MMA News Thread

[Shogun Locc]

Former UFC fighter Chris Liguori booked for May 31 EliteXC-CBS

Chris Liguori (7-7), a New Jersey-based fighter who fought for the UFC in just his third professional bout, has been booked for EliteXC's debut show on CBS.

EliteXC today confirmed that Liguori has been added to the preliminary card, which airs live on ProElite.com. His opponent was not revealed.

The May 31 "EliteXC: PRIMETIME" event, which takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., will be the first MMA show to air live on major U.S. network television. In addition to the televised five-fight main card, seven fights will fill out the preliminary card.

Liguori, who joins a number of fellow regional fighters on the preliminary card, went 1-1 (which included a split-decision loss to UFC veteran Pete Sell) in the Ring of Combat organization to earn an invitation to the UFC. However, at UFC 45 in November 2003, he suffered a first-round submission loss to Keith Rockel.

Liguori has lost his past two fights -- both to Jim Miller (11-1), who recently upset IFL stand-out Bart Palaszewski -- but was riding a four-fight win streak prior to the defeats.

Earlier today, we passed along two other preliminary bouts reported by fiveouncesofpain.com: Zach Makovsky (3-1) vs. Andre Soares (5-1), and Mike Groves (0-1) and Joe Sampieri (0-2).

 

[Shogun Locc]

WEC 34: Faber vs Pulver card finalized for June 1

World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) yesterday released the final card for its biggest event in the organization’s history at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif., on June 1.

The blockbuster event will feature two title fights along with the return of former champions “Razor” Rob McCullough and Chase Beebe.

Here’s the final line up:

Main event

WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver

Main card (televised)

WEC Bantamweight Champion Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda
Mark Munoz vs. Chuck Grisby
“Razor” Rob McCullough vs. Kenneth Alexander

Under card (may not be broadcast)

Donald Cerrone vs. Richard Crunkilton
Jeff Curran vs. Mike Brown
Chase Beebe vs. Will Ribiero
Tim McKenzie vs. Eric Schambari
Alex Serdyukov vs. Luis Sapo
Alexandre Noguiera vs. Jose Aldo
Charlie Valencia vs. Dominick Cruz

WEC 34 is arguably the promotion’s deepest card ever.

In addition to the title fights, as well as the main card action, former NCAA Division I champion Mark Munoz will make his debut. Munoz is considered by many to be one of the best pure wrestlers to ever enter the sport and will look to make big splash against Grisby.

Also making his WEC debut is former 143-pound SHOOTO champion, ‘Pequeno’ Noguiera, who is one of the best submission fighters in the world in regardless of weight class.

In short, this is one hell of a card that will be shown on VERSUS on June 1 at 9 p.m. ET.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Michael Bisping: Fireworks guaranteed against Leben at UFC 85

“The fight [with Chris Leben at UFC 85] was offered to me the day after I fought Charles McCarthy [at UFC 83]. There wasn’t a single moment of hesitation from me. Not a single breath. Chris has put himself back into the mix at middleweight and if I want to go for the title then I need to beat guys like him. Chris has beaten a lot of good guys. 18-4 is a good record in MMA. He’s a colourful character and I like him…he reminds me of myself in some ways. He likes to fight and he’s a real person. Leben’s tough, has got heavy hands and swings hard and he’s skilled on the ground despite not being known for that. It might come down to who’s got the better chin out of both of us, but it could be more a case of who’s technically better. I think I’m technically better than Chris Leben. He’s quite a brawler, he’ll take a couple of shots on the way in to land one of his own. He chases people round a little bit so I think fireworks are pretty much guaranteed.”

Michael “The Count” Bisping (15-1) shares his thoughts (and respect) for Chris “The Crippler” Leben (18-4) in anticipation of their middleweight contest at UFC 85: Bedlam on June 7.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson UFC fight has been discussed

When former light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell was forced off the UFC 85 card with a hamstring injury, the organization scrambled to find a main event-worthy bout to take the place of his scheduled showdown with Rashad Evans at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Several possible fights were discussed, including a middleweight tilt between former UFC middleweight champion, Rich Franklin, and former Pride FC dual division belt holder, Dan Henderson.

