MMA News

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.

Drake Riggs - February 26, 2018

After being out of action since December of 2016, one of if not the most underrated fighters in the sport’s history is back. Perennial #1 ranked flyweight contender, two-time flyweight title challenger, and former WEC bantamweight title challenger, Joseph Benavidez will make his comeback against Sergio Pettis at UFC 225 in Chicago, Illinois, June 9, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Tom Taylor - February 26, 2018

Earlier this month, on the undercard of UFC 221, Australian featherweight Alex Volkanovski scored a fourth-straight dominant UFC win, taking out Jeremy Kennedy with a swarm of second-round punches. With this dominant performance in the books, Volkanovski feels it’s time he’s rewarded with a top-15 or even a top-10 opponent. The rising talent made his case on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio.

Tom Taylor - February 26, 2018

Bellator 200, which will go down on May 25 in London, England, is a landmark card for the promotion. From the looks of it, they’re going to make sure the event is suitably stacked. On Monday morning, the promotion announced the first two fights for the event.

Tom Taylor - February 26, 2018

Last night, WWE returned to the screens of pro wrestling fans with its Elimination Chamber event. Amid the madness, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey signed her WWE contract. That said, she wasn’t the only big UFC name on site. UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez were also in the building, taking in the mayhem from ringside. Cormier and Velasquez seemed to have a great time, so much so that Velasquez suggested he’d be interested in trying his hand at pro wrestling one day, where he could wrest another title from the waste of former UFC heavyweight champ and current WWE star Brock Lesnar.

Tom Taylor - February 26, 2018

Last week, MMAFighting reported that the UFC is plotting a return to the MMA mecca of Dublin, Ireland on May 27. Early on Monday morning, SBG head coach John Kavanagh ran a poll on Twitter, asking fans how they’d feel about a potential Dublin main event pitting his student Gunnar Nelson against surging British contender Darren Till. If UFC were coming to Dublin late May 😉😉😉 how would you the fans feel about a Gunni v Till main event?

Tom Taylor - February 26, 2018

On Sunday night, during the WWE Elimination show, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey signed her WWE contract – and as expected, things got a pretty wild as she put pen to paper. See the highlights of Rousey’s first night as a member of the WWE roster in the Tweets below.

Tom Taylor - February 26, 2018

On Saturday night, in the main event of the UFC’s action-packed stop in Orlando, featherweight knockout artist Jeremy Stephens authored his latest act of brutality, this time at the expensive of Team Alpha Male contender Josh Emmett. Stephen’s knockout win came mid-way through the second round. Regrettably, Stephens’s victory has been mired in controversy, as several of the blows he landed in the fight ending sequence were thought to be illegal by many fans. The main strike in question was a knee, which seemed to graze Emmett’s head, that was thrown when Emmett was technically still a grounded opponent. Same commenters have also argued a few of the elbows Stephens threw made impact on the back of Emmett’s skull – though this can be partly attributed to Emmett turning into the strikes.

Chris Taylor - February 25, 2018

The “Platinum Princess” ignores Colby Covington, issues positive statement following Mike Perry’s loss at UFC Orlando. Mike Perry suffered his second straight setback on the main card of last night’s UFC on FOX 28 event in his hometown of Orlando, Florida.