Hell Freezes Over As MFC Signs Drew Fickett to Face Antonio McKee for Lightweight Title on February 25

Apparently lot can change in a few years.
Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich had a change of heart and has re-signed lightweight Drew Fickett to a multi-fight deal with the Edmonton, Alberta promotion. The news wouldn’t be as inter…

Apparently lot can change in a few years.

Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich had a change of heart and has re-signed lightweight Drew Fickett to a multi-fight deal with the Edmonton, Alberta promotion. The news wouldn’t be as interesting if Pavelich hadn’t proclaimed in 2008 that "Knight Rider" would never fight in the MFC.

To recap what led up to Pavelich’s assertion that Fickett’s days as an MFC fighter were numbered before he ever cashed a paycheck from the promotion, it all started when "The Master" breached a clause in his 2008 contract by taking a fight within two months of a scheduled MFC bout.

But that’s not the reason he was banned by Pavelich.

When the promoter read online that Fickett had agreed to fill in for an injured Joe Riggs on a Strikeforce challengers card last-minute participation, he attempted to contact the fighter’s camp to tell them that he would be breaching his contract if he took the fight as he had an MFC bout less than a month later. When his calls and messages went unanswered, he contacted Scott Coker to tell him that Drew couldn’t fight on the card and the Strikeforce promptly rescinded the offer to Fickett.

read more

Suggestion Box: New Jobs for Fired Fighters

(Don’t give him any money. You know he’ll just spend it on N.O.-Xplode. Photo courtesy of Myron Watkins.)
By CagePotato contributor Jason Moles
This week, our nation’s attention has been captured by redneck birds and the Golden Voice Hobo, only one …

homeless ufc fighter mma photos
(Don’t give him any money. You know he’ll just spend it on N.O.-Xplode. Photo courtesy of Myron Watkins.)

By CagePotato contributor Jason Moles

This week, our nation’s attention has been captured by redneck birds and the Golden Voice Hobo, only one of which has a happy ending. (No, not that kind…the other kind. Yes, there is another kind.) The rags-to-riches-to-rags-and-back-to-riches tale of fortune for Ted Williams is the polar opposite of that of many fighters lately. In the last two weeks, Zuffa has cut six fighters and suspended one more. The economy is still in the can and homeboys gotta eat, so if Strikeforce or Bellator don’t come calling soon, this is where you’re going to see ‘The Expendables’ next:

Brandon "The Truth" Vera: Some believe the number 13 to be unlucky, and for Vera it was. After exactly that many fights in the Octagon, his days in the spotlight are over. From now on he’ll be slinging dinuguan [Ed. note: Eww.] with a side of balut  [Ed. note: *barfs*] at his aunt and uncle’s restaurant, Manila Good-Ha, in L.A.’s Koreatown. It’s a match made in heaven for Vera because he’ll never have to worry about getting punched in the nose again — that is, unless he back-talks his wife Kerry. He’s just gotta make sure Jon Jones’s order is just how he likes it.

Marcus "The Irish Hand Grenade" DavisThe former TUF 2 contestant will grow out his hair and learn how to drop flying-elbows off the top turnbuckle. Davis will join forces with Samoa Joe, the man he trained back in 2008, to form the world’s most obscure tag-team since The Oddities. At some point Marc Mero, also a former boxer, will come out of retirement to challenge The Irish Hand Grenade to a Caribbean Strap Match for bragging rights as the best ‘real’ fighter in TNA. Dan Hardy will interfere and cost him the match leaving him to reconsider life in some barn with his ex-Army sniper friend.

read more

Brandon Vera Has a Broken Nose and Broken Contract

After a Unanimous Decision loss to Thiago Silva who dominated Brandon “The Truth” Vera for 3 rounds, the UFC has released the Light Heavyweight from his UFC contract. It was the third straight loss for Vera who also received a broken nose courtesy of Silva. Vera had been with UFC since 2005.
Other fighters […]

brandon-vera-nose

After a Unanimous Decision loss to Thiago Silva who dominated Brandon “The Truth” Vera for 3 rounds, the UFC has released the Light Heavyweight from his UFC contract. It was the third straight loss for Vera who also received a broken nose courtesy of Silva. Vera had been with UFC since 2005.

