MMA News

Drake Riggs - March 1, 2018

According to the bossman, Dana White, it sounds like we will definitely be seeing former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE star, Brock Lesnar returning to the octagon at some point. White isn’t the only one who believes so as multiple other fighters and analysts alike have been stating their belief on whether or not he returns after his WWE contract expires in (reportedly) April.

Drake Riggs - March 1, 2018

Did you think that March Madness was only a basketball event? Well, this year it might as well be an MMA event! The month is loaded with some crazy matchups with several different reasons as to why. Comebacks, prospect battles, title fights, champion vs champion fights, big name short notice bouts, there is a little of everything and it is going to be simply awesome.

Drake Riggs - March 1, 2018

The UFC light heavyweight division is all over the place these days. Their champion is moving up to challenge the heavyweight champion, the number one contender might be moving up as well, and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua currently holds the longest winning streak in the division. But the wheels have to keep turning! Word out of the rumor mill is that there is potential for a meeting between former title challenger, Glover Teixeira and the most recent title challenger, Volkan Oezdemir. A report initially came out by Graciemag but Nolan King has since said that nothing is official just yet.

Justin Golightly - March 1, 2018

The combat sports game is chaotic, sometimes you have to roll with punches outside of the cage just as much as the punches inside of it. After the main and co-main events got switched and transplanted, Cris Cyborg stepped up to defend her UFC women’s featherweight title against former Invicta FC bantamweight champion Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222 this weekend. She was a highlight today at media day a brought a super special guest with her to open workouts: A masked man revealed to be none other than BJ Penn himself. A few shots of @CrisCyborg grappling mystery man BJ Penn at the #UFC222 Open Workouts. 📸: @allelbows pic.twitter.com/gfZVWicCoh

Justin Golightly - March 1, 2018

As Daniel Cormier heads up to heavyweight in one of the blast few big fights before he walks away from the sport, he’s not the only one changing weight classes. His teammate Luke Rockhold has announced his move to light heavyweight is ‘imminent’ and Alexander Gustafsson has offered to welcome him to the new division. Although, with a logjam of top Swedish talent at the top, it may be Gustafsson who leaves his division soon as well. “It’s a bit of a tricky situation. [Illir Latifi and Jimi Manuwa] are teammates, we are friends — close friends — first and foremost and we won’t fight each other. I want to start our discussion by making it clear that we will not fight each other, so now you all know. It’s a tricky situation, for sure. But I mean, we’ll see what happens. [Daniel Cormier] is now going up to face Stipe [Miocic], Ilir Latifi has heavyweight as a possibility. We’ll sort it out somehow. Of course we both should be able to dream of the belt and we both should get our chances to fight for the title, but we’ll see how it all turns out when we get there.”

bjpenndotcom - March 1, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BJPENN.COM RESET/RELAUNCH Fresh MMA served daily! The NEW BJPENN.COM website has officially been LAUNCHED! We are happy to announce the RESET/RELAUNCH of your favorite independently owned Mixed Martial Arts news website, which contains a plethora of exciting new features.

Tom Taylor - March 1, 2018

The UFC is always bolstering its roster with promising prospects. Sometimes, these prospects don’t amount to much. Other times, however, they transform from prospects into contenders, and in rare cases, into world champions. At present, there are a number of rising prospects on the UFC roster who have earned the opportunity to test their mettle against the top-15 fighters in their respective divisions.

Justin Golightly - March 1, 2018

The kid tested, mother approved Sage Northcutt is no stranger to doing death-defying flips inside the Octagon. We all have grown familiar with his Power Ranger post-fight celebrations and his fruit-crushing outside of the cage. Back in October of last year, he nearly gave us a heart attack hiking with Team Alpha Male, but it turns out he nearly had one himself on another day by himself when he almost reenacted the bear scene from The Revenant. “One of the first times that I was up in Sacramento, California, I was up in the mountains – and this is almost towards the Lake Tahoe area – I’m up in the mountains, I went running and climbed this waterfall by myself. I’m in the middle of nowhere, I climbed about two miles past the waterfall, and all of a sudden everything gets real quiet. Well, I didn’t know at the time, but there’s black bears up there. So I heard something grunting. All I had was a little tiny knife on me just for like protection, just because I need it, but it couldn’t do anything to a black bear, I don’t think. So, what I did was I hid behind the water that was coming out of the waterfall, and it was absolutely freezing. So, I hid for about five minutes. I didn’t move. And when I heard the grunting stop I just took off sprinting.”

Justin Golightly - March 1, 2018

This is Brian Ortega’s moment on Saturday. You can almost hear Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ playing in the background when thinking about the upcoming match-up with Frankie Edgar. At only 27-years old, this may not be Ortega’s ‘one shot’, but it certainly is his biggest yet. Edgar has made a career about being the enforcer who stops any hot prospect from getting a title shot besides him. While he may not know it, Edgar will be doing all he can to stop Ortega from not only getting that fight for the belt, but from moving out of the hood. “I don’t count my chickens before they hatch you know. It sucks man, it sucks. I’m still in the hood, but you know, luckily I got love there and no one messes with me. The goal honestly, the way I see things happening is I beat Frankie [Edgar], then I have some good money, then I fight for the belt and that’s when I take off and buy my own house or whatever. It’s expensive over here in LA, man.”

