November 2009 MMA News Archive

Boston, get ready-UFC is officially on the way. Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick today signed into law a bill, versions of which were previously approved by the House and Senate, that calls for the Massachusetts State Boxing Commission to become the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission and oversee MMA events. The move opens the door for the UFC to host a long-anticipated event in Boston. No word on how quickly the state may be ready to begin its regulatory duties but it sound like summer '10 is still on for UFC and Dana is excited-"Words cannot describe. ... [New York] is next!"

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Benji Radach will not face off against Robbie Lawler in a featured middleweight bout at Strikeforce “Evolution” on Dec. 19 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. Radach’s agent, Ken Pavia, said the fighter still hasn’t been medically cleared to begin training again following surgery on his right hand last April. Radach, 30, broke his hand in multiple places during his third-round loss to Scott Smith at Strikeforce “Shamrock vs. Diaz” on April 11. Pavia said Radach would be cleared “soon” to resume training, but didn’t give a specific timeline.

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"I’m a little frustrated. I thought [Cung and I] were friends, but I kind of lost respect for him when he decided not to fight me and hand picked his [next] opponent. I expected it from him, honestly, because people for years were telling me that Cung Le was that way and would never fight with me, so he showed his true colors ... We have trained together and we both know what would happen, so I guess he would just prefer to give up his belt and pick fighters that he matches up well with. For a guy like me it’s hard to understand, because I try to test myself against the best." Newly crowned Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Jake Shields slams Cung Le for his decision to vacate the 185-pound title and agree to fight Scott Smith at "Evolution" on Dec. 19 rather than defend it against the surging jiu-jitsu phenom.

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Apparently being able to jump out of a pool forwards and backwards isn't enough to save Jake Rosholt's UFC career. Despite his rather unique talents he announced today he's been released after a 1-2 stint in the promotion. He beat Chris Leben by submission for his one win but his recent loss to Kendall Grove was his last in UFC.

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"My plan is to go to Australia 2 weeks before the fight. I'll be training at the Wolf's Lair from now and keep improving." "I'm sure Wanderlei can make the cut to 185. But it's never easy making weight, it sucks. It won't be an advantage." "Zach Light is a long time trainer of Rampage and Mario Neto both know Wanderlei very well. Hopefully we'll get Rampage in the training camp as well. But that's not confirmed. No one is going to know Wanderlei better than Rampage." Transcript courtesy of

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Undefeated WEC Lightweight Dave Jansen is set to return to action at WEC 46, but there's been a slight change of plans. Jansen originally appeared set to face Bendy Casimir, who would be making his WEC debut, but it now appears Jansen will face Kamal Shalrous instead, who just made his WEC debut at WEC 44 this month. Casimir should debut in 2010.

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Sorry UFC fans, but no free rides when UFC 107 comes around. It was confirmed today that Spike would not air any live prelims before the UFC 107 PPV on December 12, breaking a stretch of such airing dating back to UFC 103 (excluding 105, which Spike aired on tape delay). The reason for no prelims this time is schedule conflicts-Spike already had its 2009 Video Game Awards scheduled for 8-10 PM ET on 12/12.

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M-1 Global and Strikeforce have announced that the November 7th Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers event was viewed by 25 million homes. The show scored 5.46 million viewers in the United States on the CBS Network, along with 16 million viewers in Fedor's home country of Russia on Channel 1. The event was also broadcast in Korea, China, Latin America, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ukraine, Finland, Africa, Turkey, Israel, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Malta.

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"It would be a good fight. Forrest is an aggressive guy who fights on his feet, and I like that. He also has excellent Jiu-Jitsu and absurd wind. It would be a really good fight." -Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

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..."This looked like something out of a bad Vince McMahon script as this guy War Machine went nuts and began taking everyone on at this party," The Vizier says. "We're talking multiple assaults and battery with the cops after him." "War Machine’s own agent, Derek Hay, looked to be the primary target with a couple of shots to the head. Mika Tan’s Ex was KO’d as well & sent to hospital." "I never saw anything like it," continued The Vizier. "War Machine was in kill mode. His fists were lethal weapons. Anyone who tried to get between him and Derek got taken down – hard."

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The California State Athletic Commission recently issued a statement declaring its stance on Medical Marijuana as it relates to drug testing for athletes it licenses. The Commission made it clear that legal use via Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, in California does not negate disciplinary action due to a positive drug test result in relation to events overseen by the CSAC. “The California State Athletic Commission's position is that Marijuana is a banned substance pursuant to Rule 303 and that any positive drug test may result in discipline,” read the statement. The Commission stated that a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Ross v. RagingWire Telecomm “found that an employer may discipline an employee for off-duty medical marijuana use.”

