FightZone TV has announced that co-owners Jay Adams and Al Martino have committed to donating $25,000 of National commercial airtime to be included in their programs airing during the month of March to Outback Steakhouse’s national promotion to support U.S.. troops and their families with $1 million donation.

The 30 sec spots feature Country Star Tim McGraw. Watch Spot

Outback Steakhouse, a longtime supporter of U.S. military troops, has committed to donate $1 million to Operation Homefront, a non-profit organization that provides emergency and morale support for active troops, veterans and their families.

“The sacrifices that our troops and their families make so we can enjoy the freedoms we have in the United States is something Outback employees have recognized and appreciated since we opened our doors 22 years ago,” said Liz Smith, CEO of OSI Restaurant Partners, parent company of Outback Steakhouse. “Our commitment to donate $1 million to Operation Homefront reflects our appreciation to those who give so much.”

For the month of March, Outback is holding a month-long “Thanks for Giving” effort in participating restaurant locations in the U.S. and Hawaii. Restaurant-goers are invited to express their appreciation to our country’s dedicated servicemen and women by visiting Outback restaurants this month and ordering from the “Red, White and Bloomin’” menu. Proceeds from menu sales during the month of March will help to meet the $1 million commitment to Operation Homefront. The menu will be available through March 31.

Operation Homefront’s mission is to provide emergency and morale assistance for our troops, the families they leave behind, and for wounded warriors when they return home. A nonprofit 501(c)(3), Operation Homefront leads more than 4,500 volunteers in 30 chapters nationwide and has met more than 105,000 needs of military families. Operation Homefront also hosts the Web community, Operation Homefront Online, at www.HomefrontOnline.com.

“As a retired member of the U.S. military and on behalf of our troops serving in locations far and wide, I’d like to thank Outback Steakhouse for its support over the years,” said General Tommy Franks (Ret.). “This support, coupled with the current effort to help our active and retired servicemen, women and their families, is greatly appreciated.”

To further raise awareness about this important cause, Outback has partnered with country music superstar Tim McGraw on his Southern Voice concert tour, scheduled to visit more than 60 U.S. cities this spring and summer. Proceeds from a Southern Voice commemorative t-shirt will also be donated to Operation Homefront.

“When I learned about Outback’s commitment to the troops and history of helping our local communities, it really felt like the perfect fit to partner with them in their efforts,” said McGraw. “Together with Outback, our shared goal is to help raise awareness and funds to help our selfless servicemen and women.”

For more information about the program, please visit Outback.com.

About Outback Steakhouse

Visit FightZone.TV for Airing Schedule

FightZone TV enters their fourth year of broadcasting the best of MMA events from around the country and UK with the premier of AFL1: “Unconquered Begins, Rumble At The Rock” which was held recently at the Seminole Hard Rock in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and features some of the top Florida MMA teams’ champions such as Ariel Gandulla of Bradenton, Fl. who took on Danny Babcock from Palm Bay, Fl. Bounmy Somchay of West Palm Beach as he squared off against Miami Street fighting and Youtube sensation Rene “Level” Martinez in his first professional MMA fight.

And as is often the case, the girls fight between Jessica Pene (6-0) who fought in Bellator and Angela Magana was one of the highlights of the evening.

Fight Zone TV’s Jay Adams, as always, was there to call the action and was joined by well known “E Hollywood True Stories” and “Celebrity Poker” television host A.J. Benza and former UFC veteran Din Thomas with Guest Announcer – Damian Pinto, longtime voice of Big Vision/Don King Productions in the cage.

An interesting impromptu challenge was caught on tape during Jay’s interview in the cage with celebrity guest, 3 times Boxing Heavyweight Champion of the World Michael Moorer who wound up challenging Kimbo Slice, also in the house, to a $5 million epic clash of the titans (see video below). Tune into Unconquered and FightZone TV’s next presentation to see where the callout goes.

FightZone TV, one of the nation’s largest Independent Distributors of MMA Programming, recently celebrated their 1000th Broadcast TV airing.

FightZone TV, entering their fourth year of MMA related broadcasting, is now available to over 23 million homes on Fox Sport Net’s (FSN) affiliates SunSports, SportSouth, and nationally on DIRECTV, The Dish Network and AT&T U-verse, reaching over 20% of US homes with cable TV.

Mirroring the explosive growth of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), FightZone TV has also added 5 new Promoter Partners to their already impressive line-up. These include Vendetta, X1 Hawaii, Art Of Fighting, Action Fight League and Pure Combat.

Debuting in October is the FightZone TV premier of Vendetta Fighting Championship’s tournament “A Night of Vengeance,” recently held on Aruba, which featured a stacked light heavyweight card that helped propel North Carolina fighter Rodney Wallace to a four fight UFC contract after going 3-0 against some tough competition that night.

