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To legalize professional mixed martial arts in New York, the state Senate voted 42-18 on Monday. As it was considered too violent, after an Ultimate Fighting Championship in Buffalo, MMA has been banned since 1995.

The Senate voted for the bill authorizing the New York State Athletic Commission to regulate the mix of boxing, grappling, judo and kickboxing the way it regulates boxing with new Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, a Rochester native, on hand.

A Utica Republican and sponsor Sen. Joseph Griffo said with rules and protections for fighters, 45 other states have sanctioned the popular sport that has evolved from its rough early days. With events at New York venues it will generate money for the state he further added.

By saying injuries to fighters in other states appears underreported and that the sport is a bad example for children, Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, voted no. Studies have shown that so called “ground and pound” punches, where a fighter punches an opponent already on the ground, can result in bruising blows, some at 910 kilograms of force, she said.

Before the vote, the 6 foot 4 inch, 205 pound Jones, 23, known for stunning strikes with his elbows, met several senators with a gentle handshake.

Supporters said the sport will bring in much needed revenue to the state as well as would help create jobs. To lift the ban on the sport in the past lawmakers there have killed several bills. The Assembly may yet vote out the measure.

Tim Boetsch’s first fight in the middleweight division will be against Kendall Grove at UFC 130 May 28 in Las Vegas.

Get UFC betting Odds for this bout closer to UFC 130.

Boetsch, who formerly fought in the light heavyweight division, is 12-4 and coming off a loss to Phil Davis via submission at UFC 123. Boetsch was an accomplished amateur wrestler and is strongest on the mat. He also incorporates Jeet Kune Do into his style. Six of his career wins have been by knockout and five have been by submission.

Grove, the winner of The Ultimate Fighter 3, has a 12-8 career record, but he’s had up and down performances in his last five fights, going just 2-3 in that span with losses to Ricardo Almeida, Mark Munoz and Demian Maia. He is 6-5 since defeating Ed Prince in the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 3, the fight that earned him his UFC contract. Grove uses Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Tai styles, but has won seven of his fights via submission and just two by knockout.

Although Grove has struggled some of late, he’s a bit younger than Boetsch and has the advantage of being a career middleweight fighter. Since this will be Boetsch’s first fight at the new weight, it’s unclear how the weight loss will affect him.

Former NHL enforcer Donald Brashear makes his mixed martial arts debut in June 2011. Brashear will step into the cage against Martin Trempe at Ringside MMA 11 in Quebec City.

Both the 27 year old Trempe (0-2) and 39 year old Brashear have most recently skated in the Ligue Nord-Americain de Hockey, a Quebec senior circuit that highlights on ice brawling.

In the semi pro Ligue Nord Americaine de Hockey (LNAH), the 39 year old Brashear is currently playing hockey. For the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and New York Rangers, he played in the NHL.

Between 1993-94 and 2009-10, the six foot three 237 pound Brashear collected 2,634 penalty minutes in 1,025 NHL games. By adding 120 assists he also scored 85 goals. For instigating a fight and attempt to injure, he was suspended for five games earlier this season by the LNAH.

By first round TKO Trempe (0-2) lost both his MMA fights. In a matchup of former UFC fighters, middleweight Patrick (The Predator) Cote will take on former light heavyweight Todd Brown in the Ringside 11 main event.

Brashear has signed a one year contract with the promotion according to Champoux. After the June 4 fight both parties can part ways though. Both of Trempe’s fights haven’t gone passed the first round. In November he quit between rounds and lost via TKO in January.

Two of UFC’s biggest stars, Randy Couture and Lyoto Machida, will face each other during the UFC’s first-ever card in Toronto, Ontario, which was just recently sanctioned.

In UFC lines, get Odds for this bout closer to UFC 129 which takes place April 30.

Couture has said this will be his last MMA fight as he plans to retire to pursue his acting career. Although Couture has shown advanced skills in boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and submission holds during his career, he’s primarily known for his ground game. He’s an excellent wrestler who often takes opponents down, establishes position on top of them and knocks out opponents by pummeling them with a series of blows.

Couture, who is 47-years-old, has already appeared in small roles in several films, including The Scorpion King 2, The Expendables and Invincible.

