According to Mike Russell on CagePotato, MMA legend Carlos Newton has quietly retired in a dignified manner, and has changed his priorities in life and the sport.

“I’m retired,” Newton explained. “The sport just isn’t as competitive as it used to be,” Newton said in an interview with CP. “I’m just concentrating on helping to improve the regulation of the sport and I’m looking into becoming a judge. I think that as fighters we have a lot more knowledge and insight into the intricacies of what’s going on in a fight than someone who has never competed. MMA judging needs fixing and I’m hoping I can help do it.”

Newton had a storied career in MMA, with his most shining moment when he submitted Pat Miletich at UFC 31 by bulldog choke in a dramatic welterweight title match. Matt Hughes would beat Newton for it at UFC 34 via a controversial powerbomb, another highlight reel moment for both men. Newton also fought in Pride FC, and coached and fought in the IFL.

Newton, who ended his career with a record of 16-4, will continue teaching MMA, while he attends architecture school simultaneously. “I’ll always be involved with the sport,” he said. “Definitely.” We wish Newton good luck in his future endeavors, no matter what they may be.

Over on Cage Potato, MMA legend and old-school UFC veteran Gary Goodridge posted the second post on his “Ask Gary” column, which included questions about who was the most intimidating fighter he has fought (and it’s not Fedor) and a question about an old arm wrestling match, as well as what his opinion is on teammates not wanting to fight each other. Goodridge believes simply that there is no reason they should not fight each other, but there is a catch to it in order to remain friends after.

“It’s a sport, and teammates have to get over it. We fight for pride and we fight for honor but most of all, we are prize fighters who fight for money… Maybe the casual fan doesn’t really understand that the sport isn’t personal. There is nothing personal about fighting…it’s business.” Goodridge also had less than kind words for fighters who do not want to fight their teammates.

“To the guys who won’t fight their teammates: Stop being scared. Not wanting to fight a teammate might make you sound honorable but the reality is that one of them has got to be scared. I fought Tom Erikson and I love the man. Tom Erikson was one of my best men at my wedding… Tom Erikson and I stayed at each other’s houses and I love the guy. We’ve traveled around the world together numerous times. It has nothing to do with fighting.”

We can safely assume this question was asked due to the recent rabble between Rashad Evans and Jon Jones that has resulted in Evans leaving Greg Jackson’s team to become a ronin of sorts. Goodridge concluded by saying, “The only thing about competing against a friend is that it forces you to fight clean. Fighting is a dirty sport; you’re supposed to be dirty and make somebody as ugly as possible. When you’re fighting a friend, you fight clean.” So, you know, don’t be like Gary and punch a guy in the nuts a bunch of times in Brazil. Seriously, that happened when he fought Pedro Otavio at the first IVC show in 1997. Don’t try to look up the video, it’s as unpleasant as Keith Hackney crushing Joe Son’s little guys. Shudder…

On Friday, Japanese MMA promotion Sengoku Raiden Championship issued a press release stating that it’s primary sponsor, Don Quijote, has pulled all financial backing from the company. This pretty much signals the end for Sengoku unless a miraculous advertiser steps in to take care of them, which is not bloody likely.

Officials at Don Quijote finally tired of the numerous internal problems at Sengoku and ceased funding the fight promotion that has seen such fighters as Josh Barnett, Jorge Masvidal and King Mo to name a few gaijin. Sengoku’s statement indicated that Don Quijote would continue to back Pancrase and Shooto, but did not say to what extent. Dream has been in the news lately as well, due to many fighters going on the record about not being paid. This is a very dire time to be a Japanese MMA company. The only light at the end of the tunnel could the upcoming Japan Cup event made by former Pride & Dream heads, but that is still a long time down the road.

Here is the official press release from Don Quijote, which was released on Sengoku’s website (translated by MMA-Japan):
As we already announced as an immediate report last time (on Feburary 1, 2011) about its background and the reasons, our company is at a turning point and we have to make a tough choice now.

