MMA News

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.

bjpenndotcom - May 10, 2017

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has been hindered by his troubles outside of the Octagon over the past few years. Most recently, Jones was pulled from UFC 200 just 48 hours before he was scheduled to step into the Octagon with Daniel Cormier in hopes of reclaiming the light heavyweight championship he never lost in the Octagon. While an appeal process saw Jones handed a year long suspension retroactive to July, the damage had already been done. UFC President Dana White infamously explained after Jones UFC 200 withdrawal that the former light heavyweight champ would never headline an event again.

bjpenndotcom - May 10, 2017

Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has been making MMA headlines this week for rather interesting reasons. After snapping a losing streak by defeating Derek Brunson earlier this year, Silva recently called for the UFC to form an interim middleweight title while UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping prepares to fight former welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre in his highly anticipated return to the UFC later this year. Anderson Silva, like many other UFC middleweights, feels as though the middleweight division is being help up by a potential Bisping vs. St-Pierre scrap, and as a result, would like to see the promotion form an interim middleweight title while Bisping and St-Pierre settle their feud for the undisputed title. Silva took things one step further as he stated that if the UFC didn’t create an interim belt, he would retire.

Tom Taylor - May 10, 2017

In a little over three weeks’ time, in the main event of UFC 212, Jose Aldo will attempt to unify his undisputed featherweight title with the interim featherweight title of Max Holloway. Unfortunately, Aldo has sustained a pretty significant cut in training – significant enough that it required him to get five stitches. Though this initially sounds like disastrous news for UFC 212’s main event, Aldo assures the fight will go ahead as planned, promising that the placement of the cut renders it a non-issue.

Tom Taylor - May 10, 2017

This weekend, on the main card of a stacked UFC 211, fan favorite welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal will face one of the trickiest tests of his career in top contender Demian Maia. From the early vantage point, the winner of this fight looks like a shoo-in for the next shot at welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. Though Maia represents an incredibly difficult test, Masvidal is all confidence heading into the fight. In an interview with Fox Sports, the Cuban-American star explained that his victory over the Brazilian will be so decisive that, if it were a movie, it would require a XXX rating.