It is being reported by reliable sources that Chris Leben has been sentenced to 35 days in jail after recently turning himself in to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office for a probation violation. Leben expected to simply turn himself in and be out of jail by now, with plenty of time to train for his [...]
(Diaz looks to the heavens as if to say, ‘Stop screwing with me, God.’)
MMA’s favorite soap opera, otherwise known as Nick Diaz’s life, has taken yet another turn. Sherdog reported earlier today that Diaz will indeed fight in Dream.3 this weekend. Probably. If he can cut the weight in time and get to Japan. And if nothing else weird happens. Though it almost certainly will.
Cesar Gracie told Sherdog’s TJ De Santis that Pro Elite CEO Doug DeLuca stepped in to override Gary Shaw’s decision to pull Diaz from the show. Apparently Shaw (Elite XC’s President of Live Events) felt the Dream.3 fight was too close to Diaz’s June 14 bout for Elite XC, but DeLuca decided to cut Diaz a break because, according to Gracie, “[h]e thought Nick sort of got screwed with the whole California Athletic Commission thing.”
Even with this fortuitous turn of events, Gracie seems to have a well-earned skepticism about the whole matter:
“It was off, then on, then off again … now it’s back on. I won’t really believe it until he is on the plane tomorrow morning heading to Japan.”
“Tonight we will be pulling an all-nighter cutting weight,” Gracie said late Wednesday. “Nick was under the impression he wasn’t fighting. So now we have to get the weight back down before he leaves.”
Where we go from here, nobody knows. Hopefully DeLuca’s good deed goes unpunished, and all ends well for Diaz, Dream, and Pro Elite. The odds of that happening are slim.
Still, doesn’t it make you wonder how Nick Diaz’s life might have turned out differently if only he had a Doug DeLuca around all the time, helping him and guiding him like some kind of rich fairy godfather? I do. I wonder.
On last night’s edition of “The Ultimate Fighter,” viewers got to see not one, but two eliminations with Jeremy May losing via TKO in the first round to Matt Brown and Luke Zachrich losing via a second round TKO.
Earlier in the day, Adam Morgan was able to catch up with May and Spike TV [...]
MMAmania.com is reporting that Chris Leben has been sentenced to a jail stint that may jeopardize his next scheduled bout:
…middleweight fighter Chris Leben was today sentenced to 35 days in jail. No other details were available at this time.
As explained by T. Jay Thompson, a friend of Leben’s, the UFC contender turned himself in to [...]
We thought it was all going to be so easy. Chris Leben would turn himself in on a probation violation, serve a couple of days in the lockup, then put this mess behind him on focus on his fight with Michael Bisping. Well guess what. Nothing comes easy for “The Crippler.”
MMA Mania is reporting that Leben was sentenced today to 35 days in jail. He’s scheduled to be released on May 27 (due to time served), according to the report. The fight with Bisping at UFC 85? Yeah, that’s on June 7. This looks bad for Leben. “Bedlam” is turning out to be the most accurate UFC event tagline yet.
If Leben really has to stay in jail that long, we have to assume that the UFC will either find a new opponent for Bisping, or reschedule the fight. It’s just unreasonable to think that Leben could come out of jail and be ready to fight in under two weeks. If the UFC wants to see this fight happen on June 7, I think there’s only one clear solution: jailbreak.
It worked in “XXX: State of the Union”. Then again, so did launching a tank at a tank, which would make for a much better undercard event.
Stay strong, Leben. They’ll never break your indomitable spirit.
IFL, Throwdown Energy Drink Put “The Hex” on MMA with New Six-Sided Ring
5/8/2008
Unique Fight Surface Developed by IFL, Throwdown Industries Will Debut August 15 in New Jersey
NEW YORK, May 8, 2008 –The International Fight League (IFLI: OTC.BB) today announced it is in the process of developing a hexagon-shaped mixed martial arts ring, to be used [...]
According to Fighters Only Magazine, U.K. welterweight Dan Hardy has signed a four fight contract with the UFC. The report says that the UFC intends to make Hardy “as big as Michael Bisping,” but no official announcement of the signing has been made yet.
Also according the report, Hardy was close to signing a deal with [...]
Check out 1:53-2:04 for Mir’s literally tight-lipped response. Here’s the general rule: If a person can neither confirm nor deny something, they’re confirming it. We’ll just have to wait for a public announcement to see if we actually scooped the MMA blogosphere on this one…
MMAmania.com just learned that middleweight fighter Chris Leben was today sentenced to 35 days in jail and will be released on May 27, 2008 (he gets credit for time already served), which would give him only 12 days until his scheduled showdown with Michael Bisping at UFC 85: “Bedlam” at the O2 Arena in London, England, on June 7.
It was apparently too close for comfort, forcing to the promotion to scrap the bout, according to WrestlingObserver.com.
No replacement for Leben is known at this time.
“The Crippler” turned himself in to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office in Portland, Oregon, on April 30 because of an old Driving Under the Influence (DUI) probation violation. He did so to obtain a travel visa overseas, but it appears that things did not work out according to plan.
Neither Leben nor the UFC have issued statements at this time. Stay tuned for more details.
During last night’s episode of “The Ultimate Fighter 7,†Jeremy May became one of the latest fighters to be eliminated from the middleweight tournament after losing via knockout at the hands of Matt Brown.
Courtesy of Spike TV, FiveOuncesOfPain.com was able to speak with May a day after the loss was shown on television. We [...]
