MMA News

bjpenndotcom - January 12, 2017

Leading up to UFC 207 on December 30th, where former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey made her highly anticipated return to the Octagon over a year after suffering the first defeat of her career at the hands of Holly Holm at UFC 193, where she lost the women’s bantamweight championship.

bjpenndotcom - January 11, 2017

Shocking news broke late Wednesday night that former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler has officially left his longtime camp at American Top Team. Lawler had been with the camp for many years, including his UFC welterweight title run, and throughout his title reign. MMAFighting confirmed the news this week, following an initial report from ENTImports.

bjpenndotcom - January 11, 2017

BJPENN.COM Radio is back tonight at 8:30PM ET/5:30PM PT with Juan Archuleta and Ray Borg! 8:15PM ET- Kicking off tonights show we are joined by Jaun “The Spaniard” Archuleta @jarch141 . Juan is is making waves as an up-and-comer who is clearly UFC bound. A champion of three weight classes in King Of The Cage, Archuleta will be discussing his recent victory, his goals as a martial artist, and what kind of opportunities he expects to arise in 2017.

bjpenndotcom - January 11, 2017

Julianna Pena is currently on quite the win streak in the UFC’s women’s bantamweight division, winning four straight fights, three of which coming since she made her return to the Octagon following an injury layoff from 2013-2015. Most recently, ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ competed at UFC 200, where she picked up a dominant unanimous decision win over Cat Zingano. While the win cemented Pena’s place near the top of the UFC’s bantamweight division on the UFC’s official rankings, Pena is currently slated for a bantamweight #1 contender fight against Valentina Shevchenko at ‘UFC Fight Night: Denver’ on January 28th. Going into the fight, it’s no secret that the winner could very well see themselves earn a title fight with women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes.

Russell Ess - January 11, 2017

The beef between UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather likely just took a turn to getting real personal. The buzzing fantasy matchup between the MMA star versus the boxing star has been going on for quite some time now. However, a social media post from “The Notorious” on Wednesday took things to an entirely new level.

Russell Ess - January 11, 2017

https://youtu.be/gcqZ7mKDigw UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor is polishing up his acting skills starring in a series of commercials for the Pegasus World Cup Invitational.

bjpenndotcom - January 11, 2017

At UFC 205 back in November, UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley stepped into the Octagon to fight streaking welterweight contender Stephen Thompson in a highly anticipated showdown. For Thompson, he was looking to build on his 7-fight win streak which saw him go undefeated for four years as he racked up impressive wins over top ranked fighters such as Johny Hendricks, Rory MacDonald, and Jake Ellenberger to name just a few. For Tyron Woodley, he was looking to make his first successful title defense after winning the UFC welterweight championship by knocking Robbie Lawler out cold in the 1st round of their UFC 201 scrap.

bjpenndotcom - January 11, 2017

Top ranked UFC middleweight Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza is currently slated to fight Tim Boetsch in a pivotal UFC 208 scrap on February 11th in Brooklyn, New York. While the fight is certainly a pivotal one that could see Souza claim a title shot against the winner of Michael Bisping vs. Yoel Romero, leading up to the scrap, Jacare Souza doesn’t want to hear anything about middleweight champion Michael Bisping.

Russell Ess - January 11, 2017

https://youtu.be/TyWzIN4chyE Joe Rogan has seen a lot of fights as well as fighters throughout their career as a UFC commentator and enthusiastic follower of the sport of mixed martial arts.

bjpenndotcom - January 11, 2017

Former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones recently made quite the waves in the grappling community when he stepped into the cage at Submission Underground 3 to grapple with MMA legend and former Olympic wrestler Dan Henderson. The matchup was one that was a long time in the making. Back in 2012, Henderson was set to challenge Jones for the light heavyweight championship in the main event of UFC 151. Unfortunately, a ruptured MCL forced Henderson out of the bout, with the UFC subsequently cancelling the entire card when Jones turned down a short-notice fight with Chael Sonnen just eight days before the event.

