MMA News

Tom Taylor - May 23, 2018

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Conor McGregor fight. The Irish megastar has not fought since August of 2017, when he came up short in a headline-dominating boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. If we’re talking about MMA bouts, it’s been even longer since the Irishman has competed, as he has not stepped into the cage since he knocked out Eddie Alvarez to capture the UFC lightweight title in November of 2016…

Tom Taylor - May 23, 2018

Valentina Shevchenko wants a shot at UFC flyweight champion Nicco Montano. That could not be any clearer. Unfortunately for her, the fight has proven a little difficult to put together. This, of course, is not the fault of Montano, who has been recovering from a tonsillectomy. Yet Shevchenko seems to be getting tired of waiting all the same, arguing that if Montano is not healthy enough to fight, she should drop the belt. “Not yet, we are not at that point [of Montano vacating the title],” Shevchenko said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour (transcribed by Peter Carroll of MMA Fighting) “but I think it would be very right to do things like this because if you are not ready to fight, if you don’t want to fight, you have to leave the belt — you cannot hold it.

Tom Taylor - May 23, 2018

It seems like every major fight card is rocked by at least one fighter missing weight. This problem is so prevalent that cards that don’t feature a weigh-in hiccup — like last weekend’s UFC Chile card — feel like a real rarity. When it comes to solutions for the epidemic of fighters missing weight for their bouts, there have been dozens of solutions suggested. Former UFC star and current Bellator staple Chael Sonnen, however, thinks he’s figured out a way to curb the problem significantly.

Tom Taylor - May 23, 2018

This Friday night, in the main event of Bellator 200, former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion and UFC middleweight contender Gegard Mousasi will challenge Rafael Carvalho for Bellator’s middleweight championship. The bout was originally expected to serve as the card’s co-headliner, but was elevated to the headlining spot when Roy Nelson and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s rematch was nixed due to injury. Despite the fact that Mousasi will enter this fight more than 50 professional fights behind him, he’s apparently feeling quite nervous about it.

Tom Taylor - May 23, 2018

When Gunnar Nelson withdrew from his fight with Neil Magny, which was supposed to co-headline the UFC’s Saturday night debut in Liverpool, the UFC began a frantic search to find Magny a replacement opponent. As the UFC matchmakers undertook this search, Magny gave them some extra incentive to keep him on the card. In a post to Instagram the welterweight announced that, if the promotion was able to keep him on the Liverpool card, he’d donate $15,000 of his purse to the medical care of a young girl named Presley O’Doherty, who is battling a rare neuromuscular disorder called spinal muscular atrophy.

Tom Taylor - May 23, 2018

Last weekend, in the main event of the UFC’s debut in Santiago, Chile, former middleweight and welterweight title challenger Demian Maia attempted to correct a two-fight losing streak in a short-notice fight with the dangerous Kamaru Usman. This fight began quite will for the BJJ wizard Maia, as he managed to tangle up with Usman early. Regrettably, however, the referee inexplicably separated the two fighters as Maia worked to improve his position and secure back-mount. After this brief moment of success, Maia was dominated for the remainder of the fight, ultimately losing a lopsided unanimous decision.

Tom Taylor - May 23, 2018

The UFC 225 main card is absolutely stacked. Regrettably, there is one aspect of this main card that is a little controversial. Many fans are disappointed that it includes the sophomore MMA fight of former pro wrestler CM Punk, who is set to take on Mike Jackson.  The controversy, of course, is that Punk and Jackson both own 0-1 pro MMA records. While Punk is a huge name — and a figure that is almost certain to boost the UFC 225 PPV revenue — many fans feel he belongs on the undercard.

Drake Riggs - May 23, 2018

It was announced earlier this month that the UFC had reached a deal with ESPN for their future streaming rights in 2019 after the deal with Fox expired. That initial announcement came with the news that the UFC would be streaming content on ESPN’s digital streaming service, ESPN+. The details regarding this initial deal include the following:

Drake Riggs - May 22, 2018

Today the UFC held their open tryouts for season 28 of The Ultimate Fighter which will be featuring the heavyweights and female featherweights. Ironically enough, 28 fighters showed up for the chance to be a part of the featherweight cast. One fighter in particular that showed up was not there to try and earn a spot on the show. That fighter actually happened to be the division’s longtime queen, Cris Cyborg who is hosting a dinner tonight open to all the participants that are interested.