In fact, according to a Yahoo!Sports.com report, “Ace” had to turn down the opportunity because he “felt after such a hard training camp that he wouldn’t be able to peak again so soon.” Franklin just dispatched of Travis Lutter via second round technical knockout at UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre 2″ on April 19.

The interesting thing here is that even though the fight won’t take place on June 7, it is expected to go down later on this year.

That’s a fantastic match up — Franklin is proving that he is perhaps the second best 185-pound fighter in the world, defeating all comers since 2003 with the exception of Anderson Silva (lost twice).

On the other hand, Hendo needs to re-establish himself as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters on the planet. He’s lost two straight albeit to talented champions Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Silva.

And it wouldn’t get any easier with Franklin, but it would create some fireworks in a division that sorely needs them. It’s a nice clash of styles between two of the best in the sport.

This is going to be a hard one to predict if and when it goes off. Can’t wait.

Sidenote: Matt Hughes stepped up to take on Thiago Alves in the UFC 85 main event, as well as Michael Bisping and Chris Leben … not to mention James Irvin (he’ll take on Evans).

 

[Shogun Locc]

Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou calling in the big guns for UFC 84

Looks like Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (4-2) is not taking his loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 79 very lightly. Sokoudjou, who was signed to the UFC after bursting onto the PRIDE scene with KO wins over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona, lost his Octagon debut to the undefeated Machida via arm-triangle choke in the second round.

The African Assassin is set to erase the memory of that loss when he faces fellow Judo master Kazuhiro Nakamura (11-7) at UFC 84: Ill Will on May 24. To help him do that, he’s enlisted some of Judo’s biggest names.

From Sokoudjou:

“Well right now its pretty much train, eat, sleep, and train more! Its been a very busy week. This week along with my regular training partners Ive been working with Hector Lombard and Pawel Nastula. Next week I will have some more new training partners to work with.”

 

[Shogun Locc]

Hong Man Choi Is Relieved Of Military Commitment, Fighting Career In Jeopardy

Hong Man Choi has failed his countries physical examination and his fighting career may also be in jeopardy.
Apparently, the eye issue that caused the California athletic commission to bar the South Korean giant from participating at a K-1 event in June, is the same issue that is preventing Choi from fulfilling his three year mandatory military service.

As of now, Choi is relieved of his military commitment but the situation could be reexamined at a later time.

Choi last fought at Yarennoka on New Years Eve against famed Russian fighter, Fedor Emelianenko. Choi took Emelianenko down early in the first round of that fight but was quickly submitted via armbar.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Jarrod Bunch turns down offer to fight Carlton Haselrig on “Saturday Night Fights” undercard

FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned that former New York Giants fullback Jarrod Bunch has turned down an opportunity to fight former Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro offensive tackle Carlton Haselrig during the undercard of EliteXC’s debut CBS show on May 31.

Haselrig, who won his MMA debut against former IFL heavyweight Shane Ott on April 19, is without an opponent for EliteXC’s undercard, which will be streamed live from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on ProElite.com.

Haselrig, who is also a former six-time NCAA Division I and II wrestling champion, TKO’d Ott at 4:09 of round 1 during Battle Cage Xtreme 4 in Atlantic City. Meanwhile, Bunch is 0-1 in his brief mixed martial arts career, losing his one and only fight to former Washington wide receiver Michael Westbrook during a King of the Cage show in 2005.

EliteXC contracted heavyweight and former Giants’ offensive lineman Bobby Jones was originally proposed as an opponent for Haselrig but was unable to accept the match due to a neck injury. There have been rumblings that EliteXC officials were interested in signing former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Marcus Jones to fight Haselrig, however, Jones is already signed to fight Hercules Benjamin on May 30 in Atlantic City for the World Fighting Championships.

 

[Shogun Locc]

MMA on MTV

While conducting an interview with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Marcus Jones for CBSSports.com, the former NFL star revealed that he is next scheduled to fight on May 30 in Atlantic City, N.J.