Justin Golightly - March 1, 2018

When you talk about UFC’s welterweight division, you can’t mention it without bringing up Jon Fitch. He was never able to capture the title, but he damn near came close before falling short against Georges St-Pierre and ending his 16-fight win streak and still maintains a slot as one of the best 170-pounders ever. Eventually, he’d move on and become the PFL (formerly WSOF) welterweight champion, now he’s about to enter yet another chapter. As first reported by MMA Fighting, Jon Fitch has officially signed to Bellator. “Unfortunately, yes [I believe choosing a promotion is like picking your poison] because it’s not a real sport. MMA is not a real sport, it’s a production. There is no meritocracy, there is no if you beat this guy, you do this and you move forward. it’s casting. Their casting roles of TV shows, which is why we’re lobbying to try to get the Ali Act expanded to cover MMA because we’ll have sanctioning bodies, we’ll have an actual third party rankings system, and we’ll have some protections economically with our contracts. Basic, basic stuff that we don’t have.”

Tom Taylor - March 1, 2018

At this point, all signs point to former WWE star CM Punk getting another shot in the UFC’s Octagon – perhaps as soon as UFC 225 in Chicago on June 9. If Punk does step back into the Octagon, of course, he’s likely to be counted out by the vast majority of fans and pundits, no matter who he’s matched up with.

Justin Golightly - March 1, 2018

We are finally nearing the end of this next rough chapter in the epic tale of Jon Jones. After his hearing on Tuesday, the California State Athletic commission revoked his license and fined him $205K. He can re-apply for his license as early as August this year, but USADA still has to deal out a suspension on the GOAT candidate. For some fans, like former UFC bantamweight champion Miesha Tate who spoke about her feelings yesterday, this last set-back was the last straw. Jones has since responded on social media. @MieshaTate I don’t quit when things get tough for me, I get stronger. You just wait and see, maybe you’ll even find motivation in it. Sucks I lost you as a fan. Enjoy retirement sister

Tom Taylor - March 1, 2018

Last weekend, on the undercard of the UFC’s exciting stop in Orlando, Florida, Alan Jouban rebounded from a tough, two-fight skid with a beautiful second-round knockout of friend and fellow 10th Planet student Ben Saunders. Now that’s he’s back in the win column, Jouban is ready to take another step up the welterweight ladder. And while he didn’t have any names in mind initially, he does like one idea put forth by the UFC Tonight panel post-fight: Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. The only problem is that he considers Cowboy a friend, and after knocking out Saunders, he’d rather fight somebody he’s not close with. Like Dong Hyun Kim.

Tom Taylor - March 1, 2018

Sergio Pettis now his crosshairs locked firmly on two-time UFC flyweight title challenger Joseph Benavidez, who he’ll meet at UFC 225 on June 9 in Chicago. Though this is one of the toughest tests of his career thus far, the younger Pettis brother is confident its a fight he can win.

Tom Taylor - March 1, 2018

On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, UFC heavyweight Derrick Lewis shared his thoughts on UFC welterweight Colby Covington –– and they weren’t exactly positive. “While we’re on the mic, fuck Colby, whatever his name is,” Lewis said. “Fuck you, motherfucker. Just so you hear that. Go ahead and put that out. I heard he was talking shit. He’s one of those boys that wears Polo shirts and as soon as you touch him, he’s going to call the cops on you. One of them preppy motherfuckers. I don’t know where it was on, I just heard he was talking shit.”

Drake Riggs - February 28, 2018

Invicta FC has lost two consecutive bantamweight champions to the UFC. And they will both have left to fight for the UFC featherweight crown against Cris Cyborg(who happens to be a former Invicta champ herself). First, it was the dominant, Tonya Evinger who finally made her UFC debut at UFC 214 as she fought for the vacant 145-pound title. Cyborg would end up walking away with the title then go on to make her first title defense against Holly Holm at UFC 219 just roughly three months ago.

Drake Riggs - February 28, 2018

UFC 225 in Chicago, Illinois looks to be getting a literally massive fight added to it. BJPenn.com’s own Tom Taylor is confirming that top five heavyweights, Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes will potentially be squaring off at the June 9th event. Can now confirm that a heavyweight bout between Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes is being targeted for #UFC225 in Chicago.

Drake Riggs - February 28, 2018

Team Alpha Male has long been one of the very best gyms in the world for lower weight class fighters. They have had multiple head coaches over the years ranging from the likes of Martin Kampmann, Master Thong, Duane Ludwig and most recently, Justin Buchholz. Buchholz was a UFC lightweight before he ever became a coach. He fought from 2008 to 2010 with the promotion and going 1-4 before finishing his career (to this point) at 16-10.