Exclusive MMA Interviews News

Chris Taylor - November 9, 2017

Former UFC women’s bantamweight title challenger Valentina Shevchenko has issued a challenge to Paige Vanzant! “The Bullet” recently announced her intentions to drop down to the UFC’s new women’s flyweight division, this following her controversial split-decision loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 215 in September.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

This weekend, on the main card of the UFC’s anticipated stop in Norfolk, Virginia, welterweight fan favorite Matt Brown will partake in the final fight of his long career. His dance partner for this swan song will be Diego Sanchez, a fighter of a similar vintage. Given that Sanchez has also been fighting for many years, Brown believes it might be time for him to retire too.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

This weekend, in the co-main event of the UFC’s anticipated stop in Norfolk, Virginia, UFC welterweight Matt Brown will partake in what’s likely to be the last fight of his career against a fellow fan favorite in Diego Sanchez. Pretty much every fight fan on earth expects this Brown vs. Sanchez fight to be an absolute war. While Brown understands this perception, however, his main priority is fighting the best fight possible in what will probably be his last ever.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

With his sizzling UFC 217 grudge match with Cody Garbrandt soundly in the rear-view mirror, UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw is now hellbent on a flyweight showdown with iron-fisted division ruler Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. In his opinion, this champion versus champion showdown is simply too big not to happen. “I mean that’s the fight that needs to happen. It has to happen,” Dillashaw explained on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I mean, it’s got fireworks written all over it. I’ve always said I wanna be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and that’s where he’s at. I’m setting my goals high. I’m chasing him down, you know? As well as him already denying the fight, and proving to be afraid of the fight. He was making all these other excuses, and then one of his excuses was that I need to be a champion. Well guess what? That’s done. You know what I mean? You have no more excuses. It’s time to get this thing on, and prove who the best is. You know, I can make the weight class very, very well. And I think I’m gonna be very strong, and too much for him, and he knows it. And it’s gonna be very nice for me to be the new best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.”

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

Last weekend, on the undercard of the stacked UFC 217, streaking lightweight contender James Vick picked up a beautiful stoppage win over the highly regarded Joe Duffy. Yet while this was undeniably huge for his career, Vick expects his difficulty to track down a willing, top-10 foe to continue. At present, Vick has his eyes on the main event of the UFC’s Saturday stop in Norfolk, which will pit Dustin Poirier against former champ Anthony Pettis. Speaking on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Vick made his pick for this anticipated UFC Norfolk main event, and also explained that he expects to be ducked by the winner of the fight.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

Over the last year, bantamweight stars TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt have shared one of the most heated and public rivalries in MMA. The pair’s rivalry stems from Dillashaw’s departure from Team Alpha Male, the Sacramento gym where he began his fighting career, and the bitterness his former Team Alpha Male stablemates have felt ever since departure. Last weekend, in the co-main event of the stacked UFC 217, Dillashaw and Garbrandt finally stepped into the cage to settle their score. Despite a real scare in the closing seconds of the first round, Dillashaw rallied back in the second, removing his opponent’s batteries with a savage salvo of strikes, and scoring a big win over his nemeses at Team Alpha Male.

Tom Taylor - November 8, 2017

Yesterday night, UFC President Dana White announced his plan to move the promotion’s planned February 24 from Orlando, Florida, to Liverpool, UK. The intention, he said, was to pit Liverpool’s own Darren Till against a fellow striking whiz in Stephen Thompson on the card. “I literally [switched] my whole schedule. I’m laying [stuff] out here I shouldn’t be talking about,” White told the LA Times’ Lance Pugmire. “We’re supposed to do this fight in Orlando. I’m pulling it from Orlando and I’m moving it out to [Till’s] hometown in England.”

Chris Taylor - November 8, 2017

Well you knew this was coming! Yoel Romero has sent a clear message to bitter rival Michael Bisping following “The Count’s” UFC 217 title loss to Georges St-Pierre. In short, “The Soldier of God” was not impressed by Bisping’s performance (GSP voice).

Tom Taylor - November 7, 2017

Riding high off a dominant win over Demian Maia, Colby Covington has spent the last few weeks campaigning for a title fight with welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. On the most recent episode of BJ Penn Radio, the surging welterweight contender also gave a prediction for the outcome of a possible fight with Woodley. Based on his previous training sessions with Woodley at American Top Team, Covington is expecting a lopsided, stoppage win over the champ – probably inside the first three rounds.

Tom Taylor - November 2, 2017

This weekend, on the main card of the stacked UFC 217, Jorge Masvidal will step into the cage with two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. While Wonderboy is an incredibly dangerous opponent, Masvidal plans to devastate him when the cage door closes. “I got respect for his skillset and his heart,” Masvidal said on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “He definitely took some shots against [Tyron] Woodley in both fights, that a lesser man would’ve gave into. He fought through that. Through the guillotine, through the right hands, the abuse that he took, you know? I don’t think he’s a walk in the park or northing like that. He has a skillset, but come Saturday, I’m gonna devastate him.”

Tom Taylor - November 2, 2017

Last month, it was announced that Norway’s Emil Meek will be taking on 11th-ranked UFC welterweight Kamaru Usman at UFC 219. Shortly after this fight was announced, however, Usman began suggesting that Meek might not show up, and that the UFC was attempting to book Colby Covington as his replacement opponent. When Covington denied these claims, Usman accused him of ducking. Speaking on Wednesday’s edition of BJ Penn Radio, Meek reiterated that, despite Usman’s claims, he still has every intention of showing up to fight at UFC 219, and that he finds Usman’s ducking accusations of Covington a little strange.

