Card:"Shamrock vs. Le" On 3/29:UPDATED-PICS

[mcnamara]

That is just pure bullshit, can they do that? Can they take it back??

Man this is so weird, maybe we don't know something else, or that's simply a made up story. Gotta know the truth.

Wolf, I'll give you this one, get to the bottom of this and have the results by tomorrow morning on my desk.

[keithlewis]

The showdown that you've been waiting for is finally here!


Rockstar Energy Drink, Elite XC and Strikeforce present Shamrock vs. Cung Le – live at HP Pavilion at San Jose – this Saturday night, March 29 at 6:00PM (Prelims at 5:00PM). It's the fight that will determine the Strikeforce Middleweight Championships and Bay Area supremacy.

Don't wait, get your tickets today at the HP Pavilion ticket office, online at ticketmaster.com or by phone at 408-998-TIXS.


For more details hit http://www.strikeforceusa.net.

[NWOWolfpack]

From the Strikeforce-EliteXC Press Conference today!!!

EliteXC President Gary Shaw expressed an enormous amount of discontent with the situation. He explained that he had spoken to Armando Garcia earlier in the week and said the California State Athletic Commission executive officer mentioned no issues.

"Nick Diaz was the single first fighter that was medically cleared and had every medical in from the EliteXC side. He had all his medicals in," said Shaw, refuting Garcia's claim that the information was not received in time. "He did them roughly up to two and a half weeks ago."

Shaw said Diaz's trouble stems from his use of medical marijuana, which is legal in California and which Shaw believes Garcia is unjustly holding against Diaz. The longtime promoter compared Garcia's actions to issuing a speeding ticket to the driver of a Ferrari after assuming the driver would break the speed limit.

"Armando Garcia overstepped his boundaries, in my humble opinion," Shaw said. "I am a former regulator, and he had no right to pull Nick Diaz off this card. Nick Diaz did not test positive for drugs, was not offered any pre-fight drug test or any other type of screening."

Shaw believes Diaz -- who will not receive his $50,000 purse -- has legal recourse. The promoter has already contacted his own legal team on the matter.

"It's wrong what [Garcia] did to Nick," Shaw said. "It's wrong what he did to mixed martial arts. It's wrong what he did to Scott Coker and myself. It's wrong what he did to the opponent of Nick's, who trained to fight Nick. It's wrong for everybody they advertised that Nick would fight on this card."

As Shaw began closing out the news conference, Diaz arrived along with trainer Cesar Gracie. He made the following statement:

"I want to thank Gary Shaw for having me up here and being so good to me. I want to apologize for not being here fighting today. I was looking forward to fighting Mr. Ice Pick, but you know it doesn't look like it's going to happen this time. I apologize. I was looking forward to a good performance -- training hard, in shape, still on weight. I come to fight. I trained to fight, but unfortunately it's not going down. Hopefully see you next time, and I just want to apologize to everybody for not pulling it off this time and making it in there to fight. Thank you."

Diaz started away from the microphone, but he returned quickly to reiterate points made earlier by Shaw. He said he would have tested clean and that his marijuana is prescribed, legal and treats his ADD/ADHD.

The CSAC was well aware of this ahead of time, according to Diaz and Shaw. Shaw likened the commission's actions to entrapment.

"I just feel like everybody in the state of California who has a legal cannabis club card should be able to have their choice," said Diaz, who will compete on EliteXC's June 14 card. "The way I see it is, [it's] one alternative to Ritalin or anti-depressants or something like that. I'm not going to take carcinogenic chemical drugs."

[NWOWolfpack]

Fighter Quotes from the Final Press Conference!!

FRANK SHAMROCK:
“I have been training hard to beat up Cung Le. This is a dream come true to fight a guy like this in my hometown.

“I was doing MMA when there were no weight classes, no rounds, no athletic commission, no TV and no money. Now I am fighting on SHOWTIME in one of the biggest MMA fights of the year.

