Cageside Press • 3rd May 2023

Bryce Mitchell Injury Update, DWCS Alumn Steps In On Short Notice Against Evloev

Bryce Mitchell was officially removed from UFC 288 earlier today for undisclosed reasons. It was later revealed on Twitter by Dana White that Mitchell injured his back in training. Now former Dana White Contender Series participant; Diego Lopes (21-5), will make his UFC Roster Debut and step into fight Movsar Evolev. Bryce Mitchell came into the UFC by way of The Ultimate Fighter: Undefeated. He lost in the quarter finals of the show but was invited back to be on the finale card. He defeated fe

Cageside Press • 3rd May 2023

Irene Aldana Steps In To Face Nunes At UFC 289 After Peña Lost To Injury

The injury bug continues to hit the UFC hard this week. UFC 289 has now lost its original main event, the trilogy bout between Julianna Peña and Amanda Nunes. Dana White announced today on Twitter that Peña is out with broken ribs. White did not state if the injury was related to training. Peña defeated Nunes at UFC 269 via rear naked choke. Nunes would win the second bout at UFC 277 via unanimous decision. Replacing Peña is 5th ranked bantamweight, Irene Aldana (14-6). Aldana had a rough star

Cageside Press • 13th April 2023

UFC: Alex Pereira Announces Next Bout Will Be at 205

Former UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira is on the move. Just past midnight on the East Coast, ex-champ Pereira (7-2) announced that his next bout will be at light heavyweight. This announcement comes just a few days after his UFC 287 second-round knockout loss to Israel Adesanya. The Brazilian’s record against the current champion is 3-1 overall, including kickboxing, and 1-1 in MMA. Under ordinary circumstances, you would not be wrong to assume that he would’ve been given an immediate r

Cageside Press • 3rd April 2023

Endeavor Agrees To Purchase WWE For $9.3 Billion, McMahon To Stay On Board

Yesterday, CNBC announced that Endeavor was in talks to purchase WWE. Well it seems talks likely continued well into the night during Wrestlemania 39; WWE’s biggest event of the year. Today, Endeavor issued a press release stating they are officially purchasing WWE for $9.3 billion dollars. They will be combined with the UFC’s approximated value of $12.1 billion and forming a new publicly listed company with a value of over $21 billion dollars. Per release, this will be the power structure goi

Cageside Press • 12th November 2019

What the Disney Plus Streaming Package Could Do For The UFC

With Disney Plus launching today, UFC will have their biggest chance since the Spike era of getting new eyes on the sport. ESPN became the official UFC streaming partner back in March of this year. That’s when UFC PPV’s moved to the ESPN Plus platform exclusively. The main goal of the partnership was that both would benefit from each other’s branding. Disney needed a reason for people to shell out a few dollars a month for another streaming service, and the UFC hoped to gain legitimacy by being

Cageside Press • 11th April 2019

UFC: Daniel Cormier vs. Brock Lesnar Feels Inevitable At This Point

Brock Lesnar’s loss at Wrestlemania over the weekend has many fans anticipating the announcement of his next UFC appearance. For people who follow professional wrestling and MMA, it was only a matter of time before Brock Lesnar returned to the UFC. Even his announced retirement during suspension seemed very temporary. One dead giveaway that he was getting that itch to return was the sudden change his physique during the last year and half of his WWE appearances. Everything seemed to come to a

Cageside Press • 31st December 2018

RIZIN 14 Results and Recap: Floyd Mayweather Finishes Tenshin Nasukawa In Minutes

For those willing to stay up late or wake up early on December 31, RIZIN Fighting Federation was seeing out the year with RIZIN 14. Mere hours after RIZIN: Heisei’s Last Yarennnoka!, the New Year’s Eve spectacle that was RIZIN 14 offered up Bellator champ Darrion Caldwell facing Kyoji Horiguchi for RIZIN’s bantamweight title, in an interesting partnership between two promotions who had collaborated in the past, but not to such an extent. For those in the west, that was the main event. However,

Cageside Press • 7th November 2018

Demetrious Johnson Named Brand Ambassador as ONE Championship Launches Esports League

ONE Championship is getting into the eSports game, with a fifty million dollar investment, and Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson as a brand ambassador. In a press release Tuesday, ONE Championship announced that they would be launching an eSports brand. Competitive gaming has become a multi-billion dollar business in a relatively short period of time, and it’s taken most seriously in European and Asian markets. ONE is set to get in on that action, and they’re leveraging Demetrious Johnson to do

Cageside Press • 5th November 2018

Tenshin Nasukawa vs Floyd Mayweather Jr Booked for RIZIN 14

RIZIN FF shocked the combat sports world Sunday, announcing via a press conference that it had signed boxing megastar Floyd Mayweather Jr. to face kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa for RIZIN 14, the promotion’s annual New Year’s show. Floyd Mayweather Jr. to RIZIN FF? That’s one apparently no one saw coming. The undefeated boxing legend, last seen earning a 10th round TKO of UFC star Conor McGregor, has signed on to face Japanese kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa at RIZIN 14. While no r

Cageside Press • 30th September 2018

RIZIN 13: Nasukawa vs. Horiguchi Results

RIZIN 13 saw a kickboxing super-fight between Tenshin Nasukawa and Kyoji, plus the return of Mirko Cro-Cop and Bob Sapp in the kind of card that only the Japanese promotion could offer. RIZIN Fighting Federation returned to action on Sunday, September 30 with a card simply brimming with intriguing story lines. First and foremost, there was a generational battle in the main event. Tenshin Nasukawa had proven to be a phenom in both kickboxing and MMA. Kyoji Horiguchi, meanwhile, had long been the

