Author: By E. Spencer Kyte

Donald Cerrone prefers actions to words and, right now, the perennial lightweight contender turned surging welterweight’s actions are making a lot of people rethink their assessments of the 33-year-old fighter a little over a year after everyone thought they had him all figured out. A first-round loss to Rafael Dos Anjos in the final bout of 2015 brought Cerrone’s eight-fight, 25-month unbeaten streak to an abrupt halt and relegated the proprietor of the BMF Ranch to championship purgatory in the 155-pound ranks. Having twice fallen to the reigning champion – a unanimous de … Read the Full Article Here

For the last several months, Jorge Masvidal has been peppering social media with posts carrying a pair of hashtags that seem to get under the skin of some members of the MMA community: #EasyMoneyCampaign and #MakeUFCGreatAgain.The latter is an obvious riff on President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, but the meaning of the former is a little less clear.Some have interpreted it as Masvidal taking a shot at the rest of the welterweight division and specifically Donald Cerrone, the man he’ll meet in the co-main event of this weekend’s UFC on FOX event in Denver. Others see it as … Read the Full Article Here

Returning to the city where it all started and rocking a poster that harkens back to those early days, this weekend’s second UFC event of 2017 lands on FOX and features an entertaining mix of matchups.Headlined by a clash between top women’s bantamweight contenders Valentina Shevchenko and Julianna Pena and supported by On the Rise favorite Francis Ngannou and a potential firefight between Donald Cerrone and Jorge Masvidal, Saturday’s fight card in Denver has the potential to have a serious impact on a couple key divisions as the year gets underway.As always, the show also fe … Read the Full Article Here

Sunday night, amid the fisticuffs on the first event of the year in Phoenix, Arizona, the UFC announced some of the details for Season 25 of The Ultimate Fighter and the latest installment of the long-running reality TV competition is shaping up to be a doozy.In addition to declaring that the cast will be made up of welterweight competitors that have appeared on previous seasons of the show, including one current active member of the UFC roster, the organization confirmed that the two men heading up the rival sides will be newly crowned bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt and No. 1 contender … Read the Full Article Here

No one would fault Nina Ansaroff if she said she was a bundle of nerves and feeling a ton of pressure heading into her showdown with Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger in the UFC FIGHT PASS Featured Bout on Sunday evening in Phoenix.Competing for the first time in a year, the 31-year-old American Top Team product is still in search of her initial UFC win, having fallen on the scorecards in each of her previous two outings. In addition to wanting to avoid an 0-3 start to her time competing in the Octagon, Ansaroff is also the “road team” for this weekend’s contest, as Jones-Lybarger resid … Read the Full Article Here

The UFC’s 2017 campaign kicks off in the desert this Sunday, as the Octagon returns to Phoenix for an event headlined by surging prospect Yair Rodriguez taking on returning Hall of Famer BJ Penn in an intriguing fight that could set the tempo for what is to come in the next 12 months.In addition to the featherweight main event, this show also features the always entertaining Joe Lauzon against Marcin Held, and a litmus test for Sergio Pettis, who takes on former flyweight title challenger John Moraga in a bout that should help clarify where the Milwaukee native is at in his development h … Read the Full Article Here