MMA News

bjpenndotcom - June 22, 2017

Thursday morning in New York City, Bellator MMA held a press conference for their highly anticipated Pay-Per View event this Saturday. While the event went off without any major speed bumps, a brief scuffle broke out at one point as MMA legend Wanderlei Silva shoved Chael Sonnen. Fortunately, Bellator MMA President Scott Coker and security guards in attendance were able to diffuse the situation before things got out of hand, like they did during the infamous Silva-Sonnen Ultimate Fighter brawl. Following the event, Scott Coker gave a statement on the matter, explaining that things could have been much worse, and that neither fighter would be facing repercussions for the situation.

Russell Ess - June 22, 2017

While the masses will be tuning into the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor boxing match, there are some that are totally against the money fight being put together.

Russell Ess - June 22, 2017

If there is one aspect of the fight game that Floyd Mayweather may fall short against Conor McGregor, it’s the trash talk. “The Notorious” is sharp, witty, and well, often times predicts the future. Although Mayweather is no stranger to the hype game or building his buzz through character, McGregor is definitely one of the best in the business.

Russell Ess - June 22, 2017

The long-awaited fight between Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva is set to take place this weekend at Bellator NYC. The two rivals will meet in the main event of the evening on Saturday night, live on pay-per-view.

Tom Taylor - June 22, 2017

Shortly after his dominant decision defeat of Dong Hyun Kim in Singapore, rising welterweight Colby Covington re-upped on his previous callout of Rafael Dos Anjos. The American Top Team staple also made a clever, post-fight callout of Neil Magny. On the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, however, Covington explained that he doesn’t think either man wants to fight him.

Tom Taylor - June 22, 2017

Earlier this year, former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer BJ Penn made his long-awaited return to the Octagon. He did so against red hot featherweight prospect Yair Rodriguez. Though Penn fought valiantly, this fight unfortunately didn’t go his way, as he was finished by a volley of second-round Rodriguez strikes.

Tom Taylor - June 22, 2017

This Sunday, on the main card of the UFC’s anticipated stop in Oklahoma City, our very own BJ Penn will return to the Octagon opposite dangerous German veteran Dennis Siver. In advance of this compelling scrap, Penn joined host Kinch on BJ Penn Radio to discuss Siver as an opponent. “I think he’s a great opponent,” Penn said of his Oklahoma City dance partner. “I think it’s a great matchup for me. Other people might not. I don’t know if Siver was watching my last fight [against Yair Rodriguez] and was like ‘oh we can capitalize here and there,’ but that’s on him. That’s his work he’s got to do. But I think he’s a great fighter. I’ve never really seen him be disrespectful to any opponents or anything like that. He’s just out there doing his thing.”

bjpenndotcom - June 22, 2017

While former UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta may no longer own the UFC, Lorenzo has continued to remain an active part of combat sports, however he has done so behind the scenes. That’s according to Conor McGregor’s manager Audie Attar, who revealed on The MMA Hour that Fertitta was instrumental in helping aid negotiations between Team McGregor and Team Mayweather when discussing a potential boxing match. Now of course, fight fans know that the scrap between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor will go down on August 26th, something they apparently have Fertitta to thank for:

Tom Taylor - June 22, 2017

Earlier this year, we learned that the well-established MMA promotion World Series of Fighting was being rebranded as the Professional Fighters League (PFL). This rebranded organization will seek to revolutionize the MMA landscape by providing fighters with salaries, using tournaments to ensure title shots, and awarding tournament winners with a whopping million dollars. On the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, kickboxing legend and PFL boss Ray Sefo joined host Kinch to discuss this new initiative. “The team and I sat down, and the name was developed, and everybody agreed it was a good name, and it was that time” Sefo said of the rebranding process. “Change is always good. As long as it’s positive, it’s always good. Obviously the format, it makes it a professional fighters league where everybody has an opportunity to step up and fight regularly. Let me back up a little bit. Running a promotion, one of the things that you hear the most is that fighters are not active enough. The Professional Fighter’s League is going to provide that missing link in terms of fighters being active. Obviously for us, in 2018, it’s going to be 12 fighters per division. That’s going to change in 2019, it’s going to be 16 fighters per division moving forward. But the league is going to provide a lot of different things that fighters complain about [not getting]. Not fighting enough, not fighting for a world title, and not making enough money. The professional fighters league is going to provide all that and more. The team and I are very happy with the structure and the way we put it together.”

