Bellator has reportedly booked Michael ‘Venom’ Page vs. Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley for the quarterfinals of the welterweight grand prix. Generally speaking, this is great news. It’s part of a fantastic tournament, a competitive fight, true grudge match and so much more. The only problem is you’ll have two British fighters competing in Connecticut, not the United Kingdom.Read More →
Mark Hunt’s final UFC fight takes place opposite Justin Willis at UFC Adelaide on Saturday. With that in mind, what is his legacy? From an inauspicious beginning against Sean McCorkle after a bad skid in PRIDE, the ‘Super Samoan’ turned everything around and become one of the best and most beloved heavyweights in the sport.Read More →
On this edition of the Monday Morning Analyst, Luke Thomas breaks down Tito Ortiz’s win over Chuck Liddell and Louis Smolka’s armbar finish at UFC Beijing.Read More →
Brendan Schaub – former UFC heavyweight, co-host of The Fighter and The Kid, host of Below The Belt, SHOWTIME analyst – joined me in studio to talk Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury, using CBD and so much more. This is part one of our conversation.Read More →
At UFC 234, Anderson Silva will face Israel Adesanya in the co-main event. Silva, the former middleweight champion, believes he’ll get a title shot, but either winner could conceivably get it. The bigger point as raised by Ben Fowlkes in a MMA Junkie article is why this dynamic of young feasting on the old happens in combat sports.Read More →
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones spoke to ESPN about his attempts at sobriety. In short, Jones says he is not sober, but has dialed back his partying. The question is: should he be completely sober?Read More →
UFC President Dana White said Sage Northcutt was let go from the organization on a recent episode of the Unfiltered Podcast. Whether that characterization is true, Northcutt is certainly moving on, likely to ONE Championship.Read More →
At Golden Boy MMA 1, Chuck Liddell faced Tito Ortiz for the third time in their long-standing rivalry. While Ortiz looked fine given the circumstances, Liddell did not. In fact, despite Liddell’s status as an all-time great, there was little joy in watching the duo tangle at this age. In short, it was not an enjoyable experience. If sports isn’t that, it’s nothing.Read More →
Golden Boy MMA staged and promoted Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz 3 and clearly are the principal party responsible for the fight. There’s an argument, however, that if fans wouldn’t pay for circus fights, promoters wouldn’t stage them. So, who is responsible: the market or the promoters for taking advantage of the market?Read More →
When UFC Hall of Famers Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz clash for the third time at the inaugural Golden Boy MMA event in Los Angeles on Saturday, there’s a big test taking place. No, it’s not about whether Liddell should’ve stayed retired or if Ortiz can get revenge. Those questions matter, but aren’t the ones I’m referring to here. Instead, I’m looking at who (aside from Oscar De La Hoya) is responsible for making this happen.Read More →
Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz will face off for the third time at the inaugural Golden Boy MMA event at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans will be commentating the fight, but is noteworthy because he fought and beat both men. In this preview on my radio show, we discuss what to expect from the fight, who has the upper hand, his thoughts on Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson and more.Read More →
The UFC announced it’s building a Performance Institute in Shanghai, China, set to open in 2019. Like the original Performance Institute in Las Vegas, it’ll be a state-of-the-art facility, but the one in China will be three times as big and offer a lot more. Specifically, they’ll be in in-house MMA-specific trainers.Read More →
When Jon Jones edged out a victory over Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165 to retain the light heavyweight championship, there weren’t just cries of robbery for a week or a month. It lasted for quite some time. Yet, more recently, that sentiment has dramatically waned. While people’s opinions change over time, typically fights are were widely considered robberies, e.g. Shogun Rua vs. Lyoto Machida I, don’t lose that characteristic over time. This one did. Why?Read More →
On this edition of the Monday Morning Analyst, Luke Thomas breaks down some of the winning techniques at UFC Argentina, including Johnny Walker’s clinch and elbows against Khalil Rountree, Cynthia Calvillo’s bulldog choke win over Poliana Botelho, and much more.Read More →
Jamie Varner was once the WEC lightweight champion and is now a retired MMA fighter working in the stem cell industry. How’d that happen? A connection with Chael Sonnen, incidentally. In this interview, we catch up with.Read More →
In the wake of Cynthia Calvillo’s bad weight cut at UFC Argentina, some are asking why UFC doesn’t employ ONE Championship’s putative tactics to combat intentional dehydration. While ONE’s methods – moving everyone up, hydration testing – sound good in theory, they don’t release any weigh-in information to the public or press.Read More →
Floyd Mayweather and Rizin want you to believe the ’bout’ with Tenshin Nasukawa is back on. This time, however, more information is known. Specifically, it’s to be a three-round exhibition with each round consisting of three minutes. This is something less than sparring…Read More →
At UFC Denver, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone defeated Mike Perry with a first-round arm bar. In so doing, he became the winningest UFC fighter of all time and the UFC fighter with the most finishes.Read More →
On this edition of the Monday Morning Analyst, Luke Thomas takes a look at and breaks down Yair Rodriguez’s insane elbow knockout win over the Korean Zombie and Donald Cerrone’s arm-bar finish of Mike Perry at UFC Denver. Read More →
Nevada will adopt the new Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), but not with the same definition of a grounded opponent. They are not the only state to carve out this exception. Other state athletic commissions make adjustments to other rules, all of them involving hugely difficult, complex and consequential aspects of about, leaving the fighter to worry about an array of competing rule sets.Read More →
ESPN has reported TJ Dillashaw vs. Henry Cejudo, despite rumors the fight would be held at bantamweight, will take place at flyweight instead. The bout is tentatively slated for UFC 233 in Anaheim. This move by UFC has surprised many, but…Read More →
Floyd Mayweather held a press conference for the Japanese mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion called Rizin on Sunday to promote an upcoming fight with kickboxing prodigy Tenshin Nasukawa. It wasn’t clear if it was going to be kickboxing or boxing bout.Read More →
With Demetrious Johnson off to ONE Championship, the end of the UFC men’s flyweight division was thought to be short lived. Adding fuel to that fire is the release of top prospect Jose ‘Shorty’ Torres, who revealed on Twitter today he’d be cut or released from his UFC contract.Read More →
Ben Askren’s first UFC fight will reportedly be against former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler in January at UFC 233 in Anaheim. While many are happy to see Askren make his UFC debut, some others hate this fight for Askren. I don’t. It’s not the perfect or even best fight for Askren, but plenty useful. Here’s why Colby Covington or Darren Till can wait.Read More →