MMA News

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2017

Earlier this month, in the main event of the UFC’s anticipated stop in Norfolk, VA, lightweight contender Dustin Poirier stepped into the cage with former champion Anthony Pettis. After two and a half riveting rounds, Poirier earned the win, forcing an apparently injured Pettis out of the fight with a body triangle. While this win stands out as one of the best of his career thus far, Poirier doesn’t regard it as career-changing outright.

Adam Conklin - November 20, 2017

Former UFC interim heavyweight champion Shane Carwin has announced his bid to become an alternate in the upcoming Bellator heavyweight grand prix. He shared the news via his Facebook page:“I sent Bellator MMA a request to get on as an Alternate for this amazing tournament. I really can’t wait to watch it either way but I am so pumped up for it I had to get my name on a list. I’d love a real title.” Carwin has been out of action since UFC 130 in June of 2011 when he dropped a decision loss to Junior dos Santos. Carwin also competed against Brock Lesnar in a title unification bout at UFC 116 in a premiere heavyweight bought that defined the era of  the ‘big’ heavyweight. The estimated buy rate of that PPV was 1.16 million. The grand prix is rumored to take place in April of 2018 with its winner being crowned the new Bellator heavyweight champion. The tournament will act as an opportunity to showcase the promotion’s division, which despite its age, does feature a who’s who of nostalgic heavyweight names.

Adam Conklin - November 20, 2017

The middleweight division has become as perplexing as it is stacked. Now with former UFC welterweight king Georges St-Pierre at the helm, and an interim champ working his way back to the cage, the rest of the division continues to sort it self out. Already illustrating this sentiment is champ Michael Bisping, who is making an immediate turnaround to take on #9 Kelvin Gastelum this Saturday night.

Adam Conklin - November 20, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxR6HI70Wxk Before former middleweight champion Michael Bisping captured UFC gold, he was working his way up the ladder like he did so many times before. On that road, Bisping met almost everyone of note in the upper-echleon division, including prolific striker Cung Le.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2017

Conor McGregor recently dominated headlines for a bizarre incident at Bellator 187, in which he stormed the cage during his teammate Charlie Ward’s fight, and ultimately shoved referee Marc Goddard, and slapped a commissioner. These actions understandably generated scorn from the vast majority of the MMA community. Not everyone, however, faults McGregor for the way he acted. Former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, one of the fiercest rivals of McGregor’s career, even defended him. “I haven’t seen the video, but I heard about it,” Aldo said during a media day in Rio de Janeiro (h/t Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com). “I think it’s normal. He’s an emotional guy, and when an Irishman is fighting the Irish people embrace them a lot. I don’t condemn him.”

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2017

The United States Anti-Doping Agency, the organization that the UFC has enlisted to help combat MMA’s long standing performance enhancing drug problem, has as long history of aggravating fighters with surprise visits. In an effort to catch potential PED-users unawares, USADA agents will often show up unannounced, in the wee hours of the morning, oftentimes infuriating their groggy test subjects in the process. One USADA rep is even reported to have had a gun pointed in his face. The latest fighter to go off on USADA is UFC middleweight Uriah Hall, who says he was woken up by a testing agent on Monday morning. However, USADA was not the only target of Hall’s rage. The fighter is also furious with his steroid-using peers, who are, of course, the reason USADA is necessary to begin with. Hall made his opinion clear in a Monday morning post to his Instagram story.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2017

While it’s possible that Nate Diaz will jump the line, the race for a shot at Tyron Woodley’s UFC welterweight title seems to come down to a handful of men: Colby Covington, Robbie Lawler, Rafael dos Anjos (Lawler’s upcoming opponent) and Stephen Thompson. In the opinion of Colby Covington, however, it’s pretty easy to chop Lawler and Thompson from that list. “I’m next in line at welterweight,” Covington said on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “You know, I’m number three in the world. There’s only two guys ahead of me: Robbie Lawler and Stephen Thompson. Stephen Thompson, [Woodley] already fought twice. So, he’s not getting another shot. Robbie Lawler got knocked out [by Woodley] in under a minute or two minutes, so, you know, they’re not going to do re-do that fight. It doesn’t make sense. [Besides] I’ve already knocked out Robbie enough in the gym.”

