MixedMartialArtsLawBlog Year-End Updates
As 2009 comes to a close, I wanted to provide updates on a few of the year's MMALB columns.
Rapper DMX Pulls Out of MMA Fight. According to this statement released by the promoter, the entire event had to be canceled because "[w]hen [DMX] decided to back out of the event due to our refusal to fix his fight, it left Thunder Promotions LLC with little time to promote an event with a replacement headliner." According to other sources only a few hundred tickets had been sold.
While there is a tremendous amount of comedic value in writing about an MMA event where DMX is deemed a "headliner," the cancellation does have sad consequences for the other fighters on the card, especially Iowa's own Travis Fulton (who has 192 MMA wins on his record). Fulton was looking to reinvent himself and make it to the big show. Instead, according to his manager, Chad Bergmeier, all Fulton got after arriving in Alabama was a redeye flight back home. To date, the promoters still have not come through with Fulton's paycheck.
MMA Organizations Battle Piracy - The Square Ring v. UStream lawsuit has gotten bogged down, but UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee (along with executives from Major League Baseball) about the importance of cracking down on online piracy. I think it's a watershed event when an MMA bigwig gets to go to Washington to speak alongside a Big Three (NFL, NBA, and MLB) representative.
This related Cagewriter article is interesting. It covers the testimony and also provides an example of why if you are planning to tell people how to steal a pay per view broadcast you should not first send an email to event promoters.
Jon "Bones" Jones's Appeal to the NSAC is Denied. MMAJunkie provides a full recap. While I am not surprised at the denial, I am still waiting for someone to comment and resolve the discrepancy between the referee only deducting a single point, but then calling Jones's downward elbows an intentional foul.
And, most importantly, Kimo is still alive!
I leave you with one of my favorite MMA quotes of the year. It's not law-related, but it is nonetheless worth sharing, and it comes from MMA Journalist Jim Genia:
BJ Penn is without a doubt some kind of fighting deity, but I definitely think Gray Maynard, Frankie Edgar and Jim Miller can beat him. However, they have to coordinate it so they all attacking him at once, i.e., Maynard comes in low, Edgar comes in high and Miller blasts him with a shotgun. Otherwise, they're doomed.
Happy New Year, MMALB readers!
