MMA News

Justin Golightly - March 3, 2018

There’s no mistake about it, Sean O’Malley has made fight week the ‘Suga’ show. He was heavily featured on the Embedded episodes, he crashed the open workouts when he wasn’t scheduled for one, even his media day outfit reminiscent of Hyde from That 70’s Show got some buzz going. Which is only fitting, since he’ll be releasing his own strain of marijuana at his after-party. His opponent Andre Soukhamthath is more than willing to take a backseat to all of this and take him out on fight night with even more eyes on UFC 222. “[Sean O’Malley] can talk all he wants. At the end of the day, he’s still going to fight, and when we fight, I’m going to make him my little brother. He’s going to call me big bro after this fight. I definitely feel like he needs to earn his stripes. It’s easy to get Dana White, Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard’s attention with a room full of 50 people. You’re fighting in the ‘Contender Series.’ You’re not fighting in the UFC.”

Drake Riggs - March 2, 2018

Bellator’s newest acquisition has his debut opponent. Bellator announced during the Bellator 195 broadcast that former WSOF/PFL welterweight champion, Jon Fitch will be debuting against Bellator staple, Paul “Semtex” Daley in the co-main event of Bellator 199 on May 12. The event will be headlined by the heavyweight Grand Prix matchup between Bellator light heavyweight champion, Ryan Bader and Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal. Recently, it sounded like Daley was but all done with Bellator when he posted this on his Facebook in January:

Drake Riggs - March 2, 2018

A masked invader broke into the UFC 222 open workouts and attacked the featherweight champ, Cris Cyborg the other day! Who would do such a thing?! Obviously the one and only ‘Prodigy’ BJ Penn. It was a fun surprise for MMA fans and after all was said and done, Penn took time to talk about the champ, Cyborg with MMAJunkie:

Drake Riggs - March 2, 2018

Many lists have been made over the years revolving around the best fighters outside the UFC. Atop or at the very least, always on those lists is none other than the Polish middleweight icon, Mamed Khalidov. Khalidov has pretty much been the KSW version of Tito Ortiz throughout his career as he’s been with the promotion from the beginning and continues to be their biggest star by far.

Justin Golightly - March 2, 2018

Year after year, there always seems to be some talk here and there about Chuck Liddell returning to MMA. From UFC 205 all the way up until some heat with Chael Sonnen, it always seems to be penciled in but never actually happens. …Until now. Our own Chris Taylor has just recently broke a report that Liddell is nearing a very profitable deal with Bellator for a career victory lap in their cage. Breaking! According to sources close to the situation, former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell is closing in on a multi-million dollar fight deal with Bellator MMA.

Justin Golightly - March 2, 2018

The latest installment of the saga of Jon Jones is finally nearing the end. At the beginning of this week, Jones appeared before the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC), resulting in his license being revoked and fined $205K. Tied with him seemingly forever, longtime rival Daniel Cormier has been quiet on the matter but now that The Ultimate Fighter 27 season has wrapped, Cormier broke his silence about it today. “You know, I wasn’t watching [the CSAC hearing]. I was filming [The Ultimate Fighter 27]. Honestly, I haven’t paid much attention to it. I told you guys that I’ve moved on. You know again, I’ve had to move on. My sole focus is Stipe Miocic. I have disconnected myself from [Jon Jones] and his issues. When things are sorted out, then I guess I’ll pay attention again. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. [I’ve got] Stipe Miocic to [try and] become a two-division champion. Maybe [Jones] will get an opportunity to take both belts from Cormier or something. I don’t know.”

Justin Golightly - March 2, 2018

Israel Adesanya believes that destiny has been leading him to everywhere he’s been so far. Traveling the world becoming a master of styles finally resulted in him breaking into the UFC and marking his territory after his successful debut. Carrying on with his mystical journey, Adesanya doesn’t see any other location his pilgrimage takes him other than against Robert Whittaker for the UFC middleweight title. “With Robert [Whittaker], for whatever reason, he might lose the belt then gain it back, or I gain it and he tries to take it away from me in Spark Arena. But I just know me and him are gonna fight in Auckland by the end of 2019, and I just see the way we are because he’s good, I’m great. You know, it’s just gonna be for the belt. I’ve never met the guy. I’ve seen him across the room or across places, but I’ve never really had a word with him. It’s never anything personal, it’s just business, it’s just the game we’re in. He knows. It’s a fighter thing. When you look at each other and you just kind of have this potential of like, ‘Yeah, I see you, you see me’. It’s just a thing.”

Justin Golightly - March 2, 2018

Daniel Cormier reflects on The Ultimate Fighter 27 season after filming has wrapped. #TUF27 #UFC226 pic.twitter.com/YBqP2vNGz8 — Justin Golightly (@SecretMovesMMA) March 2, 2018

Justin Golightly - March 2, 2018

The Last Style Bender Israel Adesanya isn’t intimidated by a quick turnaround. Actually, Adesanya isn’t intimidated by much of anything. He treated the bright lights of his UFC 221 debut just like another fight, which paid off in spades. Next he’ll fight former Venator welterweight champion Marvin Vettori, believing that it won’t go any different than his last dissection. “[Marvin Vettori] got pushed [to insult me on Twitter]. I mean, he wouldn’t say sh-t, he wouldn’t dare say sh-t if the fight wasn’t already signed. I already signed the fight and he took the fight, credit to him. I say whenever these guys take fights with me, I always feel like they think they have something up their sleeve. I mean, but they know who they’re f-cking with. So he may have something up his sleeve, but we’ll find out come April 14th [at UFC Glendale].”

Justin Golightly - March 2, 2018

Cris Cyborg is only a day away from defending her UFC women’s featherweight title against former Invicta FC bantamweight champion Yana Kunitskaya. Another woman who held that belt is Tony Evinger, who knows both women in the main event of UFC 222 very well. Not only has she fought Cyborg, but she fought and beat Kunitskaya back in their old home and now she’s not giving the former opponent much hope to beat Cyborg. “I definitely think Cyborg is going to take this pretty easy. It’s not even a close fight. Yana [Kunitskaya] isn’t close to that level or even prepared. She’s just taking it for the money. I heard someone try to compare her to Holly Holm because they train together, but big whoop. It’s not like over the last six months this girl has gotten so amazing that she is going to go in and win the 145-pound belt. That’s ridiculous.”

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.

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

Well, that escalated quickly… Who you got, @SugaSeanMMA or @AndreSoukMMA? 😮#UFC222 pic.twitter.com/hMq6uPOiwg — MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) March 1, 2018

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.

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.”

Tom Taylor - March 1, 2018

From the sounds of it, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson’s next title challenger could well come in the form of reigning UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw. Speaking on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, flyweight contender Sergio Pettis gave his take on this compelling flyweight title superfight. “I mean it’s and interesting fight to make, I think it’s definitely cool for the fans,” he said. “Definitely a super fight.”