MMA News

Chris Taylor - November 4, 2017

Unable to catch tonight’s UFC 217 pay-per-view event? BJPENN.com has you covered! Stay glued to this page for up to the minute live results from all of tonight’s UFC 217 action. The pay-per-view fight card, which takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York, is headlined by a middleweight title fight featuring current champion Michael Bisping taking on former welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre.

Justin Golightly - November 4, 2017

No more words need to be said about Cody Garbrandt’s upcoming fight with TJ Dillashaw. It’s amazing and it has everything you could ever want surrounding a fight. Rankings and a gold belt aside, these dudes have every reason on Earth to fight each other and we finally get to watch it happen. It seems like their peers are just as excited as the fans and all of to see these two scrap. Most of them also see Garbrandt walking out of Madison Square Garden with the UFC bantamweight title around his waist. “I’ve got ties to both of them, so it’s kind of hard. I’m going to go with Cody [Garbrandt] on that one. He’s got that thumper, boy. He’s got that thumper and he believes in it. So, I think if he can crack him, especially before TJ [Dillashaw] gets warm, get his feet set — you know, TJ does move his feet around a lot. I don’t know, I think Cody might be able to crack him.” — Kevin Lee

Justin Golightly - November 4, 2017

Pat Barry is currently in hiding. pic.twitter.com/5uHPL1WCfU — caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) November 4, 2017

Justin Golightly - November 4, 2017

Georges St-Pierre didn’t owe us or the UFC anything, but that didn’t stop him from coming back. The former welterweight king walks back into the Octagon tonight to keep his legacy in contention and to attempt to capture a belt in a higher division he spent years on top of. No doubt it’s a huge fight between St-Pierre and Michael Bisping, so huge that Jon Jones couldn’t resist talking about it. From one greatest-of-all-time candidate to another, Jones sent out a message to St-Pierre ahead of his fight at UFC 217. Hey @GeorgesStPierre you’ve always been one of my biggest inspirations. Show the world how great you can be tonight. Praying for you

Justin Golightly - November 4, 2017

Michael Bisping is mere hours away now from arguably the biggest fight of his career against Georges St-Pierre. The former welterweight king will challenge for the UFC middleweight title, while Bisping is fighting to retain and cement his legacy as one of the greats. If he manages to take out St-Pierre, will he defend his belt against Robert Whittaker or set his goals even higher? According to Daniel Cormier, it’s possible Bisping could go up and challenge for the light heavyweight belt. A Michael Bisping vs. Daniel Cormier superfight would be epic! @dc_mma explains why he thinks it could happen. pic.twitter.com/YaINxubrev

Justin Golightly - November 4, 2017

A match-up that threatens to steal the show tonight at the extremely stacked UFC 217 is Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s title defense against Rose Namajunas. It speaks to Jedrzejczyk’s presence and dominance in the sport that, among a name like Georges St-Pierre and one of the best fights on paper ever between Cody Garbrant and TJ Dillashaw, she holds her own. The combination of her skills and aura have written Namajunas off as someone who is a good fighter, but just not enough. MMA fighters as well as some prominent professionals in the business seem to agree. “Man, Joanna [Jedrzejczyk]. She’s a beast. I don’t see anybody in that division taking that title away from her, man. I wouldn’t want to step into the Octagon with her even though she’s like, what, 115lbs? She does work, man. I would not want to step out there with her. Great striking, great muay thai, good movement, good takedown defense, and she’s just a better all-around fighter than her opponent [Rose Namajunas].” — Stephen Thompson

Justin Golightly - November 4, 2017

By now, it’s common knowledge that Conor McGregor let some choice words fly after his right hand hand Artem Lobov lost to Andre Fili at UFC Gdansk. It’s by far no the first time McGregor has said something controversial, but it seemed like it was the last straw with some people and turned into the biggest story of the card. It’s worth it to note that the UFC champ champ has since released a public apology, but that isn’t enough for Tyron Woodley who thinks he’s gotten way too many passes as it is. “I’m fired up about Conor McGregor. He was using homophobic slurs. How many passes do we give this dude? That’s like the person that drops the ‘N’ bomb and says ‘I’m not racist, I’ve got three black friends and I had them over for dinner last night’. I gave him a pass during the Floyd Mayweather fight. He was using the term ‘boy’ [and] ‘monkey, words that have had very, very negative racial undertones in the past but I’ve got a problem with this. When you’re a celebrity of that stature and you’re making that kind of money, you need to have a PR person on staff and you need to have a bit more of a social conscience when you’re saying things.”

Chris Taylor - November 3, 2017

Tywan Claxton scored one of the best flying knee KO’s ever during tonight’s Bellator 186 prelims from University Park in Penn State. Claxton, who made his professional mixed martial arts debut at tonight’s event, crushed his opponent Jonathan Bonilla-Bowman with a flying knee just short of 90-seconds into the first-round.

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Promising not to be the rusty coin sitting in the embarrassment of riches that is UFC 217, a wild scrap between Jorge Masvidal and Stephen Thompson rests just below the three title fights. On any normal fight card, this is a main event. On any other big pay-per-view, it could be a co-main event. Despite a Robbie Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos bout set to crown the next challenger to Tyron Woodley’s welterweight strap, this fight between Masvidal and Wonderboy has huge title implications. This is something Masvidal is knows and has a plan already set in place if he gets his hand raised. “I see myself breaking his face. I’ll be number one. After this fight, I’ll fight for the belt, especially after the post-fight speech I’m going to give. I haven’t prepared anything yet, but I’ll […] do something really disgusting, something ugly, and scare people. It’ll go viral. I still don’t know what it’s going to be, though. Colby [Covington] gave people a demonstration of insanity. I’m going to do something different, the way I usually do.” 

