Jordan Breen
Editorial: In the court of the Cringey King, Henry Cejudo
He’s the king of the flyweights. He’s the king of the bantamweights. Now, Henry Cejudo is the King of Cringe, and Henry Cejudo is all too happy to embrace the throne. In case you haven’t noticed in recent months – and maybe you haven’t given the amount of trash talk and general textual garbage that […]
Knees, commissions, and cannabis: A shot of decency helps the stupid go down, sorta
It’s February of a new year. We’re fully into the swing of the MMA schedule now, especially headed into a weekend boasting a UFC card, a whopping three Bellator cards, plus Rizin’s first card of the year. I’m sure most fans aren’t fully done digesting the last two weeks though, for better or worse. Mostly […]
‘Rampage’ Jackson doesn’t care, but everyone else should
Bellator 237 played out exactly as we expected. Well, except for one thing. With a rote undercard designed to highlight either Bellator MMA or Rizin talent in showcase fights, everything went on spec, and there were no surprises. The only surprise to be had came in the main event when Quinton “Rampage” Jackson face planted […]
Are RIZIN’s brutal brothers its next native stars?
New Year’s Eve in Japan, at least as far as fighting is concerned, is nowhere near what it once was during the kakutogi boom of 2003-2006. Gone are the days of superstars like Bob Sapp, Masato, Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic, Hidehiko Yoshida, and Wanderlei Silva anchoring grand spectacles that did massive television numbers on the […]
Fedor vs Rampage: The product of a curious marriage
Christmas is over and for fight fans, so begins the punctuation to the end of the year, which means a barrage of fights spread over just a few scant days. However, this year marks a twist on the tradition of fighting in New Year’s season in Japan; as Rizin Fighting Federation’s usual two-cards-in-three-days soiree will […]
How the UFC failed Frankie Edgar and Cory Sandhagen in one fell swoop
It’s Christmas, and historically in MMA terms, it’s the moment that promoters and fans remove themselves from the sport, before the pageantry and importance of the New Year’s Eve festivities. Despite that, the announcement that Frankie Edgar had withdrawn from his slated bout with Cory Sandhagen, I couldn’t fully keep my mind away from the […]
Gina Carano’s unsurprising story and its actual relevance
With it being the long American Thanksgiving weekend, the fight schedule is a bit lighter than usual, which tends to lead to a paucity of breaking news or intriguing headlines. Case in point is our hottest story of this week’s MMA news cycle: did you guys know that UFC President Dana White is a vulgar, […]
Do Bellator and Michael Page deserve this latest dose of venom?
If you watched Michael “Venom” Page’s latest knockout, a quick and dirty decimation of Gianni Melillo in just 107 seconds, chances are you just did it by catching a gif on Twitter or a quick highlight online. Given that it headlined a smaller scale Bellator card in London, England, with its main card starting earlier […]
Hope Springs Eternal: The Nick Diaz Delusion
Here’s a pop quiz for you: when was the last time Nick Diaz fought? I can already sense how the gears are turning in your head. “Hmmm, has he fought since Anderson Silva? … … … No? Really? Damn. OK, well, how long ago was that? Three years maybe? … Wait, we’re going on five […]
They said what?! Pros (and not so pros) react to KSI’s split decision over Logan Paul
The six-round boxing rematch two of Youtube’s top content creators, with over 40 million subscribers between them, was every bit the gong show that people anticipated. Filled with dramatics, controversy and some sheer insanity, it was still nonetheless one of the biggest fight events of the year – a true sign of the times. Of […]
The Palate & the Stomach – What can fans stand about this weekend’s fights?
We have a varied, deep, maybe even overwhelming slate of international MMA on tap this weekend. The coming days fight cards feature offerings from the UFC, Bellator, ONE Championship, KSW, Combate Americas, and Cage Warriors—to name more than just a few. Hell, we’ll even be graced with the farcical boxing rematch between Youtube superstars Logan […]
MMA and the ‘small pond’ paradox
This past weekend reminded me of the reason, or at least one of the reasons, I love MMA. And if for those that know me, this might not be the reason they’d expect. It was a weekend jam-packed full of MMA the globe over; highlighted by UFC Fight Night 161, Professional Fight League continuing its […]
Is Israel Adesanya the end of middleweight’s lack of fun?