Jones will be a part of Florida-based World Fighting Championships’ “North vs. South” event at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in a heavyweight clash against Judo standout Hercules Benjamin.

During the interview, Jones indicated that MTV is slated to televise the event.

“…May 30, the WFC has teamed up with MTV and they’re supposed to be putting on a show and I’ll be on that card,” Jones stated during the interview.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com followed up on the revelation and confirmed with the New Jersey Athletic Control Board that MTV is indeed expected to be involved with the show. However, it uncertain what MTV’s exact role will be.

Muay Thai standout Kit Cope is scheduled to headline the show against MMA veteran Dave Cochran. Cope was once featured on MTV’s documentary series “True Life,” so it’s possible that they will be on hand to tape some of the bouts as opposed to doing a live telecast.

 

[Shogun Locc]

RANDY COUTURE FIGHTING FOR HIS FUTURE

Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder Randy "The Natural" Couture resigned from the UFC on Oct. 11, 2007. Since his departure, his fighting future has been tied up in lawsuits between the fighter and mixed martial arts' largest organization.

Couture recently spoke with MMAWeekly.com about his fighting future, the lawsuits and the situation with the International Fight League and the Xtreme Couture brand name.

The IFL announced at the start of its 2008 season that Xtreme Couture would be one of the camps in the newly reorganized fight promotion, but the UFC halted the IFL’s plans with an injunction against the use of the Xtreme Couture name.

"The issue was really between the UFC and the IFL, but the UFC, with all the other stuff going on, chose to kind of drag me into this fray," Couture told MMAWeekly.

"I've had an IFL team training at my school for two years. Since the inception of the IFL," he explained. "That was the Anacondas. (Chris) Horodecki, (Jay) Hieron, Wild (Mike) Pyle was on the team. All those guys trained first in my L.A. gym, Legends, and now here in the Vegas gym, Xtreme Couture.

"(The IFL) decided they were going to do away with the team names and try and stick to more natural teams that exist like Team Quest, Renzo Gracie's team, American Top Team and so on and so forth, and try to create rivalries … trying to create those natural rivalries that already kind of exist, which made sense to me.”

He continued, “They asked me if I wanted to have a team. I was like, what do you mean have a team? I've already got a team. What are you talking about? I said, if you want to say these guys train at Xtreme Couture when they step in the ring that's fine, but they took that one step further."

And in the eyes of the UFC’s legal team, the IFL may have taken it a lot more than one step further, triggering a lawsuit for the MMA juggernaught.

"They put my name and likeness all over their website and all over their marketing material, especially for the fight (in Las Vegas) at the Orleans. And my non-compete clause with the UFC precludes me from promoting any other event until after October. That was the rub as far as the UFC was concerned, but rather than go after the IFL, they chose to come after me. I didn't give the IFL permission to do that. They did that on their own accord. Really it was a fight between the IFL and the UFC, but I kind of got drug in the middle of it."

The UFC was granted the injunction and what was going to be Team Xtreme Couture was changed to Team Tompkins, donning the name of Xtreme Couture trainer Shawn Tompkins.

"It caused me to spend some money on lawyers and things that didn't really make a lot of sense to me," said Couture. "To top it off, it wasn't like I was even fighting for a bunch of athletes that were mine that train here at Xtreme Couture. They decided to assign guys from Florida that actually train for American Top Team to this kind of name Xtreme Couture, which didn't make a lot of sense to me. I wasn't really willing to spend any money or step up and fight an injunction that didn't even have to do with my athletes."

Like an ugly celebrity divorce, the Couture and UFC split has played out in the media. Both sides held press conferences stating their side of the story and the longer it's gone on, the more ugly it's become.

"I think ultimately the UFC wants to drag me down any way they can and tie me up and for them to be able to say, 'oh, we got an injunction against Couture,'" the current UFC heavyweight champion told MMAWeekly. "That only kind of leads the anti-Couture media machine that Dana (White) is kind of spewing and running right now.

"Ultimately, the real litigation, the real issue is Mark Cuban stepping up and filing a declaration on my fight contract to get the state to rule as to when I'm free and clear of the UFC. I think that's the thing that the UFC doesn't really want the public knowing, that that's going on.

“That's going to tell the tale of my contract and when I'm able and free to fight Fedor (Emelianenko). We hope to hear something this month with regard to that, and with any luck I'll be free and clear of the UFC by July and be able to promote and find a way to make that Fedor fight happen."

 

[Shogun Locc]

DONE FIGHTING, McCARTHY MAY TURN TO REFFING

Unable to defeat Michael Bisping and take a leap forward in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's middleweight division, American Top Team fighter Charles McCarthy gave in to his rational side and decided that enough was enough.

Last Thursday, he announced his retirement.

“It's a lot of different things,” McCarthy said recently on MMAWeekly Radio. “I felt good in the fight. It had nothing to do with the outcome of the fight.

“I just felt like it's hard for me to maintain that (type of) training camp and maintain my business and maintain my family. It's a little tough for me to balance all these things, plus manage my fighters. I figure if I take (fighting) off of my plate for now, it'll give me some opportunities to do some other things that I've been wanting to do.”

While many fighters struggle on, inching forward, that's not the life that McCarthy envisioned for himself and his family. He feels that there are many other productive ways for him to stay involved in the sport he loves, including giving more of his time to the people that have given so much of theirs to him.

“I feel like there are things in my life that I can be doing to better provide for my family, to better provide for my fighters,” said McCarthy. “I really care a lot about my fighters and I feel like I neglected them a little bit getting ready for this fight. I really want to make amends with that.”

McCarthy, along with Ultimate Fighter and UFC veteran Cole Miller, operates Ultimate Self Defense, an American Top Team affiliate school in Boca Raton, Fla.

“Definitely, I'm a better coach than a fighter. I really get into it. I really enjoy the guys going in there and living out their dreams”

He hasn't completely closed the door on a possible return to fighting, but in the immediate future, McCarthy may take center ring in a different capacity. Instead of the one delivering the blows, he may end up being the man that stops them.

“My goal is to go in and register to become a referee for the state of Florida. I'd like to referee in UFC and some other places,” he said. But he hasn't drawn the line there either, saying, “I'd like to maybe get into the promotional end of it.

“There's just so many different aspects of the sport ... I just love the sport. I can't see myself not being involved in every aspect possible.”

 

[Shogun Locc]

SHOOTO FINALIZES 20TH ANNIVERSARY FIGHT CARD

Shooto has finalized its 20th anniversary fight card scheduled for Saturday night at JCB Hall in Tokyo. Two welterweight bouts were recently added, bringing the card to a total of nine fights.

In a Class A welterweight bout, grappling wizard Shinji Sasaki will take on French lightweight Bendy Casimir. Sasaki comes off a submission victory over Paolo Milano at Shooto: GIG West 9, while Casimir won a decision victory recently over Andre Winner at Cage Warriors: Enter the Rough House 6.

In a Class B welterweight bout, former Shooto welterweight rookie champion Yusuke Endo takes on debuting American lightweight Vince Ortiz. Endo is coming off of a decision loss to Takashi Nakakura at Shooto “Back to our Roots 6.” Ortiz is making his Japanese debut.

International Fight League veteran Savant Young will make his 145-pound debut when he takes on former Shooto lightweight champion “Lion” Takeshi Inoue in a Class B lightweight bout.

-Takashi Nakakura vs. Ganjo Tentsuku
-Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. David Baron
-Akitoshi Tamura vs. Rumina Sato
-Yasuhiro Urushitani vs. Ryuichi Miki
-“Lion” Takeshi Inoue vs. Savant Young
-Shinji Sasaki vs. Bendy Casimir
-Yusuke Endo vs. Vince Ortiz
-Hayate Usui vs. Sakae Kasuya
-Katsuya Murofushi vs. Shinpei Tahara

 

[Shogun Locc]

Bas Rutten in GTA IV

 

[Shogun Locc]

Arlovski appears Saturday at Chicago fund-raiser

Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski is joining some fellow pit bulls this weekend for a public appearance and fund-raiser in Chicago.

The event, "Party for the Pits," takes place this coming Saturday, May 3, at the Midtown Kitchen + Bar in Chicago from 7-11 p.m.

The event benefits the Rags 2 Wags Pit Bull Rescue, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that facilitates the rescue and adoption of homeless dogs identified as American pit bull terriers and American Staffordshire terriers.

A $10 cover charge gets you into the event, where there's a complimentary buffet, a DJ, silent auction, raffle and meet-and-greet with the pit bulls (both human and K-9).

For more information about the charity, check out www.rags2wagspitbullrescue.com.

Arlovski, a Chicago-based fighter who reigned as the UFC's heavyweight title-holder from February 2005 to April 2006, last fought at UFC 82 in March. There, he posted a victory over the previously undefeated Jake O'Brien. The bout fulfilled Arlovski's fight commitment from his previous UFC contract, essentially making him a free agent.

Arlovski's now rumored to be negotiating with a number of fight promotions, including the UFC.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Jonathan Goulet vs. Paul Kelly at UFC 85

Undefeated British fighter Paul Kelly (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) has agreed to meet Jonathan Goulet (22-9 MMA, 4-3 UFC) at UFC 85, an event that takes place June 7 at the 02 Arena in London, England.

The preliminary bout was first reported by the Canadian site TKO Xtreme earlier today and has since been confirmed by MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) with sources close to both fighters.

At one time, Kelly had been rumored to be fighting "The Ultimate Fighter 6" cast member Troy Mandaloniz at the pay-per-view event.

Instead, he faces Goulet, who posted a victory over Kuniyoshi Hironaka less than two weeks ago at UFC 83. It was Goulet's third straight victory, which has included other wins over Dan Chambers and Paul Georgieff.

Kelly, part of the famed Wolfslair Academy (which boasts "The Ultimate Fighter 3" winner Michael Bisping as a team member), will go for his eighth straight victory. Six of his seven career victories have come via stoppage -- five in the first round.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Iron Ring Rating 4/15

The 4/15 episode of Iron Ring drew a 0.69 rating (663,000 viewers) on BET according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. That number was down significantly from what the series had been averaging.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Strikeforce Rating

MMAPayout.com has learned that Strikeforce on NBC did a 0.5 rating on April 19. That number is considered good, in fact good enough to place #24 on the Network Sports Programming Top 30. For some perspective, Poker After Dark, the program's lead-in, did a 0.7 while an NHL Playoff game on NBC did a 0.9. The top rated sports program of the week on network TV was a 3.5 for an NBA playoff game on ABC.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Tito Ortiz Big Bear training camp for UFC 84 Lyoto Machida fight (Video)

 

[Shogun Locc]

L.C. Davis: Professionally Physical

Mixed martial arts, commonly known among its fans as MMA, have been gaining a foothold in the sports landscape, particularly over the last few years. Many people feel MMA has, at the very least, equaled the popularity of professional boxing. The numbers, especially when it comes to pay-per-view revenue, show that it has even surpassed pro boxing in popularity.

MMA is a full-contact combat sport in which a wide variety of fighting techniques are used. Fighters may strike opponents, as in boxing or conventional martial arts, such as karate or judo. They may also grapple with them, as in the many forms of amateur wrestling.

A strong amateur wrestling background has helped Fort Scott native L.C. Davis in rising through the ranks of professional MMA.

"I think it helps a lot," Davis said recently in a phone interview about his wrestling background. "It's the backbone for how I got to where I'm at. I competed against a high calibre of wrestler in college and I think wrestlers train harder than boxers or martial artists. It really helped because training for MMA is ridiculous because you have to train in so many different things. I train like two or three times a day."