The event was held tournament style featuring an 8 man light heavyweight tournament with some of the most promising fighters in the world. Carmello Marerro, Antwain Britt and Rodney Wallace were just a few of the fighters on the card. Other fights include Mr. International Shonie Carter facing off against Derrick “The Eraser” Noble as well as the always spectacular girl fight featuring Sarah Maloy and Rosa Columbo.

Along with FightZone’s Jay Adams in attendance were El Guapo himself, Bas Ruten & Kenny Rice providing Play By Play with ring announcer Tom Looney, voice of ESPN’s Best Damn Sports Show.

Vendetta and FightZone TV are set to return once again to the beautiful island of Aruba in February of 2010 and again in April for more explosive tournament action.

Also debuting in October is X-1 World Events, Hawaii’s premier fight promotion’s presentation of “Champions.” Several X-1 World titles are on the line, and some of the fighters showcased at the event include UFC/Rumble on the Rock veteran Wesley “Cabbage” Correira, The Ultimate Fighter alum Anthony Torres, UFC veteran Niko Vitale, former UFC/Pride heavyweight Ron “H2O” Waterman, big-time female boxer Mia St. John, and well-known island fighters Eddie Yagin and “Sugar” Shane Nelson.

A four-man tournament for the X-1 World Middleweight belt is also on the line, as Falaniko Vitale, Joey Guel, Ricky Shivers, and Kenny Ento all battle for the strap.

Rounding out this month’s action is Pure Combat’s “Home Turf” and Xtreme Fighting Association’s “XFN 3″ Kickboxing from Las Vegas.

November’s debuts include Art Of Fighting 4 from Tampa. Fl which features Seth Petruzelli vs. Chris Baten and Action Fight League’s exciting, sold out event, Rumble At The Rock, held at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, FL.

FightZone TV December Airings will feature new Pure Combat and Cage Wars Championship UK events.

Add to these airings, Jay Adams’ Brawl Call plus MMA 30 with Dave Farra and you have one of the most intense schedules of MMA content in the US with over 60 hours of national MMA programming monthly. FightZone TV is now available on almost a daily basis somewhere in the US.

For Airing Schedules and Commercial availability and Media Kit, visit www.FightZone.TV or email FightZoneMedia@aol.com or call 727-577-5500.

Contact Info

Vendetta Fighting Championship www.mmavendetta.com

X1 World Events www.x1events.com

PureCombat www.purecombatmma.com

Art Of Fighting www.artoffighting.tv

Xtreme Fighting Association www.xfalive.com

Cafe Wars Championship UK www.cagewars.co.uk

With the explosion in MMA Events and the rapid expansion of FightZone TV’s roster of Promoter Partners, FightZone TV’s co-owner and head commentator, Jay Adams is rapidly becoming the Matt Lauer of MMA.

Having just finished events for Pro Battle in Arkansas, Art of Fighting in Tampa, Intimidation in Cincinnati, Vendetta in Aruba and X1 in Hawaii. Jay is preparing to leave to call the Action Fight League event at the Seminole Hard Rock in Ft. Lauderdale (9/25) then headed to Washington, DC for Ultimate Warrior Challenge (UWC (10/03) , California for Pure Combat (10/17), back to AOF in Ft. Myers, FL (10/23) and Belfast Ireland for Cage Wars Championship UK (CWC) (11/29).

Jay is on TV more than the Geico Caveman. Maybe they could do The Amazing Race together.

FightZone TV, now airing every day somewhere in the US, is available to over 25 million homes on Fox Sport Networks’ Sun Sports (FL), Sport South (GA, AL, MS, TN, NC, SC) and nationally on DIRECTV, The Dish Network and ATT U-verse.

AT&T U-verse is being expanded in California thanks to legislation supported by California Legislators. The “Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006″ signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger provides an environment that encourages new video providers, such as AT&T California, to invest in the state to compete against incumbent cable providers.

Currently airing on FightZone TV is UWC “Capital Punishment” which features UWC Bantamweight Championship: Mike “The Hulk” Easton against Josh “Taz” Ferguson. Also on the card were: War Machine vs Reshad Woods; Joey Kirwan vs Marcus Foran; Damian “The Reach” Dantibo vs Ron “Choir Boy” Stallings among others. Tito Ortiz was in the house and can be seen cageside.

Next up is Pure Combat “Home Turf” followed by Art of War featuring Kimbo Slayer Seth Petruzelli recently held in Tampa, FL and then Action Fight League and Cage War Championships UK to round out the year.

Also airing this month are classic events from Real Fighting Championships (RFC-Tampa, FL); Cage Wars Championships (CWC UK) Ultimate Warrior Championships (UWC – Washington, DC); Xtreme Fighting Association (XFA Las Vegas), Mainstream (Iowa); Reality Combat Championships (RCC – Jacksonville); Gladiator Challenge (CA); Bonecrunch Fighting League (FL); World Fighting Championships (WFC, Tampa, FL) and Combat Fighting Championships (CFC – Orlando, FL)

For more information visit www.FightZone.TV

FightZone TV is proud to announce that they will once again be providing national television coverage for World Fighting Championships “Battle of the Bay 8,” an action-packed Mixed Martial Arts extravaganza at Tampa’s USF Sundome to be held on Friday, July 10, 2009.

The taped event, featuring cageside commentary by Fight Zone’s Jay Adams, will be aired nationally at a later date by FightZone TV to over 21 million homes on Fox Sport Net’s (FSN) affiliates SunSports, SportSouth, and nationally on DIRECTV, The Dish Network and AT&T U-verse, reaching over 20% of US homes with cable TV.

Famed music promoter Ted Lucas of Slip-N-Slide Records and fight promoter and WFC President, Tom Crowther have joined forces to present “Battle of the Bay 8 which will will feature a main event showdown with former UFC Champion and “Celebrity Rehab” star Ricco Rodriguez and Mario “Big Hurt” Rinaldi along with thrilling bouts from some of the top mixed martial artists in the country. To make the evening even more exciting, it will be hosted by special guest cage girl Amber Smith, star of VH-1 TV’S two hit reality series, “Celebrity Rehab” and “Sober House.” With Ricco and Amber Smith, both stars on “Celebrity Rehab,” the July 10th event will aim on creating anti-drug awareness and promote a world free of both recreational and sports-related drugs.

Tickets priced from $25 -$75 are on sale now and available at www.ticketmaster.com or www.mmawfc.com. VIP tables are also available starting at $1,000. Showroom doors open at 7pm, preliminaries start at 8pm, and main event commences at 11:30pm. The USF Sundome is located at 4202 East Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL 33620. Phone is (813) 974-3002. A portion of the proceeds from the event will go to Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, or CADCA whose mission is to create and maintain safe, healthy and drug-free communities.

The main bout of the evening features former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight and “Celebrity Rehab” star Ricco Rodriguez (29-10-0) against Mario “Big Hurt” Rinaldi (8-02-01). This is Rodriguez’s first fight since becoming clean and sober and losing his UFC belt. “After recovery comes redemption,” says Ricco. “I’m in great shape and ready for the ultimate comeback.”

Ricco Rodriquez is a former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion. He has also competed in PRIDE Fighting Championship, EliteXC, International Fight League, World Extreme Cagefighting and King of the Cage and holds notable wins over Andrei Arlovski, Jeff Monson and Randy Couture.

Rodriguez wrestled in high school while living in New York. He later moved to California and began training in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Rigan and Jean Jacques Machado. He competed and won many Jiu Jitsu tournaments before moving on to MMA. In 1997, Ricco Rodriguez became the first American to win a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship. He won the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship in the Absolute (open weight) division in 1998. In the following year Rodriguez began his MMA career with a win against Rocky Batastini. He won several of his first matches before losing to Bobby Hoffman at the Superbrawl 13 event in Hawaii. He later fought in the PRIDE Fighting Championship before moving on to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Rodriguez’s first UFC match was at UFC 32 against Andrei Arlovski which he won by TKO. Rodriguez went on to beat Williams, Jeff Monson (UFC 35) and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (UFC 37) to earn a title shot against heavyweight champion Randy Couture at UFC 39. Rodriguez was losing on the scorecard in the initial rounds. In the fifth round Rodriguez was able to achieve a ground-and-pound victory with a stoppage by verbal tapout.

Voted “One of the Sexiest Women in the World” by Maxim Magazine, Tampa- native Amber Smith will be the special guest cage girl. Amber has graced the covers of over 300 magazines worldwide, including Playboy, Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire and Maxim, with her initial fame concurrent with her appearances in two Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues. An internationally recognized supermodel and actress for almost 20 years, today Amber Smith is perhaps even more recognizable as one of the top reality TV stars in America for her participation in the VH-1 TV series “Celebrity Rehab” and its sequel “Sober House.” For more information on Amber, go to www.ambersmith.com.

“Battle of the Bay 8” will feature some of the most talented MMA fighters to step into the ring including Regino Pena vs. Dustin Winterhalt, Frankhad Sharapov vs. Chris Manuel, Brian Eckstein vs. Ralph Acosta, Zack Light vs. Patrick Mikesz, Alex Caceres vs. Matt McCook, Erik “War Face” Covik vs. Caleb Archer, James Wynn vs. Giovani Moljo, Joe Ricart vs. Malachy Freidman, Gino Tutera vs. Andrew Parker and James Powell vs. TBA.

The official “Battle of the Bay 8” WEIGH-INS will be held on Thursday, July 9 at 6pm at the Embassy Suites on USF campus, next to the Sundome and are OPEN to the public. The weigh-ins will include a meet and greet with the fighters as well as on-on-one interviews with the press, available upon request.

A portion of the proceeds Go To Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America.

ABOUT CADCA
Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, or CADCA, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works to strengthen the capacity of community coalitions in their effort to create and maintain safe, healthy and drug-free communities. CADCA supports its members with training and technical assistance, public policy advocacy, media strategies and marketing programs, conferences and special events. For more information, go to www.cadca.org.