MMA News

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg is now a licensed boxer in the state of California. The Brazilian juggernaut received her license on Wednesday, per a report from Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com. The timing of Cyborg’s being granted a boxing license is quite convenient, as her current UFC contract will wrap up in October. Because she’s a UFC champion, however, the UFC will have an exclusive one-year window to negotiate a new contract with her. If the two parties don’t agree to a new deal Cyborg should, in theory, be allowed to go full-steam ahead on her long-discussed boxing career.

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

This Saturday night, in the main event of the anticipated UFC 215, 24-year-old flyweight contender Ray Borg will attempt to do the seemingly impossible and derail the historic win-streak of champ Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. Borg, of course, is not the first man to attempt to end Mighty Mouse’s reign. Ten others have tried and failed. When the cage door closes on Saturday, however, he believes he’s got what it takes to defeat the dominating flyweight king.

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

Shortly after his destruction of Zebaztian Kadestam at last weekend’s ONE Championship: Shanghai event, it was announced that Ben Askren’s next fight would be his last. His opponent in this November 24 retirement fight, it was revealed, would be Japanese lightweight veteran Shinya Aoki, who stands out as one of the finest submission players in MMA history. Speaking on BJ Penn Radio, Askren revealed that this awesome matchup was initially a surprise to even him:

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

The UFC has been looking for a main event for its October 21 return to Poland for some time. For a moment, it looked as though that main event would pit Brazilian middleweight knockout artist Thiago Santos against debuting Polish star. Unfortunately, that proposed main event fell through. Now, it seems, the promotion is close to locking down a replacement main event, and it involves all-action welterweight star Donald Cerrone. According to reports from MMAUno.com and @TalkMMA on Twitter, a bout between Cerrone and rising British striker Darren Till is being discussed as the card’s main event. When we last saw Cerrone in action, he lost a controversial decision to former welterweight champion and fellow action fighter Robbie Lawler. This loss was preceded by an upset knockout loss to the surging Jorge Masvidal. Prior to these back to back losses, Cerrone went 4-0 at welterweight, trashing Alex Oliveira, Patrick Cote, Rick Story and Matt Brown to establish himself as a legitimate contender in the division.

Justin Golightly - September 6, 2017

Amanda Nunes has more than proved her worth as a champion. Last year, the UFC bantamweight title jumped from Holly Holm, to Miesha Tate, and into the arms of the soft-spoken but gritty Brazilian and it hasn’t left yet. The UFC were even able to match Nunes up with Ronda Rousey to take away any doubt who deserved to hold the belt. She passed her test with flying colors as she took Rousey out in less than a minute, successfully defending her title. Despite these achievements, Nunes goes into her title defense against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 215 feeling like the UFC doesn’t promote her as much as they could. “I know I’m not the beautiful girl and I don’t have the blonde hair and the blue eyes. I am not the kind of face the UFC wants to put out there, but I’m OK with that. I’m going to live my life and be happy. If the UFC decides to promote me that would be awesome, but I trust them. The UFC knows what they are doing. If they think they should promote someone else, fine. Just give me the fights and let me do my job and I will be happy. Whatever the UFC decides is fine with me. I’m just a fighter and that’s just what I want to do more than anything else: Let me fight.”

Justin Golightly - September 6, 2017

Demetrious Johnson is one win away from making UFC history at UFC 215. He’ll be fighting Ray Borg for his potential 11th flyweight title defense, breaking a record previously set by Anderson Silva. In between fighting the best of the best in reality, he’s relaxing and relieving stress by playing video games like it’s his job. That’s not just a turn of phrase, Mighty Mouse has made his passion for gaming into a legit business by streaming from his Twitch account. Johnson vs Borg Embedded episode 2 is up!!! #UFC215 https://t.co/YIaqtQxGNv pic.twitter.com/OasN4t7YTn

Justin Golightly - September 6, 2017

This weekend, Amanda Nunes will attempt to hold on to her UFC bantamweight belt against Valentina Shevchenko. Demetrious Johnson will headline the event against Ray Borg to also defend his flyweight strap and try to make history by beating the title defense record. That alone makes UFC 215 sort of special, but there is another reason why this UFC 215 card won’t be like any other. For the first time ever, FiteTV will partner with BJPenn.com to stream the pay-per-view directly on our site. 

Russell Ess - September 6, 2017

If you haven’t seen the viral video of Xu Xiaodong fighting a self-proclaimed Tai Chi master, the fight ended very quickly. Xiaodong, who is an MMA fighter and MMA coach has been on a mission to expose “fake martial artists.” However, the Chinese government is apparently trying to stop Xiaodong’s efforts.

Russell Ess - September 6, 2017

Daniel Cormier is waiting in a very strange and uncomfortable place after losing to Jon Jones at UFC 214. With losing the UFC light heavyweight title and being knocked out and finished for the first time in his professional MMA career, Cormier could be on a path to getting the loss overturned and getting the belt back with Jones facing another potential anti-doping violation stemming from his drug test administered after the UFC 214 weigh-ins. Cormier has been very respectful of the due process as Jones is still innocent until the established process can determine otherwise.

