MMA News

Christopher Taylor - November 30, 2018

Chuck Liddell returned to the cage for the first time in over eight years last weekend to participate in a trilogy fight with bitter rival Tito Ortiz. The former UFC light heavyweight champions, Liddell and Ortiz, had previously competed at UFC 47 and UFC 66, with “The Iceman” emerging victorious on both occasions.

Chris Taylor - November 30, 2018

The TUF 28 Finale takes place tonight in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is headlined by a key welterweight contest featuring Rafael dos Anjos taking on Kamaru Usman. The former UFC lightweight champion, Rafael dos Anjos, will be looking to rebound after suffering a unanimous decision loss to Colby Covington at UFC 225.

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2018

After weeks of speculation, it’s official. Former UFC welterweight and lightweight star Sage Northcutt is the latest high profile free agent to sign on the dotted line and join the ONE Championship roster. ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced the news just moments ago.

Cole Shelton - November 30, 2018

Bellator and RIZIN are back in the business of co-promoting. It was recently announced that Bellator is sending their current bantamweight champion Darrion Caldwell to fight in RIZIN on New Year’s Eve. Caldwell will be heading to Japan to fight Kyoji Horiguchi for the RIZIN bantamweight title.

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2018

Owen Roddy, one of the long-time coaches of former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor, has announced that he will no longer be working at SBG Ireland in Dublin, and that he is instead moving to the gym’s Charleston location. Roddy made this announcement on his official Instagram page on Friday afternoon.

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2018

British knockout artists Paul Daley and Michael Page have been chomping at the bit to fight each other for years. They will finally have that opportunity in the New Year. According to a report from ESPN, the pair will collide in Uncasville, Connecticut — not in the United Kingdom — on February 16.

Mike Pendleton - November 30, 2018

UFC lightweight Jared Gordon is preparing to return from a 10-month layoff and is doing so with a new team behind him. Gordon took his first loss in the UFC when he came up short to Carlos Diego Ferreira at UFC Fight Night 126 back in February. Following the loss, Gordon decided to pack up from his New York home and move to Roufusport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Roufusport is home to plenty of UFC stars, including Anthony and Sergio Pettis, Paul Felder, John Makdessi and Belal Muhammad just to name a few.

BJPENN.COM Staff - November 30, 2018

Former ONE middleweight titleholder Vitaly Bigdash has revealed he temporarily moved to Sweden in a bid to rejuvenate his career.  Speaking ahead of his clash against Japanese striking star Yuki “Yu-King” Niimura (12-4-0) on the main card of ONE: Destiny of Champions on 7 December, Russia’s Bigdash said he turned to fearsome light heavyweight Alexander Gustafsson for help. And with Gustafsson by his side, Bigdash admitted he made significant changes to his game following a pair of disappointing defeats.

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2018

Earlier this week, it was announced that streaking UFC featherweight contender Renato Moicano will be flown into Toronto for UFC 231, and kept at the ready in the event that featherweight champ Max Holloway or undefeated challenger Brian Ortega is unable to make it to the cage for the card’s headlining bout. While this means it’s possible that Moicano could get a surprise title shot, it’s more likely that he winds up sitting cage-side as Holloway and Ortega fight as planned. Artem Lobov is offering him a different option. Instead of flying Toronto and hoping for a short-notice fight, Artem Lobov says Renato Moicano should fly to Toronto and fight him. While Lobov recognizes Moicano is currently situated quite a distance above him in the rankings, he believes he still has something very valuable to offer the Brazilian: publicity.

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2018

It’s a strange and worrying time for the UFC flyweight division. The former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson has been traded to ONE Championship in exchange for welterweight talent Ben Askren. A procession of long-time UFC flyweights have been released from their contracts, including Justin Scoggins, Jared Brooks, Roberto Sanchez, and most recently, Ulka Sasaki. Rumors that the promotion plans to close the division have been rampant, and when pressed about these rumors, UFC President Dana White hasn’t exactly provided cause for optimism… “The flyweight division just never took off, it never caught on,” White said on a recent episode of the UFC Unfiltered podcast. “Even with a dominant champion like Demetrious, it just never caught on. People didn’t care. I battled for a long time, I tried to keep it alive and obviously, it’s still going on now. We still have fights going on in that division, but we’ll see what the future holds for it.”

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2018

It was recently announced that UFC 234 will feature a middleweight showdown between streaking contender Israel Adesanya and former middleweight champ Anderson Silva. While some fans are thrilled about this clash of legendary strikers, others feel it’s irresponsible matchmaking; a chance to feed the aging legend Anderson Silva to a hyped-up young fighter. Israel Adesanya has heard these criticisms. While he agrees that Anderson Silva is perhaps not the fighter he once was, he assures he’s not Chuck Liddell, who was knocked out by Tito Ortiz last weekend.

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2018

Early on Friday morning, the 24 fighters on the UFC Adelaide bill stepped onto the scales to weigh in for their respective battles.

Drake Riggs - November 29, 2018

The UFC strawweight division is deeper and better than it’s ever been right now and leading the new wave of talent is China’s Weili Zhang (18-1). Holding quite the impressive record of 18-1 in her 19 career bouts, Zhang’s lone loss came in her pro debut. Having not looked back since, Zhang has dominated her competition on route to 16 finishes (10 KO/TKOs, six submissions) and six titles in Kunlun Fight MMA.

Thomas Taylor - November 29, 2018

Earlier this week, news surfaced that former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor had been handed a six-month driving ban. This ban is due to the former champ’s excessive speeding near his home city of Dublin. He was also fined 1,000 euro ($1136.62) for the incident. According to a report from the BBC, Conor McGregor “admitted to driving his Range Rover at 154kph (96mph) in a 100kph (62mph) zone near Kill, County Kildare, in October 2017.” This latest infraction follows a significant 12 other traffic violations that reportedly date back to his teenage years.

Cole Shelton - November 29, 2018

A welterweight fight is going down in Brazil on February 2. Following an initial report from Combate, BJPENN.com has confirmed that Brazilian Demian Maia will be taking on former Bellator champion Lyman Good.

Drake Riggs - November 29, 2018

Once a burgeoning contender at 135-pounds, after a myriad of injuries and personal struggles, ‘Kid Lightning’ Bryan Caraway has been out of action more often than he would prefer. After scoring a big win by handing Aljamain Sterling the first loss of his career in May 2016, Caraway has only fought once since and it was in a close split decision loss to Cody Stamann in March.

Drake Riggs - November 29, 2018

EXCLUSIVE: #UFC’s Rachael Ostovich speaks publicly for first time since hospitalization https://t.co/SfUHb41zQm pic.twitter.com/0pjxRXWvHX — Rob DeMello (@RobDeMelloKHON) November 29, 2018

Christopher Taylor - November 29, 2018

The mixed martial arts community is still grieving after losing legendary Japanese fighter Kid Yamamoto to cancer this past September. Norifumi had announced that he was battling the disease back on August 26 via his official Instagram.