Exclusive MMA Interviews News

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

Over the last few days, there has been a tidal wave of buzz surrounding a possible welterweight title fight between champ Tyron Woodley and long-time lightweight contender Nate Diaz at UF 219. While this possible showdown has generated a flood of excitement, however, there are plenty of people who believe it’s the wrong choice, as Diaz has hardly earned a welterweight title shot. File surging welterweight contender Colby Covington into that group. “It’s a joke, man,” Colby Covington said on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “What’s Nate Diaz’s record at welterweight? He doesn’t even have the 25% win ratio. I mean, he got his shit beat by Dong Hyun Kim. You saw what I did to Dong Hyun Kim. I completely destroyed him and outclassed him. So, Nate’s a small 55-er. He doesn’t belong at 170. You know, whatever. If he gets to fight, good for him, man. I’m still gonna be here. I’m still gonna be the number one contender, and I’m still gonna get my belt next, so… [Tyron] can only run and hide for as long as he can. But, at the end of the day, I’m still gonna be here, and I’m not going anywhere. I am the best, and I cannot be stopped right now.”

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

With Raquel Pennington currently sidelined with an injury, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes is now eyeing a fight with former champ Holly Holm for her next title defense. “I’m ready to go,” the bantamweight champ said on the latest stacked episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I kind of don’t want to step in front of Cris Cyborg right now, because I know she wants to fight Holly Holm. But I don’t think this fight’s going to happen, and if Holly Holm comes down again, to 135 [pounds], we can do this. I want to defend my belt. I want to defend the 135 belt. Holly Holm is one of the only girls in this division [riding] a win, so I think she’s the one. I think if she’s not going to fight Cyborg, she has to come down and make this happen.”

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

It’s now been many months since Al Iaquinta’s thrilling return to the Octagon, in which he thumped Diego Sanchez to a beautiful, first-round knockout. Fans have been eager to see him back in the cage ever since. For a moment, it sounded as though Iaquinta would be returning to the cage for a fight with Paul Felder at UFC 218 this December 2. Regrettably, this scrap fell through just shortly after it was announced.

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2017

Not long ago, long-time UFC strawweight star Paige VanZant took to Twitter to announce that she would be getting the first crack at the new UFC women’s flyweight champion crowned by the current season of The Ultimate Fighter. Shortly thereafter, top bantamweight contender Valentina Shevchenko, who has long flirted with a drop to flyweight, challenged this assertion from VanZant, and challenged her to a title eliminator. Speaking on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Valentina Shevchenko explained her choice to call out Paige VanZant.

Tom Taylor - November 13, 2017

Earlier this month, in the co-main event of UFC 217, TJ Dillashaw put months of trash talk to rest, authoring a second-round knockout of his arch rival Cody Garbrandt to reclaim the UFC bantamweight title Despite the massive stakes of this fight, however, Dillashaw does not consider it the biggest of his career. Instead, that honor goes to his first win over Renan Barao.

Tom Taylor - November 12, 2017

Just days ahead of UFC 217, Cody Garbrandt finally shared some long discussed footage that showed him dropping his UFC 217 opponent, TJ Dillashaw, in a training session from many years ago. Speaking on the most recent episode of BJ Penn Radio – just days after he knocked Garbrandt out to win the UFC bantamweight title – TJ Dillashaw discussed this infamous video. In his opinion, it’s just footage of one of his bad days – bad days every fighter occasionally has.

Chris Taylor - November 9, 2017

Former UFC women’s bantamweight title challenger Valentina Shevchenko has issued a challenge to Paige Vanzant! “The Bullet” recently announced her intentions to drop down to the UFC’s new women’s flyweight division, this following her controversial split-decision loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 215 in September.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

This weekend, on the main card of the UFC’s anticipated stop in Norfolk, Virginia, welterweight fan favorite Matt Brown will partake in the final fight of his long career. His dance partner for this swan song will be Diego Sanchez, a fighter of a similar vintage. Given that Sanchez has also been fighting for many years, Brown believes it might be time for him to retire too.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

With his sizzling UFC 217 grudge match with Cody Garbrandt soundly in the rear-view mirror, UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw is now hellbent on a flyweight showdown with iron-fisted division ruler Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. In his opinion, this champion versus champion showdown is simply too big not to happen. “I mean that’s the fight that needs to happen. It has to happen,” Dillashaw explained on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “I mean, it’s got fireworks written all over it. I’ve always said I wanna be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and that’s where he’s at. I’m setting my goals high. I’m chasing him down, you know? As well as him already denying the fight, and proving to be afraid of the fight. He was making all these other excuses, and then one of his excuses was that I need to be a champion. Well guess what? That’s done. You know what I mean? You have no more excuses. It’s time to get this thing on, and prove who the best is. You know, I can make the weight class very, very well. And I think I’m gonna be very strong, and too much for him, and he knows it. And it’s gonna be very nice for me to be the new best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.”

