Jorge Britto (head instructor of TorontoBJJ) invites all Jiu Jitsu academies to help us carry the flag of this sport into the future. Join us on Saturday August 7th, 2010 at Downsview Park in Toronto. This tournament is a celebration of Jiu Jitsu and we are giving an opportunity to everyone to become part of the next page in the history of Jiu Jitsu in Canada. This tournament will showcase the sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, we need you to be part of the revolution of this sport in North America. We need to be unified, we need to show solidarity by coming together to honor the tradition of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition. We want to demonstrate great Jiu Jitsu, we want to show who we are, we want to exhibit the glory of healthy rivalries between teams and how they help the sport to progress, develop, and grow.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is more than a sport, it is deeply rooted in tradition, and a tried and tested methodology since it was founded in Brazil. In this tournament we aim to honor this heritage and lineage by organizing the tournament in the same manner as the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation. We want to pay tribute to the sport’s founders by not just coming to compete and determine who is best on the day but, we want to live the Jiu Jitsu ideology, philosophy and lifestyle.

This type of competition readies competitors for the highest level of international competition by adhering to international rules, regulations, and standards. We are already seeing the fruits of previous tournaments which produced several champions at this years mundials (worlds championships). The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu format of competition has lead to greater things for many of the stars of the sport, champions like BJ Penn, Marcelo Garcia, Demian Maia, Rodrigo Noguerra, and many more got their starts on the tatami’s of Jiu Jitsu.

What makes the Toronto Jiu Jistu Classic Special?
Divisions will have a specific start time that will be released two days prior to the event along with the brackets. No waiting hours and hours, wondering when your division is going to start.

75 Carl Hall Road,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
MAP

More information on the official site.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Fight Network recaps this past weekends MMA Expo in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal was their to take part.

HT: TheFightNetwork.com

Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - As he left his gym in Mississauga, Ontario earlier this week, Claude Patrick couldn't help but smile. And he had good reason to. After years of toil on the mixed martial arts scene, fighting everywhere but his home province, where the sport is still not legal, Patrick is about to make his UFC debut on June 12th, and in Canada, no less, as UFC 115 touches down in Vancouver.

Click here to view the embedded video.

WEC lightweight fighter Chris Horodecki will be ready on June 20 at WEC 49 when he meets Ed Ratcliff in Edmonton, Canada. He looks at erasing his disappointing promotional debut loss at WEC 45. The Canadian is also hoping to see an event in his home Province of Ontario if mixed-martial-arts can get regulated there.

HT: Fight! Magazine

UFC middleweight fighter Joe Doerksen (45-12) was the only Canadian fighter to walk away with a victory in Montreal at UFC 113 last month. He stepped in for an injured Tim Credeur at the event and defeated Tom Lawlor by submission in the second round of their preliminary card fight.

Doerksen had already made a previous agreement to appear at a Canadian Fighting Championship 5 in Manitoba before the Montreal event. The UFC has allowed Doerksen to honor his previous agreement and will now face Shawn Marchand in the main event of the Canadian show.

Here is the press release.

It’s Fight Week For CFC 5

There is less than a week before CFC 5 and fans are excited to see one of Canada’s top promotions live on June 4th. With no MMA in Manitoba the past few months, fans are anxiously awaiting the chance to see the best fighters that Manitoba has to offer including Joe Doerksen.

Joe Doerksen is coming off his victory of Tom Lawlor at UFC 113. Doerksen submitted Lawlor in the second round and was the only Canadian out of seven to win in UFC Montreal this year. Incredibly, the UFC has allowed Doerksen to honor is agreement to fight on CFC 5 and fans will be the ones to benefit. Doerksen will be taking on Shawn Marchand in the main event. Marchand is an up and coming Canadian fighter who already is the Middleweight champion from a maritime promotion. Doerksen should not overlook this Ontario fighter as Marchand has not lost since 2007 and is looking at this fight as his opportunity to knock off a UFC veteran.

Not only will Doerksen be fighting in his hometown, but “Fight of the Night” Eric Perez will be in the Semi-Main Event of CFC 5. Perez has been victorious in the three CFC fights that he has appeared in and he has also walked away with a Fight of the Night performance on each occasion. “I like a war,” says Eric Perez, “I want this one to go three rounds and I knock him out late in the third.” Perez is not the only one who likes to put on a show. Former Ballroom Zombies singer, Robin Black is no stranger to entertaining fans. Black is coming back to Winnipeg to challenge Perez in a fantastic Bantamweight matchup.

