MMA News

Justin Golightly - November 4, 2017

Georges St-Pierre didn’t owe us or the UFC anything, but that didn’t stop him from coming back. The former welterweight king walks back into the Octagon tonight to keep his legacy in contention and to attempt to capture a belt in a higher division he spent years on top of. No doubt it’s a huge fight between St-Pierre and Michael Bisping, so huge that Jon Jones couldn’t resist talking about it. From one greatest-of-all-time candidate to another, Jones sent out a message to St-Pierre ahead of his fight at UFC 217. Hey @GeorgesStPierre you’ve always been one of my biggest inspirations. Show the world how great you can be tonight. Praying for you

Justin Golightly - November 4, 2017

In many ways, the bantamweight title fight between Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw is the idealized version of what MMA should be. It has everything: Champion fighting challenger, actual bad blood, a gym war, feuding coaches, the true two very best in their division, and an entire season of The Ultimate Fighter on top of that. It doesn’t take the Professor X of MMA to know why this match-up is incredible, but Dominick Cruz’s wise insight is always welcome. After his experience losing his title to Garbrandt, he believes the young champ’s mental edge is an advantage over TJ Dillashaw. “I do think that Cody [Garbrandt] beats [TJ] Dillashaw. It’s because I think that he’s kind of in the head of TJ with the whole [Team Alpha Male] team. You’re not just fighting Cody. If you were just fighting Cody, [Dillashaw’s] got a good support system, it wouldn’t be as difficult for TJ. But he’s fighting that whole team who knows everything there is about him, so they know how to get under his skin. They know what to say to [Dillashaw] when he’s in there to piss him off and get him off-track. They know what to say before the fight to piss him off. They know his weaknesses, they know his strengths.”

Justin Golightly - November 4, 2017

Michael Bisping is mere hours away now from arguably the biggest fight of his career against Georges St-Pierre. The former welterweight king will challenge for the UFC middleweight title, while Bisping is fighting to retain and cement his legacy as one of the greats. If he manages to take out St-Pierre, will he defend his belt against Robert Whittaker or set his goals even higher? According to Daniel Cormier, it’s possible Bisping could go up and challenge for the light heavyweight belt. A Michael Bisping vs. Daniel Cormier superfight would be epic! @dc_mma explains why he thinks it could happen. pic.twitter.com/YaINxubrev

Justin Golightly - November 4, 2017

A match-up that threatens to steal the show tonight at the extremely stacked UFC 217 is Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s title defense against Rose Namajunas. It speaks to Jedrzejczyk’s presence and dominance in the sport that, among a name like Georges St-Pierre and one of the best fights on paper ever between Cody Garbrant and TJ Dillashaw, she holds her own. The combination of her skills and aura have written Namajunas off as someone who is a good fighter, but just not enough. MMA fighters as well as some prominent professionals in the business seem to agree. “Man, Joanna [Jedrzejczyk]. She’s a beast. I don’t see anybody in that division taking that title away from her, man. I wouldn’t want to step into the Octagon with her even though she’s like, what, 115lbs? She does work, man. I would not want to step out there with her. Great striking, great muay thai, good movement, good takedown defense, and she’s just a better all-around fighter than her opponent [Rose Namajunas].” — Stephen Thompson

Chris Taylor - November 3, 2017

Tywan Claxton scored one of the best flying knee KO’s ever during tonight’s Bellator 186 prelims from University Park in Penn State. Claxton, who made his professional mixed martial arts debut at tonight’s event, crushed his opponent Jonathan Bonilla-Bowman with a flying knee just short of 90-seconds into the first-round.

Russell Ess - November 3, 2017

If you weren’t aware of Darren Till’s connection to Brazil, the rising star from Liverpool spent a few years living there and started his professional MMA career in the country and even speaks the native Portuguese language. With the years of living, training, and competing in Brazil, Till still has a strong connection with friends and fans in the country even after moving back to the UK. With fellow UFC welterweight Colby Covington’s controversial promotional speech following his win over Demian Maia in Brazil, Till says he has been messaged by his Brazilian friends and fans to teach the American Top Team fighter a lesson.

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Promising not to be the rusty coin sitting in the embarrassment of riches that is UFC 217, a wild scrap between Jorge Masvidal and Stephen Thompson rests just below the three title fights. On any normal fight card, this is a main event. On any other big pay-per-view, it could be a co-main event. Despite a Robbie Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos bout set to crown the next challenger to Tyron Woodley’s welterweight strap, this fight between Masvidal and Wonderboy has huge title implications. This is something Masvidal is knows and has a plan already set in place if he gets his hand raised. “I see myself breaking his face. I’ll be number one. After this fight, I’ll fight for the belt, especially after the post-fight speech I’m going to give. I haven’t prepared anything yet, but I’ll […] do something really disgusting, something ugly, and scare people. It’ll go viral. I still don’t know what it’s going to be, though. Colby [Covington] gave people a demonstration of insanity. I’m going to do something different, the way I usually do.” 

Russell Ess - November 3, 2017

Conor McGregor is without a doubt now the highest paid UFC fighter and with his demands of what he wants in his next fight, that will only further be solidified. The former owner of the UFC, Lorenzo Fertitta stated back in 2015 that “The Notorious” would be the UFC’s first fighter to earn $100 million. McGregor likely earned close to that amount just with his last fight in the boxing ring against Floyd Mayweather and is looking to add a few more figures to his income as a career goal.

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Georges St-Pierre coming back to fight Michael Bisping is a huge fight. Rankings, St-Pierre’s hiatus, and Robert Whittaker’s interim belt aside, a fight like this conjures old superfight discussions of a bygone era. During St-Pierre’s welterweight prime, the Moby Dick of fights was a showdown between him and middleweight king Anderson Silva. We never were able to see that spectacle, but now we get the next best thing. It’s a fighters, fighter. That’s why it’s so interesting to hear UFC fighter’s picks on who they think will come out on top. “Yeah, come on, come on, I gotta’ go with [Georges St-Pierre]. Look, I just wrestled with the man too. He’s big too. He’s bigger than I thought he was. He done got big over the years, boy. He’s big, he’s strong, and he’s just going to outwork [Michael Bisping]. He’s got the right mindset going into this. He’s preparing right. I mean yeah, Bisping will be able to scramble off the bottom a couple of times. Who knows, maybe Georges will get more tired now that he’s been out for so long, But, when you look at the skills, I’m saying that Georges blows him out of the water.” — Kevin Lee

Russell Ess - November 3, 2017

If you saw UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping and UFC welterweight Jorge Masvidal and their exchanges backstage leading up to UFC 217, you would think that the two were meeting in the Octagon on Saturday night. However, this isn’t the case as Bisping is set to take on former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in the main event of the evening while Masvidal will look to establish himself as one of the next welterweight title contenders as he meets Stephen Thompson in the Octagon.

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Daniel Cormier has been telling us since September that Volkan Oezdemir was going to get the next shot at his belt. He asked the fans on Twitter who he should fight next to defend his UFC light heavyweight title, resulting in Oezdemir beating out former challenger Alexander Gustafsson. At that point, it was just some Twitter results until the 15-1 Swede said we could expect a fight announcement from him soon. We still don’t have a date yet, but it looks like the fight is officially happening. DC tells me he’s fighting Volkan Oezdemir next. No date yet but says we should hear soon #UFC

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Love him or hate him, there are simply no arguments against Conor McGregor being the biggest MMA fighter in recent years. What he has accomplished in four short years is nothing short of astonishing. With the new EA Sports UFC 3 dropping, everyone wondered who would be on the cover and it’s not really a surprise. EA Sports awards Conor McGregor the honor of gracing back-to-back covers of their UFC franchise. This time he doesn’t share the case with Ronda Rousey, but stands alone with two UFC titles perched on his shoulders. BREAKING: Here is the official cover for EA #UFC 3 Champions Edition featuring @TheNotoriousMMA pic.twitter.com/OXnBaNkXpa

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Cutting weight has become a huge problem in MMA, a problem that a lot of people have yet to be able to find a solution for. Luckily, there were no edge-of-your-seat suspenseful situations for the UFC 217 weigh-ins. The closest we got was Johny Hendrick’s pre-scale speech about why he’s probably going to miss weight. This references back to his long storied rivalry with making weight at both welterweight and even at middleweight. Don’t worry though, Big Rig. This is an article about celebration because the man made weight anyway. Johny HENDRICKS! Boom! 😂😂@JacksonWinkMMA #UFC217 #MMA pic.twitter.com/B8ll9orD2Y

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

We don’t have any answers, but the Conor McGregor fight wheels have been turning for the last couple of weeks. The opponent seems like it is nearing closer to becoming Tony Ferguson, but that’s only half the battle. The UFC champ champ has addressed the media and made his behind-the-curtain UFC demands public. He wants to be both a fighter and promoter for the UFC as it pertains to his own fights. He wants to be a ‘true partner’ like the organization was for his boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather. Yesterday at the last UFC 217 press conference, it seemed like Dana White is ready to give him whatever he wishes. “There’s always been, as we go into negotiations with Conor [McGregor]. There’s always all kinds of crazy stuff out there. We always get deals done with Conor. Conor, he’s been easy to deal with and we’ll get it done.” — Dana White at the UFC 217 pre-fight presser. 

Justin Golightly - November 2, 2017

It seems like this TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt feud has been going on forever. Since the beginning, we’ve gone through the Duane Ludwig controversy, the allegations of steroid use, Dillashaw injuring another Team Alpha Male member in training, but at the beginning of this year it was all about training footage. Garbrandt claimed he knocked out Dillashaw in training and threatened to release the tape. Dillashaw called Garbrandt’s bluff and after awhile, the talk stopped. That is, until now. Just days before the two settle their differences at UFC 217, Garbrandt drops the video. This guy is a liar he said I never koed him, that there is no video! Also that he has never took PEDs and he never cheap shotted a former teammate stealing his dream from under him! Fuck you @tjdillashaw hey @danawhite get that Knockout Bonus Check, I’m ready to collect it!! #ISpeakFacts

Justin Golightly - November 2, 2017

The UFC had one last press conference today to promote the year’s biggest card so far. With the cast of characters contained in the triple-title fights at UFC 217 gathered together three days from bell time, it was bound to get heated even before the staredowns. Cody Garbrandt has not been shy about saying all sorts of wild things about his opponent TJ Dillashaw throughout the build up, but something he said today at the presser made a lot of people pause. Did Cody say TJ showed everybody how to do it (PEDs) on Alpha Male? Isnt he basically saying TAM uses PEDs then? pic.twitter.com/oAoJkLK1I6

Justin Golightly - November 2, 2017

Throughout the recent build-up for UFC 217, Cody Garbrandt has had two fighters on his mind: TJ Dillashaw and Demetrious Johnson. He’s not looking past his bantamweight title defense, but he’s been vocal about a ‘business move’ to challenge the dominant flyweight champ for awhile now. The lure of a huge fight and the chance to become a two-division champion is easy to understand, but Garbrandt went even further in a recent interview. Belt or not, Johnson is still the fight. “My eyes are set on becoming a name that’s going to live on forever from the UFC and MMA. I’d like to go down and fight Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ [Johnson] after this fight. I’m not looking past [TJ Dillashaw]. I’m so happy for ‘Mighty Mouse’, him and his wife and family are amazing, he’s a great champion for kids to look up to, he’s the pound-for-pound best. No animosity but I can make [125 pounds], if he wants to come up to [135 pounds], it doesn’t matter. That’s a fight that I would like. That’s a fight that makes sense. There’s a lot of things for me to gain going down to 125. I’d be a two-weight world champion just like Conor McGregor. I can simultaneously defend both belts.”

Russell Ess - November 2, 2017

Prior to UFC 196, the last man to defeat Conor McGregor was Joe Duffy. McGregor and Duffy met back in 2010 at Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 39 in Ireland where Duffy submitted “The Notorious” with an arm-triangle choke in just 38 seconds of the very first round. McGregor and Duffy went on with their careers with McGregor shooting to superstardom and Duffy also making his way to the UFC. Now, with both fighters competing in the UFC lightweight division, Duffy is still climbing the ranks while McGregor holds the UFC lightweight title.