MMA News

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

“Its been offered to me, its been offered to Nate Diaz. Unfortunately one half has not accepted…” – @TWooodley https://t.co/AVNXx7GRdK — FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) November 18, 2017

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Kelvin Gastelum was originally supposed to fight the legend Anderson Silva in the main even of UFC Shanghai, but Silva’s flagging by USADA took away that opportunity. Luckily, perhaps an even more high profile match-up landed in Gastelum’s lap. Michael Bisping wanted to bounce right back from his loss to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217, so he offered to step up short notice against the middleweight contender. Gastelum feels like a possible win over Bisping could finally get him close to the gold belt. “Yes. If I win this fight [with Michael Bisping], it will put me up high in the rankings and hopefully in the conversations to fight for the title. That’s ultimately my goal. I feel like if I win this fight then I might have tarnished those plans and I might’ve just permanently put myself in the position where I’ll be fighting for the middleweight title. If I get to fight for the middleweight title, then that’s ideal but I also feel like if I do the right things and I’m able to make the 170 safely and healthy, then I can do it and I want to fight for that title too.” — Kelvin Gastelum speaking on the UFC Shanghai conference call. 

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Jorge Masvidal does not like Michael Bisping. Like, at all. It’s not just the trash talk that gets under Masvidal’s skin, whatever bad feelings he may have had toward the former UFC middleweight champion were magnified tenfold after Bisping desecrated the Cuban flag cageside. Combined with his friendship with Yoel Romero, this makes any situation volatile, as we saw when the two nearly came to blows recently. It’s all those reasons why Masvidal is willing to fight Bisping as a replacement if somehow Kelvin Gastelum can’t make it. “I think if Kelvin Gastelum doesn’t make weight, I’ll step right in. That’s what I like to do. I like to fight, so if that happens, if you know, I’m going to be praying that Gastelum eats too much dessert or something. I think [Michael] Bisping will win. Even though I don’t like him too much as a person, I think Bisping will win. Me personally, I just don’t like Bisping because we’ve had problems in real life, I just don’t like. If I could fight him in the Whole Foods parking lot I would. Any Aussie super market. I would fight that guy for a parking spot, that’s how much I don’t like him.” — Jorge Masvidal speaking at the UFC Sydney Q & A. 

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Frankie Edgar challenging Max Holloway was a fight everyone wanted to see. The two somehow haven’t fought yet and Edgar — along with Chad Mendes — were perpetually switching out for the second best featherweight in the world next to Jose Aldo. When an injury forced him out of his third chance at the title at UFC 218, the former champ was subbed in for a rematch with Holloway. Cub Swanson was in the running for awhile, but one name missing from the equation was Ricardo Lamas. He opened up about the scenario in a recent interview with Luke Thomas. .@RicardoLamasMMA explains why he should have been in the running for a title shot against Max Holloway#TLTS@lthomasnews pic.twitter.com/Dn6YlvC5dE

Adam Conklin - November 17, 2017

Its been a good week for UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino. First, she books the first defense of her title against former women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm in what is one of the most sought after matchup in MMA. Next, Cyborg confirms to the media via her website that a new deal has been reached with the UFC that will keep her in the Octagon at least the next year. Cyborg has made the most of her long-awaited UFC career. She stands undefeated in the Octagon with three straight wins, all of which coming by knockout in no later than the third round. Her most recent history came over former Invicta FC bantamweight champ Tonya Evinger who made her UFC debute opposite one of the most feared fighters in MMA.

Adam Conklin - November 17, 2017

Adam Conklin - November 17, 2017

The return fight of the man many believe to be the greatest of all time (a moniker aided by the failed drug tests and inactivity of others) now has an estimated PPV total attached to it. According to MMAFighting, UFC 217 drew an estimated 875,000 buys. This marks the most bought PPV of the year, beating out UFC 214 which was headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between Daniel Cormier and returning former champ, Jon Jones. This year’s mega-event was headlined by the return of former UFC welterweight tyrant, Georges St-Pierre, a man who never lost his title in the Octagon, opposite the then-reigning UFC middleweight champion, Michael Bisping. This was the second title defense of Bisping’s reign, albeit an unsuccessful one. Georges St-Pierre became just the fourth man in UFC history to hold titles in two different weight classes when he choked Bisping unconscious in the 3rd round, following a hook from GSP that floored Bisping.

