TKO Xtreme has learned that Tim “The Thrashing Machine” Hague will defend his KOTC Canada heavyweight title against Josh Strickland on July 19, 2008 at KOTC: Excalibur.

Hague (7-1) is currently on a two-fight winning streak which has seen him reel off impressive KO victories over Jeff Lundberg and Jared Kilkenny. Hague also holds victories over Jessie Jones, Ruben “Warparth” Villareal, and Adrian Bernardo. Hague’s sole professional loss came by way of split decision to Miodrag Petkovic at HCF: Destiny.

Josh “The Heat” Strickland possesses a mixed martial arts record of 2-2-0. Strickland holds stoppage victories over Justin McNutt and Jason Cecil. Stickland’s last outing came at Absolute Fighting Canada 2 where he was submitted by Jason Cecil.

KOTC: Excalibur is scheduled for July 19, 2008 at the Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta. Check out our rumors section for the latest KOTC: Excalibur card.

Photo property of the Ultimate Fighting Championships.

UFC welterweight champion Georges “Rush” St. Pierre has been declared a nominee for the ESPN ESPY’s ‘Best Fighter’ award.

St. Pierre is currently on a three-fight winning streak which has been him secure victories over top contender Josh Koscheck, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes and of course Matt Serra.

St. Pierre will be vying for the award against boxers Joe Calzaghe, Holly Holm, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Kelly Pavlik. Make sure you go to www.espys.tv and vote for St. Pierre. The show will air on ESPN on Sunday, July 20th at 9 PM ET.

Photo property of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Sherdog.com is reporting that the American Kickboxing Academy’s Jon Fitch has received his Guerilla jiu-jitsu black belt under the tutelage of instructor Dave Camarillo.

According to the report, Fitch has studied under Camarillo for the better part of five year and his promotion makes him become Camarillo’s sixth black belt.

Fitch is currently preparing for his August 9th showdown with UFC welterweight Georges “Rush” St. Pierre at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy. Fitch is currently riding a 15-fight winning streak with victories over Diego Sanchez, Thiago Alves, Josh Burkman, Brock Larson, Shonie Carter, and Alex Serdyukov.

While Fitch is now a black belt, St. Pierre is aware and has no plans to let the Fort Wayne, Indiana native get the upper hand. Last month, St. Pierre made his way to Rio de Janeiro to sharpen his ground skills with a slew of Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts at Gracie Barra. St. Pierre also underwent a full training routine with Gustavo Machado and Aloisio Barros.

St. Pierre didn’t limit his training to jiu-jitsu, he also spent time boxing at Nobre Arte, rolling with the Gracie Barra Combat Team, and wrestling with Adrian Jaoude.

UFC 87: Seek and Destroy is scheduled for August 9, 2008 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Check out our rumors section for the latest UFC 87: Seek and Destroy card.

Sam Caplan of Five Ounces of Pain is reporting that PRIDE veteran Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen is expected to fight at DREAM 5 on Monday, July 21 in a Lightweight Grand Prix tournament reserve match. His rumored opponent is Canadian-lightweight Kultar “Black Mamba” Gill.

Hansen, a native of Oslo, Norway, possesses a mixed martial arts record of 17-7-1. Hansen holds victories over the likes of Takanori Gomi, Rumina Sato, Caol Uno, Masakazu Imanari, and Yves Edwards. Hansen lost out in the second round of the DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix falling to Eddie Alvarez in what is currently being considered one of the fights of the year.

DREAM 5 Card
July 21, 2008
Osakajo Hall in Osaka, Japan

Lightweight Grand Prix Finals:

Shinya Aoki vs. Caol Uno
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Eddie Alvarez

Lightweight Reserve Bout:

Kultar Gill (Port Moody, B.C.) vs. Joachim Hansen

Non-Tournament Bouts:

Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Joe Benavidez
Denis Kang (Vancouver, B.C.) vs. TBA
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. TBA

Check out our rumors section for the latest DREAM 5 card.

King of the Cage Canada will be returning to the Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta on Saturday, July 19, 2008 with UFC veteran Victor “The Matrix” Valimaki headlining the card in a bout with Nick Hinchliffe. Also sitting atop the card will be a bout between PRIDE veteran Travis “The Gladiator” Galbraith and Andrew Buckland.

KOTC: Excalibur
July 19, 2008
Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta

Travis Galbraith vs. Andrew Buckland
Victor Valimaki vs. Nick Hinchliffe
Nick Denis vs. TBA
Jason Volpe vs. TBA
Tim Hague vs. TBA

Check out our rumors section for the latest KOTC: Excalibur card.

The Fight Network is reporting that Kultar “Black Mamba” Gill will compete at DREAM 5 on Monday, July 21 at the Osaka Dome in Osaka, Japan. No opponent has been named.

Gill, a native of Port Moody, British Columbia, possesses a mixed martial arts record of 9-7-0. Gill holds victories over the likes of Hideko Tokoro, Harris Sarmiento, Donald Ouimet, and Dan Shenk. Gill participated on five K-1 cards amassing a record of 2-3.

DREAM 5 will include the Lightweight Grand Prix Finals which will feature Shinya Aoki vs. Caol Uno and Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Eddie Alvarez. Gill joins Denis Kang as the second Canadian on the Japanese-based promotions July 21 card.

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.

Shortly afterwards I realized that I should have taken a deep breath and calmed down before leaving that message and I profusely apologized to Drew’s manager. I am not proud of that message but as the owner of a major fight organization I felt that I and my staff which works tirelessly to put on a first-class show were being treated very disrespectfully by Drew. If he had read his contract he would have realized he shouldn’t have taken the fight and he should not have attempted to get away with it.

Then for Drew to post the private voice mail – which was not left on his phone – was just ridiculous and petty.

This was the last straw in a series of unprofessional acts by Drew. He failed to send a promotional photo that we wanted to use for advertising the fight even after the MFC had sent him gloves and even went as far as being willing to book a photographer to take the pictures. He also failed to send any documents pertaining to his medicals, passport and border information.

Drew even stated in an email after the posting of the voice mail that he was still willing to fight in the MFC. But after that he added that he would want to be paid after the weigh-in one day before the fight. There is no question in my mind that Drew would have stiffed us completely and run off with our money without fighting as some sort of warped payback for the MFC protecting its investment in him and doing everything in its power to not allow him to fight within the five-week period prior to July 25.

We now completely understand why that despite his excellent record so many organizations will not work with Drew and we have a pretty clear indication why he has been banned by the UFC.

Drew Fickett will never fight in the MFC. As evidenced by his latest actions Drew clearly does not want to fight Ryan Ford for the MFC title despite signing a contract to do so.

The MFC has never had any problems with any fighters who do not breach their contract nor have we had any problems with fighters with issues that we do control such as payment for fights, travel itineraries, etc. Fighters we have problems with are ones who are neurotic misfits with poor management who won’t take responsibility for their actions, who won’t live up to fulfilling their contracts and those who do not act as professional athletes.

I will take all steps necessary to settle this issue legally and I will also move immediately into replacing Drew Fickett with a top-level fighter to contend for the MFC welterweight title against Ryan Ford on July 25.

Mark Pavelich, Owner/President

Maximum Fighting Championship

Yesterday a war of words between UFC veteran Drew “The Master” Fickett and MFC president Mark Pavelich began on ‘The Underground’ and it featured Fickett firing obscenities Pavelich’s way while referring to an unwelcoming voicemail he received.

Initially many were left wondering, what exactly was on the voicemail? Well MMARated.com has secured the audio. Here is a transcript of what Pavelich had to say:

“It’s Mark Pavelich calling from the Maximum Fighting Championship,

I’ve just received notice that Drew Fickett or you, I don’t care which one of you fuckers did it, has signed a contract to fight in Strikeforce this fucking weekend. I’m going to get on a fucking plane soon and go where you’re at and choke you the fuck out. I’m telling you right now, I’ve had enough of your fucking shit. First of all, I’ve sent you the fucking pictures and secondly, I placed Drew Fickett in a fight fucking months ago and five weeks prior to my main event of my fucking fight card. You’re going to give me a fucking call tomorrow or I swear I’ll get on a fucking plane and go right where you’re at right now. You’re pissing me off, I’ve been nothing but professional to you motherfuckers and you’re doing this kind of bullshit, alright? Call me back, I’m fucking pissed.”

Yes folks that was Mark Pavelich, not Dana White. Pavelich has every right to be angry but unfortunately he went about stressing his point in the wrong manner. Pavelich couldn’t risk having Fickett fight and possibly coming away with a 30-day medical suspension jeopardizing his main event.

In an interview with MMARated.com, Ariel Helwani asked Fickett for his thoughts on Ryan Ford and he said, “I think he’s a tough guy. I think he’s done a lot of steroids and is real big and strong but you know what? Steroids equal bad conditioning.

I know that for a fact, steroids equal bad conditioning. He looks like a tough strong guy but honestly, he’s got no heart and he’s a cheater. My boy Pete Spratt was all over him and suddenly he wants to cheat.”

For those of you unaware, Pete Spratt made his way to Alberta in February to face Ford and the bout was laced with controversy. Throughout the first round Ford received numerous warnings for grabbing the shorts (which were eventually torn to the waist band) and as the first round came to a close referee Herb Dean failed to separate the fighters and a defenceless Spratt took two unanswered shots to the face leaving him dazed on the canvas.

Following the event, Spratt sounded off on Pavelich and his promotion, “Pavelich is classless and has no character and I would never associate myself with him or his promotion ever again. I will be vindicated maybe once Ford gets off of parole but a rematch will happen one day hopefully before I retire!”

So as you can see this isn’t the first time Pavelich has found himself in this situation. Verbal jabs are still being exchanged over the web and Fickett is saying that Pavelich has pulled him from the MFC 17: Hostile Takeover card. While nothing has been made official, it looks like MFC is going to have to hunt down a suitable opponent for Ryan Ford as he vies for the vacant MFC welterweight title.

If anyone has the full results from the Iroquois MMA Championships IV card could you please post them in the comments section. Thank you.

Guillaume De Lorenzi def. Keith Perrigon - TKO
Dwight Sutherland def. Justin Know - Submission (Triangle)
Tarec Saffiedine def. Rich Bondoc - Submission (Armbar)
Anthony Romita def. Dino Camire - Submission (Armbar)
Alexis Davis def. Kate Roy - Submission (Armbar)
Simon Marini def. Alberto Crane - Decision

And for a great read on the nights event go Here.

Special congrats to my friend Anthony Romita for a great win.