Yep.

When we last checked in on Drew Fickett, he had moved from Arizona to Florida to enter a rehabilitation facility, and celebrated his forty-two days of sobriety with a knockout loss to Jonatas Novaes at ShoFIGHT 20. Not to add insult to injury, but Fickett said before the fight that he was in very real danger danger of becoming homeless if he didn’t receive his win bonus as well. I wish I was here today to tell you that things have gotten better for him, but that’s not exactly the case.

Fickett met up with undefeated Grudge Training Center prospect Justin Gaethje at last weekend’s Rage in the Cage 163. I’d describe the fight for you, but that’d be a waste of time. Let’s just say that Gaethje is still undefeated, Fickett is now 1-6 in his last seven fights and I’m only writing about this fight because I have lost control of my life.

Video is after the jump.

It’s easy- perhaps even a bit lazy- to compare the embattled MMA fighter Drew Fickett to the similarly troubled Scott Hall. In their primes, both men performed on their respective sport’s biggest stages against recognizable names. In Fickett’s case, this meant a run in the UFC and notable victories over Dennis Hallman, Kenny Florian, Josh Neer, Josh Koscheck and Kurt Pellegrino.

Yet it’s arguable that both men are more famous for their self-destructive, chaotic lifestyles outside of sport than they are for their accomplishments. Both men have well documented struggles with addiction, have been fired from major promotions over their drunken antics and have attempted to stay relevant in their respective sports with increasingly tragic results.

Case in point: Last night’s ShoFIGHT 20, which took place on the campus of Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. The show was essentially a who’s who of washouts from bigger promotions, which included (aside from Fickett) John Gunderson, Karo Parisyan, Kendall Grove, Lyle Beerbohm, Marcus Aurelio, Charles Bennett, “Smilin’” Sam Alvey and Roli Delgado. This card saw Fickett matched up against submission specialist Jonatas Novaes.

(McCorkle vs. Heden round 1; round 2 is after the jump. Props: PVTHansen16)

Notably stacked for a regional card, Worldwide Mixed Martial Arts‘ debut event went down Saturday night in El Paso, Texas, and was highlighted by an upset in the main event and a handful of UFC vets smashing their way into the win column.

At this point, when Sean McCorkle gets booked against a smaller, doughier opponent with a journeyman’s record, we just assume that “Big Sexy” will bully his way to a first-round stoppage without much difficulty. But WMMA 1′s super-heavyweight main event didn’t go down like that. Though McCorkle (who tipped the scales at 312 pounds) came very close to finishing the 287-pound Brian Heden near the end of the first round, he blew his cardio wad in the process. With McCorkle barely able to lift his arms in round two, Heden was able to reverse a takedown, trap McCorkle’s left arm, and slug his way to a TKO victory. According to Danga, the announcer referred to the win as “the upset of the century.” (Somewhere, Gus Johnson is masturbating.) In a follow-up post on the UG, McCorkle lamented the cardio problems that have plagued his entire athletic career, credited Heden for showing up in “decent shape”* and vowed to retire if his cardio ever contributed to another loss.

In the co-main event, Karo Parisyan snapped a three-fight losing streak when he scored a unanimous decision over veteran Thomas Denny. Even more impressive, Drew Fickett snapped a four-fight losing streak when he choked out WEC/Bellator vet Kevin Knabjian, despite reports that Fickett was pretty well sauced throughout fight week. (Obviously, it could have been worse.)

(Video courtesy of YouTube/WMMASPORTS1)

If you’re looking for an MMA fix to get you through until UFC 145, Worldwide Mixed Martial Arts is holding its inaugural show on Saturday in El Paso, Texas.

The promotion put together the pretty slick looking promo above for its McCorkle vs. Heden: Fighting For A Better World event that will see a portion of the proceeds from the show donated to the Wounded Warriors project.

