Press Release
“Ring or cage?” is MMA’s biggest debate. Fans of the ring often say that it promotes better fighting technique, while defenders of the cage like that enclosure’s dramatic “no escape” appeal. The Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC) has always taken place in a ring, and it always will. Why? Because the ring provides more exciting fights and a better overall experience for the fans.

MOST OF MMA’S HISTORY IS IN THE RING
Long before MMA arrived in North America, the pre-MMA pioneers in Brazil and Japan fought in a ring. In December 1963, “Judo” Gene Lebell and boxer Milo Savage stepped into a ring in Salt Lake City, Utah to square off in North America’s first televised MMA match. Cage fighting wasn’t presented to North American TV audiences until 1993, when the aim was to promote MMA as a “deathmatch”-style spectacle.

MMA IN THE RING = CLEANER FIGHTING TECHNIQUE
Very few MMA fans have seen more fights than Eddie Goldman, who has been covering our sport for over 15 years through his legendary show, No Holds Barred (http://eddiegoldman.com ). Widely viewed as “the godfather of MMA media”, Goldman has been an outspoken proponent of the ring, citing clean techniques as the reason for his preference:

“Over the years, cage fighters have learned how to use the cage enclosure as part of their strategy. Many fighters push their opponents up against the cage, or even move them to it after taking them down. This aids brawling, but not the use of submissions or clean striking. Just look at the decline of the number of submissions in so many of the top fights in most of the companies which use a cage, then compare that to the flow of action and the aesthetics of the fights in companies like the Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC), who use the ring.” – Eddie Goldman, No Holds Barred (http://eddiegoldman.com )

MMA IN A RING IS BETTER FOR SPECTATORS
It’s no secret that watching MMA in a cage isn’t great for spectators. Many MMA fans have paid hundreds of dollars for a cageside seat only to discover that they get a better view by watching the fight on the TV screens. But sight lines aren’t the only issue – the action is different too. When not inside the unforgiving walls of a cage, fighters are forced to move and press the action. There’s none of the wedged-into-the-cage ground-and-pound or wall wrestling, there’s more stand-up fighting, more movement, and more overall excitement.

CORPORATE SPONSORS PREFER TO SEE MMA IN A RING
According to MFC CEO Mark Pavelich, most of the reservations about MMA he consistently hears from potential corporate sponsors have to do with the cage. As he stated in his interview on No Holds Barred:
“I hate the cage. I’ve never liked it. It’s completely non-sport-oriented. Why do you think that big companies like Nike aren’t involved in mixed martial arts? Because the second they hear the word ‘cage’, the executives ask, ‘why are these people fighting in a cage?’”

“I run the Maximum Fighting Championship like a professional sports organization. People can debate this night and day, back and forth, for the next hundred years, but it doesn’t matter what apparatus is better to fight in. It matters what’s more acceptable to the corporate sponsors that are going to generate money for your organization to keep it alive and keep it rolling.”

THE MAXIMUM FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP WILL ALWAYS BE IN A RING
So cage or ring? The choice of fighting enclosure is going to play a big role in our sport’s future. If MMA is to continue to grow and be embraced by TV networks and combat sports fans worldwide, the ring is probably the path to follow. The Maximum Fighting Championship will always take place in a ring and for anyone who doesn’t believe that the ring promotes exciting fights, we formally invite you to come to MFC 26: Retribution. You WILL be proven wrong. Again.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White was asked recently about the chances of boxer James Toney who will be making his mixed-martial-arts debut against UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture later this summer.

“I think James Toney is going to lose too,” was White’s response who was also referencing boxer’s Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao’s chances of winning a fight in mma.

Rephrasing his answer, White diplomatically answered the question noting that this was going to be an mma fight and not a boxing match between Toney and Couture.

“To be honest, who knows if he’s going to lose?” White said. “I say it all the time about all different kinds of fights. You never know until they fight, but if you look at the things and you weigh it out. He has a puncher’s chance of course. Can he clip Couture and knock him out? Of course of he could, but all signs point to Randy Couture should win the fight.”

“Why would I put him in with a wrestler? Why not? ” White said. “Why would I put Randy Couture in with a boxer? This isn’t boxing. It’s mixed martial arts. Couture’s a wrestler. Couture’s going to try to implement his game, and Toney’s going to try to implement his, and we’ll see who wins.”

