(This guy, a terrorist? At worst, he looks like an extra from a Powerman 5000 music video.) 

We’ve all surely worked alongside some oddball characters at our respective jobs. I once held a summer job at a deli (A Hannaford deli. Sigh.) where I was paired daily with a 26 year-old ex-con under witness protection with a fondness for cats, cocaine, and women thrice his age. While working for a leather outfitter at Americade, I met a gentleman who enjoyed nothing more than retelling the story about the time he “accidentally” (I use quotes because he did) burned his former employer’s house to the ground. People are strange, indeed.

But none of the people I or any of you have ever worked with probably harbor as dark of secrets as Sanjay Dutt, the former co-owner of Super Fight League who has recently been sentenced to five years in Indian prison for his role in the 1993 Mumbai Blast. A series of explosions that killed 257 people and injured over 700, the blast was coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, the head of the “D-Company” crime syndicate. The series of attacks were among the worst in India’s long history, and were carried out thanks in part to Dutt, who both possessed and later destroyed weapons involved in the attacks.

The Times of India has the scoop (via MiddleEasy) after the jump.

(You should see the other guy.)

Although I thought George’s critique of Jeremy Stephens was a bit harsh, I must admit that I was similarly both impressed and a little put off by Dana White’s insistence that Stephens was not only a pawn in a vast Iowa-based conspiracy, but would in fact be fighting last Friday despite what us dumbass media types were saying [Ed note: Ironically, I took DW at his word and ended up looking like a dumbass]. Dana White’s loyalty to his fighters is admirable, but when you sweep a felony assault charge under the rug like it’s a parking ticket, you might just be sticking your neck out a little far is all I’m saying.

In either case, “Lil’ Heathen” is still stuck behind bars with bail set at a staggering $100,000. Now, I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one on TV, but that kind of figure should be a good indication as to how serious this assault charge is. That is Law & Order triple homicide bail right there, people. Stephens will be extradited to Iowa on Tuesday to appear in court at approximately 1:30 p.m.

Stephens’ management, Evolution Agents, recently released the following statement regarding Jeremy’s side of the story. And although it’s still way too early (for me, at least) to choose sides, if the events transpired as this release claims they did, then Stephens’ is truly on the wrong end of some bullshit.

(Covering up that neck tattoo before going to court would have been a good idea.)

If you’ve been missing War Machine’s acclaimed Big House Blogs, you’re probably the only group that is going to be happy about this news.

According to the fighter formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver, he has been sentenced to another year in jail in Las Vegas for an old charge, forcing him to withdraw from Bellator’s season six welterweight tournament that gets underway in March. He indicated on Twitter that he will begin serving his sentence in two weeks and that, as per usual, he isn’t happy with the system.

(Exhibit A for the defense: Whitehead can’t take a punch.)

In a surprising twist in the Mike Whitehead sexual assault case, the former The Ultimate Fighter 2 contestant was sentenced to between one and four years in Nevada State Prison today in Las Vegas. This according to the Associated Press.

Whitehead, who now lives in Tucson, Arizona and was scheduled to fight on Resurrection Fighting Alliance’s March 30 card in Nebraska, burst into tears after the sentence was read in Clark County court. He was immediately handcuffed and taken into custody. A report by the Associated Press states that “Iron” Mike (ironic, huh?) was charged with “attempted sexual assault,” which seems a bit off, considering he was full on having intercourse with a passed out chick while fondling her sleeping friend at his home when the victim woke up and told him to stop back in April 2010. In spite of her protest, Whitehead continued having sex with the 32-year-old acquaintance for several moments before climbing off of her and sitting naked on a chair in the corner while he stared at her and her 28-year-old girlfriend for a couple of hours.

It seemed like he would walk away with probation when it was announced late last year that he had struck a plea bargain with prosecutors to plead “no contest” to all charges against him to avoid the case going to trial, but it looks like the judge agreed with pretty much everyone that Whitehead should do the time for his vile crime.

(Well, this mug shot represents a vast improvement over the old one. At least Leben’s learning *something* from all this. PicProps: HawaiiNewsNow.com)

We were half joking earlier this year when we compared Chris Leben to that screw-up brother of yours who borrows your car, gets high and then crashes it. Right now however, that assessment seems sadly apt after Leben wrecked his truck on a Hawaii freeway earlier this week and was arrested on suspicion of DUI. Again.

Here’s the word straight from the document of record, by which we mean a story from a local television station in HI:  “Officers arrested Christian Leben, 30, a middleweight fighter known as the Crippler, on suspicion of operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant Tuesday. He was released from custody after posting $1,000 bail. Police say Leben was driving on the west-bound side of the H1 Freeway just before 2 AM, when he lost control of his pickup and crashed into a wall near the Kapiolani Boulevard off ramp. He was allegedly driving without a license and without insurance.”

At this point, there seems to be no appropriate response to this news aside from a resigned sigh and a disappointed shake of the head. Let’s just hope this latest brush with the law doesn’t upset Leben’s scheduled meeting with Brian Stann at UFC 125. We’d hate for this to go down like it did last time.

 
(Look up "shit-eating grin" in the dictionary and you’ll find this photo.)

