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Assembly Democrats on Tuesday knocked out plans to legalize mixed-martial arts in New York, saying there was insufficient support to bring the issue to a vote.

“The conference has asked not to put it on the agenda,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said after Democrats met behind closed doors.

New York is the only state in the nation to bar mixed-martial-arts competitions. The measure has passed four years in a row in the Republican-led Senate, but it has failed to garner enough support in the Democratic-controlled Assembly.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, hasn’t pushed for its approval.

Some Democrats have raised concerns about the violence associated with the sport. They also have questioned how women are treated at the events — a sensitive issue after Silver last month was criticized for not doing more to stop the alleged sexual harassment of female aides working for disgraced Assemblyman Vito Lopez, D-Brooklyn.

Supporters said the legalization of MMA would have been a boost to the economy, and event organizers said they planned to have matches throughout the state — not only at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, but also in upstate cities.

Lorenzo Fertitta, chairman of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, said the company would continue to push for passage in New York in future years. The legislative session is set to end this week.

Fertitta rejected the claims that the contests are anti-women, saying that Democrats are using that as an excuse to ban it because his Las Vegas casinos are not union shops.

“This year’s new, absurd, offensive and completely erroneous charge used to justify the defeat of MMA legislation was that MMA is anti-woman and leads to domestic violence,” he said in a statement. “This is a deception fabricated by a Las Vegas union that is recklessly and callously trying to use an important societal issue to try and punish the UFC. It isn’t honest and doesn’t work.”



www-democratandchronicle-com/article/20130618/NEWS01/306180058/new-york-state-ban-mixed-martial-arts

Because MMA was once outlawed in several states, a patchwork of laws govern the sport across the country. This week has been a big one for the UFC to wade through legal red tape as it works on Boston and New York.

-- In Boston, there is an issue with the documentation foreign-born fighters must have to work in Massachusetts for the first UFC on Fox Sports 1 show. Basically, the law won't necessarily keep fighters off the card, but it will create a whole lot more work for the UFC. The UFC is expecting a "positive outcome" with this issue.

-- MMA won't have such a positive outcome in a state a short drive from Boston. The UFC has been lobbying to legalize MMA in New York for years, and for a while, it seemed like this year could be the year MMA would finally break through. Unfortunately, the New York legislature failed to bring the MMA bill to a vote, meaning the sport has to wait until next year.

Understandably, the UFC is disappointed. Here's what UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta had to say about it.

This year’s new, absurd, offensive, and completely erroneous charge used to justify the defeat of MMA legislation was that MMA is anti-woman and leads to domestic violence. This is a deception fabricated by a Las Vegas union that is recklessly and callously trying to use an important societal issue to try and punish the UFC. It isn’t honest and doesn’t work.

Fertitta pointed out that one of the fighters the union in Las Vegas has been most upset about is Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. This union, which has a problem with Fertitta's Station Casinos non-union status, didn't protest when Jackson signed with Bellator. If they truly thought MMA -- and not the Fertitta-owned UFC -- was the problem, wouldn't they send press releases and fill up Twitter decrying Bellator and World Series of Fighting and every other promotion out there?






Y! SPORTS

Tyrone Spong’s dream ever since he was a kid growing up in the Netherlands was to one day fight in New York City, what he calls “the capital for every big show.”

Spong will be able to do fulfill that goal Saturday when he competes in a one-night, eight-man professional kickboxing tournament at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom for an event promoted by Glory, the new international leader in the combat sport.

What Spong won’t be able to do – at least not for another year – is participate in the other fighting sport he excels at: mixed martial arts.

This week, for the fifth straight year, the New York State Assembly did not even bring the bill to legalize MMA to a vote. New York is now the only state in the U.S. where MMA is illegal after Connecticut approved it earlier this month.

“I really don’t understand why,” Spong told The Post. “All the other states, they approved it. [MMA] has great shows. Bad things don’t ever happen. You have the commissions there [sanctioning it]. It’s mainstream now.”

Professional MMA was outlawed in New York in 1997. The language of the legislation refers to it as “cage fighting” and does not mention any other combat sport – boxing, kickboxing and wrestling can all be promoted in the state, even though each one of those styles can be found in MMA. Boxing and wrestling are typically sanctioned by the New York State Athletic Commission. Glory on Saturday night is being sanctioned by World Kickboxing Association USA, one of the bodies approved by the New York legislature.

“There’s no reason not to sanction MMA in the state I can see,” Glory CEO Andrew Whitaker said. “Every spirt that composes MMA is aleady legal.”

The big problem, at least in New York, is that MMA has become synonymous with the UFC. Opponents of the UFC, particularly the Las Vegas Culinary Union and its subsidiary UNITE HERE, have become very influential in the state, lobbying politicians and spending millions to keep the UFC out of New York.

Why does a union in Las Vegas care about New York law? Because the UFC’s owners, brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, also own Station Casinos in Nevada, which are all non-union workplaces. The feud between the Culinary Union and the Fertittas has gone on for years.

This year, UNITE HERE banded together with women’s groups against the UFC, which they claim is anti-woman and anti-gay. The focus of their lobbying efforts was a satirical, yet offensive “how-to rape” video starring former UFC champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Jackson’s contract with the UFC expired in December and he was not brought back.

“Except for those who stand to profit from this barbaric entertainment masquerading as sport, cage fighting causes great harm,” Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee (D-Rockland) told The Post. “It harms the fighters who risk their very lives and are often maimed or sometimes killed. It harms women who are victimized by the glorification of distorted masculinity that cage fighting represents.”

No fighter has ever been seriously injured or killed in the UFC’s 20 years. Lorenzo Fertitta called the charges that the UFC is anti-woman “absurd” and “offensive.”

“This is a deception fabricated by a Las Vegas union that is recklessly and callously trying to use an important societal issue to try and punish the UFC,” he said.

The UFC would bring millions of dollars in revenue into New York State every year and even Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver admits MMA will be legal here eventually. It just won’t be in 2013. Spong’s only chance to compete in New York will be as a kickboxer.

“It’s not only wrong, it’s kind of stupid,” he said. “New York is the capital of the big shows. ... You got Madison Square Garden. How sick would it be to have a UFC event at MSG? I think it would be sold out in a few hours.”