HT: MMAFighting.com

A guest on last week’s “Inside MMA,” WEC Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz was asked by host Kenny Rice how he felt being a young champion. A soft-spoken Cruz responded, “I think champions are going to get younger and younger as time goes on.” His opinion is an interesting one.

It took almost three and a half years for the UFC to find its first young champion. Vitor Belfort, at 19 years old, became not only the youngest fighter to win in the octagon, but the youngest champion in UFC history. If winning the heavyweight tournament at UFC 12 doesn’t qualify Belfort as a champion however, Josh Barnett remains the youngest, having won his belt at age 24. It may be a good idea to look beyond a list of the UFC’s champions, though, to see just how deep the younger generation is beginning to dominate. The UFC is focused on the heavier spectrum of the scale—looking to organizations more welcoming to the smaller fighters makes it obvious that the most innovation and potential rests in the lighter divisions.

In the WEC, lightweight champions Ben Henderson (26) and Jamie Varner (25) have excited audiences for years. Astoundingly, WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is only 23 years old; Dominick Cruz is only 24. Aldo’s deadly mix of precise Muay Thai, stubborn takedown defense, and the enigma of his unseen Jiu-Jitsu game is enhanced by his relentless focus on being the best, without distraction. It is almost scary to consider what he will be like when he reaches his prime. Cruz flustered the more conventional Brian Bowles in winning the title, using precise striking and an elusiveness rarely seen in mixed martial arts. Indeed, Cruz looks more like a boxer in the cage than a mixed martial artist, but he has grown up learning every facet of the sport. His style is his own, and it was tailor-made to be effective, and to confound his opponents. That is the nature of innovation.

Bellator Fighting Championship’s featherweight champion Joe Soto is only 23, and their welterweight champion Lyman Good is 24. Keep in mind these are current champions. Some dangerous contenders, in every organization around the world, are the same age as these guys, sometimes younger. How terrifying will Jon “Bones” Jones be when he is 24? 26? 30?

Just how does Dominick Cruz think he got this far? “I’ve just been fortunate enough to get my mind together and get on top early,” the champion said, smiling. “Let’s just see what kind of work I can do up top, for as long as I can.”

It will be interesting to see what these young champions will accomplish. Just how much they can change mixed martial arts as a sport remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: the younger generation of fighters, whether they are champions now or sitting in a high-school classroom, will keep everyone interested for a long, long time.

It's official: Tim Sylvia is now 1-1 in freak shows.

After a painful June 2009 loss to a 48-year-old former boxer, Sylvia
earned a wee bit of redemption with a second-round stoppage of five-time
World's Strongest Man champion Mariusz Pudzianowski in what was a
mismatch from the opening bell.

The throwback action served as the main event of Friday's "Moosin: God
of Martial Arts" event at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass. The main
card aired live on pay-per-view.

During Thursday’s press conference, DREAM officials named Ikuhlsa “The Punk” Minowa (45-30-8) to the last unannounced bout of their DREAM.14 event, scheduled for the end of the month.

No opponent was named by the DREAM officials, but since then sources close to the event told MMAjunkie.com that “The Punk” would be facing 325-pound Imani Lee (1-2) and the fight was a done deal.

DREAM.14 is set to take place on May 29th at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan and marks the promotions use of a cage, known as “The White Cage,” during one of it’s events. Officials noted that it would be the only time this year fans would see the cage.

Minowa, the winner of the recent “Super Hulk” tournament is no stranger to oversized opponents. He recently defeated Jimmy Ambriz, who weighed 315 pounds, at DREAM.13 via submission (toe hold) in the second round. It was the fourth victory in a row for the Japanese fighter who also earned victories over Bob Sapp, Hong Man Choi and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou .

Meanwhile Lee, who reportedly was a former sparring partner to boxer James Toney, lost his last fight to Geovanni Sarran in April at a Art of Fighting 7 – Payday event.

Before the news that Minowa was to face Lee, rumors had former UFC fighter Kevin “Kimbo Slice” facing “The Punk” at the DREAM event.

Would you prefer Alistair Overeem fought Fedor Emelianenko or signed with the UFC before the end of 2010? What would you tell Andrei Arlovski after watching him lose for the third straight time? Is Matt Lindland on his last leg where current relevance in MMA is concerned? Are you more excited about the heavyweight headliners at Moosin MMA or the battle between bad-ass Betties a few fights down on the card?