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2017

On November 4, in the first of the three title fights on the stacked UFC 217 bill, Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s strawweight title reign came to a crashing halt as she was knocked out by challenger Rose Namajunas in the first round. Since then, Jedrzejczyk has been campaigning relentlessly for an immediate rematch, and the chance to reclaim her title. In fact, she even claims she’ll get that rematch.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2017

Over the weekend, Bellator MMA set up shop at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, as part of the festivities for the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The promotion hosted a series of free fights for the race fans in attendance, and also offered meet-and-greets with MMA legends like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Dan Henderson.  While this was an interesting bit of co-promotion on Bellator’s behalf, not everyone involved was happy with the way it all went down. Mitchell Chamale, one of the fighters on the bill, had a pretty fair complaint about the way he and his fellow fighters were treated backstage.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2017

Over the weekend, in the main event of the UFC’s anticipated return to Sydney, Australia, former UFC heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum picked up yet another big win, out-pointing rising Polish contender Marcin Tybura. With this win, Werdum extended his current win-streak to two, and his opinion, earned himself another shot at the UFC heavyweight title. “I feel for sure I deserve it,” Werdum told MMAjunkie at the UFC Sydney post-fight press conference. “It’s not just now for this fight and my last fight. I’ve beat a lot of guys – Fedor Emelianenko, Cain Velasquez, Minotauro (Nogueira). I have a history. For 20 years I’ve been fighting. Not just now. I have two belts in my home. Only one fighter in the world is a jiu-jitsu champion, a submission champion and a UFC champion. It’s me.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2017

Though UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley’s possible scrap with Nate Diaz seems to have lost some steam, Woodley himself is still fired about about this prospective showdown, and believes it could still happen. “I’m fired up about people that tell you ‘Don’t be scared, homie,’ and then they’re scared, homie! That’s what I’m fired up about,” Woodley said on The Hollywood Beatdown (h/t MMAFighting).

Chris Taylor - November 19, 2017

Volkan Oezdemir’s camp issues a statement following his recent arrest in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Earlier today it was reported that the light heavyweight contender, Volkan Oezdemir, was arrested Saturday night (November 18, 2017) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and charged with aggravated battery.

Chris Taylor - November 19, 2017

Surging UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington plans to win UFC belts in at least two divisions. “Chaos” was a recent guest on BJPENN RADIO where he revealed his plans on becoming a two-division champion.

Chris Taylor - November 19, 2017

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is hoping to secure a fight with former lightweight title challenger Nate Diaz at December’s UFC 219 event in Las Vegas. Earlier this week “The Chosen One” announced that a fight with the younger Diaz brother was fifty-percent complete and only required Nate to stop with his “excuses” and sign on the dotted line.

Chris Taylor - November 19, 2017

Surging UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington has made a lot of headlines in recent weeks. It all started last month in Brazil after Covington scored a unanimous decision over hometown favorite Demian Maia at UFC Fight Night 119.

Chris Taylor - November 19, 2017

UFC officials hope to have middleweight champ Georges St-Pierre return to action at UFC 221 this February in Perth, Australia. “Listen, bottom line is that we want to have Robbie (Whittaker) fight in Perth,” David Shaw, UFC Vice President of international content said at the UFC Fight Night 121 post-fight press conference via Forbes. “The stars are sort of aligning for that event, having a pay-per-view there. First time in Western Australia, which is meaningful to us. We want to blow it out of the water and make it a very significant event and make a real impact, not only for Western Australians but for Australian fans all over the country.”

Tom Taylor - November 19, 2017

Earlier this week, former UFC heavyweight champion and UFC Sydney headliner Fabricio Werdum had a run-in with surging UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington. The exact events of this encounter are not known. Covington claims Werdum punched him. Werdum, meanwhile, claims no punch was thrown. What is clear, however, is that Werdum hit Covington with a boomerang he’d been given by an Australian fan – which was enough for Covington to press charges.

Tom Taylor - November 19, 2017

Last night, the UFC touched down in Sydney, Australia with UFC Fight Night 121. In the main event of this 13-fight card, which registered as the longest in UFC history, former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum picked up a fun decision win over rising Polish contender Marcin Tybura. In the co-main event, meanwhile, short-notice replacement Jessica Rose Clark made good on her UFC debut, picking up a decision over the veteran Bec Rawlings. Elsewhere on the main card, we saw Belal Muhammad, Jake Matthews, Elias Theodorou, and Alexander Volkanovski pick up key wins.