Friday, June 05, 2009

"Strikeforce: Lawler vs Shields" weigh-ins took place today from Al Hrabosky's Ballpark Saloon in St. Louis, Missouri. The actual event will take place at the Scottrade Center, which features a main event of Robbie Lawler against Jake Shields in a catch weight fight.

Legalization of mixed martial arts in the state of Maine is nearing its final hurdle as a proposed bill has passed the House and is nearly out of the Senate, having reached a verbal consensus among the lawmakers. Importantly, the governor, formerly in opposition to the measure, has now voiced his potential assent. The proposition aims to establish the Mixed Martial Arts Authority of Maine, consisting of five gubernatorially appointed board members, assigned to regulate and promote mixed martial arts competitions, exhib- itions and events.

Zuffa, LLC today named sports in- dustry veteran Bryan Johnston as Chief Marketing Officer for the Ultimate Fighting Championship® organization. In this executive pos- ition, Johnston will establish and oversee the global marketing strategies and merchandise initiatives for UFC and World Extreme Cagefighting brands.

Tickets are on sale now for "Affliction Trilogy" to customers using a pre-sale password of "Trilogy". Tickets will be available to the public on Monday, June 8th at Ticketmaster. Trilogy takes place August 1st at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Shine Fight Promotions announced their sophomore event "American Top Team vs. The World" scheduled for August 1 at James L. Center in Miami, Florida. The scheduled main event is Jorge Patino (22-11-1) from Chute Boxe taking on American Top Team's Roan Carneiro (12-8).

Bellator X takes place tonight from the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California. Yesterday all sixteen fighters weighed in, and made weight without any incidents. Joe Soto (6-0) and Yahir Reyes (14-5) will meet in the night's main event to be crowned the first ever Bellator featherweight world champion.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Three members of the famous family who founded Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and helped found the UFC will join "Inside MMA" this week as guest panelists on the program. On the panel is Royce Gracie, a member of the UFC Hall of Fame and the tournament winner at UFC 1, UFC 2 and UFC 4. Royce will be joined by his brother Royler Gracie, a 3-time Abu Dhabi Champion and 4-time World Jiu-Jitsu Champion, and by his nephew Ralek Gracie, who is 2-0 in his young MMA career.

Mickey’s is building on its impressive history in the world of mixed martial arts by tapping into an alliance with Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter,” the sport’s signature television series.  The MMA partnership ties into the brand’s overarching Mickey’s Lights Out™ marketing campaign, which in- cludes retail and advertising components.

Josh Koscheck (12-4) will meet Frank Trigg (19-6) at UFC 103 in Dallas, Texas on September 19. This will be Trigg's first fight in the UFC under his new contract.

During a press conference today in new York City, Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio told MMAFanHouse that Ben Rothwell (30-6) will take on undefeated Chase Gormley (6-0) at "Affliction: Trilogy".  Also announced was that Brett Cooper (9-4) and Deividas Taurosevicius (10-3) would be on the undercard but opponents have not been named for them yet.

At Dream 9 there were two controversial endings. One involving an accidental, yet illegal kick Jason "Mayhem" Miller delivered to Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and the other was Rameau Thierry Sokodjou's continuous punches to Jan Nortje after the referee stopped the fight.

Ryan Bader (9-0) tore his mcl and pcl in his left knee in his fight with Carmelo Marrero at "UFC Fight Night 18".  The season 8 winner of "The Ultimate Fighter" opted not to get surgery and instead focused on rehabbing the injury.