MMA News

Justin Golightly - September 16, 2017

The UFC’s middleweight division has been in a weird, chaotic state ever since Luke Rockhold was knocked out by the hands of Michael Bisping. Some fighters like Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza went on strike, Yoel Romero vowed to not go back his home in Cuba until he got a title shot, and Gegard Mousasi left the UFC altogether. Luke Rockhold has expressed his frustrations in the past about how things were going, which is why he wants to keep the wheels of the division going. No matter who wins at UFC 217 between Bisping and Georges St-Pierre, the champ is supposed to fight Robert Whittaker. If that doesn’t happen, then Rockhold will. “Robert Whittaker has proved himself top dog and I believe he and I are the two best guys in the middleweight division. So, [the winner of Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre] should definitely fight him. But if not, I will. I’ll fight any man at the top and Whittaker is seemingly that guy. I was impressed. First time up in the division, it was a strong, composed showing. I’ve been watching him come along since and he’s growing nicely. Whittaker’s a really tough kid.”

Russell Ess - September 15, 2017

While the Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor fight lived up to the excitement that many were hoping for, not everyone was thrilled. For example, former UFC lightweight champion and current Bellator star Benson Henderson was not a fan of the matchup or even how things played out in the boxing ring. Henderson spoke with ESPN on why he feels the money fight was bad for MMA and its future.

Russell Ess - September 15, 2017

Daniel Cormier stated earlier this week on UFC Tonight that Dana White told him that he would be reinstated as the UFC light heavyweight champion. The news comes following the result of Jon Jones’ positive B sample and the California Athletic Commission overturning Jones’ initial UFC 214 KO win over Cormier to a no-contest result. Cormier has mostly steered clear of laying judgement on jones but did have some words for his rival while announcing the news of being reinstated as the champion. However, on Friday, the UFC star released a very classy statement regarding Jones and his situation on social media.

Justin Golightly - September 15, 2017

Even though the numbers from Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather’s boxing match didn’t reach as high as Dana White predicted, everyone walked away with a ridiculous amount of money. The tattooed Irishman is Vince McMahon-strutting around Ibiza, meanwhile Mayweather is building a strip club empire. The event even broke its first record earlier this month, but it looks like it may be on track for another big one. According to Dave Meltzer, it could be the biggest of its kind in all of sports history. “When we look at total revenue the show produced, it should be about $445 million from PPV (Cable providers and satellite providers would get 30 percent of the PPV money but the iPPV money would go to the promotion at a much higher percentage), the live gate was $55 million, the U.K. and Ireland PPV is probably about $28 million, international TV rights were estimated at $35 million, $28 million were estimated in sponsorships, $2.6 million in U.S. movie theaters and $15 million from bars and Restaurant airings. There is also a Las Vegas area closed circuit number that is not yet available but should be in about a week, but going in the estimate for that would have been $7 million.”

Justin Golightly - September 15, 2017

It was a different era that Georges St-Pierre ruled four years ago. The former welterweight king’s return is like the embryos in Jurassic Park making it possible for dinosaurs to roam the Earth again, only instead of a T-Rex in the city, it’s St-Pierre in 2017’s UFC middleweight division. During his reign, GSP wasn’t just fighting contender after contender, he was also fighting for increased drug testing in the sport. Something that wouldn’t be fully implemented until he left to take a break from the pressure of being the king of the jungle, surrounded by never-ending Velociraptors. “It’s a different set of rules now, I was fighting against a whole system back in the day. I was very outspoken about the drug problem that we had, people made fun of me, ‘ahhh, he’s a paranoid guy, he says that as a way to go and retire.’ But look what happened now … a lot of the UFC champions have fallen to the performance enhancing drugs, getting caught.”