Machida is a former light heavyweight champion, is currently ranked in the top five light heavyweights in the world. Machida employs a Shotokan Karate style. He uses a wide stance and quick strikes, often catching opponents off guard.

Although Machida has had an impressive career. He’s the only fighter to ever beat Rashad Evans and his exciting style has earned him a lot of fanfare. But he’s also struggled at times against fighters who have strong ground games. Couture’s ability on the mat will be a great test to see if Machida has improved in that department. If he can beat Couture, he might be in line for a title shot again soon.

UFC President Dana White is backing up the idea of adding up an overtime round rule for a fight, whose conclusion is going to be a draw. He said that he abhors draws just as much as everybody else does.

White said that he hate draws. He believes that draw is such a misuse of everyone’s time and energy and he desires definitely to explore the same.

However, in permitting such a rule, the State Athletic Commissions in this case would be the hindrance. The Nevada State Athletic Commission permits an overtime round after the contestants have gone two rounds and the judges score the fight an even draw. However, in Mixed Martial Arts events, championship bouts are having five, while non-title fights are three rounds.

White’s idea seems to be enormous, but many of the particulars would have to be worked out. Say to find out the judges have it as draw, they have to go to the cards. Some may even suggest going for an extra round to see if a winner can be recognized from the same.

This year alone, at UFC 125, we have seen Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard fight to a draw. In the main event at UFC 127, B.J. Penn and Jon Fitch do the same. If there were an additional round to break the tie, it would have been much more fulfilling for the fans. MMA can do with overtimes and tiebreakers to get an outcome of a bout, just like every other chief sport.

If Mr. White and company actually try to push for such a regulation to the commissions, it will be very fascinating to see. Things will make MMA even more exhilarating, if the commissions permit such a thing to happen.

Bobby Lashley will walk into the cage yet again next week. He is the former WWE wrestler who dabbles in mixed martial arts. This will be his first match since his thrashing in the Strikeforce fight last year. A person named James Jack was initially expected to be Lashley’s challenger but Jack was dropped out of the fight. Now he has been substituted by a 184.75 pounds fighter named John Ott. At Bellator 26, John won a unanimous decision win over Brian Imes.

Titan Fighting CEO Joe Kelly said that for the bout, John might be a little heavy, although the additional weight is all muscle. He added that John’s brawny amateur wrestling credentials will allow him to go in and compete with Bobby and it will help in neutralizing Bobby’s takedowns.

Kelly added that they had a contract with Jack to fight Lashley, but he went to MIA. He added that James was no longer returning their calls and he had missed several programmed media shoots. He said that they had to make the change as James made it profusely clear that he had no plans to show up on March 25 and fight against Bobby.

The online sports betting sites will post their MMA lines a little later.

Since August 2010, Lashley has not fought at the Strikeforce: Houston fight card, where he underwent his first career defeat to Chad Griggs.

The Titan Fighting card will take place on March 25 on HDNet and it will be a fascinating fight for both the wrestlers.



On Feb. 26 at UFC 127 Jon Fitch and B.J. Penn will fight in the main event. UFC president Dana White announced on Feb. 15, that the winner of the match would be the top welterweight contender.

In two different weight classes, Penn (16-7-1) is one of two fighters in history to win UFC titles, winning the UFC Welterweight Champion and UFC Lightweight Champion.  Even though he is coming off of a first round knockout win over Matt Hughes at UFC 123, he has lost to the current champion at both weights twice.

Penn, who quickly earned a black belt in three years of training, is a practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He became the first non-Brazilian to win the black-belt division of the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Rio de Janeiro, a few weeks after being awarded with his black belt.

With his only loss coming to current welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, Fitch is a dominant 21-3 since 2003. Since losing to St. Pierre with all five wins coming by way of unanimous decision, he has fought his way back into title contention by winning five straight.

Dana White has been hesitant to put him in the class of the top welterweight contenders, despite Fitch’s strong record. White mentioned his lack of connection with UFC fans as well as the manner of Fitch’s victories (he has not been involved in submission fight since June 12, 2007). Though, Fitch has a chance to fight in his second UFC Welterweight Championship of his career, with White’s recent announcement that the winner of the match would be the top welterweight contender.

Penn has rarely struggled when facing bigger opponents, although Fitch has a size advantage. As Fitch is in such incredible shape that he would be able to sap Penn’s energy in the next two rounds, Penn will probably need to take out Fitch in the first round, though.

