MMA News

Tom Taylor - June 6, 2018

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is almost fighting fit again, and he’s itching to return to the cage. More specifically, he’s keen to return at UFC 227, on August 4th in Los Angeles — whether against the winner of Rafael dos Anjos and Colby Covington’s UFC 225 interim title fight, or somebody else. “I’m not really concerned with who’s ready, who’s next,” Woodley recently told MMA Junkie. “You’ve got to realize there are certain rights you deserve as a champion. When I’m ready to fight, now it’s time to fight. Whoever they got for me to fight at this time, come get this work. I don’t want to sit back and say, ‘Oh, I want to sit and wait to see what happens with this fight.’ I’m the champion. I want to fight.”

Drake Riggs - June 5, 2018

Regardless of what Dana White tells everyone, the numbers don’t lie. And the numbers say that the UFC’s pay-per-view numbers were not their best last year. But why is that? Surely putting on shows without your biggest stars like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey are bound to do less than any other event(which they did), but they don’t go on every single card and when they were around, the buys for events that excluded them were still good sales wise.

Drake Riggs - June 5, 2018

It’s definitely not the situation you want to be in just days away from a fight. But that it was for Phil ‘CM Punk’ Brooks. The former WWE star, CM Punk was sided with by jurors today in his defamation lawsuit that was filed by WWE doctor, Christopher Amann for comments that CM Punk made about him on a podcast.

Drake Riggs - June 5, 2018

It’s no secret that weight cutting is one of the more unique aspects of being a fighter and it’s not always the easiest thing to nail down. At least for some fighters. 2018 has gotten off to the wrong kind of hot start with more and more fighters missing weight than ever before. There is no concrete reason as to why but many have speculated and put the blame on the early morning weigh-ins that the California State Athletic Commission introduced in 2016. One of those people putting the blame on this weigh-in format is UFC president, Dana White.

Thomas Taylor - June 5, 2018

On the latest episode of the UFC Unfiltered podcast, UFC President Dana White announced that he plans to work with athletic commissions to end the practice of early weigh-ins. In his eyes, this practice is a major driver in the recent trend of fighters missing weight.  “Yes, I do think it’s [the early weigh-ins that are causing failed weight cuts], and guess what? We’re getting rid of it,” White said on the show. “We’re looking at taking the weigh-ins back to the way they used to be. So when the guys weigh in there, at the [evening weigh-ins], that will be it.”

Tom Taylor - June 5, 2018

Speaking to ESPN this week, former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping elaborated on his recent choice to retire from competition. The Brit says he had originally hoped to retire after defending the middleweight title three times, but had to reevaluate after losing the title to Georges St-Pierre in second defense.

Tom Taylor - June 5, 2018

According to Forbes, Conor McGregor is the fourth highest-paid athlete in sports today. On the latest iteration of their annual highest-paid athletes list, the publication placed the Irish MMA star ahead of NBA stars LeBron James and Stephen Curry, footballer Neymar, and Tennis player Roger Federer. See the list’s top-10, alongside each athlete’s 2017 earnings, below:

Tom Taylor - June 5, 2018

There is certainly no shortage of options for UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s first title defense. Of all the options available, however, none would be bigger or more lucrative than a fight between Nurmagomedov and former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor. In the opinion of UFC President Dana White, this is absolutely the fight to make. Unfortunately, McGregor is presently neck-deep in a complicated legal situation, which stems from his infamous rampage in Brooklyn — you know, the one where he threw a dolly through the window of a shuttle bus carrying Nurmagomedov and a number of other UFC 223 fighters. So, while White hopes to book a McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov fight, he says he’ll first have to see how McGregor’s legal situation shakes out, starting with his June 15 court date in New York City.

Tom Taylor - June 5, 2018

Back in April, on the eve of UFC 223, Conor McGregor arrived in Brooklyn, and promptly went ballistic, throwing a dolly through the window of a shuttle bus carrying a number of the card’s fighters. While McGregor has been the main target of fan backlash following this incident, however, he did not act alone. He was accompanied by his long-time training partner Artem Lobov, who was subsequently pulled from his UFC 223 fight with Alex Caceres as a result. In the wake of this unfortunate incident, there was much speculation as to what the future would hold for Artem Lobov, who has lost his last two bouts in the Octagon. Some members of the MMA community have expected him to be released from the promotion.

