MMA News

Justin Golightly - October 13, 2017

Yesterday, we got an incredible fight announced. Former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos will walk into Canada to fight former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler. If that wasn’t big enough, dos Anjos immediately took to Twitter and wanted it promoted to a fight for the interim welterweight title. Tyron Woodley did not agree and issued a statement shutting that business down. It looks like the UFC agreed as well, but RDA may get something just as good. Dana White says at #UFC217 presser that winner of Robbie Lawler vs RDA gets the title shot at Woodley but we all know how that goes.

Justin Golightly - October 13, 2017

After losing his second fight with Stipe Miocic, Junior dos Santos was eager to step into the Octagon with rising star Francis Ngannou in his journey back to a title fight. Unfortunately, he became one of the victims of USADA. He was notified of a potential anti-doping violation and pulled out of the card. Eventually, Ngannou found an opponent later for UFC 218, but dos Santos is stuck on the sidelines. He recently opened up about the process and how it’s been so devastating for him. “At first I was devastated. I’ve been in favor of USADA, I’ve always said how much I support it, how much I want a drugless sport, a fair sport. I’ve always been clean, so my mind is at ease. Everything is under investigation, now, but that’s another problem, because I have no idea where this came from and it’s up to me to prove my innocence and that’s kind of weird. At first I used to think ‘Why is USADA there? For cheaters or for the ones who play by the rules end up as victims?’ I’m obviously a victim of a situation that I don’t what it is.”

Justin Golightly - October 13, 2017

Max Holloway versus Frankie Edgar. Justin Gaethje versus Eddie Alvarez. Francis Ngannou versus Alistair Overeem. Henry Cejudo versus Sergio Pettis. Are you kidding? UFC 218 has quickly turned into a contender for Card of the Year, at least on paper, and the announcements aren’t even done yet. The latest scrap to be added to this monster event is Al Iaquinta taking on Paul Felder.   .Al Iaquinta will fight Paul Felder at #UFC218 in Detroit, Michigan. (Dec. 2, 2017). (per @freep/@folsombrandonj) pic.twitter.com/xPwxmIHwXs

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

There has been no official word from the UFC, but Daniel Cormier is moving forward with the decision that Volkan Oezdemir is going to get the next title shot. He originally decided he’d give him the next shot based off of a Twitter poll. Of course, Oezdemir was quick and grateful to accept the challenge. It’s a fresh title defense that seems to be happening at exactly the right time, but Cormier says we’ll have to wait just a little bit longer. The UFC light heavyweight champion believes the fight will go down sometime early 2018. “You’ve got two minutes, because after that it all goes downhill.” — @dc_mma on @volkan_oezdemir https://t.co/pdaHVoVy6z

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

When it rains, it pours. the UFC just announced that a huge fight between Rafael dos Anjos and former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler. However, it didn’t seem big enough for dos Anjos. Just an hour later, he took to Twitter to plead his case that the fight should be made into an interim title bout. The request was due to the fact that champ Tyron Woodley would be out nursing a shoulder injury. It didn’t take long for Woodley to catch wind of what went down, and he shut it down real quick. Am I the only Champ that has fought 4X in 12months? Against REAL #1 contenders! Get past @Ruthless_RL then come holla at these hands! @ufc

Russell Ess - October 12, 2017

Mariusz Pudzianowski is a former five-time World’s Strongest Man and bodybuilder that has transitioned his training and focus towards mixed martial arts. The fighter still has a massive physique and has shown what he is capable of with defeating game opponents such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Rolles Gracie.

Russell Ess - October 12, 2017

There was a lot of back and forth talk with the Conor McGregor and Paulie Malignaggi sparring sessions, especially with their eventual fallout. After their first sparring session, Malignaggi said that McGregor’s punching power was good, but it wasn’t “Oh my god” power that he never felt before. Malignaggi stated that there were only a select few opponents and sparring partners that he felt had that sort of power and that seems to be the case with UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier as well.

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

After all the animosity between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee in the lead-up to UFC 216, the end result couldn’t be more classy by both opponents. After Ferguson tapped out Lee in a triangle choke, both men embraced and exchanged words. It wasn’t an easy fight for either of them and both men earned each other’s respect. Kevin Lee continued this respect in his post-fight interviews. Lately, he’s opened up and has said Tony Ferguson deserves to fight Conor McGregor. “[Tony Ferguson versus Conor McGregor] should happen, It should. In any other sport or in any other circumstance or situation, that’s the fight to make happen. But, like really, speaking as a fan, as a fan of the sport, I don’t know man, I don’t know if Conor wants those problems. Tony [Ferguson] is a motherf-cker. I said it before the fight, Tony can fight and he can take a helluva shot. I hit him with some big shots that I thought would like faze him or cut him, but the man just wouldn’t quit. He’s got no quit in him.”

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

Now that Tony Ferguson is the UFC interim lightweight champion, pretty much everybody wants to see him take on undisputed lightweight champion Conor McGregor. That, of course, includes long-time Tony Ferguson trainer Eddie Bravo. Speaking on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, 10th Planet jiu jitsu founder Eddie Bravo weighed in on a fight between Ferguson and McGregor. Apparently, he think it’s a near certainty that this massive lightweight title unification fight happens soon.

