Q & A with Aggressive Combat Championship Boss Eugene Perez

NEW YORK

Aggressive Combat Championship 6 is the next big MMA show on deck for New York City, with an installment all set for Saturday night at York College in Jamaica, Queens. Yes, there will be fighters, both of the amateur MMA and Muay Thai variety, and a number of local schools will be well-represented.

By way of a preview, The MMA Journalist caught up with Eugene Perez - one of the men behind Aggressive - for a quick Q & A session. Enjoy!

Long-Running New Jersey MMA School Shutters Its Doors

NEW JERSEY

Sad news coming out of New Jersey, as longtime MMA coach Phil Dunlap announced on Facebook that his school - the Asylum Fight Gym - would be closing. Citing personal health concerns as the main reason, the 51-year old Dunlap stated:

Due to recent circumstances I regret to announce I am forced to close the Asylum Fight Gym / I LoveKickboxing Ramsey as it exists today.. This is the most difficult decision I ever have had to make as I feel like I am letting my family down. Events have conspired to leave me little to no options and I wish things were different.

As a practitioner of the Burmese martial arts, Dunlap and his team have been a fixture in the Northeast MMA scene since its inception. Notable fighters who have flown the AFS banner include Mark Getto, who was a Combat in the Cage champ, and Ethan Gomes and Brad Batemen, who have been making a mark on the New York amateur circuit as of late.

Bjorn Rebney on the Battle for MMA in New York: "I've Stayed Out of It"

BELLATOR

The Latin Post doesn't paint an optimistic picture of how things are going this year with the battle to get the New York State legislature to lift the pro MMA ban, but they did a great job in reaching out to Bellator frontman Bjorn Rebney to get his insight.

Everyone is well aware of Zuffa's Sisyphean efforts for the cause. But what has Bellator and Rebney done?

Miesha Tate and Dennis Bermudez Promote UFC's Anti-HIV Campaign in New York

UFC

It's not every day you get to watch two top UFC fighters take an HIV test, but at today's press conference to kick off the New York leg of the UFC's "Protect Yourself" campaign - which aims to raise awareness of the deadly disease - that's exactly what happened.

Present at the Latino Commission on AIDS' office in Manhattan were female bantamweight contender Miesha Tate and TUF runner-up Dennis Bermudez, and in the spirit of "knowing your status", they each swabbed their mouths for an HIV test. (Pro fighters, especially those in the UFC, are regularly screened for blood-borne pathogens, so Tate's and Bermudez's HIV status really is no mystery. It was a good, symbolic gesture, though.)