SMASHING
MACHINE out of
A.C.F.
5-7-2006
Denver,
Colorado
Mark
Kerr's much hyped return to the ring at Rico Vecchiarelli-McLaughlin's (a.k.a.Rico
Vecc) A.C.F. show in
Denver never happened. Kerr was supposedly forced-out because of a
last minute hand injury. Unfortunately for ticket buying fans,
this news was never revealed until show time.
Conveniently,
Kerr's recent deal with the International Fighting League should offset
the monetary losses he suffered by not fighting on the ACF show.
Kerr's
trainers made these comments about his failure to fight.
S.
M. - "Mark trained at my gym (Grappler's Edge) for this fight, and I was
there last night to corner him.
Chad
K's story is true. Mark informed the ACF about his hand when it
happened. Mark still wanted to fight (of course), so he got treatment
and cortisone shots, but it didn't help.
The
ACF knew about Mark's hand, but waited until the last minute because
either they were hoping for the best (a miracle), or they didn't want to
disrupt the ticket sales (you decide). Mark couldn't even make a fist
during the Dr. physicals, so there was no way they were going to clear
him.
Chad
K. - "Cindy,
I don't know what the ACF officials told you (I wasn't there), but I'm
sure they had a good story. On the other hand, you weren't in our
dressing room either, so all I can tell you is that you were
misinformed.
Things
weren't handled well last night (by the ACF), and I'm sorry for the
fighters and the fans. Mark
may not be as big or as young as he once was, but he's still a warrior.
If healthy last night, he would have fought, and he would have won!"
Cindy, you talked to the ACF folks, but I was in that dressing room. The same officials who got 2 other Doctors to come back in hopes of overriding their 1st Doctor's opinion? This after Mark sat in my living room (while posting under my screen name earlier in the week no less) and told these same people what the doctor had said about his hand?
The same officials who suggested that Mark go out, throw a punch, then clutch his hand and fall to his knees in pain. Then said they'd set up a rematch after his hand healed? The same one's who told us that Wes said "this" while telling Wes and Coleman that Kerr said "that"? (Wont go into too much detail but you would be hard pressed to imagine worse than what was said)
Unfortunately, I didn't have a tape recorder with me. Somehow, I forgot to throw it in my corner bag along with the mitts,
Vaseline, end swell and other items I brought to the arena."
MMAFighting
reporter Cindy O. had these comments - "It's a freakin' mess, I can tell you that.
Here are the "facts" as they have been presented to me. I'm not making a judgement either way because in my opinion, both sides could very well be equally in the wrong.
Allegations appear to be strong that both sides may have mislead the public. The ordeal was out of my hands before I concluded my last interview. Apparently, I was not the only one with questions.
1) Mark knew he wasn't prepared to fight Wes so he used the injury as an excuse.
2) Mark was the one who insisted on checking with multiple doctors in order to find one who would deem him unfit to compete.
3) Mark was given the option of fighting or not (injury was marginal) and he decided to "pass."
4) Mark reported the injury earlier and agreed to go along with the ACF's cover up so as not to impede ticket sales.
5) Mark backed out of the fight because he is not "clean" and knew he would fail any post fight testing.
6) Mark "broke his hand" over a week ago, yet showed no signs of injury, taping or swelling in IFL event photos.
7) Mark continued training before the fight w/o signs of significant injury to his hand which occured "about a week ago" during a training session.
8) Mark is blowing the injury waaaay out of proportion and could have competed if he wanted to.
9) Rico was made aware of the injury well in advance to have notified the public, but chose not to... and convinced Mark to play along with the scheme.
10) Rico and other ACF officials were witnessed discussing the "scheme" backstage as to how the "story" would be told to the spectators at the event.
11) Mark, his "people," ACF officials and management, at least one CO State Athletic Commission employee, Wes and Mark Coleman discussed how the news would be broken and how to "pump" the crowd for a rematch, hence the WWE display in the cage.
12) Mark lied, pulled out and pissed Rico off enough to cause him to give Wes the belt.
13) Mark really didn't care because he found out his IFL contract, which Rico claims to know nothing about, is in conflict with his existing ACF contract and being "released" by Rico for cause would eliminate the issue.
14) Mark failed to inform the IFL he is under contract with the ACF, yet accepted their coaching position and has begun actively recruiting new fighters. Contract conflict(s) abound.
15) The ACF is throwing Mark "under the bus" because he has proven to be unreliable with keeping PR commitments necessary for the company "poster child" in order for Rico to recoup his investment in Kerr.
16) If the ACF finds out Mark has been "dishonest," they can release him from his contract and save face with the spectators. Blame would be on him, not the ACF.
There are a bunch more... no one had the same story. Again, these are not my suspicions, they are allegations and comments made by folks who were supposedly involved or had knowledge from behind the scenes.
"
