MMA News

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

Leading up to Ronda Rousey’s highly anticipated return to the Octagon at UFC 207, there was much controversy as to Rousey’s media blackout leading up to the fight. While Rousey, who normally does quite a bit of promo leading up to her fights, was completely silent, the MMA community was left to speculate as to her mindset going into her return after taking a year off following the first defeat of her career over a year prior.

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.

Russell Ess - January 6, 2017

Does the idea of a catchweight bout between UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping get you excited? That’s exactly what the two champions were recently arranging amongst themselves as we seen the exchange between Woodley and Bisping posted on both of their social media accounts.

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:

Russell Ess - January 6, 2017

What could Nick Diaz do that could be as entertaining as fighting in the Octagon?

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.

Tom Taylor - January 6, 2017

Last Friday, on the main card of UFC 207, TJ Dillashaw coach Duane Ludwig watched his star pupil score a lopsided win over John Lineker, the bantamweight division’s number-two ranked fighter. Logic would suggest that with this win, Dillashaw guaranteed himself at the UFC bantamweight title he once owned, which is now held by Cody Garbrandt. The widely applauded TJ Dillashaw coach, however, isn’t sure what the future holds. While he hopes his fighter will get the next shot at gold, he is far from trusting of the UFC’s current matchmaking strategy.

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.

bjpenndotcom - January 6, 2017

Leading up to the highly anticipated return of Ronda Rousey to close out 2016, many were questioning whether fight fans would see a different Rousey than they did in her UFC 193 loss to Holly Holm. While the expectations were that Rousey would return to the Octagon with improved striking, when she stepped into the Octagon with Amanda Nunes at UFC 207, it didn’t take long for Rousey to show fight fans that her striking game had not developed enough to compete with an elite level striker like Nunes. Just 48 seconds into the fight, referee Herb Dean was forced to stop the bout due to Rousey being out on her feet.

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.