Tom Taylor - January 11, 2017

In a few short weeks, in the main event of the UFC’s latest Fox broadcast, The Ultimate Fighter 18 winner Julianna Pena will battle fellow bantamweight contender Valentina Shevchenko. The winner of this fight is more than likely to get the next shot at reigning bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes. While Pena is obviously eager for her long-awaited crack at UFC gold, she explained on a recent episode of Brian Stann’s radio show Toe-2-Toe on SiriusXM Rush that she wishes the bantamweight crown was still owned by former champion Ronda Rousey. Apparently, Pena has wanted to fight Rousey since her days on The Ultimate Fighter 18– a season Rousey coached. The top-ranked bantamweight also feels that Rousey has been avoiding her.

bjpenndotcom - January 11, 2017

At UFC 205, the UFC’s inaugural event at the Madison Square Garden back in November, streaking welterweight contender Stephen Thompson stepped into the Octagon to fight recently-crowned welterweight champion Tyron ‘The Chosen One Woodley’ in a highly anticipated showdown for the welterweight strap.

Tom Taylor - January 11, 2017

Late last month, in the main event of UFC 207, Ronda Rousey stepped into the Octagon for the first time since she was knocked out by Holly Holm in November of 2015. Unfortunately for her, this long-awaited comeback did not go as she planned, as she was mauled by reigning women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes in just 48 seconds. In the wake of Rousey’s emphatic knockout loss, many members of the MMA community have wished her well and speculated on what the future holds for her. Now, boxing great Floyd Mayweather has done the same, and despite the animosity between him and Rousey in the past, he was actually quite kind.

Tom Taylor - January 11, 2017

In November of 2015, Holly Holm shocked the world by shutting off Ronda Rousey with a second round kick to the head. With this defeat of the seemingly unbeatable Rousey, Holm claimed the UFC women’s bantamweight belt, becoming just the second woman in promotional history to wear it. Unfortunately for Holm and her army of fans, she was not able to hang onto the belt for long. In her first defense, which occurred in March of 2016, she surrendered an early lead to be put to sleep by a fifth-round rear-naked choke dealt by the now retired Miesha Tate. Just like that, her reign as UFC women’s bantamweight queen had come to an end.

Tom Taylor - January 11, 2017

Last July, on the main card of UFC 200, Mark Hunt was given the tough job of welcoming Brock Lesnar back to the Octagon. In the end, Hunt was unable to thwart the former heavyweight champion’s long-discussed comeback plans, instead coming up short on the judges’ scorecards after being out-wrestled for three rounds. In the days following Hunt’s loss to Lesnar, news broke that Lesnar had failed a pre-fight drug test. Not long thereafter, it was revealed that Lesnar had also failed a second test taken on fight night. The hulking heavyweight tested positive for an estrogen blocker called clomiphene.

bjpenndotcom - January 10, 2017

At UFC 205, UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and welterweight #1 contender Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson stepped into the Octagon for what turned out to be an epic welterweight showdown. The fight was an extremely close one, with some scoring the fight for the champ, and others scoring the fight for challenger. After 5 hard-fought rounds, which included Woodley nearly finishing Thompson in the 4th round, the judges scored the fight a majority draw, with Woodley retaining his welterweight championship.

Russell Ess - January 10, 2017

UFC Heavyweight Ben Rothwell isn’t holding anything back when speaking with the media now that he realizes how much of a factor it plays in the sport of mixed martial arts. Following Ronda Rousey’s much talked about loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207, Rothwell commented not just on Rousey on Sirius XM’s “Fight Club” podcast, but also her boyfriend Travis Browne where he ripped into his fellow UFC heavyweight.

bjpenndotcom - January 10, 2017

Rose Namajunas has been absent from the Octagon following her UFC 201 split decision loss to Karolina Kowalkiewicz back at UFC 201 in July. The loss snapped a 3-fight win streak for Namajunas which saw her defeat Angela Hill, Paige VanZant, and Tecia Torres following her TUF 20 Finale loss to Carla Esparza in 2014. Following her loss to Kowalkiewicz, Namajunas headed to Indonesia where she spent quite a bit of time breaking the cycle of daily life in Denver, Colorado. During a brief return to Colorado this week, Namajunas spoke on The MMA Hour to discuss her training with top ranked women’s bantamweight Valentina Shevchenko, her next potential fight, and her growth as a fighter, saying: