Exclusive MMA Interviews News

Mike Straus - December 10, 2018

Originally not scheduled to compete this weekend, Milwaukee’s own Zak Ottow is beyond excited to be fighting on the historical UFC on FOX 31 card. The UFC is returning to Milwaukee for the first time since 2013. Despite lobbying for the Octagon to return, Ottow wasn’t apart of the UFC’s original fight night line up. However, it pays to stay ready as “The Barbarian” explains.

Mike Straus - December 7, 2018

Valérie Létourneau will challenge flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane for the title in the main event of Bellator 213 on December 15. Lètourneau will have her hands full in Honolulu, Hawaii, as she attempts to be the first women to beat the champion in MMA. The Canadian born Lètourneau may be an underdog heading into next weekend, but she feels she has a big advantage when it comes to experience.

Tom Taylor - December 7, 2018

Combate Americas is one of the fastest-growing MMA promotions in the world. In fact, according to WWE legend and Combate Americas announcer Alberto Del Rio, the Hispanic MMA powerhouse now regularly rivals the UFC in terms of Spanish language viewership. “Our numbers are fantastic,” Alberto Del Rio said of Combate Americas on episode 107 of BJPENN.COM Radio. “Like in numbers, we are just right behind the UFC. We are the most seen MMA company in Spanish around the world and I know that the language we speak here in America is English, but we do better numbers when it comes to the broadcasting in Spanish than the big companies or the biggest company you see. We do the same in Spain and we’re crushing any other company in Mexico.

Mike Pendleton - December 6, 2018

Once the UFC opened up the women’s flyweight division many thought it’d be a great opportunity for some of the women in the strawweight and bantamweight divisions to perform at their peak. Such was the case for former strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and former bantamweight title challenger, Valentina Shevchenko. Fittingly enough, Jedrzejczyk and Shevchenko are meeting at UFC 231 for the vacant flyweight title in a rivalry that has already experienced three Muay Thai fights for the two women. Shevchenko has three wins over Jedrzejczyk in Muay Thai but both women have put those fights behind them leading up to their title fight. Jedrzejczyk has said she believes a win over Shevchenko, which would make her a champion in a second weight class, would give her legendary status for her career.

Cole Shelton - December 6, 2018

This Saturday night, in the main event of UFC 231, streaking UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway will attempt to defend his title against undefeated challenger Brian Ortega. Heading into this fight, fans are divided in their predictions. As it turns out, professional fighters are also treading both sides of the fence.

Cole Shelton - December 5, 2018

The Ultimate Fighter 28 featured men’s heavyweights and women’s featherweights, arguably the two weakest divisions in the UFC. The hope was it would add fighters to the respective divisions and possible title contenders. It appears the UFC may have gotten that in Macy Chiasson. Inside the house, Chiasson had a noticeable height and weight advantage. Chiasson is a natural featherweight while most of the other girls competing on the show were natural bantamweights. That was a big help to Chiasson during the fights.

Mike Pendleton - December 5, 2018

When Eryk Anders steps into the Octagon at UFC 231 against Elias Theodorou — a fight that he’s been chasing for some time — he’s looking to make a statement to the entire middleweight division. Coming off a loss to Thiago Santos, which he took on short-notice and in the unfamiliar light heavyweight division, Anders is looking to use lessons learned to help propel him in the middleweight division. In an interview with BJPenn.com, Eryk Anders opened up about what he’s looking to do against Theodorou, why he’s happy this fight is finally happening, and what he learned from his fight against Thiago Santos.

Mike Straus - December 4, 2018

After a brutal knockout and a series of unfortunate events, Josh Emmett is back training with Team Alpha Male. Heading into UFC on FOX 28 earlier this year Emmett was coming off the most impressive performance of his career. Unfortunately, he ran into a buzzsaw named Jeremy Stephens in Orlando, Florida, and that’s where Emmett’s troubles began.

Mike Straus - December 4, 2018

Antonio McKee coached Chuck Liddell for his comeback fight with Tito Ortiz. Unfortunately, this comeback didn’t end well for “The Iceman”, as he was stopped by Ortiz in the first round. Since then, Liddell and McKee have taken some blowback from the combat sports community. Having spent the last eight weeks with Chuck Liddell in the lead-up to the fight, McKee has grown fond of the Hall of Famer, so when the fans and media had harsh words for him, McKee wasn’t pleased.