In the main and co-main event of the evening, former UFC heavyweight Sean McCorkle will take on a somewhat unknown fighter by the name of Brian Heden and onetime UFC welterweight contender Karo Parisyan will face King of the Cage, EliteXC and MFC vet Thomas “Wildman” Denny. The event will be available for rent via pay-per-view.

During the promo, clips were shown of Parisyan’s first fight — a bare-knuckle scrap he had in Mexico when he was 14 against a 20-something local champion.

Check out the entire impressive fight by young Karo and the complete WMMA fight card after the jump.

Felipe Enomoto vs. Ole Laursen. All videos in this post props to IronForgesIron.com

It would be a real shame if you only remembered ONE FC 2 for the freak show that was Bob Sapp vs. Rolles Gracie. As is too often the case when events only get remembered for the freak show fight(s) that they hosted, the rest of the card had some legitimately entertaining fights. Four out of five of the main card’s bouts ended in submission, with Felipe Enomoto, Bae Young Kwon and Gustavo Falciroli all securing rear-naked chokes against their opponents. While Enomoto vs. Laursen may have been the most entertaining of the three, Bae Young Kwon’s victory came the earliest, securing the choke only fifty six seconds into the fight. Likewise, Gustavo Falciroli picked up a quick submission against Soo Chul Kim, who curiously enough seemed hesitant to stand up with the BJJ blackbelt.

Bae Young Kwon vs. Honorio Banario

(These two bouts alone beat most Strikeforce Challengers events.)

CagePotato.com has learned that a trio of bouts featuring UFC veterans has been added to Worldwide MMA’s debut card in El Paso, Texas.

Karo Parisyan (19-8-4 1 NC) versus Dave Menne (45-16-2), Lyle Beerbohm (16-2) versus Jamie Varner (18-6-1 2 NC) as well as Drew Fickett (41-16) versus Kevin Knabjian (12-6) will all take place at the March 31 event.

The dearth of awesome fan-made promos does not bode well for DREAM. VidProps: DREAM

DREAM returns for the final round of the Japan Bantamweight Grand Prix on July 16, and there are a few interesting matchups on the card (which is apparently *not* DREAM.17 as we’d been thinking). Even if there weren’t, it’s smack in the middle of the summer MMA doldrums, and there’s not much else going on. Even if there were something else going on, jesus, don’t you assholes care about Japan?

Come on in past the jump and we’ll fill you in on the bouts slated for the event, with a few notes for your enlightenment and/or entertainment. Just call us the love child of the Buddha and Louis CK.

Fickett vs. Cobb from zpzp420 on Vimeo.

A veritable treasure trove of MMA action kicked off with two events last night, MFC 30 and “The Score Fighting Series”. Even if those organizations don’t ring a bell for you, they did line up recognizable names for their cards, and we’ve got the videos of who did what to whom.

At MFC 30, Brian Cobb showed no intimidation when the opening bell rang, but shortly after standing back up from a Drew Fickett takedown, the 18-6 prospect found himself in a world of trouble. Just a minute into the fight, Fickett took Cobb’s back standing, locking up a body triangle and working for his 31^st submission when the fight hit the ground. Three and a half minutes and a dozen rear naked choke attempts later, Cobb turned into Fickett’s guard and unloaded a barrage of unanswered punches forcing the ref to halt the bout. To his credit, Fickett did meet all of the criteria needed to challenge an early stoppage, but from the replay it looked like the only thing supporting his bobblehead was the bottom rope.

After the jump, video of Spratt-Davis, a video recap of The Score, and full results.

(These latest charges make Franca’s DUI in 2008 look like a jaywalking charge.)

According to a report from Sherdog, nine charges were laid this week against Hermes Franca in relation to a sexual assault that took place in Oregon, where the UFC veteran used to live and run his Team Hermes Franca Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy.

The 36-year-old native of Fortaleza, Brazil who was arrested in 2008 for a DUI, flew from Florida, where he now lives and trains to turn himself in on Monday. He is charged with seven counts of sexual abuse in the first degree and two counts of unlawful sexual penetration in the second degree. Franca’s trial is scheduled for July 12 at 9 a.m. in the Clackamas County Courthouse in Oregon City, Oregon. His bail was set at $250,000.

