MMA News

Justin Golightly - January 4, 2018

After a false alarm leak, Demetrious Johnson released a statement saying that a Champ Champ fight with TJ Dillashaw still isn’t official yet. But hey, don’t tell Dillashaw that. He’s been training since early December now and is steamrolling ahead like the fight is tomorrow. This is a giant scrap for both fighters and could be one of the most high-level displays of MMA ever. TJ Dillashaw recently opened up about the match-up and the fact that it has a whole lot more on the line that just a belt. This is about legacy and the title of greatest of all time. “I’m looking to come in and dethrone [Demetrious Johnson] from his legacy. He won’t be able to call himself the GOAT anymore. It’s so easy for him to continue calling himself that and take the fights he thinks are a little easier. He’s a cerebral fighter. He and his coach are smart guys, and they know I bring the greatest threat. I think he knows that’s going to be a tough one for him to win. It’s frustrating, because I believe I should be a lot higher [pound-for-pound].”

Justin Golightly - January 4, 2018

Cris Cyborg came, she saw, she conquered. She took on her biggest test to date and still proved she’s the most dominant women’s champion in the world of MMA today. After winning a decision over former UFC bantamweight champion Holly Holm, everyone is wondering what will be next. Cyborg has said she wants true featherweight fighter Megan Anderson, but the UFC seems to have other plans. Despite saying she doesn’t want to fight another Brazilian, Dana White says Amanda Nunes challenging Cyborg is the fight to make. “First of all, Amanda Nunes wants to fight her. Amanda Nunes wants to fight [Cris] Cyborg,” White said. “That is the fight to make, and that is the fight I will make. Yeah, That’s the fight. That’s the fight. Amanda Nunes is a big, strong, powerful puncher. I think she matches up very well with Cyborg too, and I think that’s a fun fight. And that’s the fight to make.”

Justin Golightly - January 4, 2018

It looks like Khabib Nurmagomedov’s convincing and violent marketing campaign has paid off. He was talking to Dana White in between dominating Edson Barboza at UFC 219, even waiting on him at his car to speak with him in the parking lot. Everything with Conor McGregor is still up in the air, so the UFC is now moving on with or without him. The plan right now is for Nurmagomedov to finally fight Tony Ferguson. It will depend on McGregor if that fight is for the interim or the undisputed UFC lightweight title. “As long as Conor [McGregor] is willing to fight by March, we could do Khabib [Nurmagomedov] versus Tony [Ferguson]. We could do Khabib versus Tony and then the winner fights Conor for the title. Or, Conor doesn’t want to fight and wants to sit out until next fall, then we would have to make Khabib vs. Tony for the title – not the interim title.”

Tom Taylor - January 4, 2018

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor has yet to defend his title. Given that he won that title all the way back in November of 2016, that’s really starting to bug a lot of fans. In fact, there are widespread calls for the UFC to strip McGregor of his lightweight belt. While many fans would like to see McGregor stripped, however, it hasn’t happened yet. The leading theory to that end is that UFC President Dana White wants the belt to stay around the waist of his Irish cash cow for as long as possible.

Tom Taylor - January 4, 2018

On January 14, in the main event of the UFC’s anticipated stop on St. Louis, MO, South Korean featherweight contender Doo Ho Choi will return to the cage for the first time since his insane 2016 loss to Cub Swanson. His opponent in this long-awaited comeback fight will be a fellow knockout artist in Jeremy Stephens. Should Choi win this fight with Stephens, he’ll vault up the UFC featherweight rankings in the direction of a title shot. And while he’ll likely need another few wins beyond Stephens to secure that shot, he’s hoping it’ll happen soon – before he’s forced to complete the two years of mandatory military service required of all South Korean men.

Tom Taylor - January 4, 2018

UFC light heavyweight contender Jimi Manuwa has been teasing fight news for several days, and now, his next fight is official. The Brit will return to the cage in his native London, England this March 17. His opponent will be Poland’s Blachowicz. Manuwa announced this fight on his official Twitter account.

