The Bellator season six lightweight tournament has just a wee snag, as one of their competitors has been forced to withdraw due to some jail time.

The fighter formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver, War Machine will be serving a year in the slammer, but not for new charges. “Seems my year in jail wasnt enough,” War Machine lamented on his twitter. “Just got sentenced to another year in Vegas for some old bullshit. Nevermind Im rehabilitated. Nevermind Ive been out for over 6 months now and doing great and am finally back on my feet. Nevermind all my students that will miss me. Do another year and rot n waste time. Make no money, pay no taxes. Whatever, I just hope my boy @bensaundersMMA wins @BellatorMMA tournament. Fuck the motherfucking system! Fuck the bullshit! Vacation time, back to jail in 2 weeks! Cant stop me, all you can do is delay the inevitable. War Machine will always be back! Oh ya the judge looked and me and said she can tell Im on steroids and that thats prolly why I got in so many fights and am angry..lol Bitch”

The Bellator lightweight tournament will indeed continue without War Machine, and will be a disappointment to many fans who wanted to see him back in the cage and on TV. 2013 will be the comeback of War Machine for sure, so start marking the days off on your calendar.

Via Middle Easy

Bellator Fighting Championships returns to The Lone Star State on Friday, March 23rd for Bellator 62 live from Laredo, Texas at the Laredo Energy Arena. The night features the quarterfinals of Bellator’s $100,000 Season 6 Lightweight Tournament, as well a host of Texas’ top MMA talent.

Coming off an explosive knockout victory over UFC veteran Kurt Pellegrino at Bellator 59, Patricky Pitbull is back and looking to start his ascent toward a title shot with a quarterfinal matchup against fan-favorite Lloyd “Cupcake” Woodard. Patricky has produced a number of incredible Bellator “YouTube Moments” and has his sights set on adding another highlight to his collection.

Former U.S. Olympian Judoka Rick Hawn is making the drop to lightweight and meets the dangerous Ricardo Tirloni. Hawn compiled an impressive 11-1 record as a welterweight, but is confident the drop in weight will make him even more dangerous.

“I felt like I was sort of undersized in the last tournament,” Hawn said. “Everyone had a height advantage on me, and while I thought I made a good run in my last welterweight tournament, I think lightweight is going to be a better fit for me and just give me an advantage over everyone else.”

Also making the drop to lightweight is longtime Bellator veteran Brent Weedman. Always looking for a finish, “Weedman Nation” will be on full display as he battles Bellator newcomer J.J. Ambrose.

“I’ve already tested myself with a lightweight weight cut and I felt great,” Weedman said. “Over the last year, I’ve felt a little undersized as a welterweight, so I think lightweight is going to be a great spot for me. I’m excited to show off my new skills, and this tournament is stacked, so we’re going to put on a show this season.”

Rounding out an absolutely loaded tournament class, Rene “The Brazilian Bomber” Nazare will square off with top prospect Thiago Michel. A product of Team Bombsquad, Nazare always has his eye on delivering the knockout, and nothing will change on March 23rd.

It’s the fundamentals of fighting that often get dismissed by students as they begin to improve with their technical skills. With so much information being thrown at them, it’s easy to forget basic things, or take them for granted when they become familiar and a part of your muscle memory. The best way to step back from your comfort zone and refresh yourself, while ideally learning a few new moves, is to grab a big fat instructional book and re-educate yourself.

“The Principles of Unarmed Combat” by Mark Jacobs offers you a second glance at those fundamentals of fighting, then expands into so much more. Made up of more than 50 chapters packed into ten distinct sections, this book covers everything from techniques to strategy to the science of combat, but does it succeed in delivering the goods, or does it fail like an undertrained noob in his first ammy fight?

Hit the jump to check out the full review of this book!

Released by Turtle Press, “The Principles of Unarmed Combat” weighs in at a whopping 340 pages, give or take, and is as tall as any of the releases from Victory Belt publishing. The major difference here is cosmetically, since this book does not feature any color photos. In fact, the book has no photos at all, nor does it have any big-name fighters names emblazoned on the book (other than Gene Lebell). Does that automatically make it lose points? Of course not.

As we have seen with other products I have reviewed from authors who might not be tremendously well-known in the MMA world, you should never judge a book by its cover. That might be the biggest detractor of this book, simply in that it comes off looking like a rather dull and plain book. In reality, this is the ultimate textbook for fighting, and does not skimp on information. This single-volume holds as much information as an entire instructional tape series, yet only costs a fraction of one of those aforementioned videos.

