MMA News

Drake Riggs - January 16, 2018

After suffering a three-fight rough patch in 2016 to early 2017, Ovince Saint Preux has turned things around rather impressively and completely reversed that trend with three straight dominant wins. With all the momentum one could ask for, OSP was all well and ready to carry it over into the new year. OSP is set to take on Ilir Latifi at UFC on Fox 27 this month and…well…according to Saint Preux, Latifi has sustained an injury, therefore, putting him on the search for a new opponent. . @Latifimma is hurt & out of our scrap next Sat in Charlotte, NC #UFConFOX27 who wants to step up and scrap? I’m even open to going up in weight if NO guys in my division will step up? Looking for someone to do what I do: step up and fight… pic.twitter.com/lvznRvE22I

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

Back in June of 2017, PRIDE legend Wanderlei Silva came up short in his long-awaited Bellator debut, losing a decision to his nemesis Chael Sonnen. Since then, Silva fans have been wondering what – if anything – will come next for the aging legend. While nothing is certain just yet, it seems Silva himself is considering a rematch with the ostensibly retired Chuck Liddell, who he lost a close decision to back in the year 2007. Silva hinted at this possible rematch in a Tuesday post to Instagram.

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

Justin Golightly - January 16, 2018

Directly after Yoel Romero defeated Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, he was number two in the UFC’s middleweight division and was ready for his title shot. All of the sudden, something happened that we all know too well about. Romero was hit with a violation from USADA. After a long period of ups-and-downs, it was found out and proven to be a tainted supplement. According to a report first released by Forbes, Yoel Romero and his team are now suing the supplement company that caused his anti-doping violation, resulting in a suspension. “[Yoel] Romero, 38, tested positive for Ibutamoren following an out-of-competition test conducted on December 16, 2015 in Miami, Florida. Ibutamoren is a Growth Hormone Secretagogue and a prohibited substance in the class of Peptide Hormones, Growth Factors, Related Substances and Mimetics under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, which has adopted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List. Following notification of his positive test, Romero provided USADA with access to the dietary supplement products he was using at the time of the relevant sample collection.”

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

Back in November, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre made a triumphant return to the cage, toppling Michael Bisping to win the UFC middleweight title. Unfortunately for St-Pierre fans, however, this comeback is looking more and more like a one-off. Since then, St-Pierre has vacated the middleweight title, and admitted he’s dealing with ulcerative-colitis. Based on these developments his long time jiu-jitsu coach John Danaher is not optimistic that he’ll ever fight again.

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.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2018

On April 7, the UFC will make its second stop in Brooklyn, New York with UFC 223. Although this card is still some distance away, it’s already coming together. Over the last few days, three new bouts have been targeted for the event, and they’re all solid additions. The first of these new matchups, which was reported by FloCombat, will occur in the lightweight division, where Al Iaquinta is expected to battle Paul Felder.

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.