MMA News

Russell Ess - November 9, 2017

There have been some debates on how Georges St-Pierre performed in his return to the Octagon after being away from competition for nearly four years. Nonetheless, the former UFC welterweight kingpin secured a dramatic finish, choking Michael Bisping unconscious to become the new UFC middleweight champion and fourth fighter in history to become a two-division UFC champ.

Justin Golightly - November 9, 2017

Paulo Costa is a problem. Formerly ‘Borrachinha’, Costa now wants to be called ‘The Eraser’ and he’s earned it too. He’s undefeated and he’s finished all three of his UFC opponents. His latest victim was Johny Hendricks at UFC 214, who fell to strikes in the second round. Fans and media aren’t the only ones who are noticing, Derek Brunson called out the up-and-coming fighter on Twitter and threw out some steroid accusations, needless to say, Costa didn’t appreciate that one bit.    “I just saw on Twitter that he got data saying that USADA only tested me once and that, if I was tested more often, he could fight me in the middle of next year, I would tell him that he is a coward, a slacker. I don’t know where he got this false data from. Only this month I have been tested five times. And since being in the UFC, I’ve been tested 10 times. USADA and the UFC have this data. His bullsh-t argument makes no sense at all. I’m going to put my tests up on social media and I want to see what his excuse will be to continue running away.”

Russell Ess - November 9, 2017

After nearly four years out of competition, Georges St-Pierre is back and once again a UFC champion. At UFC 217, St-Pierre beat Michael Bisping to become the new UFC middleweight champion. In doing so, GSP became just the fourth fighter in UFC history to win two UFC titles in two different weight classes following Randy Couture, BJ Penn, and Conor McGregor.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

With his sizzling UFC 217 grudge match with Cody Garbrandt soundly in the rear-view mirror, UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw is now hellbent on a flyweight showdown with iron-fisted division ruler Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. In his opinion, this champion versus champion showdown is simply too big not to happen. “I mean that’s the fight that needs to happen. It has to happen,” Dillashaw explained on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I mean, it’s got fireworks written all over it. I’ve always said I wanna be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and that’s where he’s at. I’m setting my goals high. I’m chasing him down, you know? As well as him already denying the fight, and proving to be afraid of the fight. He was making all these other excuses, and then one of his excuses was that I need to be a champion. Well guess what? That’s done. You know what I mean? You have no more excuses. It’s time to get this thing on, and prove who the best is. You know, I can make the weight class very, very well. And I think I’m gonna be very strong, and too much for him, and he knows it. And it’s gonna be very nice for me to be the new best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.”

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

Earlier this year, we learned that long-time UFC lightweight contender Michael Johnson planned to drop down to the stacked UFC featherweight division. In the wake of this news, Johnson publicly derided his new featherweight peers, as he had an extremely difficult time finding a willing dance partner for his divisional debut. “What can I say lad I’m bessed” (face) lol nah this is my reaction to my first featherweight choices getting booked! “Ain’t no thang, who wants it?” #teammenace #whowantsin #faces #reaction #weighins #sowhat #featherweight #lightweight #fights #ufc#boxing

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

Last weekend, on the undercard of the stacked UFC 217, streaking lightweight contender James Vick picked up a beautiful stoppage win over the highly regarded Joe Duffy. Yet while this was undeniably huge for his career, Vick expects his difficulty to track down a willing, top-10 foe to continue. At present, Vick has his eyes on the main event of the UFC’s Saturday stop in Norfolk, which will pit Dustin Poirier against former champ Anthony Pettis. Speaking on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Vick made his pick for this anticipated UFC Norfolk main event, and also explained that he expects to be ducked by the winner of the fight.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

Over the last year, bantamweight stars TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt have shared one of the most heated and public rivalries in MMA. The pair’s rivalry stems from Dillashaw’s departure from Team Alpha Male, the Sacramento gym where he began his fighting career, and the bitterness his former Team Alpha Male stablemates have felt ever since departure. Last weekend, in the co-main event of the stacked UFC 217, Dillashaw and Garbrandt finally stepped into the cage to settle their score. Despite a real scare in the closing seconds of the first round, Dillashaw rallied back in the second, removing his opponent’s batteries with a savage salvo of strikes, and scoring a big win over his nemeses at Team Alpha Male.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

Last weekend, in the main event of UFC 217, Georges St-Pierre captured the UFC middleweight title with a third-round submission over Michael Bisping. Though St-Pierre previously stated that he’s contractually obligated to fight interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker next, former champion Luke Rockhold doesn’t buy that. In his opinion, St-Pierre is likely to hold up the middleweight division for some time before heading back down to welterweight where his heyday took place. “Unfortunately it sounds like we have a hold up and it’s gonna take some time to iron out what’s next,” Rockhold said on a recent episode of Submission Radio (h/t MMAFighting.com). “I know [St-Pierre] is contractually obligated to defend his belt, but as we all heard on the mic [at UFC 217], he’s backtracking and he’s trying to find his way out, seemingly…”

Justin Golightly - November 8, 2017

We were hit tonight with a speeding comet of bad news for UFC 218. Max Holloway was set to defend his unified UFC featherweight title for the first time after conquering former divisional king Jose Aldo, but Frankie Edgar suffered an injury to his face and had to pull out of the match-up. Don’t worry too much though, after everyone started worrying that UFC Detroit would lose it’s main even altogether, Max Holloway went to Twitter to declare he’s still going to fight no matter what. Mood! Time to step up. #BlessedERA pic.twitter.com/TwVTCnzsRp