I’m sure most of us have gone back to an ex-girlfriend’s apartment after a break-up to retrieve a few things. A pair of shoes, the Pixies CD that mysteriously went missing from your car or the $100 you leant her so she could get her hair streaked — whatever it was, you paid for it and you wanted it back; so much so, that were willing to stomach having to see your replacement sitting shirtless on her sofa and resist the urge to head-kick his smug smile out the window as you waited to get your shit back.

The difference between most of us — okay, all of us — and Floyd Mayweather Jr. is that he made more in his last fight than all of CP’s readers combined will likely make this year and that all of the items most of us would swallow our pride to get back, he could replace with the money he has in the ashtray of one of his 20 cars.

In spite of that fact,  he managed to get thrown in jail for stealing his ex’s $500 iPhone.

(Hopefully the meter maid didn’t give Spencer that shiner.) 

UFC lightweight Spencer Fisher was arrested in Bettendorf, Iowa on Tuesday for "interfering with an official act," which could mean anything from tearing up a parking ticket a meter maid was writing him to refusing to allow animal control to take his dog that had gotten loose from his yard.

He was released on $300 bond on his own recognizance.

Here’s the section of the Iowa criminal code that deals with the misdemeanor charge:

IOWA CODE 1999
719.1 Interference with Official Acts.
1. A person who … who knowingly resists or obstructs the service or execution by any authorized person of any civil or criminal process or order of any court, commits a serious misdemeanor. …
3. The terms “resist” and “obstruct,” as used in this section, do not include verbal harassment unless the verbal harassment is accompanied by a present ability and apparent intention to execute a verbal threat physically.

(Face of a crazy man, or just a Canadian?)

It looks like former UFC fighter Harold Howard’s crazy behavior this past December, that landed him in jail for the next five years wasn’t a totally out of the blue occurrence. The Toronto Star is reporting today that a couple weeks before the incident that saw Howard launch an unprovoked hammer attack on his nephew and sister, whom he had been staying with since October after he was charged with assaulting his wife, he had visited the newspaper’s offices in the hopes that they would expose an X-Files-like plot against him.

From the report:

“On Dec. 9, 2009, Howard showed up at the Toronto Star with a briefcase. He looked like a businessman, but his clothes were worn, and his knuckles were bruised and caked with dried blood. In a hoarse voice, he said there was a plot to ruin his life. He claimed he had been injected with a liquid that hardened his veins and immobilized him. He held out his shaking hands for inspection, his eyes wide in desperation. As he was escorted out of the building, he left nodding to no one but himself. “On to Plan B,” he told an editor before leaving.

Almost two weeks later, residents of a Niagara Falls street were awakened by screams. Howard was attacking his sister and nephew with the claw end of a hammer. His 21-year-old nephew fought back before Howard screeched out of the driveway.”

(Ortiz and Jameson in happier times)

TMZ is reporting the injury-plagued UFC light heavyweight Tito Ortiz has been arrested for felony domestic assault and is en-route to jail in Orange County, CA.

Police responded to a 911 call at the home that Ortiz and longtime girlfriend Jenna Jameson share with their twin sons. According to the report, sheriff’s deputies noted "visible injuries" on Jameson, prompting the arrest of "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy."

We’ll have more as details become available.

(Photo courtesy of Knucklepit.)

2009 is turning out to be a blockbuster year for MMA fighters fooling around and falling in jail. First we had Josh Neer arrested for hit-and-run/DUI. Then Jeff Monson was thrown in the pokey for grandfather clock abuse. Then War Machine got himself placed under citizen’s arrest at the gay club where he works. (Man, that gets funnier every time we write it.) And now it’s Kimo Leopoldo, the UFC old-timer and dark-horse candidate for CSAC executive officer. If you guessed "drug-related," congratulations, you are smarter than a fifth grader. TMZ, as usual, breaks it:

(Shit’s about to get real, son.  Real bad.)

Five Ounces of Pain is passing along a report that everyone’s favorite MMA screw-up, War Machine, was arrested in Las Vegas for battery early Saturday morning.  That’s right, the same guy who recently lost a job opportunity with Bellator for his comments about President Obama, which came after he was kicked out of the UFC for his comments about Evan Tanner/refusal to fight Brandon Wolff.  

To make matters worse, this was apparently a citizen’s arrest, meaning some guy (or woman, we don’t know) on the street grabbed War Machine after he battered someone and then held him there for the cops.  Or, more likely, it happened in a club or casino and security detained him, though I like the first explanation better for the visual imagery it conjures up.

War Machine was already on probation in California for beating up someone outside a gym, so unless he can prove his innocence in this case – and let’s be honest, you knew when you saw the headline that he was guilty – he’s probably going to do some time.

As much as we like mocking those who have aggressively proved themselves deserving of such mockery, War Machine’s life has recently moved beyond pure schadenfreude and into the realm of the genuinely depressing.  Though he did bring it on himself (repeatedly) while demonstrating a complete unwillingness to learn from his past mistakes.  You know where he could make friends who share those fun little traits?  Prison.

(Get used to being in a cage, my man.)

