting at something big. Though it’s not completely clear just what he has in store, he promised that it will change the future of fighting as we know it. Not just the UFC, but fighting as a whole.