UFC Veteran Din Thomas was arrested yesterday in Port St. Lucie, Florida for holding illegal MMA competitions at his gym.
According to the police arrest warrant, Thomas was holding MMA fights in a cage and charging $10 per person for the 150 or so in attendance. According to the police report, Thomas stated that they fighters were just students from his American Top Team academy and the spectators were mostly family and friends. Din stated that he was holding the fights to get his students used to fighting in front of crowds and that they were only sparring the same way they would during a class. Thomas stated that the money collected would be used for a raffle to give away prizes like Apple iPods and ATT clothing.
The police didn’t seem to agree and arrested Thomas for holding illegal sporting competitions without a license.
PORT ST. LUCIE — Din Thomas, almost a legend in the ultimate fighting world, was arrested Tuesday after police say he ran “illegal cage fighting†matches at a local training studio that he runs, a police spokesman said.
Din ThomasThomas, 31, faces a felony prohibited competitions charge after police got a tip Oct. 19 about the matches at a facility he uses in St. Lucie West.
Inside, they observed two men fighting in an octagon-shaped ring surrounded by about 150 spectators. The fights reportedly weren’t sanctioned.
The state Boxing Commission, which is part of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, licenses and regulates professional boxing and mixed martial arts in Florida, DBPR spokesman Sam Farkas said.
Amateur boxing matches are regulated and licensed by a sanctioning committee that’s approved by the boxing commission, but no mixed martial arts fights are allowed at the amateur level.
“At the end of the day, he was having a professional mixed martial arts match that was not licensed through us,†Farkas said. “It was a case of unlicensed activity.â€
Thomas is well known in the world of ultimate fighting, commonly known as mixed martial arts, a brutal combination of boxing, kickboxing and wrestling in a boxing ring or cage. The fighting is so intense that most fights are limited to three five-minute rounds.
Thomas, who lost last month to Kenny Florian in an Ultimate Fighting Championship match televised live on Spike TV, has a gym on South U.S. 1 near Port St. Lucie Boulevard. It’s named American Top Team Port St. Lucie (ATTPSL) because of an affiliation with American Top Team, a national organization with franchises across the country.
A Delaware native, Thomas was 12 when he moved with his family to Port St. Lucie, graduating from Port St. Lucie High School in 1994.
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[...] The Vero Beach Press-Journal in Florida is reporting that Din Thomas was arrested by local police on Tuesday for running ‘illegal cage fighting’ matches at his training facility. More details at MMA HQ. [...]
WHAT A DIPSHIT…. YO DOC DO YOU THINK THAT THEY WILL STRIP HIM OF ANY MMA LICENSES IN ALL 50 STATES..???
Nah, from reading the police report I think he’ll be fine. Probably get some kind of fine and a few months probation from the city, but I don’t think anything serious will come of it.
PERSOANLLY I THINK DIN HAS TURNED INTO A BIG SUCK BAG
u have to make ur money some how
Crazy Din somehow I’m not that surprised. I’m sure this kind of thing happens all over. Wonder if the UFC disiplines him for this.
[...] Original post by MMA HQ - Mixed Martial Arts News and Analysis [...]
Yo i think this is complete BS guys.. theres a fine line between having a crowd watching 2 guys go at it, and some kind of mma event that needs to be sanctioned. I obviously dont know what the laws would be down there, but im sure its something thats open to interpretation from a lawyer, or someone knowledgable about that stuff.
What about when a master igves a clinic? they charge admission and theres sparring also, i dont think they have to get their sparring sanctioned. Why do they have to bust people balls for nothing? the fact is they want MONEY, this way they werent getting a piece of the pie.
Although, every point i make and however strongly i agree with Din, one thing wont change. He obviously broke the law, he didnt do his homework and the last minute cop out of the ipod and stuff didnt cut it. Im sure if he did the research, he could have found a way to charge admission, have a raffle and have those guys fight without any problem. He messed up, he will definately not make that mistake again when its so easily avoided.
One word din… Retainer.
BV…
Y RETAINER… DOES HE HAVE JACKED UP TEETH?
