Remember the July 25 fight between Ryan Ford and Drew Fickett for the Maximum Fighting Championship welterweight title that played a small role in preventing a fight between Fickett and Jake Shields for the vacant EliteXC welterweight title from happening on July 26?

Sorry for the run-on sentence, but this situation has got my adrenaline flowing.

Well, now the Ford vs. Fickett fight is off, according to a post on the Underground Forum by Mark Pavelich, the owner and president of MFC.

“We were shocked to learn Drew agreed on one day’s notice to fight as a middleweight in another organization’s event this past Friday,” wrote Pavelich. “When I contacted this other organization, its owner immediately cancelled Drew’s fight when informed that he was under contract to fight on the MFC show and as part of Mr. Fickett’s contract he was not allowed to take another fight up to five weeks before the MFC show.

“When I learned of Drew’s intentions to take this fight, I repeatedly attempted to reach Drew’s manager to find out why. After numerous attempts to reach his manager went unreturned, I did leave a voice mail which has since been made public. I admit to being very upset, angry and frustrated not only by Drew’s action but also by not being able to reach his manager and the tone of that voice mail reflected my feelings.”

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MMA Rated is reporting that Joe “Diesel” Riggs has not been cleared by the California State Athletic Commission to fight Luke Stewart on the Strikeforce show tomorrow evening in Sane Jose, CA. No reasons were given for Riggs not being cleared to fight but one would think that it has something to do with his back injury that occurred just over four months ago.

The report goes on to say that Drew Fickett, a natural welterweight, has been slated to step in on short notice to fight Stewart. Fickett had been slated to fight Jake Shields for the EliteXC welterweight title in July but that fight has since been cancelled.

Remember when it was announced that an EliteXC welterweight title match between Jake Shields vs. Drew Fickett had been re-scheduled for June 14 in Honolulu, Hawaii?

Then remember when it was postponed after Fickett reportedly had suffered an injury?

Well, soon after it was announced that Fickett was scheduled to fight Ryan Ford for the vacant MFC welterweight title on July 25 in Canada. But that wasn’t a big deal considering the fight vs. Ford was more than a month after “Return of the King.” It’s possible to be unable to compete on June 14 due to injury but be healthy in time for July 25.

While a fight vs. Ford on July 25 is easy to understand, the fact that Sherdog’s fight finder shows Fickett having competed at Rage in the Cage 111 and submitting Jeff Horlacher at 2:13 of round 1 on… June 7.

Wow. Just wow.

Update: According to GracieFighter.com, Fickett is in danger of being dropped from his EliteXC contract. The site also indicates that Shields is a definite for the July 26 CBS show and that Jay Hieron and Nick Thompson are two of the fighters under consideration to fight him.

MMA Weekly is reporting that Drew Fickett has had to pull out of his June 14 welterweight title fight with Jake Shields due to a knee injury.

The news comes from EliteXC Vice President Jared Shaw who was a recent guest on MMA Weekly radio.

From MMA Weekly:

“Obviously the back injury happened (to Shields) and the easiest thing to do was move him to Hawaii to fight Drew,” said Shaw in the interview with MMAWeekly Radio. “Unfortunately since then Drew Fickett has hurt his knee and he’s not going to be able to take that fight on June 14 and that will be rescheduled again.”

By “rescheduled again,” Shaw is referring to a scheduled March 29th bout between the two that didn’t go through due to Shields’ aforementioned back injury.

In addition to revealing Fickett’s injury, Shaw also announced five bouts for the June 14th show set to take place in Hawaii. The bouts are as follows:

• K.J. Noons vs. Yves Edwards (for EliteXC’s lightweight title)
• Nick Diaz vs. Muhsin Corbbrey
• Murilo Rua vs. Tony Bonello
• Wayne Cole vs. Rafael Feijao
• Dave Herman vs. Ron Waterman

Read more EliteXC content on FiveOuncesOfPain.com

MMA Weekly is reporting that Nick Diaz is out of his fight on Saturday at EliteXC/Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Cung Le with Jae Suk Lim for undisclosed reasons. Drew Fickett, who was originally scheduled to fight Jake Shields, will step in for Diaz and fight Lim in a bout that will take place at 170 lbs.

The only feasible thing left to happen to this card is Frank Shamrock pulling out due to some kind of injury. There’s been a black cloud over this event for a couple of weeks now and this is hopefully the last change that will have to be made. Fighters have been pulling out due to injury, undisclosed reasons, etc. for the last couple of weeks now.

All in all, EliteXC and Strikeforce have done a good job scrambling to find opponents when they have had to and being flexible with situations that sometimes inevitably arise with fighters.

Check out all the Shamrock vs. Cung Le coverage on FiveOuncesOfPain.com!

A planned fight to decide the vacant EliteXC welterweight title between Jake Shields and Drew Fickett that had been scheduled for this Saturday’s combined EliteXC and Strikeforce show has been postponed.

The news originally was broken on the homepage of ProElite.com. FiveOuncesOfPain.com confirmed the story with Shields’ father and manager, Jack Shields.

According to Shields, his son pulled a muscle in his back while training last week. He flew to Los Angeles in order to meet with a specialist. While he had experienced some improvement with the injury, it was determined that he would not be ready in time for Saturday’s fight. A decision was then made to postpone the bout.

A re-scheduled date for the bout has not been set, but Shields indicated that the title fight could take place within the next couple of months.

Saturday’s show is slated to be headlined by Frank Shamrock defending his Strikeforce middleweight title vs. Cung Le. Bouts featuring Gilbert Melendez defending the Strikeforce lightweight title vs. Gabe Lemley and Nick Diaz taking on Jae Suk Lim are also scheduled.

When: March 29, ‘08
Where: San Jose, CA @ HP Pavilion

Here’s the latest on the Strikeforce/EliteXC event:

• STRIKEFORCE MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT
  Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le @ 185lbs
• STRIKEFORCE LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT
  Gilbert Melendez vs. Gabe Lemley @ 155 lbs
• Mike Kyle and Wayne Cole @ 170 lbs
• Ryan Jensen vs. Joey Villasenor @ 185lbs
• Drew Fickett vs. Jae Suk Lim @ 165lbs
• Luke Stewart vs. Tiki Ghosn @ 170 lbs

Check out more Strikeforce content on 5 Oz. of Pain.

Jake Shields will return to the cage on March 29 in San Jose, Calif. on a card to be co-promoted by EliteXC and Strikeforce. According to Shields’ MySpace page, he will be fighting Drew Fickett for the vacant EliteXC welterweight title.

The match has yet to be confirmed by the promotion.

The March 29 card will be headlined by a Strikeforce middleweight title defense by Frank Shamrock against Cung Le. Joey Villasenor is also expected to fight Joe Riggs in a inter-promotional middleweight matchup.

Shields, 20-4-1, is currently on a nine fight win streak, which includes notable victories over former UFC middleweight champion Dave Menne, current WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit, and current UFC middleweight title contender Yushin Okami.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

UFCJunkie.com is reporting that Drew Fickett will be unable to fight Chris Lytle as scheduled at UFC 73 due to injury. A replacement for Fickett has yet to be named, according to Lytle’s agent, Ken Pavia.

A match between Drew Fickett and Chris Lytle scheduled for UFC 73 on July 7 could be off. While hardly official, Fickett is no longer listed as Lytle’s opponent on the official fight card at UFC.com. However, if you go to the official site for UFC 73, the fight is still on the books.