MMA News

Drake Riggs - May 29, 2018

It’s not always ‘rainbows and unicorns’ on one’s path to the UFC. Often times, it’s the farthest thing from it. The battle to get to the UFC can sometimes be harder than the battles inside the UFC themselves.

Tom Taylor - May 29, 2018

https://twitter.com/ufc/status/1001561501570826241 Last night, on the latest episode of his podcast Believe You Me, former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping announced that he’d be forgoing his much-discussed retirement fight, and hanging up the gloves.

Drake Riggs - May 29, 2018

https://twitter.com/MMATeamDagestan/status/1001548006469062656 “A lot of people ask me about my next fight, to be honest, I don’t know. But we talk about this with UFC it’s gonna be maybe [September 9th] or [October 6th]. I don’t know about opponent. Conor [McGregor], [Georges St-Pierre], whoever. Doesn’t matter. We’ll see.

Tom Taylor - May 29, 2018

Last weekend, in the main event of the UFC’s debut in Liverpool, hometown hero Darren Till picked up the biggest win of his career, defeating two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson by decision. Not everybody, however, agreed with this result. Shortly after the judges’ verdict was read, there was an outpouring of criticism suggesting that Thompson, not Till, should have been awarded the victory.

Tom Taylor - May 29, 2018

Hollywood superstar Chris Pratt, who has recently starred in blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy, Jurassic World, and Avengers: Infinity War, is big on MMA. He even attended Bellator 200 in London last Friday. During his visit to the UK, Pratt spoke with entertainment.ie. In this interview, the Hollywood star discussed his love for MMA and Conor McGregor, and said that he’d love to do some training at SBG Ireland, McGregor’s home base.

Tom Taylor - May 29, 2018

On a recent episode of his podcast Call me Al, recent UFC lightweight title challenger Al Iaquinta suggested there is a possibility he’ll fight former World Series of Fighting lightweight champion Justin Gaethje sometime this summer. “We’re hoping for sometime in August,” Iaquinta said, offering a time frame for this potential fight, but acknowledging that Gaethje probably needs some time off after his last two fights, which were particularly brutal. “August, September. I think they wanted it to be sooner, but like, that guy needs a rest. I was looking out for his health with that one. He needs a break for a minute.”

Tom Taylor - May 29, 2018

Dada 5000, a street-fighter who infamously battled the late, great Kimbo Slice in the Bellator cage, is plotting a comeback. The Miami-based fighter, who starred in the 2015 documentary Dawg Fight, is looking for an opponent for a celebrity boxing match. From the sounds of it, he’s hoping this celebrity boxing match will serve as a warm-up for other fistic ventures down the road. Dada 5000 shared his plans in a recent Instagram post.

Tom Taylor - May 29, 2018

Earlier this month, red-hot UFC featherweight contender Yair Rodriguez was ejected from the UFC roster. The reason, we were told by UFC President Dana White, is that Rodriguez had turned down multiple fight offers. Apparently, that’s a no-no. Speaking at the UFC Liverpool post-fight press conference, White defended his decision to cut Rodriguez.

Drake Riggs - May 28, 2018

Everyone has their eyes on a big super fight these days it seems. And UFC women’s featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg is no different. Cyborg is unbeaten in the UFC(5-0) and has racked up two title defenses since officially becoming the champion in July 2017 when she defeated Invicta FC bantamweight champion, Tonya Evinger.

Drake Riggs - May 28, 2018

If you are an avid watcher of MMA and the UFC more specifically, when watching UFC fight nights on FOX(aka UFC on FOX), you will have noticed about a year or so ago that longtime UFC commentator, Joe Rogan no longer works those events. With the news of the UFC recently reaching a new deal with ESPN that will begin in 2019, FOX will no longer be home to the UFC. Obviously, this doesn’t mean much for Rogan who wasn’t working the events anyway, but he took the time yesterday during his Fight Companion for UFC Liverpool to go a bit in depth about everything wrong with his relationship with the network.

Drake Riggs - May 28, 2018

“You know, you can’t do it forever. Done it for a long time. Of course I’ve got issues with my eye. After the [Kelvin] Gastelum fight then I started having issues with my good eye, which I’ve never spoken about before… After the Gastelum fight, I went to a party with all my team, my friends that had flown in to watch. We went to a club, and because it’s dark I just kept seeing this flash out the corner of my good eye. I’m like, ‘what the hell?’ I kept looking. I kept seeing a flash so I kept looking, and doing that constantly.

Drake Riggs - May 28, 2018

It’s always good to have a backup plan. Especially for one of the biggest fights of all time. UFC light heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier will be moving up in weight to challenge for the heavyweight title against the division’s champion, Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 on July 7th.

Tom Taylor - May 28, 2018

After eight years away from the cage, Chuck Liddell is making a comeback. The former UFC light heavyweight champion and UFC Hall-of-Famer is expected to rematch his former arch rival Tito Ortiz in Oscar De La Hoya’s new MMA promotion sometime later this year. Of course, not everyone is excited about this news.

Tom Taylor - May 28, 2018

From the sounds of it, The Ultimate Fighter could soon meet its end. As the UFC closes in on its new broadcast deal with ESPN, and new programs like Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series continue to gain popularity, the future of the UFC’s long-running reality show is uncertain. This, straight from the mouth of UFC President Dana White. “We don’t know yet,” White told MMAJunkie over the weekend (transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting). “We’re coming up on the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter. We don’t know. It might be the last one. 13 years, The Ultimate Fighter has gone. It’s incredible.”

Tom Taylor - May 28, 2018

The UFC 225 bout order has been the subject of much controversy among fans. The controversy stems from the fact that former pro wrestler CM Punk and his opponent Mike Jackson, both of whom own 0-1 MMA records, are on the pay-per-view main card, while former Strikeforce, Dream and K-1 heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem and his opponent Curtis Blaydes have been relegated to the undercard. Overeem and Blaydes were originally expected to be on the UFC 225 main card, but were bumped from their spot to make room for a women’s featherweight contender bout between Holly Holm and Megan Anderson. While nobody is complaining that this featherweight bout has been added to the main card, the widespread opinion is that if any bout should have been bumped from the pay-per-view to make room for it, it should have been Punk’s. Not Overeem’s.

Tom Taylor - May 28, 2018

Last Friday night, in the main event of the landmark Bellator 200 card, Gegard Mousasi smashed Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho to a first-round TKO, thereby capturing the middleweight title for himself. The Bellator middleweight belt, of course, is not Mousasi’s first piece of MMA gold. The Dutch veteran has previously won the Strikeforce light heavyweight championship, the Dream light heavyweight and middleweight championships, and the Cage Warriors middleweight championship.

Tom Taylor - May 28, 2018

Last night, in the main event of the UFC’s debut in Liverpool, England, two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson gave up a razor close decision to hometown hero Darren Till. Though Till landed more overall strikes and significant strikes, and scored the only knockdown of the fight, many onlookers felt Thompson did enough to earn the judges’ favor in this welterweight chess match. Thompson himself shares this opinion, but as always, has been pure class in defeat, and is determined not to take anything away from Till’s big win.

Tom Taylor - May 28, 2018

Yesterday afternoon, in the main event of UFC Liverpool, hometown hero Darren Till picked up the biggest win of his career, defeating two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson with a controversial unanimous decision. Despite his win over Thompson, Till feels that Thompson should still be ahead of him in the contendership line. Till explained why he feels this way at the card’s post-fight press conference.