Drake Riggs - May 22, 2018

Luke Rockhold reinjured his leg in training late last week and is now definitely not fighting Alexander Gustafsson this summer. I’m told he’s hoping to return in October, at the earliest. Here’s a video he provided to me of his shin getting stitched up. (Warning: GRAPHIC) pic.twitter.com/CDQseH7nUN — Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 22, 2018

Drake Riggs - May 22, 2018

It was announced yesterday that legendary MMA heavyweight, Mirko Cro Cop had been injured out of his big upcoming Bellator 200 main event rematch with Roy Nelson. The specifics of the injury weren’t given out at that time but now they have been and they’re a little stunning. What exactly Cro Cop did to injure himself remains unknown but Ariel Helwani caught up with the legend last night and got the details about the severity of the damage his knee took.

Tom Taylor - May 22, 2018

On Tuesday afternoon, former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum was notified of a potential anti-doping violation by The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). “The UFC organization was notified today that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed Fabricio Werdum of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collected on April 25, 2018,” a UFC statement on the matter read.

Tom Taylor - May 22, 2018

UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who now owns an insane overall record of 26-0, is looking more and more like an unstoppable force. In the opinion of renowned MMA coach Mark Henry, however, his pupil Eddie Alvarez has all the prerequisites to crack the Nurmagomedov code. Henry explained why he believes the former champ Eddie Alvarez has a good chance at defeating Khabib Nurmagomedov in an interview with MMAWeekly.

Tom Taylor - May 22, 2018

Following in the footsteps of fighters like Michael Bisping, Rashad Evans and Tyron Woodley, Michael Chiesa is the latest fighter to take on side-gig as a UFC analyst. The ninth-ranked UFC lightweight will make his analyst debut this weekend, as he will join the Fox Sports desk during the UFC’s Saturday night debut in Liverpool. Chiesa will be accompanied at the analyst’s desk by former middleweight champ Michael Bisping, UFC color commentator Jimmy Smith, and anchor Karyn Bryant. This news was announced by Fox Sports on Monday.

Tom Taylor - May 22, 2018

Over the weekend, during the UFC Chile broadcast, we learned that the UFC had made a pretty significant adjustment to the UFC 225 main card. This adjustment saw Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes‘s heavyweight contender bout bumped from the main card to the prelims, and Holly Holm and Megan Anderson’s featherweight contender bout moved to the main card in its place. Speaking on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Overeem explained why he’s not too bothered by this change to the UFC 225 main card.

Tom Taylor - May 22, 2018

On the latest edition of his Call Me Al podcast, UFC lightweight star Al Iaquinta suggested that he could be fighting former World Series of Fighting champion Justin Gaethje this summer. Iaquinta divulged this gem of information when a fan called into the show and asked, point-blank, whether he would be fighting Gaethje. Interestingly, Iaquinta said he was.

Tom Taylor - May 22, 2018

For a time, Joanna Jedrzejczyk looked truly unstoppable as the UFC strawweight champion. Then, in November of 2017, her reign came to a shocking and violent end, as she was put down by a salvo of first-round Rose Namajunas punches. Given her previous dominance, Jedrzejczyk was given the chance to reclaim her title from Namajunas in an immediate rematch in April. In the end, however, she fell to 0-2 against the new champion, giving up a close but fair unanimous decision.

Drake Riggs - May 21, 2018

When news broke earlier this month that young featherweight prospect, Yair Rodriguez had been cut from the UFC, the MMA world was surprised, to say the least. The 10-2 Ultimate Fighter: Latin America winner, Rodriguez last fought in May of last year when he suffered his first UFC loss to former lightweight champion and perennial top featherweight, Frankie Edger.