MMA News

Justin Golightly - August 11, 2017

The UFC is about to get a lot more Karate Kid again. Former UFC welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson is ready to make his octagon return. Thompson was put on the sidelines following his majority decision loss to Tyron Woodley at March’s UFC 209 due to a knee injury which required surgery. Despite Jorge Masvidal saying Thompson’s injury was fake, “Wonderboy” spoke to BJPENN.com’s Chris Taylor yesterday evening where he revealed that he has been cleared by doctors and is now eyeing a November return to action at super stacked UFC 217. “Yea, so I got cleared. You know the doctors said I was good on Wednesday. So now I am getting back into the swing of things. I am training again, so I think I should be ready to go in November. That is the plan. I know that me and (Jorge) Masvidal verbally said that we would fight. I haven’t heard nothing from the UFC yet. So hopefully they will jump on board and want to make that fight happen. You know I’ve been out for 5 or 6 months now. It seems like I’ve been out forever man. I am just itching to get back out there and do it again. So hopefully the UFC will jump on board and want to get us on the [UFC 217] card. That is the plan anyway.”

Justin Golightly - August 11, 2017

As much as Conor McGregor’s boxing camp in preparation for Floyd Mayweather has been about war and sharpening his skills, it’s also been a straight up gossip factory. He has his tight knit crew with him behind those closed doors, only the pictures he wants out, gets out. Of course, each one is going to make McGregor look better than the last. The controversy of short-lived sparring partner Paul Malignaggi and that infamous “knockdown photo” has made the rounds and back again. Tiernan Bradley, Irish boxing prospect and one who has stuck around for camp, claims Malignaggi is not speaking the truth in his weekly May/Mac column for The Irish News. https://t.co/BYLsV40K6Y

Chris Taylor - August 10, 2017

We are now just over two weeks away from what could be the biggest fight in combat sports history. On August 26, live from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, current UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor will make his boxing debut against undefeated legend Floyd “Money” Mayweather.

Justin Golightly - August 10, 2017

Conor McGregor isn’t technically in the UFC anymore, but everyone still wants to fight him. Who can blame them? The red panty night is very real. Any guy who can talk his way into fighting Floyd Mayweather for his professional boxing debut, is a guy who knows how to make money. Only Nate Diaz was able to beat McGregor in the UFC, but Max Holloway lasted longer than anyone else. Since then, Holloway has dethroned Jose Aldo and is the “undisputed” UFC featherweight champion. Of course, he’d love a chance remove those quotation marks with a rematch. Maybe his recent tweet is a wink at that. I’ll be your sparring partner. pic.twitter.com/UhHhTBCrjC

Justin Golightly - August 10, 2017

If UFC 217 wasn’t already stacked enough, it looks like another high profile fight is in the works. Jorge Masivdal has tried to fight everyone from Tyron Woodley to Ben Askren after losing to Demian Maia. One of those guys has been Stephen Thompson. Gamebred has been tweeting Wonderboy since June to goad him into the Octagon — even saying his knee injury is fake — and finally it looks like it has paid off. Thompson went on Severe MMA’s “Talking Brawls” podcast to tell Masvidal that he should start getting ready. Let’s not play no games I’m fighting @WonderboyMMA for a title shot after gsp. If his ass don’t want to fight, I’m next. #hoslapseason

Russell Ess - August 10, 2017

The Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor mega-money fight is nearly two weeks away. As the media has been covering the highly anticipated fight, Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe picked their favorite to win the bout long before the fight was made official and continued their argument on a recent episode of their “Undisputed” show.

Russell Ess - August 10, 2017

Joe Rogan was upset with himself after he interviewed Daniel Cormier in the Octagon following his KO loss to Jon Jones in the main event of UFC 214. Rogan previously stated that he no longer wanted to interview fighters that just suffered a nasty KO because they were not in the right mental state to do so. However, Rogan went against his own policy in all the madness following the devastating outcome and interviewed Cormier in the Octagon, who couldn’t help but let his emotions pour out.

Russell Ess - August 10, 2017

The MMA community has been patiently waiting for the return of the former middleweight king Anderson Silva. On Thursday, Damon Martin reporting for FloCombat stated that their sources confirmed that the former UFC middleweight champion is being targeted to fight Kelvin Gastelum at the UFC Shanghai card, which will be the first UFC event taking place in mainland China. The UFC Shanghai event is scheduled to take place on November 25.

Tom Taylor - August 10, 2017

Earlier this week, rising UFC welterweight Colby Covington made a clever callout of recent welterweight title challenger Demian Maia. On Wednesday’s edition of BJ Penn Radio, Covington gave an update on this fight, telling host Kinch that he hopes it happens at UFC 217, inside Madison Square Garden, on November 4. “I’m looking for November 4 in Madison Square Garden against Demian Maia,” he said. 

