MMA News

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2016

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson have been neck-and-neck atop MMA’s pound-for-pound list for years. Now that Jon Jones is out of competition with a suspension, however, there is little denying that Mighty Mouse is MMA’s pound-for-pound king. According to Mighty Mouse, however, being the pound-for-pound best doesn’t mean all that much. In a recent interview with Fox Sports, Mighty Mouse addressed his place atop this speculative list.

bjpenndotcom - November 30, 2016

I want to see who can Rip some Apples! #SuperSage A video posted by Sage Northcutt (@supersagenorthcutt) on Nov 29, 2016 at 10:46am PST

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2016

Scotland’s Joanne Calderwood, who currently holds the number seven spot in the UFC strawweight rankings, has recently made a home at Montreal’s TriStar gym. As such, she had plans to attend UFC 206 in nearby Toronto, where many of her teammates are fighting. Given her status as one of the best strawweight fighters on earth, Calderwood was under the impression that she might get her hands on a complimentary ticket for the Toronto card. Apparently, however, this will not be the case.

bjpenndotcom - November 30, 2016

Earlier this week the MMA community was stunned when the UFC stripped Irish superstar Conor McGregor of the UFC featherweight championship, and promoted Jose Aldo from the interim featherweight champion to the undisputed featherweight champion. The move came after UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was forced out of his UFC 206 headlining fight with Anthony Johnson due to a torn groin. With Cormier vs. Johnson off the card, the promotion struggled to find a replacement opponent for Johnson, ultimately leading to the decision to strip McGregor of the belt, and promote Jose Aldo so as to make the co-main event scrap between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis an interim featherweight title fight.

bjpenndotcom - November 30, 2016

Over the course of the past week, the UFC has had to fight several wildfires, on several different fronts. The first situation, was UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier withdrawing from his scheduled UFC 206 headlining bout against Anthony Johnson due to a tear in his groin. The promotion’s initial plan was to find a replacement opponent for Johnson, however given that Rumble has not only defeated, but knocked out, every fighter in the top 5 of the light heavyweight division, they were unable to do so. Several men, including middleweights Gegard Mousasi and Tim Kennedy, offered to take the short notice fight with ‘Rumble’ however Johnson has opted to wait for Cormier unless he can find a heavyweight opponent willing to fight.

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2016

It’s been a banner year for undefeated bantamweight Cody Garbrandt. The 25-year-old kicked off 2016 with a first-round knockout of Augusto Mendes. Next up was another first-round KO, this time over the then undefeated Thomas Almeida. Then, in his most recent bout, Garbrandt delivered a 48-second knockout of gritty Japanese veteran Takeya Mizugaki. If Garbrandt is able to win his next fight, however, it will blow all these other impressive performances out of the water. His next fight is, after all, a championship bout with dominant bantamweight king Dominick Cruz. If Garbrandt caps off 2016 with a knockout of Cruz, he’ll have had one of the finest years imaginable in MMA. In fact, he thinks a defeat of Cruz would be more than enough to earn him 2016’s Fighter of the Year award.

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2016

https://youtu.be/KFs-nnYJGXg  

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2016

Good news for fight fans in Toronto. Despite being dealt a sizeable suspension by the New York State Athletic Commission, Kelvin Gastelum is good to go for UFC 206. The Ultimate Fighter 17 winner will return to the middleweight division to take on Tim Kennedy on the December 10 event’s main card. This news was confirmed by Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com.

Russell Ess - November 29, 2016

Cole Miller: My Strained Relationship with the UFC

Russell Ess - November 29, 2016

Conor McGregor made history at UFC 205 when he beat Eddie Alvarez to become the first fighter to be a simultaneous two-division UFC champion. However, his tenure as the UFC’s double champion did not last very long as it was announced over the weekend that the Irish superstar “relinquished” the featherweight title.

