Mike Bourke Details Conversation with Wyoming Commission, says Merriman had no Fighter Application done or Medicals Turned in

On November 20th, 2018, Mike Bourke, who was set to fight Shawne Merriman on November 9th in Casper, Wyoming, would detail what happened leading into their fight, his conversation with the Athletic Commission and wanting to fight Tyler King at WBKFF 2.

Bourke tells Adam LeBarr:

“Fighters, Family and friends First of all I would like to thank you all for the support. Everyone that knows me knows I was ready to fight. Unfortunately it didn’t happen and here is my side of it all. The week of October 20th I was informed the Wyoming commission was not going to let me fight. So I called them to see what was going on. They had a concern about me because of a crappy fight I had had in Romania a few years ago. And admittedly I looked terrible. I had been sitting on the couch for years. When I got the call to fight in Romania. I didn’t even have time to train. It was only a week away and I said sure I will do it. I don’t turn down a fight. Anyways after telling Nick Meeker all this and telling him how hard I had been training and sent him ( the Wyoming athletic commission) video of me training. So this was on October 26th a few hours after Nick and I had talked he said the commission has now approved me to fight. I was absolutely thrilled to say the least. So I let everyone in the organization know I was cleared to go. A week or so later I got news that their was a problem with Merrimans contract. Maybe I would get to fight Tyler King which brought a huge smile to my face! Dude is a disrespectful punk and I wanna smash his face in. So with all this in the works l had talked to the Wyoming commission several times. My fight with Merriman could not be approved because he had no fighter application done or medicals turned in. So the commission cant approve anything. They got nothing to approve! So days went by now I’m waiting to see what’s going on with the Tyler King fight and I get a call the Monday before the fight and they say Merriman is going thru arbitration you might fight him again. Well I guess at that point it was to close to the actual fight day and nothing happened for me. But I did watch the fights WBKFF put on a great 1st show and all the fighters did a hell of a job !! With all this being said I really hope I get to fight Tyler King on the next show !! In all my years of fighting never has anyone disrespected me or my family. Their is a heavy price to pay and I’m gonna collect it !! Thank you.”

Bryan Pedersen, member of the Wyoming Athletic Commission also brought to the attention of Tom Stankiewicz (Owner), Bas Rutten (President), and the rest of the WBKFF staff that they hadn’t originally approved Bourke to fight Merriman, and his status was “pending approval”. These were documents provided to a former employee of the organization, in which have now been made available to Tom and Bas.

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(photo via: Balitmore Sun)