MMA News

Tom Taylor - December 28, 2018

On Saturday night, the UFC will return to the Los Angeles area — not Las Vegas as originally planned — with UFC 232. The card will be headlined by two title fights, as Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson rematch for the vacant light heavyweight title in the card’s main event, and UFC women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg attempts to defend her title against bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes in the co-main event. No matter how these two title fights go down, the four fighters involved in them are set to make some serious money for their work.

Tom Taylor - December 28, 2018

On Saturday night, the UFC will return to the Los Angeles area — not Las Vegas, as originally planned — with the stacked UFC 232 card. The card will be headlined by a light heavyweight title rematch between former champion Jon Jones, and the toughest opponent of his career thus far, Sweden’s Alexander Gustafsson.

Tom Taylor - December 28, 2018

When it was announced that Jon Jones would be allowed to fight at UFC 232 in California, despite trace amounts of turinabol turning up on several of his recent drug tests, several of his fellow fighters piped up, questioning the integrity of the UFC and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Jones’s arch rival Daniel Cormier was one of the first to do so, and now, fan favorite lightweight contender Nate Diaz has done the same. Apparently, Nate Diaz no longer plans on opening his door when USADA comes to collect samples.

BJPENN.COM Staff - December 28, 2018

A veteran of the Philippine martial arts scene, reigning ONE lightweight king Eduard Folayang has been around the block. For the past decade, Folayang has provided fans with countless thrilling performances against some of the fiercest foes in the business. One performance however, stands out from the rest.

Tom Taylor - December 28, 2018

When the Nevada State Athletic Commission refused to license Jon Jones for his UFC 232 rematch with Alexander Gustafsson, the UFC opted to move the entire UFC 232 card from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. This unprecedented move has caused headaches for some of the fighters on the UFC 232 bill, but Andrei Arlovski, who battles Walt Harris on the undercard, hasn’t been bothered by it. Instead, Arlovski actually feels thankful toward Dana White and the UFC for finding a way to keep the UFC 232 card intact.

Tom Taylor - December 28, 2018

On Saturday night, on the undercard of UFC 232, former UFC bantamweight title challenger Cat Zingano will move up to the featherweight division to battle former Invicta champ Megan Anderson. If she wins, she’s hoping to get a shot at the winner of Cris Cyborg and Amanda Nunes’s UFC 232 co-main event title fight. In fact, she’s already offered to step in should Nunes or Cyborg fail to make it to the cage.

BJPENN.COM Staff - December 28, 2018

Aung La N Sang has declared his intent to “give back” to his country of Myanmar, unveiling plans for a martial arts academy. “That’s something I want to bring to Myanmar one day,” said Aung La, who was immortalized with a bronze statue at Kachin National Manau Park in his hometown of Myitkyina recently. 

Tom Taylor - December 28, 2018

Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience on Thursday, UFC VP of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky revealed that small amounts of the banned substance turinabol have been appearing sporadically on Jon Jones drug tests since as early as August. Novitzky ran through a few tests dates and shared the corresponding results.

Drake Riggs - December 27, 2018

Fighters will only get so much sympathy from UFC President Dana White after #UFC232 was relocated to a new state on six days' notice. Full story: https://t.co/L1naxIDYnM pic.twitter.com/jUAGyLoRfJ

Drake Riggs - December 27, 2018

A heated and longtime rival of Jon Jones’, Daniel Cormier has already reacted to the news of Jones’ UFC 232 moving ‘atypical finding’ in a recent drug test. But as more is discussed and others share their takes, it only gets crazier and crazier to the double champ. In the main event of UFC 232, Jones will be looking to recapture light heavyweight gold by scoring a second career win over another rival in the Swede, Alexander ‘The Mauler’ Gustafsson. Cormier’s light heavyweight title will be on the line.

Drake Riggs - December 27, 2018

It’s been a wild week for the UFC and USADA. After an ‘atypical finding’ in one of Jon Jones’ drug tests leading up to his next fight at UFC 232 on Saturday night, it prompted the UFC to relocate the whole event as the Nevada State Athletic Commission wouldn’t grant Jones a license.

Thomas Taylor - December 27, 2018

Speaking after a win over AJ Agazarm at Chael Sonnen’s Submission Underground 3 in 2017, Conor McGregor training partner Dillon Danis made a bold callout of former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. “I’ve got one last thing to say,” Danis said in his post-fight speech. “Jon Jones, you’re a f***ing b***h!”

Tom Taylor - December 27, 2018

When the UFC decided to move the entire UFC 232 fight card from Las Vegas to Los Angeles on just six days notice, it caused all kinds of problems for the fighters for the card. That includes UFC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg, who is set to defend her title against bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes in the card’s co-main event. Cyborg, who was licensed to fight in Nevada, recently had to do additional pre-fight medicals in order to get a last-minute license to fight in California. She feels that having to do these pre-fight medicals in the midst of an already chaotic fight week is ridiculous, and wasn’t afraid to say so in the second instalment of her fantastic UFC 232 fight week video blog.

Tom Taylor - December 27, 2018

Fans have been clamoring for a fight between UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov and streaking contender Tony Ferguson for years. Yet from the sounds of it, Nurmagomedov and his team aren’t particularly interested in this fight at present. According to Nurmagomedov’s manager Ali Abdelaziz, the champion is targeting bigger, more lucrative opportunities.

Tom Taylor - December 27, 2018

Late last week, a Jon Jones drug test turned up trace amounts of the banned substance turinabol — the same substance he was flagged and suspended for after UFC 214 in 2017. The amount of turinabol detected on this test was so small, however, that the United States Anti-Doping Agency was not prepared to label it a violation. While the UFC had to move Jon Jones’ UFC 232 fight with Alexander Gustafsson from Las Vegas to Los Angeles as a result of this test anomaly, the fight will go ahead as planned this Saturday. That being said, many fans have lingering doubts surrounding the former champ’s innocence.

BJPENN.COM Staff - December 27, 2018

ONE Championship is set to debut in Tokyo, Japan on March 31 with the stacked ONE: A New Era card. Even now, when the card is still not fully booked, it looks like it could be one of the best events of 2019. Here’s why: ONE Championship Debuts in Japan

Cole Shelton - December 27, 2018

In the main event of UFC 232 this Saturday, former UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones will make his long-awaited return to the Octagon — though not in the setting we originally expected. His opponent in this return to action will be Alexander Gustafsson, the Swedish star who gave him his toughest challenge to date back in 2013. Ahead of this massive UFC 232 rematch between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson, BJPENN.com reached out to a number of pro fighters to get their predictions for the bout.

BJPENN.COM Staff - December 27, 2018

It has been a memorable year for Thailand’s Stamp Fairtex. The 21-year-old claimed the ONE Kickboxing Atomweight World Championship in her promotional debut in October at ONE: KINGDOM  OF HEROES and her star looks set to shine even brighter in 2019. Stamp comprehensively outpointed defending champion Kai Ting Chuang throughout their five-round contest on her way to earning a unanimous decision victory. It was the co-main event of the evening and was watched by millions worldwide.