MMA News

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

Leading up to UFC 207, the feud between former Team Alpha Male teammates Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw was reignited as the two men, who were both fighting on the UFC 207 card, took to social media to rekindle an old feud just hours before their scheduled scraps on pay-per view. Dillashaw took to social media to take some verbal jabs at the challenger, mocking him by saying that he made ‘No Love’ cry during practice when they were teammates. Despite the fact that he had the biggest fight of his life coming up in just a few hours, Garbrandt was quick to fire back, stating that his coach Justin Buchholz had footage of Garbrandt knocking out Dillashaw in training.

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

To close out 2016, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey made her highly anticipated return to the Octagon to fight Amanda Nunes in the main event of UFC 207. While Rousey was the focus of the promotional videos leading up to the fight, when the pair stepped in the Octagon, it was UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes who left a lasting impact on fight fans as she secured a 48 second KO win over Rousey.

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

In one of the most surprising MMA stories in recent memories, news has now surfaced that during her training camp leading up to UFC 207, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey actually had training partner and fellow women’s bantamweight Raquel Pennington sign a non-disclosure agreement. Essentially, what this means is that while Rousey and Pennington trained together for Rousey’s highly anticipated UFC 207 return to the Octagon against Amanda Nunes, Pennington can’t legally speak about the nature of the training sessions, or anything that occurred in them.

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

On this episode of American Animals, Erik and Ian return from the holiday break with plenty of things to discuss. We get their take on the fallout from UFC 207, the future of Ronda Rousey, and the Rizin Fighting Federation’s New Year’s Eve extravaganza. And, Chael Sonnen joins the show to fill us in on what will go down in 2017. Start the new year off the right way with this episode of American Animals! You can email your questions and comments to info@2americananimals.com and find the show at www.2americananimals.com on the web, on social media at facebook.com/2AmericanAnimals and @2AmericanAnimal on Twitter and @2AmericanAnimals on Instagram.

Tom Taylor - January 6, 2017

In November of 2016, the UFC’s number-one ranked welterweight Stephen Thompson fought divisional king Tyron Woodley to a majority draw. With this result, Woodley held on to the welterweight belt, while Wonderboy seemed to have guaranteed himself another shot at the champ. Apparently, however, Thompson’s being given an immediate rematch with Woodley is far from a sure thing. In late December, our very own Chris Taylor reported that Nick Diaz had been offered a fight with Woodley and turned the opportunity down.

Russell Ess - January 6, 2017

Ronaldo Jacare Souza is apparently set to return to competition. According to Mark La Monica of Newsday, Jacare will return to the Octagon at UFC 208 in Brooklyn to face Tim Boetsch.

Tom Taylor - January 6, 2017

After two straight losses, former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has announced his intention to head north to the welterweight division. Dos Anjos made this announcement on his official Twitter account on Friday morning. See his rather surprising announcement below:

Tom Taylor - January 6, 2017

Long-time strawweight contender Rose Namajunas is currently riding a loss to Karolina Kowalkiewicz, and she knows just who she wants to fight to bounce back from that loss. The ever-entertaining strawweight has been vocal in her desire for a fight with “The Karate Hottie” Michelle Waterson, who scored a first-round submission win over Paige VanZant last month. Waterson, of course, isn’t the highest ranked opponent Namajunas could have called out. Claudia Gadelha and Jessica Aguilar both enjoy a higher station in the strawweight division. According to Namajunas, however, Waterson is a more marketable opponent than either Gadelha or Aguilar, which is why she called her out.

Tom Taylor - January 6, 2017

Late last month, former UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez was forced out of a planned rematch with Fabricio Werdum with a back injury. Velasquez has now undergone a successful surgery to correct that injury. News of Velasquez’s successful surgery comes from Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com, who spoke with Velasquez’s coach, Javier Mendez.

Tom Taylor - January 6, 2017

Last week, UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley and middleweight champ Michael Bisping made headlines by agreeing to fight at a catchweight of 180lbs. While it remains to be seen if the UFC actually makes this fight, it’s bound to ruffle a few feathers if they do. Woodley, after all, is currently in the crosshairs of deserving welterweight contenders like Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, who he recently battled to a draw, and Demian Maia, who recently submitted Carlos Condit to extend his welterweight win-streak to 6.