Other fighters released from their contracts following their losses at UFC 125 were Marcus Davis and Antonio McKee. Both McKee and Davis were UFC Lightweights. McKee was making his UFC debut when he lost a Split Decision to Jacob Volkmann and Davis received his second loss in a row via KO from Jeremy Stephens. Usually UFC seems to practice a 3 strikes and you’re out method, but their Lightweight division is a bit overloaded with the WEC Lightweights moving in, which may have contributed to the two being cut from their contracts

And Now He’s Fired: Antonio ‘Mandingo’ McKee

(Oh boy. This is really going to affect his position as "baddest N-word on the planet." / Photo courtesy of UFC.com)
“I feel like I’m the Muhammad Ali of MMA. I feel like I’m the Don King of MMA. I feel like I’m the …

Antonio McKee Jacob Volkmann
(Oh boy. This is really going to affect his position as "baddest N-word on the planet." / Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

“I feel like I’m the Muhammad Ali of MMA. I feel like I’m the Don King of MMA. I feel like I’m the Tupac Shakur of MMA. I’m the mouth, the talent, the brains, and I’m also the business side. Where does that put me? That puts me as one of the all-time greatest black mixed martial arts fighters.”Antonio McKee 

"I feel sad for the opponents, you know? I hope maybe they’ll just let me submit them, because I really don’t want to hurt them. What are they going to do, stop me from taking them down? Stop me from ground-and-pounding them? Stop me from hitting them with the elbows? Come on, you serious?"Antonio McKee 

"GSP needs to be compared to *me*."Antonio McKee

"You’re fucking fired." — Dana White

read more

Wednesday Morning MMA Link Club

(And the first nomination for 2011’s Corey Hill Award is… / Photo courtesy of the DREAM Dynamite!! Photo Gallery on FightMagazine.com)
Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail [email protected] for det…

Kazushi Sakuraba torn ear bloody MMA photos
(And the first nomination for 2011’s Corey Hill Award is… / Photo courtesy of the DREAM Dynamite!! Photo Gallery on FightMagazine.com)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail [email protected] for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

– Five Lessons: UFC 125 (Versus MMA Beat)

– Antonio McKee: Loss in UFC Debut Was a ‘Humbling Experience’ (MMA Fighting)

– UFC 125 Aftermath: Clay Guida’s Enthusiasm For Fighting Is A Draw For New MMA Fans (SBNation.com/MMA)

– 11 Fighters The UFC Should Sign In 2011 (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Video: Hatsu Hioki vs. Marlon Sandro Featherweight Title Fight From Sengoku ‘Soul of Fight’ (MMA Scraps)

– Watch Dana White Give Snoop Dogg $20,000 in Unmarked Bills (MiddleEasy)

– UFC 126: Silva vs Belfort Official Trailer (LowKick)

– Miesha Tate Targeting March 5 in Ohio for Welterweight Title-Shot (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Brock Lesnar Wants You to Read His New Book (MMA Convert)

Antonio McKee: Loss in UFC Debut Was a ‘Humbling Experience’

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, NewsIt turns out that even for an 11-year MMA veteran like Antonio McKee, Octagon jitters are very real. If that surprises you to learn, just imagine how he feels.

It’s one thing for a young fighter with only a co…

Filed under: , ,

It turns out that even for an 11-year MMA veteran like Antonio McKee, Octagon jitters are very real. If that surprises you to learn, just imagine how he feels.

It’s one thing for a young fighter with only a couple years as a pro to struggle with nerves in his UFC debut. That’s to be expected. But for the 40-year-old McKee, who has fought in various MMA organizations all over North America in the past decade, it was a bit of a shock.

“It was funny because I’ve never really been nervous for my other fights,” McKee told MMA Fighting. “I was really nervous, not about my opponent, but just the crowd, the people. I didn’t want people to be disappointed in my performance. I was surprised that I got that nervous, but the UFC is intimidating. I didn’t realize it was that intimidating actually being in there.”