Crime victim uses submission hold, alleged burglar dies from injuries

Martial arts choke holds are no joke. We've talked about that repeatedly after watching television and radio hosts asking MMA fighters to slap on the holds for a photo opportunity. The rear-naked or guillotine choke is a potentially lethal move if not treated with care. Just ask Alex Montalvo, who's in the center of a firestorm in New Jersey.

Back in July of 2010, Montalvo fought off a burglar, slapped on a submission hold and left Douglas Uhler unconscious on the street. Uhler never fully recovered and died yesterday at 19 years old.

On July 31 at 3:39 a.m. in Bridgewater, N.J., Montalvo and his wife heard their car alarm go off. The 42-year-old ran to the street, identified two suspects and chased them to the next block.

With one punch, he knocked out Brian Johnston, 18. That's when Uhler emerged:

Uhler ran out from nearby bushes and shouted: "You want a piece of me, (expletive)?!"

Uhler jumped on Montalvo, who put him in a submission hold, Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano said. The move blocked the teen's oxygen flow, causing a brain injury, Soriano said.

Uhler was taken to Somerset Medical Center and later treated at Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center. He never fully recovered from the injuries:

A once-strapping high school football player, Uhler spent his days in bed or in a wheelchair. He had to be fed through a tube, according to court records. He was non-vocal and unable to walk, sit or roll. He also had poor head control. Uhler had been in and out of several hospitals, including the Children's Specialized Hospital and the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation.

Back in December, a grand jury indicted Uhler and Johnston on third-degree burglary charges. Johnson pleaded guilty and is awaiting charges. The Uhler family wants Montalvo in a courtroom next, claiming he used excessive force to subdue their son.

"New Jersey law allows you to defend your physical self as well as your property," said Jenny Carroll, an associate professor at Seton Hall Law School. "You're allowed to kill people under certain circumstances, particularly self-defense. If I jump on you, you're allowed to do what is required to make me stop hurting you. But if I pause, you can't just start kicking me in the head."

Carroll said there are no clear-cut answers.

"Here's the trick in this case ? did the homeowner exceed the need to protect his property?" she said. "If the kids are still in the process of taking the homeowner's property, then he has a right to defend his property and to use force. The prosecutor must decide whether the homeowner used justifiable force, and whether it was reasonable.

"Even in the heat of passion, if you're trying to subdue someone, it isn't reasonable to kill them," Carroll said.

The response to the story on NJ.com has been heated.

PrivateCitizen:

Self Defense means you are in imminent danger. This man chased these teens down. They were running FROM him. This man needs to go to prison. He is not the hero vigilante some people here think he is!

The attempted theft did not directly lead to the confrontation, his chasing them down did. Any 12 men or women will know that difference.

drock:

So is it wrong to defend one's property? What if this kid got passed out in the sleeper hold and then later recovered and didn't die? The act of putting one in a sleeper hold that you find robbing your car in the middle of the night doesn't exactly seem punishable to me.......you can't punish based on result or consequence but should punish based on action. In my opinion he didnt' do anything wrong and most people would chase down any if they caught them red handed too.

Some commenters even pointed to the rise of MMA as a reason for this tragedy.

mgm8822:

With the new popularity of MMA, every punk who has taken a martial arts class and learned how to throw a punch or put someone in a choke hold thinks they have the right to kick anyone's ass for any reason. We have a lot of unstable people walking around nowadays who are trained in the use of lethal force.

The Uhler family said their son had plans of attending William Patterson University, where he was looking to study sports medicine.

MMA skills used to fight crime took center stage in the last few months when UFC champion Jon Jones and his trainers subdued a burglar in Paterson, N.J. in late March. In mid-February, MMA fan Joe Lozito helped police catch an alleged serial stabber on a New York City Subway.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Crime-victim-uses-submission-hold-alleged-burgl?urn=mma-wp1243

Mixed Martial Arts News Josh Barnett Ricco Rodriguez Tim Sylvia

MMA Marketplace: Tokyo Five’s shirt for Japan

Tokyo Five bills itself as an apparel company with the Bushido spirit, and they're acting on it in the wake of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. They are teaming up with Global Giving to raise money for Japan with the sales of a new shirt:

The shirt is just $20 and 100% of the proceeds will go to Global Giving Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. Click here to buy it and help with the relief.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/MMA-Marketplace-Tokyo-Five-s-shirt-for-Japan?urn=mma-wp1176

Murilo Bustamante Evan Tanner Rich Franklin Anderson Silva

UFC announces "Super 7" presentation for Friday in Toronto with all seven UFC Champions together for the first time

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

UFC_129_poster_180_18.jpg

Fans in Toronto this week for UFC 129 will have an opportunity to take part in a historic gathering of UFC Champions on Friday, as for the first time ever all seven UFC Champions will appear together in a special "Super 7" presentation at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.

The gathering will precede the weigh-ins for UFC 129, which will take place immediately following the presentation. Both events will be streamed on UFC.com.

According to the UFC's release on Tuesday, "UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz, Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo, Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar, Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre, Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones and Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez will take part in a media photo opportunity and participate in a special presentation on stage."

"We wanted to give fans a truly once-in-a-lifetime chance to see all seven UFC champions gathered together and we couldn?t think of a better place to do it than in Toronto," UFC President Dana White said. "The entire week is going to be crazy. From the community events to the Fan Expo to 55,000 people at Rogers Centre for UFC 129, I am really looking forward to taking over the city of Toronto."

UFC 129 then takes place from the Rogers Centre this Saturday night in front of a record sold-out crowd of 55,000 fans. Headlining the card is the Welterweight Championship fight between Georges St. Pierre and Jake Shields.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9162.shtml

Fabricio Werdum Vernon White Mike Whitehead Jonathan Wiezorek

Just a small reminder on what Lyoto Machida can do

Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida lost his last two fights, so it can be easy to forget what he is capable of doing. Until getting knocked out by Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Machida was undefeated and capable of knocking out Rashad Evans like this:

That's effective striking.

But will Machida be able to summon this sort of strength at UFC 129, where he will face UFC Hall-of-Famer Randy Couture? Going from undefeated to a losing skid can mess with a fighter's head. Will Machida be able to right the ship in Toronto, or will his losing streak continue? Tell us in the comments, on Twitter or on Cagewriter's Facebook page.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Just-a-small-reminder-on-what-Lyoto-Machida-can-?urn=mma-wp1219

Rashad Evans Urijah Faber Wagnney Fabiano Kevin Kimbo Slice Ferguson

‘King Mo’ enters Evans-Jones spat by calling one of them a ‘ho’

With the UFC holding the rights to over 85 percent of top 125 fighters in the world, training partners would eventually be faced with stepping into the cage with each other. Just about everyone in the fight world has an opinion on the teammates versus teammate story.

Rashad Evans agreed to do it against newly crowned UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones. That Evans-Jones matchup irks Strikeforce 205-pounder Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal. Lawal is buddies with Evans and feels like the longer tenured member of Greg Jackson's team was boxed into a corner. The problem started with Jones stepping in front of Evans to take the UFC 128 title fight against Mauricio Rua and then softening his stance on not fighting Evans.

""I think it broadsided (Evans), because they both made an agreement (not to fight) and all of a sudden someone reneges," Lawal told Five Knuckles. "I would never fight Daniel (Cormier) definitely, and he would never fight me. Then all of a sudden if he went behind my back and said, 'I'll fight Mo on TV' … that's a ho move and a ho move deserves an ass whipping."

Lawal, like many other fighters, adheres to the philosophy that training partners should never fight.

"I know none of my training partners that are my brothers would ever pull a ho move like that. If I say I ain't going to fight my brother, I ain't going to fight my brother," said Lawal.

MMA isn't that important to his wallet, so he'd find another option if forced to fight a teammate.

"I got brothers who I train with (and) I won't fight my training brothers," Lawal said. "They can fire me and I will go to the WWE, I don't care. Rashad is a brother to me, why fight him if there are other options?"

There's no such brotherhood with King Mo and Quinton Jackson. Lawal would love to fight Jackson and thinks he could handle him easily.

