MMA News

Justin Golightly - November 29, 2017

It seems the UFC has sort of backed themselves into a corner. Robert Whittaker fought the guy no one wanted to and beat Yoel Romero fair and square to win the interim UFC middleweight title. Instead of pairing Michael Bisping up with Whittaker to unify, the UFC opted to have Georges St-Pierre swoop down in an illustrious return and he ended up taking that title at UFC 217 in dramatic fashion. However, now St-Pierre’s plans are up in the air and Dana White is absolutely not having it. “[Georges St-Pierre] looked at [Michael] Bisping like he was a tune-up [fight]. You got your tune-up, there’s nothing but f-king animals at 185 and 170. Luke Rockhold is massive, he’s massive when he cuts weight. There’s no good options. To sit there and try to handpick people, or where you want to go and everything else, you can’t in this f-king sport. They’re all nasty. You’re a fighter, get in there and see who you can f-king beat. You wanted to f-king come back, welcome back. I don’t even know if Perth [UFC 221 against Robert Whittaker] is what I want for him yet, so we’re gonna’ talk today and figure it out. I don’t wanna’ hear [about St-Pierre dropping back down to welterweight]. That’s not what I wanna’ hear. I wanna’ hear he’s gonna’ defend the 185-pound title. That’s the agreement we made. That’s the deal we made when we made the deal.” — Dana White during his recent media scrum.

Justin Golightly - November 29, 2017

Even though Dana White recently spoke out and said the fight was never offered, it seems like some negotiations were going on between Nate Diaz’s team and Tyron Woodley. The fight seemed to come out of nowhere and then faded away almost as quickly. The UFC welterweight champ hasn’t been shy about calling out Diaz on his problematic negotiation tactics, even coming up with a $10 million split between the two, but it all fell on deaf ears. Finally, Woodley officially says the fight is dead and he’ll be moving on with surgery and the many other business opportunities on his plate. “Well, I’m fired up because I know you booked some hotel rooms and Nate Diaz is obviously scared, homie. When someone says, ‘Hey, I want to get paid $15 million’ to fight a fighter and they’ve never received that — not even to fight Conor McGregor — that’s a nice way of saying no, I don’t want to fight them. That’s like me saying, ‘Hey, yeah. I’ll fight f-cking Stipe Miocic. Just pay me $35 million.’ That’s basically saying no. So, unfortunately, it would have been a crazy card December 30th in Las Vegas and it would have been a crazy end-of-the-year, unfortunately it’s not taking place. I’m not fighting Nate Diaz. That’s how the cookie crumbles, man. [He missed out on] a huge payday, man. He can’t run forever.”

Tom Taylor - November 29, 2017

Chael Sonnen is very familiar with rising UFC middleweight contender Kelvin Gastelum, having coached him on season 17 of The Ultimate Fighter. That said, Sonnen claims that for a long time, he couldn’t actually identify the one thing that made Gastelum so good. While it was clear the young fighter had few weaknesses, his true strength was difficult to identify. “I would watch him every day in practice,” Sonnen said in the latest episode of Beyond the Fight. “I would tell him, ‘Kelvin, I don’t know what it is you’re good at, but I also don’t know what your weaknesses are.’ He was just naturally in very, very good position. He naturally would follow the basics. Hands up, chin down. He naturally was a little bit shorter for the weight class, and it was harder for guys to get underneath him. He naturally just didn’t mind pushing the pace and competing, which is a really big part of it. It’s not just the punches and the kicks. You’ve got to have a competitor, man, you’ve got have a guy who’s got some dog inside of him. He just had all of these things. But I just kept telling him that, and it almost turned into a laughable moment. I’d keep saying that, every time he’d fight, and I was congratulating him, but I’d say ‘man, I’m not positive what it is you’re good at. I just sure can’t find your weakness.’ The guy was impossible to submit, so hard to take down, wouldn’t give up, powerful hands, buried his chin so he could take a shot…”

Justin Golightly - November 29, 2017

A couple of days ago on The MMA Hour, Matt Mitrione talked about steroid abusers and rampant performance enhancing drug use in MMA. He went so far as to saw that fighters caught on PEDs should be charged with attempted murder. Shane Carwin got wind of this and had a lot to say about the former UFC fighter’s comments. He’s been looking for a way into the Bellator heavyweight grand prix ever since it was announced and he was probably trying on his 5XL gloves directly after he wrote these scathing comments. “Meathead [Matt Mitrione] brought up an interesting topic about fighter safety. When you are on the receiving end of beatings I can see the concern. My concern is bigger. Is he just dumb or did he take too many blows to the head? I would be worried about the trauma you have sustained and not go searching for the ass beating of your life. Here I am, call your bosses at Bellator MMA. I will knock the silly out of you and my name out of your mouth. If you want to have a serious talk about PED use we can. Yet you left the organization or got cut and signed your name to a tournament full of people who have TUE’s [Therapeutic Use Exemptions] and positive test.”

Tom Taylor - November 29, 2017

It’s now been almost a year since Ronda Rousey’s last fight: an abrupt and jarring loss to reigning UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. Rousey’s next most recent fight, her infamous, head-kick knockout loss to Holly Holm, was now more than two years ago. Needless to say, the once dominant UFC women’s bantamweight queen an transcendent MMA star seems to be easing into a retirement from fighting. According to UFC President Dana White, however, Rousey refuses to close the door on her fighting career completely.

