MMA News

bjpenndotcom - December 10, 2016

Earlier this month, news surfaced that UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor had relinquished his featherweight championship. While his reign as a simultaneous two-division champ was certainly a short one, the Irish superstar still holds the UFC lightweight championship. With the news of Conor McGregor relinquishing the title, interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo was promoted to the undisputed featherweight champion, and UFC 206’s co-main event bout between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis was promoted to the main event, and made into an interim featherweight title fight. With that being said, Pettis missed weight by three pounds Friday afternoon, forcing the UFC to change the bout so that even with a victory, Pettis would be unable to claim the interim featherweight belt. While many fans criticized the UFC for forcing McGregor to relinquish a belt, only to have one of the main event fighters miss weight, UFC 206 fighter Cub Swanson is thrilled McGregor no longer reigns as the featherweight champ.

bjpenndotcom - December 10, 2016

Since the new WME-IMG UFC owners took control of the company earlier this year, they have continued to fire numerous high-profile employees, including UFC Canada’s Tom Wright, and UFC Hall of Famers Chuck Liddell & Matt Hughes to name just a few. Recently, there were reports circulating that in order to potentially secure a new TV deal, the promotion was looking to replace the “hype” style of commentary that longtime commentators Joe Rogan & Mike Goldberg brought to the table. While there has been no further reports on the matter, Joe Rogan’s friend, Eddie Bravo, recently asked on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience’s Fight Companion “Who’s taking Mike Goldberg’s spot?” which led to a period of awkward silence with Joe Rogan and Brendan Schaub, potentially indicating that there was some truth behind Bravo’s question.

bjpenndotcom - December 10, 2016

Well, this is a first! #UFCAlbany https://t.co/Fx3O76nU02 — UFC (@ufc) December 10, 2016

Russell Ess - December 9, 2016

UFC 206 takes place on Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The Canada card has had a couple big shakeups as the originally planned main event for UFC 206 took a turn when it was revealed weeks out from the fight that Daniel Cormier was forced out of his UFC light heavyweight title defense against Anthony “Rumble” Johnson due to suffering an injury.

Chris Taylor - December 9, 2016

A heavyweight tilt between Derrick Lewis and Shamil Abdurakhimov served as the main event of tonight’s UFC Fight Night 102 card in Albany, New York. Round one begins and Lewis attempts a high kick but Abdurakhimov catches it and takes Derrick to the ground. Shamil moves to side control and begins working on a keylock submission attempt. He switches for a kimura lock. Lewis scrambles and stands back up. Abdurakhimov has a body lock and pushes Lewis against the cage. The fighters exchange knees. Shamil with some short shots from the clinch. Lewis switches the position briefly but Shamil adjusts and presses him back up against the fence. The fighters break and Lewis misses with a front kick. Abdurakhimov circles away and lands a leg kick. Lewis presses forward and grabs a hold of Shamil. Abdurakhimov uses the clinch position to push Lewis back up against the fence. Derrick escapes and circles out. He lands a big leg kick but Shamil catches the strike and scores a takedown. He begins working from full guard. He moves to mount and lands a couple of strikes before the horn sounds to end round one.

Chris Taylor - December 9, 2016

A heavyweight bout between Francis Ngannou and Anthony Hamilton served as the co-main event bout of tonight’s UFC Fight Night 102 fight card in Albany, New York. Round one begins and Hamilton is able to get a hold of a Francis kick and press Ngannou against the cage. Ngannou looks to secure a kimura and uses the hold to get Anthony to the floor. Francis continues to work on the submission and secures it. Hamilton has no choice but to tapout. Wow! What a win for Ngannou.

Chris Taylor - December 9, 2016

A light heavyweight bout between Corey Anderson and Sean O’Connell took place on tonight’s UFC Fight Night 102 main card in Albany, New York. Round one begins and O’Connell starts things off with a leg kick. Anderson circles out and then comes in with a combination. Sean with a nice kick to the body. He presses forward and lands a left. Anderson grabs a hold of O’Connell and slams him to the floor. Corey moves immediately to side control and begins working some knees to the body. O’Connell gets back to half guard but eats some short shots and elbows for his troubles. Anderson with some short right hands from the half guard position. He has Sean pressed against the cage and switches to elbows. More good short right hands from Anderson. Two minutes remain. Big elbows now from Anderson. O’Connell scrambles and tries to stand back up. He utilizes the cage to wall walk but Anderson trips him back down to the canvas. O’Connell keeps battling and manages to get back to his feet. Anderson takes him right back down however and once again begins unloading some heavy ground and pound. Corey is working from half guard and landing some good short left hands. Round one comes to an end.

Chris Taylor - December 9, 2016

A light heavyweight bout between Gian Villante and Saparbek Safarov kicked off tonight’s UFC Fight Night 102 main card in Albany, New York. Round one begins and Safarov opens with a leg kick and then a stiff jab. Villante answers back with a hard leg kick of his own. Gian lands a nice shot that opens up a cut on Saparbek. Villante circles and then comes in with a nice body shot. Safarov with a nice leg kick. Villante comes forward and lands a big shot that drops Safarov. Saparbek gets back up and eats a huge uppercut for his efforts. He’s back on the floor and Gian comes in with punches from the top. Villante opts to let Safarov back up. Saparbek charges forward with punches. He lands a shot but then eats a right hand from Villante. Another crisp jab scores for Gian. Safarov throws a front kick and it connects low. We break so that Gian can recover from the groin shot. We restart and Villante lands a big shot. Safarov returns fire with a nice combination. He lands a big shot that drops Villante. Gian pops right back up but he eats another hard right hand. Saparbek presses him against the cage and works a knee. The fighters break off of the fence and Safarov lands another nice counter right hand. Gian with a leg kick. Saparbek with a right hand. Round one comes to an end.

Russell Ess - December 9, 2016

UFC Hall of Famer and two-division champion, BJ Penn, will make his anticipated return back to the octagon on January 15 at UFC Fight Night 103 against Yair Rodriguez. As the former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion, Penn will be eyeing to win his third title, now in the featherweight division.

Russell Ess - December 9, 2016

With the five famous fighters that were a part of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association announcement last week, UFC President Dana White has said that “fighters can go out and do what they want to do — they are all grown men.” However, White did state that he was surprised to see Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone as one of the five fighters standing as a part of the association, especially after White helped him out with a legal situation where White paid for Cerrone’s attorney out of his own pocket. White was a guest on Tim & Sid on Sportsnet and commented on Cerrone’s involvement with the MMAAA and the conversation that he had with Cerrone following the announcement of the association.

Russell Ess - December 9, 2016

There is a UFC interim featherweight title on the line in the main event of UFC 206, which takes place at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Saturday night.

bjpenndotcom - December 9, 2016

"You don't take that advice. You don't listen to a doctor."- @bisping on Anthony Pettis. #UFC206 https://t.co/qt8NfxmQZk — FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) December 9, 2016

Tom Taylor - December 9, 2016

Until this morning, Anthony Pettis had never missed weight for a fight. Now, that’s a claim he can unfortunately no longer make. The former lightweight champion and current featherweight contender was regrettably unable to make the featherweight division’s 145-pound limit for his planned UFC 206 interim title fight with Max Holloway.

bjpenndotcom - December 9, 2016

On this episode of American Animals, the animals are joined by “The California Kid”, Urijah Faber! Faber discusses his upcoming final fight at UFC on Fox 22, the legacy he leaves behind, and his multiple business ventures. Also, Erik and Ian welcome Melkon Khosrovian, founder of the Greenbar Craft Distillery. Greenbar is the first distillery in Los Angeles since prohibition and the largest maker of organic spirits in the world. Join us for this episode of American Animals! You can email your questions and comments to info@2americananimals.com and find the show at www.2americananimals.com on the web, on social media at facebook.com/2AmericanAnimals and @2AmericanAnimal on Twitter and @2AmericanAnimals on Instagram.

Tom Taylor - December 9, 2016

On Friday morning, we learned that former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis had missed weight for his UFC 206 interim featherweight title fight with Max Holloway. Though this weigh-in miss will thankfully not force the cancellation of their bout, it will nix Pettis’ chances of winning interim featherweight gold. Holloway will still be crowned interim champion with a win, but Pettis will not. Needless to say, this was a disappointing twist for fight fans. Perhaps nobody was more disappointed by the news, however, than UFC President Dana White, who has been bending over backwards trying to keep the UFC 206 lineup from falling apart.

Russell Ess - December 9, 2016

UFC fan favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone caught a lot of people’s attention with his injury that he claims was from a real accident. Just weeks away from his fight against Matt Brown at UFC 206 taking place in Toronto, Canada, Cerrone posted a video of a gruesomely injured eye. Cerrone explained to MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani at a UFC 206 media interview that he doctored his actual injury up just to get some attention.

Tom Taylor - December 9, 2016

In mixed martial arts, athletic commissions are known for their strange policies and their iron-fisted enforcement of those policies. The latest manifestation of this reputation occurred this morning, when the Ontario Athletic Commission, who will oversee UFC 206 in Toronto, forced main card fighter Emil Meek to shave his trademark beard. Failure to do so, they said, would result in his expulsion from the card. Meek took to Facebook to announce that he’d been asked to shave his beard early Friday morning. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t pleased by this development.

bjpenndotcom - December 9, 2016

Friday morning, unfortunate news surfaced that former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis had missed weight for his scheduled UFC 206 interim featherweight title fight with Max Holloway. Pettis, who missed weight by three pounds for the event, is no longer eligible to win the interim featherweight championship in the fight, and also forfeited 20% of his purse to Holloway. This of course stirred up quite a bit of controversy given that former UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor was forced to relinquish his featherweight championship in order for the UFC to make the fight between Holloway and Pettis an interim featherweight championship fight, with Jose Aldo subsequently being promoted to the undisputed featherweight champion.