Sean Salmon Update

by Sean Salmon on Jul 11, 2008 at 1:10 pm ET - MMAJunkie.com

It has been a very long time since I have given everyone an update, so here it is (or at least what I can say at this time).

I am flying out to California (again) for a meeting with the California State Athletic Commission doctor on Sept. 9, at which time I expect to be fully cleared to fight. I will have a full update on everything on Sept. 10.

However, in the meantime, my father-in-law, Rick Pyles, and his nephew Jason Purcell decided to start their own fight promotion, Ultimate Victory Challenge (www.ultimatevictory.org), and their first show will be tomorrow in Portsmouth, Ohio, at "The Old" Portsmouth High School Gym.

This idea was born several months ago when Jason was here visiting me in Columbus. He was telling Rick how "Tough Man" had come down there and sold out two nights in a row, so they started talking about doing their own MMA show down there. Jason knows the people and the area really well, and Rick had been to almost all of my fights from King of the Cage to the UFC, so he had a pretty good idea of the behind-the-scenes problems.

Anyway, they decided to give it a shot.

I can attest that they have done their homework. Rick almost immediately called Bernie Profato (head of the Ohio Athletic Commision). Bernie is one of the most helpful and supportive people I have ever worked with, and he's given Rick all kinds of pointers, tips and pitfalls to avoid. He also pointed us in the direction of Greg Kalikas, the owner of prokarateweekly.com and the NAAFS (www.naafs.tv), which is probably the biggest and best show in Ohio right now (and also a show that I have fought for twice and plan on doing again).

Greg was nice enough to meet us for lunch one day, where he answered all our questions, and more importantly, showed us where we were most likely to screw up.

So with the goal of becoming the best small show in the area and striving to earn a reputation for treating the fighters right, Rick and Jason started moving toward securing the venue, recruiting corporate sponsors, and putting together the fight card, which was the biggest headache that you could ever imagine. But, everything fell together as expected, and the first show kicks off Saturday night in Portsmouth.

There are still tickets available at www.ultimatevictory.org. You will also be able to check the results here at MMAjunkie.com as The Junkie himself will be in attendance.

I do want to give a special thanks to the MMAjunkie.com guys for letting me continue to use his website to plug myself and my family's events. Hopefully, we can use the experience to show fans what it's like on some of the smaller fight circuits in the country.

For more information and the fight card, check out www.ultimatevictory.org.

Sean Salmon (14-5 MMA) is an MMAjunkie.com columnist who occasionally pens his "Full-Time Fighter" and "Get to Know 'Em" columns for the site.