MMA News

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.

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2018

Conor McGregor isn’t the only UFC champion to star in a commercial for a major brand. Days after McGregor’s Burger King ad hit our screens, a Modelo beer commercial starring UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic has begun making the rounds. Miocic’s Modelo commercial comes a few months after the UFC inked a multi-year deal with the beer company. Miocic is the first of what we can assume will be multiple fighters to star in Modelo beer ads. See the champs’s ad, which focuses on his background, in the video at the top of this post.

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2018

On April 7, in the main event of UFC 223, UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson and undefeated contender Khabib Nurmagomedov will battle for the UFC lightweight title. The understanding is that Conor McGregor, who currently wears the UFC lightweight title, will be stripped somewhere in the immediate buildup to the UFC 223 event. According to Tony Ferguson, however, he and Nurmagomedov will not be battling for the vacant lightweight title. Instead, he claims that this fight will serve as his first title defense. If this is true, the implication is that, once McGregor is stripped, Ferguson will promptly be promoted to undisputed champion, and Nurmagomedov will challenge him for this title.

Drake Riggs - March 13, 2018

Former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold has made it pretty clear who he’s interested in fighting next and has plenty of confidence that he’ll get the job done if he gets it. That fight being the trilogy fight between him and fellow former UFC champion, Michael “the Count” Bisping. In all of Bisping’s career, he has only rematched two people and he’s won them both. One of those was against Rockhold, who defeated Bisping the first time they met at UFC Fight Night 55 in 2014 by second-round submission.

Drake Riggs - March 13, 2018

The UFC’s next event in Brazil is really shaping up to be quite the banger. Already stacked with Brazilian legends, the card is now getting a fight that will be guaranteed fireworks between bantamweight title hopefuls. Fresh off his huge win over former champion, Renan Barao is Brian “Boom” Kelleher who called out John Lineker after his win at UFC on Fox 28 in Orlando, Florida. And as reported by Combate and confirmed by several other sources as well as the fighters themselves, that it shall be.

Drake Riggs - March 13, 2018

Very few matchups have people buzzing so early as the next featherweight title fight between champion, Max Holloway and red-hot contender, Brian Ortega. The hype began as soon as Ortega iced his short notice opponent, Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 in the very first round, making him the first and only man to ever finish ‘the Answer’.

Drake Riggs - March 13, 2018

The UFC crowned their first ever female flyweight champion last December when capping off season 26 of The Ultimate Fighter. Of the sixteen competitors, the #14 seeded underdog, Nicco Montano would come out the victor by defeating all of the top three seeds on her way to doing so. Since Montano defeated seasoned veteran and pioneer, Roxanne Modaferri to win the title, Montano has been battling a very bad case of arthritic turf toe on top of a fracture in her foot that almost prevented her from even fighting for the title.

Justin Golightly - March 13, 2018

It’s been no secret that Rory MacDonald wanted big things from his transition to Bellator. He dominated Paul Daley in his debut and then won a war with Douglas Lima to finally become a world champion. After he defends his title against whoever is next – most likely Andrei Koreshkov – MacDonald wants to become Bellator’s “Champ Champ”. Let’s give what the audience wants to see.

Justin Golightly - March 13, 2018

Francis Ngannou of the most severe and recent examples of how brutal MMA is and how forgetful fans are. Just before UFC 220, he was primed to be the next big thing and we were already planning mega fights with Brock Lesnar. After Stipe Miocic stifled him, it’s like he disappeared in the minds of the UFC and the public. His boxing coach Dewey Cooper vows that this won’t last long. Ngannou will learn from his mistakes and come back even better. “I got one word to describe [Francis Ngannou]: Phenomenal. We had an off night and we all felt that night, that Francis at his worst still couldn’t be stopped. That’s all I can say about that. Francis at his best won’t be defeated and him at his worst could not even be stopped. We got the best heavyweight in UFC couldn’t stop a guy who was just not at his best that night. Francis man, he’s phenomenal and he will definitely be back stronger than ever. […] Stipe was at his best and we just weren’t at our best and there will be improvement from that.”

Tom Taylor - March 13, 2018

Ronda Rousey is now firmly embedded as a member of the WWE roster. That said, she never officially retired from MMA, which has given her fans hope that, perhaps one day, she will return to the cage. During an appearance on The Ellen Show this week, however, Rousey updated on her future in MMA, and it didn’t sound promising. Instead, she said a return to MMA is about as likely as a return to the Olympics, where she once medalled in judo.

Tom Taylor - March 13, 2018

On July 7, in the main event of UFC 226, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier will return to his former haunts in the heavyweight division, where he will challenge heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic for the title. While this fight is one of the most anticipated on the UFC calendar, it has left the light heavyweight division’s top contenders without a champion to gun for. Sweden’s Alexander Gustafsson is one of those contenders. On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Gustafsson expressed his frustration with Cormier’s departure from the division – even if it’s only temporary.

Justin Golightly - March 13, 2018

While everyone but Georges St-Pierre contemplates his next opponent, Ben Askren has been campaigning for this fight mostly because people won’t stop asking him about it. The UFC on FOX account seems to mention him bi-weekly now and Askren is shrugging and RTing every time it happens. On the latest editions of The MMA Hour, he not only thinks the fight goes down in 2019, but runs play-by-play on exactly how he defeats the two-division UFC champion. “Here’s what I think happens, because the one thing I have over [Georges St-Pierre] is I have the wrestling advantage and I don’t get tired, and that’s usually what he’s relied on in the last, say, 10 to 12 fights or so. I think he’s very tough to take down early. I think he’s very tough. I think he’s probably going to win the striking battle, but one of the things, I never take a lot of damage. I just don’t get hit a lot. That’s what I’m good at.”

Justin Golightly - March 13, 2018

The combat sports universe moves at the speed of light, but even with the infinite treadmill of social media and face-punch dates being booked, it’s hard to forget Rose Namajunas dethroning UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217. The unexpected result was juxtaposed by the former champ’s signature pre-fight scare tactics. …But they didn’t work. Now Jedrzejczyk seeks to take back what’s hers and is righting wrongs along the way. “That night I was not one hundred percent competitor for [Rose Namajunas]. […] I am sure that there will be no negligence before the return from Namajunas. After what happened in November, my eyes and ears are open even wider. I am even more demanding not only to myself, but also to my colleagues, to people, who are creating my team. And at the same time I trust them very much. My ties with coaches Katel Kubis and Mike Brown, ties with sparring partners, as well as with the owner of ATT, have tightened considerably.”