Issue 110
January 2014
The role of a referee in a hockey fight is to basically wait for an opportunity to break up the scrap. Which is usually when one or both participants fall to the ice, or they both get tired due to spamming each other with haymakers.
Swedish ref Sören Persson could not give a fudge about all that. Especially when he’s manhandled by former Dallas Stars draft pick Marius Holtet in a mass melee in the Swedish Hockey League.
In October, Persson was in the middle of cooling off fisticuffs involving several players of the Växjö Lakers and Färjestads when he tried to pull Holtet up off the ice after he barreled into the fray. But Holtet, not realizing the person grabbing his jersey was a ref, tried to pin Persson to the floor.
Despite Holtet’s top game, Persson got to his feet and wrapped the right winger up in a standing guillotine then dragged him from the scuffle. Clearly the official knew what he was doing; Holtet tapped seconds later.
Will other refs start biting back in other sports? We’d pay to see big-ol’ Dan Miragliotta take exception to an infraction with a ‘Showtime’ kick.
Las Vegas, Nevada: Calm down, Lingerie Fighting Championships isn't really what you think it is
Ever thought this sport was lacking a mockumentary based around a fictional lingerie MMA promotion? You did? You’re weird.
Regardless, it’s here. A real thing with a Facebook page that apparently has 50,000 likes. It’s like an internet-quality comedy series executed with porn-level acting that has the made-up Lingerie Fighting Championships as its subject.
The story goes that fighters compete under MMA rules wearing skimpy outfits having been split into two teams that train in the same gym under coaches who come out with lines like: “No, I mean I’ve never seen, like, a full MMA fight.”
The first episode was made available via pay-per-view (it’s odd, we know) in mid October. It goes international in March. Unfortunately, for those of you who are the kind to shout lurid things at ring girls, the content is purely PG stuff.
UFC takes trio of top Japanese talent
Well regarded Japanese fighters Tatsuya Kawajiri, Katsunori Kikuno and Sunichi Shimizu have signed with the UFC. The 35-year-old ‘Crusher’ Kawajiri (32-7-2) is well known to hardcore MMA fans, having fought names such as Gilbert Melendez and Eddie Alvarez across Pride, Strikeforce and Dream.
A featherweight in recent years, he fought much of his career at 155lb, where countryman Kikuno has also notched a 21-5-2 record with a 67% finish rate. The former Deep lightweight champ has never been knocked out. Shimizu, a 28-8-10 bantamweight, is a ZST and Pancrase star who once fought his own brother.
336
At 336, Canadian ice hockey player Tie Domi is thought to have the record for most fights in history at the sport’s highest level, the NHL.
Pancrase partners with WSOF, permanently adopts cage and Unified Rules
Storied Japanese MMA promotion Pancrase will hold all fight cards within a 10-sided cage instead of a roped ring after partnering with the US-based World Series of Fighting (WSOF). The Pancrase organization, which actually predates the 20-year-old UFC by nearly two months, will also start using the Unified Rules that are utilized by WSOF and are common around the world.
March 30th will see Pancrase’s final use of the ring, while WSOF is planning on holding its first branded event in Japan in early 2014.
7
In September, UFC president Dana White mistakenly said the promotion was looking to hold 13 events in Brazil in 2014. Apparently it will be closer to seven, the same amount as took place in 2013.
