MMA News

Russell Ess - October 5, 2016

Tragic news hit the MMA community on Wednesday when it was revealed that UFC middleweight Josh “Anqa” Samman had passed away at the young age of 28-years-old. Samman, who made his way to the UFC on TUF season 17, “Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs Team Sonnen” was found unresponsive in a Florida apartment last week.

bjpenndotcom - October 5, 2016

This weekend, in the main event of UFC 204, Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson will step into the Octagon in Manchester, England, to square off for Bisping’s UFC middleweight championship. While the fight has the potential to be Bisping’s first successful title defense, it could also mean MMA history for Henderson.

bjpenndotcom - October 5, 2016

Josh Samman managed to live an extraordinary life despite his relatively short 28 years here, becoming a widely recognized UFC fighter and best-selling author without ever reaching his 30th birthday. Although Samman enjoyed massive successes as a prize-fighter and writer, he endured as much tragedy as he did triumph.

bjpenndotcom - October 5, 2016

Last week, Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez came face to face for the first time at the UFC 205 press conference ahead of their historic fight for Alvarez’ lightweight championship in the main event of UFC 205 on November 12th. When Alvarez fielded his first question from a media member, he was meet with boos from McGregor fans, whereas the featherweight champ was given extremely loud cheers from his fans whenever he would touch the mic.

bjpenndotcom - October 5, 2016

This past weekend the UFC hit Portland, Oregon for an action packed night of fights. The event started off with a bang on UFC Fight Pass as Curtis Blaydes picked up a spectacular KO win over Cody East, leaving East with a massive welt on his head from brutal elbows. Throughout the event the ball kept on rolling with highlight reel finishes, and stellar performances.

Tom Taylor - October 5, 2016

Last Saturday, South Korean promotion Road FC announced that they’ll be hosting a 32-man lightweight tournament. According to the burgeoning organization, the winner of this massive tournament will take home a whopping $1,000,000. According to the folks over at BloodyElbow.com, this tournament will kick off in the spring of 2017, and will unfurl over the course of 5 rounds. These 5 rounds will be spread out over the year, and occur not only in South Korea, but also in Japan and China.

bjpenndotcom - October 5, 2016

Wednesday morning the MMA community was hit with a tragic development regarding UFC middleweight Josh Samman, who has been in a coma since being found unresponsive in a Florida apartment last month. While there has still been no word as to why Samman was found unresponsive, and another man with him was found dead, Samman’s mother recently released an update on her son, in which she refuted claims that there was heroin involved.

Tom Taylor - October 5, 2016

https://youtu.be/snigTc_iaXM Earlier this year, news broke that Bellator heavyweight and former UFC star Kevin Ferguson – more widely known as Kimbo Slice – had tragically passed away. The beloved fighter died of heart failure after being rushed to a hospital in Florida.

bjpenndotcom - October 4, 2016

At the beginning of 2016, many predicted that 21-0 Brazilian bantamweight Thomas Almeida would climb to the top of the UFC’s bantamweight rankings by the end of the year, and even potentially earn himself a crack at bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz. On May 29th, Almeida stepped into the Octagon against Team Alpha Male prospect Cody ‘No Love’ Garbrandt, who was also entering the bout undefeated. Ultimately, it took just two minutes and 53 seconds for Garbrandt to finish Almeida with a highlight reel knockout, putting an end to his undefeated streak.

bjpenndotcom - October 4, 2016

Scott Coker took over operations for Bellator MMA back in 2014, when Viacom replaced Bjorn Rebney with the former Strikeforce president. Ever since, Bellator has signed some massive free agents, from Rory MacDonald to Benson Henderson. Bellator’s Facebook page pasted a video on Monday in celebration of Coker’s birthday, and some of the major successes the company has had since he took over.

Russell Ess - October 4, 2016

https://youtu.be/etWtQoKHxEo The historic UFC 205 card taking place at Madison Square Garden will feature a main event bout between UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor. Alvarez will look to defend his belt for the first time while “The Notorious” will look to stamp his name in mixed martial arts history as the first UFC fighter to ever hold two championship belts from two different UFC weight classes at the same time.

Russell Ess - October 4, 2016

Current UFC interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo has come to a point in his career where he is simply fed up. The Brazilian champion recently stated that he wants to be released from his UFC contract to pursue new opportunities outside the world of mixed martial arts.

Russell Ess - October 4, 2016

Eddie Alvarez says that he will be making “millions” for his UFC lightweight title fight against UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor at UFC 205. The historic card will feature the two UFC champions in McGregor’s attempt to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold two different UFC weight class titles at the same time while Alvarez will look to take down one of the biggest names in the sport. Leading up to the announcement of the fight, there were rumors going around that there was trouble putting the fight together due to pay issues on Alvarez’s end. The UFC lightweight champion even responded directly to BJPenn.com via twitter regarding the report and stated the story of him trying to negotiate for too much money was a lie.

Russell Ess - October 4, 2016

[ooyala code=”VkbDk5NjE6OYLWIUiWt1W49LWuUnsMlX” player_id=”bd214e34cfad476984102de4bf5e8da2″ auto=”true” width=”1280″ height=”1280″] The very recognizable Australian MMA fighter, Julian “Julz the Jackal” Wallace has seemed to get a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons. You may recognize Wallace and his face tattoos from the viral bullying video in his faceoff with Ben “10” Nguyen, where he was knocked out by Nguyen in their match.

Tom Taylor - October 4, 2016

Late last month, MMA veteran “Felony” Charles Bennett burst back into the limelight with a seven-second KO of Minoru Kimura at a Rizin Fighting Federation show in Saitama, Japan. He also rekindled an old beef with Wanderlei Silva during his time in the country. In the wake of this headline-generating trip to Japan, the long-time fan favorite took time out of his busy schedule for an exclusive interview with BJPenn.com. During this interview, Bennett offered up his opinion on several of the UFC’s biggest stars.

Tom Taylor - October 4, 2016

This Saturday, in the main event of UFC 204, UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping will look to defend his crown against a former foil in Dan Henderson. In advance of this middleweight title fight, much is being made of Henderson’s age –and rightly so. The American is, after all, the oldest fighter on the UFC roster at 46 years old. It is worth remembering, however, that Bisping is no spring chicken either. Though he’s substantially younger than his upcoming foe, he is one of the middleweight division’s older competitors at 37 years old.

bjpenndotcom - October 4, 2016

While Tony Ferguson currently sits at #3 on the UFC’s official lightweight rankings, he is content to partake in fights where title belts aren’t on the line. Ferguson has been on a tear of the UFC’s lightweight division lately, going on a spectacular 8-fight win streak that has seen him finish all but two opponents. Over the course of his 3-year 8-fight streak, Ferguson has finished notable opponents such as Abel Trujillo, and Edson Barboza to name just a few.

Tom Taylor - October 4, 2016

This Saturday, the Octagon will return to beautiful Manchester, England with UFC 204.