MMA News

Justin Golightly - November 16, 2017

And the Boomerang Werdum used to hit Colby with was given to him by a fan pic.twitter.com/nZ8afHgHxl — Zombie Prophet (@ZPGIFs) November 16, 2017

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

Last night, video surfaced of a heated confrontation between surging UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington and UFC Sydney headliner Fabricio Werdum. In this video, Covington claimed that the former heavyweight champ Werdum sucker punched him. In a subsequent statement to FloCombat, Werdum assured Covington was the aggressor and that he did not throw a punch. A video from UFC lightweight Dan Hooker, finally, showed Werdum throwing a boomerang at Covington.

Justin Golightly - November 16, 2017

Elias Theodorou is living the gimmick. The ‘Mane Event’ has got deals with Pert Plus and now even Mattel, just a couple of ways he’s making money outside the cage to eventually gain leverage inside of it. He’s part of a new era of fighters that have changed with the sport, forecast its path, and prepared for it. None of us however, were prepared for the news that a fight between Tyron Woodley and Nate Diaz would be in the works. It was met drastically different reactions that include both extremes, but Theodorou is completely fine with it. Not only that, but explains why it makes business-sense. “What do rankings mean? We potentially have [Tyron] Woodley fighting Nate Diaz. I have a TV show and a movie in the works. Once my face in on a movie, they’ll put me wherever I demand. I have more bigger plans than this. People are thinking too [narrow-minded] — Gone are the days of, ‘I’ll fight anyone, anywhere, blah blah blah.’ […] Sport Entertainment. Plain and simple. That’s what it is and all the power to them. I hope Woodley and Nate make as much money possible. Again, it’s for what it is. I’m not even criticizing the UFC for doing it.  They have a $100 million a year in interest that they have to pay for $4 billion – $4.2 billion entity that they bought and they got to do what they got to do.”

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

Not long ago, long-time UFC strawweight star Paige VanZant took to Twitter to announce that she would be getting the first crack at the new UFC women’s flyweight champion crowned by the current season of The Ultimate Fighter. Shortly thereafter, top bantamweight contender Valentina Shevchenko, who has long flirted with a drop to flyweight, challenged this assertion from VanZant, and challenged her to a title eliminator. Speaking on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Valentina Shevchenko explained her choice to call out Paige VanZant.

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

Last night, video surfaced of a heated confrontation between top UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington and former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum. In this video, Covington claimed that Werdum had punched him, and went off on the Brazilian in a heated tirade. “Look at this clown. You’re a f*cking clown Fabricio Werdum,” Covington said in the video (h/t FloCombat). “What’s up? You just punched me in the face. You wanna come punch me again bitch? What? What? Yea, you think you’re so tough. Look at you, you f*cking fa*got. Yea, that’s right, you’re a little bitch. What? Hey, yea [I’ll] see you soon. [I’ll] see you soon motherf*cker. You’re old motherf*cker, you ain’t shit.”

Justin Golightly - November 15, 2017

Just when you thought it was safe to go to a UFC meet and greet. Colby Covington and Fabricio Werdum are both in Sydney, Australia and put on a show for everyone, the remnants of only exist from an Instagram live video rip. According to Covington, the video starts right after Werdum suckerpunched him without warning. Although, his actions could probably be traced back to his comments about the people of Brazil in his post-fight speech after defeating Demian Maia. What happened next is Covington going completely off in a verbal rant against Werdum which is sure to offend a lot of people. Don’t know the full details yet but hearing that there was an altercation in Australia between Colby Covington and Fabricio Werdum and it got physical. Still waiting to find out more or what exactly happened.

Justin Golightly - November 15, 2017

The news hit last week that the legend Anderson Silva has been flagged for a potential anti-doping violation. Everyone knows the incredible things that Silva has accomplished in his career. On top of beating the best at two weights, he was a UFC champion and held a record that last for years before Demetrious Johnson finally beat it. However, Michael Bisping thinks that this latest news from USADA tarnishes Silva’s historic career. “This completely destroys [Anderson Silva’s] legacy, in my opinion. There’s a lot of people who have short memories and they’ll just remember his performances. His performances were great. But if you test positive for steroids twice — once, you can try to talk your way out of it; twice, I think the nail’s in the coffin. The guy was a cheat and it’s shame. It’s really, really disappointing. I was a huge fan of Anderson Silva. It’s just disappointing and it’s a black eye for the sport of MMA.” — Michael Bisping speaking on the UFC Shanghai media conference call.

Justin Golightly - November 15, 2017

At UFC 217, Rose Namajunas marched in there and did the unthinkable. In one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, Namajunas took out Joanna Jedrzejczyk and was crowned the new UFC strawweight champion. Given that she had been so incredibly dominant in her title reign, it wouldn’t be out of the question for the UFC to give her an immediate rematch against Thug Rose. While that’s not official yet, Jedrzejczyk does know when she’ll be back inside the Octagon. According to a translation of the video above provided by Bartek Stachura from Lowking.pl, Joanna Jedrzejczyk met with Dana White right after UFC 217 and lined up an April or May return to the Octagon against whoever has the UFC strawweight belt. She’ll be taking two months off and doesn’t care if it is an immediate rematch with Rose Namajunas or not, it’s just whoever has the belt.

