CSAC

CSAC Close to Approving Amateur MMA

The California State Athletic Commission is now moving closer to approving legislation that would make amateur mixed martial arts legal in the state.

The commission held their second-ever meeting concerning the non-professional side of the sport since the state began regulating it over two years ago. CSAC executive director Armando Garcia handed out a proposed set of rules that included quite a few changes compared to the regulations currently used by the state for professional events.

The amount of rounds during the course of a fight would be dependent on the experience of the competing fighters. There would be eighteen separate weight classes. Heel hooks, up-kicks, and neck cranks would all be prohibited as would slamming your opponent, hammer locks and elbows/forearms to the head of a grounded opponent.

If all goes well, the final draft of the rules could be submitted for approval as early as next week and if passed, amateur mixed martial arts events could start being held as soon as the end of this year. However Garcia points out that the legislation could have been passed long ago if it wasn’t for the lack of enthusiasm of his fellow members.

From MMA Weekly:

“It’s been slow in coming,” Garcia said in the report. “I’ve been pushing this thing left and right, and there’s little to no feedback at all. People just sit there and they look at me and hear me talking, and go ‘great, great, great,’ and I’m asking (for feedback) and nobody says anything.”

Evening News and Notes: April 14, 2008

Despite being scheduled to challenge B.J. Penn at UFC 84: Ill Will next month, former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk was only officially released from his suspension under the California State Athletic Commission earlier today it was announced. Sherk had not paid his $2,500 fine until this afternoon according to CSAC official Bill Douglas.

Fisher-Stephens Signed for TUF 7 Finale

A lightweight bout between Iowa natives Spencer Fisher and Jeremy Stephens will likely take place at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale according to our friends at MMA Junkie. Both fighters were offered the bout last week and bout agreements are expected to be signed shortly.

Fisher is coming off of a unanimous decision loss to Frankie Edgar in November. Stephens, who last stopped Cole Miller with strikes in January, was originally slated to take on Terry Etim next month but was forced to pull out of the bout due to a reported minor legal situation.

Carano Speaks Out

Ariel Helwani of the newly created MMARated.com, a good friend of the site, has a very interesting interview with Gina Carano up. Carano claims that she will attempt to balance tapings for the second season of American Gladiators and training for her upcoming fight against Kaitlyn Young on May 31st at the same time. Interestingly enough, she also states that despite being advertised for EliteXC: Street Certified in February, she was never approached about fighting at the event. It’s a must listen, so check it out.

In Defense of Jake O’Brien

Fight Opinion‘s Iain Liddle has an interesting piece up today discussing the UFC’s decision to release heavyweight prospect Jake O’Brien, who was given the boot despite winning three out of his four bouts with the organization, including an upset over current title contender Heath Herring.

While Liddle bashes the UFC for their decision to let such a promising young fighter like O’Brien go, I believe it was really in O’Brien’s best interest. His wins over Shockman and Midoux were victories over fighters that shouldn’t have been in the UFC in the first place. He was nearly stopped by Herring, who was fighting injured, during the third round of their fight. A non-wrestler in Arlovski also dominated him.

We have to remember that O’Brien hasn’t even been in the game for three years yet. He has a lot of time to develop. Fights against top-ranked heavyweights have certainly helped him and using that experience while sharpening his skills in smaller shows will make for a quick return to the UFC. I don’t buy the notion that the UFC released him because he was a boring fighter. If that was the case, Lyoto Machida would have been sent packing a long time ago.

CSAC Blocks Reis from ShoXC Fight

Update 5:49 PM: ProElite.com has since confirmed that Quach will indeed replace Reis. Still no word on why Reis was not permitted to fight.

MMA on Tap has learned that the California State Athletic Commission has not approved featherweight prospect Wilson Reis for tomorrow night’s ShoXC: Elite Challenger Series event at the Table Mountain Casino and Events Center in Friant, California. An official reason as to why the CSAC pulled Reis from the event is still unknown.

Five Ounces of Pain originally reported earlier this afternoon that Reis has been removed from his scheduled fight against Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Doug Evans and will be replaced by Shooto veteran Bao Quach.

Quach last won a unanimous decision over Bobby McMaster at a ShoXC: Elite Challenger Series event in January. The Team Oyama product is currently riding a six-fight winning streak and has not lost since being knocked out by Wagnney Fabiano in June 2006.

Quach will be challenging Evans, who will be making his Elite Xtreme Combat debut after losing his only two fights in the UFC.

