MMA News

bjpenndotcom - December 21, 2016

Recently promoted UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo has had a very public dispute with the UFC brass over the second half of this year. After Conor McGregor opted to return to welterweight for a rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 202, UFC President Dana White stated that after the fight Conor McGregor must either defend the featherweight title, or vacate the belt. That changed however when it was announced that McGregor would be making his lightweight debut at UFC 205 in a title fight against Eddie Alvarez. Ultimately, McGregor won the fight via second round TKO, claiming the UFC lightweight championship and becoming the first ever simultaneous two-division UFC champion.

Tom Taylor - December 21, 2016

Jon Jones is known for many things.

bjpenndotcom - December 21, 2016

While Conor McGregor may have been denied a boxing license in Nevada, he was granted a boxing license in California. This once again reignited talks of a potential Mayweather vs. McGregor boxing match. While both men have verbally agreed to the fight, there has been no official word on if the fight will ever take place. Despite that, combat sports fans have continued to discuss the potential fight, with the combat sports community torn on who they think will win the fight. While many argue that in a boxing match, Mayweather would pick Conor McGregor apart and continue his undefeated streak, others believe that McGregor’s precision and power would result in him handing Mayweather the first loss of his career.

Tom Taylor - December 21, 2016

Earlier this month, the UFC made its first trip to Toronto, Ontario, Canada since 2013. It did so with the much maligned, but ultimately action-packed UFC 206. This thrilling card was headlined by an interim featherweight title fight between former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, and streaking featherweight contender Max Holloway. Though Pettis was not without his moments in this fight, he ultimately came up short, as he wilted under a swarm of Holloway strikes in the third round.

Tom Taylor - December 21, 2016

Yesterday afternoon, reports of a thrilling UFC 209 heavyweight rematch between recent title challenger Alistair Overeem and fan favorite knockout artist Mark Hunt began to swirl. The bout seemed to mark the end of Hunt’s long, anti-UFC tirade, which stemmed from the PED bust of his UFC 200 opponent Brock Lesnar, and the UFC’s apparent lack of concern about this bust. This matchup was announced by the UFC, and reported by many major MMA news outlets, including Hunt’s own website, where quotes from Hunt about the rematch were featured. Apparently, however, this fight is not a done deal just yet.

Tom Taylor - December 21, 2016

When Gegard Mousasi avenged his previous loss to Uriah Hall in November, he set his sights on the middleweight division’s top-5, where he hoped to find an opponent who could propel him the rest of the way to a title shot. Now, it appears as though his crosshairs have landed on Chris Weidman, who is currently on a tough, two-fight skid after an admirable reign as UFC middleweight champion. “[The UFC] offered you the fight days ago, [Chris Weidman],” Mousasi said to Weidman on Twitter. “Suddenly you have disappeared. Accept the fight already. I am waiting, pal. #Don’tBeScared.” 

Tom Taylor - December 21, 2016

When Conor McGregor won the UFC lightweight title from Eddie Alvarez in November, he became the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes concurrently, as he still owned the organization’s featherweight belt at the time. Yet given that it had been nearly a year since he’d won that featherweight title, and that he seemed to have no immediate plans to defend it, the UFC ultimately decided to strip him of it, ending his reign as two division champ as they did. When they stripped McGregor of the featherweight crown, they promoted Jose Aldo – the man he knocked out to win it – back to undisputed featherweight champion. Given that Aldo had been knocked out by McGregor so recently, this was an immediately controversial move, as many fans and pundits posited that it’d be hard to consider him the real champ until he avenged his loss to McGregor.

bjpenndotcom - December 20, 2016

Earlier this month, major changes were made to the UFC’s featherweight division when the UFC had Conor McGregor relinquish the UFC featherweight championship in order to promote the co-main event scrap of UFC 206 between Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway, to an interim featherweight title fight. Subsequently, Jose Aldo was promoted to the undisputed featherweight champion. While Anthony Pettis missed weight for the event, in the end it didn’t matter as Max Holloway picked up a third round TKO win to claim the interim featherweight title and secure himself a fight with Jose Aldo for the undisputed title.

Chris Taylor - December 20, 2016

Former UFC heavyweight title challenger Mark Hunt will return to the octagon this March when he squares off with former Strikeforce Heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem at UFC 209 in Las Vegas. Mark Hunt was last seen in action at July’s blockbuster UFC 200 event where he suffered a unanimous decision loss to former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.

Russell Ess - December 20, 2016

Ramsay, Tyson, Eubank, Steve Austin, DeNiro, Pacino, Pesci, Trump & McGregor chat to Wanderlei Silva ahead of #bellator169 #bamma27 pic.twitter.com/morQ6DtpQ2 — Al Foran Comedy (@ImpressionistAL) December 16, 2016

Russell Ess - December 20, 2016

Both Nick and Nate Diaz are known for their never-ending offense and their iron chins that many fighters can’t seem to figure out. While appearing as a guest on The Jasta Show recently, Nick talked about his younger brother Nate’s durability as well as his own.

Russell Ess - December 20, 2016

Many people tend to get a little bit bolder when they have some liquid courage in them. We’ve seen countless videos on the Internet of drunken everyday folks test who want to test their combat skills against bouncers and sometimes trained fighters who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

bjpenndotcom - December 20, 2016

While UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and top ranked bantamweight Cody Garbrandt aren’t scheduled to share the Octagon until December 30th, the pair nearly had their fight for Cruz’s bantamweight title backstage at UFC 202 back in August. According to UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, Cruz and Garbrandt came face-to-face backstage, and got in each others faces as tensions continued to rise before they were officially scheduled to fight at UFC 207. When no one stepped between the two men to break things up before they got out of hand, DC leapt into action and prevented tensions from reaching a boiling point.

Russell Ess - December 20, 2016

Northen California natives Urijah Faber, Nick and Nate Diaz were a part of the mixed martial arts scene in the early days helping to open the eyes of many to the sport we love today.

Tom Taylor - December 20, 2016

When the UFC was purchased by WME-IMG earlier this year, there followed a wave of controversial layoffs, as everyone from Tom Wright to social media specialist Shanda Maloney lost their jobs. The latest high-profile UFC employees on the chopping block were UFC Hall of Famers Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell, who were given desk jobs with the company when they hung up their gloves. Interestingly, however, fellow Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin, who was given a similar position when he retired from fighting, was not canned by the company.

bjpenndotcom - December 20, 2016

Just last month, UFC superstar Conor McGregor made the move to lightweight to fight Eddie Alvarez in the main event of the UFC’s historic inaugural event at the Madison Square Garden. McGregor made quick work of Alvarez, securing himself a dominant second round TKO win after dropping the MMA veteran just moments into the fight. The win not only marked a successful UFC lightweight debut for McGregor, but saw him crowned as the first ever simultaneous two-division UFC champion. Following the fight, McGregor revealed that he would be taking some time off from fighting, due to the upcoming birth of his firstborn child. UFC President Dana White followed up McGregor’s announcement by revealing several weeks later that the Irish superstar would be on the sidelines for 10 months.

bjpenndotcom - December 20, 2016

With less than two weeks to go until UFC 207, unfortunate news has surfaced that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes has been forced to miss her scheduled UFC 207 media lunch due to a minor illness. While the illness forced the champ to miss the scheduled lunch, MMAFighting’s Marc Raimondi has revealed that she should be 100% for her fight with Ronda Rousey on December 30th. Raimondi broke the news on Twitter:

Tom Taylor - December 20, 2016

Earlier this month, the UFC touched down in Albany New York with UFC Fight Night 102. In the main event, rising heavyweight Derrick Lewis took on Dagestani prospect Shamil Abdurakhimov. Though Lewis didn’t exactly dazzle in this fight, he was ultimately able to put Abdurakhimov away with a fourth-round TKO. In the wake of this win, Lewis was incredibly critical of his own performance, telling Octagon-side commentator Jon Anik that it was one of the “terriblest” fights of his career. When asked by Anik who he would like to fight next, Lewis explained that he had plans to call out Travis Browne or Mark Hunt, but wasn’t sure if this was the right move given his less-than-stellar performance.