MMA News

Fernando Quiles Jr. - January 7, 2024

When Mayra Bueno Silva steps inside the Octagon for UFC 297 on Jan. 20, it’ll be the first time she’ll fight inside a packed arena since late 2018. Silva was forced to fight in front of no fans during the pandemic era, but even once restrictions were lifted, the women’s bantamweight title challenger was simply booked on events inside the UFC Apex. She will finally gets to fight under the bright lights once again when she takes on Raquel Pennington for the vacant UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - January 7, 2024

Josh Emmett doesn’t consider himself to be a modern day Nostradamus, but he does know who he’s leaning towards picking for the UFC 298 main event. Headlining that planned February 17 pay-per-view will be reigning UFC featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski. He’ll be putting his gold at stake against undefeated challenger Ilia Topuria. It’s a tough fight to call between a dominant champion, who is coming off a devastating KO loss to lightweight titleholder Islam Makhachev, and the rising Topuria. As it stands now, Volkanovski is the -155 betting favorite, while Topuria is a +130 underdog, per DraftKings Sportsbook.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - January 7, 2024

UFC play-by-play ace Jon Anik would rather not see Conor McGregor return to action as a middleweight. McGregor sent the MMA world into a frenzy just before New Year’s, as he announced he will be fighting Michael Chandler on June 29 inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. What had fight fans truly buzzing was when McGregor claimed that the fight will be contested at 185 pounds.

Chris Taylor - January 6, 2024

Unsealed court documents from the UFC antitrust lawsuit have revealed Dana White’s reaction to the CM Punk salary backlash. White and the UFC normally try to keep fighter’s salaries close to the vest, but that hasn’t stopped athlete pay from coming to forefront of discussions on a number of occasions.

Chris Taylor - January 6, 2024

Laura Sanko has weighed in on all the drama surrounding this month’s Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis title fight at UFC 297. Strickland (28-5 MMA) will be looking to defend his newly acquired UFC middleweight championship for the first time when he squares off with Du Plessis (20-2 MMA) in the main event of UFC 297 on January 20 in Toronto, Canada.

Chris Taylor - January 6, 2024

The UFC flag ban still applies to at least one country according to bantamweight fighter Farid Basharat. Basharat (11-0 MMA) is set to compete against Taylor Lapilus on next weekend’s UFC Vegas 84 fight card. ‘Ferocious’ has gone 2-0 inside of the Octagon thus far, scoring wins over Da’Mon Blackshear (decision) and Kleydson Rodrigues (submission).

Chris Taylor - January 6, 2024

UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has responded after being told to remain patient by Stipe Miocic. Aspinall (14-3 MMA) claimed the promotion’s interim heavyweight title at November’s UFC 295 event after scoring a first-round knockout victory over Sergei Pavlovich (see that here). Following his spectacular performance, the British champion made his case for a crack at reigning heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones.

Chris Taylor - January 6, 2024

Several pro fighters have reacted after news broke that Francis Ngannou will be boxing Anthony Joshua this coming March. It was just yesterday afternoon when MMA journalist Ariel Helwani announced that the former UFC heavyweight champion, Ngannou (0-1), had booked his second professional boxing bout against former WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (27-3).

Cole Shelton - January 5, 2024

The opening odds have been released for the boxing fight between Francis Ngannou and Anthony Joshua. On Friday afternoon, MMA journalist, Ariel Helwani through Turki Alashikh, announced that Ngannou would return to the boxing ring against Anthony Joshua on March 9. The fight will be ten rounds and will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The two will also have a press conference in London to start the promotion of the boxing match.

Josh Evanoff - January 5, 2024

UFC welterweight contender Belal Muhammad doesn’t care if it’s Conor McGregor or anyone else, he wants to be a defending champion. ‘Remember The Name’ has been out of action since a title eliminator with Gilbert Burns in May. That night saw Belal Muhammad dominate the Brazilian, en route to a unanimous decision victory. The win moved him to a 10-fight undefeated streak and became a prime candidate to face welterweight champion, Leon Edwards.

Josh Evanoff - January 5, 2024

Former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic is down to face Tom Aspinall after Jon Jones. The British heavyweight famously won interim gold in November, with a knockout win over Sergei Pavlovich. While Tom Aspinall was first quiet about Jon Jones and his future, he’s been heavily targeting ‘Bones’ over the last few weeks. Famously, the undisputed heavyweight champion was slated to face Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 last year.

Josh Evanoff - January 5, 2024

UFC lightweight contender Michael Chandler believes he will be the final opponent of Conor McGregor’s career. The long-awaited bout between ‘Iron’ and ‘The Notorious’ received something of a fight date earlier this month. Taking to social media, Conor McGregor announced plans to face Michael Chandler on June 29th, at International Fight Week. As of now, the fight is yet to be confirmed by the promotion, or Dana White, however.

Cole Shelton - January 5, 2024

Francis Ngannou has his second pro boxing fight set. According to MMA journalist, Ariel Helwani through Turki Alashikh, Ngannou will return to the boxing ring against Anthony Joshua on March 9. The fight will be ten rounds and will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The two will also have a press conference in the coming weeks in London to officially announce and start the promotion for the boxing match.

Susan Cox - January 5, 2024

Dricus Du Plessis is reacting to Sean Strickland’s emotional interview with Theo Von on the ‘This Past Weekend’ podcast. It was during the interview that ‘Tarzan’ opened up about his own childhood trauma growing up with an abusive father.

Susan Cox - January 5, 2024

Sean O’Malley is challenging Ilia Topuria to bet on their upcoming PPV numbers. The current UFC bantamweight champion, O’Malley (17-1 MMA) is preparing to defend his title in a rematch against Marlon Vera (23-8 MMA) at UFC 299 which takes place on Saturday, March 9th at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.

Susan Cox - January 5, 2024

Sean Strickland is reacting after former US President Bill Clinton is named in the new Jeffrey Epstein documents. Epstein, a millionaire known for his associations with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, became the subject of a police investigation in Palm Beach, Florida back in 2005. Epstein was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex.

Harry Kettle - January 5, 2024

MMA analyst Michael Bisping has weighed in on Sean Strickland’s recent war of words with Ian Machado Garry. Over the course of the last few weeks, Sean Strickland and Ian Machado Garry have somewhat become rivals. It started with Strickland offering his thoughts on the speculation surrounding Machado Garry’s wife, with the Irishman obviously not being too pleased about that. The two had a run-in at the UFC PI, with Strickland making it clear that he’d be willing to fight him – even though he wasn’t overly interested in doing so.

Harry Kettle - January 5, 2024

MMA analyst Chael Sonnen has given his thoughts on who Jorge Masvidal could face at UFC 300. Earlier this week, Jorge Masvidal took to social media and appeared to announce that he was coming out of retirement. While there’s been no confirmation as to what exactly that means, many are speculating that he could be doing so in order to compete at UFC 300. It would make sense, given that he’s a blockbuster name in mixed martial arts, and the promotion clearly wants to make UFC 300 as stacked as possible.