Edmonton's Maximum Fighting Championship was dealt a blow last weekend when Roger Hollett (Pictures) injured his knee at Extreme Cage Combat 6. The promotion had planned to have Hollett headline its Nov. 23 MFC 14 "High Rollers" event against Oklahoma's Ryan McClain.
In an open letter, Keith Crawford, the CEO of the MFC's main Albertan competitor, Hardcore Championship Fighting, made several harsh comments about the matchup.
"This ridiculous mismatch could result in serious injury or death to the less experienced athlete," Crawford wrote, "and I feel our sport would be left holding the liability bag."
He continued, "[In] North America our sport has developed a comprehensive rule system to ensure the safety of our athletes and mitigate liability to our venues, promoters and geographical jurisdictions. Allowing a start up commission like River Cree to sanction this fight could regress our sport into the dark ages again."
Whether the fight will be competitive is yet to be seen, but Crawford's comments upset the MFC. Scott Zerr of the MFC Media Relations department responded with a letter of his own.
For the most part, Zerr's letter was a series of accusations against the HCF for losing money, which barely touched on the mismatch accusations concerning the Carter-Zazulak bout.
Here are excerpts from several of Zerr's statements:
You'd think Mr. Crawford would be more interested in figuring out how not to lose his partner's money coming off the flop that was his last show in Calgary …
It's pretty hard to figure how he can throw around his bank roller's money and continually lose it …
All the big talk about Emelianenko vs. Bobish [HCF's last card] and all the international fighters from Costa Rica and Armenia was a pathetic turnout and next to nothing as far as mainstream media coverage (not to mention how practically everyone who attended the fight commented on Bobish's "enhanced" physique) …
Zerr's letter is filled from start to finish with similar statements, but they don't rebut Crawford's claims in any way. However, one of his accusations does bring up a good point.
"If Mr. Crawford is so concerned about mismatches, perhaps he should take care of his own house first," said Zerr, who then claimed Crawford has been associated with shows that matched a 9-0 fighter against one making a pro debut and also matched an experienced Mac Danzig (Pictures) against an opponent debuting as a pro.
"Even the UFC had Melvin Guillard (Pictures) with 35 fights face Rick Davis (Pictures) with 3 fights," wrote Crawford. "But numbers don't always show the true story. Victor Valimaki (Pictures) at 3-2 fought Dan Severn (Pictures) who had 85 fights to his credit. Valimaki won by unanimous decision."
It's a fact that fight cards happen every week in different parts of the world, featuring fighters with different fight experience. Sometimes they're equal, sometimes they're a little lopsided, and sometimes, like Carter and Zazulak, the difference is huge.
At the end of the day, whether a fight will happen is decided by the promoter, the fighter or manager and also the commission regulating the event. So should this fight happen? The MFC thinks so -- they set it up. Zazulak thinks so -- he accepted the fight. The commission thinks so, too, as they're planning to let it happen.
So who is right: the MFC or Crawford?
We'll know Nov. 24.
MFC 14 Full Fight Card:
Brad Zazulak vs. Shonie Carter (Pictures)
Mike Sorensen vs. Ryan Ford
Donald Sanchez (Pictures) vs. Ryan Heck
Stjepan Vujnovic (Pictures) vs. Ryan McGillivray
Ryan Jimmo (Pictures) vs. Nick Penner
Ray Penny vs. Dwayne Lewis
David Lainof vs. Jason Kuchera
Dan Ferguson vs. Josh Kyrejto (Pictures)
Dave Logan vs. Sean Wright
Gavin Neil vs. Jason Zorthian
Jason Biggeman vs. Kevin Dolan
Troy Sorensen vs. Mike Tubbs
IFL Grand Prix Broadcast Live on Canadian Television
Three Canadians will have their fights in the International Fight League's World Grand Prix broadcast live to their countrymen Saturday via Fox Sports World Canada.
Lightweights Wagnney Fabiano (Pictures) and Chris Horodecki (Pictures) will square off against John Gunderson (Pictures) and Bart Palaszewski (Pictures) respectively.