Justin Golightly - September 15, 2017

Is the UFC ready to have four women’s divisions? Either way, the ladies sure are. Paige VanZant has been going through some brutal cuts, something other fighters like Cyborg can relate to. With the addition of flyweight and the crowning on an inaugural champ for the conclusions of The Ultimate Fighter 26, VanZant is ready to move up in weight for her career and her health. She recently spoke to Damon Martin at FloCombat about her trials, tribulations and the 125-pound light at the end of the tunnel. “Some of my doctors were telling me I’m doing permanent damage to my body and they told me I needed to start picking a new career or I need to make some changes. I feel like it is even scarier for a girl. Obviously, I want to have kids, I want to have a family but I could ruin that by cutting weight. It’s definitely a scary situation to put yourself in. I’m just really happy. I told the UFC it’s time for me to go up and luckily we were doing as much as we could to find a match-up.”

Justin Golightly - September 15, 2017

After dipping his toes into boxing and making millions, Conor McGregor is expected to return to fight inside the Octagon once again. The thing about McGregor though, is that he’s unpredictable. Of course, he could change his mind and keep boxing, or just shrug it all off and stay in Ibiza admiring gigantic boats. What is predictable, is how big a third fight with Nate Diaz could be. Daniel Cormier is the latest to weigh-in on the match-up and thinks that it’s something the UFC needs to make happen. https://twitter.com/UFCONFOX/status/908486982191288321

Justin Golightly - September 15, 2017

There were mixed feelings when Snoop Dogg got a job commentating for the UFC. He was given his own ‘Snoop Cast’ audio option, along with Urijah Faber, for Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series. The business decision was made even more polarizing, after Snoop went off on Conor McGregor after his loss to Floyd Mayweather. There was some backlash, but Faber appeared on Submission Radio to defendizzle his broadcast partner, fah shizzle. “Man, I thought [Snoop Dogg] did amazing. The funny thing is, you know, what you get with Snoop is just a guy that’s being extremely real and passionate. It was cool. It was just a different type of eyeball on the fights. He’s a guy that’s just saying exactly what he sees. If a guy is laying on his back, he’s not thinking, ‘oh, is he going to go for a knee bar?,’ he’s thinking, ‘why is the guy laying on his back?'”

Justin Golightly - September 14, 2017

The nickname that Volkan Oezdemir wears like a badge of honor couldn’t be more appropriate. Mr. ‘No Time’ has spent six minutes and 10 seconds fighting in the UFC. That amount of time is three fights combined. It’s no wonder that Oezdemir just entered into the UFC this year and he’s already knocking on the door to a title shot. Unfortunately, Jon Jones has complicated the title picture a little bit, but that’s not going to slow him down. He’s talked about Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson before, but it looks like he’s doubling down on the Swedish mauler. “I think a fight with [Daniel Cormier] or a fight with [Alexander] Gustafsson are most likely next, but I think the best option for me is to fight Gustafsson. The situation isn’t very clear with the belt, so in the mean time I would like to fight Gustafsson for the number one contender spot. Maybe after that I can fight ‘DC’ for the belt. I think because he was the champion and with what has happened to Jones, he deserves to fight for the belt. It’s a smart choice for [Gustafsson] not fight me. He’s right there for the belt too. His next fight was supposed to be for the belt, so because of that, fighting would me would be completely stupid. He will lose his spot if he fights me, he will go down and lose one year of his life.”

Justin Golightly - September 14, 2017

Justin Gaethje has peaked the interest of anyone not aware of his World Series of Fighting achievements. His opponent, Eddie Alvarez was known in the game for many years before his gigantic double-title fight with Conor McGregor. Both of the guys are 100% guaranteed exciting fighters, but it’s sure to be a crazy slobberknocker when the two Ultimate Fighter 26 coaches finally clash. It looks like their official date for the fight is going to be at UFC 218. https://twitter.com/CTaylor_96/status/908445490261270528

Russell Ess - September 14, 2017

The rivalry between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor seems to have come to an end. Mayweather won the fight that had many people excited, beating McGregor by TKO in the 10th round of their multi-million dollar boxing match. However, in the build-up to their fight, a lot of things were said that cannot simply be forgotten.

Russell Ess - September 14, 2017

Hawaii’s Max Holloway is the new king of the 145-pound featherweight division. In the same division where Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo once held the throne, the product of Waianae is bringing the world on board the “Blessed” train. With defeating Aldo at UFC 212 to become the undisputed UFC featherweight champion, Holloway says he was promised a new contract if he had his hand raised over the Brazilian. However, it seems like the UFC and Holloway are having a hard time coming to an agreement on the new contract.

