MMA News

Justin Golightly - January 16, 2018

The combat world wept when Robert Whittaker had to back out of his fight with Luke Rockhold, especially since it was going to set the middleweight division right for the first time in roughly two years. However, the tears quickly dried when we learned we were going to get Yoel Romero fighting Rockhold at UFC 221 instead. It’s a fight that we’ve somehow never got, but now here it is right in front of us. Luke Rockhold is fine with the change in opponent as well, which he believes is an easier fight than he was in before hand. “It’s not an ideal situation, of course. I’m going across the world to fight a guy that I could fight down the street. I wanted to fight [Robert] Whittaker. It’s a fight I’ve been seeking for a long time and I thought it was a good time to make it happen, but obviously he’s got some health issues. I wish him the best and I know Whittaker’s not a man to run away from anything. I respect that kid and I wish him the best. I hope it’s not too serious. Yoel [Romero] was the option right off the bat, and I’m ready to fight as long as the money’s right, the belt’s on the line.”

Justin Golightly - January 16, 2018

It’s 2018 and the other big question in MMA other than wondering just what Conor McGregor will decide to do all surrounds former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. The latest news to come out recently was the UFC’s Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky saying he believed Jones was innocent. Once again, the roller coaster goes up again as we learn that he took a lie detector test in an attempt to clear the air about his innocence and passed it. “Last month, Jones took a polygraph test in hopes of proving he is telling the truth when he states he never knowingly took Turinabol, an anabolic steroid, or any other performance-enhancing substance prior to his UFC 214 fight against Daniel Cormier in Anaheim, Calif. Jones passed the test, according to UFC sources. The test was conducted by the PGP Polygraph & Interviewing Service in Albuquerque, N.M. on Dec. 7, sources say. Neither the UFC nor the United States Anti-Doping Agency asked Jones to take the test.” – via a report by MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani.

Justin Golightly - January 16, 2018

The UFC lightweight division has been a mystery wrapped in an enigma basically ever since UFC 205. There’s no clue what multi-millionaire Conor McGregor will do, meanwhile Khabib Nurmagomedov came back with a vengeance and Tony Ferguson won the interim title, only to step on the sidelines for a bit for elbow surgery. Everything was up in the air, until today. Fresh off the heels of a report from Tass.ru that McGregor will supposedly be stripped and the UFC will move on with Nurmagomedov and Ferguson, we have just confirmed the news that is expected to be officially announced at UFC 220. Breaking! I have confirmed with sources that Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov will fight for the undisputed UFC lightweight title at #UFC223 in Brooklyn. The bout will be made official later this week. McGregor will be stripped of his title. The bout was 1st reported by TASS

Tom Taylor - January 16, 2018

Over the last few weeks, we’ve all been wondering what is going to happen at the top of the UFC lightweight division. Will undisputed champion Conor McGregor return? If he does, will he defend his title against interim champion Tony Ferguson or streaking contender Khabib Nurmagomedov? If he doesn’t, will we get Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov? And when, pray tell, will the UFC strip McGregor for inactivity? Indeed, the questions go on and on… According a report from Tass.Ru, we’ll have answers to all our questions soon.

Justin Golightly - January 16, 2018

Conor McGregor is doing all types of jiu jitsu on Instagram. Khabib Nurmagomedov is saying he won’t settle for an interim title and meanwhile a huge UFC card is in the works for Russia. Everyone is wondering is Conor McGregor really won’t come back until September and who he will fight whenever he does indeed return. No other name has been paired with his lately in the UFC other than Nurmagomedov’s. Just recently, acclaimed coach and ground game mastermind John Danaher gave his insight into the potential match-up. “What’s interesting about those two fights, is you have basically polar opposites. […] With regards to Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov, the feeling one gets if they did fight — it would be a complete shutout in one of two directions. It’s either like a man beating up a child on the ground, or it’s just a flush knockout. The guy unable to cover distance properly and walking into a left hand and just being catastrophically KO’d. You feel like there’s potential for it to go on both directions. That’s a fight I don’t think goes the distance. It’s one way or the other. And Khabib has been hurt coming in, but he dealt with it well.”

Tom Taylor - January 16, 2018

Mere days after Bellator MMA announced it had added veteran referee “Big” John McCarthy to its broadcast team, the promotion has announced the signing of another big name in sports broadcasting: Jay Glazer. Per a Tuesday press release, Glazer will host the broadcast desk starting with Bellator 192, which airs on the new Paramount Network (formerly Spike) this Saturday, Jan. 20 at 9:00 p.m. ET. The veteran sports personalty will also appear in original content produced by the promotion’s digital team.

Justin Golightly - January 16, 2018

LISTEN as @MalloryyMartin dishes out some devastating trash talk during her TKO stoppage! 😨 #noonecansaveyou #InvictaFC27 #UFCFIGHTPASS Video captured by @InvictaFights‘ @frumpycloud Invicta FC 27 Replay 📽️ https://t.co/9MId278IC7 pic.twitter.com/p8ahK8haIe

Tom Taylor - January 16, 2018

At present, there are two frontrunners in the welterweight contendership race. One is former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, who recently trounced Robbie Lawler. The other is streaking wrestling specialist Colby “Chaos” Covington, who recently thwarted Demian Maia. Both men have a pretty solid case for the next crack at divisional champion Tyron Woodley, but in the opinion of UFC President Dana White, one makes more sense than the other. White cleared up the welterweight contendership picture on Fs1 in the wake of last Saturday’s UFC St. Louis card.

