MMA News

Tom Taylor - May 22, 2018

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), has struck again. On Tuesday afternoon, the agency announced that former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum has been informed of a potential anti-doping violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collected on April 25, 2018. Per a UFC release:

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

By this point, you’ve surely heard the news. 48-year-old former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell is making a comeback. Liddell’s controversial comeback, which follows an eight-year retirement, is expected to occur in Oscar De La Hoya’s new MMA promotion. Liddell’s opponent in this comeback fight is expected to be an MMA legend of a similar vintage, Tito Ortiz.

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.

Drake Riggs - May 21, 2018

One of the MMA world’s most entertaining and fan-friendly fighters to watch has always been “the Natural Born Killer” Carlos Condit. Unfortunately for Condit, he’s visibly been on a downward trend in terms of his success recently. Since 2012, the former interim UFC welterweight champion and former WEC welterweight champion, Condit has gone 2-7 in his last 9 and currently rides the worst skid of his career with 4 straight losses, 2 of those that saw him being finished(both by submission).

Tom Taylor - May 21, 2018

This Friday night, Bellator MMA will touch down in London, England for with the landmark Bellator 200 card. Originally, the card was expected to be headlined by a heavyweight rematch between Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and  Roy Nelson. Regrettably, Cro Cop was forced out of the contest with an injury just days ahead of the event.

Tom Taylor - May 21, 2018

Earlier this month, MMA legend Vitor Belfort stepped into the UFC’s Octagon for a final time, taking on fellow Brazilian legend Lyoto Machida. He did so on the main card of UFC 224, which went down in his hometown of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the end, this fight with Machida went disastrously for Belfort, as he was knocked out by a brutal kick to the face — the same kick Anderson Silva famously used to put him down years ago. Shortly after this loss, news surfaced that Vitor Belfort had entered the cage at UFC 224 with a fairly significant injury. On Friday, Belfort took to Instagram to explain why he fought through this injury, rather than withdrawing from the fight and attempting to reschedule.

Tom Taylor - May 21, 2018

On Sunday evening, Russian heavyweight Alexey Oleynik posted a photo to Instagram that showed a bout agreement for the UFC’s September 15 debut in Moscow, Russia.

Tom Taylor - May 21, 2018

Bellator 200, which is now just days away, has reportedly lost its originally planned main event. According to Gareth A Davis of The Telegraph,  Mirko Cro Cop has been forced out his headlining showdown with Roy Nelson with a leg injury. Per The Telegraph’s report, a replacement opponent is being sought for Nelson. Given that Bellator has just days to find a suitable understudy, however, it’s hard to say how this will shake out.

Tom Taylor - May 21, 2018

Alexa Grasso’s battle with The Ultimate Fighter 23 winner Tatiana Suarez, which headlined the UFC’s Saturday night debut in Santiago, Chile, did not go the way she planned. Instead, the Mexican strawweight was taken down and submitted by her American adversary in the very first round. Shortly after this loss, Grasso took to Instagram to issue a statement. Here’s what she had to say.

Tom Taylor - May 21, 2018

Earlier this month, former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell announced his intention to emerge from an eight-year-retirement to make a comeback. While nothing is set in stone just yet, it sounds as though Liddell’s comeback fight will pit him against his former arch rival Tito Ortiz, probably in Oscar De La Hoya’s new MMA promotion. Liddell and Ortiz have fought twice before, with Liddell winning both contests by stoppage. That being said, Ortiz feels he never got the opportunity to show the best version of himself against Liddell in the UFC.

Tom Taylor - May 20, 2018

Last night, in the co-main event of the UFC’s debut in Santiago, Chile, strawweight wrestling specialist Tatiana Suarez picked up a dominant, first-round submission victory over the highly-regarded Alexa Grasso. Suarez’s grappling dominance was so impressive in this fight that she was quickly compared to undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, and absolute grappling juggernaut, post-fight.

Tom Taylor - May 20, 2018

Last night, news surfaced that the UFC had made an adjustment to the UFC 225 lineup, adding a featherweight contender bout between Holly Holm and Megan Anderson to the main card, at the expense of a heavyweight contender bout between Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes. This Overeem vs. Blaydes fight, which was first reported by BJPenn.com’s Tom Taylor, will now occur in the final bout of the UFC 225 undercard, per Damon Martin. UFC 225 moved Holly Holm vs Megan Anderson to the main card with Alistair Overeem vs Curtis Blaydes now on the FS1 prelims pic.twitter.com/LTJEg2xVBL

Tom Taylor - May 20, 2018

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a big Conor McGregor fan. That’s been clear for quite some time. Yet after watching the documentary Conor McGregor: Notorious, which celebrates McGregor’s many massive accomplishments, The Rock’s admiration for the Irish fighter seems to have ballooned even bigger. The wrestler-turned-actor heaped praise on McGregor on a Saturday night Instagram post.

Tom Taylor - May 20, 2018

Last night, news surfaced that the UFC had made an adjustment to the UFC 225 main card, adding a featherweight contender bout between Holly Holm and Megan Anderson to the main card, at the expense of a heavyweight contender bout between Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes. This Overeem vs. Blaydes fight, which was first reported by BJPenn.com’s Tom Taylor, will now occur in the final bout of the UFC 225 undercard, per Damon Martin. UFC 225 moved Holly Holm vs Megan Anderson to the main card with Alistair Overeem vs Curtis Blaydes now on the FS1 prelims pic.twitter.com/LTJEg2xVBL