One of the top ranked lightweights in the world, UFC fighter Kenny Florian, was brought in as an expert to testify before the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission to talk about the issue of double weigh-ins.

The State Commission approved the use of double weigh-ins last March, but promised to look further into the ramifications of their use at MMA events by hearing testimony from medical professionals and experts. Florian turned out to be one of those experts.

“They’d heard these stories of guys coming in and weighing thirty pounds or even forty pounds over their actual weight class, so that was a big concern of theirs,” said Florian. “Since most of them come from a boxing background where a guy with a twenty-pound advantage hitting someone else in the head might be a dangerous advantage, they were concerned. So I came in and tried to give them some of my perspective on it.”

“I told them that the mentality of a fighter is to always try and make the weight. You could have the weigh-ins the same day, and a fighter will always try to get down to his lowest weight. That’s just the reality of it. And really, to limit someone in terms of how much they get to re-hydrate after making the cut, I think that’s more dangerous than having a weight advantage. The truth is, fighters won’t get as much fluid in them and won’t get the right foods if they have to weigh-in the next day. I think that’s asking for trouble.”

The Massachusetts Commission will likely vote on the issue sometime next week as the provision is set to expire within the next few weeks. Initially approved on March 10, the Commission placed a 90 day expiry date on the emergency vote and will need to vote once more now that they have gathered better data on the use of double weigh-ins for MMA events.

HT: MMAFighting.com

Although the smoking gun is in plain sight, the Quebec Athletic Commission is conducting an investigation to determine whether to suspend welterweight Paul Daley's fight license.

Daley drew unanimous scorn this past Saturday when he slugged opponent Josh Koscheck after the final bell in a title eliminator bout at UFC 113.

"I'm not confirming that [Daley is] going to have a suspension; we're just analyzing the whole thing," Michel Hamelin, the commissioner of the Quebec Athletic Commission, today told MMAjunkie.com.

Though many fans believed Paul Daley’s fight against Josh Koscheck at UFC 113 would be over when the British striker connected with one of his infamous lefts few could have envisioned how literal the “over” aspect would actually turn out to be.

On the heels of a post-bell sucker-punch earning him both a pink-slip and possible lifetime banishment from the UFC, “Semtex” wasted little time addressing the matter while apologizing to his bosses at Zuffa, the involved athletic commission, and top welterweight contender Koscheck. The following comes from British publication the Telegraph:

“I’ve had a long flight home to consider my actions and regret the mistake I made on Saturday. I would like to apologize to the UFC and the Athletic Commission for what I’ve done as well as all the fans and sponsors that support me.

I would also like to offer my sincerest apologies to Josh Koscheck who did not deserve the cheap shot I threw. He did what he needed to do in order to win the fight and get the job done, and I foolishly reacted to the situation.

There is no excuse for my actions and I know what I did was very unprofessional. I was immensely frustrated by a collection of things that took place throughout the fight as well as leading up to it, but I’m certainly not trying to condone or excuse my actions.

Josh implemented his game plan perfectly taking me down and staying on top of me for the majority of the fight. I was also frustrated about him claiming (and acting like) I knee’d him in the head on the ground when it was clear for all to see in the video replay that I didn’t connect at all with the knee I threw.

Then finally, the verbal abuse Josh hit me with in the final 30 seconds of the fight simply pushed me over the edge and my frustrations came out as I knew I’d lost the fight, was unhappy with my own performance and had then been ridiculed by my opponent to top things off.

This is certainly no excuse for my actions; I fully deserve to be punished for what I did and hope that everyone I have disappointed can forgive my rash decision. I feel very disappointed in myself for losing my cool and hope that I am able to address my temperament and bounce back from this low point in my career.

I feel ashamed and embarrassed by what I did and hope that together my team and I can get through this issue. It will be a long road back from where I am now to earning the trust and respect of the UFC and the MMA fans that have supported me for so long, I know I’ve let you all down but I’m determined to make it up to you all.”

Josh Barnett may wait this one out.

The top-tier heavyweight is not on the agenda for a California State Athletic Commission's Tuesday meeting in Los Angeles, which means his long-delayed appeal of a fight-license denial this past July may not be heard before he is cleared to reapply.

According to George Dodd, executive director of the CSAC, Barnett is free to reapply for a license on June 25, when he said the denial's term ends. However, Barnett may still be asked to appear at a commission meeting before that license is approved or denied.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has contacted Utah's state athletic commission and reserved Aug. 1 for a UFC on Versus event at Salt Lake City's EnergySolutions Arena.

That's the word from the Utah Athletic Commission's Bill Colbert, who confirmed the plans with MMAjunkie.com and Scott Sherman of The Salt Lake City Tribune.

