Entrepreneur, MMA Promoter, Fighter?

Affliction’s Tom Atencio is a man of many talents. Not content with building up a highly successful clothing empire or promoting mixed martial arts events in California, he’s slipping on the four-ounce gloves and getting ready for his second MMA fight. Unsurprisingly, he won’t be competing on an Affliction event though!

Atencio, who is 1-0-0 in MMA, will appear on a pay-per-view event in Biloxi, Mississippi. Headlining the show will be former WWE wrestler Bobby Lashley vs heavyweight actor-cum-fighter Bob Sapp.

“I love this industry and I just want to fight. I love this sport and I am not a wannabe. I’ve fought before and I have respect for anyone who steps into the ring win, lose or draw. They’re doing something that most of the world will never do.”

Atencio last fought in January 2005 when he won over unheralded David Martinez, who was 1-0-0 at the time. When asked why he decided to resume his MMA fighting career, Atencio simple said “I love my life”.

James Irvin: unluckiest man in MMA

Our friends at Fightlinker.com compiled a nice but nasty list of the shitty things that have happened to James Irvin over the last couple of years. They joked that he might have been cursed as a child, but they could well be right! Some of Irvin’s unluckiest moments include:

Falling out of the Strikeforce cage against Bobby Southworth, which injured his leg
His knee spontaneously exploding in his fight with Thiago Silva at UFC 71
Being KO’d by Luis Cane with an illegal knee at UFC 79
Breaking his foot in training, which cancelled his scheduled fight against Rashad Evans at UFC 85
Getting hooked on methadone for the broken foot
Being suspended for nine months after testing positive for methadone
Blowing out his knee once again, which.cancels his comeback fight at UFC 98.

Mir eyes up Fedor

Who does Frank Mir want to fight more than anyone else? “Fedor! I don’t want to leave this life without ever having been in with Fedor,” he said in a recent interview. “I want to see how hard he hits, I want to feel that punch. I don’t think it’s fair that other people have been hit in the face by him and I haven’t. That’s not right, I deserve to be hit too!”

He may be speaking with his tongue firmly in his cheek, but the heavyweight submission specialist is definitely keen to try his luck against the Russian. “Technically, I have to say he’s the best heavyweight in the world, he has a better record than I have. Do I feel that I could beat Fedor? Absolutely.”

Coutures on the rocks

Randy Couture has served his wife Kim with divorce papers. They have been married for over two years.

Kim had pulled out of her Strikeforce fight with Meisha Tate for undisclosed reasons, and rumours of marital problems between the former UFC heavyweight champion and his wife had begun to circulate. Days later, the news was revealed of the impending divorce. No details are public at this time. This will be Randy’s third divorce.

UFC in Boston?

The UFC is thought to be making headway in Dana White’s old stomping grounds of Massachusetts. The Boston-born president of the UFC has expressed a desire to take the UFC to the Bay State, and the process of regulation seems to be making progress.

Lawrence Epstein, lawyers hired by the UFC, provided the results of a study that projected a UFC event in Boston would bring in $12.3 million. Top UFC fighters such as Kenny Florian and Joe Lauzon call Massachusetts home, along with many more aspiring fighters. “I graduated from Boston College, and it’s been a dream of mine to be able to fight in the state of Massachusetts,” Florian told a panel considering the UFC’s status in the state. When asked how quickly the UFC could organise an event in Massachusetts, Epstein replied, “We could hold one here at the earliest in the third week of November.”

Gomi talks about the future

Once upon a time, Takanori Gomi was considered one of the best lightweight fighters in the world. ‘The Fireball Kid’ ruled the Shoot and Pride rings, but has struggled to maintain his form over the last few years.

Fighting on the Shooto 20th anniversary event, Gomi looked a little like his old self when he knocked out his opponent Takashi Nakakura. Commenting before the event that it was “do or die” time, Gomi ruminated over his position in the sport with the little time he feels he has left.

“I’ve been a pro for about 10 years. MMA is starting to lose its popularity a little bit here, and a lot of people in Japan don’t really know what’s going on in places like the UFC and all that,” he said. “My mental mindset in coming back. Day by day, my chances become fewer and fewer, and the window to challenge myself overseas gets smaller and smaller. The opportunities are less and less now. My time is running out.”

Adding that he would like to “test the waters overseas”, Gomi also dropped a not-so subtle hint, telling the assembled reporters, “Tell Dana White I said, ‘hi!’”

‘King of the Guillotine’ to return to Japan

Alexandre Franca ‘Pequeno’ Nogueira will return to MMA later this summer. The featherweight submission specialist will most likely sign with Japanese show Sengoku.

‘Pequeno’ is currently under suspension after testing positive for the steroid boldenone following a loss to Jose Aldo in the WEC. With his suspension now over, he is keen to get back into the ring.

“I’m going straight to Sengoku. The fans are asking for me to make my return there. Financially speaking, the event pays even more than the WEC,” said Pequeno, who fought a total of 19 times in Japan. “My suspension is up and I should be back in the ring in August in an under 65kg fight.”

Though he was under the one-year suspension, he says his departure from the WEC was on friendly terms. “The WEC released me from my contract. My manager spoke with them and thought it best to put me in Japan. The promoters there want me in their event. They said my career started there, my whole life was in Japan and that I couldn’t not be there. They said I was born in Japan and that I had to fight there till I retire. So I told them it’s a deal.”

‘Pequeno’ came out with one of the most unusual excuses for testing positive for the banned substance boldenone. He claims the boldenone entered his system after he ate contaminated goat meat at a restaurant that specializes in barbequed meat.

Griffin asks what he did wrong

When a serious-looking Dana White asked Forrest Griffin for a quick talk during a photo shoot, Griffin’s response was “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

All White wanted to do was propose a fight between Griffin and Anderson Silva in August. Griffin agreed, but you can’t help but feel a fight with Anderson Silva is a punishment for something! Griffin wasn’t bothered by the prospect of switching opponents though (he was originally scheduled to meet Thiago Silva). “They came to me and said, ‘Hey Forrest, you want to fight a different Silva?’ and I said ‘Sure’. This ain’t rocket science. If they ask me to fight someone, I’ll fight someone.”

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