Knockout Entertainment Canada announced the line-up today for its historic first sanctioned mixed martial arts event held in the province of Ontario in a press release sent out this morning.

MMA: The Reckoning will take place on April 2 at Casino Rama in Orillia and will feature a range of veterans from several notable promotions. The main event will feature a welterweight tilt between UFC veteran Josh Burkman and up-and-coming Canadian fighter Jordan Mein. A former training partner of Jason Day, Mein, who defeated Joe Riggs via second-round TKO in January and won his last bout in February by rear-naked choke is said to be on the UFC’s radar, so a win over an Octagon vet like Burkman, who is 3-0 since being dropped by the promotion would likely elicit an invitation to fight for the Vegas-based promotion. Conversely, a win over a highly-touted prospect like Mein would almost definitely earn Burkman a call back from UFC matchmaker Joe Silva.

Also on the card will be former IFL and WEC lightweight Chris Horodecki, Shooto veteran Antonio Carvalho, three-time Sengoku fighter Nick Denis, TUF 9 contestant Dean Amasinger, and Canadian grappling standout Misha Cirkunov.

The event, which promoters say could feature at least one additional big name bout, is the first of several shows already approved by the Ontario Athletic Commission for the first quarter of 2010.

Last night at MFC 28, Cage Potato guest blogger Ryan Jimmo took on fellow Canadian Dwayne Lewis for Maximum Fighting Championship’s vacant light heavyweight title. I don’t want to spoil the fight for those of you who didn’t see it live. Let’s just say that two men entered and one man left. Then the other man left after being declared the new LHW champion. Did I mention Lewis left the cage with a purple, bleeding thigh and a broken orbital bone? Yeah, that happened.

Also of note, Drew Fickett earned his fifth straight submission victory over fellow UFC washout Matt Veach. Despite being taken down early, Fickett kept his composure and locked in an armbar only 36 seconds into the fight. And remember Rodney Wallace? He lost to WEC/IFL vet Emmanuel Newton, who is probably going to get the first shot at Ryan Jimmo’s title.

A post fight interview with Ryan can be found here, and full results from MFC 28 after the jump.

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.

(Fickett vs. Prater in the final. Props for all vids: YouTube/ZombieProphet MMA)

It took Drew Fickett all of seven minutes, 38 seconds of actual fighting to cut a swath through the Shine Fights lightweight tournament on Friday night. Three fights, three choke-out victories for the Arizona fighter now apparently billing himself as “The Night Rider.” By comparison, Carlo Prater – Fickett’s opponent in the final – had already lost a three-round split decision, then won a two-round majority scorecard verdict by the time they met up in the evening’s last bout. Can’t blame Prater for looking a little bit “over it” by the time he and Fickett locked horns, in light of that.

After the jump, check out Fickett’s road to the final, including his ugly arm-in guillotine on Charles “Kid Kaos” Bennett. Seriously guys, just pick a nickname and stick with it …

(Let’s remember the good times…)

Drew Fickett used to be the most entertaining drunk in MMA. But over the last year, his increasingly erratic behavior and 2-7 skid against fighters he should have been able to destroy have sent up red flags about his well-being. Saturday night, he hit his bottom. "The Master" was booked to face prolific submission victim Shannon Ritch at a Rage in the Cage event, and was barred from fighting because he showed up intoxicated. As Ritch explained on the UG:

Major props to CagePotato reader "Soorma" for passing along this circa-2001 clip of MMA crazyperson Drew Fickett getting called before the most testicle-crushing judge on television for a little misunderstanding involving golf balls being hit off the top of a car. Drew’s airtight defense? Like all women, the plaintiff is simply infatuated with him. It seems that the conflict started when, at a graduation party for a University of Arizona student, Drew just had to be that asshole who showed up in an Arizona State hat. (Wow, can Judy hand out the death penalty in situations like this?) FYI, everything after the 6:06 mark is unrelated junk, and part 2 is unembeddable for some reason, but you can check out the conclusion here. Basically, Drew’s cute girlfriend shows up as a character witness, Fickett loses the case — based on a single unreliable eyewitness, but whatever — and the U of A brats lift their noses at ASU. ("We don’t associate with people like him…everyone I talk to says he’s psycho.") THIS IS JUSTICE?