MMAjunkie.com first reported last week that the UFC planned to host a show in Utah. However, the date we initially reported - Aug. 7 - instead will feature a traditional UFC pay-per-view event, UFC 117, in "northern California," a source close to the organization said.

The Tennessee Athletic Commission plans has launched an investigation
into a post-event brawl that concluded the CBS-televised "Strikeforce:
Nashville" event at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville this past weekend.

MMAjunkie.com today contacted Jeffrey Mullen, the commission's director,
who declined to comment on the situation until the commission's
investigation is complete.

No timetable was given, but the investigation could lead to disciplinary
action for those involved.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett has four days to add his
name to the agenda for an upcoming meeting of the California State
Athletic Commission and is unsure whether he wants to do so.

The CSAC denied Barnett a license this past July to fight Fedor
Emelianenko at "Affliction: Trilogy" on Aug. 1 when Barnett tested
positive for a designer steroid. Barnett immediately declared his
innocence and informed the commission of his intent to appeal the
decision.

But after four delays to his appeal process, Barnett said he may simply
wait until June, when he said he is re-eligible to apply for a fight
license.

Chris Parry – Vancouver Sun – The Ultimate Fighting Championship event scheduled to be held at GM Place on June 12 will go ahead after all, according to media reports, but officials with the City of Vancouver aren’t popping champagne corks just yet.

The billion-dollar mixed martial arts promotion had given the city until end of business Wednesday to put its liability and insurance issues to rest, and that pressure appeared to have paid off when the Canadian Press announced the event was confirmed, citing UFC President Dana White as their source.

Asked for confirmation, UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Marc Ratner told the Vancouver Sun, “Dana will be the only one making comment, and he’ll likely do that after tonight’s event at the post-fight press conference,” likely around 8:30 p.m. Pacific.

Federal Minister for Heritage and Culture James Moore was enthusiastic to hear the news, sending out a note on Twitter saying, “Great news for Vancouver & MMA fans: UFC 115 in Vancouver is a GO for June 12th. I’m there!”

But city staff, athletic commission officials, and UFC staffers were refusing to confirm the story late Wednesday, with communications officials at the city stating only that the two sides were close but still had specifics to sort out.

City staffer Tom Hammel, who has been the point man on figuring out how MMA could be properly regulated in the city, says there’s still a lot to do before everything is locked down, but that a lot of issues were sorted when the Vancouver Athletic Commission met Tuesday.

“We talked about the requirements for the event, the rules the commission will apply. We now need to get the commission focused on hiring a doctor for the event to oversee the medical procedures. We’re already talking to a number of physicians to take on that role.”

“I don’t see any problems with it. The commission will approve the judges and refs proposed by the promoter. We need to confirm amounts of insurance, see the evidence of insurance liability and medical insurance, and we need to get a security deposit for the commission costs. We need to see the security plan – they’re working on that now, but it would need to be reviewed by the police.”

The Vancouver Athletic Commission held a three-hour meeting Tuesday, during which the VAC volunteers “really went into it with the city, started kicking some backside,” according to commissioner Mirko Mladenovic.

According to MMA analyst Paul Lazenby, Mladenovic brought his own legal counsel to the meeting and proceeded to push a series of non-binding votes that set levels of insurance and liability cover far below that previously recommended by city legal staff. That reportedly prompted a visit from City Manager Penny Ballem who took the meeting in-camera and argued against the VAC voting on new standards, reasoning that it might put the entire process in peril at a delicate stage.

The VAC disagreed and set $5 million as the desired insurance level to stage an MMA event in Vancouver, far below the $12 million level the city proposed.

“Given the conditions and procedures for combat sports events as required by the Commission, as endorsed at last night’s meeting, the June UFC event should be going ahead–absent deliberate interference,” said Johnathan Tweedale, legal adviser to Mladenovic.

With the adoption of MMA legislation, the Massachusetts Boxing Commission recently became the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission.

But one remnant of the boxing-only days has stuck: a double weigh-in procedure that limits the amount of weight MMA fighters can cut for fight night.

In our latest "Ask the Fight Doc" installment, MMAjunkie.com medical columnist and combat-sports specialist Dr. Johnny Benjamin explains why the rule - which has been adopted for a 90-day trial run - should become permanent and what other details will assure the safest weight cuts possible.

The Ohio Athletic Commission medically suspended seven fighters from this past weekend's World Extreme Cagefighting event, "WEC 47: Bowles vs. Cruz."

The event took place March 6 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, and aired on Versus.

Among those suspended were two fighters from the night's co-main-events, including headliner Brian Bowles and Miguel Torres, who were slowed by an injury and cut, respectively.