MMA News

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

Prior to Mickey Gall’s UFC 203 scrap with CM Punk, it was revealed that UFC President Dana White had blocked Gall’s walkout song. The song in question? ‘Mickey’ by Toni Basil. While Gall stood backstage just moments before his walkout, he was shocked when his walkout song started playing:

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic is fresh off his UFC 203 TKO win over Alistair Overeem earlier this month in Cleveland, Ohio. The win marked the first title defense for the Ohio native, who won the heavyweight championship earlier this year when he knocked MMA legend Fabricio Werdum out cold.

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

The American Gangster has arrived! Welcome to #BellatorNation @chaelsonnen! #Bellator161 pic.twitter.com/P9Lcbir1yC — Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) September 17, 2016

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

[ooyala code=”AyZHB4NTE6KriC0zx8LKAzCQ07oMUxHq” player_id=”bd214e34cfad476984102de4bf5e8da2″ auto=”true” width=”1280″ height=”1600″ autoplay=”true”] Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans has been on a bit of a slide as of late. In 2013, Evans went on a 2-fight win streak that saw him defeat Dan Henderson via split decision, and defeat Chael Sonnen via 1st round TKO. Unfortunately, Evans was sidelined for the next 2 years due to injuries. When he made his highly anticipated return to the Octagon back at UFC 192, he was defeated via unanimous decision by Ryan Bader. Evans returned to the Octagon just 6 months later to fight Glover Teixeira in a pivotal matchup. Just one minute and 48 seconds into the fight, Teixeira knocked Evans out cold. A disappointed Evans spoke in his post-fight Octagon speech, saying that fighting used to come so easy to him.

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

Saturday night in Hidalgo, Texas, #7 ranked lightweight Dustin Poirier, and #10 ranked lightweight Michael Johnson will step into the Octagon to clash in the main event of ‘UFC Fight Night: Hidalgo’. The fight is a pivotal one for both men. Poirier will enter the bout on a 4-fight win streak that has seen him take the lightweight division by storm. After being TKOd by Conor McGregor on the main card of UFC 178, Poirier made the move to lightweight. Since making the move he has been on a tear, most recently defeating Bobby Green via 1st round KO.

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

Earlier this week, former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen announced that he had ended his retirement, and signed an exclusive multi-fight contract with Bellator MMA. While no word was given on when Sonnen would be making his Bellator MMA debut, he did reveal that he was looking to make his debut against former UFC champion Tito Ortiz, who is also currently signed to Bellator.

Tom Taylor - September 17, 2016

In just one month’s time, former two-division UFC champion BJ Penn will make his long-awaited return to the Octagon. He’ll be taking on the talented Ricardo Lamas in the five-round, featherweight main event of the UFC’s October 15 return to the Philippines. Should Penn win this bout with Lamas, who has long stood out as one of the best featherweights in the world, he’ll take a massive step up the divisional ladder, where bouts with monsters like Jose Aldo, Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway could await.

Russell Ess - September 17, 2016

Newly signed Bellator MMA fighter Chael Sonnen is about to be a very busy man, if he keeps up with everything that he is doing now and fighting again. The ESPN MMA analyst, host of his own “You’re Welcome” podcast, just signed a multi-fight deal with Bellator MMA with the news being first released by the Associated Press on Thursday. On Friday, a new episode of Sonnen’s “You’re Welcome” podcast was released and the “American Gangster” let all his listeners in on a little story of the battle between WWE’s Vince McMahon and UFC President Dana White back in the days of the UFC being broadcasted on Spike TV. If Sonnen’s story rings true, MMA fighters in general can thank the WWE boss for helping boost fighter’s pay in a very big way.

Tom Taylor - September 16, 2016

Last night, news broke that former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen had signed with Bellator MMA. Shortly thereafter, Sonnen took to Twitter to address this surprising move, while several notable reporters announced that the fan favorite mouth-piece had already called for a bout with Bellator light heavyweight Tito Ortiz.

bjpenndotcom - September 16, 2016

While UFC 205 is still quite a ways away, the event has already experienced two fallouts in regards to scheduled matchups. The first was Robbie Lawler vs. Donald Cerrone, which was the first fight announced for the event. Almost immediately after the bout was announced, former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler pulled out of the fight, explaining that he didn’t want to rush into another fight too quickly after being knocked out by Tyron Woodley in the main event of UFC 201.

Tom Taylor - September 16, 2016

Last weekend, on the main card of UFC 203, former WWE star CM Punk came up short in his long-awaited UFC debut, tapping to a first-round rear-naked choke applied by the young Mickey Gall. When it was first announced that Punk had signed with the UFC, the reaction was almost universally negative. Here was a guy, after all, who was waltzing onto the sports biggest stage with no martial arts experience. It was an overt publicity stunt on the part of the UFC, and opportunity Punk wasn’t believed to deserve.

Russell Ess - September 16, 2016

Bellator MMA will be getting a ton of memorable quotes now that “The American Gangster,” Chael Sonnen has signed a multi-fight deal. The former UFC title contender and Bellator MMA President Scott Coker were on a conference call with the media on Friday, a day after the news of Sonnen’s signing was released by the Associated Press.

bjpenndotcom - September 16, 2016

While UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley may have been quick to shut down Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson on the Fox Sports 1 post-fight show after winning the welterweight championship, the pair are now slated to fight at UFC 205 in New York. On the #UFCHidalgo weigh in show, @TWooodley confirms he’ll be fighting @WonderboyMMA at #UFC205 in New York.

bjpenndotcom - September 16, 2016

Since Dominick Cruz convincingly defeated Urijah Faber in the co-main event of UFC 199 back in June, he has been on a collision course with Faber’s protege, Cody Garbrandt. Garbrandt has been on a tear of the UFC’s bantamweight division, going 5-0 in the UFC, finishing all but one of his opponents via KO/TKO. Following his KO win over Thomas Almeida back in May, Garbrandt began calling for a title fight with Cruz.

bjpenndotcom - September 16, 2016

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/283207968″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn was a recent guest on BJPENN.com’s “Rapid Fire”, with host Chris Taylor, where he discussed a number of different topics including his comeback fight against Ricardo Lamas which takes place next month in Manila, Philippines.

Tom Taylor - September 16, 2016

We’re now just one month away from the hotly anticipated Octagon return of MMA legend B.J. Penn. The Hawaiian great will be taking on dangerous featherweight Ricardo Lamas in the main event of the UFC’s return to Manila on October 15. As we eagerly await Penn’s comeback, another legend of the sport appears to be gearing up for a comeback of his own: former Penn rival Georges St-Pierre. Though the Canadian is currently mired in contract negotiations with the UFC, he’s made no secret of his desire to return to the cage.

bjpenndotcom - September 16, 2016

Thursday evening, news broke that former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen had ended his retirement, and signed an exclusive multi-fight contract with Bellator MMA. No immediate word was given in regress to when Sonnen would be making his Bellator MMA debut, however ‘The American Gangster’ was campaigning for a fight with former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz. Ortiz, who is coming off a submission loss to Liam McGeery for the Bellator light heavyweight championship, has been away from the cage for nearly a year after having his 2-fight win streak snapped since moving to Bellator.

bjpenndotcom - September 16, 2016

At the end of the first year of random out-of-competition testing, the US Anti-Doping Agency expressed their desire to increase the number of out-of-competition drug tests in the program’s second year with the UFC. Former UFC lightweight champion, and #2 ranked UFC featherweight, Frankie ‘The Answer’ Edgar took to Instagram to reveal that he was tested by USADA this morning. Edgar also included the captions “#SoFreshAndSoCleanClean” and “#CleanAF”.