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MMA veteran Justin Levens and wife found shot dead in California home Posted: 18 Dec 2008 08:04 AM CST Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and International Fight League (IFL) veteran, Justin Levens, was found dead Wednesday afternoon in his Laguna Niguel, Calif., condominium, according to several published reports. The wife of the 28-year-old mixed martial arts veteran, Sarah McLean-Levens, was also killed in the incident. She was just 25 years old. Both were apparently victims of lethal gun shot wounds. The unfortunate finding is being described as a possible murder/suicide. Levens last competed inside the Octagon against Evan Tanner at UFC 59: "Reality Check" back in April 2006, losing to former middleweight champion Evan Tanner in the first round via submission (triangle choke). He dropped his last fight against Kenny Ento at Palace Fighting Championships (PFC) 4: "Project Complete" in October 2007. It was his fifth consecutive defeat and the eighth in his last 10 fights. More on this disturbing and unfortunate situation as it unfolds.

UFC Fight Night 17 poster for Tampa, Fla., Feb. 7 Posted: 18 Dec 2008 06:37 AM CST For more details on UFC Fight Night 17 click here and here.

Rashad Evans set to ‘put it on’ Forrest Griffin at UFC 92 (Video) Posted: 17 Dec 2008 07:38 PM CST

Tito Ortiz to Affliction … as announcer for ‘Day of Reckoning’ Posted: 17 Dec 2008 04:18 PM CST Perhaps the top free agent in mixed martial arts and one of the biggest draws in the history of the sport, Tito Ortiz, announced today that he will join the Affliction MMA broadcast team for “Day of Reckoning” on January 24. When it was announced last week that Ortiz would be the special guest at today’s press conference, the rumors of a possible deal between the two sides for him to compete for the promotion ran wild. However, he made it clear that this announcement does not mean he has signed on to fight for Affliction. Here’s a snip from the presser via Sherdog.com: “This has nothing to do with me fighting for Affliction. I've been fighting for 11 years, so I think I know a thing or two about fighting.” This will be the second event in the young history of the organization. At the first show - “Banned” - in July, sports reporter and announcer Jay Glazer, veteran MMA fighter Frank Trigg and long time referee “Big” John McCarthy served as the announce team. This time, however, Tito will work along side play-by-play announcer Sean Wheelock and color commentator Jimmy Smith — the duo that calls the action for the M-1 Global events that air weekly on HDNet. Ortiz is coming off back surgery that he has stated will keep him out of action until the summer of 2009. The actual surgery took place on October 6. UFC middleweight fighter Nate Quarry had the same procedure done earlier in his career and was able to return to the octagon in nine months, making Tito’s estimate pretty accurate. It’s also been mentioned that he has a non-compete renegotiation clause from his UFC contract that allows the Zuffa boys to match another promotion’s offer if they chose to. Apparently that runs out in June, which is right around the time he expects to be back in action. Realistically it might not be until then when we finally get to see who the former UFC light heavyweight champion lands with. He last competed against and lost to Lyoto Machida by unanimous decision at UFC 84: “Ill Will” on May 24. The saga continues.

WECs Will Ribeiro in life-threatening motorcycle wreck Posted: 17 Dec 2008 01:32 PM CST Sad news was reported yesterday: Two-fight World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) bantamweight veteran Will Ribeiro (10-2) was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, early Tuesday morning. He was apparently the passenger on the bike and wasn’t wearing a helmet. It was also reported that it was raining that night and the roads were extra slippery at the time of the accident. Ribeiro was rushed to Andaraí's Hospital where he received immediate emergency surgery. However, it’s still uncertain whether or not he’ll be able to make a full recovery. A sorrowful Ed Soares — Ribeiro’s manager –had this to say about the devastating news: “My assistant said that the doctor said for sure that he has lost sight in one of his eyes. He's still in a coma. After surgery the doctor said there is a 50-50 shot that he will come out of it (survive).” Ribeiro fought on the WEC 37 main card two weeks ago in Las Vegas, Nevada, against top division contender Brian Bowles. While he came up short in the fight, he was still able to showcase his exciting style to a live television audience on the Versus network and certainly won over some new fans that night. However, his fighting career is more than likely in jeopardy with the reports of his lost eyesight in one of his eyes. But right now he’s fighting for his life and there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to win that battle. His fighting career is probably the furthest thing from his friends and family’s thoughts. Ribeiro lost both his parents at a young age and was put in a position where he basically had to raise his 12-year-old sister. Soares also spoke about that a little bit in his statement and what he had to say told a lot about the kind of person Will Ribeiro is. Here’s a snip: "He's a very positive guy, very hard-working, a good person. He had had a very rough life. His mother passed away like seven years ago and he took over the care of his younger sister. He's like a father-brother-mother to her. I'm still crushed right now." Let’s all keep Ribeiro and his family in your prayers and let’s hope he can pull through.

Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishi headed for American Top Team Posted: 17 Dec 2008 11:49 AM CST What is ‘Benedict Arnold’ translated into Japanese? After flirting with DREAM, Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii has opted to pursue a career in the UFC rather than the Japanese promotion according to Fighters Only Magazine. Quoteworthy: "I made up my mind finally - the UFC is where I want to fight. I’m a white belt in MMA. I understand the possibility of starting from WEC. If I was an unknown judoka, I would definitely build up my MMA experience in Japan first. However, I have decided put my Judo gold medal to use. I believe my name value will attract the UFC." Ishii was expected to make his mixed martial arts debut on New Year's Eve at the FieLDS Dynamite!! supershow scheduled for the end of this year. He verbally agreed to sign with Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) and even held a fan club celebration party on November 3. The 22-year old Ishii was apologetic for his failure to commit, and his hero status could take a serious hit when he heads to the famed American Top Team (ATT) camp in March of 2009. This isn’t the first time Ishii has made noise in the world of MMA. After winning his gold medal in Beijing, Ishii issued an open challenge to heavyweight deity Fedor Emelianenko. I guess he didn't see what Fedor did to silver medalist Naoya Ogawa at PRIDE Final Conflict back in 2004. Fedor of course smiled and went about his business, as Ishii has yet to prove that he can transition from Judo to mixed martial arts - and a few questions have been raised of his ability to strike (or be struck). In addition, his Judo Federation doesn't seem too keen on the idea of him making the jump from Judo to mixed martial arts, despite Ishii's persistence. From Tokyo’s Kokushikan University program leader Kazuo Yoshimura: "This guy turns everybody into an enemy. He’d better get out [of Japan] without delay.” Ishii is young, brash and shooting for a spot on the UFC roster. Maybe he can audition for The Ultimate Fighter Season 10.

Ken Shamrock heading for ‘Massacre’ on February 13 Posted: 17 Dec 2008 10:37 AM CST Guess who’s back, back again. Shammy’s back, tell a can. Ken Shamrock will return to mixed martial arts competition on February 13 as part of the ‘Valentine’s Eve Massacre’ event in Fresno, California co-promoted between Wargods and Ken Shamrock Productions, according to MMAWeekly. No opponent has been named but expected to appear on the card are Wargods’ heavyweight champion Lavar "Big" Johnson, Buddy Roberts, Mike Moreno, Tonya Evinger, Jennifer Tate and Isaac De Jesus. Also appearing is the world’s most dangerous offspring, Ryan Shamrock (1-1). Ken (26-13-2) is a mixed martial arts pioneer who has not won a professional fight in more than four years. In fact, he has lost eight of his last 10 fights dating back to 2001 and he's on a five-fight losing skid. A UFC Hall of Fame inductee, Ken dropped his first and only bout under the ProElite banner, losing to Robert "Buzz" Berry via knockout at Cage Rage 25: "Bring it On" earlier this year. It was supposed to be a warm-up for the "World's Most Dangerous Man" to groom him for a big money match down the road against either Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson or Ken’s younger brother, Frank. He didn't deliver … and he rarely does these days. Shammy was eventually matched up against Kimbo at EliteXC’s “Saturday Night Fights” on October 4 on CBS, but was forced to withdraw — literally hours before showtime — after an errant headbutt in sparring opened up a severe laceration above his eye. UFC castaway and undercard fighter Seth Petruzelli took his place and the rest (as they say) is history. Ken Shamrock apparently, is not.

UFC Quick Quotes: ‘Tis the season to get into a fight Posted: 17 Dec 2008 10:19 AM CST "I never really liked the holidays anyway." – Forrest Griffin "I've been in camp for about seven weeks now. I guess all the holidays have kind of lost their significance. It's going to be sad that I'm not going to be there with my kids and everything, cause I really look forward to that. It's just going to be another day and then we'll celebrate later on." – Rashad Evans "They're going to come see me on the 25th and everything. Then we'll celebrate Christmas afterwards. It's all good, it's my job. All my kids know what dad does — I'm a fighter. That's the job that God gave me." – Quinton “Rampage” Jackson – Several UFC 92 fighters talk via the Las Vegas Sun about training for their respective fights, which take place just two days after Christmas on December 27. It appears that most are not focused on the holiday season and will likely celebrate when the lights go down at the MGM Grand Garden Arena … some more than others.

BJ Penn show video (Episode three) Posted: 17 Dec 2008 09:28 AM CST Covers how he got started in jiu-jitsu/MMA:

Affliction: ‘Day of Reckoning’ PPV to go head-to-head with UFC 91 replay on Spike TV Jan. 24 Posted: 17 Dec 2008 08:38 AM CST It's déjà vu all over again for Affliction MMA on January 24. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has once again scheduled big-time Spike TV programming to counter an event from the upstart promotion. "Day of Reckoning" is the sophomore effort for Affliction, featuring one of the most anticipated fights in the history of the sport between WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko and former UFC title holder Andrei Arlovski. It's a very important show for the future of Affliction, meaning that it needs as many fans as possible to tune in and purchase its pay-per-view (PPV) offering. But, as usual, Dana White and Co. are going to do their best to ensure that doesn't happen. On the same night and at the same time, Spike TV will debut UFC 91: "Couture vs. Lesnar," which was billed as the "biggest fight in UFC history," hauling in the second biggest pay-per-view (PPV) booty ever for Zuffa. Lesnar defeated Randy Couture via second round technical knockout to capture the heavyweight crown in the UFC 91 main event. Kenny Florian toppled Joe Stevenson with a first round submission in the co-featured bout of the evening, reinforcing his position as the clearcut number one title contender in the 155-pound division. It originally took place on November 15, 2008. This latest news, of course, is made worse for Affliction because Golden Boy Promotions, which is supposed to be a promotional partner, is hosting a welterweight superfight between four-time world champion "Sugar" Shane Mosley and Mexican sensation Antonio Margarito also on January 24. "Day of Reckoning" has already been postponed — it was supposed to be held on October 11, 2008, before being moved to the new date. Perhaps the powers that be at Affliction are now wondering if they played that card a little too soon. January 24 has turned into a crazy uphill battle … as if pulling off a successful mixed martial arts show wasn't difficult enough on its own. (Note that UFC 84: “Ill Will” aired opposite “Banned” on July 26 and UFC 87: “Seek and Destroy” debuted on Spike TV October 11 — the original date for “Day of Reckoning.” UFC also used to counter program Elite XC when the promotion held events on CBS.)

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