MMA News

Russell Ess - June 1, 2017

The last time we saw Cris Cyborg compete was at UFC Fight Night 95 in September of last year. Cyborg took out Lina Lansberg by TKO in a 140-pound catchweight main event fight in Brazil. With the UFC women’s featherweight division in shambles with the inaugural champion Germaine de Randamie not willing to fight Cyborg claiming she “is a known and proven cheater,” the newly opened UFC division is in a bit of a pickle.

Russell Ess - June 1, 2017

With the once laughed at boxing match between UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and undefeated legend Floyd Mayweather seeming more likely that it will actually happen, some purists are split on the matchup that some think is all about the money.

Tom Taylor - June 1, 2017

Top UFC light heavyweight Jimi Manuwa has a big fight on the horizon, as it was recently announced that he’ll be taking on the surging Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 214 this July 29 in Anaheim. While this challenge is at the forefront of his mind, however, he is still dialled in on a potential boxing match with fellow Londoner David Haye – and apparently, it’s probably going to happen. On a previous episode of BJ Penn Radio, Manuwa announced that he, Haye and UFC President Dana White had spoken about making the fight happen, and that the wheels were decidedly in motion. On the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Manuwa gave an update on this potential boxing match, and assured that it’s still a very real possibility. In fact he’s completely confident it will happen.

bjpenndotcom - June 1, 2017

Back at UFC 194, undisputed UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo stepped into the Octagon with interim featherweight champion Conor McGregor for a highly anticipated showdown for the undisputed featherweight title. Leading up to the fight, the MMA community was torn on their predictions for the fight. While some felt Aldo’s reign of dominance would continue, others believed that McGregor would tear through Aldo like he had so many past opponents. When the pair finally stepped into the Octagon, it took McGregor just 13 seconds to end Aldo’s reign as champion and secure the featherweight title.

bjpenndotcom - June 1, 2017

Several weeks ago news emerged that UFC President Dana White was able to secure Conor McGregor‘s side of a deal for a potential boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. White then revealed that with McGregor’s side of the deal done, he would now move to negotiating with Floyd Mayweather’s team. Since then, there have been no further updates regarding the status of a potential McGregor-Mayweather showdown. With that being said however, UFC President Dana White recently spoke to the press in New York to reveal that while the percentages haven’t been discussed, he is confident that a deal will be reached. MMAFighting has the transcription:

bjpenndotcom - June 1, 2017

Several months ago, it was announced that UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt would be making his first bantamweight title defense against TJ Dillashaw following a season of coaching on The Ultimate Fighter. Unfortunately, a back injury delayed the potential fight when Cody Garbrandt was flown to Germany by UFC President Dana White for a procedure on his back that would hopefully speed up his recovery. While the champ is currently back in the united States and recovering, he will be unable to fight TJ Dillashaw in July as initially planned.

bjpenndotcom - June 1, 2017

Several weeks ago, fight fans were made aware of a back injury sustained by UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt. As a result of the back injury, Garbrandt will be unable to defend his bantamweight title against TJ Dillashaw this summer. As a result, UFC President Dana White informed fans that Dillashaw will be dropping down to flyweight to challenge UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson for the flyweight championship in a fight which could see Johnson break the UFC record for most consecutive title defenses. With that being said however, the champ seems to want no part of a flyweight showdown with TJ Dillashaw, explaining that it isn’t fair for the former bantamweight champ to cut the line at 125 pounds.

Tom Taylor - June 1, 2017

Last weekend, Swiss light heavyweight Volkan Oezdemir scored an abrupt, first round knockout win over the highly regarded Misha Cirkunov. With this win, Oezdemir earned himself a fight with the UFC’s third-ranked light heavyweight: British destroyer Jimi Manuwa. On Wednesday’s edition of BJ Penn Radio, Jimi Manuwa discussed this newly announced bout with Oezdemir.

Tom Taylor - June 1, 2017

TJ Dillashaw began his fighting career at Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. Eventually, however, he left this camp, following coach Duane Ludwig to Colorado, where he set up camp at Elevation MMA. This move caused a massive rift between himself and his former Team Alpha Male stablemates, and resulted in his headline-dominating beef with reigning bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt. It appears, however, that Garbrandt has returned to California. According to an Instagram post from Rafael Cordeiro, Dillashaw has settled at Kings MMA, where he will be doing his training camp for his next fight.