Things just got worse for MMA’s favorite anarchist, Jeff Monson.  He was arrested this weekend in North Carolina on a charge unrelated to his malicious mischief trouble in Olympia, Washington.  Now he’s in jail on suspicion of “assault on a female and injury to real property.”  Girl troubles gone terribly wrong, in other words.  How disappointing.  

The Olympian got the story from 30-year-old Stephanie Trapani, of Advance, North Carolina, who apparently had a thing going with “The Snowman”:

Trapani says she had a romantic relationship with Monson, but they got in an argument after found out he had romantic relationships with other women. She also alleges "he has two wives." She said she found out information about his other girlfriends on his cell phone and she then threw the cell phone out the window of her car while she was driving to pick him up at the gym. When he found out his cell phone was gone when they returned to Trapani’s home, he got angry. "He went ballistic," she said.

Here’s a little taste of Brock Lesnar’s appearance on ESPN’s E:60 tonight at 7 pm EST (which is like, now). The interview seems to be taking place in a barn for some reason. I’m sure it will all make sense when we see the whole thing. In other news…

- Luke Cummo was arrested and charged with “driving while impaired with drugs” in Lynbrook, New York last week. He wasn’t drunk, but was reportedly tested for a drug that officials would not name. Fightlinker says Cummo claimed, at least briefly, that he got a contact high from being in a room full of people smoking pot, and this was exacerbated by eating a bunch of chicken wings. Seriously. He’s pleaded not guilty, and we really hope he decides to represent himself in this case because that would be awesome.

- Matt Hughes says on his website that he talked to UFC matchmaker Joe Silva this week and he may finally get his shot at Matt Serra in April. He also went bowhunting and bagged a deer.

- The UFC sent out a press release today officially announcing three fights for the stacked UFC 92 event on Dec. 27. As expected, Rashad Evans/Forrest Griffin, Wanderlei Silva/”Rampage” Jackson, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira/Frank Mir are on tap. Said Evans:

“Forrest fights from the heart just like me, and everyone underestimates Forrest until they get in there with him, like me. I think he and I are going to be like Ali vs. Frazier – this will be the first time we meet, but it won’t be the last, so I want to set the precedent.”

(Photos courtesy of TMZ.com)

Big trouble in the Thirty Mile Zone:

Former UFC light heavyweight champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson got busted just minutes ago, and is currently in custody on the way to the clink, but not before he was [ordered] on the ground, cops nearby with guns drawn.

Law enforcement sources tell us, Rampage was in a car crash near Newport Beach (that’s near Laguna Beach in the O.C.) and then split the scene. Cops gave chase and eventually caught up and charged him with felony hit and run and felony evading arrest.

Here’s the deal about the dumbest hit and run ever. Notice the truck he tried evading police in — the one with the giant picture of him plastered on the side!

We’re told there could be additional charges. No word yet on whether Rampage resisted arrest.

A couple more details from the Daily Pilot via Bloody Elbow:

Jackson, the driver of a lifted, gray pick-up truck left crashed cars, shredded tires and sparks in his wake this afternoon when he led police on a short pursuit from the southbound 55 freeway exit onto Newport Boulevard where he hit at least three cars, police said.

The driver hit two cars at 19th Street and Newport Boulevard, then drove away at about 1:13 p.m., Lt. Paul Dondero said. A Costa Mesa police officer saw the driver southbound approaching 17th Street and tried to pull him over, police said. There, he hit at least one more car before continuing to run, now heading south toward the Balboa Peninsula, Dondero said. Some time after that, the truck blew a tire but continued to drive on its rims, Dondero said.

Jackson eventually gave up, pulled over and was arrested, police said. The whole chase lasted about five minutes, Dondero said.

I know that first picture looks like a movie shoot, or at the very least an episode of Punk’d gone FUBAR, but the situation is unfortunately real. Please, Quinton — one little loss is no reason to begin a dramatic downward spiral. More details to come…

UPDATE (8:45 p.m. ET): “There were no indications of drug or alcohol use by Rampage Jackson at the time of his arrest.” Jackson is being held at the Costa Mesa City Jail in lieu of a $25,000.00 bail.

In a victory for everyone who thinks the government has no right to intrude on our beloved unregulated warehouse matches, prosecutors in Fort Pierce, Fla., have dropped third-degree felony charges against UFC lightweight contender Din Thomas. As reported here a month ago, Thomas was arrested for allegedly running un-sanctioned MMA bouts at his gym, violating a Florida statute that governs “prohibited competitions.” According to the original article in the Palm Beach Post:

[Assistant State Attorney Jeff] Hendricks said several things factored into the decision, including an exception to the “prohibited competitions” statute for training. He said if the fighter or participants were students of Thomas’ school, and the purpose of the school is to teach martial arts, then they meet the exception to the law. He said Thomas’ attorney would have likely won a motion to dismiss the case by filing an affidavit stating that all the participants of the match that law enforcement officers observed on Oct. 19 were students of the school where Thomas teaches, American Top Team. Hendricks also said it was revealed after Thomas’ arrest that the school didn’t profit from the match because all the money collected was raffled* off.

* There was still no word on who won the raffle.