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

Matt Brown’s planned retirement fight, a UFC Norfolk Fight of the Night frontrunner with fellow fan favorite Diego Sanchez, is now just days away. While it goes without saying that Brown is hoping to end his career with a big win over a well-respected foe, his main hope is that, when all is said and done, people will be inspired by his career. From the throes of heroin addiction to near-championship heights, it has certainly been an incredible one.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

Last weekend, on the undercard of the stacked UFC 217, streaking lightweight contender James Vick picked up a beautiful stoppage win over the highly regarded Joe Duffy. Yet while this was undeniably huge for his career, Vick expects his difficulty to track down a willing, top-10 foe to continue. At present, Vick has his eyes on the main event of the UFC’s Saturday stop in Norfolk, which will pit Dustin Poirier against former champ Anthony Pettis. Speaking on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Vick made his pick for this anticipated UFC Norfolk main event, and also explained that he expects to be ducked by the winner of the fight.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2017

Over the last year, bantamweight stars TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt have shared one of the most heated and public rivalries in MMA. The pair’s rivalry stems from Dillashaw’s departure from Team Alpha Male, the Sacramento gym where he began his fighting career, and the bitterness his former Team Alpha Male stablemates have felt ever since departure. Last weekend, in the co-main event of the stacked UFC 217, Dillashaw and Garbrandt finally stepped into the cage to settle their score. Despite a real scare in the closing seconds of the first round, Dillashaw rallied back in the second, removing his opponent’s batteries with a savage salvo of strikes, and scoring a big win over his nemeses at Team Alpha Male.

Chris Taylor - November 8, 2017

Well you knew this was coming! Yoel Romero has sent a clear message to bitter rival Michael Bisping following “The Count’s” UFC 217 title loss to Georges St-Pierre. In short, “The Soldier of God” was not impressed by Bisping’s performance (GSP voice).

Chris Taylor - November 7, 2017

Yoel Romero has a plan for when Georges St-Pierre announces that he will be vacating his newly obtained UFC middleweight title. The Canadian superstar, St-Pierre, returned from a near four-year hiatus last weekend where he defeated Michael Bisping in the main event of UFC 217 to become the UFC’s new middleweight champion.

Tom Taylor - November 7, 2017

Riding high off a dominant win over Demian Maia, Colby Covington has spent the last few weeks campaigning for a title fight with welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. On the most recent episode of BJ Penn Radio, the surging welterweight contender also gave a prediction for the outcome of a possible fight with Woodley. Based on his previous training sessions with Woodley at American Top Team, Covington is expecting a lopsided, stoppage win over the champ – probably inside the first three rounds.

Tom Taylor - November 2, 2017

This weekend, on the main card of the stacked UFC 217, Jorge Masvidal will step into the cage with two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. While Wonderboy is an incredibly dangerous opponent, Masvidal plans to devastate him when the cage door closes. “I got respect for his skillset and his heart,” Masvidal said on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “He definitely took some shots against [Tyron] Woodley in both fights, that a lesser man would’ve gave into. He fought through that. Through the guillotine, through the right hands, the abuse that he took, you know? I don’t think he’s a walk in the park or northing like that. He has a skillset, but come Saturday, I’m gonna devastate him.”

Tom Taylor - November 2, 2017

Last weekend, moments after taking out former welterweight title challenger Demian Maia, Colby Covington unleashed a fiery post-fight callout of Tyron Woodley. During this callout of the champ, Covington also referred to Brazil as a “a dump,” and its people as “filthy animals.” These remarks generated a tidal wave of controversy. In the opinion of Covington’s good friend and training partner Jorge Masvidal, however, this controversy has been a little overblown. “What was he supposed to say?” Masvidal queried on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio. “‘I love Brazil, I love you guys’ like every other fake fucking fighter that goes over there and says that, though they got spit on, pushed, shoved and they chanted all types of shit? The guy actually spoke from the heart and he gets crucified for it.”

Tom Taylor - October 30, 2017

Last week, UFC and World Series of Fighting veteran Gerald Harris picked up a gruesome, slam-induced stoppage win, badly breaking his foe’s arm to force the end of the fight. In the subsequent moments, Harris seemed elated – even pleased about his opponent’s injury – but apparently, this wasn’t the case. Despite the tidal wave of trash talk Harris received in the buildup to this fight, he harbored no ill-will toward his opponent, and didn’t even know he’d broken his arm until later. “A lot of people, they watched the video, and you can’t judge a book by it’s cover,” Harris said on episode 55 of BJ Penn Radio. “It looked like I was celebrating the injury, and I was overreacting, but man, everything that happened before that… This guy cursed me out at weigh ins, he was three pounds overweight, he tried to fight me at weigh ins, and then before the fight he was yelling at me, and then in the fight he was yelling at me, and right before I slammed him, literally, the round before that, he was giving me the ‘suck-it’ sign, he was like ‘F-you, you ain’t no slam king, you can’t even slam me b*tch.’ Then a minute later, that same hand he was flipping me off with was crooked as hell behind his head. There was so much karma in that moment. I don’t have anything against the dude, he’s a fighter and he does what works best for him, but he just disrespected me a little bit too much.”