MMA News

Drake Riggs - June 21, 2018

“I really want the Contender Series to add a little something different to it because I feel like this is meant to happen and they said it would happen and it really hasn’t.

Drake Riggs - June 21, 2018

The continuation of the Greg Hardy MMA saga may have to be put on hold. ESPN is reporting that the former NFL defensive end for the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys has sustained a knee injury in an arena football game that took place this past Saturday.

Drake Riggs - June 21, 2018

Yesterday the news broke that Josh Barnett was being released from the UFC after a five year run in his second stint with the company. Now we get some clarity as to why. After the former UFC heavyweight champion, Barnett’s most recent win over Andrei Arlovski in September 2016, he was notified of a failed USADA test thus resulting in his suspension.

Drake Riggs - June 21, 2018

Brock Lesnar’s return to the UFC feels inevitable. The current WWE star is still under contract as a champion with the organization but his deal is apparently set to expire sooner rather than later. UFC President, Dana White has already said himself that Lesnar will indeed fight in the UFC again. It’s now just a matter of when.

Tom Taylor - June 21, 2018

According to a report from ESPN, Bellator MMA has booked a middleweight title super fight between divisional champion Gegard Mousasi and welterweight champion Rory MacDonald. The fight is expected to occur on September 29, when Bellator returns to San Jose, California. This card, which is shaping up to absolutely massive for the promotion, is also expected to feature a fourth fight between light heavyweight legends Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei Silva.

Tom Taylor - June 21, 2018

Rising heavyweight contender Tai Tuivasa is hoping to avenge some of the losses of his mentor, heavyweight legend Mark Hunt. Most notably, Tuivasa is interested in getting some payback against Brock Lesnar, whose win over Hunt was overturned due to a failed drug test. While vengeance is one of the main drivers for Tuivasa’s interest in Lesnar, however, he’s also aware that he’d likely get a big payday for this fight.

Tom Taylor - June 21, 2018

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley believes he’s a nightmare matchup for new interim welterweight champion Colby Covington. The champ explained why he feels this way on a recent episode of the UFC Unfiltered podcast, using some of his previous victories as examples. “If [a fighter’s] number one attribute is cardio, they’re up shit creek because cardio is a controllable variable,” Woodley said of Covington’s impeccable cardio (transcribed by Jeff Cain for MMAWeekly.com). “You can’t control that I’m a better wrestler; I’m stronger than you. You can’t control that I punch a shit-load harder than you. You can’t vouch for those things in a six-week training camp. In one year, you can’t change your punching power to be measurable to mine,”

Tom Taylor - June 21, 2018

At several times over the course of his illustrious MMA career, we’ve seen Conor McGregor get tired in fights. It seemed to happen in both of his unforgettable scraps with Nate Diaz, and also in his blockbuster 2017 boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. Highly respected Tristar MMA head coach Firas Zahabi feels he knows why this happens. He broke it down during his recent appearance on the JRE MMA Show.

Tom Taylor - June 21, 2018

Over the last few weeks, there’s been a scourge of fighters missing weight for high-profile UFC bouts, from Mackenzie Dern, to Darren Till, to Yoel Romero. According to UFC color commentator Jimmy Smith, the solution to this recurring problem is probably tougher punishments for those who miss their marks. Smith offered up his proposed solution to MMA’s weight-cutting problem during an appearance on UFC Tonight.

Tom Taylor - June 21, 2018

If reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier topples Stipe Miocic at UFC 226, he’ll capture the UFC heavyweight belt, become one of just two fighters in UFC history to wear two belts concurrently, and in the eyes of many fans, cement himself as one of the sport’s best ever. Jon Jones, the only man to defeat Cormier, doesn’t share that feeling.

Tom Taylor - June 21, 2018

On Saturday morning, in the main event of the UFC’s latest trip to Singapore, longtime welterweight and lightweight contender Donald Cerrone will battle rising British welterweight contender Leon Edwards. While Edwards represents a dangerous challenger for Cerrone, Cerrone doesn’t seem to be too stressed about the fight. He doesn’t believe the young contender will bring anything to the cage that he hasn’t seen before.

