What has been expected for a few days became official tonight.
On tonight’s edition of “Inside MMA” on HDNet, Tim Sylvia announced that the UFC has released him from his contract and has signed with Adrenaline MMA. Sylvia’s manager, Monte Cox, is the CEO and President of Adrenaline MMA and the partnership is a natural fit.
Sylvia cited the willingness of Adrenaline MMA to let their fighter compete in other promotions as the key reason for signing with them. Sylvia expressed again his desire to fight Fedor Emelianenko, no matter if that fight takes place in Adrenaline, HDNet Fights, DREAM, or elsewhere.
In addition, Adrenaline MMA announced they had signed yet another Monte Cox heavyweight, Ben Rothwell. Rothwell cut ties with the International Fight League last winter when he was not allowed to compete in the IFL Grand Prix due to a contract extension dispute.
Here is the official press release:
Adrenaline signs MMA heavyweight standouts Sylvia and Rothwell
NEW YORK — Adrenaline MMA announced today that heavyweight stars Tim
Sylvia and Ben Rothwell have signed multi-fight contracts with the
newly-formed promotion.Sylvia (24-4) is a former 2-time UFC heavyweight champion, while Rothwell
(31-5) was undefeated in the IFL for the champion Quad Cities Silverbacks.Sylvia, 6-foot-8 and 265 pounds, has fought 13 times in the UFC and
defeated top performers like Jeff Monson, Andre Arlovski (twice), Brandon
Vera, Ricco Rodriguez and Assuerio Silva.“Adrenaline is a new promotion, but it allows fighters to fight for other
organizations… that’s huge,” Sylvia said. “I’ve got 3 to 4 years left
and want to fight as much as possible, so this is the perfect choice for
me at this time.”Rothwell, 6-5 and 265, has won 13 straight bouts, including all 9 of his
IFL fights.“Adrenaline will give me the chance to take things to the next level,”
Rothwell said. “I’m ready to see how I fare against the best heavyweights
in the world.”Sylvia and Rothwell both train at Miletich Fighting Systems in Bettendorf,
Iowa.
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err.. M1 sounds better to me.. but they sound like an organization thats good for the fans man. Allowing their guys to fight in other promotions is great, that should be a standard for all MMA man. Dont let those invisible lines prevent us from seeing the best in the world square off.
Right now it looks like a bad move for Tim, he might have been better off at EliteXC, but who knows.. it all depends on WHO ELSE M1 signs, considering the freedom in the contracts, i dont think they will have any problem making short term deals, like 1-2 fights.
For all our sake lets hope M1 makes some power moves and provides us with some nice fightcards.
every time i hear Monte Cox talking about M-1 (or Adrenaline MMA i guess now) it sounds like they dont have the money to put together ANY fight card let alone a good fight card. they have no choice but to co-promote events, but thats fine too if they are coming up with good matches. i do think Big Tim is making a bad move going to M-1, he probably would get more money and exposure fighting for Elite or any other org under that umbrella (Icon, EliteXC, Strikeforce, CageRage) that is a decent group of orgs and they dont mind there fighters bouncing back and forth between orgs to put together good fights.
for those who didnt get to see Cung Le vs. Frank Shamrock you need to see this one man. the whole card was good but Shamrock vs. Le was f*ckin awesome!!!