GLORY Fighter Mark Miller Needs Help

AWESOME

GLORY fighter Mark Miller is in dire medical straits. But his sponsor, HeadBlade, is stepping up to help. Here's Liverkick.com with some details:

HeadBlade, one of Mark’s sponsors has recognized how tough this HeadBlade user has been over the years and now they are looking to give back to Miller with your help. HeadBlade will be running a special, two-week long campaign to help raise money for Mark where using the coupon code “FightShark” at checkout will get you a 10% discount off of their entire stock, with a portion of the proceeds going to help Mark with his medical bills. So if you are sporting a freshly-shaved head, want to, or know someone that does head over to http://www.HeadBlade.com and enter the code “FightShark” at checkout to receive an instant 10% discount and to help out the storied Kickboxer.

VICTORY 5: The Next Big Must-See MMA Event in NYC

NEW YORK

The next big must-see MMA event in New York City is without a doubt Victory Combat Sports' April 25 installment, which promises to once again fill the Armory on Lexington Avenue with thrilling, high-quality violence.

VICTORY 5 will have lightweight champ Marcus Surin defending his belt, while Golden MMA welterweight champ Bernardo Cano will attempt to be a cross-promotional title holder when he takes on Rob Ovalle for the VCS 170-pound strap.

April 25 will also see the opening rounds of featherweight and lightweight four-man tournaments.

Thus far, VCS has done a spectacular job putting forth a quality product, and VICTORY 5 should be no different. You can bet that I'll be cageside for this one.

Sherdog Gives CFFC Some Much Deserved Love

NEW JERSEY

Local promotions come and go, so one true benchmark of success is longevity - a trait the New Jersey-based Cage Fury Fighting Championship definitely has (their first show was back in 2006). But another sign that they're doing something right is the number of talented fighters who use the organization as a stepping stone to the "big show", and in that regard, CFFC is kicking ass.

Veteran Sherdog scribe Lutfi Sariahmed, whose beat is the New Jersey circuit, goes into a bit of detail about CFFC and that latter gauge of success in this piece. It's for sure some well-deserved acknowledgment of the product CFFC is churning out. Give it a read.

Throwback Thursday: Greg Soto vs. Andrew Montanez

NEW JERSEY

February 18, 2006. That's the date this pic was taken, a pic that has future UFC fighter Greg Soto taking on Andrew Montanez in a cage erected in Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Can you guess what makes what's going on in it so momentous? If you said that it's the first ever amateur MMA event in New Jersey, well, wow, you got that one correct and I'm pretty damn impressed.

Constitutional Insurgency: Inside Zuffa's Other Battle for MMA in New York

NEW YORK

Wars nowadays are rarely fought with two armies advancing upon each other, guns and cannons firing into the approaching massed ranks while generals stand upon hilltops to watch their marching wooden pieces fall. No, conflicts are instead contested on different fronts, with different tactics and kinds of soldiers, soldiers waging battles quite unlike what’s transpiring on that very open and bloody field.

In the First Boer War, it was Dutch settlers-turned-guerrillas, skirmishing against British rule, while in the Second World War, French and Polish resistance fighters made life rough for occupying Germans. More recently, the opening phase of Operation Enduring Freedom saw small groups of U.S. Special Forces unite Afghanistan tribesman to topple the Taliban government.

And in New York, while a very public and political war is being waged by lobbyists and legislators in Albany to change the law banning professional mixed martial arts – a law in place since 1997 – a squad of irregulars (a.k.a., lawyers) are emerging from the brush to attack and raid and set fire to the very Constitutionality the law was presumed to have been constructed upon.

On Tuesday I saw that side of the war up close, and amidst the flying bullets and sudden charges with fixed bayonets, I was able to stick my head up and survey the melee.

From what I could see, it’s going pretty damn well for those who want pro MMA in New York.

Even More Fighting in Central Park

NEW YORK

The most notable thing about this video of Sunday's sparring session in Central Park is not that it was somewhat chilly out and yet Will Cavali wore a short-sleeve shirt. No, what's notable is that there's someone out there with the nickname "Blackie Chan".

Badass New York MMA Video

NEW YORK

Columbia School of Journalism students are the best, especially when they choose MMA in New York as a topic for their projects and dive head-first into the realm of Big Apple fistfights with their cameras at the ready. Here's one such example, courtesy of Gretchen Malalad. She went to a recent UCL and a NYFE, and captured a good bit of stuff. Enjoy!

More Fighting in Central Park

NEW YORK

This is New York City, so it's no thing to walk through Central Park and see some dudes fighting. What would be odd and out of the ordinary is to see fights in Central Park that aren't to the death, but that's a story for another day.

Here's Wing Chun Man Shawn Obasi taking on MUSU's Will Cavali. Enjoy.

Flashback: The Underground Combat League - 12.11.11

NEW YORK

From 2003 to 2012, the only consistent option for watching MMA fights up close and personal in New York City was the Underground Combat League. At the UCL, aspiring fighters took on fakes and wannabes, thugs squared up against martial artists, and about an equal number of the truly talented battled it out with stone-cold psychopaths and villains. The rules were nebulous. Safety precautions were nonexistent. And to know of an upcoming event was to be part of an extremely selective circle of people.

Yeah, it was awesome.

Oh, This? It's Just Some Sunday Sparring in Central Park

NEW YORK

For some, Sunday means a Bloody Mary or Mimosa with brunch, grocery shopping and vegging out in front of the TV. But for others, it means some Wing Chun vs. Tae Kwon Do sparring in Central Park.

Observations From My Couch: UFC Fight Night "Shogun vs. Henderson 2"

UFC

• Hans Stringer, Kenny Robertson, Michel Prazeres... remember the good old days when you'd watch a UFC and recognize the fighters in the cage?
• Is it me or has the badass, ultra-dangerous Scott Jorgensen fallen off the face of the Earth and now we have this version that kind of sucks?
• Steven Siler got hosed pretty bad with that stoppage. Like, super-duper bad.

This is What Happens When Patricky Pitbull Fights the Best

BELLATOR

Patricky Pitbull is making his way through yet another lightweight tournament, and he literally punched his ticket to the semifinals on Friday night by knocking Dave Rickels out in sudden and violent fashion. Okay, cool, Pitbull is tough. Now let's not forget what happens when he faces the absolute upper echelon of fighters in the organization's 155-pound weight class...

Sunday Link Dump - 3.23.14

NEW YORK

There's some pretty crucial stuff going down with the Zuffa vs. New York lawsuit lately. The discovery phase is in full swing, witnesses are giving depositions, duels with swords and pistols every other day - it's exciting!

Anyway, today's link dump is a mixed bag of stuff that's very relevant to Northeast MMA. Read it and learn something.

• Nevada is still looking for a replacement for Keith Kizer on the athletic commission, and New Jersey's commissioner, Aaron Davis, made the short list of candidates. Well, scratch his name off. He's staying right here.
• Marcus Surin is Victory Combat Sports' welterweight champ. Here's a little something about him.
• Take a walk down memory lane and recall the momentous occasion when New York State finally admitted that amateur MMA is legal.

New York State Senate Bill Tackles Amateur MMA... Sort Of

NEW YORK

Amateur MMA competitions are turning into big business in New York State, with 2013 seeing close to 50 such events happening compared to 24 the year before (and seven the year before that). However, thanks to how the combative sports law is written, amateur MMA - while legal - is completely unregulated by the State. If State Senator Timothy Kennedy (63rd District) has his way, that won't be for long.

The bill Senator Kennedy has introduced is S06795, and it proposes the regulation of amateur martial arts (not just MMA). Here are the salient points of the proposed legislation:

Flashback: Chris Weidman Day

NEW YORK

What do you get if you win the UFC middleweight belt in dramatic fashion? If you're Long Island native Chris Weidman, you get a day named after you by local politicians. Here's a look back at Chris Weidman Day, which was made official on July 17, 2013. Note Weidman's teammate Al Iaquinta, who's stuck wearing a suit and tie.

Flashback: Bellator 95

BELLATOR

It's always a joy when Bellator comes to Atlantic City - if for no other reason than it gives a bunch of local fighters an opportunity to fight on television. Anyway, here's a flashback to their April 4, 2013 show, which took place at the Revel Casino.

Did Invicta FC Have a Four-Woman Tournament That We Didn't Know About?

AWESOME


This tournament has it all: Wanderlei Silva-like striking, great guard work, a knockout, someone shouting "Worldstar! Worldstar!" What more can you ask for?

The Manup Standup vs. UFC Saga Continues

UFC

When last we left Novell Bell, The Black Taoist and Manup Standup, home to our favorite kung fu fighters, were embroiled in a trademark dispute with the UFC over the use of the shape of the octagon in Novell's logo. Videos were posted, impassioned pleas for justice were made - the whole shebang.

Well, the saga continues. Now Novell is trying to rustle up some cash to pay for a trademark attorney to represent him. Which is smart, because a lawyer is the only thing that can really halt the UFC's efforts to remove the trademark on Novell's Urban Bagua logo (videos won't do much in terms of forcing Zuffa's attorney's to change course).

UFC Fight Night 38 Primer: Dan Henderson's KO of Fedor

UFC

UFC Fight Night 38: Shogun vs. Henderson 2 is on Sunday, so to get you excited for Dan Henderson's return to the cage for this rematch, here's a video clip of his epic destruction of the legendary Fedor Emelianenko in Strikeforce.

If you'll recall, Fedor was one of the most feared fighters on the planet for a very long time - and with good reason, as he was absolutely killing everyone he faced. But by July, 2011, the Russian's aura of invincibility had faded (he's just gotten old, which happens), so when he faced "Hendo", he was a shadow of his former self.

Oh well. Such is life in the fight game.

Throwback Thursday: Frankie Edgar vs. Eric Uresk

NEW YORK

Picture if you will an underground fight show in a rundown boxing gym in the South Bronx, the venue packed with fans screaming like banshees while two very tough dudes battle it out in the ring. What I'm describing could be any number of underground fights, but in this instance, the scene is July 10, 2007, at the very Underground Combat League where Frankie Edgar made his MMA debut against Eric Uresk.

All you need to know when you watch the video after the jump is that Frankie was the underdog going into this fight and that headbutts were legal. Enjoy.