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By Sprawl n Brawl On Feb 14, 2008

1BILLION +

The estimated worth of the UFC

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON

5-foot-9, 132-pound Ryan Shamrock, the 18-year-old son of UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock, made a victorious MMA debut on Aug. 25 at a show promoted by Ken Shamrock Promotions. Shamrock, who trains with his father’s Lion’s Den team, defeated fellow MMA newcomer Josh Besneatte (0-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) by stoppage with a first-round submission (via choke) at the 1:51 mark

Source: UFCJunkie.com

RIDE’EM COWBOY

Josh Haynes, part of “The Ultimate Fighter” season 3 cast, returned to reality television in August. Haynes was a contestant on Ty Murray’s Bull Riding Challenge on Country Music Television.

MMA IS GETTING BIG… REALLY BIG

One card in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the most prominent men’s MMA organization, whose fi ghts are shown on Spike TV and pay-per-view, drew more television viewers than the baseball playoffs in the all-important 18-to-34-year-old-male demographic. The UFC surpassed HBO’s 2006 pay-per-view boxing take and is probably worth more than $1 billion.

Source: Time Magazine

SPOTLIGHT

He goes by the name Fig Mutant and he and his producer Joey T. are making noise in the world of MMA, literally. Fig specializes in producing custom Hip Hop tracks, specifically, custom entrance music for fi ghters like Mike Swick, Chris Leben and others. We asked Fig how he got into making fi ghter intros:

I workout at Vazquez Endurance Training in Northern California, and the Owner, Jesse Vazquez trains at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, with John Fitch, Mike Swick, Josh Koscheck, Phil Baroni, Cung Le, etc. And it just kind of hit me; that I should contact some of the fighters and see if they were interested in me doing a custom song for them. I emailed Mike Swick my song entitled “If These Walls…” and told him to give it a listen and to see if he would be interested in me doing a custom song. And sure enough he replied and said he loved that song and wanted to see what I could make for him. I emailed him a custom song called “Burn”, and within minutes he had it on his Website and on his Myspace page. I tried to incorporate some of his sayings, his sponsors, and work ethics into the song, so that people knew that it was meant for Mike Swick, without me even mentioning his name. Film maker James Hergott who is making a MMA movie titled Own3d (formerly Never Submit) contacted me about using the song for the movie’s soundtrack and website. And I’m supposed to make an exclusive song just for the movie as well, so I’m really excited about that. So that’s how it all happened, and now look at me, I’m getting interviews from an MMA magazine that is getting a huge buzz on sherdog.com, and ufcjunkie.com. So, I guess I’m kind of becoming the MMA music guy to come to if you’re seeking a customized entrance song, and I can’t complain.

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