The former Strikeforce heavyweight champion faces up to six months in jail if convicted, plus a fine of up to $1,000.

According to Las Vegas police, Overeem allegedly shoved a woman in the face at about 3 a.m. local time Jan. 2. The shove from Overeem, who is 6-foot-5 and weighs in excess of 260 pounds, caused the woman to stagger backward.

Overeem is scheduled to appear Feb. 21 in court.

“Alistair was not arrested, but was summoned to court,” Las Vegas-based defense attorney David Chesnoff said in the Review-Journal. “There are two sides to this story and we intend on vigorously defending this.

“Alistair maintains his innocence.”

The alleged incident occurred just a few days after Overeem defeated former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar during a title eliminator at UFC 141 in Las Vegas. Lesnar retired from mixed martial arts competition immediately after the Dec. 30 first-round TKO loss.

Overeem (36-11, 1 no contest) is slated to face current UFC heavyweight titleholder Junior dos Santos. A date for that fight has yet to be announced.

The misdemeanor battery charge isn’t the only legal matter confronting Overeem.

Hours before facing Lesnar, Overeem was hit with a civil lawsuit by his former management team, Knock Out Investments, also known as Golden Glory.

The suit alleges that Overeem failed to pay a 30 percent commission to Knock Out Investments following his June 18 victory over Fabricio Werdum during a Strikeforce bout in Dallas.

Article courtesy of ESPN.

Michael “Iron Mike” Whitehead sobbed as he was handcuffed Thursday following sentencing by Clark County District Court Judge Douglas Herndon.

Whitehead, who lives in Tucson, Ariz., also has to register as a sex offender and pay about $2,400 in restitution.

Whitehead pleaded the equivalent of no contest last September to one felony charge in a deal that avoided trial on four sex assault, attempted sex assault and lewdness charges.

He was accused of attacking a 32-year-old woman while she slept and of groping a 28-year-old woman at his home following a party.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Hermes Franca Barros, 37, pleaded guilty in Clackamas County Court on Wednesday to one count of unlawful penetration and one count of first-degree sexual abuse. He was sentenced to 3½ years in prison.

He was arraigned in May on seven counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of second-degree unlawful sexual penetration. The remaining counts were dismissed.

Barros will also have four and a half years of post-prison supervision and must register as a sex offender.

Barros, a resident of Jupiter, Fla., turned himself in to Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputies in May after a warrant was issued for his arrest, stemming from a December 2010 encounter with one of his students.

Barros operated the Team Hermes Franca Brazilian Jiu-Jutsu Academy. He has a 22-12 record as a professional mixed martial artist and fought for the UFC off and on between 2003 and 2009.

He unsuccessfully challenged for the promotion’s lightweight title in 2007. After the bout he was suspended from competition for a year and fined $2,500 by the California State Athletic Commission for testing positive for a banned steroid in his post-fight drug test. He last fought in April, losing by knockout in the second round during a fight in Brazil.

Last June, Barros apparently left a message to his fans on an MMA online forum reflecting that he immigrated from Brazil to the U.S. in 2000 with $300 and speaking very little English but eventually “lost sight of what is truly important (in) life.”

“Drinking, women, parties, all part of a lifestyle that has led to my failing as a husband, a father, a dreamer,” he wrote. “I am now a man with very little freedom.”

But his courtroom streak came to an end Wednesday when a Las Vegas judge sentenced him to 90 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to a reduced battery domestic violence charge and no contest to two harassment charges.

The case stemmed from a hair-pulling, punching and arm-twisting argument with his ex-girlfriend Josie Harris while two of their children watched in September 2010.

Rafael: Mayweather’s Future

Floyd Mayweather Jr. will likely turn 35 behind bars. He’ll have time to think about his future and whether it will ever include a fight with Manny Pacquiao, writes ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael.

“Punishment is appropriate,” Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa said after a prosecutor complained that Mayweather has been in trouble before and hasn’t faced serious consequences.