Tom Taylor - November 29, 2016

As the champion of the UFC’s stacked middleweight division, England’s Michael Bisping has a big, red target on his back. All around him, dangerous contenders are swirling, each hungry for their shot at the title he swiped from Luke Rockhold earlier this year. Bisping’s next challenge as champion is likely to be provided by former Olympic wrestler Yoel Romero, who earned the title shot with a blistering, flying knee knockout of former champion Chris Weidman on the main card of UFC 205. Just behind Romero is Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, a ferocious grappler who, today, is as known for his fight-altering punching power as he is for his submissions. Beyond Romero and Jacare are dangerous contenders like Gegard Mousasi, who recently dominated Uriah Hall to a first-round TKO, and Robert Whittaker, who turned Derek Brunson off with a head kick last Saturday. Needless to say, the champ is going to need to be absolutely on point if he intends to defend his belts from this murderer’s row of middleweights.

Tom Taylor - November 29, 2016

If Anthony “Rumble” Johnson had his way, he’d be fighting Daniel Cormier for the UFC light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 206 on December 10. Unfortunately for him, Cormier was forced to withdraw from this bout with a groin injury. In the wake of Cormier’s withdrawal from the card, the UFC tried valiantly to find a replacement opponent for Rumble. The most suitable option they could fish out of the small pool of fighters who were willing to fight a monster like Rumble on just a few weeks notice, was the UFC’s fifth ranked middleweight, Gegard Mousasi.

bjpenndotcom - November 29, 2016

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida was recently handed an 18 month suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which will leave him sidelined for another 11 months while he finishes the remaining time left on his suspension. Machida’s case with USADA has been a very public one, with ‘The Dragon’ blaming USADA for not being aware of the fact that the substance he disclosed taking, 7-KETO-DHEA, was on the banned substance list.

Russell Ess - November 29, 2016

UFC superstar Conor McGregor was the first fighter in history to be the champion of two UFC weight classes at the same time. With his historic win over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 that won him the UFC lightweight title while still maintaining the UFC featherweight title, “The Notorious” marked another record to his name and did so with an absolutely brilliant performance.

bjpenndotcom - November 29, 2016

Earlier this month, unfortunate news surfaced that UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier had been forced out of his UFC 206 scrap with Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson on December 10th, and would be sidelined until March due to a torn adductor in his groin. While the UFC began looking for a replacement opponent for ‘Rumble’, it wasn’t long before fight fans realized the odds of Johnson staying on the card were relatively slim given that he has not only defeated, but knocked out, all of the light heavyweights in the top 5.

bjpenndotcom - November 29, 2016

At UFC 205 earlier this month, teammates Chris Weidman and Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson both stepped into the Octagon for fights on the pay-per view portion of the historic fight card. Weidman fought first, stepping into the Octagon for the first time in nearly a year as he fought former Cuban Olympian Yoel Romero in a middleweight #1 contender fight. With the scorecards tied at 1 round each, Weidman found himself KO’d with a brutal flying knee in the third round, which also opened up a horrific cut on the side of his head. Just two fights later, Weidman’s brother in-law, Stephen Thompson, was making his walk to the Octagon for a welterweight title fight with Tyron Woodley.

Tom Taylor - November 29, 2016

What do Anthony Pettis, Sergio Pettis, Urijah Faber, John Dodson, Cub Swanson, Joseph Benavidez, and Henry Cejudo have in common? They all consider UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson one of the best fighters ever. Some have fought him in the past, some hope to fight him in the future, some reside well outside the weight class he rules, but they all agree that the flyweight champion is the pound-for-pound king.

bjpenndotcom - November 29, 2016

Earlier this month at UFC 205, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman returned to the Octagon for the first time in a year. The fight was Weidman’s first since his UFC 194 TKO loss to Luke Rockhold back in early December of 2015, which saw him lose the middleweight championship. When Weidman stepped into the Octagon at UFC 205 earlier this month, it was in front of his hometown New York crowd, where he was fighting top ranked middleweight Yoel Romero. With the fight tied at 1 round each, Weidman appeared to have gained some momentum going into the third round. Unfortunately for ‘The All American’ he found himself on the wrong end of a brutal flying knee KO that also opened up a massive cut on the side of his head.