Keyboard warrrrriors….come out to plaaaay-yay!

If you’re reading these lines you’ve made it through another work-week and are back in the friendly digital confines of “Grappling with Issues”, our site’s resident Friday feature highlighting insight and opinion from Adam Tool and myself on six subjects plucked from the Mixed Martial Arts landscape. However, just because we staffers get the fancy set-up, please don’t feel precluded from dishing out your own thoughts on each matter in the comments section at the bottom of the column…

More appealing match-up at this weekend’s Moosin MMA event – Tim Sylvia vs. Mariusz Pudzianowski or Tara LaRosa vs. Roxanne Modafferi?

Adam Tool: In essence this question is asking which fight I’ll be looking for first when I hit the internet Saturday morning to catch up on some fights, and the answer is LaRosa vs. Modafferi. I could care less about anything Tim Sylvia does anymore; he lost a big chunk of whatever respect I had for him following is 36 second clowning at the hands of Fedor Emelianenko. He could have salvaged his career by coming back with a hard-fought win over a respectable opponent, but instead he got knocked out in less than 10 seconds by a 48 year old boxer making his professional MMA debut. The headlining bout at Moosin seems like it’s designed to give Pudzianowski (who comes up second to Krzysztof Soszynski in the “Fighters Whose Name I Hate Typing” category) a legitimate name to add to his meager record. A win over the former body builder does little to help Sylvia’s reputation, and a loss just sends him further down the heavyweight rankings.

LaRosa and Modafferi are two legitimate fighters in the world of women’s MMA, with LaRosa being one of the top P4P female fighters in the world. We’ve got the always intriguing striker vs. grappler dynamic for this bout, and Modafferi will no doubt be hungry to avenge her loss to LaRosa in their previous meeting. Strikeforce is supposed to be the home for women’s MMA but so far this year they’ve dropped the ball as far as promoting new talent. With a win here Modafferi could easily be pegged as an upcoming contender for Sarah Kaufman’s championship, but it’s tough to see where LaRosa goes from here unless she’s willing to move back up to 135 lbs. In any case this should be an entertaining scrap between two aggressive young ladies, and I’m looking forward to watching it in grainy flash video on Saturday morning.

Brendhan Conlan: Tool essentially squished my opinion into a little ball and smacked it over the fence for a homerun. Though the result of Sylvia’s almost-guaranteed slop-fest with Pudzianowski is fascinating in a sick way I’m far more interested in seeing how the action unfolds in LaRosa vs. Modafferi.

I don’t fault “The Maine-iac” for taking what he felt would be an easy win against an opponent with some name value (Ray Mercer) on the heels of losing 3-of-4 against top shelf competition. It was a calculated risk and a gamble he ultimately paid for by sacrificing his already-wavering reputation in the sport with both the loss and by showing up as though he’d trained at Pillsbury Top Team for the bout. However, embarrassing knockout aside, it has to be noted Sylvia had only finished a single opponent in the four years prior. Looking at his record seems to indicate Tim-meh benefited more from a distinct size advantage coupled with a shallow heavyweight pool, rather than a particular set of skills, to earn his reputation as a two-time UFC champion. His physical dimensions and past praise will always make Sylvia an attraction, but then again the same can also be said about the “World’s Biggest Ball of Yarn”. Fighting a 2-0 former strong-man who once tested positive for performance enhancing drugs has “freak show” appeal but doesn’t compare from a competitive standpoint to the other pairing mentioned in this topic’s subject line.

Modafferi is 7-1 since 2007 with the lone loss coming in a match she took on short notice against Marloes Coenen, a naturally bigger and equally respectable Mixed Martial Artist. LaRosa is currently riding a fifteen-fight win streak and is 18-1 over her eight-year career. They fought to a decision in 2006, so there’s a familiarity there that should breed engagement because both already have a fair idea of what to expect when they lock horns or stand and bang. Their combined skill, heart displayed in previous fights, and styles should make for an entertaining scrap and definitely one I find to be more appealing than that featuring 4X the weight.

What advice would you give Andrei Arlovski on the heels of losing his third consecutive fight?