Justin Golightly - November 15, 2017

Ever since her victory over Tonya Evinger at UFC 214 to become the new UFC featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg has been on a warpath to try and defend her title against Holly Holm. There was a whole social media campaign for a fight that seemed like the only option, at least with Invicta FC featherweight champ Megan Anderson’s UFC status still up in the air. The match-up went from being a no-brainer on UFC 219 to dead in the water. Don’t lose hope yet though, Cyborg’s coach Jason Parillo recently just revealed that she will be fighting soon. “Well, I mean I happen to be sitting here with [Cyborg] right now at lunch and her manager. Something is going to be happening. It’s not my job to open my mouth about it, but there’s definitely something exciting in the works, for sure. Cris Cyborg’s a champion. Gun to my head, we’ll see her fight very soon.” — Jason Parillo speaking to the Extra Rounds Podcast.  

Jason Kindschy - November 15, 2017

BJPENN Radio returns at 8PM ET/5PM PT with another stacked lineup! 8:15PM ET- Kicking off the show we are joined by former title challenger and possible future UFC champion, “The Bullet” Valentina Schevchenko. Shortly after announcing she would be dropping down to compete in the newly formed women’s flyweight division, Valentina challenged Paige Van Zant to a title-elimination fight. However, Paige declined the matchup and we’re going to discuss the situation with Schevchenko in depth.

Justin Golightly - November 15, 2017

With UFC 219 being one of the more problematic cards of the year, the UFC had to do something major. The wild news of Tyron Woodley possibly fighting Nate Diaz at UFC 219 comes right on the heels of the younger Diaz brother entering into training camp. Who knows if the fight actually gets done, but it seems like it is working towards that way and as we all know, anything can happen in this fight game. The people over at Bovada have already released opening odds on the scrap. Opening odds for a potential Tyron Woodley vs Nate Diaz bout (via Bovada): Woodley -260 Diaz +200 pic.twitter.com/lK8X7DHLsf

Tom Taylor - November 15, 2017

It has not been an easy year for Germaine de Randamie. Though she began the year on a high note, beating Holly Holm to become the inaugural UFC women’s featherweight queen, she was then stripped of the title when she refused to defend her belt against the consensus best female featherweight alive, Cris “Cyborg” Justino.

Tom Taylor - November 15, 2017

The UFC has once again taken a hedge-trimmer to its roster and sent a handful of notable fighters packing. The most notable of these fighters is Takanori Gomi. This news is in keeping with a recent Instagram post from Gomi, in which the Japanese legend insinuated that he would soon be competing in the ring of Japanese promotion – most likely Rizin FF.  The promotion has also removed four other fighters from its roster, all of whom hail from Brazil. These fighters are: Hacran Dias, Henrique da Silva, Adriano Martins and Carlos Felipe. This news was first reported by Combate.

Tom Taylor - November 15, 2017

If things had gone according to the original plan, the UFC’s November 26 visit to Shanghai, China would be headlined by a middleweight scrap between Kelvin Gastelum and former champion Anderson Silva. Unfortunately, Silva was pulled from this bout after a disappointing brush with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The silver lining is that the UFC was able to find a compelling replacement for Silva in Michael Bisping, who wore the divisional crown until he was dethroned by Georges St-Pierre earlier this month. Now less than two weeks out from this event, the UFC has released an updated poster for it, highlighting Michael Bisping and Kelvin Gastelum’s last-minute main event confrontation.

Justin Golightly - November 15, 2017

As soon as strength and conditioning coach Jose Garcia released a blurb on Instagram about Nate Diaz entering into his fight camp, the MMA world got set ablaze with wild speculation. However, sometimes reality can be stranger than fiction. Out of all the swirling rumors, it seems that none other than Tyron Woodley has emerged as a possible opponent for the returning Diaz brother. So far, despite confirming reports by our own Chris Taylor and Ariel Helwani, neither fighter has come right out and said something. That is, until now.    “If Nate [Diaz] wants to go UFC 219, I’m ready.” — Tyron Woodley told Brett Okamoto of ESPN.

Tom Taylor - November 15, 2017

Last weekend, the UFC returned to our screens with the action-packed UFC Norfolk card. In the main event of this thrilling card, dangerous lightweight contender Dustin Poirier took out a former champion in Anthony Pettis, scoring a bizarre stoppage with a body triangle mid way through a bloody third round. In the co-main event, meanwhile, we saw the maybe retiring Matt Brown author one of the most violent knockouts ever, putting down the veteran Diego Sanchez with a hellacious first-round elbow.

Tom Taylor - November 15, 2017

Originally, rising UFC welterweight contender Kamaru Usman was expected to battle the dangerous Emil “Valhalla” Meek at UFC 219. Unfortunately, it sounds like visa issues could force Norway’s Meek out of this planned showdown – which means Usman will have to look elsewhere for a dance partner. Just received information that my visa is having some delays and that he UFC might have to re-schedule my next fight :/ #betsafe #ufc219 pic.twitter.com/afta292YiN

Tom Taylor - November 15, 2017

Originally, UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway was expected to defend his title against Frankie Edgar at UFC 218 this December 2. When Edgar was forced out of the fight with an injury, however, the search for a replacement challenger began. One of the frontrunners in this search was Cub Swanson, who is scheduled for a mid-December showdown with undefeated contender Brian Ortega. While Swanson was the most compelling option in the eyes of many fans, the UFC ultimately opted to pair Holloway with Aldo, the very man he beat to win the title back in June.