Our mother company, Don Quixote, who also provides sponsorship for us, just officially announced their retreat from the SRC organization. We would like to honestly tell the truth since we are already to the point where we cannot do anything else. Here is what we (Don Quixote) feel:

“ We have been supporting MMA with only our passions and dreams, regardless of our huge deficits. However, our passions and dreams have been misunderstood (by who?) but some heartless media who have picked (our organization) apart in magazines, and we have been suffering from them. We have run out of patience.”

However, the company is not trying to retreat from the world of MMA completely, and they will still continue to sponsor Shooto, Pancrase, and groups which we support now such as amateur wrestling groups.

“We may also sponsor other (small) groups if they ask, although we are not going to change our company’s decision; we are retreating from big event businesses like SRC.”

It is a shame to reveal our situation, but the reality is that we have to throw our hands up without the mother company and sponsor companies which we have counted on.

Our only hope is that another company like Don Quixote provides sponsorship for us that has a passion for MMA. The Mother Company has said:

“If there is a company which has passions for MMA and could support (SRC) with a decent amount of money, we would like to give them total support”

However, if there will be no company whom can help us, we have to think about the worst case scenario: the end of SRC.

Anyway, we would like to say sorry to fans of SRC, athletes, and everyone who supported us for this great deal of concern and inconvenience.

Thanks to a great thread on the UG forum, MMA veteran Enson Inoue has given us his thoughts on many things, but one of the most interesting are his thoughts on Japanese MMA. The “Yamato Damashi” who has more tattoos than there are islands in Hawaii, and most recently added a nice one in honor of his incredible pilgrimage across Japan, spoke openly about a number of topics, from his toughest fights to his training methods. However, his insight to the Japanese MMA scene says much about the man and how deep inside the sport he was.

“Mma in japan is not dead. Maybe K-1s Tanigawa was just talking about himself that fucken crook. he has 2 Y organizations pissed and after him.” By “Y”, he means Yakuza and Tanigawa refers to Sadaharu Tanigawa, the current head of K-1. He added more about that specific person, “Yes Tanigawa is a very dishonest who is on his way down hard.” Another poster asked if it was possible for a person or company without Yakuza ties to bring back the popularity of MMA, and if they could be on the same scale as Pride FC, which Inoue answered, “Yes someone respected by the fighters, fans, and Yakuza will be able to revive JMMA…. and No. It would be impossible to run a big MMA promotion without getting involved with the Yakuza.”

UPDATE: I asked Enson to delve a bit more into what the Yakuza controls with Japanese MMA in the forum, to which he responded, “More than control, you have to pay them to work in their territory. So instead of going in with no backing and get eaten up by the sharks… it’s smartest to collaborate with a Yakuza group, give them a percentage and they keep all the other sharks away.”

Enson also announced that once his probation for possession of marijuana ends in 2012, he will be available to conduct seminars internationally once more. In 2012, his autobiography will be released as well, which we can expect to have a ton of untold behind the scenes stories about MMA. Inoue always has plenty of great information on the sport and is very forthcoming with that knowledge, which just makes him even more of a treasure to MMA fans everywhere.

Most of us hardcore MMA fans remember the days when Bob Sapp was having his nonsensical feud with Mike Tyson in K-1. The two had talked some trash but nothing ever came from it for a number of reasons. But did you know that “The Baddest Man on the Planet” almost fought in Pride FC?

MMA-Japan has revealed another piece of information from the Japanese language “Secret Files of Pride” book that they are diligently translating. Previously, we wrote about how Shinya Aoki almost retired from MMA and how Dana White indirectly helped get his groove back with the sport, and how Pride had their own “Ultimate Fighter” style reality show years before Zuffa created TUF. Today, we got more insight on what could have been in Pride had things turned out the ideal way. From the book:

Up until now, PRIDE had held many of their plans below the surface of the water. Many plans disappeared before they were even announced, and even some disappeared after they were announced. A prime example of this was Mike Tyson fighting for PRIDE in the USA.