Tom Taylor - November 29, 2017

The downward spiral of Jason “Mayhem” Miller – a veteran of the UFC and Strikeforce cages, and the former star of the reality show Bully Beatdown – continues. On Tuesday, TMZ reported that the troubled MMA veteran had pled guilty to domestic violence charges stemming from a series of ugly incidents with three different girlfriends between 2015 and 2017.

Tom Taylor - November 29, 2017

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor – inarguably the biggest star MMA has ever produced – has recently been getting into all kinds of trouble outside the cage. One day, he’s getting physical with a referee. The next, it seems he’s punching an associate of the Irish cartel. Needless to say, the Irish star seems to be going off the rails a bit, and it has all cast a shadow over his fighting future.

Tom Taylor - November 29, 2017

Earlier this month, we learned that UFC light heavyweight contender Volkan Oezdemir had been arrested ad charged with “aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability.”After a brief stay in the Broward County jail in Florida, his surety bond was set at $10,000.  According to a report from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which includes video of Oezdemir’s court appearance, the light heavyweight contender’s arrest stems from an August 12 fight with a man named Kevin Cohen, which occurred at a yet-unidentified bar in Fort Lauderdale. During Oezdemir’s hearing, it was explained that Cohen sustained swelling and several cuts as a result of this altercation. 

Adam Conklin - November 28, 2017

Adam Conklin - November 28, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ExCc3_Odkg  

Adam Conklin - November 28, 2017

  One of the more surprising announcement made by the UFC in 2017 was that of the signing of kickboxing champion Gökhan Saki to their light heavyweight division. The news broke this past May and his debut was surrounded by speculation, especially in a year whose theme within the combat sports world could be, ‘crossover’.

Adam Conklin - November 28, 2017

  There’s no shortage of contenders in the UFC’s middleweight division. Former champions Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman are still considered to be at the top of the heap while dangerous contenders such as Kelvin Gastelum and Yoel Romero wait for a signature win to earn the chance to fight for the belt.

Russell Ess - November 28, 2017

There have been rumors floating around this week on the Internet that Conor McGregor was recently involved in some trouble in a bar in Crumlin, Ireland.

Justin Golightly - November 28, 2017

Before the infamous “turteen” second Conor McGregor knockout, Jose Aldo was on a run of destruction and dominance only comparable to names like Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko. He was on an 18-fight win streak and carried over the WEC featherweight title over to the UFC. It was the title he earned by taking out Mike Brown, who was on a 10-fight win streak at the time himself. The fight would be an important milestone in an amazing career that was really just beginning. It makes it the perfect fight to watch before Aldo attempts to get back his title from Max Holloway at UFC 218. Jose Aldo’s 7-second destruction of Cub Swanson. WEC 41, 2009. pic.twitter.com/cvCTWH5u4X

Justin Golightly - November 28, 2017

We all knew it would be hard to get Nate Diaz back in the Octagon after back-to-back gigantic fights with Conor McGregor, but we had no idea it would be this difficult. Initially, we all thought he’d just be waiting until McGregor came back from his multi-million boxing bout, but that lag time just kept growing larger and larger until nothing. The MMA community’s ears peaked up when there was word of a bonkers fight between Tyron Woodley and Diaz to beef up UFC 219, but that has since been squashed. In a recent interview with Dana White, he not only says that the fight was never offered to begin with, but that Diaz has turned down every single fight he’s been offered for a year and a half. “Nate Diaz has turned down a fight with everyone on the roster. We’ve been offering him fights for a year and a half.” -Dana on Nate

Chris Taylor - November 28, 2017

Conor McGregor may never fight again according to UFC President Dana White. “Mystic Mac” has not stepped foot inside the octagon since defeating Eddie Alvarez for the promotions lightweight title at UFC 205 in November of 2016.

Justin Golightly - November 28, 2017

After demolishing Japanese MMA veteran Shinya Aoki at ONE: Immortal Pursuit, Ben Askren rode his funky train into the sunset, retiring from MMA for good. …Or maybe not. Freshly-retired Askren took to Twitter to plant the seed of a possible return fight with Georges St-Pierre. If you think this opens the door to a bunch of other potential match-ups, you’re wrong. For Askren, it’s either the “best in the world” or he’s happy to move on to a new chapter outside of the cage. “I’ve never said I’m retired, period. I’ve said that I’m retired with the caveat that if I somehow get to fight to prove that I’m No. 1 in the world, I will take that opportunity. I’m not gonna fight to be No. 3 or 5 or 7 or anything else. Just to be No. 1, that’s it. It’s not really a money thing, it’s a pride thing. There’s this other guy who was a very famous welterweight named Georges St-Pierre who doesn’t seem to have a dance partner right now and doesn’t seem to want to fight Tyron [Woodley] or Robert Whittaker. So I figure, he doesn’t want to get hit hard, I don’t hit that hard. So we might as well just get in there and get after it.“If he needs a dance partner, I’m more than willing to do it. I’ll come to Montreal and fit the bill for him. We’ll fill out the Bell Centre.”

Tom Taylor - November 28, 2017

Last night, we were hit by a tidal wave of rumors and reports suggesting UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor had been involved in a bar fight in Dublin, Ireland, and that  somewhere in the fracas, he planted one of his vaunted punches on a close associate of of convicted Irish drug dealer Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan.  Initially, these rumors could only be taken so seriously. On Tuesday morning, however, several bigger, more reputable outlets began reporting that an unnamed Irish star had indeed been involved in a confrontation, and that a cartel associate had been hit amid the bedlam.