The event will be headlined by a light heavyweight clash between Jared Hamman and Poai Suganuma. King of the Cage lightweight champion Joe Camacho will also go up against Fabricio Camoes.

“Shamrock vs Le” Fighter Salaries

The California State Athletic Commission has released the official list of fighter salaries stemming from this past weekend’s Elite Xtreme Combat and Strikeforce co-promoted “Shamrock vs Cung Le” show, which took place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

The event featured a total of nine fights and was highlighted by a main event showdown between Former UFC middleweight champion Frank Shamrock and undefeated former Sanshou kickboxer Cung Le. Le defeated Shamrock by TKO after Shamrock broke his left arm at the end of the fourth round.

Remember that this is only the base salary that a fighter received. Bonuses, deductions, and other undisclosed fees are not included.

Cung Le ($200,000) def. Frank Shamrock ($300,000)
Gilbert Melendez ($50,000) def. Gabe Lemley ($7,000)
Drew Fickett ($10,000) def. Jae Suk Lim ($3,000)
Wayne Cole ($10,000) def. Mike Kyle ($10,000)
Joey Villasenor ($36,000) def. Ryan Jensen ($6,000)
Tiki Ghosn ($8,000) def. Luke Stewart ($6,000)
Billy Evangelista ($10,000) def Marlon Sims ($2,500)
Darren Uyenoyama ($4,000) def. Anthony Figueroa ($2,000)
Jesse Jones ($2,150) def. Jesse Gillespie ($1,200)

CKA: Mar 28, 2008

Above Showtime Sports asks away with Frank Shamrock. A total of 42 questions in all, rapid fire.

For those who don’t have Showtime and are still interested in seeing Shamrock vs Cung Le this Saturday night, Sho.com will be streaming the fight live at approximately 10:15 PM ET using the Showtime Cage Cam.

Diaz, Cesar Gracie Plan Legal Action Against CSAC

One day after the California State Athletic Commission surprisingly ruled that Nick Diaz will not be permitted to fight at this weekend’s Elite Xtreme Combat and Strikeforce co-promoted “Shamrock vs Cung Le” show, because he owns a medical marijuana card, Diaz and manager Cesar Gracie are now reportedly planning to take legal action.

Gracie told MMA Weekly that he plans to take the matter to court after CSAC Executive Director Armando Garcia stated that Diaz’s participation was denied because of late filing of medical papers.

“That’s absolutely not true,” Gracie said in the report. “Because if he didn’t turn his medicals in, how did Garcia know Nick has a mariijuana card? He found out when the medicals were turned in. For some reason, Armando’s finding every excuse in the book to not let this guy fight. That’s exactly why we’re going to move forward with legal action after this. We’re going to go ahead and get our lawyers and we’re going to sit down and go forward with the proceedings. This is just discrimination, you can’t do that.”

Spratt-Von Flue Signed for April 26

Pete Spratt and Jason Von Flue, both veterans of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, will collide in a welterweight bout that will headline the Ultimate Warrior Challenge’s upcoming show on April 26th at George Mason University’s Patriot Center in Washington D.C.

Spratt is coming off of a controversial loss to Ryan Ford in February while Von Flue has dropped his last three fights. Notable fighters also on the card include Thomas Schulte, Carlo Prater, Aaron Riley, Marcelo Brito, and Zach Light.

Two Lightweights Fights Added to Sengoku II

A pair of lightweights bout have been added to World Victory Road’s next Sengoku show on May 18th: Satoru Kitaoka vs Ian James Schaffa and Eiji Mitsuoka vs Kwang Hee Lee.

Roger Gracie, Yuki Sasaki, and Yoshihiro Nakao, who was originally reported as facing Mirko Cro Cop at the recent DREAM event, are all expected to be in action. Even though his name was not mentioned, former UFC heavyweight champion Kevin Randleman has stated that he will be fighting at the show as well.

Evangelista, Sims, and Lennox In; Black Out

MMA Mania is reporting that Marlon Sims and Billy Evangelista will clash in a lightweight preliminary bout at tomorrow’s Elite Xtreme Combat and Strikeforce co-promoted “Shamrock vs Cung Le” show. However neither Strikeforce, EliteXC, or ProElite have made any sort of announcement of the fight at this hour.

It seems that Jason Black will not be fighting in the IFL after all just yet. Five Ounces of Pain reports through Nick Lembo, legal counsel for the New Jersey Athletic Control Board, that Black will not be on the card for undisclosed reasons. He will reportedly be replaced by Jesse Lennox.

