MMA News

Cole Shelton - March 11, 2021

In the main event of UFC Vegas 21, Leon Edwards is making his return to the Octagon as he takes on Belal Muhammad. Heading into the fight, Edwards is a -275 favorite while the Palestinian-American is a +215 underdog. Ahead of the fight, BJPENN.com reached out to several pro fighters to get their predictions for the scrap. To no surprise, the majority of pros have Edwards extending his winning streak to nine.

Adam Martin - March 11, 2021

UFC bantamweight Dominick Cruz slammed TJ Dillashaw for his cheater comments towards Petr Yan, telling him “you’re about eight years old.” In the wake of Yan’s DQ loss to Aljamain Sterling at UFC 259, Dillashaw took to his social media to call the former champion a “cheater.” Dillashaw, of course, hasn’t fought in over two years due to a suspension by USADA, and he has admitted that he cheated the system in order to gain an unfair advantage. Seeing the comments that Dillashaw made about Yan and bunching him into the same group of cheats that Dillashaw belongs to was something that Cruz, a former opponent who fought at UFC 259, wasn’t thrilled about seeing.

Adam Martin - March 11, 2021

UFC middleweights Darren Till and Marvin Vettori have officially been announced as headliners for the “UFC on ABC: Battle of Europe” event. “The Battle of Europe” event will the UFC’s second event on the ABC Network following January’s UFC Fight Island: Max Holloway vs. Calvin Kattar card. Just like that fight which featured a great main event, the UFC is bringing the goods to its ABC audience once again for this second card. This time around, two of the best middleweights in MMA headline when Till takes on Vettori. Both men are vying for the opportunity to take on UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, so a win here is very important for both men.

Tom Taylor - March 11, 2021

Former two-division champion turned color commentator Daniel Cormier has responded to complaints about biased commentary during the UFC 259 broadcast. Cormier joined Jon Anik and Joe Rogan at the commentary desk for UFC 259, which was headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between champion Jan Blachowicz and challenger Israel Adesanya, who holds the UFC middleweight title.

Adam Martin - March 11, 2021

UFC Hall of Famer Matt Serra said he felt “disrespected” that Aljamain Sterling didn’t want to have him in his corner at UFC 259. Sterling fought Petr Yan for the UFC bantamweight title this past weekend and won it via fourth-round DQ when Yan made the bonehead mistake of illegally kneeing a downed opponent. In Sterling’s corner for that fight was his longtime coach Ray Longo and Xtreme Couture’s Eric Nicksick. Sterling grew up training with Team Serra – Longo on Long Island, but he recently started doing more training in Las Vegas. So when it came time to picking his cornerman for his title fight with Yan, Sterling had to make a choice, and he chose to leave Serra out of his corner instead of taking his longtime coach on the title journey.

Adam Martin - March 11, 2021

Check out the complete betting odds for this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 21 card featuring Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad in the main event. The main event sees the No. 3 ranked welterweight Edwards take on the No. 13 ranked Muhammad. Edwards was originally set to fight Khamzat Chimaev, but his opponent was forced off the card due to COVID-19 health issues and replaced on short notice by Muhammad. Theis fight is a fascinating matchup between two of the most well-rounded fighters at 170lbs. Edwards is currently riding an eight-fight win streak, while Muhammad has won eight of his last nine fights overall. It’s worth noting that Edwards has had a long layoff, having not fought since a July 2019 unanimous decision win over Rafael dos Anjos.

Tom Taylor - March 11, 2021

Julianna Pena has a message for Amanda Nunes: Vacate the bantamweight title if you’re not going to defend it. Nunes currently holds the UFC bantamweight featherweight titles, and has defended both multiple times. Her last two fights, however, have both been featherweight title defenses, which has evidently drawn the frustration of Pena.

Tom Taylor - March 11, 2021

Israel Adesanya will eventually seek out a rematch with Jan Blachowicz, according to his long-time coach Eugene Bareman. Adesanya, the UFC middleweight champion, challenged Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 259 last weekend. While Adesanya performed well in the matchup, Blachowicz ultimately left the cage with a unanimous decision win, and the light heavyweight belt still slung over his shoulder.

Tom Taylor - March 11, 2021

Former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan has hit his latest opponent, Aljamain Sterling, with some serious accusations. Yan and Sterling met on the UFC 259 main card, with the bantamweight title on the line. Yan, who entered the cage as the champion, seemed to be in control through most of the fight, but ultimately blasted Sterling with an illegal knee to the head. When Sterling couldn’t continue, he was named the winner by disqualification—which meant he left the cage as the new UFC bantamweight champ.

