MMA News

Chris Taylor - November 12, 2016

A key middleweight tilt between former champion Chris Weidman (13-2) and surging contender Yoel Romero (13-1) took place during tonight’s UFC 205 main card in New York. Round one begins and Weidman starts things off with a leg kick. He presses forward with a front kick and the lands another low kick. Romero fakes a kick and Weidman miss with one of his own. Both fighters pawing with the jab. Weidman leans in right. He scores with a left jab. Weidman with the forward pressure here. Romero lands a nice kick to the body. Weidman shoots for a takedown and gets it. Yoel pops right back up. Weidman goes upstairs with a head kick that is partially blocked. Romero has his right hand cocked. Weidman with back to back kicks to the body. He misses with an axe kick but lands a low kick. And another. He is throwing a lot of volume here. Romero gets a hold of Weidman but it is short lived. Romero with a low kick. Chris shoots in and scores a takedown. Romero is able to get back up and round one comes to an end.

bjpenndotcom - November 12, 2016

Saturday night in New York, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate returned to the Octagon to fight Raquel Pennington, where she looked to return to the win column after losing her UFC women’s bantamweight championship to Amanda Nunes earlier this year at UFC 200. Tate lost the fight against Pennington via unanimous decision, nearly getting submitted in the first round, before getting picked apart in the remaining two rounds. Following the fight, Tate was quick to announce her retirement in her post-fight Octagon interview, in which she explained that she had thought about possibly retiring after the fight, with the outcome of the fight playing a major role in her decision to call it a career.

Chris Taylor - November 12, 2016

Following her UFC 205 unanimous decision loss to Raquel Pennington at tonight’s UFC 205 event in New York, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate announced her retirement from the sport of mixed martial arts. Tate, who had won the UFC women’s bantamweight champion at UFC 196 this past March by submitting Holly Holm, was dominated by Pennington throughout the fight, particularly in the stand-up.

Chris Taylor - November 12, 2016

A women’s bantamweight scrap between former champion Miesha Tate (18-7) and Raquel Pennington (9-5) kicked off tonight’s UFC 205 fight card in New York. Round one begins and Tate starts things off with left. They exchange quickly. Miesha with a low kick. She follows up with a right. Pennington counters with a strike. Tate circles and lands an inside leg kick. Pennington with a right hook and then a jab. She lands another. She is applying pressure. Miesha with an inside leg kick. A nice leg kick and then a jab scores for Raquel. Miesha is already busted up. She pushes forward. Raquel lands an uppercut. Miesha presses her against the cage and begins looking for a takedown. She attempts a double leg. Raquel defends and locks in a guillotine choke. It is deep. Miesha wall walks on multiple occasions to survive the choke. Wow. Miesha Tate scores the takedown after all of that. Pennington scoots to the cage in attempt to wall-walk. She is able to get back to her feet. Miesha is on her back though. She is attempting to take the back of Pennington along the fence here. Pennington drops down for a submission and the horn sounds to end round one.

Chris Taylor - November 12, 2016

A key lightweight tilt between Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0) and Michael Johnson (18-11) took place during tonight’s UFC 205 preliminary fight card in New York city. Round one begins and Johnson misses with a left hook to start. Khabib presses forward but eats an uppercut. He backs off and Johnson comes forward with a right. Michael lands a nice leg kick. He follows that up with a left hook. Another leg kick and a left from Johnson. “The Menace” lands a pair of jabs to the body. Johnson goes upstairs and rocks Khabib. Nurmagomedov presses forward and shoots in for a takedown. He eventually gets it and moves immediately to side control. He secures a mounted crucifix. Johnson scrambles and gets his arm free. Khabib remains in side control and delivers some short shots. Johnson battles his way to half guard. Big elbows from the top by Nurmagomedov. He switches to punches and begins teeing off. Johnson is scrambling but he cannot escape the position. Huge shots from the top by Khabib. He moves to full mount. Huge shots from Khabib. These left hands are hard. More big shots. This fight is close to being stopped. Johnson survives to see round two.

Chris Taylor - November 12, 2016

A middleweight scrap between seasoned veterans Tim Boetsch (20-10) and Rafael Natal (21-8-1) took place on tonight’s UFC 205 prelims in New York. Round one begins and Boetsch presses forward and throws a right hand. He follows that up with a front kick that misses. Boetsch is really coming forward here. He gets caught with a counter left but eats it. Tim with a right hand and Natal is now bleeding. Natal shoots in but Tim defends and lands another right hand. Natal is circling away as Tim continues his relentless forward pressure. A nice leg kick scores for Boetsch. He misses with a follow up front kick. Natal misses with a wild right hand. Tim counters with a left. Natal circles away and lands a body kick. Boetsch comes forward and catches Natal with a bomb of a right hand. Rafael drops and Tim follows up with some ground and pound and this one is all over!

Chris Taylor - November 12, 2016

A welterweight bout between Vicente Luque (11-5-1) and Belal Muhammad (10-2) kicked off tonight’s UFC 205 prelims on FS1. Round one begins and Luque misses with a high kick but lands back-to-back low kicks. Muhammad responds with a low kick of his own. Luque with another nice leg kick and then he lands one to the body of Belal. Vicente is using a lot of pressure. He lands a right hand. He scores a huge left hook that drops Muhammad. He follows up with ground and pound and this one is over.

