Official MMA Thread

[NCRadioMan]

Strikeforce Women’s Tourneys Launch in April

The ladies have not been forgotten.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said two previously announced eight-woman tournaments, at 135- and 145-pounds, will kick off at the promotion’s Challengers event in April.

Strikeforce 145-pound champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos and Gina Carano, whom Santos defeated by first-round technical knockout last August in San Jose, Calif., will not compete in the tournaments, said Coker.

“We’re looking for the next women to fight the Gina Caranos and the Cris Cyborgs of the world,” Coker said.

Coker said the tournaments’ quarterfinals and semifinals would be “sprinkled” over a few events.

Sarah Kaufman, an undefeated Canadian striker who’s shined in her two Challengers appearances against Miesha Tate and Shayna Baszler, will not compete in the 135-pound tournament bracket.

“I think we’re going to be promoting Sarah against (Takayo) Hashi for our (vacant) 135-pound title,” said Coker. “I think that fight’s happening sooner than later -- February or March, for sure.”

Hashi, a Smackgirl veteran, has been victorious in her last eight outings. Her only career loss came to Strikeforce veteran Hitomi Akano at a Smackgirl event in August 2005.

Coker said the tournament winners would likely face the promotion’s champions in their next bouts.

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Lesnar is good to go, next fight this summer.

His next fight will either be against Mir/Carwin winner, or if they're unavailable, Nog/Cain winner.

UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar (4-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) says through a "miracle" of medicine, he will avoid surgery and return to the octagon this summer.

Lesnar, along with UFC president Dana White made the announcement on this morning's addition of ESPN's "SportsCenter."

The appearance was the heavyweight champion's first interview since being forced out of action with a series of ailments.

The ailment, which Lesnar confirmed was initially diagnosed as mononucleosis and then diverticulitis (or as Lesnar clarified in layman's terms, "a hole in my stomach"), has kept the champion out of action since July 2009 and forced the massive wrestler out of a scheduled November UFC 106 headliner with Shane Carwin.

Lesnar said he lost nearly 40 pounds after missing nearly three weeks of training camp and during an 11-day hospitalization and was told by multiple doctors that surgery was unavoidable. The champion said he continued to hold out hope that he could avoid an invasive procedure – which he says would have been career-ending – and through what he classified as "a miracle," a follow-up appointment on Jan. 5 showed his body had begun to heal itself.

"The doctors were dumbfounded", Lesnar said. "They couldn't find any problem in my stomach. It's just a miracle to me."

"I actually had to go to the doctor yesterday before I came out here and get another CT scan on my stomach because I just still can't believe it."

While an exact date for Lesnar's return was not announced, White said he hope to have his champion back in the octagon "this summer."

As Lesnar recovers, the UFC has booked an interim title fight at UFC 111 between former champion Frank Mir and top challenger Carwin, who was slated to face the champion before his illness struck. White said the winner of that contest would be in line for the first crack at Lesnar.

Should the winner of that fight prove unable to compete, White said the UFC 110 bout between fellow contenders Cain Velasquez and Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera would serve as a backup plan.

Lesnar said the traumatic, roller-coaster ride of the past six months has forced him to take a different view on life.

"I believe the mind is a powerful thing," Lesnar said. "I was put in a position, and I had to view my life and the world in a different (manner). I had a different take on life. When you have everything taken away from you, and you're laying helplessly in your hospital bed, not sure if I'm going to even get back in the octagon, something that I've grown to just love to do – this is my life."

Despite the changes, Lesnar wanted to clarify that one thing has remained the same.

"Lets be clear with that: I still am the UFC heavyweight champion." Lesnar said.

Here is a link to Lesnar on SportsCenter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gv_3...layer_embedded

[NCRadioMan]

UFC to announce outdoor Abu Dhabi card

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s much-discussed debut in the Middle East is expected to be announced in one week.

The press conference for UFC 112, which will take place April 10, is expected to include the announcement of three top matches, including two championship bouts.

“We’re going to have a big press conference in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, with our new partners from the region, Flash,” said Marshall Zelaznik, the UFC’s managing director of international expansion. "Zuffa CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and myself will be there with some of the biggest names on the UFC roster. I don’t want to give away the official announcement, but this will be a very unique show and not just because the card itself will be as good as any in UFC history.”

The card is expected to feature the return of Anderson Silva (25-4), ranked No. 1 in the Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound rankings. The middleweight champion will defend his title against former light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort (19-8). Silva hasn’t fought since an Aug. 8 win over Forrest Griffin and his subsequent elbow surgery.

