UFC NEWS

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

Bellator and GLORY put on one hell of a show with “DYNAMITE” on Saturday evening and the biggest names in mixed martial arts were there live to witness history! Everybody from former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez to UFC lightweight Gilbert Melendez were there live to check out the action. Perhaps there was no better pairing for a picture than when UFC Hall of Famer BJ Penn and Bellator heavyweight Kimbo Slice chatted it up cageside! Check out Penn and his crew rocking the shirt— BJPENN.COM IS the world’s largest independent MMA news source after all!

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

UFC and Reebok’s deal may restrict the fighters from wearing their sponsors to the octagon, but before fight week they are allowed to wear anything they want! Some fighters lost their sponsors due to the fact that they will no longer be able to promote brands on television, but others stuck with their sponsors! UFC middleweight Gegard Mousasi will be returning to Japan for the first time since his last fight with DREAM in 2011! After suffering a rough loss to Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza at the end of 2014, the former DREAM Light Heavyweight Champion kicked off his 2015 with a major win over Dan Henderson. Mousasi was the second person ever to knock “Hendo” out and used the momentum he gained in that fight to secure another win over Costas Philippou.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone’s path to a shot at the UFC Lightweight Championship was anything but quick and easy. Paul Kelly was Cerrone’s first victim in the octagon way back in 2011 and it wasn’t long before the former WEC fighter accrued an impressive win-streak. After picking wins up against Vagner Rocha, Charles Oliveira, and Dennis Siver in the same year, Cerrone ran into his first roadblock in the form of Nate Diaz. Stockton’s Diaz decimated Cerrone who was baffled by his orthodox striking style, but Cerrone would bounce back with big victories over Jeremy Stephens, Melvin Guillard and Strikeforce veteran KJ Noons.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

Nick Diaz’s suspension lit the mixed martial arts community on fire last week when it was announced the Nevada State Athletic Commission would be suspending the UFC fighter for five years. One of Diaz’s post fight drug test came back positive for marijuana and they chose to make an example out of the repeated offender with a drastic suspension. Everybody from Ronda Rousey to Gina Carano spoke out against the commission. World Series of Fighting fighter Jon Fitch believes it could be time for fighters to stand up for themselves.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

Diehard fans of mixed martial arts who have been dreaming of watching Fedor Emelianenko throw down in the octagon let out a collective groan when it was announced he would be fighting in a new Japan-based promotion on New Years Eve. On the bright side, “The Last Emperor” will be returning to the “Land of the Rising Sun” where PRIDE helped him make a name for himself! Check out what some of the biggest names in the mixed martial arts community had to say about Fedor’s return to action in Japan:

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

The United States Anti-Doping Agency is doing their part to help the Ultimate Fighting Championship clean up the sport of MMA with random drug testing, and Ryan Bader is their latest victim. After Daniel Cormier won the vacated UFC Light Heavyweight Championship at UFC 187, it was expected that Bader would get the next crack at the gold. While Bader will be fighting on the same card that Cormier will be making his first title defense, “Darth” will NOT be standing across the octagon from him. Instead, Alexander Gustafsson will be challenging Cormier for the gold while Bader will be facing a returning Rashad Evans.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

Jose Aldo is set to return to the octagon in December to settle the score with Conor McGregor. The two were originally supposed to meet in July at UFC 189, but Aldo was forced out of the fight with a rib injury and was replaced by Chad Mendes on short notice. McGregor finished Mendes in the second round with strikes to become the newly created UFC Interim Featherweight Champion. However in the eyes of McGregor, he is the “real” champion of the division due to Aldo pulling out of their fight. The two will finally meet in the octagon at UFC 194 on December 12 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

UFC 193 will host one of the biggest events in Ultimate Fighting Championship history when Ronda Rousey and Joanna Jedrzejczyk defend their titles in the Etihad Stadium, which can house over 50,000 fans. The event is set to take place in Melbourne, Australia and the strawweight champion will be defending her championship against Valerie Letourneau. The shot was originally expected to go to Claudia Gadelha, but she will be nursing an injury that will prohibit her from fighting at UFC 193 on November 15th. Letourneau is fresh off a dominant victory over Maryna Moroz at UFC Fight Night 74 in August and earned an unexpected shot at Jedrzejczyk’s title.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

