There’s already been a fundraiser and an event where proceeds have been donated to the Jeff Dunbar fund. Now there’s another spot where fans can donate and purchase raffle tickets to raise funds for the fund.

MMA @ The Max is happening on Saturday March 3 in McCook, Illinois. The event will feature an all amateur night of mixed martial arts fights with multiple titles on the line.

At the event there will be a booth for fans to purchase raffle tickets or just make a straight up donation to the fund. MMA Recap will be donating several items including t-shirts, hats, and prints from Art By JMC.

The doors open to the event at 6pm and the first fight kicks off at 7pm. For more information on the event and to purchase tickets, visit www.americanpredatorfc.com

Felice Herrig - photo by Joey Hill

Team Curran’s Felice Herrig will be returning to action on Friday April 13th against Patricia Vidonic at XFC 17. The women’s bout is scheduled to be apart of the HDNet televised portion of the card that will be headlined by Luciano Dos Santos versus Eric Reynolds.

Vidonic is coming off the second loss of her career against top 115lb women’s fighter Jessica Aguilar. She was able to take Aguilar to the judges’ scorecards but the decision did not go her way.

Prior to the loss Vidonic had compiled a five-fight win streak finishing three of her five opponents by submission.

Herrig made her promotional debut for XFC in December and lost a unanimous decision to Carla Esparza. Prior to the loss she compiled a 5-1 record in her previous six fights. Herrig holds notable wins over Michele Gutierrez, Jessica Rakoczy, and Nicdali Rivera-Calanoc.

Herrig holds a background in Muay Thai with dangerous kicks that stumble her opponents. She will likely use her striking to keep Vidonic on the outside and avoid any takedowns.

XFC 17 takes place on Friday April 13th at the Oman Arena in Jackson, Florida.

On the February 21st edition of RecapRadio hosts Brent Todd and John Petit had a variety of topics to discuss. We kicked off the show talking about the lack of mma that happened over the weekend on a national level. With two weekends in a row without a UFC event it was rather surprising that there wasn’t a national show to take stage.

Carson Beebe then joined the show to talk about his upcoming fight for Legacy Fighting Championship. It is his first fight back at 135 since auditioning for The Ultimate Fighter. He discussed his wrestling, managing his time, and trying to rep Chicago while down in Texas.

After Beebe we moved on to give our thoughts on the UFC on Fuel TV 1 card. Petit was the victor in the predictions for the week so hats off to him.

With time running out and some sidetracking curbed, we settled in to give our thoughts on UFC 144 and our predictions. There were some differences this week in the predictions and both of us made compelling arguments for our respective fighters. Here’s how the fight predictions broke down:

Brent Todd:
Joe Lauzon Sub Round 2
Bart Palaszewski KO Round 1
Yushin Okami UD
Jake Shields Sub Round 2
Cheick Kongo UD
Rampage Jackson TKO Round 2
Frankie Edgar UD

John Petit:
Anthony Pettis UD
Hatsu Hioki UD
Yushin Okami UD
Jake Shields TKO Round 2
Cheick Kongo TKO
Ryan Bader UD
Frankie Edgar UD

Use the player below to listen to the full show.

RecapRadio Carson Beebe, UFC on Fuel TV 1 Breakdown, and UFC 144 Prediction Recap [ 1:30:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There’s always a question of what to do with a fighter after he losses a title shot. Do you give him a fight with another top five opponent to put him back into the mix right away or do you put him against a fighter who is making a splash in the division? The later is what is holding true for Yushin Okami as he faces Tim Boetsch in Japan.

Boetsch is coming into the fight a heavy underdog and rightfully so. He is after all facing a former number one contender and Boetsch is just scratching the surface of the top ten.

After a crushing loss to Phil Davis at UFC 123, Boetsch decided he needed to change things up and dropped down to the middleweight division. His first foray was against Kendall Grove where he earned a unanimous decision. Grove was then subsequently cut from the UFC for the loss.

Boetsch followed up the victory with another unanimous decision over Nick Ring. For a guy who had never went to a decision outside of the UFC, Ring was his third. This isn’t a knock so to speak on Boetsch, rather an observation that against the lower tiered guys he has trouble finishing.

Okami meanwhile is coming off his TKO loss to Anderson Silva. Silva has a habit of making good fighters look like terrible fighters. Okami is what many call a grinder, a fact that has played into why it took so long for him to earn his title shot.

Okami’s game plan will be to take Boetsch down and do enough to get the victory while Boetsch will likely try to stand and trade.

In predicting this fight the first thing that came to mind was that this wasn’t going to be an exciting fight for the American fans, but it will likely be exciting for the Japanese fans in attendance. American fans are prone to want more violence and don’t appreciate the little intricacies that can go into a fight.

The safest prediction for this fight is rather boring, much like the fight will likely be, in that Okami wins by unanimous decision.

Carson Beebe at XFO 42 - photo by Joey Hill

On tonight’s edition of RecapRadio hosts Brent Todd and John Petit will talk to Chicago fan favorite Carson Beebe. Beebe is scheduled to fight this Friday for Legacy Fighting Championship against Tim Snyder. His fight is scheduled to be apart of the live broadcast on HDNet.

In addition to talking to Beebe, we will be breaking down the action from last week’s UFC on Fuel TV featuring a three-round battle between Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez.

Finally we will close out the show with a run down and prediction on the massive UFC 144 card featuring seven fights for the pay-per-view broadcast.

The show airs live every Tuesday night from 8:00pm-9:30pm CST at www.blogtalkradio.com/mmarecap

Carson Beebe Joins RecapRadio [ 1:30:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mike Dolce - via mikedolcemma.com

Both Dolce and Soares are returning to the conference this year. Dolce was a first time speaker last year and was one of the most sought out speakers. He is known as the weight cutting guru helping several “big” fighters easily make weight including Thiago Alves who struggled with his until he began working with Dolce.

Soares will likely be hosting a Q&A for athlete managers. The crowd for his seminar rivaled that of Greg Jackson who the first year set the bar high for speakers.

Fight Summit is the only mixed martial arts conference for the business side of the sport. It doesn’t matter what aspect of the sport of mixed martial arts you are in, be it a fighter, a manager, an athletic apparel, nutrition drink, referee, judge, promoter, media or any of the other jobs associated with combat sports, there is something for you at Fight Summit.

This years conference will take place Saturday November 3 and Sunday November 4 at the RIO in Las Vegas, Nevada. New changes will be implemented this year including more speaking time for the speakers, lower ticket pricing and the ability to bundle the hotel with your ticket purchase.

For more information visit www.fightsummit.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/fightsummit

Bart Palaszewski - drawn by Justin McAllister

To the common fan, the featherweight fight between Bart Palaszewski and Hatsu Hioki probably doesn’t stand out. And that is sad. But the reality is, it is because both guys have only had one fight inside the UFC though both fighters took different paths to get there.

Like Pettis and Lauzon, Palaszewski and Hioki both competed at the same card at UFC 137 in October of 2011. And like Pettis and Lauzon, one finished the fight in the first round, while the other squeezed out split decision.

Hioki made a name for himself competing in Shooto and Sengoku against top competition. Prior to his UFC debut, he put together a four-fight win streak. The win streak wasn’t just against nobodies in the featherweight division as it included wins over Takeshi Inoue and Marlon Sandro.

Prior to the Inoue fight, Hioki lost a split decision to Michihiro Omigawa in a fight many thought he won. Prior to the loss he went 8-0-1 finishing six of his eight opponents.

Hioki’s debut for the UFC was against George Roop and it came with a little bit of controversy. Roop was able to keep his distance and picked Hioki apart, but when Hioki was able to get his hands on Roop fireworks exploded. The fight was a back-and-forth battle and Hioki barely got the nod via split decision.

Palaszewski made not only his UFC debut, but his featherweight debut at UFC 137 against former top 10 lightweight and now featherweight fighter Tyson Griffin. He stated prior to the fight that he was going to knock Griffin out and that is what he did.

Less than three minutes into the fight Palaszewski saw his opening and the Team Curran fighter capitalized on it. He unloaded a barrage of punches knocking Griffin out while standing.

Prior to his UFC debut, Palaszewski went 3-1 in his second stint in the WEC. The run includes a victory over Anthony Pettis and finishes over Karen Darabedyan and Zachary Micklewright.

A lot of people will be quick to give Hioki the advantage in the grappling department. The problem with that is that Palaszewski is a black belt in jiu jitsu, he just doesn’t tend to show off those skills. Even if Hioki does have the advantage on the ground, the question is, can he get it there.

Palaszewski lost a split decision to Kamal Shalorus, a fight that made him look hard at his wrestling. His fight against Griffin many gave Griffin a huge advantage for possibly being able to get the fight to the ground. He never got it there and Palaszewski earned a knockout of the night bonus.

Hioki was able to get dropped quite a bit in Shooto, but because there was a standing eight count, he could recover. Unless Hioki can recover in about half a second, he’s going to have a very rough night against Palaszewski. Thus I am predicting another first round knockout for Palaszewski

Anthony Birchak - photo by KatPhoto

Anthony Birchak is extremely new to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Having his first fight in 2009, he quickly rose to local stardom with four straight victories, finishing all four of his opponents. When Bellator held their 41st event in Arizona, Birchak was asked to compete on the undercard. The victory propelled him to a fight for Rage in the Cage and then a fight in Brazil. Now, BAMMA USA has called on him to fight for their show on March 16 in southern California. MMA Recap caught up with Birchak to discuss his career, traveling, his family and more.

What got you into fighting?
Well I have been wrestling since I was five. I did free-style Greco. I was Greco All American and national champ. I started wrestling at Tema Collage and saw that Tema had a pedigree of wrestlers; Drew Fickett, James Terry, Jamie Varner, Jesse Forbes, Efrain Escudero. I think that like eight of the ten guys on our wrestling team went to the big show and I was like, these guys do what I do and I have been wrestling a lot longer than they have. I jumped on the bandwagon and about 2008 I started training with Fickett for jiu jitsu. I had my first fight in 2009. I told my brother and my mom that I wanted to be able to say I have the experience of doing it one time. Next thing I know I got the bug and I haven’t been able to quit.

Looking over your career you have fought for a number of organizations, which one so far was your favorite to fight for?
Hands down Bellator. They had everything popping and locking. All these other shows there’s always a hiccup. There wasn’t any issue with Bellator. I was really impressed with the way that Rebney handled everything and even the guys under him were professional and had everything going real fast. I was blown away. I knew that was the kind of organization I wanted to be a part of.

You have a win at Bellator 41 over Tyler Bialecki. Was this a fight to earn a multi-fight Bellator contract?
When I took that fight Sherdog had me as a 4-0 pro, and another site had me at 3-0. At the time I was 3-0 and he was 7-3. I was kind of intimidated cause he had a lot more time than I did. To say that, that fight should have earned me a multi fight contract, no I don’t. I think I should have fought one or two more times on the undercard and I would love to do the tournament. When we talked about it, I told them that right now I was working two jobs and I was bar tending and got my son. I have child support and I am just not in the spot mentally to make that type of commitment to be that high of a fighter where I could just quit everything and focus on the tournament. Right now, I am ready and if they asked me to be apart of the tournament I would sign easy.

You recently suffered your first loss at Amazon Forest Combat to George Clay, how’d that fight play out and what you were able to take away from that loss?
The entire experience was kind of a nightmare. Drew approached me with this thing and it is not to talk bad at all about my management or Jason. The whole process of getting to Brazil was a f***ing nightmare. I had to pay $2,000 to get my passport released because of Arizona child support laws. They wouldn’t let me leave the country without first paying my rears. Thank God I have the angel of the aunt that I do who fronted me the money. I went to the state and gave them the money. I begged and pleaded with my baby’s momma to tell the state I was going down for work. I said I would pay her off and then some. It was just a headache.

I didn’t get my passport until the day before I got on the plane to go to Brazil. So not only was I not focused on purely training, I had a great camp don’t get me wrong. But my mind wasn’t strictly in the gym. I am talking to Chambers who is this guy I met through Drew. We formally hadn’t met yet. We had talked on the phone. Drew came to me and was like this is an opportunity. Sign this contract and use this agency that I am with. You are family, we are going to stay in the same family. I took Drew’s word for it. I signed the papers. Like I said, the passport was an absolute nightmare.

We get to Brazil and the entire weigh-in was great. Come fight time I felt focused, like I was supposed to be there. As soon as I walked out and heard those 15,000 people screaming I knew I was supposed to be there. There was no jitters, nothing. Maybe that was the bad part. Usually I go out into the fight and am a little nervous. This time I went out and knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted to execute it. I stepped into the cage and I threw a couple combos. He kicked me. Now when I re-watch the film I know there were some things I should have done. I went for a real stupid short choke submission and I should have defended the takedown. When a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt gets your back in Brazil, count your blessings if you get him off your back once. I let the guy have my back twice. He ended up getting a choke and I had said to myself that if he got it I was going to go to sleep. But it was straight up on the esophagus and I was forced to tap.

After my first amateur loss I went on a six-fight win streak and I changed my game up. I realized that I am decent at what I do as a fighter and could be great. Now with my first loss as a pro, I am changing my game once again. The entire thing is that Ed West, George Roop, Chris Cariaso, all those guys have been my training partners. They are all putting their little spins on my technique. I am teaching them wrestling, they are teaching me how to strike properly. I want to thank Ed West for all his improvements. I feel super confident. I am going into this fight with Chad George and I feel well rounded.

You are fighting on March 16 for BAMMA USA against Chad George. What are your thoughts on him? He has you on the experience edge with nearly three times the number of fights you have had. Does that come into your game planning at all when you fight a guy like that?
The guy has more experience for sure and it is just going to be like another day at the office for him. But this is still something I am really fresh at. I could quit tomorrow and it would be like it was something I just gave up on or I could keep going. I know more about Scott Jorgensen (who George fought) because he was a PAC 10 wrestler. He’s an amazing wrestler. I think what he did to George is what I am going to do. It’s what I plan to do. I am going to come out and strike with him and as soon as he shoots I plan to take his neck and choke him out. We are taught to take the neck, take the back and that’s the gameplan.

Where are you training out of?
I was with Fickett at his Team Scrub which is like his hillbilly training outside his house. He’s got some tires and free weights. He turned his little carport into a wrestling room. But now I am full time since the fight in Brazil at Apex Mixed Martial Arts. We have George Roop, Ed West, Chris Cariso, and a lot of hungry fighters. It’s been a good spot for me.

What are your goals for 2012?
I would like to be in the UFC. That’s the cap on anyone’s career. I want to win another region world championship and move up to the big show. I want to put a real roof over my son’s head and that’s it.

What do you like to do when you aren’t training?
I don’t really not train. My downtime I take my kid to Peter Piper a lot. I spend time with my boy and he gives me a lot of insight on myself. Being a young father has been really awakening. Anytime I spend with him is well cherished.

How old is he?
He will be four in March. The s**t that comes out of his mouth is amazing. I think one, two, and four are the greatest stages. Cause one they are walking around, two the terrible two’s weren’t really there. He was pretty chill. Then at four, the things that come out of his mouth amaze me. His concept of everything is mind blowing.

What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?
Off brand breakfast cereal called Oh’s. It would scratch the roof of your mouth. But it was the most tasty thing. It was like an O like a Cherrio, but inside it has like three little round balls that are different colors. It’s the one I always go back to. It’s hard to find in Tuscan. I think there’s like one or two off market stores. Anytime my mom finds it she buys like six or seven boxes.

Where can the fans find you at?
Find me on twitter @abirchakmma, Facebook I have a fan page under Anthony Birchak. And also on neverscaredmma. They have some stuff on me.

Any sponsors or people you want to thank?
Drew Ficket he’s the one that got me into this, my brothers, my mother, Jaco has been a huge help, my girlfriend Mercedes White. She hustles harder than anyone I know. She’s been getting me sponsors here and there and media blasts me. She has her own media company called Luta Elite.

Joe Lauzon - photo via BJPenn.com

This isn’t the first time Lauzon has been called out and subsequently took a fight. Prior to his last fight, Melvin Guillard had expressed an interest in fighting Lauzon after putting together a five-fight win streak and was waiting to get a title shot. Guillard thought that a fight with Lauzon would be an easy win for him and would rebound him to a title shot. Unfortunately Lauzon had other plans.

Nearly everyone had given Guillard the advantage while standing. And why wouldn’t they when Guillard had finished nearly two-thirds of his fights with strikes while Lauzon had only finished five opponents with his hands. It seemed though that people had forgotten about Lauzon’s UFC debut knocking out Jens Pulver in one of the biggest upsets of 2006.

Everyone that is except Lauzon who did nearly the same thing. He landed a massive left hand that sent Guillard to the canvas. Instead of finishing him with strikes, Lauzon was patient and immediately took the back of Guillard. He got both of his hooks in and almost instantly secured his arm under the chin of Guillard and forced a tapout.

Earlier that same night at UFC 136, Anthony Pettis fought and looked to rebound off his loss to Clay Guida. Pettis fought an extremely hard fight against a very game Jeremy Stephens that went all three rounds.

The back and forth fight was nearly anyone’s guess as to who won. Many had Stephens winning the first round and Pettis winning the second. The third round was extremely close and in the end, two judges scored it for Pettis, while a third scored it for Stephens.

A short time after the fight, Pettis was interviewed and asked whom he wanted to fight next. His answer was Joe Lauzon and the video became a viral hit. Lauzon saw the video and said he was down for the fight. Sometimes Sean Shelby and Joe Silva have a very easy job like in this case when the fighters not only call each other out, but also verbally agree to the fight before being presented with a contract.

This fight is an intriguing one to predict. Lauzon has powerful hands and his striking has improved since his UFC debut. Pettis has also shown impressive abilities with his strikes as seen during his fight with Ben Henderson.

Both fighters have a slick ground game, Pettis is crafty and likes to bait fighters who are inside his guard into falling for a triangle choke. Lauzon has enough experience to avoid the submissions and be able to threaten with his top game.

Both fighters are extremely close skill wise, and because of that, one must look at prior experience and the point of their career. Pettis is arguably one of the most naturally talented fighters inside the octagon but he is still relatively young in his career. Lauzon seems to be coming into his career, mixing up his heavy hands and his aggressive jiu jitsu. For that reason I am predicting Lauzon to win this fight and hand Pettis his first submission loss by the end of the second round.

Click to view the photos…