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Friday fight headlines (2/22/08)

By Zach Arnold | February 22, 2008

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Another possible UFC lawsuit?

According to our friends at Pro Fight Store, there’s discussion that Zuffa may file a lawsuit against Croatian fighter Goran Reljic. The reason? He participated recently at the BJJ Bristol Open. Reljic won both the heavyweight and absolute divisions.

Update: In the comments section, claims that the rumor is false.

One UFC legal rumor that is true is that counsel for PRIDE FC Worldwide Holdings has set a service date for a summons to be issued to DSE for that upcoming lawsuit. The defendants in the case are Nobuyuki Sakakibara, Ubon Inc. (his production company), Dream Stage Holdings Inc., and DSE Inc.

From the desk of the CSAC…

Anthony Rubalcava, who last competed for Cage Combat on February 16, 2008, has been suspended for adulterating his test for drugs of abuse. The suspension is in effect from the conclusion of the bout on February 16, 2008 through August 14, 2008. He has been fined $1,000.

The Cage Combat event was tested randomly for drugs of abuse only.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. The Edmonton Sun: Interview with Mark Cuban
  2. International Herald Tribune: Heavyweights try to strike a blow for boxing
  3. UPI: Second Canadian athlete dies this week (20-year old MMA trainee Rene Ayangma)
  4. The Winnipeg Sun: A Canadian MMA fan defends the way UFC sold tickets for their Montreal event
  5. The Washington Post: American violence vs. mystery in the ring (discussion of Lucha Libre and how American wrestling fans want more violence therefore they like UFC)
  6. Sherdog: KJ Noons, Yves Edwards verbally commit to Hawaiian showdown
  7. Total MMA: Another Slice? (Lee Casebolt sounds off on MMA writers for their opinions on Kimbo Slice)
  8. Nightmare of Battle: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Graham announced for Sengoku debut event
  9. Setanta Sports (UK): Send us questions for our Michael Bisping Q & A
  10. Mike Sawyer: MMA tales from Las Vegas
  11. The Toronto Sun: Ontario’s ultimate stalemate
  12. The Seattle Times: Maurice Smith can’t subdue competitive drive
  13. The Dayton Daily News (OH): Dan Henderson cuts down on distractions
  14. KGTV 10 News (San Diego): Jon Koppenhaver gets probation for assault
  15. IGN: Matt Horwich interview
  16. Marines: UFC champions visit base (story about Liddell & Lister)
  17. The Bahama Journal: Kimbo Slice, another element of “Bahamian Sports Power”

Topics: Canada, HDNet, IFL, Japan, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, StrikeForce, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

16 Responses to “Friday fight headlines (2/22/08)”

  1. DROC says:

    Joe Silva has said that the rumor about Reljic is nonsense.

    Stolen from MMA.tv, posted by Saucylv33 (UFC’s Beth)

    From Joe Silva:
    “There is absolutely no truth to the rumor of us suing Goran Reljic.
    There has never been a problem with us and Goran. Our fighters do grappling tournaments all the time. As long as it is not close to a show I have them booked in I don’t care.
    I spoke to his manager yesterday and everything is fine.
    Don’t believe every retarded rumor you hear.”

  2. JP says:

    Maybe this site should be named FightRumor

    Ouch!

  3. Ivan Trembow says:

    lol at Joe Silva’s statement that they have no problem with fighters doing grappling events, given the fact that the final stumbling block in the Zuffa-Fedor negotiations was Zuffa’s refusal to contractually allow him to participate in grappling events in his home country

  4. Az says:

    Sambo isn’t grappling. It’s full-contact MMA with headgear.

    I feel pity for your mother.

    And just to cut off any lame replies at the pass, does this look like grappling?

    Fedor competing in Sambo
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO-fqsZG5k

    Ed. — Use a real e-mail address and real contact information or else your future comments will head to the moderation filter.

  5. mmafan says:

    Profightstore.com published news about a possible lawsuit. Their source was Reljic’s manager ( http://www.mmamanager.net ) .

  6. Dru Down says:

    With due respect to Joe Silva, it would be a lot easier to dismiss these “retarded rumors” if the UFC were to abandon its policy of lying and misdirection in regards to press relations, and just give us the straight story on developments within the company.

    When you live in a news vacuum, specualtion is all you have.

  7. David says:

    Ty Dru Down 🙂

  8. 45 Huddle says:

    Az is correct. Combat Sambo (what Fedor does) is very different from pure grappling competitions.

  9. ilostmydog says:

    Trembow knows there’s a clear difference between grappling competitions and combat samb, so there is no use explaining it to him. He’s just trying to stir things up like usual.

  10. Ivan Trembow says:

    The refusal to allow Fedor to compete in sambo events in his home country was the final sticking point in the Zuffa-Fedor negotiations. I know that there is more risk involved in sambo than in jiu-jitsu competitions, but it’s still less than the risk in full-fledged MMA.

  11. Mateo says:

    Is that really true that it all boiled down to sambo tournaments? I heard Fedor wanted all his buddies to get contracts and for the UFC to do shows in Russia. I also heard that Zuffa wanted Fedor to agree to terms that would have had him fighting at a moments notice and that he could be easily dropped from the contract at any time. Both sides had a lot of sticking points that were just flat out ridiculous. It was almost as if neither side wanted the deal to be made.

  12. 45 Huddle says:

    The full details of why it didn’t work out were never released. However, other items, such as, Fedor’s Management Team wanting a stake in “UFC Russia” events didn’t exactly sound like fair negotiating tactics.

    Speaking of his management team… And M-1…. Where is there event? Something tells me April is now out of the question since nothing has been announced yet. What a joke that is.

    And while Sherdog forums are a joke, I did see one funny post, that said Fedor has not fought a Heavyweight fight since his Lindland contest. His fight with Choi was at Super Heavyweight. So in April, he will no longer be ranked anyways….

    On a side note… HDNet is having two nights of MMA Action today and tomorrow. I love MMA, but I think we are past the point of oversaturation. Heck, even some undercard WEC & EliteXC fights are getting me excited anymore. When a card headlined by Pete Spratt is placed on TV, I think it is proof their are too many TV channels….

  13. The Gaijin says:

    “And while Sherdog forums are a joke, I did see one funny post, that said Fedor has not fought a Heavyweight fight since his Lindland contest. His fight with Choi was at Super Heavyweight. So in April, he will no longer be ranked anyways….”

    I can’t stress the fact enough about how concerned I am that you surf the Sherdog forums…

    Question for you:

    If Randy and Fedor fight each other – both guys being fighters that were considered to be THE top HW’s for probably the last 4+ years combined, will you just say, “well they haven’t fought enough lately – so I don’t consider the winner to be ‘ranked'”?

  14. JP says:

    this is unrelated, but too awesome not to post….

    Pancrase TV On-line and Free
    check this out:

    http://www.iatv.tv/originals/pancrase

    All 15 of the Pancrase TV shows on ImaginAsian TV.

    thanks to David Meltzer for this one:

    http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/

  15. D. Capitated says:

    On a side note… HDNet is having two nights of MMA Action today and tomorrow. I love MMA, but I think we are past the point of oversaturation. Heck, even some undercard WEC & EliteXC fights are getting me excited anymore. When a card headlined by Pete Spratt is placed on TV, I think it is proof their are too many TV channels….

    How is it that wrestling and boxing thrived on weekly programming, but MMA is “oversaturated”? I will never understand this. I’d love to hear someone make the argument that by having boxing on ABC and CBS on Saturday afternoons/evenings, that’s what killed the sport.

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