In another battle of Bantamweights, Winnipeg’s Roland Delorme will put his undefeated record on the line against Regina’s Sean Quinn. This fight has not received as much attention as the previous mentioned fights, but, rest assured, this one has Fight of the Night written all over it. This is a battle between two nationally ranked fighters in their weight division. Delorme has come off two consecutive victories over Remi Morvan – the last one at CFC 4. Quinn is a tough fighter who has also appeared in the Canadian Fighting Championship. Quinn took out the tough Francois Lacombe at CFC 3 last year. Expect big things from these two fighters!

Fan favorite Lance Cartwright will also be returning to the Steel Circle. The Snake is fresh off his supporting actor appearance in the prison-based action movie “Locked Down” and promises to bring his crowd-pleasing brand of MMA back to the CFC. He will be facing Steve Skinner, who like the previously mentioned Marchand and Black, is an MMA champion of a Moncton promotion. The Snake will have his hands full on June 5th.

Fans can purchase tickets to see Joe Doerksen, Robin Black, Eric Perez and the rest of the CFC 5 fighters this Friday, June 4th for as little as $40. You can get VIP seats by calling 772-2599 or General Admission through Ticketmaster.Remember that this event is now open to fans sixteen years old.

The rest of card will be just as entertaining with local Winnipeg fighters Dominick Blais, Mark Durant, Dwight Sutherland, and Agostino DeNatale returning to action. Ronson Sabourin and Travis Gervais will also make their hometown CFC debut.

Here is the full card for the event:

Main Event

Joe Doerksen vs Shawn Marchand

Semi-Main Event

Robin Black vs Eric Perez

Roland Delorme vs Sean Quinn

Lance Cartwright vs Steve Skinner

Dominick Blais vs Matt Spisak

Mark Durant vs Jesse Ronson

Dwight Sutherland vs Guillaume Fortier

Ronson Sabourin vs Chris Myra

Agostino DeNatale vs Kyle Anderson

Travis Gervais vs Justin Bloomer

Today’s big news from the Ultimate Fighting Championship was the announcement that the promotion would be opening a full time office in Toronto, which will be headed by ex-Canadian Football League Commissioner Tom Wright.

UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta made the announcement today at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, he was accompanied by UFC president Dana White.

Wright served as the Commissioner for the CFL from 2002 to 2006 helping to increase television revenues and sponsorship for the league. He’s also served as president for Adidas Canada, Spalding Canada, as well as being the president and CEO of Salomon North America. His last post saw him acting as the Managing Director of LEVEL5 Strategic Brand Advisors in Toronto. He will start his new job with the UFC on Monday.

“The reality is, is that Canada is an important market for us,” Fertitta said. “If you look at Toronto, which I believe is the fourth-largest commercial business area in North America behind New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. So it obviously makes sense from a business standpoint. Plus the fact that a lot of our partners that we deal with from a television standpoint and other areas are based here in Toronto. So physically doing business in Toronto is important for us.”

“When we thought about what we had accomplished in the U.S. … we decided we had a product we really wanted to take global,” Fertitta said. “Obviously things have gone well for us in the U.K. and Europe.

“As we sit here today, our focus is now Canada.”

No exact location for the office was identified but it will house a staff of 12-15 employees and will be just the second UFC office outside of the US, with the other being the UK office in London.

The UFC will host their next Canadian event on June 12 in Vancouver with UFC 115 and finished their last Canadian show in Montreal just a few weeks ago with UFC 113. The other Zuffa owned mma promotion, World Extreme Cagefighting get’s set to host their first Canadian event in Edmonton on June 20th with WEC 49.

White has coveted the city of Toronto as one of the biggest untapped markets in North America but current laws classify mixed-martial-arts as prize fighting, illegal in the Province, so the door remains closed to the sport for now.

A full time office in Canada, run by a Canadian, will help to open doors allowing the UFC to lobby the various Provinces which have not sanctioned the sport of mma.

Note: After the press conference White flew immediately to New York so he could appear on tonight’s episode of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” on NBC.

The show will air at 12:35 a.m. ET/PT.

Ultimate Fighting Championships officials today announced they'll open a dedicated Canadian office and have named former Canadian Football League Commissioner and one-time Adidas Canadian president Tom Wright as the division's new head.

UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and UFC president Dana White made
the announcement today at a press conference at the Rogers Centre in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The Canadian city, which is the country's largest, will be home to the UFC's Canadian office.

Just a reminder, the UFC will be holding a press conference today from the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario and will be making a “major announcement.”

Speakers too include UFC president Dana White and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta who will host a Q&A session after the announcement.