Since Israel Adesanya’s king-making performance against Robert Whittaker on Saturday night – in front of an alleged 57,000-plus in Melbourne, Australia – I’ve been constantly having a debate (or maybe, more accurately, a dialogue) with myself. For many, Adesanya’s performance – from his theatrical GenkiSudo-esque dance routine entrance, to his rousing knockout finish in the […]
5 things that make me go ‘Hmmm’ before an MMA-heavy weekend
The weekend is upon us, but it’s not just any weekend. No, it’s one of those weekends. You know, one of those weekends with a bajillion notable MMA cards clustered together over a 48-hour period. We’ve got the UFC making its Danish debut, Bellator hitting Ireland again before finishing up the opening round of its […]
UFC 242 Editorial: On the cruciality of an Eagle and a Boogeyman
Heading into UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, few if any doubted that Khabib Nurmagomedov was the best lightweight in the world. That said, UFC interim champion Dustin Poirier’s sudden, rapid improvement over a six-fight unbeaten streak made him a provocative and enticing underdog pick for many – a notion that was brutally dispelled […]
Victims of Various Successes: The inevitability of being too good for your own self in Uruguay
Suffice to say that Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 156 card wasn’t exactly well-received—and with good reason. Through 26 events so far this year, I think it would probably be the consensus worst of them all. With the largest thrills of the evening being Raulian Paiva’s enormous facial gash, and Mike Perry breaking the Rich Franklin […]
On offense and offensiveness: Colby Covington is turning trash talk into something worse
I never thought that I would hear someone make fun of Matt Hughes and feel awful about it. At the same time, I never thought I would see Colby Covington box Robbie Lawler up for 25 minutes. But, both things happened on Saturday—and it’s a lot to process. The sport of mixed martial arts gives […]
UFC 240 editorial: Nothing learned, but not a bad night in the classroom
UFC 240 happened Saturday night in Edmonton. It was a thing that occurred. Did it thrill us in any particular way? No, not really. Did we gain any new knowledge about mixed martial arts? Nope. Basically, if you paid $60 to watch this thing, you got to watch status quo upheld. So, the essential question […]
UFC San Antonio: Leon Edwards, the welter fundamental
Saturday night in San Antonio, Texas, a fighter I and many have espoused as the most underrated fighter in the game over the last five years, Leon Edwards, took a bigger step into the limelight and UFC title contendership, thwarting former lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos over five handy rounds. And it couldn’t have come […]
Opinion: UFC Sacramento and the virtue of ‘next’
It’s hard to write a column with a stringent, strong narrative about Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night 155 card in Sacramento. It wasn’t without its high peaks and pops, especially for local stars. At the same time, it was woefully emblematic of a modern Ultimate Fighting Championship-throwaway card. In years prior, any given UFC card […]
Progress and Regress: A tale of two champions at UFC 239
UFC 239 gave us a lot to chew on. Hell, we got the fastest knockout in Octagon history. That said, I think the real takeaway from Saturday night is a tale of two champions and the divergent courses of two of the sport’s all-time greats. Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports and Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY […]
UFC Minneapolis: The UFC is caught in an awkward flux
Never mind the ESPN deal and how profoundly it has perplexed and pissed off viewers and would-be viewers. We can all argue for the reasons for this, but to no doubt, Saturday night’s UFC on ESPN 3 card with Francis N’Gannou clubbing Junior dos Santos in just 71 seconds, among other happenings on the card, […]
Bellator 222: A classic Scott Coker roller coaster
Friday night’s Bellator 222 card, from Madison Square Garden in New York, was a lot of things. I mean a lot of things. So much so it’s nearly impossible to figure out where to start. However, more than anything, it was as if Bellator CEO Scott Coker’s soul and psyche suddenly erupted, raining down a […]
Is the flyweight division cursed?
UFC 238 was a spark for the flyweight division on both sides of the coin, men and women alike. Flyweight king Henry Cejudo became a simultaneous, two-division champion with a gutsy performance against Marlon Moraes—overcoming an early beating to stop the Brazilian in the third round. Meanwhile, flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko tuned up maybe the […]
UFC Stockholm: Light and heavy issues under the duress of a sociopathic dominator
The light heavyweight division, for years, was MMA’s marquee division. It’s where stars stacked up, where the biggest fights happened as we tacitly admitted as fans that the heavyweight division just wasn’t that good. After UFC Stockholm, part of your MMA brain wants to say “Hey, things are looking up!”. At the same time, you […]