CSAC Causes Fickett to Replace Diaz

The California State Athletic Commission has surprisingly ruled that Nick Diaz will not be permitted to fight at this weekend’s Elite Xtreme Combat and Strikeforce co-promoted “Shamrock vs Cung Le” show, which will take place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

Why? Well it depends who you ask. While MMA Weekly first broke the news late last night, Sherdog has since learned that there is quite the discrepancy as to why Diaz will not be competing.

According to CSAC Executive Officer Armando Garcia, Diaz failed to submit medical papers in time.

“He did not turn in his medical information in time for the fight,” Garcia told Sherdog’s Josh Gross. “They were just turned in today.”

EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw says different. According to Shaw, the issue has nothing to do with a deadline for Diaz’s medical papers and everything to do with the fact that the Stockton, California native owns a medical marijuana card, stemming from Diaz’s case of Attention Deficit Disorder.

“He never mentioned anything about late medicals,” said Shaw. “And if there were late medicals it wasn’t because of Nick Diaz and it wasn’t because of EliteXC. Nick does what you ask him, and you punish him? It’s like if you have a Ferrari and a police officer gives you a speeding ticket before you turn the key.”

Diaz’s adventures with marijuana have gotten him in trouble before. After submitting former PRIDE lightweight champion Takanori Gomi in April of last year, Diaz’s enormous upset was changed to a no-contest after the Nevada State Athletic Commission found that the amount of marijuana in Diaz’s system during the fight gave him a competitive advantage.

Drew Fickett, who was originally slated to take on Jake Shields for the EliteXC welterweight title before Shields suffered a back injury during training, will now step in and take on Diaz’s scheduled opponent, Jae Suk Lim.

CKA: Mar 4, 2008

If you have some free time on your hands, be sure to check out one of the more exciting fights from the IFL’s first show of 2008 this past weekend, Matt Horwich going up against Ryan McGivern for the IFL middleweight belt.

As always major props go out to the IFL for actually going out of there way to make their fights available for everyone to see.

“Iron Ring” Debuts March 18th on BET

Remember that mixed martial arts project BET was discussing a while back? Well it finally premieres tonight.

From a press release we received:

BET introduces Iron Ring, a half hour weekly series that showcases mixed martial arts, the fastest growing new sports format in entertainment. With $100,000 in prize money up for grabs, these skilled competitors go toe-to-toe using the combined fighting techniques of jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, boxing, kickboxing, and wrestling in teams owned and managed by Ludacris, Nelly, Floyd Mayweather, T.I., Lil Jon and Dipset.

CSAC Suspends Four

The California State Athletic Commission announced the suspension of four different fighters yesterday.

Three fighters who were slated to compete on World Cagefighting Organization’s disastrous San Diego show have all been suspended after testing positive for the steroid Nandrolone, the same steroid reportedly found in Sean Sherk’s system. Carlos Fuentes, Kyacey Uscola, and Gustavo Machado have all been suspended for a year and fined $2,500.

Fabio Costa, who last competed at Fist Series’ WinterFist 2008 last month, tested positive for marijuana. He’s been suspended until May and fined $500.

Jae Suk Lim Wins SpiritMC Middleweight Title

Jae Suk Lim regained his SpiritMC middleweight title with a decisive win over top prospect Yoon Young Kim Sunday night. After the event, Lim announced that he will now be headed to Hawaii to compete under the ICON Sport banner.

Complete results below courtesy of MMA Weekly:

Jae Suk Lim def. Yoon Young Kim - TKO (Strikes)
A Sol Kwan def. Takaaki Aoki - Unanimous Decision
Jae Young Kim def. Soichi Nishida - TKO (Strikes)
Jung Hwan Cha vs. Dong Hyun Kim - Draw
Hans Olson def. Chang Seob Lee - Unanimous Decision
San An def. Dong Yoon Shin - KO (Punch)
Ye Won Nam def. Seung Hwan Kim - Submission (Triangle)
Dae Gun Kim def. Ok Myoung Kim - Submission (Heel Hook)

Kang Still Without Opponent for DREAM Debut

Denis Kang, who is currently training in Montreal, Quebec, Canada along with Georges St. Pierre and Jackson’s Submission Fighting, has informed The Fight Network that he still without an opponent for his first fight inside the confines of DREAM in April:

“I’m just going to go to Montreal, do my thing and get ready for whoever I’m going to face,” Kang said. “I think the Japanese MMA promotions like to keep their fans in suspense, whereas with the UFC, they really saturate the market with advertising well ahead of their events. DREAM has not even finalized the March 15 card. They’ve only announced like five of the fights.”

