MMA News

Tom Taylor - May 17, 2017

Last month, on the main card of the UFC’s latest trip to Nashville, Tennessee, hard-hitting welterweight “Platinum” Mike Perry authored one of the most violent knockouts in recent memory, flatlining Jake Ellenberger with a slicing, second round elbow. In the wake of this career changing win, Perry used his elevated station to call out several of the welterweight division’s top players, including one-time welterweight title challenger Thiago Alves.

bjpenndotcom - May 17, 2017

This past weekend at UFC 211, streaking featherweight prospect Yair Rodriguez stepped into the Octagon with former UFC light heavyweight champion Frankie Edgar in a pivotal featherweight battle. For Edgar, he was looking to pick up his second straight win after bouncing back from a UFC 200 defeat to Jose Aldo for the interim title by defeating Jeremy Stephens via unanimous decision at UFC 205. For Rodriguez on the other hand, he was looking to pick up the biggest win of his career, as well as his 7th straight win in the UFC. Going into the fight, many believed that Edgar was the biggest test of El Pantera’s career, making the fight an extremely high-stakes one for ‘The Answer’.

Tom Taylor - May 17, 2017

On July 22, the UFC will make its anticipated debut in Long Island with UFC on Fox 25. Over the last few weeks, the UFC has announced several matchups for this card, including its main event. This main event will pit struggling former champion and New Yorker Chris Weidman against surging former welterweight Kelvin Gastelum in a five-round middleweight contest. Now that this Long Island main event has been announced, the opening odds for it have been released. These odds were broken by MMA oddsmaker Joey Oddessa (via MMAJunkie.com).

Tom Taylor - May 17, 2017

From the early vantage point, December’s UFC 206 was widely considered to be a fairly weak card. In the end, however, the card delivered as one of the best year, making up for its lack of big names by producing some epic stoppages and perhaps the best fight in UFC history: a featherweight war between Cub Swanson and Doo Ho Choi. Despite a valiant effort against the far more experienced Swanson, Choi would lose this fight by decision, and return to South Korea with a new loss on his record, and plenty of bruises to show for it.

bjpenndotcom - May 17, 2017

UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has been extremely willing to engage in trash talk recently leading up to his summer rematch with former light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones for the undisputed light heavyweight title. Leading up to the fight, Cormier appears to be extremely comfortable not only in the spotlight, but also with the microphone, as was evident at the UFC Summer Kickoff press conference, where he and Jones appeared onstage together. Daniel Cormier repeatedly slammed Jones, also going as far as to call the former champ a “junkie”. That struck a nerve with many people, who felt as though the champ may have crossed the line.

Tom Taylor - May 17, 2017

My new training partner #BackPack is going everywhere with me!!! Check out #TheMorningWoodShow to hear what I think about @demianmaia #MatchUp and #ufc211 recap 🚨LINK IN BIO🚨@DinThomas Produced by: @tjdesantis A post shared by Tyron Woodley (@twooodley) on May 16, 2017 at 8:23pm PDT

Tom Taylor - May 17, 2017

If you’ve been paying attention to the MMA headlines over the last few days you’ve probably seen that former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold and UFC President Dana White have been having a difference of opinions. This conflict began when Rockhold went off on the UFC for awarding the next crack at Michael Bisping’s middleweight throne to former welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre – though this plan has since been nixed.

Tom Taylor - May 17, 2017

Rory MacDonald plans to rule @BellatorMMA's welterweights, but what does he think of the top contenders? He fights Paul Daley on Friday! pic.twitter.com/PXC97eZPL2

bjpenndotcom - May 16, 2017

UFC President Dana White and former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold aren’t currently on the best of terms at the moment. Rockhold recently called for the UFC to create an interim title while Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre fought for the undisputed title, stating on The MMA Hour:

Russell Ess - May 16, 2017

Coming off a devastating KO over Jake Ellenberger at UFC Night Night 108 in April, it looks like Mike Perry is itching to get back to competition. With his next fight, “Platinum” is looking to knock off one of the names in the UFC’s top 15 welterweight rankings. On Tuesday, Perry sent a series of tweets aimed at Matt “The Immortal” Brown and also threw in a few F bombs at a few other names in the 170-pound division.