Former IFL welterweight champ Jay Hieron has reportedly verbally agreed to face Drew Fickett at the next Affliction event in Las Vegas on October 11. The real question is, will Fickett find some clever new way to screw it up? Fickett’s manager, Alexander Oxendine, seems open to that possibility:

“We’re in discussion with a few organizations and Affliction is one of them,” said Oxendine. “They are at the top of our list. As far as Drew is concerned, he’s made a great turnaround with his life and training. He is ready to move forward.”

If you don’t know, Fickett is the same guy who managed to get himself fired from MFC and booted off a Strikeforce card in one glorious weekend when he tried to breach his contract in the apparent hopes that no one would figure it out. They did, chaos ensued, and Fickett went on to lose via questionable stoppage in a Rage in the Cage event.

So now one of MMA’s favorite troublemakers is being offered a spot in Affliction against one of the tougher welterweights outside of the UFC, and he’s not sure if he wants to take it? Affliction should not only be at the top of his list, it should be the entire list. He should run down there and sign the contract in his own blood before they have a chance to change their minds. Let’s hope this is just a negotiating ploy by his agent. If Fickett ends up turning this down to fight in some small show at a fairground somewhere, we’ll know it’s time for new management. No, not Mark Dion, either.

Drew Fickett vs. Richard Villes – Watch more free videos

Drew Ficket has fallen on hard times lately. I don’t say that simply because he lost this weekend to Richard Villes via a TKO stoppage that he seems to think was completely unjustified. I say that because he lost to Richard Villes in Rage in the Cage, which is clearly no Strikeforce, nor is it MFC — both organizations Fickett ran afoul of when he tried to violate his contract.

Just check the video to see what I mean. Note the “And 1 Mixtape Tour” vibe from the announcer, the woman (Villes girlfriend? wife? mom?) screaming throughout the entire fight, and the super slo-mo ring girl shot at the 4:39 mark. Someone rocked their high school AV club.

Fickett seemed to be in control of the fight until a failed shot that was followed by a good knee from Villes that was in turn followed by Fickett eating leather for the next thirty seconds. He’s moving the whole time, looking fairly alert, but offering no offense or even much of an effective defense. When the referee finally moves in to stop it, he pops right up to his feet to complain. This is sort of like fouling someone in basketball and then immediately putting your hands up, as if to show that you couldn’t possibly have done anything wrong. In other words, it never works.

Fickett doesn’t look like he’s too beat up afterwards, but if you lay on your back getting punched in the face for that long, you really can’t be too surprised when the ref stops it. Especially if you’ve been in the game as long as Fickett.

Following up on yesterday’s interview excerpt where he discussed Anderson Silva’s problematic tools, James Irvin tells MSNBC.com that he’s going to beat Silva in the clinch (!!!!!1!!). Shock the world, Sandman. (Props: MMA Mania)

Remember when Bruce Buffer was announcing the result of the Rampage/Forrest fight, and he was like “the winner, aaaaaand…” — like he was going to say “still champion” — and everyone, including Forrest Griffin, was like “OMFG Rampage won!”? In this RawVegas.tv clip, Griffin confronts Buffer about it, who admits to using the strange syntax intentionally to amp up the drama of the moment. And man is he pleased with himself.

(Mike Ciesnolevicz covers his nipples for the sake of decency.)

All the talk about Drew Fickett’s MFC/Strikeforce debacle raises the issue of whether fighters should be free to take bouts that are close together but in different organizations. Of course, breach of contract is a separate issue, but Mike Ciesnolevicz recently tested his durability by fighting twice in one weekend, in two different weight classes and in two different states.

