MMA News

Justin Golightly - September 7, 2017

Stipe Miocic has systematically taken out the best of the best: Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem, and Junior dos Santos. That’s a murderer’s row of murderer’s rows. As Miocic enjoys an incredible reign as the UFC heavyweight king, there is one fighter that he hasn’t been tested against. Former heavyweight champ, Cain Velasquez will have been out of competition for a whole year in two days. Hopeful fans had their fingers crossed that Miocic would defend against Velasquez this year, but unfortunately it seems like it won’t happen. “This year? Probably not. [Early next year], we’ll see. […] I’m close. I’m not there yet but I’m close. Focusing on this time as far as the baby we have coming along. I want to be there for that. He’s due in November, so it’s been a good process of healing and being with the family. I want to 100% ready for the fans. I need to stop messing around and coming back too early. You know what I mean? I can’t do that. I can’t afford that anymore. I gotta’ be 100% ready to come back. […] That’s not up to me [to get an immediate title shot]. I’ll ask for whoever. We haven’t talked. But I’m with the family and just recuperating  still.” – Cain Velasquez to Ariel Helwani for UFC 215 media day.

Russell Ess - September 7, 2017

While Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor failed to surpass the 2015 Mayweather and Manny Pacquaio record for the highest gate, they are still sitting pretty at the number two spot. Despite not setting the record for the live gate, the Mayweather and McGregor madness has set a new official pay-per-view (PPV) record. Boxing News reported on Thursday that Sky Sports confirmed that the Mayweather vs. McGregor event set a new PPV record in the U.K. Sky reported that the PPV numbers surpassed 1 million buys. The Mayweather and McGregor event broke the previous record set by Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko, who fought in April at the Wembley Stadium in London in a heavyweight boxing championship match.

Justin Golightly - September 7, 2017

Talking about Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson fighting almost brings up some post-traumatic canceled disorder symptoms. It seems like we’ve talked about the fight longer than the build-up to Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. Their rivalry reached its peak for UFC 209 with an interim UFC lightweight title on the line. There was so much hype around the fight and it was billed as the best lightweight fight the UFC could have put on at the time. As we all know, Khabib had medical issues and had to pull-out of that fight. They were in talks to meet once again in the Octagon this year, but nothing ever materialized. Tony Ferguson recently expressed his frustrations on the latest episode of Submission Radio. “It is what it is and it’s not funny anymore, it really isn’t. [Khabib Nurmagomedov] got a lot fans that are really disappointed in you and you’re… f-ck dude, you’re disappointing yourself. You’re letting me fight a number seven [ranked fighter]. You gotta’ be sitting on the sidelines hating your ass. You gotta’ be thinking, like, ‘sh-t, why the hell did I not sign on that dotted line? Why am I letting Ferguson fight Kevin Lee? Holy sh-t, Tony’s gonna’ get a belt and I’m not gonna get sh-t. I’m gonna be stuck here with that fake belt that I got when I f-ckin’ went to Russia and everyone gave one to me.’ That’s what he’s gonna’ be saying, enjoying his team tiramisu like at the end of dodge ball when you have Ben Stiller eating that f-cking ice cream f-ckin’ Chuck Norris.”

Russell Ess - September 7, 2017

The Fight Nights Global 73 main event in Russia between Diego Brandao and Akhmed Aliev had one of the strangest endings in mixed martial arts. Brandao lost by TKO after jumping out of the cage in the second round after both opponents threw illegal strikes. Brandao spoke with MMA Fighting about the controversial contest with Aliev and explained what happened in the fight.

Justin Golightly - September 7, 2017

Tony Ferguson has never been the kind of guy that holds anything back. He’ll walk into anywhere, shades permanently on his face, and speak his mind to anyone. If you’re not careful, he may start to demonstrate some new hybrid breakdance combat move that he invented right in front of you. He was in rare form though, speaking to the guys at Submission Radio while driving en route to a secluded training camp. Tony Ferguson was asked about Conor McGregor’s return and Nate Diaz, then fire emoji came out of Ferguson’s mouth one after another. “[Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor] are a bunch of b-tches. They want to go and they want to talk – look, we can f-cking put this sh-t out on video and we can make this a money fight. If you guys really wanna get gangster, let’s do that sh-t. If you want to f-cking put on money, let’s put it on paper. Nate, I will f-ckin’ Stockton slap the sh-t out of you, kid. You don’t f-cking know me, dude. Straight up. Same thing with Conor McGregor. You guys are a bunch of b-tches, and you guys are a bunch of fakes. If you wanna’ fight while we’re here in the UFC, why don’t you come and sign on the dotted line after you get your sh-t together and defend your f-cking belt, Conor?”

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

On this week’s episode of the MMA Hour, surging French heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou asserted that, because no other heavyweight contenders are available for a fight, he deserves a crack at reigning heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic. “After [Junior Dos Santos] was pulled from [our UFC 215 fight] all the top-10, almost all of the top-15 was booked,” Ngannou told host Ariel Helwani. “The only one available was [Alistair] Overeem. He said he’s injured […] and he took a little time for family.”

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

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.

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

This weekend, in the main event of UFC 215, dominant flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson will attempt to make history with an eleventh-consecutive title defense. The man standing in his way will be the 24-year-old Ray Borg. For all Borg’s talent, he’s being counted out the majority of the MMA community, as Johnson is simply viewed as too dominant a force to stop. Borg himself, however, is pure confidence, and that’s in large part due to what he’s calling a “perfect” training camp for the champ.

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

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

Although Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather did not break the all-time combat sports live gate record, the two superstars still have a good chance of breaking the pay-per-view record. Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza explained on this week’s episode of The MMA Hour where the numbers are currently at for the highly promoted fight and why the calculations for the pay-per-view numbers take so long to process.

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.

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

It’s now been several months since UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s last fight: a lopsided, five-round beatdown of the highly regarded Jessica Andrade back at UFC 211 in May. Since then, the MMA community has been growing increasingly restless waiting for the announcement of the dominant strawweight champ’s next fight. Luckily, that announcement seems to be very near.