MMA News

Tom Taylor - June 12, 2018

Yoel Romero has now been compared to steel by two former opponents. The first man to compare Romero to steel was former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. Now, reigning UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has borrowed this metaphor, using it to describe the incredibly uncomfortable experience of fighting the Cuban behemoth. “This time, he felt like steel,” Whittaker told The Daily Telegraph of his second and most recent fight with Romero, which headlined the stacked UFC 225 last Saturday night. “I was punching and kicking him but it wasn’t doing any damage. He was walking forward through everything. It was weird.”

Tom Taylor - June 12, 2018

After his close and controversial decision loss to surging welterweight contender Darren Till, two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson is keen to get back on track. He thinks former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler is just the kind of opponent that would allow him to do so. Thompson weighed the options for his next fight on the Slip n’ Dip podcast this week.

Tom Taylor - June 12, 2018

Tonight marks the beginning of the second season of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, the UFC’s newest talent-scouting program. In the main event of this season two premiere, undefeated light heavyweight prospect Alonzo Menifield (6-0) will battle Dashawn Boatwright.

Tom Taylor - June 12, 2018

Last Saturday night, in the opening bout of the UFC 225 main card, Mike Jackson authored a decisive decision defeat of former pro wrestler CM Punk. Despite the lopsided nature of his win, however, Jackson found himself on the receiving end of some serious backlash from UFC President Dana White, who seemed to be angry that Jackson didn’t take more risks in attempt to finish his foe. Speaking on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Mike Jackson acknowledged that he was perhaps not as aggressive as he could have been. He also divulged that he was worried what a loss to CM Punk might do to his reputation, and that he didn’t want to give the outmatched pro wrestler any long-term damage.

Tom Taylor - June 12, 2018

UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker now holds two wins over fearsome middleweight contender Yoel Romero. Both, however, were competitive and truly thrilling fights. Given the close nature of the pair’s two fights — particularly the latter, which headlined UFC 225 last weekend — there’s been widespread chatter about a potential third fight between the two. Whittaker, however, isn’t so sure a third fight is necessary. The Australian champion addressed a potential trilogy fight with Romero on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

Tom Taylor - June 12, 2018

Tonight, in the first episode of the second season of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, former NFL defensive end Greg Hardy will fight for a UFC contract. The very fact that Hardy is being given a shot at earning a UFC contract, however, has been met with widespread backlash, as he was essentially bounced from the NFL for some truly troubling domestic violence charges. NFL and MMA analyst Jay Glazer even called for the entire MMA community to blackball the former football player. In the lead-up to Hardy’s DWTNCS debut, White himself has been adamant that everybody deserves a second chance — despite assuring in 2014 that “putting your hands on a woman” is “one thing that you never bounce back from.” Hardy is also asking for a second chance. He explained why he deserves that chance in a Monday media scrum.

Drake Riggs - June 12, 2018

After what appeared to be yet another 2018 main or co-main scrapped by injury, that is now looking to no longer be the case. Just last week, UFC President, Dana White announced that Brad Tavares was out of his main event fight with Israel Adesanya at The Ultimate Fighter 27 Finale on July 6th.

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

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

Mike Jackson battered CM Punk from bell to bell at UFC 225. Unfortunately, he also drew the ire of UFC President Dana White, who felt that Jackson should have worked harder to finish his grossly outmatched foe. Speaking at the UFC post-fight press conference, White shared his distaste for Jackson’s performance, and assured Jackson’s days in the UFC are over.

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

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

On Saturday night, in the main event of the stacked UFC 225, UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and fearsome middleweight contender Yoel Romero engaged in a truly incredible five-round fight. Though the title was not actually on the line, as Romero missed weight for the bout, the two middleweight talents fought with the kind of verve and intensity that ensured their battle will never be forgotten. In the end, Whittaker won this jaw-dropping fight via split decision. While not everybody agreed with the judges’ scoring of the fight, Whittaker is confident he deserved the W. The champ commented on the fight in a classy, post-fight statement on Instagram.

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

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.