IFL fighter Jeremy Williams passed away Saturday. The Wrestling Observer web site reported it as an apparent self-inflicted gunshout wound. Here is an official press release from the IFL regarding Williams:

The International Fight League (OTC.BB: IFLI), the world's first team-based professional mixed martial arts league, is deeply saddened to announce the passing of Southern California Condors middleweight Jeremy Williams, 27, of Laguna Niguel, Calif.  The Orange County, Calif., Sheriff's Department - Coroner Division confirmed that Williams died Saturday and that an autopsy will be performed to determine cause of death.

"This is a very sad day for the Williams family, Jeremy's teammates and all of the Mixed Martial Arts community," IFL Co-founder and Commissioner Kurt Otto said.  "Jeremy was a tremendous competitor and teammate, as well as being a very strong person who lifted the spirits of everyone around him.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Jeremy's wife, Lauren, their young daughter and the rest of his family, as well as his coaches Marco Ruas and Debi Purcell and all his teammates.  Everyone at the IFL, as well as the entire MMA community, will do everything we can to support them in their hour of need."

Williams owned a professional record of 7-2 and was undefeated in his first two IFL fights, last competing at the Forum in Los Angeles on March 17, when he defeated the Tokyo Sabres' Kazuhiro Hamanaka.  One of the rising stars of the first-year league, Williams was going to miss the Condors' next matchup at the Sears Centre in Chicago on May 19, due to a recent recurrence of a sternum injury.

Our latest edition of IFL Insider is live.

It is a slow week in mixed martial arts, as it seems the industry as a whole is stepping aside and letting boxing take the spotlight this week for the big Oscar DeLaHoya-Floyd Mayweather fight.

(As an aside, you'll read all sorts of nonsense about UFC and MMA from the boxing media over the next few days, from witless attempts at snark to flat-out inaccuracy about the sport. It isn't even worth getting bothered over anymore).

Now that the MMA business is taking a rare breather, I want to pose a question for readers:

How much MMA is too much?

Are you keeping up with all the shows?

Are you still watching every edition of The Ultimate Fighter?

Do you watch the IFL every week?

Are you interested in the show at the L.A. Coliseum on June 2, or the Strike Force PPV with Frank Shamrock and Phil Baroni later that month?

Or do you find yourself starting to pick and choose what you watch, and skipping shows you normally would have watched?

Have at it ... how much is too much?

Much has been made of Gabriel Gonzaga's big right kick, which floored Mirko Cro Cop and made Gonzaga an instant star.

As it should: the KO will go down as one of MMA's all-time highlight reel moments.

But not as much has been made of the solid work done by Gonzaga simply to get to that point.

In the opening minute of the fight, Gonzaga used a staccato rhythm to dodge in and out of Mirko's range, preventing the Croatian sensation from settling into the sort of patient groove that is his trademark.

Gonzaga also knew body kicks were on the way. He absorbed the first one, didn't flinch and scored the takedown.

From there, he hit Cro Cop with a ground and pound assault, mixing in punches and elbows.

By the time Mirko gets back to his feet after Herb Dean's re-start, he doesn't look like the Mirko we've all come to expect.

Click here to check out the takedown and ground sequence that helped Gonzaga set the tone for his victory.

(No, we don't have the knockout itself. Sorry.)

Much ado is being made over the fact that fighters were not drug tested after UFC 69 and 70.

Let's lay out some facts here before the rhetoric zooms out of control:

*UFC, under Zuffa LLC, has done the bulk of its shows in Nevada, and have also done several in the past 13 months in California. Both of these states mandate drug testing at MMA shows conducted under their jurisdiction, and the commissions don't mess around, either.

As an example, a Nevada State Athletic Commission official was waiting for Joe Stevenson to take his test the moment he arrived in his locker room after his match at the recent Ultimate Fight Night at Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas back on April 5.

*The commissions have teeth, and they've handed out suspensions to the likes of Stephan Bonnar, Vitor Belfort, Thialgo Alves, and Nick Diaz, among others.

*Neither the state of Texas nor the United Kingdom mandate drug testing at shows. Granted, UFC could have commissioned a third-party to administer drug tests, for appearances sake, but it was not a requirement in order to hold shows in those jurisdictions.

*Another point for those who are constantly trying to find conspiracies where none exist: UFC 71 is at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas; the June 26th Ultimate Fighter Finale is at the Palms in Vegas; word is UFC 73 on July 7 will be in Sacramento; UFC 74 on August 25 is expected back in Vegas; and preliminary word is the September PPV will emanate from Anaheim. Pretty odd for a promotion that some are trying to claim is ducking testing to go scheduling the bulk of their shows for the next several months in states where testing is most rigorously enforced, no?

Mixed martial arts has issues with steroids and drugs that the industry is going to need to address. No doubt about it. But this specific instance is a case of barking up the wrong tree. If you look at Zuffa's past, in which the company has actively courted commission oversight from the get-go, and the future, where they are going right back into states where testing is standard, then to look at the lack of testing at UFC 69 and 70 as anything other than a blip on the radar is just plain silly.