MMA News

Adam D Martin - August 19, 2021

UFC light heavyweight contender Anthony Smith explained how superstar Conor McGregor has gone “way too far” with his social media antics. McGregor has been taking to his social media as of late to make numerous vulgar comments about the likes of Dustin Poirier, Daniel Cormier, and Michael Bisping, plus of course all the things he said about Khabib Nurmagomedov in the past. It’s gotten to the point where his UFC peers, like Smith, are getting tired of his antics. Speaking to LowKickMMA’s James Lynch, Smith explained why McGregor has gone “way too far.”

Adam D Martin - August 19, 2021

UFC welterweight superstar Jorge Masvidal is predicting that Tyron Woodley will knock out Jake Paul in their boxing match later this month. Woodley meets Paul in a high-profile boxing match on August 29 in Paul’s native Cleveland, Ohio. It’s the fourth professional boxing match for Paul, who is 3-0 including a TKO win over Woodley’s longtime friend and training partner Ben Askren in his last outing, while for Woodley this marks the beginning of his boxing journey. It is expected to be a big-selling pay-per-view and the fight has also seen a lot of betting action on it from fans. Currently, Paul is favored at the sportsbooks to get the win but Woodley is only a moderate underdog.

Adam D Martin - August 19, 2021

UFC women’s strawweight contender Nina Nunes returns to the Octagon in December when she faces off against rising contender Amanda Lemos. Combate’s Raphael Marinho was the first to report that Nunes — the No. 7 ranked fighter in the UFC women’s strawweight division — will square off with the No. 13 ranked Lemos at a UFC event set for December 18. There are no other details currently available about this event, but the addition of Nunes vs. Lemos is certainly a nice start to building up the card.

Adam D Martin - August 19, 2021

Heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou opened up on contract negotiations with the UFC, saying “there’s a lot going on behind the scenes.” Ngannou knocked out Stipe Miocic back in March to become the new UFC heavyweight champion. Initially, the fight to make was Ngannou against Jon Jones, but Jones and the UFC couldn’t come to financial terms and that fight was called off. Instead, the UFC wanted to book Ngannou against Derrick Lewis at UFC 265. However, Ngannou couldn’t fight on that date and the UFC instead brought in Ciryl Gane, who knocked out Lewis to become the new interim UFC heavyweight champion — just three months after Ngannou won the belt.

Adam D Martin - August 19, 2021

Mixed martial arts legend Mauricio Rua aka “Shogun” named the three toughest opponents he ever fought in the UFC in a recent interview. Rua is one of the most legendary MMA fighters of all time, having been a former PRIDE and UFC champion. Now 39 years old, Shoun has spoken openly about retiring in the next year or two. He is coming off of a brutal TKO loss to Paul Craig in his last outing and considering he turns 40 years of age later this year, the future UFC Hall of Famer knows that his time in the sport is nearing its end. Although he still has another fight or two in him, it’s starting to become the time where Shogun is looking back at his MMA career and reminiscing on it.

Harry Kettle - August 19, 2021

Jorge Masvidal has announced that Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva will headline the second Gamebred Fighting Championship event. In recent months Masvidal, who is coming off the back of consecutive defeats to Kamaru Usman, has opted to kickstart his own bare-knuckle promotion to run alongside his mixed martial arts career. Bare-knuckle is where “Gamebred” first cut his teeth in the combat sports realm and now, he wants to give fighters a chance to do the same.

Harry Kettle - August 19, 2021

UFC president Dana White has confirmed that Tresean Gore has been ruled out of his Ultimate Fighter 29 finale fight against Bryan Battle due to an unfortunate knee injury. Gore was tipped to be the big star coming out of the 29th edition of the show and had managed to make it all the way through to the final of the middleweight bracket. Alas, such is the unpredictable nature of mixed martial arts, we will now not see him go up against the last pick Bryan Battle for the right to win the contract.

Drake Riggs - August 18, 2021

Georges St-Pierre was open to the idea of yet another comeback — just not in an MMA cage. Widely considered one of the greatest fighters of all time, if not the greatest, St-Pierre is now 40-years old and hasn’t fought since his middleweight title capturing against Michael Bisping at UFC 217 in 2017. However, when boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya announced his comeback, “GSP” was looked at as the first opponent before the eventual Vitor Belfort matchup was finalized.

