Dana White News

Russell Ess - December 9, 2016

With the five famous fighters that were a part of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association announcement last week, UFC President Dana White has said that “fighters can go out and do what they want to do — they are all grown men.” However, White did state that he was surprised to see Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone as one of the five fighters standing as a part of the association, especially after White helped him out with a legal situation where White paid for Cerrone’s attorney out of his own pocket. White was a guest on Tim & Sid on Sportsnet and commented on Cerrone’s involvement with the MMAAA and the conversation that he had with Cerrone following the announcement of the association.

Tom Taylor - December 9, 2016

On Friday morning, we learned that former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis had missed weight for his UFC 206 interim featherweight title fight with Max Holloway. Though this weigh-in miss will thankfully not force the cancellation of their bout, it will nix Pettis’ chances of winning interim featherweight gold. Holloway will still be crowned interim champion with a win, but Pettis will not. Needless to say, this was a disappointing twist for fight fans. Perhaps nobody was more disappointed by the news, however, than UFC President Dana White, who has been bending over backwards trying to keep the UFC 206 lineup from falling apart.

bjpenndotcom - December 8, 2016

HBO’s hit series ‘Game of Thrones’ is currently gearing up to release the seventh season of the highly anticipated show in 2017. Interestingly enough, news surfaced earlier this week that during his 10 month hiatus from the Octagon, UFC superstar Conor McGregor will be joining the cast of the hit show for one of the two remaining seasons.

bjpenndotcom - December 8, 2016

Since Conor McGregor was pulled from UFC 200 in April for refusing to fulfill his media obligations, there have been talks of the Irish superstar making the jump to boxing to compete against undefeated boxing icon Floyd Mayweather. While at that time talks progressed to the point that Colin Cowherd even announced the targeted date for the bout, the fight never materialized. Now, on the heels of McGregor’s UFC 205 win over Eddie Alvarez last month, which saw ‘Notorious’ claim the UFC lightweight championship and become the first ever simultaneous two-division UFC champion when he picked up a second round TKO win over Alvarez, talks of a McGregor-Mayweather boxing match have once again picked up steam.

Russell Ess - December 7, 2016

https://youtu.be/5PbevV7PncM?t=4m57s UFC President Dana White apparently has changed his mind on a UFC women’s 145-pound featherweight division.

Russell Ess - December 7, 2016

It sounds like Conor McGregor may be out of competition for a bit longer than expected. Many were expecting “The Notorious” to take time off from fighting until his baby was born in the summer of 2017.

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2016

https://youtu.be/5McRtt8Dvg8?t=3m21s Every time Conor McGregor accomplishes a new and massive feat, it leaves fans eager to see him try to one-up that feat. When he knocked out Jose Aldo to win the featherweight title, fans immediately wanted to see him challenge for lightweight gold. When he knocked out Eddie Alvarez to win that lightweight gold, buzz about a potential welterweight title fight with Tyron Woodley quickly began to resurface. And then, of course, there’s the ever-present discourse about McGregor testing himself in a boxing match with boxing legend Floyd Mayweather.

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2016

Though Jon Jones stands out as one of the best mixed martial artists ever, he’s had an undeniably rough few years. His recent career has been marred by everything from cocaine use to a hit-and-run involving a pregnant woman. Earlier this year, of course, it looked like a matured Jones might finally be getting his life back on track. Though it was far from his best performance, he made a successful return to action, defeating late-replacement Ovince St. Preux to win the UFC interim light heavyweight title. With this win in the books, Jones was then pencilled in for a title unifying rematch with Daniel Cormier, who has been sitting on the divisional throne in his stead. The two were expected to share the main event honors of the landmark UFC 200 in July.

bjpenndotcom - December 6, 2016

Last week, former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre, former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, top ranked welterweight Donald Cerrone, and top ranked middleweight Tim Kennedy announced the formation of the MMA Athletes Association (MMAAA) along with former Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney. The move was a very historic one, with numerous fighters taking to social media to express their support for the association, as well as many looking to join the association.

