MMA News

Cole Shelton - September 20, 2018

Santiago Ponzinibbio will finally be making his long-awaited return to the Octagon at home in Argentina as the main event on Nov. 17 against Neil Magny for UFC Fight Night 140. Ponzinibbio last fought in Dec. 2017 where he defeated Mike Perry by unanimous decision. However, following the fight against Perry, Santiago Ponzinibbio was looking to gain momentum in the welterweight rankings as he was scheduled to fight Kamaru Usman at UFC Fight Night 129, but the Argentina native had to pull out due to injury. The 31-year-old is now ready to return again and make his way up the rankings.

Chris Taylor - September 20, 2018

Emotions were running high at today’s UFC 229 press conference in New York City which featured event headliners Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov. As expected, Conor McGregor went off on his UFC 229 opponent, current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, for the majority of the press conference with a plethora of different insults.

Drake Riggs - September 20, 2018

It's not just Conor McGregor that's looking forward to @DustinPoirier vs. @NateDiaz209 at #UFC230! So are we! pic.twitter.com/8AgM8Wsjr6 — UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) September 20, 2018

Chris Taylor - September 20, 2018

Bitter rivals Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov squared off at the conclusion of today’s UFC 229 press conference in New York City. There was a ton of security and law enforcement on hand to ensure that no incidents occured when “Mystic Mac” and “The Eagle” squared off.

Chris Taylor - September 20, 2018

Former UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor went off on current 155-pound title holder Khabib Nurmagomedov at today’s UFC 229 press conference. “Mystic Mac” was asked why he chose to come back to MMA for this particular fight. His answer was simple, because he loves this game.

Drake Riggs - September 20, 2018

The long-awaited announcement for what kind of suspension Jon Jones would be given was finally announced yesterday. And it was to the displeasure of many. Jones received a 15-month suspension from the date of his test failure which equals out to him being eligible to return on October 28. This all despite the failure being his second offense. Jones was able to reduce what was to be a 30-month suspension due to his willingness to cooperate with USADA and tell them who some other offenders are.

Drake Riggs - September 20, 2018

In 2013, we witnessed one of if not the greatest UFC title fight in the company’s history and it went down in the prestigious light heavyweight division. That fight, of course, was none other than the clash between the then champion Jon “Bones” Jones and the challenger, Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson. Since then, the two have gone in fairly separate directions.

Tom Taylor - September 20, 2018

Back in July, on the main card of UFC 226, kickboxing legend Gokhan Saki stepped into the UFC’s Octagon to do battle with rising light heavyweight contender Khalil Rountree. Heading into this fight, the widespread expectation was that Saki would have a significant edge in the striking department. Unfortunately for Saki and his legions of fans, however, this fight did not go the way he planned. Instead, he was put down by a thunderous Rountree punch in the bout’s first round. While this outcome was undeniably disappointing for Gokhan Saki, he showed incredible sportsmanship after the fact, congratulating his opponent on the upset victory. That being said, Saki feels the outcome of this fight can be attributed more to his own errors than Rountree’s technique.

Tom Taylor - September 20, 2018

Having healed up from a tough, July loss to Khalil Rountree, kickboxing legend Gokhan Saki is now looking forward to his next challenge in the UFC’s Octagon. And while the Turkish knockout artist matches up beautifully with a great many of his peers in the UFC light heavyweight division, he’s recently been linked to a potential heavyweight showdown with fellow striking specialist Mark Hunt. Speaking to BJPENN.COM’s Jason Kindschy this week, Gokhan Saki explained how this potential matchup with Mark Hunt came about.

Tom Taylor - September 20, 2018

It’s no secret that UFC 229, which will be headlined by a lightweight title fight between undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and former two-division champion Conor McGregor, is going to be big. According to UFC President Dana White, however, it’s trending to be the biggest UFC pay-per-view ever by a huge margin. “It’s massive,” White told ESPN this week (transcript via MMA Fighting). “There has been a lot of talk about this thing doing 2 million buys. We’re trending right now at 2.5 million buys so that’s how big this fight is. The biggest fight we’d ever done was Diaz vs. McGregor at almost 1.6 million pay-per-view buys. Then we did the Floyd Mayweather fight. And now this by far is the biggest fight and one of the biggest fights ever in combat sports to be honest with you.”

Tom Taylor - September 20, 2018

In 2017, Argentina’s Santiago Ponzinibbio burst into welterweight title contention with a decision defeat of Nordine Taleb, an 82-second knockout of Gunnar Nelson, and a thrilling decision triumph over “Platinum” Mike Perry. Unfortunately, he’s yet to fight in 2018 thanks to a serious hand injury that ultimately required surgery. While 2018 has not been particularly kind to Santiago Ponzinibbio thus far, things are definitely looking up. With his surgery in the rear-view and his health back to 100%, he’s been booked for a high-stakes showdown with long-time contender Neil Magny. And that’s not where the good news ends. The fight will go down in the main event of the UFC’s first-ever trip to Ponzinibbio’s homeland of Argentina.

Tom Taylor - September 20, 2018

The official UFC rankings have been update in the wake of last Saturday’s UFC Moscow card. As expected, these latest UFC rankings feature some interesting changes. At heavyweight, Russia’s Alexey Oleynik has taken a nice trip up the list for his first-round submission defeat of Mark Hunt. He’s now number nine.

Tom Taylor - September 20, 2018

After his exciting 2017 draw with Beneil Dariush, Evan Dunham was sent to the hospital by the UFC’s ring-side physicians. Though Dunham absorbed considerable damage in this fight, he didn’t actually want to board an ambulance, as he’d  had a very hard time getting the UFC to pay the ambulance bill after his 2013 scrap with Gleison Tibau. All the same, Evan Dunham heeded the advice of the UFC’s doctors, and jumped on an ambulance to the hospital, keen to make sure he didn’t sustain any serious damage in his fight with Dariush. Two fights later, he was still “dealing with collections” as the UFC has still failed to pay his ambulance bill for that fight.

Tom Taylor - September 20, 2018

Tonight at 5:00, inside Radio City Music Hall in New York City, undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and former lightweight and featherweight champ Conor McGregor will come face to face at a press conference to promote their massive UFC 229 title fight. Ahead of this press conference, most members of the MMA community are expecting all hell to break loose — so much so that online sports books have released an extensive list of ridiculous prop bets for the conference. 

Drake Riggs - September 20, 2018

One of the more surprising acquisitions made in 2017 was the UFC’s signing of kickboxing legend, Gokhan “The Rebel” Saki. And when you bring in a fantasy fighter like Saki, then why not make some fantasy matchups? The Netherlands native knows this too and that’s what he has now begun to campaign for.

Cole Shelton - September 19, 2018

Gegard Mousasi is arguably the biggest name to make the jump from the UFC to Bellator in free agency. After deciding to make the switch in July of 2017, signing a six-fight contract with the Viacom-owned company. While Mousasi was one of the better middleweights in the UFC, going to Bellator, it felt like the 33-year-old was certainly destined to become champion. That ultimately proved to be the case, as Mousasi had one fight in Bellator before getting a title shot against Rafael Carvalho, in which Mousasi won the fight and was thus crowned Bellator middleweight champion.

Chris Taylor - September 19, 2018

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has released a lengthy statement after finally being served a fifteen-month suspension from USADA. Jones suspension stemmed from a failed drug test that occurred in July of 2017 just prior to his rematch with Daniel Cormier at UFC 214.

Chris Taylor - September 19, 2018

Earlier this evening news broke that former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones had received a 15-month suspension from USADA, making him eligible to return on October 28. The arbitrator in the case ruled that there was “no intention” by Jones to cheat, this despite the fact a source for the substance was never confirmed.