Cole Shelton - August 18, 2021

Anthony Smith thinks fighting Jiri Prochazka would be a ton of fun. Prochazka is the former RIZIN light heavyweight champion and has made good so far in his UFC career. In his debut, he knocked out Volkan Oezdemir and followed that up with a highlight-reel KO over Dominick Reyes. He will now serve as the backup for the title fight, but Smith says that is a fight he would like to have.

Cole Shelton - August 18, 2021

Kevin Lee doesn’t understand why Mike Perry turned him down. After Sean Brady was forced out of his August 28 fight against Kevin Lee, “The Motown Phenom” said to BJPENN.com he wanted to remain on the card and that is the case. Lee will now face a short-notice replacement, Daniel Rodriguez.

Cole Shelton - August 18, 2021

Dustin Poirier wouldn’t be surprised if he faces Conor McGregor again. At UFC 264 in July, Poirier and McGregor had their highly-anticipated trilogy and Poirier won the fight after the Irishman broke his leg at the end of the first round. It was a disappointing ending and for Poirier, he says the second fight back at UFC 257 was much better for him as it was a definitive ending.

Adam D Martin - August 18, 2021

Bantamweight prospect Sean O’Malley won’t become a UFC champion, said former 135lbs champ TJ Dillashaw, who thinks “he’s got too many holes.” Dillashaw knows what it takes to be a UFC champion because he was the promotion’s 135lbs champion on two separate occasions. Speaking to Submission Radio in a recent interview, Dillashaw was asked what he thinks about O’Malley, who is quickly rising up the ranks and is turning into a household name. When asked if he thinks “Suga” has what it takes to be a UFC champion, Dillashaw said that he doesn’t have the complete MMA game.

Cole Shelton - August 18, 2021

Vinc Pichel is excited to show off how much better he has gotten since changing camps to Factory X. Pichel has been training in California for years now, but he recently decided to move to Colorado and train at Factory X. For Pichel, he says he immediately clicked with head coach, Marc Montoya and the team.

Cole Shelton - August 18, 2021

BBrian Kelleher wasn’t too surprised he is fighting Domingo Pilarte at UFC Vegas 34. After Kelleher lost a decision to Ricky Simon at UFC 258, he knew he would have to fight someone below him in the rankings. That is exactly what is happening as he is facing Pilarte, which is a rebooking as the two were supposed to fight one another at UFC 230 back in 2018.

Adam D Martin - August 18, 2021

Vitor Belfort wants a rematch with former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in boxing a decade after the infamous front kick KO. In the main event of UFC 126 in February 2011, Silva landed one of the most incredible knockouts in MMA history when he landed a front kick to the jaw of Belfort and put him out cold with punches. It was an amazing finish by “The Spider” and for years, Belfort has talked about wanting to have a rematch with his Brazilian rival, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Tom Taylor - August 18, 2021

ONE Championship atomweight star Bi Nguyen feels like she’s entering the prime of her fighting life. Nguyen fights Filipina prospect Jenelyn Olsim at ONE: Battleground III this Friday in Singapore. The Vietnamese-American striking specialist will enter the fight with arguably the biggest win of her career in the rear-view mirror: a hard-fought decision triumph over Indian wrestling sensation Ritu Phogat.

Adam D Martin - August 18, 2021

TJ Dillashaw “would like to fight Jose Aldo” but wants the former champion wants a crack at the UFC bantamweight title shot first. Dillashaw recently made his return to the Octagon after over two years away, and he defeated Cory Sandhagen via split decision to once again emerge as a top contender for the 135lbs title. The next bantamweight title fight takes place at UFC 267 in October when Aljamain Sterling defends his belts against Petr Yan in a rematch, and Dillashaw is hoping that he gets to fight the winner of that title match. However, the former featherweight champ Aldo called out Dillashaw after his latest win over Pedro Munhoz, and now fans are excited about the prospect of two former UFC champions going at it down at 135lbs.

Adam D Martin - August 18, 2021

UFC superstar Conor McGregor believes that his sons, Conor Jr. and Rian, will follow in his footsteps and become fighters one day. McGregor is the biggest name in mixed martial arts and he and his partner Dee Devlin have three children together, young boys Conor Jr. and Rian, and daughter, Croia. Asked in a recent Q&A session by a fan if he sees his two boys following their father’s footsteps into the world of combat sports, “Notorious” replied affirmatively, saying that he does see them testing their skills in martial arts one day. However, McGregor also pointed out that he will not force his sons to become MMA fighters. If they want to, though, he will support them.