Davis is currently under contract with one of the professional organizations, the International Fight League (IFL), matches of which can ocassionally be seen on Fox Sports Net or on HDNet, a high-definition channel. The IFL, a 2 1/2-year-old organization, is perhaps the second-leading MMA circuit behind Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

There have been forms of fighting since the era of the Greek Olympians. But, boxing and wrestling were long recognized in the mainstream, while other forms were either considered recreational (such as karate or judo) more so than competitive or extremely violent. But MMA has been slowly gaining acceptance since the mid-1990's and has seen growth in an era where boxing is now seen as corrupt and in a low period and wrestling has settled into its position as "sports entertainment." The current era of MMA may perhaps be the beginning of its golden age. It seems to be the wrestling and martial arts aspects of the sport that have won fans over more so than the boxing elements.

Just before the new year began, Davis competed in what was the biggest match of his career at the time. In an event televised on HDNet, Davis suffered the first loss of his career at any level of MMA fighting, amateur or pro, to Wagnney Fabiano, who himself has only one professional loss.

Since then, Davis has had what he called his "bounce-back" match and won.

"I just had a fight in New Jersey, in the arena where the New Jersey Nets play," Davis said. "I fought a similar opponent to (Fabiano, who) was my first loss as a pro or amateur. That guy was a Brazilian with a third-degree black belt.

"In my bounce-back fight, the IFL gave me another guy like the one I lost to. I took it as another chance to show what I can do. I was able to shut down his game and get a KO in the third round."

Davis doesn't know yet when his next fight will be.

"I'm thinking it's going to be in June or July," he said. "I'm not sure yet. I'm waiting for my manager and the IFL to set it up."

MMA fighters don't usually need as much rest between fights, particularly if more wrestling was used in their last match because the body and head take fewer blows.

"It depends. I've actually done two fights in one week," Davis said. "If your body is healthy and you make enough money, you don't have to fight a lot. If you're needing sone extra money, you might fight more often."

Davis wrestled for Fort Scott High School, then went on to Labette Community College in Parsons, Kan., and to Missouri Valley College. He was acting as an assistant coach for a newly-created junior college program in Pratt, Kan., before he decided to give MMA a chance, although his curiosity was piqued even before then.

"I was wrestling in college, finishing up there," Davis said. "One of my friends knew a guy from my team who was doing it. I told him I'd like to try it. The first couple of fights, I was (experimenting) and seeing if I wanted to do it. After the first fight, I was hooked. I didn't know if this was something I wanted to do for a little bit or for a living. But now, I know and I'm doing this for a living."

Davis left Pratt for Iowa City, Iowa, to train at Pat Miletich's Mixed Martial School. He fights for Miletich Fighting Systems in the IFL in what the league calls a "camp."

According to the IFL website www.ifl.tv, Davis is 2-1 in IFL-sanctioned bouts and 9-1 overall.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Sean Sherk - "BJ Penn is a quitter"

In a recent interview with NBCsports, former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk discussed his upcoming fight against BJ Penn at UFC 84. Sherk said that, "Penn is a quitter, I've seen the quit in him and I'm going to come at him hard." This is a response to Penn who recently blasted Sherk was testing positive for the steroid nandrolone. Sherk still maintains his innocence in that matter, but was stripped of his title by the UFC.
The war of words between the two fighters will come to a conclusion on May 24th at UFC 84: Ill Will.

 

[UCDgreek]

great article here by Kevin Iole about pay and sponsors in the UFC.

One of my passions in life is technology. I’m obsessed with gizmos and gadgets and am all but in love with my iPhone.

A friend who knows about my obsession had a computer he wanted to sell on eBay and asked me what I felt it was worth. He went to a Web site that showed an estimated street value, one I felt was considerably too high.

He argued that his asking price was justified because this web site was made up of experts and they agreed with him.

True, I said, but something is only worth what someone else will pay for it. And when we went to eBay and looked at completed listings for a computer with specs similar to his, he was shocked. People were only paying about half of what he thought he could get.
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And that same analogy is true when it comes to fighter compensation. There is a lot of debate in the mixed martial arts media over what the UFC pays its fighters. It’s easy to take the stance that the fighters deserve more pay.

Of course they do. Getting punched in the face or kicked in the head is about as difficult a profession as one could choose. You only get paid when you actually compete, meaning an injury in training — by your or by your opponent — means you’ve worked two months for free.

