MMA News

Tom Taylor - October 4, 2017

Mairbek Taisumov, one of the UFC’s fastest rising lightweight contenders, is hoping to set himself up with a big step up in competition. On Tuesday, the surging Russian knockout artist took to Twitter to call out long-time lightweight contender Edson Barboza. Tired of talking but the fans asked for this fight, I’m ready anytime! Are you ready @EdsonBarbozaJR? #Taisumov#Berkut#UFC @ufc@UFCEurope pic.twitter.com/waSxl0XR5M

Tom Taylor - October 4, 2017

The UFC on FOX era could be drawing to a close. Yesterday, the promotion’s exclusive negotiation period with FOX ended, which means it will now be able to negotiate with other bidders as it hunts for a new partner for its TV broadcast rights.

Tom Taylor - October 4, 2017

Last night, a UFC 218 featherweight title fight between champ Max Holloway and challenger Frankie Edgar was made official, confirming earlier reports from BJPenn.com’s Chris Taylor. Shortly after this fight was made official, the challenger Frankie Edgar took to Instagram with a quick reaction to the big news. In his post, Edgar chose to quote a line from the Action Bronson song Actin’ Crazy. 

Tom Taylor - October 4, 2017

Originally, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson was expected to attempt his potentially history-making 11th-straight title defense in the main event of UFC 215. Yet when his opponent, Ray Borg, was forced out of the fight at the last-minute with an injury, this flyweight title fight was rescheduled for UFC 216. Given that the original UFC 216 headliner, a fight between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee, is for the interim lightweight title, many people expected Borg and Johnson’s legitimate title fight to usurp the top spot on the bill. Instead, however, Johnson and Borg were shoehorned into the co-main event, under the interim title fight on the bill.

Chris Taylor - October 3, 2017

The first title defense of new UFC featherweight king Max Holloway will go down at UFC 218, this December 2 in Detroit, Michigan. The bout was first reported to be in the works by our own Chris Taylor, a title fight pitting Holloway against former UFC lightweight champ and two-time featherweight title challenger Frankie Edgar is in the works for the anticipated December card. Max Holloway vs Frankie Edgar being discussed for #UFC218 in Detroit!

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.

Russell Ess - October 3, 2017

Rangers fan throws a drink over Conor McGregor for singing a Celtic tribute song in Glasgow. pic.twitter.com/wLgzyo0CiU — UFC Related 👊🏼 (@UFCrelated) October 2, 2017

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.”

Justin Golightly - October 3, 2017

Derrick Lewis has always had a love/hate relationship with training. His relationship with ribs on the other hand, has always been solid. The Black Beast has the biggest fight of his life coming up this weekend against dangerous heavyweight Fabricio Werdum. The perils aren’t lost on Lewis, who finally decided to change his diet leading up to the event. The results are speaking for themselves, but Werdum still has to deal with a dude who’s mad he missed the McDonald’s McRib. “I was still eating fried chicken, hamburgers, all of that fight week [against Mark Hunt]. The day of the fight, I’ve stayed eating the same way my whole career. Now I’m going to see how I feel however I get in there to see what the difference is to see what all the fuss is about. My mouth is watering right now thinking about some Carl’s Jr. I’m starving right now. You eat salad and you’re hungry the next 30 minutes and you’re hungrier from when you ate the damn salad. That’s what I don’t like about it. The damn McRib was in town. I had to miss the McRib and all the other things. My favorite restaurant had a special going on and I couldn’t even eat it. Somebody’s gotta pay.”

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 December 2, in one of the biggest fights on the UFC 218 bill, former Strikeforce, Dream and K-1 heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem will enter the cage with surging French contender Francis Ngannou. According to Overeem, who appeared on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, he’s been told by the UFC that he’ll get a second shot against reigning champion Stipe Miocic if he defeats Ngannou.

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.