MMA News

bjpenndotcom - May 11, 2017

UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic is currently gearing up for his upcoming title defense against Junior dos Santos this Saturday, however despite his recent 4-fight win streak that has seen him finish 4 straight top ranked opponents, Miocic is facing some doubt from the MMA community. He spoke to Fox Sports to address that doubt:

bjpenndotcom - May 11, 2017

UFC lightweight Edson Barboza has been on a bit of a tear of the UFC’s lightweight division lately. After dropping a submission loss to Tony Ferguson in 2015, Barboza bounced back by picking up a unanimous decision win over Anthony Pettis at UFC 197 to return to the win column. Barboza built momentum on the win by picking up yet another unanimous decision win, this time over Gilbert Melendez almost exactly a year ago. Most recently, Barboza defeated Beneil Dariush via flying knee back in March to pick up a highlight reel knockout. Now, following hand surgery, Barboza is already looking to secure himself his next fight. He spoke to MMAFighting:

Russell Ess - May 11, 2017

It seems like Dana White is getting tired of the talk regarding a few of his star fighters and just wants to get down to business. Just a day after announcing that the Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre UFC middleweight title fight was no longer going to happen with St-Pierre not being timely prepared, the UFC boss is giving UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor just a few days to come to terms on the potential boxing match against Floyd Mayweather.

bjpenndotcom - May 11, 2017

It’s no secret that the Diaz brothers smoke marijuana. In addition to their transparency regarding their usage of the plant, both brothers have been involved in very public incidents regarding marijuana. Several years ago after fighting Anderson Silva, Nick Diaz failed his post-fight drug test for marijuana, and was subsequently handed an unprecedented 5-year suspension. The ruling was so outrageous that celebrities, including Wiz Khalifa, joined in Diaz’ fight against the NSAC, before it was ultimately overturned. The second incident was more recent, and came during the UFC 202 post-fight press conference, when Nate Diaz appeared at the press conference smoking an e-cig which simply contained CBD Oil according to the younger Diaz brother. That of course was refuted by Nick Diaz, who stated that his younger brother was smoking marijuana.

Tom Taylor - May 11, 2017

This Saturday, on the main card of a blockbuster UFC 211, Jorge Masvidal will battle Demian Maia in what appears to be a welterweight number one contender fight. If Masvidal wins this fight and earns a title shot, of course, his title shot would pit him against an old friend and training partner in Tyron Woodley. On a recent interview on BJ Penn Radio, Masvidal explained that, while fighting a former teammate for the title is not ideal, he’s prepared to do so if that’s what it comes to. During his segment on the show, Masvidal was also asked if he’d be willing to fight Woodley as soon as July. The champ, after all, been calling for a July title defense, but has had a difficult time finding a suitable opponent.

Tom Taylor - May 11, 2017

This weekend, on the main card of UFC 211, Demian Maia will risk the welterweight title shot many fans feel he has already earned when he takes on dangerous contender Jorge Masvidal. In the opinion of welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, Maia’s accepting this fight was not a smart move. The champ has now said on several occasions that he believes Masvidal – his former American Top Team stablemate – will earn the win, and deprive Maia of his long-awaited shot. On the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Masvidal weighed in on these comments from Woodley, and on the possibility of fighting his former teammate for the belt.

Tom Taylor - May 11, 2017

Earlier this month, headlines began to surface surrounding a small beef between streaking welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal and UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping. This beef stemmed from Masvidal’s reluctance to appear on Bisping’s podcast, Believe You Me. On Wednesday’s edition of BJ Penn Radio, Masvidal explained that this beef was a bit overblown, but that he does have a hard time respecting the middleweight champ. He also said that he’d have no problem getting physical with Bisping if he ever felt he was being disrespected in person.

bjpenndotcom - May 11, 2017

It’s no secret that former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones and reigning light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier don’t exactly get along. Back in 2014, Jones and Cormier appeared onstage together at the UFC 178 media day. While the pair were simply supposed to have a staredown, the two men engaged in a now infamous brawl which saw UFC exec Dave Sholler thrown through the backdrop. Fast forward nearly four years and the two men’s rivalry is as strong as ever.

bjpenndotcom - May 11, 2017

Former UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva has been engaged in a very public dispute with his employers recently prior to the announcement that Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre wasn’t going to happen. Silva called for the UFC to create an interim middleweight title for he and Yoel Romero to fight over while Bisping and St-Pierre fought for the middleweight title. While the UFC ultimately ended up scrapping the fight between Bisping and GSP, Silva went as far as to threaten to retire if the UFC didn’t meet his demands.