bjpenndotcom - December 6, 2016

This past weekend, in the co-main event of The Ultimate Fighter season 24 Finale, coaches Joseph Benavidez & Henry Cejudo squared off in a highly anticipated flyweight showdown. With the possibility of a fight with flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson on the line, both men gave the fight everything they had. Ultimately, the judges scored the fight a split decision for Joseph Benavidez, with Cejudo being deducted a point in the first round likely playing a major part in the decision swinging Benavidez’ way. Despite that, Cejudo, as well as many members of the MMA community, scored the fight in the former Olympian’s favor. Following the fight, Cejudo texted UFC President Dana White, who replied with an apology over the scorecards.

bjpenndotcom - December 6, 2016

In 2016, Invicta FC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg successfully made her UFC debut earlier this year when she successfully defeated Leslie Smith at UFC 198 back in May. Given that Cyborg competes in the women’s featherweight division under the Invicta banner, her fight with Smith was a catchweight fight of 140 pounds. In her second Octagon appearance, Cyborg defeated Swedish striker Lina Lansberg via TKO in the second round of their ‘UFC Fight Night: Sao Paulo’ main event scrap. Despite that, it’s been well documented that Cyborg struggles to make the catchweight limit of 140 pounds. Leading up to both of her scheduled UFC scraps, Cyborg was forced to cut a tremendous amount of weight, to the point that cameras caught the Invicta champ crying while attempting to cut weight. In addition, leading up to her last fight, Cyborg was forced to cut 10 pounds in just 24 hours in order to make 140 pounds.

Russell Ess - December 2, 2016

When UFC superstar Conor McGregor makes any type of significant moves, the word spreads quickly. On Wednesday, Ariel Helwani and Brett Okamoto tweeted that current UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor was granted a boxing license in the state of California. It later came to light that McGregor applied for a boxing license in numerous states.

Russell Ess - November 28, 2016

Over the weekend it was announced that UFC superstar Conor McGregor chose to “relinquish” the UFC featherweight title and hold on to the UFC lightweight strap. “The Notorious” was the first fighter in history to be a concurrent two-division UFC champion after beating Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 earlier this month. McGregor held both the UFC featherweight and lightweight titles for two weeks after winning the belt from Alvarez.

bjpenndotcom - November 16, 2016

Last week, following the ceremonial UFC 205 weigh-ins, the UFC surprised New York fight fans with a surprise staredown between UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes and former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, who will be returning to the Octagon for the first time in over a year at UFC 207, where she hopes to reclaim the women’s bantamweight title.

bjpenndotcom - November 16, 2016

Following Conor McGregor’s historic UFC 205 win over Eddie Alvarez this past weekend that saw McGregor pick up a 2nd round TKO win to claim the lightweight championship, and become the first ever two-division UFC champion, boxing icon Floyd Mayweather heard that people were comparing McGregor to him. That didn’t sit well with ‘Money’:

Chris Taylor - November 13, 2016

The Boss @DanaWhite recaps an amazing event w/ @MeganOlivi at #UFC205 https://t.co/67hCQKwBsw — UFC (@ufc) November 14, 2016

Tom Taylor - November 13, 2016

UFC 205 was absolutely stacked. Though it was hurt by the last minute losses of a Donald Cerrone vs. Kelvin Gastelum welterweight bout and a Tim Kennedy vs. Rashad Evans middleweight bout, it still stood out as the most talent-rich card in UFC history. The lineup was topped by a lightweight title fight between divisional champ Eddie Alvarez and featherweight king Conor McGregor. Below this title fight were two others: a welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, and a strawweight title fight between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Karolina Kowalkiewicz. The rest of the card, finally, was packed with big names like Yoel Romero, Chris Weidman, Miesha Tate, Raquel Pennington, Frankie Edgar, Jeremy Stephens, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Michael Johnson.

Chris Taylor - November 13, 2016

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley left Madison Square Garden with his title following an epic five-round war with Stephen Thompson in the evenings co-main event. “The Chosen One” and “Wonderboy” battled to a majority draw, this after two judges scored the fight 47-47 and one judge scored the contest in favor of T-Wood 48-47.