Touch of gloves to TKO Xtreme for the find.

Radio Schedule

12-1 PM EST - TAGG Radio
3-5 PM EST - The Beatdown
3-4 PM EST - The Fight Network Radio
8-9 PM EST - The Lights Out Show
9-10 PM EST - MMAWeekly’s Sound Off
11 PM EST - Knockout Radio

CSAC Suspends Third Fighter in Two Days

It’s been a busy week for the California State Athletic Commission as they have suspended three fighters for positive tests of drugs of abuse.

Total Combat veterans Mike Moreno and Jermaine Wilson were both suspended by the commission on Wednesday after reportedly having marjiuana in their system, which was found as part of random post-fight drug testing.

Moreno, who was submitted by Gary Padilla at Total Combat’s most recent show on February 16th in San Diego, has been suspended until May and fined $500.

It’s a different story however for Wilson however as his most recent positive test is his second suspension for marijuana in California in the last three months. Because of that, Wilson will not be permitted to return to action until August.

The commission announced yesterday that former EliteXC light heavyweight Tony Rubalcava was being suspended following his TKO win over Kawika Morton at a Cage Combat Fighting Championships event on February 16th for allegedly tampering with the sample he gave the CSAC to test for drugs of abuse.

Whether or not he used lemonade instead is currently unknown.

In any event, Rubalcava will now sit on the sidelines until August because of his antics. He has also been fined $1000.

CKA: Feb 8, 2008

Kimbo Slice discusses his original date to fight against Tank Abbott that was cancelled and how he feels about EliteXC’s upcoming “Street Certified” event being in his hometown of Miami in the above video courtesy of Pro Elite.

Some news for you this morning…

Sean Sherk Still Not Fighting in California

Right after his suspension for a positive steroids test was reduced instead of being overturned by the California State Athletic Commission, Sean Sherk said that he would never fight in the state of California ever again. Over three months later, he still feels the same:

“There’s no reason for me to ever fight in California again. The way they treated my case and the way they handled everything was so unprofessional that there’s absolutely no way I’ll ever fight in the state of California again, unless they get rid of the entire commission and hire a whole new commission,” Sherk told MMA Weekly.

Speaking of the CSAC, they have suspended Luke Hartwig after he tested positive for marijuana following his bout at Strikeforce “Young Guns” event on February 1st. Hartwig has been sidelined for three months (can return on May 1st) and was fined $500.

Fedor Dominates at Russian Combat Sambo Championships

Fedor Emelianenko will be competing at the 2008 Russian Combat Sambo Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia over the weekend.

So how did he do on his first day? MMA Ninja says pretty damn good.

As predicted, Fedor Emelianenko easily won all of his three fights. In his first fight, Fedor quickly attacked, after a combination of strikes he took his opponent down and submitted him. The fight was 35 seconds long. His second fight was even shorter - Fedor broke his opponent’s nose in 10 seconds.

The final fight against Stanislav Shushko took a little bit longer. Stanislav tried to keep Fedor at a distance using his height advantage, but Fedor closed the distance with a combination, went for a throw and a hold-down. The sequence of events happened once more and Fedor finished off Shushko in just over a minute.

Ninja and Fightlinker also discuss the weird relationship between Fedor and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Miscellaneous Notes

Fan favorite Paul Buentello revealed his desire to take on former boxing heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison in one of Morrison’s “MMA rules” bouts in The Underground. Touch of gloves to our friends at Bloody Elbow for the find. Luiz Alves, Muay Thai trainer for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, claims that he believes Tim Sylvia greased up for their title bout last weekend in a recent interview with Tatame.

Radio Schedule

Jarry Park: Carlo Prater Is Ready For The Fight Of His Life

12-1 PM EST - TAGG Radio
3-5 PM EST - The Beatdown
3-4 PM EST - The Fight Network Radio
9-10 PM EST - MMAWeekly’s Sound Off
11 PM EST - Knockout Radio

Sherk Talks Penn, Steroids With RawVegas

Former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk discusses his upcoming bout with current title holder B.J. Penn as well as why he feels his belt was wrongfully taken away from following a positive steroids test under the California State Athletic Commission with RawVegas. Ultimate Fighter cast member Troy Mandaloniz also stops by to give his take on Sherk’s situation.