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

Throughout 2016, there were talks of the UFC forming a women’s flyweight division at 125 pounds. While the promotion never officially announced the formation of the division, they held a women’s flyweight fight between Joanne Calderwood vs. Valerie Letourneau which was an extremely spectacular fight. Following the fight, UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk revealed in an interview that if the UFC moved forward with creating a women’s flyweight division, she planned to move up in weight in hopes of becoming the first two-division women’s champion. To close out 2016 however, the UFC announced that they would be forming a women’s featherweight division, likely due to the dominance of Invicta FC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg over the course of the year fighting at 140 pounds. Although Cyborg turned down two women’s featherweight title fights before it was then revealed that she had potentially violated USADA’s anti-doping policy, the UFC has moved forward with their inaugural women’s featherweight title fight between Holly Holm and Germaine De Randamie.

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

In the main event of UFC 207, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey returned to the Octagon to fight Amanda Nunes in a highly anticipated showdown. Just 48 seconds into the fight, referee Herb Dean was forced to call a bout after Rousey continued to eat unanswered shots, noticeably out on her feet. That didn’t sit too well with Michael Rapaport, who appeared on Fox Sports 1 to explain that the stoppage was premature, and that he believes Rousey was saved by “white girl privilege”.

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

https://youtu.be/yij4oQ8kbpI To close out 2016, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey returned to the Octagon for her highly anticipated return after suffering the first loss of her career at the hands of Holly Holm back in November of 2015.

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

When UFC President Dana White announced that Ronda Rousey would be returning to the Octagon to fight Amanda Nunes on December 30th in the main event of UFC 207, he also pointed out that if Rousey were to emerge from her UFC 207 scrap with Nunes victorious, she would then likely move on to fight Cris Cyborg in a highly anticipated superfight. While the superfight was always just out of reach from fight fans, during Ronda Rousey‘s hiatus from the time of her loss to Holly Holm, to her fight with Amanda Nunes, Cyborg fought twice in the UFC, going 2-0 at catchweight fights of 140 pounds. While it appeared as though the stars were aligning for the potential superfight to become a reality, Rousey’s one-sided loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 this past weekend ended talks of a potential fight with Cris Cyborg.

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

2016 was a big year for UFC superstar Conor McGregor. McGregor entered the year fresh off a win over Jose Aldo at UFC 194 to claim the UFC featherweight championship. To kick off 2016, McGregor was slated to move up in weight at UFC 196 to take on Rafael dos Anjos for the UFC lightweight title. Unfortunately, dos Anjos pulled out of the fight just two weeks before. Ultimately, the UFC selected Nate Diaz as a late fill-in opponent for McGregor. Come March 5th, Diaz shocked the world as he rocked and then submitted the Irish superstar in just the second round.

Tom Taylor - January 6, 2017

Last week, UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping and UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley made waves by agreeing to fight each other at a catchweight of 180lbs. Their agreeing to do so, of course, only means so much. Woodley, after all, currently has his hands full with streaking welterweight contenders like Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson and Demian Maia. Bisping, on the other hand, has an extremely dangerous challenge on his horizon in former Olympian Yoel Romero. Given this, the possibility of the UFC actually pitting the two champions against each other seems somewhat slim.

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

While Amanda Nunes may reign as the UFC women’s bantamweight champion, the only woman to beat Nunes inside the Octagon is none other than top ranked women’s bantamweight Cat Zingano. When Nunes joined the UFC in 2013, she immediately went on a 2-fight win streak as she TKOd Sheila Gaff and Germaine de Randamie in her first two UFC scraps. The UFC game Nunes a step up in competition when the had her fight undefeated Cat Zingano in her third UFC fight. In that fight, Zingano picked up a dominant third round TKO win to snap Nunes’ 2-0 streak. Following the loss, Nunes has rattled off 5 straight wins, with her most recent being a 48 second KO win over Ronda Rousey last weekend.

Tom Taylor - January 6, 2017

Ronda Rousey coach Edmond Tarverdyan continues to find himself in the firing line, taking the brunt of the blame for his fighter’s failed comeback. This comeback, which occurred in the main event of UFC 207, saw Rousey return from an absence of more than a year to be knocked out in just 48 seconds by reigning bantamweight queen Amanda Nunes. The reason that Tarverdyan is receiving so much flack for Rousey’s UFC 207 performance is that Rousey showed almost nothing in the way of improvement between her shocking 2015 knockout loss to Holly Holm and her recent loss to Nunes. While this is of course partially her fault, it is the job of a coach to ensure their fighters are always evolving, and Tarverdyan has clearly failed abysmally in this department when it comes to Rousey. This fact, when paired with the recent records of Tarverdyan’s other high-profile fighters, such as UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, has resulted in his being roasted by many members of the MMA community.