MMA News

Tom Taylor - November 22, 2017

This December 30, on the main card of UFC 219, undefeated Dagestani lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov is scheduled to step into the cage with venomous Brazilian striker Edson Barboza. From the sounds of it, however, Nurmagomedov has also been offered a UFC 219 bout with interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson. In a Wednesday afternoon Tweet, Nurmagomedov announced that he’d been offered this fight with Ferguson, and that he has accepted it.

Justin Golightly - November 22, 2017

Bellator has tapped into our primal sources of nostalgia over huge MMA tournaments and are going to put on a heavyweight grand prix. Featuring legends and UFC veterans including heavyweights and light heavyweights, the tournament is going down early next year and right now, Matt Mitrione is the favorite to win it all. He’ll go into it on a three-fight win streak with his most recent victory being over Fedor Emelianenko. If it was up to him though, he’d rather have just got a title shot he felt he earned already. “I’m not good at giving political answers, so I’ll give you an honest answer: I wasn’t really excited, to be honest. I think it would have been a true heavyweight grand prix to fill it with heavyweights. I think it would have been even better to do it in the same night. I think that would have been a lot of fun. But that’s not how it went. I think they chose the most athletic, most exciting guys they have, and I think that’s what the draw of the tournament is. I would have originally wanted just a title fight, and then have the winner of the tournament fight me for the title – and I would defend it hopefully once during the middle of the year.”

Tom Taylor - November 22, 2017

This December 16, on the main card of the amazingly stacked UFC Winnipeg card, red hot welterweight contender “Platinum” Mike Perry will face the biggest test of his career in the division’s 10th-ranked fighter Santiago Ponzinibbio. If Perry is able to take out Ponzinibbio – which is assuredly no easy task – he’s got a few welterweight stars in mind for his next few fights. The Platinum one broke it down on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio.

Tom Taylor - November 22, 2017

Earlier this month, in the main event of the ridiculously stacked UFC 217, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre made his long-awaited return to the Octagon. While St-Pierre’s heyday occured at welterweight, however, his comeback fight occurred at middleweight, where he took on reigning champ Michael Bisping for the title. Despite the length of his layoff and his apparent size disadvantage, St-Pierre dazzled in this fight, battering his foe en route to a third-round submission win – his first stoppage win since 2009.

Justin Golightly - November 22, 2017

Justin Gaethje dropped his World Series of Fighting lightweight title and never looked back, now he’s one fight into the UFC and is immediately within reach of a possible title shot. He lived up to all of his hype by dismantling Michael Johnson in a Fight of the Night and winning Performance of the Night. He’ll look to continue this trend of violence with former UFC lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez at UFC 218. If he finishes the former UFC lightweight champ the way he expects to, then he’ll expect nothing less than an opportunity for a belt. “When I’m done, I’m going to be known as one of the most violent motherf-ckers in the sport. [And] The most entertaining. With that comes money for sure, especially with the UFC because they appreciate that effort. I give them max effort every time I step in there. The belt? I’m working towards that. I feel like I vacated a belt that I defended eight times, so I’m in the process of trying to get the one that I’m fighting for right now. It’s one fight at a time though and now I got to go out there, and it’s all about how you finish nowadays.”

Justin Golightly - November 22, 2017

To close out the year, Khabib Nurmagomedov is going to fight Edson Barboza at UFC 219. It will be his first UFC appearance since UFC 205 in November of last year. After many failed attempts to fight Tony Ferguson, Nurmagomedov is finally healthy and ready to return with a vengeance. After he takes care of his business with Barboza, the Russian Sambo machine doesn’t want to fight Conor McGregor. He’d rather finally answer the Ferguson question and put it all behind him. Not just for closure, but because he simply doesn’t like the guy. “My opinion, I have to fight for the title, you know. I deserve this. This is not about eight-fights in the UFC, this is about all my career since 2008. My plan is fight Edson Barboza. First of all, make weight. Second, beat this guy. And next year year want to fight Tony Ferguson. This is my plan. Me versus Conor is a good fight too, but first of all I have to finish. We have unfinished business with Tony Ferguson. I really, really want to smash this guys face. This is what I want. Sometimes you just don’t like somebody and it’s OK. Like, I think everywhere, everybody, there’s somebody who don’t like you. You know what I like about Tony Ferguson? I can smash him and the UFC are going to pay me money. UFC are going to pay me money.”

