MMA News

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2016

After a hot-and-cold run as a middleweight, Lorenz “The Monsoon” Larkin completely revivified his career with a drop to the UFC’s welterweight division. This drop to welterweight began with a blistering, first-round TKO of a game John Howard. His sophomore effort in the division, meanwhile, saw him take out Santiago Ponzinibbio with second-round punches. And though he experienced his lone welterweight hiccup in his next bout thereafter, giving up a razor-close split decision to Albert Tumenov, he has since rebounded from that loss with a decision victory over Jorge Masvidal and, most impressively of all, a first-round savaging of the highly regarded Neil Magny.

bjpenndotcom - October 18, 2016

Last month, tragic news surfaced that UFC middleweight Josh Samman was found unresponsive in his Florida apartment along with his roommate, MMA announcer Troy Tirkingburg, who was found dead. Samman was taken the the hospital, where he reportedly remained in a coma which trying to recover. There were no updates immediately given on Samman’s condition, however Samman’s mother released a statement in which she refuted rumors that there was heroin found in her son’s system.

bjpenndotcom - October 18, 2016

Although former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre stated earlier this month that he would have news regarding his return fight with the UFC in the coming weeks, ‘Rush’ revealed earlier this week that he has gotten out of his contract with the UFC, and is officially a free agent in the MMA world. That was met with resistance by the UFC, who were quick to release a statement refuting St-Pierre’s claims of being a free agent.

bjpenndotcom - October 18, 2016

While interim UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is still unhappy with the UFC brass given that they didn’t force UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor to take a fight with him after his UFC 202 majority decision win over Nate Diaz, former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has taken a step back. After it was announced that Conor McGregor would be moving to lightweight to fight Eddie Alvarez in the main event of UFC 205, rather than drop back down to featherweight for a rematch with Jose Aldo, who he knocked out in 13 seconds in December of 2013, Aldo requested his release from the promotion with the intention to retire and move to another sport entirely.

bjpenndotcom - October 18, 2016

Although the UFC and former welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre were reportedly close to finalizing a deal that would see St-Pierre make his highly anticipated return to the Octagon in the near-future, St-Pierre and the UFC are now at odds after St-Pierre announced that he was a free agent, and the UFC refuted the claims. St-Pierre, who hasn’t fought since his 2013 split decision win over Johny Hendricks, has maintained that he is ready to make his return to MMA. Despite that, UFC President Dana White has maintained that he believes St-Pierre doesn’t want to fight. In a recent interview, White went as far as to explain that he knows people who want to fight, and Georges St-Pierre isn’t one of them.

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2016

In late 2011, Junior Dos Santos planted a bomb behind the ear of then heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. A few followup ground-strikes later, and the heavyweight title was his. Given that this title-winning knockout occured in just 64 seconds, however, many fight fans felt that they hadn’t actually seen Dos Santos and Velasquez fight. We’d seen Dos Santos land the right punch at the right time, yes, but his winning so quickly deprived us of the chance to see what Velasquez was really capable of.

bjpenndotcom - October 18, 2016

Ahead of UFC 205, where Conor McGregor will be making his UFC lightweight debut in hopes of capturing lightweight gold when he steps into the Octagon to face UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, UFC President Dana White has stated that McGregor has a “personal” announcement to make “out of left field”. While there has been no word from McGregor himself yet as to what the announcement will be, reports have surfaced that McGregor is planning to take time away from the sport in order to help his girlfriend, Dee Devlin, with the birth of their newborn child. In addition, the report went on to state that there was no timeframe given for how long McGregor would be away from the sport for, but fans could expect him to be away for about a year.

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2016

On Yesterday’s episode of The MMA Hour, Canadian welterweight legend Georges St-Pierre dumped the fight game on its head by announcing that he’d terminated his UFC contract, and that he planned to explore free agency. Though the UFC quickly released a statement to the contrary, it’s clear that St-Pierre and the organization are not seeing eye-to-eye. The apparent gripes between the two parties stem from the failed negotiations surrounding St-Pierre’s long-discussed return to competition. Though his comeback was rumored for UFC 206 on December 10 in Toronto, he and the UFC were ultimately unable to reach an agreement to this end.

Russell Ess - October 17, 2016

Big news hit the MMA community on Monday. During Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre made a shocking announcement. The former king of the UFC welterweight division announced that with the help of his legal team, he was now a free agent and no longer under a contract with the UFC.

bjpenndotcom - October 17, 2016

Both Michael Bisping and Gegard Mousasi earned huge wins over the weekend, with Mousasi finishing Vitor Belfort with strikes in round two and Bisping going the distance in a close but entertaining five round decision.

bjpenndotcom - October 17, 2016

Miesha Tate’s boyfriend has taken her loss to Amanda Nunes quite personally. In fact, Bryan Caraway feels it’s his fault that Tate lost the belt to Nunes in the first place. Bantamweight contender Caraway doubles as Tate’s coach as well, and recently spoke about shouldering the blame for his girlfriend’s brutal loss to Nunes at UFC 200.

Russell Ess - October 17, 2016

Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is getting back to competition for a title fight in the Octagon after taking more than a year off. Rousey will take on the current champion, Amanda Nunes, in a five-round title fight at UFC 207 in December. Rousey last fought in November of 2015 where she lost for the first time in her professional mixed martial arts career. Rousey suffered a devastating knockout delivered by Holly Holm at UFC 193 in Australia.

bjpenndotcom - October 17, 2016

The UFC’s woman’s bantamweight division had some strong reactions to the announcement of former champion Ronda Rousey taking on current champ Amanda Nunes at UFC 207. Perhaps the only woman in the division who didn’t react to the announcement with contempt was the very fighter who took Rousey’s belt back in 2015, Holly Holm.

Russell Ess - October 17, 2016

Current UFC interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo is still very unhappy with his situation in the UFC. Following news of featherweight champion Conor McGregor’s lightweight title matchup against UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, Aldo announced that he wanted to be released from his UFC contract.

bjpenndotcom - October 17, 2016

Georges Saint Pierre’s announcement of becoming a free agent rocked the mixed martial arts world on Monday. After weekend rumors of GSP possibly returning to the UFC to take on fellow former champion Anderson Silva, it appears as if we won’t be seeing the longest defending welterweight champion in UFC history.

Chris Taylor - October 17, 2016

Following news of former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges Saint Pierre becoming a free agent, ONE FC champion Ben Askren has officially called out GSP. The longtime UFC champ broke the news of his free agency on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, and Askren must have been listening, as he tweeted this just minutes after GSP’s announcement:

Tom Taylor - October 17, 2016

This afternoon, the MMA world was tipped on its axis be the news that former UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre had entered free agency. This news, of course, was in glaring contradiction to rumors that St-Pierre might be returning at UFC 206 this December 10 in Toronto. Shortly after making this announcement on The MMA Hour, St-Pierre discussed the possibilities of his new free agency. Given that he’s spent the vast majority of his career in the UFC, the welterweight great admitted that he’s really not sure what the future holds.

Tom Taylor - October 17, 2016

Earlier this year, welterweight great Georges St-Pierre announced his intention to return to action after a lengthy hiatus from the sport of mixed martial arts. When it was announced that the UFC was planning to host UFC 206 in Toronto – the biggest city in St-Pierre’s home country of Canada – the stars seemed to be aligning for his long-awaited UFC return. Unfortunately, the former welterweight champion’s UFC comeback has been completely derailed, as he is not only not fighting at UFC 206 in Toronto, but has been driven from the UFC altogether.