Russell Ess - November 3, 2017

Conor McGregor is without a doubt now the highest paid UFC fighter and with his demands of what he wants in his next fight, that will only further be solidified. The former owner of the UFC, Lorenzo Fertitta stated back in 2015 that “The Notorious” would be the UFC’s first fighter to earn $100 million. McGregor likely earned close to that amount just with his last fight in the boxing ring against Floyd Mayweather and is looking to add a few more figures to his income as a career goal.

Russell Ess - November 3, 2017

We are just a day away from UFC 217, which is surely one of the biggest cards of the year. With the UFC’s return to Madison Square Garden in New York, the stacked card will feature three title fights. The main event of the evening will feature UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping defending his title against former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. This is a huge matchup as it is St-Pierre’s first fight in the UFC since November of 2013 where he won a close and controversial split decision title fight against Johny Hendricks. This also marks the first time “Rush” will be fighting at middleweight in his professional MMA career.

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Georges St-Pierre coming back to fight Michael Bisping is a huge fight. Rankings, St-Pierre’s hiatus, and Robert Whittaker’s interim belt aside, a fight like this conjures old superfight discussions of a bygone era. During St-Pierre’s welterweight prime, the Moby Dick of fights was a showdown between him and middleweight king Anderson Silva. We never were able to see that spectacle, but now we get the next best thing. It’s a fighters, fighter. That’s why it’s so interesting to hear UFC fighter’s picks on who they think will come out on top. “Yeah, come on, come on, I gotta’ go with [Georges St-Pierre]. Look, I just wrestled with the man too. He’s big too. He’s bigger than I thought he was. He done got big over the years, boy. He’s big, he’s strong, and he’s just going to outwork [Michael Bisping]. He’s got the right mindset going into this. He’s preparing right. I mean yeah, Bisping will be able to scramble off the bottom a couple of times. Who knows, maybe Georges will get more tired now that he’s been out for so long, But, when you look at the skills, I’m saying that Georges blows him out of the water.” — Kevin Lee

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Daniel Cormier has been telling us since September that Volkan Oezdemir was going to get the next shot at his belt. He asked the fans on Twitter who he should fight next to defend his UFC light heavyweight title, resulting in Oezdemir beating out former challenger Alexander Gustafsson. At that point, it was just some Twitter results until the 15-1 Swede said we could expect a fight announcement from him soon. We still don’t have a date yet, but it looks like the fight is officially happening. DC tells me he’s fighting Volkan Oezdemir next. No date yet but says we should hear soon #UFC

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Love him or hate him, there are simply no arguments against Conor McGregor being the biggest MMA fighter in recent years. What he has accomplished in four short years is nothing short of astonishing. With the new EA Sports UFC 3 dropping, everyone wondered who would be on the cover and it’s not really a surprise. EA Sports awards Conor McGregor the honor of gracing back-to-back covers of their UFC franchise. This time he doesn’t share the case with Ronda Rousey, but stands alone with two UFC titles perched on his shoulders. BREAKING: Here is the official cover for EA #UFC 3 Champions Edition featuring @TheNotoriousMMA pic.twitter.com/OXnBaNkXpa

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Sprinting through UFC 217’s last promotional leg, Joanna Jedrzejczyk has been everywhere. There has been three or four press conferences total and countless media duties. Even though we’re a single day away from the fights at Madison Square Garden, the gears are still spinning. The UFC strawweight champion will be on a show with rapper Action Bronson later today, and this morning she appeared on Live with Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. .@joannamma vs Ryan Seacrest pic.twitter.com/8d6PY9hv5u

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Cutting weight has become a huge problem in MMA, a problem that a lot of people have yet to be able to find a solution for. Luckily, there were no edge-of-your-seat suspenseful situations for the UFC 217 weigh-ins. The closest we got was Johny Hendrick’s pre-scale speech about why he’s probably going to miss weight. This references back to his long storied rivalry with making weight at both welterweight and even at middleweight. Don’t worry though, Big Rig. This is an article about celebration because the man made weight anyway. Johny HENDRICKS! Boom! 😂😂@JacksonWinkMMA #UFC217 #MMA pic.twitter.com/B8ll9orD2Y

Justin Golightly - November 2, 2017

It seems like this TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt feud has been going on forever. Since the beginning, we’ve gone through the Duane Ludwig controversy, the allegations of steroid use, Dillashaw injuring another Team Alpha Male member in training, but at the beginning of this year it was all about training footage. Garbrandt claimed he knocked out Dillashaw in training and threatened to release the tape. Dillashaw called Garbrandt’s bluff and after awhile, the talk stopped. That is, until now. Just days before the two settle their differences at UFC 217, Garbrandt drops the video. This guy is a liar he said I never koed him, that there is no video! Also that he has never took PEDs and he never cheap shotted a former teammate stealing his dream from under him! Fuck you @tjdillashaw hey @danawhite get that Knockout Bonus Check, I’m ready to collect it!! #ISpeakFacts

Justin Golightly - November 2, 2017

The UFC had one last press conference today to promote the year’s biggest card so far. With the cast of characters contained in the triple-title fights at UFC 217 gathered together three days from bell time, it was bound to get heated even before the staredowns. Cody Garbrandt has not been shy about saying all sorts of wild things about his opponent TJ Dillashaw throughout the build up, but something he said today at the presser made a lot of people pause. Did Cody say TJ showed everybody how to do it (PEDs) on Alpha Male? Isnt he basically saying TAM uses PEDs then? pic.twitter.com/oAoJkLK1I6