MMA News

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

Cat Zingano is in quite the peculiar place in the UFC’s women’s bantamweight division. While ‘Alpha Cat’ is ranked at #6 on the UFC’s official women’s bantamweight rankings, she holds a dominant TKO win over Amanda Nunes, who is currently the women’s bantamweight champion. In addition, Zingano holds a win over Miesha Tate, who Nunes beat to claim the women’s bantamweight champion at UFC 200. With that being said, Zingano is on a 2-fight losing streak that saw her suffer the first defeat of her professional career at the hands of Ronda Rousey back in 2015, and more recently saw her drop a unanimous decision to Julianna Pena.

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

https://youtu.be/M5oX_JDu_14 In the co-main event of UFC 203 earlier this month, former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum squared off against Travis Browne in a highly anticipated rematch.

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

In less than a month, our namesake, BJ Penn, will make his highly anticipated return to the Octagon in the main event of UFC Manilla as he faces #4 ranked featherweight Ricardo Lamas. The fight will serve as not only Penn’s return to the Octagon, but also his featherweight debut. While Penn was originally slated to fight Dennis Siver earlier this year for his return fight, he now meets arguably one of the toughest fighters in the division, former featherweight title challenger Ricardo Lamas.

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

UFC analyst and former welterweight title contender Dan Hardy believes Dustin Poirier will have the edge going into Saturday night’s fight against Michael Johnson at UFC Fight Night 94. Poirer (20-4) has been on a four-fight win streak since moving up to lightweight from featherweight, while Johnson looks to get back on track after a two-fight losing streak.

bjpenndotcom - September 17, 2016

The bantamweight division has been in a state of unrest since Dominick Cruz reclaimed the title over TJ Dillashaw back in January. With the emergence of contenders like Cody Garbrandt, the idea of who gets the next title shot becomes even murkier. Former champion TJ Dillashaw discussed the landscape of the 135 pound division, and even took some parting shots at former teammate Urijiah Faber when asked of a possible fight with ‘the California Kid’.

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

https://youtu.be/3drmd_mWGFw UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has been in the United States working on motion capture for ‘Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’. ‘The Notorious’ gave fans a first look at what his character would look like in the game. Shortly after, footage emerged of McGregor doing motion capture for the game, leaving fans wanting more.

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 16, 2016

Big news hit the MMA community late Thursday when the Associated Press released the news that former UFC title contender Chael Sonnen freshly inked a deal with Bellator MMA. Sonnen, who just became eligible to fight again after a two-year suspension from the Nevada Athletic Commission for testing positive for multiple banned substances admitted his use of performance enhancing drugs was called “one of the worst drug cheats in the history of professional sports” by Yahoo Sports.

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

#UFCHidalgo can't come soon enough!@DustinPoirier vs @FollowTheMenaceLIVE & FREE on @FS1 10pmET https://t.co/Krray80v8S — UFC (@ufc) September 16, 2016

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.