Pro Wrestling/Mixed Martial Arts news and notes 3/7/07

By Art Shimko
shimko_7@hotmail.com

-- As much pro wrestling and MMA news as we can find from around the world and stuff into today's update...

-- The huge news coming out of this weekend was of course 43-year-old Randy Couture winning his fifth UFC title after defeating heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia on Saturday night in front of 19,049 excited fans in Columbus, OH [breaking Strikeforce's 18,265 MMA attendance record from a year ago] to become not only the new UFC heavyweight champ but also an inspiration to us all. I will be watching this fight this week and cannot wait to witness Couture chop down the redwood known as Tim Sylvia. Complete results from CBS Sportsline:
1. Jamie Varner defeated Jason Gilliam via submission at 1:34 of Round 1.
2. Gleison Tibau defeated Jason Dent via unanimous decision after three rounds.
3. Jon Fitch defeated Luigi Foiravanti via submission to a rear-naked choke at 3:05 of Round 3.
4. Matt Hamill defeated Rex Holman via TKO at 4:00 of Round 1.
5. Jason Lambert defeated Renato "Babalu" Sobral via TKO at 3:36 of Round 2.
6. Rich Franklin defeated Jason MacDonald via TKO due to strikes at 5:00 of Round 2.
7. Martin Kampmann defeated Drew McFedries via submission to a triangle choke at 4:06 of Round 1.
8. Matt Hughes defeated Chris Lytle via unanimous decision after three rounds.
9. Randy "The Natural" Couture defeated Tim Sylvia via unanimous decision after five rounds to win the UFC heavyweight title.

-- Rich Franklin will take on middleweight champion Anderson Silva in Cincinnati which was revealed after Franklin's win over Jason McDonald, no date has been set.

-- MMAWeekly.com obtained a list of the fighters' salaries from this weekend's UFC show:
Title Match & Main Event Fighters
-Randy Couture: $250,000 (17th fight in UFC; defeated Tim Sylvia)
-Tim Sylvia: $100,000 (11th fight in UFC; lost to Randy Couture)

Main Card Fighters
-Matt Hughes: $150,000 (18th fight in UFC; defeated Chris Lytle)
-Rich Franklin: $42,000 (9th fight in UFC; defeated Jason MacDonald)
-Renato "Babalu" Sobral: $21,000 (9th fight in UFC; lost to Jason Lambert)
-Martin Kampmann: $20,000 (3rd fight in UFC; defeated Drew McFedries)
-Jason Lambert: $18,000 (5th fight in UFC; defeated Renato "Babalu" Sobral)
-Jason MacDonald: $14,000 (3rd fight in UFC; lost to Rich Franklin)
-Chris Lytle: $10,000 (8th fight in UFC; lost to Matt Hughes)
-Drew McFedries: $5,000 (2nd fight in UFC; lost to Martin Kampmann)

Preliminary Match Fighters
-Jon Fitch: $28,000 (5th fight in UFC; defeated Luigi Fioravanti)
-Matt Hamill: $10,000 (3rd fight in UFC; defeated Rex Holman)
-Luigi Fioravanti: $8,000 (4th fight in UFC; lost to Jon Fitch)
-Jamie Varner: $6,000 (2nd fight in UFC; defeated Jason Gilliam)
-Gleison Tibau: $6,000 (2nd fight in UFC; defeated Jason Dent)
-Rex Holman: $3,000 (1st fight in UFC; lost to Matt Hamill)
-Jason Gilliam: $3,000 (1st fight in UFC; lost to Jamie Varner)
-Jason Dent: $3,000 (2nd fight in UFC; lost to Gleison Tibau)

Disclosed Fighter Payroll: $697,000

-- Wednesday night on Spike is the Ultimate Fight Night replay featuring Anderson Silva knocking the shit out of Chris Leben in under a minute.

-- Nevada OKs grudge match between UFC chief White and Tito Ortiz

-- Sammy Schilt knocked out New Zealand's Ray Sefo to win the K-1 Super Heavyweight Title Belt on Sunday at the K-1 World Grand Prix -07 in Yokohama [attendance: 9,650]. Complete results are here.

-- Despite having an awesome show last weekend Pride canceled their 4/28 Las Vegas show and the event has been removed from the company's website. All this stems from the current drama between Dream Stage Entertainment and Pride USA president Ed Fishman resulting in a falling out and DSE wanting to buy Fishman out his contract but there's a dispute over how much will be owed to Fishman who has expressed interest in buying Pride yet DSE continues to deny that Pride is for sale.