Tom Taylor - November 22, 2017

Back in June of this year, former UFC lightweight champion and all-around MMA legend BJ Penn made his latest return to cage opposite Germany’s Dennis Siver. While Penn nearly finished Siver in the second round, he ultimately came up short in this comeback bout, losing a majority decision. Now several months removed from this loss, Penn is content simply relaxing and taking things slow.

Tom Taylor - November 22, 2017

Over the last few weeks, there has been significant buzz surrounding a possible UFC 219 welterweight title fight between champ Tyron Woodley and long-time lightweight contender Nate Diaz. As the time between us and UFC 219 continues to dissipate, however, this fight continues to look more and more unlikely. According to Richard Perez, who serves as Nate Diaz’s boxing coach, if this fight doesn’t get made it will be because the UFC doesn’t want to pay Diaz his asking price.

Tom Taylor - November 22, 2017

Colby Covington is one of the most talked about fighters in MMA right now. Unfortunately, much of the talk about him has been negative. Public discourse surrounding the welterweight star picked up when he insulted the entire country of Brazil after his recent win over Demian Maia. It reached a boiling point when he had a run-in with Brazil’s Fabricio Werdum in Australia, and got a boomerang thrown in his face in the process.

Tom Taylor - November 22, 2017

While Jose Aldo was surprisingly understanding of Conor McGregor‘s infamous rampage at Bellator 187, Khabib Nurmagomedov is not. Speaking on the Talk and Talker Podcast, Nurmagomedov went off on McGregor for his actions, suggesting he should have calmed down when he was told to leave the cage, and that he never should have gotten physical with the referee.

Adam Conklin - November 21, 2017

Despite ‘aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability‘ charges UFC light heavyweight contender Volkan Ozdemir has found time to continue his training for what very well may be a title shot in his eventual return to the Octagon. Oezdemir took to his Facebook account to post a shot of himself getting a training session in:

Adam Conklin - November 21, 2017

For what feels like the past decade, Jon Jones has been making headlines for basically everything in the world of MMA. From car accidents to drug tests and even a ‘successful’ return to former glory (albeit a brief return) Jones doesn’t seem to have to try hard to be the main topic of conversation. That conversation will be prolonged a bit more though as Jones’ upcoming hearing regarding a failed UFC 214 drug test has been moved to undetermined day in February of next year. The hearing was initially scheduled for December 12th according to a report by MMAFighting.

Justin Golightly - November 21, 2017

There was mixed reactions to the rumblings of the UFC trying to put together a match-up between Tyron Woodley and Nate Diaz. The bout was agreed to and the contract signed by Woodley but was supposedly left blank by Diaz. This resulted in Woodley talking to every outlet he was featured on to convince the younger Diaz brother to ‘not be scared, homie.’ Other than the UFC welterweight champs energy put in the potential scrap, it looks like it is dead in the water but who knows. Carlos Condit, who will make his return at UFC 219, was asked about the fight and he was confused to say the least. “I just heard about [the possibility of Nate Diaz fighting Tyron Woodley] tonight and I don’t know. It’s strange. I didn’t expect that. I don’t know. Do they have some sort of ongoing Twitter beef or something? Like, where did it come from? Oh, okay. They’re trying to fill out [UFC 219]. They’re trying to get a main event. Alright, y’know. It’s a weird thing. Strange things happen. Whatever. I think there are more deserving contenders at welterweight but I guess they’ve lost to Tyron [Woodley] at this point. So, yeah. It’s kind of a weird place. But hey, I bet those guys [would] put on a helluva fight. honestly. I think that Diaz would push the pace and be in Tyron’s face and Tyron would rise to the occasion and perform like he can perform and i think it’d be a helluva fight. So, if they do it, that’s awesome.”

