Grapplers Quest and ProElite.com will sponsor your entry fee to the 2007 Grapplers Quest North American Championships on October 6th 2007 in Jersey City, New Jersey.  This offer is limited to the first 10 competitors who do the following:

· Register at ProElite.com if you are not already a member
· Upload a grappling photo or video to your site at ProElite.com
· Email your proelite.com url and username to grapplerscontest@proelite.com

About Grapplers Quest:  Grapplers Quest is the World’s Largest Submission Grappling Competition with more than 100,000 competitors worldwide since 1996. Submission Grappling is one of the main components of Mixed Martial Arts and encompasses the ground fighting aspects of the sport. Grappling is easily the largest of the MMA sports combined in consideration of participants. It combines the powerful throws of Olympic Judo competitors, the takedowns of Greco-Roman/Freestyle Wrestlers, the Leg Lock attacks of Russian Sambo specialists, and the submission skills of a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter.

The Ultimate Fighter season 6 contestant, Mac Danzig will be writing down his thoughts each week for the Orange County Register.  Danzig won his prelim fight (the first fight of the season) against sappy Joey “I just want to call my girlfriend” Scarola via triangle choke in impressive fashion. Mac looks like a force to reckon with this season. Here are some of the more interesting comments from Mac’s weekly blog:

The next thing you see is Matt Serra once again, trying to justify Scarola’s loss by lecturing his team and trying to convince them that Joey “was looking for a way out and found it” … I can’t stress how completely nonsensical this is. Let’s get it straight, Joey is not a “quitter”, and he didn’t “throw” the fight. I really feel that Serra was simply trying to take the credit of the win away from me.

Ah yes, on to the Bible issue… Hughes had asked resident bible enthusiast and speedo-wearer Dan Barerra if he had been reading “the good book” and Dan informed him that no reading materials were allowed in the house whatsoever. So Hughes took it upon himself to provide the team with huge hard-cover versions of the bible that we could read while we were at the gym. With no other entertainment or reading materials, some of the team elected to read “Esther” like Hughes asked, simply because they were bored. I on the other hand made a conscious decision not to read it.

The whole thing was very awkward for me. I really don’t feel like that sort of thing has a place in a training camp unless everyone is a devout Christian and has agreed upon it as a group. Both Blake and I felt that religion is a personal thing and beliefs should not be forced upon other people under the guise that it’s “just a story.” In most cases, I would have immediately told someone off who tried this sort of routine, but I wanted to avoid making a huge issue out of it. Remember your rights on a reality TV show: Anything you say or do can be turned into an entire “segment” and used against you in the court of TV. I also wanted to preserve my relationship with Matt Hughes, who I respect as a coach. Behind the scenes, coach Fiore reassured me that it was ok that I didn’t want to read it and that he felt the same way I did. Luckily, this all blew over and the focus went back to training after a while.

You can read Danzig’s entire TUF episode 2 recap here.

After Mauricio Rua’s loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 76, Shogun gave an interview to a Portuguese online magazine. Here is the translation of the article where the MMA star speaks about his lack of preparation for the fight and his knee injury which will keep him sidelined from training and out of the UFC until 2006:

“I was Really very sad, was the worse defeat of my career”, declared Shogun.

“I had never gassed as i gassed in this fight. But he does not advance to invent excuses, the error was mine, I did not train as he would have, I did not concentrate myself, had had other things that had confused, but it also had merits. “I learned a lesson from this and now i will have to train to comeback stronger”, said the fighter.

“As i gassed, i wanted to decide on the ground, in a top position. At the beginning, the objective was to fight standing and to decide there, but as the time went by, i got very tired”, lamented.

Beyond the problems in the preparation, Shogun also blamed an injury in one of the knees as one of the problems faced for him in the last two months. “I busted the ligament during trainings, I was limited, i could not run, i could not thresh right. Still though, i trained sufficiently, but not enough”, he affirmed.

Shogun disclosed that “I will go for the surgery” already on this friday (28). “I’ll have a knee surgery on friday and must be away from training for the next three months. For what I talked with the master Rudimar (Fedrigo), I’ll only comeback to fight in January or February”. The goal, although the defeat, follows being the same one: “The goal is the belt, the fight continues”, concluded.

Source: http://portal.rpc.com.br/gazetadopovo/esportes/conteudo.phtml?bx=1&id=699545&tit=Mauricio-Shogun-desembarca-em-Curitiba-e-lamenta-lesao-no-joelho

Kazuhiro Nakamura been suspended and fined $500 by the California State Athletic Commission for testing positive for marijuana after UFC 76. His suspension will continue be in place until December 21, 2007. Maybe Nakamura should be hanging out with well known marijuana connoisseurs Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, and Nick Diaz. Surprisingly Mauricio Shogun Rua did not test positive for dope which might have explained his lackluster performance.

All other 17 fighters on the UFC 76 card tested negative for drugs abuse. All anabolic agent/masking agent test results are still pending.

Source: California State Athletic Commission

The Iceman brought in a cool half a million dollars at UFC 76. The guy who many thought would be the next Iceman, Mauricio Rua, was second in line with a $150,000 payday.  And the guy who beat Liddell?  Jardine received all of $14k (which includes his win bonus), ouch.  Hopefully the payday of his next fight makes up for it.

Once again, Dana White has deemed another UFC event as a success. The numbers seem to back it up as 12,134 tickets were sold and total gate attendance revenue came in at $1,984,880. Add in merchandise and Pay-Per-View numbers and you come in well above the $954,00 that was dished out to the fighters.

Here are the official numbers from the California State Athletic Commission:

Honda Event CenterTickets Sold: 12,134
Exempt Passes: 1,953 (1,636 turnstile)
Deadwood: 2,374
Total Attendance: 13,770
Gate: $1,984,880

Fighters
Liddell - $500,000
Rua - $150,000
F. Griffin - $22,000 + $22,000 (win bonus)
Jardine - $7,000 + $7,000 (win bonus)
Machida - $25,000 + $25,000 (win bonus)
Fitch - $22,000 + $22,000 (win bonus)
Sanchez - $22,000
Omigawa - $5,000
Wiman - $8,000 + $8,000 (win bonus)
Junk - $4,000
Wellisch - $7,000 + $7,000 (win bonus)
Saraiva - $3,000
Stephens - $3,000 + $3,000 (win bonus)
Johnson - $5,000
Clementi - $12,000 + $12,000 (win bonus)
Tavares - $9,000
T. Griffin - $12,000 + $12,000 (win bonus)
Nakamura - $20,000

Seperately, Tyson Griffin and Thiago Tavares each took home an additional $40k for their performances in the “fight of the night.” Forrest Griffen also pocketed an additional $40k with his “submission of the night.”

This Saturday, the world famous Playboy Mansion will host its first ever MMA event. The Strikeforce card will be headlined by their undefeated lightweight champion Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez (12-0) who will be taking on former Shooto fighter Tetsuji Kato. Although the fight card won’t be as stacked as your typical UFC event, the fact that the show will be held on Playboy grounds will bring a new level of exposure to mixed martial arts as there should be plenty of celebs and other influential people in attendance.

Those fortunate enough to attend will be treated to an array of amenities including a buffet style, gourmet dinner, top-shelf, open bar, and a wine tasting party featuring the spirits of several gold medal wineries. Various Playboy Playmates will be on hand to partake in all activities.

Other fights on the card include UFC vets Joe “Diesel” Riggs vs. Eugene “The Wolf” Jackson, Josh “The Punk” Thomson vs. Adam Lynn, TUF alum Bobby Southworth vs. Bill “The Butcher” Mahood and Daniel Puder vs. Richard Dalton.