MMA News

Justin Golightly - February 23, 2018

The next move for Luke Rockhold is light heavyweight. It’s something he’s been vocal about even before UFC 211, where he suffered a loss to Yoel Romero. He’s since doubled down on the move and had already been called out by Alexander Gustafsson, which is fight Rockhold is very interested in. Still, some fans doubt his commitment or decision to move up, but the former UFC middleweight champion states that there is only one thing to keep him at 185 and that’s only for one fight: Michael Bisping. “I’m not too excited about making that weight cut again. I just don’t feel nearly as strong, powerful, quick. It takes a lot out of me. Pretty much [Michael] Bisping is the only reason I would torture myself to get back there. That’s a loss that doesn’t sit well with me. I know the UFC is very interested in that fight and will pursue it on their end. If he doesn’t accept it, there’s no reason for me to stay at 185. Mr. [Alexander] Gustafsson has reached out, opened his mouth, and that’s a fight that interests me — very much so. I like that match-up. I like every match-up at 205. There’s a lot of interesting things there and I’m not coming to play around.”

Justin Golightly - February 23, 2018

For those who were in the know, Israel Adesanya’s debut at UFC 221 was highly anticipated. After he dissected his opponent and gave his fire emoji post-fight speech though, everyone was leaping onto the bandwagon. Since then, he’s followed up with social media posts and more media appearances, proving to everyone that he’s ready for the spotlight. Some are worried that his performance and personality will cause the UFC to fast track the prospect, but Adesanya isn’t worried about that one bit. In fact, he welcomes it. “That’s why we took so long to get to the UFC. We took our time coming to the UFC because we wanted to make sure that if they gave us a top-15 or top-10 or even top-5 straight away, that I would be ready. We wanted to make sure that I could take on anyone in the world. All these other people coming from ‘Looking for a Fight’ and they jump in the UFC after 3 or 4 fights, some of them do well, some of them don’t. Before you swim in the depths of the ocean you got to make sure you can swim with sharks. The difference is I don’t just swim with the sharks, I eat them and that’s what I’m about to do.”

Justin Golightly - February 23, 2018

Aung La N Sang made quick work of game contender Alexandre Machado to walk away as your new ONE Light Heavyweight World Champion, and now historic two-division world champion! #QuestForGold #Yangon #MartialArts pic.twitter.com/CFt9Ju2JyG — ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) February 23, 2018

Justin Golightly - February 23, 2018

Nothing like a Conor McGregor post to wreak havoc on a fight week. He said he was going to step in and fight Frankie Edgar at UFC 222, then the dominoes fell and continue to fall. In the midst of this wild back-and-forth between Conor McGregor and Frankie Edgar’s camp, information is coming out from many different places and the truth probably rests somewhere in the middle of this chaos. In between the rants of Edgar’s manager in the media, he said something very interesting in a reply to Ariel Helwani. That McGregor requested a 165-pound title. When conor called the ufc he asked them create a 165lb belt. He thinks @danawhite was born yesterday. This is fact. Waiting for response Mr. Helwani. #BeefIsReal

Justin Golightly - February 23, 2018

Conor McGregor speaks and all hell breaks loose. Yesterday, the self-proclaimed Champ Champ™ revealed that he wanted to fight Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 when Max Holloway was forced to pull out. The Instagram post rocketed up to a million likes in several hours and next thing you know, Frankie Edgar’s manger and coach were releasing sizzling statements about the claim. But Ali Abdel-Aziz wasn’t done, he got on TMZ Sports and went off over McGregor in a rant that’s been building up for over three years. “Let me talk to you about Conor McGregor. He’s like a prostitute that used to make high dollar money, but who got old and nobody wanted anymore. You understand? This is what he is. This f-cking guy, for three years he did everything he can not to fight Frankie Edgar. He was supposed to fight Frankie Edgar and he chose Chad Mendes coming off a loss, camping, over Frankie. He had so much opportunity, now he wants to f-cking fight Frankie? It’s funny, because as soon as Max [Holloway] got hurt, coach Mark Henry told me to reach out to the UFC and ask if Conor could step in. I did call the UFC, they said, ‘Dude, we can’t even get him to fight in his own weight class, he’s not gonna f-cking fight Frankie.'”

Justin Golightly - February 23, 2018

As long as the beast Brock Lesnar is roaming around God’s green Earth, we’re probably going to talk about a possible comeback to the UFC. Just 21 pay-per-views ago, Lesnar came back out of nowhere and beat top 10 heavyweight Mark Hunt. He left as soon as he came back off of an anti-doping violation, then headed back to reign supreme in the WWE. Now, his contract is approaching an end in April and the speculation is boiling over that he’ll bring Suplex City back into the Octagon. Paul Heyman was asked about the rumored moved and said simply: He does what he wants. “I think Brock Lesnar does whatever Brock Lesnar wants to do. If Brock Lesnar wants to fight in UFC, Brock Lesnar will fight in UFC. If Brock Lesnar wants to fight in WWE, he will fight in WWE. Ask Braun Strowman, ask Randy Orton, ask the Undertaker, Brock Lesnar does what Brock Lesnar wants to do.”

Drake Riggs - February 22, 2018

The strawweight division’s oldest matchup is finally set to take place again. Former UFC and Invicta FC champion, Carla Esparza and former title challenger, Claudia Gadelha will get another chance at getting to hurt each other. The two are set to due battle at UFC 225 in Chicago, Illinois. But as history shows…this isn’t the first time we were supposed to see these former top 2 115-pounders clash. Going back to the early days of Invicta, Esparza and Gadelha were the clear two very best strawweights on the planet so it only made sense for them to square off for the world title. Which was Invicta’s plan. So they booked the two for Invicta FC 4 to crown their inaugural strawweight champion. Gadelha suffered a broken nose prior to the fight and was unable to compete thus bumping Bec Rawling into her place to fill in.

Drake Riggs - February 22, 2018

Don’t let that headline fool you. It’s not how it sounds…sort of. Since transitioning over to Team Alpha Male(TAM), former bantamweight title challenger and Olympic silver medalist, Sara McMann has shown great improvements in her all-around game. Something that she massively credits to her new coach, TAM owner, Urijah Faber as she told MMAJunkie:

Drake Riggs - February 22, 2018

The Ultimate Fighter season 17 winner, Kelvin Gastelum may have just got the title eliminator he was looking for. The UFC announced on Thursday that a huge middleweight fight will be taking place at UFC 224 on May 12 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil as the countryman, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza returns home to defend his turf against one of the best young rising stars in MMA, Kelvin Gastelum.

Justin Golightly - February 22, 2018

The fire just keeps roaring and spreading. Conor McGregor lit the MMA world ablaze by saying he was going to step in to fight Frankie Edgar at UFC 222. Immediately, Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz put the Irishman on blast on social media and to ESPN. Now, Edgar’s coach Mark Henry took to Instagram to write a lengthy post calling Conor McGregor’s bluff. While partly complimentary, Henry takes serious issue with McGregor’s character. “When you bring up Frankie Edgar’s name, that’s the perfect picture for you Conor McGregor. You ducked him three times in the past, Edgar and his manager Ali Abdel-Aziz asked for Conor’s name specifically when Max went down, but we knew you only take stylistically what is a good match for you and you ducked him three times already. It’s bad enough you post crappy posts putting people down when you have never defended a title cut lines to titles and 90-percent of the time fight people in your comfort zone. I agree Conor is an amazing, amazing fighter and has transcended the game with his accent, personality, wit, incredible fighting style, power, intelligence and don’t forget trashing people some of the best stand-up I’ve ever seen in MMA, which beat a great and one of my own guys. I really thought he had a chance first two rounds to beat [Floyd] Mayweather.”

Justin Golightly - February 22, 2018

Earlier today, Conor McGregor served an appetizer to those that are eagerly awaiting his return to the Octagon. The self-proclaimed Champ Champ™ came out of nowhere and went on record saying that he actually offered to step up and wipe out the ‘final featherweight’ Frankie Edgar in place of Max Holloway at UFC 222. According to him, the UFC wasn’t able to ‘generate the money’ to put it together. Before the steam even cleared even cleared from that heat, Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz was already speaking out about the claim. On McGregor’s claim he offered to fight Frankie Edgar at UFC 222, Edgar’s manager @AliAbdelaziz00 tells me, “He’s full a s—. He’s a liar. He should have fought Frankie two years ago.”

Tom Taylor - February 22, 2018

On Thursday morning, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan took to Instagram to praise Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Yancy Medeiros for their thrilling scrap at UFC Austin – a card he was off-duty for.  Rogan, like many, was blown away by the respect the two welterweights showed each other during this brief but exciting battle. I just got home from the @icehousecc and decided to unwind by rewatching this epic fight between @yancymedeiros and @cowboycerrone. This fight wasn’t just epic because it launched cowboy into a 3 way tie with @mikebisping and @georgesstpierre for the most wins ever in the UFC (20). It was also a special fight in that one of the things that was so enjoyable about the fight was the respect the two had for each other, both before and after their one round of chaos. They even embraced in friendship in the middle of a round, and I fucking loved it. They briefly paused to hug and then went right back to a full tilt brawl. They both just went for it with pure respect and love for each other, and they both swung for the fences. Cowboy wound up connecting with a pinpoint right hand and wound up getting the stoppage right before the buzzer. It was epic, and then again, after it was over there was nothing but love and respect. I thought it was all around an awesome experience to watch it even a second time. Thank you, gentlemen, for a great moment in MMA, and a really fun fight to watch.

Tom Taylor - February 22, 2018

After a long period of quiet, the anti-trust lawsuit levied against the UFC is once again trundling along. As expected, this ongoing legal battle is revealing some very information about the UFC, its decision makers, and their practices. One of the more interesting stories to emerge over the last few days came from UFC President Dana White, who essentially took responsibility for Conor McGregor‘s superstardom in a deposition. From his deposition White taking credit for McGregor’s success. pic.twitter.com/qAbABVMwR2

Jordan Colbert - February 22, 2018

In the main event of the UFC’s Sunday return to Austin, Texas, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone rebounded from a three-fight skid with a first-round TKO victory over Yancy Medeiros, who was riding a three-fight win streak coming into his first ever UFC Main Event contest. Following the bout, Cerrone was relieved to have finally gotten back in the win column and, when asked what was next for the man tied for the most wins in UFC history, he set the record straight. He intends to return to the UFC’s lightweight division for one last run at the title. In particular, Cerrone called out Khabib Nurmagomedov, a fighter he was scheduled to fight against in May of 2015 before Nurmagomedov withdrew due to injury. Nurmagomedov is currently scheduled for a main event bout at UFC 223 against current interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson, so that bout is unlikely, but there are many other matchups at lightweight that fans could easily get behind for Donald Cerrone.

Justin Golightly - February 22, 2018

After Brian Ortega submitted Cub Swanson at UFC Fresno, everyone was asking him if he was going to fight UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway next. His answer? He’d let Frankie Edgar get his shot first. Normally, nice guys finish last in this combat sports game, but for Ortega it looks like things have worked out. After the title bout between Edgar and Holloway has fallen through twice, Ortega jumped at the chance to fight Edgar not only to guarantee he fights for the belt next, but to get over with the fans and the UFC. “When you think about it, there’s guys and there’s fighters who have waited before that got promised a title shot and things never happened. For whatever reason, they had to fight again and it just never happened. So, the way I looked at it, this [fight with Frankie Edgar] is a blessing in disguise. I beat Frankie and it insures a for sure title shot without question, without wait. If I beat Frankie, automatically the fight between myself and Max [Holloway] will get booked. So, I figured why wait and keep your fingers crossed for that shot, wait even longer to fight and get a little cold?”

Justin Golightly - February 22, 2018

Luke Rockhold still intends to go up to light heavyweight according to his Instagram story. No tiramisu on the table though with the other four desserts. pic.twitter.com/iZC3znvmyT — Justin Golightly (@SecretMovesMMA) February 22, 2018

Justin Golightly - February 22, 2018

Ben Askren has made it no secret his retirement has one, big Canadian asterisk. He’s only coming back to fight Georges St-Pierre to finally prove to all the naysayers that, despite the fact that he never fought in the UFC, that he’s the very best welterweight in the entire world. But what if that fight can’t happen? What about a money fight with the likes of Nate Diaz or even Conor McGregor? Don’t get your hopes up. Askren essentially shrugs at the names and says he’s going to stay on course in campaigning for a fight with GSP. “Nate Diaz sucks. I mean, yeah. [Conor] McGregor is barely the best in the world. I mean, the guy beat up Nate Diaz barely a couple of times and Nate Diaz himself is a very mediocre UFC fighter. There is no way you can argue that sentiment because all you have to do is look at [Diaz’s] record. The record shows he’s a very middle-of-the-road UFC fighter, he’s a 500 guy. He wins half, he loses half. Sure, he’s had some good wins, but he’s also had some terrible losses.”

Tom Taylor - February 22, 2018

Over the last few days, Derek Brunson has made multiple Twitter callouts of former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping. He even shared what looked like a signed bout agreement to fight the former champion. I gotta go to the Fox studio to find @bisping I see. You’re ranked 6, I’m ranked 7. Let’s exchange @AliAbdelaziz00 @Mickmaynard2 @ufc @danawhite