MMA News

Russell Ess - September 15, 2017

While the Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor fight lived up to the excitement that many were hoping for, not everyone was thrilled. For example, former UFC lightweight champion and current Bellator star Benson Henderson was not a fan of the matchup or even how things played out in the boxing ring. Henderson spoke with ESPN on why he feels the money fight was bad for MMA and its future.

Russell Ess - September 15, 2017

Daniel Cormier stated earlier this week on UFC Tonight that Dana White told him that he would be reinstated as the UFC light heavyweight champion. The news comes following the result of Jon Jones’ positive B sample and the California Athletic Commission overturning Jones’ initial UFC 214 KO win over Cormier to a no-contest result. Cormier has mostly steered clear of laying judgement on jones but did have some words for his rival while announcing the news of being reinstated as the champion. However, on Friday, the UFC star released a very classy statement regarding Jones and his situation on social media.

Justin Golightly - September 15, 2017

Even though the numbers from Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather’s boxing match didn’t reach as high as Dana White predicted, everyone walked away with a ridiculous amount of money. The tattooed Irishman is Vince McMahon-strutting around Ibiza, meanwhile Mayweather is building a strip club empire. The event even broke its first record earlier this month, but it looks like it may be on track for another big one. According to Dave Meltzer, it could be the biggest of its kind in all of sports history. “When we look at total revenue the show produced, it should be about $445 million from PPV (Cable providers and satellite providers would get 30 percent of the PPV money but the iPPV money would go to the promotion at a much higher percentage), the live gate was $55 million, the U.K. and Ireland PPV is probably about $28 million, international TV rights were estimated at $35 million, $28 million were estimated in sponsorships, $2.6 million in U.S. movie theaters and $15 million from bars and Restaurant airings. There is also a Las Vegas area closed circuit number that is not yet available but should be in about a week, but going in the estimate for that would have been $7 million.”

Justin Golightly - September 15, 2017

Dan Kelly is 40-years young and started Judo when he was seven years old. If you don’t like math, that means he’s been throwing dudes on their head for longer than his opponent Elias Theodorou has been alive. Their paths crossed initially in The Ultimate Fighter Nations house. Unfortunately, Kelly was defeated early while Theodorou later became the winner of the show. Despite losing their last respective fights, both Dan Kelly and Elias Theodorou went on to have success inside the UFC’s Octagon. Finally, Kelly will be able to prove who was  really the best fighter in the house at UFC Sydney. “It’s a validation thing. I remember when I first got into the UFC it was about showing that I was at that level, that I belong there. I proved that now. But obviously this is about going, ‘I was the best guy on that show,’ and me getting the opportunity to fight [Elias Theodorou] is exactly that, it’s me going, ‘no, no, I was the best guy. I was. It just wasn’t my day in the house that day,’ and I’ve proven now, we’ve both got our own training camps and we both prepared fully and we’re both experienced now, we both have the same amount of fights that I’m the better guy.”

Justin Golightly - September 15, 2017

Is the UFC ready to have four women’s divisions? Either way, the ladies sure are. Paige VanZant has been going through some brutal cuts, something other fighters like Cyborg can relate to. With the addition of flyweight and the crowning on an inaugural champ for the conclusions of The Ultimate Fighter 26, VanZant is ready to move up in weight for her career and her health. She recently spoke to Damon Martin at FloCombat about her trials, tribulations and the 125-pound light at the end of the tunnel. “Some of my doctors were telling me I’m doing permanent damage to my body and they told me I needed to start picking a new career or I need to make some changes. I feel like it is even scarier for a girl. Obviously, I want to have kids, I want to have a family but I could ruin that by cutting weight. It’s definitely a scary situation to put yourself in. I’m just really happy. I told the UFC it’s time for me to go up and luckily we were doing as much as we could to find a match-up.”

