MMA News

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

Tim Kennedy has not fought in the UFC since a controversial loss to Yoel Romero at UFC 178, which took place back in September 2014. However, the UFC middleweight veteran has recently been campaigning for a fight with Anderson Silva and was emotional to say the least when he heard reports of Silva fighting Uriah Hall. Apparently Kennedy found the news out on Twitter and expressed his feelings upon hearing the news.

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).

Russell Ess - March 17, 2016

To put it lightly, UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum does not like UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor. McGregor went out of his way to disrespect Werdum in his acceptance speech at the MMA Awards after the heavyweight champion pulled out of a recent title fight due to injury.

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.

bjpenndotcom - March 17, 2016

While Cat Zingano hasn’t been in the Octagon since her UFC 184 submission loss to Ronda Rousey, the former title challenger reportedly has some good news. Zingano recently spent time in Thailand working on her striking in preparation for a return bout to the UFC, and it sounds as though she will get a chance to show off her new skills sooner rather than later. With UFC 200 rapidly approaching, we can only guess as to what this “damn good news is.”

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).

Russell Ess - March 17, 2016

In 2014, UFC President Dana White said Nate Diaz was not a draw in the UFC. “He’s under contract and when he’s ready to fight he can fight,” White said regarding contract issues with Nate Diaz. “The kid makes good money. The kid makes really good money. And the unfortunate part is, he’s not a needle mover. His brother (Nick Diaz) is a needle mover, he’s not.” The younger Diaz proved that to be wrong at UFC 196. With just ten days notice, Nate Diaz stepped in to fight UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor in an exciting non-title welterweight bout. White claimed after the fight that it was the most bought UFC PPV event in the company’s history.

bjpenndotcom - March 16, 2016

While Rafael dos Anjos may have been forced out of his UFC 196 main event bout with Conor McGregor due to a broken foot, the lightweight champion is looking to fight at UFC 200 in July. Not only is dos Anjos looking to fight on the card, he may even be looking to challenge welterweight champion Robbie Lawler in a champion vs. champion bout.

bjpenndotcom - March 16, 2016

While it was previously reported that Anderson Silva would be unable to fight in his hometown of Curitiba Brazil at UFC 198 due to a lack of opponents, a recent report indicates that may no longer be the case. A report has surfaced from Sherdog which revealed that the UFC is reportedly looking to book Anderson Silva to fight the always exciting Uriah Hall at UFC 198 on May 14th. The card is headlined by Fabricio Werdum vs. Stipe Miocic, but given Silva’s fame, the bout will likely be on the pay-per view portion of the card.

bjpenndotcom - March 16, 2016

Ronda Rousey lost her belt to Holly Holm last November and went on a social media semi-blackout after her loss. She is now making her way back into the limelight with appearances on Saturday Night Live and returning full swing to the internet. She broke her own news via social media that she can again eat apples.

bjpenndotcom - March 16, 2016

Frank Mir has been in the UFC since November 2001 and headlines UFC Fight Night in Australia this weekend. He’s taking on Mark Hunt and the Future UFC Hall of Famer took a moment to talk to some internet fans via FaceBook. https://www.facebook.com/frankmir36/posts/1103802169652057 Mir is a heavyweight MMA Pioneer and still an active top ten fighter 15 years later. He had this to say recently on MMAJUNKIE Radio