Tom Taylor - June 1, 2017

Back in 2013, Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson engaged in one of the best light heavyweight title fights of all time, and really, one of the best fight ever period. For five, frenzied rounds, the American champion and Swedish challenger pelted each other with heavy artillery, forcing momentum swing after momentum swing after momentum swing. After their five round war, which Jones won by decision, the pair ended up posing for a classic photo together. It was clear that they earned each other’s respect.

Russell Ess - May 31, 2017

Tito Ortiz was one of the first superstars in the UFC and Tuesday marked the 20th anniversary of Ortiz’s professional mixed martial arts debut, making his way into the Octagon for the first time in 1997 at UFC 13. “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” fought twice at UFC 13, winning a first round TKO over Wes Albritton and then losing to Guy Mezger by guillotine choke submission. The always insightful MMA History Today Twitter handle posted a classic photo of a young 22-year-old Ortiz being interviewed by 29-year-old Joe Rogan.

Russell Ess - May 31, 2017

UFC 212 takes place on Saturday, June 3 as UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and interim champion Max Holloway meet in a title unification main event bout.

Russell Ess - May 31, 2017

UFC 212 takes place this Saturday on June 3 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

bjpenndotcom - May 31, 2017

BJPENN.COM Radio is live at 8PM ET/5PM PT with another streamlined show for your MMA fix! 8:15PM ET- We kick things off with the number 3 ranked light-heavyweight and knockout artist, Jimi Manuwa. Jimi has been campaigning for a shot at the strap and while his recent performances certainly warrant a title fight, the “Poster Boy” has just been booked against fellow top contender Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 214. A matchup that we can only presume will determine the next challenger for the winner of Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones. We’ll get Jimi’s reaction and breakdown for the fight with Volkan, as well as his thoughts on close friend and teammate Alexander Gustafsson’s destruction of Glover Teixeira over the weekend. All that and much more!

bjpenndotcom - May 31, 2017

While the UFC may have announced earlier this year that former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre would be returning to the Octagon to fight Michael Bisping for the undisputed UFC middleweight title, the fight never received an official date. The UFC moved forward with the scrap, holding a press conference in Las Vegas where both St-Pierre and Bisping appeared on-stage to talk trash to one another while fielding questions from fans. Ultimately, St-Pierre revealed that he would be unable to fight over the summer, and would be willing to fight the champ closer to the end of the year. The champ then revealed that his knee injury was still not healed, and he too wouldn’t be able to fight until the end of the year.

bjpenndotcom - May 31, 2017

Top ranked UFC flyweight contender Ray Borg remains on the cusp of a flyweight title shot against pound for pound kingpin Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson. The top ranked flyweight currently sits at #3 on the UFC’s official rankings behind Joseph Benavidez and Henry Cejudo. While Borg was looking to secure either a fight with Sergio Pettis or Brandon Moreno, or a title shot against the champion, the UFC recently announced that Sergio Pettis would be fighting Brandon Moreno, leaving Borg to seek a title shot.

Tom Taylor - May 31, 2017

UFC 214, which is scheduled for July 29 in Anaheim, California, has grown by one massive light heavyweight showdown, as British bomber Jimi Manuwa will collide with slick Swiss striker Volkan Oezdemir in a bout that could well produce the next contender for the UFC light heavyweight crown. Manuwa and Oezdemir hold the number three and five spots in the UFC light heavyweight rankings respectively. This bout was announced on Twitter by the UFC.

Tom Taylor - May 31, 2017

UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is one of the most dominant champions in the UFC today. Since winning the title from inaugural champion Carla Esparza with a violent, second-round beatdown, she has defended it with impressive wins against Jessica Penne, Valerie Letourneau, Claudia Gadelha, Karolina Kowalkiewicz and most recently, the dangerous Jessica Andrade. And while she still has a few big challenges remaining at strawweight, it sounds like she may begin a reign of dominance in the UFC’s newly announced women’s flyweight division too. The champion of this new flyweight division will be crowned on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, and apparently, Jedrzejczyk is interested in fighting that inaugural flyweight champ sometime next year.