Read more: Big kickboxing event Glory 9 coming to NYC, but MMA events like UFC still shut out Big kickboxing event Glory 9 coming to NYC, but MMA events like UFC still shut out

Following his first-round knockout loss to Muhammed Lawal at Bellator 96 on Wednesday, Seth Petruzelli announced his retirement from professional mixed martial arts competition. Petruzelli made the news official with a statement on Facebook.

"I want to thank my family, friends, fiancé and fans for being by my side these past 13 years plus of my MMA career," he wrote. "Every time I fought it was to please and excite you but most of all make you proud of me. Up until a couple years ago it pleased and excited me as well. That is where I went wrong, for the past couple years I have been fighting for the wrong reasons, I don't have the desire or drive to fight like I used to and the past couple fights have shown it.

"So at this point in my life I would like to officially announce my retirement from the sport of MMA. Competing has been a part of my life since I was 6 years old, now I would like to put more of an effort into seeing my students/fighters do the same and making my gym grow and flourish. MMA has taken me around the world, let me meet the best and worst of people and made me feel like the brightest star but also like a black hole at times. ..and I have no regrets because I did it all my way."

Petruzelli, 33, ends his MMA career with a record of 14-8. He competed three times in professional kickboxing, twice in 2004 and once in 2012, losing all three by TKO.

'The Silverback' was a contestant on the second season of 'The Ultimate Fighter', ultimately losing to Brad Imes in the show's semifinals. He fought Matt Hamill on UFC Fight Night 6.5 in October of 2006, losing by unanimous decision in a Fight of the Nigh the performance.

He briefly returned to the UFC in 2007, losing to Wilson Gouveia by second-round guillotine choke at UFC Fight Night 9.

The Floridian was brought back to the UFC one last time in 2010, but lost two consecutive fights: a submission loss to Ricardo Romero at UFC 116 and TKO-stoppage loss to Karlos Vemola at UFC 122.

Petruzelli, however, is best known for what he achieved between his stints in the UFC. At EliteXC: Heat in 2008, Petruzelli was scheduled to face Aaron Rosa on the undercard of the CBS-broadcast bout. The card was set to be headlined by a heavyweight contest between Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock. Yet just hours prior to the bout, Shamrock suffered a cut over his eye that wouldn't allow him to compete. Looking to salvage the event, the promoters pulled Petruzelli from the preliminary card to face Slice on short notice.

In one of the most memorable moments in modern MMA history, Petruzelli knocked Slice out just 14 seconds into the first round.

He ends his career with Bellator, having competed three times for the organization starting with a TKO-win over former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez in at Bellator 49 in 2011. He lost to Jacob Noe at Bellator 85 in January of 2013 by first-round TKO. Bellator 96 marked his third time inside the circled cage.

Petruzelli wasn't the only fighter on the Bellator 96 card who announced his retirement in close proximity to the event. UFC and Strikeforce veteran Renato 'Babalu' Sobral also officially ended his professional MMA career, although he announced its ending just moments after his third-round stoppage loss to Jacob Noe.



Seth Petruzelli announces retirement from MMA following KO loss to Mo Lawal at Bellator 96 - MMA Fighting

Tyrone Spong wants to be the best fighter in the world. Whether boxing, kickboxing or mixed martial arts, he wants every crown imaginable. It's an ambitious goal, some might even say it's a crazy one. But Spong simply loves to fight. The challenge and the thrill of competition is in his DNA, and it comes out whenever someone wants to fight him, whatever the discipline.

On Saturday, the challenge wasn't just one fight. It was three. Or at least, the possibility of three. At this point of his career, he recently admitted, he doesn't necessarily like tournament fights, but this show, GLORY 9, was the best collection of kickboxing talent the U.S. had seen in years, maybe ever, and that meant the winner of the tournament would be the star of the show. He wasn't going to let anyone else take the job.

It wouldn't be fair to say Spong dominated the eight-man field. In fact, he survived an early first-round scare just to advance. But from there he found solid ground under his feet, and eventually won the tournament, beating No. 1 ranked Danyo Ilunga in the finals.

Spong's biggest challenge came in his first fight. Facing Dutchman Michael Duut, Spong was dropped in the opening 15 seconds by a straight right. But in an instant and stunning momentum swing, Spong fired back an even bigger right, a M.O.A.B. with such ferocity that it knocked Duut down twice. He managed to get up to his feet before the 10-count, briefly leaned against the ropes, and then fell back to the mat again as the referee waved off the bout.

It was the signature moment of a strong debut for a promotion trying to carve a niche in the crowded American combat sports market.

"It's a responsibility," Spong said after collecting his $200,000 winner's check. "I'm one of the biggest faces for this organization, to promote the sport in a positive way and this stage. But I can deal with the pressure. I've been fighting main events since I was 18. I'm just happy it was a good event."

The final was tinged with a hint of controversy, as Spong rocked Ilunga with a straight right, and was in the midst of a barrage against the ropes when the referee stepped in to stop the fight. Ilunga was never dropped during the sequence and immediately protested the stoppage, but replays showed he was on wobbly legs upon the finish. GLORY rules don't allow the referee to give a standing eight-count to a fighter who hasn't been dropped.

Prior to winning the title, the soft-spoken Blackzilians fighter won a decision over Filip Verlinden in his semifinal bout, meaning he defeated the Nos. 1, 2 and 4 light-heavyweights in the organization, all in the same night.

Afterward, he said he'd prefer to stay out of future tournaments, but would consider an offer if it came his way. Calling himself a "moneyweight," he reiterated his plan to fight in MMA for the World Series of Fighting in August, and then a move into boxing by the end of the year.

"Give me one big name and a good fight," he said. "That's what I prefer."






GLORY 9 results: Tyrone Spong captures light-heavyweight tournament - MMA Fighting

Even for a critic, it's not far-fetched to suggest that a professional MMA bout represents the world's most pure athletic endeavor, especially considering the sport's roots.

Derived partially from the world's oldest sport, wrestling, and from the ancient Greek martial art, Pankration, MMA embodies the primal nature of one-on-one combat more accurately than any other sport.

