MMA News

bjpenndotcom - October 18, 2016

The new owners of the UFC are apparently looking to clean house and are laying off between 60 to 80 employees, UFC insiders confirmed. The mass lay-offs follow recent reports of low morale at the UFC’s Las Vegas HQ, with one employee likening the atmosphere as “like a morgue”.

Russell Ess - October 18, 2016

There seems to be a bit of confusion surrounding UFC star Nate Diaz and his weight. “Undisputed” sports analyst co-host, Shannon Sharpe said on a recent episode that Diaz could not make the lightweight limit of 155 pounds, even after Diaz has fought the majority of his career in the lightweight division.

bjpenndotcom - October 18, 2016

Diego Sanchez will return to the octagon for at least one more fight when he takes on Polish leg-lock specialist Marcin Held on November 5 and UFC Fight Night 98 in Mexico City. Sanchez is coming off of the first knockout loss of his career after Joe Lauzon made quick work of him in the first round of their UFC 200 bout.

bjpenndotcom - October 18, 2016

Joanna Jedrzejczyk appears to be training hard for her upcoming title fight against fellow Polish woman’s MMA standout Karolina Kowalkiewicz. UFC president Dana White posted a video of the woman’s 115-pound champion training Muay Thai and some nasty standing elbows ahead of her title fight with Kowalkiewicz at UFC 205 on November 12.

Russell Ess - October 18, 2016

The thought of Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz 3 is just as polarizing as each superstar fighter is. Some fans want nothing more than to see the two UFC pay-per-view kings go at it for a best of three series. On the other hand, there are those who want to see the fighters be matched up based off their records and rankings.

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2016

On November 12, on the main card of UFC 205, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman will look to get back on track after losing his title to Luke Rockhold almost a year ago. His opportunity to do so will come against Cuba’s Yoel Romero, a former Olympian who has not lost a fight since a 2011 knockout at the hands of Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante. Though Weidman is clearly dead-set on this looming bout with Romero, he’s also keeping busy outside of his training schedule – and we’re not talking about his war of words with reigning middleweight champion Michael Bisping.

Russell Ess - October 18, 2016

UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is set to defend his title against Anthony Johnson at UFC 206 on December 10. The pay-per-view card is taking place in Toronto, Canada and many were expecting the return of former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre to be announced for the card. However, on Monday, St-Pierre announced on The MMA Hour that he and his legal team were unable to come to an agreement for a return fight and was released from his contract with the UFC.

bjpenndotcom - October 18, 2016

Former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre may have been close to finalizing a deal with the UFC that would have seen him return to the Octagon , however this week it was revealed by St-Pierre that he was officially a free agent after negotiations with the UFC failed. With that being said, earlier this month, St-Pierre maintained that news regarding his next fight would be revealed in the coming weeks. Following St-Pierre’s announcement that he was a free agent, the UFC brass was quick to release a statement regarding the matter, refuting the former welterweight champ’s claims that his contract with the UFC had been terminated.

Russell Ess - October 18, 2016

Will we ever get to see the Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz trilogy fight? With “The Notorious” slated to take on Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight title next at UFC 205, which takes place on November 12, there is a possibility we see the trilogy fight take place for the UFC lightweight title. McGregor even mentioned the potential lightweight title fight against Diaz in a recent interview with The LAD Bible. McGregor said, “there could be a potential fight maybe down the line for the lightweight belt after I win this one.” This all depends on if “The Notorious” can come out with his hand raised over Alvarez at UFC 205.

bjpenndotcom - October 18, 2016

UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping is fresh off his UFC 204 unanimous decision win over Dan Henderson earlier this month, and already has his sights set on another potential top contender. Following Bisping’s win over Henderson, he used his post-fight Octagon interview to take shots the top of the middleweight division, saying:

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2016

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

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.

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2016

Earlier this year, the UFC was sold for a whopping $4 billion – quite a jump from the $2 million Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta purchased it for back in the year 2000. With this groundbreaking sale, which saw the company’s reigns handed to talent agency WME-IMG, the UFC seemed poised to reach new and exciting heights. Yet while the UFC has experienced some interesting changes under this new ownership, things have not been looking especially good for the company over the last few months.

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.

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.