Quinton Jackson pleads guilty to felony, to be sentenced on January 7th, 2010.
Roughly a week after losing his UFC Light Heavyweight Title to Forrest Griffin in July 2008, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson found himself in a rampage truly befitting of his nickname when he led the police on a car chase and drove recklessly on a grim night in Southern California.
While Jackson had pleaded not guilty during the first few hearings, it was during a recent hearing where he pleaded guilty and thus accepted a deal with the Orange County District Attorney's office. According to the agreement, Jackson will have to "pay restitution for his crime, undergo mental health evaluations and perform 200 hours of community service." Jackson however could face the possibility of being sentenced up to six months in jail and probation if he does not fulfill his terms before the sentencing date, which falls on January 7th, 2010. Had he not accepted the deal, Jackson could face up to three years in prison if he was convicted.
According to toxicology reports, Jackson was not under the influence of any substances on the night of the incident. Medical professionals however have determined that Jackson was suffering from delirium (a form of mental issue) while he was driving, which led to the road rage. Jackson was reported to have driven recklessly through Cosa Mesa to Newport Beach while leading the police on an out of control car chase. Driving with a blown tire and talking on the cellphone, Jackson ignored the police's plea to pull over, ramming into several cars and also endangering the safety of pedestrians when he drove on the sidewalk. After running through several red lights, Jackson finally pulled over for the police before being subsequently charged for his actions.
In his first interview since the incident last August, Jackson explained that he "was trying to save his friend's life," in regards to the reason behind his actions.
Denis Kang to debut at UFC 93!
Popular Korean-Canadian fighter, Denis Kang, will finally be making his UFC debut since signing with the company last month when he takes on Alan Belcher at UFC 93 to be held in Dublin, Ireland. Kang had previously fought for PRIDE, HERO'S and DREAM while he was in Japan and felt that the UFC was in his radar, which he had mentioned in a recent interview regarding his impending UFC debut against Belcher with the Between Rounds Radio Show.
Kang has had several problems leading to him signing with the UFC. While he did not go into specific details, Kang mentioned that he "wanted to experience a new level of professionalism", something which he seemed to not have been able to experience while he was competing in Japan. He also has problems securing a visa and that caused many problems for Kang to be able to train with his team, American Top Team, over in Coconut Creek, Florida.
Aside from Belcher, Kang is looking forward to facing other exciting middleweights over in the UFC, including Demian Maia, Thales Leities, Rousimar Palhares and Drew McFedries. He is also very interested in one day challenging Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight Title, noting that The Spider has holes and weaknesses in his game, but has yet to have any of them be exploited by his opponents. Kang is also determined to work his way up the ladder into becoming a top contender for the title, not "do a Brock Lesnar and get two fights and get a title shot right away."
Satoshi Ishii makes a bizarre challenge!
In an incident that would make FEG squirm, Olympic Gold Medalist and potential UFC competitor Satoshi Ishii made an appearance at WVR's recent event, Sengoku no Ran 2009, when he delivered a promo right before the Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Sanae Kikuta match. Ishii introduced himself as an MMA fighter, then made a challenge to controversial Yokozuna, Asashoryu, to face him in a future Sengoku event! WVR PR Takahiro Kuniyasu is interested in signing Ishii to a deal once he is done competing in the UFC.
It was truly an incident which proved unflattering for FEG as they were strongly hoping for Ishii to make an appearance at Dynamite!! 2008 in order to announce that he would someday make his MMA debut for the promotion. Ishii then revealed last month that he had planned on heading to America to compete in the UFC instead in order to fulfill his dream as an MMA fighter. While Ishii was also reportedly in talks with WVR, nothing ever came out of it and thus, his appearance and subsequent challenge proved to be quite a shocker to the MMA community in Japan.
Asashoryu however has never competed in MMA. His brothers, Dolgorsuren Sumiyabazar and Dolgorsuren Serjbudee have both competed in MMA bouts with Serjbudee also competed as a former pro-wrestler with New Japan Pro-Wrestling under the ring name Blue Wolf. Thus far, nothing has come out of Asashoryu's camp regarding the challenge, even though both the Yokozuna and Ishii were seen having a small chat after the challenge was made.
Newly crowned Sengoku Lightweight Champion Satoru Kitaoka was strongly negative on Ishii's advance into MMA, stating during the press conference the day after Sengoku no Ran 2009 that "Ishii is not good enough to survive in MMA. I don't think he can achieve success in MMA. Everybody will understand that I deserved to be here." This came into light when the Olympic Gold Medalist was said to have been getting even wider coverage of his surprise appearance at the event over Kitaoka's historic title win that same evening.
