Mark Pavelich

(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.