Russell Ess - September 14, 2017

Jon Jones has not said a lot on social media ever since he tested positive for the anabolic steroid Turinabol. Jones was recently stripped of the UFC light heavyweight title as the results of his B sample also confirmed the same result as his A sample. Daniel Cormier has stated that UFC President Dana White told him that he would be reinstated as the champion as the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) overturned the result of their fight to a no-contest. The CSAC sanctioned the UFC 214 card, which took place in Anaheim on July 29.

Justin Golightly - September 14, 2017

News broke yesterday that Thiago Alves had to pull out of his fight with Mike Perry at UFC Pittsburgh. Originally, the cause was unknown, but it was eventually reported by Ariel Helwani that it was due to complications from Hurricane Irma since Alves is based out of Florida. After hearing this, Perry, who came from Florida himself, isn’t convinced. Luckily someone stepped up to replace Alves, but a heated Mike Perry recently voiced his opinion to Mike Dyce at Fansided about his former opponent’s travel problems. “That’s bullsh-t. I came from Florida, we got more f-cked up than he did. There are so many people here from South Florida. I was just talking to Michael Johnson. His coaches from [American Top Team] down there, are here today. They flew up yesterday when he was supposed to. He is feeding y’all bullsh-t. He don’t want to fight, he doesn’t want to retire yet and I was going to put him to sleep. It’s simple as that. Does he get the opportunity to fight me after I smash [Alex Reyes]? They need to get me a top-10 opponent after this.”

Dr Pete - September 14, 2017

Last week Dr.Pete was able to get in some 1 on 1 time with world famous BJJ champion Rener Gracie at Gracie Academy in Torrance, California. In last weeks video Rener Gracie touched on how critical it is to establish and manage posture control of your opponent. “Whoever owns the posture in the closed guard, owns the closed guard” – Rener Gracie In this follow up clip Rener Gracie and Dr. Pete demonstrate a pretty slick method using posture control and cross grip to transition into “The easiest triangle in the history of triangles”. BJJ practitioner’s take notes! This is definitely one to add to your ever evolving BJJ game.

Russell Ess - September 14, 2017

Daniel Cormier has been reinstated as the UFC light heavyweight champion and Jon Jones can no longer be found on the latest official UFC rankings. All of this comes as a result of Jones’ B sample coming out with the same results as his A sample from after the UFC 214 weigh-ins, which was a positive test result for the anabolic steroid Turinabol. Jones, however, is still due the appropriate adjudication of his case with USADA.

Justin Golightly - September 14, 2017

The news rocked the MMA universe yesterday as Jon Jones’ B sample results were released, now everything seems all too real. There are multiple consequences that the now former UFC light heavyweight champion could face, but by far the worst is a suspension of four years. Daniel Cormier voiced his concern earlier that a four-year suspension would mean he’d never be able to challenge Jon Jones again. Coach Mike Winkeljohn recently appeared on Submission Radio to voice his concern about Jones fighting again if the max suspension is handed out. “If it’s a four-year thing, I think it could be just that kind of devastation [that stops Jon from coming back]. Like I said, it’s not fair, you know? He messed up in that maybe he took something that someone said was fine, but he’s not doing it thinking, ‘I’m taking steroids or something,’ you know, and that’s the part that’s terrible. He’d be devastated at four years. Who knows, you know? That’s just a long time to just spiral downhill, where bad things can happen. So, that one scares me. If it’s a year [suspension] Jon Jones will come back and dominate the world again, I do believe.”

Tom Taylor - September 14, 2017

On October 28th, on the main card of UFC Fight Night 119 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, red-hot welterweight contender Colby Covington will battle recent title challenger Demian Maia. While Covington has repeatedly shared his confidence in the way he matches up with Maia, he actually has ample respect for the Brazilian grappling specialist. That respect does not extend to UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley – at all. Covington explained why he respects Maia but not Woodley on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio.