MMA News

Drake Riggs - January 3, 2018

November 11, 2017: The event was UFC Fight Night 120 from Norfolk, Virginia. Matt Brown went up against The Ultimate Fighter season one winner, Diego Sanchez in what everyone expected to be Brown’s last fight. However, after defeating Sanchez with a sensational elbow knockout, Brown has been on the fence about calling it a career.

Justin Golightly - January 3, 2018

What Demetrious Johnson has done is hard. Like, very hard. Look at all the titles that changed hands in 2017. Of course, Mighty Mouse wasn’t one of them. He hasn’t ever been one of them. For six years he hasn’t been beaten, collecting a history-making number of title defenses and surpassing Anderson Silva in the process. It’s one of the reasons he may be slowing down a little bit coming into 2018. The UFC flyweight champion only plans to defend his title twice this year. “That’s the plan, this year two fights. There comes a point in time, I was looking at my Wikipedia page and there were times where I fought four times in one year, I defended the belt three times in one year, got surgery between those title defenses. I think it’s safe to say that my goal is to get two title defenses this year and we will go from there. I’ll try to stay healthy and we will see then. […] You see champions all the time, they get the belt, then they go on a two-fight win streak and lose it. To be able to defend the belt from 2012 to 2017 and hopefully defend two more times in 2018, it’s extremely freaking hard.”

Justin Golightly - January 3, 2018

The plot thickens once again. Since the Summer of 2017, we’ve been going up and down in the crazy roller coaster of Jon Jones’ possible anti-doping violation. It’s gone every which way you could think of through his A sample and B sample news, coaches coming to his aid, as well as the potential consequences he’d be facing and some insane rumors. Things have been relatively quiet for awhile, but just recently the UFC’s vice president of athlete health and performance, Jeff Novitzky has been notified of some meetings that have gone well. The big kicker though is that he doesn’t believe the former UFC light heavyweight champion took this drug intentionally. “Right up front, I’ve said this awhile now, it would not make a lot of sense for an individual, a UFC athlete that knew, especially a champion or contender like Jon Jones, that knew ‘Hey, I’m tested quite regularly in the program,’ would not make a lot of sense that [Turinabol] would be your drug of choice if you were intentionally trying to cheat. I think it’s come out after the fact that USADA did another test on Jon a month or two or a couple of months after his positive test and he was negative during that test.”

Justin Golightly - January 3, 2018

Tyron Woodley is out recovering for his shoulder surgery, meanwhile the welterweights are all pacing back and forth to see who gets the next shot. Dana White went on record saying that the winner of Rafael dos Anjos and Robbie Lawler’s fight would get to fight Woodley for a title, after dos Anjos dominated the fight, it seemed like the next logical option. He still is campaigning for the shot while Tyron Woodley has other plans than the former lightweight champ and his boss: Georges St-Pierre, then dos Anjos. “I don’t see nobody ahead of me that deserve a next title shot, I’m former lightweight champion and I’ve been on the UFC for almost 10 years. 2017 was a great year and I’m looking forward for 2018.” — Rafael dos Anjos on Instagram.

Russell Sai - January 3, 2018

Khabib Nurmagomedov dazzled a lot of people with his performance over Edson Barboza at UFC 219. Although a few people including Conor McGregor and Tony Ferguson were not so impressed by Nurmagomedov’s performance, UFC commentator Joe Rogan was blown away and has talked about a matchup between McGregor and Nurmagomedov as that is undeniably a very intriguing matchup in the UFC lightweight division. Ferguson tweeted after UFC 219, “Yo @joerogan Last Time I Checked I Was The Fuckin Champ… U Trading The 10P Gear For A Hat?”

Justin Golightly - January 3, 2018

dead Tiger Date with KO – Ganryujima always brings it pic.twitter.com/mjOkhnHy8w — Jolassanda (@Jolassanda) January 3, 2018

Justin Golightly - January 3, 2018

Imagine watching Khabib Nurmagomedov dominating arguably the most dangerous striker in the lightweight division. Not only that, but somehow he’s talking to you while he’s doing it. Now imagine that this man is waiting on your car after UFC 219 to talk with you. That’s what happened to Dana White at UFC 219. Nurmagomedov greeted White with his signature ‘papakha’ hat and a speech to end all post-fight speeches. Making the point that Conor McGregor took a paternity leave from the UFC for his son’s birth, while Khabib stayed and beat Edson Barboza. “I tell [Dana White] hey, today when I fight, my son is born. I tell him hey, you remember one year ago? All MMA fans one year waiting for Conor [McGregor’s] son, but I’m here. For my fans, for my legacy, for my history, for everything. I need real fight. Tony [Ferguson] or Conor. Doesn’t matter. Please give me both. He said, ‘You deserve everything what you want.’ And he told me, ‘Performance of the night is yours.'”

Tom Taylor - January 3, 2018

UFC President Dana White certainly catches his fair share of criticism. Whether it’s for his profanity-laced diatribes, his ruthless approach to business, or the way he treats his fighter, it seems he’s always under fire for something. Somewhere underneath White’s prickly exterior, however, is a heart of gold, and every now and then, that heart reveals itself. Perhaps the best example of this occured in 2010, when White opened his wallet and paid for the emergency liver-transplant of a seven-month-old baby girl in Thailand.

Tom Taylor - January 3, 2018

Just days removed from her exciting UFC 219 victory over Holly Holm, UFC women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg is already looking ahead to her next fight. The champ is now hoping to fight Invicta featherweight queen Megan Anderson, ideally when the UFC touches down in Anderson’s native Australia with UFC 221 on February 11. While Cyborg has heard the calls for a superfight between herself and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, she feels that it’s important for her to fight a legitimate featherweight like Anderson in her next fight – and for a pretty noble reason.