Cageside Press • 12th June 2018

DWTNCS Main Event Profile: Dashawn Boatwright

With season two of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series (DWTNCS) premiering tonight, we spoke to headliner Dashawn Boatwright. Dashawn Boatwright or “Buck” as many of his friends call him, was born on Long Island but raised hundreds of miles away in Richmond, Virginia. He’s the product of a typical middle-class upbringing which shows in his blue-collar approach to life. Boatwright began his martial arts journey roughly six years ago. Like many fighters of his generation, he openly admit

Cageside Press • 11th May 2018

Promotional Malpractice: UFC 224, Dilution, and Cash Grabs

UFC 224 sees the first meeting of an openly gay champion against an also openly gay title challenger — yet is has been getting little to no promotion. After nearly two years since their purchase of the UFC, it’s safe to say that WME doesn’t know what they’re doing, and it’s time to start acting like it. UFC 224: Nunes vs Pennington arrives this weekend with little to no buzz. It isn’t exactly the best card, but it’s the card they made, and the promotion should at least do the bare minimum. It’s

Cageside Press • 17th April 2018

Sumo Spotlight: Houston-Based Ichiro Young Interview

While this is an MMA-based website, we respect all martial arts and were able to interview an American sumotori named Ichiro Young. Cageside Press decided to a break from the usual MMA rabble and spoke with a young sumotori from Houston named Ichiro Young. He made his debut back in 2016 and has since picked up the ring name “Wakaichiro” which translates to Young Ichiro. Sumo wrestlers are held in high esteem in Japan and the sport’s origins can be traced back to the 16th century during the reig

Cageside Press • 15th April 2018

Guchi Gang: Kyoji Horiguchi Interview Ahead of RIZIN 10

We spoke to RIZIN’s top commodity Kyoji Horiguchi about his prospects for the future and the differences of flyweight and bantamweight. We checked in with a busy Kyoji Horiguchi ahead of his RIZIN 10 bout with Ian McCall, scheduled for May 6 on FITE TV. Kyoji has enjoyed much success since his unfortunate exit from the UFC, which is considered one of the worst loss of talent by the promotion among MMA fans. He’s still the second-best flyweight in the world and arguably a top 10 bantamweight des

Cageside Press • 22nd March 2018

Ronda Rousey's Perceived Mistreatment from MMA Media

Ronda Rousey and crew have had a contentious relationship with MMA media for multiple years now, but the vitriol from Rousey is misguided. Scrolling through Twitter today I stumbled across this tweet from former UFC fighter and current NXT Star Shayna Baszler: This seems to be in response to Rousey opening up about her losses to the WWE after blocking out MMA-related media outlets. The problem with this statement is that in the case of Ronda Rousey, Baszler’s frustration is misplaced. For sta

Cageside Press • 2nd March 2018

Bellator 195's Kristina Williams Talks Staying Calm in the Cage

Flyweight Kristina Williams has another big test ahead of her at Bellator 195, but she expects to handle that test by staying calm and collected. Bellator 195’s Kristina Williams surprised the MMA world when she beat ‘It Girl’ Heather Hardy bloody in Williams’ pro debut last October. Hardy was the talk of the town heading in, the pro boxing champ who made a splash in her debut at Bellator NYC last June. Williams was overlooked at best, and peppered with asinine questions following the victory b

Cageside Press • 30th January 2018

Rousey's WWE Future is a Question Mark, but Deal Gives WWE an Edge Over UFC in TV Negotiations

Ronda Rousey may or may not have a future in the WWE, but she’ll be a bargaining chip during negotiations for the wrestling promotion’s next TV deal. Ronda Rousey finally made her WWE over the weekend at the end of the Royal Rumble show. The cat was out of the bag long ago, despite attempts to make her appearance a surprise. The company thought it was appropriate to trot her out at the end of the show during what should have been a crowning moment for the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble winner:

Cageside Press • 22nd January 2018

EA UFC 3 Rating System: Where They Went Wrong

There are many things to like about the upcoming iteration of the EA UFC video game series. The rating system is not one of them. As the release of EA’s third UFC title approaches, stats of top fighters have been made public. Positive feedback from social media would indicate that the game seems to be moving in the right direction mechanically. There still seems to be some demand for some old features from the THQ games like Pride Mode, but overall everyone seems to be pleased with EA UFC 3. Ho

Cageside Press • 29th December 2017

RIZIN World Grand Prix 2017: Preview, Where To Watch and More

RIZIN FF is back to close out 2017 with the first of two year-end cards airing early Friday morning for those of us in the West! Once again, RIZIN will hold two New Year’s Eve events spaced over two days beginning December 29th at 1 AM EST. The first card will feature fighters like UFC vets Ian McCall and Cindy Dandois. Dandois will be fighting the very popular King Reina, while McCall will be participating in the Bantamweight Grand Prix. Another featured bout that night has Gabi Garcia fightin

Cageside Press • 22nd September 2017

Bellator Kickboxing 7's Joe Schilling Not Looking to Promote Potential Opponents

This Saturday, Bellator is throwing a stacked double event with Bellator Kickboxing 7 and Bellator 183. On the kickboxing side of the event, Joe Schilling will be making his fourth appearance in Bellator Kickboxing. Cageside Press recently got some input from Joe Schilling regarding his current standing and feeling towards other fighters. Schilling was signed by Bellator Kickboxing in 2016, taking only a month off from his last last Glory bout. That’s after a number of MMA bouts under the Bella