“No matter who you are, you have consequences to your actions when they escalate to this level of violence,” she said.

Good behavior could knock several weeks off Mayweather’s sentence. but he will likely serve most of the sentence set to begin Jan. 6, said Officer Bill Cassell, a Las Vegas police spokesman.

Mayweather and his manager, Leonard Ellerbe, declined comment outside the courtroom.

The jail time raises doubts about a possible showdown between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, a champion fighter from the Philippines against whom Mayweather’s welterweight success is usually measured.

A long-awaited fight between the two men regarded as among the best of their generation has been delayed by stalling techniques and verbal sparring.

The two men have a defamation lawsuit pending in Las Vegas federal court stemming from statements by Mayweather that he suspects Pacquiao was taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Mayweather returned in September from a 16-month layoff to continue his undefeated record with a controversial knockout of Victor Ortiz in Las Vegas.

Mayweather’s promoters have a May 5 date reserved against an as-yet unnamed opponent at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. But if Mayweather is jailed until the end of March, it could cut into the usual eight-plus weeks he takes to train.

Lee Samuels, a spokesman for Pacquiao’s promoter Top Rank and Bob Arum, declined comment on Mayweather’s sentencing and its possible effect on a match.

She gave him credit for three days previously served in jail and ordered him to complete 100 hours of community service, pay a $2,500 fine and complete a yearlong domestic violence counseling program.

The plea deal avoided trial on felony and misdemeanor that could have gotten Mayweather 34 years in state prison if he was convicted on all counts.

Mayweather also is expected to plead no contest next week to a separate misdemeanor harassment charge involving a 21-year-old homeowner association security guard who was poked in the face during an argument about parking tickets placed on cars outside Mayweather’s house.

Mayweather’s lawyer, Karen Winckler, said she may appeal what she called the unusual sentence handed down Wednesday.

In court, she called Mayweather “a champion in many areas” and aired a list of his good deeds, including buying toys for children for Christmas and promising to donate $100,000 to breast cancer research by the end of December.

Winckler argued that the public would benefit more if Mayweather performed 100 hours of community service with children.

Topics: Floyd Mayweather Jr.
For more on Mayweather, check out our topics page here.

Mayweather is also on the hook for 40 hours of community service with the Las Vegas Habitat for Humanity Project under a South Carolina federal judge’s order for dodging a deposition in a music rights lawsuit.

Mayweather has a Jan. 31 deadline on that court order. Habitat for Humanity official Catherine Barnes said Wednesday that Mayweather had not started to log the hours.

Saragosa said Wednesday she was persuaded to jail Mayweather following his admission that he hit Harris and twisted her arm, and that two of their children, ages 9 and 10, witnessed the attack.

Mayweather threatened to kill or make Harris “disappear,” Saragosa said, and their 10-year-old son ran from the house and jumped a back gate to fetch security. Mayweather had taken cellphones belonging to Harris and the two boys.

“Things could have gotten more out of hand than they did,” the judge said.

Luzaich cited three previous domestic violence arrests for scuffles involving Harris, with whom Mayweather has three children, and three cases involving another woman with whom Mayweather has one child.

Fines were of no consequence to Mayweather, Luzaich said.

Mayweather goes by the nickname “Money,” and was guaranteed $25 million for the Ortiz fight that won him the WBC’s welterweight belt. Mayweather earned more than $20 million in a previous fight against “Sugar” Shane Mosley.

Mayweather has been arrested several times since 2002 in battery and violence cases in Las Vegas and in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich.

He was convicted in 2002 of misdemeanor battery stemming from a fight with two women at a Las Vegas nightclub. He received a suspended one-year jail sentence and was ordered to undergo impulse-control counseling.

He was fined in Grand Rapids in February 2005 and ordered to perform community service after pleading no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery for a bar fight.

He was acquitted by a Nevada jury in July 2005 after being accused of hitting and kicking Harris during an argument outside a Las Vegas nightclub.

