MMA News

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.

Tom Taylor - December 13, 2016

  Last Saturday, the UFC returned to Toronto for the first time since 2013 with UFC 206. Though the card was somewhat lacking in big names, it delivered as an unforgettably exciting night of combat all the same.

bjpenndotcom - December 13, 2016

This month has been a busy one for the UFC’s featherweight division. After Irish superstar Conor McGregor, who reigned as the featherweight champion at the time, successfully made his lightweight debut in November when he TKOd Eddie Alvarez to capture the lightweight championship, he then opted to relinquish the featherweight championship. As a result, the UFC chose to promote interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo to the undisputed featherweight champion, and make this past Saturday’s UFC 206 main event scrap between Max Holloway & Anthony Pettis an interim featherweight championship fight. While the fight was initially slated to be the co-main event, after UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier withdrew from his scheduled headlining fight with Anthony Johnson due to a groin injury, the co-main event scrap between Holloway & Pettis was promoted to the main event.

bjpenndotcom - December 13, 2016

Top ranked UFC light heavyweight contender Anthony Johnson recently found himself left without an opponent for UFC 206 after UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier withdrew from their scheduled main event scrap for the title. While middleweights Tim Kennedy and Gegard Mousasi offered to step in and fight Johnson on short notice, ‘Rumble’ had his sights set on a potential move to heavyweight to once again fight Andrei Arlovski.

Tom Taylor - December 13, 2016

https://youtu.be/W9KHt-TVFuY In November of 2015, Ronda Rousey touched down in Melbourne, Australia to defend the UFC women’s bantamweight title against unheralded striking specialist Holly Holm. At that time, the Rousey hype train was rumbling along at full speed. Pretty much the entire world expected her to blow through Holm, as evidenced by her status as a baffling -1100 betting favorite.

Russell Ess - December 13, 2016

Georges St-Pierre has been trying to negotiate for another fight in the UFC after not competing in mixed martial arts for over three years. The former kingpin of the UFC welterweight division who hails from Canada was in talks with the UFC to fight at UFC 206, which was in Toronto but both sides failed to come to an agreement. St-Pierre and his lawyer have stated since the failed negotiations, the former UFC champion was a free agent but nothing has resulted in the claimed free agency as of yet.

Tom Taylor - December 13, 2016

With lightweight champion Conor McGregor currently on a hiatus from competition, during which he will father his first child with girlfriend Dee Devlin, the lightweight limelight is shining on two men: Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson. Under normal circumstances, it would be difficult to deny either of these two dynamic contenders a lightweight title shot. With McGregor currently on the shelf, however, Nurmagomedov and Ferguson are faced with two options: wait for McGregor to return, and hope they win the sweepstakes to become his next opponent, or take another fight in the meantime.

Tom Taylor - December 13, 2016

Today, the UFC heavyweight division is ruled by Croatian-American destroyer Stipe Miocic. Miocic won the title back in May, when he flatlined an overaggressive Fabricio Werdum with a brilliantly placed punch. The heavyweight king then made a successful defense of his title in September, when he delivered his third straight first-round KO against decorated veteran Alistair Overeem. In the wake of his knockout of Overeem, Miocic has elected to take a bit of time off to recharge his batteries. While he does so, the heavyweight division’s highest ranked contenders, Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez, will battle for a shot at him when he’s ready to return.

Tom Taylor - December 13, 2016

The next two UFC cards will be headlined by two of the biggest names in women’s MMA. The first, which will go down this Saturday and air on Fox, will see strawweight superstar Paige VanZant take on a stark test in “The Karate Hottie” Michelle Waterson. The second, which will occur the following weekend and air on pay-per-view, will see MMA icon Ronda Rousey return from more than a year on the shelf to a bantamweight title fight with reigning champ Amanda Nunes.

Russell Ess - December 12, 2016

The lightweight title picture is focusing in on the top two ranked lightweights all aiming for that shot at newly crowned UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. UFC President Dana White has stated that “The Notorious” is taking 10 months off from fighting for the birth of his first child, which is due in the summer of 2017. This leaves more than enough time for #1 UFC ranked lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov and #2 ranked lightweight Tony Ferguson to finally settle their differences inside of the Octagon.

Chris Taylor - December 12, 2016

Two massive welterweight rematches are apparently in the works for March’s UFC 209 event in Las Vegas. Last month following his UFC 205 majority decision draw against welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, top 170-pound contender Stephen Thompson revealed to BJPENN.com that a rematch between himself and “The Chosen One’ was already in the works for February or March of 2017.

Russell Ess - December 12, 2016

Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate recently retired from the sport of mixed martial arts following her unanimous decision loss to Raquel Pennington at UFC 205 last month. However, that hasn’t eliminated “Cupcake” from all competition as she just participated in the Submission Underground 2 event that took place over the weekend.

Tom Taylor - December 12, 2016

Back in October, UFC featherweight Cole Miller expected to take a flight to Manila to duke it out with Mizuto Hirota. Unfortunately, the organization cancelled this Manila card at the last minute, leaving many of the fighters on the card without their expected paydays. Miller was one of these fighters. Having undertaken an expensive training camp, Miller approached the UFC about getting more than the small amount of compensation he was offered in the wake of this cancelled card. When they wouldn’t play ball, the disgruntled featherweight aired his grievances in an interview with Sherdog.com.

Russell Ess - December 12, 2016

Matt Brown and Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone engaged in one of the great fights from the exhilerating UFC 206 event that took place at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto over the weekend. Brown and Cerrone went to war in a back and forth battle that came to an end in the third round where Cerrone landed a devastating kick to the head of Brown as he was leaning into the powerful attack. Brown dropped to the canvas and Cerrone realized Brown’s condition and did not need to follow up with any strikes to the downed veteran.

Russell Ess - December 12, 2016

Jon Jones and Dan Henderson’s grappling match at the Submission Underground 2 event that took place over the weekend may have just started something very interesting. Jones was able to secure an arm-triangle choke on the recently retired MMA legend and forced “Hendo” to submit at 6:39 of the competition.

Russell Ess - December 12, 2016

Recently promoted UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo says he is set to return to the Octagon at UFC 208, which takes place in Brooklyn, New York on February 11. Aldo told the media in Brazil on Monday that he will fight Max Holloway in a UFC featherweight title unification bout as Holloway just won the UFC interim featherweight title by beating Anthony Pettis at UFC 206 over the weekend.

Russell Ess - December 12, 2016

Being a referee in combat sports can sometimes be a dangerous job as the ref is the only one in the cage or ring with the two combatants. Sometimes accidents happen where the official is caught by a punch or kick on accident, trying to break up an exchange with the round ending or calling an end to a fight.