Initially, that sounds impressive. Ciesnolevicz must be a very tough bastard or a very poor bastard to agree to that. First he beat Andrew Force in Decatur, Ill. in the Courage Fighting Championship on Friday night, then went up to heavyweight to beat Matt Anderson in Extreme Challenge 100 in Iowa on Saturday.

But check out what Ciesnolevicz had to say about his strategy after Friday night:

“I was trying to throw no punches, because I didn’t want to hurt my hands for (Saturday’s fight). (Saturday) I can go all out.”

Now, I don’t want to pick on Ciesnolevicz for doing something that few fighters would even attempt, but maybe he’s unwittingly hit upon the reason people don’t normally fight twice in two days. By saying he was saving himself for Saturday, when he could go all out, he’s essentially saying that the people who paid to see him fight on Friday got less than their money’s worth.

(Awww, who could stay mad at that face?)

Drew Fickett and Maximum Fighting Championship boss Mark Pavelich have been engaged in a war of words since Fickett agreed to fill in for Joe Riggs at “Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson,” and Pavelich has had enough. Here’s a new press release from MFC, courtesy of TKO Xtreme:

I would like to take this opportunity to offer a personal response to comments and actions taken by Drew Fickett over the past 72 hours.

Drew had agreed to and signed a contract to fight on the Maximum Fighting Championship show on July 25 for the welterweight title against Ryan Ford. Over the last few days, Drew has caused severe problems and therefore we find him in complete breach of his contract.

We were shocked to learn Drew agreed on one day’s notice to fight as a middleweight in another organization’s event this past Friday. When I contacted this other organization, its owner immediately cancelled Drew’s fight when informed that he was under contract to fight on the MFC show and as part of Mr. Fickett’s contract he was not allowed to take another fight up to five weeks before the MFC show.

When I learned of Drew’s intentions to take this fight, I repeatedly attempted to reach Drew’s manager to find out why. After numerous attempts to reach his manager went unreturned, I did leave a voice mail which has since been made public. I admit to being very upset, angry and frustrated not only by Drew’s action but also by not being able to reach his manager and the tone of that voice mail reflected my feelings.

(Joe Riggs won’t be fighting tonight. Sucks, buddy. Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

Yesterday, we passed along a Sherdog report that claimed Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva had agreed to face Sergei Kharitonov in an EliteXC heavyweight title fight. Awesome matchup, right? Unfortunately, EliteXC’s Jared Shaw refutes it, telling FiveOuncesofPain “That fight is 100 percent not happening.”

When asked about whether an opponent was in place for Silva, Shaw indicated that one has been selected that is worthy of fighting for a title but that a deal was in the process of being finalized.

Worthy? Possibly. As worthy as Kharitonov? Probably not. But J. Shaw wasn’t quite finished peeing on our parade. Regarding previous reports that Kimbo Slice was slated to face Brett Rogers in October, Shaw said “A fight could possibly take place between Kimbo and Rogers within the next 12 months,” but nothing was official yet. And as for rumors that Gary Shaw was on his way out of EliteXC, Jared denied those as well:

“I’m not gonna lie to you; the Tim Russert episode really struck a cord with Gary. He has an extensive travel schedule and is a workaholic much the way Tim was… And (the) truth is he’s getting up there in age. So Gary is at a point now where he just can’t keep up the constant back and forth to California from his home (in New Jersey). And so he’s just taking a step back in his life, not in the company (and) not being pushed. Just taking some time to be healthy and enjoy everything he’s built from the ground up. The creator rarely gets to smile at his artwork because he’s so busy making more.”

(Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith will have another chance to go at it next month.)

Dave Meltzer at Yahoo! Sports is reporting some early details on the next EliteXC/CBS “Saturday Night Fights” broadcast, which is slated for July 26th. Word is:

The company’s plan is to stage an event that would start at either 7:30 or 8 p.m. (ET) on Showtime — with either a 60- or 90-minute show that would feature three or four fights — leading into the 9-11 p.m. CBS show. The venue has not been finalized, although the Savvis Center in St. Louis is under consideration.