Tom Taylor - March 11, 2021

UFC President Dana White plans to bet $1 million on Ben Askren beating Jake Paul this April—and now, Paul has responded. Askren and Paul will collide in an eight-round boxing match in Atlanta, Georgia on April 17. Heading into the matchup, there’s widespread debate as to who will come out on top.

Drake Riggs - March 10, 2021

Dominick Cruz opened up an unexpected can of worms after his win at UFC 259. One of which that his Alliance MMA teammate Angela Hill has some thoughts on. Defeating Casey Kenney by way of a hard-fought split decision in the final prelim of the night, Cruz would follow-up his first win since 2016 in an interesting fashion – a callout of Monster Energy representative, Hans Molenkamp.

Adam Martin - March 10, 2021

According to a new report from the Sports Business Journal, this past Saturday’s UFC 259 pay-per-view event sold 800,000 PPVs worldwide. UFC 259 featured a super fight in the main event between UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz and middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya, one of the sport’s biggest stars. Along with that big fight, the event also featured two other title fights: Amanda Nunes vs. Megan Anderson for the UFC women’s featherweight title, and Petr Yan vs. Aljamain Sterling for the UFC bantamweight title. Overall, it was a great card and paper and mostly lived up to the hype. But the question that UFC president Dana White and the other organizational executives wanted to know was how many PPV buys the card would sell.

Cole Shelton - March 10, 2021

Tim Elliott dominated Jordan Espinosa for 15 minutes, but he still wasn’t happy with his performance. On the prelims of the card, Elliott and Espinosa were finally set to meet after the fight was rumored to take place for months. Throughout the fight, Elliott used his wrestling to take Espinosa down and control him. However, although he clearly won all three rounds, Elliott wasn’t happy with his performance.

Adam Martin - March 10, 2021

Boxing legend Mike Tyson says Derrick Lewis vs. Curtis Blaydes was the “Fight of the Year” and praised Lewis for his massive knockout power. Lewis picked up one of the biggest upset wins of 2021 when he KOed Blaydes with a nasty uppercut in the main event of UFC Vegas 19. Lewis was a +350 betting underdog heading into the fight and he shocked the world when he caught Blaydes right on the chin after a sloppy takedown shot. Lewis is one of the best heavyweights in the sport, not to mention one of MMA’s best personalities, so it’s not surprising he has caught the attention of Tyson. From one KO artist to another, there seems to be a lot of mutual appreciation here.

Cole Shelton - March 10, 2021

Israel Adesanya’s coach, Eugene Bareman, believes there are only two fights for him at middleweight. After Adesanya lost to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 for the light heavyweight many wondered who would be next. There are three big fights in Darren Till vs. Marvin Vettori, Robert Whittaker vs Paulo Costa, and Kevin Holland vs Derek Brunson. However, according to Bareman, the only fights that make sense are the rematch with Whittaker or fighting Till.

Cole Shelton - March 10, 2021

Dan Hardy has cleared the air regarding his departure from the UFC. Earlier this week, a report came out that the former UFC fighter was let go due to an incident on Fight Island. Immediately, Hardy took to social media to comment on the matter, but he has now taken to his website, Full Reptile to release a lengthy statement.

Adam Martin - March 10, 2021

UFC heavyweight Jon Jones took a shot at Israel Adesanya’s coach, saying “Your boy has almost no takedown defense or offense off his back.” Adesanya lost a unanimous decision to Jan Blachowicz in the main event of this past Saturday’s UFC 259 event. Aside from being statistically outstruck on the feet, Adesanya was also dominated on the floor. Blachowicz was able to take his opponent down in the later rounds of the fight, lay on him, and beat him up from the top position. Adesanya, who was tired at that point of the fight from a bigger man laying on top of him, was not able to muster any offense from his back and went on to drop the decision on the judges’ cards.

Adam Martin - March 10, 2021

Veteran MMA official Neil Hall passed away on Wednesday after battling COVID-19 complications, his family announced in a public statement. His wife Kath Hall shared on Facebook that her husband passed away after battling COVID-19. According to the statement, Hall had back surgery last summer but had an infection in the surgery area which wasn’t noticed until January. While getting treatment for his infection, Hall picked up COVID-19 and after three weeks of fighting, he passed away. Hall’s age was not immediately available. The family’s statement is as follows: