Mere days after announcing that German heavyweight Andreas ‘Big Daddy’ Kraniotakes (12-4) as the replacement for main event fighter Pedro Rizzo, the ProElite promotion has run into another snag and is set to name another opponent for former UFC champ Tim Sylvia.
On Wednesday, sources close to ProElite spoke to MMAFighting.com telling them that the promotion had run into problems with the Illinois State Professional Athletic COmmission in getting Kraniotakes licensed. They would approve him due to “a lack of sanctioned fights on his record.”
All of Kraniotakes’ bouts have taken place in Europe.
The website noted that the ProElite promotion is set to announce a new opponent but was unable to license him on Wednesday due to the Illinois office being closed at that time.
Visit http://proelite.com/ periodically today for the official announcement.
Kraniotakes took to video to voice his disappointment at the licensing failure.
“?Eventually, the commission wouldn’t give me a license for some reasons no one understands,” Kraniotakes said. “I think the people making those decisions probably don’t know anything about the sport. I did everything I could do, my management did everything it could do, ProElite did everything it could do to make the fight happen. But the commission just said no.”
Kraniotakes, who had come to the States to train in San Diego leading up to the fight, said he is unsure what his next move will be, but he’d like to get a fight in 2011.
“I thought this was the moment in my career where all the suffering and the hard stuff I’ve put into it, all the training and all the work, finally paid off,” Kraniotakes said. “And now I stand here and don’t really know what to think. It’s kind of tough for me. I don’t really know where to go from here, but I know this eon’t hold me down.”
(props to MMAFighting.com for the transcription)