MMA News

Drake Riggs - January 10, 2018

It appears there has been a change of plans! Initially, Sara McMann and Invicta FC Bantamweight champion, Yana Kunitskaya had both announced that they were fighting each other next at UFC on Fox 28 in Orlando, Florida on February 24. But since then, Marion Reneau vs former Invicta Bantamweight champ and recent UFC Featherweight title challenger, Tonya Evinger was announced for UFC Fight Night 126 in Austin, Texas on February 18. That was expected to remain the case…until Evinger was recently forced out of the fight with an injury. Now as first reported by MMAJunkie and confirmed by McMann herself on Instagram, she will indeed be filling in for Evinger against Reneau but the fight will be taking place at UFC on Fox 28 instead of Fight Night 126. This now leaves Invicta champ, Yana Kunitskaya without a dance partner.

Drake Riggs - January 10, 2018

Last night, one of the UFC’s all-time biggest stars was seen possibly advancing closer to her next career. Former UFC and Strikeforce Bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey has been rumored to be eventually making the leap on over to the wrestling entertainment world for a good while now. The top organization for professional wrestling is the WWE and one of Rousey’s close friends, Shayna Baszler has already made the full jump over as she’s now on their main roster. Rousey has already done a promo for the WWE…so the foundation has been laid out for her to really make the transition.

Justin Golightly - January 10, 2018

Things are finally looking up for former UFC featherweight title challenger Frankie Edgar. He was slated for a title shot against Max Holloway, but had to withdraw due to an injured orbital. Not only does he get another shot, but just a day after his fight with Holloway is re-booked for UFC 222, he got bumped up to first degree black belt. He wasn’t the only fighter getting the honors from Ricardo Almeida, his teammate Marlon Moraes got promoted from brown belt to black belt. “Such an honor to have these guys on our mats day in and day out. Congratulations gentleman. Marlon Moraes: Congratulations on your black belt, six years as a brown belt and I tried to promote him last year but he wouldn’t accept it. You won’t find a more humble guy. Frankie Edgar: Black belt first degree. Our team leader/captain always setting the pace we all try to follow.”

Justin Golightly - January 10, 2018

All the talk of last year was the showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. Today, another billionaire shared the stage with a millionaire at the Pendulum Summit as it took over the Convention Centre Dublin. English business magnate Sir Richard Branson met with the UFC’s self-proclaimed ‘Champ Champ’ and presented him Pendulum’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement award. Of course, with two entrepreneurial icons of that caliber on stage, it couldn’t be just any normal presentation. 🏟 #PendulumSummit

Justin Golightly - January 10, 2018

You probably know UFC featherweight fighter Dennis Bermudez. You’ve watched him fight there since 2011, go on a ridiculous seven-fight win streak, even beating Max Holloway early in the champion’s career. You may even know that his next fight will be against Andre Fili at UFC Charlotte. What you may not know, is that he holds the world record for drinking one liter of lemon juice faster than any person ever. He’s not stopping there though, he has even more planned. “I was at the right place at the right time [to break the lemon juice drinking world record]. I was working with one of my sponsors [G FUEL] and they had all their athletes — gamers and models — doing this event. One of their sponsors is Furious Pete and he has multiple Guinness Book of World Records. So, when he reached out to Guinness Book of World Records and told them that he’s going to attempt to break the world record for the fastest time to drink lemon juice, Guinness Book of World Records was all about it.”

Tom Taylor - January 10, 2018

Amanda Ribas’ UFC career has been dealt a serious blow before it even started. The strawweight fighter was scheduled to make her promotional debut opposite Julianna Lima last summer. Unfortunately, she was pulled from this contest when she tested positive for the banned substance ostarine in an out-of-competition test facilitated on June 7. She was subsequently handed a provisional suspension, while USADA, the UFC’s anti-doping partner, examined her case.

Justin Golightly - January 10, 2018

Every time Demetrious Johnson’s name has come up since his record-breaking performance, it has been paired with TJ Dillashaw. It seemed like negotiations were getting close, but he has recently dismissed the talk. We’ve known that the main speed bump was money, but it looks like there is another thing standing in the way. While things get figured out, Demetrious Johnson is going to be pulling a Tyron Woodley and repair himself from his demanding fight schedule. He goes in to have shoulder surgery today, which makes a return and the potential superfight between him and Dillashaw completely up in the air. UFC flyweight champ @MightyMouseUFC is undergoing shoulder surgery today. Timetable for return is TBD at this time.

Justin Golightly - January 10, 2018

As soon as Max Holloway beat Jose Aldo once again, he jumped right back on the fight to bring the UFC to Hawaii. Just like the pressure fighter he is in the Octagon, he isn’t letting up at all. It looks like he’s finally chipping away at both sides because it looks like things are getting closer. As reported by Rob DeMello of KHON, the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) President George Szigeti will be meeting soon with the UFC in Las Vegas for a potential card at Aloha Stadium. Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO George Szigeti told me today that the HTA is planning to meet face to face with #UFC in Las Vegas “within the next month or two” to discuss possible UFC event at Aloha Stadium. #UFCHawaii @blessedMMA

Justin Golightly - January 10, 2018

No question the UFC’s new Performance Institute is incredible. Francis Ngannou has practically moved in since transplanting to Las Vegas. It’s an enormous facility complete with the most up-to-date and cutting edge ways for any professional fighter to train and recover, provided at absolutely no cost to current UFC athletes. They even have comped meals. Which brings us to Nick Diaz: Was his visit prompted by a bout of the munchies, or is he serious about coming back again? Diaz recently took a tour with UFC’s Vice President of Health and Performance, Jeff Novitzky. “I think [Nick Diaz] does [want to fight], I think he does. I’ve sat down with him over the past couple months trying to resolve this whereabouts issues. The unfortunate thing there is, look, the whereabouts failures are there to catch people that are cheating and trying to avoid testing. I just think Nick’s lifestyle led to those three whereabouts, not that he was trying to avoid testing. We’re trying to work through that. [Nick] trusted certain individuals to do his whereabouts for him. What I think happened was, over time, those individuals were in and out of his life, and it was unbeknownst to him that he was missing all these things. But again, there’s strict liability here. He’s currently under sanction, but we’re hoping to resolve that pretty quick.” — Jeff Novitzky talking to Joe Rogan on his MMA show.

Tom Taylor - January 10, 2018

Back in November, we learned that top light heavyweight contender Volkan Oezdemir was being charged with felony battery as the result of an unfortunate incident in a Florida bar. According to a report from MMAFighting.com, who spoken with Oezdemir’s lawyer Bruce A. Zimet, the Swiss fighter pleaded not guilty to this charge, and demanded a trial by jury at a Tuesday arraignment.  Oezdemir’s next hearing will occur on February 22, and the good news is that he’s been given no travel restrictions in the meantime. This means that he’ll be able to fly to Boston to battle UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier at UFC 220 on January 20 without a hitch.

Tom Taylor - January 10, 2018

Ever since UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg thwarted challenger Holly Holm at UFC 219, UFC women’s bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes has been eager to fight her. UFC President Dana White also seems to be on board with this plan. And while there are still some major hurdles to clear before this fight is made, Nunes’ head coach at American Top Team, Conan Silveira, is very confident it’ll happen. “People want to see it,” Silveira told MMAjunkie. “I think they have the best opportunity to leave their marks on history.”

Tom Taylor - January 10, 2018

After his UFC 219 destruction of the always dangerous Edson Barboza, Dagestan’s Khabib Nurmagomedov is once again one of the most talked about fighters in the UFC. Undefeated at 25-0, the destructive grappling specialist is now the undeniable, irrefutable number one contender at lightweight. The big question simply seems to be whether he battles undisputed UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor, or interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson. Logic, of course, would suggest that if Nurmagomedov gets the next lightweight title shot, it’ll come against Ferguson. If McGregor returns to defend his title, after all, he’d likely have to do it against the interim champion Ferguson. Shortly after his fight with Barboza, Nurmagomedov’s manager assured a fight with Ferguson is indeed the focus.

Drake Riggs - January 9, 2018

Stevie Ray’s quest for a new UFC contract continues. Last time we heard from Ray, he was contemplating retirement. That appears to not exactly be the case anymore as he’s still trying to get in touch with Sean Shelby for fights. Ray last fought Paul Felder in July in his home of Scotland. It was the last fight on Ray’s contract and the time since then has been a bit frustrating for Ray. He discussed the situation on the Obviously Fight Talk podcast.

Drake Riggs - January 9, 2018

UFC on Fox 27 in Charlotte, North Carolina will be the UFC’s first event in the state since 2010 and their fourth ever. Headlining will be the hometown top Middleweight contender, Derek Brunson when he takes on the perennial top five 185er, Jacare Souza in a rematch from their 2012 Strikeforce meeting. Jacare won the fight in just forty-one seconds as he had the very clear experience advantage. Now things are a bit more evened out and Brunson knows it. Brunson discussed the rematch and what he wants to happen after in an interview with Clture. “When I fought him before, I was fresh out of college, right when I first started fighting. So I came in as a straight wrestler and it takes a long time to develop your boxing skills, your muay thai skills, to not over-extend yourself when you punch, but actually being able to throw a punch and not leave yourself in danger is a key point. I’m a different fighter now. I’ve been able to knock guys out clean here recently because I’ve been able to find that mix, to find that happy medium.

Drake Riggs - January 9, 2018

The last time we saw former WEC and UFC Lightweight champion, Anthony Pettis in action he was covered in blood and looking for submissions off his back against Dustin Poirier at UFC Fight Night 120 on November 11. Pettis lost that fight via TKO from a rib injury he sustained when Poirier transitioned off his back into mount on Pettis. This loss made the former champ 2-5 in his last seven outings, which also meant he has yet to put together a winning streak since he was the UFC champion back in 2014. Pettis appears to be healing up though and has a date targeted according to Ariel Helwani who confirms that Pettis wants to fight on the UFC’s next London card which is on March 17. No potential opponents were named by Helwani… But Nolan King reports that there has been at least some discussion that the UFC is looking at the rising star, Mairbek Taisumov for Pettis’ next opponent.

Drake Riggs - January 9, 2018

The plan for UFC 218 wasn’t always for it to be headlined by a Max Holloway vs Jose Aldo rematch. Initially, it was Holloway set to defend for the first time against former UFC Lightweight champion and two time Featherweight title challenger, Frankie Edgar. Unfortunately, Edgar ended up breaking his orbital bone in training and had to be pulled from the fight just weeks prior. But now he’s ready to go and the pieces have fallen back together. UFC 222 on March 3 from Las Vegas will be the time and place, Edgar spoke with FloCombat today about the rebooking and how it felt when things fell apart.

Justin Golightly - January 9, 2018

Promote. Perform. Become The 🐐 in Career Mode. #EAUFC3 Champions Edition 👉 https://t.co/EOAhzJQISd pic.twitter.com/2ZSfNP6Qux — EA SPORTS UFC (@EASPORTSUFC) January 9, 2018

Justin Golightly - January 9, 2018

The wait is finally over. Bellator is going to kick off their big heavyweight grand prix before this month ends and Chael Sonnen will face off with Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson. They’ll be throwing down for the chance to advance in the tournament, which will finally crown a Bellator heavyweight champion by the end of this year. MMA is prizefighting, so it makes sense to have a reward. The two are adding the stakes to their upcoming fight with a side-bet using their own cash. “Let’s do it right here, right now. Let’s do it right here.  I will give you $10K for every takedown you get on me. It’s 10 grand per takedown, $500 per jab. […] You won’t take me down not one time. Hey, I’m giving up $10K per takedown, don’t be a wuss. $500 per jab.” — Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson on the ESPN LA radio show.