MMA News

Russell Ess - August 17, 2017

Former two-weight boxing world champion Paulie Malignaggi has been a common name seen in the media headlines recently. The reasons being Malignaggi’s boxing career tethered to his controversial experience in Conor McGregor’s training camp for his mega-million dollar fight against Floyd Mayweather. Malignaggi is no longer helping with McGregor’s training camp as he removed himself after they had a fallout when less than flattering photos of Malignaggi were released from their sparring session. However, Malignaggi’s insight of what he experienced during the training camp is something the media and fans can’t get enough of.

Russell Ess - August 17, 2017

It comes as no surprise to former IBO and IBF welterweight boxing champion Chris van Heerden that Paulie Malignaggi and Conor McGregor’s relationship ended on a sour note. Van Heerden also helped McGregor out with some sparring for his rematch with Nate Diaz and was at the punching end of an edited video clip that made its way to the Internet. Van Heerden told MMAJunkie Radio that he spoke with Malignaggi before joining the training camp and Malignaggi went in with good intentions.

Russell Ess - August 17, 2017

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko are scheduled to fight once again at UFC 215. Nunes and Shevchenko first met in the Octagon in March of last year at UFC 196 where Nunes won a unanimous decision after Shevchenko turned things up in the third round. The two were set to fight in the main event of UFC 213 in July, however, Nunes pulled out of the bout the day of the scheduled fight after feeling ill.

Justin Golightly - August 17, 2017

Isn’t it annoying  when you’re the biggest Conor McGregor fan on the planet and you get a text from someone that you don’t even know? Now, you can send that guy an audio clip of your favorite fighter asking, ‘who the fook’ he is. Maybe you’re a kid and your mom is hassling you to do your chores, just say no, whip out your iPhone and have McGregor tell her that she’ll do “nootin.” Hell, ask your boss for a raise and if he refuses, let the Champ Champ scream that without you, this whole f-ckin’ ship sinks! There are many, many more uses for this glorified Yak Bak that McGregor has just came out with called MacTalk. They call it smack talk, I call it MacTalk! Download the official @MacTalkApp today! Available NOW!https://t.co/5alzUewac2. pic.twitter.com/6fuuEumoED

Russell Ess - August 17, 2017

Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum is reportedly making an October return to the Octagon at UFC 216. MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani tweeted on Thursday that the UFC was targeting Werdum, the current #2 UFC ranked heavyweight, to take on #7 ranked heavyweight Derrick Lewis on October 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Justin Golightly - August 17, 2017

UFC on Fox analyst and color commentator Kenny Florian has been around the block a few times. He may have never won a title, but he spent six years fighting the best the UFC had to offer, including our own BJ Penn. Before that, he was grappling dangerous dudes all over the mats at the highest levels. In other words, the guy knows fighting. You’ve heard him talk in bits and pieces before about Conor McGregor and his upcoming boxing bout iwth Floyd Mayweather on UFC Tonight, but he recently got a chance to say a lot more to the guys at Submission Radio. “I give Conor about a 10 percent chance. I would love for him to knock out Floyd Mayweather. I think that it would be yet another milestone for our sport, I think it puts us on the map that much more, I think it gives us that much more respect, but it is an extremely, extremely tall task for Conor McGregor who has never competed in pro boxing to go against one of the best boxers of all time and beat him. Can he knock him out? Yes, absolutely, it is combat, anything can happen. But I still think Floyd is going to win that fight.[…] You know, there have been some amazing upsets in sports history, this could be another one of them. But when I look at the stats, when I look at the approaches, when I look at the way that Mayweather fights compared with the way Conor fights, yeah, Floyd should win every single time.”

Tom Taylor - August 17, 2017

In the buildup to his August 26 boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr., many pundits have argued that Conor McGregor’s only chance at a victory is a puncher’s chance. In the opinion of Richard Perez, who serves as the boxing coach for McGregor’s arch-rival Nate Diaz, McGregor doesn’t even have that. Richard Perez also believes McGregor’s cardio issues – which plagued him in his fights with Diaz – will be a problem against Mayweather, and that the Irishman might resort to shady tactics to combat this problem. “No, he doesn’t have a punchers chance – and he gasses out,” Perez said on Wednesday’s edition of BJ Penn Radio. “I don’t care how hard he trains. They’ve got to watch out for him, because he’s probably going to take the substance that he did when he [fought] with Nathan, that woke him up. I know they’re taking tests, but they’ve got to be careful with that because he will do it. There’s no way he’s going to do this without taking any substances, and be strong in boxing, because boxing is a lot of stamina.”

Justin Golightly - August 17, 2017

After suffering three straight losses to the top of the division’s heap, Chris Weidman finally secured a win over Kelvin Gastelum. The luck of the All-American may be looking up, but the outlook of the UFC’s middlweight division he calls home is still murky. Georges St-Pierre swooped down like some MMA super hero and cut everybody in line to fight Michael Bisping. With an already arduous path back to title contention, Weidman is getting together a contingency plan and thinks he found a short cut to another UFC belt by moving up. That’s right, Weidman could move up to light heavyweight. “Yeah, definitely there has to be a clear picture. Like I said, my goal is to be the champ and there’s no way of me getting to have the belt for two years or more just based on other people taking their time with taking fights. It’s a weird place to be, it’s not interesting. I mean, if 185 doesn’t like, things don’t change, I want to maybe think about possibly going to 205. So we’ll see.”

