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Rich Franklin prefers more permissive ONE Championship ruleset
When it comes to the various rulesets in MMA, Rich Franklin is a man whose opinion should carry plenty of weight. The former UFC middleweight champion and Hall-of-Famer has fought under the unified rules, competed in Japan, and since 2014 – he’s been the vice president at ONE Championship. Rulesets have been a hot topic […]
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PFL Founder Donn Davis fires back at Dana White for comments about Kayla Harrison
FORT LAUDERDALE — Kayla Harrison will be a free agent after this Wednesday’s PFL 2021 Championship. Appearing during the fight week’s media day, Harrison answered the usual round of questions – lastly focusing on comments from Dana White earlier in the day. “If I was her, I’d stay right where she is and keep picking […]
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Petr Yan plans to show he’s ‘the champion for a reason’ against Cory Sandhagen: ‘There’s nothing interim about this belt’
Petr Yan believes his UFC 267 co-main event fight against Cory Sandhagen should be for the vacant bantamweight title. Yan was supposed to rematch Aljamain Sterling on the card, after their controversial fight at UFC 259 where Sterling became the new champ due to Yan being DQ’d. However, it was recently revealed the champ was […]
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Jeff Molina admits he didn’t know much about Daniel Da Silva but confident he’ll finish him in the first round
Jeff Molina is eager to step back into the Octagon, despite not knowing much about his UFC Vegas 41 opponent, Daniel Da Silva. Molina is coming off his UFC debut where he beat Aoriqileng by decision. It was also the Fight of the Night at UFC 261. After the win, Molina wasn’t sure what would […]
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Brent Primus ‘happy’ with win over Benson Henderson, confident he’ll win the ‘belt back’ in his next fight
Brent Primus knows his next fight will be for the Bellator’s lightweight title. Primus picked up a massive win last Saturday at Bellator 267 as he beat Benson Henderson by decision. In the fight, Primus was close to finishing it a couple of times, and despite not finishing the fight, he’s pleased with his performance. […]
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Ike Villanueva confident he will KO Nick Negumereanu to prove he’s ‘no stepping stone’
Ike Villanueva wanted to fight again this year and he gets his wish as he will face Nick Negumereanu at UFC Vegas 41 on Saturday. Villanueva is coming off a TKO loss to Marcin Prachnio back in June. He will now face Negumereanu who picked up his first UFC win last time out. For Villanueva, […]
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Ricky Glenn believes Grant Dawson fight is a ‘good matchup’ for him: ‘I’m ready for anything he brings to the table’
Ricky Glenn wanted to be active this year after having hip surgery that kept him out of action from November 2018 until June of 2021 when he made his return. In his return fight, Glenn moved up to lightweight and scored a 37-second KO win over Joaquim Silva. After the fight, he thought he would […]
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Pro fighters make their picks for Paulo Costa vs. Marvin Vettori
In the main event of UFC Vegas 41, top-five middleweights collide as Paulo Costa battles Marvin Vettori. Heading into the fight, Vettori is a -150 favorite with the comeback on the Brazilian at +125. Ahead of the fight, BJPENN.com reached out to several pro fighters to get their prediction for the scrap. The majority of […]
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Tim Johnson expecting a ‘war’ with Fedor Emelianenko but knows he has to finish the fight: ‘I’m probably not winning a decision in Russia’
Tim Johnson says it is still surreal to think he is fighting Fedor Emelianenko in Russia, in what could be the Russian’s final fight. When Bellator announced Emelianenko would be fighting back home in Russia, many thought he would be fighting a fellow legend. Yet, that wasn’t the case as instead, he will be fighting […]
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Grant Dawson ‘disappointed’ he’s not fighting Diego Ferreira, but plans to ‘beat up’ Ricky Glenn until he ‘quits’
Grant Dawson was supposed to get his shot to enter the lightweight rankings back on October 2 against Diego Ferreira, but Ferreira was forced out of the fight. After Dawson heard the news that Ferreira was out of the fight, he admits it was frustrating and disappointing. However, he made it clear to the UFC […]
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Corey Anderson predicts Glover Teixeira to dethrone Jan Blachowicz at UFC 267
PHOENIX — Corey Anderson is rather familiar with each fighter competing for the UFC light heavyweight crown at UFC 267 on Fight Island. The current Bellator 205-pound contender saw his last defeat come against the current titlist in Jan Blachowicz when squaring off in February 2020 – his final bout with the UFC. Two wins […]
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Casey O’Neill in no rush to fight for the belt but knows she will ‘be the best in the world’ eventually
Casey O’Neill is currently the 14th-ranked flyweight, but she is in no rush to move up the ranks. O’Neill is 3-0 in the UFC and coming off a TKO win over Antonina Shevchenko, which was her third UFC win, with all of them coming by finish and happening this year. Although she has had a […]
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Demetrious Johnson believes Henry Cejudo would ‘do great’ against Alex Volkanovski, but believes he needs to earn the shot
Demetrious Johnson thinks Henry Cejudo would have success at featherweight if he were to move up to fight Alex Volkanovski. Cejudo has recently made it clear he wants to return and fight Volkanovski for the featherweight title. It would be an intriguing matchup and Volkanovski has said he wants to be active so the timing […]
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Ryan Bader has been pushing for using ‘The Master’ nickname to no avail
PHOENIX — Ryan Bader is known as “Darth” when entering the cage. However, the current Bellator heavyweight champ has hoped to use another nickname. Bader is 13-2 (1 no contest) in his last 16 bouts overall putting him on the most dominant stretch of his career by capturing titles in two weight classes. Therefore utilizing […]
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Julia Budd admits it would be a bummer to miss out on a Kayla Harrison fight
