MMA News

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.

Tom Taylor - October 15, 2017

Back in January, former UFC light heavyweight champ and recent Bellator MMA star Tito Ortiz stepped into the cage with Chael Sonnen in a bout that was supposed to be the last of his career. After winning this fight with a first-round choke, the MMA legend seemed perfectly prepared to ride off into the sunset. Then, the comeback talk started. After undergoing a successful surgery, Ortiz took to Instagram, suggesting he was after another fight with Sonnen, who has had plenty to say about him since their January fight.

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

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

It wasn’t too long ago that Julianna Pena was knocking on the door to a women’s UFC bantamweight title shot. Things didn’t end up going her way in the Octagon in her last fight, but everything else seems to be doing awesome. She’s a regular part of Combate America’s successful fight cards doing commentary work and now she’s about to take a huge step in her life. Julianna Pena announced on her Instagram that she’s pregnant with a baby girl. However, if any of her division’s fighters think that motherhood is going to save them from a fight, then they’re wrong.  “My goal right now is to have my baby, love my baby, and get back into the Octagon. The division definitely needs me. My main goal is to rematch Valentina [Shevchenko] in my first fight back. I messed up in my last fight, I was overzealous. Having a daughter on the way not only rejuvenated me personally, it gave me so much more to fight for. I’m excited to start this new phase in my life and UFC has been so supportive of me. Dana White was stoked, he loves kids, and told me fighting will always be here waiting for me.” 

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.

Justin Golightly - October 14, 2017

Slowly but surely, Bellator has been gathering huge talent from the UFC. It started as just a couple here and there, but Roy Nelson marks the 16th former UFC fighter that Bellator has gathered for its roster. One of the most unexpected fighters to jump ship was Gegard Mousasi. He was on a five-fight win streak, with his most recent victory being against Chris Weidman. Controversy or not, that was a huge win. Yet, here he is about to make his Bellator debut on October 20th. Recently, he opened up about some criticisms that led to his decision. “I was a small fish in the UFC. I’m a big fish in Bellator. That’s why I want to do my part to grow with Bellator. There’s a connection that I don’t have with UFC. It’s a company, like a factory. With Bellator, it’s more that I’m part of the family, and I’m doing the best I can to grow with the family. If I was to criticize [the UFC], I think the fairness of payment or the fairness of getting a title shot, it’s too much about the name of the fighter and who they feel they can build as a star as opposed to who is the best fighter.”

Justin Golightly - October 14, 2017

The convoluted feud that bubbled over from Team Alpha Male into all of our lives needs a series of diagrams and graphs to understand. There are plot twists, character changes, and even behind-the-scenes mystery footage. This all could be written into a book, which gets made into a movie. Until then, we have to wait for the climax of the story arch to conclude at UFC 217. Cody Garbrandt will finally step into the Octagon with former teammate TJ Dillashaw to decide who really is the rightful UFC bantamweight champion and the one true star pupil of coach Urijah Faber. As we draw closer to the match-up, Garbrandt opens up about his raw feelings toward Dillashaw. “Sometimes there’s negativity and there are cancers that are surrounding anything in your life, you’ve got to cut that out. That’s what we did. TJ [Dillashaw] left and we cut that out and whoever else followed, we cut the cancer out. Honestly, he was a fierce competitor. He liked to compete. He didn’t like to lose. He didn’t like to give an inch. With that said, he was willing to cheat at any cost to win…a round, anything, willing to cheap shot. He’s a cheap-shotting bastard. I don’t stand for that, especially with your teammates. That’s what it is. I lost respect for him after seeing truly who he was in the room amongst his friends.” 

Justin Golightly - October 14, 2017

Only Conor McGregor could post a single word on social media with a five minute Grand Theft Auto art edit and have it blow up. Yesterday, McGregor sent out an image of his head and tattoos plastered on the popular video game’s art. It featured him speedboating away with tons of cash and his title belts in the background. He captioned the image ‘Tony’ and the internet did the rest. Of course, Tony Ferguson couldn’t let that stand. So, he posted a video of him in all sorts of GTA-inspired situations along with… well, just watch. “Zero 😎Fucks” 🇺🇸🏆🇲🇽#DefendorVacate MF’er 😎🖕🏽#TonyFergusonMMA SnapJitsu™ #SnapDownCity This Is My Mat. pic.twitter.com/9aMmzAB3z5

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2017

UFC 217 headliners Georges St-Pierre and Michael Bisping almost came to blows backstage at Friday’s press conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. After an intense stare down, which “involved some serious trash talk from “The Count”, St-Pierre and the brash Brit would nearly came to blows backstage at The Hockey Hall of Fame.

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2017

Mackenzie Dern improved her mixed martial arts record to a perfect 4-0 at Friday night’s LFA 24 event, scoring a first-round submission victory over Mandy Polk. After unfortunately missing weight in her last two bouts, a 2016 Submission of the Year contender over TUF 26 competitor Montana Stewart at Legacy FC 61, and a decision defeat of Katherine Roy at LFA 6, Dern seems to have found the perfect home at flyweight. Check out Mackenzie Dern’s impressive finish below:

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2017

The octagon will return to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on December 16 for the promotions UFC on FOX 26 fight card. The fight card is already beginning to take shape with numerous high profile fights recently being made official by the promotion.

Russell Ess - October 13, 2017

GSP vs Bisping Nov 4th at MSG!!!!!!! @georgesstpierre @mikebisping #ufc217 A post shared by Dana White (@danawhite) on Oct 13, 2017 at 8:37am PDT

Justin Golightly - October 13, 2017

There’s no UFC this weekend, but that won’t stop the fight game from barreling into the weekend in devastating fashion. There is a RIZIN event for the hardcore fight fan insomniac, GLORY has some kickboxing going on, and Fight Nights Global is happening at the time of this article. Former UFC fighter Nikita Kyrlov just had his second fight a tFNG 77 and it didn’t last long at all. It took Krylov less than a minute to knock out former Bellator light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton. Nikita Krylov KOs Emanuel Newton cold in 42 seconds (FNG) pic.twitter.com/qgJbABkUbu

Russell Ess - October 13, 2017

An exciting UFC women’s flyweight matchup will be coming in January as Justine Kish will move up from the strawweight division to the new UFC women’s flyweight division. Kish will meet Ji Yeon Kim, who will be dropping down to the flyweight division from the women’s bantamweight division at a yet to be announced January 20 fight card in the USA.

Justin Golightly - October 13, 2017

Demetrious Johnson just beat Anderson Silva’s record, successfully defended his title, pulled off one of the most amazing submissions in UFC history, but he’s always on to the next challenge. He’s going to continue to try and take his gaming to the next level by competing at TwitchCon this year. He’ll be joined in the tournament by cosplaying UFC strawweight Angela Hill and the first ever UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver. All three of which have streamed their gameplay on Twitch. Oh yeah let’s go @H1Z1KotK can’t wait to compete at the invitational this Sunday. #takeyourshot #TwitchCon2016 pic.twitter.com/nBwl8rLxzG