MMA News

bjpenndotcom - November 4, 2016

While #8 ranked featherweight Charles Oliveira has spent the majority of his UFC career competing at featherweight, ‘Do Bronx’ has been frequently criticized for being inconsistent in regards to his ability to make the featherweight limit of 145 pounds. Friday morning in Mexico City, Oliveira missed weight for his ‘TUF Latin America 3 Finale’ fight with Ricardo Lamas by 9 pounds. The miss made it 5 total for Oliveira over the course of his UFC career, with it being the 4th time he has missed weight, and still could potentially end up competing the following evening.

Tom Taylor - November 4, 2016

Bellator MMA has had an excellent year. They’ve promoted some strange, but undeniably memorable fight cards. They’ve also bolstered their roster with high profile fighters like Benson Henderson, Matt Mitrione, Sergey Kharitonov, Wanderlei Silva, Rory MacDonald and The American Gangster himself, Chael P. Sonnen. Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and daises for MMA’s number-two promotion. This very evening, the organization will promote a huge card in Bellator 163. This event, which will emanate from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, will pit dynamic light heavyweight champion Liam McGeary against former UFC contender Phil Davis. Regrettably, Bellator 163’s lineup has been ravaged by fighter withdrawals at the very last minute.

Tom Taylor - November 4, 2016

Diego Sanchez is known primarily for two things: his wild, all-action fighting style inside the cage, and his often bizarre behaviour outside of it. The latest display of his out-of-cage antics occured at the official press conference for UFC Fight Night 98, which will go down in Mexico City, Mexico this Saturday night. On the evening’s main card, Sanchez will welcome former Bellator title challenger Marcin Held to the UFC’s Octagon.

bjpenndotcom - November 4, 2016

After UFC President Dana White announced that UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor would be making the jump to lightweight to fight Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight strap at UFC 205 on November 12th, the UFC President revealed that McGregor would be making a “personal” announcement, “out of left field” following the fight. While there had been no word as to what McGregor’s big announcement would be, and Irish newspaper printed an article last month with information from McGregor’s camp stating that the champ would be taking over a year away from the Octagon following the fight in order to spend time with his girlfriend, Dee Devlin.

Tom Taylor - November 4, 2016

https://twitter.com/Valli_Swag7/status/794040386763313152 On Wednesday night, The Chicago Cubs put an end to one of the longest championship droughts in professional sports –  108 years, to be exact – with a defeat of the Cleveland Indians. The long struggling team overcame a deficit of three games to clinch the series in game 7 with an 8–7 win in extra innings. This incredible comeback marked just the sixth time in World Series history that a team bounced back from a three-game shortfall to win the championship.

Tom Taylor - November 4, 2016

Since winning the UFC middleweight title with a June decimation of Luke Rockhold, Michael Bisping has received plenty of flack for his alleged tendency to pick and choose his opponents. Instead of taking on a legitimate contender in his first defense, the Brit took on a 46-year-old Dan Henderson in an effort to avenge an ugly 2009 knockout loss. Once this title defense was in the books, Bisping set his sights on title fights with Georges St-Pierre, a welterweight who has not fought in several years, and Nick Diaz, a welterweight riding a similar layoff who has not won a fight since 2o11. The champ then found himself on the receiving end of some serious fan backlash when he refused to fight top middleweight contender Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in the same time frame. Though the champ has since done his best to justify his callouts of GSP and Diaz, and subsequent reluctance to fight Jacare, many fans are disappointed with his selectiveness in terms of possible opponents.

Tom Taylor - November 4, 2016

In May of this year, Croatian-American super athlete Stipe Miocic knocked out an over-aggressive Fabricio Werdum to win the UFC heavyweight title. Since then, the new champion has defended the title with a first-round knockout of heavyweight legend Alistair Overeem. After this busy stretch of action, Miocic has elected to take some time off to recharge. While he enjoys this well-deserved bit of R&R, the heavyweight division’s top contenders are all working hard to stake their claim at the next crack at his title.

Russell Ess - November 3, 2016

There have been quite a few arguments on the outcome of the rematch between Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor, which took place at UFC 202 in August. “The Notorious” was given a majority decision after an exhilarating five rounds of back and forth competition.

Russell Ess - November 3, 2016

Richard Perez is a coach that has studied Conor McGregor extensively. McGregor’s last two fights were against Nate Diaz, who Perez coaches. Speaking with BJPenn.com Radio host “Kinch” on Wednesday’s episode, Perez broke down the big UFC 205 lightweight title fight between lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez and current featherweight champ Conor McGregor and revealed some interesting information.

