MMA News

Tom Taylor - March 15, 2018

At present, UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic has his crosshairs set on UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, who he’ll battle in the main event of UFC 226 on July 7. As buzz surrounding the possible UFC return of WWE star Brock Lesnar continues to grow, however, Miocic is likely to get more and more questions about a potential matchup with the hulking former champion. In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Miocic addressed a possible matchup with Lesnar. While Miocic gives Lesnar his due respect, he is extremely confident about his chances in this prospective showdown.

Justin Golightly - March 15, 2018

You red carpet ready? I am…Join me in Hollywood, CA on April 23rd for the World Premiere of @MarvelStudios #Avengers #InfinityWar. Donate $10 to support the fabulous @ROHHAD_GLOBAL and win (2) VIP tix. Go to https://t.co/AHxJsUW3t7 pic.twitter.com/5xX6kKNAKq — Robert Downey Jr (@RobertDowneyJr) March 13, 2018

Tom Taylor - March 15, 2018

One of the most talked about fights in MMA at present is a possible showdown between dominating UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, and reigning UFC bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw. While this fight is what both men want, it seems to be stuck in a mire of unsuccessful negotiations. In the opinion of former UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping, that’s a damn shame. In Bisping’s eyes, Johnson needs an opponent of Dillashaw’s caliber to solidify his already sterling reputation in the sport.

Justin Golightly - March 15, 2018

Most of the things Conor McGregor gets into aren’t straight forward. There are layers, plot twists, double meanings. Everyone scoffed at his comment that he was going to step up to fight Frankie Edgar, but after UFC 222 Dana White admitted it was true. One thing he didn’t comment on though, was the rumored addition of a 165-pound title. As striking coach Owen Roddy broke down the prep leading up to this actually happening, he also revealed a new kernel of information regarding the “super lightweight” title. “I got the call from Conor [McGregor] almost a little under a month out, just kind of out of the blue, ‘Oh yeah, look, [Max] Holloway’s out of the fight, they’re looking for a replacement to fight Frankie so I’m up for it, I’m thinking of doing it’. So I was like, ‘well, alright, let’s see what the craic is,’ and we went in and he sparred. He hadn’t sparred too hard in a while, so like went in and had a good, tough spar with one of the guys similar to Frankie’s size, similar style and stuff like that, and then looked amazing. […] He got back the next day saying that the fight’s gone, that the fight was unavailable now. So yeah. But he was up for it and he was ready to go. And you know, he was putting it in as well. Conor’s been training up here, so he’s got the bug again which is great, but unfortunately that one didn’t come to pass.”

Tom Taylor - March 15, 2018

Fabricio Werdum, who takes on Alexander Volkov in the main event of the UFC’s Saturday night return to London, England, recently almost had his nose broken by legendary heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson. The former UFC heavyweight champion Werdum recounted this wild story in an interview with TMZ. Apparently, it went down on the set of the movie Kickboxer: Retaliation. The former UFC heavyweight champ was running through a fight scene with Tyson, during which Tyson inadvertently blasted him in the nose with one of his devastating punches.

Tom Taylor - March 15, 2018

The UFC’s return to London, which is headlined by a heavyweight tilt between Fabricio Werdum and Alexander Volkov, and co-headlined by a light heavyweight rematch between Jimi Manuwa and Jan Blachowicz, is now just days away. With the card just around the corner, the many fighters on the bill are all getting their weight cuts underway, hitting the sauna and depriving themselves of any real quantities of food or water. Unfortunately, they’re also required to engage in a bevy of media obligations as they attempt the shed the remaining pounds required for their fights.

Tom Taylor - March 15, 2018

Yesterday, we got an interesting look into Tony Ferguson’s UFC 223 training camp, as the interim lightweight champ shared a video of himself kicking a steel pipe to condition his shins. While his opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov doesn’t seem to be getting quite as –  er… innovative – with his training, it looks like he’s killing it in the gym all the same. On Wednesday afternoon, the undefeated lightweight contender shared some images from his training camp. According to these post, he’s been drilling Cain Velasquez style wrestling, and sparring in standard-size MMA gloves (rather than bag gloves).

Drake Riggs - March 14, 2018

The next big event for the UFC is UFC 223 on April 7th when they return to the state of New York for the seventh time. New York is the newest state to legalize MMA and we’ve gone through some definite growing pains since the first show after legalization in November of 2016. The most notable incidents would be at UFC 208, which also took place in Brooklyn, when Holly Holm took on Germaine de Randamie in the main event for the inaugural women’s featherweight title.

Drake Riggs - March 14, 2018

One of the most inspirational and captivating fighters we’ve ever seen has to be “Notorious” Nick Newell. Newell is most well known for being the fighter with one arm. But this hasn’t affected the highly decorated college wrestler what so ever as he’s amassed a professional MMA record of 14-1 with eleven of those wins coming by way of finish(nine submissions, two knockouts).

Drake Riggs - March 14, 2018

The twenty-four-year-old undefeated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu phenom, Mackenzie Dern finally made her UFC debut earlier this month when she defeated Ashley Yoder at UFC 222 by split decision. With a UFC return to Brazil on the horizon, Dern made it very clear that she wanted to get on the card if possible. And that appears to be the case. MMABrasil reports that Dern’s sophomore appearance in the UFC will come against The Ultimate Fighter season 23 finalist, Amanda Cooper on May 12th.