Justin Golightly - November 8, 2017

The big story tonight is Frankie Edgar having to pull out of his fight with Max Holloway. It would have been the third time that Edgar would challenge for the UFC featherweight title, but now the gold has slipped away from his grasp once again. He’ll have to wait and heal up before his fight with Holloway can be re-booked, but until then there are plenty of people ready, willing and able to step in to challenge for that featherweight strap. Unfortunately, all of them already are booked for fights. Although, that doesn’t seem to matter. I’m down. ‍♂️ #ufc218

Justin Golightly - November 8, 2017

We’re still trying to catch our breath from hearing the news. Frankie Edgar finally got another shot at UFC featherweight gold in a super hyped scrap with Max Holloway at UFC 218. Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen. Edgar has to undergo surgery due to an injury to his face and had to pull-out of the contest. He has just issued a statement on his Instagram about the removal from the event and seems to be in good spirits given the circumstances. While the injury hasn’t been specified yet, it looks like it may have something to do with Edgar’s eye in the photo, perhaps an orbital. Hit with a minor setback but should be back to full contact in six weeks or so. Thanks to the @ufc for always having my back. Max I’ll see you down the road. #Believe

Justin Golightly - November 8, 2017

The news that Frankie Edgar had to pull-out of his UFC 218 fight with Max Holloway has just hit and there is bound to be a tsunami of featherweight fighters jumping at the shot to step in. Edgar will have to undergo face surgery, forcing him out of his shot at the title, meanwhile Cub Swanson is at the top of the wave crashing in to replace him. Cub Swanson wants Max Holloway at UFC 218 to challenge for that UFC featherweight title. pic.twitter.com/nFXZ9kj8ZA

Justin Golightly - November 8, 2017

Even though Dustin Poirier is about to fight Anthony Pettis this weekend, he still wants to know ‘where the f-ck’ Eddie Alvarez is. We all know the story by now, but these scrappers were on their way to Fight of the Night back at UFC 211 and Poirier felt he was on his way to a victory. We were potentially robbed of both by some illegal shots by Eddie Alvarez which made the bout a no contest. The two still have unfinished business, but Poirier driven toward something even bigger: UFC lightweight gold. “You know, in that fight, everybody who watched it saw I whipped Eddie Alvarez, made him look like an amateur. I mean the guy was two steps behind, couldn’t keep up. And then he kneed me in the back of the head with a shot that was illegal. And in the heat of the moment, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I thought it could’ve been an accident. I thought he might’ve been hurt, you know, and he was in fight mode, survival mode, he was just fighting and he kneed me. I told the crowd in Dallas to stop booing him, stood up for the guy, then he came out on social media talking sh-t, saying I wanted out of the fight.”

Jason Kindschy - November 8, 2017

BJPENN Radio returns tonight at 8PM ET/5PM PT with more of what you crave! 8:15PM ET- First up, coming off a second round finish against Joe Duffy, “The Texicutioner” James Vick returns to the show to recap the big win in MSG. It seems evident that this victory is one he’s needed to get a push from the company, and in turn line up bigger fights. We’ll get his take on the division, who’s likely to be his next opponent, and if will see Vick with the strap in 2018.

Justin Golightly - November 8, 2017

Fans and media weren’t the only ones shocked and celebrating Rose Namajunas putting on her incredible, belt-stealing performance against Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217. Former title challenger Jessica Andrade compared her division’s reaction to a World Cup win. In a recent interview, she broke down how Namajunas did the unthinkable and wasted no time at all calling out the new champion. Things just got really interesting at women’s strawweight. “[Joanna Jedrzejczyk] definitely underestimated [Rose] Namajunas. She got in there as it was just another fight, that it would be easy. She was more aggressive, but she forgot that Namajunas is taller than her previous opponents, like me and Claudia [Gadelha], and has a bigger reach. That’s how Namajunas found the opening. Namajunas trained for that and did a great job. I was rooting for Namajunas to win. When I saw her going down the first time, I said ‘damn, this will be good.’ When Namajunas dropped her the second time and knocked her out, I said ‘I can’t believe it.’ It was like a World Cup game, you know? Everybody screaming and celebrating because it’s easier now for the division to move and we have another opportunity to fight for the belt again.”

Russell Ess - November 8, 2017

Dana White is working his way to officially stepping into the business of boxing. The UFC President recently explained that he is looking to add boxing promotions in addition to doing the UFC mixed martial arts promotions. White is currently in the process of getting his boxing promoter’s license. Speaking recently with Jim Rome, White responded to boxing promoter Bob Arum and his comments about the UFC getting into boxing because the business of MMA is failing.

Russell Ess - November 8, 2017

UFC superstar Conor McGregor scooped up the biggest payday of his entire career with his professional boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather. Although the UFC lightweight champion came up short and was stopped by the undefeated boxing legend in the 10th round, he still won in terms of pay. “The Notorious” earned a guaranteed $30 million fight purse while “Money” Mayweather got his demands of a guaranteed $100 million fight purse. In addition to their fight purses, a substantial amount of money was made for both fighters from the pay-per-view revenue.

Russell Ess - November 8, 2017

Rose Namajunas was stone cold leading up to UFC 217 where she was a big underdog going up against Joanna Jedrzejczyk, who was looking for her sixth straight title defense. Nothing seemed to have gotten Namajunas off her focused mindset, not even Jedrzejczyk placing her fist on “Thug’s” face during their staredown days before their fight.