A middleweight title re-match between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith is already expected to headline the broadcast, while other likely bouts include Jake Shields vs. TBA (for EliteXC’s vacant welterweight title), Antonio Silva vs. TBA (possibly for EliteXC’s vacant heavyweight title), and matches featuring Shayna Baszler and Wilson Reis.

Particularly astute CagePotato readers might think “Jake Shields vs. TBA? Hasn’t he been trying to fight Drew Fickett for like a year?” And you’d be right. Except Fickett might be getting bounced from EliteXC for being an absolute moron.

(Our thoughts exactly.)

I would take this as a clear sign that EliteXC’s welterweight belt is cursed by poltergeists and refuses to be possessed by mortals.

The championship fight between top 170-pound contender Jake Shields and challenger Drew Fickett for EliteXC’s vacant welterweight title has been postponed for a second time, as it was announced today that Fickett has injured his knee and will not be able to compete at EliteXC’s June 14th event in Honolulu, Hawaii. The two fighters were originally supposed to meet at “Shamrock vs. Le” on March 29th, but Shields pulled a muscle in his back days before the event, and Fickett took on Jae Suk Lim instead, winning by guillotine choke in the first round. Luckily, Shields doesn’t seem to be too disappointed by Fickett’s injury, as his back may not be 100% recovered yet anyway. As he told MMAWeekly:

“I think I could be okay to fight by (June 14), but I think opting for July would probably be the smartest thing. It would give me more time to rehab before jumping into sparring, and I think there would be a little more exposure with it being on CBS (in July).”

The June 14th card still features K.J. Noons defending his lightweight title against Yves Edwards, as well as fights between Nick Diaz and Muhsin Corbbrey, Murilo “Ninja” Rua vs. Tony Bonello, Rafael Feijao vs. Wayne Cole, and Ron Waterman vs. Dave Herman.

Speaking of Diaz, the pot-abusing lightweight has joined the lineup of DREAM.3 (May 11th; Saitama, Japan), where he’ll take on Katsuya Inoue, a two-time welterweight King of Pancrase with a career record of 16-5-3. Reportedly, the winner of that fight will face Hayato Sakurai for DREAM’s welterweight title in July or September. (I guess not all the belts will be awarded via chaotic grand prix.) With this addition, DREAM.3′s mighty, mighty lineup is looking like this:

Lightweight GP Round 2
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luis Buscape
Joachim Hansen vs. Eddie Alvarez
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Caol Uno
Katsuhiko Nagata vs. [whoever fills in for Shinya Aoki]

Middleweight GP Round 1 Fight
Jason Miller vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Middleweight GP Reserve Fight
Melvin Manhoef vs. Kim Dae Won

Nick Diaz vs. Katsuya Inoue (welterweights)

Jung Bukyung vs. Daisuke Nakamura (lightweights)

Takeshi Yamazaki vs. TBA (featherweights)

(The Good, the Bad, and the Leathery.)

Cyborg, Shields, and Mean Mr. Munchies may be M.I.A., but tomorrow night’s EliteXC/Strikeforce show still has some very compelling match-ups going for it, including a main event that will pit the fan-hyped Cung Le against the self-hyped Frank Shamrock in a middleweight championship bout. You can catch the action on Showtime starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Here’s what the televised lineup looks like…

Shamrock vs. Le (for Strikeforce middleweight title)
Frank (24-8-1) has talked his usual trash about how he’s going to spank the relatively inexperienced Le (5-0), but trust us, it’s only for promotional purposes; Shamrock isn’t dumb enough to actually believe he’ll be cruising through an easy one tomorrow, and unlike his brother Ken, he’s not dumb enough to stand and trade with a superior striker. Le has the most devastating kicks in MMA right now, and he ended his last fight — against Sam Morgan last November — via the ultra-rare body-kick KO. But like other fighters who come from a kickboxing background, Le’s long-range kicks often leave him open for single-leg takedowns, and Shamrock could capitalize. He’ll certainly be looking to take the fight to the ground when the moment is right and finish Le by submission, and we think Shammy will succeed in the second or third round. If they really wanted to make this one interesting, the loser would have to accept eternal banishment from San Jose.

