Jessica Penne is back.

Having concluded a 20-month U.S. Anti-Doping Agency suspension, Penne (12-5 MMA, 1-3 UFC) is being targeted for a return against Hannah Goldy at UFC 260 on March 27. The event doesn’t currently have an announced location or venue.

Two people with knowledge of the matchup recently informed MMA Junkie of the planned booking but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.

Initially a four-year suspension, Penne’s discipline was reduced to a 20-month order by USADA after she tested “positive at trace levels for two metabolites of stanozolol, 16β-hydroxystanozolol and 3′-hydroxystanozolol” due to a tainted supplement. The suspension was made effective retroactively to the date of the test, April 8, 2019. It was Penne’s second career USADA suspension.

A former UFC women’s strawweight title challenge, Penne has lost three straight fights. After a loss to then-champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Penne was then defeated by Jessica Andrade and Danielle Taylor.

Goldy (5-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), a Dana White’s Contender Series signee, was defeated by fellow UFC debutant Miranda Granger at UFC on ESPN 5 in August 2019. Goldy has not competed since then, though was booked for, and withdrew from, a fight vs. Loma Lookboonme in February 2020.

With the addition, the latest UFC Fight Night on March 27 lineup includes:

• Champ Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou – for heavyweight title
• Champ Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega – for featherweight title
• Jimmy Crute vs. Johnny Walker
• Modestas Bukauskas vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk
• Hannah Goldy vs. Jessica Penne

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/ufc-260-jessica-penne-usada-suspension-over-fights-hannah-goldy

Sam Alvey knows he’ll have to shed a lot of weight to hit the middleweight mark, but “Smile’n Sam” remains unfazed.

Alvey (33-14-1 MMA, 10-9-1 UFC) will return to 185 pounds for the first time in over three years when he takes on Zak Cummings at a UFC Fight Night event on April 10.

After missing weight for the first time in his career in a unanimous decision loss to Ramazan Emeev in October 2017, Alvey decided to move up to light heavyweight.

He found early success at 205 pounds with a knockout of Marcin Prachnio and a split-decision win over Gian Villante but went on to lose four straight, followed by a split draw against Da Un Jung at UFC 254, which prompted his decision to move back down to middleweight.

Despite knowing it won’t be an easy move to cut back down to the 185-pound division, Alvey – who’s always walked around at well over 200 pounds – says he’s not sweating it.

“I got about 40 pounds to go, but it’s OK,” Alvey told MMA Junkie. “I’m not used to it recently, but I’m used to it a lot throughout my career. I always walked around 225, and now I’ve got to work my way back down to 185 pounds. If I can lose 25 pounds, then cut the last 15, that’ll make everything pretty easy. Well, easy, quote-unquote, it’ll never be easy. But it’ll be worth it when I’m getting my hand raised.”

Having fought in three different weight classes throughout his career, Alvey has always shown his willingness to compete against anyone, from former champions to rising prospects. So, despite his recent losing skid, Alvey continues to draw tough competition as he gears up to face Cummings in April.

“I’m the easiest guy in the world to work with because I don’t have any criteria,” Alvey said. “They ask, ‘Hey, you want to fight this guy over here?’ I say, ‘Let’s do it!’ and that has always been the case. It’s led to some bad weight cuts, it’s led to some short-notice fights, but I think that’s why they like me so much, because I’m the guy that says ‘yes,’ always.”

To hear the full interview with Alvey, check out the video below.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/ufc-news-sam-alvey-has-40-pounds-to-cut

Bobby Green and Jim Miller have been in the UFC lightweight division for years, yet they’ve never squared off.

That’ll change Feb. 13, as a fight between Green (27-11-1 MMA, 12-7-1 UFC) and Miller (32-15 MMA, 21-14 UFC) has been added to UFC 258 as a late addition. The event takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Two people with knowledge of the matchup recently informed MMA Junkie of the booking but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.

In 2014, the two fighters were scheduled for a fight at UFC 172. However, Green suffered an injury and was replaced by Yancy Medeiros.

Entering 2020 on a two-fight losing skid, Green turned his luck around. From late June to mid-September, Green competed – and won – three times in the UFC. Following those wins against Clay Guida, Lando Vannata and Alan Patrick, Green lost a unanimous decision to Thiago Moises in late October.