In MMA Odds, Fitch is a -200 favorite and Penn a +160 underdog.

For the UFC Middleweight Championship at UFC 126 on Feb. 5 in Las Vegas will feature a long awaited fight between Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort.

For this matchup in MMA betting, UFC odds have Silva as a -270 moneyline favorite.

Though 8Reigning Champion Silva was stretched to the limit by his last challenger Chael Sonnen, he has not lost a bout since 2006. For Silva’s middleweight crown, the hard-hitting Belfort possesses one of the biggest threats that he has faced.

Silva still holds one of the most complete skill sets in MMA, in spite of lackluster performances in several of his last few bouts. Even after having taken a beating, he has proven that he has knockout power, great submission skills, and the endurance to come from behind. Silva faces a big test in Belfort, who is ranked by many as the number one middleweight in the world.

Several years ago, which carried him to the top of the UFC light heavyweight division; Vitor Belfort is famous for his fast hands, and devastating knockout power. He has fallen short in big match ups on more than one occasion as well as he has shown to have poor conditioning in previous bouts. Belfort has the kind of power that can end a fight in the blink of an eye, in spite of this he remains a huge threat in the bout.

Who can impose their will during the bout, this match will boil down to him. Belfort may be able to stun Silva, who has slowed in the last two years, however the longer the fight goes on the more it favors Silva, if he can press the action early.

On Tuesday, January 4, M-1 Global and Strikeforce announced that they had come to terms on a new multi-fight agreement to promote events headlined by Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko. On February 12, the first fight under the new contract will take place at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Against Antonio “Big Foot” Silva, Fedor will step into the cage. In a Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament, the Fedor vs. Silva fight will be one of four quarterfinal fights. One other quarterfinal bout, Andrei Arlovski vs. Sergei Kharitonov will also be featured in the February 12th event.

M-1 Global President Vadim Finkelchtein, Emelianenko’s manager told that the new deal is for four fights. Finkelchtein added that they were working on the deal for a long time and everyone was interested in continuing the relationship between M-1 Global and Strikeforce. He said that the matter was to make sure that everyone was happy.

He added that Fedor’s requirements was not out of the ordinary and it was just a matter of security and for Fedor, that certain things would be guaranteed, if he performed the way to which he is accustomed. At the end of the day, what mattered were both sides respecting each other.

About Fedor’s new contract, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said that they are thrilled to have come to a long-term agreement with Fedor and M-1 Global. The MMA fans worldwide will be truly captivated to have the greatest MMA fighter of all-time put his legacy on the line in a single-elimination tournament. He added that in the world, Strikeforce is home to the best heavyweight division and the athlete who runs the gauntlet in a tournament such as this would have to be considered the best heavyweight fighter in the world.

For his part, Fedor said that he has been training very hard since his last fight and he cannot wait to get back in the cage. He added that with the best heavyweights in the world, Strikeforce has assembled a roster and together with M-1 GLOBAL, we have the opportunity to fight the best in a great tournament format.

On January 1, 2011 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the UFC 125 event is scheduled to take place. The main event of the card will be a championship bout between UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. But despite defeating B.J. Penn twice in 2010, Edgar hasn’t gained the respect or fanfare one might expect.

The bout will be Edgar’s second defense of the title that he won from B.J. Penn in April 2010. His opponent, Gray Maynard is 10-0 while Edgar’s record is 13-1. Edgar’s sole loss came at the hands of Maynard in April 2008.

Even though Maynard is certainly one of the most effective in the division, he is not the most exciting of fighters. He’s a tough challenge for Edgar, and not just because Maynard won the last time these two met in 2008. Maynard’s greatest asset is his ability to not allow opponents find their comfort zone. However, Edgar believes he just needs to do what he’s been doing, and his record will speak for itself.

Edgar said during a pre-event conference call this week, “I just think it takes time. B.J.’s been around for such a long time, he was such a dominant champion at it just takes time for people to come around on someone new. If I keep winning fights the respect will come eventually.”

In 2007, since their first meeting, Edgar has rattled off five straight wins, defeating former title challenger Hermes Franca as well as former Champion Sean Sherk before the wins over Penn. With each successive victory, Edgar has developed his skills to an elite level, and he continues to get better.