MMA News

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):

Jason Kindschy - October 14, 2018

BJPENN.COM Radio is back, Penn Nation!

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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Tom Taylor - October 14, 2018

On Saturday night, in the co-main event of the action-packed Bellator 208 card, former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson picked up a dominant decision win over longtime Bellator lightweight contender Saad Awad. In his post-fight interview with Bellator MMA commentator John McCarthy, Benson Henderson could have taken a moment to call for another Bellator title shot, or perhaps a rematch with fellow lightweight contender Patricky Freire. Instead, however, the former champion used his post-fight interview as an opportunity to admonish UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor for their infamous UFC 229 post-fight brawl.

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.

BJPENN.COM Staff - October 14, 2018

Few martial artists captivate an entire country the way Aung La N Sang does whenever he competes in his native Myanmar. The country and the arena comes alive when the ONE Middleweight and Light Heavyweight World Champion comes to the ring, and as we’ve seen, he’s been unbeatable in this environment. At ONE: PURSUIT OF GREATNESS, Mohammad Karaki will be the latest to try and best Aung La in Myanmar. If he can emerge victoriously, he will be the new champion at 185 pounds. A total of six opponents have tried and failed to beat Aung La in The Land of the Golden Pagodas.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2018

Conor McGregor was not able to reclaim the UFC lightweight title from his arch rival Khabib Nurmagomedov. Although McGregor had some success in his UFC 229 mega fight with Nurmagomedov, he just couldn’t keep up with his destructive foe. His head coach John Kavanagh believes that might have something to do with his lengthy absence from MMA competition.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2018

On Saturday night, in the main event of Bellator 208, former UFC light heavyweight and middleweight title challenger Chael Sonnen came up short to heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko. Although Sonnen had some success in this short but thrilling fight, landing a handful of takedowns, he had no answer for Emelianenko’s legendary power and ground and pound. “I would call him explosive,” Sonnen told the media of Emelianenko’s skill (via MMA Fighting). “With his punches, there wasn’t a ton of set-ups, they just came and they came hard. Even on the ground, I had some good positions on him and he would just explode. It weren’t exactly technique-based. It was impressive. He’s an impressive athlete.”

BJPENN.COM Staff - October 14, 2018

Shinya Aoki’s road back to the ONE Lightweight World Title might require him to defeat the opponent who took the very same belt from him via TKO two years ago. While Eduard Folayang still has work to do at ONE: CONQUEST OF CHAMPIONS in his homeland of the Philippines against Amir Khan, a second showdown with Aoki could be on deck. Folayang and Khan’s bout is for the now vacant lightweight title, but Aoki’s win guaranteed he’d receive the first shot at the newly crowned champion.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2018

Pretty much everybody has an opinion on the wild, post-fight brawl that occurred shortly after Khabib Nurmagomedov submitted Conor McGregor in the UFC 229 main event last weekend. Former women’s bantamweight champion and current WWE star Ronda Rousey certainly does. In Rousey’s opinion, this post-fight brawl is the kind of thing the UFC should work hard to avoid in the future.

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2018

The second semi-final of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix took place tonight at as former PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko squared off with former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen. Chael Sonnen entered tonight’s Bellator 208 event having won two fights in a row, his latest being a unanimous decision victory over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at January’s Bellator 192 event.

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2018

A heavyweight bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Chael Sonnen took place at tonight’s Bellator 208 event, with the winner advancing to the promotions Heavyweight Grand Prix Finals to fight Ryan Bader. “Darth” Bader was able to score a dominant decision victory over Matt Mitrione in the main event of yesterday’s Bellator 207 fight card.

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2018

A heavyweight bout between former UFC fighters Cheick Kongo and Timothy Johnson took place during tonight’s Bellator 208 main card. Kongo (28-10-2 MMA) enters tonight’s contest on a six-fight win streak, his latest being a first-round knockout victory over Javy Ayala at Bellator 199.

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2018

A middleweight bout between former Bellator champion Alexander Shlemenko and Anatoly Tokov took place at tonight’s Bellator 208 event. Shlemenko enters tonight’s contest on a two fight losing skid. Prior to those setbacks, the former Bellator middleweight champion was riding a six fight win streak.