Rick “The Jet” Roufus Loses His MMA Debut

Former Milwaukee resident, Rick “The Jet” Roufus lost his MMA debut last night to Maurice Smith. The fight was shown live on HDNet Fights and was part of a Strikeforce card entitled Strikeforce at the Dome, which took place in the Tacoma Dome.

Fighting in front of his hometown crowd, it took less than two minutes for the former UFC Heavyweight Champion to submit Roufus with a Kimura. Here is the play-by-play accrording to Sherdog:

”Roufus gave up a takedown in the opening minute. Smith went to half-guard and mount, where he looked for a Kimura. Roufus fought off the technique for several seconds, but tapped at 1:53 of the first when his arm was semi-straightened.”

In interviews leading up to the fight, Roufus stated that he had traveled to Greg Jackson’s camp to train with MMA fighter and wrestler, Mike Van Arsdale for the bout and had worked his Jiu-Jitsu extensively under his instructor Heath Wiggington. Undoubtedly, the Van Arsdale training was to learn takedown defense as Roufus stated he belived Smith would be looking to take the fight to the ground.

With the win, Maurice Smith is able to avenge a 2003 kickboxing loss he suffered to Roufus. It is unclear what the future holds for Rick Roufus in MMA since he is relatively inexperienced in MMA fighting and is very old to begin learning the many skillsets necessary to compete at such a high level including wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Rick "The Jet" Roufus to fight tonight on HDNet Fights vs. Maurice Smith

Former Milwaukee resident, Rick “The Jet” Roufus will fight Maurice “Mo” Smith on the Strikeforce card tonight on HDNet Fights. The card is to be headlined by Bob “The Beast” Sapp. Roufus was originally slated to make his MMA debut in January against Mark Kerr on a WCO card. Roufus was not cleared by the California State Athletic Commission to fight Kerr due to his paperwork missing the deadline. Had Roufus made the deadline the fight would not have occurred anyway due to the CSAC forcing WCO to cancel the event due to not having the funding for fighter purses. Roufus will be the smaller man in this fight having only weighed in at 207lbs vs. 235lbs for Maurice Smith. For a recap of my previous article on Rick Roufus click read more.

Roufus is a former world champion kickboxer in the IKF or International Kickboxing Federation in both the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions. In the 1990’s he gave up kickboxing for a short time to focus on traditional boxing and compiled a record of (13-5-1) according to www.boxrec.com. Roufus’ boxing career was highlighted by winning the WBC’s Continental America’s Cruiserweight title. In September of 2003, he retired from kickboxing due to an ACL injury with a record of (61-7) with 41 knockouts according to www.ikfkickboxing.com.

In early 2004, Roufus opened a gym in Tempe, Arizona and made headlines that year when it was reported that he had signed a contract to fight former heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson in K-1. The Mike Tyson fight never ended up happening.

Since then, the 41 year old, Roufus has come out of retirement and has fought in various organizations. This fight however will mark the first MMA fight of his career. Roufus does hold a kickboxing win over his opponent Maurice Smith.

Maurice “Mo” Smith is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and holds a (10-10) MMA record. Last May, Smith made his MMA return against Marco Ruas in the IFL, winning via TKO – Corner Stoppage. His last fight had been in November of 2000 when he lost to Renato Sobral at UFC 28 via decision. Despite his mediocre record, he has fought a list of who’s who in MMA, fighting in organizations such as the UFC, Pancrase, Rings, and the IFL. He won the UFC Heavyweight Championship by defeating Mark Coleman. Smith had one successful title defense against Dave “Tank” Abbott before losing to Randy Couture in 1997.

Chad “Don’t Play” Jay to fight on HD Net Fights vs. Jake Rosholt of Team Takedown

I met Chad “Don’t Play” Jay at the Roufusport Gym last week. He is from Team Remix and trains with UFC Fighter Alan Belcher in Mississippi. He is in Milwaukee training for his upcoming fight with Jake Rosholt that will be broadcast live on HD Net Fights on February 15, 2008 from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Chad Jay sports an MMA record of (7-1) according to Sherdog. Six of his victories have come via submissions and one of his victories has come via verbal submission due to strikes from ground and pound. Despite all the submission victories Jay claims he isn’t a Jiu-Jitsu fighter. Here’s his take: “I usually set my submissions up using ground and pound. I’m trying to get away from that because my jiu-jitsu game isn’t excellent. I don’t want to have to rely on subbing guys, I need to get my hands and Muay Thai better, along with my wrestling.”