Tool: Honestly, I have no idea. He’s spent the last two years dedicating a bulk of his training to boxing, yet he was clearly being handled on the feet by Antonio Silva. I don’t know if that owes more to Arlovski’s decline or Silva’s improvement, but there’s little left of the mystique “The Pitbull” once had. He’s still got plenty of name value amongst casual fans so he’ll keep getting fights as long as he wants to but there’s no reason to believe that he’ll have a spot amongst the heavyweight elite any longer.

If I had to mark one area for improvement it might just be cardio. Late in the fight it looked as though Silva had all but punched himself out (at least, that’s the only reason I can think of as to why he insisted on continually clinching against the cage) and Arlovski could have turned things around if he would have had to the gas to really pour it on. He’s got to be feeling better about his chin after taking some of Silva’s best shots, and I still believe that his striking looked awesome against Fedor (right up until the flying knee of course), so I don’t think I’m ready to write Andrei off completely. The long layoff between his last two fights might have played a factor, so I think he should try and get back in the cage as soon as possible if he’s to have any hope of breaking this losing streak.

Conlan: If I was in Arlovski’s ear I would concentrate on the positives stemming from his loss to “Bigfoot” Silva, encourage him to continue training outside of his comfort zone, and get him in touch with Georges St. Pierre (or comparable high-level athlete) to discuss the benefit potentially derived from speaking to a sports psychologist.

As Tool mentioned, “The Pitbull” absorbed a few clean shots from Silva and never went limp in the process. Obviously Arlovski is interested in actual victories, not moral ones, but his retention of consciousness is an important fact to note when owing 3/4 of his career losses to having it taken from him while Silva has an equal ratio of career wins by TKO. The bout as a whole was relatively close and essentially up for grabs. A few tweaks in strategy and perhaps a bit more mental focus between bells would have likely resulted in a Belarusian victor rather than a Brazilian one.

Moving on, my understanding is that Arlovski spent some time training at American Kickboxing Academy and Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting rather than working with his regular group of pre-fight handlers. I think it was a wise decision on his part regardless of result, as I truly believe improvement goes hand-in-hand with the type of preparation Mixed Martial Artists receive in camps as deep and experienced as those mentioned (as well as 5-10 others). There’s no doubt in my mind Andrei would get an infinite amount more out of sparring and grappling with actual peers rather than peons, and the type of knowledge found in places featuring guys like Jackson or Dave Camarillo is an asset any fighter is lucky to have in their corner.

Finally, though I have no idea if he’s already sought counsel on the matter, I think it would behoove Arlovski to spend some time speaking with a sports psychologist. There is no underestimating the influence an athlete’s mental state has on his/her performance during “go” time. I would be shocked if the manners in which Emelianenko and Brett Rogers beat him don’t still play his mind at some level, and I suspect his hesitance to fully engage against a lessened Silva in the final round may have actually been evidence of doubt-laced caution rather than questionable conditioning. I don’t think it’s far-fetched to think his self-esteem may have taken another dip with a third consecutive loss nor is it crazy to think Arlovski may enter his next match-up with additional stress/anxiety due to the possibility of going 0-4. Talking to a professional equipped to handle people in similar situations could genuinely help the former UFC Heavyweight Champion regain his mojo and get back to baring his fangs in the cage.

Of the four Brazilian’s to emerge victorious at “Strikeforce – Heavy Artillery”, who were you most impressed by – Rafael Cavalcante, Roger Gracie, “Jacare” Souza, or Antonio Silva?

Tool: Each fighter’s win was impressive for one reason or another, but the fighter whose performance stood out the most to me would have to be “Jacare.” I’ve been watching Souza’s career with interest for a few years now and I’m pleased to see him starting to make waves here in the U.S. While the announcers on Saturday night might have wanted you to think that “Jacare” and Joey Villasenor were having a great back-and-forth battle, the reality is that Souza dominated the fight from bell to bell. His cardio may not have been where he wanted it to be in the third round, but that’s only the second time in his career he’s gone the distance (and he won both times). As Jason High pointed out on Twitter, Souza isn’t like most jiu-jitsu fighters when it comes to taking the fight to the ground. Whereas Demian Maia or Thales Leites might pull guard, Souza has a mean shot that worked almost every time on Saturday. Once he’s on the ground there are few fighters in the world that can match his grappling ability, and I’ll give credit to the toughness of Villasenor for surviving and getting out of some bad situations. I’m sure he would have preferred to get the finish but in the end “Jacare” gave a dominant performance that puts him right at the top of the list of contenders for the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship. Now we just have to wait and see who he’s going to fight for that title (note to Scott Coker: please not “Mayhem” Miller).