He was acquitted again in October of misdemeanor allegations that he threatened two homeowner association security guards during a parking ticket argument.

Mayweather also faces a civil lawsuit in Las Vegas from two men who allege he orchestrated a shooting attack on them outside a skating rink in 2009. Police have never accused Mayweather of firing shots and he has never been criminally charged in the case.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

The WBA super middleweight champ from Oakland goes into the biggest fight of his career – Saturday’s final of Showtime’s Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament – again hearing that he has no power. Ward’s opponent, Carl Froch, said it last week at a news conference for the Atlantic City fight.

“I have heard it since I was 16 years old – for whatever reason, guys look at me and say I am not physically strong,” said Ward, who is 24-0 but has only one knockout in his last seven wins. “That’s a major mistake he is making. Just thinking that I am going to be running around the ring all night and he is going to be pursuing me.”

Ward does call being underestimated “one of my greatest assets.”

“It keeps you humble, keeps you working hard, keeps you grinding,” he said. “Even through you’re getting belts, it keeps you humble. I constantly feel like I have something to prove. I like this kind of fuel better than getting pats on my back.”

Though Ward’s quickness is undisputed, he does like to mix it up inside and surprise opponents with his strength.

Hunter bristles at the talk about the lack of knockouts.

“If we matched Andre with B-level and C-level fighters, he would have a lot more knockouts” than the 13 he has, Hunter said.

Ward has beaten Mikkel Kessler, Allan Green and Arthur Abraham in the tournament. Froch (28-1, 20 KOs) got past Andre Dirrell before losing to Kessler. Froch then beat Abraham and Glen Johnson to get into the final.

The English fighter has moved away from his hands-down, chin-out brawler days, but Froch still plans to take the fight to Ward.

“I’ll be trying to hit him in the face,” Froch said. “Very hard and very often.”

Hunter gives Froch, the owner of the WBC belt, his just due, but is predicting a Ward knockout.

“I believe Andre Ward is going to stop Carl Froch,” Hunter said.

In preparation for a tough all-out fight, Hunter had Ward face five professional fighters for a combined total of 14 rounds three weeks ago.

Ward tried to take Abraham inside in May, but in Ward’s mind, the referee broke up the fighters too quickly. He might have a similar plan for Froch, whose defense he called “a major liability,” but plans to let his edge in speed and boxing smarts take the fight where it needs to go for him to win.

“If I can make it look easy even though it’s not easy, that’s what I am in (the gym) doing everyday,” Ward said. “That’s the quality that a Floyd Mayweather has. … You watch him fight and you say, ‘Great fight, but he really didn’t get hit that much.’ That’s the point. And that’s taken as being a reluctant warrior.”

Boxing is as much not getting his as it is hitting someone, in Ward’s mind.

“There is nothing cool about taking punishment,” he said. “I can’t just give you a free shot. You get a shot on me, you’re going to earn it.”

The fight caps off a two-year tournament in which three of the original six fighters had to be replaced because of injury. And then there was the seven-week delay for this fight, after a cut above Ward’s eye that he sustained sparring wiped out the original Oct. 29 date.

“I’m excited,” Ward said. “I’ve been talking about this fight for a long time, with the delay. I am just ready to get it on. I am ready to close the show.”

Article courtesy of Vittorio Tafur and SF chronicle.

1. First off thank you for the interview, now most of the hardcore MMA fans know who you are but please give the newbies and fair-weather fans the bio on Rob Roy?

I have been fighting 6 or 7 yrs. beat several UFC vets, also fought in the WEC.Lost to the champ Jamie Varner at the time, then floated around fought lots of top level guys. Currently I’m just training and enjoying life right now.

2. Besides training when did you know you wanted to compete in MMA? And do you have any influences in the Combat sports world?

Well I never planed to be a fighter, I just was a out of shape fat guy that ended up going to a mma gym to get into shape. And as far as any influences hmm yeah I’m a go with Floyd Mayweather,lol people hate me just like they hate him.