Tom Taylor - January 3, 2018

Last Saturday, in the main event of UFC 219, UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg stepped into the Octagon to attempt her first title defense. Her opponent on this quest was former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm. While Cyborg ultimately came out on top in this fight, capturing a well-deserved unanimous decision, Holm certainly didn’t make it easy for her. The former bantamweight champ hung in there for the duration of the fight, landing meaningful offense of her own throughout.

Tom Taylor - January 3, 2018

Over the last few days, JacksonWink photographer Mark Aragon has been on the receiving end of a tidal wave of scorn, having made some truly ugly comments about UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg on Instagram in the wake of her UFC 219 win over Holly Holm. The staff photographer from Jackson-Wink posted this last night. Apparently he was also credentialed to the fights. Would expect a lot more from such a well respected gym. https://t.co/EYXRLE4Vs4 pic.twitter.com/YaAMuEyJOA

Tom Taylor - January 3, 2018

Last weekend, the UFC touched down in Las Vegas, Nevada with UFC 219. In the card’s main event, we watched Cris Cyborg defend her women’s featherweight title by out-duelling Holly Holm to a unanimous decision win. In the co-main event, meanwhile, we saw lightweight star Khabib Nurmagomedov extend his record to an insane 25-0, bludgeoning Edson Barboza to a unanimous decision win. Elsewhere on the main card, we saw Dan Hooker tap Mark Diakiese, Neil Magny outwork Carlos Condit, and Carla Esparza sneak by rising prospect Cynthia Calvillo.

Drake Riggs - January 2, 2018

After UFC 219, Khabib Nurmagomedov has been all the rage when it comes to the hottest of MMA discussions. It doesn’t hurt that after such an impressive victory, he and the Lightweight champion, Conor McGregor have been going back and forth somewhat consistently on Twitter over the past few days. But today the top Lightweight announced the signing of his cousin, Abubakar Nurmagomedov on his Instagram profile. https://www.instagram.com/p/BddfaKXlg15/?taken-by=khabib_nurmagomedov

Drake Riggs - January 2, 2018

If you haven’t been following the women’s scene in Mixed Martial Arts consistently for the past two decades, then you probably aren’t likely to know who Tara LaRosa is. Perhaps you may have watched season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter which was the first season to ever feature female fighters. LaRosa attempted to get onto the show but fell short in the elimination round to current UFC Bantamweight, Sarah Moras. LaRosa is about as seasoned of a fighter as one can be. Especially when it comes to the women. She’s been fighting since 2002 and her next opponent…literally hasn’t been fighting for any time ever(unless you count his surely incredible street fighting record). A man by the name of Kristopher Zylinski has made claims on a public article that a trained female fighter would lose to an untrained man if they were to fight. Well…he’s not the first one to do so, that’s a guarantee. But, luckily(or unluckily), Zylinkski has been man enough to actually accept to prove this challenge as offered up by the McDojoLife.

Drake Riggs - January 2, 2018

There hasn’t been a more hated man in MMA than Mark Aragon since UFC 219 came to a close… Aragon is the photographer for the JacksonWink MMA gym and after the UFC 219 main event that saw their fighter, Holly Holm lose to the champion, Cris Cyborg, he posted a rather offensive post on Instagram that upset Cyborg as well as many others on both sides of the subject and fans alike. But today the UFC released a statement that Aragon would no longer be allowed into UFC events(according to MMAFighting).

Drake Riggs - January 2, 2018

We’ve seen it on a few occasions where NFL players have made the transition from the top American football league to the world of MMA, for better and for worse results. Most recently, former defensive end for the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys, Greg Hardy has made the leap over and quickly found success. Hardy is undefeated at 2-0 with both of his wins coming by way of knockout(both under a minute and thirty-six seconds). Hardy is only twenty-nine years old but played six seasons in the NFL(although one of those seasons he only played one game in due to getting suspended for his domestic violence case). Now, MMAFighting reports that he is set to for his biggest fight on his biggest stage so far when he takes on the 2-1, Ryan Chester at Legacy Fighting Alliance(LFA) 33 on February 16 in his third amateur Heavyweight bout.

Justin Golightly - January 2, 2018

Even with a loss, Justin Gaethje has had an incredible year. He walked away from his five-time defended WSOF lightweight title to finally sign on with the UFC, much to the rallying cries of fans and the blessing of the violence gods. He put on MMA Fighting’s ‘Fight of the Year’ with Michael Johnson, then had another ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate with Eddie Alvarez at UFC 218. For now, he’s going to let the body and brain rest, but he’s already contemplating who he wants to fight next. Who better than Kevin Lee, the last fighter to lose to interim lightweight champ Tony Ferguson? “First time I ever met [Kevin Lee], he was nice. Then he talked sh-t saying I was fan-boying over him. He doesn’t know what respect is. I’ll never show him respect again, that’s for sure. I just like punching loudmouths in the face. I’m sure I’ll get the itch [to fight again] sooner rather than later. I said I wanted to wait around until June, July, but I’m sure I’ll get the itch sooner. It’s too soon [right now], but we’ll see how things play out. I might want to beat up Kevin Lee, that kid over there I want to beat up.” — Justin Gaethje speaking today on The MMA Hour.

Justin Golightly - January 2, 2018

Throwback to 2015 when Conor McGregor predicted that Khabib Nurmagomedov would one day have the Lightweight title. pic.twitter.com/pzJT9U6WoR — UFC India (@UFCIndia) December 31, 2017