The rules have changed since the days of Pankration, but the purpose of an MMA fight remains the same: to measure an athlete's grit and physical prowess by pitting two trained competitors against one another, in a ring or an Octagon, with only a referee regulating their actions.

With so many ways to win or lose, it's inevitable that intimate details about fighters rampantly get revealed during the course of a typical MMA scrap.

Fans first got a candid look at the lives of pro mixed martial artists when the UFC unveiled its reality show, The Ultimate Fighter, in 2005.

The Ultimate Fighter broke ground in the mass media for MMA, illustrating the tremendous amount of hard work and dedication that goes into training for MMA bouts.

The Ultimate Fighter also exemplified the fact that the most cerebral and most well-prepared fighters would almost always prevail, even when pitted against superior athletes.

But long before The Ultimate Fighter, back to the times of the UFC's inception in 1993, countless throwbacks to the times of ancient Greece found homes in the Octagon.

These bona fide pros carefully monitored their diets and sleep cycles and then conducted grueling training camps in the months preceding their fights, only to get permission to partake in frightening tests of will.

It's not a team sport, but fighters have always grown while working cohesively in their training camps. And with help from their peers, they often resemble Spartans on fight night.

But once the bout's opening bell sounds, a fighter ultimately relies on his or her own skill set to generate excitement for a fanbase that constantly yearns for gladiatorial entertainment. In the heat of war, even the most premier coaches and teammates can't help an unprepared or over-matched fighter from getting embarrassed or possibly even injured.

Any fan who witnessed Gabriel Gonzaga's headkick knockout of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, or Frank Mir's vicious kimura of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, must know that the wellbeing of each fighter is on the line in every bout.

It's these cold realities of the sport, however, that fuel the arguments of the sport's harshest naysayers.

Although it's evolved into a tremendously successful company, the UFC still wouldn't win a popularity contest against mainstream leagues like the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA or the NHL.

So if it's not the world's most in-demand sport, what factors make MMA purer than sports that include a bat, a ball or a puck?

There's a logical reason why wrestling, one of several disciplines incorporated in MMA, traces its origins to between 100 and 200 A.D. There's also a rational explanation why team sports didn't exist when wrestling spawned.

Wrestling hatched when a group of Greeks decided to measure each other's valor in the form of organized competition. With scarce amounts of clothing and equipment available, intense grappling matches in skimpy attire made for extremely captivating sporting events.

Eventually, the Greeks grew bored with wrestling and decided to assess each other's physical fortitude under a more extreme set of rules.

Blending elements of wrestling, boxing and submission fighting, Pankration was formed and later introduced in the Greek Olympic Games in 648 B.C.

Pankration remained an Olympic sport for over 1,000 years, until being scrapped in 393 A.D.

Centuries later, elements of the ancient sport amazingly spill over into modern-day MMA.

Longtime UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre offered his opinion on how MMA could get closer to its roots of Pankration on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. St-Pierre suggested that the UFC should abolish rounds and allow competitors to fight until their bouts get finished.

There's a lot of things I would change in the sport. First of all the time: There's no time, no rounds. I believe it's stupid, the rounds. We want to see who's the best man. Let them fight...Why are there rounds? Why are we trying to be like boxing? We're not boxers. They did rounds to be like boxing to be accepted as a sport.

Just mastering one of the eight major disciplines practiced by mixed martial artists—amateur wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, catch wrestling, judo, karate, boxing, Muay Thai and Taekwondo—requires extraordinary discipline, athletic ability, guidance and, most importantly, time.

But dominating a particular weight class at the highest levels of the sport—like Anderson Silva, Jon Jones or St-Pierre have—entails several intangible qualities.

Silva, Jones and St-Pierre may not represent the best in each particular facet of MMA, but they've soared so high because they each possess a rare desire to become the toughest fighter on the planet.

And because perfecting their preparation rituals translates to success in the Octagon, "The Spider," "Bones" and "GSP" have each immersed themselves in constant states of preparation.

The feeling never subsides for these rare breeds, and guys like Silva, Jones and St-Pierre only fear the day when they realize a man their own weight can make them taste defeat.

Silva, Jones and St-Pierre have each essentially made MMA a lifestyle rather than an athletic venture, a decision that all aspiring MMA champs must eventually make.

St-Pierre's longtime trainer, Firas Zahabi, talked about the frenetic pace that GSP keeps up during his training camps and the odds of the longtime welterweight champ retiring before the age of 35 on an episode of Sherdog Radio's The Cheap Seats.

I think so because his training camps are not su

Dodging puddles in an unpaved parking lot on a rainy June afternoon, Jake Herbert attempted to put his career dilemma in the simplest terms possible.

Not an easy task, considering the gravity of the choices that lay in front of the 28-year-old Olympian and two-time NCAA freestyle wrestling national champ.

On one hand, there are the 2016 Games to think about. On the other, there's the potential to make a lot more money beating up other men in a cage as a professional MMA fighter. And behind door number three?

"That's the thing," Herbert said and cocked his head with a shy smile. "I actually studied at Northwestern."

This is the problem Herbert faces, though it's a good problem, all things considered. The time is coming where he is going to have to choose a path. The choice he makes could say a lot about MMA's ability to appeal to qualified outsiders, and also about wrestling's enduring hold even at a time of turmoil on the international scene. At the heart of that choice is a question that's interested me for a long time, as someone who writes about and loves this sport, yet sometimes can't understand what compels certain people to do it. Say you actually had options. Say you didn't have to assume the risks that come with getting punched and kicked and elbowed in the head for a living. Say you didn't even have to assume the risks that come with a few more years of wrestling room torture sessions. Not as long as you don't mind sitting behind a desk, showing off the photos of the person you used to be.

What would you choose, if it were really up to you? And what if you chose wrong, and then had to live with it?

This is what compelled me to go see Herbert after Fight Magazine writer T.R. Foley told me he'd be in town coaching at the Sudden Victory Wrestling Academy here in Missoula recently.

On a muggy gray day in Montana, I found Herbert inside a church activity center on the city's westside teaching the finer points of the single-leg takedown to a bunch of 10-year-olds. It's what the bulk of his summer has looked like so far, and he couldn't be happier with it.

"What I got to do today with these kids, that's awesome," Herbert said. "I've gotten to reach about 260 kids just this summer in these four camps I've done. I got to go to Alaska, to Hawaii, to Pittsburgh, then here to Montana. I love it. I love teaching kids, and I'm good at it. I'm not going to cure cancer. I'm not going to write a book that changes people's lives. I'm just not going to change the world that way. The way I can change the world the most is with these kids." The problem with making his living this way is that there really isn't much of one. It's not so different from wrestling in that sense, even if it is easier on the body.

Now Herbert is six months out from a shoulder surgery that he'd been putting off since 2008, and he's facing the question of what he'll do once he's healed up and ready to get back into action. At Northwestern, Herbert said, he studied "wrestling, communications, and business administration," roughly in that order. His Olympic dreams in London were derailed by a couple controversial scoring decisions, and a part of him still feels bitter about it, he admitted.

But all his years in wrestling, from the time he was 10 years old to the time he took the silver medal at the World Wrestling Championships in 2009, have taught him that he's not going to get rich wearing a nylon singlet.

"I was at the top of the game, making the most I could make for wrestling, and that's $1,200 a month stipend from USA Wrestling," Herbert said. "Then I got a $25,000 bonus for taking second in the world. So there's not money in it. If I wanted to make money, I wouldn't be wrestling – I'd be using my degree."

He was about to do just that until wrestling got dropped from the Olympic program for 2020, he said. He had internships lined up in New York, some promising offers in lucrative fields, but abandoned them all when he felt called into action by the sport that made him the man he is today.

"I dropped everything and started working with Save Olympic Wrestling, then went right into my camps," Herbert said. "Wrestling, it's given me options. I could go to Singapore and start fighting right now, or I could call up almost any college in the nation and say, 'Hey, I want to come coach,' and they'd find a way to make it happen. That's all from wrestling, and from being an Olympian."

The problem with loving a sport like wrestling is that it doesn't always love you back. His heartbreak in London was symptomatic of "the kind of s--- they're restructuring FILA to try to get rid of," Herbert said. Even if they're ultimately successful, and if wrestling is still an Olympic sport come 2020, it won't make it any easier for him to forget what happened to him.

"I was 4-0 against the guys who took gold, silver, and bronze," Herbert said. "A lot of it is the draw. The guy who got silver from Puerto Rico? I wrestled him three months before and beat him 4-0, 4-0. He couldn't have taken me down to save his life. But he got the draw and it was his day. That's how the sport is. Then I got a certificate in the mail a little bit ago. Seventh place in the Olympics. I got a $1,000 bonus check, a little kick in the butt, and I'm on my way."

At least MMA would be different. It's not a sport entirely without politics of its own, but they're slightly more transparent, more easily navigated. Plus the money is better, as just about every ex-wrestler to make the leap will tell you. Even if it takes a couple years just to make it to the UFC, where he could easily start out fighting for $8,000 to show and another eight to win, Herbert said, "I'll take that offer – $16,000 and all I have to do is beat someone in a fight? Sure."

But there are other things to consider, too. For instance, the blows to the head, and the emerging research that indicates even a little brain jostling could be too much over a long en

One is unofficially retired, one is persona non grata with the UFC, one is a UFC executive and one is in a kind of limbo right now. Oh, and three of them are enshrined in the UFC Hall of Fame, with the fourth sure to follow as soon as he hangs up his gloves. Who are these men, you ask? They are the four fighters that UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva considers the greatest mixed martial artists of all time.

Silva, recognized by many as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in MMA history, named the following fighters as his top four: “In my opinion, B.J. Penn is No. 1 and then Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and then Royce Gracie.”

Couture, Liddell and Gracie are the three current Hall of Famers, and I’d be surprised if the UFC didn’t already have Penn's plaque made up and ready to go; he’s a lock for enshrinement.

The four fighters have a combined MMA record of 70-30-5, and their names are all over the UFC record book, alongside the man that named them the greatest of all time.

One could make a solid argument that without these four fighters, the UFC would not be what it is today. The same argument could be made in favor of Silva. If it weren’t for Silva, it’s hard to say what the future crop of MMA talent would look like.

All five fighters changed the game, and in the case of Silva, he’s still changing the game, 37 fights into a career that began in 1997.

Silva will next fight at UFC 162. The July 6 contest will see Silva put his middleweight crown on the line against Chris Weidman on July 6 in Las Vegas.







Anderson Silva Names His 4 Greatest MMA Fighters of All Time | Bleacher Report

According to a published report, kickboxing legend and mixed martial arts fighted Semmy Schilt has retired from combat sports.

Liverkick-com reported that the Netherlands native, who turns 40 in October, has bowed out of competition due to a heart condition.

Schilt is a four-time K-1 World Grand Prix champion, with tournament victories in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009. His 2005-07 run marks the only time a fighter won three consecutive Grand Prix.

Schilt, of course, also had a considerable mixed martial arts career, with the majority of his bouts conducted during the sport's early era.

Schilt excelled in Pancrase, claiming an Openweight King of Pancrase crown and competing against a who's who of the early days of the Japanese scene, from Yuki Kondo to Guy Mezger to Masakatsu Funaki. Schilt also fought for several years in PRIDE, where he had high-profile losses to the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Josh Barnett.

On these shores, Schilt is best remembered for his nasty finish of Pete Williams at UFC 31 in Atlantic City.

His last MMA fight was a first-round submission of "Mighy Mo" Siliga on a Dec. 31, 2008 K-1 Dynamite card. His final kickboxing bout was on Dec. 31 of last year, a first-round TKO of Daniel Ghita in Saitama, Japan.

He finishes with a kickboxing record of 43-6-1 and an MMA record of 26-14-1.


Report: Kickboxing and MMA star Semmy Schilt retires - MMA Fighting

Several fighters have criticized the UFC's pay scale for being too low in the past, although few have ever done so while still under Zuffa employment. But that's exactly what Tim Kennedy did earlier this week while speaking to the GrappleTalk podcast.

"It's pathetic that so many fighters [have to have other jobs]," Kennedy remarked.