Drew Fickett vs. Jae Suk Lim (welterweights)
A.k.a., “The Battle of the Guys Who Were Supposed to Be Fighting Other Guys.” Rage in the Cage/UFC vet Drew Fickett (32-5) has choked out fighters like Josh Koscheck, Kurt Pellegrino, and Carlo Prater, and has generally faced much tougher competition than “The Korean Icepick” (9-3), who spent most of his career in Spirit MC. We’re loving Lim’s nickname, but it’s not going to help him much against the far-more-experienced Arizona native. Both men hadn’t been preparing to face each other, so it’s a bit of a wash, but judging from how Fickett’s done against guys with Lim’s skill level, we’d say a first-round submission victory is nearly inevitable.

It was bad enough when Mike Pyle’s contract disputes prevented Jake Shields from taking home a well-deserved EliteXC championship belt in November. Now it looks like his fight against Drew Fickett at this Saturday’s Strikeforce/EliteXC event — which many assumed would officially establish Shields as the welterweight title holder — won’t even happen.

It’s being reported that the Shields/Fickett bout is being postponed due to Shields pulling a muscle in his back while training last week. Says FiveOunces:

[Shields] flew to Los Angeles in order to meet with a specialist. While he had experienced some improvement with the injury, it was determined that he would not be ready in time for Saturday’s fight. A decision was then made to postpone the bout. A re-scheduled date for the bout has not been set, but Shields indicated that the title fight could take place within the next couple of months.

I guess that’s what you get for letting Brandon Vera give you a pinkbelly; that shot probably dislodged at least four discs. Shields’s dropout is just the latest blow to an event that had already suffered the loss of one big name, when Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos was forced to pull out of the card due to visa issues.

In related news, an EliteXC lightweight title fight between Yves Edwards and K.J. Noons has been postponed to June 14th. The two fighters were supposed to meet at an April 26th show in Hawaii, but that event has reportedly been canceled altogether. Our first thought is that EliteXC is canceling the show to reserve some talent for their first CBS broadcasts, but we’ll let you know if/when they release an official statement.

Just a taste of what Jake will have to deal with on Saturday. In his last fight at Cage Rage 24 (12/1/07), Drew Fickett faced the heavy hands of Mark “The Wizard” Weir, and was taking heaps of abuse while on his back before finding an opening and wrapping Weir up with a rear-naked choke. Unfortunately, Shields has never been submitted in his career — not an encouraging stat for Fickett, who relies heavily on his subs. Any predictions?

JarryPark has the technical-difficulty-ridden audio to today’s EliteXC/Strikeforce conference call, where Frank Shamrock and Cung Le pumped up their battle on March 29th; Gary Shaw, Jake Shields, and Drew Fickett were also in tele-attendance. Some highlights:

— Shaw predicts the live gate to exceed $1 million.

— Frank: “Like most people, [Cung's] afraid to go to the ground with me.”

— Shaw on not pursuing the Randy/Fedor fight for EliteXC: “I do not tortiously interfere with anybody’s contract or any fighter. I respect the fighter, I respect the contract, and believe it or not I respect the UFC. I have had talks with Fedor, I don’t deny that, but I have not approached Randy Couture, and I can’t approach Randy until I know that he’s out of everything with the UFC. But I’d be thrilled to put it on…I’d sign it in less than a heartbeat.”

— Frank on a fight with Tito Ortiz: “I think it’s a great idea…there’s a lot of strength and brand value in some of these old-timers like myself, Tito, guys like Ken. I’ve been talking to Tito about it and we’re trying to work it out. Hopefully it’ll come to fruition ten years after I last whupped him. I beat him on striking last time when my striking was really terrible. Now my striking is ten years more advanced and my conditioning is even better. I just think I would destroy him, but it would still be a great money fight and a great story.”