Chris Taylor - November 12, 2016

A catchweight scrap between Jim Miller (28-8) and Thiago Alves (21-11) served as the featured bout of tonight’s UFC Fight Pass prelims in New York. Round one begins and Miller presses forward and lands a jab. He follows that up with a leg kick. Jim pressing the action here and lands a jab upstairs and then one to the mid section. Alves lands a nice counter. He misses with a wild right. Miller comes forward and lands a nice straight left. Alves fires back with a kick to the body. Both men land jabs. Miller lands a left. Thiago goes upstairs with a kick but it is caught. Miller uses that to score a takedown. He begins working from full guard. Jim tries to take the back of Alves but Thiago scrambles and gets back to his feet. Miller lands a nice right. Alves with a kick to the body. Miller fires back with a hard low kick. The fighters trade punches. Miller with rights and Thiago with lefts. Alves goes for a high kick but it is blocked. Round one comes to an end.

bjpenndotcom - November 12, 2016

Tonight in New York, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor and UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez will step into the Octagon for a highly anticipated lightweight title fight. The fight will give McGregor the opportunity to become the first simultaneous two-division UFC champion, eight months after he was scheduled to contest for the lightweight title at UFC 196 against Rafael dos Anjos.

Chris Taylor - November 12, 2016

Last week on the UFC 205 conference call current UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez took a shot at Conor McGregor’s previous opponents, claiming that the brash Irish superstar had fought “a bunch of chumps”. Alvarez went on to take shots at McGregor’s most recent opponent, Nate Diaz, saying the following about the Stockton Slugger.

bjpenndotcom - November 12, 2016

Tonight, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor will take the Octagon against UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in a historic title fight that could see McGregor cement his place in the UFC’s history books as he could potentially become the first simultaneous two-division UFC champion. The way top ranked UFC middleweight Gegard Mousasi sees it however, McGregor shouldn’t be in this position. He spoke to MMAWeekly:

Chris Taylor - November 12, 2016

Yesterday morning news broke that former TUF winner Kelvin Gastelum had missed weight for his scheduled UFC 205 fight with Donald Cerrone, forcing the promotion to scrap the bout entirely from tomorrow night’s historic card in New York. Following the news, UFC welterweight Jorge Masvidal took to Twitter where he offered to fight “Cowboy” on short-notice.

bjpenndotcom - November 12, 2016

While Michael Bisping currently reigns as the UFC middleweight champion, ‘The Count’ knows, no one can fight forever. On the heels of his impressive unanimous decision win over Dan Henderson in Manchester, England last month in the main event of UFC 204, Bisping is currently waiting to find out who the next challenger to his middleweight title will be. In the meantime, it looked as though Bisping would be fighting former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre at UFC 206 in Toronto, although negotiations between St-Pierre and the UFC failed, leaving Bisping sidelined as he recovered from injuries sustained in his UFC 204 fight with Dan Henderson.

bjpenndotcom - November 12, 2016

https://youtu.be/KHlEl9DNu6c Friday afternoon at the UFC 205 early weigh-ins, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor and UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley were involved in a brief situation which had the MMA community buzzing. Woodley walked past McGregor, who appeared to nod at Woodley. When ‘The Chosen One’ didn’t reciprocate the gesture, McGregor continued to eye the welterweight champ down.

Chris Taylor - November 12, 2016

Tomorrow night, on the main card of UFC 205 in New York, former Olympic wrestler Yoel Romero will take on former middleweight champion Chris Weidman in a highly anticipated middleweight bout. In advance of this pivotal showdown, the Cuban contender joined Chris Taylor on BJPenn.com’s Rapid Fire where he discussed a number of different topics including which champions he thought would retain their respective titles tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden. “I believe that Conor McGregor will become the first fighter to carry two belts simultaneously in UFC history. I do believe that Tyron Woodley is going to successfully defend his title against Stephen Thompson. I think he will win this one for sure. As for Joanna. I believe she will continue to dominate that weight class for a long time to come.”

Russell Ess - November 12, 2016

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor will be fighting at lightweight for the first time in his UFC career on Saturday at UFC 205. “The Notorious” will look to put on the performance of his life at 155 pounds as he takes on UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in what could potentially be the most historic fight of the Irishman’s career. If McGregor gets his hand raised over Alvarez on Saturday night, he will be the first fighter to hold two UFC division’s titles simultaneously.

Russell Ess - November 11, 2016

The UFC women’s strawweight championship takes place on what many are calling the biggest UFC event ever to take place. UFC 205 will feature three championship title fights with the UFC women’s strawweight title fight between champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz starting off the championship fights.

Chris Taylor - November 11, 2016

Earlier today current UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor and current UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley had a rather intense moment backstage at the UFC 205’s weigh ins. Following their brief stare-down backstage, the UFC champions decided to trade barbs on Twitter which resulted in McGregor calling “The Chosen One” a “Twitter bitch” while Woodley fired back asking “Mystic Mac” why he was afraid to talk shit in person.