MMA News

Justin Golightly - November 16, 2017

Nate Diaz steps into camp and suddenly all hell breaks loose. Suddenly, there’s a fight in the works between him and UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley to fill the empty slot perched atop UFC 219. Not just a wild rumor that spread out of control, but the UFC really trying to make this insane, out-of-left-field scrap happen. The talks seem to stall as fast as they heated up with little to no explanation. This is where Tyron Woodley comes in to clear everything up. According to the champ, he’s already signed on the dotted line and is waiting for Nate Diaz to do the same. “I don’t even need the cards. I’m fired up about people that tell you, ‘Don’t be scared homie,’ and then they’re scared, homie. Not a possible fight. A 50-percent completed fight. You got one half of the party that’s been offered, that’s accepted, that’s out here with their bag at Wilcard Boxing getting punched by world champions. Then you got the other side that’s got a whole bunch of excuses. So, that’s what I’m kind of fired up about. 10-4 [the UFC offered me a fight with Nate Diaz at UFC 219]. Correct. [I’ve agreed to that fight].”

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

It has now been well over a year since Cat Zingano’s last fight: a disappointing decision loss to Julianna Pena on the undercard of UFC 200 in July of 2016. From the sounds of it, that could soon change. On Thursday morning, Zingano published a Tweet suggesting that she had been given an opponent and date for her comeback, and that the news was coming shortly.

Justin Golightly - November 16, 2017

Why do you think Nate Diaz is not taking the fight with welterweight champ Tyron Woodley? Watch #TheMMABeat LIVE: https://t.co/11sYrEm5Ug pic.twitter.com/Zb0V5HQQ8O — MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) November 16, 2017

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

With Raquel Pennington currently sidelined with an injury, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes is now eyeing a fight with former champ Holly Holm for her next title defense. “I’m ready to go,” the bantamweight champ said on the latest stacked episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I kind of don’t want to step in front of Cris Cyborg right now, because I know she wants to fight Holly Holm. But I don’t think this fight’s going to happen, and if Holly Holm comes down again, to 135 [pounds], we can do this. I want to defend my belt. I want to defend the 135 belt. Holly Holm is one of the only girls in this division [riding] a win, so I think she’s the one. I think if she’s not going to fight Cyborg, she has to come down and make this happen.”

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

It’s now been many months since Al Iaquinta’s thrilling return to the Octagon, in which he thumped Diego Sanchez to a beautiful, first-round knockout. Fans have been eager to see him back in the cage ever since. For a moment, it sounded as though Iaquinta would be returning to the cage for a fight with Paul Felder at UFC 218 this December 2. Regrettably, this scrap fell through just shortly after it was announced.

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

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 whipping a boomerang at Covington.

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

Dustin Poirier and Anthony Pettis finally got to scrap at UFC Norfolk and it did not disappoint. Not only did Poirier beat a former champion, but it was a dominant performance not for the faint of heart. There was blood spewing all over the place from a huge cut that opened up on Pettis. By the end of the fight, both men were turned red and the canvas looked like a Jackson Pollock. There was so much blood that Poirier is still hasn’t got it all off of his body. “From this last one [with Pettis] my hair was matted with blood. Yeah, I took a shower. The crazy thing was the shower tile was white on the ground, so as soon as I got in there I could see how much blood was really pouring off of me. I mean my back, my shins, everything was covered. I’m still cleaning blood out of my ears right now, you know. Like, today. For sure, man. With an ear like this? They got some crevices in there that probably still have a few drops.”

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

Justin Golightly - November 15, 2017

The UFC featherweight title lottery is finally over after Frankie Edgar was forced to bow out of the fight. Max Holloway will defend his belt at UFC 218 against the same man he took it away from at UFC 212: Jose Aldo. For awhile, it looked like Cub Swanson was the clear choice to step up to finally get his shot at the title, but things didn’t work out that way. Swanson will stay in his fight with Brian Ortega at UFC Fresno, which is the last fight on his contract. This begs the question, will Swanson explore free agency after the title shot snub? It sure sounds like it. “[Not giving me the Max Holloway fight because I was going into free agency] was never going to be an issue because I knew and they know that the fight wouldn’t happen unless we made a deal, which I’m sure we could have made a deal. But that wasn’t even offered. I haven’t been offered a new deal since all this happened [with UFC 218]. Dana did say that he’d like try to work something out, sit down and talk after the fight [with Brian Ortega], no matter what happens he said he wants to keep me around, but we could have came to terms before and made this fight happen and they know that.”

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.