MMA News

Chris Taylor - March 18, 2018

UFC London Athlete Outfitting Pay: Only one fighter takes home more than $5,000 The octagon returned to London, England yesterday for UFC Fight Night 127.

Tom Taylor - March 18, 2018

Over the last few months, hulking UFC heavyweight Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis has made repeated callouts of recent UFC heavyweight title challenger Francis Ngannou. “My coach just believes that I would really destroy Francis. My coach don’t like Francis at all either. I believe that I’m better than Francis all the way around,” Lewis said in a recent interview with FloCombat. “Striking, grappling, ground game, submission, whatever. I believe I’ve got better conditioning than him. I’m better disciplined. I listen to my coaches. I really believe I could beat this guy.”

Tom Taylor - March 18, 2018

Alexander Volkov did not let his UFC London headlining showdown with former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum go to waste. Though Werdum was able to give him some interesting looks early on, particularly on mat, Volkov came through with flying colors in the fourth, putting his decorated foe down with a pair of uppercut and a missile-like standing-to-ground strike. In the wake of this impressive knockout win, which stands out as the best of his career, the former Bellator heavyweight champion Volkov feels he’s earned a shot at the UFC heavyweight championship, which will next be contested when champ Stipe Miocic takes on Daniel Cormier at UFC 226 on July 7. Though Miocic and Cormier’s heavyweight title showdown is still a ways away, Volkov sounds content to wait for a shot at the winner – perhaps even this fall when the UFC debuts in Russia.

Tom Taylor - March 18, 2018

Last night, in the main event of UFC London, former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum attempted to make it three wins in a row opposite former Bellator heavyweight champ Alexander Volkov. Though Werdum enjoyed some moments of success early on the bout, particularly in the phases that the fight was contested on the mat, he was ultimately put down by a volley of fourth-round punches. In the wake of this tough KO loss to Volkov, who he has trained with in the past, Werdum issued a lengthy statement, addressing the defeat itself and his future in the sport.

Tom Taylor - March 18, 2018

Last night, amid the UFC’s thrilling return to London, England, rising British welterweight contender Leon Edwards picked up a last-second TKO win over Peter Sobotta. Shortly after this win, Edwards made a clever callout of Darren Till, who has been hunting for an opponent for the UFC’s upcoming debut in Liverpool. Speaking to the media post-fight, Edwards elaborated on this callout of Till. Apparently, he’s not buying the hype that surrounds his fellow Brit.

Tom Taylor - March 18, 2018

Last night, on the undercard of the UFC’s return to London, England, Scottish light heavyweight Paul Craig return to the Octagon opposite Russia’s Magomed Ankalaev. To say Craig had his back against the wall in this fight would be an understatement. After debuting in the Octagon with a first-round armbar of Henrique da Silva, Craig suffered back-to-back, first-round stoppage losses at the hands of Tyson Pedro and Khalil Rountree. In a matter of months, he’d tumbled from the ranks of the UFC’s most promising light heavyweight prospects to the undesirable company of fighters at risk of losing their jobs. As if the stakes weren’t already high enough, Craig’s London bout with Ankalaev also marked the final fight on his UFC contract, meaning a loss would almost certainly result in his being dropped by the promotion.

Tom Taylor - March 18, 2018

Last night, in the co-main event the UFC’s surprisingly thrilling return to London, England, the city’s own Jimi Manuwa returned to the cage opposite Jan Blachowicz, who he defeated by decision several years ago. It was an absolutely electrifying showdown that saw Manuwa weather a huge, first-round knockdown to surge back in the second – during which he landed a kick that probably would have snuffed many other light heavyweights – and then lose a close third round.

Christine Allen - March 18, 2018

Watching footage of lightweight mixed martial artist, Nick Newell, and his first-round submission win against Bellator veteran Eric Reynolds for the XFC lightweight title, a conversation with my Father springs to mind. “You don’t play pool competitively with a bad limp unless you’re good – never underestimate someone just because they have a disability,” He confided, as we watched my opponent hobble into the pool hall, balancing awkwardly on an artificial leg.

Chris Taylor - March 17, 2018

MMA Community reacts to Alexander Volkov finishing Fabricio Werdum! UFC heavyweight Alexander Volkov picked up the biggest win of his mixed martial arts career today in London, scoring a fourth-round knockout victory over former division champion Fabricio Werdum in the main event of UFC Fight Night 127.

Chris Taylor - March 17, 2018

MMA Community reacts to today’s slugfest between Jan Blachowicz and Jimi Manuwa! UFC light heavyweight contenders Jan Blachowicz and Jimi Manuwa put on a thrilling performance in today’s UFC Fight Night 127 co-main event in London, England.

Chris Taylor - March 17, 2018

UFC London Results: Alexander Volkov KO’s Fabricio Werdum A key heavyweight tilt between former champion Fabricio Werdum and surging contender Alexander Volkov headlined today’s UFC Fight Night 127 event in London, England.

Chris Taylor - March 17, 2018

UFC London Results: Jan Blachowicz defeats Jimi Manuwa A light heavyweight scrap between perennial division contenders Jan Blachowicz and Jimi Manuwa served as the co-main event of tonight’s UFC Fight Night 127 event in London, England.

Justin Golightly - March 17, 2018

What a finish from @DannyHenryMMA!#UFCLondon pic.twitter.com/EUjCvXmMGA — UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) March 17, 2018

Justin Golightly - March 17, 2018

The main event this evening will pit Fabricio Werdum against Alexander Volkov, who has quietly stacked up a five-fight win streak. It’s a big test for Volkov and the next logical step in his climb to the top, meanwhile Werdum has been battling back since losing his title and will earn his third straight win if he gets passed the contender. Werdum is one of the most dangerous guys at heavyweight, but Volkov doesn’t seem too impressed. “We have a really big team of jiu-jitsu players in Russia, it’s a very well-known team in the grappling world, it’s called Team Strela. The guys on this team are the best jiu-jitsu players and the best grapplers in the country. The team is made up of elite competitors. […] Jiu-jitsu has a really long and rich history in MMA, but compared to the past, jiu-jitsu is not as important as it used to be. Less and less people who are only good at jiu-jitsu become UFC champions.”

Justin Golightly - March 17, 2018

Nothing in this fight game is ever certain. Just an hour or two ago, Nasrat Haqparast was supposed to kick off UFC London against Nad Narimani. Now, the fight card is pushed back 15 minutes and Haqparast is out of his fight for what may be the first time anyone has had a fight canceled in the UFC due to an infectious eye. “Based on advice from the UFC medical team on Saturday morning, Nasrat Haqparast was deemed unfit to fight due to an infectious eye condition and his bout against Nad Narimani has been cancelled. UFC FIGHT NIGHT: WERDUM vs. VOLKOV will proceed with 10 fights, beginning at 6pm GMT / 2pm ET / 11am PT.” — Statement provided per UFC’s official website.

Justin Golightly - March 17, 2018

The UFC’s big announcement yesterday was that Darren Till would finally be fighting again. Not only would they make up for the downtime between his devastating finish of Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone at UFC Gdansk, but they’d put him as the main event for the UFC’s first trip to his hometown. Against who though? Well, that’s the problem. Till called out Stephen ‘Wonderboy” Thompson once again, but his hand may or may not be healed by then. Till then moved on to Jorge Masvidal today, but Masvidal can’t make it as early as May 27th. I just spoke to former UFC welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson who informed me that the UFC has NOT reached out to him about fighting Darren Till at UFC Liverpool in May. #UFCLiverpool https://t.co/2VWAy4gxoR

Justin Golightly - March 17, 2018

Jimi Manuwa is really familiar with his opponent tonight at UFC London. He fought Jan Blachowicz back in 2015 to earn a decision win. Since then he’s only lost to Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson and the latest light heavyweight title challenger Volkan Oezdemir. He’d prefer to be fighting a higher ranked opponent, but it seems like none of them are accepting fights with him. “I wanted to fight a top five guy. I wanted the No. 3 guy Glover Teixeira. I said let me fight Glover, they said Glover doesn’t want to fight. I said let me fight Mauricio ‘Shogun’ [Rua], they said Shogun doesn’t want to fight. I said who else is available in the top 10? They said no one was available to fight in the whole top 10. I said who’s available to fight in the whole light heavyweight division? Only Jan Blachowicz said yes so I said give me Jan Blachowicz. That’s the reason we’re fighting.”

Justin Golightly - March 17, 2018

As we draw closer to UFC 223’s fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, we wonder when Conor McGregor will be stripped and if he’ll be there to watch the lightweight fight and cheer on his friend and teammate Artem Lobov. He has the power of choice. He can choose the winner of that fight and prove he’s still the very best lightweight in the world, or he can not care at all about the title and go for bigger and better things. Whatever is the biggest, Owen Roddy believes he’ll go for that. “That would be a big pay-per-view without a doubt. I still say that Conor brings most [of the PPV buys]. Like, I think I saw something about Firas [Zahabi] putting up like ‘let’s see who takes the biggest pay-per-view draw’. I’d be confident in saying that Conor is the biggest pay-per-view draw between him and GSP, but it would be an insane fight, it would be a crazy fight, it would be huge. It would be probably the biggest fight that the UFC has thrown, and yeah, it would be great.”