“In my 11 years I have never been knocked out, submitted, choked out and never lost a championship match. That is what I am all about.

“If Cung Le can achieve what others like Phil Baroni and Tito Ortiz failed to do, then he is truly the man to beat.

“I am going to come out ready to brawl and explode on Saturday night.”

CUNG LE:
“I feel blessed and honored to be part of this big event. I want to thank Frank for giving me a shot at the title. I am really looking forward to it.

“This is a huge opportunity to fight a guy like Frank, and I am ready to rock and roll.”

DREW FICKETT:
“I want to thank Jae Suk Lim for taking this fight. He took it knowing I will be a little heavier than Nick (Diaz, Lim’s original opponent), so that shows his spirit and that he is ready to fight.

“I want to fight and I want to fight the best. I understand Jake (Shields, his original opponent who pulled out with a back injury) got injured, and I was looking forward to fighting him.

“Jae is an equally talented opponent just as Jake is. I cannot look past him and I am ready to take him on.

“I know that he came all the way over from Korea to win. That means that he is coming hard and will do anything to win on Saturday. I will be ready for his best.”

JAE SUK LIM:
“I wanted to fight Nick Diaz (his original opponent who was not allowed to fight for medical issues), but he has some problems. I wanted to retire him, but next time I will get the chance to do that.

“I want to thank Drew (Fickett) for taking this fight on short notice. He is a tough opponent and it will be a good fight.

“I promise that you will see how strong the Korean fighters are on Saturday night.”

GILBERT MELENDEZ:
“I want to thank Gabe (Lemley) for stepping up and taking this fight. I respect that.

“I am looking forward to putting on a good show for all the fans on Saturday.

“I am pretty bummed Nick (Diaz) and Jake (Shields) aren’t on the card anymore. I train hard with those guys and it would have been great to fight on the same night as them.

“On Saturday I am going to fight hard to bring home the championship belt again. I want to win for my two friends and for my gym.”

GABE LEMLEY:
“I took this fight on short notice, about three weeks, but I am ready.

“My first impression of Gilbert (Melendez) was that this is not a good idea because he is such a great fighter.

“But I have nothing to lose if I want to stay in the game for a long time. I am kind of a fan of Gilbert, so I want to thank him for taking this fight. This is huge for me.”

MIKE KYLE:
“I’m looking to show you guys a good, clean fight on Saturday.

“I have been looking forward to getting my career back on track for a while. This is the first time I have fought for a year and a half because of a suspension, so I am ready to get it on.”

WAYNE COLE:
“Anytime you get to come out on national television is a huge opportunity, especially for a guy from the country like me.

“This is a big quest for me. I’m going to put on a great show on Saturday.

“Fighting on national television and in California is a big deal for me. My opponent has fought in a lot of amazing places that I would like to have a chance to.

“If I come out with a win, it could change my life.”

JOEY VILLASENOR:
“My opponent got changed this week, but it doesn’t matter. I trained really hard for whoever they put in the cage with me.

“I think (Ryan) Jensen is a tougher opponent than the two guys I trained for.

“I am actually a little bit nervous, but I think it brings out the best in me. Sweaty palms and I’m ready to go.”

RYAN JENSEN:
“I want to thank everyone for the opportunity to fight. I also took this fight on short notice, but I was training prior to this for four solid weeks.

“I’m ready and looking to come out with a bang.”

****On a side note: Wayne Cole just signed to fight to fight Mike Kyle yesterday. Rick Roufus said he was supposed to fight on the same card as him in Oklahoma on Saturday****

[NWOWolfpack]

Photos from our EliteXC partner: TOM CASINO

[broncofan]

Thanks for all the info and pics!

[NWOWolfpack]

That is just pure bullshit, can they do that? Can they take it back??

Man this is so weird, maybe we don't know something else, or that's simply a made up story. Gotta know the truth.

Wolf, I'll give you this one, get to the bottom of this and have the results by tomorrow morning on my desk.

Here Chief!