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

If things had gone according to the initial plan, the UFC 216 main card would have featured a heavyweight scrap between ranked contenders Derrick Lewis and Fabricio Werdum. The undercard, meanwhile, would have featured a collision of rising heavyweights Walt Harris and Mark Godbeer. Yet what we ended up with was a heavyweight scrap between Werdum and Harris, which Werdum won with a first-round armbar. It was all the result of an unfortunate back injury, which forced Derrick Lewis out of his fight with Fabricio Werdum. Though it briefly sounded as though the undercard bout between Mark Godbeer and Walt Harris would replace Werdum vs. Lewis on the UFC 216 main card, Harris was instead pulled from his bout with Godbeer, and plunked into the cage with Werdum with mere hours to prepare.

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

A fight that could be more important than Max Holloway’s win over Jose Aldo is fast approaching in December. He’ll be defending the title for the first time against Frankie Edgar on a stacked Detroit event, the guy that everyone said Conor McGregor avoided while he was at featherweight. However, the UFC may have had another plan in mind, or at least a back-up plan to a back-up plan. During Holloway’s recent contract renegotiation, the UFC gauged his interest in moving up to lightweight to potentially challenge McGregor. “If [the fight with Conor McGregor] happens, it happens. He said 155. When we were talking about the contract, UFC came to me and they were talking about 155. They also talked to me about Conor a little bit. They were asking me about it and then they came to me with the Frankie [Edgar] fight and it was weird. We got the Frankie fight, like I said, I wanted this a year ago. Now, we got to fight Frankie, he’s got the fight now. When we were talking about the contract they said, ‘What about [155] would you go up there?’ Then they asked about Conor. If they wanted me to go up there and fight him, I’d fight him any day. They kept talking about it, but at the end of the day Frankie was the one.”

Russell Ess - October 12, 2017

The UFC has had some really entertaining fight cards recently with title fights taking place on the pay-per-view cards. However, it seems things have not gone so well with the pay-per-view buys over the last two UFC pay-per-view events. According to MMA insider @jedigoodman, the early estimated buy rates per Dave Meltzer have failed to go over 200,000.

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

Michelle Waterson, better known as “Karate Hottie”, looked like she was headed for a good streak in the UFC. She submitted both Angela Magana and Paige Van Zant before falling to latest UFC strawweight title challenger, Rose Namajunas. That was back in April, but it looks like we won’t see Waterson back in the Octagon soon. Fortunately, it’s for a good cause. Michelle Waterson will compete on MTV’s The Challenge in order to raise money for the Merging Vets & Players charity. “MTV’s most iconic franchise “The Challenge” is back again with the debut of an eight-week special event “The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars.” Hosted by WWE superstar and former challenge competitor, Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, “Champs vs. Stars” will feature ten of the fiercest champions from past “Challenge” seasons. The alumni go head-to-head against ten celebrity athletes and entertainers in challenge-style competitions to determine who will reign supreme. Winners will compete for a chance to take a share of the $150,000 cash prize to donate to their beloved charities. “The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars” premieres November 21st at 10 p.m. ET/PT.”

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

UFC on Fox 26, which goes down on December 16 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, now has a headliner – and it is absolute dynamite. In one corner, we’ll have former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler. In the other, we’ll have former lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos. This news was announced by the UFC on Thursday morning.

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

Earlier this week, news broke that Mark Hunt had been removed from his UFC Sydney headlining showdown with Marcin Tybura (and he’s not happy about that). Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum will serve at Hunt’s replacement against Tybura in the card’s main event. As it turns out, this is not the only recent change to the UFC Sydney lineup. The card has experienced another handful of adjustments over the last few days.

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

On October 21, in the main event of the UFC’s anticipated return to Poland, rising British welterweight Darren Till will face the biggest test of his career in Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Should Till defeat Cerrone, he plans to make an immediate callout of another ranked welterweight: “Platinum” Mike Perry. “I think that’s a good fight to make right now because Mike comes to fight and he comes to talk sh*t,” Till told MMAFighting’s Peter Carroll. 

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

Last weekend, UFC flyweight king Demetrious Johnson submitted Ray Borg, defending his title for a record-breaking 11th-consecutive time in the process. Given Johnson’s almost unfathomable dominance at flyweight, there have been widespread calls for him to move up to the 135-pound bantamweight division. Apparently, however, he plans to stay at 125 pounds, and further cement his legacy as MMA’s most dominant champion.

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2017

Last weekend, in the main event of UFC 216, Kevin Lee came up short in a bid to capture the UFC interim lightweight title in a fight with Tony Ferguson. For Lee, however, the real fight began in the days before he stepped into the cage, when he had to shed a monstrous 21 pounds to reach the lightweight division’s 155-pound limit. Initially, Lee actually failed to make 155, tipping the scales about a pound over. Luckily, he was given an extra hour by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and ultimately managed to make championship weight.