MMA News

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.

bjpenndotcom - December 15, 2016

Earlier this month, former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre joined several other high-profile fighters such as Cain Velasquez, TJ Dillashaw, Donald Cerrone, and Tim Kennedy in announcing the formation of the MMA Athletes Association. The association was the first of its kind, and while the MMA Fighters Association was announced earlier this year, the MMAAA featured marquee fighters such as St-Pierre & Velasquez, and was geared towards helping UFC fighters.

Russell Ess - December 14, 2016

Despite losing the initially scheduled UFC light heavyweight main event between champion Daniel Cormier and challenger Anthony Johnson, the UFC 206 card that took place in Toronto, Canada over the weekend gave fans an action packed event.

Russell Ess - December 14, 2016

The thought of a Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor boxing match has been talked about for some time now. The undefeated and retired boxing superstar claims to have even started the rumor of arranging a fight with McGregor and the talk will surely not stop as long as Mayweather and McGregor keep talking about each other.

bjpenndotcom - December 14, 2016

BJPENN.COM Radio is back at 8PM ET/5PM PT tonight with a streamlined episode for your listening pleasure! 8:15PM ET- Tiffany “The Time Bomb” Van Soest @TiffanyTimeBomb will join us from Amsterdam via the magic of prerecording. The first ever GLORY Women’s Super Bantamweight champ recaps the tournament in which she captured the title and gives us a critique on her performance. She gives us some insight as to what the crowd was like, what she thought of the main event between Hari and Verhoeven, the transition to MMA, what her plans are for competing in both sports and how she matches up with MMA’s straw weights. “The Time Bomb” even interviews our host periodically during the discussion. From winning titles to kicking banana trees, Van Soest is always a great interview!

Russell Ess - December 14, 2016

Newly promoted UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is hungry for a rematch against his rival Conor McGregor. After being defeated for the first time in ten years in a shocking 13-second knockout coming from the hands of McGregor at UFC 194, Aldo is looking to follow the Irishman up to the UFC lightweight division if that is what it is going to take to challenge him again.

Tom Taylor - December 14, 2016

This Saturday, the UFC will touch down in sun-soaked Sacramento, California with UFC on Fox 22. One of the many highlights of this card is a welterweight scrap between bona fide excitement generators “Platinum” Mike Perry and Alan Jouban. Given the propensity for violence shared by these two fighters, many fans consider their imminent scrap a contender for Fight of the Night honors. In fact, it seems to have all the ingredients required to go down as an absolute classic.

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.

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, and #11 ranked women’s bantamweight Germaine de Randamie would be fighting for the inaugural women’s featherweight championship at UFC 208 on February 11th. That didn’t sit too well with Invicta FC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg, who is now 2-0 in the UFC after making her successful UFC debut earlier this year. According to UFC President Dana White, Cyborg turned down two fights for the inaugural UFC women’s featherweight championship, forcing the promotion to opt to give the title fight to Holm & Randamie.

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.

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

Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone is one of the most popular fighters in the game today. This is due in part to his high-action fighting style, but it can also be attributed to his action-packed lifestyle outside the cage. When the former lightweight title challenger and current welterweight contender isn’t training and fighting, he’s rock climbing, horseback riding, hunting, wake boarding, bull riding, scuba diving, and sometimes almost dying as a result.

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.

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.