MMA News

Drake Riggs - October 15, 2018

Being a dual division champion is one of the rarest accomplishments achievable in MMA. But the few that have achieved it haven’t always gotten the opportunity to defend both titles. Add Daniel Cormier to that list who will be stripped of his light heavyweight crown come UFC 232 on December 29 when Jon Jones rematches with Alexander Gustafsson. Both of which are former adversaries of Cormier’s.

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2018

At ONE: Heart of The Lion, which goes down on November 9 in Singapore, ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee (9-0) will attempt to follow in the footsteps of Aung La N Sang and Martin Nguyen and enter the history books as a ONE two-weight World Champion. In order to accomplish this mammoth feat, she’ll have to wrest the ONE Women’s Strawweight World Title from the waist of fearsome champion Xiong Jing Nan. While Angela Lee recognizes that the task ahead will not be easy, she says she is currently enjoying one of the best training camps of her career. That, she explains, is due in part to the fact that she will be fighting Xiong at 125 pounds, rather than 115 pounds, where she normally competes.

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2018

Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions has announced the planned lineup for its first MMA event. The card, which goes down in Inglewood, California on November 24, will be headlined by a trilogy fight between UFC Hall of Famers Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. The undercard will feature several other UFC veterans, such as Gleison Tibau, Efrain Escudero, Kendall Grove, Albert Morales, Jay Silva and Walel Watson. Here’s the proposed lineup for Golden Boy Promotions’ inaugural MMA event (obtained by MMAjunkie):

Mike Straus - October 15, 2018

Despite going a perfect 4-0 in the UFC, middleweight fighter Jordan Johnson may be taking his talents elsewhere now that he has fought out his latest contract with the promotion. Johnson entered the UFC as a light heavyweight. He defeated Luis Henrique da Silva, Marcel Fortuna, and Adam Milstead despite a substantial weight difference. Johnson then moved down to middleweight for his fourth fight in the UFC. Although his division had changed the outcome was the same. Johnson got his hand raised for the 13th straight time (10-0 professional, 3-0 amateur).

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2018

Jorge Masvidal has not fought since November of 2017, when he gave up a decision to two-time UFC welterweight title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Since then, “Gamebred” has stayed busy by competing on a Spanish reality television show, but now that the show has wrapped, he’s ready to get back into the cage.

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2018

On Sunday evening, undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov made a callout of another undefeated fighter — boxing legend Floyd Mayweather. In his callout of Mayweather, Nurmagomedov reminded that he was able to drop Conor McGregor with a punch at UFC 229, but Floyd Mayweather was not able to drop the Irishman in their 2017 boxing mega fight.

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2018

We’re now more than a week removed from Conor McGregor’s submission loss to UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, and the Irish MMA star’s future is as nebulous as ever. Although he has plenty of interesting options in both MMA and boxing, it’s hard to say which — if any — of those options he might pick for his next contest. One of the many options for Conor McGregor is a boxing match with Paulie Malignaggi. While Malignaggi was originally supposed to serve as a training partner for McGregor ahead of his massive 2017 boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, the pair’s relationship quickly curdled and ultimately devolved into a fierce and virulent rivalry.

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2018

When Dustin Poirier was forced out of his UFC 230 lightweight showdown with Nate Diaz, Jorge Masvidal offered to step in and fight Diaz in his place. Although Masvidal had just wrapped up a reality television stint, he felt confident that he was in good enough shape to fight. He just needed Diaz to agree to fight at 170 pounds, rather than 155. Unfortunately, this veritable dream matchup never came to fruition. Even though it was clearly a fight that most fans were drooling over, the UFC instead pulled Diaz from the UFC 230 lineup altogether.

Drake Riggs - October 15, 2018

The featherweight division is has gotten plenty good over the years and there are several current top fighters that display why. Multiple of those fighters will be competing on December 8 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

BJPENN.COM Staff - October 15, 2018

On October 26, from Thuwanna Indoor Stadium in Yangon, Myanmar, ONE Championship will present ONE: PURSUIT OF GREATNESS. Headlining the card is ONE middleweight and light heavyweight world champion Aung La N Sang, “The Burmese Python” will defend his 185-pound title against Lebanon’s Mohammad Karaki. Whenever Aung La performs in front of his countrymen in Myanmar, the atmosphere is electric. Expect the energy in the building to be amazing for this one as well. Karaki is 9-0 in his career as a professional. He’s finished all but one of his opponents. Karaki is making his promotional debut and he’s immediately being dropped into one of the most difficult situations to perform. Before he takes his first swipe at Aung La, he must first prove he can handle an atmosphere that will be rooting for the local legend to maintain his title.

Chris Taylor - October 14, 2018

UFC featherweight Artem Lobov (13-14-1 MMA) will still be fighting later this month at UFC Fight Night 138 event in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. According to a report from “The Mac Life“, Artem Lobov will now be fighting veteran Michael Johnson at the October 27 event.

Chris Taylor - October 14, 2018

UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has issued a challenge to undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather. The undefeated Russian, Nurmagomedov (27-0 MMA), called out Mayweather (50-0 Boxing) during a recent interview (Courtesy of BiteTV):

Thomas Taylor - October 14, 2018

Earlier this month, in the main event of UFC 229, former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor returned to the Octagon after two long years away, where he attempted to reclaim the UFC lightweight belt from undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Unfortunately for McGregor and his legions of fans, this mission didn’t go as planned. Instead, the Irish MMA star was soundly walloped en route to a fourth-round submission loss. That being said, there’s already been substantial buzz about a potential rematch between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov. And while this certainly isn’t the only option on the menu for McGregor, his coach John Kavanagh feels it might be the only fight that will get the former champ adequately motivated.

Cole Shelton - October 14, 2018

Chael Sonnen vs. Fedor Emelianenko, which headlined Bellator 208 on Saturday, was a fight that many fans were looking forward to, and it lived up to most expectations. Though it was not a long fight, it was a fun one until Emelianenko finished Sonnen off with a storm of first-round ground strikes. Unfortunately, this fun fight is being somewhat overshadowed by fight-fixing allegations. Some fans have speculated that Sonnen didn’t try in that fight, or that he even lost on purpose.

Cole Shelton - October 14, 2018

At Bellator 208, Chael Sonnen was taking on arguably the best heavyweight in MMA history, Fedor Emelianenko. Ultimately, Emelianenko’s power proved to be too much for the former middleweight and natural light heavyweight. Emelianenko dropped Sonnen multiple times during the fight and got the TKO win in the first round. However, even with this loss to Emelianenko, Sonnen can take pride in having fought the best of the best throughout his career. He competed in title fights against the arguable middleweight GOAT in Anderson Silva, and the consensus light heavyweight GOAT in Jon Jones.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2018

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James Lynch - October 14, 2018

Luke Rockhold needs to take care of business on Nov. 3 in his rematch against Chris Weidman at UFC 230, but he already has his sights set on another former foe. Rockhold told TMZ Sports that he’s open to a rematch against Yoel Romero, the man who defeated him back February at UFC 222 by third-round knockout.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2018

Over the weekend, Ryan Bader and Fedor Emelianenko both won their Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinal bouts, defeating Matt Mitrione and Chael Sonnen respectively. With these wins, the pair will now fight each other sometime in the new year, and the winner will be crowned the Bellator heavyweight champion. For Ryan Bader, the chance to fight the legendary Fedor Emelianenko is obviously an exciting opportunity. Yet while he admits it’s a little surreal to fight such an icon of the sport, he assures he’s approaching it like any other fight.