3. I started following your career after I saw your episode on the Tapout Reality show. What was that experience like? And do you feel it helped your career?

It was a coming out experience I guess to let others know that I had talent as well. as far it helping my career it gave it a little boost but not far enough to get me any management or a UFC shot, as of yet.

4. Do you think MMA fighters need a union?

I think MMA fighters need good management, all the fighters with good management are their own union. There’s no money in MMA for me as of yet, I just started a 3rd shift job. There’s more fighters than events right now! That’s why I also started a website NPODZ.COM check it out

5. The 155’ers are real popular at this point in your career would you ever do a show like The Ultimate Fighter is offered?

I was in the top 40 of season 5 to get picked but I didn’t. I would but The Ultimate Fighter is more about personality than skill, and please prints that, maybe I can fight one of them on the finale and show you the difference. Rob ROY!!!

6. Where do you currently see your MMA career going and would you use the knowledge and skills you have to branch into other avenues of the MMA business?

I don’t know where my career’s going because I’m not getting offered any fights at decent pay! And I’m already thinking about boxing. I have thrown my own shows in the past, but the commission has put a stop to a entrepreneur like me. Rob Roy !!!

In the wake of his release by the UFC on Thursday following a Twitter post deemed too offensive by UFC president Dana White, Miguel Torres has issued an official statement about his future in the sport.

Torres on Friday apologized to the UFC, his fans and anyone offended by his Tweet. The statement was released on the bantamweight fighter’s official website.

“I have a lot to be thankful for in my life,” Torres said in the statement. “I have my beautiful wife and daughter, my family, my health, my gym, and in terms of my career, I succeeded to the biggest stage in the sport of mixed martial arts, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I am very sorry for upsetting my bosses at the UFC, and also to my fans and everyone else who was upset by the language in my tweets. I understand it was wrong, and I meant no harm or disrespect.”

On Wednesday, Torres posted on his Twitter account: “If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone like surprises.” The word “rape” was later changed to “windowless.” When White was informed of the Tweet while being interviewed in Toronto, he ultimately made the decision to release Torres, the former WEC bantamweight champion and one of the most successful lighter-weight fighters in MMA history.

“There’s absolutely nothing I could say to make any sense of that,” White told SportsIllustrated.com on Thursday, his first public comments about Torres and his release. “And the fact that he even thinks that’s funny or that’s a joke, it disturbs me. It bothers me. Again, you’re dealing with a guy that’s a smart guy, that owns his own business, that’s been one of the top fighters in the world forever. And I cut him (Thursday). He’s no longer with the UFC.”

Torres’ release came just after a second controversial statement from a high-profile UFC fighter. Last month, Forrest Griffin, on his Twitter feed, said, “Rape is the new missionary” before pulling the comment down. On Wednesday in Chicago, during a press conference announcing the UFC on Fox event there next month, headliner Rashad Evans, in the heat of a back-and-forth with upcoming opponent Phil Davis, referenced the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal that has rocked Penn State University in recent weeks. Davis is a Penn State alum. “I’m gonna put my hands on you worse than that dude did to them other kids at Penn State,” Evans said.

White told Sports Illustrated he didn’t hear the comment at the time, but was satisfied with Evans’ apology and explanation later. And Wednesday, after the news conference in Chicago, White told a small group of reporters that Griffin’s comment last month was “taken out of context” and the former champ’s explanation to him was satisfactory.

Torres went on to say that he plans on using this new crossroad in his career as a learning experience.

“Given the chance, I will do whatever it takes to make things right,” Torres said. “I am going to learn from this. I think life throws you opportunities that can make you a better person, and so that’s what I’m going to do here. That is how I am going to react. I am going to use this to improve myself, and I hope that my fans will continue to support me.”