In terms of detail and level of instruction, Jacobs writing rivals Bas Rutten’s “Big Book of Combat” series, and even some of the great instructionals from Victory Belt that we have reviewed in the past. This is a technical guidebook to every minute aspect of fighting that you need to know, broken down on a molecular level of scientific detail. Every phase of combat, from closing the distance, to clinching, to what happens when the fight hits the ground, is dissected and collected into this tome.

What differentiates Mark’s book from others is that this is not just a book of punches and kicks and various techniques bound together. It is that, plus the addition of discussion from doctors, physicists, scientists, and other educated people that add even more depth to an already expansive book on fighting.

We are talking explanations of things like why rotating your arm to a certain angle can improve the power of a punch, or why the roundhouse kick is one of the best kicks for fighting, and how to maximize your footwork to increase your prowess in the cage.

As I have been saying, the presentation of the book is a bit lackluster compared to what I have seen from other larger companies, but the instruction is what matters. As you can see from the page on the left, instead of photos of fighters demonstrating the techniques, we have CG rendered people showing off each move. However, there are not a ton of these to look at for reference. In some cases, you can go a few pages without seeing one image (although many other places, you can get a few on each page).

I am a big proponent of visual aids when it comes to fighting, so this book surely could have benefitted from more photos, or at least some color images. On the other hand, the lack of color has also kept the price of this book down to half of the cost of a book from a company like Victory Belt, and in this case, I think it’s more than a fair trade-off.

In his foreward to the book, Gene Lebell sums up the best aspects of it when he wrote, “What you’ll get is probably the only book ever to tell you exactly why things work in martial arts, why they don’t work, how to fix them, and give you clear, simple evidence that what it says here is accurate and true.” Perfect for students of all levels, “The Principles of Unarmed Combat” offers invaluable information for any combat situation, and why techniques will succeed or fail. This is not your typical instruction manual, and is broader for overall fighting rather than just MMA or kickboxing, but it covers everything with equal attention and will have you rethinking your fundamentals within the first few pages.

You can order “The Principles of Unarmed Combat” by Mark Jacobs from Amazon for around $18. At that price, this book is 100% worth it, and, even though we are still very early into 2012, this book is definitely a front-runner for best all-around fighting instructional book for the year!

Hate to burst your bubble, Carano fans, but she might not be coming back to the sport anytime soon.

In an interview with British nerdery site, Den of Geek, Carano spoke about filming “Haywire” as well as if she plans on returning to MMA. “Umm, you know, I’m starting at the beginning with films, there’s a lot I can learn and there’s a longer career that can be had them,” Carano said. “There’s a physicality that’s unique and new that I can bring to films, so I hope I can get the opportunity to do that again. But I haven’t necessarily retired from fighting either. I’m gonna do whatever I have to do to support myself and to keep going. My future’s a little fuzzy. I don’t know what’s supposed to happen next.”

When asked about the infamous voice alteration of her lines in the film, Carano confirmed there was some trickery happening. “He (Steven Soderbergh) went into ADR and did some movie magic and completely altered my voice in some way. Him and his editor. So there’s truth to that, and I’m okay with it. I think he would always do things to help the film and he was really looking for Mallory and myself to be two completely different characters. He would obviously only do something like that to help it, which hopefully it did.”

Carano also added that she is hoping to land a role in the third “Expendables” film, which is a safe bet to say that there will be a threequel. She noted that she was in talks with Stallone to be in the upcoming sequel, but they needed an Asian girl specifically for the female role in this film.

Our friends at THQ have posted another of their prediction simulations using the upcoming “UFC Undisputed 3″ video game (which I played the crap out of a few weeks ago). This time, they are simulating Nick Diaz VS Carlos Condit for the interim welterweight title from UFC 143.

After simulating 25 matches with the in-game AI, UFC Undisputed 3 came to the conclusion that Diaz would win by submission at the end of the second round, specifically at 4:20… Someone must be playing a practical joke at THQ, but it’s even more ironic if they were not. Make your jokes and remarks in the comments, I am not touching this one!

David George, promoter and owner of New Hampshire’s “Combat Zone” MMA promotion, is a man of many talents. Aside from being a former pro-fighter, George also enjoys climbing tree, carving art with chainsaws, and bow hunting. When he is not busy booking fights for his company, he aspires to be on the next season of the grandfather of modern-day reality shows, “Survivor,” and with a video like this, he very well might just do it. Check it, out and see if you think he has the right stuff for it!

The book has been shut on the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation on Zuffa owning a monopoly in MMA, and the resolution is that they the parent company of the UFC has done nothing wrong.

According to a document on the FTC website addressed to antitrust lawyer, Craig Waldman, the FTC wrote the following:

The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition has been conducting a nonpublic investigation to determine whether Zuffa, LLC’s acquisition of Explosion Entertainment, LLC may violate Section 7 of the Clayton Act or Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.

Upon further review of this matter, it now appears that no further action is warranted by
the Commission at this time. Accordingly, the investigation has been closed. This action is not to be construed as a determination that a violation may not have occurred, just as the pendency of an investigation should not be construed as a determination that a violation has occurred. The Commission reserves the right to take such further action as the public interest may require.

In other words, the UFC has done nothing wrong with their purchases of various other companies, and the government will look into it no further since they have not broken any laws. Did the FTC make the right decision, or do you think they dropped the ball on this one? Leave your reactions in the comments section.

Filmmaker Bobby Razak, who you may remember created the Georges St. Pierre documentary “The Striking Truth,” is gearing up to release a new documentary, this one all about the evolution of MMA.

“Underdogs: The History of MMA” features a candid look behind-the-scenes of the earliest days of the sport, and gives viewers an inside look at MMA around the world from its most raw incarnations. With interviews from some of the legends in the sport, as well as contemporary fighters and the next wave of athletes, this documentary will surely be a very informative piece for both new and hardcore fans. I missed a chance to see a preview screening of the first cut of this film, but I will not miss it again, and you should not either!

Hit the jump for a few more clips from this documentary, including an interview with UFC 2 veteran, Fred Ettish (yes, that Fred Ettish)!

What’s new in Career Mode for “UFC Undisputed 3″? Watch this gameplay video, narrated by game developer Wes Bunn, to learn about your path to become a UFC or PRIDE champion. If you have not had a chance to look at the incredibly in-depth sneak peek preview that I posted not too long ago, make sure you check that out to see even more about the new game options and how much this version has improved over its predecessor.

“UFC Undisputed 3″ hits shelves on February 14th, just in time to ground and pound your valentine’s sweet heart!

The battle for MMA in NY just got a bit more interesting! Two months after Zuffa Entertainment filed a lawsuit against the New York State Attorney General on the grounds that the state’s ban on MMA is a violation of First Amendment rights, the plaintiffs predictably responded with a move to dismiss.  This tidbit of info comes from page 21 of the New York State Attorney General’s motion to dismiss, which states that while professional MMA may be illegal in The Big Apple, amateur MMA is technically not. Here is the pertinent paragraphs from the official document:

Plaintiffs also object to NY Unconsol. Law Sec. 8905-a, because, while it prohibits ‘live professional MMA,’ it is silent as to amateur MMA contests, which ‘undoubtedly occur every day’. They further claim the statue is ‘vague’ as it is unclear whether the ban applies to amateur MMA exhibitions. To the extent that it does not ban amateur MMA exhibitions, Plaintiffs assert that the disparate treatment of professional and amateur MMA activities violates the equal protection clause. This claim, too, is meritless.

The statute’s provision on its face explicitly speaks to ‘professional’ combative sports and does not address amateur sports. Moreover, while the legislature, in another statute, regulates amateur boxing and wrestling, the legislature has not enacted a provision expressly addressing any amateur martial arts activity. Accordingly, the statute does not treat amateur MMA bouts any differently from amateur bouts involving traditional martial arts.

And, to the extent that the legislature, with regard to traditional and mixed martial arts, has drawn a distinction between amateur and professional bouts, it hardly needs saying that a rational basis exists for such a distinction. Moreover, Plaintiffs, themselves, aver in the Complaint that it was not until the statute was enacted that amateur MMA contests began to proliferate. Plainly, the legislature had a rational basis for explicitly banning professional MMA bouts, but not to address amateur contests.

While the above argument is meant as an attempt to dismiss the current assault on the MMA ban, it is now the official stand of the New York State Attorney General that amateur and exhibition mixed martial arts matches are legal in the state of New York. As shown in other states, the development of MMA is reliant on state sanctioning, which amateur MMA still does not have, even if it is not expressly banned. But, the fact that amateur MMA is now officially legal will have a big impact on the legislative argument to sanction all forms of MMA. You can read the full document at this link here.

Via MMA Journalist