Tom Taylor - June 22, 2017

Ahead of his Sunday night Oklahoma City showdown with Dennis Siver, our own BJ Penn has been training with a familiar face in Gary Marinovich. Alongside his brother Marv, Marinovich helped Penn author his defeats of Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez – two of the most impressive wins of his career. On the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Penn broke down his choice to train with Marinovich in Hilo, rather than remaining with Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn in Albuquerque.

Tom Taylor - June 22, 2017

Back in February, Germaine de Randamie scored a narrow decision over Holly Holm to become the UFC’s first-ever women’s featherweight champion. The expectation from there was that she would attempt to defend her title against the division’s consensus best fighter, Cris “Cyborg” Justino. Unfortunately, de Randamie went radio silent for some time, and ultimately refused to fight Cyborg outright, calling the Brazilian star a cheater and saying she didn’t belong the UFC.

bjpenndotcom - June 22, 2017

While the majority of the combat sports community was thrilled to hear that a boxing match between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather had been finalized for August 26th, Oscar De La Hoya was not. While De La Hoya wrote a lengthy letter in an attempt to prevent the fight from ever happening, he has now shifted gears and is expressing his frustration with UFC President Dana White for booking the McGregor-Mayweather fight just weeks before Golden Boy Promotions has their middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and GGG at the same arena as McGregor vs. Mayweather.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2017

BJPENN.COM Radio returns at 8PM ET/5PM PT with a stacked guest lineup! 8:15PM ET- We kick things off with featherweight prospect and a big winner from UFC Auckland, Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski. We’ll be recapping his win over Mizuto Hirota and getting the details of the his condition going in. From professional rugby to MMA, we’ll hear about his journey as a martial artist, and his plans for moving forward in the rankings.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2017

While many MMA fans consider heavyweight MMA icon Fedor Emelianenko to be the greatest fighter of all time for his reign of dominance during the Pride FC era of MMA, ‘The Last Emperor’ doesn’t think of himself as ‘the GOAT’. From 2002-2006, Emelianenko terrorized the Pride FC heavyweight division, going on a spectacular 14 fight win streak that saw him claim, and defend, the Pride FC heavyweight championship as he dispatched of numerous top ranked fighters such as Mirko Cro Cop, Mark Coleman, Mark Hunt, and of course, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Russell Ess - June 21, 2017

There is no doubt that the UFC has helped evolve the sport of mixed martial arts.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2017

On September 16th, Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin, also known as ‘Triple G’ will step into the ring for a highly anticipated middleweight title fight against Canelo Alvarez many years in the making. Several weeks before however, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, and undefeated prizefighter Floyd Mayweather will step into the ring at the T-Mobile Arena for a boxing match that is being dubbed the biggest fight of all time. While Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya attempted to prevent the fight from ever taking place, he has now stated that he isn’t too worried about the fight between McGregor and Mayweather drawing attention away from the Alvarez-GGG fight.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2017

https://youtu.be/Fw34krxZYl4 As Conor McGregor stated following his 13 second KO win over Jose Aldo, “precision beats power, and timing beats speed.” Now, ahead of McGregor’s August 26th fight against Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor has once again enlisted the help of movement coach Ido Portal to help him prepare for the puzzle that is Floyd Mayweather.

Tom Taylor - June 21, 2017

On June 24, in the main event of Bellator 180 (which serves as the undercard of the stacked Bellator NYC event), light heavyweight champion Phil Davis will attempt to defend his title against one of the newer members of the Bellator roster, Ryan Bader. The bout will be a rematch of a January 2015 contest, which Bader won by split decision. This initial fight between the two Bellator light heavyweights, which occurred in Stockholm, Sweden, still stands out as one of the most lacklustre fights in recent memory. For that, Davis wants to apologize.