MMA News

Russell Ess - June 22, 2016

Nate Diaz has spent the majority of his UFC career fighting at lightweight. However, with taking the fight with Conor McGregor at UFC 196 on short notice, Diaz and McGregor agreed on fighting at welterweight. When Diaz caused McGgregor to tap in the second round of the fight, “The Notorious” was described as being “obsessed” with beating Diaz in a rematch under the same exact conditions, which is why their rematch is again at 170 pounds.

Russell Ess - June 22, 2016

A newly released report from FloCombat indicates that the sale of the UFC has gone through with the investment group led by the William Morris Endeavor-IMG agency purchasing the company with a winning bid close to $4 billion. Despite UFC Vice President of public relations, athlete marketing, and development, Dave Sholler’s statement denying the sale of the UFC, FloCombat reports that their sources have told them that the general terms of the deal were agreed upon between Lorenzo Fertitta and CEO of WME-IMG, Ari Emanuel, during a dinner in Hollywood last Sunday. A few UFC and WME-IMG executives were also present at the dinner.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

[ooyala code=”pzbWJiNDE6AD-A24WYJxhp0EsbPZuvxQ” player_id=”bd214e34cfad476984102de4bf5e8da2″ auto=”true” width=”1280″ height=”1280″ autoplay=”true”] UFC featherweight prospect Makwan Amirkhani has quickly become one of the brightest prospects in the UFC. The featherweight standout has amassed a 13-2 record throughout his professional career, including a 3-0 record in the UFC.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

While Khabib Nurmagomedov may have no intentions of fighting during Ramadan, ‘The Eagle’ isn’t ready to let UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos forget about their fight in 2014 in which Nurmagomedov defeated dos Anjos via decision. The pair often exchange verbal jabs through interviews, however there has been no word yet as to what it will take for Nurmagomedov to get a crack at RDA’s lightweight championship. Ahead of RDA’s title defense against Eddie Alvarez on July 7th, Nurmagomedov took to Instagram to taunt the champ:

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has never been one to shy away from giving his thoughts on his fellow fighters. In addition to being able to dish out an incredible volume of trash talk, Cruz backs up his talk inside the Octagon, earning him the reputation as one of the most talented fighters in the UFC. Cruz, who holds a win over arguable pound for pound kingpin Demetrious Johnson, was asked by MMAJunkie for his thoughts on Johnson’s upcoming UFC 201 fight with Wilson Reis:

Russell Ess - June 21, 2016

Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone is one of the most active and exciting fighters that you see in the UFC. After his impressive performance at UFC Fight Night 89 where he put Patrick Cote away in the third round of their welterweight bout, “Cowboy” made a comment during the post-fight press conference about his pay.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

This past weekend, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson and Rory MacDonald squared off in a highly anticipated matchup of welterweight contenders for a title shot against the winner of Robbie Lawler vs. Tyron Woodley. The fight, which went the full 5 rounds, was an extremely technical matchup between two of the best strikers in the welterweight division. Ultimately, Thompson’s precision and ability to stuff takedowns earned him the victory.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

This past weekend, Joanne Calderwood kicked off the main card of ‘UFC Fight Night: 89’ by dominating Valerie Letourneau in the first ever UFC women’s flyweight fight. Calderwood dominated the bout from start to finish, landing numerous blows that dropped Letourneau, a former title challenger at strawweight. Calderwood ultimately ended up finishing the bout in the 3rd round, but unfortunately was not given a performance bonus for the win.

Russell Ess - June 21, 2016

The long awaited UFC debut of Phil Brooks, who is much better known by his professional wrestling name, CM Punk, is being targeted for UFC 203 in Cleveland, Ohio, according to Ariel Helwani. Helwani, who has created quite a stir recently with breaking news of UFC announcements before the organization tweeted on Tuesday, “Current plan at the moment is CM Punk vs. Mickey Gall at UFC 203, per sources. Far from a done deal but that’s the direction as of this AM.”

Russell Ess - June 21, 2016

The UFC rankings were adjusted following the UFC Fight Night 89 event over the weekend. The main event winner Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson climbed to the top of the UFC welterweight division after picking up a unanimous decision win over the former #1 ranked welterweight, Rory MacDonald, who dropped down a spot to #2.

Russell Ess - June 21, 2016

John Kavanagh, head coach of Conor McGregor, will soon come out with his autobiography book “Win or Learn.” In the opening of his book, Kavanagh delved into Conor McGregor’s first UFC loss, which came at the hands of Nate Diaz at UFC 196.

Russell Ess - June 21, 2016

https://youtu.be/pDWCbDygY-w Even if Ariel Helwani’s lifetime ban was lifted from the UFC, Dana White is still pissed off with him.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

After nearly a decade as a professional fighter, Miesha Tate captured UFC gold after choking Holly Holm unconscious in the co-main event of UFC 196 on March 5th. Following the fight, many began calling for a trilogy fight with Ronda Rousey, who was on an indefinite hiatus after being brutally knocked out by Holly Holm in November. While Tate may be down to scrap with Rousey a third time, Rousey has yet to announce her plans to return to the Octagon. The former champ is currently filming movies in Hollywood, and while UFC President Dana White has stated that Rousey will fight in November, Tate isn’t so sure. In addition, Tate pointed out that she doesn’t want to overlook her UFC 200 opponent, Amanda Nunes. She spoke on Conan on TBS:

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

Earlier this year, after Conor McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to claim the UFC featherweight championship, McGregor was slated to move up to lightweight to fight lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos in the main event of UFC 196. Unfortunately, dos Anjos was forced out of the bout with a broken foot, and was ultimately replaced by Nate Diaz, who defeated McGregor in a welterweight matchup. With a rematch between McGregor and Diaz slated for UFC 202 on August 20th, dos Anjos spoke to MMAJunkie to give his thoughts on that bout, and campaign for a fight with McGregor:

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

Last Friday in Russia, former UFC light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado put on an incredible performance against MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko. Unfortunately for Maldonado, the performance wasn’t enough to win him the fight, as he lost via majority decision. Maldonado came out of the gate strong as he had Emelianenko rocked and nearly finished for almost the entire first round. The UFC vet faded as the fight went on however, with many scoring the second and third rounds for Emelianenko. Many considered the decision a controversial one, including Maldonado’s team, who plan on appealing the loss.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

https://youtu.be/byKT5CSzdgE This past weekend in Ottawa, Canada, Valerie Letourneau and Joanne Calderwood competed in the first UFC women’s flyweight matchup in the UFC. Calderwood won the fight decisively, rocking Letourneau numerous times with shots to the face and body.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

During UFC 199, fight fans were shocked to find out that popular MMA journalist Ariel Helwani had been kicked out of the event, and had been banned from future UFC events as a media member after breaking the news of Brock Lesnar returning to the UFC at UFC 200. Helwani took to social media to fight the ban, which resulted in him gaining enough support that the UFC ultimately lifted the lifetime ban on Helwani just days after banning him for life.

bjpenndotcom - June 21, 2016

It’s no secret that UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor likes to enjoy “the fruits” of his labor. McGregor frequently posts pictures to his social media accounts of luxury cars and designer clothes which he purchases for himself and his girlfriend. McGregor’s father, Tony McGregor, opened up in a recent interview with Independent about the presents his son purchased for the family: