MMA News

Justin Golightly - August 30, 2017

It’s finally over. Conor McGregor did his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. Sure, he lost but everyone involved in that mega fight all came out as winners. McGregor walked away with just a black eye and $30 million just for his fight purse. He still stands to earn much more from sponsors and PPV numbers. While he won’t be able to take that extreme of a pay day back to the UFC with him, he could be able to use his new skills to improve his MMA game. That’s what Kenny Florian thinks at least. Florian spoke about what he expects from McGregor for his UFC return and who he thinks that Conor will fight. “I think Conor [McGregor] is going to learn so much from this. He’s going to come back to mixed martial arts I think even sharper, even stronger mentally, stronger physically. He’s going to be an absolute beast because there’s so many lessons that you can take away from fighting a composed and clean fighter like Mayweather.”

Justin Golightly - August 30, 2017

> Derrick Lewis isn’t called The Black Beast for nothing. Ever since UFC 192, he tore through the heavyweight division and even beat the likes of Roy Nelson and Travis Browne, before eventually losing to Mark Hunt. His next fight will be a high-profile bout against Fabricio Werdum, but it’s not the fight that everyone is talking about. Instead, the Lewis news that’s going around everywhere is his valiant efforts to help with the severe flooding in Texas. “First of all, me and my wife was watching the news and we heard that the officers are not going to be going out. The only way that they’re going to be going out is life or death situations. I seen that and I really didn’t like that so I went out and tried to help as many people as I can.”

Russell Ess - August 30, 2017

Former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo has been busy working on his boxing training in California with world champion boxing trainer Robert Garcia. Garcia is a former world champion boxer himself and is the older brother of WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia. We’ve seen Aldo sparring at Garcia’s gym with Mexican Olympian boxer Lindolfo Delgado and impress Robert and other gym members. Now, ES News recently published footage of Jose Aldo and Mikey Garcia sparring with things looking very competitive between the two combat sports stars.

Russell Ess - August 30, 2017

Floyd Mayweather has made his fight walkouts something to talk about. From his days of having Justin Bieber, Lil Wayne, and even the Burger King mascot walk out with him to the ring, Mayweather has made it a point to make his entrance to the ring a spectacle. For what has been talked about as the richest fight in the history of combat sports, Mayweather gave the viewers something to talk about as he walked out dressed in black attire with a black ski mask on.

Justin Golightly - August 30, 2017

Sometimes the MMA gods smile upon us, other times they curse us. Jon Jones allegedly popped for performance enhancing drugs and is now entitled to his due process. If the worst of the worst happens, a domino effect of consequences crashes down upon himself, the UFC, and the light heavyweight division. Jon Jones could be suspended for as long as four years. This leaves Daniel Cormier in a bad position and he may run out of time before he gets to fight Jones one last time in the Octagon. That being said, Cormier may have thought up a clever way to still fight him. Episode 5: we discuss Jones test results, Money vs Mac, movies and Dennis large pizza fetish. Listen on iTunes or https://t.co/I7SOOWnvrq pic.twitter.com/JMr89mB3sO

Tom Taylor - August 30, 2017

While Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor‘s battle raged in the the desert town of Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night, former UFC women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey and her beau, UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, tied the knot in Hawaii. From the looks of it, it was a gorgeous wedding. Unsurprisingly, this wedding was a pretty exclusive affair. That said, a well-known trio of Rousey training partners in Jessamyn Duke, Shayna Baszler and Marina Shafir were obviously on site for the festivities. At some point in the night, Rousey and the three women, who together compose a quartet nicknamed The Four Horsewomen, posed for an awesome photo. See it below:

Justin Golightly - August 30, 2017

When Conor McGregor sashayed noodle-armed into the first presser with Floyd Mayweather in a suit that was pinstriped with expletives, McGregor knew a lot of people would want their own. That’s why he partnered with creator David August to make it available. Granted not everyone could own it, between the $6.5K price tag and the limited availability, a lot of would-be fashion statements never got to walk the streets. That’s why Conor McGregor and August have teamed up to release their own clothing line that’s slightly more affordable. August x McGregor and Beats by Dre! A match made in style heaven! @AugustMcGregor @beatsbydre pic.twitter.com/xMwYVB4ONi

Russell Ess - August 30, 2017

Many believed that Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor would be the richest fight in the history of combat sports by breaking the 2015 records that Mayweather and Manny Pacquaio set in 2015. Although not a sellout for the attendance at the event, Floyd Mayweather said during the post-fight press conference that they did break the record for the gate and also the pay-per-view record he and Pacquiao set in their fight. “We did break the record tonight for the biggest gate,” Mayweather stated at the post-fight press conference via MMA Weekly. “Me and Pacquiao done $72 million. I think we done somewhere over $80 million in the live gate (with McGregor).”

Justin Golightly - August 30, 2017

Conor McGregor creates his own path. The biggest dig against McGregor is that he’s never defended a title, but it’s simply because he’s not forced to. Back in the day when Georges St-Pierre was knocking off contender after contender, the UFC and MMA as a whole was different. St-Pierre may have had the opportunity to change the game by fighting Anderson Silva, but it never happened. As soon as McGregor got one title against the #1 pound-for-pound in Jose Aldo, he never looked back and used it for leverage to only compete in the biggest fights possible. Unlike GSP in his prime, McGregor is just a fighter with different goals that may not align with your ideal version of a champion. However, there is good news to the purists who want him to defend a title, but it may not happen the way you think.