Source: MMAFighting.com and Sportsnavi
Showing posts with label Satoshi Ishii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Satoshi Ishii. Show all posts
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Full lineup for UFC 92, Dana White invites Satoshi Ishii to UFC 92, GSP nominated for award and Cro Cop vs. Choi added to Dynamite!!
Full line-up for UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008!
The UFC has finally disclosed its full line-up for next Saturday's huge MMA spectacular, UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008! The card boasts a Triple Main Event, featuring two title matches and a grudge match to cap off what has been an amazing 2008 for the company! There will be a three-part preview coming very soon to build hype for this highly anticipated bout, so keep an eye out for the previews!
Pay-Per-View Card:
* 205 lbs. | Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans (Title)
* 265 lbs. | Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir (Title)
* 185 lbs. | CB Dollaway vs. Mike Massenzio
* 205 lbs. | Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva
* 265 lbs. | Cheick Kongo vs. Mustafa Al-Turk
Undercard:
* 185 lbs. | Yushin Okami vs. Dean Lister
* 265 lbs. | Antoni Hardonk vs. Mike Wessel
* 205 lbs. | Matt Hamill vs. Reese Andy
* 185 lbs. | Ryo Chonan vs. Brad Blackburn
* 265 lbs. | Dan Evensen vs. Pat Barry
Dana White invites Satoshi Ishii to UFC 92!
To add to the glamor and spectacle of the event, UFC President Dana White has decided to invite the 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist in Judo, Satoshi Ishii, to attend the event as a special guest! This was in light of Ishii's bold declaration that he has decided to head on to the UFC instead of DREAM where he believes that his status as Olympic Gold Medalist would bring him fame and fortune and in addition to that, help expand the UFC's Japanese market even further.
White released a statement through the Japanese PPV television network, WOWOW, which broadcasts UFC events from time to time. White believed that Ishii has a huge potential to become a great MMA fighter and applauded Ishii's decision of choosing the UFC over DREAM. It was through this statement that Ishii decided to extend his hand out to the talented judoka and invite him to Las Vegas to check out UFC 92 next Saturday.
Ishii has since accepted the invitation and will be jetting off to the United States in a few days time to attend UFC 92.
Georges St-Pierre nominated for Canadian Athlete of the Year!
Current UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre has been nominated for Sportsnet.ca's award of Canadian Athlete of the Year! After what has been an amazing run in the UFC throughout 2008, including reclaiming the UFC Welterweight Title from rival Matt Serra in front of his hometown Montreal crowd and an amazing Match of the Year candidate bout between Jon Fitch and himself, it seems natural for the man known as Rush to be nominated for such an award.
GSP will be going up against some stiff competition as he will tackle the likes of Calgary Flames' Captain Jarome Iginla, Minnesota Twins' All-Star Justin Morneau, tennis player Daiel Nestor and paralympian Chantel Petitclerc.
To vote for GSP, visit http://www.sportsnet.ca/more/2008/12/11/2008_sportsnet_canadian_athlete_of_the_year/! Results will be announced this coming Monday, December 22nd (Tuesday, December 23rd for us Malaysians).
Cro Cop vs. Techno-Goliath at Dynamite!! 2008!
As it had been rumored for some time, Mirko Filipovic, known to Japanese fans as Mirko Cro Cop (Cro Cop being a term that derived from Filipovic's time as a police officer in his hometown of Croatia as a member of the most elite Croatian police's Anti-Terrorist Unit, ATJ Lucko) and Hong Man Choi (known as the Techno-Goliath due to his victory dance routine after his fights while he was a ssireum wrestler, not to mention standing 7'2" tall) will battle at FEG's New Year's Eve spectacular, Dynamite!! 2008 under DREAM Rules!
One of the most popular foreign fighters to ever grace the Japanese MMA world, Filipovic is known for his amazing stand-up, which consists of his trademark hard stiff kicks to the head. This showed as before his memorable run in PRIDE, Filipovic was an accomplished K-1 fighter, making it to the finals of the K-1 WORLD GP in 1999, losing to the four-time K-1 WORLD GP Champion Ernesto Hoost. Aside from PRIDE, Filipovic also dabbled in the UFC, but attained little success in the major company despite being pushed as a huge prospect, including his shocking knockout loss to Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 70 and unanimous decision defeat to Cheick Kongo at UFC 75, both events taking place in England. Filipovic made his DREAM debut, easily defeating Tatsuya Mizuno at DREAM.1, before going to a controversial no contest against Alistair Overeem at DREAM.6 after two knees to the groin by Overeem. It had been rumored before that Filipovic and Overeem would get a rematch to settle the score at Dynamite!!, but unfortunately, as we see now, that will not be the case.
