MMA News

Russell Ess - October 16, 2017

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley will be facing the winner of the exciting UFC on FOX 26 matchup between Robbie Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos. Either opponent will make for an exciting fight against Woodley. However, “The Chosen One” still wants to prove his skillset against former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre who is returning to the Octagon next month after stepping away from the sport for nearly four years.

Tom Taylor - October 16, 2017

Earlier this month, on the undercard of UFC 216, Cody Stamann and Tom Duquesnoy collided in a clash of bantamweight prospects. Though both fighters possessed identical 15-1 professional records, many felt that the Octagon-side commentary of Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan leaned a little too far in favor of the highly-hyped Frenchman Duquesnoy. Stamann, who ended up winning the fight by decision, shared this opinion when he finally had a chance to listen to the fight’s commentary.

Tom Taylor - October 16, 2017

Though nothing is official just yet, it sounds as though the next UFC light heavyweight title fight will pit reinstated champion Daniel Cormier against surging Swiss contender Volkan Oezdemir. If this fight does go down as expected, Sweden’s Alexander Gustafsson will be watching it intently, as he’s likely to be the next man in line for the winner. Speaking on the Swedish show Viaplay Fighting, Gustafsson offered up a prediction on this fight. While he was careful not to discount Oezdemir, he appears to be quite confident in a Cormier win.

Tom Taylor - October 16, 2017

It has now been almost a year since Ronda Rousey‘s last fight: an abrupt, December 2016 knockout loss to reigning UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. This last Rousey fight, meanwhile, was preceded by an even longer layoff, as her next most recent fight occurred all the way back in November of 2015, when she was knocked out by a Holly Holm head kick. Given Rousey’s recent inactivity, there is a common perception that she will never fight again. UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley shares this opinion, though he does believe there is one possible opponent who could lure Rousey back to the cage: fellow MMA trailblazer Gina Carano.

Tom Taylor - October 16, 2017

Whenever a big fight looms on the horizon, MMA’s dedicated fans all chip in to add to the hype. We get fiery debates on social media. We get awesome, fan-made promotional videos. We get fantastic fan-made fight posters – the very best of which come from the artist known as BossLogic. BossLogic’s latest fight poster, which highlights a possible UFC 219 scrap between UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson, is one of his best yet. The poster has a bit of everything: a stoic McGregor calmly clutching the belt, a shadowy “El Cucuy”, creeping up behind him…

Tom Taylor - October 16, 2017

One of the biggest stories to emerge from the buildup of Conor McGregor‘s recent boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. was his beef with Paulie Malignaggi. Malignaggi was originally brought into McGregor’s camp as a training partner, but after feeling as though he’d been unfairly represented by the Irishman and his team, he departed. Since then, Malignaggi has talked ceaseless trash about McGregor, and has even been campaigning for a fight with him. Now, he claims that the talks for this possible showdown with McGregor have begun, as his manager Al Haymon has reportedly reached out to UFC President Dana White.

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2017

@thenotoriousmma vs @natediaz209 !! Nate is fully healed apart from a few tiny spots and Conor is 80% fresh, @ufc #ufc Done using @inkjecta @intenzetattooink @inkeeze @killerinktattoo @electrumstencilproducts @dermalizepro @thelvxlightofficial @immortalprime @sullenclothing @inkedmag @cheyenne_tattooequipment #cheyenneoriginalcartridges #sullenclothing #inkedmag @joerogan A post shared by Steve Butcher (@stevebutchertattoos) on Oct 12, 2017 at 2:54pm PDT

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2017

This Saturday, the UFC will touch down in the Polish port city of Gdansk with the compelling, 12-fight UFC fight Night 118. While the main card will feature names like Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, Darren Till, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, and Jan Blachowicz it’s arguable that one of the most intriguing fights on the entire bill occurs on the undercard, where Conor McGregor training partner Artem Lobov is scheduled to battle Team Alpha Male staple Andre Fili. Now a little less than a week out from fight night, Lobov is doing what he can to rattle his talented opponent’s cage. His latest jab at Fili occurred on Twitter, where he posted a picture of himself brandishing a firearm, and assured Fili is “fucked.”

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2017

Just weeks removed from his successful UFC debut – a first round clobbering of Henrique da Silva – kickboxing icon Gokhan Saki is already scheduled for his second Octagon bout. This sophomore UFC effort will occur at UFC 219 this December 30, when he will battle rising light heavyweight contender Khalil Rountree. Speaking to MMAFighting.com earlier this week, Saki shared his initial thoughts on his bout with Rountree. Though Rountree is something of a knockout artist himself, Saki fully expects him to try to turn their fight into a grappling match.

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2017

Shortly after Tony Ferguson captured the UFC interim lightweight title with a submission defeat of Kevin Lee, UFC President Dana White claimed that Ferguson will be the next man to battle undisputed lightweight champion Conor McGregor. This claim from the UFC boss is a stark contradiction of the recurring rumors that McGregor’s next bout will be a trilogy fight with rival Nate Diaz. If Ferguson is indeed the next man in line for the undisputed champ McGregor, he could very well come out on top. In fact, many people believe that Ferguson is an even tougher matchup for McGregor than Diaz is.

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2017

It’s been a turbulent few year for Germaine de Randamie. After winning the inaugural UFC featherweight title with a controversial decision win over former bantamweight champion Holly Holm, de Randamie was stripped of that title based on her refusal to fight featherweight great Cris “Cyborg” Justino. From there, de Randamie shared her intention to drop back down the bantamweight division, where her UFC career began. Not long thereafter, she was pencilled in for a scrap with Marion Reneau, which was subsequently cancelled when she injured her hand.

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2017

As the undisputed UFC lightweight champion and interim UFC lightweight champion respectively, Conor McGregor and Tony Ferguson seem destined to fight. At this point, it really just seems to be a question of when they actually collide. Whenever the fight happens, fans are bound to be divided in their predictions for it. The fight’s early odds reflect this reality. Even Eddie Bravo, Ferguson’s long-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, has a hard time predicting what might happen when the cage door closes on McGregor and Ferguson.

Justin Golightly - October 15, 2017

Two legends of MMA. We’re talking about literal combat sports architects here. Before Frank Shamrock was the first ever UFC light heavyweight champion and went on to hold belts in WEC and Strikeforce, he was fighting in Pancrase. Kazushi Sakuraba wiped out the Gracie family one-by-one long before they were demystified. Back when Sakuraba was kicking Royler Grace over and over again in the legs, if your name ended in ‘Gracie’ then you were pretty much invincible. These two deities of MMA never crossed paths in their lengthy careers, but in RIZIN we got to see them have a grappling match. Legend grapple fest 2017.#RIZIN #RIZIN2017 #RIZINFF pic.twitter.com/j75djz2GHO

Justin Golightly - October 15, 2017

Since before Conor McGregor stepped into the ring to box Floyd Mayweather, the question on millions of minds was when he was coming back to the UFC and who would he fight. It was looking like finishing the trilogy with Nate Diaz was a high priority, but now it seems like a fight with newly crowned interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson could be in the plans. As of right now, all we have to go off of is a single image that McGregor posted and a weird slideshow in response by Ferguson. Other than that, Dana White has been saying it’s a fight that has to happen. Regardless of how close are far the match-up is, early odds have been released and right now it’s a close fight with Tony Ferguson trailing behind as a slight underdog. The sports book @unibet has listed odds on @TheNotoriousMMA and @TonyFergusonXT

Justin Golightly - October 14, 2017

Crowds were deafening last night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec. It’s the same arena that Georges St-Pierre defended the UFC welterweight title against Josh Koscheck, Carlos Condit, and Nick Diaz. As soon as he walked out, it was clear he’s still a Canadian mega star. The audience welcomed its UFC prizefighter as he arrived to drop down the puck for the Toronto Maple Leafs/Montreal Canadiens game. His opponent Michael Bisping, predictably did not get the same treatment.  Bisping booed, GSP cheered in Montreal. Shocking, I know #UFC217 pic.twitter.com/j5itgJ75WT

Justin Golightly - October 14, 2017

It wasn’t too long ago that the internet weighed in with criticisms that Artem Lobov didn’t belong in the UFC, or in a fight with Cub Swanson. That all quieted down when Conor McGregor’s right hand man took the fourth best featherweight in the world to a decision. He didn’t win the fight, but it was a moral victory. Now, Lobov will set his sights on Andre Fili for a showdown in Poland on October 21st. Needless to say Lobov is eager to get back to hurtling fists at the jaws of an opponent, especially Fili. “On The Ultimate Fighter [Andre Fili and I] had a bit of a back and forth. Afterwards, I still wanted to fight him but he was like, ‘If he doesn’t win The Ultimate Fighter I don’t want to fight him. I was like, ‘Whatever’. I don’t chase them, I replace them. I left it but I got an opportunity to step in on short notice in July but obviously I was in the middle of the Mayweather camp with Conor [McGregor], so it was an obvious choice. I wasn’t going to sacrifice that just to fight Fili. Let’s be honest, it’s not that big of a fight — it’s a fight I could have gotten any weekend.”

Justin Golightly - October 14, 2017

Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee put on a great fight at UFC 216 but it almost never happened. Media watched the early weigh-ins on that Friday morning on the edge of our seat. Watching Lee come out and stand on the scale at the very last second was stressful, both in the danger of the fight falling through and for the fighter’s health itself. Luckily, nothing happened, Lee made weight on the second attempt and we’ll forget out it. But that’s the problem, sometimes it doesn’t happen like that. The commission approved new weight classes, but even if the UFC implements them, Frankie Edgar thinks it won’t do any good. “Wrestling has seen it happen back in ‘96, ‘97, or something like that, where a few wrestlers died at the college level and they upped the weight classes. If you add more weight classes, it could encourage people to cut less weight, but it also might encourage someone to cut more weight. They’ll say, ‘Oh, I couldn’t make ‘55, but I can make ‘65,’ and they were going ‘70. So, I don’t know, I think people are always going to look for a way to get an advantage and cutting weight is going to be really tough to get people to stop doing that. Maybe hydration tests. In college, the best way we did it, we did hour weigh-ins, you weigh in an hour before you compete. But that’s just not feasible, I think, in MMA.”

Justin Golightly - October 14, 2017

It’s hard to keep track of all the fights we miss out on nowadays. It seems to happen more than ever before. Back at UFC 214, Sage Northcutt was originally supposed to fight Claudio Puelles, but he had to be replaced by John Makdessi due to an injury. Of course, when it rains it pours. Northcutt and Makdessi never made it to the Octagon either because both men got injured as well. This was no fault of Makdessi’s own though, in a recent interview he revealed it was none other than Mickey Gall who injured his shoulder as a result of a suplex while ‘sparring light’.    “Mickey Gall is a f-cking punk. He’s a deceiving, fake ass b-tch. I heard a crunch and the pain was immediate. I really didn’t want to cause a commotion but I looked in his eyes and thought ‘Are you a f-cking idiot?’ I don’t feel like [TriStar]’s my home. I never felt like it was my home. I was never really happy there, but I do appreciate what they did for me. I’m not saying it’s a bad gym. It’s just about what works for me and doesn’t work for me. I’m not disrespecting anybody, I want that to be very clear. I’m not bitter. In the end, I disrespected myself by letting other people dictate my way. When I met Duke we talked a long time. I was emotionally drained. I think he understands where I am coming from.” — John Makdessi speaking to FanSided’s Amy Kaplan.