MMA News

Justin Golightly - October 3, 2017

Rafael dos Anjos’ run in the welterweight division much like his former opponent “Cowboy” Donald Cerrone. He’s taken out Tarec Saffiedine and Neil Magny, and he’s not even close to slowing down. Kamaru Usman was campaigning for a fight with dos Anjos after destroying Sergio Moraes at UFC Fight Night 116. However, dos Anjos is looking to take advantage of his name and quick rise in his new division for a shot at Tyron Woodley. “I just beat the No. 6 in the division and I’m currently at No. 5, it doesn’t make any sense to fight the No. 10 [Kamaru Usman]. I understand that everyone is trying to promote themselves to get interesting fights, but I’m worried about fighters who are ahead of me. Even [Tyron Woodley]’s manager said I deserve to fight for the title. So, I don’t know why he’s worried about me.”

Justin Golightly - October 3, 2017

The UFC women’s featherweight champ, and arguably the most dominant female fighter on the planet, still doesn’t have a fight. After a long social media campaign to try and finally get the title defense booked against Holly Holm, Cris Cyborg and their team have called off negotiations and canceled their upcoming meeting to solidify a deal. According to Cyborg, the UFC offered her even less money than her fight against Tonya Evinger when she captured the title. My meeting with the @UFC for next week has been canceled. They want to pay me less to fight @HollyHolm than I made to fight Tonya Evinger

Russell Ess - October 3, 2017

UFC welterweight Mike Perry is steadily climbing the UFC rankings after making his debut with the promotion last year. Now, with five fights in the UFC, “Platinum” spoke with BJPenn.com’s Chris Taylor about some potential fights and working his way to the top of the chain. Taylor asked Perry if we could expect to see him back in the Octagon soon, perhaps rescheduled for a fight with Thiago Alves at UFC 218 on December 2 in Detroit. Alves, who lives and trains in Florida, was forced to pull out of his slated UFC Fight Night 116 bout with Perry due to Hurricane Irma.

Justin Golightly - October 3, 2017

Viewers who tuned in to UFC Rotterdam at the beginning of last month, were treated to a violent surprise. Fresh-on-the-roster featherweight Zabit Magomedsharipov put on a performance in his UFC debut that rivals anyone we’ve seen in recent memory. He was leaping off cages, putting together video game combos, but best off all, he finished his opponent with a choke. It wasn’t just the fans who liked what they saw, evidently the UFC brass is high on the prospect as well. He’ll make his return to UFC action on November 25th. https://twitter.com/DenisGeykoRT/status/915307249316384773

Justin Golightly - October 3, 2017

Fight week for fighters is a special kind of hell. You’re so close to the fight that you’ve prepared months for, but it’s just out of reach. You’re doing media, cameras are always around you, and worst of all, you’re cutting weight. Some fighters cut an obscene amount of weight. Conor McGregor went through a completely tame MMA cut in comparison to his others for the Floyd Mayweather fight, and Mayweather was worried he wouldn’t even make it to the fight. One guy who never worries about his cut, is Demetrious Johnson. In fact, he basically eats whatever he wants. He detailed his diet sitting next to Kevin Lee, who was visibly tortured and munching on arugula. “I’ll stay at 125lbs. After this I probably won’t fight until March, maybe February or March possibly. We’ll see. I’ll stay at 125lbs. Last night I went out to dinner, had two chicken breasts with mashed potatoes, broccolini, it was seasoned, had all the good-goods on it. And I woke up weighing 138.1lbs. So, it’s not [a problem for me to make 125lbs]. the only time I get to like, 142-143lbs, is I have a rack of ribs with a delicious Negra Modelo. I eat whatever I want and still be able to make this weight. Yeah, I eat dessert and all this stuff. I had Oreos before I came down [to the media lunch]. I had chocolate ones because I ate through all the vanilla Oreos that day before.”

Tom Taylor - October 3, 2017

Back in 2009, “The Black Mamba” Ronald Dlamini (6-3, 1 NC) became the first black MMA champion in the South African history, claiming the welterweight title in a reputable fight promotion. Several years later, his life took a disastrous turn, as he was hospitalized with meningitis, and after a 10-day coma, ultimately wound up completely blind. 

Justin Golightly - October 3, 2017

Ronda Rousey may have been taken a break from MMA ― maybe even a full-on retirement this time ― but that doesn’t mean she’s not been doing anything. She was with Shayna Baszler every step of the way through the WWE’s Mae Young Classic tournament, she may be heading to WWE herself, and she was just married to UFC heavyweight Travis Browne. Her latest announcement, is that she’ll be co-owner of a supplement company which will release her own line of women’s products. “I’ve had many offers to work with different nutritional companies. One reason why I’ve been so hesitant to partner with anyone else is I grew up in the Olympic  testing system. I’ve been drug tested since I was 14-years old. I was always taught that whatever you put in your body is your own responsibility and you’re taking a risk every single time.”

