MMA News

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.

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.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2018

If things had gone according to plan, Uriah Hall would have battled the retiring Vitor Belfort in the co-main event of last night’s UFC St. Louis card. Regrettably, Hall was hospitalized as the result of a weight-cut gone awry, and forced out of the fight at the last minute. Despite the fact that Hall is reported to have endured seizures in the midst of his botched cut, UFC President Dana White still isn’t happy with him.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2018

Last night, in the co-main event of UFC St. Louis, former strawweight star Paige VanZant made her debut in the UFC flyweight division opposite Jessica-Rose Clark. Though VanZant hung in there for the duration, she was outworked by her larger foe for the majority of the fight, surrendering a unanimous decision as a result. As it turns out, however, VanZant’s lasting three rounds against Clark was pretty remarkable. Between the second and third rounds, the popular fighter told her corner that she suspected she broke her arm in the first, and a post-fight x-ray proved this to be true.

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2018

Last night, between Darren Elkins’ epic comeback win over Michael Johnson, and Kamaru Usman’s domination of Emil Meek, MMA legend Matt Hughes returned to the limelight after his truck collided with a train in a near-fatal accident, and walked out to the Octagon once again. It was as emotional a moment as we get in the wild world of fighting. Welcome home, Matt Hughes.#UFCSTL pic.twitter.com/2CH5mB3DGH

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2018

Over the last few weeks, we’ve all been wondering what the hell 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… Speaking on FS1 in the wake of Sunday night’s action packed UFC St. Louis card, UFC President Dana White attempted to give the fans a clearer picture of all of this madness.

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2018

Last night, in the main event of the UFC’s anticipated debut in St. Louis, long-time featherweight contender Jeremy Stephens authored yet another impressive win, this time at the expense of fan favorite South Korean prospect Doo Ho Choi. Here’s how the MMA community reacted to Jeremy Stephen’s crushing TKO victory:

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2018

In the UFC St. Louis co-main event, former strawweight star Paige VanZant made her flyweight debut opposite Australia’s Jessica-Rose Clark. Round one began with a brief feeling-out process. VanZant looked for kicks, while Clark favored a boxing-based approach. From there, Clark landed a big takedown, taking the fight to the ground. After briefly chasing an arm-triangle choke, the Australian rode out the round from side control, and put a stamp on things with a few forearms to the face in the closing seconds.

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2018

Shortly after Darren Elkins’s epic comeback win over Michael Johnson and the UFC’s touching tribute to the recovering Matt Hughes, welterweight contenders Kamaru Usman and Emil Meek stepped into the cage to do battle. Round one of this fight was decisively Usman’s. Though he very nearly dove into a Meek guillotine with his first takedown, he survived this scare to control the rest of the round, softening his viking foe up with ground-and-pound in the process.