Culinary Union suggests Bill of Rights for MMA fighters

The Culinary Union, the biggest union representing workers in Nevada, stopped by the Nevada Athletic Commission's meeting on Wednesday to discuss ways to improve treatment for fighters. They want to see the NAC lead the combat sports world by pushing for reforms in MMA.

It wants to see:

1. Equal protections for all fighters. Boxers are protected under the Muhammad Ali Act, which enacts certain rules over boxers that keeps them from getting exploited. Mixed martial artists are not.

2. Right to work. This would allow fighters to sign non-exclusive contracts and would prohibit contracts from automatically renewing. Champions' clauses, which keep champs attached to their contract as long as they hold the belt, would be a thing of the past.

3. Inalienable right to your own name, likeness and image. When Jon Fitch objected to handing over his image in perpetuity to the UFC for its video game, he was cut from the UFC and Dana White threatened to not do business with any fighters from Fitch's gym, American Kickboxing Academy. After Fitch played ball, he was brought back into the fold. This right would allow fighters to exercise the right Fitch wanted to.

4. Free market of sponsorships. This would not just allow fighters to get whoever they would like to sponsor them, but would also let them say no to their promotion's sponsor. In other words, Brock Lesnar could chug a Coors and Carlos Condit could have walked away from a Harley-Davidson if he wanted to pursue a sponsorship with Honda.

5. Transparency of contracts and payments. Fighters would get detailed financial statements from any event they participated in. This would be particularly important to fighters whose contracts earn percentages of pay-per-views or gates.

6. Fair share of revenues. In the NBA and NFL, athletes went through a lockout to fight for roughly half the league's revenues. Because Zuffa is a private company, their revenues are not public, so we have no idea how much revenue the fighters earn. This right would ensure fighters get at least a quarter of revenues.

7. Freedom of association. Fighters would be allowed to unionize in any way they see fit.

8. Right to healthcare insurance for training and fighting. Zuffa fighters are given medical coverage for both fight camps and fights, but this right would ensure it continued.

9. Right to fair fights. The UFC's matchmaking system generally provides fair and evenly matched bouts, but things get murky on subjects like who deserves a title fight. Timing often decides title matches as much as an independent ranking system. This right would call for a transparent ranking of fighters.

10. Professionalism. From the union: "You have the right to be treated with common courtesy and professional respect by other fighters and by promoters and managers. For mixed martial arts to become a mainstream sport accepted by the general public, participants in the sport must act in accordance with commonly accepted standards of courtesy, decency and respect in their public interactions with one another and in their interactions with the public."

In other words, promotions couldn't fire one fighter because of a tweet about rape while not firing another for jokes about child molestation. UFC executives would probably have to stop dropping F-bombs at Twitter followers.

Would you be in support of such a bill? Is it missing anything? Tell us in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/culinary-union-suggests-bill-rights-mma-fighters-225928310.html

Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana 

UFC 144 Results: Ben Henderson Claims the Lightweight Title in Close Fight

UFC 144 takes place tonight live from Saitama, Japan and MMAFrenzy will have complete coverage of tonight's card. Coverage will begin with tonight's Facebook and FX cards starting at 7:30pm EST and 8pm EST respectively. MMAFrenzy will also have play-by-play of tonight's PPV main card beginning at 10pm EST.

Source: http://mmafrenzy.com/27707/ufc-144-live-results/

Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe

UFC 144 upset: ?Kid? Yamamoto falls again; Gomi posts nice comeback

Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto is snake bitten or maybe it's simply that the division has caught and passed him by. The Japanese legend was shocked by Vaughan Lee in a submission defeat at 4:29 of the first round at UFC 144 in Tokyo, Japan.

Yamamoto, a huge knockout artist with good wrestling, was controlling the fight. With 1:04 left in the round, Kid got into a mix up with Lee. The Brit threw a bevy of right hand uppercuts and two body shots. Then came a right hook that landed on the Kid's chin. The Japanese legend stepped back and his right leg was like jello. Vaughn charged forward to attack but Yamamoto scored a takedown.

Still, he was in a no-win situation. Yamamoto was trying to slow the fight down, but he went into the guard of an excellent submission fighter. Lee (12-7-1, 1-1 UFC) quickly threw his legs up. He slapped on a triangle choke and eventually switched to an armbar. Yamamoto held out for a few seconds before tapping.

When he was freed from the hold, Yamamoto punched the canvas in frustration.

It's been a tough run for Yamamoto (18-6-1), who's now 0-3 in the UFC. Keep in the mind, this was a guy who went 14-0 from 2002-2007. Between injuries and the competition getting better, Yamamoto looks like he may be headed back to the minors. He's lost 5-of-6 overall.

Gomi escapes with win after horrendous first round

It looked like it was going to be a disastrous night for some of the former standard bearers of Japanese MMA. Takanori Gomi bounced back from the rough opening round to pour it on in the second and come away with a win over Eiji Mitsuoka.

It wasn't the prettiest win but one well earned and Gomi showed some gumption. With a minute left in the first, the 33-year-old fighter got drilled with a right hand and found himself caught in an inverted triangle for over 30 seconds. With seven seconds left in the round, Gomi lifted his hand and was ready to tap, but held out until the horn sounded.

When he got to the break, his cornermen told him that Mitsuoka was exhausted. They were right. Gomi came out for the second and threw a ton of punches behind a stiff jab. Mitsuoka backed up and stumbled around the cage with hands down and head pointed to the ground.

He tried to slow things down by shooting for a takedown. Gomi stayed patient with a good, wide sprawl against the cage. He eventually transitioned to hip control. Mitsuoka was done. He turtled and took 20-plus shots before referee Leon Roberts saved him.

It's tough to crush Mitsuoka (18-8-1, 0-1 UFC) for gassing. He did take the fight on short notice when George Sotiropoulos had to bow out with an an injury. Yes, Mitsuoka is also Japanese, but a win from the bigger-name fighter here was huge. Gomi (33-6-1) is now 2-3 in the UFC.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-144-upset-kid-yamamoto-falls-again-022925420.html

Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger 

Tennessee fights canceled after liquor license denied

For good or bad, alcohol is a part of every MMA event. Whether it's fans getting liquored up in the stands or people flocking to bars to see pay-per-views, alcohol is part of the fight world. Fight organizers in Tennessee didn't want to find out what MMA would be without it.

Extreme Fight Night had to return $6,200 in sponsorship dollars after his permit was denied in Gallatin, Tenn. The city claims they didn't approve the permit because it was designated for non-profit organizations only.

"They (the attendees) will bring beer in their cars, they will be drinking in the parking lot ? we will have no control," said the company's marketing director, Christine Swartz, at the beer board hearing. "Whereas, if we sell beer within the venue, we have security; we can control that. If someone has more than one, or we think they're on the brink of a situation, we can physically have them removed."

The story ended well. Extreme Fight Night found another venue to run their fights that had beer. Fight fans had their cold beer in hand again. Phew.

Would you attend a dry fight? Tell us in the comments, on Twitter or on Facebook.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/tennessee-fights-canceled-liquor-license-denied-132442657.html

Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo  John Alessio  Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida 

UFC on FUEL TV 1 weigh-in: Sanchez looks healthy at 170 pounds

Diego Sanchez was the man to watch during today's UFC on FUEL 1 weigh-in.

In this ever evolving sport, welterweights are getting bigger and bigger. At 5-foot-9 Sanchez is small for the weight. He looked bloated on fight night for his battle last March against Martin Kampmann. This afternoon, he looked much healthier.

Sanchez explained to USA Today that he screwed up the weight cut before the Kampmann fight.

The last fight for Martin Kampmann, I really messed up on the diet. I didn't cut out salt. I didn't cut out carbs. I ended up having to cut 14 pounds the day of the weigh-ins. That's three hours of cardio and another 30 minutes in the sauna.

Sanchez said it cost him late in the fight when he couldn't pour it on.

I felt it in the fight, and even though I still was able to fight hard and put a hard pace, if I would have done the weight cut properly, I would have been able to press the fight even harder in the second and third rounds and, I believe, finished the fight.

So there's no excuses for Sanchez and that means a victory for Jake Ellenberger is worth that much more.

UFC on FUEL TV 1 weigh-in: (Courtesy MMAjunkie)

MAIN CARD (FUEL TV)
Jake Ellenberger (170) vs. Diego Sanchez (170)
Dave Herman (234) vs. Stefan Struve (256)
Ronny Markes (185) vs. Aaron Simpson (186)
Philip De Fries (241) vs. Stipe Miocic (240)
T.J. Dillashaw (136) vs. Walel Watson (135)
John Albert (135) vs. Ivan Menjivar (135)

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook)
Jonathan Brookins (145) vs. Vagner Rocha (145)
Sean Loeffler (185) vs. Buddy Roberts (184)
Anton Kuivanen (156) vs. Justin Salas (155)
Bernardo Magalhaes (155) vs. Tim Means (155)

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-fuel-tv-1-weigh-sanchez-looks-healthy-003641493.html

Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger