MMA News

Chris Taylor - November 18, 2017

A women’s flyweight scrap between UFC newcomer Jessica-Rose Clark and veteran Bec Rawlings served as the co-main event of tonight’s UFC Fight Night 121 fight card in Sydney. Round one begins and Rawlings comes out quickly. Clark gets her to retreat by throwing a flurry. Clark with a left hand and then a low kick. Rawlings come forward with a right hand. She charges in with a flurry but nothing lands. Clark with a nice outside low kick. Rawlings catches a second kick and takes Clark to the floor. Bec is working from full guard. Bec with some nice right hands. Clark scrambles and winds up in top position. That was some nice work from Jessica-Rose. Clark is able to pass to half guard. She is looking to pass to side control but Bec won’t allow it and Clark opts to stand up. Bec gets back to her feet and lands a punch. Clark circles and lands a left. A nice right hand over the top by Jessica-Rose. Rawlings eats the strikes and presses forward. Another ncie right hand and then a counter left from Clark. Another good combination from Clark. She follows that up with a low kick. Bec charges forward with punches. Round one comes to an end.

Chris Taylor - November 18, 2017

A welterweight scrap between Tim Means and Belal Muhammad took place during tonight’s UFC Fight Night 121 main card in Sydney. Round one begins and Means uses his reach advantage early landing a right and then a left hand. Belal circles out but Means stays on him. Muhammad misses with a left hook attempt. Means fires off a body kick. Belal replies with a nice left hand. He lands another. Means has his left hand tucked. He is looking to counter here. Means with a nice straight left hand. Belal circles and then comes forward with a right hand that finds a home. Means goes to the body with a push kick. Muhammad responds with a beautiful left hook. Means with a nice right jab. Belal responds with a kick to the thigh. Means is applying pressure now. He lands a nice jab. Belal circles and then comes over the top with a left hand. He lands a right hand now. Means with a hard low kick. Both men connect with straight right hands. Belal with another nice left hook over the top. One minute remains in the opening round. More strikes from both men but nothing significant. Round one comes to an end.

Chris Taylor - November 18, 2017

A welterweight scrap between Jake Matthews and Bojan Velickovic took place during tonight’s UFC Fight Night 121 main card in Sydney. Round one begins and Velickovic takes the center of the octagon and lands a straight left. Matthews charges forward and presses Bojan against the cage. Bojan with some short shots. He switches to elbows as Jake works for a single leg takedown. Matthews is working hard here but Bojan is doing an excellent job of defending. More short punches from Velickovic. Jake continues to a work on the single leg and finally drags Bojan to the floor. He hops on Velickovic’s back but Bojan stands back up. Jake presses him up against the cage. He dives down for a double leg takedown. He gets it. Jake begins working some shots from top position. He moves to half guard. Just under a minute remains in round one. Bojan is looking to secure a heel hook. Jake with a good shot to the body. Bojan scrambles back up to his feet. The fighters engage in the clinch. The horn sounds to end round one.

Chris Taylor - November 18, 2017

A middleweight scrap between Daniel Kelly and Elias Theodorou took place on tonight’s UFC Fight Night 121 main card in Sydney. Round one begins and Theodorou immediately begins firing off leg kicks. Kelly charges forward with punches but Elias circles out and then continues to work the legs. More kicks from Elias including one to the body of Kelly. Dan charges forward with a flurry but cannot connect. Another hard leg kick from Elias. Kelly is able to find a home for a left hand. Elias goes upstairs with a kick but it is blocked by Kelly. Dan eats a body kick. He charges forward with punches and clinches Elias against the cage. Theodorou breaks free and lands an outside leg kick. Elias with two more hard low kicks. He throws a side kick to the body. Another hard kick to the body but Kelly just walks through it. Kelly with a flurry now. He charges after Elias who circles out. Theodorou with yet another solid kick to the body of Kelly. Elias misses with a follow up head kick. Dan charges in with an uppercut but Elias makes him miss. Round one comes to an end.

Chris Taylor - November 18, 2017

A heavyweight scrap between Rashad Coulter and Tai Tuivasa took place during tonight’s UFC Fight Night 121 prelims in Sydney, Australia. Round one begins and Coulter immediately shoots in for a takedown attempt. He pushes Tai up against the cage but Tuivasa is able to break free. A hard combination from Tai appears to hurt Coulter. Rashad presses for the clinch. Tai with a nice knee on the break. Rashad shoots in and scores a takedown. Tai quickly scrambles up to his feet. Tuivasa with an elbow. He follows that up with a shot to the body. Big shots now from Tai. Coulter retreats. Tai catches him with a leg kick. He follows that up with a HUGE flying knee and this one is all over! WOW!

Chris Taylor - November 18, 2017

The octagon returns to Sydney, Australia tonight for UFC Fight Night 121. The event is headlined by a heavyweight scrap between former division champion Fabricio Werdum and surging contender Marcin Tybura.

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Eager to get the bad taste of his loss to Georges St-Pierre out of his mouth, Michael Bisping jumped at the chance to replace Anderson Silva’s spot against Kelvin Gastelum. He has stated that he’ll be retiring in England next year, but decided to squeeze one more in there. Despite ultimately being finished by St-Pierre, Bisping’s coach goes on record saying he think Gastelum is a tougher fight. “Really, Kelvin [Gastelum] is, in my opinion, on the feet, a tougher fight than Georges St-Pierre. It’s not like Mike’s a guy that shoots and wrestles all the time so obviously it’s gonna be a lot of stand up fighting and this guy’s a bigger threat than I think that even Georges was. This guy’s got a different mind frame. Is it gonna hurt or help him? We’re gonna’ find out. You can look at it both ways. I’m looking that it’s a good thing that Michael wants to do. It’s something that he’s very happy about the decision that he made to do this, so we’ve got to ride that positive mind into this fight and hope for the best.”

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Garry Tonon has some amazing achievements under his black belt. He’s beat names like Dillon Danis, AJ Agazarm, Ralek Gracie After winning multiple International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) No-Gi world titles and becoming a multiple time three-division champion at the Eddie Bravo Invitational, grappling stud Garry Tonon has finally decided to transition into MMA. His ONE Championship debut has yet to be announced, but Tonon recently opened up about his shift in focus to MMA in a new interview.   “The reason why I’m switching over now it’s because I’ve done quite a bit in my jiu-jitsu career. I could’ve transitioned to MMA potentially earlier, but the right offer wasn’t necessarily on the table. I was very much still focused on grappling, and there were still a few things that I wanted to do. I wanted to get that last ADCC out of the way, and it’s hard to split my focus between grappling and mixed martial arts. I always told people when I was coming up in jiu-jitsu that I was interested in fighting, but that I wanted to get good at jiu-jitsu first before starting mixed martial arts, and I think that I’m kind of good at jiu-jitsu now.” 

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.”