Miller, 37, went 1-2 in 2020. Following a unanimous decision loss to Scott Holtzman in February, Miller submitted Roosevelt Roberts by a first-round armbar in June. Then at UFC 252 in August, Miller reentered the loss column with a unanimous decision defeat to Vinc Pichel.

The latest UFC 258 lineup includes:

• Champ Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns – for welterweight title
• Pedro Munhoz vs. Jimmie Rivera
• Uriah Hall vs. Chris Weidman
• Ian Heinisch vs. Kelvin Gastelum
• Maycee Barber vs. Alexa Grasso
• Gabe Green vs. Phil Rowe
• Dhiego Lima vs. Belal Muhammad
• Miranda Maverick vs. Gillian Robertson
• Anthony Hernandez vs. Rodolfo Vieira
• Mallory Martin vs. Polyana Viana
• Brian Kelleher vs. Ricky Simon
• Bobby Green vs. Jim Miller

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/ufc-258-bobby-green-vs-jim-miller-booking-late-addition

(James Goyder is the owner/editor of AsianMMA.com)

Throughout the years, there have been some big matches between fighters from Japan and Korea. But few have produced as much drama as the bantamweight bout between Kwon Won Il and Chen Rui at ONE: Unbreakable II. The event took place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and was broadcast on delay on Friday.

Kwon and Rui started trading punches right from the opening bell and both men’s faces were immediately marked up.

Kwon decided to switch things up and repeatedly shot for takedowns, eventually putting Rui on his back. As the Chinese fighter got to his feet, the Korean took his back and almost immediately moved into mount.

Once he secured the position, Kwon exploded with a flurry of punches. Rui kept moving his head to ensure that some of them missed, but enough shots landed to leave the referee with a decision to make.

He decided to let the action continue and was vindicated when Rui eventually succeeded in pushing off the cage with his feet and standing up. There were only seconds remaining in the round, but the damage that Kwon had done to the Chinese fighter’s face was already extensive.

There was no let up at the start of the second stanza with both men throwing heavy leather. Kwon was mixing up punches to the body and head and even landed a spinning back elbow, while Rui looked in desperation mode, planting his feet and swinging full force

The Korean’s strategy proved more successful and his superior accuracy was starting to tell. But Rui seemed to possess an iron chin and a remarkable capacity to take his opponents best punches and keep firing back.

The body work from Kwon would prove to be a good investment. After an embrace at the start of the third, he went to work with punches downstairs and upstairs and one of the former finally took the life out of Rui.

A left hand to the body at the 0:33 mark finished the fight with Rui collapsing to the canvass. The Korean improved to 10-3, while his opponent dropped to 9-2.

It was the first time Kwon had registered back to back wins in his ONE Championship career. After the fight, he called out John Lineker, although given the fireworks that this fight produced matchmakers might be tempted to put together an immediate rematch.

In heavyweight action, Mauro Cerilli (14-4) gave Abdulbasir Vagabov (12-2) a ONE Championship debut to forget. He snapped the Russian’s ten-fight winning streak with a low kick and punches in the second round doing the damage.

In the other heavyweight fight on the card, Oumar Kane (2-0) finished Alain Ngalani (4-6-0-1) late in the opening round. The Senegalese star only needed one takedown to finish his fellow African with ground and pound.

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ONE: Unbreakable II results

• Mauro Cerilli def. Abdulbasir Vagabov via TKO (Low kick and punches) at 0:36 of round two
• Daichi Takenaka def. Ivanildo Delfino via Submission (Rear-naked choke) at 2:55 of round three
• Kwon Won Il def. Chen Rui via KO (Punch) at 0:31 of round three
• Kickboxing: Beybulat Isaev def. Mihajlo Kecojevic via KO (Punch) at 1:22 of round one
• Sovannahry Em def. Choi Jeong Yun via TKO (Punches) at 2:51 of round two
• Omar Kane def. Alain Ngalani via TKO (Punches) at 4:32 of round one

ONE: Unbreakable II fight highlights

(Video courtesy of ONE Championship)

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/kwon-won-il-stops-chen-rui-after-crazy-war-at-one-unbreakable-ii-results-highlights

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/knockout-radio-featuring-din-thomas-and-bare-knuckle-boxer-britain-hart