MMA News

bjpenndotcom - December 14, 2016

This past weekend, the UFC held their second event in New York following the legalization of MMA earlier this year. The event was headlined by a heavyweight clash between Derrick ‘The Black Beast’ Lewis and Shamil Abdurakhimov. Lewis ultimately secured himself a fourth round TKO win despite what he believed was a disappointing performance. In the co-main event, Francis Ngannou continued his reign of terror as he picked up a first round submission win over Anthony Hamilton, continuing his 4-fight win streak in the Octagon.

Russell Ess - December 14, 2016

Former WWE superstar Shad Gaspard brought some of his body slamming days back into his life when he stopped an alleged criminal in a gas station convenience store recently.

bjpenndotcom - December 14, 2016

2016 has been quite the year for WMMA pioneer Miesha Tate. Tate kicked off 2016 by fighting Holly Holm for the UFC women’s bantamweight championship at UFC 196 in March. With the fight looking as though it was going to the judges scorecards midway through the fifth round, Tate secured a submission win to earn the women’s bantamweight championship. In her next fight, Tate put her title on the line in the main event of one of the biggest cards in the history of the UFC at UFC 200, where she fought Amanda Nunes. Unfortunately for Tate, she was rocked and then submitted in the first round by Nunes.

bjpenndotcom - December 14, 2016

Top ranked UFC lightweights Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson have fought the best of the best in the UFC’s lightweight division, but have never fought one another. When the pair were set to square off earlier this year in Nurmagomedov’s highly anticipated Octagon debut, Ferguson was forced out of the fight with an injury, and was replaced by Darrell Horcher on short notice. Nurmagomedov won the fight in dominant fashion, earning himself a second round TKO win. Following that, Ferguson returned from his injury and picked up a unanimous decision win over former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos to cement his place at the top of the UFC’s lightweight division. Most recently, Nurmagomedov picked up a dominant submission win over Michael Johnson at UFC 205, to cement his place as the lightweight #1 contender.

bjpenndotcom - December 14, 2016

This week, the UFC announced that former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm would be stepping into the Octagon against #11 ranked women’s bantamweight, Germaine de Randamie, at UFC 208 for the inaugural women’s featherweight title. The news followed a statement from UFC President Dana White earlier this week, in which the UFC President stated that the UFC offered Invicta FC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg the fight on two occasions, however she declined both.

Tom Taylor - December 14, 2016

Sorry guys, I know it was rumored I was fighting in Dec but it's not happening, here's why. pic.twitter.com/VOEyldLPLs — Angela Hill (@AngieOverkill) December 13, 2016

bjpenndotcom - December 14, 2016

The war of words between UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, and undefeated prize fighter Floyd Mayweather continued this week when Mayweather took verbal blows at McGregor during a live video streaming. Earlier this year, after McGregor was pulled from his UFC 200 headlining scrap against Nate Diaz, there were rumors of McGregor making the move to boxing for a boxing match with the legend Floyd Mayweather. While the talks began as hypotheticals, things progressed to the point of Fox Sports 1 host Colin Cowherd even going as far as to announce the date of the potential boxing match. Ultimately of course, McGregor and the UFC worked things out, and the Irish superstar returned to the Octagon to face Nate Diaz at UFC 202, where he avenged his loss at UFC 196.

Tom Taylor - December 14, 2016

This weekend, welterweight prospect Mickey Gall will take on the biggest test of his UFC career – arguably the first real test of his UFC career – in fellow prospect Sage Northcutt. The two young guns will share the co-main event of UFC on Fox 22, which will emanate from sunny Sacramento, California. Gall’s last fight, of course, was a big one, but not a particularly difficult one. On the main card of UFC 203, he served as the MMA welcoming committee for former WWE star CM Punk, who had precisely zero combat sports experience leading into their fight. As expected, Gall dominated his outmatched foe to a first-round submission win.

Tom Taylor - December 14, 2016

Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos has recently been angling for a fight with reigning champ Stipe Miocic. Apparently, however, the Brazilian striker has settled for a fight with towering Dutchman Stefan Struve. The two heavyweights will meet in the main event of the UFC’s return to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on February 19. Dos Santos and Struve, of course, have met once before. Their first fight occurred at UFC 95, all the way back in 2009. On that night, Dos Santos earned a TKO win in a mere 54 seconds. Since that first fight, the two fighters have embarked on very different career trajectories.