So fighters deserve as much as they can get. I have always and will always advocate for the athletes in this sport.

But, when Kalib Starnes split ways with the UFC last week, he called his deal with the UFC an oppressive contract. He complained about his pay.

Clearly, the top UFC fighters don’t make nearly the amount that the top boxers make. But there is an incorrect perception that the other UFC fighters are being underpaid compared to boxers of the same level as well as fighters in the mixed martial arts community.

So I called the Nevada Athletic Commission and got the payment verification sheets for the last two major boxing shows (Bernard Hopkins-Joe Calzaghe on April 19 and Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez on March 15) as well as for the last major UFC show in the state, UFC 81 on Feb. 2.

According to state records, Hopkins and Calzaghe were each paid $3 million for their work. The next highest-paid fighter on that card was Audley Harrison, who made $20,000. There were nine fighters who made $5,000 or less, including two men, Marcos Mendias and Jermell Charlo, who made but $1,500.

Pacquiao made $3 million and Marquez $1 million for their epic rematch, but there were five fighters of the 14 on that show who made $3,500 or less.

At the UFC show, the lowest base pay for any of the 18 fighters on the card was the $4,000 that Kyle Bradley made.

The UFC also paid out $60,000 bonuses that night for knockout of the night, submission of the night and fight of the night. Plus, most of the fighters had bonuses for winning, so the opportunity was there for them to double their pay, which was not for the boxers.

And several agents, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have said the UFC occasionally pays its fighters bonuses it chooses not to announce to the public. These bonuses apparently go to fighters who perform superbly in a big fight.

Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre reportedly received a $500,000 bonus and a Hummer when he knocked out Matt Hughes at UFC 65 in Sacramento, Calif.

Additionally, fighting in the UFC makes an athlete significantly more attractive to a sponsor. Frank Mir made $85,000 for the logos he wore into the cage for his fight with Brock Lesnar that night. Had he been fighting in another organization, there’s zero chance he would have earned half that in sponsorship money and he likely wouldn’t have gotten 20 percent as much.

So Mir that night earned a base pay of $40,000, a win bonus of another $40,000, a submission of the night bonus of $60,000 and then hauled in $85,000 in sponsorship dollars.

He’s not going to be able to retire after that bout, but bringing in $225,000 for one night’s work isn’t bad at any time, especially in this economy. A fighter like Chuck Liddell is making around $6 million a year between his salary and his sponsorships and was making at least $9 million little more than a year ago. He was getting $75,000 a month from Xyience and received $1 million for just two weekends of promoting the movie, “300.”

“The UFC will pay you if you perform,” said fighter agent Dean Albrecht, Mir’s agent. “It’s like in the NFL. They’re not going to rip up your contract after one great game, but if you perform over a period of time, they’ll pay you and pay you extremely well. In the UFC, if you go out and fight and put on a great show, believe me, they pay extremely well and they can make some of these kids rich.”

Albrecht said another of his clients, Joe Lauzon, earned $8,000 for his bout with Kenny Florian earlier this month on Ultimate Fight Night 13. He would have gotten an $8,000 bonus had he won. Albrecht conceded the pay was low, but it was mitigated by a $20,000 fight of the night bonus and $52,000 in sponsorship money Albrecht negotiated.

He said if Lauzon had been fighting in a regional promotion, he would have made $2,000 to show, gotten $2,000 had he won and may have picked up another $500 in sponsorship. Even in the best case scenario, then, he would have made less than $5,000.

The IFL is bleeding money and likely won’t last past its next show. Elite XC in its most recent SEC report also conceded it may not have the funds to last the rest of the year. If it’s not able to pull at least a 2.5 rating on CBS for its May 31 show, it may be in jeopardy of failing.

The UFC, on the other hand, continues to thrive. It will provide a place for the fighters to sell their wares long into the future. There is no other North American-based promotion that can say that now other than the UFC.

So while the UFC should bump up the salaries of the fighters up and down the cards, given the rising merchandise sales, gate receipts and pay-per-view revenues, you also have to remember that they’re the only ones who are thriving and can pay consistently. It’s a two-way street.