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"The game plan originally was to jump right on him, to give him no room at all, get in his face and smother everything and overwhelm him with speed on the inside. But I wasn’t able to do that ... I’ve worked with guys that were 6-foot-3, 6-foot-4, but he just seemed much taller. I don’t know why, but his reach and his height just seemed to be much taller. To be honest, I thought it was going to be a very easy fight and I was completely wrong. That was shocking to me. I did think it was going to be easy because I felt as though I had enough experience and because he was so thin, it was going to be easy to overpower him. I don’t know what’s next. I have no idea. I don’t know what the UFC is going to do."

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Until he walks to his dressing room, Anthony Njokuani is a guy getting better all the time. He’s made peace with his family. He’s getting respect as a mixed martial artist. He smiles a lot.Then, backstage, he thinks about his childhood. “The Assassin” emerges.Njokuani, 29, is an up-and-comer in the WEC lightweight division. Guided by his idol, Anderson Silva, the six-foot native Nigerian stumbled in his debut against contender Ben Henderson, but racked up two straight victories in subsequent appearances this year.

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One of the U.K’s best-kept secrets, British slugger Brad Pickett, has become another name added to the Zuffa roster, recently signing on with World Extreme Cagefighting.A Cage Rage veteran, Pickett over the years has carved his name as one of the leading featherweight prospects not just in England, but in the world.When the call came for Brad to join the ranks of one of the world’s leading promotions, which highlights the lighter weight classes, it was an experience that Pickett met with thrill and a level-headed attitude.

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Official fighter weigh-ins for next month's "UFC 107: Penn vs. Sanchez" event take place Friday, Dec. 11, at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tenn.The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 4 p.m. ET (3 p.m. CT local time). Doors open at 3 p.m. ET.The same venue hosts the following day's pay-per-view event, which features a headliner and championship bout between UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn and top contender Diego Sanchez.

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And he's still Junie Browning. The former TUF contestant and UFC castoff beat Scott Cornwell by first-round submission at last night's MMA Big Show event in Indiana, but then showed that he really hasn't changed mentally or emotionally since being kicked out of UFC. After his win, Browning reportedly made deragatory comments to the event's female attendees, who were invited to "line up" for his post-fight celebration. He's also got an arrest warrant out on him for missing a court date related to an October arrest in Nevada, though Browning stated it was a simple scheduling mistake and will be taken care of when he returns to the state.

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Lightweights Joe Stevenson and George Sotiropoulos are currently in negotiations to collide at UFC 110 from the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 21, 2010.Bout agreements have been distributed to both fighters; however, nothing is official at this time. The good news is that MMAmania.com has learned that Sotiropoulos is eager to sign on the dotted line as soon as possible so he can compete in front of his hometown crowd for the first time ever as a UFC fighter.And he'll likely have to do it against his stiffest competition to date.Stevenson has picked up momentum after losing three of four bouts in a 13-month span, most recently defeating Nate Diaz and Spencer Fisher in back-to-back bouts. The victory over Diaz -- who was making a run at a potential title shot -- was perhaps the most impressive and important of his young, yet distinguished, mixed martial arts career.

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Earlier this week, Golden Glory released the autopsy result and other details regarding the death of Vitali Mitu.Mitu, a 22 year-old native of Soldanesti, Moldova, collapsed following a sparring session last Thursday with three-time K-1 World Grand Prix champion, Semmy Schilt (pictured), at Golden Glory's gym in Bucharest, Romania.According to the statement signed by trainers Ciprian Sora and Horia Radulescu, Mitu "fainted without being hit" and after a brief first aid effort proved fruitless, an ambulance arrived a few minutes later. At the hospital, Mitu was pronounced dead due to cardiorespiratory arrest, "without signs of violence except normal ones caused by resuscitation maneuvers."

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he 22-year-old New York native and former junior college national wrestling champion burst onto the scene in January, when he floored Stephan Bonnar with an unorthodox spinning back elbow and then tossed the respected veteran all over the cage en route to a unanimous decision win at UFC 94. After choking out Jake O'Brien at UFC 100, the undefeated Jones (9-0) is now set for his first main event appearance, against Matt Hamill at the live finale of "The Ultimate Fighter" season 10 next Saturday.

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Now it’s being reported that the president of Don Quijote, Yasuda, set up a meeting between FEG to enable this Sengoku vs. Dream co-promotion as an attempt to strengthen Japanese MMA. Initially, Sadaharu Tanikawa planned on letting Sengoku fail and then scooping up as many fighter contracts as possible (including Ishida). However now it looks like FEG’s MMA division may be in trouble.FieLDS, Dynamite!!’s primary sponsor, will not renew their contract next year. Today on NHBNews Pro, it was announced that Don Quijote not only wants to replace FieLDS as Dynamite!!’s primary sponsor…but they want to purchase the entire FEG MMA division (which would include Dynamite!! and Dream). This would mean a chain of discount super-stores will own all of Japanese MMA

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