Torres (40-4, 2-1 UFC) last month beat Nick Pace by unanimous decision at UFC 139 to get back in the win column after a controversial unanimous decision loss to Demetrious Johnson in May. Torres went nearly six years without a loss, winning 17 straight fights, before losing his WEC bantamweight belt to Brian Bowles in August 2009.

Torres owns his own gym, Torres Martial Arts Academy, in Hammond, Ind., just south of where he grew up in East Chicago. He splits his training time between there, Tristar Gym in Montreal and the new Blackzilians camp in South Florida.

“I apologized before and I apologize again,” said Brett “Da Grim” Rogers. “It was just one of those nights, you know. Ever since that night, it’s been hell for me, you know.”

But Dakota County District Judge Karen Asphaug said the 30-year-old’s attack against his wife, Tiuana Rogers, was more than just a bad night. Asphaug sentenced Brett Rogers to 60 days in jail and three years probation for a night she described as a “horror.”

“When you say it was just a bad night, you minimize the horror of the night,” Asphaug told Brett Rogers. “I read about the events of that night and I’m filled with horror about Mrs. Rogers sustaining an injury that I’m sure was excruciatingly painful.”

Brett Rogers pleaded guilty to felony third-degree assault. On Wednesday, he requested a lesser sentence than recommended by state guidelines for the offense. But Asphaug said there weren’t substantial or compelling reasons to depart from the guidelines.

As part of probation, Brett Rogers cannot have contact with his wife until he completes a domestic abuse program and his probation officer approves the contact. He also cannot use alcohol and drugs. If he successfully completes probation, the offense will be reduced to a misdemeanor.

Brett Rogers received credit for 26 days served in jail. He’ll serve at least two-thirds of the jail sentence, which means he has about 14 days remaining, Asphaug said.

As part of the plea deal, two felonies of domestic assault by strangulation and stalking were dismissed, as well as a gross misdemeanor charge of endangering a child.

Brett Rogers plans to participate in a fight Dec. 31, his attorney Murad Mohammad said in court. Asphaug said Brett Rogers can travel for work. However, she denied a request by his attorney to postpone his jail sentence until after the fight to train for the event.

Tiuana Rogers spoke before the sentencing, pleading with the judge to let her husband come home. She said the whole experience has taught her and Brett Rogers a lesson.

“If you allow him to come home, things will be so much better,” said Tiuana Rogers, 30, who declined to speak after court. “I’ve learned a lot of things since this incident.”

Records show the couple has been married since 2005.

The attack happened in the early morning of June 28, according to a criminal complaint. A neighbor called police and said he saw Rogers punch his wife as she lay on the ground.

When Brett Rogers met police in his driveway, he told them that his wife hit him during an argument and that he struck back at her, the charges said. Brett Rogers was not visibly injured. His speech was slurred and his breath smelled of alcohol, police said.

Officers later found the woman walking by a nearby school. Her face was covered in blood and she was missing a tooth and had a “golf ball-size lump” above her left eyebrow, among other injuries, the complaint said. She told authorities her husband became angry during their argument and attacked her, causing her to black out.

Tiuana Rogers also sustained a broken jaw from the attack, Asphaug said.

The couple’s children, who went to a neighbor’s after the incident, said that they were afraid to go home and that their father had choked them before, the complaint said.

Brett Rogers is a 6-foot-4, 270-pound heavyweight fighter who competed for Strikeforce, a mixed-martial arts and kickboxing organization based in San Jose, Calif. He lost his pro contact after the assault charges were filed, Mohammed said.

Strikeforce discovered Brett Rogers while he was working at Sam’s Club in 2009 changing tires, Mohammed said. But shortly after joining the group, he began losing fights. Since November 2009, records show that Brett Rogers has lost four-out-of-five fights.

“I know a lot of people are rooting against him,” Mohammed said. “People need to know that Brett is a gentle loving and caring person with faults like anybody else.”

Brett Rogers is scheduled to appear in Dakota County court again Jan. 19 on allegations he violated his conditions for release by contacting his wife and pushing a man at Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Apple Valley, according to criminal complaints.

