MMA News

Tom Taylor - December 12, 2018

After weeks of struggling to find a suitable main event for UFC 233, which is scheduled for January 26 in Anaheim, California, the UFC has cancelled the card outright. This news was first reported by Brett Okamoto on Twitter. Breaking: UFC is rearranging its pay-per-view schedule. UFC 233 will no longer take place on Jan. 26 in Anaheim, due to a combination of factors. That PPV will change to another date, so 2019 will still feature the same amount of PPVs as originally planned. More info coming.

Tom Taylor - December 12, 2018

Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping had a long and illustrious fighting career before he finally hung up the gloves in early 2018. Given his many accomplishments, you might expect him to have a difficult time pinning down the most satisfying moment of his career. Yet when he was asked to name his most satisfying win by UFC color commentator Joe Rogan on the JRE MMA show, Bisping was able to produce an answer quite quickly. His pick? Anderson Silva, who he defeated by unanimous decision after a frenzied, five-round war in early 2016.

Cole Shelton - December 12, 2018

English MMA veteran Brad Pickett spent many years as a WEC and UFC bantamweight contender before retiring in 2017. During the height of his career, when the UFC was still owned by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, there was much less of a focus on the “money fights” and “super fights” we hear so much about today. Instead, fighters generally had to earn their title shots and big paydays the old fashioned way: with wins. That’s the way Brad Pickett liked it. He didn’t need to trash talk to gain fans or move up the rankings. All he needed to do was win.

Tom Taylor - December 12, 2018

On February 16, at Bellator 216, Bellator will promote one of the biggest fights in UK MMA history, as British knockout artists Paul Daley and Michael Page finally collide in a long-awaited grudge match. Unfortunately, this massive fight will not occur in the UK. Instead, it will go down at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Speaking to MMAjunkie ahead of Bellator’s double-header in Hawaii this weekend, Bellator President Scott Coker explained why this fight isn’t happening on British soil.

James Lynch - December 12, 2018

Through 20-career fights, Kevin Lee has only lost three times. On Saturday at UFC on FOX 31, Lee will look to avenge one of those blemishes as he faces Al Iaquinta in a rematch. Lee was only 21-years-old when he suffered the first loss of his career to Iaquinta back at UFC 169. Losing by unanimous decision at the time, Lee not only plans to get his hand raised on Saturday, but he plans to send Iaquinta back to the preliminary portion of the card.

BJPENN.COM Staff - December 12, 2018

You could be forgiven for thinking that reigning ONE women’s atomweight champion Angela Lee may have some form of superpowers when you watch her in action in the cage. She is, after all, one of the most talented mixed martial artists in the world at just 22 years old. As it turns out, the martial arts prodigy has had a lifelong love of the Marvel universe, which she’s shared with her brother and fellow ONE athlete, Christian Lee. After growing up watching early morning cartoons, that love has now translated to the big screen. Lee has become an enthusiast for all of Marvel’s blockbuster films, especially Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, and The Avengers. So you can imagine how excited the Evolve MMA product was when, on a recent trip to New York City, she had the chance to participate in a special collaboration to put her martial arts skills to the test against the superhuman realm.

Tom Taylor - December 12, 2018

UFC President Dana White recently divulged that the winner of Anderson Silva and Israel Adesanya’s UFC 234 showdown is likely to get the next crack at the UFC middleweight belt. For Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, who has been working to earn a UFC middleweight title shot for years, this was unwelcome news. Speaking to Brazil’s Portal do Vale Tudo in his native Portuguese, Jacare sounded off on the UFC potentially giving a title shot to Anderson Silva, who was very recently tied up with a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) suspension.

Tom Taylor - December 12, 2018

Late last month, long-time boxing promotor Oscar De La Hoya promoted his first-ever MMA event under the Golden Boy MMA banner. The card was headlined by a light heavyweight battle between UFC Hall of Famers Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, which the former won by first-round knockout. While this card was not the financial home run that Oscar De La Hoya and Tito Ortiz seemed to be expect it to be, De La Hoya says he plans to promote more MMA cards in the future. That being said, he plans to change his strategy.

