MMA News

Cole Shelton - November 8, 2018

It appears the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) is still punishing people for the melee that occurred at UFC 229. Right now, Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov are indefinitely suspended with a hearing on December 10. Well, it appears one of McGregor’s teammates, Dillon Danis and one of Nurmagomedov’s, Zubaira Tukhugov will be facing discipline by the NSAC as well.

James Lynch - November 8, 2018

Now that former UFC champion Jon Jones is scheduled to return to the Octagon on December 29, “Bones” has also found himself in the top spot of the 205-pound rankings. The latest UFC rankings have Jones (22-1) one spot ahead of his UFC 232 foe Alexander Gustafsson and two spots ahead of UFC Moncton main event winner Anthony Smith. The 31-year-old hasn’t fought since a July 2017 no contest against Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 where he failed a pre-fight drug test.

Tom Taylor - November 8, 2018

In the span of just a few weeks, Singapore-based martial arts promotion ONE Championship has added former UFC flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson and former UFC lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez to its roster, and brought on former UFC bantamweight champ Miesha Tate as one of its Vice Presidents. Needless to say, these are tremendously exciting times for the promotion. ONE Championship’s top fighters, as you can probably expect, are feeling that excitement, and are thrilled about the promotion’s deepening talent pool.

Tom Taylor - November 8, 2018

UFC 230 was a big night for the UFC middleweight division. First, we saw undefeated striking sensation Israel Adesanya burst into the division’s top-10 with a first-round dissection of Derek Brunson. Then, an hour or so later, we saw former Strikeforce middleweight champ Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza surge back into title contention with a jaw-dropping third-round knockout of former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman. While Adesanya and Jacare both impressed the MMA community at UFC 230, it turns out that the former did not really impress the latter.

Tom Taylor - November 8, 2018

Former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is now a ONE Championship fighter, and it’s becoming clearer and clearer that he’s a perfect fit for the promotion. Mere weeks into his time as a ONE Championship fighter, he’s already being pushed by the full muscle of the promotion’s substantial marketing department. Given that he occasionally felt a little under-promoted by the UFC, he’s very excited about this. “It feels good,” Demetrious Johnson told BJPENN.COM in Singapore this week. “I think with the UFC, their model is different than ONE Championship’s is. They’re looking for the next big star and trying to push out that next pay-per-view. And that’s what the North American audience wants. They want to see confrontation.”

Tom Taylor - November 8, 2018

Earlier this week, ONE Championship featherweight contender Christian Lee hopped on a plane to Singapore to support his sister Angela in her ONE: HEART OF THE LION main event showdown with Xiong Jing Nan. Unfortunately, the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion was forced out of this main event battle with an injury while her brother was making his transpacific journey. Christian Lee was understandably quite disappointed to hear that his sister would not be able to compete in the ONE: HEART OF THE LION main event as planned. In a strange twist of fate, however, his sister’s bad break ultimately resulted in an interesting opportunity for him.

Drake Riggs - November 7, 2018

ONE Championship has been making all sorts of moves lately and they don’t appear to be stopping anytime soon. UFC lightweight/welterweight prospect ‘Super’ Sage Northcutt appears to potentially be next. Currently a free agent, the 11-2 Northcutt is visiting Singapore where he attended last night’s ONE: Heart of the Lion pre-fight press conference and then is also set to attend the event itself on Friday night.

Drake Riggs - November 7, 2018

After the UFC attempted once again to set up Yoel Romero vs Paulo Costa, it fell through and now Romero wants to face Anderson “The Spider” Silva. According to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, the UFC was planning to book Romero vs Costa as the main event of the UFC’s first event on ESPN+ which will take place on January 19 in Brooklyn, New York.

Drake Riggs - November 7, 2018

The Singapore based MMA promotion ONE Championship is only just beginning with their continuation of big-name acquisitions as former UFC and Strikeforce champion Miesha Tate has joined their staff. ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced the addition of Tate late on Thursday night.

Tom Taylor - November 7, 2018

The end is nigh for the UFC flyweight division. Earlier this week, FloCombat reported that the promotion will soon be pulling the plug on its lightest mens’ division, and that many of the fighters on the promotion’s flyweight roster will not be given the chance to move up to the bantamweight division. Shortly thereafter, UFC flyweights such as Jose Torres, Jared Brooks and Justin Scoggins all reported that they have been released from their contracts.

Cole Shelton - November 7, 2018

Jarred Brooks and many other UFC flyweights got the call today. That call would be that their services would no longer be needed in the UFC. The promotion is going about shutting down the division. It is a tough pill to swallow and now leaves about 25 fighters or so out of a job. “Nobody called me from the UFC, they let my manager know,” Brooks told BJPENN.com when discussing the news, “I was just working out and actually, my coach called me. My coach and my manager are really tight, he said ‘yeah news is they are cutting the 125-pound division’ and Justin Scoggins and I were getting cut.”

Drake Riggs - November 7, 2018

https://twitter.com/MMAjunkie/status/1060270140405637121?s=19 “This is my last fight at 170 [pounds]. This is it. Going back to [1]55. I’m going to get the belt, it’s time. It’s time. It’s the last thing I gotta do. It’s time.

Drake Riggs - November 7, 2018

This Friday night the World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation is set to hold their very first event. However, it won’t be headlined by its original main event. Originally, the inaugural show for the WBKFF was to feature in its main event a middleweight showdown between former Bellator standout “Irish” Brennan Ward and former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks.

Drake Riggs - November 7, 2018

Just when you thought that UFC 233 couldn’t be getting a better building start, we get one hell of a bantamweight matchup thrown into the mix. It will have been two years once the end of December rolls around that we’ll have seen the former bantamweight king Dominick Cruz (22-2) compete inside the Octagon.

Drake Riggs - November 7, 2018

It appears that the theory many had is ending up to be true. Demetrious Johnson’s departure isn’t the last of the 125ers that will be leaving the UFC. It started with the talk of current champion Henry Cejudo possibly going up to challenge bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw for his title. Soon after Johnson would head to ONE Championship as part of the first-ever MMA “trade”.

Mike Straus - November 7, 2018

The UFC brings it back to where it all began – Denver, Colorado which will serve as the backdrop for the promotions 25th-anniversary event that goes down this Saturday night. Denver – With MMA events seemingly every weekend it can be an arduous task trying psych yourself up for some of the smaller Fight Night cards. With the big year-end PPV card approaching and Jon Jones returning to the Octagon again, UFC Denver could easily fall between the proverbial cracks.

Tom Taylor - November 7, 2018

Speaking in a Wednesday afternoon Instagram post, undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. made the announcement that his recently announced RIZIN Fighting Federation showdown with kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa, scheduled for December 31 in Tokyo, is cancelled. Or, perhaps it’s most accurate to say it was never really on. At least not from Mayweather’s vantage point. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp49AUphcLu/

BJPENN.COM Staff - November 7, 2018

Former PXC Welterweight Champion Zebaztian Kadestam knows he has to weather an early storm when he takes on the unbeaten Tyler McGuire for the vacant ONE Welterweight World Title in the main event of ONE: WARRIOR’S DREAM on 17 November at Stadium Istora in Jakarta, Indonesia. Kadestam, 28, is coming off a huge third round stoppage victory over Agilan Thani this past July. Nicknamed as “The Bandit”, the Swedish striker says he’s been training for the kind of style that McGuire brings to the table.