Brian Kelleher News

Josh Evanoff - October 18, 2023

Former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt will face Brian Kelleher on December 16th. ‘No Love’ has been out of the cage since a unanimous decision win over Trevin Jones in December. That was a massive victory for Cody Garbrandt, as it snapped a two-fight losing streak. Previously, the former champion had suffered back-to-back lopsided defeats at the hands of Kai Kara-France and Rob Font.

Cole Shelton - June 23, 2022

Mario Bautista was hoping to fight around this date. Bautista was in training camp helping Sean O’Malley prepare for his UFC 276 fight on July 2 against Pedro Munhoz. During the camp, he got the call to fight Brian Kelleher at UFC Vegas 57 on just three weeks’ notice and jumped at the chance as he feels he’s in good condition.

Cole Shelton - March 2, 2022

Brian Kelleher is excited to fight Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 272, who is the cousin of Khabib. Kelleher picked up a decision win over Kevin Croom back in January and quickly jumped at the chance to return not even three months later against Nurmagomedov. Part of the reason why he took the fight is due to the fact it will be at featherweight.

Cole Shelton - March 1, 2022

The 69th episode of Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com with host Cole Shelton is here ahead of UFC 272. We’re first joined by the 13th-ranked flyweight, Tim Elliott (2:47). Next, UFC bantamweight, Brian Kelleher (18:48) comes on. UFC light heavyweight, Dustin Jacoby (35:07) joins the show. UFC lightweight, Jalin Turner (55:23) closes out the program.

Josh Evanoff - February 14, 2022

Brian Kelleher attempted to enlist the help of Conor McGregor for a potential bout against Umar Nurmagomedov. However, the Russian doesn’t seem to think that ‘The Notorious’ would help much. Kelleher called out Nurmagomedov following his most recent win over Kevin Croom last month. ‘Boom’ got his wish and is now set to fight the undefeated fighter in his next bout.

Adam D Martin - September 20, 2021

UFC bantamweight veteran Brian Kelleher says that rising star Sean O’Malley has accepted a fight against him after recently calling him out. Kelleher recently defeated Domingo Pilarte via dominant unanimous decision, and following the fight, he used his post-fight interview as an opportunity to call out O’Malley. We didn’t hear much from O’Malley at first, but after a fight against Frankie Edgar was scrapped when Marlon Vera got the fight instead, O’Malley had to move on and find someone else to fight. With Kelleher being available to fight now and with him already publicly calling out O’Malley, this fight made a ton of sense to book and the UFC has apparently booked it.

Adam D Martin - August 24, 2021

UFC bantamweight Brian Kelleher wants Sean O’Malley next, saying “he says he doesn’t want to fight ranked guys. I’m not ranked right now.” Kelleher defeated Domingo Pilarte via dominant unanimous decision at UFC Vegas 34 this past weekend. Since joining the UFC back in 2017, Kelleher is 7-5 overall in the Octagon. While he has yet to break through and become a top-15 ranked fighter, he has proven himself to be quite the gatekeeper into the rankings, and with O’Malley recently suggesting he has no interest in fighting ranked opponents for the same pay, Kelleher called him out.

Cole Shelton - August 18, 2021

BBrian Kelleher wasn’t too surprised he is fighting Domingo Pilarte at UFC Vegas 34. After Kelleher lost a decision to Ricky Simon at UFC 258, he knew he would have to fight someone below him in the rankings. That is exactly what is happening as he is facing Pilarte, which is a rebooking as the two were supposed to fight one another at UFC 230 back in 2018.

Adam Martin - February 16, 2021

UFC veteran Brian Kelleher showed off the brutal cut he sustained on his forehead in his unanimous decision loss to Ricky Simon at UFC 258. Kelleher moved up to 145lbs for the short-notice fight with Simon for this past weekend’s UFC 258 card. He lost a decision at the end of 15 minutes on the judges’ scorecards, with Simon controlling the majority of the bout with his wrestling. At one point during the match, Kelleher received a nasty cut to the middle of his forehead. It wasn’t bad enough to stop the fight, but it looks like Kelleher needed to get some stitches to fix the cut. Check out the cut photo that Kelleher shared with his followers on his social media.

Tom Taylor - September 10, 2020

UFC bantamweight Brian Kelleher is not impressed with the way Sean O’Malley comported himself after his UFC 252 loss to Marlon “Chito” Vera. O’Malley and Vera collided in the UFC 252 main event. In a significant upset, Vera stopped O’Malley with first round ground strikes after the formerly unbeaten prospect seemingly injured his leg.

Chris Taylor - September 5, 2020

Tonight’s UFC Vegas 9 event has endured a last minute change as Kevin Natividad has been forced to pull out of his slated main card bout with Brian Kelleher. No reason for Natividad’s late removal from the fight card has been given as of this time.

Cole Shelton - May 25, 2020

Cody Stamann will fight on June 6 after all. Stamann will take on Brian Kelleher at UFC 250 on June 6 multiple sources told BJPENN.com that the fight is agreed to with contracts expected to be issued in the coming days. The event is expected to take place at the UFC Apex.

Jason Kindschy - February 5, 2020

Colby Covington has returned to the media spotlight following his closely contested loss to current welterweight champ Kamaru Usman. Colby kicks off this episode with his usual venomous verbiage and discusses a multitude of topics. We’ll get his thoughts on the fight against Usman and why he believes an immediate rematch should happen. Colby Covington also elaborates on his accusations of corrupt refereeing by Marc Goddard, and challenging 50 Cent to a charity boxing match. All that and much more with “Chaos.” Brian Kelleher joins us to recap his impressive submission win over Ode Osbourne at UFC 246 last month. Following a two-year layoff caused by an injury sustained during training, Kelleher is eager to make up for lost time. We’ll discuss his plans for climbing the bantamweight ranks in 2020, and hear his thoughts on the divisional landscape.

James Lynch - October 11, 2018

Contender Series winner Domingo Pilarte will have to wait a bit longer to make his UFC debut. According to his UFC 230 opponent Brian Kelleher in a recent interview with The Terphouse, Pilarte has been removed from the card due to undisclosed reasons. Instead Kelleher will face another Contender Series alum in Montel Jackson on Nov. 3 at Madison Square Garden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b3zl5oR3mA

Drake Riggs - March 13, 2018

The UFC’s next event in Brazil is really shaping up to be quite the banger. Already stacked with Brazilian legends, the card is now getting a fight that will be guaranteed fireworks between bantamweight title hopefuls. Fresh off his huge win over former champion, Renan Barao is Brian “Boom” Kelleher who called out John Lineker after his win at UFC on Fox 28 in Orlando, Florida. And as reported by Combate and confirmed by several other sources as well as the fighters themselves, that it shall be.

Tom Taylor - November 2, 2016

Late last month, it was announced that a bantamweight title fight between champion Dominick Cruz and undefeated challenger Cody Garbrandt would be co-headlining UFC 207. Earlier this morning, news surfaced that another high profile bantamweight bout between former champ TJ Dillashaw and streaking contender John Lineker was close to being finalized for the same card. Barring a major shakeup, the winner of this latter fight will likely fight the winner of Cruz vs. Garbrandt for the title sometime in 2017. For fans of the bantamweight division, these announcements came as excellent news. Not everyone, however, is particularly thrilled about these bookings.