MMA Week In Review: Justin Levens Dead, Will Ribeiro Critically Injured, More

For the first time in weeks, there were no major events to report on, giving the fight-weary a chance to recharge in preparation for UFC's The Ultimate PPV on Saturday, December 27th.

But fans would rather have to watch another show than have to hear reports of an apparent suicide and a life-threatening accident.

- On Wednesday, fighter Justin Levens and wife Sarah were both found dead in their Laguna Nigel, CA, condo.

The 28-year-old Justin (seen above) died of a gunshot to the head, while his 25-year-old wife had suffered a single gunshot to the chest that penetrated her heart. Reportedly, both had been dead for a few days and were found by her mother on Wednesday afternoon.

Police reported that a handgun was found near Justin's body and if the assumed murder-suicide theory is correct, they feel he was the shooter. Levens had been serving a suspension by the California State Athletic Commission for a banned substance prior to Affliction's Banned show earlier this year and had recently lost a match he fought on an Indian reservation show in Lemoore, CA.

In 2003, Levens was convicted of spousal injury.

After starting out his career at 9-3, Levens (9-8) was on a five-fight losing streak. He competed for the UFC and WEC in 2005 and 2006, compiling a 3-3 record with losses to Evan Tanner and Scott Smith. He also went winless during a three-fight stay in the IFL.

- Just weeks after losing to Brian Bowles at WEC 37, Will Ribeiro got into a motorcycle accident in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and is in a life-threatening coma.

The accident happened around 1 a.m. on Tuesday while Ribeiro was riding passenger and not wearing a helmet.

On the WEC website, manager Ed Soares said, “My assistant said that the doctor said for sure that he (Ribeiro) has lost sight in one of his eyes,” Soares said. “He’s still in a coma. After surgery, the doctor said there is a 50-50 shot that he will come out of it (survive).”

- In happier news, the UFC announced their Fight For The Troops fundraising event on Spike TV raised over $4 million for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

It will go toward a $65 million Bethesda, MD, facility that will assist troops that suffer from traumatic brain injury following combat. Over two million people watched the event headlined by Josh Koscheck.

- Affliction had a conference call this week to generate some buzz for their January event, headlined by Fedor (seen right) vs. Andrei Arlovski.

There wasn't a lot of notable news coming out of the call, but of note was Affliction MMA V.P. Tom Atencio saying the group hopes to do four events in 2009 and that Fedor's next opponent (if he beats Arlovski) could be the winner of Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel. Renato Sobral, Josh Horodecki, Atencio and Vladimir Matyushenko were on the call.

Ropes, Ring and Cage. com will do a full preview in the week leading up to the Day of Reckoning event.

- It was heard this week that UFC will air the Brock Lesnar title win over Randy Couture on Spike TV as counter-programming against the Affliction show. This has not been formally announced yet, but given the group's past with such counter-programming measures, this isn't a surprise.

- Finally seeing the TV light of day will be Fight of the Year candidate Donald Cerrone vs. Rob McCullough as part of a WEC Best of 2008 special.

The two-hour show debuts on December 28th on Versus and will also feature Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver, Miguel Angel Torres vs. Yoshira Maeda and Carlos Condit vs. Hiromitsu Miura.

- And while this is a few weeks old, Five Ounces of Pain really did a great job in snagging post-show interviews with all competitors from season eight of The Ultimate Fighter. You can read Sam Caplan's talks with Ryan Bader, Junie Browning, Eliot Marshall and George Roop.

Look forward to an MMA upcoming event update with plenty of UFC, Affliction and WEC news tomorrow.

Josh Nason—josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com]—has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. If you are using any content or recapping from this site, please include a link to www.ropesringandcage.com. Thank you for your support!