Adrenaline

(Props: Heddy)

So yeah, this is really happening. In the above promo for Adrenaline MMA's "Bragging Rights" event (June 13th; Birmingham, Alabama), Tim Sylvia and Ray Mercer have a very dramatic face-off, and man is Ray fat and slow. You have to imagine the betting odds will start to favor the Maine-iac after this one, particularly because their boxing match will be held in a cage. No word yet on any of the other matchups on the card or how to watch it at home, and Adrenaline's website still needs work; we'll probably have other things on our mind that day anyway. But you gotta love Mercer's trash-talk at 0:14-0:18. For some reason, his delivery reminds me of a Maury Povich guest...

(They just don't make MMA-themed t-shirts with the middle-aged manager's body type in mind, do they?)

MMA agent/Adrenaline promoter Monte Cox is stunned, absolutely stunned, by the New Jersey Athletic Control Board’s decision not to sanction the proposed boxing match between former heavyweight champ Ray Mercer and owner of an unblemished 0-0 boxing record Tim Sylvia.  Talking with Ariel Helwani at Versus.com, he called the decision “ridiculous,” adding: “It must not have been as compelling as the Bonaduce-Canseco fight.”

That would have been a sweet burn…if that fight had actually taken place in New Jersey and not Pennsylvania, as Helwani points out.  As it is, it's just a sweet burn on Pennsylvania, which, let's not forget, only recently decided to sanction MMA.

Now that the fight has been moved to the lawless territory known as Alabama (pronounced: Al-uh-bam-uhhh) Cox is trying to convince people that it's purely coincidental that he decided to relocate his entire event to a state with no sanctioning body:

(Unfortunately, Ray Mercer won't be this star-struck. Photo courtesy of Land Sharks.)

When we reported that the Tim Sylvia/Ray Mercer "Crystal Pepsi" match had been shot down by the the New Jersey Athletic Control Board, you probably thought it was the last you'd hear about this strange footnote in Tim's career. Well guess what — life's not fair. Monte Cox has moved Adrenaline III to a different state, and the Maine-iac's pro boxing debut will go on. As Sherdog reports:

Well, that's one way to get around the issue. There are no other bouts scheduled for Adrenaline III yet — and the league's website offers nothing other than a link for a motorcycle helmet dealer — but if there's no regulatory body to answer to, there's really nothing stopping Monte from filling out the card with midget kickboxing, lesbian submission grappling, and a donkey act. Sounds like Birmingham is in for a good night.

Semi-related: Frank Shamrock also has his eyes on a move to pro boxing. In a new interview with MMA Convert, Shamrock says he might give the sweet science a try after he takes care of business against Nick Diaz, Cung Le, and (hopefully) Tito Ortiz. What, no more "Blood Brothers"?

("Well I might be an asshole, but I'm the asshole who just killed this bobcat, so what's up now?")

MMA Junkie has confirmed the ugly rumors: Tim Sylvia will be strapping on some boxing gloves to take on Ray Mercer in the headlining match of Adrenaline III (May 30th; Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, Atlantic City). Though the bout was originally proposed as an MMA match between the former UFC heavyweight champ and the dude who got choked out by Kimbo Slice, Sylvia's manager Monte Cox had this to say:

Here's the problem as I see it: There aren't too many people who want to watch Tim in an MMA match anymore, let alone competing in a less-interesting sport, against a guy who was a champion in 1991. (Though don't get us wrong, Mercer's a boxer and Sylvia isn't, so this actually could turn into another high-profile, embarrassing loss for the Maine-iac.) But honestly, why headline an MMA card with such a meaningless exhibition? Does this mean that Sylvia, who has lost three out of his last four fights, might be transitioning to a new sport? Could we be that lucky?

Well, not so fast. Sylvia's fight against Ken Shamrock may have fallen apart, but Cox is angling to get Timmy on Affliction's third fight card against Paul Buentello, as long as it's not too close to May 30th. Affliction III looks like it'll go down in June, with Emelianenko vs. Barnett headlining.

(Do not do a Google Image Search for "Patrycja Mikula" unless you want to see this woman naked.)

When I was skimming through the coverage of Saturday's Adrenaline MMA show — Russow submits Guida, Terry Martin gets repeatedly kicked in the nuts, yada yada — I saw a mention of Tim Sylvia being spotted with Andrei Arlovski's ex-girlfriend. At the time I didn't think much of it, assuming that the X-GF in question was some skank that Arlovski dated before Patrycja Mikula (the lovely nude model who we'd previously featured here). Dude, no. Arlovski and Mikula are apparently dunzo, and the Maine-iac, in the words of Sir Mix-a-Lot, pulled up quick to retrieve it. Steve Cofield reports:

Word out of Chicago this weekend says Arlovski got the ultimate kick in the groin when arch-rival Tim Sylvia was seen hanging with the Russian’s old flame Patrycja Mikula. Sylvia was attending the Adrenaline MMA show at the Sears Centre in Arlovski’s backyard.

Is this a WWE-style ploy to build to a fourth Sylvia-Arlovski fight? The angle has ‘Chris Benoit stealing Kevin Sullivan’s wife, Woman’ written all over it.

Is Mikula actually smitten with the 6-foot-8 ‘Maine-iac' Sylvia? Or is she using poor Tim as a pawn to get back at her old boyfriend? And is it cheesy for Sylvia to be scooping up Arlovski’s leftovers? ...

Sylvia’s tryst with Mikula was confirmed by solid Miletich Camp sources, who said the Playboy model is simply a ‘wallet and belt chaser.’

I like the idea of this being Monte Cox's retardo-crafty ploy to get people interested in Sylvia/Arlovski IV under the Adrenaline banner. If not, I just hope that for the sake of Ms. Mikula, the WAMMA belt doesn't have any sharp edges.

(Props: FightOpinion)