-- Despite having an awesome fight with Takanori Gomi at Pride 33 Nick Diaz tested positive for marijuana as reported by Sherdog.com. Diaz was the only Pride fighter to test positive in his drug test as the following fighters: Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Takanori Gomi, Mauricio Rua, Alistair Overeem, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira), Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Joachim Hansen, and Jason Ireland had clean tests.

-- We are sad to report the deaths of two veteran pro wrestlers, Allen Coage [Bad News Allen/Bad News Brown] died on Tuesday morning, Brown just had recent hip replacement surgery and complained of chest pains on Monday. Ray "Thunder" Stern, a self-made man who was involved in pro wrestling, aviation and real estate also died on Tuesday at age 74.

-- Sports Illustrated's website has an article about a huge steroid bust in Florida involving pharmacies and wellness centers who were part of a network distributing performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and human growth hormone over the internet. Amongst the 20+ athletes who received drugs from Applied Pharmacy Services out of Mobile, AL was non other than current TNA star and former Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle: Kurt Angle, a 1996 Olympic gold-medal-winning freestyle wrestler and now a star professional wrestler, received two prescriptions for trenbolone and one for nandrolone between October 2004 and February '05. (Angle did not return messages left with his spokesman.) Remember the WWE's Wellness Program was not established yet so Kurt had a number of opportunities to obtain steroids, whether to heal injuries (in Angle's case is true) or for performance and body enhancement.

-- If you saw RAW on Monday night then you saw that Stone Cold Steve Austin made an appearance and was named the special guest referee at the Trump/Lashley vs Umaga/McMahon Hair vs Hair match. And remember that segment during the divas match involving Candice Michelle? Well thanks to Wrestling-News.com and one of their UK readers Rick here's a download for the UK broadcast which showed a bit more of Candice's titties.

-- J.R.'s latest blog

-- Mick Foley also made an appearance on Raw and mentioned his new book The Hardcore Diaries, there's an article here and here.

-- WWE wants to take over the world, you can read about it here. More on WWE's global expansion later in the week.

-- WWE Hall Of Fame tickets for 3/31 at Detroit's Fox Theatre sold out in a minute, additional tickets will be released closer to the event date.

-- WWE Diva's Naked Photos Leaked: She's a Man!

-- Ex-Lumberjack, WWE 'Sign Guy' on game show

-- World Wrestling Entertainment Trusts MarkMonitor to Protect Online Channels

-- The latest in the WSX drama is that MTV will be airing the final five episodes next Tuesday (3/13) beginning at 11PM. The final episode will air the following Tuesday (3/20) at 10:30PM. [www.pwinsider.com]

-- The Patriot (not sure which one), ECW’s The Blue Meanie, Alere Little Feather, Missy Sampson and the Lovely Eva are among several pro wrestlers who will be signing autographs on 3/17 at the Genetti Hotel in Williamsport, PA to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, admission is $5.

-- Suffern alumni give back

-- Varsity Pro Wrestling out of the UK will be working with All Japan exchanging talent which included SUWAMA who did a tour last month with VPW had positive comments about the promotion: “I was extremely happy with my stay of UK and the way I was treated by the public, by Varsity and by Varsity students, I am looking forward to returning in the summer and hope the audiences take to me as well as they did this time.”

-- http://www.rohwrestling.com/news/article.aspx?id=1189:
March 3 Liverpool:
- Homicide defeated Davey Richards
- Sara Del Rey defeated Allison Danger
- Jimmy Jacobs & Jimmy Rave defeated BJ Whitmer & Colt Cabana
- Matt Sydal defeated Delirious
- Roderick Strong defeated PAC to retain the FIP Heavyweight Title
- Naruki Doi & Shingo defeated Jay & Mark Briscoe to win the ROH World Tag Team Titles
- Samoa Joe defeated Nigel McGuinness

March 4 Liverpool:
- Delirious defeated Colt Cabana
- Sara Del Rey & Allison Danger defeated Jetta & Eden Black
- BJ Whitmer defeated Jimmy Jacobs in a Falls Count Anywhere Match
- Matt Sydal defeated PAC
- Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe ended in a double KO
- Naruki Doi & Shingo defeated Roderick Strong & Davey Richards
- Nigel McGuinness defeated Jimmy Rave in a Fight Without Honor
- Samoa Joe defeated Homicide

-- Takeshi Morishima defeated KENTA to retain the ROH World title at NOAH's 3/4 Nippon Budokan show in Tokyo. [www.puroresupower.com]

-- 13 Questions With Frank Shamrock

-- East Coast Mixed Martial Arts Leader Cage Fury Fighting Championships Announces Championship 4 "War on the Shore"

-- Fight Network Programming to Be Available to More Than 20 Million U.S. Homes via America One Sports
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