Russell Ess - May 16, 2017

Do not talk about Michael Chiesa’s mother. With Kevin Lee just mentioning Chiesa’s mother at the UFC Summer Kickoff Press Conference, it hit an immediate nerve in Chiesa, who instructed to Lee to never talk about his mother. Things turned physical when Chiesa rushed over to Lee and was held back by security while Lee slipped under the security’s radar and hit him with a punch.

bjpenndotcom - May 16, 2017

This past weekend at UFC 211, UFC women’s strawweight kingpin Joanna Jedrzejczyk stepped into the Octagon against Jessica Andrade for a highly anticipated matchup of styles. Joanna Jedrzejczyk stepped into the Octagon in hopes of picking her opponent apart and using her elite level striking to defend her belt for the fourth time, while Andrade looked to use her power to hand the champion her first professional loss. ‘Joanna Champion’ passed the test with flying colors as she utilized her striking and movement to pick apart Andrade over the course of 5 rounds.

bjpenndotcom - May 16, 2017

This past weekend, on the main card of UFC 211, top ranked UFC prospect Demian Maia picked up a win over Jorge Masvidal to extend his win streak to 7, and cement his place as the UFC welterweight #1 contender. With his win over Masvidal, Maia now has likely secured himself a fight for the UFC welterweight championship. With that being said however, UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley still has his eyes on another opponent while Maia takes some time off following his win over Masvidal.

Russell Ess - May 16, 2017

For many fighters that moved over to Bellator from the UFC, the sponsorship dollars were likely a big factor in their decisions to switch things up. Take Ryan Bader for example. Bader said he would be making three to four times as much in personal sponsorship money fighting under Bellator than he was getting with Reebok’s uniform sponsorship deal with the UFC. Bader was also near the top of the pay tier of the Reebok sponsorship program.

Tom Taylor - May 16, 2017

On June 24, Bellator MMA will take over New York City’s hallowed Madison Square Garden with the aptly titled Bellator NYC card. This event will mark the rising promotion’s second effort on pay-per-view.

Tom Taylor - May 16, 2017

Last month, in the main event of the UFC’s visit to Kansas City, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson – widely known as “Mighty Mouse” – defended his title with a submission defeat of BJJ blackbelt Wilson Reis. This marked the champ’s tenth straight defense of the UFC strawweight title, and tied Anderson Silva’s all-time record for consecutive title defenses. Given that Anderson Silva is no longer a UFC champion, and Johnson is looking more dominant than ever, he now has the opportunity to set a new record for consecutive title defenses with an eleventh straight defense. Johnson has made no secret of the fact that this is his plan – but he doesn’t plan on stopping at eleven.

Tom Taylor - May 16, 2017

On July 22, the UFC will debut in Long Island, New York with UFC on Fox 25. As this card draws ever closer, it is beginning to come together with several key matchups.The latest matchup that has been pencilled onto the bill is a featherweight scrap between top-15 ranked fighters. In one corner, we’ll have hard nosed Team Alpha Male fighter Darren Elkins. In the other, we’ll have New York’s own Dennis Bermudez. This matchup was first reported by Ariel Helwani on Twitter. At the time of this writing, the UFC has not officially announced the matchup.

bjpenndotcom - May 16, 2017

Recently, former UFC light heavyweight contender Anthony Johnson announced his retirement from MMA following his 2nd round submission loss to Daniel Cormier at UFC 210, marking his second defeat to Cormier. In his post-fight Octagon interview, Johnson revealed that he would be retiring from MMA to pursue other ventures. While Anthony Johnson didn’t immediately reveal his future plans, he recently revealed that he had partnered with someone, and would be opening up a medicinal marijuana dispensary.