Tom Taylor - June 5, 2018

Lately, the UFC has been enduring a scourge of unfortunate weigh in misses. Fighters like Darren Till, Mackenzie Dern, Kevin Lee, Yoel Romero, and many others, have all recently missed weight for high-profile bouts, thrusting many fights into jeopardy as a result. While there are certainly many problems with the way weight cuts in MMA are carried out, many fans feel the primary issue is the early UFC weigh ins. As it turns out, UFC President Dana White feels the same way, and plans to abolish these early weigh ins.

Tom Taylor - June 5, 2018

We’ve been waiting a long time for USADA to reach their verdict on Jon Jones’ July 2017 failed drug test. The good news is that, according to Jones’ manager Abe Kawa, we should all have some clarity soon. Kawa updated on Jones’ situation on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

Tom Taylor - June 5, 2018

Earlier this month, it came to light that Donny Aaron, the coach and husband of UFC flyweight Andrea Lee, has a number of Nazi tattoos. The first, a swastika, appears near the elbow of one arm. The second, the SS bolts of Adolf Hilter’s Schutzstaffel, is on his right forearm. Amid the firestorm of controversy these tattoos caused, Aaron apologized profusely, explaining that he got them during his time in prison, and explaining that he has changed since then. All the same, Aaron added that he would not get that tattoos removed.

Drake Riggs - June 4, 2018

On June 4th two years ago, the greatest event in UFC history unfolded before MMA fans’ very eyes. In a chain of events that led up to the granddaddy of them all in UFC 200, UFC 199 was looked at as just the calm before the storm to the UFC’s biggest event ever. In terms of the results, the two couldn’t have been more opposite with their in cage delivery.

Thomas Taylor - June 4, 2018

Shortly after Friday’s UFC Utica card wrapped up, there was a brief, back-stage confrontation between Marlon Moraes’s team, and that of his vanquished foe Jimmie Rivera. Speaking on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Moraes gave his side of the story on this back-stage skirmish, and explained that his manager Ali Abdelaziz nearly came to blows with Rivera’s coach Tiger Schulman. In his eyes, this was the fault of some misplaced aggression from Schulman.

Tom Taylor - June 4, 2018

When former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping announced his retirement late last month, he closed the door on a number of exciting potential matchups. There’s the fight between Bisping and his rival Yoel Romero, which we never got to see. There’s the much discussed trilogy fight between Bisping and Luke Rockhold, who are tied 1-1 across to fights. There are other fights between Bisping and stars like Lyoto Machida, Chris Weidman and Jacare Souza. And then, of course, there’s the potential fight between Bisping and the reigning UFC middleweight king, Robert Whittaker. Bisping and Whittaker looked destined to collide at several points throughout their respective careers. They were, of course, briefly scheduled to fight at UFC 193, until Bisping was forced out of the matchup an injury. Then, there was the short period during which Bisping was the undisputed middleweight champion and Whittaker was interim champion, when they also seemed to be on a collision course.

Tom Taylor - June 4, 2018

The news that Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes‘s heavyweight bout had been bumped from the UFC 225 card to make room for a featherweight contender bout between Holly Holm and Megan Anderson was met with significant backlash from the fans. This backlash had nothing to do with Holm and Anderson’s placement on the main card. The prevailing feeling, instead, was that if there was any fight that should have been bumped off the main card to make room for the featherweights, it was CM Punk’s fight with Mike Jackson, not Overeem’s fight with Blaydes.

Tom Taylor - June 4, 2018

This Saturday night, on the main card of UFC 225, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm will battle Megan Anderson in a fight that is likely to produce the next challenger for featherweight champ Cris Cyborg. While a win at UFC 225 could easily earn Holm another crack at Cyborg, who she lost a decision to in December, she still feels like the bantamweight division is her true home. “I definitely feel like 135 is a little more my home,” Holm said Friday at a UFC 225 media lunch (via MMAFighting).

Tom Taylor - June 4, 2018

After 67 hours of labor, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate is now a mother. Tate, who has been sharing updates on her blog throughout her pregnancy, gave birth to a baby girl named Amaia late last night. A friend of Tate’s announced this exciting news on Instagram.