In was announced today that UFC fighter Din Thomas has been arrested for running unlicensed, unsanctioned mixed martial arts events in Florida.

Thomas, 31, faces a felony prohibited competitions charge after police got a tip Oct. 19 about the matches at a facility he uses in St. Lucie West.

Here is a link to the article that appeared in a Florida newspaper today.

As a side note, as usual small town newspapers try to paint MMA in a bad light. An excerpt:

“Thomas is well known in the world of ultimate fighting, commonly known as mixed martial arts, a brutal combination of boxing, kickboxing and wrestling in a boxing ring or cage. The fighting is so intense that most fights are limited to three five-minute rounds.”

Are we seeing MMA’s very first soap opera episode?

First Randy announces his resignation from the UFC. Next, Dana White responds. Randy then responds to Dana’s response. And for good measure Randy’s wife Kim separately throws in her two cents. One would think it’s over, but far from it we are. The dust has not settled and the UFC is back on the offense. This time UFC wonder-duo Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta will try to save face by addressing the press regarding Couture’s most recent statements. If history follows suit, later this week we should have Randy responding to the UFC’s response to his response which was made after Dana’s response to Randy’s resignation announcement.

The press conference will be streamed live on UFC.com at 1pm PT/ 4pm ET.

My contact over at RawVegas.tv was cool enough to get me this great video clip of Randy Couture’s press confernce from today. There is so much good stuff here from Randy regarding his dealings with Zuffa and the UFC that I’m not even going to bother summarizing. Let’s just say that he’s definitely felt a lack of respect for a long time now. Couture is so well spoken for a MMA fighter, I highly recommeded watching.  (Just added, Randy’s wife gives her thoughts on the subject)

During the M-1 press conference, Fedor Emelianko said to the the audience,

“I am very pleased to hear that Randy Couture thinks so highly of me. I deeply respect him and have been watching him since his first fight. I admire him greatly. Once in Prague (Czech Republic), he saw me and I came away with a warm feeling, and it will be an honor for me to fight him.”

The “baddest man on the planet” is a pretty humble and classy guy.  Almost like the Russian version of a Couture. 

I wasn’t able to find an embedded video clip for the press conference, but you can check it out here:http://eckotv.com/video/M-1Global/fedor_emelianenko_signs_with_m1_global

It’s fairly long, 43 minutes, but here are some of the key points:

- M-1 knows that they are an underdog in the sport of MMA but feel confident that they will reign supreme

- President and CEO Monte Cox told a lot of jokes that got few laughs

- Fedor looked bored to death and awkward in a suit and tie

- M-1 Global planning on running six events around the world in 2008

- Their first show will be in February and headlined by Fedor Emelianenko (whose opponent hasn’t been named)

- Three other major events will be headlined by Fedor, two in the U.S. and a summer event in Tokyo

- Cox spoke of having to make a television deal for live coverage prior to finalizing the date and time of the first event

- M-1 is very interested in ex-UFC champ Randy Couture, claimed they would offer Couture $1 million more than he currently makes per fight in UFC for what would be the dream fight against Emelianenko. They also said they would add a $1 million bonus to the winner.

Looks like the UFC slipped up a little and leaked news that Wanderlei Silva will be fighting Chuck Liddell at UFC 79 in December. Here is a screenshot from UFC.com that shows the match is a done deal. It appears that they have now pulled it down as Dana White is supposed to be breaking some “incredible” news on Spike TV tonight at Scream 2007.

For further proof, check out this video where Silva tells the reporter that it is confirmed that he will be fighting the Iceman. It’s kind of funny as it looks like Wandy is looking over his shoulder the entire time.  Maybe he was seeing if Chuck was around? Besides his Liddell match, Silva also comments on Anderson Silva’s win, his training with Randy Couture, and Shogun’s fight against Griffen. http://fightbeat.com/videos.php?id=73

There was a lot of hype out there about which U.S. “entertainment” company bought M-1 and WWE isn’t it.

Today Sibling Sports, LLC announced that they have purchased the M-1 organization, the big new kid on the MMA block and home to Fedor Emelianenko.

“We are excited to announce the formation of Sibling Sports, LLC and our new mixed martial arts organization M-1 Global,” said Mitchell Maxwell, President and CEO of Sibling Holdings. “Mixed martial arts is the fastest growing sport in America. It is the boxing of the 21st century. We see our entry into sports entertainment as an integral part of our strategic plan to develop new and unique entertainment products worldwide.”

“We have pulled together a world-class group of people to lead our new organization. Our new management team has extensive mixed martial arts experience in Europe, Russia, Asia and the US. We have developed a
strategic alliance with SFX Media & Events, one of the premiere sports marketing, event management, and athlete management companies in the world,” he said.

“We are pleased to announce Monte Cox as our CEO. Monte has been recognized as one of the most influential persons in mixed martial arts in the world today. He is generally considered one of the world’s most successful fight managers, having produced a record seven world champions in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and built an impressive team of nearly 60 world-class competitors,” Maxwell said.

The rest of the Press Release Here