Russell Ess - October 3, 2017

There is no doubt that fighting Conor McGregor is the golden ticket in the UFC, especially if you can beat the Irishman. However, Kevin Lee is playing his cards in an interesting way saying that if he wins the interim title fight against Tony Ferguson at UFC 216, “The Notorious” will have to “prove” to him that he is ready for the title unification challenge.

Tom Taylor - October 3, 2017

This Saturday, in the co-main event of the star-studded UFC 216, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson will attempt to make a record-breaking 11th-straight defense of his title opposite Ray Borg. If Demetrious Johnson achieves this history-making 11th title defense, it will of course be very exciting. It will, however, also raise a very interesting question: who the hell does he fight next? Having essentially cleaned out his division, Johnson is now running very low on viable title challengers. Luckily, he’s got a few ideas for possible options down the line.

Tom Taylor - October 3, 2017

On October 28, the UFC will return to Brazil with UFC Fight Night 119. In the evening’s co-headliner, rising UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington will face the biggest test of his career thus far as he battles recent UFC welterweight title challenger Demian Maia. In advance of this fight, Covington is starting to embrace his role as something of a heel in the welterweight division. In fact, he’s starting consider himself the “supervillain” of the division.

Tom Taylor - October 3, 2017

On Sunday, the world was rocked by a despicable attack in Las Vegas, which left more than 50 people dead and hundreds injured. Unsurprisingly, this terrible turn of events generated some compassionate responses from the Las Vegas based MMA community, including the UFC, who pledged a whopping $1 million to a fund for the families of the victims of this tragedy. “Our focus right now is on supporting the community and those affected by Sunday evening’s events,” the UFC said in a statement. “UFC 216 on Saturday, October 7 at T-Mobile Arena will proceed as scheduled until further notice.”

Tom Taylor - October 3, 2017

On November 4, the UFC will return to the combat sports stronghold of Madison Square Garden, in the heart of beautiful New York City. It will do so with the stacked UFC 217, which could be the biggest MMA card of the year. In the UFC 217 main event, UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping will attempt to defend his title against former UFC welterweight king Georges St-Pierre. The bout will mark Bisping’s second attempted title defense, while it will be St-Pierre’s first fight since November of 2013, and first fight ever at middleweight.

Tom Taylor - October 3, 2017

On August 26, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor climbed through the ropes for a boxing match with undefeated legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. Strangely, one of the biggest stories to emerge in the lead-up to this blockbuster battle was McGregor’s sizzling beef with boxer Paulie Malignaggi. Malignaggi was originally brought into McGregor’s camp as a sparring partner, but ultimately left when he felt he’d been unfairly represented by the Irishman and his team. From there, things only got worse, as the pair traded trash talk in interviews and on social media, and nearly came to blows during the grand arrivals for the fight.

Chris Taylor - October 2, 2017

The world is still in shock following last night’s horrifying mass shooting in Las Vegas that left at least 59 people dead and over 500 injured. With that said, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), who calls Las Vegas home, is doing everything they can to help the families of those affected. The promotion released an official statement to MMAjunkie pledging their support to victims while confirming Saturday’s UFC 216 pay-per-view event will go on as planned.

Chris Taylor - October 2, 2017

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor was “devastated” after hearing of the massacre that left at least 59 people dead and hundreds injured in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada. The Irish superstar took to Instagram where he issued the following message sending love and prayers to the victims, families and everyone affected by the senseless act of violence.

Russell Ess - October 2, 2017

Former UFC light heavyweight champion and UFC Hall of Fame legend Chuck Liddell says he was promised a lifetime job with the UFC. However, that all changed when the promotion was sold and the new owners WME-IMG shifted their direction with some corporate restructuring. Liddell and fellow UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes were let go from their executive positions when WME-IMG bought the business last year and began running the ship.

Russell Ess - October 2, 2017

Conor got so angry last night 😈 A post shared by Conor McGregor FanPage 🔹 (@mcgregorlifestyle) on Sep 30, 2017 at 3:19pm PDT

Tom Taylor - October 2, 2017

Shortly after his UFC 210 disappointing loss to UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, long-time light heavyweight contender Anthony Johnson announced his decision to retire from mixed martial arts. Though he did leave the door open for a potential heavyweight showdown with Jon Jones sometime down the road, it really did sound like “Rumble” had fought his last fight. While the light heavyweight star has apparently been doing well in his ventures outside the cage, he must be getting the so-called itch again, because according to his manager Ali Abdelaziz, he’s meeting with the UFC to discuss a possible comeback fight at heavyweight.