MMA News

bjpenndotcom - July 28, 2016

Ahead of UFC 201 on Saturday, where Robbie Lawler will look to once again defend his welterweight star against Tyron Woodley, the talk of a potential Georges St-Pierre return to MMA can’t be ignored. With the list of welterweight title contenders being a rather lengthy one, Georges St-Pierre returning to the UFC would likely mean that Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson would be forced to wait on the title shot he was promised.

Russell Ess - July 28, 2016

https://youtu.be/Kzbn2DCUnq8 The UFC welterweight title fight between champion Robbie Lawler and contender Tyron Woodley takes place this Saturday at UFC 201 in Atlanta, Georgia.

bjpenndotcom - July 28, 2016

Prior to UFC 196, where Conor McGregor went up to welterweight to fight Nate Diaz, there was talk of McGregor potentially challenging welterweight kingpin Robbie Lawler for the welterweight championship if he defeated Diaz. Diaz ultimately won the fight, despite stepping in on just 2 weeks notice, putting an end to the talk of a McGregor-Lawler fight. During an interview following UFC 196, Lawler was asked about how a fight with McGregor would go. Lawler responded by saying that McGregor was lucky he lost to Diaz because if he fought Lawler, he wouldn’t take McGregor’s neck with a submission like Diaz did, but instead would “take his soul”.

bjpenndotcom - July 28, 2016

Earlier this year, UFC Hall of Famer BJ Penn officially ended his retirement, revealing his intention to make a run at the featherweight title with the help of coaches Greg Jackson & Mike Winkeljohn. With his eyes set on a November return to the Octagon, Penn found himself criticized by UFC President Dana White recently when the UFC President stated that Penn didn’t live up to his potential in the Octagon, and ultimately could have gone down as the single greatest fighter of all time.

Russell Ess - July 28, 2016

Right now, former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold is undergoing treatment for an injured knee. Once fully healed up and healthy enough to get back in the gym, Rockhold says that there is one particular fight that he is looking to get with Michael Bisping already booked and set to defend his title against Dan Henderson. “There’s a guy I’ve always wanted to fight and that’s Anderson Silva,” Rockhold said on ESPN Radio (transcribed by Fight Sports). “I think Anderson Silva is still in the division, he’s still obviously relevant. He has a controversial loss to Bisping, and I had my loss to Bisping, and then obviously fighting my teammate [Daniel Cormier at UFC 200] on short notice. I think he’s still very relevant and it’s a fight that would make a lot of sense. And it would be a fun one to do. Looking at the division, that makes the most sense.”

Russell Ess - July 28, 2016

The UFC rankings were updated after the UFC on FOX 20 event that took place over the weekend. The divisions that seen the most change were the women’s bantamweight division and the men’s featherweight division.

bjpenndotcom - July 27, 2016

Fresh off his win over Thiago Santos at UFC 200, Gegard Mousasi is looking to fight once again before the year is up. Wednesday evening Combate announced that Mousasi had signed to fight Vitor Belfort at UFC 204, which takes place on October 8th.

bjpenndotcom - July 27, 2016

UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is fresh off of his unanimous decision win over Anderson Silva on the main card of UFC 200. Cormier was initially slated to defend his light heavyweight title against Jon Jones at the event, however Jones was pulled from the card just two days before the event due to a potential USADA Anti-Doping Violation. With no timetable for Jones’ return to the Octagon, Cormier is looking to fight the winner of Anthony Johnson vs. Glover Teixeira, which takes place at UFC 202 on August 20th.

Russell Ess - July 27, 2016

On Wednesday, USADA released a statement that Islam Makhachev was ruled with a ‘No Fault’ for his Meldonium Anti-Doping Policy Violation. Makhachev tested positive for the prohibited substance Meldonium, “which was determined to have been ingested by him without fault or negligence.”

bjpenndotcom - July 27, 2016

On August 20th, Conor McGregor will compete in his second fight since winning the UFC featherweight championship from Jose Aldo back at UFC 194. This fight, like the last one, will not be at featherweight. This has led many to wonder whether or not McGregor will actually return to featherweight to defend his belt. With Jose Aldo currently the interim featherweight champ, he is hoping for a rematch with McGregor.

Russell Ess - July 27, 2016

[ooyala code=”U2OHd5NDE6yPaiXlgJBrJVpF1IKIu_5N” player_id=”bd214e34cfad476984102de4bf5e8da2″ auto=”true” width=”1280″ height=”1280″] UFC 201 takes place in Atlanta, Georgia this weekend.

Russell Ess - July 27, 2016

If you had to guess, who would you say has gotten hit in the head the most while standing and trading strikes in the UFC, WEC and Strikeforce? According to @fightnomics, Sam Stout lands at the top after receiving 562 strikes to the head while standing. Stout hung up his gloves after losing to Frankie Perez at UFC Fight Night 74 back in 2015.

Russell Ess - July 27, 2016

https://youtu.be/EpbMrek6HsA UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has been rubbing shoulders with some big pop stars recently. Soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo visited McGregor in Las Vegas at the gym “The Notorious” has been training at and was later with Jennifer Lopez for her birthday party.

bjpenndotcom - July 27, 2016

Former UFC heavyweight champion Shane Carwin hasn’t fought in 5 years. Prior to his retirement, Carwin was on a 2-fight losing streak that saw him lose to Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos. On the heels of Brock Lesnar’s return at UFC 200, Carwin has taken another step forward with his UFC return, contacting matchmaker Joe Silva about returning to the Octagon.

bjpenndotcom - July 27, 2016

Since it was announced that Brock Lesnar failed a pre-fight, as well as a fight night drug test for UFC 200, his opponent, Mark Hunt, has continued to make headlines. In addition to an expletive filled rant, Hunt called for the UFC to give him 100% of Lesnar’s massive $2.5 million purse for the event. As if that wasn’t enough, Hunt took it upon himself to attempt to create a fighters union.

bjpenndotcom - July 27, 2016

Prior to Carlos Condit’s UFC 195 welterweight title fight with Robbie Lawler, the ‘Natural Born Killer’ revealed that the fight very well could be his last before retiring. After losing a controversial split decision, Condit stated that unless he got an immediate rematch with Lawler, he was on hiatus until further notice. The UFC opted to book Robbie Lawler vs. Tyron Woodley for UFC 201, which prompted Condit to take a fight with Demian Maia.

bjpenndotcom - July 27, 2016

Earlier this year, talks of a potential Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather boxing match had both the MMA community and boxing community fantasizing about the potential fight. The fight never came to fruition, and ultimately Conor McGregor signed to fight Nate Diaz in a welterweight rematch at UFC 202 on August 20th.

bjpenndotcom - July 27, 2016

While Jose Aldo’s next fight will likely be a title unification fight with Conor McGregor after McGregor has his UFC 202 rematch with Nate Diaz in August, the interim featherweight champion appears to be eyeing a fight with bantamweight kingpin Dominick Cruz. Cruz spoke recently in an interview, where he explained that if McGregor is sidelined for an extended period of time following his fight with Diaz, he would be open to making the jump to 145 in an attempt to hold two titles at the same time.