MMA News

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2016

UFC 205, which will mark the Octagon’s long-awaited debut in New York City, New York, is now mere days away. As this mammoth event draws ever closer, the UFC has released the second instalment of its Embedded series, which follows the event’s stars as they make their last preparations and complete their final media obligations.

Russell Ess - November 9, 2016

The 45th President of the United States of America was voted on by the people of the country on Tuesday. Late Tuesday, early Wednesday depending on where you were in the states, Trump gave his victory speech where he stated that Hillary Clinton called him to concede the race. Members of the MMA community have reacted in different ways. Some with humor, some in disbelief, and others in pure joy.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2016

Lol pic.twitter.com/mdGDOUm4pc — Derrick Lewis (@Thebeast_ufc) November 9, 2016

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2016

This weekend, on the main card of UFC 205, middleweight contender Yoel Romero will look to extend his win-streak to a whopping 8 by defeating former champ Chris Weidman. If he’s able to do so impressively, it’ll be difficult to deny him a title shot against reigning middleweight champion Michael Bisping. Unfortunately for Romero, Bisping does not seem to be interested in this fight. On a recent episode of his podcast The Countdown with Michael Bisping & Luis J Gomez, Bisping asserted that he’d be hesitant to fight Romero, even if he defeats Weidman at UFC 205. The champ’s reluctance is based on Romero’s recent brush with USADA, which was ultimately deemed to be the result of his consumption of a tainted supplement.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2016

Japan’s Rizin Fighting Federation will close out 2016 in the biggest way possible, with the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals of their hyped Openweight Grand Prix. The tournament quarterfinals will occur on December 29, while the semifinals and finals will occur two nights later on the 31. Late on Tuesday night, the Japanese organization revealed the brackets for these final tournament rounds.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2016

Good news for fight fans in Canada and the United Kingdom: The UFC is planning stops in both countries in the first quarter of 2017. The organization will first take over beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on February 19, before returning to London, England’s O2 Arena on March 18. The UFC’s February show in Halifax will mark their second trip to the city. Their first visit to the Nova Scotian capital occured in October of 2014. That card was headlined by a welterweight contender bout between former Strikeforce champion Tarec Saffiedine and Canadian star Rory MacDonald. MacDonald would win the fight by third round TKO. This win would propel him into the lone title fight of his UFC career: a famous 2015 brawl with former champ Robbie Lawler. This first Halifax card also saw Raphael Assuncao defeat Bryan Caraway, while Canadian talents like Chad Laprise, Elias Theodorou, Nordine Taleb and Mitch Gagnon also picked up big wins on the card. As of now, it’s not known who will headline this Halifax return, though fans in the city can expect the bill to be stacked with Canadian fighters.

bjpenndotcom - November 8, 2016

The best Bantamweight MMA fighter yet, and the current king of the UFC 135 pounders, Dominick Cruz , joins American Animals to talk about some where he comes from, what it was like in the beginning of his career, and tells us what he thinks about future competition. Also, we hear from Hollywood Insider, Todd Bowman, about the direction that nightclubs are going in.

Chris Taylor - November 8, 2016

Current UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor will look to make history by defeating current UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez this Saturday night in New York. If the brash Irish star is able to dethrone Alvarez in the evenings main event, he will become the first fighter in the promotions history to hold two belts simultaneously.

Chris Taylor - November 8, 2016

UFC 205 goes down next Saturday November 12 live from New York City’s historic Madison Square Garden arena. The blockbuster event is arguably the most highly anticipated fight card in the promotions history. The biggest fight on the card, unsurprisingly, is its main event super-fight, which will see Eddie Alvarez defend his UFC lightweight title against reigning UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor. Alvarez won the title in July by smashing the streaking Rafael Dos Anjos to a first-round TKO win. McGregor, meanwhile, won featherweight gold with a 13-second KO of Jose Aldo last December. The brash Irish superstar has spent his last two fights battling Nate Diaz at welterweight. If the Irishman is successful against Alvarez, he will become the first fighter ever to hold two UFC titles simultaneously.

Chris Taylor - November 8, 2016

Earlier today news broke that former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans had been forced out of his scheduled UFC 205 bout with Tim Kennedy. “Suga” spoke to MMAFighting.com about why he was forced to withdraw from the fight with Kennedy stating the following:

Russell Ess - November 8, 2016

Many fans were upset to hear the news that UFC 205 lost a big fight on Tuesday. Tim Kennedy just arrived in New York for his scheduled match against Rashad Evans on Tuesday only to find out that Evans was pulled from competition. Evans told MMA Fighting that he was in great shape and that no one needed to worry about him but was facing an issue with the athletic commission in New York that will not allow him to compete.

bjpenndotcom - November 8, 2016

Unfortunate news surfaced Tuesday afternoon that former UFC champion Rashad Evans had been forced to withdraw from his scheduled UFC 205 scrap with Tim Kennedy this weekend. The fight, which was set to serve as Evans highly anticipated middleweight debut, would have taken place on the Fox Sports 1 preliminary card of the event.

Russell Ess - November 8, 2016

Very sad news came was revealed with the passing of a member of the MMA community in September.

Tom Taylor - November 8, 2016

UFC 200, which occured in July of this year, was supposed to be a great card. Unfortunately, its lineup was torn asunder by injuries and PED busts, until it stood out as more of good card. We’ve been much more lucky in the case of UFC 205, the mammoth card that marks the UFC’s debut in New York City. Though the card was hit by one shakeup when Lyman Good was forced out of his planned bout with Belal Muhammad due a potential USADA violation, the card has otherwise gone unscathed.

bjpenndotcom - November 8, 2016

Back in July, at UFC 200, Frankie Edgar & Jose Aldo stepped into the Octagon to square off for the interim featherweight championship. In addition to the pair fighting for the interim featherweight strap, they were also fighting for a chance to step into the Octagon with featherweight champion Conor McGregor, who knocked out Aldo in just 13 seconds to claim the featherweight championship back in December at UFC 194. As if the stakes weren’t high enough, the fight was also a rematch between the pair, who first met at UFC 156 in 2013, where Aldo secured a unanimous decision win to retain the featherweight title.

Russell Ess - November 8, 2016

With the UFC having Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey headlining two of the last three pay-per-view cards of the year, the company is surely looking end the year with a bang. TMZ recently caught up with UFC commentator Joe Rogan ahead of UFC 205 and asked the skilled martial artist who he thinks made the most money between UFC stars Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey.

Tom Taylor - November 8, 2016

Not long ago, top middleweight contender Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza was expected to take on Luke Rockhold in the main event of the UFC’s November 26 return to Melbourne, Australia. When Rockhold was forced out of the bout with an injury, however, Jacare was left without a dance partner. Though this injury was certainly an unfortunate twist, it also left Jacare in the perfect position to call out UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping. Unfortunately for the Brazilian contender, however, Bisping shut down these callouts, explaining that he was still recovering from injuries sustained in his razor close October title defense against Dan Henderson.

Tom Taylor - November 8, 2016

UFC welterweight Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and UFC bantamweight Aljamain “Funk Master” Sterling are both adored by the majority of fight fans. According to an account from Sterling on the latest episode of The MMA Hour, however, the two fighters are not particularly fond of one another. Goaded on by friend and training partner Gian Villante, Sterling reluctantly recounted a heated run-in he had with Cowboy during this year’s International Fight Week, which occured around UFC 200 in July.