MMA News

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

Ladies & Gentlemen we give you Mr Mike Perry at his finest… This clip of his Facebook Q & A in a portable sauna suit is the only video you need to watch today! 😂😂😂👏 👏👏 Perry vs Ponzinibbio goes down this Saturday at #UFCWinnipeg 🇨🇦 ! 🔥🔥🔥#UFConFOX26 pic.twitter.com/4ZAEwXeZmO

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.

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

We’ve already learned by now that Mike Perry is a pretty unique guy… The heavy-handed Welterweight striker known as “Platinum” is set to take on his toughest opponent to date this Saturday in Santiago Ponzinibbio. But leading up to this bout, Perry did some rather interesting training preparation. Gunnar Nelson last fought Ponzinibbio and lost via first-round knockout after several claims were made of him being eye poked prior to the knockout. When asked about the pokes and training for them, Perry had this to say in his UFC on Fox 26 media day:

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

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.”

Tom Taylor - December 14, 2017

Back in July, on the main card of the stacked UFC 214, English knockout artist Jimi Manuwa stepped into the Octagon with Swiss striker Volkan Oezdemir in a perceived light heavyweight number one contender fight. Unfortunately for Manuwa and his fans, this one went to Oezdemir, who won with punches in the first round. From there, Manuwa set his sights on the opportunity to rebound, while Oezdemir was pencilled in for a UFC 220 title fight with light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier.

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

Eddie Alvarez’s fight with Justin Gaethje came and went and it was everything they said it would be and more. Leading up to the fight, Alvarez created an unofficial title forged in violence that would be up for grabs in their UFC 218 bout. His jaw swollen like it contained a softball, Alvarez captured that invisible belt and put himself back in title contention for the lightweight strap. The brutal and grueling war these two put on, while crowd-pleasing, had Paul Felder looking at things in a completely different way. …These guys are potentially damaging their careers. “That’s the goal, right? Hit and don’t get hit. That’s why I train so hard in camp and I spar and we do everything so specifically because I want to get in there and I want get the job done. […] I’m always prepared for a three-round war, but I’m just not trying to be in them. You’ve got Eddie [Alvarez], who’s trying to be the ‘Most Violent Guy,’ and [Justin] Gaethje, who’s looking for an equal. Go ahead. You guys can go and fight over that. Meanwhile, I’ll silently be knocking everyone out and working my way to the top 10, top five, and sneak right in there and take that title shot from you guys.”

Tom Taylor - December 14, 2017

Currently on a four-fight win-streak, composed of wins over dangerous adversaries in Dominic Waters, Albert Tumenov, Vincente Luque and Bryan Barberena, England’s Leon Edwards in one of the fastest-rising contenders in the UFC welterweight division. Edwards will attempt to make his next leap up the proverbial ladder this March 27, when the UFC touches down in London, England. His opponent will dangerous Polish-German fighter – sorry, Jamaican fighter – Peter Sobotta. While Edwards respects Sobotta, however, this is not really the kind of fight he was hoping for after four-straight wins.

Tom Taylor - December 14, 2017

When heavyweight veteran Alistair Overeem stepped into the Octagon with brick-fisted puncher Francis Ngannou at UFC 218, he opted to stand and trade with him, and ultimately paid the price, succumbing to a first-round uppercut. Speaking on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, 9th-ranked UFC heavyweight Curtis Blaydes explained that he does not expect Francis Ngannou’s next opponent, UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, to make this kind of mistake. Instead, he expects a cautious and surgical approach from the champ. “I was a little surprised [how the fight went],” Curtis Blaydes said on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I wasn’t surprised at Ngannou. He did, definitely, what he should have done, [which] was just stand there and chuck [punches at] him, and it worked. I’m surprised that Overeem was so quick to engage in that type of action. Overeem’s a veteran, and him knowing that he doesn’t have the best chin anymore, I was a bit surprised at how eager he was [to trade].”

Justin Golightly - December 14, 2017

It was like magic. Georges St-Pierre left the middleweight division and a tidal wave of movement happened with no one having to fight each other. Luke Rockhold got a middleweight title shot — not an interim bout, but for the undisputed title — against Robert Whittaker and contenders all got bumped up a notch. Not everyone can be happy though, Kelvin Gastelum thought he deserved the shot after knocking out Michael Bisping and made sure everyone knew it. Rockhold shrugged his opinion off and promised if he kept it up, he can get smacked down in good time. “Given how ridiculous things are, I mean, yeah, of course there’s the [thoughts of] are they really gonna take that step [and give Kelvin Gastelum the fight], are they really gonna keep falling further within that realm? But everybody obviously, people came to me and made polls or whatever and I know I was at the top of every list. I know I’ve proven myself, I’ve accomplished things in this sport, whereas little midgets like Kelvin Gastelum haven’t. I’ve destroyed Chris Weidman, which he got destroyed by Weidman, so it’s like ehh. This kid hasn’t beaten really anybody and done anything in this sport, and for him to run his mouth, it’s pretty funny. It’s laughable. He’ll find out for real if he continues his efforts at 185. I’d slap that kid down real quick. Real quick.”

Justin Golightly - December 14, 2017

Ever since Ben Askren walked away from combat sports, he made no mistake that only a fight with the best in the world could bring him back out of retirement. He threw the offer down on the table for a fight with Georges St-Pierre, but not a lot of people had faith it happened. Then, St-Pierre relinquished the UFC middleweight title and left the division leaving only two options: Retire for good or go back to welterweight. After hearing this news, he doubled down on his offer and even was willing to put some Bitcoin on the line. In his latest interview with Submission Radio, he talked in depth about St-Pierre and how he’s a stylistic nightmare for the former two-division champ. “Wasn’t that what you expected? I expected that [Georges St-Pierre would vacate the UFC middleweight title]. I knew that, I mean, my suspicion was that there’s no way that he’s ever going to fight again at middleweight. This was the one time he would because I think he had a good idea that he was gonna beat Michael Bisping, but there’s no way he wanted to fight Robert Whittaker. He didn’t want that fight. So, I definitely think we’ll never see him in middleweight again. Now, will we see him fight again? I’m not sure. GSP versus Conor [McGregor] is not a super fight. Conor McGregor is 2-1 in his last three fights against someone who is not even very good, so I don’t think Conor deserves a super fight against Georges. I see it pretty simply. Georges doesn’t like tough fights. And when Georges gets in a tough fight, he takes people down repeatedly and he’s very good at it, very good at it. He’s very good at maintaining top position. I’m not gonna go away easily, I will be a tough fight and Georges will not repeatedly take me down. And if he somehow takes me down he absolutely will not keep me down.”

Tom Taylor - December 14, 2017

Earlier this month, in the co-main event of UFC 218, surging French-Cameroonian heavyweight Francis Ngannou knocked out Alistair Overeem to earn a shot at reigning UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic. This violent knockout win caused Ngannou’s hype to skyrocket to new and towering heights, but in the opinion of 9th-ranked heavyweight contender Curtis Blaydes, the outcome of this fight had a lot to do with Overeem’s surprising game plan. “I mean, I was a little surprised [how the fight went],” Curtis Blaydes said on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I wasn’t surprised at Ngannou. He did, definitely, what he should have done, [which] was just stand there and chuck [punches at] him, and it worked. I’m surprised that Overeem was so quick to engage in that type of action. Overeem’s a veteran, and him knowing that he doesn’t have the best chin anymore, I was a bit surprised at how eager he was [to trade].”