MMA News

Jason Kindschy - December 6, 2017

BJPENN Radio is live at 8PM ET/5PM PT! 8:15PM ET- First up, one of MMA’s most recognizable names, Joe “Diesel” Riggs joins us to preview his upcoming fight for the M-1 middleweight strap and what’s next for the long-time veteran. A return to the UFC? Another bare-knuckle boxing match? We’ll be discussing it all.

Drake Riggs - December 6, 2017

Current cross-sport athlete, Heather “The Heat” Hardy is an undefeated Boxing champion and MMA fighter for Bellator. Up until her most recent bout she had never lost a professional bout in her entire fighting career as she went 20-0 in Boxing then 1-0 in MMA. Hardy made her MMA debut back in June of this year at Bellator 180 where she defeated Alice Yauger in a fun back and forth fight. In her sophomore outing at Bellator 185 in October, Hardy took on the dangerous kickboxer, Kristina Williams who gave Hardy a multitude of problems due to her variety of lethal kicks that ultimately lead to Hardy’s downfall.

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2017

Francis Ngannou, a French-Cameroonian juggernaut with c-4 packed into each of his gloves, is now the top contender in the UFC heavyweight division. He is expected to take on the promotion’s heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic some time in the near future – perhaps as soon as UFC 220 this January in Boston. Whenever this massive heavyweight title fight occurs, Ngannou’s striking coach Dewey Cooper – a former boxer and kickboxer – assures his student will be ready.

Justin Golightly - December 6, 2017

As quick as he left us, Georges St-Pierre was suddenly back in all of our lives and causing a shockwave that is still reverberating through the UFC. After four years away from the sport, St-Pierre returned in a division above where he reigned supreme for so many years. …And it paid off. He became the UFC middleweight champion, but he went through hell to do it. It was a brutal journey to put on that much mass which ultimately resulted in ulcerative colitis. It seems this was the final nail in the coffin: St-Pierre is leaving the middleweight division. “We’ll have to talk about it, but I’m not sure if I compete, if I will go back at 185-pounds. I don’t think so. Of course in terms of weight, If I want to go back to compete at 185-pounds I will. Obviously eating — I did what I did, I learned from my mistakes — I don’t think it’s a good thing to do. Force myself to eat to gain muscle mass. I’ve always been against performance enhancing drugs and I [moved up to another weight division] the natural way. There is no easy way. I did it the hard way and it was to gain weight and maintain my muscle mass. It was very hard and it was not healthy. I think the body has a natural weight where you can perform and its best athletic ability and for me, the weight I am now is my perfect weight.” — Georges St-Pierre speaking to TSN.

Justin Golightly - December 6, 2017

After many, many months of hype, negotiations and a back-and-forth suspense on if the fight would be on UFC 219, Cris Cyborg will finally defend her women’s UFC featherweight title against Holly Holm. When the division was first created for the dominant Brazilian fighter, it’s the match-up we all thought would be for the belt and now it’s happening. Coach Jason Parillo vows a knockout victory for Cyborg, which may be aided by some “help” that the champ has received from some Brazilian fighters in New Mexico. However, Cyborg claims she didn’t need the advice and honorably refused it. “Many Brazilians are excited about this fight. Both times I fought in Brazil at 63.5kg, the fans wanted me to face Holly [Holm], and since this fight was announced I was surprised by the number of Brazilian fighters who offered me support. Believe it or not, I had some Brazilians who trained in New Mexico who came to share things about their training. Although I thanked them for wanting to see me succeed and continue representing Brazil as champion, I did not let what they said influenced my training. In the end, I do not care what kind of training she’s doing for her confidence, wrestling or boxing. My team is preparing me for the best version of Holly Holm.” 

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2017

With UFC middleweight Georges St-Pierre currently sidelined with an injury, the promotion’s interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker is now expected to defend his title. The interim champion’s first title defense is expected to occur at UFC 221 this February 11, in Perth, Western Australia. His opponent is expected to be former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. News of this planned booking comes from Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com.

Justin Golightly - December 6, 2017

We all know how the story went. Michael Bisping tore up Georges St-Pierre in the former welterweight king’s triumphant return to the UFC, but in the end Bisping was submitted and lost his middleweight title. Eager to get the bad taste of a loss out of his mouth, he accepted a short-notice fight against Kelvin Gastelum and got knocked out. The former champ hasn’t shied away from the spotlight since his back-t0-back losses, but his latest podcast is the most in-depth he’s talked about what went down. In hindsight, the man admits it may have been the wrong move. “It didn’t go my way, as everybody knows and saw. I felt great going into that fight, I did. Looking back in hindsight, was I overtrained and emotionally and physically tired? Yes I was, but the problem with having a f-cking huge ego and thinking you can still beat people is that I knew that but I still thought I could beat Kelvin Gastelum. Not taking anything away from him. He caught me with a beautiful left hook that put me down. God bless him. It was a big gamble, it didn’t pay off. Had it paid off it would have been great but that’s what you do. You roll the dice, you give it a shot, and you hope for the best, and the best man, I guess that was Kelvin so well done to him. “That fight was me trying to exorcise some inner demons and try and get back in the win column ASAP. As I said, it was a huge gamble and for many reasons it was the wrong move, but I don’t regret it. If you look at the grand scheme of things […] I can see that it was the wrong move, but at the time it felt right, so I don’t regret it.”

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2017

Not long ago, UFC President Dana White announced that he and the UFC’s other top decision-makers were floating the idea of promoting boxing matches in the future. This news is likely to have sounded interesting to a number of the UFC’s boxing savvy fighters – particularly upcoming women’s featherweight title challenger Holly Holm, who was a boxing champion long before her UFC career began. While it would be fair to assume this news might interest Holm, however, it apparently doesn’t. Speaking to the media during the festivities for UFC 218 in Detroit, where she was a guest fighter, she assured that her boxing career is over.

