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« | Home | »

Sean Salmon admits to a criminal offense by saying he threw a fight

By Zach Arnold | September 3, 2009

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After we wrote this post, we learned from a source that the New Jersey ACB has fired a pre-emptive strike and canceled Sean Salmon’s fight booking in the state.

Original post – September 2nd, 2009

It takes a special man to be so dumb to say this publicly, but hey, I guess we’ll take what we can get.

The Salmon article on MMA Junkie is amusing for several reasons. First, it comes off as if he’s trying to portray himself in a sympathetic light when it fact it does the exact opposite. Second, he’s bitching and moaning about the California State Athletic Commission, about Wolfslair Gym, and about anything else he can whine about as if it’s some sort of justification that he took a dive in a fight. Third, he has gotten himself booked in a fight in New Jersey where Nick Lembo runs the show and has publicly admitted that he (Salmon) took a dive in a fight. Think he will be fighting on the New Jersey show now?

Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

23 Responses to “Sean Salmon admits to a criminal offense by saying he threw a fight”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    Fighters taking dives happens more then people want to admit. There have been some shady stuff on smaller shows.

    Fighters aren’t paid enough in the smaller shows and therefore are required to book fights close to each other. It is not uncommon for a fighter to be fighting today and have a fight already signed for 6 weeks from today.

    There was a HBO Real Sports show that talked about people taking dives in tennis. Anytime money is involved, it’s going to happen. To me, as long as it stays out of the bigger shows, and prospects don’t feel overly pressured to do it in order to get work, then I’m of the mind set that it’s just part of the business (sad really).

  2. Ivan Trembow says:

    Losing intentionally in a fight should result in a fighter being banned for life.

    Accepting a secret agreement in a fight (like the one Seth Petruzelli admittedly accepted) should result in a fighter being banned for life.

  3. 45 Huddle says:

    I agree with th Seth situation. I also believe in 3 strikes you are out for a banned substance. Josh Barnett should be banned for life.

    Not so sure bout intentionally losing a fight. There is a real grey line there. Doing what Mark Coleman did against Takada is blatant. Doing what Salmon did was almost giving it up and then calling it a dive afterwards to save face.

  4. […] he probably thinks.  Already it’s starting to get picked up by some of the bloggers, and none of them are happy, especially those that lost money on his ass.  Whether he thinks so or not, this statement will […]

  5. Chuck says:

    As 45 said, intentionally losing a fight is a VERY gray area. Like take for instance the Ricky Hatton/Jose Luis Castillo fight. Anyone see this fight? Hatton won via KO in the fourth round. Hatton dropped Castillo with a left hook to the body (so obviously nothing concussive or head trauma inducing, except for a possible whip-lash effect) and Castillo was counted out. If you watch the fight, it looked like Castillo could have EASILY continued on with the fight. But he stayed down. Did he take a dive? Hell no! That punch clearly hurt him and made him go down. But could he have gotten up and continued fighting? I believe so. The shot didn’t seem so hard as to shut down his body (like what Mickey Ward used to be capable of) even though it clearly hurt him.

    Hell, if a fighter quits in general (even from a submission hold), isn’t that technically losing on purpose? I lost via submission (choke hold) in a judo match and I know I could have held on longer and continued on. I have every other time I was in a submission that wasn’t practice. So did I take a dive in that aforementioned match? It may seem like I am grasping for straws here, but it’s something to think about.

  6. Rede2Rumble says:

    Castillo did not get up and say he let himself get punched to the body and lost on purpose. Or write a blog about it. Sean Salmon disgraced himself and MMA.

  7. Ivan Trembow says:

    I wasn’t referring to semantics, or to a fighter giving a half-assed performance (like Jose Luis Castillo did against Ricky Hatton), I was referring to fighters intentionally losing fights. There is no place for that in this sport. But as with any other sport, wherever there is gambling, there will be people tanking. There’s only so much that can be done to prevent it from happening, but at the very least, the athletic commissions could make it clear that this behavior will not be tolerated and ban fighters for life if they intentionally lose a fight.

  8. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    I read the post, and it also sounds like quitting the fight to me. It doesn’t sound like he went in intending to lose, and there’s no indication that there was an agreement.

    Those are two key components of “throwing a fight” to me.

  9. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    Do I think fighters should quit?

    No.

    Do I think fighters DO quit?

    BJ Penn says hello.

  10. Safari_Punch says:

    Fixes don’t just take place on small shows.

    Couture/Sylvia – UFC brass wanted the belt off of Tim because of his poor performance against Jeff Monson. The Rocky Balboa movie was out and Zuffa went with the comeback angle with Couture. Tim does not sell and Randy did. Stuck an injured Tim in against Couture knowing full well he needed back surgery.