Mike Pendleton - December 3, 2018

Jimmie Rivera is looking for a fight, but he can’t seem to find a willing opponent. As current UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw prepares to fight Henry Cejudo for the flyweight title at UFC 233, Rivera has been angling for a fight with former champion Cody Garbrandt.

Cole Shelton - December 3, 2018

When MMA fans think of the top gyms in the sport, they think of American Top Team, JacksonWink MMA, Team Alpha Male, The MMA Lab, and many others. And rightfully so. However, not many fans seem to think of Fortis MMA. Some fans might not have even have heard of the gym. But that could soon change. Fortis MMA and its head coach Sayif Saud are no longer flying under the radar. That is because over the past year all the gym’s fighters have done is win and collect championships. Fortis MMA is based out of Dallas Texas, and has only been around for about two years. In that two years though, Saud built the program up. He initially had no fighters in the UFC or any top promotion for that matter under his roof. Instead, he took on fighters who were either amateurs or only had one or two professional fights.

Thomas Taylor - December 2, 2018

Today, Stergos Mikkios proudly calls himself a member of the ONE Championship roster. Yet if things had unfolded just a little bit differently for the Greek Muay Thai specialist, he might not have made it to the bright lights of the Singapore-based promotion. In fact, he might not be alive at all.

Tom Taylor - November 30, 2018

It’s a strange and worrying time for the UFC flyweight division. The former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson has been traded to ONE Championship in exchange for welterweight talent Ben Askren. A procession of long-time UFC flyweights have been released from their contracts, including Justin Scoggins, Jared Brooks, Roberto Sanchez, and most recently, Ulka Sasaki. Rumors that the promotion plans to close the division have been rampant, and when pressed about these rumors, UFC President Dana White hasn’t exactly provided cause for optimism… “The flyweight division just never took off, it never caught on,” White said on a recent episode of the UFC Unfiltered podcast. “Even with a dominant champion like Demetrious, it just never caught on. People didn’t care. I battled for a long time, I tried to keep it alive and obviously, it’s still going on now. We still have fights going on in that division, but we’ll see what the future holds for it.”

Cole Shelton - November 29, 2018

The Professional Fighters League (PFL) is about to finish their first season on New Year’s Eve. PFL decided to take MMA back to where it started by doing a tournament format. The tournament was structured like most other professional sports leagues, with a regular season, playoffs and then the finals. Ray Cooper III took part in the PFL’s first season and will be taking on Magomed Magomedkerimov in the welterweight final for the $1 million prize money. Ultimately, the first season of PFL can be chalked up as a success. It brought a fresh new feel to MMA. As well, fighters didn’t have to call for their title shots, rather simply earn them. That is something that intrigued Cooper III to take part in the PFL.

Christopher Taylor - November 29, 2018

The mixed martial arts community is still grieving after losing legendary Japanese fighter Kid Yamamoto to cancer this past September. Norifumi had announced that he was battling the disease back on August 26 via his official Instagram.

Cole Shelton - November 29, 2018

Luis Pena was an undefeated lightweight up until his last fight, when he came up short against TUF 27 winner Mike Trizano. Then, after the fight, the man they call ‘Violent Bob Ross’ announced that he would be moving down to the featherweight division. This news came as a bit of a shock to some, given that Pena is 6’3″. Pena himself, however, feels it’s the right move.

Tom Taylor - November 29, 2018

Juan Archuleta has long stood out as one of the most exciting prospects in the Bellator featherweight division. In his Friday night Bellator 210 fight with Jeremy Spoon, he’ll look to take another big step toward divisional champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire. To say Archuleta is excited for this looming test would be an understatement.

Chris Taylor - November 28, 2018

Former two-division UFC champion BJ Penn will return to the octagon on December 29 to battle Ryan Hall in a lightweight contest at UFC 232. “The Prodigy” has returned to his roots for this fight, training under his original jiu-jitsu coach Andre Pederneiras at Brazil’s famous Nova Uniao gym.