MMA News

bjpenndotcom - September 30, 2016

Friday morning at the ‘UFC Fight Night: Portland’ early weigh-ins, three fighters missed weight ahead of their scheduled fights Saturday evening. One of the three men to miss weight was UFC bantamweight John Lineker, who will be fighting in the main event of the card against John Dodson. Lineker, who sits at #3 on the UFC’s official bantamweight rankings, now holds the record for the most times missing weight in the history of the UFC.

bjpenndotcom - September 30, 2016

Unfortunate news surfaced Friday night that top ranked UFC light heavyweight contender Alexander Gustafsson has been forced to withdraw form his upcoming UFC Fight Night 100 headlining scrap against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

bjpenndotcom - September 30, 2016

Earlier this month at UFC 203 in Cleveland, Ohio, former WWE champion CM Punk made his highly anticipated UFC debut against Mickey Gall. Punk’s debut came nearly two years after his signing with the promotion in 2014. During that time, the Chicago native was training at Roufusport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin under the tutelage of Duke Roufus, alongside the likes of the Pettis brothers, and UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.

bjpenndotcom - September 30, 2016

On November 12th, Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez will step into the Octagon in the main event of UFC 205 to square off for Alvarez’ UFC lightweight championship. While Alvarez hopes to play spoiler to McGregor’s plans of becoming a 2-division champion, Mystic Mac has predicted that he will finish the “loopy wrestler with an overhand right” in the very first round. While many consider McGregor’s prediction of a finish over the lightweight champion to be a bold one, fan favorite fighter Donald Cerrone flat out thinks it’s wrong.

Tom Taylor - September 30, 2016

I'm still here to fight. pic.twitter.com/nBQbUf4Ugp — Will Brooks (@ILLxWillBrooks) September 30, 2016

bjpenndotcom - September 30, 2016

Tragic news surfaced Friday afternoon that UFC middleweight Josh Samman had been found unresponsive in a South Floridan apartment along with another man, who was pronounced dead. While details are extremely scarce at the present time, a Reddit user broke the news via the MMA section of Reddit:

Tom Taylor - September 30, 2016

Tomorrow night, the UFC will take over Portland’s Moda Center with UFC Fight Night 96. Portland’s main event honors will be held by former flyweights John Dodson and John Lineker, both of whom have recently found new life at bantamweight. Dodson, who twice fought for the title at flyweight, will look to build on the momentum of a recent TKO defeat of Manny Gamburyan, which marked his successful return to the bantamweight division. Lineker, meanwhile, will look to make it 4-0 at bantamweight, having subbed Francisco Rivera, decisioned Rob Font and knocked out Michael MacDonald since leaving the flyweight division.

bjpenndotcom - September 30, 2016

In the main event of UFC 205, Conor McGregor will have the opportunity to become not only the third man in UFC history to hold two title belts, but the first to hold two belts simultaneously. While UFC President Dana White has stated recently that if McGregor defeats Alvarez at the Madison Square Garden, he must relinquish one of the belts, McGregor revealed at the UFC 205 press conference that it would take an army for the UFC to take one of his belts away.

Tom Taylor - September 30, 2016

In January of this year, TJ Dillashaw attempted to defend the UFC bantamweight title against returning former champion Dominick Cruz. Unfortunately, Dillashaw’s title defense didn’t go the way he planned, as he surrendered a split decision – and the bantamweight crown – to his foe.

bjpenndotcom - September 30, 2016

Leading up to Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping’s UFC 204 showdown on October 8th, Bisping has taken the offensive in the war of words between the two men. When the pair first fought at UFC 100, they did so after coaching opposite one another on ‘The Ultimate Fighter: Team USA vs. Team UK’. At the time, Dan Henderson was granted a Testosterone Use Exemption (TUE) and was allowed to do Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT). While Henderson never failed a drug test, and his usage of TRT was completely legal in the eyes of the NSAC at the time, Michael Bisping recently questioned whether or not Henderson actually needed the treatment given that after it was banned Henderson continued to fight, going as far as to call the Pride FC legend a ‘cheater’.

bjpenndotcom - September 30, 2016

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor is generally believed to have some of the best striking skills in the UFC’s lower weight classes. McGregor’s combination of fluid movement, and unpredictable strikes have resulted in several highlight reel finishes, with the most recent example being a 13 second KO win over Jose Aldo to claim the featherweight championship.

Tom Taylor - September 30, 2016

Earlier this year, it was announced that the UFC had been sold for more than $4 billion. The organization was purchased by Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG, who would take the reigns from long-time owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta. When news of this massive sale first broke, it was unclear what effect it would have on the company. Today, however, it’s becoming quite clear that WME-IMG plans to push the UFC–and by association, the larger sport of MMA–further into the mainstream sports landscape. The new owners’ latest effort to this end has been the assembly of a group of A-list celebrity investors.

bjpenndotcom - September 29, 2016

While Conor McGregor stated at the UFC 205 press conference earlier this week that he believes he is the reason for the UFC’s $4.2 billion value, UFC President Dana White seems to think that former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is a bigger star. While Rousey has been absent from the Octagon for nearly a year following her horrific KO loss at the hands of Holly Holm at UFC 193, reports have begun to surface which state that Rousey will return by the end of 2016. In addition, Rousey’s coach, Edmond Tarverdyan, has stated that Rousey could very well return by the end of the year if negotiations with the UFC brass go well.

bjpenndotcom - September 29, 2016

UFC President Dana White caught quite a bit of criticism recently when it was announced that UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor would be moving up to featherweight for a lightweight title fight with Eddie Alvarez in the main event of UFC 205. While White stated prior to McGregor’s showdown with Nate Diaz at UFC 202 that ‘Notorious’ would be forced to defend his featherweight championship, or vacate the belt, it was revealed that McGregor will not be stripped of the 145 pound championship despite his fight with Alvarez. Rather, McGregor will only have to vacate a title belt if he emerges from his UFC 205 scrap with Alvarez with the lightweight championship.

bjpenndotcom - September 29, 2016

Last month at UFC 202, featherweight champion Conor McGregor not only avenged his UFC 196 loss to Nate Diaz, but also left the MMA community stunned as he dropped the Stockton superstar three times over the course of the fight. Diaz, who has only been finished once over the course of his 12-year, 30 fight professional MMA career, was never in danger of being finished, but did hit the canvas several times throughout the course of the fight.

bjpenndotcom - September 29, 2016

For years, there have been debates and discussions about a Ronda Rousey vs. Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino super-fight. While the two women fight at different weight classes, that hasn’t curbed the enthusiasm for such a showdown between two of the best female fighters to ever step foot into the octagon. Former woman’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey hasn’t fought since a devastating knockout loss to Holly Holm back at UFC 193 in November 2015, while ‘Cyborg’ (16-1) has now won two UFC fights in a row by TKO.

bjpenndotcom - September 29, 2016

Video by Youssef Hannoun Earlier this week it was announced that Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez would be squaring off in the main event of UFC 205 for the lightweight champion in the UFC’s historic inaugural Madison Square Garden event.

bjpenndotcom - September 29, 2016

Earlier this month, former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen announced that he was coming out of retirement, and had signed an exclusive, multi-fight deal with Bellator MMA. While Sonnen remained adamant throughout the course of his 2-year suspension that he was indeed retired from MMA, it took just over one month from the time his suspension ended, for ‘The American Gangster’ to sign with Bellator MMA.