MMA News

Tom Taylor - June 7, 2017

Last Saturday, Hawaii’s Max Holloway ventured into Rio de Janeiro’s Jeunesse Arena for a showdown with undisputed featherweight champ and Brazilian hero Jose Aldo. Though he experienced a patch of adversity early on, Holloway surged back in the third round, ultimatately stopping his legendary foe with a storm of punches. Holloway now sits proudly on the UFC featherweight throne. Though he will certainly have his work cut out for him with contenders like Frankie Edgar and Cub Swanson on the horizon, his looks like it could become a fairly dominant reign.

bjpenndotcom - June 7, 2017

Throughout the course of 2017, talks of a potential boxing match between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather have continued to progress. Recently, UFC President Dana White finalized McGregor’s half of a contract for a potential boxing match with Mayweather. Despite that, Mayweather has yet to sign his end of the contract, leading Conor McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov to question whether or not Mayweather truly wants to fight.

Tom Taylor - June 7, 2017

On June 24, Bellator MMA will host just the second pay-per-view of its already illustrious history. This pay-per-view, which will broadcast live from Madison Square Garden in New York City, is aptly named “Bellator NYC.” Bellator NYC will be headlined by a light heavyweight grudge match between three-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen and Pride legend Wanderlei Silva. The co-headliner, meanwhile, will pit heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko against UFC veteran Matt Mitrione in a bout that was originally scheduled for January of this year. It will also feature two title fights: one at lightweight, where champ Michael Chandler will take on Brent Primus, and another at welterweight, where champ Douglas Lima will battle Lorenz Larkin.

bjpenndotcom - June 7, 2017

This past weekend, in the co-main event of UFC 212, former UFC strawweight title challengers Claudia Gadelha and Karolina Kowalkiewicz stepped into the Octagon for a pivotal scrap that saw Gadelha pick up an early 1st round submission win. The win was a particularly impressive one for Gadelha, who is now on a 2-fight win streak following her TUF Finale loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk in a failed bid for the women’s strawweight title nearly a year ago.

bjpenndotcom - June 7, 2017

This past weekend, in the main event of UFC 212, interim UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway stepped into the Octagon with Jose Aldo, where he claimed the undisputed featherweight title. Immediately following the fight, many began to speculate as to who Holloway would defend his title against first, with the general consensus being that former UFC lightweight champion turned featherweight Frankie Edgar was the #1 contender. Holloway spoke at the post-fight press conference, and welcomed a fight with Edgar.

Tom Taylor - June 7, 2017

These days, there is a lot of talk about boxing matches between boxers and mixed martial artists. Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor are attempting to fight in a contest that would go down as the biggest in combat sports history. UFC light heavyweight Jimi Manuwa is flirting with the idea of a boxing match with David Haye. Roy Jones Jr. and Anderson Silva still occasionally talk about a boxing match. And then, of course, there is UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic’s interest in a boxing match with recently crowned heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua. Speaking on a recent episode of The Fight Society Podcast, Miocic weighed in on this possible boxing match.

Tom Taylor - June 7, 2017

On August 19, on a to-be-announced card that is expected to occur in Seattle, Washington, former Bellator middleweight king and one-time welterweight contender Hector Lombard will step back into the Octagon in what looks like a make or break fight. His opponent will not be Vitor Belfort as he previously called for, but towering middleweight finisher Anthony Smith. This news was first reported by MMAJunkie.com.

Tom Taylor - June 7, 2017

One of the biggest stories of the week thus far has surrounded a scathing, tell-all statement released by UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson. In this statement, the champ blasts the UFC and its president Dana White for attempting to force him into a fight with former bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw, rather than letting him fight established flyweight contender Ray Borg. It also criticizes the UFC for failing to promote his division or his fights in an adequate way. Finally, Johnson also claimed in the statement that White threatened to close the division if he didn’t play ball. Needless to say, it was not a particularly good look for White or the UFC.

bjpenndotcom - June 6, 2017

This past weekend at UFC 212, UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo was handed a devastating TKO loss at the hands of Max Holloway in his home country of Brazil. Following the loss, Aldo was noticeably devastated, however the Brazilian MMA community was quick to express their support for the former champion:

Russell Ess - June 6, 2017

June 6, 2017, marks one year since the legend Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson passed away at the age of 42.

