Issue 087
April 2012
UFC VP SEEKS WORLDWIDE FEDERATION OF MMA
UFC vice president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner says he wants to see the formation of an international governing body for mixed martial arts. The former head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and the UFC are working towards an international federation that would regulate all the necessary facets of the sport, from worldwide rules to drugs testing
Ratner told USA Today: “There’s a Swedish federation, and we’re working with them right now. We’re hoping that there’s going to be an Italian one formed. When we were in Brazil we were meeting with different people there to have a Brazilian federation.” Currently, the UFC self-regulates when it visits a country without a local or national governing body for mixed martial arts competition. Ratner says the plan is to model the federation after the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations.
“They have little federations of countries involved. We’re going to use that kind of model, and try to find a federation in all of these countries and try to put them all altogether. Will it happen overnight? No. It’s going to take years. What you want in this federation is like a pyramid. On the bottom of the pyramid would be amateur fighters, because you need to get those organized too. Then you go a little bit higher, next step might be, maybe semi-pro or something like that, and then all the way to the pinnacle, which would be the top fighters in the world.”
SIX DEGREES OF DAN SEVERN
Linking the legendary moustache-wearing UFC Hall of Famer to any fighter in six people or less.
Thiago Alves
1. Dan Severn fought and lost to Royce Gracie by triangle choke in the final of
UFC 4 in Oklahoma in 1994.
2. Royce Gracie took on Matt Hughes in the highly anticipated main event of UFC 60 in 2006. Hughes TKO’d Gracie at 4:39
of the first.
3. In 2008, Matt Hughes was knocked out by late replacement Thiago Alves via flying knee at UFC 85 in London.
MAXIMO BLANCO COMPLETES UFC SWITCH WITH ATLANTA BOUT
Venezuelan fighter Maximo Blanco will complete his switch from Strikeforce to its comrade organization the UFC with a fight at UFC 145 in April. Blanco is scheduled to face Ultimate Fighter alumnus Marcus Brimage at the Altlanta event at a new weight of 145lb.
A drop to featherweight from lightweight following a submission loss to Pat Healy in the second round of his Strikeforce debut in September prompted the roster jump. Blanco, who first featured in Fighters Only in February last year, was a former standout of now-defunct Japanese promotion Sengoku.
ANTHONY JOHNSON DROPPED BY UFC FOLLOWING THIRD WEIGHT CUT SNAFU
Longtime UFC fighter Anthony Johnson has been dropped by the promotion following his failure to make weight prior to his bout with Vitor Belfort at UFC 142 in Rio. Health issues during his first weight cut to 185lb for his middleweight debut in January meant doctors forced the former welterweight to rehydrate prior to stepping on the scales at the official weigh-in, leaving him at 197lb, 11lb over the weight limit. It was Johnson’s third failed weigh-in of his UFC career which, along with his subsequent choke submission to Belfort in the co-main event of UFC 142, caused the termination of his contract with the world’s largest promotion. UFC president Dana White told reporters the incident “was one of the most unprofessional things I’ve ever seen.”
$100,000
UFC featherweight George Roop estimates that between fight purses, bonuses and sponsorships he made around $100,000 before tax from his three UFC bouts in 2011
204.2lb
After missing his 185lb target 24 hours before, ex-UFC middleweight Anthony Johnson weighed in at 204.2lb on the day of his bout with Vitor Belfort at UFC 142
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