MMA News

Cole Shelton - March 14, 2019

Colby Covington and Tyron Woodley share one of the biggest rivalries in all of MMA. The two seemingly hate each other and looked destined to fight after Covington won the interim welterweight title in June of 2018. However, Woodley has since lost the UFC welterweight title, having given up a decision to Kamaru Usman at UFC 235.

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2019

Back in September, English welterweight contender Darren Till stepped into the Octagon with UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. While Till entered this fight as a betting favorite, he was soundly defeated by the champion, succumbing to a submission in the bout’s second round. In hindsight, Till says he wasn’t in the right headspace heading into this fight with the incredibly dangerous Woodley, who has since lost the title. In fact, he says, he was looking right past Woodley.

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2019

Earlier this week, Conor McGregor was arrested in Miami after allegedly smashing a fan’s phone. It’s been widely speculated that the Irish MMA star lost his cool when the fan got a little too pushy. Former UFC bantamweight champion Miesha Tate, who has spent plenty of time in the public eye herself, understands why McGregor got frustrated but reminds that the fan was not breaking any laws.

James Lynch - March 14, 2019

Ahmed Abdirzak, the alleged victim who claimed Conor McGregor stole and broke his cellphone isn’t getting any sympathy from another former UFC champion. The former UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping chimed in on his Believe You Me podcast regarding the incident and feels the fight fan is blowing things out of proportion. “Look at Kanye West outside LAX,” Bisping said. “Kanye West grabbed someone’s camera and smashed it up. He never got arrested, though. So this guy’s – I’ll just say this guy’s a bit of a f—king dick, to press charges. He’s a very, very recognizable famous person. And by the way, I’m not jumping to his defense, (I’m) just being real. He has to deal with this shit on a daily basis, it must drive him up the f—king wall. And who knows?

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2019

With UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov on the sidelines, and Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway battling for the interim lightweight title at UFC 236 in April, Tony Ferguson has seemingly been left high and dry. Despite being the clear-cut top lightweight contender, he has been left without an opponent and without a clear path to the lightweight title.

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2019

Earlier this week, Conor McGregor was arrested in Miami after allegedly smashing a fan’s phone. The UFC star was briefly jailed, but released after posting bond. TMZ has now acquired video of this incident. The clip is undeniably short, but it indeed seems to show McGregor stomping on a phone, and the purported victim pleading to get his phone back amid a swarm of security. See it below:

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2019

Press release: ONE Championship™ (ONE), has just announced that it will be an exclusive partner of Japanese martial arts organization Pancrase. Following a similar partnership announced in January with Shooto, this partnership will likewise see ONE Championship work together with Pancrase to provide Pancrase athletes the opportunity to showcase their martial arts talents and further develop their skills on a global platform. Chatri Sityodtong, Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship, stated: “Following our partnership with Shooto, ONE Championship is excited to offer the same opportunity to Pancrase athletes and World Champions to compete on the world’s largest stage for martial arts. We are fully committed to developing Japan’s martial arts ecosystem from the amateur up to the professional level. Our partnership with Pancrase once again marks the world’s top martial arts organizations coming together to create a new era of martial arts in Japan.”

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2019

Today, Francis Ngannou is one of the most successful heavyweights in the UFC. Not all that long ago, however, he was struggling to get by in a remote corner of Cameroon. Fuelled by his unshakable ambition, Ngannou ultimately decided to leave Cameroon. After stopping for a time in Morocco, he ultimately wound up in France. But when he left his village, he had no idea where he was going to end up. He couldn’t even give his family a proper goodbye.

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2019

When Tyron Woodley fought Darren Till in September, he looked like an absolute juggernaut. When he fought Kamaru Usman at UFC 235 earlier this month, hit looked far less impressive, and ultimately surrendered his welterweight strap to Usman as a result. Darren Till, who fights Jorge Masvidal in the main event of UFC London this weekend, recently commented on Woodley’s varying performances in these two fights

Drake Riggs - March 13, 2019

The strawweight division is better than it’s ever been in the UFC right now. With plenty of new and talented faces making their presences felt, none have done so arguably quite as well as Tatiana Suarez has. After winning season 23 of The Ultimate Fighter, Suarez has done nothing but continue to impress with her unstoppable wrestling abilities.

