MMA News

Chris Taylor - September 16, 2017

The octagon returns to Pittsburgh tonight for UFC Fight Night 116. The event is headlined by a key middleweight scrap featuring former division champion Luke Rockhold squaring off with perennial contender David Branch.

Justin Golightly - September 16, 2017

When Thiago Alves had to pull out of his fight with Mike Perry at UFC Pittsburgh, Perry didn’t bat an eye at the change of an opponent. Even though it was only three-days notice, Alex Reyes didn’t either. The former King of the Cage lightweight champion jumped at his chance to get into the UFC just like anyone would, but he wasn’t always this lucky. Last October, Reyes was supposed to step in to face Josh Burkman at UFC Fight Night 96 but had to turn the fight down because of an injury himself. Not only is tonight a redemption for Alex Reyes, but a chance to make a serious statement.  “It was heartbreaking at that time. You hope and pray that you get called up someday, you work your whole career, you work hard and you get that call, but you can’t [accept it] because of injury. It was tough, man. It was a tough injury. And I came back from it and I knew that if I ever got that call again, there was going to be no hesitation. Sh-t man, when I got that first call, I wanted to accept it anyway. That’s why it was so heartbreaking, because I wanted to say yes but my body couldn’t. It wasn’t even saying no, it just couldn’t. So as soon as I got that call [this week[, man, I was like, ‘Let’s go. I’m ready. No hesitation. I belong here.’”

Justin Golightly - September 16, 2017

It wasn’t Mike Jackson’s lucky night back at UFC 196. For his professional MMA debut, he was under those infamous bright lights and was submitted by Mickey Gall in the Octagon, missing out on his chance to fight CM Punk. We all know how Gall’s bout with Punk went at UFC 203, but we haven’t seen Jackson back in the UFC again. …Yet. Instead, the place to find Mike ‘The Truth’ Jackson is inside the boxing ring. He’s undefeated so far with three straight knockouts. As of last night, he just raised that number to four by straight sleeping his opponent in a dominating performance. Here's something to wet your whistle while you wait for #CaneloGGG… I call this shot the, "Pudding Pop". #Boxing #Pugilist #Fisticuffs pic.twitter.com/mjxwAPUE5l

Justin Golightly - September 16, 2017

Fight fans can look forward to UFC Pittsburgh tonight. but if you were fiending for a fix then ONE Fighting Championships had you covered earlier today. Sometimes, it pays to branch out because your efforts are rewarded with ridiculous highlights. Alain Ngalani’s fight with Hideki Sekine is a perfect example. These two wasted no time at all, as Sekine ran at Ngalani like a man possessed. Like some sort of playground bully in a sitcom, Ngalani kept Sekine at arms length and knocked him out in just 11-seconds while running freakin’ backwards. Me chasing my dreams #ONEFightNight pic.twitter.com/nJt1AfZwOg

Justin Golightly - September 16, 2017

For all of you who thought Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather was just a one-off thing, you may be wrong. As with many other things, McGregor seemingly has opened up the floodgates when it comes to MMA fighters crossing over to MMA. Jimi Manuwa has been talking about a possible match-up with heavyweight boxer and multiple-time champ David Haye for awhile, but it looks like it is finally happening. Just last night at a BAMMA fight card, the two fighters got together for a talk and photo-op to announce they could fight as early as next year. “The fight is on. He wants it and I want it and all that. He says he has to fight a couple more fights before we’re going to fight. We’re going to do it beginning of next year.” — Jimi Manuwa speaking to MMA Uno. 

Justin Golightly - September 16, 2017

After multiple failed attempts to make an interim title fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee are going to fight for the interim UFC lightweight belt on October 4th. Meanwhile, Conor McGregor gallavants on yachts reaping the spoils from his multi-multi-million dollar fight with Floyd Mayweather. Not bad for a guy who lost the fight, huh? Kevin Lee didn’t seem impressed with McGregor’s performance, but holds Ferguson in a high regard for the scraps that he’s put down inside the Octagon. “I knew [Floyd] Mayweather was going to beat Conor [McGregor] because Conor’s a quitter. Conor quit during that fight. That’s the thing about fighting, you can’t hide who you really are. If you a b-tch it’s gonna’ show and this is not the first time. It showed in his first Nate Diaz fight. It showed again in the second Nate Diaz fight and it showed versus Mayweather. When you’re slapping around and kind of signaling to the refs that you tired. That’s him wanting to quit. That’s him wanting out. You’ll never see Tony Ferguson like that. Tony Ferguson went to war with [Rafael] dos Anjos for five rounds in Mexico City at altitude. Of course he’s tired, but he’s not going to show it like that.”

Justin Golightly - September 16, 2017

The UFC’s middleweight division has been in a weird, chaotic state ever since Luke Rockhold was knocked out by the hands of Michael Bisping. Some fighters like Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza went on strike, Yoel Romero vowed to not go back his home in Cuba until he got a title shot, and Gegard Mousasi left the UFC altogether. Luke Rockhold has expressed his frustrations in the past about how things were going, which is why he wants to keep the wheels of the division going. No matter who wins at UFC 217 between Bisping and Georges St-Pierre, the champ is supposed to fight Robert Whittaker. If that doesn’t happen, then Rockhold will. “Robert Whittaker has proved himself top dog and I believe he and I are the two best guys in the middleweight division. So, [the winner of Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre] should definitely fight him. But if not, I will. I’ll fight any man at the top and Whittaker is seemingly that guy. I was impressed. First time up in the division, it was a strong, composed showing. I’ve been watching him come along since and he’s growing nicely. Whittaker’s a really tough kid.”

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.

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

It was a different era that Georges St-Pierre ruled four years ago. The former welterweight king’s return is like the embryos in Jurassic Park making it possible for dinosaurs to roam the Earth again, only instead of a T-Rex in the city, it’s St-Pierre in 2017’s UFC middleweight division. During his reign, GSP wasn’t just fighting contender after contender, he was also fighting for increased drug testing in the sport. Something that wouldn’t be fully implemented until he left to take a break from the pressure of being the king of the jungle, surrounded by never-ending Velociraptors. “It’s a different set of rules now, I was fighting against a whole system back in the day. I was very outspoken about the drug problem that we had, people made fun of me, ‘ahhh, he’s a paranoid guy, he says that as a way to go and retire.’ But look what happened now … a lot of the UFC champions have fallen to the performance enhancing drugs, getting caught.”

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

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

The nickname that Volkan Oezdemir wears like a badge of honor couldn’t be more appropriate. Mr. ‘No Time’ has spent six minutes and 10 seconds fighting in the UFC. That amount of time is three fights combined. It’s no wonder that Oezdemir just entered into the UFC this year and he’s already knocking on the door to a title shot. Unfortunately, Jon Jones has complicated the title picture a little bit, but that’s not going to slow him down. He’s talked about Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson before, but it looks like he’s doubling down on the Swedish mauler. “I think a fight with [Daniel Cormier] or a fight with [Alexander] Gustafsson are most likely next, but I think the best option for me is to fight Gustafsson. The situation isn’t very clear with the belt, so in the mean time I would like to fight Gustafsson for the number one contender spot. Maybe after that I can fight ‘DC’ for the belt. I think because he was the champion and with what has happened to Jones, he deserves to fight for the belt. It’s a smart choice for [Gustafsson] not fight me. He’s right there for the belt too. His next fight was supposed to be for the belt, so because of that, fighting would me would be completely stupid. He will lose his spot if he fights me, he will go down and lose one year of his life.”

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

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.”