Russell Ess - November 3, 2016

It is no secret that Mark Hunt is livid with the UFC and Brock Lesnar. USADA notified the UFC that Lesnar was flagged for a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation after he fought Hunt at UFC 200 in July. Lesnar tested positive for the banned substance clomiphene, which is an estrogen blocker often used to counterbalance the testosterone boost caused by steroid use.

Russell Ess - November 3, 2016

The big UFC lightweight title fight coming up between the current lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor is set as the main event of New York’s UFC 205, which takes place on November 12. Ahead of the fight, McGregor and Alvarez took a conference call with the media on Thursday to talk about their upcoming bout.

Russell Ess - November 3, 2016

There has been much speculation as to what Conor McGregor’s big announcement that he will reveal sometime after his main event fight against UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 on November 12. During the UFC 205 conference call, “The Notorious” asked if the rumor of him walking away from the UFC in 2017 was valid and if it was a negotiation tactic to get the UFC to compensate him more for future bouts.

Russell Ess - November 3, 2016

It’s becoming much more clear that being an excellent fighter isn’t the only trait you need to be a superstar in mixed martial arts. UFC featherweight Conor McGregor has captured the interest of millions and has broken UFC records with the help of his memorable quotes and actions, building up his fights against his opponents only to back up all his talk, in nearly all of his fights.

bjpenndotcom - November 3, 2016

Several weeks ago, UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping made headlines when he and former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre seemed poised for a fight at UFC 206 in Toronto. Unfortunately, as the story developed, St-Pierre took to social media to reveal that negotiations between he and the UFC didn’t go well, and he would be unable to fight Bisping at UFC 206. Bisping followed up St-Pierre’s statement with one of his own, in which he revealed that he was now set on fighting at UFC 206, and would be willing to fight whoever on the card, so long as he could just get a fight.

bjpenndotcom - November 3, 2016

Donald Cerrone may have spent most of his UFC career as a top ranked lightweight, however Cerrone has recently been on a tear of the UFC’s welterweight division as he has gone 3-0 over the course of 2016. In his welterweight debut, Cerrone submitted Alex ‘Cowboy’ Oliveira before making it 2-0 when he became the first man to TKO Patrick Cote during ‘UFC Fight Night: Ottawa’. Most recently, Cerrone stepped into the Octagon against Rick Story at UFC 202 back in August, delivering a spectacular highlight reel TKO to earn himself the #6 ranking on the UFC’s official rankings.

bjpenndotcom - November 3, 2016

In just under two weeks, on November 12th, UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley will be stepping into the Octagon to fight Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson in the co-main event of UFC 205. The fight will serve as Woodley’s first title defense after he claimed the belt by knocking out Robbie Lawler in the main event of UFC 201, delivering a ‘knockout of the year’ candidate as he slumped Lawler with an overhand right to claim the welterweight championship. While his first title defense is against a very game Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, who possesses arguably some of the best striking skills in the UFC, Woodley has been preparing for ‘Wonderboy’ by bringing in welterweight prospect Sage Northcutt, who also comes from a Karate background much like Thompson. Leading up to the fight, Woodley has explained that he believes Northcutt’s explosiveness, as well as his strength actually make him a better version of Stephen Thompson.

bjpenndotcom - November 3, 2016

Going into UFC 200 back in July, fan favorite heavyweight Mark Hunt was very open about the fact that he believed there was a possibility his opponent, former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, could be going into the fight on PEDs. When the UFC announced that Lesnar and Hunt would be fighting at UFC 200 during the UFC 199 broadcast in June, it was also revealed that the UFC had granted Lesnar an exemption from the mandatory transitionary period in which an inactive fighter is tested by USADA for several months prior to becoming an active fighter. With just one month to go until fight night, Lesnar was only subject to one month of testing, rather than the 4 standard 4 months.

bjpenndotcom - November 3, 2016

UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is currently ranked as the #8 pound for pound fighter in the world on the UFC’s official rankings. With a 12-0 professional record that has seen Jedrzejczyk go 6-0 inside the Octagon, including three defenses of the women’s strawweight championship, Jedrzejczyk’s dominance in the sport can’t be ignored. While Jedrzejczyk reigns as the women’s strawweight champion, she has expressed a desire to move up to flyweight, and become not only the first ever women’s flyweight champion, but also the first female fighter to hold two championship belts. At the present time however, the UFC currently does not have a women’s flyweight division, leaving Jedrzejczyk to continue her reign over the women’s strawweight division.