MMA News

Justin Golightly - December 16, 2017

He’s the multi-million dollar mad man at the at the top of the combat sports world. After ripping two titles out of the hands of UFC champions and making history, he walked away from MMA on paternity leave. Oh, and boxed probably the greatest boxer of our generation to make more money than he’s made in his entire career fighting in a cage. Everyone wondered when and where he’d return. Would it be boxing Manny Pacquiao? Or would he strut back home and face one of the many men waiting for him back in the Octagon. The answer seems to be the UFC. “We’ll see what happens. I think a true fight is what I want to do next. A real fight. Exactly, what’s a real fight? MMA next. F-ck WWE.” — Conor McGregor said speaking to TMZ.

Drake Riggs - December 15, 2017

In Bellator’s last event of 2017 and last event on Spike TV, two ex-UFC title challengers made their Bellator debuts on the same night at Bellator 191, each in the main and co-main events. Starting things off in the co-main event was Valerie Letourneau who took on fellow former UFC competitor, Kate Jackson(who was also on season 23 of The Ultimate Fighter). Letourneau was one of the UFC fighters in the Strawweight division who was suffering the most from the lack of a Flyweight division. Which led to her release which brings us to now. The fight started off with each looking and moving pretty loose and relaxed. Each tried to set up varied strike combos, leading with lots of low kicks and jabs. Each traded cage control through the first half of the opening round and for each fighter, they were having there best success when leading. We saw some clinch work late in the first round from Letourneau where she was able to land some good shots in tight but the time clinching didn’t last long.

Drake Riggs - December 15, 2017

Two former UFC stars, Chael Sonnen and Rampage Jackson are now with Bellator and booked to compete against one another at Bellator 192 on January 20. This fight will be the very first fight to kick things off for the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix where the winner will be crowned Bellator’s new Heavyweight champion. This will be Sonnen’s first fight at Heavyweight and Rampage’s third. Each fighter has one loss in the promotion but Rampage has four times as many wins as Sonnen. It’s well known what type of fighter that Sonnen is. He’s one of the best and strongest pressure wrestlers that the Middleweight division has ever seen. Rampage, however, is known for his tremendous punch knockouts and ability to entertain on the feet. So it’s clear what each will want to do in this matchup and they have even admitted it after now appearing to place a rather interesting bet on their fight.

Drake Riggs - December 15, 2017

Everybody loves a good prank. Even the UFC Light Heavyweight champion of the world, Daniel Cormier. Cormier is set to defend his title at UFC 220 next month on January 20 against the streaking Swissman, Volkan Oezdemir. The event also features another title fight, that being in Cormier’s former weight class of Heavyweight. UFC 220 fighters are currently doing a media tour so Cormier found himself some time with the next Heavyweight title challenger and decided to show him that no one was safe from a good DC prank…including the current scariest man in all of MMA.

Justin Golightly - December 15, 2017

 Despite high-profile names like Robbie Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos headlining the card, Mike Perry has enjoyed his shine in the spotlight leading up to UFC Winnipeg. He’s talked about his eye poke defense training, had a tense and strange staredown with opponent Santiago Ponzinibbio, and even belted out his own wild version of a Christmas favorite. He hasn’t stopped there. Before he steps into the Octagon on Saturday, he sat down with our own Chris Taylor for an exclusive Platinum interview. What’s his mood like ahead of his fight tomorrow:

Justin Golightly - December 15, 2017

What can you say about Tim Elliott? He just has not had the best string of luck recently. It wasn’t long ago that Elliott was booked against Justin Scoggin’s for UFC Winnipeg. That fight got called off due to an injury. Fortunately, Pietro Menga stepped up in his place so Elliott was able to have another fight. Of course, no fight is official until the weigh-ins are through. Menga could not end up making weight and was taken to the hospital. Tim Elliott, as you can imagine, is not happy. “My opponent has missed weight by five pounds. There will be no fight for me. I am lobbying for my show and win money. I had a very expensive two-month training camp in Las Vegas and should not be punished because some twit couldn’t make weight and my first opponent was injured. I did everything I was supposed to. I should not get half my pay because other fighters can’t do their jobs, first opponent got injured, second missed weight.” — Tim Elliott via his official social media accounts.

Justin Golightly - December 15, 2017

It wouldn’t be a fight card without some sort of weigh-in drama. UFC Winnipeg is just a day away but not everyone is going to be making it to the event. Don’t worry, Robbie Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos both made their weight, so the main event is still intact. However, both Tim Elliot’s opponent Pietro Menga and Ricardo Lamas’ opponent Josh Emmett didn’t make their weight. Menga could not weigh-in due to his cut already being at an unhealthy level, while Emmett just came in heavy. The fight with Lamas is still on at catchweight, but Menga will not fight Tim Elliott at Winnipeg. Breaking news per @allelbows: Pietro Menga will not be weighing in and his fight with Tim Elliott at #UFCWinnipeg is off.

Justin Golightly - December 15, 2017

A lot of words come to mind when you hear the name Conor McGregor. We’ll let you fill in your own blanks on that one, but whether it be praise or hate, you have to admit one of those words has to be options. Basically any fight in the UFC inside three divisions is open for the the taking. On top of that, he has at least huge boxing bouts he can explore. If all of that wasn’t enough distractions for him to be lured away from the UFC, he also could Vince McMahon strut into the WWE universe at any time. Legendary Jim Ross said in a recent interview that he’s pretty sure they’ve already discussed business. “Vince [McMahon] knows who Conor McGregor is. You know, Vince doesn’t live on Uranus. He’s pretty well read, he pays attention, he pays attention. And Paul Levesque [Triple H] certainly knows who Conor McGregor is. Look, I don’t have this concrete information or source telling me all that good stuff, I would be very surprised if the two parties on some level haven’t had some kind of communication. It may be lawyer to lawyer, probably that more than anything, but just to feel out interest. Conor is another global star and Conor will sell wrestling tickets, because for a one-off, for a one-time deal he’ll sell tickets to see how he’s going to do. And he strikes me as the kind of guy that has such a competitive ego that he will do anything to not fail, to not look bad.”

Justin Golightly - December 15, 2017

Conor McGregor can fight anyone right now, absolutely anyone he wants. That’s good and bad for the UFC. After making more money than his entire UFC career combined in one boxing match, everyone knew it was going to be difficult to get him back to the Octagon. The latest opponent for McGregor that has popped up is none other than Manny Pacquiao, who claimed he was in negotiations to box the Irishman in April. Dana White was quick to shut that down, citing it would result in a lawsuit, but went further last night on social media to put the final nail in the coffin. He’s not Boxing anyone so calm down cry babies.

Justin Golightly - December 15, 2017

It’s a huge fight. A career-defining bout with big stakes. The title is on the line and Holly Holm is the underdog against one of, if not the best women fighter on the planet. Does this all sound familiar? Back at UFC 193, Holm hit the ‘kick heard ’round the world’ on Rousey and earned the biggest MMA victory of her life in front of a stunned audience. Those comparisons aren’t lost on Coach Mike Winkeljohn either. He recently broke down his thoughts on the fight and predicts Holm stops Cyborg to shock the world once again. “Oh, absolutely [there are comparisons to the fight with Ronda Rousey]. You know what, behind the scenes when we fought Ronda we were pretty confident that we had the proper game plan to beat Ronda. Everybody thought we were crazy, everyone thought Holly was crazy when she first fought Christy Martin back in the early days in boxing cause Christy Martin knocked everyone out, and Holly made that look easy, and she had what I call that ‘Christy Martin’ moment where Christy tried to throw a punch at her, Holly slipped under and then Christy almost went through the ropes. Guess what? Ronda did the same thing, and it’s gonna happen in the Cris Cyborg fight, she’s gonna have that same moment.”

Drake Riggs - December 14, 2017

The UFC had been reportedly searching for a big fight to headline their first event in the city after Jeremy Stephens vs Doo Ho Choi was initially announced and assumed to be the main event but it was yet to be officially confirmed. Until today when Nolan King reported that it is, in fact, going to be the main event and the UFC’s official site has the fight in the main event slot as well so all signs point to this being the case. It appears that the UFC could NOT find an additional fight to add to UFC Fight Night: St. Louis next month. Stephens vs. Choi set to headline. #UFC pic.twitter.com/qJ4sCl1JJR

Drake Riggs - December 14, 2017

UFC 219 was supposed to feature a huge Bantamweight showdown between former champion, Dominick Cruz and rising contender, Jimmie “El Terror” Rivera. Rivera has won twenty straight fights(five in the UFC) and his most recent came over Thomas Almeida at UFC on Fox 25. Prior to that, he handed Urijah Faber the last loss of his legendary career and has been clamoring for a title shot ever since. With Cruz forced out of the bout with a broken arm, Rivera is now set to take on John Lineker.

