Former UFC fighter Tony Martin was arrested in Florida in December and charged with assault on a law enforcement officer | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Tony Martin was arrested in Florida in…
Former UFC fighter Tony Martin was arrested in Florida in December and charged with assault on a law enforcement officer | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Tony Martin was arrested in Florida in December
Former UFC fighter Tony Martin (aka Anthony Rocco Martin) was due in court in Lee County, Florida, on February 22 to face the misdemeanor charge of assault on a law enforcement officer. However, Martin waived his right to a speedy trial on that date and his case was continued. He is now scheduled to appear before a judge, via Zoom, on April 5 for a docket sounding hearing.
Martin, who fought for the UFC between 2014-2020 and last competed under the CES banner, was arrested on December 21, 2022, in Bonita Springs, Florida, after the Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to an abandoned 911 call. According to the police report, which Bloody Elbow obtained, the deputies had “just previously been at this location for a verbal disturbance.”
Once at the address, deputies encountered a crying “white female” in a black Ford Expedition, who told them that “she just wanted to leave.”
Martin then reportedly approached the deputies and told them to “get off my f–king property right now.” When told that an active investigation was underway, Martin, who “appeared inebriated,” added, “I don’t care, and if you touch me, I will kick your ass.” Martin then allegedly “continued to escalate yelling and shouting statements such as, ‘I hate cops and you can suck my d—k.’”
Martin was arrested and booked into the Lee County Justice Center at 5:16 am. He was bonded out of custody later that day, with a bail set at $5,000.
In January, Martin’s lawyer requested the GPS monitor her client had been fitted with be removed because the device “interferes with him wearing steal [sic] toe boots. Additionally, the GPS monitor digs into the Defendant’s skin, causing major discomfort while working construction.”
Online records indicate that the court denied Martin’s request in early February.
Martin’s April court appearance is a docket sounding hearing, which is a pre-trial hearing where the parties involved appear before a judge to discuss the status of the case and set a trial date.
Martin has asked for a jury trial and filed a not-guilty plea on the charge, which carries a penalty of 60 days to six months plus fines.
About the author: Trent Reinsmith is a freelance writer based out of Baltimore, MD. He has been covering sports for more than 15 years, with a focus on MMA for most of that time. (full bio)
Dana White’s Power Slap struggles to keep viewers from AEW Wrestling in Week 6 | Photo by Amy Kaplan/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Week 6 of Dana White’s Power Slap league lost more than 700,000 viewers from AEW Wrest…
Dana White’s Power Slap struggles to keep viewers from AEW Wrestling in Week 6 | Photo by Amy Kaplan/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Week 6 of Dana White’s Power Slap league lost more than 700,000 viewers from AEW Wrestling lead-in
With no NBA basketball on the schedule on Wednesday, the 8 p.m. TBS broadcast of AEW Wrestling was the evening’s No. 1 rated cable show. The broadcast drew a rating of .35 in the 18-49 demographic and a viewership of 1,028,000. Despite having its biggest lead in numbers since premiering on January 18, 2023, Dana White’s Power Slap struggled to hold on to those viewers, posting a rating of .10 on the night with viewers between 18-49. White’s slap fighting league had an audience of 309,000 for its week six broadcast.
According to ShowBuzzDaily, Power Slap’s rating improved from .09 last week. However, when considering the massive lead-in from AEW, Power Slap set a new high in the number of viewers that tuned out. Power Slap lost 709,000 viewers from the wrestling broadcast. The previous high number of lost viewers for the broadcast came on Week 1, when Power Slap lost 674,000 of AEW’s 969,000 viewers.
Power Slap’s best week came on Week 2 when it had a .13 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 413,000 viewers. The slap fighting broadcast was the No. 30 show on cable that night. However, it should be noted that AEW Wrestling provided a fantastic lead-in for the 10 p.m. Power Slap broadcast that night with 1.003 million viewers.
White’s foray into a new sport, which TBS delayed broadcasting for a week after White was caught on video slapping his wife, while on a family vacation in Mexico, has struggled to hold on to viewers:
Week 1: 295,000 viewers, 0.10 share, No 45. rated program for the night.
Week 2: 413,000 viewers, 0.13 share, No. 30 rated program for the night.
Week 3: 284,000 viewers, 0.09 share, No. 51 rated program for the night.
Week 4: 275,000 viewers, 0.08 share, No. 68 rated program for the night.
Week 5: 275,000 viewers, 0.09 share, No. 55 rated program for the night.
