By this time next week, the MMA world will have the outcome of Nate Diaz’s first UFC lightweight title fight — and judging by @LayzieTheSavage‘s Twitter account, we may have to put him on suicide watch if the 209 is unsuccessful. As for myself, I’ll be in a different country when the UFC on FOX scrap goes down. However with the powers of legal streaming (Slingbox), I will be able to watch potentially the card of the year. Now on to the Rumor Mill.
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Last night we witnessed a nuclear explosion between former friends turned sworn enemies: Bellator’s Felice Herrig and Michele Gutierrez. Both fighters forged a strong relationship when they were featured in the 505 Games’ ‘Supremacy MMA.’ The actual fallout between the two is a little unclear, but I remember it happening at a cancer charity in Las Vegas called ‘It Ain’t Chemo’ on February 11th 2012. I was there for the event and I remember Herrig and Gutierrez exchanging words backstage while Jay Hieron and Martin Kampmann cautiously watched. Perhaps they may have more details than I do, but I believe the altercation was due to something that we all deal with: the opposite sex. Felice stormed off backstage and then Ron Kruck tapped me on my shoulder to tell me there was a shot waiting for me at the bar. That’s how I remembered it.
Bellator took note of the emerging beef, and booked Felice Herrig and Michele Gutierrez to clash in the cage on December 14th at Bellator 84. Everything was scheduled to go until Gutierrez pulled out of the fight due to a broken wrist. This picture accompanied the reported injury:
People understood the injury, everything was dandy — until this iPhone screencap was released by Bill Butcher that showed Michele holding a conversation with former TUF 15 cast member, Erin Beach:
If this iPhone screencap is not photoshopped, then it clearly shows Michele Gutierrez admiting that she had to pull out of her Bellator 84 fight against Felice Herrig due to her not making weight — the broken hand was just a cover up. Of course this sparked even more beef between the two fighters which was fully expressed on Twitter last night. After Felice Herrig retweeted the screen cap above, Gutierrez responded with this:
This is what Felice Herrig responded with — which makes sense from my non-medical perspective:
We’re still not entirely sure what’s going on with this SMRM item, but as it develops we’ll keep you updated
- It appears that Rin Nakai’s Pancrase final fight against England’s Danielle West is wrought with an amazing amount of controversy. According to Aisling Daly, West’s was treated pretty poorly before her title fight and was apparently lied to about the rules:
- Get ready for even more controversy in MMA. It was reported that former TUF 9 cast member, Frankie Lester, hit MMA fighter Cassie Crisano after an altercation that occurred when she reportedly came over 8 lbs overweight at a weigh-in for a fight against Lester’s girlfriend, Shanie Rusth. According to the multitude of Facebook, Tweets, and message board posts (far too many to publish here), things are far more complex than they appear on the surface. However, Frankie Lester did issue a statement regarding this incident:
I’m very disappointed with what happened tonight, Shanie trained Hard for this & her opponent blatantly disrespected her hard work by showing up 8lbs over weight. The Altercation that proceeded after the failed weigh in attempt by Cassie Crisano was unprofessional & downright disrespectful towards Shanie who jumped up a weight class to weigh in at 130lbs for a 135lb bout. Cassie came in at 142.8 after being 3 hours late to weigh ins then proceeded to slap Shanie when we declined the fight. These are the facts. This is my final statement in this matter
- Some people claim that Strikeforce fighters are pulling out of the final Strikeforce show in hopes of immediately signing with UFC once the Showtime promoted show is done.
- According to television viewership and financial backing, KSW may be the second ranked MMA promotion in the world, nudging out Bellator.
- Vaughan Lee says he’s only rumored to fight against Urijah Faber.
Here’s more from Japan’s Celine Haga. Put your reading glasses on for this one:
Feel free to watch the controversial fight here, compliments of ZProphet.