Justin Golightly - November 17, 2017

It is what it is! Dropping soon! @moskova pic.twitter.com/cCliKDFnfA — Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) November 17, 2017

Justin Golightly - November 17, 2017

After Frankie Edgar was forced to back out of his fight with Max Holloway at UFC 218, all of us were devastated. It’s a fight that we somehow haven’t seen in Holloway’s career, fresh off the heels of the Hawaiian’s dominant performance against former featherweight king Jose Aldo. That was, until we found out it would be none other than Aldo who’d replace Edgar in the fight. How did Holloway react when he found out he’d have a rematch with Aldo? It is what it is. On the premiere of Joe Rogan’s new hour-long MMA round-up show, Rogan couldn’t help but be hype as hell about. “Max Holloway’s a savage. He’s a killer. A straight up killer and not even close to his prime. Max Holloway is long way away from his prime. He’s way better now than he was when he first got into the UFC, he’s continued to get better every fight, now he’s the champion and he just stopped Aldo. And when he they offered him the rematch because Frankie Edgar got injured — they offered [Jose] Aldo the rematch — so Aldo took it. Now it’s going to be Max Holloway versus Aldo II, which is still a huge f-cking fight. When Aldo accepted, Max Holloway wrote on his Instagram, ‘It is what it is.’ Like, ‘No big deal. Well, what are we going to do.’ Like, what? You’re about to fight the greatest featherweight of all time for the second time. And he’s like, ‘It is what it is.’ Like, that’s how badass he is. He just figured, ‘If I f-cked you up once, I’m going to f-ck you up again.'”

Justin Golightly - November 17, 2017

After reclaiming his UFC bantamweight title from Cody Garbrandt at UFC 217, TJ Dillashaw only has his sights set on one fighter: Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson. He’s arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter right now, a dominant flyweight champion, and has just broken Anderson Silva’s title-defense record with a move out of a comic book. A fight like this could be one of the most elite MMA fights of all time. It’s a no brainer that Dillashaw wants to make the fight happen, especially since it was in the works before Johnson’s last defense against Ray Borg. Coach and MMA legend Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig recently opened up more about the potential fight. “We were en route to fight Demetrious [Johnson] at one point and the direction he was taking with his strength and conditioning coach, TJ [Dillashaw] was looking phenomenal on the mitts and the sparring and the training and he looked good, his spirits were good. So, obviously we didn’t make 125 and fight and compete, but when were were en route of that, nothing really changed. TJ’s not a big ‘35er, so he can make ‘25. It’s not going to be easy, but he’s the most dedicated person that I’ve ever seen. He really is. I think it needs to happen.”

Justin Golightly - November 17, 2017

With as crazy as the MMA world has been lately, it’s almost easy to start to forget the embarrassment of riches that UFC 217 gave us. Perched atop the hugely successful card, Georges St-Pierre made his return to the Octagon for the first time in four years and was able to take the UFC middleweight title from Michael Bisping. In a recent episode of Jon Anik and Kenny Florian’s podcast, UFC veteran and former commentator Brian Stann talked about what an achievement St-Pierre pulled off, especially with how severe his anxiety gets before fights. “That’s a tremendous layoff. There is a huge difference — I don’t care what kind of shape you get into in the gym, in training camp. I don’t care if you measure everything, your resting heart rate, I don’t care — it’s all different when you’re actually in that Octagon in fight night. The bright lights, the anxiety, the nerves — GSP, he suffers from some of the worst anxiety I’ve ever seen in this sport, which makes what he did even more special. I thought he was fantastic, I thought he was technically very good. He did obviously slow down, but it was expected. It looked like Michael Bisping was taking over that fight, but GSP found a way to do it. It’s not like he did anything that was completely different from what we’ve seen before in his career, but the fact that he was able to come and fight at that level, after 4 years on the bench is absolutely outstanding to me.”

