Johnnie Morton, Former Detroit Lion, To Make MMA Debut

Former Detroit Lion wide receiver, Johnnie Morton, is to make his MMA debut on June 2nd, 2007 on the Showtime pay-per-view event DYNAMITE!!! USA. The event is to be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Colesium and is the first MMA Pay-per-view hosted by Showtime.

The now retired 35 year old Morton has been a fan of MMA for many years and has trained jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai in the off seasons while he was still playing for the NFL. Only recently has he began training more seriously and this event will be his first professional MMA fight. Also on the card will be Royce Gracie and Brock Lesnar, an NCAA and WWE professional wrestler. The opponents for Morton and Royce are still to be determined. But, the MMA newcomer, Lesnar, is scheduled to fight Hong Man Choi (K-1 Asia Champ).

The pay-per-view fight card, which begins at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, will feature up to six fights, with co-main events. Prior to the pay-per-view, Showtime will televise three explosive bouts featuring EliteXC stars Jake Shields, Antonio Silva and Gina Carano, free to Showtime subscribers from 9-10 p.m. ET/6-7 p.m. PT.





News source: No Holds Barred, Royce Gracie
Video source: Sherdog

Michigan Fighter, James Lee, Wins Big at Pride 33

James Lee, founder of the MASH Fight Team in Detroit, and current King of the Cage Light Heavyweight Champion, made his Pride debut Saturday night in Las Vegas with Pride 33. The southpaw Lee (9-3-0) was up against a formidable Travis Wiuff (42-10-0) from Elite Performance on the Pay per view event.

The ever calm and collected Lee came out and caught Wiuff early with a stiff short right that sent Wiuff to the canvas scrambling for a single leg. Lee was unable to keep Wiuff on the canvas and the fighters scrambled to their feet in the corner, where Lee laid a big jumping right knee to Wiuff's head. Wiuff was able to get Lee down on the canvas briefly, but the Detroit native quickly switched to a Kimura on Wiuff's right arm that brought the fighters back up to their feet. Wiuff lazily reached down for a single on Lee and found himself quickly wrapped up in an arm-in guillotine. Lee was able to close up his full guard and apply pressure to the choke in order to force Wiuff to submit at 0:39 in the first round.

Good job, James and congrats to you and all the guys over at MASH. Keep up the good work and representing Michigan in the big shows.