MMA News

Drake Riggs - August 2, 2018

Khabib Nurmagomedov has given an update on his proposed #UFC 229 fight with Conor McGregor. And he wants a new contract to fight 'The Notorious'. Full video, which comes via @adamglyn, available here: https://t.co/WiCbbkAGI0 pic.twitter.com/7vpeL8GCYI — Chisanga Malata (@Chisanga_Malata) August 2, 2018

Drake Riggs - August 2, 2018

The UFC’s next event in Canada has its main event! And it’s a good one as two of the light heavyweight division’s quickest finishers face off. After his very impressive quick destruction of the legendary Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Anthony Smith was vying to fill in for Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 227 against Alexander Gustafsson.

Tom Taylor - August 2, 2018

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman was hoping that he would get the next shot at reigning champion Robert Whittaker. Whittaker himself also seemed to be on board with this plan. Unfortunately for Weidman, the next middleweight title shot will instead go to Kelvin Gastelum — who he defeated in his last fight. Whittaker and Gastelum, both Ultimate Fighter winners, will coach the next season of the show against one another, and meet in a title fight thereafter. Weidman, meanwhile, is scheduled for a rematch with Luke Rockhold — the man who ended his title reign — at UFC 230 in New York.

Tom Taylor - August 2, 2018

Earlier today, pictures surfaced of UFC President Dana White visiting US President Donald Trump at The White House. At the time, it looked as though White had done so without UFC interim welterweight champion Colby Covington — despite Covington’s longstanding hopes of meeting the US President. As it turns out, however, Covington did get his meeting with Trump. Shortly after photos of White and Trump surfaced, Covington posted a photo of himself and the President to his official Twitter account.

Tom Taylor - August 2, 2018

Ahead of TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt’s first fight, which co-headlined UFC 217 in November, there were almost no breaks from their war of words. Heading into their Saturday night, UFC 227 rematch, which will see Garbrandt attempt to reclaim the bantamweight title after being knocked out by Dillashaw, the trash talk has been much scarcer. TJ Dillashaw has noticed a changed in Cody Garbrandt, and he believes he knows why it happened.

Tom Taylor - August 2, 2018

The official UFC rankings have been updated in the wake of last weekend’s action-packed UFC Calgary card. As always, these new UFC rankings feature some logical changes, and some that seem to be governed completely by whim. Dustin Poirier, for example, has surged up to the number-three spot in the UFC lightweight rankings as a result of his UFC Calgary knockout of Eddie Alvarez. Yet Conor McGregor, who has not competed in mixed martial arts since August of 2016, has also moved up, surpassing Tony Ferguson to take the number-one spot.

Tom Taylor - August 2, 2018

Former UFC bantamweight title challenger Bethe Correia was supposed to battle Irene Aldana at UFC 227 in Los Angeles, California this Saturday. Unfortunately, the California State Athletic Commission announced that Correia’s vision wasn’t on point, which prompted the UFC to remove her from the matchup as a precaution. Even though she was cleared by multiple doctors. Speaking in a Wednesday Instagram post, Correia explained her withdrawal from UFC 227. Suffice it to say that she’s disappointed.

Tom Taylor - August 2, 2018

UPDATE: It looks like Colby Covington did join Trump and White and the White House after all.  In the lead-up to his UFC 225 interim title fight with Rafael dos Anjos, UFC welterweight Colby Covington shared his hopes of visiting President Donald Trump at the White House if he won the title. When Covington won the interim title, he doubled down on these plans.

Drake Riggs - August 1, 2018

https://twitter.com/aaronbronsteter/status/1024852848561946624?s=19 “I want to fight all the guys in my division. We got new guys comin’ up, Sergio Pettis looked good his last fight, ya got [Jose] ‘Shorty’ Torres…he’s in here now. Shoot, Kyoji Horiguchi’s in RIZIN tearin’ things up. So there’s lots of guys out there but for me, I’m just sort of going one fight at a time.

Drake Riggs - August 1, 2018

With no fights officially announced yet for the UFC’s return to the T-Mobile arena, it looks like we’ll soon be getting our first. As the flyweight title is about to be put on the line a rematch as champion Demetrious Johnson defends against Henry Cejudo at UFC 227, another challenger afterward will be needed at some point.

Tom Taylor - August 1, 2018

Last week, former UFC and Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez came up short in a high-stakes rematch with Dustin Poirier, succumbing to a storm of second-round strikes. In the immediate fallout of this tough loss, Alvarez was quiet. On Wednesday afternoon, however, the former champion and lightweight great broke his silence with a deep and meditative statement.

Tom Taylor - August 1, 2018

Bellator has been trying to book a fight between British knockout artists Michael Page and Paul Daley for years. Now that Page and Daley are both expected to participate in Bellator’s Welterweight Grand Prix, the fight would seem to be closer to fruition than ever. In fact, Page thinks it’ll happen before the year is out.

Tom Taylor - August 1, 2018

There will be no warmup for Nikita Krylov’s return to the UFC. Krylov, who parted ways with the promotion in 2016, is set to return to the Octagon at UFC Moscow on September 15, where he will battle the UFC’s fourth-ranked light heavyweight Jan Blachowicz. This bout was recently made official by the UFC on Twitter.

Tom Taylor - August 1, 2018

There is a special place in the heart of every MMA fan for a good, old-fashioned scrap… Frenetic fights like Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua I, Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald II, and Nick Diaz vs. Paul Daley, that hammer their way into our memories and never leave. At the end of each month, BJPENN.COM honors the best scraps of the month, from the UFC’s Octagon, to the Rizin ring, to the cages of regional promotions all over the world.

Tom Taylor - August 1, 2018

For a time, it looked as though Demetrious Johnson’s next flyweight title challenger would come in the form of a slimmed down bantamweight champion, TJ Dillashaw. Unfortunately, the UFC couldn’t lock this fight down. Dillashaw was booked to defend his title against Cody Garbrandt, and Johnson was booked to defend his title against Henry Cejudo — both at UFC 227 this weekend. While this Johnson vs. Dillashaw fight didn’t work out on the first try, Johnson says it’s an opportunity he’s still up for — so long as the UFC makes it worth his while.

Tom Taylor - August 1, 2018

UFC featherweight Cris Cyborg wanted to fight bantamweight Amanda Nunes at UFC 228 in Dallas, but that’s not happening. Instead, Nunes wants the fight to occur at UFC 232 in December, some nine months after Cyborg’s last fight. Cyborg isn’t happy about this.

Drake Riggs - July 31, 2018

Losing fights is never a good thing for all involved. Especially when it’s right in the middle of fight week, making the task of finding a replacement even harder. And for Mexican bantamweight prospect Irene Aldana, no one is going to be able to fill in for her opponent Bethe Correia.

Drake Riggs - July 31, 2018

July was an awesome month of MMA. So awesome that its top 5 was actually kind of a top 6…! But unfortunately, it turned back into a top 5 as we did lose one of the top bouts in the featherweight title clash pitting champion Max Holloway against the challenger Brian Ortega. Closing out the Summer with the month of August we get some very solid matchups. Not a lot of name value but hey, it’s the action inside the cage that really matters.