Tom Taylor - June 21, 2018

Currently riding high on decisive defeats of legendary heavyweights Mark Hunt and Alistair Overeem, Curtis Blaydes feels he’s earned a shot at the winner of UFC 226’s Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier winner. Blaydes issued his latest call for a fight with the Miocic vs. Cormier winner — the next legend on his hit list — in Wednesday Tweet. See it below.

Drake Riggs - June 20, 2018

After recently having his USADA suspension reprimanded, former UFC heavyweight champ, Josh Barnett is now moving on from the organization. MMAJunkie’s Steven Marrocco is reporting that Barnett has been released from the UFC making him free to explore other options.

Drake Riggs - June 20, 2018

Heading into his very first UFC main event, Britain’s Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards isn’t lacking any confidence as he prepares to take on the seasoned veteran, Donald Cerrone. Edwards hasn’t lost since December 2015 when he fought a fellow rising contender in Kamaru Usman. Now riding high on a sneaky impressive five-fight win streak, Edwards is ready to extend that to six with the biggest name he’ll have fought to date.

Thomas Taylor - June 20, 2018

Tristar head coach Firas Zahabi is hoping that his star pupil, Georges St-Pierre, will follow in the footsteps of Conor McGregor and battle undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather in the boxing ring. In the opinion of veteran combat sports oddsmaker Joey Oddessa, however, there’s almost no point in making this fight — at least, not from a competitive vantage point. He believes St-Pierre would have no chance in a boxing bout with Mayweather, and the betting line for the potential fight would reflect this reality. “There are three certainties in life: Death, taxes, and Floyd Mayweather will not lose to any MMA fighter or boxer in a boxing ring over the duration of his lifetime,” Oddessa told MMAjunkie of this potential boxing match, which will almost certainly never happen.

Jordy McElroy - June 20, 2018

Daniel Cormier spent the last half of his MMA career tethered to an unremitting rivalry with Jon Jones, but at UFC 226, the reigning light heavyweight champion can cut the cord and step out of the darkness of the former pound-for-pound king’s polarizing shadow. There will be no more questions of whether he has earned the right to call himself a real UFC champion. No more waiting around for a trilogy of a rivalry gone stale. No more being upstaged by a man he isn’t even fighting.

Tom Taylor - June 20, 2018

Chael Sonnen has a piece of advice for Henry Cejudo, who rematches dominating flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson at UFC 227 on August 4. Sonnen feels that, if Cejudo hopes to build interest in this flyweight title rematch, he needs to cast himself as the villain in the story. “He just wouldn’t come out of his shell,” Sonnen said of Cejudo’s typical attitude. “He just simply wouldn’t do it. He just wanted to be the good and likeable guy, no matter how many times we try to grab him by the collar and say ‘Henry, that spot’s taken — the good guy is taken by Demetrious — but there’s another seat in the car.'”

Tom Taylor - June 20, 2018

Tristar head coach Firas Zahabi says that when former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre was at the peak of his MMA superstardom, his training partners would often become star-struck by him, and dial back their sparring with him as a result. To ensure that St-Pierre got more aggressive versions of these star-struck training partners, Zahabi would offer $5,000 to anybody who could put the champ down. “We reach those high intensity levels periodically through the year, and we have to do it a certain way so that it’s fun,” Zahabi told Joe Rogan on The JRE MMA Show (transcribed by Mike Bohn for MMAjunkie). “Georges was on your show, and he was saying I was trying to kill him in the practice room. He’s right, but I do it so rarely. I do it so periodically. I make it a joke. I brought the guys in a room, and I was watching them spar with Georges, and they don’t want to touch his face. This is when he was like a mega-star, when he was the champ. Nobody wants to try to double leg him; nobody wants to try to hurt him. They’re like, ‘I’m not going to come here in his house and try to show him.’ There’s a respect thing. They’re starstruck, these young kids.