Justin Golightly - March 14, 2018

Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum will attempt to improve his two-fight win streak this Saturday against Alexander Volkov. It’ll be his journey back to the title, which is well underway. He’s on the up and up as a whole recently. He had a meeting with the WWE, he got his UFC Spanish commentary gig back, now he’s shooting his shot to try and get on UFC 226 with a win at UFC London. “I’m very happy to have my commentator job back. I love doing it in Spanish since I’m fluent. I lived in Spain for several years. I have a Spanish passport. So I enjoy it. I have a lot of fans who were very happy to see me back in the booth. I received thousands of notes supporting me. Latin Americans, also in the United States, supported by return.”

Justin Golightly - March 14, 2018

There was a lot of history made at UFC 222 a couple of weeks ago. Frankie Edgar was not only finished for the first time in his epic career, but it was the first time he wasn’t able to stop a contender from getting past him at featherweight. Most of the time ‘gatekeeper’ is used as an insult regarding fighting, but Edgar literally held the key for years, only beaten by Jose Aldo himself in the division. With his second belt seemingly out of reach now, coach Mark Henry would love to see Edgar at bantamweight fighting for a title. “I’ll tell you one thing: I would love to see Frankie [Edgar] fight at 135. Every time Frankie has fought somebody his own size, he’s done very well. I re-watched the fight for the first time this weekend, and all these people had tweeted about how much bigger Brian [Ortega] looked. I watched it and said, ‘Holy cow, he was a lot bigger.’ It’s tough when you’re giving up size, height and range. Frankie got caught as he overstepped. He paid the price, but that’s what you have to do to compensate for that range. You have to come hard.”

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2018

Over the last few weeks, the MMA world has been abuzz about a potential trilogy fight between former UFC middleweight champions Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold. Yet while the beef between these two former champions is clearly still sizzling, Bisping isn’t sure it’s a fight he wants. In fact, he’s not even sure he’ll ever fight again. “Honestly, I don’t know if I’m going to fight again,” Bisping said on his Believe You Me podcast (via MMANytt). “I was going to fight in London, which is happening this weekend. I was supposed to fight but we couldn’t get the deal done and now it’s giving me more time to reflect. I don’t know, maybe I will, maybe I won’t [fight again].”

Justin Golightly - March 14, 2018

You may not know who John Phillips is, but chances are you will after UFC London this weekend. He’s been waiting for his shot at the UFC for over a year now. With his UFC debut mere days away, Phillips can finally say he’s made it to the big leagues after successful fights in Cage Warriors and BAMMA. So where is a guy who is about to fight for the biggest MMA organization in the world staying? In a caravan parked in his coach’s yard. “When I first came over [to Ireland] I stayed in an Airbnb. It cost me a lot of money and I couldn’t really afford it if I was going to be here full time. […] I came up with a plan that I would sell my jeep and buy a mobile home. […] It was actually okay for a day or two. I guess when most people use this kind of living space they’re on holidays. They’re out for the whole day with the missus and they only have to come home and sleep in it — they only spend a very short amount of time in it. I was in that f-ckin’ thing for three months solid. I could’ve done more research. I just got a van that I liked the look of.”

Justin Golightly - March 14, 2018

We’re all waiting for it. We all believe it’s the only fight for the UFC to make right now. Yet, there has been little progress made in getting a fight with TJ Dillashaw done since Demetrious Johnson revealed they were in negotiations. Both fighters were holding out for the best deal, but it seems like the UFC is hesitant. The UFC flyweight champion’s reaction? He just shrugged like when the UFC threatened to close his division the last time he tried to negotiate. If the TJ Dillashaw fight doesn’t go down, he’ll fight whoever is next in line and move on. “At the end of the day, UFC is a business. TJ [Dillashaw] obviously just won the belt and he’s been the champ for maybe five or six months, and so there’s still a line of contenders he could fight in the division. You have your Dominick Cruz, Jimmie Rivera, the Cody Garbrandt rematch, so they have options for that one. Whereas for me, I have options as well and rematches and whatever. But I think TJ wants this fight because it is probably a bigger paycheck for him, and hopefully for me too, so we’ll see what the UFC wants to do.”

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2018

Former UFC middleweight champions Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold – who have fought twice previously – have had plenty to say to each other on social media of late. Rockhold fired the first shot in this latest skirmish, and Bisping was quick to respond.

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2018

On January 20, in the main event of UFC 220, hulking French-Cameroonian knockout artist Francis Ngannou stepped into the Octagon to challenge Stipe Miocic for the UFC heavyweight title. Though Ngannou entered this contest with mountains of hype attached to his name, he was blown out of the water by the champion, losing a lopsided unanimous decision after five, lopsided rounds. In the wake of this loss, Ngannou promised to learn from the experience and come back stronger – after a brief hiatus, during which time he planned to reconnect with family.

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2018

Over the years, we’ve heard several Brazilian fighters express disinterest in fighting their fellow Brazilians. This is not to suggest Brazilian vs. Brazilian matchups don’t happen – they certainly do – but there seem to be a few fighters from the country who frown on fighting their countrymen. UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes doesn’t seem to be one of these fighters. Though Nunes is currently signed to take on Raquel Pennington at UFC 224 this May, there has recently been much discussion surrounding a potential fight between her and women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg – a fellow Brazilian.