Jason Kindschy - November 21, 2017

BJPENN Radio returns live at 8PM ET/5PM PT with a special Thanksgiving episode! 8:15PM ET- First up we are joined by UFC welterweight and knockout artist, “Platinum” Mike Perry. With a showdown against Santiago Ponzinibbio approaching quickly, we’ll catch up with Perry as he prepares for yet another highlight-reel knockout in Canada on December 16th. We’ll also get “Platinum’s” reaction to some of MMA’s hottest news and many of the call-outs directed towards him in recent weeks.

Justin Golightly - November 21, 2017

The UFC’s year-end mega card has taking more hits than most of it’s roster has had, but it is slowly being built back up. One of the bouts that ended up having to get split up is Dominick Cruz’s return to the Octagon against Jimmie Rivera, which was called off because of a broken arm Cruz suffered in training. Lots of fighters offered to step up including Marlon Moraes, Aljamain Sterling and John Lineker. Just earlier today, it was reported that a bout could be finalized soon, but now UFC officials have confirmed to Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal today that the replacement bout is officially moving on with Lineker. UFC is working towards booking Jimmie Rivera vs. John Lineker for UFC 219 on 12/30, according to sources. Not finalized yet but moving in the right direction. Hoping to finalize very soon.

Justin Golightly - November 21, 2017

The bells of nostalgia are calling and have summoned a Bellator heavyweight grand prix that will drop early next year. Among all of the UFC veterans and MMA legends involved, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir will take on the illustrious Fedor Emelianenko. Despite being far removed from his prime and experiencing some devastating losses, Mir believes Fedor is just as dangerous as ever, it’s just everyone else who has changed. “I think [Fedor Emelianenko]’s still extremely dangerous. He did everything he does normally. You see how fast he threw the right hand on [Matt] Mitrione. The difference is everyone else just have gotten a lot better. If Matt Mitrione would fight 10 years ago in Pride, he would have been one of the best fighters in Pride, if we grab Mitrione we are seeing now and put him back there. Back then guys were either good boxers, wrestlers, jiu jitsu guys. You didn’t have a lot of guys who were good at everything. Which Fedor is. He’s good at everything. And now he has to deal with the fact that everybody now is good at everything.”

Justin Golightly - November 21, 2017

When Max Holloway stepped into the cage with former featherweight king Jose Aldo for the first time, he took Aldo out in the third round. Something was missing though, which caused a lot of people to ask, ‘What if?’ Absent were the infamous and thundering leg kicks from the previous champ. It is one of Aldo’s most dangerous weapons, but he wasn’t able to implement them coming into the fight with Holloway due to a leg injury. After Max Holloway spoke up about it recently, Jose Aldo breaks his silence on the matter and vows he’s in perfect condition. “I don’t think there was any cowardice. Every time I’m in there that’s the best Aldo possible. [Max] Holloway was a great fighter that night and was able to win. He deserved it. There’s no excuse. ‘Dede’ [Pederneiras] talked about [my leg injury] because it happened in training, but if I’m in there, that’s the best Aldo available. There’s no excuse. He won because he deserved to win. I’m in perfect condition. There are always small injuries, but nothing that takes any weapon away. I’m kicking, punching, I’m dong everything now. There are no serious injuries. You can expect the best kickboxing, the best muay thai.”

Justin Golightly - November 21, 2017

The much-anticipated return of Conor McGregor won’t go down until April or mid-2018, but good things come to those who wait. For a long while, it seemed like it was nearly a done deal that his opponent when he returned back to the Octagon would Nate Diaz, but those talks slowly went quiet and more buzz around Tony Ferguson heated up. No matter who the Irish double-champ stands across the cage from, coach John Kavanagh wants to let everyone know that they’ll be dealing with an even more dangerous version of McGregor on the feet. “To be honest, some of the things we’ve come away with from the Mayweather fight. When would an MMA guy have a chance to take six months just to focus on one aspect of MMA? Never is the answer, they’re always trying to work on everything. But when he does return to the Octagon, his hands are going to be a lot better than what they were. And I’m excited to see that.”