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Appalling: Jeremy Lappen the executive face of governing amateur MMA in California
By Zach Arnold | August 25, 2009
Words cannot describe how irritating this development is:
The CSAC yesterday voted in favor of delegating governance of amateur MMA to the California Amateur Martial Arts Organization. Jeremy Lappen is heading it up along with JT Steele, a matchmaker for the former EliteXC. Adisors include Bas Rutten, John McCarthy and Roy Englebrecht. The delegation of power is similar to the same delegation that USA Boxing has for amateur boxing in California.
So, the leading executive face of this organization is a man whose background in MMA includes: failing with WFA, being Randy Couture’s agent (before Matt Walker took over), and the face of Elite XC management when Kimbo Slice lost to Seth Petruzelli and the stand-up scandal blossomed while the company was losing tens of millions of US Dollars.
California, of course, is internationally known for it’s amazing ability to pick politicians who espouse great governance standards.
Topics: MMA, Media, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Sheesh, this guy sure knows how to land on his feet.
Better than Kimo.
This is going to be as corrupt as the summer days are long.
There’s a lot of money to be made in Amateur MMA. Minus Bas Rutten you couldn’t find a bigger bunch of clowns to get involved in something.
geez how many lives does this guy ? 9? he’s like a cat
from now on I’m just going to assume that Lappen has a room in his house full of naked pictures of people. he uses them to repeatedly get gigs in the MMA industry.
How many more shots is JL going to have to captain a sinking ship?
I now see the Cal. Amateur MMA Commission getting bought out and added to the UFC fold.
Only thing worse would be if Jerry Millen were involved.
KILLER article Zach. Lappen is an idiot, and sucks at life. Great analogy to Arnold S, another complete failure at life.
David,
Far be it for me of all people to defend a Republican because I never, ever do (ask Zach on this) but to say Arnold is a “complete failure at life” is pretty wrong.
The guy came to America became a famous bodybuilder, married into the Kennedy family and became one of the biggest grossing stars in movie history. That hardly makes him a complete failure.
If you want to narrow this down to being a complete failure as Governor or politician, well then I am completely on board.
Rp
It’s funny Jeremy Lappen has “expertise requests” listed on his linkedin page
I love this site.
When I see guys like Larry Hazard be escorted out of office, and then I see moves like this go down — plus the recent decision in Texas, I start to wonder.
Now who is Fedor fighting?
Anyway to get Lappen Versus Millen?
Lappen vs. Millen would be fantastic.
This whole thing is goofy, like if WAMMA had sex with EliteXC.
Fedor still doesn’t have an opponent or a date for the event. Seems like a weird delay, especially for him not having an opponent named yet.
This is why a centralized organization is needed in MMA. And why one has been desperately needed in boxing (even though the people involved in the boxing one would probably still be corrupt).
It seems like these Athletic Commissions are clueless.
To be fair, I’ve seen no interest on the behalf of the UFC to help sponsor amateur MMA in any form. Its a real shame, because they have enough cache to basically spell out what the rules should be for what is otherwise a total “wild west” and then potentially profit off it in some fashion by developing a sort of USA Boxing for amateur MMA.
It’s for the same reason the NFL doesn’t sponsor high school, Pop Werner and college football. There is no oversight and people will die in amateur MMA. When they do UFC can say we have all these regulations amateur MMA doesn’t. If the UFC name is on it they can’t say that.
Who is Lappen blackmailing? How does that fool keep getting jobs?
I can see the UFC expanding to the point that they have a secondary show (not under the UFC name) that allows more talented guys from their first fight on to compete and then go straight into the UFC. I highly doubt they will even care about amateurs at that point.
Being an amateur is pointless beyond 5 fights in MMA. I can see a fighter wanting a few amateur fights to see if their wrestling or BJJ translates to the sport. Beyond that, if you are talented, you should be fighting as a professional.
It’s for the same reason the NFL doesn’t sponsor high school, Pop Warner and college football.
No, no. I’m not asking the UFC to unilaterally sponsor amateur MMA. My suggestion is to help athletic commissions come up with a *unified rule set* for ammy MMA that will better prepare fighters for the rule set in the UFC and most major organizations out there. I would prefer, in my dream scenario, they create an arm as a sanctioning body for Amateur MMA. Promoters can pay for licensing and the rights to the name, but they have to display a level of competency to the UFC’s Amateur arm that they are not fools and meet certain guidelines. Same could work in the lower level of the pros. But…..it won’t happen. Oh well.
Did anyone catch the fact that CAMO is a non profit organization that has higher fee’s than…..can’t even name one. How long before Jeremy and friends are driving company Lexus, and their wives have the small Mercede’s mini vans, and their kids friends are “on the payroll” Why didn’t the bidding get opened up to AAU, or USA anything, people who are legitimately interested in promoting kids and adults into multi year paths connected with sports that allows them to beat the streets, instead of giving a multimillion dollar contract to close friends in what looks like was a sham bid to reward them for possible jobs down the road? Bitter? Yes, this will absolutely close down small organizations, and clubs, make tournaments disappear and opportunities to go back to the streets plentiful