Drake Riggs - January 3, 2018

Violence, violence and more violence. If that’s the game then Justin Gaethje is the name! Gaethje was last seen in action when he took on former UFC and Bellator Lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez at UFC 218 in what was a crazy fight to say the least. But that’s nothing new for the man known as “the Highlight”. Gaethje recently spoke about who he might like to fight next and one name that came to mind was that of recent title challenger, Kevin Lee. Today on Sirius XM’s MMA Tonight broadcast, “the MoTown Phenom” responded. .@MoTownPhenom responds to @Justin_Gaethje's callout: "I like easy money. Justin likes to take a lot of damage. I like to give a lot of damage. It seems like a good matchup to me." @MieshaTate @realOCsports pic.twitter.com/5Y1z1DVgdd

Russell Sai - January 3, 2018

Some interesting news regarding Jon Jones and his positive steroid case came out today. Jeff Novitzky, the UFC vice president of athlete health and performance was a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and stated some good news for Jones’ case saying that “at this point in the game with this type of information out there, it wouldn’t indicate intentional use.”

Drake Riggs - January 3, 2018

Oh, medical suspensions. We get them with every single MMA event. Some are more severe than others and for the most recent UFC event(UFC 219), Cynthia Calvillo could be leading the pack in that category. According to MMAFighting, the Nevada State Athletic Commission released the list of fighters who will be receiving these suspensions. Cynthia Calvillo: Requires x-ray of left hand, if positive then must be cleared by orthopedic doctor or no contest until 06/30; minimum suspension of no contest until 02/15, no contact until 01/30 Neil Magny: Requires x-ray/MRI of left thumb, if positive then must be cleared by orthopedic doctor or no contest until 06/30; minimum suspension of no contest until 01/30, no contact until 01/21 Omari Akhmedov: Requires left-hand fracture to be cleared by orthopedic doctor or no contest until 06/30; minimum suspension of no contest until 03/02, no contact until 02/15 Holly Holm: Suspended until 03/02, no contact until 02/15 Edson Barboza: Suspended until 03/02, no contact until 02/15 Khalil Rountree: Suspended until 02/15, no contact until 01/30 Michal Oleksiejczuk: Suspended until 2/15, no contact until 01/30 due to right eyebrow cut Rick Glenn: Suspended until 02/15, no contact until 01/30 Marvin Vettori: Suspended until 02/15, no contact until 01/30 due to tough fight Louis Smolka: Suspended until 02/15, no contact until 01/30 due to left forehead cut Carla Esparza: Suspended until 01/30, no contact until 01/21 Mark De La Rosa: Suspended until 01/30, no contact until 01/21 Of these twelve fighters, only three came out victorious in their fights(Esparza, Magny, and Oleksiejczuk). Calvillo, who could serve the most time on the sideline, lost a close fought unanimous decision to former Strawweight champion, Carla Esparza. This made it the promising prospect, Calvillo’s first career loss as well as her fifth fight in 2017. That considered, a break might not be bad for the young Team Alpha Male standout but she would have liked to do so off a win and that is indeed what she thought she deserved.

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.”

Tom Taylor - January 3, 2018

When examining the options for 2017’s Submission of the Year, there is one very clear frontrunner: the insane, flying armbar flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson locked up on Ray Borg back in October. It was the perfect display of just how breathtaking the grappling side of mixed martial arts can be. Speaking on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Johnson recounted the events that led to this insane submission win.

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.'”

Justin Golightly - January 3, 2018

Rose Namajunas pulled off the biggest upset of 2017 and then went back to living her life. She walked in her home, put up her new UFC strawweight title, and admired a tomato she grew. Flashing back to the tense build-up to her fight with Joanna, it was a startling juxtaposition of how two very different warriors deal with their own personal pre-fight process. A fist in her face, she recited the Lord’s Prayer and refrained from escalating or even insulting the former champion. It’s something that she came back to comment on yesterday, stating that it doesn’t make sense for her to finally achieve everything she wanted to become an asshole. “Me saying that this belt don’t mean nothing, it’s not really that it doesn’t mean anything, it’s just it doesn’t mean as much if you’re just an asshole, you know what I mean? Me being the best in the world, it doesn’t mean that much to me if I’m not a good person at the end of the day, if I’m not setting a good example for other people to be better to each other. What’s the point of being the best in the world if you scratch and claw your way to the top and you push everybody down instead of lifting everybody else up with you? I think we’ve been sitting around trying to figure out what’s different [now that I’m champion] and I think that’s what’s different. There’s not really much that has changed.”

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.