Drake Riggs - March 13, 2019

The welterweight division is about as deep of an MMA division as one could ask for. Currently, there happen to be three top 15 UFC welterweights with winning streaks within the organization that consists of seven straight wins or more. One of those streaks belongs to Argentina’s own, Santiago Ponzinibbio. For the Argentinian, his last bout came in a home game when he put on a show for the Argentina faithful in his main event with Neil Magny. Notoriously hard to finish, Ponzinibbio would make things look easy as he dissected the perennial top 15er over the course of four rounds before landing the knockout blow.

Tom Taylor - March 13, 2019

Ben Askren finally has a UFC win on his resume — unfortunately it came with a side order of controversy. The win, which occurred at UFC 235, came when he locked up a bulldog choke on Robbie Lawler. For a moment, it looked like the choke had lulled Lawler unconcious. The instant replay, however, revealed that Lawler seemed to be wide awake, and still capable of fighting. Whatever the case, Ben Askren seems to have moved on, and is now focusing on his next challenge in the UFC’s Octagon. While nothing is official just yet, it sounds like Askren’s next challenge will pit him against the winner of this weekend’s Jorge Masvidal vs. Darren Till fight.

Tom Taylor - March 13, 2019

The official UFC rankings have been updated in the wake of last weekend’s UFC Wichita card, and as expected, there have been some big changes. Most notably, former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos has surged up the list at heavyweight on the strength of his stoppage victory over Derrick Lewis. Elsewhere, fighters like Yana Kunitskaya and Blagoy Ivanov have made more minor climbs, while Anthony Rocco Martin has replaced Vicente Luque in the welterweight rankings.

Tom Taylor - March 13, 2019

Artem Lobov, a chief training partner and good friend of Conor McGregor, recently signed with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC). Not long thereafter, BKFC inked a deal with former boxer Paulie Malignaggi, one of McGregor’s key enemies. To say Artem Lobov and Paulie Malignaggi are on a collision course would be an understatement. In fact, the trash talk between them has already reached a fever pitch.

Mike Pendleton - March 13, 2019

Now that the UFC is on ESPN, there will be increasing occurrences of the main ESPN personalities giving their opinion on big UFC headlines. The recent arrest of Conor McGregor is a prime example of this, as the main talking heads of ESPN had an opportunity to share their opinion about the controversial former two-weight UFC champion. On Tuesday’s edition of First Take, Stephen A. Smith offered his opinion on McGregor’s latest run-in with the law:

Tom Taylor - March 13, 2019

Derrick Lewis came up short in his UFC Wichita showdown with Junior dos Santos. That being said, the former heavyweight title challenger performed admirably — especially considering he was dealing with some pretty severe knee troubles heading into the fight. “He wasn’t gonna pull [from the fight] anyway,” Lewis’ coach Bob Perez told MMA Fighting, detailing Lewis’ pre-fight injuries. “That being said, training for this camp was really bad. He couldn’t do anything, honestly.

Tom Taylor - March 13, 2019

The oddsmakers expected Mickey Gall to defeat the veteran Diego Sanchez at UFC 235 earlier this month, but in the end, that’s not what happened. Instead, Gall was taken down and walloped to a TKO loss by his crafty foe. Speaking on The MMA Hour this week, Mickey Gall revealed that he entered this fight with a bevy of health issues — including some serious kidney troubles.

Drake Riggs - March 12, 2019

After weeks of speculation and expecting an official announcement, it was just a matter of when we would end up getting one. Monday would be that day. UFC 238 in Chicago, Illinois on June 8 will host the next flyweight title bout as the new champion, Valentina ‘Bullet’ Shevchenko will look to make a successful first defense against the 10-fight UFC veteran, Jessica Eye.