Justin Golightly - December 6, 2017

We are all still catching our breath from UFC 218 as we land in the middle of yet another fight week. That Detroit card is one of those line-ups of fights where you lose your voice from screaming and your legs are sore the next day from jumping on and off the couch reacting to the action. Nothing can compare to the undisputed king of reactions, Joey Diaz though. On Sunday, Diaz took to Periscope to give his reaction to the fight and it didn’t disappoint. You may want to make sure there are no children in the room when you blast this spirited review. “The fights were tremendous last night. I just want to give my f-cking shout out to my man Mr. [Eddie] Alvarez. I didn’t think he could do it, but he f-cking did it. That Jason Strahan [Justin Gaethje] dude is the f-cking – what’s his name? Jason Gadahoop, whatever – He’s a f-cking savage with heart. [Alistair] Overeem? That Magoomba – whatever his name is – Ngaio? Let me tell you something, I don’t even want [Francis Ngannou] blowing out the candles at my birthday party. Next thing you know, the cake is all over the f-cking place, you follow me?”

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2017

Tuesday marked the 43rd birthday of Vitor Belfort’s sister Priscila, who went missing in the year 2004. Over the years, several arrests have been made with respect to Priscila Belfort’s tragic disappearance, but she was never found. Unsurprisingly, the pain of this loss is still incredibly close for Vitor Belfort and his family. On Tuesday afternoon, the former UFC champion and long-time middleweight contender penned an open letter to his missing sister, and it is absolutely heartbreaking.

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2017

Last weekend, on the main card of UFC 218, former UFC lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez solidified himself as MMA’s true King of Violence by knocking out another frontrunner for that lofty title, Justin Gaethje. This win over Gaethje marked the second last obligation on Alvarez’s current UFC contract. Whatever the future holds, Alvarez is hoping the UFC will give him a “big, mega-fight” for the last fight on his contract.

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2017

In September of 2016, pro wrestling legend CM Punk stepped into the UFC’s Octagon to battle red hot prospect Mickey Gall. At the time of this fight, Punk had almost nothing in the way of martial arts experience, and yet somehow, we were all compelled to watch his pro debut anyway. In the end, Punk’s debut went the way most expected, as he was blown out of the water by Gall, and submitted in the first frame. That said, the wrestler did managed to earn the respect of the MMA community, showing off guts and heart abound in his first pro bout.

Russell Ess - December 5, 2017

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor was seen on the red carpet in London on Monday attending the annual Fashion Awards, which was held at the Royal Albert Hall. McGregor was seen in attendance with Donatella Versace who was honored at the awards, along with four-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, model and actress Jourdan Dunn, model Irina Shayk, and singer Rita Ora.

Justin Golightly - December 5, 2017

A torch seemed to have passed at UFC 218. Jose Aldo was beaten for the second time by Max Holloway, which is the first time anyone has ever fought and won against Aldo back-to-back. While only one of them can wear the belt, both have displayed championship class throughout the fallout of their sophomore encounter. Aside from a touching photo with a fan after the fight, we haven’t seen the former featherweight king since Saturday, but he’s finally broken his silence with an inspiring message after his loss. Só tenho que agradecer por tudo a minha família que eu amo, minha equipe, melhor do mundo “Nova Uniao” por me fazer grande e campeão aos amigos e fans que sempre estão comigo, muito obrigado a todos!! Serei sempre otimista, pois acreditar é o primeiro passo para fazer acontecer.

Justin Golightly - December 5, 2017

Everyone wrote Darren Till off when he was pitted against Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at UFC Gdansk, but he silenced the critics by finishing the UFC veteran in the first round. Since then though, there had been nothing but confusion amidst the swelling hype. He was slated to fight Stephen Thompson in an Orlando, Florida card that Dana White was switching to England, but that turned out to be a no-go. After that, there were talks of Kamaru Usman which led to nowhere. At this point, Till just wants to put his hands on another top welterweight and isn’t scared of whoever is lucky — or unlucky — enough to be chosen. “Next year, whether it be March or what in London, I’d like the UFC to just give me the hardest fights in the welterweight division. People say that I’m just striker, but if you see my come up against a grappler, you are going to see my grappling skills. I shrugged off Donald Cerrone’s takedowns off like they were nothing. I’m pretty sure I’m going to do that with another high level grappler. I’m not scared of anyone. Anyone in the top-10 or anyone even outside of the top-10.”

Justin Golightly - December 5, 2017

#OnThisDay in 2009, Kimbo Slice made his UFC debut. pic.twitter.com/dieVLe1pbY — UFC (@ufc) December 5, 2017

Tom Taylor - December 5, 2017

Having knocked Alistair Overeem’s head into orbit in the co-main event of last Saturday’s stacked UFC 218 card, French-Cameroonian slugger Francis Ngannou is now the number one contender in the perilous UFC heavyweight division. He is expected to battle the division’s apex predator, Stipe Miocic, sometime in the next few months – perhaps even as soon as UFC 220, which goes down on January 20 in Boston. Whenever Ngannou’s fight with Miocic occurs, he’s confident that he’ll come out on top – and that the judges won’t be needed.

Justin Golightly - December 5, 2017

When Max Holloway told us this was the ‘Blessed Era’, he wasn’t just talking, everything he’s done up until this point has been an effort to prove it. How can you not respect this guy? He stacked up a ridiculous winning streak before culminating his journey by beating Jose Aldo for the undisputed featherweight title. After all of that, he turned around and beat him once again and has shown nothing but incredible respect. He’s the only person ever to beat Jose Aldo back-to-back, but that’s just a tiny excerpt in a long list of career achievements