    Mir/Nogueria – Filmed TUF around the two. Rogerio has a staph infection and injured knee – no mention of this going into the fight on the PPV broadcast. Early stoppage of the fight with the commentators saying that Nog was out because he was wobbly. What is this? A sobriety test? All of a sudden Mir because an instant ‘legit HW’ and Nog is some scrub that Fedor could not finish.

    Shamrock/Franklin – The most obvious fix of all. Shamrock let’s go of a tight heel hook and falls down before he is even struck through the course of the fight. Took place an an UFN in order to get Franklin over with the audience.

    Need I go on?

  11. Bob says:

    Why is it accepted practice that fighters can bet on their own fighters or other fights when such activity is considered activity that could cause permanent exile (like in baseball)?

    Did you mean “fighter bet on their own fights” OR like a Couture or Henderson betting on a fighter out of their respective camps?

    In reference to baseball; because MMA hasn’t had a Black Sox scandal yet (magnitude).

    Also, MLB has its own rules enforcement whereas the UFC and MMA is regulated by the State Athletic Commissions. So, the question would best be answered by the SAC.

  12. Ivan Trembow says:

    The Keystone Cops of the Ohio Athletic Commission strike again. “If he doesn’t print a retraction, then he’s out,” says the head of the Ohio commission to Jake Rossen on Sherdog/ESPN. So if he does retract his statements, which of course he will, then he’s not out. This is the same athletic commission whose rules clearly state that fighters must weigh in the day before bouts AND the day of bouts, only to waive that rule for the UFC because, well, they’re the UFC. That makes them no different than some bush-league athletic commission waiving its pro wrestling regulations for WWE because, well, they’re WWE.

    Also, SafariPunch, the scenarios that you’re describing are not fixed fights or “throwing a fight.” Sylvia/Couture and Nogueira/Mir are both examples of a fighter being badly injured and still deciding to go through with their fight, and of the promoter knowing this information and choosing not to withdraw the injured fighter from the bout, and of the athletic commission failing to do its job in the pre-fight physical (Ohio’s commission in the case of Sylvia/Couture, Nevada’s commission in the case of Nogueira/Mir).

  13. Zack says:

    I still think Yves/Hominick, Shammy/Franklin, & Ogawa/Leko were all recent works.

  14. Ivan Trembow says:

    Okay, I’ve at least heard people make that accusation about Franklin vs. Shamrock, but Hominick vs. Edwards? Come on. I hope Sean Salmon’s confession in his MMA Junkie article doesn’t lead to open season for anyone to just name any fight that they feel was thrown, without at least offering some reasoning for why they think that.

  15. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    I have to say, sometimes I get the feeling that all these “competing promotions” are shams and part of the voodoo of UFC.

    Inter-promotion rivalry is a work.

  16. EJ says:

    These UFC haters truly are something, now fights like Sylvia/Couture and Mir/Nog are works seriously?. It’s becoming an embarrasment watching how low some of you will sink to bash the UFC honestly it needs to stop it’s getting beyond pathetic.

  17. Zack says:

    Yeah..Hominick/Edwards. The slowest triangle of all time. Hominick was a +550 dog and someone threw down 20k on him the night before. Now when dudes are making 8k, and wins and losses don’t mean everything in MMA (especially at that time with no light weight title), why not drop some big bucks on the other guy winning and clear $110k?

  18. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    “Someone.”

    That’s a smoking gun right there.

  19. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    Everyone else has probably known this for hours, but apparently Matt Hughes has signed a new UFC contract.

    http://matt-hughes.com/blog1/2009/09/03/sheid-diesel/ (h/t USA Today)

    It’s turning into a regular old boys club in UFC these days.

  20. Black Dog says:

    What needs to happen is a clear set of regulations to govern MMA, and that must cross all state and provincial AC boundaries. Unfortunately that won’t happen; based on Salmon’s rather bizarre monoblog, I think we’re gonna hear more conspiracy theories over every big fight that doesn’t go according to conventional wisdom.

    Example: what if…Carwin pulls off an upset over Lesnar? People are gonna scream bloody murder it’s a work.

  21. […] did he throw the fight or did he merely give up? The opinions range. On one end of the spectrum, Fight Opinion says it’s a criminal offense. On the other, Cage Potato says the only thing Salmon is guilty […]

  22. […] In an amazing twist of fate, Salmon is being replaced on the card by… Allan Weickert, the man he said he quit against in the fight he wrote about online. […]

  23. […] did he throw the fight or did he merely give up? The opinions range. On one end of the spectrum, Fight Opinion says it’s a criminal offense. On the other, Cage Potato says the only thing Salmon is guilty […]

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