G1 News reports that Sabino de Farias Neto, the psychiatrist responsible for medicating Ryan Gracie on the night of his death, is being blamed by Sao Paulo investigators for the fighter’s untimely demise.
Investigator Roberto Calaca Vieira has even gone as far as to say that Neto should be indicted for manslaughter.
Gracie, the former PRIDE standout and member of the famed Gracie jiu-jitsu family, was found dead in his prison cell on December 15th after being arrested for attempted theft of a car and motorcycle.
After initial processing, Gracie was taken for toxicology testing and upon completion was returned to his holding cell where he remained until discovered by police around 7am.
The recently released toxicology report has indicated the presence of multiple drugs in Gracie’s system including marijuana, cocaine and the following prescription medicines administered by Neto: Midazolam, Alprazolan, Prometazina, Clozapine, and Haloperidol.
According to investigators, the combination of drugs - not the dosage, was the cause of Gracie’s heart and respiratory failure.
Neto vehemently denies any wrongdoing and considers Gracie’s treatment “routine”, pointing to the fighter’s history of cocaine abuse as a more likely cause.
While Neto and investigators continue to point fingers, many questions still remain for the Gracie family.
Flavia Gracie, Ryan’s sister, wants to know why her brother was not transferred to a local hospital after his initial medical exam on the night of his death.
This case is sure to reveal more as time goes on. Neto’s attorney has referred to the Gracie report as inconclusive.
As it stands, I think that’s a pretty fitting word for most of this tragedy.
Justin McCully revealed on “Inside MMA” — a program that is featured on the HDNet network — that he is in discussions to fight Brock Lesnar next in a heavyweight bout.
Nothing is official at this time.
McCully is a member of the Team Punishment training camp with one fight inside the Octagon to his credit — a unanimous decision win over Antoni Hardonk at UFC Fight Night 9 in April 2007.
“The Insane One” is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt under Allan Goes. He was contacted about fighting Cheick Kongo at UFC 82: “Pride of a Champion” earlier in the year; however, McCully reportedly did not respond in time (he was in Iraq on a USO tour with chum Tito Ortiz) and the bout was offered to Heath Herring.
Lesnar is a former collegiate wrestling champion and former WWE professional wrestling superstar. He made his high profile Octagon debut against Frank Mir, losing the contest in 90 seconds via submission after coming out strong.
For the past month Lesnar has been rumored to be on the UFC 85 fight card, which is penciled in to take place at the O2 Arena in London, England on June 7.
Mir is a much more talented fighter than McCully, but it’s a bit odd that the UFC — if the statement is legit — would risk putting Lesnar back in the cage against another submission specialist.
In addition, it begs the question: Would a fight like this be marketable? McCully is not that well known among the masses, having competed in mixed martial arts bouts just five times since 2000.
It sounds like a very big risk and very little reward for a man (Lesnar) who more than likely is responsible for selling the majority of the estimated 650,000 PPV buys at UFC 81: “Breaking Point.”
Let’s see how this situation unfolds. We’ll of course be on top of it every step of the way. Stay tuned.
(Thanks to MMAmania.com reader “Carlos” for the assist.)
It’s Friday, and past 5 p.m. (hint, hint), so you might be interested in watching Kimbo Slice try to sing a Kelly Clarkson song in this new Showtime promo. And if not, hey, no worries.
— The fight card for Sengoku’s first show has been announced. Scheduled to go down March 5th in Tokyo, the event is headlined by Josh Barnett’s fight against champion judoka/mediocre MMA fighter Hidehiko Yoshida, which Barnett should win handily. Sengoku 1 also features bouts between Takanori Gomi and Duane “Bang” Ludwig, and Kazuo Misaki vs. Siyar Bahadurzada.
— Jens Pulver choked Cub Swanson directly into the minor leagues. Swanson faces Donny “Eagle Eye” Walker at IFBL Fight Night 11 tomorrow night in Niles, Ohio. Sucks to be you, brah!
