MMA News

BJPENN.COM Staff - December 29, 2018

ONE Championship’s 20-year-old prodigy Christian Lee has already established himself as one of the best featherweights in the promotion, and his best days are still ahead of him. At ONE: Eternal Glory on January 19, Lee will rematch Edward “The Ferocious” Kelly. In the first meeting, Lee was disqualified after an inadvertent suplex maneuver. Lee wants to erase the sting of that defeat and to launch himself to the next level, which could ultimately lead to a title berth. In many ways, Lee’s career arc is similar to UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway’s journey toward becoming an elite performer.

Drake Riggs - December 28, 2018

At UFC 232 this Saturday night, the light heavyweight title will be fought over between the likes of the returning pair of rivals, Jon ‘Bones’ Jones and Alexander ‘The Mauler’ Gustafsson. Since the fight’s announcement, it was always going to be fought over the light heavyweight title that belonged to the champion Daniel Cormier. He would just be stripped of the belt once the fight began.

Thomas 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, a number of his fellow fighters piped up, questioning the integrity of the UFC and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). After Daniel Cormier and Nate Diaz shared their thoughts on the issue, former UFC lightweight champ and current ONE Championship star Eddie Alvarez is now doing the same. Eddie Alvarez campaigned against PED-used in a multi-part speech on Twitter.

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

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.

Cole Shelton - December 28, 2018

Zak Cummings ended 2018 exactly how he wanted to. The former welterweight moved up to middleweight at UFC Milwaukee and defeated Trevor Smith by decision. Yet winning this fight wasn’t easy.

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.

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.

Tom Taylor - December 28, 2018

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who returns to the Octagon to rematch Alexander Gustafsson in the main event of UFC 232 this Saturday, is adamant that his accomplishments should not be overshadowed by his latest drug testing drama. He reminds that the amount of the banned substance turinabol found in his system in a recent drug test was quite small, and that he’s worked incredibly hard throughout his entire martial arts career regardless.

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

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

UFC VP of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky has been adamant that the trace amounts of turinabol detected in a recent Jon Jones drug test are due to Jones’ previous ingestion of the banned substance, and not due to a more recent re-ingestion of it. On Thursday afternoon, the UFC exec appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience to further argue this point — but infamous American cyclist Lance Armstrong isn’t buying it. When Joe Rogan took to Instagram to promote Jeff Novitzky’s upcoming appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, Lance Armstrong piped up in the comments with some choice words for the UFC exec.

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

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