MMA News

Justin Golightly - January 18, 2018

In response to President @realDonaldTrump’s recent alleged controversial comments on immigration, UFC heavyweight contender @Francis_Ngannou called Trump “a shame for America.” He said more, too. Hear his impassioned response below. #UFC220 pic.twitter.com/qM6hJSqWYa — MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) January 18, 2018

Justin Golightly - January 18, 2018

On February 16th, MARVEL’s highly anticipated Black Panther film will release in theaters, but this weekend another African superhero will step into the spotlight. Francis Ngannou has carved a trail from Batié all the way to Boston; from the sand mines to a gold belt. His story is a movie waiting to be put on the silver screen in and of itself. There is no question that Saturday is the hypothetical film’s climax. He’ll be fighting Stipe Miocic for the UFC heavyweight title. Such a huge event deserves a promo worthy of the moment. R/MMA contributor MikeFightPromoEditor stepped up to the challenge and absolutely nailed it. Flags is up !!! #UFC220 pic.twitter.com/C5Lt3j1TKQ

Tom Taylor - January 18, 2018

This Saturday, in the co-main event of UFC 220, Daniel Cormier and Volkan Oezdemir will collide for the UFC light heavyweight title. All of the light heavyweight division’s top contenders will be watching on intently, eager to know which man they’ll be gunning for come Sunday morning. That includes British knockout artist Jimi Manuwa. Manuwa gave his take on this fight in a recent interview with MMA Fighting.

Tom Taylor - January 18, 2018

On April 7, in what is likely to be the main event of UFC 223, Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov will battle for the lightweight title. Veteran MMA oddsmakers Joey Oddessa has now released the opening odds for this fight, identifying Nurmagomedov as a -200 favorite, and Ferguson as a +165 underdog. This means that a successful $100 bet on Ferguson would earn you $165, while it would take a successful $200 bet on Nurmagomedov to make $100.  pic.twitter.com/zmJGP7UfjS

Justin Golightly - January 18, 2018

UFC light heavyweight champion @dc_mma: “He may be a good fighter, but I know one thing that Vol-can’t do… and that’s beat Daniel Cormier!” #UFC220 pic.twitter.com/6HNjp24FMN — MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) January 18, 2018

Tom Taylor - January 18, 2018

Uriah Hall was supposed to return to the cage in the co-main event of the UFC’s Saturday debut in St. Louis. Regrettably, a disastrous and harrowing weight cut nixed this plan and left him in a dire situation in the hospital. Hall recounted this terrifying experience in a recent statement on social media.

Tom Taylor - January 18, 2018

If things had gone according to plan, middleweight staple Uriah Hall would have battled the retiring Vitor Belfort in the co-main event of last weekend’s UFC St. Louis card. Unfortunately, Hall was hospitalized as a result of a botched weight cut, and forced out of this contest thereafter. Shortly after Hall’s weight cut went awry, UFC President Dana White went off on him, suggesting he might be wise to migrate to the 205-pound light heavyweight division, where the cut would be less severe.

Tom Taylor - January 18, 2018

Over the last few weeks, there has been ample discussion surrounding a potential superfight between UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. UFC President Dana White has assured this is the fight he wants next for both women.

Tom Taylor - January 18, 2018

Last month, Team Alpha Male strawweight contender Cynthia Calvillo experienced her first career loss, losing a close decision to former champion Carla Esparza. Unfortunately, that’s not where the trouble ends for her. Calvillo has now been notified of a potential UFC anti-doping policy violation after failing an in-competition USADA drug test for the banned substance Carboxy-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Drake Riggs - January 17, 2018

“I’m disappointed, what can I say? Every time you fight for a world championship fighters take pride…it’s a special moment to be a main event for a world title fight. It’s an unfortunate part of it, but I’m not going to let it take my focus away from what my job is and getting that title. It was totally out of the blue. I didn’t see it coming. I found out through an interview. I didn’t even find out from anyone from Bellator or anything like that so it was a total shocker,” said the challenger.

Drake Riggs - January 17, 2018

Daniel Cormier will get questions about Jon Jones for the rest of his life and if this isn’t your first day discovering MMA, you know exactly why. The two have had one the most heated rivalries in the sport’s entire history and despite coming out on the wrong end of each of their fights, reasons outside the octagon have turned Cormier into more of the winner than the loser. After their first fight in January of 2015, Jones beat Cormier fair and square through five rounds on route to a unanimous decision. After that, Jones was expected to end up defending his UFC light heavyweight title against one of if not the most dangerous strikers in the division’s history, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson at UFC 187. That was until Jones got into a hit and run incident while under the influence. This led to his stripping of the title and putting Cormier right back into the title picture where he would go on to defeat Johnson for the vacant belt.

Drake Riggs - January 17, 2018

The post-UFC 219 Cris Cyborg saga continues. The question remains, “what’s next?”. Everyone and their mothers have been searching for possible answers. The option that most have been looking at and everyone is seemingly wanting(except for Cyborg herself) is a super fight with the current UFC bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes. Nunes, as well as UFC President, Dana White, have both openly shared their openness to the huge bout but Cyborg is looking at taking a different step first. Cyborg has already stated recently that she is open to fighting Nunes…but after she defends against a real featherweight challenger first. She expanded on this recently when appearing on the MMA Hour.