Hong Man Choi is the largest fighter in the world at 7'2" and weighing 330 lbs. Despite his towering size and improved stand-up game, Choi has not been doing very well since returning from his compulsory military service back in Korea. This was shown after being pummeled by the former K-1 WORLD GP Heavyweight Champion Badr Hari in Seoul back in September and losing to Ray Sefo in Tokyo early this month. Successive losses adding up to lackluster performances in his past fights led to FEG Producer Sadaharu Tanikawa to move him into DREAM where he can hopefully improve his game in MMA fights rather than K-1 fights. Choi has had very poor experience going into this fight as an MMA fighter. He was able to defeat popular Nigerian comedian Bobby Ologun at K-1 Premium 2006 Dynamite!! in a squash, then a year later lost to the unstoppable Fedor Emelianenko at Yarennoka! in 2007. Both men will be gunning for a huge win, but only one will be able to walk out the victor.
DREAM Rules Matches
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Joachim Hansen vs. Gesias Calvancante
Jerome LeBanner vs. Mark Hunt
Shinya Aoki vs. Eddie Alvarez
Semmy Schilt vs. Mighty Mo
Hideo Tokoro vs. Daisuke Nakamura
Mirko Filipovic vs. Hong Man Choi
K-1 Rules Matches
Musashi vs. Gegard Mousasi
Kozo Takeda vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
K-1 KOSHIEN Tournament Semi-Final: HIROYA vs. Shota Shimada
K-1 KOSHIEN Tournament Semi-Final: Ryuya Kusakabe vs. Koya Urabe
K-1 KOSHIEN Tournament Final: Winner of HIROYA/Shota Shimada vs. Winner of Ryuya Kusakabe/Koya Urabe
Yoshihiro Sato vs. Artur Kyshenko
Source: MMAFighting.com
The UFC has finally disclosed its full line-up for next Saturday's huge MMA spectacular, UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008! The card boasts a Triple Main Event, featuring two title matches and a grudge match to cap off what has been an amazing 2008 for the company! There will be a three-part preview coming very soon to build hype for this highly anticipated bout, so keep an eye out for the previews!
Pay-Per-View Card:
* 205 lbs. | Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans (Title)
* 265 lbs. | Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir (Title)
* 185 lbs. | CB Dollaway vs. Mike Massenzio
* 205 lbs. | Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva
* 265 lbs. | Cheick Kongo vs. Mustafa Al-Turk
Undercard:
* 185 lbs. | Yushin Okami vs. Dean Lister
* 265 lbs. | Antoni Hardonk vs. Mike Wessel
* 205 lbs. | Matt Hamill vs. Reese Andy
* 185 lbs. | Ryo Chonan vs. Brad Blackburn
* 265 lbs. | Dan Evensen vs. Pat Barry
Dana White invites Satoshi Ishii to UFC 92!
To add to the glamor and spectacle of the event, UFC President Dana White has decided to invite the 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist in Judo, Satoshi Ishii, to attend the event as a special guest! This was in light of Ishii's bold declaration that he has decided to head on to the UFC instead of DREAM where he believes that his status as Olympic Gold Medalist would bring him fame and fortune and in addition to that, help expand the UFC's Japanese market even further.
White released a statement through the Japanese PPV television network, WOWOW, which broadcasts UFC events from time to time. White believed that Ishii has a huge potential to become a great MMA fighter and applauded Ishii's decision of choosing the UFC over DREAM. It was through this statement that Ishii decided to extend his hand out to the talented judoka and invite him to Las Vegas to check out UFC 92 next Saturday.
Ishii has since accepted the invitation and will be jetting off to the United States in a few days time to attend UFC 92.
Georges St-Pierre nominated for Canadian Athlete of the Year!
Current UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre has been nominated for Sportsnet.ca's award of Canadian Athlete of the Year! After what has been an amazing run in the UFC throughout 2008, including reclaiming the UFC Welterweight Title from rival Matt Serra in front of his hometown Montreal crowd and an amazing Match of the Year candidate bout between Jon Fitch and himself, it seems natural for the man known as Rush to be nominated for such an award.