Tom Taylor - August 17, 2017

Pretty much very everybody has a prediction for the upcoming boxing mega fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor. That includes pop sensation Justin Bieber. Bieber made his prediction during a recent chat with TMZ, explaining that while he is “team Mayweather”, he doesn’t expect the undefeated pugilist to win by knockout.

Justin Golightly - August 17, 2017

The UFC did everything they could to stop Max Holloway. People have fought less talent and received a title shot, but Holloway was never that lucky. Whether it was just the draw of the cards, or the UFC stalling to see how the featherweight division lives without Conor McGregor, they put opponent after opponent in front of the young Hawaiian until he took them all out. After a long journey to the very top of the challenge tower, it’s finally the Blessed Era. He has more victories on his record than former champ Jose Aldo has fights in the UFC. Now, since Conor McGregor opened his mouth on yesterday’s May/Mac conference call, Holloway would like to set one of his losses right. I guess with #WinOrLearn a “loss” is the new “dismantle” #2015champ @TheNotoriousMMA pic.twitter.com/TxxQm2FWKa

Tom Taylor - August 17, 2017

Last night, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor appeared on the Conan O’Brien show to discuss his August 26 boxing match with the undefeated Floyd Mayweather. As always, McGregor was pure confidence and bravado. “I said [I’d win inside] four [rounds], but that’s me being humble,” the champ told Conan O’Brien (h/t MMAFighting.com). “I don’t believe he will even exit the first round, but I’m trying to be humble on national TV. So I say four — inside four.”

Tom Taylor - August 17, 2017

Mid-way through 2016, the UFC was sold to WME-IMG for upward of $4 billion. Needless to say, those that had a stake in the company at the time pocketed a pretty penny. One of the most significant owners at the time of the sale was Frank Fertitta, brother of Lorenzo Fertitta. Together, the brothers owned 81% of the mixed martial arts promotion. It is estimated that, with the sale of the UFC, Frank Fertitta pocketed about $800 million, which in turn elevated his net worth to something in the area of $2 billion. In other words, he’s loaded. According to New York Post columnist Jennifer Gould Keil, the absurdly wealthy Fertitta recently made a pretty extravagant purchase, buying a Manhattan penthouse with a price tag of $70 million.

Tom Taylor - August 17, 2017

It’s official. UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt will attempt the very first defense of his bantamweight title at UFC 217, this November 4 in New York City, New York. His opponent will be his arch rival, former champion TJ DIllashaw. Though this bout has long been expected to occur at this November card, which goes down inside Madison Square Garden, it was only just set in stone by the UFC. The promotion announced the fight on UFC Tonight, then on social media. It’s finally coming down!!! @Cody_NoLove vs @TJDillashaw at #UFC217 🎟🎟 Sept. 15

Chris Taylor - August 16, 2017

Former UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva will throw down with perennial division contender Kelvin Gastelum on November 25 in Shanghai, China. Kelvin Gastelum just took to Instagram where he announced the fight as official.

Chris Taylor - August 16, 2017

Former UFC lightweight title challenger Diego Sanchez will return to welterweight on November 11 when he meets “The Immortal” Matt Brown at UFC Fight Night 120 in Norfolk, Virginia. UFC officials just announced the scrap.

Justin Golightly - August 16, 2017

  Conor McGregor pre-fight conference calls have always been a must-listen, so of course you can’t miss the audio from today’s May/Mac call. In less than two weeks, McGregor will step into the ring and box Floyd Mayweather. However, it’s that other boxer that keeps creeping into the conversation. After ‘knocking down’ Paul Malignaggi in sparring and Dana White leaking the footage out of spite, he’s so pissed off he actually wants to box McGregor for real. Would McGregor be down for that? Ariel Helwani asked the (potentially multi) million dollar question to McGregor on the media call, of course his answer wasn’t surprising.

Jason Kindschy - August 16, 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 9th ranked light-heavyweight, Misha Cirkunov. Following the announcement that Misha will be facing off against Glover Texeira at UFC Fight Night 119 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, we’ll be previewing the matchup with Misha and getting his thoughts on Glover as an opponent. As both men focus on getting back in the win column and back to potential contender status, we’ll hear from Misha on the importance of this fight and what a big win could do for his career.

Justin Golightly - August 16, 2017

Last week, Dan Hardy got brought into the Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather fray and he quickly proved his worth breaking down the glove issue. The former UFC welterweight title challenger is back this week, analyzing the vast difference between the type of stance each fighter is going to come out with. We all know how uncanny Mayweather is, but is McGregor’s wide, Karate stance something that could actually frustrate Floyd? It seems silly, but Hardy doubles down that it can. For all the talk of reach/unorthodox, @danhardymma is alone is pointing this out 👇🏻 Full column here https://t.co/LqTEWmlRqd pic.twitter.com/3y5tdGJ620