The controversy surrounding Nick Diaz’s sudden exit from Saturday’s Elite XC and Strikeforce co-promoted fight card continues to swirl even after the event has ended. MMAWeekly spoke to California State Athletic Commission executive officer Armando Garcia about the decision to remove Diaz from the card and the consequent fallout.

According to Garcia, it was all a matter of timing with Diaz and his medical testing prior to the fight, and the commission was not given enough time to respond and investigate.

“For this particular case, I did not have sufficient time from the 25th or 26th until the fight on the 29th or the weigh-in on the 28th to be able to properly evaluate all of the necessary licensing documents and give him a license,” said Garcia.

“I know that is very frustrating for Mr. Diaz and many of his friends that wanted to see him fight. But as a state agency we have a mandate to protect health and safety and we have licensing requirements. It behooves the applicant to turn those things in a timely manner and in a complete manner.”

He went on to explain that the exit of Diaz was not an attempt to block him from fighting in the state of California or to deny him a license, simply said they did not have ample time to review all necessary documentation.

“Nick Diaz is not suspended. Nick Diaz’s license is not denied. Nick Diaz will be licensed very, very soon,” Garcia stated. “I want to see him licensed. I am going to be talking to him and hopefully I can guide him to be able to resolve this.

“With that said, in this particular case, the commission did not receive the necessary licensing documents, particularly medical documents, for us to be able to clear him on time. We did not, No. 1, receive them in a timely manner, and No. 2, in a case we did not actually receive them.”

In a recent interview with MMAWeekly Radio, Diaz’s trainer, Cesar Gracie said, “We offered for (Diaz) to take a urine test to show that he was going to be negative. He was not smoking, so he would be negative for this fight … they never gave him that opportunity.”

“We do not have the authority to ask applicants to do that,” Garcia said regarding testing prior to a fight. “Now let’s just say that in a hypothetical case, the person would be licensed, perhaps we could test that person. However, if you admit that you have ingested something in a certain time frame that particular individual, common sense and medical science would dictate, that that person is going to be positive.

“So in that hypothetical situation, it wouldn’t be prudent for the commission to allow the person to fight and then later test them. Because if that person is allowed to fight, becomes injured in some way or injures their opponent, and now that it comes back that it’s positive and you have all of this other side information, that would not be a prudent decision to make.”

In this particular situation, as Garcia stated, if a competitor has already admitted to using an illegal substance during the testing process and they are allowed to fight, it could come back legally against the commission for allowing the person to compete.

Another factor that many people have been speaking about since the situation broke is the confusion over the medicinal marijuana rules in the state of California.

“The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 decriminalized and outlined the law in a certain way that caregivers could provide medicinal marijuana to their patients and that would eliminate their prosecution if they provided or cultivated marijuana for a patient and it was prescribed by a doctor,” commented Garcia.

“However, the Compassionate Use Act does not shield a licensee from using marijuana when the commission’s regulations state that you can not use any drug. So the fact that you have a medicinal marijuana recommendation does not shield you from testing positive or violating a commission rule.”

The following is taken from a statement provided by the CSAC that references medical marijuana as it relates to licensees of the State Athletic Commission:

“Accordingly, the Act grants patients who use marijuana for medical purposes a limited immunity from criminal prosecution. It does not shield patients, who are also licensees of the State Athletic Commission, from the prohibition articulated in California Code of Regulations section 303, which states:

‘The administration or use of any drugs, alcohol or stimulants, or injections in any part of the body, either before or during a match, to or by any boxer is prohibited.’

The Act was enacted by the people of California to address the medical needs of certain people within its population, and to decriminalize behaviors associated with the use of marijuana. However, since any action taken against a licensee by the Commission is not a criminal prosecution according to State law, the Commission will continue to enforce the prohibition against the administration or use of drugs by a licensee, which is consistent with the Commission's mission to protect and serve California consumers.”

In the interview with MMAWeekly Radio, Gracie indicated that they would be pursuing legal action on Diaz’s behalf following the weekend’s events.