Drake Riggs - December 14, 2017

Retired UFC fighter, Kenny “KenFlo” Florian has been one of the UFC’s top analysts and one of the hosts of Fox Sports 1’s weekly UFC news program, UFC Tonight since it’s birth back in 2012 on Fuel TV. Florian retired from MMA in 2012 after a loss the year prior to Featherweight champion, Jose Aldo. This would be Florian’s third career UFC title shot in which he came up short in. Since then, the third-degree black belt in BJJ, Florian has done just about everything one can for the UFC other than fighting and has even competed in some Jiu-Jitsu tournaments since and runs his own training center called the Florian Martial Arts Center in Brookline, Massachusetts. On this week’s edition of UFC Tonight, when asked specifically whether or not he and guest host, UFC Welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley believed that UFC Lightweight champion, Conor McGregor should be stripped of his title due to inactivity, this is what they each had to say:

Justin Golightly - December 14, 2017

Conor McGregor can now boast about another record to his already ridiculous list. He already shattered his pay scale with his historical boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather. There were numerous conflicting reports about how well the blockbuster superfight performed, but not we have the true numbers and they’re still nothing to turn your nose up at. The SHOWTIME pay-per-view ended up doing 4.3 million in PPV buys, just 3ooK short of breaking the record that still holds solid for Mayweather’s fight with Manny Pacquiao. SHOWTIME Sports confirmed today that the SHOWTIME PPV presentation of Mayweather vs. McGregor on August 26, 2017 generated 4.3 million pay-per-view buys in North America. This includes traditional television distribution and online portals such as the new SHOWTIME PPV app and SHOWTIMEPPV.com as well as UFC.TV in U.S. and Canada.

Justin Golightly - December 14, 2017

After the shake-up at middleweight, everything seems to have returned to normal. Not only is there movement, not only does Robert Whittaker get a fight, it’s with Luke Rockhold for the undisputed title thanks to Georges St-Pierre vacating the belt. While everything seems to be coming up Whittaker, he still lost out on a huge fight with the former welterweight king. It would have been a giant chance for the fighter just now reaching his prime, especially since Whittaker grew up watching him, to potentially put that win on his record. Belt or not, Whittaker wanted the fight out of respect. “I don’t think there was a doubt in any one’s mind who the real [UFC middleweight] champ was. I fought my way up through some hard dudes to get to where I am, and yeah, I am the champ, I was the champ. Yeah, it was [disappointing I couldn’t fight Georges St-Pierre for the belt], because I wanted to fight Georges out of respect more than anything. I idolized him as a child coming up and as a young man coming up in my career he was always like one of my biggest idols. To be able to fight him would’ve been great, to put him on my resume and say I fought Georges St-Pierre, that was great. But I don’t think I ever really convinced myself that he would fight me. I think it was a dangerous fight for him, a hard fight for him and it is what it is.” Perth make sure your ready 👊🏽 #ufc221 @ufc @lukerockhold pic.twitter.com/uEOtMOTh1k

Justin Golightly - December 14, 2017

18 wins. 15 finishes. No equal for six years. That is, until Justin Gaethje ended up meeting former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. It was the bloody war that the UFC and those two savages promised us. There was no gold on the line, but the added stipulation of an unofficial violence title up for grabs was taken deadly serious. After a performance full of grit and pure determination, his granite chin finally gave out with a brutal knee. Any other fighter would be kicking himself, but not Justin Gaethje. He’d rather go out like that than lose by a decision any day, which should come at no surprise to anyone. “I’m glad I got knocked out instead of going to a decision and losing because that’s not the way I want to lose. I’m happy with my performance. I feel like I won because I tried so hard. My preparation was there and ultimately I went out and did what I go to do and that’s entertain people and entertain myself really. And I had fun. I did some major damage to [Eddie Alvarez’s] lead leg in that first round. He did a good job of putting his hands on me but definitely didn’t do a lot of damage. He definitely beat me in that second round and in the third round, I thought it was a close fight. If it would have went to the scorecards, I’m sure he would have got it because of the takedown or something and he was a little bit more active with punches but I cause a lot of damage when I do land my strikes and it’s hard to judge that.”

Russell Ess - December 14, 2017

UFC President Dana White has threatened to sue Manny Pacquiao and his representatives if they have tried to start talks and negotiations for a boxing match with Conor McGregor. Although White may have tried to kill the possibility of the matchup, it’s surely a big topic for fans and pundits to talk about. Fight Hub TV recently spoke with Pacquiao’s coach Freddie Roach on the matchup and the legendary boxing trainer said that although there is a lot of money to be made in the superfight, he isn’t all that interested in it.

Justin Golightly - December 14, 2017

We all know that controversy follows the heavy-handed Mike Perry around. He’s also no stranger to creating ridiculous sound bytes that fans love to hear and us media enjoy writing about. What happened earlier today is no different. We don’t want to hype it too much, but it could be one of the all-time greatest staredowns in MMA history. What you’re about to see between Perry and Santiago Ponzinibbio is a staredown that mystifies as well as entertains. It’s an enigma wrapped around a 7-11 burrito, washed down with Mountain Dew Code Red. If none of that made sense, then you’re ready for the video. Funny he was wearing sunglasses when he’s the one who pokes people in the eyes https://t.co/ZYFdeTit4h