MMA News

Justin Golightly - October 19, 2017

Just a couple of weeks ago, Tony Ferguson reached the peak of his career so far by winning the interim UFC lightweight title. He perplexed us with his talk, his training methods, and his perpetual-shade wearing. Ferguson tried to convince us he is on a different level, something that he proved at UFC 216. If finally having a world title around his waist wasn’t enough, Eddie Bravo just presented him with the highest honor he could give anyone: A 10th Planet black belt. It wasn’t just something Bravo ordered from the internet though, this belt is truly one of a kind.

Tom Taylor - October 19, 2017

Ian McCall was recently released from his UFC contract, ending a long stint in the promotion’s flyweight division. Just days later, the flyweight star found a new home in Japan’s Rizin Fighting Federation, and was quickly plunked into the promotion’s exciting bantamweight Grand Prix. On the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, McCall explained how he wound up in Rizin’s Grand Prix. Apparently, the first offers he received came from Russia. Rizin, however, simply came to the table with the best offer.

Tom Taylor - October 19, 2017

According to a Thursday-morning Instagram post, MMA legend Vitor Belfort’s next fight is booked. In his post, Belfort claims he will fight flashy striking specialist Uriah Hall at a UFC event on January 14th, the location of which has not yet been announced. See Belfort’s post below!

Tom Taylor - October 19, 2017

Weight-cutting is an extremely controversial topic in combat sports. After “The Motown Phenom” Kevin Lee endured a massive, 21-pound cut ahead of his recent UFC 216 showdown with Tony Ferguson, this topic became more controversial than ever. Now, that trend should continue, as UFC middleweight Sam Alvey is enduring an absolutely gargantuan cut ahead of his Saturday UFC Gdansk showdown with Ramazan Emeev.  Alvey accepted this Gdansk scrap with Emeev on short notice, when Emeev’s original opponent Trevor Smith withdrew from the fight. During a recent media scrum in Gdansk, Alvey admitted that when he accepted this short notice fight, he was “north of 220” pounds. He’ll now have to find a way to get down to the middleweight limit’s 186-pound limit in time for tomorrow’s weigh-ins.

Tom Taylor - October 19, 2017

Over the last few weeks, UFC undisputed lightweight champ Conor McGregor and interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson have each shared some Grand Theft Auto inspired pictures to their social media channels. McGregor was first to do so. In his post, he appeared to address Ferguson by using the simple caption “Tony.”

Tom Taylor - October 19, 2017

On November 4, in the co-main event of the stacked UFC 217, UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt will attempt to defend his title against his arch rival TJ Dillashaw. While Garbrandt is focused on this monumental showdown with Dillashaw, he is also already looking forward to the future, where he believes lucrative showdowns with champions from other weight classes could exist. In particular, he’s interested in scraps with flyweight champ Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and lightweight champ Conor McGregor. “I’ll go in there and knock Conor the f— out in boxing,” Garbrandt told ESPN this week. “Let’s be honest. There’s no difference in a southpaw [McGregor’s fighting stance] or orthodox. That guy could come out and fight on his hands for all I give a f—. I would knock him out, and that’s it.”

Justin Golightly - October 18, 2017

With as many fights as there are toward the end of this year, it’s hard to keep track of all of them. Even on UFC 217 alone, a card full of great fights are buried under three incredible title fights. Despite sharing the spotlight with names like Michael Bisping, Georges St-Pierre, Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw, Joanna Jedrzejczyk still shines. One by one they’ve all come and they’ve all come up short. Jedrzejczyk is one of the most dominant champs in the sport, yet even she still has detractors. The UFC strawweight title holder says that Rose Namjunas challenging her will not be any different than the rest of the women who have failed. “Everyone before the fight — you know how many comments and messages I receive saying ‘Hey Rose [Namajunas] is going to submit you, Rose is going to beat you up’? I’m like, text me or send me a message or comment on my victory picture after my fight, and we will see who is right. Anything can happen in the fight, I’ll always say that. One punch, one submission, one blink can finish the fight, but I always make sure I’m ready and I don’t watch so many fights. I focus on what I can do better. How can I escape from them because I know they are coming for my belt, my goals, my dreams. This is my life, so I must make sure that I surprise them. I don’t worry about how they’re going to surprise me — I always surprise them. Believe me, I will surprise her in this fight.”

Justin Golightly - October 18, 2017

Whoops. Listen, we all make mistakes. As we all know, Twitter still has no edit function. This is a very unfortunate thing for whoever was running the UFC on FOX Twitter account tonight. Meant to be a post to tease and entice would-be viewers into tuning into tonight’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter, they actually spoiled the entire episode by posting a video of complete highlights of the fight between Rachael Ostovich and Michelle Fabian including the finish. We warned with the headline, we’ll warn you again: Stop here if you don’t want to be spoiled. The @UltimateFighter is back! 10pm ET on @FS1! 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/jcP8LV6bh2

Jason Kindschy - October 18, 2017

BJPENN Radio is back tonight at 8PM ET/5PM PT with more of what you crave! 8:15PM ET- Kicking things off we are joined by UFC featherweight, Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski. Following the news that Jeremy Kennedy would be unable to compete on November 19th in Sydney, there was a brief moment of uncertainty for Alex. However, it was quickly announced that Humberto Bandenay would replace Kennedy and Volkanovski would still be competing for his fellow countrymen. We’ll discuss the timeline of events from Kennedy withdrawing to Bandenay stepping in, and we’ll get the Aussie’s breakdown of the matchup. We’ll also get his thoughts on the removal of Mark Hunt from the card, where Alex fits into the featherweight rankings, and what he’d like next with a big win on November 19th.

