MMA News

Drake Riggs - June 11, 2018

Rather than being granted the spotlight, some fighters have to force their ways into it. And often times they’ll have to break a few hearts along the way.

Drake Riggs - June 11, 2018

It would seem that new UFC interim welterweight champion, Colby Covington isn’t the only one claiming that their UFC 225 opponent used some illegal tactics mid-fight this past Saturday night. Having fought in the second bout of the televised portion of the UFC 225 prelims, former UFC strawweight champion, Carla Esparza, like Covington also believes that she fell victim to her opponent greasing during their fight.

Drake Riggs - June 11, 2018

https://twitter.com/MMAFighting/status/1006272249064812544 “[Dana White’s] sense of reality is gone, it’s gone. It’s shot. It’s absolutely shot. It’s scary. Now he’s putting our health at risk. So why did you move the weigh-ins in the first place? Because in his mind he wants more exciting fights. How are you gonna get more exciting fights? Give the fighters more time to recover, right? Which is also beneficial to us because it’s healthy. It’s healthy for us to replenish, but then he realizes ‘no, now people aren’t making weight more. So this actually was a bad move. Even though it’s healthier for the fighters, we’re gonna move it back to the night time’.

Drake Riggs - June 11, 2018

The original plan for UFC 225 was to have two title fights atop the stacked night of fights. Unfortunately, one ended up not being over a championship but the other went along as planned. In UFC 225’s co-main event this past Saturday, former UFC lightweight champion, Rafael Dos Anjos took on Colby Covington in search of his fourth straight win at 170 pounds and an interim title to boot.

Thomas Taylor - June 11, 2018

For all of the self-confidence and bravado Colby Covington exudes, he is very much a part of a team. The polarizing welterweight has been a member of American Top Team since his mixed martial arts career began, and has evolved from a raw, college wrestler into the interim UFC welterweight champion under the world famous facility’s roof. As such, he’s sharing his UFC 225 interim title win over Rafael dos Anjos with his teammates at ATT — most notably, fellow UFC welterweight Jorge Masvidal, and ATT founder Dan Lambert.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2018

Shortly after Rashad Evans was knocked out by Anthony Smith on the undercard of UFC 225, UFC President Dana White summoned him backstage to talk. White considers Evans an MMA legend, but felt a conversation was in order. “When he lost, I had him come back to my room,” White said at Saturday’s UFC 225 post-fight press conference (via MMA Fighting). “We hung out and talked, and yeah, it’s sad. Rashad was on season two of The Ultimate Fighter, so he was around through the whole building of this company. We all get old, man, and this is a young man’s sport. But if you look at what he [did], he won The Ultimate Fighter, he became a world champion, he [built] this team where he was like the guy and built all these young up-and-coming fighters. He’s been in big, huge fights.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2018

Colby Covington is now the interim UFC welterweight champion, which essentially ensures he’ll fight undisputed champion Tyron Woodley next. That certainly seems to be what Woodley wants. In fact, Woodley has never wanted to “fuck somebody up” as badly as he does Covington. The undisputed champ went off on the interim champ during a recent Instagram live session.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2018

Alistair Overeem’s anticipated return to the cage, which pitted him against rising heavyweight contender Curtis Blaydes at UFC 225 last Saturday night, did not go the way he planned. Quite the opposite, in fact. In the third round of this heavyweight attraction, Overeem was pulverized by a series of Blaydes elbows in a bloody display that looked something like a raspberry being crushed by a hammer. It was, without exaggeration, as violent a stoppage as you’ll see in the perilous sport of MMA.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2018

Shortly after Colby Covington captured the interim welterweight title with a decision defeat of Rafael dos Anjos, he watched his American Top Team stablemate Yoel Romero take on UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2018

Neither Brock Lesnar nor Jon Jones is currently eligible to compete in MMA. That said, UFC President Dana White seems to think the two superstars could meet in a superfight somewhere down the line all the same. “I know that Brock’s WWE deal is up at the end of the summer, I think,” White recently told TMZ. “I know he wants to fight so I’m sure we’ll end up getting that figured out.”

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2018

UFC interim welterweight champion Colby Covington wants to visit The White House and drop his new gold belt on the desk of President Donald Trump. The outspoken welterweight star has made that plenty clear, both in the buildup to and fallout of his UFC 225 win over Rafael dos Anjos, which earned him the title.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2018

Martin Nguyen, who owns the ONE lightweight and featherweight titles, is currently scheduled for an interim bantamweight title fight with Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon on July 27 in Manila. If he wins this bout with Belingon, he’ll be the owner of a whopping three ONE titles — but don’t expect him to rest on his laurels.

Drake Riggs - June 10, 2018

The UFC is known as MMA’s ultimate proving ground. And as history has shown, even the greatest and most experienced of athletes enter and can’t find their footing right off the bat. Often targeted as the biggest obstacle one can face entering into the Octagon is ‘UFC jitters’. Something that promotional newcomer, Megan Anderson showed no sign of last night at UFC 225.

Jordy McElroy - June 10, 2018

CM Punk was beaten, battered and bloodied in front of his hometown crowd at UFC 225, but he was never broken. For 15 minutes, MMA fans got a glimpse into the world of a man choosing to live life by his own script. Every ink blot and pen stroke led the former WWE champion back to the UFC after being submitted in the first round of his debut nearly two years ago.

Drake Riggs - June 10, 2018

Last night a new champion was crowned. That champion was none other than the outspoken American Top Team product, Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington.

Jordan Colbert - June 10, 2018

Dominick Reyes took home his most recent win against Jared Cannonier at UFC Chile, bringing his UFC record to 3-0 overall and his MMA career to an undefeated 9-0. Following the win, Reyes shot from unranked to #11 in the UFC light heavyweight rankings. Looking to return before year’s end, Reyes hopped on a call for an exclusive interview with BJPenn.com to give us a sneak peek at what lies ahead in the career of one of the most promising light heavyweight fighters we’ve seen in years:  

Tom Taylor - June 10, 2018

Rashad Evans’ return to the light heavyweight division did not go as he planned. Instead, the former champion was melted by a first-round knee courtesy of his foe Anthony Smith. The loss is Evans’ fifth in a row, as he has also recently been defeated by Sam Alvey and Dan Kelly at middleweight, and Glover Teixeira and Ryan Bader at light heavyweight. This unfortunate skid has unsurprisingly led many fans to the conclusion that the time has come for Evans to ride off into the sunset.

Tom Taylor - June 10, 2018

Former UFC bantamweight champion Holly Holm was the picture of dominance in her UFC 225 main card featherweight battle with Megan Anderson, showing off a rarely seen but extremely impressive ground game en route to a lopsided unanimous decision win. With this victory, Holm effectively established herself as the number-one contender at both featherweight and bantamweight. She’s one of the only options available for featherweight champ Cris Cyborg, and one of the few top bantamweights left that bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes has not yet fought. It really seems to come down to which division she’d prefer to fight for the title in first.