MMA News

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2018

https://twitter.com/nobu_sakakibara/status/1070887441282752512 On Thursday evening, Rizin Fighting Federation released a promo for the main attraction of Rizin 14 on New Years Eve, a delightfully strange boxing exhibition between undefeated legend Floyd Mayweather Jr and undefeated kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa. This promo, which seems to show Floyd Mayweather scouring the globe for a worthy adversary, is definitely worth watching.

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2018

Combate Americas is one of the fastest-growing MMA promotions in the world. In fact, according to WWE legend and Combate Americas announcer Alberto Del Rio, the Hispanic MMA powerhouse now regularly rivals the UFC in terms of Spanish language viewership. “Our numbers are fantastic,” Alberto Del Rio said of Combate Americas on episode 107 of BJPENN.COM Radio. “Like in numbers, we are just right behind the UFC. We are the most seen MMA company in Spanish around the world and I know that the language we speak here in America is English, but we do better numbers when it comes to the broadcasting in Spanish than the big companies or the biggest company you see. We do the same in Spain and we’re crushing any other company in Mexico.

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2018

The rules for the much discussed New Years Eve exhibition bout between undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and undefeated kickboxing wunderkind Tenshin Nasukawa have now been released.  This bout will be boxing only, though it will be full-contact competition — which implies a knockout is possible. Kicks will not be allowed, which effectively rules out Nasukawa’s best shot at a victory.

Mike Pendleton - December 7, 2018

In the fight game, a recurring narrative surrounding fighters, coaches, and promotions is “what have you done for us lately?” and unfortunately, that sometimes leads to greatness being missed. For a perfect example of this, look at Max Holloway, who has been sidelined since he defended the UFC featherweight title against Jose Aldo at UFC 218 in December of 2017. The reason for Holloway being on the sideline so long is still mysterious, and while there are plenty of guesses as to what the issue was, we simply don’t know for sure. The problem with trying to diagnose Holloway and criticize the sound of his speech or the look of his body language is that, there has been plenty of precautions taken to make sure Holloway is healthy enough to fight.

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2018

On Friday night (Friday morning in North America), ONE Championship returned to the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with ONE: Destiny of Champions. This exciting card, which was unfortunately marred by two last-minute bout cancellations, was headlined by a ONE Super Series Muay Thai showdown between Thai legend Yodsanklai IWE Fairtex and Australian star Luis Regis.

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2018

On Saturday night, the UFC will return to Toronto, Ontario, Canada with the stacked UFC 231 card. This card will be headlined by a men’s featherweight title fight between streaking champion Max Holloway and undefeated challenger Brian Ortega. The two were originally scheduled to fight at UFC 226 in July, but this plan was nixed when Holloway was forced out of the bout with health issues.

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2018

Ever since it was first reported that undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather will battle undefeated kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa in Tokyo on New Years Eve, we’ve all been wondering what the rules of the bout will be. Mayweather has repeatedly stated it will be a boxing-only exhibition match, but many members of the MMA community have expressed doubt about this.  Well, now we have some clarity.

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2018

Another top flyweight has been released from the UFC. Shortly removed from the departures of Jared Brooks, Justin Scoggins, Roberto Sanchez, Jose Torres, Ulka Sasaki and of course, Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, Ben Nguyen has also parted ways with the promotion. Nguyen, who held the number 10 spot at flyweight in the latest UFC rankings, announced his release from the promotion on his Facebook page.

Christopher Taylor - December 6, 2018

Floyd Mayweather may be preparing for his upcoming exhibition fight with Tenshin Nasukawa, but that hasn’t slowed the amount of questions the undefeated boxing legend is being asked about potential fights with UFC stars Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Floyd Mayweather has already competed against Conor McGregor inside of the squared circle. “Money” ultimately defeated the Irishman via tenth-round TKO in their highly anticipated fight in August of 2017.

