Dana White News

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

Former Bellator MMA CEO Bjorn Rebney recently found himself making headlines recently when he joined former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre, former UFC champions TJ Dillashaw & Cain Velasquez, and top ranked fighters Donald Cerrone & Tim Kennedy in announcing the formation of the MMA Athletes Association. While the association mostly received praise form fighters, many questioned the former Bellator MMA CEO’s motives, with UFC President Dana White stating:

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

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.

Tom Taylor - December 2, 2016

Earlier this month, Conor McGregor knocked out Eddie Alvarez to win the UFC lightweight title. Given that the Irishman already owned the featherweight crown, this made him the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously. It was a short-lived reign as two-division king. Weeks after winning the lightweight title, McGregor was stripped of the featherweight belt. At the same time, interim featherweight champ Jose Aldo was promoted to undisputed champ, while it was announced that Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis would vie for interim featherweight gold in the new main event of UFC  206.

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

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, which marked the Octagon’s debut in New York City has now come and gone. The highlight of the card was undoubtedly Conor McGregor’s history making knockout of lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. Other highlights included Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson’s unforgettable five round war, which ended in a majority draw, and Yoel Romero’s thunderous knockout of former middleweight champion Chris Weidman. And then, of course, there was the retirement of women’s MMA trailblazer Miesha Tate. Tate kicked off the stacked UFC 205 main card opposite the streaking Raquel Pennington, who she coached several years ago on The Ultimate Fighter. Though Tate has long stood out as one of the best female fighters on the planet, she was soundly outclassed by her foe in New York – on the feet and on the mat. As a result, she ultimately surrendered a unanimous decision.

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.

bjpenndotcom - November 11, 2016

Earlier this year, reports surfaced that a fighter’s union had officially been formed. With current and former fighters such as UFC legend Randy Couture, UFC women’s bantamweight Leslie Smith, and MMA veteran Cung Le jumping on-board to name just a few of the fighters. Earlier this week however, top ranked UFC welterweight & lightweight, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone weighed-in on the formation of a fighter’s union during a media luncheon, in which he stated:

Tom Taylor - November 11, 2016

Earlier this morning, UFC 205‘s stacked main card took a significant hit when welterweight contender Kelvin Gastelum failed to make weight for his planned bout with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Though weigh-in misses do not typically result in the cancelation of a fight outright, Gastelum’s was severe enough that it forced him off the card altogether, leaving Cowboy without an opponent, and depriving fans of a highly anticipated fight. This weight related slip up is unfortunately not Gastelum’s first. In his eight scheduled welterweight bouts with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the 25-year-old has missed weight 3 times, first for a 2014 bout with Nico Musoke, then for a 2015 bout with Tyron Woodley and most recently for this nixed bout with Cowboy. He also very nearly missed weight for a mid-2016 bout with Johny Hendricks.

bjpenndotcom - November 9, 2016

Saturday night in New York, the UFC will host what is being considered the biggest event in the promotion’s history. Headlining the event of course, is a historic lightweight title fight between UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, and UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, in a fight which could potentially see McGregor enter into the UFC history books as the first simultaneous two-division UFC champion. In the past, McGregor has set several UFC records, with his recent UFC 202 fight with Nate Diaz setting the record for most PPV buys, beating out the previous record set by the historic UFC 100 card back in 2009.

bjpenndotcom - November 8, 2016

While former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones is widely believed to be the pound for pound kingpin in MMA, Jones has fought just once in nearly two years. After defeating Daniel Cormier in a highly anticipated grudge match in January of 2015, Jones was booked to defend his title against Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson later in the year. Unfortunately, Jones was involved in an infamous hit & run car accident that ultimately saw him stripped of the title, and pulled from the card. Ultimately, after Jones was stripped of the title and pulled from the card, Daniel Cormier stepped in to fight Johnson for the vacant light heavyweight championship, winning the fight via 3rd round submission to claim the vacant light heavyweight championship.

bjpenndotcom - October 28, 2016

Relations between the UFC brass and former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre have continued to be strained over the last few weeks as St-Pierre’s highly anticipated return to the Octagon was once again postponed after negotiations for ‘Rush’ to return at UFC 206 failed. This resulted in St-Pierre revealing in an interview that he had terminated his contract with the UFC after the promotion failed to secure him a fight in a reasonable amount of time. Despite that, rumors of St-Pierre returning to the Octagon at UFC 206 for a fight with Michael Bisping continued to surface, until this week, when St-Pierre sent a message to Bisping via social media, in which he stated:

Chris Taylor - October 25, 2016

Earlier this week, BJPENN.com’s Chris Taylor reported that current UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping was being targeted for a fight at December’s UFC 206 event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I spoke to one of Michael Bisping's coaches who told me thatthe UFC is targeting the champ to return at #UFC206 in Toronto, Canada.