Editorials, hot takes, and in-depth analysis from voices that follow every punch in the sport.
Last September, Fedor Emelianenko announced his return to MMA and set off a firestorm of speculation about who he opponent would be. News “leaked” that Emelianenko’s promoter, Japanese upstart Rizin, would match him up with Singh Jaideep, a kickboxer with 2-0 pro MMA record. Reaction was apatheti...
Earlier today, the UFC announced fake-real champ Daniel Cormier would defend/unify his fake-real title against real-fake champ Jon Jones. This means Conor McGregor (and, by extension, Nate Diaz, who should be flipping double birds at everyone involved in this) is officially officially off the car...
In the middle of landscape-changing news, the most prudent thing a quasi-member of the media can do is point out his prior work and gloat. To wit, an excerpt from my article looking ahead at 2016: If 2015 was the Year of Rousey, 2016 is shaping up to be the Year of McGregor. Fresh off a […]
Less than a year ago, the UFC women’s bantamweight division looked like one that contained Ronda Rousey and then the rest. As we head into the middle part of 2016, there is now an argument to claim that the women’s 135lbs division is one of the most open in the UFC. Having made six comprehensive ...
Yesterday, the UFC announced Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar would headline and co-headline, respectively, UFC 200. The former, contested at the same welterweight limit as the first fight at UFC 196, was a poorly kept secret; the latter, with an interim featherweight ...
It wouldn’t be right to say the UFC waited too long to bring Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino into the promotion proper. Justino is still a few months away from her 31st birthday and has yet to hit her 20th pro MMA bout (and aside from a kickboxing bout in 2014, she’s taken very little damage in her […]
UFC 196 demonstrated the risk component of matchmaking in MMA. Miesha Tate dug deep and choked out Holly Holm in round five, squashing a rematch between Holm and Ronda Rousey. Then, Nate Diaz pummeled Conor McGregor before submitting him with his own rear-naked choke, melting the Irish Icarus’s w...
For Michael Bisping, the story going into his fight with Anderson Silva was one of legacy. If he could defeat Silva, he would erase (or at least somewhat mitigate) the driving narrative of his career of never winning the big fight. And while yesterday’s fight was a big one in a promotional sense,...
With well over 100,000 viewing on Youtube, the UFC held a press conference at the UFC Gym in Torrance, California, to promote the new UFC 196 main event between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz. Amidst talk of why Diaz was chosen and why the fight will take place at 170 pounds came this exchange: McG...
UFC 196 took a huge hit with Rafael dos Anjos pulling out of his main event bout against Conor McGregor due to a broken foot. With the main event taking a dive, we decided to look at some potential substitute opponents to take on Conor McGregor at the Las Vegas event. Donald Cerrone This […]
It’s hard to imagine Bellator 149 turned out the way Scott Coker had hoped. It’s not as if the bar was set very high. The main event featured two guys who first fought each other at the beginning of the (Bill) Clinton administration. Ken Shamrock was working security detail a couple years ago. Ro...
With former UFC and WEC lightweight champion Benson Henderson announcing his signing with Bellator, it is clear that free agency is good for fighters. The deal reached between Scott Coker and Henderson is one that both parties must have concluded was beneficial to themselves, and secondarily, the...
You watch Sage Northcutt tap to an arm triangle from half-guard and come away thinking that he might not belong in the UFC – or, at the very least, that we need to push hard on the brake. Northcutt might not do anything correct during this sequence. He allows Barberena to isolate the arm. He seem...
On January 11th, FoxSports.com published an article by Kenny Florian previewing the T.J. Dillashaw-Dominick Cruz bantamweight title fight in Boston. You can’t read that article because FoxSports.com took down the content and replaced it with the following: (Editor’s Note: Language in this breakdo...
Matt Mitrione hung with Travis Browne through round one before an eye poke in the waning moments of the round. He suffered another eye poke in the second, but kept the fight close enough through the end of the round. (Mitrione and Browne landed a near identical number of strikes through two, thou...
As soon as Bruce Buffer finished “AND STILL,” MMA Twitter began debating the third round of the welterweight title fight between Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit. Everyone agreed in awarding rounds one and four to Condit and rounds two and five to Lawler, including the judges. It was that pesky th...