"I'm one of the three percent of guys (signed by the UFC) in the whole entire sport and it would be slim pickings to survive off what I make in fighting.

"It's a good thing I have another job because the UFC doesn't pay very well."

With his UFC debut less than two weeks away, Kennedy went on to state that his take-home income for the bout, counting a potential win bonus, will only amount to around $20,000 of his reported $70,000 purse, before taxes. He then labeled anyone who accepts underpaid fighters as a reality of the sport to be "sad and pathetic," and remarked that he would make more money working as a trash collector.

On Thursday, Kennedy, who is slated to fight Roger Gracie at UFC 162, apologized for his comments, claiming they were "not properly informed" in a lengthy statement acquired by MMAFighting-com's Ariel Helwani.

"I recently made comments regarding fighter pay," Kennedy wrote. "The intent of these statements was to highlight that professional fighters incur significant expense associated with their preparations to fight and that fighter compensation is still not on par with other major sports. While I am fortunate to have various revenue streams associated with my business interests, most fighters do not have that luxury. When you spend training camps with great guys with amazing talents and you see them barely making ends meet, while simultaneously seeing athletes in other sports with far less character and a far smaller work ethic making exponentially more, you can get frustrated.

"Unfortunately, I made statements that alluded to how the UFC in particular pays its athletes," Kennedy continued. "This was particularly offensive as Zuffa has taken better care of me than any other organization, even giving me a bonus for being amusing on Twitter. My choice of words was poor, not properly informed, and did not match my intent. Additionally, my comments were taken out of context. I can tell you that I have been fighting longer than most people and I remember all too well the days when there was no regulation or standard for an MMA promotion. I fought many times in Mexico where the rules were negligible, there were no physicals, and being paid was a luxury we didn't expect. Our sport was shunned and was considered ‘human cockfighting.' Today, we are on Fox. We have doctors and insurance. We make more money than the average American. And we get these things by playing a sport we love. The only reason this is possible is because of Zuffa. They have legitimized the sport and taken better care of the athletes than any other organization, and the trend is only improving, with athletes making three times what they made on average five years ago.

"My comments were foolish, hurtful, and inappropriate," Kennedy finished. "I accept full responsibility for the statements and apologize to the UFC, Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, and Joe Silva as well as anyone I might have offended with my comments. Fighting for the UFC is an honor and a privilege. I look forward to putting this situation behind me and focusing on my upcoming fight with Roger Gracie."





Tim Kennedy apologizes for UFC fighter pay remarks - MMA Fighting

Bobby Lashley feels now is the time to go big or go home as "The Dominator" wants to make the best run towards the top of the sport that he can with whatever time he has remaining.



"If I'm going to fight, I need to fight. I need to stay active. I need to do something big now. If not, I need to hang it up and just do stuff with my gym. I'm fighting this fight, and I think I have two in August that were offered to me. Hopefully if I don't get hurt, I can stay active and just keep going... Hopefully I can show these guys that I can be in one of these major promotions and be a threat there...But until I feel that way I'm going to keep taking these fights outside those promotions and keep getting better. If I can do that, I can really rattle some off. If I can feel comfortable in these next few fights, I'd like to do something big."

-- Former WWE superstar turned mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Bobby Lashley (8-2) tells Ben Fowlkes of MMA Junkie that now is the time for him to make a big move in the sport. "The Dominator" turned professional in 2008; however, his career has been riddled with an inconsistent fight schedule along with a couple of underwhelming defeats. With 10 fights of experience under his belt and a bout against Matt Larson (2-2) scheduled for Saturday night (June 29, 2013) under the GWC banner, Lashley feels he is finally ready to commit entirely to the sport and see how far up the ladder he can climb. While the 36-year-old hasn't stated he wants to be in a major promotion like the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Bellator MMA or World Series of Fighting (WSOF), his attitude and recent comments prove getting to the top level of the sport is a goal that he would like to complete.



MMA Quick Quote: Bobby Lashley needs to do something big in MMA or retire - MMAmania-com

Gilbert Yvel, the prolific Dutch veteran known as much for his erratic personality as his accomplishments in the cage, has announced his retirement from MMA.

Yvel, 37, broke the news Saturday via Germany's Ground and Pound TV (h/t to MMAFighting's Luke Thomas). If he is indeed finished, he ends his pro career on a two-fight win streak and with a total record of 38-16-1 (1).

"I'm pretty much done," Yvel said in the interview. "I've been fighting for the last 16 years...I didn't fight for a whole year, and then I was just done with the whole thing. I don't want to do it anymore." Yvel last stepped under the lights in March 2012 for the Resurrection Fighting Alliance promotion. In that fight, part of RFA's second event, he took a first-round knockout win over fellow UFC veteran Houston Alexander. Yvel also took part in RFA 1 in December 2011, earning a TKO win Damian Dantibo in his light heavyweight debut.

In the interview Saturday, Yvel said he now will work as a trainer at Agoge MMA in Dusseldorf, Germany. He also acknowledged some of the strange and alarming early-career incidents that earned him notoriety beyond his vicious Muay Thai fighting style. He took three disqualification defeats in his career, including one in 1998 for biting his opponent and another in 2004 for knocking out a referee during a fight.

"We were all young and stupid," Yvel said. "I always had the misfortune that there was a camera nearby...In Japan, there were always yellow cards [issued as warnings for discipline]. So I said 'let me get a big yellow card for myself. OK, I will be the bad guy.'" Yvel, who spent most of his career at heavyweight, made his pro MMA debut back in 1997. He fought under more than 15 different promotional banners, including the UFC, Pride, Rings and Affliction.



Gilbert Yvel, UFC and Pride Veteran, Retires from MMA | Bleacher Report

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, considered by many the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all-time, doesn't like his chances in a potential superfight with UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

Speaking in English without a translator at a Monday media luncheon, Silva was asked his opinion of Jones, one of two fighters often named as potential superfight opponents for Silva, along with welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.

"Jon Jones, in his class, is the best, Silva said. "If I fight Jon Jones, I don't think I'm going to win."

Silva, who puts his UFC record 16-fight win streak on the line when he meets Chris Weidman in the main event of Saturday's UFC 162 in Las Vegas, was asked by MMAFighting why he feels as he does. Silva said that it comes down to seeing a little bit of his younger self.

"Jon Jones is different," Silva said. "He's large. He's young. But, in the fight, I see in Jon Jones, I see myself from a long time ago. He's very smart."

Asked in what ways he might have advantages over Jones if such a fight were to take place, Silva (33-4) gave himself the edge in experience and not much else.

"I don't know," Silva said. "In my opinion, Spider has more experience than Jon Jones, but that's the only advantage."



Anderson Silva: I don't think I can defeat Jon Jones - MMA Fighting

Noted mixed martial arts referee Josh Rosenthal has been sentenced to 37 months in federal prison.

Rosenthal pled guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana. Senior District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong at the U.S. District Court in Northern California handed down Rosenthal’s sentencing, according to an MMAFighting-com report.

The 37-month federal prison sentence was mandatory with no possibility of parole. In addition to the prison sentence, Rosenthal also received a three-year supervised release and was ordered to pay a $100 special assessment fee, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. District Court office.

The charges stem from a raid by federal agents on a warehouse owned by Rosenthal and his associate, Jeff Weller. The two were accused of operating a large-scale marijuana production and distribution facility in Oakland, Calif.

The facility housed more than 1,000 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of more then $6 million.

Rosenthal has refereed fights at the highest level of the sport, including the Ultimate Fighting Championship, but has been absent from the sport since reports of the charges against him surfaced.


Y! SPORTS

UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta has always been skeptical about the market for mixed martial arts. He knew there was room for one major player. His UFC was proof of that. But the other fledgling promotions that cropped up in the wake of the UFC's post-2005 success? Fertitta told Yahoo! in 2008 that he wasn't quite sold on their long-term potential: A lot of people talk about the growth of MMA. I don't believe in that. I don't know where anybody can show me there is this great success in MMA outside of the UFC. There has been explosive growth for the UFC, but MMA in general, nobody is making a breakthrough...There is a bit of a misnomer there. It's not the growth of MMA. It's the growth of the UFC........Five years later, Fertitta is beginning to look like a prophet about, well, profit. The UFC continues to bank big bucks. Its competitors have all mostly faded into the wind, been purchased by the UFC's parent company Zuffa or failed at the marketplace. And Showtime executive vice president Stephen Espinoza isn't sure that's going to change.

"I think the real question is 'Does the market need more MMA on television?' Is that something fans are asking for? Candidly, it's not a question I hear a lot," Espinoza told Bleacher Report in an exclusive interview. "With the amount of MMA programming available across many networks, just putting MMA on Showtime isn't going to be successful. We need to identify where the demand is. Where is the unmet desire in the combat sports marketplace?"

Espinoza wasn't the man who brought MMA to Showtime in the first place. That was his predecessor Ken Hershman, now running the show at HBO. But he isn't opposed to the sport on principle. After losing Strikeforce to the UFC, however, he wanted to study the market and approach it with eyes wide open.

"We'd like it to have a place on Showtime. We're trying to come up with or identify an opportunity for MMA on Showtime," Espinoza said. "We could have jumped back in really quickly, but we've taken our time. We want it to be something that lasts a long time and we're being pretty cautious about it."

Hershman and Strikeforce promoter Scott Coker made their lasting mark on the sport by helping popularize women's MMA. Former Strikeforce matchmaker Shannon Knapp took up that cause after the promotion was purchased by Zuffa. Knapp saw a hole in the market place for women's MMA and created Invicta Fighting Championship to fill it. "All I'm asking for is people just give us that one moment...Take a look and see what it's about," Knapp told Bleacher Report last year. "I don't think if you're a fight fan, a true fight fan, that you can be gender biased. Because I can guarantee you, every one of my female fighters is coming to fight. They're skilled, they're talented and they deserve to be on this stage."

Invicta, by all accounts, has been a wildfire underground success. Their first five events have done well, capturing a huge audience with free Internet streams. For their sixth show on July 13, the group is going big time. They'll air live across North America on pay-per-view, with a pay stream available to international viewers. Both will cost $14.95. Is it a prelude to an eventual spot on Showtime? Those rumors have persisted, but Espinoza says nothing is imminent.

"I haven't had a single conversation about a specific deal with Invicta," Espinoza revealed. "I have spoken to them, but it was very general. Certainly nothing close to discussing a deal with them. We discussed the opportunity, but I've had that kind of meeting with a dozen other promotions as well. I don't know where those rumors are coming from."



Showtime's Stephen Espinoza Not Ready to Pull the Trigger on New MMA Deal Yet | Bleacher Report

In June of 1997, Batman & Robin was the number one movie at the box office, while Spice Girls had the world's best selling album with "Spice."

It's easy to see why that's an exit not frequently taken on the trip down memory lane.

But something else happened that month that would have a profound impact on the combat sports world. In a small ring in front of an even smaller crowd, Anderson Silva made his mixed martial arts (MMA) debut at Brazilian Freestyle Circuit from Campo Grande in Mato Grosso Do Sul, Brazil.

As a welterweight.

Just 22 years old, "The Spider" was paired off against 1-1 rookie Raimundo Pinheiro on June 25, 1997, for the right to advance to the main event to challenge future Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight Fabricio Camoes, who graduated to headliner by pounding out Eliezer Silvestre in the opening fight of the night.

Like Silva, "Morango" -- just 18 at the time -- was also making his pro debut.

But that clash was hardly a foregone conclusion. While it's easy to take Silva's dominance for granted, considering his undefeated run through the world's toughest cagefighting promotion, no one really knew what to expect from the long and lanky Brazilian.

Perhaps not even Silva.

Ironically enough, the former Shooto champion found himself on his back in the opening minute of round one, effortlessly taken down by a haphazard shoot from Pinheiro. Takedown defense has been widely-accepted as Silva's one and only weakness, exploited in fights against Dan Henderson at UFC 82 and then again by Chael Sonnen at UFC 117.

Not that it did either of them any good.

Both "Hendo" and "The American Gangster" were choked out for their efforts, as the Brazilian's jiu-jitsu proved to be the great equalizer on the ground. This was a lesson learned as early as the Pinheiro fight, as Silva curled, crawled and clung his way into a dominant position.

Just like a spider.

Pinheiro was finished off at the 1:53 mark of the opening frame by way of rear naked choke, pushing Silva into a grueling 25-minute battle against Camoes, one that saw the future hall of famer claim by way of technical knockout (TKO) due to retirement.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Whether or not history is rewritten this Saturday night -- or just soldiers on uninterrupted -- largely depends on how well the now 38 year-old "Spider" can deal with a young and hungry challenger named Chris Weidman, who looks to join an elite club at UFC 162 this Saturday night (July 6, 2013) at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

We shall see.





History in the making: Anderson Silva makes his mixed martial arts (MMA) debut by strangling Raimundo Pinheiro - MMAmania-com

The UFC sent out an e-mail Monday with quotes from 18 of its most well-known fighters, all of whom mostly agreed on two things: Middleweight champion Anderson Silva is probably the best fighter in mixed martial arts history, and he's about to get beat up by a guy from Long Island with nine pro fights to his credit.

For nearly seven years, Silva (33-4 MMA, 16-0 UFC) has enjoyed an uninterrupted reign atop the UFC's middleweight division. He also has made occasional forays up to the light-heavyweight class, where he embarrassed one former champion and toyed with other opponents like a housecat dissecting a dragonfly.

But Silva is 38. When he takes on challenger Chris Weidman (9-0, 5-0) at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday at UFC 162 (pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET), he'll be gunning for his 17th consecutive UFC win and 11th successful title defense in a row. Both would be UFC records. Even if he lost and retired, he'd still be regarded as the best middleweight of all time, maybe the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport.

Silva, of course, has no intention of losing or retiring. He recently signed a 10-fight deal with the UFC that, at his current pace, would take him well past his 40th birthday. He intends to fight every one of those bouts, he said this week, though he insists it isn't money or a hunger for glory that's driving him.

"What motivates me is to be able to do what I love to do, which is to fight," Silva told USA TODAY Sports through a translator. "I love to fight. I love the preparation. I love to learn new things, always overcoming myself. I love being in the gym and everything involved in it." The longer he sticks around, however, the more the feeling grows that even Silva's greatness must have an expiration date. UFC President Dana White has likened the champ to a temperamental artist who is at times difficult to negotiate with, but not necessarily in a bad way.

If Silva keeps winning long enough to fulfill his ambitious 10-fight deal, White told news reporters this week, "Nobody better ever deny this guy's the greatest of all time."

And yet, that's something Silva won't admit to thinking about himself. At least, not yet.

"He's never said to me that he thinks he's the greatest," said Silva's longtime manager, Ed Soares. "What he's said is, 'Ed, I think I can do things that other people think are impossible.'"

Maintaining his dominance into his 40s would be a seemingly impossible feat, especially as younger fighters such as Weidman look for ways to upset him.

The theory is that Weidman's takedowns and ferocious finishing power will present a difficult matchup for Silva. Pundits and fellow fighters point to similarly equipped wrestlers who gave Silva trouble in the past, yet they conveniently leave out the fact that he found a way to beat them in the end.

The forecasts of his impending demise seem to amuse Silva, who approaches each title defense with detachment. "In my house there is a guessing tree," Silva said of his peers' predictions. "But it never guesses anything right."

Still, the history of prizefighting shows that every great champion gets done in by age eventually. Silva's vow to keep fighting suggests he's intent on discovering his limits in the cage, regardless of the cost.

"I really believe he'll know when to hang it up," Soares said. "But right now, he seems to be getting better and better."

He's also getting wealthier and more famous with each victory, both of which are more important to Silva than he will admit, White says.

"He does care about his legacy," White said. "And none of them like to say it in public, (but) he cares about making money, too."

If Silva doesn't see himself as the greatest already, it's hard to imagine what more it would take. A victory against largely untested Weidman? A win in a superfight with fellow champions Jon Jones or Georges St-Pierre? Silva can't — or maybe just won't — say.

"It's not one specific thing," he said. "It's not that there's something missing. It's just a question of being able to say that once I'm finished.

"Maybe one day when I'm retired, I can turn around and tell you, 'Hey, I was really good at that. Maybe I was the best.'"


Is Anderson Silva the best MMA fighter of all time?

Fortunes change every second in Las Vegas. From the spinning of a wheel to the rolling of the dice to the turning of a card.

In the case of Baldwin's Chris Weidman on Saturday night at UFC 162, what changed his life completely was the punching of a face.

Weidman launched his left hand at UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, the greatest mixed martial artist the world has ever known. The impact to Silva's jaw caused him to fall to the floor. Several punches and seconds later at 1:18 of the second round, Weidman stomped around the octagon inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena, this moment belonging entirely to him and his athletic accomplishment.

No one had ever beaten Silva in the UFC, a run of nearly seven years. No one had ever knocked out Silva in any MMA fight.

While the impact of that punch was clear to nearly 13,000 fans there and millions watching elsewhere, Weidman had trouble comprehending what he had just done, using words such as "far-fetched" and "surreal."

But it was Weidman (10-0, 6-0 UFC) who all through the buildup for his title shot had spoken confidently and positively about his ability to end Silva's incredible dominance.

Silva (33-6) was criticized for his in-cage antics, with the dropping of his hands and talking, at one point yelling to the All-American wrestler from Hofstra to "stand up, c'mon, man."

Silva always plays mind games with his opponents. That's his style. Weidman had prepared mentally for such a tactic from Silva. But in the actual moment of a fight . . .

"It got to the point where he was putting his hands down and kept talking," Weidman said. "I'm like, 'You know what, I just want to punch this guy in the face right now.' "

So he did, turning the MMA world on its ear.

"I tried to induce Chris to play my game, and that didn't work tonight," Silva said.

Weidman earned $24,000 in show money, plus another $24,000 in win money and a $50,000 bonus for knockout of the night. Silva earned $600,000 for the fight, according to the prize money reported by the UFC to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Those figures do not include any sponsor money, percentage of pay-per-view buys (if any) or discretionary bonuses the UFC often pays to fighters for performances.

UFC 162 did more to elevate Weidman's profile than it did to increase his bank account's average daily balance for July. This was his first time headlining a pay-per-view fight, the first time he had the spotlight -- and UFC marketing machine -- aimed directly at him. Such exposure -- and during UFC's International Fight Week -- can only boost his promotional power and marketability.

He added more than 25,000 new Twitter followers in the hours after knocking out the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter.

Weidman, 29, breathed life into the middleweight division, a weight class ruled by Silva since 2006. Silva will be offered an immediate rematch, UFC president Dana White said. When and where is to be determined, although Silva didn't seem interested in a rematch after the fight.

"He's said a lot of things," White said. "I think he likes to throw people off. I believe there's nothing more that he wants than a rematch. If it happens, it'll be the biggest fight in UFC history. It'll be crazy."

And in the meantime?

"It's crazy, man," Weidman said. "I would think that at this point, I'd be able to sit back and relax. Instantly, I'm already like, I'm freaking hungry. I gotta get better. I feel like I still didn't look at my best.''



Chris Weidman's win over Anderson Silva turns MMA world upside down

Felony assault and burglary charges stemming from a 2011 incident against UFC lightweight turned featherweight Jeremy Stephens, 27, have been dropped, according to Stephens' manager Ryan Hass.

Stephens and a friend, Dustin James Bachman, 27, were originally arrested in October of 2011 in Des Moines, Iowa, along with a man described as Stephens' friend. According to early reports, both Stephens and Bachman assaulted another male to the point where police reports indicate the victim stopped breathing twice.

On the evening of the incident, Bachman was charged with willful injury and assault causing bodily harm. Stephens, however, only spoke with authorities. He was neither arrested nor taken into custody on the evening of the incident.

Stephens, who normally calls San Diego, Calif. home, was eventually arrested just hours prior to his scheduled bout with Yves Edwards at UFC on FX 5 in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 5, 2012. A warrant was issued in Polk County, Iowa for Stephens' arrest sometime after the original incident in question, but could only be enforced in that or surrounding states. Local law enforcement made the arrest and later transferred Stephens to Iowa before the fighter could eventually make bail.

Stephens has publicly maintained his innocence, both releasing a statement and video regarding the issue. According to Hass, Polk County prosecutors offered Stephens a number of plea deals that would include no jail time, but the fighter refused, preferring to have the matter decided in court.

Hass tells MMA Fighting prosecutors dropped all assault and burglary charges Monday on the first day of the trial. Stephens instead plead guilty to one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, which called for a sentence of time already served and an unspecified fine. Hass says Stephens is facing no other unresolved legal issues.

Stephens is 21-9 in professional mixed martial arts. He most recently competed at UFC 160 in May where he won a unanimous decision victory in his featherweight debut over Estavan Payan.



Felony assault and burglary charges against Jeremy Stephens dropped - MMA Fighting

Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway accepts its responsibility for the devastation wrought by Saturday’s train derailment in Lac-Mégantic but not the full blame, its chairman said Tuesday.

A “combination of factors” led to the derailment of a convoy of 72 tanker cars full of crude oil and the subsequent explosions that claimed lives and destroyed the town’s core, Edward Burkhardt told reporters at Trudeau airport Tuesday.

Key among them, he said, was a decision by area firefighters to shut down one locomotive — apparently disabling its air brakes — as they dealt with a small fire shortly before the train careened downhill into Lac-Mégantic.

“We are not pointing at this fireman as being some kind of evil guy or anything, but he played a role in this whole thing,” Burkhardt said.

He acknowledged that the train, locomotive engine running, had been left unmanned on the main track Friday night in Nantes, about 12 kilometres outside Lac-Mégantic.

The engineer went to a hotel a few kilometres away. Another crew member was to take over the train in the morning.

Before midnight, Nantes firefighters were called to the scene to put out a small fire and, according to Burkhardt, turned off the locomotive engine.

An MMA “trackman,” summoned from Lac-Mégantic by firefighters, arrived at the scene after the fire was extinguished, Burkhardt said.

And he was told by the firefighter left with the train that the locomotive had been shut down.

That trackman quickly passed the information to an MMA train dispatcher in nearby Farnham. Another dispatcher in Bangor, Me., was also told of the locomotive shutdown.

Shouldn’t one or more of those MMA employees have known that shutting down the locomotive would impact the critical air brakes, Burkhardt was asked Tuesday.

That question was put to the MMA chairman — who initially tried to brush off a dozen reporters with “no comment at this time” — agreeing to speak only after a hot pursuit from the terminal into the car rental parking lot.

Burkhardt, who is to arrive in Lac-Mégantic Wednesday, said, “I think not, because the (trainman and the dispatch office staff) are not trained mechanical employees.”

“The firemen should have roused the locomotive engineer, who was in his hotel, and taken him to the scene with them,” he concluded.

“But it’s easy to say what should have happened. We are dealing with what happened.”

MMA officials had only “about five minutes” to look at the five runaway locomotives, determined that their hand brakes “were set and they were operative.”

The tanker cars were destroyed and it “will be very hard to determine if hand brakes were set on them,” said Burkhardt, adding that the train engineer told his company he had set “a number of hand brakes on the tanker cars.”

The impromptu media conference was MMA’s first since the derailment early Saturday that killed at least 15 people, forced the evacuation from the town of about 2,000 residents and destroyed a historic downtown. About 50 people are missing.

The MMA “is going to make whatever changes are necessary” to prevent a repeat of the chain of events that led to the devastation in Lac-Mégantic, Burkhardt said.

“It’s a tragic event and we are heartbroken over this. ... It should never have happened.”

MMA will not leave trains unmanned and it will no longer have them sit overnight in Nantes, he said. Crew changes will now occur in Sherbrooke, he said.

The head of the embattled U.S. company also pledged to work with the mayor of Lac-Mégantic to plan and help fund a rail bypass around the devastated town.

The MMA cannot assume the entire cost, said Burkhardt, noting that Quebec’s premier and Canada’s prime minister have both pledged to provide aid to the region.

The railway and its insurers will meet with town residents who have lost loved ones or property, Burkhardt said.



MMA chairman accepts some blame