UFC 1 competitor Patrick Smith (14-13) replaces "Big Daddy" Gary Goodridge (23-16-1) versus "Butterbean" Eric Esch (10-5-1) on 11 April's YAMMA Pit Fighting card in Atlantic City. Smith had originally been floated as a replacement for "The Predator" Don Frye (19-6-1) versus "The Russian Bear" Oleg Taktarov (15-5-2) until his arrest after allegedly leading police on a high-speed motorcycle chase in Oklahoma 21 March. Smith's charges were reduced to misdemeanors allowing him to make the YAMMA debut. Goodridge was pulled from the card after being knocked out by Mu Bae Choi (7-2) in South Korea on 30 March and rendered ineligible according to the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. ...

UFC co-founder Bob Meyrowitz and UFC 8 champion Don Frye will come together in Atlantic City April 11 to recapture past glory. Meyrowitz has formed YAMMA Pit Fighting, an MMA promotion set to return to the tournament format of the original UFC events. “It’s with great excitement that we launch YAMMA Pit Fighting,” says Bob Meyrowitz.  “Our deep and proven knowledge of the entertainment and MMA spheres put us in a great position to add a new dimension to the presentation of MMA as it moves into the future.” YPF will debut at the Trump Taj Mahal with a main event featuring 44-year old Fry versus Russian UFC veteran Oleg Taktarov. Since sitting out 2005, Frye, 18-6-1, has remained active since submitting Chad Rowan in K-1 Hero's in May 2006.  He's 4-1-1 since 2006. Taktarov, 15-5-2, retired in 1998, but returned in 2007 with kneebar submission of John Marsh in BodogFIGHT. Despite being apart of the same era of UFC competition, the two fighters have never faced each other.  The YPF debut will be broadcast via PPV. ...