Justin Golightly - September 15, 2017

After dipping his toes into boxing and making millions, Conor McGregor is expected to return to fight inside the Octagon once again. The thing about McGregor though, is that he’s unpredictable. Of course, he could change his mind and keep boxing, or just shrug it all off and stay in Ibiza admiring gigantic boats. What is predictable, is how big a third fight with Nate Diaz could be. Daniel Cormier is the latest to weigh-in on the match-up and thinks that it’s something the UFC needs to make happen. https://twitter.com/UFCONFOX/status/908486982191288321

Justin Golightly - September 15, 2017

There were mixed feelings when Snoop Dogg got a job commentating for the UFC. He was given his own ‘Snoop Cast’ audio option, along with Urijah Faber, for Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series. The business decision was made even more polarizing, after Snoop went off on Conor McGregor after his loss to Floyd Mayweather. There was some backlash, but Faber appeared on Submission Radio to defendizzle his broadcast partner, fah shizzle. “Man, I thought [Snoop Dogg] did amazing. The funny thing is, you know, what you get with Snoop is just a guy that’s being extremely real and passionate. It was cool. It was just a different type of eyeball on the fights. He’s a guy that’s just saying exactly what he sees. If a guy is laying on his back, he’s not thinking, ‘oh, is he going to go for a knee bar?,’ he’s thinking, ‘why is the guy laying on his back?'”

Justin Golightly - September 14, 2017

If for some reason you’ve been living under a gaming rock for the last three years, you should know that Demetrious Johnson streams video games on Twitch pretty much every single day. What you may not know, if that Max Holloway is out there owning newbs on Twitch as well. That’s right, when he’s not holding down the UFC’s featherweight division, Holloway can be found on the interwebs talking to fans and playing against them live. Lately, he made a public appearance with Big E and Xavier Woods of WWE’s stable New Day to play EA Sports UFC 2. Max Holloway got the knockout victory with a perfect elbow in the first round. Coming soon to @UpUpDwnDwn: #UFC #FeatherweightChampion @BlessedMMA takes on @WWEBigE in #UFC2! @ufc #WWEHonolulu pic.twitter.com/isLWuxUppM

Justin Golightly - September 14, 2017

Justin Gaethje has peaked the interest of anyone not aware of his World Series of Fighting achievements. His opponent, Eddie Alvarez was known in the game for many years before his gigantic double-title fight with Conor McGregor. Both of the guys are 100% guaranteed exciting fighters, but it’s sure to be a crazy slobberknocker when the two Ultimate Fighter 26 coaches finally clash. It looks like their official date for the fight is going to be at UFC 218. https://twitter.com/CTaylor_96/status/908445490261270528

Russell Ess - September 14, 2017

The rivalry between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor seems to have come to an end. Mayweather won the fight that had many people excited, beating McGregor by TKO in the 10th round of their multi-million dollar boxing match. However, in the build-up to their fight, a lot of things were said that cannot simply be forgotten.

Russell Ess - September 14, 2017

Hawaii’s Max Holloway is the new king of the 145-pound featherweight division. In the same division where Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo once held the throne, the product of Waianae is bringing the world on board the “Blessed” train. With defeating Aldo at UFC 212 to become the undisputed UFC featherweight champion, Holloway says he was promised a new contract if he had his hand raised over the Brazilian. However, it seems like the UFC and Holloway are having a hard time coming to an agreement on the new contract.

Justin Golightly - September 14, 2017

All the test results are in. Two urine tests and a blood test. The UFC has moved forward in stripping Jon Jones of the title, now Daniel Cormier has been given the belt once again due to a situation involving Jones having the title taken away. To this day, Jon Jones is still claiming innocence and most likely a legal battle will follow. Coach Mike Winkeljohn spoke to Submission Radio about what could happen if this all turns out to be because of a tainted supplement or an substance not listed in the ingredients like last time. “Oh, I would [sue]. I mean, we’re talking about changing a man’s life. I mean, how much money can he make? How much is his career worth? Is it worth $100 million? I mean, that’s gonna’ bankrupt a company. I would be the first one to say, hey look, here’s the deal, if you guys are in the supplement industry and you have a tendency to put anabolics and these different substances into products just so that the kids go, ‘Yeah, this stuff works,’ and then the FDA coming along and says, ‘Hey, you put that in that in there,’ you either have a tendency to pull it out real fast and so people won’t do it anymore, but you’ve already sold the product and they keep selling it and they open up another product or they file bankruptcy and do it again. Supplement companies are notorious for it if you go back and start reading some papers on them, and it’s not right. This is not right when they do those type of things just to sell products.”

