MMA News

bjpenndotcom - March 18, 2016

After UFC 196, where Nate Diaz shocked the world as he submitted Conor McGregor in the 2nd round of their welterweight scrap, UFC President Dana White stated that the event broke several UFC records. Given that, many wondered if the UFC would book a rematch between the two men, however Diaz stated that there were many times in his career that he wanted a rematch and didn’t get it. With that being said, according to a report from MMAFighting, we may get to see a rematch after all.

bjpenndotcom - March 18, 2016

After Dominick Cruz returned to the Octagon in January, and defeated T.J. Dillashaw to reclaim the UFC bantamweight championship he never lost, there was much speculation as to whether Dillashaw would be getting an immediate rematch given how close the fight was. After the bantamweight championship was wrapped around Cruz’s waist, it didn’t take long for Urijah Faber to call out his nemesis for a trilogy fight. While there was uncertainty as to whether Dillashaw or Faber would get the title shot against Cruz, the UFC ultimately decided to cash in on the hype of a trilogy fight between Cruz and Faber.

bjpenndotcom - March 18, 2016

Earlier this month the UFC announced that a trilogy bout between Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber would take place in the co-main event of UFC 199 in June. Faber won the pair’s first meeting under the WEC banner back in 2007, however it was Cruz who got the nod in 2011 to retain the UFC’s bantamweight championship.

bjpenndotcom - March 18, 2016

Yesterday at the ‘UFC Brisbane’ pre-fight press conference, headliners Mark Hunt and Frank Mir wore very similar outfits.

Russell Ess - March 17, 2016

Former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo has his mind set on one fight, which is the rematch for the UFC title with the current featherweight champion Conor McGregor. Conor McGregor shut the lights out early on Aldo at UFC 194. It took just 13 seconds for McGregor to land a punch flush on Aldo’s chin that dropped the former pound-for-pound king to the mat and finished it off with brutal hammerfists.

Russell Ess - March 17, 2016

Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino recently put on a campaign to fight at UFC 198, which takes place in Curitiba, Brazil on May 14th. “I would love for the UFC to bring in my division,” said “Cyborg” recently. “If you look at the top 12 girls ranked at bantamweight (in the UFC), seven of them have fought higher than 135. But I do not think the UFC has to introduce the division to let me fight in their promotion. They have a great relationship with Invicta and I’m sure (president Shannon Knapp) would let me defend my title in Brazil.”

bjpenndotcom - March 17, 2016

It’s official! After a report surfaced earlier this week that Anderson Silva vs. Uriah Hall would go down at UFC 198 in The Spider’s hometown of Curitiba Brazil, we now have official confirmation from the UFC that Anderson Silva and Uriah Hall will in fact be fighting at the event.

bjpenndotcom - March 17, 2016

This week it was revealed that former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao would be going up to featherweight to fight Jeremy Stephens on May 29th. While the reports have yet to be officially confirmed by the UFC, Jeremy Stephens took to Twitter today to start a war of words with Barao, also revealing that the bout will be taking place in Vegas rather than Brazil as initially reported.

Russell Ess - March 17, 2016

Former UFC veteran heavyweight Matt Mitrione announced earlier this week that he left the UFC to sign with Bellator MMA. The former NFL football player and season 10 member of “The Ultimate Fighter” recently spoke with the Three Amigos on his big career decision (transcribed by Bloody Elbow): “I was brought here for my fighting style and my ratings/my draw. I want to fight against somebody that really wants to fight; not necessarily go toe-to-toe. I don’t care if we grapple, I don’t care — whatever it is — but I want there to be an action-filled fight, and whoever they deem appropriate — ‘Look, this guy’s a stand-and-banger, he’s a hell of a grappler, and he’s got hands on him,’ [then] awesome.”

Russell Ess - March 17, 2016

Renzo Gracie is very happy for Nate Diaz getting the biggest win of his career over one of the biggest stars in the UFC, Conor McGregor. Renzo’s cousin Cesar Gracie is the longtime trainer of the Diaz brothers and Renzo recently spoke about them on MMA Noise.

bjpenndotcom - March 17, 2016

[ooyala code=”V4YnIzMjE6SKcvhOc8p5JuSRz91fki3j” player_id=”b8fa6431adff441580c2e2bf5e6bd724″ width=”1920″ height=”1080″ auto=”true” autoplay=”true”] It was recently announced that Andrei Arlovski would be squaring off against teammate Alistair Overeem on May 8th in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Chris Taylor - March 17, 2016

According to a report from Brazilian news outlet Combate, former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao (33-3 MMA) will return to the octagon on May 29 to make his featherweight debut against Jeremy Stephens (24-12 MMA). After putting together an amazing win streak that stretched from 2005-2014, Renan Barao has gone just 1-2 in his past three octagon appearances. Both of those recent losses came via TKO to former champ T.J. Dillashaw. Sandwiched in between the Dillashaw losses was a submission victory over Canadian Mitch Gagnon. Barao, who has always struggled to make the bantamweight limit of 135-pounds, will now look to find new life as a featherweight (145-pounds).

bjpenndotcom - March 17, 2016

Since re-emerging in the media following her UFC 193 KO loss to Holly Holm, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has been her upbeat self.

bjpenndotcom - March 17, 2016

At UFC 196 earlier this month, Nate Diaz shocked the world as he submitted Conor McGregor in the 2nd round of their welterweight clash after accepting the fight on less than 2 weeks notice. Following his win over McGregor, there was much speculation as to what would be next for Diaz, who UFC President Dana White stated may even buy a yacht and retire.

bjpenndotcom - March 17, 2016

Earlier this month prior to UFC 196 the UFC previewed the next several months of events with the ‘UFC Unstoppable’ press conference, which featured several fighters that will be headlining events in the near future. The majority of the press conference however centered around Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, who ahead of their UFC 197 rematch, continued to throw verbal blows at one another. One thing that stuck out about the pair’s verbal exchanges was that when Cormier would get the microphone to talk, the audience would ‘boo’ him.

bjpenndotcom - March 17, 2016

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor proudly carries the Irish flag with him at weigh-ins, and when he walks to the Octagon on fight night. McGregor is credited with starting the UFC’s ‘Irish Invasion’ along with his SBG Ireland teammates. For Saint Patricks day, McGregor took to Instagram with a message for his fellow Irish.

Chris Taylor - March 17, 2016

According to a report from Ariel Helwani, the UFC has denied Rafael dos Anjos’ request to fight either Nate Diaz or Robbie Lawler at July’s blockbuster UFC 200 event in Las Vegas. ‘UFC Tonight’ revealed the news on Twitter:

Russell Ess - March 17, 2016

The mental aspect of fighting is just as important as the physical. Just ask former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. “I became champion, I beat the greatest welterweight in the world back in the day that was Matt Hughes, who seems to be invincible back in the day and I beat him. So now I become the new greatest thing in the sport and everybody tells me how great I am and stuff and I started to believe in my own hype,” St-Pierre revealed when speaking to Joe Buck on “Undeniable” (transcribed by FOX Sports).