MMA News

Justin Golightly - October 13, 2017

After losing his second fight with Stipe Miocic, Junior dos Santos was eager to step into the Octagon with rising star Francis Ngannou in his journey back to a title fight. Unfortunately, he became one of the victims of USADA. He was notified of a potential anti-doping violation and pulled out of the card. Eventually, Ngannou found an opponent later for UFC 218, but dos Santos is stuck on the sidelines. He recently opened up about the process and how it’s been so devastating for him. “At first I was devastated. I’ve been in favor of USADA, I’ve always said how much I support it, how much I want a drugless sport, a fair sport. I’ve always been clean, so my mind is at ease. Everything is under investigation, now, but that’s another problem, because I have no idea where this came from and it’s up to me to prove my innocence and that’s kind of weird. At first I used to think ‘Why is USADA there? For cheaters or for the ones who play by the rules end up as victims?’ I’m obviously a victim of a situation that I don’t what it is.”

Justin Golightly - October 13, 2017

Max Holloway versus Frankie Edgar. Justin Gaethje versus Eddie Alvarez. Francis Ngannou versus Alistair Overeem. Henry Cejudo versus Sergio Pettis. Are you kidding? UFC 218 has quickly turned into a contender for Card of the Year, at least on paper, and the announcements aren’t even done yet. The latest scrap to be added to this monster event is Al Iaquinta taking on Paul Felder.   .Al Iaquinta will fight Paul Felder at #UFC218 in Detroit, Michigan. (Dec. 2, 2017). (per @freep/@folsombrandonj) pic.twitter.com/xPwxmIHwXs

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

There has been no official word from the UFC, but Daniel Cormier is moving forward with the decision that Volkan Oezdemir is going to get the next title shot. He originally decided he’d give him the next shot based off of a Twitter poll. Of course, Oezdemir was quick and grateful to accept the challenge. It’s a fresh title defense that seems to be happening at exactly the right time, but Cormier says we’ll have to wait just a little bit longer. The UFC light heavyweight champion believes the fight will go down sometime early 2018. “You’ve got two minutes, because after that it all goes downhill.” — @dc_mma on @volkan_oezdemir https://t.co/pdaHVoVy6z

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

When Mark Hunt is unhappy with something, he definitely lets you know it. The UFC recently announced that Fabricio Werdum would be stepping in for Mark Hunt to fight Marcin Tybura at UFC Sydney. The news came to a surprise for Hunt, who took to social media to absolutely rake the UFC and Dana White over the coals as he’s been known to do from time to time. TMZ just caught up with White who broke his silence on the issue. “[Mark Hunt] went off on me. He’s always going off on me. Listen, sometimes you gotta’ protect these guys from themselves and that’s what we’re looking into right now. He made a statement that I’ve hated him forever. I don’t hate Mark Hunt at all. I’ve never hated Mark Hunt. He knows that. I was actually really good with Mark Hunt. I don’t expect an apology at all, no.” – Dana White to TMZ.

Russell Ess - October 12, 2017

Mariusz Pudzianowski is a former five-time World’s Strongest Man and bodybuilder that has transitioned his training and focus towards mixed martial arts. The fighter still has a massive physique and has shown what he is capable of with defeating game opponents such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Rolles Gracie.

Russell Ess - October 12, 2017

There was a lot of back and forth talk with the Conor McGregor and Paulie Malignaggi sparring sessions, especially with their eventual fallout. After their first sparring session, Malignaggi said that McGregor’s punching power was good, but it wasn’t “Oh my god” power that he never felt before. Malignaggi stated that there were only a select few opponents and sparring partners that he felt had that sort of power and that seems to be the case with UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier as well.

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

After all the animosity between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee in the lead-up to UFC 216, the end result couldn’t be more classy by both opponents. After Ferguson tapped out Lee in a triangle choke, both men embraced and exchanged words. It wasn’t an easy fight for either of them and both men earned each other’s respect. Kevin Lee continued this respect in his post-fight interviews. Lately, he’s opened up and has said Tony Ferguson deserves to fight Conor McGregor. “[Tony Ferguson versus Conor McGregor] should happen, It should. In any other sport or in any other circumstance or situation, that’s the fight to make happen. But, like really, speaking as a fan, as a fan of the sport, I don’t know man, I don’t know if Conor wants those problems. Tony [Ferguson] is a motherf-cker. I said it before the fight, Tony can fight and he can take a helluva shot. I hit him with some big shots that I thought would like faze him or cut him, but the man just wouldn’t quit. He’s got no quit in him.”

Russell Ess - October 12, 2017

UFC 216 took place over the weekend with the UFC interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee showcased as the main event. It was an exciting fight where Ferguson ultimately got the job done in the third round by submitting Lee with a triangle choke. Following the fight, Ferguson took to Twitter to interact with fellow Twitter users and had it out for Daniel Cormier, who commentated the UFC 216 broadcast.

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

If things had gone according to the initial plan, the UFC 216 main card would have featured a heavyweight scrap between ranked contenders Derrick Lewis and Fabricio Werdum. The undercard, meanwhile, would have featured a collision of rising heavyweights Walt Harris and Mark Godbeer. Yet what we ended up with was a heavyweight scrap between Werdum and Harris, which Werdum won with a first-round armbar. It was all the result of an unfortunate back injury, which forced Derrick Lewis out of his fight with Fabricio Werdum. Though it briefly sounded as though the undercard bout between Mark Godbeer and Walt Harris would replace Werdum vs. Lewis on the UFC 216 main card, Harris was instead pulled from his bout with Godbeer, and plunked into the cage with Werdum with mere hours to prepare.

