MMA News

Drake Riggs - August 7, 2018

The wild and highly anticipated UFC on Fox 30 from Calgary, Alberta, Canada has come and gone. In a thrilling main event, wrongs were righted from UFC 211. In the said main event, Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez ran things back as they went to war. Only lasting a round and a half just like in their first encounter, this time Poirier put an exclamation point on things as he finished Alvarez with strikes.

Tom Taylor - August 7, 2018

The official UFC rankings have been updated in the wake of UFC 227, and as you probably expected in the fallout of a card that featured two title fights and one massive upset, there have been some big changes. Most notably, former Olympic wrestler Henry Cejudo now holds the top spot at flyweight, and a place on the vaunted pound-for-pound list. Cejudo’s opponent Demetrious Johnson, meanwhile, took a tumble down both lists.

Tom Taylor - August 7, 2018

It’s crowded at the top of the UFC bantamweight division. Dominick Cruz, Raphael Assuncao, and Marlon Moraes all have legitimate claim to the next crack at UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, and new UFC flyweight champion Henry Cejudo also has his crosshairs locked on the bantamweight king.

Tom Taylor - August 7, 2018

Red hot UFC middleweight contender Israel Adesanya will return to the Octagon at UFC 230, which goes down on November 3 in New York City. His opponent in this next fight will be established contender Derek Brunson, who called him out repeatedly before the fight was made official. While it was Brunson who called Adesanya out, Adesanya doesn’t believe Brunson actually wanted the fight. In fact, he claims the UFC made Brunson call him out.

Tom Taylor - August 7, 2018

UFC commentator Joe Rogan is not a fan of extreme weight-cutting — the practice of dehydrating oneself in order to make weight for a fight, then rapidly rehydrating to regain that weight, and carry a significant weight advantage into the cage. In his eyes, this practice is not only incredibly dangerous, it’s also a form of cheating more severe than performance enhancing drugs. “It is stupid,” Rogan said on his podcast the Joe Rogan Experience (transcript via MMAMania). “What it is is sanctioned cheating. It’s sanctioned cheating and it’s cheating at a much higher scale even than PEDs. If you get two people and they both weigh 135 [pounds] but they’re both totally hydrated and one of them has been doing steroids and one of them hasn’t been doing steroids, the difference will be far less than if one person weighs in at 135 [pounds] but then balloons up to 160 [pounds] and then gets into that octagon at 160 [pounds] but there’s no PEDs involved. That’s a much greater advantage than someone whose doing some sort of testosterone thing or something. They’re compromised but the benefit of being so much larger might outweigh being compromised.

Tom Taylor - August 7, 2018

At UFC 229, on October 6 in Las Vegas, Conor McGregor will make his long-awaited return to the Octagon, where he’s set to battle undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. This bout with Nurmagomedov, who is one of the most ferocious grapplers in MMA history, represents perhaps the toughest stylistic challenge of McGregor’s career. That said, Dillon Danis, who is McGregor’s chief jiu jitsu training partner, isn’t worried.

Tom Taylor - August 7, 2018

Late last week, it was announced that fan favorite lightweight contender Nate Diaz will make his long-awaited return to the Octagon opposite top contender Dustin Poirier. The pair are expected to collide in the co-main event of UFC 230 on November 3 in New York City. Shortly thereafter, the UFC held a massive press conference featuring all the stars of their upcoming shows — including Diaz and Poirier. The promotion also took this opportunity to announce a highly anticipated lightweight title fight between champ Khabib Nurmagomedov and challenger Conor McGregor. This news cast a massive shadow over everybody else at the press conference — including Diaz.

Tom Taylor - August 7, 2018

MMA fans have wanted to see Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva fight for years. Even now, when St-Pierre has long since abandoned the UFC welterweight title he once guarded so fiercely, and Anderson Silva’s reign as UFC middleweight champion is a distant memory, a collision between the two greats remains one of the most mouth-watering options on the MMA menu. Speaking at a press conference during his visit to Australia, the former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre discussed this long-desired super fight. While the fans’ appetite for this fight has not dissipated, St-Pierre says it’s one that doesn’t make sense for him at present.