Tom Taylor - May 11, 2017

Though Chael Sonnen is currently spearheading his own submission grappling league in Submission Underground (SUG), he is also staying busy on the competitive grappling circuit through his involvement in other promotions. This September, for example, he was supposed to compete under the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) banner, where he was expected to battle American Top Team coach Ricardo Liborio. Unfortunately, Liborio was forced to withdraw from this competition. The good news is that he’s been replaced by an even more recognizable member of the MMA community. Sonnen will now lock horns with former UFC heavyweight champion and decorated BJJ black belt Frank Mir.

Tom Taylor - May 11, 2017

On the latest edition of The MMA Hour, a disgruntled Luke Rockhold went off on the UFC for the way it’s been handling matchmaking in the middleweight division. His main gripe, of course, stemmed from the fact that the next shot at Michael Bisping’s middleweight title was expected to go to former welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre – a man who is returning from a multi-year hiatus, and one who has competed at middleweight before. To make matters worse, this fight wasn’t expected to occur until the fall. “Our division is hot right now, they’ve got good matchups, but they’re just not putting the champion to work,” Rockhold said. “It’s ridiculous. Are they really going to wait until October to make the Georges St-Pierre fight?” 

Tom Taylor - May 11, 2017

This weekend, on the main card of the stacked UFC 211, welterweight star Jorge Masvidal will face one of the trickiest tests of his career in Demian Maia, a man widely considered the welterweight division’s number one contender. Maia’s strengths, of course, are no secret. The Brazilian is one of the best grapplers in MMA, if not the best outright. Despite Maia’s incredible skill on the mat, however, Masvidal is not particularly panicked about any prospective grappling exchanges with him. In fact, he believes he’s the better MMA grappler overall. The Cuban-American contender made this claim on Wednesday’s edition of BJ Penn Radio.

Tom Taylor - May 11, 2017

Several months ago, we learned that Georges St-Pierre and the UFC had squashed their differences, and that the former welterweight champion would be receive an immediate middleweight title shot against Michael Bisping upon his return. While this news was somewhat controversial, as St-Pierre’s shot deprived many of the middleweight division’s top contenders of their deserved shots, it was also met with widespread excitement. Unfortunately, the UFC could not seem to lock down a date for this Bisping vs. St-Pierre middleweight title fight. Though Bisping repeatedly said he hoped the fight would occur during International Fight Week in July, St-Pierre suggested he couldn’t fight until the fall, and ultimatately, until after October.

Tom Taylor - May 10, 2017

Not long ago, UFC President Dana White suggested that he would never trust former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones to headline a pay-per-view again, citing the former champ’s many troubles outside the cage as the reason. It appears that this was an empty promise. BJPenn.com’s Chris Taylor has confirmed with sources close to the fight that Jones will make his anticipated return to the Octagon in the main event of UFC 214, where he will will challenge reigning champion Daniel Cormier for the UFC light heavyweight title. The bout was first reported to be in the works by MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani. The card goes down on July 29 in Anaheim, California.

bjpenndotcom - May 10, 2017

BJPENN.COM Radio is live at 8PM ET/5PM PT with Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal! 8:15PM ET- Kicking off tonights show is multiple-time BJJ champion and UFC lightweight, Gilbert Burns. We catch up with Combat Club’s BJJ coach and preview his upcoming match against John Combs at SUG 4 this Sunday. You’ll hear an update on the injury that forced Burns out of competition against Paul Felder at UFC 208 and the timetable he’s anticipating until his return to MMA. From coaching at one of the best gyms in the country, to competing in sub-only tournaments andclimbing the ranks in arguably the UFC’s toughest division, we cover it all with “Durinho.”

Russell Ess - May 10, 2017

Forget about Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao’s 4.4 million pay-per-view buys because Oscar De La Hoya is claiming that the recently announced fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin is “the biggest fight ever”

bjpenndotcom - May 10, 2017

Recently, former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva released a a statement in which he informed fight fans that if the UFC doesn’t book an interim middleweight title fight to accommodate for the UFC booking a middleweight title fight between Michael Bisping and former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre, then he could potentially be looking at retiring. Dana White informed Silva that the UFC has no intentions of making an interim middleweight title at the present time, which then resulted in Silva going on a rather lengthy irate, in which he called out not only the UFC brasss, but also UFC President Dana White as well.

Tom Taylor - May 10, 2017

Back in mid-April, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson defended his title for a whopping tenth time with a submission of BJJ blackbelt Wilson Reis. In doing so, he tired Anderson Silva’s record for the most consecutive title defenses in UFC history. It was not, however, all sunshine and daisies for dominant flyweight king.