Fabiano has been on a tear since joining the IFL, going undefeated in three fights.
Horodecki, known as "The Polish Hammer," will be in a much-anticipated rematch with Palaszewski. Their February bout, which some have called a Fight of the Year contender, saw Horodecki win by split decision.
Finally, Quebec's Brent Beauparlant (Pictures) will meet Benji Radach (Pictures) in a middleweight match. Should Beauparlant win, he'll face the winner of Matt Horwich (Pictures) versus Brian Foster (Pictures) in the finals.
KOTC Canada ‘Battlescar'
This weekend King of the Cage continues its busy Canadian schedule, coming to Calgary's famous Stampede Corral.
Possibly the most anticipated bout will feature Tim Hague. The undefeated Edmontonian has only been fighting for a year, but he has already established himself as one of Canada's most talented heavyweights.
Anderson Goncalves vs. Mike Gates
Graydon Tannas vs. Stephan Lamarche
Tim Hague vs. Jimmy Westfall
Steve Fader vs. Luke Harris
Devon Garnan vs. John Leloupe
Tim Blanchard (Pictures) vs. Dustin Sutley
Big Dave vs. TBA
Jeff Entwistle vs. Jay Witford
Fabian Cortez vs. Richard Menard
Billy Kim vs. TBA
Corey Knapp vs. John Nguyen
Adam White vs. Eric Ferguson
Scott Dellinger vs. Sheldon LeBlanc
EFC 5 ‘REVOLUTION' Broadcast Live on BodogFIGHT
The first EFC in two years will take place Nov. 3 at Prince George, British Columbia's CN Centre. The main event will feature transplanted Brazilian Jose Landi-Jons (Pictures) against Team Quest's Jake Ellenberger (Pictures). "Pele" has been living in Canada for some time now and trains with Revolution Martial Arts alongside Kalib Starnes (Pictures) and Kultar Gill (Pictures).
Promoter Bill Mahood (Pictures) announced that Dan Henderson (Pictures) and Denis Kang (Pictures) will be special guests and that BodogFIGHT will be filming the event, which will be streamed live via their Web site.
Jose Landi-Jons (Pictures) vs. Jake Ellenberger (Pictures)
Kajan Johnson vs. David Pariseau
Tim Thurston (Pictures) vs. Tim Jenson
Ryan Chiappe vs. Mike Neufeld
Logan Boucher vs. Victor Daycheif
Matt Leo vs. Jordan Bills
Bruno Coupville vs. Ryan Brigham
Charlie Zak vs. Doug Read
Dan Shenk vs. Jarret Evans
Chris Ade vs. TBA
Neil Berry (Pictures) vs. Eddy Ellis (Pictures)
Joel Liddacoat vs. David Balzer
Chris Puleo vs. John Balzer
Ultimate Cage Wars ‘X-Factor'
Promoter and fighter Krzysztof Soszynski (Pictures) has announced the fight card for his next Winnipeg-based event, scheduled for Nov. 30. The show will also be a fundraiser for the children of Cancer Care Manitoba.
Soszynski had hoped to fight in the main event, but his efforts to find a suitable opponent were to no avail. Former PRIDE middleweight and light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson (Pictures) will be a special guest.
Jordan Mein vs. Kevin Manderson (Pictures)
Wilf Betz vs. Bill Bolland
Dave De Lorenzi vs. Markhaile Wedderburn
Jean Marc Lalonde vs. Rory McDonell
Jason Motard vs. Eric Muir
Greg Compton (Pictures) vs. Tim Tamaki
Brett Portieous vs. Simon Marini
Kris Lee vs. Chris Burns
Rumble in the Cage 26 Results
Chris Peak def. Lee Mein (Pictures)
Jason Day def. Shawn Marchand (Pictures)
Dan Chambers (Pictures) def. Jason Randle
Jordan Mein def. Adam Thomas
Shawn Merkl def. Chris Burns
Jared Kilkenny (Pictures) def. Dwayne Lewis
Mike Richardson def. Cody Petrovic