MMA News

Russell Ess - December 16, 2016

Famed boxing coach and trainer Freddie Roach has worked with some big names in mixed martial arts. From Georges St-Pierre to Anderson Silva, Roach is familiar with talent in both MMA and of course, boxing.

bjpenndotcom - December 16, 2016

This Saturday, MMA veteran Urijah Faber will step into the Octagon for the final time as he squares off against Brad Pickett in what Faber has stated will be his retirement fight. Over the course of his 13-year MMA career ‘The California Kid’ shared the cage with some of the biggest names in MMA including Jose Aldo, Dominick Cruz, and Frankie Edgar to name just a a few. While he was never able to capture UFC gold, Faber held the WEC championship for two years, successfully defending the belt five times over the course of his reign.

bjpenndotcom - December 16, 2016

Unfortunate news surfaced this week that UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping had an expensive Rolex watch stolen from his home in Los Angeles. Bisping posted on social media earlier in the day that he was having construction work done on his house, and that the workers were racing against time to finish the project in just 48 hours before his mother and sister landed from England. Unfortunately, rather than the picture being followed up with a picture of the completed work, the champ took to social media to reveal that his Rolex SubMariner watch had been stolen out of his house.

bjpenndotcom - December 16, 2016

While top ranked lightweight contenders Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson have continued to trade verbal blows via social media, there have been no updates regarding the negotiations for the pair to fight. Earlier this week, Nurmagomedov took to social media to reveal that he had already accepted his next fight, but was simply waiting on his opponent, who remained nameless, to sign the agreement. That was followed up by a social media post from Ferguson, who took to Twitter with a message of his own for Nurmagomedov, in which he stated that he agreed to the fight, however the UFC and Nurmagomedov needed to agree on terms for the fight.

bjpenndotcom - December 16, 2016

This Saturday in Sacramento, California, two of the youngest fighters on the UFC roster, Sage Northcutt and Mickey Gall, will square off in a highly anticipated matchup. At just 20 years old, Northcutt has quite the impressive resume. With an 8-1 professional record, Northcutt has gone 3-1 inside the Octagon, dispatching of Francisco Trevino via first round TKO in his UFC debut, before then submitting Cody Pfister in his second UFC fight. Northcutt then had his two-fight win streak snapped earlier this year when he was submitted by Bryan Barberena in January, marking the first loss of his professional career, as well as his UFC career. ‘Super’ Sage bounced back however, picking up a unanimous decision win over Enrique Marin at UFC 200 in July.

Tom Taylor - December 16, 2016

The first quarter of 2017 will be a big stretch for the heavyweight division, as the UFC has pencilled two huge heavyweight scraps onto the calendar. These fights will see the division’s two best prospects take big steps up in competition against well established names. The first of these heavyweight showdowns will occur on January 28, at UFC on Fox 23, when French-Cameroonian destroyer Francis Ngannou gets the biggest test of his career in former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski. The second will occur just weeks later, when massive Texan Derrick Lewis faces what could be his biggest test in fringe contender Travis Browne. Lewis and Browne will duke it out on February 11, at UFC 208 in Brooklyn.

bjpenndotcom - December 16, 2016

While many combat sports fans believe that talks of a potential Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather boxing match are nothing more than talks to stir up the combat sports community, Mayweather has continued to indicate that he has every intention of fighting Conor McGregor.

Tom Taylor - December 16, 2016

Last weekend, the UFC returned to Toronto, Ontario, Canada for the first time since 2013. The promotion did so with UFC 206. In advance of this Toronto return, the card was heavily criticized for its lack of big names. When its originally planned Daniel Cormier vs. Anthony “Rumble” Johnson main event fell through, these criticisms only grew louder.

Tom Taylor - December 16, 2016

Last November, in the main event of UFC 193, then women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was knocked out by a Holly Holm head-kick in one of the biggest upsets in the history of our sport. She has not returned to the cage since.

