Following up on a story from earlier today, Tim Sylvia has indeed gotten his release from UFC (he had one fight left on his contract) and joined a new promotion. This was announced today on HDNet’s Inside MMA show.
Sylvia’s manager Monte Cox announced that “M-1 Global” would cease to exist, with a new promotion — “Adrenaline MMA” — being formed with Sylvia and former IFL star Ben Rothwell signing. Sylvia’s contract is non-exclusive, as the former UFC World Heavyweight Champion has interest in fighting in Japan or working with the upstart Affliction promotion.
The M-1 name will go back to Vadim Finkelchtein and the Russian team that manages Fedor Emelianenko. This is probably for the best, as there’s no reason for both “M-1 Global” and “M-1 Mixfight” to exist simultaneously. M-1 Global recently announced the official release of Fedor from his contract, and the PRIDE World Heavyweight Champ has talked with UFC.
Cox announced that Adrenaline will debut on June 14 in Chicago.
The above story was originally reported by Dave Meltzer at WrestlingObserver.com.
UPDATE: MMAWeekly.com has reported that former BodogFight Welterweight Champion Eddie Alvarez (currently participating in DREAM’s lightweight tournament) has also signed with Adrenaline, and Jeff Monson will face Mike Russow in a battle pitting former UFC and PRIDE heavyweights against each other at the June 14 debut show taking place at the Sears Centre in Chicago.
