MMA News

Tom Taylor - August 3, 2018

Barring disaster, former UFC heavyweight champion and WWE star Brock Lesnar will get the next crack at UFC heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier. First, however, Lesnar will have to serve the remainder of a suspension imposed the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), and pass a battery of new drug tests to assure he is, in fact, clean. Apparently, USADA’s work with Lesnar is off to a good start. According to the USADA website, the hulking former champ has already been tested three times since his comeback was announced (via BloodyElbow). This website was updated on August 1, so it’s even possible Lesnar has been tested again since then.

Tom Taylor - August 3, 2018

Back in November, in the co-main event of UFC 217, Cody Garbrandt surrendered the UFC bantamweight title to his arch rival TJ Dillashaw, succumbing to a second-round punch. This Saturday night, in the main event of UFC 227, Garbrandt will attempt to reclaim that title from Dillashaw in an immediate rematch. It’s a monumental challenge for the young Team Alpha Male representative, and one that will bend the immediate trajectory of his career for better or for worse.

Tom Taylor - August 3, 2018

Last night, The Professional Fighters League (PFL) took over the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island, New York with the action-packed PFL 5. This card featured bouts in the lightweight in light heavyweight divisions, as talented fighters battled to cement their places in the PFL post-season, and edge closer to each division’s million-dollar prize.

Tom Taylor - August 3, 2018

Earlier this week, former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt was swallowed up by a social media firestorm after some controversial Tweets from his past were unearthed. The controversy was based on Garbrandt’s repeated use of the N-word. Initially, Garbrandt was reluctant to address this controversy.

Drake Riggs - August 2, 2018

After losing for the first time in her entire MMA career, and back to back at that, the former strawweight queen has gotten back in the win column. At UFC on Fox 30, Joanna Jedrzejczyk defeated Tecia Torres via clear unanimous decision. The fight was Jedrzejczyk’s first three-rounder since December 2014 in her and Claudia Gadelha’s first encounter.

Jason Kindschy - August 2, 2018

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

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

Cub Swanson’s December submission loss to Brian Ortega marked the final obligation on his most recent UFC contract. Despite the fact that this loss depleted the leverage he had when negotiating his new contract, he says he was still able to hash out a favorable new deal with the promotion. That said, Swanson claims he did receive some significant offers from other promotions. Ultimately, however, he decided to re-sign with the UFC, not just because they offered a pay increase, but because of the promotion’s longstanding involvement with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

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

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.

Tom Taylor - August 2, 2018

Back in November, Cody Garbrandt lost the UFC bantamweight title to TJ Dillashaw. This Saturday night, in the main event of UFC 227, he’ll have the chance to reclaim it when he meets Dillashaw in an immediate rematch. Given that Garbrandt was knocked out by Dillashaw, and that he never defended his title, his being given an immediate rematch with the champ was somewhat controversial among fans. Garbrandt, however, believes he knows why he’s getting this rare opportunity to reclaim his title.

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

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 was a time not all that long ago that Renan Barao ruled over the bantamweight division with an iron first. Since losing his title to TJ Dillashaw, however, Barao has been on a significant downslide. Now, he’s been tasked with welcoming a debuting fighter to the Octagon — which would have been unthinkable at the height of his reign as UFC bantamweight champion. Barao will return to the cage against streaking LFA and CES MMA transplant Andre Ewell at UFC Sao Paulo on September 22. This bout was first reported by Raphael Marinho of Combate.