MMA News

bjpenndotcom - June 24, 2016

Prior to UFC 189, where Conor McGregor was initially slated to fight Jose Aldo for the UFC featherweight championship, McGregor injured his knee prior to the bout. Aldo then injured his ribs, and was replaced by Chad Mendes, who McGregor defeated via TKO to claim the interim featherweight championship. Unbeknownst to the MMA community, McGregor had trained with Rory MacDonald, and torn nearly his entire ACL leading up to UFC 189. In John Kavanagh’s new book, he recalls being in Dublin when he received a text from one of McGregor’s training partners about the situation.

bjpenndotcom - June 24, 2016

Earlier this year, Conor McGregor was slated to fight Rafael dos Anjos in a highly anticipated fight in the main event of UFC 196 for the lightweight title. Unfortunately for RDA, he broke his foot in training, and was forced out of the bout. Ultimately, the UFC selected Nate Diaz as a replacement opponent for McGregor, and as MMA fans know by now, Diaz submitted McGregor, handing him his first UFC loss.

bjpenndotcom - June 24, 2016

In the co-main event of UFC 199, Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber had their highly anticipated trilogy fight for the UFC bantamweight championship. Cruz dominated the fight from the first bell, scoring numerous takedowns, and rocking Faber several times throughout the course of the fight. Following the fight, Faber was noncommittal about his fighting future, revealing that he competes to be the best, and if he isn’t the best, he needs to think about his future.

Russell Ess - June 24, 2016

https://youtu.be/j7HAfSC-Qa8 Brock Lesnar has always been touted for his freakish athletic abilities.

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

Last year, UFC women’s strawweight fighter Felice Herrig competed in American Ninja Warrior. Unfortunately for Herrig, she went out on the very first obstacle, putting an end to her hopes of winning the competition for that season.

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

For years now there has been talk regarding a superfight between WMMA legend Cris Cyborg, and Ronda Rousey. While Rousey is no longer the UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Cris Cyborg recently made her successful UFC debut against Leslie Smith at UFC 198, reigniting the talk of a potential Rousey superfight. Recently, UFC President Dana White revealed that Rousey has not only returned to training, she is gearing up to return to the Octagon in November. While many expect Rousey to have a trilogy fight with UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate upon her return, the way Cris Cyborg sees it, the time for a fight with Rousey is now.

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

Top ranked UFC women’s strawweight Paige VanZant announced Thursday morning on SportsCenter that she would be returning to the Octagon in August to fight Bec Rawlings. Prior to that however, VanZant was offered an opportunity to do an appearance in the ring at a WWE event. In addition, VanZant was offered an opportunity to appear in the remake of ‘Kickboxer’ however she declined both opportunities in order to focus on Bec Rawlings.

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

Earlier this month, news broke that top ranked UFC featherweight Chad Mendes had been flagged for a USADA violation following a random out-of-competition drug test. Mendes was quick to own up to the mistake, saying “I didn’t do my homework and that was a big mistake. I own it and I’m going to pay for it.”

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

[ooyala code=”MxZ2hjNDE6Kg4yfmOFsoyusalV0LNbv2″ player_id=”bd214e34cfad476984102de4bf5e8da2″ auto=”true” width=”1280″ height=”1280″ autoplay=”true”] UFC lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov is currently coming off a big win over Darrell Horcher in April after nearly two years away from the Octagon.

Russell Ess - June 23, 2016

https://youtu.be/CvZVzipTKkg Things got out of hand over the weekend at What The Festival, a music festival that takes place in Oregon every year.

Russell Ess - June 23, 2016

https://youtu.be/3pr88XAsmSc Mark Hunt is set to face off the super freak athlete Brock Lesnar at UFC 200.

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

On July 9th, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier will have their highly anticipated rematch for the undisputed UFC light heavyweight championship in the main event of the historic UFC 200 card. Ahead of the rematch, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has enlisted the help of professional kickboxer and mixed martial artist Chi Lewis-Parry. Lewis-Parry is a 6’9 pro kickboxer currently signed to Glory WS with a 6-1 kickboxing record, and a 6-0 pro MMA record.

Russell Ess - June 23, 2016

With the UFC’s official announcement of Phil “CM Punk” Brooks set to fight Mickey Gall at UFC 203 in Cleveland, we take a look back at the now prize fighting Nate Diaz in his interview talking about the UFC signing the former WWE superstar. When CM Punk first signed with the UFC back in 2014, Nate Diaz was straight up pissed off about it.

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

While the MMA community is still buzzing with rumors about the UFC’s potential sale, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta is now in a 5-year contract with Red Rock, earning him $500,000 per year according to PR Newswire. Prior to the deal, Fertitta was already a Red Rock Vice President, and on the board of directors. This likely adds fuel to the fire of rumors regarding the Fertitta brothers selling the UFC to an overseas bidder in China. While the UFC brass has remained adamant that the company is not for sale, a report earlier this week emerged that the promotion had been sold for $4.2 billion.

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

https://youtu.be/kDOAcmTzfh0 Ahead of UFC 200, there has been a lot of talk in regards to Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar’s interim featherweight title fight, which takes place on the main card of the historic event.

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

https://youtu.be/cFixcRpdY8A Thursday morning, popular UFC women’s strawweight Paige VanZant appeared on SportsCenter to announce her return to the Octagon following a stellar season on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars. VanZant revealed that she would be fighting Bec Rawlings on August 27th at UFC on FOX 21.

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

Every year ESPN holds their annual ‘ESPY Awards’. This year, WWE superstar John Cena will be hosting the awards show, which goes down July 13th. The UFC will be well represented at the awards show, as 3 UFC stars have been nominated for awards at the highly anticipated event. UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has been nominated for not only ‘Breakthrough Athlete’ but also ‘Best Fighter’.

bjpenndotcom - June 23, 2016

Former WWE champion, Hollywood actor, and former collegiate defensive lineman Dwayne Johnson has an extremely impressive resume in regards to his accomplishments. At one point in time, Johnson considered adding ‘UFC fighter’ to the list. During a recent appearance on the first episode of UFC Unfiltered, Johnson revealed that about a decade ago he considered making the jump to the Octagon.