A bizarre night last night at the IFC event in Redding, California. The IFC had an event that not many people knew about, which featured three tournaments. The tournaments were in the Middleweight, Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Divisions.

Scary Jerry Vrbanovic won the Heavyweight Tournament as he defeated Big Country Nelson to win the Heavyweight portion of tourney, but that is when fireworks happened. For some reason former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Ricco
Rodriguez was upset with the decision and threw a chair in disgust and that's when all hell broke loose. One eyewitness' sent this account to MMAWeekly....

"I was disgusted by what I saw at the IFC event. Scarry Jerry won a close decision and then Ricco Rodriguez started freaking out. He threw a chair that almost hit some woman affiliated with fighter Tim McKenzie. I talked with McKenzie after and he is filing charges against Ricco, so Rodriguez was being asked questions by Police at the Police station when I left. He could be arrested. It was just a bad night all the way around."

No word yet if Police arrested Ricco or even if they kept Rodriguez overnight. As of midnight when this story was filed, it was unclear if charges were filed by McKenzie's family against Rodriguez. The ending overshadowed wins by Drew Fickett who won his tournament at the Middleweight Division over Carlo Prader and Sean Beckett to win the tournament.

Team Quest member Chael Sonnen won his bracket to win the Light Heavyweight tournament. After his initial win, Tim McKenzie had a rib problem and could not face Sonnen in the final so Sonnen got the win.


******This in for the sake of IFC.

Just something to follow up with from yesterday's story. This weekend's
event in Redding, California was not an IFC event. Paul Smith from the IFC did do some behind the scenes work, but the event was done by a group called PC 415, Rage at the River which was held at the Win River Casino.

As far as Ricco Rodriguez goes, he did talk with police this weekend about his role in the melee after the heavyweight fight. Police did take his
picture, they filed paperwork, but they did eventually let him go according
to a few of the fighters at the event. As far as formal charges go, it's up
to the district attorney to see if they have a case or not. We will see what happens, but most likely nothing will happen from this weekend's show.

Heh, Ricco's a hothead.

Ricco is a fucking douche. I saw him on Blind Date and he was a complete ass.

Shuma, the question is if you can judge him from what you've seen on "blind date". That show really sucks ass. But If he throw chairs around him he must really be a nutcase.

The car ride was all him talking about how hard he's hit people, what type of injuries they had, etc. Then he took the girl to jujutsu lessons. I don't remember anything past that.

RE: Rico and Blind Date

------------------- CLICK -------------------





Mike Sloan: Ok, what's the story behind the Blind Date episode?

Ricco Rodriguez: (Laughs) My Blind Date...

Mike Sloan: Yeah, because I was watching it and I was like, "That looks like Ricco! It IS Ricco!"

Ricco Rodriguez: It was. Well, what happened was, I was eating at Wahoo's Tacos with Tito, Tiki, Razor Rob and we're all sitting and this girl comes up to me in particular and was like, "Hey, would you be interested in doing a Blind Date?" They all started laughing and everybody was all giggling and Tiki was like, "Aw, I wanna do it!" And she was like, "No, well, I just want Ricco." So I called her up, gave her my information, they had me come down to the show and I did a little 20 minute thing and then, boom, I was on the show in three days. I went there, did it, and it was pretty cool.

Mike Sloan: Now, did the show pay for eveything you guys did?

Ricco Rodriguez: Yeah, they pay for everything. It was kind of like more acting. It wasn't really like a real date. They wanted you to say a lot of things. I didn't really want to talk about me fighting and beating somebody up, but, you know, that's what they wanted.

Mike Sloan: Yeah, and then you got her in the gym and put her in an arm bar (laughs). Me and my fiancee were laughing our asses off!

Ricco Rodriguez: (laughs) It was fun. I was trying to get some press on the bigger overall things.

Mike Sloan: Who decides on where to go on the date? Do you guys do that or does the show?

Ricco Rodriguez: No, they pretty much have it all lined up. That show is pretty much all lined up; they do everything. As cheesy as I was on the date, believe it or not, that was not my setup at all. That was all them!

Mike Sloan: You told me last week at the Hard Rock that you never talked to her again.

Ricco Rodriguez: No. I never talked to her ever again.

source: http://www.sherdog.com/interviews/rodriguez_02/rodriguez_02.htm

I'll have to ask Tim about this when I see him next.

I have the video of it right here actually. I'll post it up.

http://people.brandeis.edu/~timcraig/ricco%5b2%5d.rm

I'm sorry, but you can't write dates that bad.

Well believe it or not.......the dates on that show are largely scripted.
Stupid if you ask me.

two words: roid rage.

While we're at it.

The bizarre weekend of fights didn't just happen in California. They extended to Hawaii and namely Sean Sherk. Sherk was competing in an event this weekend in Kona and that's when all hell broke loose. The following account was from Damianh on mma.tv. He described what happened in a post....

"I have been informed by Sean Sherk that his fight in Hawaii was a disaster! Sean fought Kalaeo Padilla last night in a event in Kona. Sean dominated the fight, but it was obvious that the fix was in. From the promoter to the ref to the time keeper. Sean was threatened by fans. A fan tried to throw a bottle at him during the fight and he was just plain SET UP!!! Padilla fled the ring 3 times, grabbed the ropes and was given mercy by the time keeper! The REF did nothing. It was scheduled for 5 minute rounds. At "about" 3 minutes in the first with Sean holding side control, throwing bombs and Padilla's arms secure, the bell sounded. WHY???? There was over a 3 minute break between rounds for Padilla to gain his breath. Sean immediately got the takedown at the start of the second, took mount and started bombing again. Padilla rolled, Sean sunk the choke and Padilla tapped. Then a RIOT broke loose. Padilla was fixed to win. The fans were mad. Sean was jumped in the ring and sucker punched in the back of the head. If not for BJ Penn and his team Sean would have been in a world of hurt. This was a B.S. event and one of the top 3 170lb fighters in the world was treated like crap. Sean was escorted from the arena, rushed to a waiting car and taken straight to the hotel. BJ's team came to the rescue! On behalf of Sean and Minnesota Martial Arts Academy we would like to thank BJ and his Team. To the rest of the fans, the promoter and those involved in this event you are lucky you are on an island far, far away from team MMAA!!!"

Originally posted by PizDoff
Well believe it or not.......the dates on that show are largely scripted.
Stupid if you ask me.
someone told me most reality shows are scripted. otherwise it would suck. i don't really care or thnk about this comment b/c i don't watch the majority of them so i can't really look for clues that it's fake


but shows liek apprentice have to be real. some like date shows are fake.

All I got to say is that whoever presses charges for throwing a chair is a moron.

That is complete bullshit and that ***** needs his ass whooped!

tsk tsk tsk... these people are martial artists??? Someone forgot the part about thinking and acting like a martial artist...