MMA News

Jordan Colbert - February 28, 2018

Julian Marquez made his UFC debut at UFC on FOX 26 after delivering one of the most brutal knockout finishes Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender series has seen to date. Following a Fight of the Night performance in his UFC debut, Marquez is looking to get back in the cage ASAP. In an exclusive interview with BJPenn.com, “The Cuban Missile Crisis” detailed his time before the UFC, his performance thus far under the UFC banner, as well as what may be next for him. I want to start out with your time before the UFC. The lone loss in your career was your Bellator debut fight. Can you take me through that fight and your feelings following the loss as well as how you went on to change your career trajectory?

Tom Taylor - February 28, 2018

At this point, oddsmakers favor undefeated lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov to beat all of his rivals – that includes Conor McGregor. In the opinion of lightweight contender Kevin Lee, however, McGregor actually stands a good chance of knocking Nurmagomedov out. This, Lee says, is based more on the holes in Nurmagomedov’s game than McGregor’s skill. Lee gave his assessment of this fight in a chat with Jim Edwards and Danny Austin of MMANytt.com.

Drake Riggs - February 27, 2018

The buzz was generated with one simple picture. Over the weekend, UFC president, Dana White posted to his social media a picture of himself with former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE Universal champion, Brock Lesnar. If that alone wasn’t enough to stir up the rumor mill of a Lesnar return, he was also wearing a UFC t-shirt. White has now stated that there are some very good chances that the former champion will return at some point…

Drake Riggs - February 27, 2018

It’s right back to work at UFC 222 this Saturday for the reigning featherweight queen, Cris Cyborg. Cyborg last fought and defended her title on the year-end card of 2017 at UFC 219 when she defeated former UFC bantamweight champion, Holly Holm. This quick turn around wasn’t the plan, but Cyborg wasn’t going to turn down the UFC in their time of need as she explained to The Sports Journal:

Drake Riggs - February 27, 2018

“If he [Colby Covington] crossed it [the line] enough for the UFC to set up the fight and get me the opportunity at the #3 spot in the welterweight division, i’d take it. Give me sixty days to prepare and heal, and i’d love to fight Colby Covington. I don’t back down from anybody, I don’t care what he has to say because i’m not any of those things and the internet is showing my girl much love and telling her how beautiful she is. Not like she needed to be reminded, she already knows that.

Justin Golightly - February 27, 2018

If you didn’t know who Sean O’Malley was after his performance on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender series and the post-fight blunt sharing with Snoop Dogg, then you most likely found out about him in December of last year when he made his impressive UFC debut. He’ll get another chance to shine this weekend against former CES MMA bantamweight champion Andre Soukhamthath. In case you were wondering, O’Malley isn’t sweating it. “I feel like I’m gonna go out there, perform really well, and I don’t know if they’re gonna want to fight me. They’re gonna see how well-rounded my game is and I’m not gonna feel like I have a target on my back. Maybe a couple guys will be calling me out, but I haven’t really thought about it. A lot of people show up confident to fight me. They see me on TV, they see me in person, and they think, ‘Oh, he’s pretty fast.’ But once you stand in front of me, it’s a different level of speed that you just don’t understand. I told Terrion [Ware] before walking out, ‘I’m too fast, you’re gonna feel too slow.’ And at the end of the first round in his corner, he told his coach, ‘I feel slow.'”

Justin Golightly - February 27, 2018

For those who are wanting to see Darren Till back in action, they may get their wish soon. The UFC are coming back to Dublin in May and coach John Kavanagh dropped a big hint at what the main event might be. It looks like Till may finally get to fight Gunnar Nelson on May 27th. Not only is Till not worried about the potential fight, but he wants to put two — yes, two — divisions on notice that they should be terrified of his evil self. “I couldn’t give a sh-t about the welterweight division. I could care less. At the end of the day, the title is coming to me no matter what. It’s coming to me. I’m not worried about the welterweight title or the middleweight title. I’m worried about the light heavyweight title. I know I’m gonna get the welterweight title. […] I’m not scared of Gunnar [Nelson]’s grappling, I’m not scared of [Kamaru] Usman’s wrestling, I’m not scared of [Tyron] Woodley’s power, and I’m not scared of [Stephen] Thompson’s karate. I don’t give a f-ck about any of them. I’m not scared of any of them. They should be f-cking scared of me because I’m a vicious little c-nt, that’s what I am.”

Justin Golightly - February 27, 2018

Frankie Edgar has been pretty quiet since Conor McGregor came out with the news that he offered to fight the former lightweight champion at UFC 222. It’s now been confirmed by two sources that this fight was going to be for the 165-pound title, however Edgar still says he was never approached about it. It doesn’t matter though, he says he’d fight McGregor at any weight if he was actually offered the fight. “I woke up from a nap and I saw [news about Conor McGregor saying he was supposed to step in to fight me at UFC 222] it on Twitter. That’s the first I heard of it. I mean, come on, there is no 165-pound belt. You know what I’m saying? I want to fight on the moon. You know what I mean? Come on. [Conor McGregor] doesn’t want to defend his own belt. What, he wants to fight me? I mean, hey, that’d be great. That’d be great for me. Let’s be real. I’m not scared to fight anybody. Come on, I’ve been doing too long to be scared to fight anybody. I mean, if anything, that would be very good for me, to fight Conor McGregor.

Tom Taylor - February 27, 2018

In a career that spans 28 bouts against some of the best fighters on earth, former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar has never been finished. Of all the monsters he’s fought, not one has found a way to put him down for good. Jim Miller and Sean Sherk couldn’t do it. Neither could Gray Maynard or BJ Penn, who fought Edgar three times each. Benson Henderson and Jose Aldo couldn’t find a way, even when the fought Edgar for a second time. Charles Oliveira couldn’t do it. Cub Swanson couldn’t do it. Urijah Faber couldn’t do it. Chad Mendes couldn’t do it. Jeremy Stephens couldn’t do it. Yair Rodriguez couldn’t do it. You get the damn picture.

Tom Taylor - February 27, 2018

After a lengthy stint as Team Alpha Male’s head coach, and then a brief stint as Team Alpha Male’s loosely-defined Muay Thai coach, Justin Buchholz has cut ties with the Sacramento-based gym. This news was confirmed by MMANytt.com, who spoke with Buchholz.

Tom Taylor - February 27, 2018

Ahead of their Bellator 192 Heavyweight Grand Prix opening round battle, MMA legends Chael Sonnen and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson agreed to a pretty interesting bet. The deal, they decided, was that Rampage would award Sonnen $10,000 for every takedown he completed, while Sonnen would cash out $500 for every jab Rampage landed. In the end, Sonnen completed three takedowns, which meant Rampage owed him $30,000. For a moment, there was some question as to whether Rampage would sign this massive check. Sonnen assured that if he did receive a check, he wouldn’t cash it.

Justin Golightly - February 27, 2018

The idea of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz fighting again brings out a lot of mixed options. Both men seem to be down for it, but the time and place is what could be a massive hold-up on the trilogy. Bellator president Scott Coker said he’s interested but may not be able to promote it due to Liddell’s contract with the UFC, which prompted Ortiz to talk to the UFC about it. This led to company man Chael Sonnen to blast the former opponent for lack of loyalty. “Tito [Ortiz], after all Scott Coker did for you – I mean they ran you around, you were the face of the company, you were main-eventing, you were making a bunch of money – that’s your response? You’re gonna come out of retirement, and you’re gonna fight Chuck [Liddell] in the UFC? You don’t give that to Coker? You’re gonna do it in the UFC? You finished your career at Bellator. You got treated great at Bellator. You come to the Bellator shows.”

Justin Golightly - February 27, 2018

Last week, there was a tsunami that crashed through MMA media, all caused by a little blurb that Conor McGregor said in which most people didn’t even believe to be true. The word was that he offered to step in to fight Frankie Edgar at UFC 222. While all sites started rushing to get out their news, Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz and coach Mark Henry were loading up more material. Aziz brought up an alleged request by McGregor for a new 165 title, which Artem Lobov seemed to just confirm. “[We were] very close [to going to UFC 222 to fight Frankie Edgar for 165-pound ittle]. Very, very close. It was real, 100-percent. Conor was ready to go, that was it, we were gathering the troops already, we were ready to go. Were planning what we were going to do; we were just going to fly out to Vegas straightaway to do this short little camp.”

Tom Taylor - February 27, 2018

In the wake of last weekend’s action-packed UFC Orlando card, the UFC has updated its official rankings. As expected, featherweight knockout artist Jeremy Stephens has made a big climb up the featherweight ladder for his crushing knockout of Josh Emmett, while light heavyweight contender Ilir Latifi burst into his divisional top-5 for his submission of Ovince Saint Preux. Here are the latest rankings (via MMAMania).

Tom Taylor - February 27, 2018

UFC welterweight Colby Covington is perhaps the most polarizing fighter in MMA today. The streaking wrestling specialist has alienated a many fans, and fellow fighters – even outside of his rivals in the welterweight division. The latest fighter to share his gripes with Covington was UFC heavyweight Derrick Lewis. Lewis went off on the welterweight on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, blasting him for a previous bit of trash.

Tom Taylor - February 27, 2018

Last Saturday night, featherweight knockout artist Jeremy Stephens performed his latest act of savagery, this time at the expense of Team Alpha Male’s Josh Emmett, who he put down with a second-round shelling of punches, knees, and elbows. Regrettably, Stephens’s win has been shadowed in controversy, as several of the strikes he threw in the fight-ending sequence are widely believed to have been illegal.

Drake Riggs - February 26, 2018

UFC 222 is right around the corner. For fighters like one half of the main event, Yana Kunitskaya it will be her very first UFC fight. For Mike Pyle, it will be his last. Pyle has been fighting professionally since 1999 where he debuted against none other than Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Pyle weighed in at 175-pounds to Rampage’s 205… Pyle was unable to come out victorious but would go the distance with the future UFC light heavyweight champion. This decision turned out to be just one of Pyle’s six overall in his entire forty-one fight career(although number forty-two is coming up next Saturday).

Drake Riggs - February 26, 2018

“No idea [what was up with the logic behind the scores for the Andre Fili fight]. Cause none of the scores are the exact same. The first judge had Andre Fili winning the first and second rounds then me the third round. The second judge had me winning all three rounds, then the third judge had Andre Fili winning the first round and the third round. Now, the thing is…if I, me personally, am gonna give Andre Fili any round that he won, it would be the second. And the third judge gave me the second over the other two. My brain is just blown. Like in the third period, a blind man could have told you that I had won that fight. At least that round. How that judge gave him that third round…I don’t get it.