Prior to last week’s broadcast, , New Jersey’s Ninth District Representative Bill Pascrell Jr. and Nebraska’s Second District Representative Don Bacon reached out to TBS and Warner Bros. Discovery regarding their involvement in “The Power Slap,” asking, “Where are the warnings to this mindless violence? Traumatic brain injury isn’t entertainment.”
Conor McGregor serves as one of the coaches for the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
NSAC approves delaying release of documents during filming of The Ultimate Fighter: Team McGre…
Conor McGregor serves as one of the coaches for the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
NSAC approves delaying release of documents during filming of The Ultimate Fighter: Team McGregor vs. Team Chandler
During the February 15 meeting of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) one of the first things the commission did was to approve the “consent agenda” portion of their docket. Among the final items on that agenda was a “Request for Waiver per Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) 467.017.”
The request, made by Zuffa LLC (UFC) was for “Declaratory Ruling and Limited Waiver of Regulations pursuant to NAC 467.008.” The item was not discussed during the meeting, but it was quickly approved.
Bloody Elbow submitted an information request to the commission regarding the vaguely worded action item, and have been provided the more thorough documentation behind it, as created by UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell.
The waiver, dated January 17th, 2023, is related to the filming of the current season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’—which features UFC stars Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler in head coaching roles, with the intent that the two men will face off in the Octagon later this year.
The document is an update of older agreements between the UFC and the NSAC over withholding fight results from public release. As Campbell notes…
Unfortunately, the concept of reality television was not envisioned when the Commission’s rules and regulations were drafted. As a result, a few of the Commission’s regulations could lead to divulging the particular fight match-ups and/or the winners of the matches. Either of these likelihoods would destroy the climactic ending to the television series. Consequently, as it did for the first twenty-eight seasons of the television series, Zuffa is respectfully petitioning this Commission for approval to defe, not prohibit, the release of any documents that would divulge the specific match-ups or the results of the matches taking place as part of the reality series, or any documents that lead to such divulgence. The actual number of documents will be minimal because that are likely to be less than 15 total matches during the series. By comparison, 10-12 matches occur during a typical UFC event. The documents that would be subject to deferred release include the inspectors’ weigh-in sheets, the scorecard tally sheets and the physicians’ reports after the matches.
Zuffa requests to defer release of this limited information for only a short period of time to allow the series to have a suspenseful and compelling finale. It is an important point in this Petition that Zuffa does not seek to prohibit public release of the information, but rather only the timing of such release.
Campbell goes on to state that Zuffa initially filed a similar request on September 15, 2004 and then again on December 10, 2008.
The request states that the public will be “entitled to fully review all documents after the programs are telecast.”
The specific items Zuffa has asked to have withheld include:
“Approval of program dates.” This request was made to ensure a flexible shooting schedule for the show.
“Minimum number of rounds for a complete program.” With no tickets being sold for the fights being filmed during the reality program, there is no need for Zuffa to satisfy a minimum number of rounds per card.
“Number of rounds in contest of exhibition.” This request allows for a “sudden victory round” in order for one fighter to be declared the victor and move on to the next round of competition.
“Procedures for attendance at weigh-ins.” This request asks that only “essential Commission personnel” take part in the weigh-ins before the fights are filmed for the reality program.
The upcoming season of “The Ultimate Fighter” premieres on ESPN and ESPN+ on May 30.
Erin Blanchfield could face Valentina Shevchenko for the UFC women’s flyweight title in 2023. | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
By all indications, Erin Blanchfield has spent most of her career preparin…
Erin Blanchfield could face Valentina Shevchenko for the UFC women’s flyweight title in 2023. | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
By all indications, Erin Blanchfield has spent most of her career preparing to take Valentina Shevchenko’s UFC flyweight title.
It just may be that Valentina Shevchenko has reached the most dangerous juncture of her MMA career: the point when her potential foes are competitors who have spent nearly their entire time in mixed martial arts preparing specifically for her style and approach to fighting.
The 34-year-old Shevchenko won the vacant UFC flyweight belt in December 2018 with a decision win over former strawweight titleholder Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Since then, ‘Bullet’ has defended her title seven times, with her next defense scheduled for March 4—when she faces Alexa Grasso in the co-headlining bout of UFC 285. If Shevchenko gets by Grasso (she’s currently a 6-1 favorite to do so) there’s a good chance Erin Blanchfield will be next.
The 23-year-old BJJ black belt out of Renzo Gracie Academy rocketed to No. 2 in the official UFC women’s flyweight rankings thanks to her recent submission win over ex-strawweight champ Jessica Andrade. ‘Cold Blooded’ made her professional MMA debut in March 2018, one month after Shevchenko fought for the first time at 125 pounds under the UFC banner. It’s not an understatement to say that Blanchfield has spent the past five years climbing a mountain with the Kyrgyzstani queen sitting at the top.
Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC
Very few UFC fighters can hold the belt for a weight class for years. Anderson Silva did it, as did Georges St-Pierre (over two welterweight title runs), so did Demetrious Johnson and Jon Jones. Shevchenko is now very clearly among that group, and it seems likely that—much as they did for the other fighters mentioned—her title defenses could start looking more challenging each time she steps into the Octagon.
Of course, part of that has to do with age and time, but another—possibly more significant—factor at play is the fact that the fighters rising in the ranks have now spent years focusing on decoding her strengths and weaknesses. Each time she steps into the cage the flyweight division looks for gaps to exploit, while Shevchenko can only focus incremental improvements and preparation for the specific opponent she’s facing on the night.
When asked about the possibility of facing the champion next, Blanchfield wasn’t shy about calling her shot. “I think I’ll use my style that I’ve been beating everybody with. Everyone kind of underestimates me a little bit just because of my age and because I don’t have that many fights in the UFC. I know I can win these fights. I feel like I’ve been breaking [Shevchenko] down for years. I’ve been watching her since I was in high school. I know once I get in there that we’ll have a good game plan and that belt is going to be mine.”
Chris Weidman dethroned Silva, St-Pierre and Jones arguably lost their titles in their final fights before voluntarily surrendering their belts back to the promotion, and Johnson met his match in Henry Cejudo. It’s impossible to say for sure that Blanchfield will be the one to dethrone Shevchenko, but if there’s a fighter in the division who looks like she has the tools, knowledge and skills—all gained by training with a future title shot against Shevchenko in mind—that fighter is Erin Blanchfield.
Forty-four of the 45 UFC 284 sponsors Bloody Elbow contacted were silent on UFC president Dana White slapping his wife | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
UFC president Dana White continues to avoid repercussions for slappi…
Forty-four of the 45 UFC 284 sponsors Bloody Elbow contacted were silent on UFC president Dana White slapping his wife | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
UFC president Dana White continues to avoid repercussions for slapping his wife on New Year’s Eve
It’s been nearly two months since TMZ published a video of UFC president Dana White slapping his wife, in a nightclub on New Year’s Eve. As far as repercussions for his actions go, White has faced none. Unless of course, White’s idea of “punishment” for doing the “one thing that you never bounce back from” is some type of comeuppance.
On Saturday, February 12, the UFC staged its second pay-per-view card of 2023. That event, UFC 284, took place at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. Following the event, Bloody Elbow reached out to the brands who advertised on and around the fighting surface as well as during the ESPN preliminary card and ESPN+ pay-per-view main card, for comment on White’s actions on New Year’s Eve. We previously reached out to the brands who advertised at UFC 283.
Of the 45 advertisers Bloody Elbow contacted, only one got back to us with anything other than an automated response acknowledging the receipt of our inquiry. That company was Dunkin’, who replied via email.
The company wrote, “Thank you for contacting Dunkin’. We are sorry you were unhappy with our advertising and will make sure that your comments are shared with the appropriate people. It’s important that we get feedback on our products, services, and advertising, and we appreciate you contacting us.”
It should be noted that Bloody Elbow did not express dissatisfaction with the advertising Dunkin’ placed on the UFC 284 broadcast. Instead, we asked if the brand had any comments on the video that TMZ posted of the UFC president slapping his wife on New Year’s Eve and if the company had any plans of changing their advertising with the UFC following the release of that video.
Here is a list of the companies who advertised in some way during UFC 284 that were contacted but did not reply to our questions:
VeChain, Jimmy John’s, Crypto.com, Hudson Shipping, Delgados Tequila and Soda, Monster Energy, neds, Universal (Cocaine Bear), Manscaped, DraftKings, Honda, Pizza Hut, ABC, Modelo, Buffalo Wild Wings, Target, Bob’s Discount Furniture, 1-800-Flowers, All State, Fanatics, Nuts.com, Arby’s, Instacart, Nerdwallet, Gatorade, Bet Rivers, McDonald’s, FX, Abbott, T Mobile, Hyundai, Ebay Motors, Subway, Progressive, Kia, Red Bull, Domino’s, Marvel (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Toyo Tires, Sony, Wells Fargo, Dodge, Samsung and Starbucks.
Mayra Bueno Silva picked up the first kneebar submission in the UFC in 2023 at UFC Vegas 69 | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
A running tally of important stats for all UFC events in 2023 The first …
Mayra Bueno Silva picked up the first kneebar submission in the UFC in 2023 at UFC Vegas 69 | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
A running tally of important stats for all UFC events in 2023
The first fight between two women in UFC history occurred on February 23, 2013. Ronda Rousey defended the UFC women’s bantamweight title in that contest with a first-round submission win over Liz Carmouche. Rousey secured the win via armbar. On Saturday, nearly 10 years after Rousey’s historic victory, Mayra Bueno Silva became the first fighter in the UFC women’s 135-pound division to win a fight via kneebar. Bueno Silva put her name in the UFC record books by stopping Lina Lansberg at the 4:46 mark of the second round of their preliminary card bout.
Bueno Silva was not the only fighter to walk away from UFC Vegas 69 with a win and a new UFC record. Rising star Erin Blanchfield put her name on several UFC women’s flyweight division records with her second-round submission win over former UFC strawweight champion Jessica Andrade.
Another fighter who broke records at UFC Vegas 69 was Jim Miller. Unfortunately for the UFC veteran, he did not walk away from the event with a win. Alexander Hernandez defeated Miller via decision in the main card opener.
Below, we look at all the significant UFC stats for 2023.
The next event on the UFC schedule is UFC Vegas 70. The main event of that card, which streams on ESPN+, is a light heavyweight fight between Nikita Krylov and Ryan Spann.
Shortest Three-Round Fight: Rinya Nakamura KOs Toshiomi Kazama at 0:33 of Round 1 via punch to head at distance at UFC Vegas 68.
Latest Finish in a Three-Round Fight: HyunSung Park submits SeungGuk Choi via rear-naked choke at 3:11 of Round 3 at UFC Vegas 68.
Most Takedowns Landed: Serghei Spivac lands six of eight takedown attempts on Derrick Lewis at UFC Vegas 68 and Jimmy Crute lands six of 12 takedown attempts on Alonzo Menifield.
Most Submission Attempts: HyunSung Park three submission attempts against SeungGuk Choi at UFC Vegas 68, Jimmy Crutethree submission attempts against Alonzo Menifield and Clayton Carpenter with three submission attempts vs. Juancamilo Ronderos.
Most Knockdowns Landed: Rinya Nakamura scores two knockdown on Toshiomi Kazama at UFC Vegas 68 and Alonzo Menifield. scores two knockdown on Jimmy Crute.
Most Significant Strikes Landed in a Three-Round Fight: Jessica Andrade lands 231 of 369 significant strike attempts in unanimous decision win over Lauren Murphy.
Shutouts: Serghei Spivac prevents Derrick Lewis from landing any strikes or takedowns during their UFC Vegas 68 main event fight.
Jamahal Hill lands 232 significant strikes in a UFC light heavyweight fight for a new UFC LHW single-fight record. Hill defeated Glover Teixeira to by unanimous decision to win the UFC light heavyweight title.
Jessica Andrade lands 231 significant strikes in a UFC women’s flyweight fight for a new UFC women’s flyweight record. Andrade defeated Lauren Murphy via unanimous decision.
Jessica Andrade tied Amanda Nunes for most wins in women’s UFC history with her 15th victory with the promotion.
Jim Miller participated in his 41st fight in the UFC. Andrei Arlovski is second to Miller with 39 UFC bouts.
With his one submission attempt vs. Alexander Hernandez, Jim Miller has the most submission attempts in UFC history with 47. Charles Oliveira is second with 40 submission attempts.
Jim Miller has 38 fights in the UFC lightweight division. Three other fighters: Clay Guida, Gleison Tibau and Joe Lauzon are tied for second with 27 fighters each.
Jim Miller has 6:18:59 of UFC lightweight fight time. Clay Guida is second with 5:10:50.
Jim Miller has 44 submission attempts in UFC lightweight fights. Joe Lauzon is second with 29.
Erin Blanchfield has a control time percentage of 55.4 percent in UFC flyweight fights. Taila Santos is second with 46.3 percent.
Erin Blanchfield has a top position percentage of 48.6 percent in UFC flyweight fights. Gillian Robertson is second at 41.9 percent.
Erin Blanchfield averages 1.57 submissions per 15 minutes of UFC women’s flyweight fight time. Taila Santos is second at 1.5.
Mayra Bueno Silva secures first kneebar submission in UFC women’s bantamweight history.
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