MMA News

Tom Taylor - February 28, 2018

Over the weekend, UFC President Dana White shared a picture of himself and former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar on social media. Given that Lesnar’s WWE contract is winding down, this post created immediate speculation that maybe, just maybe, he was plotting a return to the UFC. 😃 pic.twitter.com/2AVR6HmAjR

Tom Taylor - February 28, 2018

On April 7, in the main event of the stacked UFC 223, interim UFC lightweight champion Tony Ferguson and undefeated contender Khabib Nurmagomedov will vie for the undisputed title (which is expected to be vacated by Conor McGregor in the coming weeks). As one of the lightweight division’s fastest rising contenders, Sweden’s David Teymur will be watching this fight closely. Already 4-0 in the perilous lightweight division, he could easily find himself in the cage with the fight’s winner in the future. So who does Teymur expect to win this Ferguson-Nurmagomedov bout? He’s leaning toward Nurmagomedov.

Justin Golightly - February 28, 2018

Dana White has been teasing big things for 2018, which is the UFC’s 25th anniversary year. We’ve already got Stipe Miocic fighting Daniel Cormier in a superfight of all superfights, but now a Brock Lesnar return looms in the distance. Not only did White meet with the former UFC heavyweight champion, but Michael Bisping now is certain that he’ll fight in the UFC. He even knows the opponent and texted it to his host Luis Gomez, who proceeded to freak out. “Brock Lesnar is definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely gonna fight in the UFC. I’m telling you right now, Brock Lesnar will fight in the UFC and I’m hearing — in fact I’m not going to say it. I don’t want to do an Ariel Helwani. But yeah, I’m hearing that he’s fighting in the UFC. I don’t know who. I don’t know that he’s definitely signing, but I’m aware of a potential fight. Somebody wants to fight him, that’s what I’m aware of.” – Michael Bisping speaking on his Believe You Me podcast.

Tom Taylor - February 28, 2018

Starting with UFC 222 this weekend, you’ll have a brand new way to buy UFC pay-per-views: through Amazon. The obvious perk here, of course, is that by going through Amazon, you won’t need a pre-existing cable or satellite provider to order the pay-per-view. According to John Ourand of sportsbusinessdaily.com, UFC pay-per-views will be available through Amazon Prime Video, though no Amazon Prime account will be required. That means a simple, flat rate of $64.99.

Jason Kindschy - February 28, 2018

BJPENN.COM Radio returns with an early edition of the show, followed by a live episode tonight! First we are joined by UFC strawweight and pioneer of women’s MMA, Jessica Aguilar. As the anticipation was building for her return to competition at UFC Austin, her opponent Livia Souza, was forced to withdraw from the bout and the UFC was unable to find “JAG” a late replacement. Now Jessica is eager to get a fight booked for the coming months and put together a win streak that would move her into title contention. We’ll discuss the frustrations of being away from action, who she’d like to fight in the division, and the goals she still plans to accomplish in the UFC.

Justin Golightly - February 28, 2018

Conor McGregor supposedly was not only going to step in to fight Frankie Edgar at UFC 222, but it was allegedly going to be for a brand new 165-pound title on top of that. The info about the title was leaked out by Edgar’s manager himself, although he disputes that they were ever offered a fight. McGregor teammate Artem Lobov recently confirmed that the fight and belt was a go. In response, Max Holloway let it leak that he too was in talks to fight for a new belt. “One more update Ariel Helwani. After I was pulled from UFC 222, I offered to amputate my leg and fight for a 115lb belt against Demetrious Johnson. It was very, very close. Plans were in place. But I was told there wasn’t enough time. Stay blessed: The DEFENDING Champ. No need to trademark what he can’t claim.”— Max Holloway via his official Twitter.

Tom Taylor - February 28, 2018

Kamaru Usman wants to fight Colby Covington. At this point, that could not be any more clear. “The Nigerian Nightmare” has made countless callouts of his welterweight rival on Twitter over the last few weeks. That little bitch don’t want this work. That’s why he won’t say my name. I’ve been waiting on him @seanshelby @danawhite @AliAbdelaziz00 https://t.co/XoVYoQxFwl

Tom Taylor - February 28, 2018

Former World Series of Fighting champ Jessica Aguilar has fought just twice since she signed with the UFC in 2015, and unfortunately, both of her Octagon appearances have resulted in losses. Understandably, the strawweight veteran is keen to get back in there ASAP, and return to the kind of form that saw her collect 10-straight wins between 2010 and 2014.

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

“The idea that someone as big as Conor McGregor, with as much to lose and would take a fight against Frankie Edgar on short notice, is unlikely. I mean, you want to pimp him coming back for as many months as you possibly could and he knows that, the idea that, ‘oh I was willing to step in on short notice and not give the UFC and myself the time to maximize this opportunity’ is unlikely. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I’m sure it’s possible.”

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.

Justin Golightly - February 27, 2018

This is what we’ve been waiting for since August of last year. Jon Jones sat in with the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) today to go through his case after his recent run-in with USADA following his UFC 214 fight with Daniel Cormier. The purpose of the hearing was to finally receive the word on the consequences Jon Jones will face. The CSAC are letting USADA handle the suspension, but they are revoking his license which could put him out of the sport for a year. As far as fines, the CSAC wants 40-percent of Jones’ $500K purse from UFC 214 plus an addition $5K. Reason for the revocation of a license in lieu of a suspension, is that after a year is up, Jon Jones will have to appear before the CSAC to show ‘evidence of rehabilitation’ for license approval. They estimate USADA will suspend him 18 months to 2 years on top of that.

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.