UFC News

Cole Shelton - March 28, 2019

The UFC is heading back to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for UFC on ESPN 2 this weekend. In the main event, Edson Barboza will be taking on Justin Gaethje in a matchup that has Fight of the Year written all over it. Ahead of the fight, BJPENN.com reached out to several pro fighters to get their predictions. Here’s what they had to say.

Tom Taylor - March 28, 2019

This weekend, in the main event of UFC Philadelphia, former WSOF lightweight champion Justin Gaethje will go to war with fellow fan favorite Edson Barboza. If Gaethje is able to win this fight, he’ll take a big step up the lightweight rankings and open the door to a host of compelling matchups.

Tom Taylor - March 28, 2019

Former UFC welterweight and middleweight champ Georges St-Pierre recently announced his retirement from mixed martial arts. “There’s no tears. I’m very happy to do it,” St-Pierre said in the English portion of his retirement message in Montreal. “In combat sports you should retire on top, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m happy I have the discipline to do it.”

Cole Shelton - March 28, 2019

The UFC’s lightweight division will hopefully get a little more organized come UFC 236. In the main event, featherweight champion Max Holloway will move up in weight to take on Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight championship. However, some fans aren’t thrilled about this matchup, as they thought Tony Ferguson or another lightweight contender deserved the opportunity to fight for gold. American Top Team owner Dan Lambert is not one of those people.

Cole Shelton - March 27, 2019

The UFC made a shocking announcement just over a week ago: all pay-per-views will now be sold through ESPN+ for Americans. Immediately after the news, many fans and fighters took to Twitter to question the move and how it would impact PPV buys.

Drake Riggs - March 27, 2019

One of the featherweight division’s all-time most exciting fighters is without a doubt Cub Swanson (25-10). And after some time off, the veteran is back. First reported by The Toronto Sun and now confirmed by the UFC, the Palm Springs native is set to make his Octagon return at UFC Ottawa on May 4 when he takes on the rising prospect, “Hurricane” Shane Burgos (11-1).

Drake Riggs - March 27, 2019

Following UFC 235 and former UFC welterweight champion “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler’s (18-3) somewhat controversial first-round submission loss to Ben Askren, the idea from UFC President Dana White was to run the fight back as soon as possible. Well, one of Lawler’s old fights will be ran back alright… But it won’t be that one. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto has since reported that verbal agreements are in place for Lawler to rematch with Askren’s good friend and teammate, the man who dethroned Lawler, Tyron Woodley (19-4-1) at UFC Minneapolis on June 29.

Drake Riggs - March 27, 2019

UFC 239 only has one fight announced for it with the light heavyweight debut of former Strikeforce and UFC middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold taking on Jan Blachowicz. That was the only bout announced… Until Wednesday afternoon. ESPN has confirmed that UFC 239 will host two big-time title fights on July 6 in the light heavyweight and bantamweight divisions. Meaning the champion, Jon Jones (24-1) will face Brazil’s dangerous “Marreta,” Thiago Santos (21-6).

Cole Shelton - March 27, 2019

Jon Jones’ potential move up to heavyweight may be happening sooner than anticipated. If he does move up, the fight that is expected to take place will pit “Bones” against Stipe Miocic. The rumors first started when ESPN analyst and Bellator fighter, Chael Sonnen mentioned the two possibly fighting each other this July.

Nolan King - March 27, 2019

Tuesday morning, UFC Unfiltered featured UFC President Dana White as the lead guest. The UFC don dropped a number of tidbits — one of which being a bout between Ben Saunders was in the works for UFC Sunrise. However, later that evening Ariel Helwani reported a bout between Mike Perry and Alex Oliveira was in the works for the event, while Damon Martin tweeted Ben Saunders would be facing a UFC newcomer.

Drake Riggs - March 27, 2019

Former UFC strawweight prospect turned flyweight, ’12 Gauge’ Paige VanZant has already shown to be multi-talented whether it be expressed in or out of the MMA world. As a fighter first, VanZant’s newest venture will see her doing work in the MMA world… But not as a fighter. The UFC announced Wednesday that VanZant will be making her debut as a commentator when she takes the lead role as color commentator alongside Sean Wheelock for M-1 Global – USA. The event will take place on April 4 on UFC Fight Pass live from the Pipa Event Center at Quechan Casino Resort in Yuma, Arizona starting at 8:00 PM PST.

Mike Pendleton - March 27, 2019

Current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is looking for his next fight, and he may have found it in the weight class above him. Shortly after Chael Sonnen reported that he heard a fight was in the works between Jones and former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, Jon Jones added fuel to the fire. I don’t think you guys are ready to witness @stipemiocic and I, would July give you all enough time?

Drake Riggs - March 27, 2019

Update: Zaleski dos Santos has since come out to say that the fight was never offered to him. “Today I saw alot of posts matching me in a fight in Rochester-NY against Neil Magny. As much as this is a fight that I want there was no truth behind it. At no point have I or my team been contacted by the UFC about the match and as we stand I will be competing again sometime around june/july.” he said in a post to Instagram. The UFC’s last event for the month of May is set to go down in Rochester, New York. And it has shaped up to be quite the solid card.

Tom Taylor - March 27, 2019

According to current Bellator fighter and ESPN analyst Chael Sonnen, ESPN reporter Ariel Helwani has caught wind of a potential fight between reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. While Helwani has yet to break the news of this matchup himself, Sonnen claims the veteran reporter has spilled the beans to him. “When Ariel says he is ‘hearing talks’, Ariel knows,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel (via Pundit Arena). “Ariel is a journalist – he does not speculate, he says I’m hearing that both parties have agreed – or that both parties are interested, rather.

Tom Taylor - March 27, 2019

UFC President Dana White recently inked a new, seven-year deal with the Las Vegas based promotion. And he says that, so long as he’s with the company, the 165 lb. division that so many fans and fighters have been asking for is a definite no-go. ”Not in the next seven years, that I promise,” White said in a recent interview with Barstool (transcript via MMA Mania). “I’m here for seven more years, when I go they can make a 180, 165, 122, whatever they wanna do when I’m gone, they can do. It ain’t happening while I’m here. What’s the appeal in it?

Tom Taylor - March 27, 2019

Conor McGregor is now retired from MMA — allegedly. The former UFC lightweight and featherweight champ announced the end of his MMA career on social media late last week.

Cole Shelton - March 27, 2019

At UFC 235, Tyron Woodley was put his title on the line when he took on Kamaru Usman, not Colby Covington like many expected. Ultimately, Usman dominated Woodley from bell to bell to become the new welterweight champion. Now, Colby Covington will apparently be getting the first crack at Usman. The two have had a feud going on for a while now and ‘Chaos’ believes Usman is actually an easier matchup than Woodley is.

Drake Riggs - March 26, 2019

2019 has been a year that has lacked some ‘Platinum’ up to this point. The generally active Mike Perry hasn’t fought yet… But it looks like that will be changing in the coming months. Set to compete at UFC Fort Lauderdale on April 27 was Brazil’s Alex ‘Cowboy’ Oliveira who was to take on ‘The Leech’ Li Jingliang. That was until a nagging spine injury forced China’s best welterweight out of the bout.