MMA News

Drake Riggs - December 5, 2018

This Saturday night in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the second ever UFC women’s flyweight champion will be crowned. Battling it out will be the former 135-pound title challenger, Valentina ‘Bullet’ Shevchenko and the former strawweight queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk as they vie for the vacant crown.

Drake Riggs - December 5, 2018

It’s been no secret that top UFC flyweight contender Sijara Eubanks has had her struggles with the scale since entering the division. That, however, will no longer be a likely issue as ESPN has confirmed that she will be moving back up to her old home of 135-pounds. The BJJ black belt Eubanks made her MMA debut in Invicta FC as a bantamweight before she quickly decided to try her hand at flyweight. After losing her debut at 125-pounds, Eubanks would return to 135 as well as the win column.

Cole Shelton - December 5, 2018

UFC 233 will no longer be headlined by TJ Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo for the flyweight title. According to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, that fight has been moved to January 19 to headline ESPN+ in Brooklyn, New York. The UFC was hoping to start off the ESPN-era with a great card but struggled to find an adequate main attraction. After weeks of searching, they inevitably decided to move the Dillashaw vs. Cejudo Flyweight title fight to the January 19 fight card.

Cole Shelton - December 5, 2018

The Ultimate Fighter 28 featured men’s heavyweights and women’s featherweights, arguably the two weakest divisions in the UFC. The hope was it would add fighters to the respective divisions and possible title contenders. It appears the UFC may have gotten that in Macy Chiasson. Inside the house, Chiasson had a noticeable height and weight advantage. Chiasson is a natural featherweight while most of the other girls competing on the show were natural bantamweights. That was a big help to Chiasson during the fights.

Drake Riggs - December 5, 2018

ONE Championship has recently made a big effort to further put themselves on the radars of MMA fans around the world. Thanks to acquisitions of Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Miesha Tate, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Sage Northcutt, the Singapore based promotion is looking to have its biggest year yet in 2019.

Mike Straus - December 5, 2018

The UFC returns to Toronto, Ontario, Canada for a stacked two-title fight UFC 231 card this Saturday. Pragmatists, as always, we have four reasons why you should tune in this weekend. The Scotiabank Arena will host the evening’s festivities that feature 13 fights in total. Two championship title fights will headline the night and plenty of top 10 talent across multiple divisions will be on display throughout the night.

Cole Shelton - December 5, 2018

Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will finally make his long-awaited return to the Octagon at UFC 233. The promotion made the bout official on Twitter on Wednesday. Cruz is back!@DominickCruz returns to face 'Hands of Stone' @JohnLineker at #UFC233 in Anaheim on Jan. 26! pic.twitter.com/SunaIvoev9

BJPENN.COM Staff - December 5, 2018

ONE Championship welterweight Agilan Thani has the chance to end 2018 on a high note when he competes this Friday at ONE: DESTINY OF CHAMPIONS, inside the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Thani will take on Kyrgyzstan’s Kiamrian Abbasov in the evening’s co-main event, and while the Malaysian athlete is aware of the danger Abbasov poses, the 23-year-old is backing himself to get the win in front of his home crowd.

BJPENN.COM Staff - December 5, 2018

Luis Regis has put his life on hold to chase his dreams in ONE Championship. Set for his promotional debut against Thailand’s Yodsanklai IWE Fairtex at ONE: Destiny of Champions in Kuala Lumpur on Friday night, the Australian Muay Thai champion Regis said he has turned to his wife to take on the bulk of family duties at home while he prepares for the main event.

Mike Pendleton - December 5, 2018

When Eryk Anders steps into the Octagon at UFC 231 against Elias Theodorou — a fight that he’s been chasing for some time — he’s looking to make a statement to the entire middleweight division. Coming off a loss to Thiago Santos, which he took on short-notice and in the unfamiliar light heavyweight division, Anders is looking to use lessons learned to help propel him in the middleweight division. In an interview with BJPenn.com, Eryk Anders opened up about what he’s looking to do against Theodorou, why he’s happy this fight is finally happening, and what he learned from his fight against Thiago Santos.

Tom Taylor - December 5, 2018

Yesterday, Combate Americas announced two changes to the lineup for its much-anticipated, biggest event of the year – the “COPA COMBATE” one-night, eight-man, $100,000 grand prize Mixed Martial Arts featherweight (145 pounds) showdown – as well as the tournament brackets for the event that takes place at Save Mart Center on Friday, Dec. 7. The second annual “COPA COMBATE” extravaganza airs live in its entirety in English in the U.S. and Canada on DAZN (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT), and live on television in Spanish in the U.S. on both Univision (12 a.m. ET/PT) and Univision Deportes Network (UDN) (12 a.m. ET/9 p.m. PT).

Tom Taylor - December 5, 2018

If Brian Ortega defeats UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 231 this Saturday in Toronto, don’t expect him to defend his new title right away. He’ll be busy with other things for a few months. Speaking at a UFC 231 media lunch in Los Angeles this week, the undefeated featherweight title challenger announced that he’ll soon be appearing in an action film — in the lead role.

Tom Taylor - December 5, 2018

If UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley battles his arch nemesis Colby Covington in the New Year as expected, he’s expecting to have to fend off some takedown attempt. So many takedown attempts, in fact, that he recently made Covington a little wager on the topic. “I’ll bet you $10,000 every single time you touch my leg for a (takedown) shot, you’ve got to pay me $10,000,” Woodley said on his Hollywood Beatdown show. “I want people to see it for what it is.”

Mike Pendleton - December 4, 2018

Heavyweight prospect and former NFL star Greg Hardy (3-0) has his official UFC debut close to set. According to Brett Okamoto of ESPN, Dana White has said that the UFC is close to finalizing a fight between Hardy and Allen Crowder (9-3) for their first ESPN+ card that is scheduled to take place on January 19 in Brooklyn, New York.

Christopher Taylor - December 4, 2018

Artem Lobov is looking for a fight and has extended UFC President Dana White an interesting offer in hopes of securing another octagon appearance. “The Russian Hammer” recently took to Twitter where he offered to donate half of his fight purse to a children’s charity, this if the UFC grants him another opportunity to compete.

Drake Riggs - December 4, 2018

.@BulletValentina is relieved to finally have a “professional” opponent in Joanna Jedrzejczyk at #UF231 this Saturday. Watch full video: https://t.co/gqPfY8c2aB pic.twitter.com/aaWK03Wv4B

Mike Straus - December 4, 2018

After a brutal knockout and a series of unfortunate events, Josh Emmett is back training with Team Alpha Male. Heading into UFC on FOX 28 earlier this year Emmett was coming off the most impressive performance of his career. Unfortunately, he ran into a buzzsaw named Jeremy Stephens in Orlando, Florida, and that’s where Emmett’s troubles began.

Drake Riggs - December 4, 2018

After a briefly controversial moment in his last time out this past Friday, Joseph Benavidez (26-5) still found himself able to secure the win by first-round TKO over Alex Perez. The win marked Benavidez’ first since December 2016 when he defeated the now champion, Henry Cejudo.