GSP will be going up against some stiff competition as he will tackle the likes of Calgary Flames' Captain Jarome Iginla, Minnesota Twins' All-Star Justin Morneau, tennis player Daiel Nestor and paralympian Chantel Petitclerc.
To vote for GSP, visit http://www.sportsnet.ca/more/2008/12/11/2008_sportsnet_canadian_athlete_of_the_year/! Results will be announced this coming Monday, December 22nd (Tuesday, December 23rd for us Malaysians).
Cro Cop vs. Techno-Goliath at Dynamite!! 2008!
As it had been rumored for some time, Mirko Filipovic, known to Japanese fans as Mirko Cro Cop (Cro Cop being a term that derived from Filipovic's time as a police officer in his hometown of Croatia as a member of the most elite Croatian police's Anti-Terrorist Unit, ATJ Lucko) and Hong Man Choi (known as the Techno-Goliath due to his victory dance routine after his fights while he was a ssireum wrestler, not to mention standing 7'2" tall) will battle at FEG's New Year's Eve spectacular, Dynamite!! 2008 under DREAM Rules!
One of the most popular foreign fighters to ever grace the Japanese MMA world, Filipovic is known for his amazing stand-up, which consists of his trademark hard stiff kicks to the head. This showed as before his memorable run in PRIDE, Filipovic was an accomplished K-1 fighter, making it to the finals of the K-1 WORLD GP in 1999, losing to the four-time K-1 WORLD GP Champion Ernesto Hoost. Aside from PRIDE, Filipovic also dabbled in the UFC, but attained little success in the major company despite being pushed as a huge prospect, including his shocking knockout loss to Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 70 and unanimous decision defeat to Cheick Kongo at UFC 75, both events taking place in England. Filipovic made his DREAM debut, easily defeating Tatsuya Mizuno at DREAM.1, before going to a controversial no contest against Alistair Overeem at DREAM.6 after two knees to the groin by Overeem. It had been rumored before that Filipovic and Overeem would get a rematch to settle the score at Dynamite!!, but unfortunately, as we see now, that will not be the case.
Hong Man Choi is the largest fighter in the world at 7'2" and weighing 330 lbs. Despite his towering size and improved stand-up game, Choi has not been doing very well since returning from his compulsory military service back in Korea. This was shown after being pummeled by the former K-1 WORLD GP Heavyweight Champion Badr Hari in Seoul back in September and losing to Ray Sefo in Tokyo early this month. Successive losses adding up to lackluster performances in his past fights led to FEG Producer Sadaharu Tanikawa to move him into DREAM where he can hopefully improve his game in MMA fights rather than K-1 fights. Choi has had very poor experience going into this fight as an MMA fighter. He was able to defeat popular Nigerian comedian Bobby Ologun at K-1 Premium 2006 Dynamite!! in a squash, then a year later lost to the unstoppable Fedor Emelianenko at Yarennoka! in 2007. Both men will be gunning for a huge win, but only one will be able to walk out the victor.
DREAM Rules Matches
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Joachim Hansen vs. Gesias Calvancante
Jerome LeBanner vs. Mark Hunt
Shinya Aoki vs. Eddie Alvarez
Semmy Schilt vs. Mighty Mo
Hideo Tokoro vs. Daisuke Nakamura
Mirko Filipovic vs. Hong Man Choi
K-1 Rules Matches
Musashi vs. Gegard Mousasi
Kozo Takeda vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
K-1 KOSHIEN Tournament Semi-Final: HIROYA vs. Shota Shimada
K-1 KOSHIEN Tournament Semi-Final: Ryuya Kusakabe vs. Koya Urabe
K-1 KOSHIEN Tournament Final: Winner of HIROYA/Shota Shimada vs. Winner of Ryuya Kusakabe/Koya Urabe
Yoshihiro Sato vs. Artur Kyshenko
Source: MMAFighting.com
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
WEC fighter in a coma, Ken Shamrock to fight on February 13th and Satoshi Ishii targets the UFC!
Will Ribeiro in coma after motorcycle accident.
Yesterday, it was reported that WEC bantamweight fighter Will Ribeiro was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident that resulted in the 26-year old going into a coma and currently battling for his life. Ribeiro's coach, Luis Alvez, told Brazilian MMA magazine Tatame that the crash happened sometime around one a.m. and that Ribeiro was not wearing a helmet.
Ribeiro's manager, Ed Soares, reported on WEC.tv that according to the doctor, Ribeiro has lost sight in one of his eyes and that there is a 50-50 shot that he will come out of it after surgery has been completed.
