MMA News

Tom Taylor - January 16, 2019

This Saturday, when the UFC makes its debut on ESPN with the stacked UFC Brooklyn card, fan favorite flyweight contender Paige VanZant will make her long-awaited return to the Octagon opposite Rachael Ostovich. Paige VanZant believes this fight is one of the most important of her whole career — more important, even, than her UFC debut. She feels this is her opportunity to reintroduce herself to UFC fans using the massive ESPN platform and prove she belongs amongst the flyweight division’s best fighters.

James Lynch - January 16, 2019

Conor McGregor didn’t win a fight in 2018 but did earn himself some recognition. Sports Illustrated released their 50-fittest athletes (25 fittest Men and 25 fittest Women) and the former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion found himself ranked ninth out of 25 other men.

Tom Taylor - January 16, 2019

For many years, Ryan Bader stood out as one of the best light heavyweights in the UFC. In 2017, however, the long-time contender parted was with the UFC, and migrated to the ever-growing Bellator MMA roster. In a matter of months, he had defeated Phil Davis to become the Bellator MMA light heavyweight champ.

Tom Taylor - January 16, 2019

By now, you’ve probably encountered the 10 year challenge dozens and dozens of times on your social media accounts. This craze, which encourages people to share a picture of themselves from 10 years ago and a picture of themselves from this year, side by side, has swept the Internet. Even MMA stars like Conor McGregor have gotten in on the fun. Here are some MMA fighters who have done the 10 year challenge over the last few days.

Drake Riggs - January 15, 2019

As it was revealed today, the UFC looks to be returning to Nashville, Tennesse in March as the first fight for the event was reported to be the welterweight scrap pitting Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson vs Anthony “Showtime” Pettis. Now we’ve gotten word of the next potential matchup which is a clash at heavyweight.

Drake Riggs - January 15, 2019

After a big one-punch knockout win over James Vick in his last time out at UFC Lincoln in August 2018, Justin Gaethje (19-2) is ready to get back at it. Late last month, Gaethje’s manager Ali Abdelaziz revealed that he was looking at Edson Barboza (20-6) for Gaethje’s next matchup.

Thomas Taylor - January 15, 2019

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley recently announced that he plans to move up to the middleweight division in the near future. This news generated an interesting reaction from top middleweight contender Kelvin Gastelum, who Woodley defeated in a catchweight bout in 2015. https://twitter.com/KelvinGastelum/status/1085252534401265664

Thomas Taylor - January 15, 2019

At just 21 years old, Stamp Fairtex is already the ONE Super Series Kickboxing Atomweight World Champion. When she battles Janet Todd at ONE: Call to Greatness in Singapore on February 22, she’ll look to capture the ONE Super Series Muay Thai Atomweight Title and become the first two-sport champion in ONE Championship history. As this potentially history-making challenge towers on the horizon, Stamp has her nose to the grindstone.

Drake Riggs - January 15, 2019

“[Georges St-Pierre is] back in training as usual.” Tristar head coach Firas Zahabi told MMA Betz. “Hopefully, he’ll get back in the game in 2019… So keep an eye out for that.

Drake Riggs - January 15, 2019

The power of social media is real, people. Former WEC and UFC lightweight champion Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis has fought as low as 145-pounds in his career. Although it was a brief stint, Pettis did make the cut… At least for one fight.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2019

Say what you will about BJJ ace and Conor McGregor training partner Dillon Danis, but the man does not lack confidence. Despite being chided his rivals fairly regularly, he truly believes he’s a future great, and isn’t afraid to share that opinion with the world. Speaking on his Instagram on Tuesday afternoon, that’s just what he did.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2019

On November 9, UFC veteran Isaac Vallie-Flagg stepped through the ropes of the World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation (WBKFF) ring for a gloveless scrap with Corey Simpson. More than two months later, Vallie-Flagg and many other fighters who competed on the inaugural WBKFF card are still awaiting payment. When Vallie-Flagg drew attention to his outstanding WBKFF payment on Twitter last week, he received a response from MMA legend Bas Rutten, who was appointed as WBKFF president ahead of the November card. Rutten assured Vallie-Flagg that his payment is coming soon, allegedly once WBKFF founder Tomasz Stankiewicz receives the pay-per-view revenue for the card.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2019

On March 31, Asian martial arts powerhouse ONE Championship will make its anticipated debut in Tokyo, Japan with the stacked ONE: A New Era card. When Japanese fans tune in to watch this exciting ONE Championship card on local television, they’ll be greeted by a familiar voice — that of Japanese MMA legend Genki Sudo.

Cole Shelton - January 15, 2019

Elias Theodorou already has his next opponent in mind. Derek Brunson, who is currently ranked eighth in the middleweight division, recently called out the 14th ranked Theodorou. and Theodorou is all for it. “I think it is a good fight. Obviously, he is a tough competitor,” Theodorou said to BJPENN.com. “He has shown there are ways to beat him, obviously by being on a two-fight losing streak. I’m looking for, if all goes well, to make it three. It is a great fight and he presents challenges but I have shown time and time again that I’m one tough puzzle to solve and I look forward to getting my hand raised.” 

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2019

Rising UFC welterweight contender Leon Edwards his hoping to fight his fellow Brit Darren Till in the main event of the UFC’s March 16 return to London, England. https://soundcloud.com/mmafighting/eurobash-w-leon-edwards-aleksandar-rakic-soren-bak-episode-19

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2019

Anthony Smith, who is expected to challenge Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 235 on March 2, has some questions about the champion’s recent drug tests, several of which of turned up traces of the banned substance ‘turinabol.’ “I think that the definition of a clean fighter has become mighty grey in the last six months,” Smith said on the latest episode of Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (transcript via MMA Mania). “And it didn’t used to be like that, it was pretty black and white.”

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2019

UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw looks like a different man entirely as he cuts down to 125 pounds for his Saturday night flyweight title fight with Henry Cejudo, which will air on ESPN+. In Cejudo’s eyes, this slimmed-down version of Dillashaw does not look good.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2019

Over the years, we’ve seen women produce some pretty jaw-dropping knockouts inside the cage. There were Holly Holm’s knockouts of Ronda Rousey and Bethe Correia. There was Jessica Andrade’s knockout of Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Most recently, there was Amanda Nunes’ first-round knockout of Cris Cyborg. Speaking on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience MMA Show, UFC commentator Joe Rogan made his pick for the best knockout in the history of women’s MMA.