Russell Ess - December 15, 2016

Going into the rematch against Nate Diaz, Conor McGregor chose to put his fighting career ahead of starring on the big screen. McGregor was scheduled to play a role in Vin Diesel’s “xXx” movie, which Diesel says he created just for the current UFC lightweight champion.

Russell Ess - December 15, 2016

Phil Brooks, better known by his WWE wrestling name, CM Punk, made his professional mixed martial arts debut at UFC 203 in September. There were some people that were unhappy that the former WWE wrestling superstar seemingly strolled his way into the biggest MMA promotion in the world while others were happy to have the star bring in some new fans over to watch the sport of mixed martial arts.

bjpenndotcom - December 15, 2016

This Saturday, MMA veteran Urijah Fbaer will step into the Octagon for the final time as he fights Brad Pickett in front of his hometown fans in Sacramento, California. For Faber, the fight will mark the end of what has been a truly remarkable MMA career that has seen him compile a 33-10 record over the course of 13 years competing professionally. Given that it would be Faber’s final fight, it came as a surprise to many when the UFC opted to put ‘The California Kid’ as the co-main event behind Paige VanZant vs. Michelle Waterson as the main event.

Russell Ess - December 15, 2016

Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is set to make her comeback after over a year out from competition. “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey will take on the current UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 in a five-round title fight and will get a chance to get back to the top of the division. This comes just a little over a year since Holly Holm shocked the world by knocking Rousey out in the second round of their fight at UFC 193.

Russell Ess - December 15, 2016

Nate Diaz was served a stiff punishment from the Nevada Athletic Commission on Thursday. According to the NAC documents reported by MMA Fighting, Diaz was served a $50,000 fine and ordered to do 50 hours of community service for the water bottle throwing incident at the UFC 202 pre-fight press conference. Diaz and the commission on behalf of NAC executive director Bob Bennett agreed to the punishment.

bjpenndotcom - December 15, 2016

Earlier this year, former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar made his return to the Octagon after five years away from the Octagon. Lesnar fought fan-favorite heavyweight Mark Hunt, and while the fight was a highly anticipated one, the month leading to the bout wasn’t without controversy. It was announced at UFC 199 that Lesnar would fight Hunt at UFC 200, which was just one month away. It was revealed that Lesnar had been given an exemption from the mandatory testing period a fighter must go through in order to become eligible in the eyes of USADA.

bjpenndotcom - December 15, 2016

CAPTION THIS! Best caption wins $10,000.00. The winner will be announced on Monday, Dec 19. Stay tuned ! #TMT A video posted by Floyd Mayweather (@floydmayweather) on Dec 14, 2016 at 8:51pm PST

bjpenndotcom - December 15, 2016

Earlier this month at the ‘Ultimate Fighter: Tournament of Champions’ finale, TUF winner Ryan Hall squared off against UFC veteran Gray Maynard in a fight which had all the makings of an old-school ‘style vs. style’ matchup. Maynard of course looked to keep the fight standing in hopes of landing a big punch and picking up yet another knockout win. Hall on the other hand was looking to take the fight to the mat and use his elite level Jiu-Jitsu to secure a submission win. With that being said, the way Hall looked to get the fight to the ground was a bit controversial. Upon Maynard closing the distance, Hall would slip a punch and drop to the canvas looking for a leg lock on ‘The Bully’.

bjpenndotcom - December 15, 2016

Top ranked women’s bantamweight contender Julianna Pena has been on a tear of the women’s bantamweight division recently. After winning the Ultimate Fighter season 18 by defeating Jessica Rakoczy in 2013, Pena was forced to sit on the sidelines with injuries for nearly 2 years. In early 2015, she returned to the Octagon when he fought Milana Dudieva at ‘UFC Fight Night: Fairfax’. Pena won the fight in the very first round via TKO. In her next Octagon outing, Pena successfully defeated Jessia Eye at UFC 192. Most recently, Pena picked up arguably the biggest win of her career when she defeated Cat Zingano via unanimous decision earlier this year at UFC 200.