MMA News

Drake Riggs - December 6, 2017

When it comes to the many female Mixed Martial Artists today, none are quite as underrated for the talent they possess and how much of a pioneer they are than Sarak Kaufman. The Victoria, BC, Canada native, Kaufman has only lost four times in her twenty-three fight career and to no easy customers. Those four include the likes of Ronda Rousey, Valentina Shevchenko, Marloes Coenen and Alexis Davis. Kaufman actually happened to be Strikeforce’s very first Bantamweight champion and earned plenty of great wins during her 12-0 run before finally dropping the title to the previously mentioned, Coenen. During that run, she earned W’s over the likes of Miesha Tate, Alexis Davis, Roxanne Modaferri, Valerie Letourneau, Shayna Baszler, Sarah Schneider and Takayo Hashi.

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2017

Earlier this week, on the latest edition of The MMA Hour, former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold called for a fight the division’s interim champion Robert Whittaker. “They have to make up backup plans,” Rockhold said. “They’re trying to make fights like [me versus] Yoel Romero right now. Why would I fight Yoel Romero no one clearcut fighting Whittaker? Obviously I want to fight for the title if that’s available, I’m not going to f*cking sign any fight. I want to fight for the title, and if that’s available, that what I’m going to do.”

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.”