While they were transitioning to the United States, getting a hold of Mike Tyson was one of their primary objectives. The simple news of “Japan’s largest MMA event is coming to the United States” was not sufficient in the minds of DSE management. With that in mind, DSE management began to look at Tyson to be their superstar, being that he had a huge name value and his star in the boxing world was all but diminished.

Hit the jump for the rest of the story!

At first, getting a hold of Tyson did not go very well. For someone as famous as Tyson, making contact with him created many hang ups. This included many suspicious characters trying to capitalize of Tyson’s name. DSE made an attempt to bypass these shady characters and go straight to the #1 man in charge of Tyson’s affairs, who the book does not name.

The Tyson story, after all of this, became a fairy tale. Nothing was every brought of it again.

I always knew Pride FC was ahead of the curve, but I never realized just how ahead they were!

According to the “Secret Files of Pride” book (which the last time we poked into revealed that Shinya Aoki had almost quit MMA forever and it was Dana White who got the “Baka Survivor” interested once more), Pride began a reality-television series much like “The Ultimate Fighter” ten years ago that ran until the demise of the organization. Here are some interesting facts from the book (although not a ton of info as most of this is still hidden inside the book, which we are waiting patiently to be translated by the excellent people over at MMA-Japan)!

The show, which was broadcast on Toyo TV and debuted in 2000, was originally called “PRE-PRIDE” and was later changed to “PRIDE KING” the following April. The concept was events for amateurs from throughout Japan to get into a PRIDE ring and audition to move into the PRIDE organization. The first coaches on the show were Masaaki Satake, Daijiro Matsui, Akira Shoji, and Alexander Otsuka. The fighters started and trained at various gyms around Japan for two months, being evaluated along the way. These evaluations dictated how the tournaments would stack up as the show progressed. Much like the winner of TUF receiving a contract with the UFC, the winner of the PRE-PRIDE tournament would move up into the real PRIDE ring as the prize.

Hit the jump for some more interesting facts about “PRIDE KING”!

* First tournaments were 8 man tournaments with the first one taking place in December 2000 at a club in Shibuya

* There were no public ticket sales – it was only viewable on television

* The first winner of the PRE PRIDE chose to compete in Rings, then fought in THE BEST. Consequently, he never fought again after that (MMA-Japan has not revealed this winners name yet, have to wait for the full translation still to see that).

* The second winner of PRE PRIDE was Soukun Koh, who has fought in Sengoku

* Yushin Okami was the fourth winner

* Katsuya Inoue was the fifth winner and went on to become a Pancrase champion

* The semi-final winner of the 2nd tournament went on to become the rule director for HERO’s and CAGE FORCE

* Anglo-saxon Oba was in PRE PRIDE during the second season, along with Mitsuoka

* During the second season, Mitsuoka and Isono were forced to fight in the final – both were from the same camp which raised eyebrows in Japan at that time (camp loyalty is huge in Japan)

* Only Mitsuoka and Okami actually went on to fight in PRIDE, one time each at Bushido events

* PRE PRIDE went on for six years and ended when FUJI TV terminated their contract with PRIDE in 2006

* Lastly, PRIDE had a third type TUF like show – Cristiano Kaminishi won – and as with other winners, he never went to PRIDE

* The show was restricted to the Chubu region, and as stated above, was only aired on Toyo Television

* There was also a time when it was broadcast on Samurai TV

Courtesy of MMA-Japan, and taken from the Japanese book “The Secret Files of Pride”, this excerpt from the book deals with when Aoki temporarily retired from MMA to pursue a career as a law-enforcement officer in Japan. Most hardcore fans of Japanese MMA know that much of the story and were quite happy when we learned Aoki’s retirement was temporary. But what fans do not know is why he wanted to quit and what brought Aoki out of retirement! What did you ask? Dana f’n White! Don’t believe me, check out this interview!

Interviewer: You were the Shooto World Middleweight Champion before you were fighting in Pride and while you were in college. You then joined the police academy to try to find work. Were you moving away from MMA?