Conlan: Credit to all of the names involved, and I can’t argue against Tool’s choice of “Jacare” (though I wouldn’t mind seeing he and Miller give it a third go-round with the Strikeforce title involved), but I was actually most-impressed by Rafael Cavalcante’s performance against Antwain Britt. “The Juggernaut” may not quite be at Villasenor’s level in terms of experience of success in the cage, but he also wasn’t coming off nearly a year’s layoff between bouts and has twice as many fights in the last two-and-half years as “Smokin” Joe does. Britt has heavy hands and put them on “Feijao” a few times to no avail only to end up slumped against the cage, then finished, due to some well-placed strikes from the blackbelt in BJJ. Cavalcante is now 9-for-9 in terms of finishing opponents he’s beaten in the first ten minutes of action and has yet to rely on his submission arsenal to pull out victories. The performance was too impressive as far as I’m concerned to opt for someone who fought to a decision.

Which would you rather see: Alistair Overeem fights Fedor Emelianenko before the year is up, or Overeem goes to the UFC and mixes it up with the new class of top heavyweights?

Conlan: Tough question! I’ll go with Overeem vs. Emelianenko by the width of a thread plucked from the Russian’s favorite sweater. I’m confident “The Demolition Man” will eventually end up in the UFC regardless of when the move actually takes place, while I think the number of Fedor’s future fights – especially against top competition – is a bit more debatable and its limited nature should be capitalized on. Also, assuming Emelianenko emerges victoriously from his San Jose showdown with Fabricio Werdum on June 26th, an added bonus to a bout with the imposing Dutch striker is it serving as a proper Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship match rather than inviting criticism of the title due to the involvement of lesser competition or enormous gaps in the strap being defended.

I’d love to see Overeem slugging it out in the UFC against Junior dos Santos, Cain Velasquez, Shane Carwin, or Brock Lesnar as much as anyone else, but all involved parties are young enough to see those outcomes to fruition within the next couple of years. On the other hand, “The Last Emperor” has recently dealt with a slew of nagging injuries and has little left to prove in his career outside of the Octagon (a possibility seeming less-and-less likely with each passing day). Putting the two together before year’s end would give Emelianenko a chance to further solidify his legacy against a respected, and much larger, heavyweight while also allowing Alistair an opportunity to become the first fighter to legitimately beat Fedor and reap the benefits attached to such a feat.

Tool: At the moment I would also probably have to lean towards Emelianenko vs. Overeem myself, if for no other reason than because Overeem represents the lone interesting opponent for Fedor at the moment. If Fedor can’t fight Alistair then what is there left for him to do? Fight worthless cans in Japan on New Year’s Eve? Take on guys out of their weight class like Dan Henderson and “King Mo” Lawal? I know Fedor doesn’t really care about taking on the best fighters in the world, but it’s something his fans would like to see if they’re going to have any ammunition in the ongoing pound-for-pound debate.

Overeem will have to make his way to the UFC sooner or later if he wants to considered the best in the world, but he does have the luxury of time. The UFC’s heavyweight division has four guys at the top right now, and none of them have faced each other yet. There’s still some work to be done in establishing the pecking order amongst Lesnar, Carwin, Velasquez, and Dos Santos, and by the time things start to sort themselves out the timing should be right for Overeem to come in and establish his place. If he enters the UFC as the man who shattered Fedor’s mystique, then the interest level shoots right up for any potential dream bout he takes in the octagon.

Should the winner of tonight’s Tyron Woodley/Nathan Coy fight become the top contender to Nick Diaz’s Strikeforce Welterweight Championship?

Conlan: I can see Woodley receiving a title shot with a win, especially with Jay Hieron’s Strikeforce future currently in limbo, but in no way should Coy get a crack at Diaz’s belt regardless of how convincing his method of victory might be. The three-fight streak he’s riding was preceded by back-to-back losses and involves competition with a combined record equating to a single win over even. Tonight only marks his second appearance in Strikeforce with the initial bout coming more than two years ago. Beating a rising star like “T-Wood” would be impressive but isn’t enough to thrust him into championship contention.

However, if Woodley walks away winner he’ll move to 7-0 as a professional and 4-0 in Strikeforce. He’s finished five of his six opponents in the first round and the sixth only made it through about ¾ of the second stanza. Another early submission or TKO would further establish the 28-year old as one of the company’s legitimate rising stars, and with a roster of welterweights thinner than Cory Hill trying to cut to 135-pounds it would make sense to give the Mizzou alumnus a shot. Additionally, if Strikeforce wants to capitalize on the recent heat between Jason “Mayhem” Miller and champ Nick Diaz, they can always make a future catch-weight bout for the two rivals while pairing Woodley against either Marius Zaromskis or Evangelista Santos (depending on who walks away winner at June 16th’s Strikeforce event in Los Angeles) to keep him active and erase any leftover doubts about how deserved his contendership is.

Tool: Brendhan’s right on the money here, as Strikeforce has a very real prospect in Tyron Woodley. His run on Strikeforce Challengers has been impressive, but with a win tonight the time will be right for him to take on a bigger role within the company. The welterweight division in Strikeforce is so devoid of talent that Woodley makes as much sense as anyone else. He also represents a great stylistic match-up for Diaz, as his wrestling pedigree could likely allow him to dictate where the bout takes place, and his heavy hands would be a good test for Diaz’s legendary chin and peppering punches. Other than the aforementioned Hieron, I can’t think of anyone else that Strikeforce could get to represent a credible threat to Diaz’s title.

TRUE/FALSE – His headlining spot on tonight’s Strikeforce Challengers card represents Matt Lindland’s last chance at relevancy in the current MMA scene.

Conlan: False, though certainly a loss to any associate of reality television whore Spencer Pratt would destroy the bulk of his remaining credibility as a contender. Lindland may be 3-4 over his last seven bouts but keep in mind the people he’s lost to over that period – Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (a split decision by the way), Vitor Belfort, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, and Fedor Emelianenko. It’s not as if low-level fighters are mopping the mat with the Team Quest founding-father. Yes, he’s 40 and on the downside of his career, but he’s not on the border of crossing over into “Ken Shamrock” territory. It would take a string of consecutive losses to fighters of Casey’s caliber before I’d comfortably state Lindland had lost all relevance in the sport.

Tool: I’ll go with true, as I can’t see Lindland doing anything of note in the near future should he fall to Kevin Casey. Personally I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror anymore if I lost to a guy that uses Spencer Pratt for credibility, but that’s me. Brendhan has a good point about the quality of opposition Lindland has lost to, but it’s also fair to point out that his last win was two years ago against the less-than-impressive Fabio Nascimento. “The Law” has gone 1-3 since then, and the only real interest he’s garnered from the MMA media is centered around his attempt at a political career and the upcoming documentary about his life. He doesn’t have the fan support of somebody like Jens Pulver, so will anybody still want to see Lindland fight if he can’t get a win or two along the way?

The Ultimate Fighting Championship's UFC Fan Expo is on its way east.

The promotion today announced a third date for the highly popular event
to coincide with UFC 118 in Boston. The expo takes place Aug. 27 and
Aug. 28 at the Hynes Convention Center, a short trip from TD Garden,
which hosts the pay-per-view event.

UFC 118 features a lightweight title rematch between newly crowned
champion Frankie Edgar and recently deposed titleholder B.J. Penn. A
heavyweight fight between UFC Hall of Fame member Randy Couture and
boxer turned MMA fighter James Toney could co-headline.

The 36 year old former world champion kick boxer, Cyrille “The Snake” Diabaté (15-6-1), is set to make his UFC debut on May 29th against Luiz Cane at UFC 114.

For Diabaté, a former assistant coach on season nine of The Ultimate Fighter, having the chance to fight for the UFC is dream come true and he hopes to go all the way to the top.

“It’s a culmination of all my work. I have been doing this for 19 years and I keep evolving. I think that I have already proven a lot – that I can achieve good results in a lot of different styles, and that I can fight at a high level. Now that I’m at the top level in MMA, my goal isn’t to stop there. My goal is to leave my mark on the sport and to go all the way to the belt.”

In an interview with UFC.com, “The Snake” spoke about his French roots and the sport of MMA in his home country when he began fighting.

At that time it was really experimental. We were trying, as best we could, to train in MMA. We watched what people were doing on the internet, and we tried to find our own methods, but we made a lot of mistakes in the beginning. The level of French fighters has really evolved with the evolution of training methods.

As well as the differences between his skills now and when he began ten years ago as a fighter.

Mostly, a huge difference in technique. Back then I had a rudimentary knowledge of ground fighting, and I had my striking. I think I was a better striker then, I was definitely more dangerous standing. But today I’m more complete. My style has matured. I have a much better wrestling and ground game now. But I still have a striking level that’s above average for MMA. I hope that this mix will make the difference for me.

To read the rest of the interview and Diabaté’s comments on opponent Luiz Cane head to UFC.com.

This past Saturday, Shine Fights was to have held their third event “Worlds Collide: Mayorga vs. Thomas” which was to feature boxer Ricardo Mayorga and former UFC contender Din Thomas in the main event.

Mayorga was still under contract to World famous boxing promoter Don King, who won an injunction to stop the bout citing a breach of contract. While Shine Fights saw boxing and mixed martial arts as two separate sports, and therefore Mayorga wouldn’t be breaking any contracts by fighting on Saturday night.

The Florida judge saw it in favor of King who offered these comments on the whole situation.

“Ricardo Mayorga is a colorful guy. Nothing he does surprised me. This wasn’t the first time something like this had come up. We have always advised him, since our representation began in 2001, that he has a legally binding contract designating Don King Productions as his sole and exclusive promoter…This man, Ricardo Mayorga, has fought for me for a long time and he owes me money. Why would I support him fighting for someone else that has had nothing to do with his gaining of fame, acclaim and notoriety? This promotional firm was attempting to steal the investment I have made in this man, something the agreement I have with Mayorga strictly prohibits. I was simply protecting my rights.”

HT: FightHype.com

Don King Productions has won an injunction against Shine Fight Promotions today.

DKP filed the injunction to stop boxer Ricardo Mayorga from participating in tonight’s Shine Fight 3 “Worlds Collide: Mayorga vs. Thomas” main event bout against former UFC lightweight contender Din Thomas.

Sports Illustrated reporter Josh Gross posted from the Broward County court on his Twitter site.

Broward Country Circuit Court Judge Marc C. Gold ruled in favor of Don King Productions, granting injunctive relief at 1:20 p.m. ET.

DKP’s claim was that Mayorga was in breach of contract by taking the mma fight with Shine which infringed on the agreement made between the two. While Shine Fights CEO Devin Price argued that the Mayorga’s contract only pertained to boxing and not mixed martial arts.

Without an apparent replacement for Mayorga, it appears the show will go on anyway.

This is gonna get fun now. Shine Fights says they will ignore the injunctive relief and move forward with the fight tonight.

Whether this is just talk or not by the promotion remains to be seen. They could just be saying this to keep fans interested in purchasing the ppv and pull the fight at the last minute. Or they could put the fight on and find themselves in a heap of legal issues.

Update I: Sherdog.com

Broward County, Fla., Judge Marc Gold ruled Shine Fights could not promote the 36-year-old boxer, per his agreement with the boxing promotion. DKP has an exclusive three-year contract with Mayorga, which was signed on October 1, 2009.

“The court found that Mayorga is not a legitimate mixed martial artist and that Shine was not legitimately promoting him as one for this event,” said Brito, “and that the only reason anyone was attending this ‘Worlds Collide’ event was to see how Mayorga faired as a boxer against an MMA fighter.”

Update II: From Josh Gross

King required to post bond in case the order is reversed. Once that happens, ruling is good. Judge Gold: disobey order, serious sanctions.

Didn’t hear a number. Just that it was “a lot.”

Update III: From Gross

Point of clarification from Shine, they are moving forward until they are served the court order. Then it’s unclear what will happen.

Update IV: Mayorga vs. Thomas bout officially canceled. Event broadcaster Karyn Bryant Twitter

Mayorga’s out. Ninja Rua vs David Heath is new headliner at Shine tonight. Still lots of good fights going down!

Update V: from Karyn Bryant

NC commission cancels Shine Fights. Damn damn damn!

The MMA News will keep you updated as more news becomes available, keep checking back as we update the thread.