Justin Golightly - October 18, 2017

Kamaru Usman is a problem. If you didn’t already know that, he screamed it to the world after he destroyed Sergio Morales in the first round at fight Night 116. He’s on a 10-fight win streak, six of them were UFC fights. He was breifly in talks to fight Rafael dos Anjos in what would be his biggest fight so far, but eventually was passed up for Robbie Lawler. He shrugged it off and said Mike Perry would also be a good fight, but Perry (who’s ranked four spots under Usman) got matched up with ninth-ranked Santiago Ponzinibbio. So, where is Usman’s shot at someone that will get him closer to a title shot? In his words, they’re avoiding him because they know they’ll lose.   “I think from the fan perspective, I think I’m slept on. As far as me not getting my hands on a ranked opponent [it’s because] they’re smart enough to know that they have no chance. I dominate these guys from start to finish. And not just that, I can talk, I can sell, and I can fight. How can you not promote the guy?”

Russell Ess - October 18, 2017

The Association of Boxing Commissions recently approved the introduction of four new weight classes to professional Mixed Martial Arts. A 165 pound super lightweight division, 175 pound super welterweight division, 195 pound super middleweight division, and 225 pound cruiserweight division have been approved for MMA but it is ultimately up the promotions to open these divisions for the fighters to compete in. Issues with fighters missing weight or weight cutting has been a problem and many think that opening more weight divisions for fighters to compete in could ease up some of the weight cutting issues in mixed martial arts. However, UFC President Dana White doesn’t believe that new weight classes are the solution to the problem.

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2017

For a time, Ronda Rousey stood out as the best female mixed martial artist on earth. She was the picture of dominance, destroying whoever the UFC threw at her with apparent ease, from Miesha Tate, to Cat Zingano to Bethe Correia. Then, it all came crashing down. After being knocked senseless by a Holly Holm head kick, Rousey retreated into the shadows for over a year. And after being clobbered by Amanda Nunes in her long-awaited comeback fight, there is now real doubt that she’ll ever fight again.

Justin Golightly - October 18, 2017

Early in the afternoon on Saturday, there is going to be a wild fight going down in Poland and the only place you can watch it is on UFC Fight Pass. Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone will throw down with up-and-comer Darren Till in the main event. You’d think a name like Cerrone would want to be on pay-per-view somewhere, or the curtain-jerker on a big UFC on FOX card, but he couldn’t care less. He wants anyone who doesn’t have Fight Pass to shell out the nine bucks because the Cowboy is fighting and that’s just must-see TV. “I want the UFC to post, ‘Cowboy in Poland [on] Fight Pass’ and people say, ‘What the f-ck is Fight Pass? I gotta’ figure out what Fight Pass is. How do we watch this fight?’ That’s what I want. I want you guys to come on and have the biggest draw in the Fight Pass history. Right? Because people gotta’ figure out how they’re going to watch the Cowboy fight because theyk now the son of a b-tch is going in there, biting down, and giving it all. Win or lose, I just want people to know he fights with everything he’s got.”

Russell Ess - October 18, 2017

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is currently going through the process of his latest potential anti-doping violation. In August, news broke that Jones tested positive for the steroid Turinabol from his UFC 214 weigh-in day sample and has been going through the due process with USADA and the California State Athletic Commission ever since.

Justin Golightly - October 18, 2017

No surprises that another season of The Ultimate Fighter has created drama. This time, it’s more behind the scenes than in front of our faces and the two can’t even fight it out. Lauren Murphy has spoken out before about how she didn’t appreciate Eddie Alvarez’s coaching methods, stemming from how she felt she was treated after her first loss. Evidently this only continued throughout the filming of the show. She had even taken to her blog to talk more in detail about it. Alvarez recently was asked about their beef with each other and explained why she’s not exactly his favorite on his team either. “I understand you’re there for yourself, but you didn’t even fight anybody on the other team yet. You didn’t even get past your first fight against Team Gaethje and you conspired two or three times already against the girls on our team that you’re gonna be in the gym with every day. So I’m like, man this [Lauren Murphy] is a little bit of a head case and she’s kind of looking at everyone as her enemy. It just didn’t make for a good attitude in the room or a good person to even have around. She was conspiring from the very beginning.”

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2017

In combat sports, press conference and weigh in staredowns are typically an opportunity for two fighters to squeeze in some last-minute bravado, trash talk, and maybe even a little shoving. But hey, that’s just what typically happens. This is decidedly not how things went down during a press conference for a boxing match between Norwegian unified welterweight world champ Cecilia Braekhus and Swedish challenger Mikaela Lauren earlier this week. When the pair engaged in their press conference staredown, Sweden’s Lauren moved in and stole a quick kiss.

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2017

This Saturday, the UFC will touch down in Gdansk, Poland, with an interesting night of fights. In the main event, we’ll see rising British star Darren Till take a big step up in competition opposite long-time lightweight and welterweight contender Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Heading into this fight, the striking specialist Till fully expects Cowboy to force a grappling match. In fact, he issued a grim warning to Cerrone in a recent interview with MMAFighting, promising serious consequences if the bout remains on the feet.

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2017

Conor McGregor‘s immediate future is shrouded in mystery. Will he fight Nate Diaz next, or will it be new UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson? Will he take on Paulie Malignaggi in the boxing ring? Or might he even fight somebody like Tyron Woodley or Georges St-Pierre? When it comes to McGregor’s fighting future, there are questions abound, and very little in the way of answers. Yet in the eyes of Artem Lobov, one of McGregor’s main training partners, the answer is pretty clear: McGregor will return to defend his lightweight title against interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson. Lobov shared this feeling in an interview with Karyn Bryant (via FloCombat).