MMA News

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2017

On January 20, when the UFC touches down in Boston, Massachusetts with UFC 220, Swiss light heavyweight contender Volkan Oezdemir will attempt to topple the division’s champion Daniel Cormier. Ahead of this fight, the two fighters’ advantages are quite clear. Oezdemir, of course, has established himself as one of the light heavyweight division’s most venomous punchers. Cormier, meanwhile, is one of the most accomplished wrestlers in the division – and in MMA, period.

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2017

Last weekend, on the undercard of UFC 218, Angela Magana came up short against Amanda Bobby Cooper, succumbing to second-round punches. Unfortunately, Magana feels as though the fight might have been stopped a little early by referee Keith Peterson. “I feel like the fight was stopped early,” Magana explained on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I remember my corner saying 28 seconds, and there were less than 30 seconds. Yes, [Cooper] was bashing the shit out of me, but I was fully with it. I was fully aware of what was going on. As soon as it stopped I was over with the referee just seeing the replay. I put my hands out like what the hell? But that’s his decision. You have to respect his decisions. I felt like if I could have got a third round, and my corner said, ‘whatever you do, don’t go to the ground, stand up [with her].’ I might have pulled something out of somewhere, I don’t know, to be able to win it. Who knows, but it was stopped a bit early. I feel like that’s the thing with women’s MMA. That they always stop us early in comparison to the men.”

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2017

Dana White’s thoughts on Francis Ngannou could not be clearer. When the UFC President talks about the hulking French-Cameroonian heavyweight contender, his eyes might as well light up with dollar signs. In Ngannou, he believes he has found a future superstar. “Once we keep this guy active, and you see him doing this to all the big stars that you know and yeah, I think this guy’s going to be a rock star globally,” White said at the UFC 218 post-fight press conference, just hours after Ngannou punched Alistair Overeem’s head into the outer reaches of the solar system.

Russell Ess - December 6, 2017

According to UFC commentator Joe Rogan, we could be seeing a resurgence of days similar to the likes of when “Iron” Mike Tyson was the most feared man to step into the ring with. Over the weekend at UFC 218, rising heavyweight star Francis Ngannou put together a highlight reel knockout over the always dangerous Alistair Overeem. With the win, Ngannou has earned a shot at the UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic and the two are reportedly being targeted to fight at UFC 220 in January.

Drake Riggs - December 6, 2017

The last time we saw Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone he was on the receiving end of a rising star’s best performance. The 34-year-old, Cowboy now looks to slow things down a bit in regards to his fight frequency and plans for a return to his old home of the Lightweight division. But awaiting him may be a very hungry challenger by the name of Mairbek Taisumov, as there have been several reports surrounding the fight as well as claims from Taisumov himself. UPDATE (pertaining to the rumors of Cerrone vs. Taisumov): I'm told that the bout at UFC 221 in Perth HAS been offered to the two fighters by the UFC. Taisumov's camp says he has signed the agreement and they are just waiting on Cowboy. #UFC

Russell Ess - December 6, 2017

The last time we saw a UFC heavyweight title fight was back in May when champion Stipe Miocic successfully defended his belt against Junior dos Santos. In doing so, Miocic scored another first-round finish and avenged a 2014 decision loss to dos Santos. With Francis Ngannou’s insane highlight knockout over Alistair Overeem that took place over the weekend at UFC 218, the rising heavyweight knockout specialist has earned a shot against Miocic.

Justin Golightly - December 6, 2017

Ronda Rousey hasn’t been inside the Octagon for nearly a year now, but she hasn’t been sitting around doing nothing. She got married to UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, is releasing multiple business ventures including her own website, and she’s been all over the WWE Universe. It hasn’t been an accident. Even when she was supporting her best friend Shayna Baszler’s introduction into the professional wrestling promotion, it all felt like it was building towards something. Now, it looks like the deal is done. Two people close to Rousey told USA TODAY Sports that she is finalizing details of her move to WWE. These mystery people can be listed, because they requested to be anonymous since the news hasn’t been announced yet. A @WWE publicou este vídeo no seu site: “Becky, Charlotte and Bayley confront Ronda Rousey and The Four Horsewomen”https://t.co/rppovLgvOS

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.

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

The news is still as fresh as the Christmas trees your neighbors are probably already putting up: Luke Rockhold is slated to fight interim UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 221 in Perth, Australia. That is sure to make Rockhold happy after his divisional criticisms, but it definitely isn’t the news Kelvin Gastelum wanted. He just knocked out the former champion Michael Bisping, which he felt granted him at least a shot at the interim belt holder if Georges St-Pierre isn’t sure of his next move. He took to Twitter to express this as soon as the news was dropped. 👎👎👎👎👎 fart noise * https://t.co/KwomUMoO6m

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.” 

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

Things have been relatively quiet in the light heavyweight division for a little while now, but now we officially have Daniel Cormier defending his title against Volkan Oezdemir early next year in Boston. Aside from Ovince Saint Preux’s fight with Ilir Latifi at UFC Charlotte and Misha Cirkunov’s scrap with Glover Teixeira at UFC Winnipeg, we don’t have any big Top 10 match-ups in the division booked. That’s all about to change soon. After a successful surgery last month, Alexander Gustafsson is back to training for his comeback. Feels good to be back at the @allstarsgymsweden after the surgery. Time to get to work and come back stronger than ever in 2018!

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

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.