(Wild Bill Hickok is inconsolable upon hearing the news.)

If you’re sick of seeing nearly every fighter in the UFC coming down to the Octagon covered in Full Tilt Poker logos, we’ve got some good news for you.  The UFC sent out an email to managers yesterday informing them that Full Tilt Poker would not be allowed as a sponsor at UFC events “until further notice.”

So what did Full Tilt do to draw this ire?  Did they maybe steal some shelf space in Wal-Mart or (please God let this be the explanation) decide to start their own MMA organization – Full Tilt Xtreme Combat – where they put all their eggs in the War Machine basket?  Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be anything so fun.

Rumor has it that Full Tilt might have been nixed in favor of a competing sponsor, Ultimate Bet, which runs Absolute Poker (you following any of this?).  This is still unconfirmed, and if true it might be problematic since Ultimate Bet was apparently involved in some huge cheating scandal.

It seems more likely that the pressure to remove Full Tilt as a sponsor was coming from Spike TV, who put a kibosh on Full Tilt signage at UFC 95 and likely didn’t feel any more inclined to allow them at next week’s Fight Night.  Too bad, since they were one of the highest-paying fighter sponsors the UFC had.  Looks like it’s time for some managers to swallow their pride and make a call to Condom Depot.

(Actual slogan: "The One With The Deer On It.")

If you’ve been feeling like recent UFC events have lacked ‘spirit,’ I have some good news for you.  The UFC now has an “official spirit sponsor,” and it’s Tequila Cazadores.  Giddy-up.

According to a recent press release, “Tequila CAZADORES will be featured nationally through Pay-Per-View broadcasts, digital and print media content as well as venue signage throughout the year. In addition, Tequila CAZADORES will host special adult consumer tastings, events, and promotions to support the Sponsorship.”

That’s right, UFC-related tequila tastings.  Is it just me, or did it suddenly get dangerously awesome in here?  And I do mean literally dangerous, because there are very few scenarios that begin with feeding tequila to testosterone-fueled young men and do not then move directly to chairs being thrown, shirts removed, faces punched, and property damaged.  But hey, where I come from we just call that spirit.

Now begins the countdown to the moment we hear Joe Rogan say, “Talk us through the Tequila Cazadores replay.”  It’s still better than Mickey’s Fine Malt Liquor.  Oh, how far we’ve come.

(The Booyaa Fight Girls: Voted most likely to lie to you about working their way through community college.)

Banning clothing brands as potential sponsors is so much fun, Zuffa is at it once again.  MMA Payout reports that the newest addition to the blacklist is Booyaa Fightwear, an apparel-maker whose loose affiliation with the King of the Cage organization was enough to torpedo their proposed sponsorship of Mike Budnik in his WEC bout this week. 

King of the Cage was part of the Pro Elite network of organizations, but is one of the few entities that can still promote fights and is still somewhat capable of scratching out a living as small-timers.  Apparently this makes KOTC, and by extension Booyaa Fightwear (if ever there was a company name more inspired by the mid-nineties, I’ve yet to hear of it), a perceived competitor of the WEC.  And we all know how Zuffa deals with competitors. 

Despite the IFL’s inability to generate much dough via their live shows, they’ve been wheelin’ and dealin’ recently. The league announced yesterday that they have partnered with Media Prima Berhad – the largest integrated investment group in Malaysia and puppet masters of four Malaysian TV stations – to air “IFL Fight Night” every week in Malaysia. The agreement begins sometime this year. Adding Media Prima Berhad to their programming partners increases the IFL’s coverage to over 300 million homes worldwide. Other carriers include HBO Latin America, HDNet and FSN here in the homeland, MBC for the Middle East and some areas of Africa, Star TV for Asia coverage, CanWest Global and Fox Sports Canada in Canada, EGO in Israel, TV4 in Sweden, and Armed Forces Television worldwide, among others. This goes along with their continued efforts to keep their IFL content on-line for the fans – a stark contrast to other organizations like, say the piss-on-our-parade UFC.

The IFL has now added Throwdown Industries to the financially-challenged family. Throwdown is set to become the official energy drink, fight gloves and ring of the IFL for 2008-2009. This is a good move for Throwdown considering the global scope the IFL covers. The company is one of the top providers of MMA gear, cages, rings, and training equipment – plus they have sweet, sweet Arianny hanging around. The energy drink is distributed by Cott Corporation, one of the largest nonalcoholic beverage companies in the history of the universe and the world’s largest retailer brand soft drink provider, but of course everyone knows that.

(Umm…sure, I’ll take a sip.)

Xyience – which makes the energy drink, Xenergy – has been one of the UFC’s primary sponsors the past few years, but that might be changing. The company filed for bankruptcy protection and claims they received intimidation and death threats. The energy drink business is more cut-throat than we thought.

John G. Edwards reported the story today for the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Xyience Inc., the energy drink company headquartered at 4572 Hacienda Ave., reported $42.3 million in liabilities and $5.3 million in assets. Xyience sells its energy drink through 230 convenience and grocery stores, mostly in the Southwest.

The voluntary bankruptcy petition, filed on Friday, follows an involuntary petition that was filed Jan. 3 by founder and former CEO Russell Pike and others. The involuntary petition remains pending.

The bankruptcy petitions for Xyience were filed under Chapter 11, which provides protection from creditors while the company reorganizes.

When a company goes belly-up, why do they always claim to be “reorganizing”?