Welcome back to another ediition of “MMA Link Club”, Five Ounces of Pain‘s weekly smorgasbord of offerings from our brothers and sisters in the MMA community. Enjoy…
Sadly, as Mixed Martial Arts continues to grow in popularity so too will the number of less-than savory characters involved on the promotional end of things hoping to exploit the sport and its participants for a quick profit. A recent example of such a situation involved a show called “Nemesis MMA – Global Invasion” in the Dominican Republic where UFC veterans Keith Jardine, Eliot Marshall, Mike Nickels, and Paul Buentello (as well as announcers Seth Petruzelli and Mike Van Arsdale) were not only stiffed from a financial perspective but had to share gloves during the event and fought without official judges or a commission being present.
Jardine, who won his headlining bout over Francisco France by decision, recently spoke to the United States Secret Service in hopes of helping resolve the issue who in turn are said to be investigating the matter. Though nothing can replace the time spent or blood and sweat spilled in relation to the card, “The Dean of Mean” is still hopeful some sort of good can come out of the situation even if it doesn’t mean federal involvement.
“Our ultimate goal at this point is to obtain the hard drive and the rights to the Nemesis fight footage,” explained Jardine in a press release under the premise the video could possibly be sold to help recoup some of the losses. “Despite the unfavorable circumstances, all twenty-four fighters on the card honored their commitment. They fought their hearts out and put on one hell of a show. There were some really amazing fights on this card. If we are able to obtain the fight footage, we plan to air the show via internet PPV in an effort to compensate the fighters that were taken advantage of.”
Other shockingly unprofessional factors stated as being present at the event include a First Aid Kid serving as essentially the “ringside physician”, a lack of posters in the arena promoting the line-up, and no backstage staff assisting with the show’s production. Fighters’ room keys were also deactivated the following day leaving a number of them left to find accommodations on their own dime. Similar Posts:
Former long time UFC fighter “The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine isn’t having a good run as of late, and has now been indefinitely suspended by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, according to a report by MMAWeekly. Jardine, who’s recent lost to Trevor Prangley put him at a horrible five losses in a row, can’t be happy with this latest development, although it sounds like it could just be a mixup, as quoted by his manager John Madrid(via MMAWeekly):
“What happened, when Keith got through the crowd area, he was stopped and somebody was pulling on his shirt, out of reaction Keith pushed the guy to get him off and it happened to be (a Texas official). There were no commission people or any security or anything to escort Keith out to the cage, and the TV guys are saying we gotta go. The crowd was really tight knit walking out, people reaching over the barriers grabbing at him and wanting to touch him. He’s standing there … he’s being grabbed, he turns around in instinct and pushes the guy back, thinking its an over aggressive fan, but it happens to be (a Texas official). He’s very apologetic to that. (But) the only part that the commission saw was Keith pushing the commission guy.”
Sounds very plausable, but Jardine will have to wait until a hearing to explain what happened. The MMA News will update this story as word comes out.
“I just had a pretty slow start. I never make excuses for my fights, but coming out before this fight I had the worst migraine in the world. It took me two rounds to get through that, everything he was touching me with hurt. I was in a bad situation, so I gritted it out and in the third round my head kind of cleared up and things worked out well in that round, but I guess not well enough to win the fight.”
AMARILLO, Texas - It's tough to say what the most impressive part of
Shark Fights light heavyweight champion Trevor Prangley's win over Keith
Jardine at Shark Fights 13 really was.
His armbar defense in the opening round of Saturday's fight looked nice,
and his counterpunching was effective against the always hard-to-hit
Jardine.
But perhaps the two most enduring images from the fight are Prangley
flashing a wide grin at Jardine after taking a flush hook to the jaw
in the opening round and the South African standing tall to a barrage of
desperate strikes in the final minute. Prangley said it was his chin,
adequately shown in those moments, that proved essential for victory.
When he saw UFC matchmaker Joe Silva's number come up on his caller ID, Keith Jardine knew exactly what the call was about; he was being released by the UFC.
He didn't spend much time to dwell on the setback, though.
After all, not more than 48 hours after the call, Jardine was booked for a main event gig at Saturday's Shark Fights 13 pay-per-view event in Amarillo, Texas.
Shark Fight Promotions had looked at booking a rematch between Keith Jardine (15-8-1) and Houston Alexander (10-6) originally. The fight never materialized and Jardine faces Trevor Prangley in the main event of Shark Fights 13, while Alexander takes on Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in the co-main event.
Both Jardine and Alexander were guests recently on MMAWeekly.com Radio to talk about the event, and both men talked about the potential rematch.
Jardine was happy to have a chance at avenging the loss to Alexander, but was instead given Prangley.
“The original fight was supposed to be Houston Alexander actually, and that sounded alright to me…
“They didn’t give me a reason for the change, but yeah I was looking forward to it,” Jardine said about the rematch with Alexander. “Let me tell you first, Houston’s a great warrior, he’s a great guy. I’ve said this before, he’s a great humanitarian, he’s done a lot of service around his community. I’ve met the guy a few times he’s a great guy, but that’s a really dark spot on my career.”
Alexander on the other hand, wasn’t interested in a rematch with Jardine.
“They did call me to actually rematch us, and I thought about it and I was just like ‘you know what, I got to know Keith, and he’s more like a friend now. I thought in my mind, no I wouldn’t want to fight him. They would really have to put some heavy money on the table for that to happen. Right now, I consider him a friend. I didn’t even really think twice about wanting to fight him.”
Shark Fights 13 takes place this Saturday on Sept. 11 at the Amarillo Civic Center in Amarillo, Texas. The promotion will debut it’s first pay-per-view event so check your local provider for details. As well, Sherdog.com will stream the entire preliminary card free on their website.
The Texas-based Shark Fights organization has put together a
talent-laden card as it enters the pay-per-view market for the first
time in company history.
And while there are a number of intriguing matchups on the Sept. 11 even, the main event provides a pair of UFC veterans with big-fight
experience.
In our most recent MMAjunkie.com/"Inside MMA" poll, we asked readers to
predict whether Keith Jardine or Trevor Prangley would
claim victory in Amarillo, Texas, in the Shark Fights 13 pay-per-view headliner.
Welcome back to another ediition of “MMA Link Club”, Five Ounces of Pain‘s weekly smorgasbord of offerings from our brothers and sisters in the MMA community. Enjoy…
AMARILLO, Texas - It's tough to say what the most impressive part of
When he saw UFC matchmaker Joe Silva's number come up on his caller ID, Keith Jardine knew exactly what the call was about; he was being released by the UFC.
The Texas-based Shark Fights organization has put together a