UFC News

Harry Kettle - March 12, 2021

The UFC has continued to make cuts to their roster with Jordan Espinosa and Shana Dobson both being released from the promotion, MMA Fighting reports. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has never been shy when it comes to releasing fighters from the roster and as we continue on through what has been a successful 2021 for the company thus far, it seems as if they aren’t slowing down.

Cole Shelton - March 11, 2021

Jonathan Martinez is confident he will extend his winning streak to three on Saturday night. At UFC Vegas 21, Martinez is set to fight Davey Grant, in a fight that was a surprise to many. Martinez is coming off a decision win over Thomas Almeida on short notice. After the win, Martinez and many fans thought he would’ve gotten a ranked opponent next.

Christopher Taylor - March 11, 2021

Former UFC ‘champ champ’ Henry Cejudo and boxing great Canelo Alvarez got into exchange of words over Ryan Garcia. Canelo (55-1-2) put his WBA and WBC super middleweight world titles on the line last month when he squared off with Avni Yildiri. The result was a one sided beatdown for Alvarez, who emerged victorious by way of third round TKO.

Drake Riggs - March 11, 2021

Cub Swanson started one hell of a talking point this past month. Sharing his thoughts that MMA media should have “3 amateur fights,” the featherweight icon recently explained what he was getting at with his tweet.

Cole Shelton - March 11, 2021

Marvin Vettori is looking to cement his case as the top middleweight contender when he faces Darren Till on April 10. In the main event of the card on ABC, Vettori and Till will fight in a crucial middleweight bout. The winner could very well earn a title shot and in the lead-up to the scrap, the two have traded words with one another. Although Till appears to be jokingly trash-talking the Italian, Vettori is taking it much more seriously which the Englishman doesn’t understand.

Adam Martin - March 11, 2021

UFC lightweight Ottman Azaitar issued a statement regarding the bag incident on UFC Fight Island that temporarily saw him cut from the UFC. Speaking to Mark Bergmann of Fighting.de, Azaitar spoke about the infamous bag incident on UFC Fight Island. Azaitar was scheduled to fight Matt Frevola but at the last minute, he was removed from the card. UFC president Dana White later said that Azaitar was cut because he broke COVID-19 protocols by allegedly handing his wristband to someone from outside the bubble, and that person reportedly dropped a bag in Azaitar’s room, a bag that has become MMA’s own version of the ‘briefcase from Pulp Fiction.’ White later changed his mind and reinstated Azaitar to the UFC, but the whole incident has left fans wondering what really happened. Here’s what Azaitar himself said about the infamous bag.

Cole Shelton - March 11, 2021

Petr Yan believes Aljamain Sterling is the real paper champion. In the lead-up to UFC 259 and Yan’s first title defense, Sterling was calling the Russian a paper champion. He didn’t think Yan had earned his way to the title as he did, and he planned on proving that inside the Octagon.

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 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.

Tom Taylor - March 11, 2021

Belal Muhammad is making no secret of his disdain for fellow UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington. Muhammad is slated to take on No. 3-ranked welterweight contender Leon Edwards in the main event of UFC Vegas 21 this Saturday in Las Vegas—an opportunity he accepted on short-notice.

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.

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

UFC President Dana White believes former two-division champ Conor McGregor was looking past Dustin Poirier in the pair’s recent fight. McGregor and Poirier, two top lightweight contenders, met in the main event of UFC 257 in January. The bout was a rematch of a 2014 featherweight fight that McGregor won by knockout.

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.

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.