PHOENIX — Julia Budd is making the move to the PFL after a championship run with Bellator. The first and former women’s featherweight champion in Bellator history suffered a single defeat in her run with the promotion when facing Cris “Cyborg” Justino in January 2020. Budd (15-3) rebounded with two wins over Jessica Miele and […]
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Damon Jackson pleased with ‘dominant’ win over Charles Rosa, wants anyone ranked ahead of him next
Damon Jackson is happy with his win over Charles Rosa but is a tad disappointed he didn’t get the finish. Jackson dominated the majority of the fight as he controlled Rosa on the ground and had a few submission attempts. However, Rosa fought out of it and went 15 minutes with Jackson. “It was pretty […]
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Bibiano Fernandes expects to finish John Lineker at ONE X to defend his belt: ‘He’s no champion’
Bibiano Fernandes is excited to finally make the walk to the cage once again. Fernandes hasn’t fought since October of 2019 where he submitted Kevin Belingon to defend his bantamweight title. It was his third straight fight against Belingon, where Fernandes won the final two fights. Since the win, however, COVID-19 and a contract dispute […]
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Brent Primus expects to KO Benson Henderson and earn a title shot: ‘I’m going to throw f*****g bombs’
Brent Primus has been asking for a big-name opponent for quite some time and he gets his wish on Saturday night at Bellator 268. Primus returned in July and lost a controversial split decision to Islam Mamedov in a fight many thought he won. After the fight, he asked his management and Bellator for a […]
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Casey O’Neill says Antonina Shevchenko win ‘was a big improvement from my last fights,’ didn’t expect to get ranked
Casey O’Neill knew she would be able to finish Antonina Shevchenko in their UFC Vegas 38 fight. O’Neill was 2-0 in the UFC with two finishes but early on, Shevchenko had success. She had O’Neill in a troubling spot but the 24-year-old was able to get out of it and then take over the round. […]
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Demetrious Johnson plans to ‘go out there and compete and not be afraid’ in special rules fight against Rodtang
Demetrious Johnson didn’t have any hesitation when he got the call to have a special rules fight against Rodtang. At ONE X in December, Johnson and Rodtang will fight in a special rules bout. The first and third rounds will be muay Thai will the second and fourth will be MMA. The rounds will also […]
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Jared Vanderaa expects to be ‘beat up’ Alexandr Romanov on the feet and get a gatekeeper next time out
Jared Vanderaa didn’t expect his next opponent to be Alexandr Romanov. After Vanderaa picked up his first UFC win back in May against Justin Tafa, Vanderaa wasn’t sure who would be next for him. However, when he was offered Romanov he was surprised but he did immediately accept it. [brid autoplay=”true” video=”876173″ player=”20625″ title=”Just%20Scrap%20Radio%20Ep.%2053%20(w%20Dern%20Brown%20Elliott%20Rosa%20and%20Vanderaa)” duration=”4643″ […]
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Charles Rosa confident he’ll ‘choke out’ Damon Jackson and get a top-guy next time out: ‘I feel like I’m back’
Charles Rosa believes he has finally put everything together ahead of his UFC Vegas 39 fight against Damon Jackson. After Rosa returned to the win column in June against Justin Jaynes, he said he wanted to return in October or November and he got his wish. [brid autoplay=”true” video=”876173″ player=”20625″ title=”Just%20Scrap%20Radio%20Ep.%2053%20(w%20Dern%20Brown%20Elliott%20Rosa%20and%20Vanderaa)” duration=”4643″ description=”In the 53rd […]
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Tim Elliott plans to take Matheus Nicolau ‘into deepwater’ to get the win, wants Askar Askarov or Cody Garbrandt next
Tim Elliott is now in a place where he doesn’t have to take any fight that comes his way, and that is what happened when Su Mudaerji pulled out of their fight in June. After his opponent pulled out, Elliott was offered Manel Kape on short notice which he turned down as for him, he […]
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Mackenzie Dern expects to finish Marina Rodriguez and leapfrog Carla Esparza to earn the next title shot
Mackenzie Dern had a feeling her next fight would be a main event. Dern submitted Nina Nunes in the first round back in April. After that, she was offered two short-notice main event fights. However, they never came to fruition but Dern had a feeling once Rodriguez beat Waterson she would headline a card opposite […]
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Randy Brown believes he’s better everywhere than Jared Gooden, confident he can get a finish
Randy Brown wanted to get another fight in this year and he jumped at the chance to take a fight at UFC Vegas 39 against Jared Gooden. Brown is coming off a submission win over Alex Oliveira at UFC 261 and many thought he would get another high-profile name. Yet, that isn’t the case as […]
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Claressa Shields targets 2023 as year for first PFL tournament
FORT LAUDERDALE — Claressa Shields is fully committed to forging a strong and viable MMA career. The former three-division 11-0 boxing champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist joined MMA as a PFL lightweight in 2021. The tournament formatted promotion currently has Shields on the outside looking in as she keeps gaining experience after successfully debuting […]
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Kayla Harrison challenges MMA fans to ‘be better’ ahead of 2021 PFL Finals
FORT LAUDERDALE — Kayla Harrison is as dominant of a force as anyone in MMA in 2021. But with great success comes great detractors – or at least several in abundance. Beginning her run in June 2018 and now 11-0 in her professional MMA career, the Judo master has found the fans to be a […]
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Jalin Turner says submission win over Uros Medic was ‘perfect execution,’ says his UFC 266 foe was ‘nervous’
Jalin Turner called a first-round stoppage over Uros Medic at UFC 266 and he did just that. In the lead-up to his fight on the stacked pay-per-view card, Turner made his return against the undefeated Medic and many thought Turner would get finished early. Yet, it was the other way around as Turner submitted Medic […]