Tom Taylor - November 2, 2017

Last weekend, moments after taking out former welterweight title challenger Demian Maia, Colby Covington unleashed a fiery post-fight callout of Tyron Woodley. During this callout of the champ, Covington also referred to Brazil as a “a dump,” and its people as “filthy animals.” These remarks generated a tidal wave of controversy. In the opinion of Covington’s good friend and training partner Jorge Masvidal, however, this controversy has been a little overblown. “What was he supposed to say?” Masvidal queried on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “‘I love Brazil, I love you guys’ like every other fake fucking fighter that goes over there and says that, though they got spit on, pushed, shoved and they chanted all types of shit? The guy actually spoke from the heart and he gets crucified for it.”

Tom Taylor - October 30, 2017

Over the last year or so, there has been a significant trend of fighters calling out competitors in other weight classes in an effort to procure the biggest and most lucrative fights possible. UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor has flirted with a bout with welterweight king Tyron Woodley. Woodley has eyed fights with McGregor and UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping. Bisping is fighting a former welterweight in Georges St-Pierre. Former UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones briefly eyed a heavyweight fight with Brock Lesnar. The list goes on. And while this trend seems to aggravate many members of the MMA community, current Bellator light heavyweight star Chael Sonnen, who foresees a heavyweight scrap with Fedor Emelianenko down the road, is all for it. “Just before you and I got on the phone today I was reading something about a St-Pierre versus McGregor matchup, and I love that,” Sonnen said on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I have a little bit of resentment because of the fights that we missed because of where the sport was at, and [the UFC] specifically, they weren’t willing to change guys’ weight classes. What comes to mind is Matt Hughes versus Anderson Silva, also Anderson Silva versus Jon Jones. Those were matchups that the athletes were willing to do, the fighters wanted to see, the media wanted to see, but the promotion was pretty locked in on the policy of everybody stays in their own division.”

Tom Taylor - October 29, 2017

Though his widely discussed matchup with Chuck Liddell is apparently off the table, Chael Sonnen still has plenty of exciting options in the Bellator cage. Two of the most compelling of his options are heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko, and former UFC welterweight title challenger Rory MacDonald. And apparently, he expects both fights to happen. “I think it’s hard to imagine that that doesn’t happen,” Sonnen said of a potential fight with Fedor Emelianenko on the most recent episode of BJ Penn Radio. “We’re only about 20 pounds apart. I get up to about 216 pounds – maybe that’s a little heavy – but right in there, [around] 216. [Fedor has] weighed in pretty consistently at 236 for the last number of years. So, you’re only talking about 20 pounds. I know some people say ‘don’t do that fight, he’s too big,’ but we’re only talking about 20 pounds. When I started this thing, we didn’t have weigh-ins. I’ve never cared what a guy weighed. I will acknowledge that there’s an advantage at a certain point to a certain size, but 20 pounds man, that’s not very much.”

Tom Taylor - October 29, 2017

At this point, it’s hard to say who Conor McGregor will fight next. That said, there appear to be two frontrunners: Tony Ferguson and Nate Diaz. In the opinion of three-time UFC title challenger and current Bellator MMA star Chael Sonnen, the answer to the Ferguson or Diaz question is pretty simple. While a trilogy bout between McGregor and Diaz is undeniably compelling, he believes the interim champ Ferguson is the more sensible choice. “I love the Nate Diaz fight, and history says you always go to a trilogy,” Sonnen said on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “History does say that. The problem they’re running into right now with that sumbitch McGregor capturing the championship is that you also need to move a division forward, and that’s very important. That’s very important that you pay attention to the integrity of that as well. Tony has earned the right.”

Tom Taylor - October 26, 2017

UFC 217’s main event, a middleweight title fight between champ Michael Bisping and challenger Georges St-Pierre, seems to have the world divided. There are some members of the combat sports community who believe Bisping will come out on top. Others are convinced St-Pierre will win. File current Bellator star Chael Sonnen into the latter category. “I like that fight,” Sonnen said on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I am picking Georges in that fight, but I really like it. I’ve competed with Bisping twice myself, once in MMA and once in grappling. Tough sonofa bitch. I’ve only trained with Georges, so maybe I come to you with a little different perspective, but it appears a lot of what’s being said about this fight is Bisping’s size. Anytime you talk about size, what you’re really talking about is, the [bigger] guy is stronger, right? We don’t really care about who weighs more, we care about who’s stronger than who. This is a weird one because Bisping is meaningfully bigger. He will cut to make 185, he will get into the ring about 200 pounds. Georges St-Pierre will weigh in about 183 pounds, he will get in the ring at 183 pounds. However  – this might surprise you – Georges is meaningfully, meaningfully stronger than Bisping.”

Chris Taylor - October 22, 2017

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is not sure who he will be fighting in his next octagon appearance. “The Chosen One” recently spoke with BJPENN.com’s Chris Taylor where he discussed the upcoming welterweight showdown between former champ Robbie Lawler and former lightweight title holder Rafael dos Anjos which takes place December 16 in Winnipeg.

Tom Taylor - October 19, 2017

On November 18, when the UFC touches down in Sydney, Australia, rising UFC featherweight Alexander Volkanovski will take on Humberto Bandenay, who replaces his originally planned opponent, Jeremy Kennedy. If Volkanovski wins this fight, he’ll take another big step up the UFC featherweight rankings, toward the divisional top-10, and perhaps, an eventual featherweight title shot. As one of the featherweight division’s brightest young contenders, Volkanovski will be watching UFC 218’s Max Holloway vs. Frankie Edgar featherweight title fight very closely. While Holloway is a slight favorite heading into this fight, Volkanovski sees a bit of himself in Frankie Edgar, and as such, believes Edgar has what it takes to pull off the upset.