— Shaw: “The biggest belt I wear is the one around my fat waist. On a serious note…”

— Frank: “To me it’s about how big we can make a promotion, how much attention we can draw to it…I’d rather fight a guy like Phil Baroni who can sell a match like nobody else in the world — and who can take a beating like nobody else in the world — than a champion who can’t put two sentences together and who doesn’t draw big crowds.”

— Frank on bro Ken’s last loss: “I was pretty disappointed in his performance. I don’t know if he’s still got the heart of a lion in him…I know Ken’s skill level, and I just think he’s having trouble connecting his desire with his mind and his body, and putting all that together to be an exciting fighter.”

— Shaw: “On a serious note, [Ken] was sick that night. He got some type of stomach ailment so he didn’t go into the cage 100%, but he absolutely told me he’s still got enough left to take your ass.” [Frank laughs] “Alright, you’re laughin’.”

Also: Tomorrow, EliteXC will make an announcement regarding the fights on their first CBS card. Stay tuned.

(It’s all about the hair.)

The TAGG Radio Network did an interview with Jake Shields this week, where the EliteXC welterweight made some pretty bold statements. Shields is certainly one of the most exciting up-and-coming fighters in action today and soon he just might add a 170-pound title to go with his impressive 20-4-1 record. Shields faces former UFC-er Drew Fickett and his 31-5 record on March 29th at the Strikeforce/EliteXC event.

Remember that whole “one game at a time” shit that coaches are always preaching to their players so they won’t overlook their current opponent? Apparently Jake Shields doesn’t buy into that. And the fighter he has his eye on happens to be one of the legends in the sport: Frank Shamrock.

Shamrock is headlining the March 29th event and will put his Strikeforce middleweight title on the line against Cung Le.

TAGG provided the following for MMA Junkie:

“I would do that tomorrow,” Shields said regarding the match-up with Shamrock. “In fact, when there was that whole Baroni thing going on, I actually got a phone call asking me if Baroni didn’t come through would I be willing to take that fight. It was about four days before the fight, and I said I would take it… I was willing to step up on four days’ notice and fight him.”

The report says Shamrock would possibly be interested in the fight, but would want Jake to go up to middleweight. Shields says, “Fine, Bee-otches!” – in so many words.

(Jake Shields, workin’ them pads.)

It was confirmed today that the March 29th EliteXC/Strikeforce event featuring Frank Shamrock’s fight against Cung Le will also host another high-profile match — Jake Shields and Drew Fickett will meet to decide EliteXC’s first-ever welterweight championship. Ranked #6 on our list of the top 10 welterweights in the world, Jake Shields is a former Shooto welterweight champ who has defeated the likes of Yushin Okami and Carlos Condit during his current nine-fight win streak; his last two fights were for EliteXC, and resulted in first-round wins by stoppage. Drew Fickett is a veteran of Rage in the Cage and the UFC, and complied a 4-2 record in the Octagon including a win over Josh Koscheck. Fickett has never fought for EliteXC before, but he’s won his last three matches since losing to Karo Parisyan by decision at UFC Fight Night 7 in December 2006.

The welterweight championship will be the third divisional belt awarded by EliteXC since its inaugural event in February of last year. The organization crowned Murilo “Ninja” Rua its first middleweight champ on 6/22/07 with his defeat of Joey Villasenor, but Robbie Lawler took the title three months later with his TKO of Rua at EliteXC: Uprising. KJ Noons became EliteXC’s first lightweight champion at the “Renegade” event on 11/10/07 when Nick Diaz’s eyelids tore apart and the fight had to be stopped. We’ll make a wild projection here and say that Jake Shields will be joining their ranks in March — and for the record, we’re fairly certain that Frank Shamrock will use his enormous ground-fighting advantage to put away Cung Le and retain his Strikeforce middleweight belt in the show’s main event.