Rumor surrounding the announcement is that the UFC has reserved a date for the Rogers Centre on March 26, 2011.

If that is true, this would mean that the Province of Ontario will be legalizing mixed-martial-arts and opening a huge market for the sport.

Watch the live video stream by clicking the link HERE.

The UFC will is holding a press conference on Tuesday at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada this coming Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET (10 p.m. PT). Speaking will be UFC Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta and UFC President Dana White.

The UFC has long coveted Ontario as one of the last bastions to be conquered in the drive to bring their brand of MMA to North American fans. With highly successful shows in Montreal, ranking in top five for gate and attendance records, as well as the upcoming UFC 115 event in Vancouver next month, which sold out in record time, an event in Toronto could break all previous marks held by other UFC events.

Currently mixed-martial-arts is illegal in Ontario and the UFC has been lobbying hard to have the Criminal Code changed to legalize the sport. UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre was a recent spokesman for the promotion in helping to lobby the Provincial Government to change the law.

In a recent article from Sportsnet.ca, sources informed them that the UFC has tentatively booked the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jay’s baseball team, for an event on March 26th.

Numerous sources have informed me that the organization has reserved Saturday March 26th, 2011 as their first foray into the province of Ontario. This will also mark the UFC’s first event to be held inside a stadium.

The Rogers Centre, with it’s retractable roof, can seat over 46,000 fans for baseball and football, but when floor seats are added, the number dramatically increases to over 65,000. The current record for paid attendance is 68,237, set by Wrestlemania X8, on March 17th, 2002.

Adding more speculation is a recent message from the Canadian based Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich, who stated on his Twitter page that his organization is looking to book an event in early 2011.

The Maximum Fighting Championship Canada’s leading Mixed Martial Arts Organization would like to announce a tentative date in Ontario in Late February 2011. It’s not sanctioned yet but we will just let everyone know we will be there when it is.

Tuesday could be a very exciting day for mixed-martial-arts fans in Canada.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Legalize MMA Part 3 (Toronto)
HT: EkkoMMA.com

Press Release

TORONTO (May 12, 2010) – On Saturday, May 22, 2010, the movement to bring Mixed Martial Arts to Ontario gathers for a high energy outdoor rally at Queen’s Park.

MMA Day
Queen’s Park, front lawn of the Legislature Building
University Avenue and College Street
Saturday May 22, 2010
1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM – Press Conference on site

The First Annual MMA Day, organized by Toronto-based Mixed Martial Arts Expo, will bring together the Ontario citizens, families and businesses that see great benefit in having Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) recognized as another combative sport in Ontario, as boxing has been for over eighty years. The growing list of Ontario supporters of MMA includes:

- Suppliers and retailers of martial arts gear and apparel
- Traditional martial art schools and MMA training facilities
- Distributors of supplements, nutrition products and energy drinks
- Fitness facilities and personal trainers
- Health, wellness and sports medicine companies
- Professional and amateur fighters and coaches
- Fight promoters, agents and managers
- Facility suppliers, designers and equipment manufacturers
- Tattoo shops and artists
- Photography and videography industry
- Radio and television broadcasting
- Publishers of MMA magazines and websites
- Authors and publishers of martial arts training materials
- Martial arts and MMA associations
- Website development companies
- Ticketing agencies
- Tour Bus Operators
- Hotels, convention centres and arenas
- A/V, Staging and Lighting Industry
- Restaurant Industry
- Tourism Industry

The event will be hosted by Ontario businessman, radio announcer and mixed martial artist instructor and competitor, Jeff Joslin. Also in attendance on the dais will be representatives from the tourism and hospitality industries, local and provincial politicians and many of the brightest stars in the Ontario MMA community including:

- “Showdown Joe” Ferraro – MMA Analyst; Host of MMA Connected on Rogers Sportsnet
- Loudon Owen – Chairman of the Fight Network
- Carlos Newton – Business Owner; First-ever Canadian UFC Champion
- Mark Hominick – Business Owner; professional MMA fighter
- Sam Stout – Business Owner; UFC Lightweight Contender
- Sean Pierson – Bellator Welterweight Pro Fighter
- Shah Franco – BJJ and MMA Instructor; Pro Fighter Coach

MMA Day organizer and president of Mixed Martial Arts Expo, Gerald Chopik, states that, “MMA Day on May 22 gives Ontario families, related industry workers and MMA athletes and fans and the opportunity to raise awareness about not only how they – but the province at large – will benefit from MMA being sanctioned in Ontario.”

To be kept apprised of the day’s activities MMA Day supporters are encouraged to join the Facebook event page at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114793371892846