MMA News

bjpenndotcom - June 24, 2016

Its been over a year since CM Punk announced that he would be transitioning to MMA and entering the Octagon. Now, with Punk’s UFC debut finally set for UFC 203 in Cleveland on September 10th, the MMA world has been asking many questions in regards to how he will do. Gall spoke to Fox Sports to discuss the bout, as well as why he won’t underestimate Punk despite his lack of MMA experience:

Russell Ess - June 24, 2016

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson met Olympic Judoka gold medalist Satoshi Ishii Satoshi Ishii in the cage on Friday at Bellator: Dynamite 2. The two fought in a 224-pound catchweight bout in the main event of the evening at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

Russell Ess - June 24, 2016

UFC President Dana White runs into issues with his fighters from time to time and usually resolves things fairly quickly so that everyone can continue doing their jobs. Most recently, former middleweight champion Anderson Silva posted an interesting photo and caption to his Instagram account.

bjpenndotcom - June 24, 2016

Earlier this month, news broke that UFC light heavyweight contender Anthony Johnson had withdrawn from his UFC on FOX 20 co-main event scrap with Glover Teixeira for unknown reasons. It wasn’t made immediately clear whether or not the UFC would look to find a replacement opponent for Teixeira, however we now have our answer.

bjpenndotcom - June 24, 2016

[ooyala code=”84bDhkNDE6maz2KeCbtqu609-qhU9dQW” player_id=”bd214e34cfad476984102de4bf5e8da2″ auto=”true” width=”1280″ height=”1280″ autoplay=”true”] Prior to Conor McGregor’s first fight with Nate Diaz at UFC 196 back in March, Nate Diaz poked fun at McGregor’s movement training with Ido Portal, calling it ‘touch butt’.

Russell Ess - June 24, 2016

Another name has dropped on the list of opponents for the new UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping. Bisping opened up on his radio SiriusXM show “The Countdown” about recently hanging out with another big UFC draw that has been out of the loop with a suspension, but will be eligible to fight again in August.

Russell Ess - June 24, 2016

Current UFC interim light heavyweight champion Jon Jones won the interim title over Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197 convincingly. However, after going five rounds with Saint Preux, who came in on short notice, many were quick to criticize Jones’ performance in the Octagon and wondered if he could have beaten the champion Daniel Cormier on that night. Jones spoke with FOX Sports on his performance against Saint Preux, which was his first fight in the Octagon in over a year.

bjpenndotcom - June 24, 2016

When Cris Cyborg made her successful UFC debut recently at UFC 198 when she knocked out Leslie Smith, the talk of a potential superfight with former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey picked up steam once again.

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.