He faces a gross misdemeanor and two misdemeanors in those cases.

By Maricella Miranda
mmiranda@pioneerpress.com

The cause was complications of a stomach abscess, his sister, Sharon Dempsey, told The Denver Post.

In the 1970s, when the heavyweight champions Ali, Foreman, Joe Frazier and Larry Holmes captivated the boxing world, Lyle was not only an unlikely contender but also a man lucky to be alive. At 19, he had been convicted of murder in a Denver gang fight. While serving his sentence at the Colorado state penitentiary, he was stabbed by a fellow inmate and narrowly survived surgery.

He was released after more than seven years in prison, became an Amateur Athletic Union champion and then turned professional at 30.

A slugger with a strong right hand, Lyle, who was 6 feet 3 inches and about 220 pounds, won his first 19 fights, 17 by knockouts, before landing a fight with Jerry Quarry in 1973 at Madison Square Garden.

“I’ve been as far down as a man can go,” Lyle said before that bout. “To me, Jerry Quarry is just another obstacle. I’ll go through him or over him.”

Lyle lost to Quarry in a unanimous decision, but he continued to face leading heavyweights. He defeated Oscar Bonavena and Jimmy Ellis, a former champion, before challenging Ali, who was in his second reign as the champion.

Lyle was ahead in the scoring in their May 1975 bout in Las Vegas and had inflicted a purplish swelling under Ali’s right eye by the 11th round. But Ali unleashed a flurry of punches in that round that left Lyle defenseless, and the referee stopped the fight.

Lyle fought Foreman in January 1976, also in Las Vegas, 15 months after Foreman lost his title to Ali in Zaire — the Rumble in the Jungle, in which Foreman was knocked down for the first time.

Lyle caught Foreman with a left-right combination that knocked him down in the fourth round. Then Foreman floored Lyle with a right hand. As the round was drawing to a close, Lyle knocked Foreman down again with a flurry of blows.

Early in the fifth round, Foreman battered Lyle in a corner with repeated blows, many of them left hands. Lyle fell forward and was counted out.

“It was most definitely the toughest fight I’ve ever had,” Foreman said.

When The Ring magazine observed its 75th anniversary in 1997 by citing various “bests,” it listed Round 4 of the Lyle-Foreman fight as one of boxing’s most memorable rounds.

Ron Lyle was born on Feb. 12, 1941, in Dayton, Ohio, one of 19 children. His father, William, was a minister and worked in a steel mill. The family moved to Denver when Ron was a youngster.

He dropped out of high school, and then came the gang-fight killing that led to his imprisonment. He proved an outstanding boxer in the prison’s recreation program. A Denver cable television executive, Bill Daniels, who worked to rehabilitate prisoners, guided him into the boxing world on his release.

Lyle never got a title shot after his bout with Ali.

He was arrested on a murder charge on New Year’s Day 1978 in the shooting death of a former aide at his home the night before. Lyle cited self-defense, saying he had struggled with the man when he tried to rob Lyle at gunpoint. He was found not guilty.

Lyle retired after being knocked out by Gerry Cooney in the first round in 1980, then came back when he was 54, winning four bouts against nondescript fighters before quitting for good. He won 43 fights (31 by knockout), lost 7 and fought 1 draw.

Lyle was divorced from his wife, Nadine. Information on survivors was not immediately available.

Lyle supervised a Salvation Army boxing program for youngsters in Denver in his later years.

“I tell the kids if you get into this for the notoriety, for the money and the girls, the fast life, well, those are the wrong reasons,” he told The Rocky Mountain News in 2002. “But if you get in it for the respect of your peers, if you fight for the right reasons, it will all come.”

The secret to the cheesecake flavor is the Neufchâtel cheese, if you like you can add more or less to suit your taste.

Now I personally plan on adding a scoop or two of protein in this smoothie. Either Vanilla or strawberry. Recipe courtesy of BJJ Weekly