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What’s a promoter to do when an athletic commission says hell no to his main event? Well if you’re Monte Cox, you take that fight elsewhere. That’s what he did with the Tim Sylvia vs. Ray Mercer fight and that’s what he’s doing now with the Tim Sylvia vs. Wes Sims fight Ohio rejected two weeks ago. But instead of taking it to Alabama, which is now on the brink of regulating MMA, Cox is sending them to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada to headline an IFC card.

The International Fighting Confederation’s world super heavyweight title fight will be the main event of a 10-bout card coming to the Port City, tentatively scheduled for June 5.

Tim Sylvia, the former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion, will battle mixed martial artist Wes Sims for the IFC world title under the lights at Harbour Station.

Meanwhile, Sylvia has been tweeting how he’s “on the comback” and doesn’t want to fight “bums.”

HT: BE

Update: Another report states that Tim Sylvia will be fighting World’s Strongest Man Mariusz Pudzianowski (1-0 MMA) in an April 23 event in Massachusetts. However, Monte Cox says that fight and the Sims fight are both still in negotiations. Cox also said they turned down an offer to fight Josh Barnett on March 22 at DREAM.13, though didn’t say why. Apparently, DREAM is looking for another opponent.

Man, Monte Cox is not having much luck getting his Andrenaline MMA main events approved by the athletic commissions. You probably remember last year’s Adrenaline debacle when New Jersey’s athletic commission rejected the proposed Tim Sylvia vs. Ray Mercer boxing match before Cox decided to take it to the unregulated waters of Alabama where it turned into an MMA fight at the last minute. Well, once again another main event involving Tim Sylvia has been rejected. This time the Ohio athletic commission turned down a proposed Tim Sylvia vs. Wes Sims fight because they didn’t feel it was competitive enough.

Ohio Athletic Commission executive director Bernie Profato ruled the bout “non-competitive” and informed Adrenaline promoter Monte Cox that it would not be sanctioned.

“The commission felt the fight was not going to be competitive at this time after comparing [Sims' and Sylvia's] records and the opponents both fighters had faced,” Profato stated in an email response. “And even though it was 2004, Sylvia previously stopped Sims at 1:36 of the first round.”

Cox won’t be taking his show back to Alabama this time though. He’s already lined up Brandon Lee Hinkle to replace Sims, and yes, Hinkle has been approved to fight Sylvia. Sims will remain on the Adrenaline V card. He’ll take on Kerry Schall.

Image via Sherdog

Tim Sylvia faced off against Jason Riley and Houston Alexander met Sherman Pendergarst last night at Adrenaline IV on HDNet. Here’s the fights for those of us who can’t get HDNet.

Inside MMA airs tonight on HDNet at 9PM ET.

I’ve had a pretty crummy day. You know, one of those days when nothing goes right, and it just puts you in a bad mood. Well, thank god for the Sylvia-Mercer story, because this latest development just made it much better.

Here’s the promo for that Tim Sylvia vs Ray Mercer boxing match in a cage that’s headlining Adrenaline III in Alabama. Seriously, it reminds me of some stupid local pro wrestling show or toughman event promo I used to see on TV when I was a kid.