MMA News

Tom Taylor - May 24, 2018

Last Saturday night, during the main card of the UFC’s anticipated debut in Santiago, Chile, undefeated light heavyweight contender Dominick Reyes (9-0) authored the biggest win of his career thus far, clobbering the dangerous Jared Cannonier with a rocket-fuelled uppercut in the first round.

Tom Taylor - May 24, 2018

At UFC 224, Lyoto Machida authored one of the most dazzling victories of spectacular career, zapping the retiring Vitor Belfort with a front kick to the face. With this win, the former UFC light heavyweight champion and long-time middleweight contender moved onto a two-fight win-streak, and he’s hoping a few more victories will carry him to a middleweight title shot. First, of course, Machida is hoping to battle fellow veteran Michael Bisping, who he called out after UFC 224.

Tom Taylor - May 24, 2018

There was a time, not all that long ago, when “Platinum” Mike Perry and Darren Till seemed to be on a collision course. Perry was riding high on the momentum of back-to-back knockouts of Jake Ellenberger and Alex Reyes, while Till had just authored a violent first-round knockout of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. “I’ve got my eye on Mike Perry,” Till called out moments after he clobbered Cerrone. “You and me were meant to fight!”

Tom Taylor - May 24, 2018

We can now add another name to the list of fighters to call out Artem Lobov: Kyle Bochniak. The all-action American featherweight called out the Russian on Wednesday evening on Twitter. https://twitter.com/KyleBochniak/status/999480036553121792

Tom Taylor - May 24, 2018

On Friday, Bellator MMA will celebrate its 200th fight card with the aptly-titled Bellator 200. On Thursday morning, the 34 fighters on the bill took to the scales to weigh in for the respective battles. Remarkably, only one of these 34 fighters failed to make their contracted weight, as lightweight Martyn Harris was advised to abandon his cut amid health concerns. Every other fighter on the card hit their mark. That includes middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho and challenger Gegard Mousasi, who were elevated to Bellator 200 headlining honors when Roy Nelson and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s anticipated rematch fell through.

Tom Taylor - May 24, 2018

Former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre wants to fight again, but he doesn’t have a lot of gas left in the tank. For the reason, he’s hoping his last forays into the Octagon will be truly special. “I don’t have much left,” St-Pierre said on a Monday appearance on the JRE MMA Show (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “And for what I have left, I want to make the big fight, the fight that the fans want to see, want to enjoy. I want, personally for me, to achieve something that is unique, that is rare, that maybe has never been attempted before. That would be something that excites me. And I’m not only driven by money. It’s good to have money, we like money, it drives us all, including myself, but it’s not the unique thing that drives me. There needs to be more than money. There needs to be some kind of achievement that comes with that would excite me.”

Tom Taylor - May 24, 2018

UFC President Dana White is going to sit down with Conor McGregor this weekend in Liverpool, England. The UFC boss will be in town for the compelling, 12-fight UFC Liverpool card. Once that card is in the books, he plans to direct his focus to McGregor.

Jason Kindschy - May 23, 2018

BJPENN.COM Radio is back! We kick off this episode with UFC featherweight powerhouse Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski. After campaigning for a ranked opponent in his next outing, Alex has been granted his wish and is set to face Darren Elkins at UFC FN 133 in Boise, Idaho on July 14th. The Aussie will help us breakdown the matchup against and discuss the negotiations that led to Alex signing a contract against the No. 10 ranked Elkins. We’ll discuss the magnitude of this opportunity and what it means for his career, why Volkanovski believes he is too powerful for any of the athletes at 145, and where a dominant win over “The Damage” puts him in the hunt for featherweight gold.

Drake Riggs - May 23, 2018

https://twitter.com/Chisanga_Malata/status/999393972199084033 “I gotta confess… I was so scared of fighting Nick Diaz so we poisoned his IV. But he survived so I was even more terrified. All the athletic commission was on my payroll so they tricked the weigh in and I made it. And I went through so I was even more terrified. So the alien abducted me, they put the gamma ray to increase my strength like the Hulk. Like performance enhancing drug…and, the fight was still happening! So right before, I put some glass and cement in my gloves to make sure…and still had a crazy hard fight!”

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

Earlier this week, news surfaced that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic had sustained a litany of leg-related injuries in training, and forced out of his Bellator 200 headlining rematch with Roy Nelson as a result. Amid the immediate fallout of Cro Cop’s unfortunate injury, Bellator hoped to find a last-minute replacement opponent for Nelson. This per BJPenn.com’s Tom Taylor.

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.

Tom Taylor - May 22, 2018

Earlier today, we learned that former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum is the latest fighter to be 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.

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.