It was announced today that Cage Fighting Championship (CFC) Middleweight Champion Hector “Shango” Lombard (15-2-1) has signed a contract to fight for EliteXC.
Lombard is one of the top prospects from Australia and one of the best Judo players in the world. He was set to put his skills to the test against perhaps the best known Judo specialist in MMA today — Karo Parisyan — back at UFC 78, but the Cuban-born fighter was forced to withdraw because of visa issues.
Like most contracts with EliteXC, Lombard will still have the freedom to fight in other organizations. That means he’ll still be able to fight in Australia and defend his CFC belt. That was probably a deal breaker for him, especially after already experiencing trouble getting into the U.S. in the past.
Here’s a snip from CFC Director Luke Pezzutti on probably his company’s best fighter signing with EliteXC:
“I am very excited for Hector as I believe he is destined to be our most successful export and I see him fighting for Elite XC title very soon. I am also excited that Elite XC have agreed to work with CFC to give our other fighters international opponents and possible opportunities to fight overseas.”
Shango has not dropped a professional fight since November of 2006 — a decision loss to Gegard Mousasi (20-2-1) at Pride 13. Since then he is undefeated (8-0-1), with a draw against another popular Aussie fighter, Kyle Noke. With Noke also fighting for EliteXC now, a rematch is a definite possibility and one Lombard would probably jump at the chance to have.
He’s listed at 185 pounds and fights at that weight for CFC, but he was set to compete against Karo at 170 pounds. That means he can fight at both weights. EliteXC has plenty of talent in both weight classes and quality opponents for Lombard should not be hard to find either way.
Exposure and contractual freedom have been big sellers for Gary Shaw and EliteXC when it comes to bringing in new talent. There is no reason to think that trend will slow down now any time soon with four CBS broadcasts still to come this year.
Expect more and more fighters to join EliteXC as the weeks and months pass by.
UFC veteran Carmelo Marrero tangled with Mike Ciesnolevicz this past weekend at an International Fight League (IFL) event held at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J.
The 205-pound fight, however, did not last long because of a nasty gash that was opened up accidentally (head clash) on Marrero less than two minutes into the bout. It was so bad that the referee called a halt to the action and declared a no contest.
I think he made the right call:
“The Fury” has definitely now got something when it comes to Marvin Eastman, Gideon Ray, Edwin DeWees, Sean Sherk and all of the other grizzly cuts that happened in mixed martial arts competition.
For some highlight reel footage of the event — and it was a good one — click here.
Forrest Griffin — the number one UFC light heavyweight contender — along with the TapOut Crew will host what is going to be the hottest UFC 83 after party at Light Ultra Club in Montreal, Quebec, on April 19.
Having Forrest, Mask, Skyskrape and Punk Ass, not to mention all of the other rumored fighters clamoring to get into this event, all under one roof is a recipe for a guaranteed good time.
This event is surely going to be a sellout just like the Bell Centre. Therefore, don’t make the same mistake twice and wait to buy them at the door because you will definitely be disappointed.
To order UFC 83 after party tickets right now click here.
— Fedor and Tim Sylvia might be fighting soon. The proposed fight is in talks according to an unnamed source. Nothing is set in stone, but the initial chats have already been initiated. If the fight happens, it will go down in Chicago this coming June, promoted by Adrenaline MMA. So far, Jeff Monson will battle Mike Russow on the same card. Remember that ex-UFC champ Tim Sylvia recently signed with Adrenaline MMA, so his involvement in the talks is a no-brainer.
— “The Lights Out Show” has some choice Bas Rutten quotes from a recent interview…and one in particular is about Kimbo’s ground game. Check it out:
“Of course we’ve been training Kimbo on the ground. He just hasn’t been going there yet…and throwing [Kimbo] up against a submission specialist is going to be trouble [for us]…God knows what Kimbo knows. Nobody knows yet, and we all keep it a big secret. We want to keep it a big secret.”
“I’m the CEO, so I’m going to make the matches. Well, they wanted a say. They wanted to be able to say, ‘we don’t like that match … we want to do something else.’ … I couldn’t make money with him. There was just no way we could make money with that kind of overhead. That became apparent. To take all of our investors’ money and put it around Fedor, it just didn’t make business sense…. I think people understand that I tried everything possible to make this happen. In business, sometimes it just doesn’t work. We bounced back, I think, very well. Getting Tim Sylvia is a huge coup for us. Without him, what would we have? We locked onto him. We locked onto Rothwell. Now, I actually feel better about where we’re headed than I did before. I would trade Fedor for Rothwell and Sylvia every day.”
– Monte Cox — CEO of Adrenaline MMA and former CEO of the now defunct M-1 Global — tells Brawl Sports that Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell are better for business than Fedor Emelianenko. The report goes on to reveal that Sylvia will earn more than $300,000 per fight under his new deal. Check out a video of Big Tim and Monte regarding their partnership after the jump.
We’re not going to dignify this clip by going to IMDb and finding out the movie’s actual title, plot, and year of release, so we’ll just say that Randy Couture and Frank Shamrock got together at some point to film a remake of Never Back Down, with all the teenagers replaced by 40-year-olds. We defy you to watch this ten-minute highlight-reel without grinning your ass off. The way Randy kicks over the bench at the 0:58 mark makes me LMFAO every time. We can only hope that Rise of the Akkadian turns out half as good. Anyway, if you’re interested, there’s more…
“I am fighting it because there is nothing but someone saying I was involved,” said Garcia, who was released from jail on a reconnaissance bond and will return to court on May 5. “I hope to have a smile on my face after this is said and done, but I feel like I’m in a fight for my life…
“I’d like to tell my fans to stick with me and pray that the liar in this case tells the truth,” Garcia said. “I want to get back to doing what I do best: fighting for the fans…
Your past is exactly that. My life has a bright future, and people that don’t have that don’t want me to have one either. May God forgive them.”
“This is leonard, I want to ask all my fans and supporters to keep me in their prayers. Know that I can clear my name and continue to give fans the fights they deserve to watch. And know that I am innocent of a crime that I’m being accused of from 3 years ago…I will get through this mess and make everyone proud of me as I have done before.”
Three years ago, eh? Too bad there’s no statute of limitations on filling two dozen condoms with cocaine, inserting them into your body cavity, then taking a train from El Paso to Lubbock. We’re kidding of course — we actually have no idea what Garcia used to transport the coke.