Tom Taylor - August 10, 2017

Over the last few months, Colby Covington and his friend and training partner Jorge Masvidal have made repeated callouts of fellow welterweight contenders Rafael Dos Anjos and Neil Magny. Unfortunately, Magny and Dos Anjos didn’t oblige those callouts. So, you can imagine Covington and Masvidal’s frustration when a Magny and Dos Anjos were booked to fight each other at UFC 216. On the latest edition of BJ Penn Radio, Covington went off on Magny and Dos Anjos in a scathing rant. Check out what he had to say below:

Tom Taylor - August 10, 2017

Good lord. Check out the hand speed of UFC heavyweight @francis_ngannou. https://t.co/XSpeVToFzw pic.twitter.com/RAtFR8DMlp — Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) August 10, 2017

Justin Golightly - August 10, 2017

From February to July, the UFC women’s featherweight division was an absolute mess, even for standard MMA messes. Luckily, like a savior from Brazil, Cris Cyborg finally set things right after winning Germaine de Randamie’s stripped title. De Randamie outright avoided a fight with Cyborg to defend her title, which resulted in getting buried constantly during the UFC 214 broadcast. If it wasn’t for Invicta’s Tonya Evinger, who knows how long it would have taken to get an opponent for the most devastating and dominant women’s fighter on the planet. However, Mike Winkeljohn thinks that Cyborg’s last fight exposed some holes in her game that Holm can exploit and earn some title fight vindication.

Justin Golightly - August 10, 2017

As much as MMA is always about bitter rivalries, with or without wolf tickets, it’s also about bromance. Think about all the iconic images this sport has given to us that celebrate the love between fighters: BJ Penn clutching onto Matt Hughes while riding on a motorcycle, Nick and Nate Diaz scowling in unison, Wanderlei Silva overjoyed in the arms of Shogun Rua, it goes on and on. Chris Weidman and Aljamain Sterling just added to this rich history while spitting some bars.

Tom Taylor - August 10, 2017

Late last month, in the main event of the stacked UFC 214, Jon Jones reclaimed the UFC light heavyweight title with a third-round knockout of his arch rival Daniel Cormier. It was a feel-good moment for the MMA great. It was, of course, one that could have occurred much sooner, as he and Cormier were scheduled to rematch twice previously to no avail. As it turns out, their long-awaited rematch very nearly failed to occur at UFC 214 too. Speaking to FloCombat.com, Jones’s striking coach Mike Winkeljohn explained that the fighter sustained an injury just days out from his fight with Cormier.

Tom Taylor - August 10, 2017

Shortly after his UFC 214 defeat of Daniel Cormier, which earned him the UFC light heavyweight title, Jon Jones began doubling down on his calls for a fight with former UFC heavyweight champ and long-time WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. “Man, it would be like a modern day David and Goliath situation,” Jones recently told Sway in the Morning of a potential battle with Lesnar. “This guy is a freak athlete. NCAA national wrestling champion. I mean he’s built like – he’s such a special athlete. I think a lot of people would assume that I would lose that fight and when you get an argument like that where people really don’t know who is going to win, that’s when the money is created. That’s when you get the main stream, general public wanting to tune into this freak show, right? The little guy versus this monster.”

Tom Taylor - August 10, 2017

When it was first agreed upon, Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor‘s blockbuster boxing match was supposed to be contested in 10 oz. gloves. From the sounds of it, however, that could change. After receiving criticism for demanding the use of 10 oz. gloves, which could well dampen the power of McGregor’s punches, Mayweather attempted to silence his critics by challenging McGregor to box in 8 oz gloves. McGregor then responded that he was all for it, and now, the wheels seem to be in motion.

Tom Taylor - August 10, 2017

Paulie Malignaggi can’t seem to keep Conor McGregor‘s name out of his mouth. After leaving the Irishman’s training camp with a bad taste in his mouth, the retired two-division boxing champ has had plenty to say about him. On Wednesday, the trend continued, as Malignaggi went off on a McGregor tirade on Twitter, answering many fan questions and even expressing some interest in boxing the Irish star in the future. Was never the intention. I’m retired, let’s get excited about #MayweatherMcGregor for now though as it’s around the corner. https://t.co/tH3hb3mlEl

Chris Taylor - August 9, 2017

The feud between UFC light heavyweight fighters Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier resulted in arguably the biggest rivalry in the history of mixed martial arts. That rivalry came to a head in the main event of last month’s UFC 214 event in Anaheim, where Jones defeated his bitter rival (Cormier) via third-round knockout, thus reclaiming the UFC light heavyweight title which he had never really lost.