Justin Golightly - January 16, 2018

Someone bring Daniel Cormier some swishy pants and a whistle. If there is an epitome of a wrestling coach, it’s the UFC light heavyweight champion with his shirt tucked tight into his work out pants. Throughout his career, he’s dropped iconic lines that’d be at home in any high school or college gym: ‘Ineligible for competition,’ and ‘get your academics in order’ to just name a few. Now, he’s dropped yet another iconic speech for UFC 220. Cormier wants to know how junior varsity Volkan Oezdemir stands a shot at him when the varsity crew couldn’t get it done. “There’s varsity and there’s JV. Have you ever heard of that? Henri Hooft is a great guy. Greg Jones is a fantastic guy. I don’t know who the jiu-jitsu coach is down there, they’re all fantastic guys. They had a wrestle-off, Anthony [Johnson] whipped Volkan [Oezdemir], so Volkan became a training partner. He went to get beat up. They sent the A-Guy in there, he got whipped. They built him back up, he came back in there again and he got whipped. Now he’s gone. So now they’re going to bring the JV guy.”

Tom Taylor - January 16, 2018

Last weekend, in the co-main event of the UFC’s debut in St. Louis, MO, Paige VanZant came up short in her flyweight debut, giving up a decision to Jessica-Rose Clark. While VanZant lost, however, she showed remarkable toughness, surviving three rounds despite sustaining broken arm mid-fight. Speaking to MMAFighting.com, VanZant’s coach Fabiano Scherner explained why he let her continue fighting through this injury, even when she told him about it between rounds.

Tom Taylor - January 16, 2018

Back in November, in the first of three title fights on the UFC 217 bill, a widely unheralded Rose Namajunas shocked the world by drubbing Joanna Jedrzejczyk to a first-round knockout win. Since then, the big question has been who Namajunas will fight in her first strawweight title defense.

Tom Taylor - January 16, 2018

This Saturday, in the main event of UFC 220, surging French-Cameroonian sensation Francis Ngannou will get his anticipated crack at Stipe Miocic and the UFC heavyweight title. This title fight will serve as the crescendo of a Ngannou’s rocket-fuelled rise through the UFC ranks. In roughly two years, the hulking knockout artist has evolved from relative unknown to downright MMA star – and he’s already being paid accordingly.

Drake Riggs - January 15, 2018

Everyone is starting to know who Francis Ngannou is. Which is fair…he hasn’t been making it very easy to go unnoticed, especially after the way he knocked out Alistair Overeem at UFC 218. With that win now under his belt, the 31-year-old, Cameroonian, Ngannou has himself set up for the biggest fight of his life when he takes on the heavyweight champion, Stipe Miocic at UFC 220. The shockingly powerful striker is more than focused on the task at hand, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t looking into the future after Saturday night is over. He shared who he wants next on the Outside the Cage podcast: “I will get through the Stipe fight first but my dream was to become the boxing world champion. So whenever the opportunity [to fight Anthony Joshua] will be there, we will see. I’m open for that but right now Stipe is the goal.”

Drake Riggs - January 15, 2018

One of the lightweight division’s biggest dark horses has finally found someone who will fight him. It’s not the top 15 opponent that Mairbek Taisumov was hoping for, but that’s not his fault. As reported by Farah Hannoun, Evan Dunham is up to the task and the fight is expected to happen at UFC 223 on April 7. BREAKING: Evan Dunham (@evandunham155) vs. Mairbek Taisumov (@Taisumov155) in the works for #UFC223 (April 7th) #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/4RASr4K8jP

Drake Riggs - January 15, 2018

Ever since the UFC has brought in USADA to handle their drug testing and help “clean up the sport”, we’ve seen several big stars get busted for performance-enhancing drug use. One of the victims happened to be a former UFC heavyweight champion, Josh Barnett who failed a test after his win over Andrei Arlovski in 2016. Barnett hasn’t fought since then and very likely won’t be anytime soon. “The Warmaster” gave us an update when he spoke with MMAJunkie recently: “I end up no matter what at the mercy of USADA and to be honest, I don’t trust them in any way, shape or form. I have no interest to work with them or be a part of their program. I would be willing to do anything else but work with USADA at this point. When you can’t trust someone, what are you supposed to do? Continue to give them the opportunity to break your trust? They don’t seem responsible enough to have oversight over my career.

Drake Riggs - January 15, 2018

It’s officially fight week for what may very well be the most highly anticipated heavyweight fight of all time. UFC 220 takes place this Saturday in Boston, Massachusetts and is headlined by the reigning champion who’s looking to make history, Stipe Miocic when he takes on the frighteningly powerful rising star, Francis Ngannou. Before Ngannou earned his shot by knocking out the top contender, Alistair Overeem in devastating fashion, the former multiple time kingpin of the big men, Cain Velasquez was expected to be Miocic’s next challenger upon his return. Unfortunately for Velasquez, he has been riddled with injuries throughout his MMA career. For the most part, it began after he initially became champion in 2010 after defeating Brock Lesnar then has been a continual trend since then.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2018

If things had gone according to plan, MMA legend Vitor Belfort would have fought the last fight of his career opposite Uriah Hall in the co-main event of last night’s UFC St. Louis card. Regrettably, Hall was hospitalized as the result of a botched weight cut, which nixed Belfort’s retirement plans. While Belfort didn’t get to fight, he did show up in St. Louis and make weight. As such, he’s hoping to be paid for his efforts.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2018

Last night, on the main card of the UFC’s anticipated debut in St. Louis, streaking welterweight contender Kamaru Usman wrestled a tough Emil Meek to a decisive unanimous decision win. In his post-fight speech, “The Nigerian Nightmare” explained that he’d executed this win at “30%”. While Usman’s win was undeniably dominant, it didn’t do much to impress UFC President Dana White. White also didn’t like Usman’s 30% comment.