Tom Taylor - August 30, 2017

Former boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi is no fan of UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor. After joining the Irishman’s camp to help him prepare for Floyd Mayweather Jr., he abruptly stormed out, feeling that he’d been unfairly represented by the champ and his team. Since then, Malignaggi has repeatedly berated McGregor in interviews and on social media. He’s also clashed with a significant portion of the MMA community, battling fans, media members, and even other fighters on Twitter. The opposition in his latest skirmish? UFC featherweight king Max Holloway. The exchange began when Malignaggi debated the prevalence of body shots in MMA with reporter Damon Martin.

Justin Golightly - August 30, 2017

Tony Ferguson is seemingly in the best of spots and the worst of spots. He’s on a nine-fight win streak, he’s ranked #2 in the division, and he’s about to fight Kevin Lee (#7) for an interim UFC lightweight title. With Conor McGregor supposedly making his UFC return as early as the end of this year, it’s a no-brainer that Ferguson wants a fight that would simultaneously earn him a lot of money, and delete the “interim” that would preface his name. Tony Ferguson had a plan to fight Nate Diaz in order to leave no doubt he was next up for McGregor, but he told Jim Edwards at MMA Uno that it fell through. “We tried to make it happen, I wanted to make [a fight with Nate Diaz to] happen because it was going to set something up with Conor [McGregor]. Maybe want him to comeback, and defend or vacate, or something around those ends. I’m not going to make someone fight who doesn’t want to fight, like Khabib. I got Khabib and I got Nate Diaz, two guys who are really willing and waiting to fight and they just don’t want to be part of it. That tells me they know I’m the biggest threat in this division man. I might be the hammer head, I might be the Great White, or the Mecha.”

Tom Taylor - August 30, 2017

For a brief period, retired boxer Paulie Malignaggi served a sparring partner for Conor McGregor in an effort to help the Irishman prepare for his Saturday scrap with Floyd Mayweather. Unfortunately, McGregor and Malignaggi’s work together spawned one of the most high-profile beefs in combat sports, as Malignaggi didn’t like how he was portrayed by the UFC champ, and made multiple attacks on his character thereafter. This beef reached new heights in the days leading up to the big Mayweather vs. McGregor fight, when a video surfaced of Mayweather and Malignaggi suggesting Malignaggi had been a spy for Mayweather.

Tom Taylor - August 30, 2017

Former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is one of the biggest Conor McGregor critics out there. Given this, his reaction to McGregor’s 10th-round TKO loss to boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. wasn’t particularly surprising: 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Tom Taylor - August 30, 2017

Earlier this month, the combat sports world was rocked by the news that Jon Jones had failed a drug test administered on the eve of his UFC 214 battle with Daniel Cormier. As the latest in an unfortunately long string of drug-related incidents, this failure called into question Jones’ status as the UFC’s new light heavyweight champion, and his legacy one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport. On a recent edition of The Joe Rogan Experience, long-time UFC commentator Joe Rogan weighed in on what this test means for Jones’ legacy. He wasn’t exactly gentle.

Justin Golightly - August 29, 2017

It was to be the biggest fight of the century. MMA’s double-belt poster boy strutting into the Octagon against Floyd Mayweather, the king of boxing. It was a fight that you could throw in “record-breaking” before anything you said about it and you could be right. There was one big problem though, a ton of people were not able to see it. Those that heeded the usual warning to buy early may have been on the right track. Floods of messages, tweets, and e-mails came crashing into UFC, Showtime, and the spectator’s cable providers about not being able to order or having their feed crash. Today, the UFC is trying to make it up to customers by offering full refunds. There you go. That's the right thing to do. I won't even get hung up on the use of the word "immediately" in this context. https://t.co/NPOhlJLtar

Chris Taylor - August 29, 2017

In preparation for his future December 9 suicide mission, Kader visited the grounds of T-Mobile Arena during last weekend’s Mayweather vs. McGregor event to have a “street fight”. Kader released the video footage of the “street fight” online.. The “street fight” appears to be completely staged and should put an end to anyone believing that Matthew Kline Kader has any intention of ever scrapping with a real UFC fighter. Back in June, the MMA community watched in bewilderment as bodybuilder Matthew Kline Kader and UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt engaged in a heated Twitter beef, and ultimately agreed to fight inside Team Alpha Male, Garbrandt’s home base in Sacramento, California.

Justin Golightly - August 29, 2017

With Jon Jones’ future up in the air and a wide talent gulf separating the top two of UFC’s light heavyweight division, there’s a need for fresh contenders. Other than the insanely quick rise of Volkan Oezdemir (#3) in just three fights, there’s simply Daniel Cormier, Alexander Gustafsson, and everyone else since Anthony Johnson left. Hopefully, that’s all about to change. Kickboxing veteran and K-1 champion Gokhan Saki will make his debut in the 205lb division at the end of September. #NorthKorea chill down Bro, dont mess up my #ufc debut in #japan If you want to see bombs dropped just watch my fight 23 September @ufc ✌️

Russell Ess - August 29, 2017

Coming off the biggest payday of his career, Conor McGregor is expected to head back to the UFC and likely defend his UFC lightweight title. With his guaranteed $30 million fight purse for the historic boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, “The Notorious” will earn a lot more in his cut of the pay-per-view buys and endorsements for the fight. With such a big shift in pay in his professional boxing debut, what will Conor’s fight purses look like going back to the UFC?