MMA News

Russell Ess - October 14, 2016

UFC President Dana White announced on Wednesday the return of former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. Rousey will step back into the Octagon and fight the current champion, Amanda Nunes for the title in December at UFC 207. With Rousey’s return slated for December, it will be just a little over a year since she fought last in the Octagon against Holly Holm at UFC 193 where she was knocked out in the first loss of her professional MMA career.

Russell Ess - October 14, 2016

UFC flyweight Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall is set to return to compete in the Octagon at UFC Fight Night 99 in Belfast, Ireland on November 19. McCall will face Ireland’s Neil Seery, who will be fighting for the last time with his intent to retire after their competition. McCall will be looking to get out to Belfast and step into the Octagon as his last three scheduled UFC fights were canceled due to an injury he sustained in one matchup while his other two opponents were forced out of competition leaving him hanging just days out from the fight.

bjpenndotcom - October 14, 2016

In the main event of UFC 204 this month, Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson squared off in a highly anticipated rematch seven years in the making. The fight was an extremely incredible one that went the distance, ultimately seeing Bisping awarded the unanimous decision win to get his revenge on Dan Henderson, and defend the middleweight championship. Although Bisping won a unanimous decision, many members of the MMA community believed that Henderson won the fight given that he dropped Bisping in both the first and second rounds. Despite that, Bisping out struck Henderson throughout the course of the fight, and was awarded the unanimous decision win.

Russell Ess - October 14, 2016

More disheartening news surrounds Australian MMA fighter Julian “Julz the Jackal” Wallace. You may recognize the MMA fighter covered in tattoos from a video that went viral on the Internet. In 2014, Wallace and Ben “10” Nguyen had the infamous weigh-in staredown where “Julz the Jackal” seemingly “bullied” Nguyen only to be knocked out in the first round of their competition.

bjpenndotcom - October 14, 2016

At UFC 205, Conor McGregor will look to make UFC history once again as he steps into the Octagon to fight UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez on November 12th. Should McGregor emerge from ‘The Empire State’ victorious, he will not only become just the third man in UFC history to become a two-division world champion, but also the first man in the history of the UFC to hold two championship belts simultaneously. Ahead of the fight, there has been some controversy surrounding the fact that McGregor was able to keep the featherweight championship for the fight, and didn’t have to vacate the belt prior to the scrap like UFC President Dana White initially stated. When fans and fighters began to complain that McGregor was able to keep the featherweight strap, White mysteriously explained that McGregor has a “personal” announcement to make “out of left field” following the fight, which is why he was given this opportunity.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2016

Last July, in the co-main event of UFC 200, former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar made a successful return to the Octagon with a unanimous decision defeat of Mark Hunt. Given that Hunt has long stood out as one of the UFC’s 10-best heavyweights, and that Lesnar had not competed in mixed martial arts almost five years, this was a pretty impressive feat. Regrettably, it was later announced that Lesnar had failed both in-competition and out-of-competition drug tests. The former champ popped for the substance clomiphene, an estrogen blocker often used to counterbalance the testosterone boost caused by steroid use. This unfortunate twist stamped a big, ugly asterisk beside his defeat of Hunt.

bjpenndotcom - October 14, 2016

Earlier this month, UFC President Dana White revealed that former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey would be making her return to the Octagon to fight Amanda Nunes in the main event of UFC 207 on December 30th. In addition to the fight with Nunes, UFC President Dana White also revealed that if she emerges from UFC 207 victorious, she would have her highly anticipated superfight with Cris Cyborg, who is currently riding a 2-fight win streak in the UFC that most recently saw her TKO Lina Lansberg in the 2nd round of their ‘UFC Brasilia’ fight last month.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2016

On November 5, in the main event of the UFC’s latest trip to Mexico, streaking lightweight contender Tony Ferguson will take on former champion Rafael Dos Anjos in a bout that could well earn the winner a shot at the lightweight title. One week later, in the main event of UFC 205, Irish superstar Conor McGregor will challenge Eddie Alvarez for that UFC lightweight title. This latter bout is the far more talked about of the two. This, of course, is because McGregor is the most popular fighter in the sport. Over the course of his 9-fight UFC career, the Irishman has blended his fan friendly fighting style with some absolutely stinging trash talk to become a downright MMA mega star.