Aoki: Yes, it seemed at some point that I just wanted to quit (laughing)

Interviewer: Being such an athlete in the sport, what put you back on this career track?

Aoki: There were many reasons, but the main reason was that I thought this is a world where you have to eat to survive.

Interviewer: So you had to eat….yet you were a college student that was practicing mixed martial arts on the side?

Aoki: That is right. Mixed martial arts was just an interest to begin with. It was clear the guys at the top were making a lot of money, but someone had told me, “Going into MMA just for the money is a bad idea.”

Interviewer: So if you had not have thought like that, there could have been some things you could not have done?

Aoki: Yes, it was probably a little of that as well. I had no money either, so during those times I guess I took a break from MMA. It is sad…I was thinking to myself, “Going like this, I will not be able to ever eat.” Somehow becoming the Shooto Middleweight Champion, I realized that I would not be able to support myself by solely doing MMA. Even if I came from a wealthy family, or owned a dojo, I did not have the will to make the sacrifices to fully commit myself.

Interviewer: Well, at that same time, PRIDE Bushido, and HERO’s were coming up. These events could “feed” a fighter. Did you think you would like to try fighting with them?

Aoki: To be truthful, I really wanted to try. At that time, I felt like my “want to try” feeling was diminishing. I didn’t even care to go to any PRIDE events.

Hit the jump for the rest of the interview!

Interviewer: Oh, really?

Aoki: Before I began fighting in MMA, I was always a fan of watching it. After I actually started it, and engaged in it, I stopped watching it. That was a real conflict. Hasegawa from Koubudo was not around to advise me either.

Interviewer: Hasegawa – your manager?

Aoki: Yes. I did not make much effort. I was struggling with conflict.

Interviewer: I understand. So, when you became the champion in Shooto and said to the audience, “I will not ever fight anywhere but Shooto”, was that a display of the hardships you were facing?

Aoki: Yes. During that time, I was still a child in many ways. So, the PRIDE Bushido events made me grow up. Bushido made me learn to think as a professional, it showed me that if I put the effort in, fighting in MMA will allow me to eat.

Interviewer: When you started with PRIDE Bushido, there was some adjusting, wasn’t there?

Aoki: It was a professional atmosphere in all aspects. The staff would do as much as they could to make sure the fighters would concentrate on the event. They would give us money for food, supplies for the fight, and the locker rooms were stocked with anything we needed. There were no worries as a fighter. Seeing how we were treated, I asked myself, “What am I, a king?”

Interviewer: You made your “King” debut at Bushido (Laughing out loud)

Aoki: With that treatment, they required you to do a lot. They wanted you to win, of course. They wanted to keep the fight exciting for the fans. They wanted you to make professional speeches. By them requesting me to do all this, it made me mature as a professional. It was a huge impact on my career. I thought, “Can you make a living in MMA?” “You can make a living in MMA!”

Interviewer: Before you began fighting for Bushido, you quit your job with the police, correct? Did you quit because you had decided you were able to make a living in MMA?

Aoki: I thought “I have to make a living.”

Interviewer: Did you have any worries (making the transition)?

Aoki: Yes, many.

Interviewer: What lead you to this decision?

Aoki: First, even if I had become a police officer, I wanted to continue to train judo. I had a goal to be in the Olympics. When MMA came into the picture, I was unable to compete in judo.

Interviewer: Ah, the professional judo world is very demanding, isn’t it?

Aoki: I assumed it was okay, but when I started with the police, I found it was absolutely impossible. That was a real shock.

Interviewer: And this made you consider your future?

Aoki: Even if it was not MMA, I wanted to achieve something in the fight sport. While I was attending police college, an offer came from the UFC.

Interviewer: To the police college? (laughing)

Aoki: It came through a foreign connection I had. They offered a certain amount of money and said my opponent would be BJ Penn.

Interviewer: A BJ Penn fight for X dollars?

Aoki: I figured the pay after taking taxes and all expenses out and I figured that if I could somehow fight 4 times a year, I could make ends meet and pay the bills.

