MMA News

Russell Ess - September 7, 2017

While Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor failed to surpass the 2015 Mayweather and Manny Pacquaio record for the highest gate, they are still sitting pretty at the number two spot. Despite not setting the record for the live gate, the Mayweather and McGregor madness has set a new official pay-per-view (PPV) record. Boxing News reported on Thursday that Sky Sports confirmed that the Mayweather vs. McGregor event set a new PPV record in the U.K. Sky reported that the PPV numbers surpassed 1 million buys. The Mayweather and McGregor event broke the previous record set by Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko, who fought in April at the Wembley Stadium in London in a heavyweight boxing championship match.

Justin Golightly - September 7, 2017

Talking about Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson fighting almost brings up some post-traumatic canceled disorder symptoms. It seems like we’ve talked about the fight longer than the build-up to Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. Their rivalry reached its peak for UFC 209 with an interim UFC lightweight title on the line. There was so much hype around the fight and it was billed as the best lightweight fight the UFC could have put on at the time. As we all know, Khabib had medical issues and had to pull-out of that fight. They were in talks to meet once again in the Octagon this year, but nothing ever materialized. Tony Ferguson recently expressed his frustrations on the latest episode of Submission Radio. “It is what it is and it’s not funny anymore, it really isn’t. [Khabib Nurmagomedov] got a lot fans that are really disappointed in you and you’re… f-ck dude, you’re disappointing yourself. You’re letting me fight a number seven [ranked fighter]. You gotta’ be sitting on the sidelines hating your ass. You gotta’ be thinking, like, ‘sh-t, why the hell did I not sign on that dotted line? Why am I letting Ferguson fight Kevin Lee? Holy sh-t, Tony’s gonna’ get a belt and I’m not gonna get sh-t. I’m gonna be stuck here with that fake belt that I got when I f-ckin’ went to Russia and everyone gave one to me.’ That’s what he’s gonna’ be saying, enjoying his team tiramisu like at the end of dodge ball when you have Ben Stiller eating that f-cking ice cream f-ckin’ Chuck Norris.”

Russell Ess - September 7, 2017

The Fight Nights Global 73 main event in Russia between Diego Brandao and Akhmed Aliev had one of the strangest endings in mixed martial arts. Brandao lost by TKO after jumping out of the cage in the second round after both opponents threw illegal strikes. Brandao spoke with MMA Fighting about the controversial contest with Aliev and explained what happened in the fight.

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson feels like the UFC’s schedule of events is getting a little too busy. Speaking to the media during a recent scrum for his UFC 215 battle with Ray Borg, Johnson explained that he feels his upcoming fight hasn’t been properly promoted, and he believes that’s because the UFC has overextended itself. “It’s so damn hard, there’s so many UFC fights,” the champ said during his media scrum (h/t MMA Fighting). “I was literally having breakfast and I was talking to one of the guys who works for UFC and I was like yo, you guys just got back from Rotterdam, are you getting ready to go back home to Las Vegas and relax?”

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

On this week’s episode of the MMA Hour, surging French heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou asserted that, because no other heavyweight contenders are available for a fight, he deserves a crack at reigning heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic. “After [Junior Dos Santos] was pulled from [our UFC 215 fight] all the top-10, almost all of the top-15 was booked,” Ngannou told host Ariel Helwani. “The only one available was [Alistair] Overeem. He said he’s injured […] and he took a little time for family.”

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg is now a licensed boxer in the state of California. The Brazilian juggernaut received her license on Wednesday, per a report from Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com. The timing of Cyborg’s being granted a boxing license is quite convenient, as her current UFC contract will wrap up in October. Because she’s a UFC champion, however, the UFC will have an exclusive one-year window to negotiate a new contract with her. If the two parties don’t agree to a new deal Cyborg should, in theory, be allowed to go full-steam ahead on her long-discussed boxing career.

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

This Saturday night, in the main event of the anticipated UFC 215, 24-year-old flyweight contender Ray Borg will attempt to do the seemingly impossible and derail the historic win-streak of champ Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. Borg, of course, is not the first man to attempt to end Mighty Mouse’s reign. Ten others have tried and failed. When the cage door closes on Saturday, however, he believes he’s got what it takes to defeat the dominating flyweight king.

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

Shortly after his destruction of Zebaztian Kadestam at last weekend’s ONE Championship: Shanghai event, it was announced that Ben Askren’s next fight would be his last. His opponent in this November 24 retirement fight, it was revealed, would be Japanese lightweight veteran Shinya Aoki, who stands out as one of the finest submission players in MMA history. Speaking on BJ Penn Radio, Askren revealed that this awesome matchup was initially a surprise to even him:

Tom Taylor - September 7, 2017

This weekend, in the main event of UFC 215, dominant flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson will attempt to make history with an eleventh-consecutive title defense. The man standing in his way will be the 24-year-old Ray Borg. For all Borg’s talent, he’s being counted out the majority of the MMA community, as Johnson is simply viewed as too dominant a force to stop. Borg himself, however, is pure confidence, and that’s in large part due to what he’s calling a “perfect” training camp for the champ.

Justin Golightly - September 6, 2017

Amanda Nunes has more than proved her worth as a champion. Last year, the UFC bantamweight title jumped from Holly Holm, to Miesha Tate, and into the arms of the soft-spoken but gritty Brazilian and it hasn’t left yet. The UFC were even able to match Nunes up with Ronda Rousey to take away any doubt who deserved to hold the belt. She passed her test with flying colors as she took Rousey out in less than a minute, successfully defending her title. Despite these achievements, Nunes goes into her title defense against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 215 feeling like the UFC doesn’t promote her as much as they could. “I know I’m not the beautiful girl and I don’t have the blonde hair and the blue eyes. I am not the kind of face the UFC wants to put out there, but I’m OK with that. I’m going to live my life and be happy. If the UFC decides to promote me that would be awesome, but I trust them. The UFC knows what they are doing. If they think they should promote someone else, fine. Just give me the fights and let me do my job and I will be happy. Whatever the UFC decides is fine with me. I’m just a fighter and that’s just what I want to do more than anything else: Let me fight.”

Justin Golightly - September 6, 2017

Demetrious Johnson is one win away from making UFC history at UFC 215. He’ll be fighting Ray Borg for his potential 11th flyweight title defense, breaking a record previously set by Anderson Silva. In between fighting the best of the best in reality, he’s relaxing and relieving stress by playing video games like it’s his job. That’s not just a turn of phrase, Mighty Mouse has made his passion for gaming into a legit business by streaming from his Twitch account. Johnson vs Borg Embedded episode 2 is up!!! #UFC215 https://t.co/YIaqtQxGNv pic.twitter.com/OasN4t7YTn

Justin Golightly - September 6, 2017

This weekend, Amanda Nunes will attempt to hold on to her UFC bantamweight belt against Valentina Shevchenko. Demetrious Johnson will headline the event against Ray Borg to also defend his flyweight strap and try to make history by beating the title defense record. That alone makes UFC 215 sort of special, but there is another reason why this UFC 215 card won’t be like any other. For the first time ever, FiteTV will partner with BJPenn.com to stream the pay-per-view directly on our site. 

Russell Ess - September 6, 2017

Although Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather did not break the all-time combat sports live gate record, the two superstars still have a good chance of breaking the pay-per-view record. Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza explained on this week’s episode of The MMA Hour where the numbers are currently at for the highly promoted fight and why the calculations for the pay-per-view numbers take so long to process.

Russell Ess - September 6, 2017

Daniel Cormier is waiting in a very strange and uncomfortable place after losing to Jon Jones at UFC 214. With losing the UFC light heavyweight title and being knocked out and finished for the first time in his professional MMA career, Cormier could be on a path to getting the loss overturned and getting the belt back with Jones facing another potential anti-doping violation stemming from his drug test administered after the UFC 214 weigh-ins. Cormier has been very respectful of the due process as Jones is still innocent until the established process can determine otherwise.

Jason Kindschy - September 6, 2017

BJPENN Radio is back tonight at 8PM ET/5PM PT with more of what you crave! 8:15PM ET- Kicking off the show tonight we are joined by the No. 3 Ranked UFC Flyweight, Ray “The Tazmexican Devil” Borg. Just days before the biggest fight of his career we’ll preview Ray’s first attempt at UFC gold as he faces the pound-for-pound best athlete in MMA, Demetrious Johnson. While DJ looks to break the record of most title defenses in UFC history, Borg has his own plans to steal the show and become one the youngest champions at just 24 years of age. You’ll hear why the Jackson/Wink-trained Borg believes he is the one to dethrone “Mighty Mouse” and where he expects to have clear advantages.

Russell Ess - September 6, 2017

In Los Angeles during the first stop of the Mayweather vs McGregor world tour press conference hyping up their multi-million dollar boxing match, Conor McGregor’s mic was cut off when it was Floyd Mayweather’s time to address the crowd. McGregor was not happy with the technical issue and targeted Showtime and executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, Stephen Espinoza as enemies in the buildup for the fight. In Toronto for the second stop on the world tour, McGregor let it be known calling out Showtime and Espinoza. McGregor hurled insults at the Showtime Sports executive, pointing him out as a “weasel” and a “bitch.”

Tom Taylor - September 6, 2017

It’s now been several months since UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s last fight: a lopsided, five-round beatdown of the highly regarded Jessica Andrade back at UFC 211 in May. Since then, the MMA community has been growing increasingly restless waiting for the announcement of the dominant strawweight champ’s next fight. Luckily, that announcement seems to be very near.

Tom Taylor - September 6, 2017

UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor‘s showdown with undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. was expected to shatter all kinds of combat sports records. While the jury is still out on some of those records, we now know that the card did not, despite early optimism, set the all-time record for live gates. Instead, the August 26 mega-fight generated an official gate of $55,414,865.79. This number registers as the second biggest ever, falling short of Floyd Mayweather’s 2015 battle with Manny Pacquiao, which raked in upward of $70 million.