Author: Matt Erickson [matt-erickson]

FAIRBORN, Ohio – She’s not exactly happy about it, but it was a victory in more ways than one for Bellator strawweight champion Zoila Gurgel.

Following 19 months on the shelf after major knee surgery, the Cincinnati-based fighter on Friday fought off both a healthy dose of cage rust and her opponent Casey Noland en route to a unanimous decision victory.

The end result may have been a relief, but it certainly didn’t come easy.

Cage Warriors 49 saw a handful of card changes in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s event.

Chief among them was the scrapping of a women’s flyweight title fight between Sheila Gaff and Rosi Sexton when Gaff pulled out, citing illness.

But the event soldiered on, and a solid 10-fight card is set for St David’s Hall in Cardiff, Wales.

When he’s not in the gym, Maximum Fighting Championship middleweight Elvis Mutapcic’s favorite thing to do is nothing.

Working an up-and-comer’s schedule of a full-time job paired with a
full-time training schedule, he hasn’t had much time to pursue a hobby.

But Mutapcic, who tonight meets Joseph Henle in the
headliner of MFC 35, recently found something that might compete with an
afternoon on the couch: golf.

Tyson Griffin is holding a fundraiser in advance of his headliner against Efrain Escudero at RFA 4.

The 28-year-old UFC vet is holding a raffle at the House of Ryu Athletic Center in Las Vegas to benefit Boys Town of Nevada.

The raffle winner will get two tickets to the Nov. 2 event and an afterparty hosted by Griffin at Planet Hollywood’s Gallery Nightclub in Las Vegas.

A New Jersey-based MMA trainer was today sentenced to probation, community service and fines for falsifying pre-fight medical forms for amateur fighters, the state’s attorney general today announced.

Philip Dunlap of Mahwah, N.J., received two years of probation, 100 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine, according to a release.

“Every trainer investigated and arrested for this type of crime enables us to further uphold the integrity of the sport,” stated New Jersey State Athletic Control Board Commissioner Aaron Davis.

Tim Gorman wanted to wait until his friends left, just in case things didn’t go well.

He then was a 19-year-old attending a regular fight night at a popular bar in Des Moines, Iowa. That night, the competition’s lightweight champion was looking for an opponent.

Gorman hadn’t planned on participating that night, but he got one of the challenges, and it sounded interesting.