— Chuck Liddell proves he’s no less intelligent than the average American during his disastrous performance on highbrow NPR quiz show “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” Not sure who advised him that this would be a good idea, but they should be taken off the payroll immediately. (To save yourself a whole lotta boredom, skip past the first five minutes.)
So Gary Goodridge will be taking on Butterbean in April, and tomorrow’s Strikeforce event will feature Bob Sapp against 1-5 Euro-can Jan Nortje. If you’re curious about Goodridge and Nortje’s current skill level, just watch this sad match from K-1 HERO’s 8 (3/12/07), where Goodridge takes piles of abuse in one of the roughest, stupidest rope-a-dopes ever, then pounds back when Nortje is completely gassed. Again, Sapp is a -600 favorite in tomorrow’s match, even though his usual game plan (slug away all your energy then fall over) is exactly the same as Nortje’s. Anyway.
And because commenter “fightfan” asked for it, here’s Goodridge’s November 2005 loss against Glaube Feitosa in a K-1 kickboxing championship match. Watch as Feitosa knocks out Gary’s front teeth at 3:44, and recoil in horror during the slo-mo replay at 5:08.
Unfortunately, we could only find evidence of Salaverry’s UFC 50 match against Tony Fryklund in a poorly-soundtracked highlight video, but skip to the 1:51 mark and watch as Salaverry takes Fryklund’s back and squeezes until “The Freak” taps out in agony.
7. Frank Mir’s Kneebar
Frank Mir took a beating from Brock Lesnar during the ex-WWE star’s UFC debut at “Rapid Fire.” But Mir patiently waited for an opening and capitalized against a technique-deficient Lesnar.
6. Nick Diaz’s Gogoplata
Nick Diaz and Takanori Gomi were in a fucking war at PRIDE 33. When it went to the ground in round two, Diaz unleashed his BJJ to wrap up a perfect G.
The former lightweight champion, Sean Sherk, shares his thoughts on the two main fights next weekend at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, in this video from UFC.com.
Here are his predictions:
Herring via submission
Henderson via decision
“The Muscle Shark” brings up some good points. Good because yours truly agrees with his picks. That’s not saying much, but ever since Jesse Holland and the MMAmania.com readers hijacked the pre-event fight predictions posts I’ve been quiet in terms of picking winners.
Expect Jesse’s and a yet to be determined MMAmania.com reader’s UFC 82 predictions to appear in the next few days. I know … the anticipation is killer.
(Don’t worry, Butterbean: We don’t think Gary’s creaky hips will allow any flying kicks.)
In addition to a previously reported fight between UFC throwbacks Don Frye and Oleg Taktarov, YAMMA Pit Fighting’s inaugural show on April 11th will also feature a second “Masters SuperFight” bout between Eric “Butterbean” Esch and Gary Goodridge. We’re not sure what Esch is a “master” at, other than swallowing basketballs whole without chewing, but he’s built up a decent 11-5 MMA record since 2003, with wins over Wesley Correira and James Thompson; his last fight was a submission loss to Nick Penner at TFC: First Blood in December.
Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge is probably best known for his horrific knockout-by-elbows of Paul Herrera in his Octagon debut at UFC 8 (2/16/96). He later jobbed through a mediocre career in PRIDE, then moved to K-1 HERO’s where he built up a 3-1 record since 2005. His last fight was a TKO victory last March over Jan Nortje (more on that later). Fun fact: The average age of the four men booked for YAMMA’s Masters SuperFights is 41.
As for the eight-man heavyweight tournament that YAMMA also has planned for its debut show, the word is that Wes Sims, Chris Guillen, and Travis Wiuff will participate. Here’s hoping that Bob Meyrowitz’s new spectacle doesn’t get MMA re-banned across the country. And good luck turning a profit. This sort of thing tends to suck up money faster than Butterbean sucks up pans of lasagna.