Christopher Taylor - December 6, 2018

UFC President Dana White believes current featherweight champion Max Holloway is ‘too big’ to keep fighting in the promotions 145-pound division. Max Holloway is set to put his featherweight title on the line against undefeated contender Brian Ortega in the main event of this Saturday’s UFC 231 event in Toronto.

Mike Pendleton - December 6, 2018

Once the UFC opened up the women’s flyweight division many thought it’d be a great opportunity for some of the women in the strawweight and bantamweight divisions to perform at their peak. Such was the case for former strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and former bantamweight title challenger, Valentina Shevchenko. Fittingly enough, Jedrzejczyk and Shevchenko are meeting at UFC 231 for the vacant flyweight title in a rivalry that has already experienced three Muay Thai fights for the two women. Shevchenko has three wins over Jedrzejczyk in Muay Thai but both women have put those fights behind them leading up to their title fight. Jedrzejczyk has said she believes a win over Shevchenko, which would make her a champion in a second weight class, would give her legendary status for her career.

Mike Pendleton - December 6, 2018

The UFC Performance Institute is not only a state-of-the-art facility with scientific advances available for fighters, sometimes it’s their new home. Such is the case for strawweight contender Claudia Gadelha who moved from Luttrell/Yee MMA to train full time at the Performance Institute. Looking for a place where everything she could possibly need from training to recovery and get the most attention from her coach Chris Luttrell, Gadelha decided to pack up and leave Albuquerque, New Mexico and move to Las Vegas so she could train there full time.

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2018

Conor McGregor brought in a lot of top talent to help him prepare for his UFC 229 title fight with undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. One fixture of McGregor’s past training camps that wasn’t a part of these preparations for the Russian champion, however, was Icelandic welterweight contender Gunnar Nelson. Speaking to the media ahead of his UFC 231 fight with Alex Oliveira, Gunnar Nelson explained why he wasn’t a part of Conor McGregor’s training for Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Drake Riggs - December 6, 2018

“So here’s the situation, we wanted to go eat and the worker comes up like, ‘Yo! Dude!’ he’s like, ‘Bro! Anybody ever told you you look like Tony Ferguson?’ And I kinda just like waved it off and [was] like, ‘Yeah, cool.’ He’s like, ‘Yo, man you don’t know what UFC is?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I know what UFC is. Actually, that’s funny cause a lot of people tell me that when they talk about UFC, I look like Max Holloway. You know the champ guy?’

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2018

The future of the UFC flyweight division is still shrouded in mystery. One the one hand, the promotion recently booked arguably the biggest fight in the division’s history, as reigning champion Henry Cejudo is set to defend his title against slimmed-down UFC bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw at UFC on ESPN+1 on January 19. On the other hand, there’s been a prevalence of rumors suggesting the UFC will soon disband the division, which have been spurred on by the promotion’s choice to part ways with fighters like Demetrious Johnson, Jose Torres, Jared Brooks, Roberto Sanchez, Ulka Sasaki, and Justin Scoggins.

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2018

Earlier this week, we learned that former NFL star Greg Hardy, who has a history of domestic violence, will be sharing the Jan. 19 UFC on ESPN+ 1 card with Rachael Ostovich, who is a very recent survivor of domestic violence. This news was met with immediate backlash, as many members of the MMA community criticized the UFC for putting the two fighters on the same card. On Thursday afternoon, TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter asked UFC President Dana White about the controversial decision to put Greg Hardy and Rachael Ostovich on the same card.

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2018

This Saturday night, in the main event of UFC 231 in Toronto, UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway will collide with undefeated challenger Brian Ortega. Ahead of the UFC 231 card, this long-awaited Holloway vs. Ortega fight is being hailed as one of the best matchups ever — at least on paper. The two 27-year-old stars possess some of the most versatile and dangerous skillsets in the game — something they’ve proven on their respective win streaks.

Cole Shelton - December 6, 2018

This Saturday night, in the main event of UFC 231, streaking UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway will attempt to defend his title against undefeated challenger Brian Ortega. Heading into this fight, fans are divided in their predictions. As it turns out, professional fighters are also treading both sides of the fence.