Drake Riggs - January 17, 2018

There is one word that will always follow Justin Gaethje for the rest of his career. You already know what it is…yup, violence. Pretty much every single one of Gaethje’s nineteen professional bouts has been violence personified and that’s just how the former World Series of Fighting champion likes it. In his last fight, he suffered his first ever career loss to former Bellator and UFC lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez in what was crowned by the UFC as the best fight of 2017. Reports have surfaced today from MMAJunkie’s Steven Marocco that Gaethje may have his next fight and it’s a matchup that will most certainly deliver the action. His opponent is expected to be Dustin “the Diamond” Poirier and it’s expected to happen at either UFC 222 on March 3 in Las Vegas or UFC 223 in Brooklyn, New York.

Justin Golightly - January 17, 2018

It seems like every couple of months, rumors start up again that MMA legend Chuck Liddell would end his retirement and return to fight at least one more time. The latest inkling was an Instagram post from Wanderlei Silva, but it looks like his previous feud with one Chael Sonnen is still very much alive and well. The two evidently got into some sort of altercation during the press tour for Bellator 192 which takes place this Saturday. Liddell may or may not be ready to come back to the cage, but Sonnen was ready to throw down right then and there. “I come into the dressing room and there was Chuck [Liddell], face-to-face, and it was awkward. I was doing [The Rich Eisen Show] and he told me, ‘You got a message for Chuck? He’ll be here tomorrow.’ So I gave him a message to Chuck, thinking he would be there tomorrow. Turned out Chuck was in the back, watching it on a monitor, with my mother.”

Tom Taylor - January 17, 2018

This Saturday, in the co-main event of the stacked UFC 220, Switzerland’s Volkan Oezdemir will attempt to steal the light heavyweight title from champion Daniel Cormier. To prepare for this monumental challenge, Oezdemir has been preparing at the talent-rich Combat Club in Lantana, Florida – a space he shares with former middleweight champion and long-time Cormier training partner Luke Rockhold. In fact, he’s even gotten a few rounds in with Rockhold.

Justin Golightly - January 17, 2018

It’s 2018 and Darren Till still hasn’t been booked. You can chalk it up to scared opponents, intelligent strategy, or just the UFC’s booking department. Either way, he’s been wanting a fight ever since his dominant performance against veteran Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone. Pretty much every welterweight in the entire division has been in talks for a fight with the Scouser, but none have materialized. Till’s eyebrows  raised up for Kamaru Usman’s fight last weekend, thinking Usman was going to call him out, but alas it didn’t happen. He once again voiced his frustrations in a recent interview. “I thought if [Kamaru Usman] won, he would definitely say my name. I didn’t even watch the fight, but all I’ve heard is that he has terrible striking and all he did was force his opponent up against the fence. He might be able to do that to Emil Meek, but he wouldn’t be able to do it to me. I’m twice the size of him for f-ck’s sake. I’m twice as strong as him. Usman has been talking so much sh-t and his performance didn’t prove anything to anyone. He’s saying that he was at 30 percent, but once you’re in that cage your excuses go out the window. It doesn’t matter if you’re feeling ill or if you’ve got a broken bone, you’ve gone in there because you’ve decided that you’re in good enough condition to fight. I don’t believe in any of that bullsh-t.”

Justin Golightly - January 17, 2018

The UFC isn’t playing around this year. Fresh off the heels of an undisputed title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson being made official for UFC 223, there is another huge fight being slated to join them. Rose Namajunas is expected to defend her UFC strawweight championship against former champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk after shockingly taking it from her back at UFC 217 in one of the organization’s biggest upsets in their history. First reported by TalkMMA, the information has now been confirmed by Ariel Helwani as being discussed, but not finalized yet. Rose Namajunas to defend her title against Joanna Jedrzejczyk April 7th at #UFC223 (No location/venue announced yet)

Justin Golightly - January 17, 2018

The middleweight division was about to get rewound back to normal, that is until Robert Whittaker got injured. That’s not the only curve ball the division got thrown. Urijah Hall failed to weigh in and was taken out of his fight with Vitor Belfort. Many jumped to the conclusion that this opened the door for Belfort to fight former rival Michael Bisping in a double retirement fight at UFC London. It seemed like the fight was more than just talk, until Bisping said he wanted nothing to do with the ‘cheat’. Belfort isn’t taking no for an answer though, coming back with a social media low blow. “What a shame Michael Bisping. The UFC just informed me that you have declined the fight. I understand you are scared. The images above pretty much explain it all. So stop pretending that you are tough and just admit that you are afraid. And I thought you were man enough to step up in the octagon with me again, my mistake. Unfortunately, it looks like we will not be delivering to the fans the fight they want to see. Happy retirement, you must be feeling amazing leaving the sport through the back door. To be a legend is not for everyone.” — Vitor Belfort on his official Instagram.