Drake Riggs - December 11, 2018

To say that it’s been a pretty good year for Daniel Cormier would be quite an understatement. With the fighter of the year award pretty much locked up as there is only a matter of days left in 2018, ESPN has recognized ‘DC’ as one of the top 20 most dominant athletes of the past year.

Drake Riggs - December 11, 2018

Despite the rocky start to the flyweight division through season 26 of The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC is now working its way into the right direction with some recent signings. Already having acquired two top worldwide flyweights in former Invicta FC champion Jennifer Maia and former KSW champion Ariane Lipski, the UFC has now signed arguably the top prospect in the division overall.

Cole Shelton - December 11, 2018

Ricky Bandejas has his next fight booked. The former CFFC interim bantamweight champion will return on January 26 at Bellator 214 against top contender Juan Archuleta. Bandejas confirmed the news with BJPENN.com after an initial report by FloCombat.

Drake Riggs - December 11, 2018

With the current champion at 135-pounds TJ Dillashaw dropping down to flyweight in the hopes of claiming a second title, his division must stay active until he returns. And that’s just what they’ll be doing as AZCentral’s Greg Moore has reported that a top 10 bantamweight collision between Jimmie ‘El Terror’ Rivera and Aljamain ‘Funkmaster’ Sterling is on for UFC Phoenix on February 17. This card is the first UFC card to be televised on the ESPN channel.

Drake Riggs - December 11, 2018

The welterweight division is one of the deepest and best that MMA has to offer. Yet in the UFC, things are looking somewhat complicated at the top right now. With Kamaru Usman’s emergence as a top title threat and the long-awaited arrival of Ben Askren, the two have been making more noise than the champion Tyron Woodley and interim champion Colby Covington.

Drake Riggs - December 11, 2018

Last week, we got what appeared to be some shenanigans from USADA involving former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE star Brock Lesnar where we saw the disappearance of one of his test samples. Obviously, this was a bit concerning as Lesnar has a history with performance-enhancing drugs and is currently being tested in the hopes of returning to likely face current champion Daniel Cormier at some point early next year.

Drake Riggs - December 11, 2018

It seems that disaster has struck once again for the former bantamweight king Dominick Cruz. Having his comeback set for UFC 233 on January 26 opposite John Lineker, that appears to longer be the case as MMA Brasil’s Tarso Doria reports that Cruz has sustained yet another fight canceling injury. Thus prompting the promotion to pursue Cruz’ last opponent, Cody Garbrandt to replace him against the Brazilian.

Tom Taylor - December 11, 2018

Last weekend, in the co-main event of UFC 232, Valentina Shevchenko captured the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title with a dominant decision defeat of former UFC strawweight Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Speaking on The MMA Hour with Luke Thomas on Monday, the new champion broke down this victory.

BJPENN.COM Staff - December 11, 2018

World champion Joshua Pacio will be out for redemption when he puts his ONE Championship belt on the line next year. Pacio (16-2-0), the undisputed ONE Strawweight World Champion, bids to avenge his only defeat in almost 500 days when he takes on Japan’s Hayato Suzuki (20-1-2) in Indonesia. The pair will square off in the main event at ONE: Eternal Glory, set for Istora Senayan in Jakarta on 19 January.

Cole Shelton - December 11, 2018

UFC 233, the first pay-per-view of 2019, is just over a month away and it still doesn’t have a main event. That was not initially the case, as a flyweight title fight between TJ Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo was originally supposed to headline the card. However, when that fight was moved up a week to headline the first ESPN card in Brooklyn, UFC 233 was left without a main event. Now, with the majority of champions booked, injured or recovering from recent fights, the UFC finds itself in a tough situation. There are not a lot of viable options left available for the UFC 233 main event — especially if the promotion wants to compete with Bellator 214, which will be headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Ryan Bader, and airs the same night.