Ribeiro's last match before the motorcycle accident was a submission loss to Brian Bowles at WEC 37.
Ken Shamrock to return on February 13th!
UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock will be returning to MMA on February 13th as he headlines Valentines Eve Massacre, an event promoted by Ken Shamrock Productions and War Gods. The event, that will be held at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California, will also feature Shamrock's son, Ryan, who made his debut at a Ken Shamrock-promoted event back in August 2007. Their opponents are to be determined in a future date.
This will be Ken Shamrock's first fight since infamously being pulled out of his scheduled fight against Kimbo Slice at EliteXC Heat back in October due to an injury on his left eye as a result of an accident during training hours before the event began. Shamrock has lost five fights in a row and eight of his last ten and therefore will be looking for a victory at this event.
Satoshi Ishii's preferred destination: The UFC!
In what some may consider to be a huge swerve, the 2008 Judo Olympic Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii is reportedly very interested to compete in the UFC, according to Nikkansports. Previously, Ishii was heavily linked to competing in DREAM and although he came very close to signing a deal with the huge Japanese MMA promotion, he chose the UFC instead as it was his dream to compete in the biggest MMA promotion in the world.
"I made up my mind finally. The UFC is where I fight. If I'm an unknown judo-ka, I will definitely built up MMA experiences in Japan first. However, I decided to use my title of the Judo gold medalist. I believe my name value will attract the UFC. I'm sorry that my indecisive and expressive behavior confused DREAM staff and fans," he stated to the media after training on December 17th.
Ishii plans on starting out with WEC as he understands how the UFC does not simply give any opportunity to fighters without much experience and a good win-loss record. He now plans on contacting the UFC and going over to America to work out a deal with the promotion, then plans to train under the famed American Top Team MMA group (which has produced fighters such as Denis Kang, Thiago Alves, Jeff Monson, Thiago Silva and Gesias Calvancante) in March.
Source: MMAFighting.com and Sherdog
Yesterday, it was reported that WEC bantamweight fighter Will Ribeiro was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident that resulted in the 26-year old going into a coma and currently battling for his life. Ribeiro's coach, Luis Alvez, told Brazilian MMA magazine Tatame that the crash happened sometime around one a.m. and that Ribeiro was not wearing a helmet.
Ribeiro's manager, Ed Soares, reported on WEC.tv that according to the doctor, Ribeiro has lost sight in one of his eyes and that there is a 50-50 shot that he will come out of it after surgery has been completed.
Ribeiro's last match before the motorcycle accident was a submission loss to Brian Bowles at WEC 37.
Ken Shamrock to return on February 13th!
UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock will be returning to MMA on February 13th as he headlines Valentines Eve Massacre, an event promoted by Ken Shamrock Productions and War Gods. The event, that will be held at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California, will also feature Shamrock's son, Ryan, who made his debut at a Ken Shamrock-promoted event back in August 2007. Their opponents are to be determined in a future date.
This will be Ken Shamrock's first fight since infamously being pulled out of his scheduled fight against Kimbo Slice at EliteXC Heat back in October due to an injury on his left eye as a result of an accident during training hours before the event began. Shamrock has lost five fights in a row and eight of his last ten and therefore will be looking for a victory at this event.
Satoshi Ishii's preferred destination: The UFC!
In what some may consider to be a huge swerve, the 2008 Judo Olympic Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii is reportedly very interested to compete in the UFC, according to Nikkansports. Previously, Ishii was heavily linked to competing in DREAM and although he came very close to signing a deal with the huge Japanese MMA promotion, he chose the UFC instead as it was his dream to compete in the biggest MMA promotion in the world.
"I made up my mind finally. The UFC is where I fight. If I'm an unknown judo-ka, I will definitely built up MMA experiences in Japan first. However, I decided to use my title of the Judo gold medalist. I believe my name value will attract the UFC. I'm sorry that my indecisive and expressive behavior confused DREAM staff and fans," he stated to the media after training on December 17th.
Ishii plans on starting out with WEC as he understands how the UFC does not simply give any opportunity to fighters without much experience and a good win-loss record. He now plans on contacting the UFC and going over to America to work out a deal with the promotion, then plans to train under the famed American Top Team MMA group (which has produced fighters such as Denis Kang, Thiago Alves, Jeff Monson, Thiago Silva and Gesias Calvancante) in March.
Source: MMAFighting.com and Sherdog
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