Here’s what his coach and teammate Alan “The Talent” Belcher had to say about him. “He’s not a Jiu-Jitsu guy, it’s kind of funny. He beats people into a position that they want him to submit them. That’s what he does, if he gets on top of you, he’s going to beat your face in until you want to give him your back. He doesn’t work for the choke, they almost just give him the choke. Sometimes he’ll hit them so damn hard they go limp and he takes the choke. He doesn’t care about winning by TKO, he’s a competitor, he goes in there and wins the fastest way he can.”

Jay’s opponent is Jake Rosholt of Team Takedown. Rosholt is a three-time NCAA Division 1 Champion and four-time All American wrestler from Oklahoma State. Rosholt has a (3-0) MMA record and a (105-20) collegiate career wrestling record.

Team Takedown made headlines last year introducing a new concept to MMA. Team Takedown is paying each of it’s four recruits $100,000 a year to train full time in MMA. The goal is to build some of the biggest names in MMA from scratch using top-level collegiate wrestlers. The other recruits include Johnny Hendricks, Eric Bradley, and Shane Roller. All four are All American wrestlers and most are NCAA national champions. Rosholt and Hendricks still remain undefeated at (3-0) and (2-0) respectively, while Bradley and Roller have both lost fights.

Wisconsin Combat Sports would like to say good luck to Chad “Don’t Play” Jay in his upcoming bout and welcome him to Wisconsin. We’ll keep you posted on the results.

This article was also published on http://www.wicombatsports.com/ on 01-29-08

Green Bay’s Jesse Veium to fight Travis Wiuff at IFO on HDNet Fights for Light Heavyweight Title

This Friday, Jesse “Candy Hands” Veium will fight Travis “Diesel” Wiuff in the IFO or International Fight Organization. Vieum, who fights out of the Haus of Combat in Green Bay, Wisconsin recently took the fight on short notice and is a replacement for Pride veteran Cyrille Diabate.

Jesse Vieum sports a (13-2) MMA record and is riding an 11-fight win streak. He primarily fights for Madtown Throwdown but recently competed in a submission grappling bout against Milwaukee’s Eric Schafer at Gladiators 48: Seasons Beatings on December 1, 2007. While Veium lost the bout due to a kimura; he had the UFC vet in trouble with a very tight guillotine early in the match. This will be the highest profile opponent Veium has ever faced in his fight career. A win over a big name opponent in Wiuff would instantly earn him attention on a national level and turn some heads.

Travis Wiuff sports a (48-11) MMA record and won the IFO Light Heavyweight Championship by defeating Sean Salmon via a guillotine choke in the first round on September 1, 2007. Sean Salmon, like Jesse Vieum, also took the fight on short notice. Wiuff has almost sixty fights and has fought in a wide array of organizations such as the UFC, Pride, IFL, and the XFO. Travis Wiuff is riding a 4-fight win streak and most recently defeated Travis Fulton, one month ago. In addition, he holds wins over fighters such as Keith Jardine, Antoine Jaoude, and Matt Horwich.

If you are not familiar with the IFO it is because it is a fairly new organization and is run by former boxing referee Richard Steele through his new company called Steele Cage Promotions. Notable fighters including Wes Sims, Marvin Eastman, Rich Clementi, Josh Haynes, Rob Kimmons, and Tristan Yunker have fought in the organization since it’s first show in July of this year. This event, “Fireworks in the Cage IV” will be shown on HDNet Fights live that evening.

HDNet fights is run by Mark Cuban and recently began showing higher profile fights. Most recently they aired an Icon event that featured fighters such as Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Frank Trigg. HDNet Fights will also be showing the entire “Yarennoka” card live on December 31 from Tokyo for free. That card will feature the long awaited return of Fedor Emelianenko.

Wisconsin Combat Sports would like to wish Jesse Veium best of luck this Friday and we will keep you posted with the results when the become available. The entire card is as follows:

IFO: Fireworks in the Cage IV

Riviera Hotel & Casino

Las Vegas, NV

12/28/2007

205lb – IFO Light Heavyweight Title Fight

Travis Wiuff vs. Jesse Veium

135lb – IFO Bantamweight Title Bout

Del Hawkins vs. Brandon Foxworth

155lb – Lightweight Bout

Joe Cronin vs. Jeff Cox

145lb – Featherweight Bout

Dennis Davis vs. Reynaldo Duarte

205lb – Light Heavyweight Bout

Ryan Bader vs. Ryan Peterson

170lb – Welterweight Bout

Waachim Spiritwolf vs. Chris Reedy

265lb & under – Heavyweight Bout

Buddy Roberts vs. Dennis Bacon

115lb Womens Bout

Elena Reid vs. Tammie Schneider

This article was originally posted on http://www.wicombatsports.com/ on 12-26-2007.