MMA News

Chris Taylor - December 8, 2018

Donald Cerrone will make his return to the lightweight division at January’s UFC on ESPN+ 1 fight card in Brooklyn, New York. MMAJunkie’s Mike Bohn broke the news earlier today on Twitter.

Drake Riggs - December 7, 2018

Recently, the UFC has caught some heat due to two fight card placements for their premiere event with ESPN in Brooklyn on January 19. The fights in question are the ones involving new UFC heavyweight prospect and former NFL star, Greg Hardy and flyweight prospect Rachael Ostovich.

Mike Straus - December 7, 2018

Valérie Létourneau will challenge flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane for the title in the main event of Bellator 213 on December 15. Lètourneau will have her hands full in Honolulu, Hawaii, as she attempts to be the first women to beat the champion in MMA. The Canadian born Lètourneau may be an underdog heading into next weekend, but she feels she has a big advantage when it comes to experience.

Drake Riggs - December 7, 2018

It appears that things are getting a bit scrambled atop the UFC’s 170-pound division. But that doesn’t mean that the fighters aren’t trying to create solutions of their own. After Kamaru Usman’s big win over Rafael Dos Anjos at The Ultimate Fighter 28 Finale, he was already back to working on his next fight as he announced that he had been offered Colby Covington for sometime in January.

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

Shortly after Kamaru Usman defeated Rafael dos Anjos last Friday night in Las Vegas, UFC President Dana White suggested that “The Nigerian Nightmare” might have stolen Colby Covington’s spot at the front of the contendership line and earned himself a title fight with reigning champ Tyron Woodley. “I would like to see [Usman] fight Woodley now after seeing that,” White told the media post-fight. “Listen, Colby Covington pulled out of the fight, didn’t defend his belt, this, that, and the whole thing. I’m one of these guys, when I just see a fight like this, I want to see Usman fight now. We’ll see what happens, though I’m not saying that’s the case. Sure [it’s possible].

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

Colby Covington has not competed since June’s UFC 225 event in Chicago, where he defeated former lightweight title holder Rafael dos Anjos via unanimous decision to capture the promotions interim welterweight title. Following his impressive victory over “RDA”, it was expected that Colby Covington would compete in a title unification bout with reigning division champion Tyron Woodley in his next octagon appearance.

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.

Chris Taylor - December 6, 2018

Current X1 featherweight champion Timothy Teves (3-0 MMA) will take on former title holder Canaan Kawaihae (4-1 MMA) at Bellator 213 on December 15 in Honolulu. The bout will serve as both fighters promotional debuts.

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.