Russell Ess - December 13, 2016

The UFC women’s division took a big turn on Tuesday when it was announced that an inaugural women’s featherweight title fight between former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie would be taking place at UFC 208. This comes shortly after UFC President Dana White had stated that he offered Invicta featherweight champion Cris Cyborg two dates to fight for the inaugural title.

Chris Taylor - December 13, 2016

Earlier tonight the UFC announced that former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie would be squaring off at February’s UFC 208 event in Brooklyn for the promotions inaugural women’s featherweight title. In addition to that huge news, ESPN’s Brett Okamoto also revealed that two more fights had been added to the event, which takes place February 11 at the Barclays Center.

Chris Taylor - December 13, 2016

The UFC will crown a new champion at February’s UFC 208 event in Brooklyn. The promotion just announced that former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm will challenge Germaine de Randamie for the inaugural women’s featherweight title at the Barclays Center on February 11.

Russell Ess - December 13, 2016

Newly crowned UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor seems to be enjoying his time off from fighting. In November, “The Notorious” became the first fighter in history to be a concurrent two-weight UFC champion by defeating Eddie Alvarez. For a short period, McGregor held both the UFC featherweight title and lightweight title before “relinquishing” the featherweight belt.

bjpenndotcom - December 13, 2016

UFC lightweight #1 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov has been on a tear of the UFC’s lightweight division since making his return to the Octagon earlier this year. Prior to being sidelined with injuries for two years, ‘The Eagle’ racked up six straight wins in the UFC to extend his undefeated record to 22-0. In April of this year, Nurmagomedov returned to the Octagon where he fought Darrell Horcher, earning himself a second round TKO win. Most recently, Nurmagomedov returned to the Octagon at the UFC’s historic UFC 205 event in November, where he picked up a dominant third round submission win after landing brutal ground & pound shots on Michael Johnson over the course of the first two rounds.

bjpenndotcom - December 13, 2016

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort will be returning to the cage in 2017, just five months after his second round TKO loss to Gegard Mousasi on the main card of UFC 204 back in October. Following the fight, there were reports that Belfort was planning to retire given his dismal 2-3 record over the course of his last 5 fights, which most recently featured a 2-fight losing streak. Belfort took to Instagram following the fight with a message many took to mean that he was retiring, however the MMA vet was quick to explain that he was not retiring, but rather bringing back ‘The Phenom’.

bjpenndotcom - December 13, 2016

After trading call-outs on social media, it appears as though Donald Cerrone and Jorge Masvidal have agreed to fight, and will step into the Octagon at UFC on FOX 23 on January 28th according to MMAFighting. The report also states that the UFC will be officially announcing the bout soon. This past weekend in Toronto, Canada, top ranked UFC welterweight Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone picked up yet another spectacular win as he knocked out Matt Brown in the third round of their co-main event scrap. The fight was a very highly anticipated one, with Cowboy entering the fight on a 3-fight win streak that had seen him go undefeated at welterweight over the course of 2016, finishing all three opponents.

Russell Ess - December 13, 2016

After a war like Cub Swanson and Doo Ho Choi got into over the weekend at UFC 206 in Toronto, Canada, there was a great amount of respect earned for both opponents. The two athletes that left everything they had in the Octagon had gained a great amount of admiration for each other and from fans around the world. Following the announcement of the judge’s unanimous decision in favor of Swanson, the JacksonWink MMA fighter said in his post-fight Octagon interview that Choi lit a fire when he called him out to fight.

bjpenndotcom - December 13, 2016

There have been quite a few major industry-changing advances in the MMA community as of late. Earlier this year, UFC legend Randy Couture joined several fighters, including former UFC fighter Cung Le, in announcing the formation of the MMA Fighters Association. This month however, former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre, former UFC champions TJ Dillashaw and Cain Velasquez, and fan favorite fighters Donald Cerrone & Tim Kennedy announced the formation of the MMA Athletes Association, which was aimed at UFC fighters.