Georges St. Pierre stepped down as champion and away from the octagon to help clean the sport of mixed martial arts and it looks like it has paid off. The United States Anti-Doping Agency and the Ultimate Fighting Championship paired up to help clean the sport and it could have been the first step to seeing St. Pierre back in the octagon. In the meantime, the former champion has been keeping fresh in the gym by helping his training partners prepare for THEIR biggest fights of their lives. This past Saturday, Francis Carmont, long time training partner of GSP, duked it out with some of Bellator’s best for his opportunity to fight for the light heavyweight championship. Carmont picked up a big win in the reserve bout and “King Mo’s” injury landed Carmont a spot in the finals. Phil Davis made quick work of Carmont, though, and he came up short in winning the one-night-tournament.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

Donald Cerrone has officially signed the dotted line and he will be first in line to challenge Rafael dos Anjos for his UFC Lightweight Championship. The fight goes down in December and will headline winter’s “UFC on FOX 17” card in Orlando, Florida. While Cerrone is no doubt already training for his first UFC title shot, he is still taking the time to have some Sunday Fundays! The challenger’s only weapons aren’t the ones he knocks and chokes his opponents out with every time he steps into the octagon. Cerrone recently stopped by the gun store to pick up a diesel suppressed 300 Blackout with supersonic rounds. Check it out in the video and pictures below!

BJPENN.COM News - September 19, 2015

BJ Penn, two-division UFC champion and Hall of Famer, recently had the chance to return to where it all began for him. Penn, while in California, was able to stop by Ralph Gracie Academy, in Mountain View, the place where he started training at the age of 17 years old.

BJPENN.COM News - September 19, 2015

The UFC have yet to release any kind of statement regarding the Nick Diaz five year suspension. Even president Dana White has been quiet on the controversy, aside from saying that the NSAC doesn’t care what he thinks. Well at a recent Q&A White finally opened up a little more and talked about the five year suspension and the $165,000 fine handed down to the fighter by the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Monday.

BJPENN.COM News - September 19, 2015

Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s final (supposedly) fight inside the ring against Andre Berto did not blow many people away. For one, it was a one-sided show on Floyd’s side. He just went through the motions, making Berto miss and coasted to a decision win. But another reason is that people just didn’t watch it. Mayweahter’s final fight brought in around 500,000 PPV buys. That’s the lowest amount of PPV buys for a Mayweather fight in the last ten years.

BJPENN.COM News - September 19, 2015

The official White House petition to get Nick Diaz’s five year suspension lifted has blown up. That’s because of the massive support Diaz has received from fans, fighters and even some of the media.

BJPENN.COM News - September 19, 2015

Former Team Alpha Male head coach Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig has made headlines in the last few months after making comments about the team, saying that TJ Dillashaw was the only one of them who really wanted to be a champion. Since then there’s been some back and forth between TAM and Ludwig. Obviously the other fighters on TAM didn’t take that comment kindly and Ludwig actually offered an apology, sort of, saying he regretted saying it.

BJPENN.COM News - September 19, 2015

The ‘Free Nick Diaz’ movement is still going strong. There’s currently a White House petition up that’s on pace to reach the 100K signature goal in the very near future and fighters are still coming forward showing support Diaz. Recently, his coach Cesar Gracie told MMAJunkie that while Diaz’s lawyers work on the appeal process the fighter will likely return to his Jiu-Jitsu roots.

BJPENN.COM News - September 19, 2015

Former two division UFC champion Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture has been out of the game for over four years now and it doesn’t seem like he’s eager to make a comeback anytime soon, or ever for that matter. The MMA legend’s name of course started coming up when Fedor Emelianenko announced that he would be coming out of his retirement to fight again.

BJPENN.COM News - September 19, 2015

Former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen sometimes says things that seem to good to be true. For example, on a recent episode of his podcast, while talking to heavyweight Frank Mir, Sonnen claimed that the UFC were currently working on putting together a fight between Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko. Well according to UFC president Dana White, that’s ‘completely false.’