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

A fight that could be more important than Max Holloway’s win over Jose Aldo is fast approaching in December. He’ll be defending the title for the first time against Frankie Edgar on a stacked Detroit event, the guy that everyone said Conor McGregor avoided while he was at featherweight. However, the UFC may have had another plan in mind, or at least a back-up plan to a back-up plan. During Holloway’s recent contract renegotiation, the UFC gauged his interest in moving up to lightweight to potentially challenge McGregor. “If [the fight with Conor McGregor] happens, it happens. He said 155. When we were talking about the contract, UFC came to me and they were talking about 155. They also talked to me about Conor a little bit. They were asking me about it and then they came to me with the Frankie [Edgar] fight and it was weird. We got the Frankie fight, like I said, I wanted this a year ago. Now, we got to fight Frankie, he’s got the fight now. When we were talking about the contract they said, ‘What about [155] would you go up there?’ Then they asked about Conor. If they wanted me to go up there and fight him, I’d fight him any day. They kept talking about it, but at the end of the day Frankie was the one.”

Russell Ess - October 12, 2017

The UFC has had some really entertaining fight cards recently with title fights taking place on the pay-per-view cards. However, it seems things have not gone so well with the pay-per-view buys over the last two UFC pay-per-view events. According to MMA insider @jedigoodman, the early estimated buy rates per Dave Meltzer have failed to go over 200,000.

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

More announcements are pouring in for those end of the year UFC cards. A huge one just dropped not even an hour ago, pitting former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, against former UFC welterweight champion, Robbie Lawler. It’s a fight that almost seems too good to be true. However, no sooner did we report on the fight with Rafael dos Anjos, he took to Twitter to try and up the stakes for their scrap on December 16th. Am’I the only one that thinks that this fight should be for a interim title? Since the champ is out until next year?

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

UFC on Fox 26, which goes down on December 16 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, now has a headliner – and it is absolute dynamite. In one corner, we’ll have former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler. In the other, we’ll have former lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos. This news was announced by the UFC on Thursday morning.

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

Earlier this week, news broke that Mark Hunt had been removed from his UFC Sydney headlining showdown with Marcin Tybura (and he’s not happy about that). Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum will serve at Hunt’s replacement against Tybura in the card’s main event. As it turns out, this is not the only recent change to the UFC Sydney lineup. The card has experienced another handful of adjustments over the last few days.

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

On October 21, in the main event of the UFC’s anticipated return to Poland, rising British welterweight Darren Till will face the biggest test of his career in Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Should Till defeat Cerrone, he plans to make an immediate callout of another ranked welterweight: “Platinum” Mike Perry. “I think that’s a good fight to make right now because Mike comes to fight and he comes to talk sh*t,” Till told MMAFighting’s Peter Carroll. 

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

Now that Conor McGregor‘s boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr in in the rear-view mirror, the whole world is waiting to see what the Irishman does next. He certainly has plenty of options. He could stick to boxing, where fights with opponents like Paulie Malignaggi, Manny Pacquiao and others could await. He could return to MMA for a trilogy fight with Nate Diaz. He could unify his undisputed UFC lightweight title with the interim lightweight title now owned by Tony Ferguson. Again, he has options abound.

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

Last weekend, in the main event of UFC 216, Kevin Lee came up short in a bid to capture the UFC interim lightweight title in a fight with Tony Ferguson. For Lee, however, the real fight began in the days before he stepped into the cage, when he had to shed a monstrous 21 pounds to reach the lightweight division’s 155-pound limit. Initially, Lee actually failed to make 155, tipping the scales about a pound over. Luckily, he was given an extra hour by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and ultimately managed to make championship weight.

Justin Golightly - October 11, 2017

Next month, fight fans will be awarded with an embarrassment of riches when UFC 217 goes down in the Big Apple. Leading into — three count’em, three — title fights, Jorge Masvidal is going to fight Stephen Thompson. It’s the new breed going to war with each other in a wild clash of styles. You take an aggressive street fighter turned complete MMA athlete and pit them against a Karate an kickboxing champion, that’s just a win every time. Masvidal recently talked about how he’s going to prepare for the “Wonderboy”, and it’s clear he’s studying some film. “I’m watching Bruce Lee movies everyday. I’ve seen the Karate Kid like three times this week at least.  I’m just keeping myself in the Karate mindset as much as I can right now so I can see everything coming. […] I feel like I could do a lot of things with [Stephen Thompson]. There’s certain ranges you just shouldn’t give to him because that’s where he’s best at. There’s a lot of ranges he just cant fight. That’s why he can’t put pressure on because he doesn’t know how to fight there. He was just taught one thing. His dad forced him into one martial art and he doesn’t really do well in a lot of other ranges. He’s going to have to fight-fight with me I’m not just a strike, or a guy who can shoot takedowns and stuff. I can fight at all ranges, I’ve been doing it my whole career. He hasn’t. He’s only got one range.”