Tip via Cage Potato

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/-King-Mo-enters-Evans-Jones-spat-by-calling-one?urn=mma-wp1154

Patrick The Predator Côté Randy The Natural Couture Dan Cramer Alberto Crane

Metal Mulisha ?Support Japan? T-shirt

Doing their part to help out Japan in a time of need following the recent disasters, Metal Mulisha introduces the “Support Japan” tee, a new rising sun inspired T-shirt design created to provide assistance in the Japanese relief efforts. With proceeds from sales being split 50/50 between the “Bonzai Fund” project and the Red Cross, [...]

Source: http://fighterxfashion.com/metal-mulisha-support-japan-t-shirt/

Patrick The Predator Côté Randy The Natural Couture Dan Cramer Alberto Crane

Former NHL enforcer is trying MMA in June

On skates, Donald Brashear could always fight with the best of them.

Can he do it bare-footed and against trained professional fighters? Brashear wants to find out.

According to the Canadian Press, the former NHL henchman, who's still playing hockey in the minors, has signed a deal with Ringside MMA to fight in June in Quebec City.

"Despite Brashear's lack of experience in MMA, he's a very athletic guy, he's in good shape, he's gutsy, he's learning pretty fast and showed an early interest and motivation," a Ringside MMA spokeswoman said. "Plus, he's no stranger to fighting."

Keep in mind, Brashear is also 39 years old. The 6-foot-3, 237-pounder will have to get approval from local authories before he steps into the cage.

Brashear may want to look at MMA sparring videos with another former NHL player George Laraque. Sure he was facing one of the best in the world, but Laraque was schooled a few months ago by Georges St-Pierre.

We're guessing the biggest test for Brashear will be conditioning and avoiding the potential adrenaline dump that happens in fighting. Baltimore Ravens safety Tom Zbikowski, who's crossed over to professional boxing, said fighting is unlike any conventional sport.

"You have to control it in boxing, because in football maybe that first series you get real excited. The warm up in boxing is far, far more important than in football," Zbikowski told ESPN1100 in Las Vegas.

During his 17-year career, Brashear piled up 2,634 penalty minutes in 1,025 NHL games.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Former-NHL-enforcer-is-trying-MMA-in-June?urn=mma-wp1474

Gesias JZ Calvancante Luiz Cane Dos Caras Jr Phil Cardella

Hominick will pimp CFL team at UFC 129

Canada sounds like it's stoked for UFC 129 and all its countrymen on the card next week in Toronto. Mark Hominick, a Thamesford-native is representing all of Ontario, he'll also be pushing the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats. From Yahoo!'s CFL blog:

Hominick will wear a Tiger-Cats' hat as he enters the octagon; his shorts will also feature a Tiger-Cats' logo and an ad for Ticats.ca. The team's also running a contest which includes tickets to UFC 129 as a prize (along with plenty of other impressive stuff), and Hominick will also be featured at "MMA Night" at Ivor Wynne Stadium, which will take place July 16 when the Tiger-Cats host the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Andrew Bucholtz from 55-yard line says the CFL is capitalizing on something other major leagues are whiffing on:

MMA fans are also an excellent demographic for the Tiger-Cats to reach out to. The MMA fan base includes a lot of people in their 20s and 30s (partly because the sport's rise to prominence is still relatively recent), and that's a group the CFL would do well to try and draw. The CFL audience used to skew a lot older; I think that's starting to change, but there's still a need to bring in new, young fans, and a partnership with a prominent Canadian MMA fighter's an excellent way to at least increase the visibility of the Tiger-Cats' brand. From an image perspective, it's also a good thing for a CFL team to position itself as on the side of MMA; many established sports leagues and brands have somewhat turned up their noses at the UFC, and that's probably not a smart long-term strategy given the sport's rapidly growing popularity.

We're glad to see Ontario is welcoming MMA with open arms. Now it's time to work on its acceptance of the Lingerie Football League.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Hominick-will-pimp-CFL-team-at-UFC-129?urn=mma-wp1361

Glover Teixeira Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi