MMA News

Chris Taylor - February 10, 2018

Unable to catch tonight’s UFC 221 event in Perth, Australia? BJPenn.com has you covered with all of the UFC 221 Live Results. UFC 221 is headlined by an interim middleweight title fight featuring former division title holder Luke Rockhold taking on perennial contender Yoel Romero.

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

After Valentina Shevchenko’s anticipated debut in the women’s flyweight division, the one thing everyone had on their mind came into reality: The Bullet is a serious problem for this new division. She put on just about the most dominant performance you can imagine against Priscila Cachoeira at UFC Belem, then immediately called out women’s flyweight champion crowned from The Ultimate Fighter 26, Nicco Montano. That wasn’t the only message she had for her new division’s belt holder. Sooner or later, they’ll have to fight. There is no escaping it. “You know, my time out is such a little bit. I just need a little time to recover me from my last preparation. To recover my mental energy, my physical energy and I’m ready. I’m ready to fight anytime, anywhere, and I hope that [Nicco Montano] will be like a champion and agree to fight as soon as she can and we will [fight for the UFC women’s flyweight title] this next time. I think [to return in] March is a little bit early, but let’s see, let’s wait a call from UFC. You know, I don’t think that [Montano] can be injured forever.”

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. 😫

Drake Riggs - February 9, 2018

The UFC 221 weigh-ins didn’t come without some little extra drama sprinkled on top. In the main event, former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold is set to take on Yoel Romero for the interim title while champion, Robert Whittaker recovers from his staph infection.

Drake Riggs - February 9, 2018

If it weren’t for Robert Whittaker suffering the knee injury he did prior to and in the Yoel Romero fight at UFC 213, it’s very highly unlikely that Georges St-Pierre would have had his middleweight title shot at UFC 217. When Whittaker and Romero fought, it was for the interim championship as the undisputed champ at the time, Michael Bisping has been sidelined himself. But after Whittaker’s big victory, he was unable to follow up with the unification title fight with Bisping which led to GSP’s return and taking of the title in an incredible performance.

Drake Riggs - February 9, 2018

It’s a little bit mind-blowingly looking back at how things have unfolded for Johny Hendricks since he first fought for the UFC welterweight championship at UFC 167 in 2013. Hendricks was the last man that Georges St-Pierre defended his welterweight crown against before retiring for four years. A fight that very many people believe that Hendricks was robbed of a victory in. St-Pierre would go on to retire as mentioned, thus vacating the belt and giving Hendricks another shot in his fight after facing St-Pierre. Hendricks would battle it out with Robbie Lawler in one of the welterweight division’s greatest championship fights. The Fortworth, Texas native, Hendricks would win the fight and become the champion only to lose it in the rematch with Lawler that followed. This was also yet another very controversial decision loss.

Justin Golightly - February 9, 2018

One of the best middleweight fights anyone could ever put together goes down on Saturday at UFC 221, but Luke Rockhold’s hyped match-up with Yoel Romero may take a backseat to the knowledge Rockhold recently dropped. With Daniel Cormier ready to retire and Father Time working on the middleweight contender’s body, Luke Rockhold is going to be switching weight classes sooner rather than later. That’s right, Rockhold is moving up to light heavyweight. “[The weight cut] never gets any easier. I’m getting older and my bones are getting thicker and it gets harder to get down to this weight. Having this open workout on a Friday, it’s tough, but I feel good. I’ve got a great team around me with [George] Lockhart and [Dan] Leith, they’ve got my nutrition down to a science. I’m ahead of schedule this time around and I’ll be fine, but 205 [pounds] is imminent. [Daniel Cormier is] moving up to heavyweight. He’s not coming back, so I’ll be up there soon. Yes, I’ve mentioned that [to him] many times [that I’m moving to light heavyweight]. It’s imminent. I’ll be up there soon.” – Luke Rockhold after the UFC 221 open workouts.

Justin Golightly - February 9, 2018

With a slew of wild superfights down the pipeline for 2018, the fights at UFC 223 are still so crazy that they shine through the chaos. Not only is Khabib Nurmagomedov fighting Tony Ferguson in the main event, the co-main will be Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s highly anticipated rematch with Rose Namajunas. The stoic Thug Rose boxed up the dominant champion and shocked the world at UFC 217, now they run it back. This time, Namajunas thinks she’ll get the submission and cement herself as the best strawweight on the planet beating Jedrzejczyk back-to-back like Max Holloway did to Jose Aldo. “It’s probably the most exciting fight that everybody can look forward to. I think that’s a big part of [Joanna Jedrzejczyk getting the immediate rematch], but also I don’t see anybody else that can really challenge at this point. You’ve got Jessica Andrade and Tecia [Torres] will probably be the only other one, maybe Claudia Gadelha but I thought she was injured. Joanna’s beaten all those girls, other than Tecia obviously, but she’s way far ahead of those other girls. […] I had a perfect gampelan for everything that [Jedrzejczyk] was doing. I knew exactly where she was going to be, where she was, I’ve been studying her for many years and knew exactly what she was going to do before she did it.”

bjpenndotcom - February 9, 2018

Unable to catch tomorrow night’s UFC 221 event in Perth, Australia? BJPenn.com has you covered with all the UFC 221 Live Results. Tune in to “Play By Play Radio” for up to the second results. Play By Play Radio” will be hosted by 2X UFC Hall of Fame Champion BJ Penn.

Justin Golightly - February 9, 2018

Every step in Yoel Romero’s career has led to this. After a war with Robert Whittaker ended in a decision that halted Romero’s eight-fight win streak, fate seemed to favor the former Olympian. The title switches and changes have been almost as dizzying as the flying knees which Romero launches at unsuspecting opponents. Yet, here he is again fighting for an interim middleweight belt. Luke Rockhold and coaches have said the only thing that would lead to their defeat is a ‘lucky strike’, but it seems like luck is on the side of Yoel Romero. “First of all [in response that Luke Rockhold saying he’s better then me in every aspect of the fight], the Philistines said Goliath had to kill David because he was a great warrior and David was just an average man. Who won that fight? I feel like the Son of God and I believe it’s a blessing for me to feel this way. I respect this [opinion that Rockhold can out grapple me] but the whole world has the right to talk, but it’s God that’s got to shed the light so, I’m going to shed the light in those dark places that Luke talks about it. I will be the light that God gives me in that moment. I feel blessed [to be in an interim title fight]. The strength of my work, the amount of work that I put in, the amount of work my team has put it in, the support that I have for my family, this is what drives me.”

Justin Golightly - February 9, 2018

Most fighters hope their style gets labeled as something that resembles a killer like Jon Jones or strikes comparisons to the legend Anderson Silva, but not ‘Style Bender’ Israel Adesanya. While he may fit the body type and skill set, he’d rather you not disrespect them — or him for that matter — by constructing mental Venn diagrams of him and them. Going into his UFC debut tomorrow, he wants to showcase something completely new. He wants to showcase himself. “Don’t insult [Jon Jones, Anderson Silva or Michael ‘Venom’ Page] or me by comparing us. I know what they’re trying to do, I know what they’re trying to say, but we’re different people. I watched Anderson Silva at UFC 90. I think it was my first pay-per-view I watched of him. Before that I watched some DVDs, but then UFC 90 I watched him live fight Patrick Cote. He used — probably in the first round — 10 different styles and then in the second round used telekinesis to dismantle [Cote’s] knee. I was like, who’s this skinny black guy?”

Justin Golightly - February 9, 2018

Rafael dos Anjos and Tyron Woodley have gone back and forth since Nate Diaz strutted back into fight talks with his signature scowling face. It’s easy to see why, of course. Dos Anjos wants the title shot promised to him, while Tyron Woodley ‘just wants to make money’ according to the former UFC lightweight champion. …But isn’t that what prize fighting is about? Not to dos Anjos it is not. To be fair, Tyron Woodley was willing to fight Diaz at a catchweight with no title on the line, but dos Anjos thinks either that that this match-up is against all logic. “Tyron Woodley is only thinking about money. Of course that everybody wants to make money and needs money, but he’s running away from logic. He’s trying to force his hand and making a fight that makes no sense. [Nate Diaz] can’t fight in this weight class and Woodley is trying to force this fight. He was willing to fight Nate Diaz while injured, needing to undergo surgery, because he knows it’s an easy fight and he can win without one arm. I think it’s wrong to hold the entire division like this. He’s trying to get an easy fight and stay on his TV and radio shows as a champion, he wants this status.”

Drake Riggs - February 8, 2018

“I think i’m one or two fights away [from a title shot]. I think [Valentina] Shevchenko will fight for the title next and I would like to fight her for the title. So however many I need to have between now and then, that’s what i’m working towards 100%.

Drake Riggs - February 8, 2018

It was announced yesterday that UFC 222 had been saved. Initially what was supposed to be Max Holloway attempting to make his second featherweight title defense against Frankie Edgar turned into…well, another featherweight title fight actually but instead with the other champ! Cris Cyborg will now be headlining the event as she defends against the Invicta FC bantamweight champion, Yana Kunitskaya. As for Edgar, he will remain on the card and take on the quickly rising contender, Brian Ortega in the co-main event. While some are happy that the event was saved at all, that doesn’t mean everyone liked what it was saved with. And among those include former Strikeforce and UFC 135-pound champ, Miesha Tate who had this to say about the change on MMA on SiriusXM: