MMA News

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2018

 After some six years away from the UFC’s Octagon, former welterweight contender Chris Lytle made a triumphant return to fighting over the weekend, stepping into the ring for a bareknuckle boxing match in England. In this fight, Lytle defeated his opponent Lewis Gallant by third-round TKO, per Daily Star. Lytle’s last mixed martial arts bout occurred in 2011, when he submitted Dan Hardy in the final minute of a three-round war. His penultimate bout was an upset loss to Brian Ebersole, which was preceded by four-straight wins over Matt Serra, Matt Brown, Brian Foster, and Kevin Burns.

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2018

Sacramento’s Team Alpha Male has long been regarded as one of the top mixed martial arts gyms in the world. That remains true today, when the gym is home to former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, and two of the top featherweights on earth in Josh Emmett and Darren Elkins. Emmett last fought in December, when he clubbed long-time contender Ricardo Lamas to a massive, first-round upset KO. Elkins, meanwhile, returns to the cage tonight, when he will take on former lightweight contender Michael Johnson on the main card of the UFC’s anticipated debut in St. Louis, Missouri.

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2018

Ever since he knocked out Cody Garbrandt to recapture the UFC bantamweight title, TJ Dillashaw has been angling for a flyweight title shot opposite dominant divisional kingpin Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. In order to earn this opportunity, of course, Dillashaw will have to cut down to 125 pounds – something Garbrandt doesn’t believe he can do. I’d make 125 in a month! This fool can’t make 125, he knows what it is. I’ll be here cleaning the division out again, waiting for him🏃🏼🏃🏼 https://t.co/XzybIfRWNv

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2018

The vast majority of the MMA community is currently waiting eagerly for Conor McGregor news. There are dozens of questions currently attached to the Irish superstar’s name. Will he return to the Octagon, or the boxing ring? Will he even fight again at all? After so many months on the sidelines, will the UFC strip him of his lightweight title? What would this mean for Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov? The list goes on and on and on. In the opinion of UFC featherweight Cub Swanson, however, fan attention would be better focused on fighters who are actually staying busy. On Saturday afternoon, Swanson took to Twitter to express his confusion with the widespread interest in fighters who fail to stay active.

Justin Golightly - January 13, 2018

As chaotic as the MMA world is right now, the UFC’s lightweight division is still ridiculous. Eddie Alvarez jsut got off an extremely violent win over Justin Gaethje and is waiting for a huge fight. Khabib Nurmagomedov is back and on warpath. Tony Ferguson is the interim lightweight belt holder and still recovering from elbow surgery. Meanwhile, the undisputed champion Conor McGregor is still counting his money and waiting on the right time to show back up. With his future up in the air, Joe Rogan thinks the UFC will strip him make big fights in his absence. “Here’s my prediction: My prediction is Conor [McGregor] doesn’t fight for a while. They strip Conor. Tony [Ferguson] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] fight for the [undisputed UFC lightweight] world title. […] What I believe is gonna happen is, Conor’s gonna vacate. I think they’re going to strip him.”

Chris Taylor - January 13, 2018

Vitor Belfort reacts to losing fight with Uriah Hall at the last minute! Earlier today news broke that dangerous knockout artist Uriah Hall had failed to show up for the UFC Fight Night 124 weigh ins, which forced the promotion to cancel his co-main event scrap with Vitor Belfort.

Justin Golightly - January 13, 2018

Damn…. @aliabdelaziz000 @ufc @mickmaynard2 @danawhite I wish Yoel and Lucas the best, speedy recovery champ. 😔 A post shared by David Branch (@davidbranch32) on Jan 13, 2018 at 4:33am PST

Justin Golightly - January 13, 2018

The main and the co-main event of UFC 220 in Boston have a lot in common. Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier are both champions who have passed the tests of many incredible threats. The names in their win columns are intimidating to say the least. They’ll be up against young talent that boast terrifying knockout power that fans love. Daniel Cormier is here to remind you that there is more to this game than just punching someone very hard. Anthony Johnson was one of the most feared hitters in the UFC light heavyweight division, but in the end it didn’t allow him to beat Cormier. “I think people fall in love with power punchers. I believe it’s just because they finish the fights. They finish fights in no time. The fight is going and all of a sudden it’s over. You got guys like [Anthony] ‘Rumble’ [Johnson] who was knocking everybody out. Then you have guys like Volkan [Oezdemir], they can knock everybody out and people fall in love with them.”

Justin Golightly - January 13, 2018

This year is off to a crazy start. We just lost Robert Whittaker’s fight with Luke Rockhold due to an injury. Before that, Zak Cummings had to pull out of his fight with Thiago Alves. Now another big scrap has just been struck down. As we all know, the UFC scales remain undefeated. Uriah Hall failed to weigh in early this morning for his fight with legend Vitor Belfort. As a result, the UFC has pulled the co-main event from the card this Sunday and as of right now there are no news as to what will be bumped up into that slot. UFC has made it official. Uriah Hall vs. Vitor Belfort is officially off #UFCSTL. Belfort’s retirement fight will have to wait.

Justin Golightly - January 13, 2018

No doubt Max Holloway is game for anything. When Frankie Edgar was forced to pull out of their fight at UFC 218, he was willing to step up to lightweight to stay on the card to fight Tony Ferguson or anyone else who was up for a scrap. If there was still some question about Holloway’s warrior mentality, he just came out and said he’d be willing to fight the scariest man in the next division up. If the chance ever comes, regardless of the weight class, Holloway would love to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov. “Oh yeah, for sure [I could see a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov down the road]. I think Khabib is a beast and that’s the kind of guys you want to fight to cement your legacy. He’s over here making all the greats, all the top guys look average and I want to fight him. People keep telling me, ‘he’s gonna smash you and this and that,’ I’ve heard this before. I have nothing but respect for the guy but at the end of the day if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”

Chris Taylor - January 12, 2018

Robert Whittaker forced out of UFC 221 with injury, Luke Rockhold gets a new opponent! UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has suffered an injury and will no longer be able to compete against Luke Rockhold in the headliner of next month’s UFC 221 pay-per-view in Australia.

Chris Taylor - January 12, 2018

T.J. Dillashaw fires back at Cody Garbrandt “You can’t even really be called champ without defending your belt”. Following his thrilling second-round knockout victory over Cody Garbrandt at UFC 217, newly crowned UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw set his sights on a super-fight with current flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson.

Chris Taylor - January 12, 2018

Josh Emmett says a fight with Brian Ortega “needs to happen”, weighs in on Edgar vs. Holloway. UFC featherweight contender Josh Emmett is coming off one of the most sensational knockouts of 2017 at last month’s UFC on FOX 26 event in Winnipeg.

Chris Taylor - January 12, 2018

UFC Fight Night 124 loses a bout after fighter slips while exiting bathtub. UFC welterweights Thiago Alves and Zak Cummings will no longer be throwing down this Sunday night in St. Louis.

Chris Taylor - January 12, 2018

Perennial UFC welterweight contender “Platinum” Mike Perry will look to rebound from his recent loss to Santiago Ponzinibbio when he squares off with Max Griffin at UFC on FOX 28 on February 24 in Orlando, Florida. The welterweight knockout artist, Perry, recently sat down with host Kinch from BJ Penn Radio where he discussed his newly announced fight which takes place in his backyard of Orlando, Florida.

Drake Riggs - January 12, 2018

The preliminary numbers for the UFC’s final event of 2017 have been released by Dave Meltzer and they did better than most may have assumed they would. Estimations are around 340,000 to 380,000 buys which…is shockingly the third highest of 2017. The top two being UFC 217 which was headlined by UFC middleweight champion, Michael Bisping defending against the returning welterweight king, Georges St-Pierre which did 875,000. Following UFC 217 was UFC 214 which featured light heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier rematching Jon Jones, doing 860,000. Both events featured three title fights. The next highest after UFC 219 was a tie between UFC 209 and UFC 211 with 250,000. 209 was headlined by Tyron Woodley as he defended his title in a rematch against Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Heavyweight champ, Stipe Miocic also was in a rematch for his fight when he defended against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 211.

Drake Riggs - January 12, 2018

Everyone was expecting that the highly anticipated welterweight title fight between Rory MacDonald and the champion, Douglas Lima was going to headline their big January 20th show. I mean, the welterweights are even highlighted on the poster as if they are the main event. But just a week before, Bellator has made the change to swap the co-main with the main making the first fight of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix between UFC veteran middleweight and light heavyweight, Chael Sonnen and former UFC champ, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. TheSportingNews’ Steven Muehlhausen confirmed the change via Bellator president, Scott Coker.

Justin Golightly - January 12, 2018

Ever since Khabib Nurmagomedov put on a dominating performance against Edson Barboza, he’s continued to dominate headlines. From being slated for a high-profile fight with Tony Ferguson, to Conor McGregor’s coach watching footage of his fights, to an epic first-ever Russian UFC card, you can’t look anywhere without seeing Nurmagomedov’s name. Everyone is wondering what is next for the Russian Sambo machine, but it seems like his manager already knows. It looks like the plan is to indeed skip Ferguson and go straight to McGregor, unless the belt is stripped and a fight with Tony is for the true UFC lightweight title. “Khabib [Nurmagomedov]’s next fight, we’re not fighting for no damn interim belt. We want the real belt, or we don’t want nothing. We appreciate everything the UFC has done for us, but it’s time for a real belt. Nobody is interested in fighting for a fake belt. Tony Ferguson has a fake belt. Nobody wants this.” — Ali Abdelaziz, Khabib Nurmagomedov’s manager, speaking to MMA Fighting.