Tom Taylor - August 6, 2018

Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn has been all over the world over the last few months. One of his recent trips took him to Guam, where he chowed down at Crust, a gourmet Pizzeria in the capital city of Hagåtña.

Jordy McElroy - August 6, 2018

For the first time in UFC history, a name other than Demetrious Johnson will be attached to the flyweight title. Henry Cejudo, the former Olympic gold medalist wrestler, did something historic at UFC 227 in dethroning the pound-for-pound king. Yet when the smoke cleared, all anyone could talk about was what’s next for Cejudo rather than what’s to become of Johnson. An iconic feat came crashing back down to Earth in the form of Johnson’s 11 consecutive title defenses, and it was about as emotional as someone losing a balloon in the air.

Chris Taylor - August 6, 2018

UFC interim welterweight champion Colby Covington was expected to be the next man to challenge Tyron Woodley for the UFC’s undisputed welterweight title. The promotion wanted Covington and Woodley to settle their heated rivalry in a title unification bout at UFC 228 on September 8.

Tom Taylor - August 6, 2018

Bellator MMA has announced the matchups for the first round of its anticipated welterweight Grand Prix, and they’re fantastic. The tournament will begin with a trilogy bout between former champions Andrey Koreshkov and Douglas Lima, who are 1-1 across their two previous bouts. The pair will collide at Bellator 206 on September 29 — an event that marks the promotion’s debut on the streaming service DAZN.

Tom Taylor - August 6, 2018

Cody Garbrandt, who came up short to TJ Dillashaw in the UFC 227 main event, was assigned to the same locker room as UFC 227 undercard fighter Marlon Vera, who has recently done a bit of training with Dillashaw. When the both wound up in that locker room at the same time, Garbrandt and his team essentially kicked Vera out, worrying perhaps that he might be spying for Dillashaw. As you can probably imagine, this did not go over well with Vera, who was just hoping to do some training of his own.

Tom Taylor - August 6, 2018

Late last week, it was announced that fan favorite lightweight contender Nate Diaz will make his long-awaited return to the Octagon opposite top contender Dustin Poirier. The pair are expected to collide in the co-main event of UFC 230 on November 3 in New York City. On Friday, the UFC held a massive press conference featuring all the stars of their upcoming shows — including Diaz and Poirier. The promotion also took this opportunity to announce a highly anticipated lightweight title fight between champ Khabib Nurmagomedov and challenger Conor McGregor. This news cast a massive shadow over everybody else at the press conference — including Diaz.

Tom Taylor - August 6, 2018

Former World Series of Fighting bantamweight champion Marlon Moraes, who is now arguably the top contender in the stacked UFC bantamweight division, wants the next crack at divisional kingpin TJ Dillashaw. Shortly after Dillashaw authored a second, destructive win over former champ Cody Garbrandt in the main event of UFC 227 on Saturday, Moraes took to Twitter to call him out. Specifically, Moraes is hoping to fight Dillashaw at UFC 229 on October 6, which will, of course, be headline by a lightweight title mega fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.

Tom Taylor - August 6, 2018

Last weekend, in the co-main event of UFC 227, Henry Cejudo accomplished something that was looking increasingly undoable: he dethroned dominating UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. Amazingly, however, this might not even be the biggest accomplishment of Cejudo’s career, as he previously won a gold medal in the Olympics as a freestyle wrestler. And if he gets his way, it won’t be the last massive accomplishment of his career, as he hopes to move up to bantamweight to battle divisional champ TJ Dillashaw for his title.

Drake Riggs - August 6, 2018

Everybody in the UFC today is looking for that next big fight. We’re in the ‘super fight’ era. The era of entertainment trumping all. But how many pieces of the pie can get handed out? Somebody already on that list is the legendary former two-division champion of welterweight and middleweight, Georges St-Pierre.

Thomas Taylor - August 5, 2018

On Friday afternoon, UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley had his first staredown with Darren Till, who he will battle in the main event of UFC 228 on September 8. Shortly after this tense staredown, Darren Till claimed that he saw a shred of doubt in the champion’s eyes. Not fear, but doubt.