Russell Ess - June 6, 2017

Dillon Danis has gotten a lot of attention since teaming up with Conor McGregor for his last two fight camps helping with his jiu-jitsu game. Danis was initially brought in to help McGregor for his UFC 202 rematch against Nate Diaz after he was submitted by the Stockton scrapper in their initial meeting at UFC 196. After McGregor was able to get redemption by winning a majority decision over Diaz at UFC 202, Danis was a part of the training camp for McGregor’s UFC 205 fight against then-lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. McGregor ran through Alvarez and is now looking to cash in on the biggest fight of his career by stepping into the boxing ring against Floyd Mayweather.

Russell Ess - June 6, 2017

There has been quite a bit of buzz surrounding a potential return to competition for former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell. There was talk from his longtime coach John Hackleman saying his blessing would depend on who the opponent is and Liddell himself did not give a definitive answer on if we will be seeing him fight again. There was also the lunch meeting between Bellator boss Scott Coker and Lidell. More speculation grew when Liddell posted a photo of him and longtime rival Tito Ortiz in a staredown photo they took together where Liddell said in the caption, “Why not?”

Tom Taylor - June 6, 2017

Originally, Ricardo Lamas was expected to take on a fellow former title challenger in “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung when the UFC touches down in Anaheim, California, this July 29. Unfortunately, the undead Korean was forced out of this anticipated featherweight scrap with a severely damaged leg. And so began the hunt for a replacement opponent for the ever-dangerous Lamas. That replacement opponent has now been found.

bjpenndotcom - June 6, 2017

This past weekend, in the main event of UFC 212, UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo stepped into the Octagon in hopes of defending his new featherweight title for the first time. On the other hand, interim featherweight champion Max Holloway was looking to unify the two belts and capture the undisputed featherweight championship. After weathering an early storm from Aldo in the first, Holloway began to find his rhythm in the second. In the third round, it took just two minutes for Holloway to drop Aldo with a big right cross. Ultimately, Holloway showcased his impressive ground game as he controlled Aldo on the ground, landing a barrage of ground and pound strikes before ultimately earning the 3rd round TKO victory, and claiming the undisputed featherweight championship.

Tom Taylor - June 6, 2017

The roster of Bellator MMA – the world’s second biggest MMA promotion – has improved a great deal over the last year or two. The promotion has injected a tremendous amount of talent into its heavyweight division, picking up free agents like Matt Mitrione, Fedor Emelianenko, Sergei Kharitonov, and most recently, Roy Nelson. The promotion has turned its light heavyweight division into an absolute must-watch, picking up names like Phil Davis, Wanderlei Silva, Chael Sonnen, Ryan Bader, Alessio Sakara, and Satoshi Ishii.

bjpenndotcom - June 6, 2017

This week, UFC flyweight kingpin Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson released a lengthy letter calling out the UFC brass for what he considered to be unfair treatment from the UFC. He summarized his current situation, explaining:

bjpenndotcom - June 6, 2017

This past weekend, fight fans tuned in to what proved to be a spectacular event, headlined by a thrilling main event scrap between Max Holloway and Jose Aldo. While Aldo settled into a rhythm quickly, and landed early on in the fight, it was Holloway who came alive in the second and third rounds, ultimately finishing the champion in the third round via strikes. In the co-main event, former UFC women’s strawweight title challenger Claudia Gadelha picked up another big win as she defeated top ranked women’s strawweight contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz via 1st round submission. In addition, the main card of the pay-per view also saw UFC veteran Vitor Belfort snap a lengthy losing streak as he picked up a decision win over Nate Marquardt

Tom Taylor - June 6, 2017

Earlier this year, on the main card of UFC 209, heavyweight veteran Mark Hunt stepped into the cage with Alistair Overeem. Unfortunately for Hunt and his fans, this fight did not go according to plan. Instead, Overeem put Hunt away with knees in the third round. On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Hunt expressed some lingering issues he has with this fight, citing the fact that Overeem was allowed to use an IV to rehydrate – which is forbidden by both the Nevada Athletic Commission and USADA – in advance of the fight. The reason that Overeem was allowed to use an IV is because he fell ill with food poisoning just days before the fight. According to Hunt, however, this was all a fabrication to bend the rules.