Interviewer: Interesting. So, the UFC made its offer, this must have made you realize you could make it as a pro, right?

Aoki: This is what I thought.

Interviewer: So do you have gratitude toward the UFC?

Aoki: Yes! Dana White, thank you! (Laughing)

Pretty wacky, eh? There is much more to this story on MMA-Japan but this is a surprising revelation, and “The Secret Files of Pride” is full of them, which I will be posting more from in the coming weeks! What are your thoughts on this confession from the Baka Survivor?

One of the survivors of Pride FC who have continued to have a successful career is everyone’s favorite ear-drum exploding announcer, Lenne Hardt. Known to most fans as “Screaming Pride Lady”, Lenne Hardt has yelled her way into our hearts with her insane renditions of such names as “Antonio RRRRRRRRRodrigo Nogueirrrrraaaaa!” and “Ka-Zu-Shi Sak-oo-Ra-Baaaaaa!” But what does she do the other 364 days of the year when there aren’t fights in DREAM?

Hardt, who also lends her golden voice to EA Sports MMA video game, whose demo hits Playstation Network and Xbox Live today (and you can get all the info about that over at this link), is apparently a jazz singer. As you can see from this video shot earlier this month at Mandala Minami Aoyama, Tokyo, Hardt belts out some of the old American popular-standards in her unique way, and jazz has never sounded so awesome! I wonder if she is available for Bar Mitzah’s and Video Game tournaments as well?

Video via Eddie Goldman’s facebook – Hit the jump to hear her in EA Sport’s MMA video game!

Recently, the UFC remembered that they owned Mark Hunt’s old Pride FC contract. Remember Pride and how awesome it was? Soccer kicks and open-weight fights… sigh. Anyway, Dana White is setting up Hunt to get his first fight in the octagon and remind fans of this large Pacific Island kickboxer who seemingly faded away after a series of losses in other companies.

While browsing around on Sherdog’s forums, I came upon this thread which discovered a huge error on the official UFC website (pun intended, but only if the pun gets a chuckle). According to the UFC Weight Class Index, Mark Hunt weights a slim 155 lbs. Somewhere between 2007 and now, Hunt went on the Atkins diet and lost his gut, and can finally wear those American Eagle jeans with the torn knees he bought years ago.

The poor sap at Zuffa who did this is either playing a practical joke with someone in the company, or is just plain incompetent and will be whipped by Dana White for this faux-paus. Check out the page at this link here on the UFC site, assuming it does not get changed any time soon. In the case that it does, above is the image to forever cement this moment in history. Long live Mark Hunt, the heaviest lightweight ever in the UFC!

For years, MMA fans have clamored over who has better fighters, America or Japan? Now, that question will be answered in a more comprehensive answer (as opposed to having Pride fighters out of their prime competing in the UFC). According to excellent Japanese MMA website, Nightmare of Battle, a new partnership is occurring that should change the landscape of international mixed martial arts.

FEG is joining forces with Chinese investment bank PUJI CAPITAL, with the goal of taking K-1 and DREAM to around the world, starting first with Asia of course. FEG president Tanikawa was present at a recent press conference and said that FEG is not being sold and that it won’t disappear. FEG will devote themselves to what they’re good at while PUJI will take care of their fields of expertise such as fundraising.

PUJI Capitals Managing Partner Michael Chen said that they are aiming at raising 230-345 million USD for FEG during the first three years of the partnership. The ultimate goal seems to be making an MMA organization that’s like football/soccer organization FIFA, with worldwide participants fighting across the globe. Sounds like the Pride FC Open-weight Grand Prix, but on a much larger scale.

This sounds similar to what M-1 has going, except that FEG can afford to buy the contracts of better established fighters with some namepower. This development has much potential to grow into something very big, and officials within PUJI CAPITAL and FEG plan on going right up against the giant, Zuffa and the UFC. What do you think, can this new partnership topple the UFC? Or rather, can anyone even compete against Zuffa at this point?