Perhaps Din Thomas and Michael Vick can be cell mates.. lol HAHAHAHA! Both are into illegal fighting circuits lol…
no Patrick, i mean like a Lawyer on retainer.
i feel for Din because im trying to put together the same type of thing where i live, but like BV said a little research will help your cause a lot. at this time MMA is not allowed in my province and i want to try and change that, the problem im having is that if i get cough i WILL be arrested and fined. now im not afraid of being arrested OR fined but i am worried about the fact that im on probation and my probation order says to keep the peace and be of good behavior and getting arrested and fined doesnt fall in to that category and a breach of my probation carries an automatic 30 day jail term and i dont want that at all.
by the way to all the guys who were asking what me and BV were cooking up a while back, it was what i was just talking about (trying to put together an “illegal” mma show) i didnt want to say anything back then because i didnt want to get shut down before i got started.
@BV im still going ahead with it but it will be next summer instead of last summer. and i was wondering if there was a way i can get your songs, like download them somewhere or if you got a mixtape i can buy or something. let me know because i want those songs 3 kings is one of the illest beefs ive ever heard
Here is the deal. As far as I know, NO ONE was being paid for these fights. The police had been there before and there really was not much that they could do as you can fight full contact and NOT have it sanctioned.
It appears that instead of simply just shutting down the events, the PSL Police department suddenly decided that on one particular night, the full contact matches were NO longer legal.
What is the difference between these matches from one day to the next? The fact is that they had been there before (someone complained about the lack of parking or something to that effect) and the police were called.
How are matches in which NO fighters received money and ARE members of the school are now “professional matches”???
Interesting how Farkas put the spin on the matches. Is he saying that ANY matches now have to be sanctioned?
How do I know anything about this? Simple, I take my kids to MMA/Ju-Jitsu training at ATTPSL and train there, myself.
So before you jump the gun, do not believe everything you read.
I would say that the city was looking for some way to stop these events and waited for something like a raffle to shut the whole thing down.
Din is actually a very nice guy and I think that for whatever reason, the city of PSL decided this was the way to go in shutting down these matches.
If you think about it, the police could have simply shut down these matches on any number of occasions and given him a warning, as well as the city.
Instead they went to the extreme of making it something it was not, and again, as far as I know NO fighter was paid for participating.
In the end, I hope that everything works out well for him.
Jack
@Jack,
Thanks for your comments. I’m not in anyway attacking Din, and in my previous comments you can see that I don’t think he will/should get into any trouble for this at all.
bvrasp/rj
if u guys do those fights get it on tape ,i would love to see underground fights
@RJ
ya for sure bro, ill send you some link so you can DL them, theres a bunch of guys in the crew who got some real good stuff too, ill let you check some of those out too.
Drop me your email and gimme your 360 name again, it got buried under a bunch of posts last time.
so whats everyone being for halloween??? be cool if there was like a mma theme halloween party lol. Maybe not.. bunch of guys half naked.. nah i dont really wanna deal with that ****.. dudes probably dont got the physique anyways so you probably get 15 tanks and 3 cabbages lol.
I AINT DRESSIN UP FOR **** BV…. HOLLOWEEN SUCKS IZASS
sure sure Patrick, i know your gonna dress up as Arlovski for halloween heheh
[quote comment="10897"]bvrasp/rj
if u guys do those fights get it on tape ,i would love to see underground fights[/quote]
yes sir i will without a doubt be recording the fights and making a DVD out of it. i am planning on being arrested and fined for doing it so if i can make a few bucks to help pay some cost it would be cool, i will also be uploading it and i’ll give all the MMAHQ boys and girls a link to check it out too. but dont get too pumped about it just yet, like i said it wont go down till next summer, but you guys WILL get too see me fight. i just hope i dont make a fool of myself, its been a while since i had a fight and fightings not like ******** you cant blow your load early and just say oh sorry baby.
[quote comment="10900"]@RJ
ya for sure bro, ill send you some link so you can DL them, theres a bunch of guys in the crew who got some real good stuff too, ill let you check some of those out too.