Justin Golightly - September 14, 2017

News broke yesterday that Thiago Alves had to pull out of his fight with Mike Perry at UFC Pittsburgh. Originally, the cause was unknown, but it was eventually reported by Ariel Helwani that it was due to complications from Hurricane Irma since Alves is based out of Florida. After hearing this, Perry, who came from Florida himself, isn’t convinced. Luckily someone stepped up to replace Alves, but a heated Mike Perry recently voiced his opinion to Mike Dyce at Fansided about his former opponent’s travel problems. “That’s bullsh-t. I came from Florida, we got more f-cked up than he did. There are so many people here from South Florida. I was just talking to Michael Johnson. His coaches from [American Top Team] down there, are here today. They flew up yesterday when he was supposed to. He is feeding y’all bullsh-t. He don’t want to fight, he doesn’t want to retire yet and I was going to put him to sleep. It’s simple as that. Does he get the opportunity to fight me after I smash [Alex Reyes]? They need to get me a top-10 opponent after this.”

Dr Pete - September 14, 2017

Last week Dr.Pete was able to get in some 1 on 1 time with world famous BJJ champion Rener Gracie at Gracie Academy in Torrance, California. In last weeks video Rener Gracie touched on how critical it is to establish and manage posture control of your opponent. “Whoever owns the posture in the closed guard, owns the closed guard” – Rener Gracie In this follow up clip Rener Gracie and Dr. Pete demonstrate a pretty slick method using posture control and cross grip to transition into “The easiest triangle in the history of triangles”. BJJ practitioner’s take notes! This is definitely one to add to your ever evolving BJJ game.

Russell Ess - September 14, 2017

Daniel Cormier has been reinstated as the UFC light heavyweight champion and Jon Jones can no longer be found on the latest official UFC rankings. All of this comes as a result of Jones’ B sample coming out with the same results as his A sample from after the UFC 214 weigh-ins, which was a positive test result for the anabolic steroid Turinabol. Jones, however, is still due the appropriate adjudication of his case with USADA.

Justin Golightly - September 14, 2017

While a new UFC women’s featherweight champion is crowned and in waiting, Holly Holm has options in front of her for two titles. She could be eyeing a rematch with Valentina Shevchenko to see who will challenge Amanda Nunes yet again for the bantamweight title, since the rumors are Raquel Pennington will get the next shot. If the a title is the goal, Holm may have a quicker path at featherweight. She’s willing to fight Cris Cyborg to make that happen, the UFC just has to make it worth her while according to Coach Winkeljohn on Submission Radio. “Holly [Holm] will take [the fight with Cyborg] if they make the right offer, if they will do that. I mean, right now we’re looking at, do we fight Amanda Nunes for the title? They really want to give that to Raquel Pennington, I think they’re saying. Holly’s not one to sit on the shelf, she wants the world title. She really wanted to get back at Shevchenko, so I know she was hoping Shevchenko would win the title, but this is where we’re sitting right now and Cris Cyborg is out there and Holly I think wants to knock off another legend. She’ll step up and do it again, so it all comes down to money and what the UFC’s willing to cough up to have Holly fight her.”

Tom Taylor - September 14, 2017

On October 28th, on the main card of UFC Fight Night 119 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, red-hot welterweight contender Colby Covington will battle recent title challenger Demian Maia. While Covington has repeatedly shared his confidence in the way he matches up with Maia, he actually has ample respect for the Brazilian grappling specialist. That respect does not extend to UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley – at all. Covington explained why he respects Maia but not Woodley on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio.

Tom Taylor - September 14, 2017

Last weekend, in the main event of UFC 215, Kyrgyzstani striking specialist Valentina Shevchenko came up inches short in a back-and-forth battle with women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, losing a split decision. While Shevchenko has repeatedly shared her disappointment with this decision, and assured she’ll fight Nunes again, she recently told Submission Radio that her next fight is likely to be in the UFC’s new women’s flyweight division.