Justin Golightly - November 17, 2017

Unless you’re living under an MMA rock, you should know by now that Fabricio Werdum hit Colby Covington in the face with a boomerang while in Sydney, Australia promoting the UFC card that goes down this weekend. Covington went on Instagram live right as it ended and went off on the heavyweight fighter for attacking him and has since pressed charges. With some sort of fighter beef sixth sense, his teammate Jorge Masvidal warned Covington that a confrontation might happen. “I don’t know. It’s been fun. I think [Colby Covington]’s having fun too. You know, he’s making the best out of it as always. He’s crazy, man. Nah, [he’s not going too far]. Colby’s, Colby. That’s my partner. He’s going to do whatever he wants. He’s not going to definitely listen to me. He’s crazy, man. I actually told him though, right before he left because he was scheduled to do some interviews with the UFC. And I told him, I go, ‘You should watch out. If [Fabrico Werdum] said that, he probably would try to do something to you, put his hands on you.’ It’s crazy that it happened shortly after. You know, this was like 20 minutes before that happened. I told him, I was like, ‘Hey, be ready just in case something happens.'”

Adam Conklin - November 16, 2017

The two men involved in Saturday night’s main event took part in the traditional open media workouts on Thursday. Both Fabricio Werdum (22-7-1) and Marcin Tybura (16-2) will fight in what could place on these fighters in line for a title shot with an impressive performance in Sydney.

Adam Conklin - November 16, 2017

Just over two and a half weeks before the UFC wraps up TUF 26, the first to feature fighters competing in the newly minted UFC women’s straw weight division, they have announced the main criteria for the 27th U.S.-based season of the long-running reality TV series: Only undefeated fighters may apply. In a press release delivered by the UFC on Thursday, the company announced that they are searching for men in the feather-, light-, and welterweight divisions, three of perhaps the most loaded divisions that the promotion has to offer.

Chris Taylor - November 16, 2017

UFC 219 gets a title fight! The octagon will return to T-Mobile Arena next month for UFC 219 on December 30 in Las Vegas.

Adam Conklin - November 16, 2017

In what seems to be on-going coverage of UFC heavyweight Fabricio Werdum, a video has surfaced of an Australian news station who ran a story covering the confrontation between Werdum and UFC welterweight Colby Covington.

Justin Golightly - November 16, 2017

Frankie Edgar had to pull out of his title fight with Max Holloway at UFC 218, but a rematch against Jose Aldo isn’t bad at all for a late replacement. Of course, Edgar would rather it be him, but a broken orbital in training forced him out of the bout. For now, he is back on the sidelines waiting for his crack at the belt once again and giving his insight into the match-up. The former UFC lightweight champion thinks Holloway comes away with his hands raised against Aldo for the second time. “I think [Max] Holloway is going to get it done, but [Jose] Aldo is always dangerous, so you never know. Yeah, for sure I got a message for the winner. I’m coming for that belt man. I’ve not changed my goals. I want to become a two weight champion and I know I’m close to it. I’m just going to get back fit and get it done. […] I think [Max Holloway] understands that it was something out of my hands. I think he understands that and I’m not one to ever back out of anything. I’ve been wanting this shot for a very long time so if anyone is upset about it, it’s going to be myself. I knew it was going to be one of those guys. I don’t know how they come to their decisions, but no, I wasn’t really surprised that they picked Aldo. For sure, it makes more sense that I fight Holloway. Those guys will figure it though. When they fought last time I said they would figure it out and that the true champ would come out. I know I’ll fight the winner.”

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

Over the last few days, there has been a tidal wave of buzz surrounding a possible welterweight title fight between champ Tyron Woodley and long-time lightweight contender Nate Diaz at UF 219. While this possible showdown has generated a flood of excitement, however, there are plenty of people who believe it’s the wrong choice, as Diaz has hardly earned a welterweight title shot. File surging welterweight contender Colby Covington into that group. “It’s a joke, man,” Colby Covington said on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “What’s Nate Diaz’s record at welterweight? He doesn’t even have the 25% win ratio. I mean, he got his shit beat by Dong Hyun Kim. You saw what I did to Dong Hyun Kim. I completely destroyed him and outclassed him. So, Nate’s a small 55-er. He doesn’t belong at 170. You know, whatever. If he gets to fight, good for him, man. I’m still gonna be here. I’m still gonna be the number one contender, and I’m still gonna get my belt next, so… [Tyron] can only run and hide for as long as he can. But, at the end of the day, I’m still gonna be here, and I’m not going anywhere. I am the best, and I cannot be stopped right now.”