An EliteXC welterweight title bout between Jake Shields (20-4-1) and Drew Fickett (33-5) scheduled for June 14th in Hawaii has again been postponed, this time due to a knee injury suffered by Fickett.

EliteXC Vice President Jared Shaw announced the latest setback in a recent interview with MMA Weekly:

“Obviously the back injury happened (to Shields) and the easiest thing to do was move him to Hawaii to fight Drew. 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.”

A March 29th scrap for the title at an EliteXC and Strikeforce co-promoted event was postponed after Shields suffered a then-undisclosed injury that forced him to withdraw from the fight.

Depending upon the severity of Fickett’s injury, the bout may be rescheduled as a co-main event for EliteXC’s second primetime event on CBS on July 26th.

Fickett is a seven-fight UFC veteran who had secured four victories inside the octagon. Following his last UFC fight, a win over Keita Nakamura in early-2007, Fickett won back-to-back fights in late-2007 to earn a shot at the EliteXC Welterweight Title. Fickett remained on the March 29th card after Shields withdrew from the title bout and defeated Jae Suk Lim via first round submission.

Shields is a former Shooto champion and current Rumble on the Rock titleholder and has coached notable mixed martial artists Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez. He is 20-4-1 in his professional career and is currently riding a nine-fight win streak which includes a November submission victory over Mike Pyle.

Headlining the June 14th event, which will air on Showtime, is an EliteXC lightweight bout between current champion KJ Noons and challenger Yves Edwards. Nick Diaz versus Muhsin Corbbrey, Murilo ?Ninja? Rua versus Tony Bonello, Rafael Feijao versus Wayne Cole, and Dave Herman versus Ron Waterman have also been announced for the main, televised card.

• Sean Sherk and BJ Penn have both passed early random drug tests for their upcoming UFC 84 bout.


• Rich Franklin’s manager, Monte Cox, has stated that Franklin would indeed make the move to light-heavyweight if the UFC requested.


• The lightweight match up between Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian has been confirmed to take place on August 9 at UFC 87.


• CBS Chairman Sumner Redstone publicly criticized the EliteXC-CBS broadcast partnership for not being “socially responsible.”


• The revised DREAM 3 card now features Nick Diaz and Jason Miller, as well as Hayato Sakurai and Katsuya Inoue.


• Kimbo Slice will appear on the cover of this months issue of ESPN The Magazine. Kimbo is only the second MMA fighter to ever be featured on the cover of the publication after Chuck Liddell.


• Kimbo Slice was also the subject of a recent ESPN column which criticized Slice as a poor representation of African Americans.


• “Anytown Beatdown”, the new reality T.V. series starring Tito Ortiz, is holding a casting call this Sunday to find contestants who will be trained by Ortiz to compete in MMA grudge matches.


• A welterweight bout between Chris Wilson and Steve Bruno has been booked for UFC 86.


• The UFC is currently auctioning off several items including George St. Pierre’s autographed UFC 83 shorts and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s autographed UFC 81 gloves/shorts.


• Former UFC middleweight Travis Lutter is asking Dana White for ,000 in Xyience sponsorship money, which he claims was never delivered.


• Recently interviewed Jay Larkin, CEO of the IFL, questioned the overall demand for MMA and more specifically, the demand for his teetering promotion.

World Extreme Cagefighting Welterweight Champion Carlos Condit (22-4) has signed a contract extension with the WEC according to USA Today. Condit had just one fight remaining on his previous contract with the promotion, which is owned by the same parent company as the UFC.

Terms of the extension were not disclosed.

Condit has emerged as one of the top welterweights in the world with notable career wins over Frank Trigg and Renato Verissimo. He has not lost a single fight since mid-2006, winning all seven fights over the near-two year span. After defeating Kyle Jensen in his WEC debut last January, Condit defeated John Alessio to claim the welterweight title at WEC 26. He has since defended his title twice with submission wins over Brock Larson at WEC 29 and Carlo Prater at WEC 32 in February.

Condit is next scheduled to fight in August.

We open up this week with a brief recap of Team Forrest’s Tim Credeur’s hard fought win over Matthew Riddle last week that pushed his team’s record to 2-0 and allowed them to retain control of picking the fights for the third straight episode. Credeur, a long-time MMA veteran with many fights under his belt, congratulates the younger Riddle on his performance in the fight and offers to purchase him an Xbox 360 when they leave the show.

On the ride back to the house Riddle’s teammate, Jeremy May, criticizes Riddle for receiving a prize despite his losing performance by blurting out “You don?t defend the armbar, and you get an Xbox.” The rest of the team has little to add and May is only getting started with antagonizing the rest of the house.

Back at the TUF house May locks Credeur outside and annoys Jesse Taylor to the point that he throws a Gatorade bottle at him. May’s next move may, in the end, seal his exit from the house as he pours lime juice into Matt Brown’s tobacco chew. Brown is not pleased at the poor attempt at humor and informs May that he is going to pick him in the next fight.

When the fight selection comes down, however, Team Forrest sends Dante Rivera to face off with Team Rampage’s Brandon Sene. It’s another paper mismatch with Rivera having more experience than Sene but the bout is quickly underway and the paper matchups go out the window. Both rounds are very close with Rivera controlling the pace of the fight with takedowns and ground control though Sene appears to do more damage throughout the duration. The fight could go either way and the judges call for a third and decisive round.

In the final round it’s more of the same as Rivera controls the pace of the fight while Sene connects with more strikes but in this bout it’s the “octagon control”, and not damage, that earns Rivera the decision victory, albeit a very controversial one. Coach Quinton Jackson can’t beleive Sene lost the fight and loses his cool and flips furniture in the dressing room in anger and disbelief. Unfortunately for Team Rampage the motivation is too little, too late and the team is now down 0-3 in the middleweight competition and Team Forrest retains the fight selection for the next bout.

As the show wraps up one of next week’s two bouts is announced and, as promised, it’s Team Rampage’s Jeremy May against Team Forrest’s Matt Brown.

RESULTS

• Dante Rivera def. Brandon Sene via decision

TEAM RAMPAGE (0-3)

• Daniel Cramer


• CB Dollaway


• Gerald Harris


• Jeremy May


• Pat Schultz


• Brandon Sene (0-1)
  
  Eliminated by Dante Rivera - Week 5


• Matthew Riddler (0-1)
  
  Eliminated by Tim Credeur - Week 4


• Mike Dolce (0-1)
  
  Eliminated by Jesse Taylor - Week 3


• Paul Bradley (0-0)
  
  Eliminated due to medical issues

TEAM FORREST (3-0)

• Jesse Taylor (1-0)


• Tim Credeur (1-0)


• Dante Rivera (1-0)


• Amir Sadollah


• Matt Brown


• Cale Yarbrough


• Nick Klein


• Luke Zachrich

MMAFrenzy.com is your source for in-depth recaps and news from the?The Ultimate Fighter 7: Team Forrest vs. Team Rampage?.

UFC middleweight Chris Leben was arrested yesterday in Oregon by the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Department and has been charged with driving under the influence and violating his probation. He was denied bail.

Leben (18-4) is scheduled to face off with Michael Bisping at UFC 85 on June 7th in London, England. “The Cripler” is 8-3 inside the UFC octagon with wins over Jason Thacker, Patrick Cote, Edwin Dewees, Jorge Rivera, Luigi Fioravanti, Jorge Santiago, Terry Martin, and Alessio Sakara and losses to Anderson Silva, Jason MacDonald, and Kalib Starnes. He last fought in March at UFC 82, defeating Sakara via first round TKO.

Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for more on this story as it develops.