Jason Kindschy - September 6, 2017

BJPENN Radio is back tonight at 8PM ET/5PM PT with more of what you crave! 8:15PM ET- Kicking off the show tonight we are joined by the No. 3 Ranked UFC Flyweight, Ray “The Tazmexican Devil” Borg. Just days before the biggest fight of his career we’ll preview Ray’s first attempt at UFC gold as he faces the pound-for-pound best athlete in MMA, Demetrious Johnson. While DJ looks to break the record of most title defenses in UFC history, Borg has his own plans to steal the show and become one the youngest champions at just 24 years of age. You’ll hear why the Jackson/Wink-trained Borg believes he is the one to dethrone “Mighty Mouse” and where he expects to have clear advantages.

Russell Ess - September 6, 2017

In Los Angeles during the first stop of the Mayweather vs McGregor world tour press conference hyping up their multi-million dollar boxing match, Conor McGregor’s mic was cut off when it was Floyd Mayweather’s time to address the crowd. McGregor was not happy with the technical issue and targeted Showtime and executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, Stephen Espinoza as enemies in the buildup for the fight. In Toronto for the second stop on the world tour, McGregor let it be known calling out Showtime and Espinoza. McGregor hurled insults at the Showtime Sports executive, pointing him out as a “weasel” and a “bitch.”

Justin Golightly - September 6, 2017

A stacked UFC 217 card is coming just around the corner in November, complete with (at least) two title fights. One of which will be Cody Garbrandt defending his bantamweight title against bitter rival and former champ, TJ Dillashaw. Behind one of the most skilled match-ups the UFC can make, lies the fire of a heated gym triangle surrounding the two fighters and once-shared friend, Urijah Faber. Sometimes featuring cameos by coach Duane Ludwig, the feud reached its boiling point on season 25 of The Ultimate Fighter, coached by Garbrandt and Dillashaw. However, this MMA drama owes its origins to an earlier season. On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Faber revealed that Conor McGregor served as a catalyst in this ongoing Team Alpha Male saga. “The whole thing with Conor [McGregor] happened on the [Ultimate Fighter 22] TV show before this. Before any of this happened, Conor McGregor started calling [Dillashaw] a snake because me and Conor had one conversation. We were sitting there and he goes, ‘Man, congratulations on TJ for defending his belt,‘ because he was still on our team his last title defense. And I go thanks, [McGregor] goes, ‘but what’s up with Duane [Ludwig] saying no one on your team wants to be a champions, that’s weird.‘ I said, oh he’s just bitter because he’s trying to get everyone to go out to his camp, he’s just being a hater, this and that. He took that little bit of drama between me and Duane […] then the next time he saw TJ he goes, ‘oh, there’s the snake in the grass‘, and just built it into this big thing.”

Tom Taylor - September 6, 2017

UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor‘s showdown with undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. was expected to shatter all kinds of combat sports records. While the jury is still out on some of those records, we now know that the card did not, despite early optimism, set the all-time record for live gates. Instead, the August 26 mega-fight generated an official gate of $55,414,865.79. This number registers as the second biggest ever, falling short of Floyd Mayweather’s 2015 battle with Manny Pacquiao, which raked in upward of $70 million.

Justin Golightly - September 6, 2017

Back on Friday, Michael Johnson told fans and media at the UFC Rotterdam Q & A that he was going to move to featherweight. If that news wasn’t unexpected enough, he told everyone that the first fight he wants for his debut at the weight was none other than Jose Aldo. He’s opened up more about the move since then and it turns out it was always his plan. Not only that, but this move and potential fight could possibly come before the end of this year. “I was looking toward December, and November got brought up, so we’ll have to see. We’ll have to see everybody’s schedules and see where they can fit me in. [If I can’t fight Jose Aldo, I want] the next toughest guy in line. I think that’s maybe detrimental to my career, maybe hurts it a little bit that I always go for the toughest fight. But my first fight at 145, Aldo is a former champ, he’s one of the best in the world – always been. So, that’s one guy that I would love to fight. I’m not in this sport to fight the guy that’s OK. I want the toughest guy. I want everybody that says he can’t be beat.”

Justin Golightly - September 6, 2017

Conor McGregor lost the biggest fight so far in his career against Floyd Mayweather, yet he’s still a multi-millionaire living it up right now in Ibiza. We all know how he got there, despite being a 0 – 0 boxer, McGregor climbed to the top of MMA and he can captivate an enormous crowd of people just by talking. At the end of this month, fans in London will get intimate access to the “champ champ” as McGregor takes over the O2 Indigo for a special night. It’s not just McGregor though, Dan Hardy will talk with him live on stage for an entire hour. https://twitter.com/MDGEvents/status/905108852823248896

Tom Taylor - September 6, 2017

Today, bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt and his UFC 217 challenger T.J. Dillashaw stand out as two of the fiercest rivals in MMA. There was a time, however, when they trained together, as teammates, under the roof of Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. Then again, it doesn’t sound like they got along that well in their days as training partners, either. On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Garbrandt went off on his upcoming opponent, accusing him of getting too rough in practice, and even badly concussing Team Alpha Male staple Chris Holdsworth.

Tom Taylor - September 6, 2017

Karolina Kowalkiewicz, one of the strawweight division’s top contenders, is set for a return to action. The former title challenger is set to battle 6-time Invicta Fighting Championship veteran Jodie Esquibel at UFC Fight Night 118, on October 21 in Gdansk, Poland. This bout was first reported by Dizz, and later confirmed by Kowalkiewicz and the UFC.

Tom Taylor - September 6, 2017

The first title defense of new UFC featherweight king Max Holloway could go down at UFC 218, this December 2 in Detroit, Michigan. According to 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!