Drop me your email and gimme your 360 name again, it got buried under a bunch of posts last time.[/quote]
yeah man my email and gamer tag is:
rj102078athotmaildotcom
rj N shonna
and if you mean the crew from letsbeef then damn straight i want that sh*t too. your battle with Danger Rich was nuts man! some nice sh*t for sure.
@RJ
haha good stuff man, ya about half the mixtape is diss tracks, we all had beef with each other and had it out, then we squashed it and collaborate together, best way to make friends hehe.
MIXTAPE
its about 75 MB, including all tracks and the cover, it fits nice on a cd if you wanna burn it, but i have it in mp3 format in a zip file.
Heres the link guys..
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2KQQ713F
for the rookies, when you click on the link a page will come up where you have to enter the code thats shown, then click download. Its right at the top beside where it says MegaUpload in huge letters.
[quote comment="10936"]MIXTAPE
its about 75 MB, including all tracks and the cover, it fits nice on a cd if you wanna burn it, but i have it in mp3 format in a zip file.
Heres the link guys..
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2KQQ713F
for the rookies, when you click on the link a page will come up where you have to enter the code thats shown, then click download. Its right at the top beside where it says MegaUpload in huge letters.[/quote]
yeah bro your the man! now i got some good sh*t to listen to tonight at work. thankx
no prob RJ, there some classic sht, danger rich got a track on there dissing John-J, my boy Easton Hill, that guy is like a pro man.. hes really serious about trying to make it in the rap game.. personally im a bit more realistic about it hehe.
[quote comment="10892"]@Jack,
Thanks for your comments. I’m not in anyway attacking Din, and in my previous comments you can see that I don’t think he will/should get into any trouble for this at all.[/quote]
Yeah, I see that. I think that they were trying to make an example out of him and in reality, they (the PSL Police) were just pissed off that they could not find a way to shut him down the night that they were out there.
There were lots of better ways that they could have handled it and I think that any good defense attorney will have a field day with the fact that the PSL PD watched the fights and chose not to exercise their powers or even warn Din that they felt he could be doing something wrong…
And a warrant is NOT necessary for them to have done something at the time, they were already in and around the gym and therefore needed NO warrant to enter and search.
Very disappointed in several of the PSL officers involved, in most of my interactions with the PSL PD they have behaved in a very professional manner. I even know one of them (he is not involved in this, thank God) and the Fort Pierce Police Department has quite a few Officers that either train at ATTPSL and or have children that go there.
I don’t think for a minute that they would jeopardize their careers by knowingly allowing ANY illegal activity to go on there. I am not sure if any Port St Lucie Police train at Din’s school or not. If they do, I have never met them.
Anyway, I hope that everything works out for him and I would be very careful with any tapes that I made, especially after this recent stuff with Din……..
Let us all support MMA and keep what Bruce Lee started years ago alive and well. It truly is the most realistic martial arts training that you can get and I really hate to see how some are trying to take MMA back to 1990.
Jack :)
[quote comment="10940"][quote comment="10892"]
Anyway, I hope that everything works out for him and I would be very careful with any tapes that I made, especially after this recent stuff with Din……..
Let us all support MMA and keep what Bruce Lee started years ago alive and well. It truly is the most realistic martial arts training that you can get and I really hate to see how some are trying to take MMA back to 1990.
Jack :)[/quote]
if you are talking about me saying im going to make a tape then i hear you and understand what you mean, but its not a thing where me and a bunch of buddys are gonna beat each other up, get it on tape, and show people how “cool” we are. i am trying to put together a ligit MMA show to try and prove to the powers that be that MMA is not as bad as they thought. i really dont want to do a Kimbo backyard thing and i will make every effort to make sure it doesnt come off that way. along with very strict rules im hoping to have an onsite medical staff and at least one pro cut man. the point is if a nobody like me can put together an MMA show with no problems and have it look pro then maybe the government will be more willing to allow real pro MMA to hold events here.
[...] Palm Beach Post is reporting that Din Thomas has had all charges against him dropped in regards to the “illegal cage fighting” competitions he was arrested for last month. Prosecutors this morning decided not to file charges against a nationally-renowned mixed martial [...]