FanHouse JeffMonson

2008 Olympic wrestler and two-time NCAA wrestling champion Ben Askren kept his perfect MMA record intact by improving to 3-0 with a submission win Friday at Max Fights DM "Ballroom Brawl" in Des Moines, Iowa.

Askren, a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, stuck to his strengths, shooting early on and securing overhooks to look for a trip takedown. The 25-year-old then switched to a single leg to bring opponent Matt Delanoit to the ground. From there Askren avoided a triangle choke to pass to north-south, where he would finish with the choke at 1:15 of the opening round.

Former UFC title challenger Jeff Monson pleaded guilty Tuesday to malicious mischief stemming from his charge for vandalizing the Washington State Capital, the AP reports.

Monson entered an Alford plea, which means the defendant does not admit guilt, but will accept a sentence as if he had been convicted due to the amount of evidence likely to convict him in court.

Fedor Emelianenko is the best fighter in mixed martial arts, a fighter so dominant that he looks almost unbeatable. But one person thinks he can beat him: Jeff Monson.

Yes, Monson -- who is generally considered somewhere between the 10th and 20th best heavyweight in the world -- says he's just the man to end Fedor's reign atop the heavyweight division in MMA.

File this one under "cards we'd love to see but probably won't": A Croatian newspaper says there's going to be an Affliction/Dream co-promotion in Japan on July 20 that will feature Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jeff Monson, Mirko Cro Cop vs. Alistair Overeem and Andrei Arlovski vs. Josh Barnett.

The newspaper, Jutarnji list, is one of the leading newspapers in Croatia, so at first blush the source would seem fairly credible. But anyone who follows MMA knows that reports about what Affliction and Dream are doing next get bandied about all the time, and they almost always turn out to be wrong.

Two weeks ago, Jeff Monson and Roy Nelson were fighting each other in Florida at the March Badness show. This weekend in Japan, Monson was fighting again -- and he had Nelson in his corner.

Former IFL heavyweight champion Roy Nelson lost a hard-fought unanimous decision to former UFC No. 1 contender Jeff Monson Saturday night at the March Badness event in Florida.

Roy Nelson is an MMA fighter with a 13-3 record, but to look at him, you'd never believe he was a professional athlete. So as I interviewed Nelson about his preparation for his upcoming fight with Jeff Monson in Saturday's "March Badness" event, the first thing I wanted to ask him about is his weight.

The full interview is below.

The steroid suspension of Ken Shamrock forced the promoters of the upcoming "March Badness" boxing/MMA event to find a new opponent for the former pro wrestler Bobby Lashley. That opponent, it has now been reported, is Jason Guida.

Ariel Helwani of Versus.com reports that Guida vs. Lashley will take place on the undercard of a night of fights that also includes Roy Nelson vs. Jeff Monson in MMA and the return of Roy Jones to the boxing ring, to face Omar Sheika.

Roy Jones Jr. will return to the ring on March 21 to take on the little-known Omar Sheika in a card that he's promoting himself, with mixed martial arts fights featuring Seth Petruzelli and Bobby Lashley on the undercard.

Combining boxing and MMA has been tried before, although never in a card featuring a fighter as well known as Jones. And although neither Petruzelli nor Lashley is anywhere close to being a great MMA fighter, they're both well known: Petruzelli beat Kimbo Slice on national television in October, while Lashley was once among the most popular pro wrestlers in the WWE. Another MMA fight on the card is supposed to match Roy Nelson against Jeff Monson, although Monson's legal problems could make that difficult.

The mixed martial arts heavyweight Jeff Monson has been arrested and jailed in North Carolina for suspicion of assault on a female and injury to real property, The Olympian is reporting.

Monson was already facing felony charges in connection with the picture at right, which was published in ESPN the Magazine. It shows Monson spray-painting an anarchist symbol on the Washington State Capitol.