EliteXC.com is reporting briefly on their home page that top 10 welterweight Jake Shields (19-4-1) has signed a long term contract extension with EliteXC.
As of yet there are no details on how long or how many fights the contract is worth.
Shields would have come off contract after tomorrows fight against Mike Pyle and he was stated to have been “looking at the UFC over EliteXC” due to the Zuffa organisation being the home to the large majority of top 170 pound talent.
Starting tomorrow and continuing for the next week, MMA fans will be treated to events from arguably the top three MMA organisations in the world.
These of course being EliteXC’s “Renegade” show, Strikeforce’s: Four Men Enter, One Man Survives and UFC 78: Validation. The two lesser organisations out of the above three will be putting on disputably, their best ever shows, while Zuffa’s event has been ridiculed for its lack of major stars and its proclaimed “weak main event”.
A large number of MMA fans have been put off by the matchups on UFC 78 that lack any real title implications and may in turn be looking for another MMA fix to satisfy their needs in the month of November.
This bodes well for tomorrows EliteXC event which will be showing off their new acquisition of Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, a world class 170 pound matchup between Jake Shields and Mike Pyle and a battle for the newly instated 160 pound Lightweight title between fan favourite Nick Diaz and K.J. Noons.
Strikeforce will also be able to take advantage with their November 16th card. This card will feature the first 4-man tournament to be sanctioned by the California State Athletic commission, a Heavyweight title fight between Paul Buentello and Alistair Overeem, a potential Light Heavyweight title fight and the always entertaining Joe Riggs and Cung Le.
These are entertaining cards with enough intriguing matchups and fighters to lure even the most casual MMA fan. This isn’t to say that they will recieve more ratings than the UFC card - they won’t - or that UFC 78 is a poor card- it isn’t - but they go a long way to gaining a lot more exposure and solidifying themselves as the “best of the rest”.
It’s actually on right now on the U.S. East Coast, but will be repeated later also. Tonight’s episode is focusing on the Russian martial art of Sambo, and Fedor is going to be on the show.
‘I did think of [retirement] the night after my last defeat, but I’m not going to end my career soon. I will have 5 or 6 fights at least. Maybe even more, who can tell. Every fight could be your last one. You can suffer from a fatal injury, you can break your leg or arm. If I’ll be able to fight I’ll fight, it’s my life and my choice and I enjoy doing it. I have a very strong motive, especially beacuse of number of ‘wise’ Internet users saying that I’m done. I will prove they were wrong.”
UFC heavyweight fighter Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic refutes talk that he will retire after two straight disappointing losses. The Croatian boasts a losing record inside the Octagon (1-2) after a much heralded and highly publicized defection from then-rival PRIDE FC earlier this year.
The other day I received a link to the SpikeTV schedule for December. The UFC was featured prominently including the TUF 6 Finale and countdown specials for UFC 79.
However, the most interesting show on the schedule was the UFC 2007 year-in-review show.
— UFC BEST OF 2007
Premieres Wednesday, December 12 (9:00 PM - Midnight, ET/PT); encores
Saturday, December 15 (8:00 - 11:00 PM, ET/PT).
3 hours of non-stop action, this special will feature the “best” of UFC
this year. Includes never-before-seen-on-free-television fights and
also a couple of fights never seen anywhere before as well as classic
championship matches.
The date and time for this special’s premier are what interest me. It will be going head-to-head with WEC 31 which is set to feature three championship bouts and the WEC debut of Jens Pulver.
The fact is that SpikeTV has no vested interest in the success or failure of the WEC because it is not one of their properties. Plus, the channel is in direct competition with the Versus network for ratings. SpikeTV likely figures, correctly in my view, that any casual fans flipping channels will elect to pick the UFC program which will feature names they are familiar with over the WEC program which doesn’t carry that same familiarity.
You can see the entire release for SpikeTV’s December lineup here.
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A few weeks ago we published a quick post regarding the redesign and future of our underused MySpace page.
The feedback we got was tremendous — thanks to everyone who responded. Unfortunately, we were unable to respond to all of our readers who expressed an interest. Please note that is noted and much appreciated.
Anyway, we got talking with Jason and Andy over at pYzam.com who put together something that is practical and looks 1,000 times better than our old page. It’s a fresh start and we want to send out a big thanks to these guys for doing it for FREE.
Therefore, please hit up pYzam.com and buy a product, download a new template for your page, click on ads … do something if you have some free time. We can’t thank them enough.
Going forward, one of our readers is going to manage our new MySpace page. I really just don’t have the time to do it myself or the patience to bug Jesse to stay on top of it … slacker.
We haven’t made up our minds yet on the (un)lucky candidate, but figure we’ll put out one more call for interested maniacs. Let us here from you via email or in the comments section below.
We’ll go over responsibilities and expectations when we figure them out.
In the meantime, check out the new MMAmania.com on MySpace and add us as a friend if we’re not already on your list.
“He [Andrei Arlovski] is losing a tremendous amount of money. He relies on fighting to maintain a living…. We’re ready to fight whenever they ask. We believe we have a very good relationship with the UFC and Dana. I won’t talk about what was said because it was confidential. We haven’t declined any offers to fight…. We have a contract with the UFC. We’re not going anywhere. We have no other options. Our option is to fulfill our contract. The UFC is our employer. Dana White is our boss. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve been very good and loyal employees for the last seven years. Whenever the boss calls, we’re here to talk or fight.'’
Leo Khorolinsky — an adviser for former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski — indicates via the Chicago Sun Times that his client is losing out on big money while negotiations continue on a contract extension. “The Pitbull” has not competed since April 2007 and has one fight remaining on his current deal that expires in April 2008. Both sides haven’t talked in three weeks.
LOL. How can anybody not like Nick Diaz? In an interview with TheSweetScience.com, Nick Diaz was asked about his Marijuana usage and his 2006 fight against Takanori Gomi. Nick Diaz won the fight, but was stripped of the victory after a post-fight piss test indicated he had elevated amounts of THC in his system.
In the interview, Diaz is quoted as saying “I feel it was done out of ignorance. The win was taken away from me because I smoke weed and that’s stupid,” said the 24-year old Diaz. “I’m a fighter and a martial artist. I feel martial artists and all artists in general could benefit from smoking weed and we should be able to smoke it all we want.”
Nick Diaz went on to say: “People say that marijuana is going to hurt my career. I say to them that on the contrary, my fight career is getting in the way of my marijuana smoking.”
Nick Diaz will fight KJ Noons for the EliteXC lightweight title this Saturday on Showtime from the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. Also on the fight card is internet sensation Kimbo Slice.
