MMA News

Chris Taylor - November 25, 2017

Michael Bisping suffered his second stoppage loss in the past three weeks earlier today at UFC Fight Night 122 in Shanghai, China. “The Count” took on surging division contender Kelvin Gastelum in today’s main event but unfortunately lost the contest via first-round knockout.

Chris Taylor - November 25, 2017

Ben Askren put the Ultimate Fighting Championship on blast for allowing Michael Bisping to co-headline today’s UFC Fight Night 122 event in Shanghai, China. Askren took to Twitter shortly following Bisping’s brutal first-round knockout loss to Kelvin Gastelum where he proceeded to criticize the UFC’s decision to let “The Count” fight just “3 weeks after being concussed”.

Chris Taylor - November 25, 2017

UFC Fight Night 122 took place earlier today in beautiful Shanghai, China. The event was headlined by a key middleweight scrap featuring surging division contender Kelvin Gastelum squaring off with former division champion Michael Bisping.

Chris Taylor - November 25, 2017

Kelvin Gastelum scored arguably the biggest win of his mixed martial arts career earlier today in Shanghai when he defeated former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping via first-round knockout. Gastelum was able to land a huge left hand that sent “The Count” crashing to the canvas and quickly put an end to the fight.

Justin Golightly - November 25, 2017

He came, he wrestled, he got funky, now he’s gone. Ben Askren was able to take out multiple-time lightweight champion and grappling guru Shinya Aoki at ONE Championship’s Immortal Pursuit in his retirement fight. He walks away from the sport with little to no damage and boasts an undefeated record of 18 wins, 11 of those victories being finishes. While he never got to display his skills inside the UFC’s Octagon, Askren is completely content with how his career has played out. That isn’t to say that an asterisk isn’t always above the ‘R’ word, but it would have to be something massive to get Askren to fight again. @GeorgesStPierre how’s the spring weather in Montreal? I hear it’s a nice time to test your true Martial Arts skills

Justin Golightly - November 25, 2017

Everywhere Tyron Woodley turns, Colby Covington is there: On television, on the Twitter, even sliding into comment sections on Facebook. However, his antics have drawn more attention than from just the UFC welterweight champion, he basically has an entire nation of Brazilians angry at him. Something that resulted in an altercation with heavyweight Fabricio Werdum in Australia. Chael Sonnen recently opened up about his kindred-spirit in trash talk, Colby Covington, praising the surging contender while condemning Werdum. “I love [Colby Covington]. I think he’s a ton of fun and what [Fabricio] Werdum did was a scumbag move. This is the second time Werdum has done this, don’t forget. Last time we saw him get into somebody, it was 155-pound Tony Ferguson. It was just really weird. That’s my piece on that. As far as Colby goes, listen, if you wanna make an omelet you’ve got to crack a few eggs. I remind you, I know Tyron Woodley since way back when and I saw Tyron do that same thing. He had a little bit of a different approach, but don’t make a mistake, Tyron Woodley stuck his finger in every single chest and used every single microphone he had to get his opportunity too.”

Justin Golightly - November 25, 2017

While most of us slept off our second helping of Thanksgiving, Kelvin Gastelum was in Shanghai, China earning the biggest win of his entire career. It only took him a single round to take out Michael Bisping, who was coming off a super quick turnaround from UFC 217’s loss to Georges St-Pierre. Gastelum wasted no time at all declaring exactly what he wanted this win to propel him towards: The UFC middleweight title. With St-Pierre’s next fight up in the air, Gastelum set his sights on a fight with Robert Whittaker in Perth. Flush.#UFCShanghai pic.twitter.com/10gMesZuwB

Justin Golightly - November 25, 2017

We all knew Francis Ngannou hits hard, just ask the four opponents he’s stopped in the UFC with his thundering strikes. As if this needed anymore testing, the folks at UFC took Ngannou to undergo some sophisticated testing that looks like the kind of stuff Ivan Drago was doing in that Rocky IV movie. Remember when he punched those electronically-rigged pads and the numbers skyrocketed? Yeah, that happened in real life and it turns out that Ngannou supposedly the hardest-punching dude in the world, or at least the hardest so far to punch on this machine. I currently hold the world records of punching power #thepredator #UFC218 pic.twitter.com/eZ1WLGaylU

Justin Golightly - November 25, 2017

Brutal. pic.twitter.com/BORuBEyjdw — FloCombat (@FloCombat) November 25, 2017

Adam Conklin - November 24, 2017

Former UFC middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold has been outspoken regarding his discontent for the middleweight title picture. Being an active part of that picture since his debut in the UFC back in 2013. Rockhold was coming off of an electric run in Strikeforce with nine wins, three of which were for the title. Rockhold’s debut in the UFC was a memorable loss to Vitor Belfort but four straight finishes including two and three performance bonuses later and Rockhold challenged for, and won, the UFC middleweight title.

Adam Conklin - November 24, 2017

The UFC makes its debut in mainland China in the early hours of the first Saturday after Thanksgiving. The Mercedes Benz Arena will play host to tomorrow’s UFC Fight Night. The four-fight main card is headlined by a middleweight bout between Kelvin Gastelum and late-replacement opponent and former middleweight champion, Michael Bisping. Gastelum, ranked ninth in the UFC’s official rankings, wants to erase the feeling of two straight fights that didn’t end the way he would have wanted. A March fight against Vitor Belfort was changed to a No Contest after Gastelum tested positive for marijuana. Gastelum then lost a via submission to yet another former champion in Chris Weidman.

Justin Golightly - November 24, 2017

Back when Holly Holm was pitted against Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, Rousey seemed like an unstoppable juggernaut and was heavily favored against the former boxing champion. At UFC 219, the odds will be no different. No one can deny the dominance of Cris Cyborg, especially now that she’s in her proper weight class. With a lack of contenders, it looks like Cyborg could be UFC women’s featherweight champion for a long time. That is, unless Holm has something to say about it. Miesha Tate recently weighed-in on the match-up and thinks Holm has all the righ tools to get the job done. “Of anybody that I can think to fight Cyborg to right now, that has the best chance, I honestly, truly believe that it’s Holly [Holm]. The reason I say that is, if Cyborg cannot get ahold of Holly, if she recklessly chases her down — similar to how Ronda [Rousey] did, not using the correct angles — if she follows her like a missile, which she does in every fight I’ve ever seen before. That’s how she hunts girls down because she can. With Holly, that’s not a good idea. She can cut through those angles. She’s an amazing counter striker and if she lands that head kick, I think she can put anybody away. So stylistically, this makes for a really, really interesting fight.”

Justin Golightly - November 24, 2017

Fans have wanted Fedor Emelianenko in the UFC for many, many years and it just never happened. Despite him being one of the greatest of all time, we never got to see him against arguably the best competition in the world’s biggest fighting organization. While we can’t turn back time and do it in Fedor’s prime, Scott Coker and Bellator’s heavyweight grand prix will give us a chance to see such a match-up. Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir is taking on the legend in one of the opening rounds and that’s just the type of big game Mir is hunting in his return to MMA. First round match ups announced for @BellatorMMA heavyweight Grand Prix. I’m honored to be fighting #Fedor …A living legend that I’ve wanted to compete against for many years. #Bellator is going to finally make it happen 👊🏻💥#mma pic.twitter.com/2cfs2DxhS5

Justin Golightly - November 24, 2017

Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s message for critics: I will be more ‘cocky,’ ‘arrogant’ and ‘loud’ after #UFC217 loss https://t.co/L3kM4PtqCe pic.twitter.com/CwVR4LQcrn — MMAjunkie (@MMAjunkie) November 24, 2017

Justin Golightly - November 24, 2017

Today at an historic ONE Championship event, Ben Askren leaves MMA for good. His retirement match was against a legend in his own right, grappling wizard and multiple-time former champion, Shinya Aoki. Askren slammed the former ONE lightweight champion Aoki down after he pulled guard, then it was basically all over from there. After some thundering ground and pound, the referee stepped in and stopped the fight, awarding Askren a technical knockout for his final victory in MMA. “Listen, I told someone this the other day, and this is something I ca0n be totally proud about, I hope I don’t eff this up while I’m telling it live: I have never turned down a fight, I have never pulled out of a fight, I have never missed weight, I have never failed a drug test, and I have never lost. And I don’t know that anyone else can say that, ever.” —Ben Askren on a previous episode of The MMA Hour.

Justin Golightly - November 24, 2017

It’s long been rumored that Chuck Liddell was thinking about coming back to the sport. He’s beat around the bush and never given a straight answer over the years, but nevertheless the talk keeps coming. More recently, Chael Sonnen and the legend has developed a sort of feud, but Liddell promises there is nothing to that. He did say however, that he would come out of retirement as early as tomorrow if the price was good. Could Liddell be put on UFC 219? I wouldn’t hold your breath, but sooner or later he’ll get an offer good enough to come back. UFC Hall of Famer @ChuckLiddell tells @realOCsports & @RJcliffordMMA that those wondering if he’ll fight again will have to keep wondering, he was never offered a fight w/ @ChaelSonnen, & that for $15m he’d throw down with @NateDiaz209 & @TWooodley … at the same time! pic.twitter.com/OI7LayP57Y

Tom Taylor - November 23, 2017

Earlier this month, in the lead-up to the UFC’s recent show in Sydney, Australia, surging UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington had a run-in with former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum. Evidently angered by Covington’s controversial anti-Brazil comments, Werdum got physical with the welterweight, and ultimately threw a novelty boomerang at him. Speaking on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Mike Perry, who is one of Covington’s arch rivals at welterweight, sounded off on this whole ordeal. He assured that, had he been the one tangling with Werdum and his boomerang, things would have gone very differently.

Tom Taylor - November 23, 2017

Back in August, UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor stepped through the ropes of the boxing to battle undefeated legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. While the Irishman must be commended for taking on such a decorated legend in his pro boxing debut, his effort to do so ultimately went the way most expected, as he was stopped by a volley of punches in the 10th round. With this boxing match soundly in the rear-view, the perception has been that McGregor’s next fight will be in the UFC’s Octagon. In terms of possible opponents, the frontrunner is definitely Tony Ferguson, though Nate Diaz, Tyron Woodley and Georges St-Pierre are also being options.