bjpenndotcom - October 13, 2016

Before lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and featherweight champion Conor McGregor go to war in the main event of UFC 205, former middleweight champ Chris Weidman will look to get back on track against Yoel Romero. Weidman spoke exclusively with BJPENN.com Radio and gave his prediction for the highly-anticipated fight between Alvarez and McGregor for the lightweight belt.

bjpenndotcom - October 13, 2016

Chris Weidman isn’t buying Yoel Romero’s claim of tainted supplements as the reason he failed a recent drug test. The former middleweight champion spoke exclusively to BJPENN.com Radio and discussed Romero’s suspension and revealed his goals going into his first fight since losing the title to Luke Rockhold at UFC 199:

Russell Ess - October 13, 2016

With all the fights the UFC puts on every year, UFC President Dana White still finds time to make sure he, himself, is staying in shape. When White appeared shirtless in an episode of “Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight,’ fans were surprised to see the UFC boss with a ripped physique.

bjpenndotcom - October 13, 2016

Back in 2013, Chael Sonnen coached ‘The Ultimate Fighter Brazil: Season 3’ opposite MMA legend Wanderlei Silva. The pair were at each others throats throughout the entire season, with things coming to a head when the pair ended up brawling during the filming of an episode. Silva was angry with Sonnen, and took a swing at ‘The American Gangster’ who quickly slipped the punch and took Silva down, while wearing flip flops. Both teams quickly intervened, with Sonnen being punched in the back of the head by a member of Silva’s coaching staff.

bjpenndotcom - October 13, 2016

There have been countless wars and epic battles in the UFC, some fights have ended far more gruesomely than most. We here at BJPenn.com compiled the five worst endings to a UFC fight in the organizations history.

Russell Ess - October 13, 2016

The historic UFC 205 event takes place on November 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The monumental card will feature three UFC championship bouts. A women’s strawweight title fight will take place between two undefeated Polish fighters as champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk looks to defend her title for the fourth consecutive time against fellow undefeated Polish fighter Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Headlining the event, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor looks to make history by becoming the first UFC fighter to ever hold two UFC division’s championship title simultaneously as he challenges UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez for his lightweight strap. In the co-main event, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson will also try to make his dream of becoming a UFC champion come true when he takes on the powerful UFC welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley.

bjpenndotcom - October 13, 2016

This week UFC President Dana White announced to MMA fans that former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey would be making her highly anticipated return to the Octagon on December 30th to fight Amanda Nunes in the main event of UFC 207 for the women’s bantamweight championship. The fight will take place over a year after Rousey’s last fight in the Octagon, where she was knocked out by Holly Holm in the main event of UFC 193 to lose the women’s bantamweight championship. Following the fight, UFC President Dana White was more than willing to give Rousey a break from the Octagon given that her loss was attributed in part to a busy media schedule that also saw her working in Hollywood while training to fight.

bjpenndotcom - October 13, 2016

Chris Weidman couldn’t help but hear his name after Michael Bisping narrowly beat Dan Henderson to retain the middleweight belt on Saturday. ‘The Count’, who sustained a good deal of damage after five hard fought rounds with ‘Hendo’, took to the mic immediately after the decision was announced and put the middleweight division on blast. The former middleweight champ, Weidman, spoke exclusively with BJPENN.com to discuss his interpretation of Bisping’s call-out.

bjpenndotcom - October 13, 2016

When it was announced that Conor McGregor would be fighting Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight championship at UFC 205, rather than defending his UFC featherweight championship in a rematch against Jose Aldo, who secured a rematch with McGregor when he defeated Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 for the interim featherweight championship, Aldo requested his release from the promotion, expressing a lack of faith in the UFC. UFC President Dana White was quick to shut Aldo down, stating that the promotion would be able to book him a fight at UFC 205 as well. Despite that, Aldo fired back by saying that he doesn’t want a fight, and plans to retire from MMA so as to pursue a career in another professional sport.

Russell Ess - October 13, 2016

Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson has the biggest fight of his career coming up on November 12. “Wonderboy” will be in the co-main event on possibly the biggest UFC event to date as he takes on UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in a five-round title fight. Thompson set aside some time from his training camp at LAW MMA in New York to be a guest on the newly relaunched BJPenn.com Radio show on Wednesday to talk about the biggest fight of his career.