MMA News

Russell Ess - February 4, 2016

Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone was left without an opponent after his first scheduled fight in the UFC at welterweight with Tim Means hit a wall. The UFC announced on Wednesday that Means was flagged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for a “potential Anti-Doping Policy violation” from an out of competition drug testing. The UFC said in a statement regarding Means’ flagged testing, “because Means was scheduled to compete against Donald Cerrone on February 21 in Pittsburgh, there is insufficient time for a full review and proper promotion before the scheduled bout. As a result, UFC will announce shortly a replacement opponent for Cerrone on the UFC Fight Night card in Pittsburgh.”

bjpenndotcom - February 4, 2016

While Jose Aldo currently doesn’t have a fight booked, that didn’t stop the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency from randomly drug testing the former champ this morning. Since his UFC 194 KO loss to Conor McGregor, Aldo has campaigned for an immediate rematch, telling the UFC that he will not accept any fight other than a rematch with McGregor regardless of whether or not it’s for the featherweight championship.

bjpenndotcom - February 4, 2016

Since Ronda Rousey lost to Holly Holm via KO at UFC 193 there has been much speculation as to when, or if, ‘Rowdy’ would return to the Octagon. While Rousey has assured fans that she will in fact be back, a jam packed filming schedule made it so that Rousey would be unable to have a rematch with Holm at UFC 200 like the UFC brass wanted.

bjpenndotcom - February 4, 2016

.@ufc President @danawhite tells @anezbitt he doesn't see how @TheNotoriousMMA could win his next fight.https://t.co/C6hU5npDbK — AtTheBuzzer (@TheBuzzerOnFOX) February 4, 2016

bjpenndotcom - February 4, 2016

This past Saturday Sage Northcutt suffered the first loss of his professional career at the hands of Bryan Barberena. Northcutt immediately caught criticism from many fans and fellow fighters for what they believed to be a premature tap. Surprisingly, Northcutt remained as optimistic as ever and even announced that he would be training full time at Tristar gym moving forward.

bjpenndotcom - February 4, 2016

In the co-main event of UFC 194 Luke Rockhold defeated Chris Weidman via 4th round TKO to claim the UFC middleweight championship. Rockhold’s win was so dominant that many were wondering whether or not Weidman would get an immediate rematch. In addition, on the main card of UFC 194 Yoel Romero defeated Jacare Souza via split decision to become the #1 contender at middleweight.

bjpenndotcom - February 4, 2016

Back at UFC 194 Conor McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds. The win was not only the biggest one of McGregor’s career, but also one of the biggest moments in combat sports history. In the wake of the bout McGregor announced that he would be moving up to lightweight to challenge Rafael dos Anjos for the UFC lightweight championship. The bout was booked for UFC 197, which became UFC 196 after Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez pulled out of their main event bout at UFC 196.

bjpenndotcom - February 4, 2016

Yesterday the ‘UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson’ media day went down in Las Vegas. The event gave media members a chance to talk with the fighters on the card ahead of their scheduled bouts on Saturday evening in Las Vegas.

bjpenndotcom - February 4, 2016

https://youtu.be/1ycgcsbKEsY As many know, this Saturday’s ‘UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson’ fight card on Fox Sports 1 was initially UFC 196.

bjpenndotcom - February 4, 2016

Yesterday the ‘Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson’ media day went down in Las Vegas.

Russell Ess - February 4, 2016

We caught up with our former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn as he had a couple days off from training in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the JacksonWink MMA Academy. Penn, who recently announced his decision to come out of retirement to shake up the UFC featherweight division has sought out the help of famed MMA coaches Greg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn and spoke with us at how training is going.

Russell Ess - February 4, 2016

Another UFC veteran has been flagged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). UFC welterweight Tim Means has been flagged by USADA for a “potential Anti-Doping Policy violation” from an out of competition drug testing. Means was scheduled to welcome former lightweight title contender Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone to the welterweight division at UFC Fight Night 83 on Feb. 21 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

bjpenndotcom - February 3, 2016

.@katienolan with another scoop! @LukeRockhold will rematch @ChrisWeidmanUFC in June #GTLive https://t.co/FPRrmAP9og — Garbage Time (@GarbageTime) February 3, 2016

bjpenndotcom - February 3, 2016

https://youtu.be/kbVsaqxBTSk There has been many a great story tellers in our time but none as vividly explained with enthusiasm and great detail like Urijah Faber.

bjpenndotcom - February 3, 2016

[ooyala code=”g0aWZuMDE6V0Hobs2ZSbc0frCK0qFpb_” player_id=”bd214e34cfad476984102de4bf5e8da2″ width=”3840″ height=”2160″ auto=”true” autoplay=”true”] This past Saturday at UFC on FOX 18 Sage Northcutt suffered the first loss of his professional career.

bjpenndotcom - February 3, 2016

Looks like Cain Velasquez of AKA is on the road to recovery after a successful surgery for a sciatic nerve. The former champ has a time table of a little over a month before he can get back into to training for his title rematch with Fabricio Werdum. Here’s his released statement via Facebook:

Russell Ess - February 3, 2016

We said it in our piece featuring Sage Northcutt talking about his loss to Bryan Barberena at UFC on FOX 18. Many people do not like to hear excuses on why a fighter lost. No other person in the world should be more upset about excuses than the competitor that beat the fighter trying to explain the reasoning behind losing. Bryan Barberena spoke about his win, and how the excuses from Northcutt are upsetting him (transcribed by MMA Fighting):

bjpenndotcom - February 3, 2016

Famed MMA coach Mike Winkeljohn was nominated for ‘MMA Coach of the Year’ for the Fighter’s Only World MMA Awards. The awards show goes down February 5th from The Venetian in Las Vegas, and ahead of the show we took the opportunity to talk with Coach Winkeljohn to get some insight into the mind of an expert coach.