MMA News

Tom Taylor - February 11, 2018

On Saturday night, in the headliner of an action-packed UFC 221 card, former Olympic silver medalist Yoel Romero authored one of the finest victories of his incredible career thus far, knocking out former UFC and Strikeforce champion Luke Rockhold with a savage third-round volley. With this win, Romero positioned himself at the front of the middleweight contender line, and may well have earned himself a rematch with divisional ruler Robert Whittaker, who he lost a decision to back in July of 2016. While some fans and pundits have argued that Romero shouldn’t be rewarded with a middleweight title shot on the basis of his UFC 221 weigh-in miss – the reason he wasn’t awarded the interim title for his defeat of Rockhold – UFC President Dana White confirmed post-fight that a Whittaker-Romero rematch is indeed the plan.

Tom Taylor - February 11, 2018

Last night, in the main event of UFC 221, former Olympic wrestler Yoel Romero picked up one of the best wins of his amazing career thus far, knocking out former UFC and Strikeforce champion Luke Rockhold with a brutal, third-round salvo. With this win, Romero positioned himself at the front of the middleweight contender line, and may well have earned himself a rematch with divisional ruler Robert Whittaker, who he lost a decision to back in July of 2016. Shortly after Romero’s win, Whittaker took to Twitter to congratulate his rival in his own language. See Whittaker’s Spanish language post below.

Tom Taylor - February 11, 2018

Over the last few weeks, there has been a tidal wave of buzz surrounding undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather’s possible move to MMA. Of course, the chances of this move actually occurring seem almost non-existent, but Mayweather has been having some fun playing with the idea on social media, and his arch rival Conor McGregor has not shied away from getting into the conversation. Mayweather’s latest MMA-related social media post occurred early on Sunday morning, when he posted a photoshopped image of himself elbowing Conor McGregor, inside a cage, decked out in four-ounce TMT gloves.

Tom Taylor - February 11, 2018

Though it was shamefully under-promoted, one of the most hyped UFC debuts in recent memory occurred last night on the UFC 221 undercard, as “The Last Style Bender” Israel Adesanya stepped into the Octagon for the first time. Despite a tough first round, throughout which he was taken down and controlled by his opponent Rob Wilkinson, Adesanya ultimately made good on his debut, gaining control of the fight in the second, and unleashing a hellacious beating en route to an impressive TKO win. He’s now 12-0 overall.

Chris Taylor - February 10, 2018

Yoel Romero says he has a broken leg following UFC 221 win over Luke Rockhold! Yoel Romero added another highlight reel victory to his resume tonight in Perth, scoring a brutal third-round knockout over former middleweight champ Luke Rockhold in the main event of UFC 221.

Chris Taylor - February 10, 2018

Fighters react to Yoel Romero’s impressive knockout victory over Luke Rockhold! Yoel Romero scored a brutal third-round knockout victory over former division champion Luke Rockhold in the main event of tonight’s UFC 221 fight card in Perth, Australia.

Chris Taylor - February 10, 2018

UFC 221 Results: Luke Rockhold vs Yoel Romero A middleweight tilt between Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero served as the main event of tonight’s UFC 221 pay-per-view event in Perth, Australia.

Chris Taylor - February 10, 2018

UFC 221 Results: Curtis Blaydes defeats Mark Hunt A key heavyweight scrap between surging division contender Curtis Blaydes and former interim title challenger Mark Hunt served as the co-main event of tonight’s UFC 221 event in Perth.

Chris Taylor - February 10, 2018

UFC 221 Results: Jake Matthews defeats Li Jingliang A welterweight scrap between Li Jingliang and Jake Matthews took place on tonight’s UFC 221 pay-per-view card from Perth, Australia.

Chris Taylor - February 10, 2018

UFC 221 Results: Tyson Pedro vs. Saparbek Safarov A scrap between Tyson Pedro and Saparbek Safarov kicked off tonight’s UFC 221 pay-per-view card in Perth.

Chris Taylor - February 10, 2018

UFC 221 Results: Israel Adesanya TKO’s Rob Wilkinson A middleweight scrap between highly touted promotional newcomer Israel Adesanya and hometown favorite Rob Wilkinson took place on tonight’s UFC 221 prelims.

Chris Taylor - February 10, 2018

UFC 221 Live Results: Jussier Formiga stops Ben Nguyen A flyweight scrap between Jussier Formiga and Ben Nguyen kicked off tonight’s UFC 221 prelims on FS1.

Justin Golightly - February 10, 2018

Not too long ago, Matt Brown was about to call it quits. The questions that plagued his career coupled with some ups and downs seemed overwhelming. No matter the fighter — from Georges St-Pierre or a guy fighting in the regionals — there comes a time where you have to ask yourself if you’re going to keep doing it. When Matt Brown asked himself that question and searched real hard, he found clarity. Hell yeah, he’ll keep doing it. “I just started kind of questioning, ‘What am I doing?’ The first thing I went through was, ‘How do I not make it happen again?’ That gets very exhausting when you just think of, ‘How? How? How?’ Right? And I think through the Diego camp – because I announced retirement very early in the camp, like 12 weeks out – through the camp, everything went so well. I focused more on my own mind, and I started getting back into the, ‘Why?’, and I started bringing clarity to that side of things.”

Justin Golightly - February 10, 2018

When it was announced that Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic were going to have a superfight, it was completely out of nowhere. The match-up is insane, historic, and a spectacle everyone is looking forward too. Usually, big fights like these that are also hyped up by a season of The Ultimate Fighter focuses on the marketable bad blood or insults from the other fighters. This fight most likely won’t have that, or need it. Just because Miocic is not prone to trash talk though, that doesn’t stop him from telling everyone matter-of-factly what is going to go down when they fight at UFC 226. “[Trash talk is] just too much. It’s exhausting for me. I don’t need to go out of my way. I have other things to worry about, like training, or work, the wife, or fixing the house up. I’ve got other things to worry about other than hurting someone’s feelings. I’m just a normal guy. I don’t have expensive cars or expensive clothes. I’m just me. I have a family, a baby on the way. I have a house, a mortgage to worry about. That’s all I worry about – taking care of them and making sure we’re all set.”

Justin Golightly - February 10, 2018

This is going to be a bombshell unless you already knew it. As you place your thumbs on a pair of analog sticks and take control over your favorite fighter in the new EA Sports UFC 3 video game, you should probably know that those fighters didn’t receive one single dime for being in the game. It’s a fact that UFC lightweight Kajan Johnson just can’t take anymore. He recently scolded the organization on the ‘insane’ notion and the other fighters who refuse to speak up. “I think it’s disgraceful, actually. I think it’s insane [that UFC fighters aren’t compensated for having their likeness in the game]. I don’t understand how we’re supposed to be such a forward-thinking society, how we’re OK with a giant corporation exploiting the people like this. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Across every single other sport, whether it’s NFL, NBA, MLB, those athletes that are in that game are making money. If they’re using their face and their likeness and their name, they’re gonna be compensated for it. And we’re not — it’s not even on the table for discussion really.”

Justin Golightly - February 10, 2018

Here’s our interview with @LukeRockhold, and he’s clearly feeling some type of way about @YoelRomeroMMA missing weight… #UFC221 https://t.co/G5aQ44nScp — FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) February 10, 2018

Justin Golightly - February 10, 2018

While most of us slept, all hell was breaking loose. Some of you may have been up to see that Yoel Romero initially missed weight, stepping to the scale at 188 pounds for his 185 pound interim title fight with Luke Rockhold. Since Australia didn’t perform the normal early morning weigh-ins, the evening ceremonial weigh-ins were the first time the fighters would be stepping on the scale. Romero would have two hours to be on weight or it would put the fight in jeopardy. His second and last attempt late last night wasn’t much better than the first. He weighed in at 187.7 pounds and chaos reigned. https://t.co/wBTcp3hOfI

Justin Golightly - February 10, 2018

With all the switch-ups and fight announcements, it’s hard to keep up. The UFC is scrambling to add to cards and take from others in order to fill in for all of the changes resulting from the chaos. Amanda Nunes and Cris Cyborg seemed all but official as a superfight, that was until the UFC needed a main event title fight for UFC 222 after Max Holloway had to pull out. Due to the booking of Cyborg and Yana Kunitskaya, Combate is now reporting that Amanda Nunes will fight Raquel Pennington in defense of her UFC women’s bantamweight title at UFC 224 in Brazil. Jesus, I just want announced my fight. 😫