B.J. Penn (15-5-1), ranked No. 4 in the same poll, is expected to defend his lightweight title against Frankie Edgar (12-1).

The third headline match is a battle of legends with two-time welterweight champion Matt Hughes (44-7), at 36 years old, facing Renzo Gracie (13-6-1), who will be 43 come match time. The match is significant for a couple of reasons.

For one, Hughes finished Renzo’s first cousin, Royce Gracie, on May 27, 2006, in Los Angeles in what was at the time the biggest pay-per-view event in UFC history.

For another, Renzo Gracie, who hasn’t fought in three years since a disqualification win over Frank Shamrock in the first MMA event ever on Showtime, can in many ways claim some responsibility for the show taking place in Abu Dhabi.

Gracie was the jiu-jitsu instructor for Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who ruled the country from 1966-2004. Sheik Tahnoon grew to love the sport so much that he brought many of the world’s best submission fighters to Abu Dhabi in 1998 for the first Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Fighting Championship.

The sheikh has attended several UFC events in person, and on Jan. 11, Flash Entertainment, an arm of the Abu Dhabi government, purchased 10 percent ownership in Zuffa, the UFC’s parent company.

The show is scheduled to be the first outdoor event in UFC history, as there is no suitable indoor arena for such an event.

[NCRadioMan]

Bobby Lashley has announced his opponent for the SF Miami.........Wes Sims.

This is a good fight for Lashley as Sims is very experienced. However, I don't think he have any problems with him.

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UFC president Dana White is not ruling out a Pride Fighting Championship revival in the future.

Speaking with Sun Media’s Scrapyard, White says he is pleased with the response to the historic Pride fights that have begun airing on SPIKE-TV Friday nights and if a growing number of fans tune in, a live Pride event may happen.

“You never know, anything is possible,” said White when asked if he’d consider hosting an event or two in a ring under the Pride brand.

“For its time slot on Friday night, the first episode pulled a good rating so we’re excited about that. We’re hoping that series will continue to do well.”

The UFC purchased Pride — considered by some the only real competitor to the UFC — in 2007 but was met with a hostile business climate in Japan when it tried to run the promotion. The promotion closed its offices in Japan in late 2007 and its stable of fighters were either signed to the UFC or dismissed outright.

“I don’t want to say the Pride name is dead. It’s still a strong powerful brand. But the reality is that us running Pride in Japan, that completely fell apart.”

Many of the UFC’s top fighters — including Wanderlei Silva, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cro-Cop — moved from Pride to the UFC after purchase.

Pride became famous with fight fans for its Grand Prix tournament-style fights as well as yellow cards — similar to those given in soccer — that were shown to fighters who were too inactive or disengaged in their fights.

There were subtle rule changes between Pride and the UFC and Pride was fought in a ring instead of an Octagon.

Primarily based Japan, Pride did hold one event in the United States

http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/othe...73911-qmi.html

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Ultimate Fighter 11 promises "new format"

Straying from the normal format and surely likely to cause more than a few head scratches, Ultimate Fighting Championship and Spike TV officials today confirmed that the upcoming 11th season of "The Ultimate Fighter" will feature 28 middleweight fighters.

The show traditionally features 16 or 32 competitors because of it's single-elimination tournament format, though officials promise a "new format" that will be revealed during the show's March 31 debut.

"TUF 11," which features former champs Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz as coaches, today went into production.

The "TUF 11" season debut airs at 10 p.m. ET/PT following Spike TV's broadcast of UFC Fight Night 21, which is expected to be headlined by Kenny Florian vs. Takanori Gomi.

As MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) recently reported, The Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale, which serves as the season's live-event conclusion, takes place on June 19.

But how does the cast go from 28 cast members to the final two? Without some tweaking, it's of course not possible – without first-round byes, double-eliminations or some other tinkering of the traditional tournament format. For example, a host of former UFC fighters (such as Bobby Southworth, Nick Thompson and Logan Clark) recently tried out for the show, and perhaps those UFC vets selected for the cast get an automatic berth into the second round.

Spike TV officials, though, told MMAjunkie.com the details of the format change will be kept under wraps until the March 31 debut.

[NCRadioMan]

Chael Sonnen is gunning for the middleweight belt, but he's also going after Anderson Silva for what he perceives as a falsehood being portrayed by the champion.

The Top 10 middleweight spoke to MMAWeekly Radio recently where he unloaded on Silva and his manager, Ed Soares, for some issues he has with the fighter most call the top pound-for-pound competitor on the planet. Sonnen says very candidly that he's hoping for a title shot if he gets past Nate Marquardt at UFC 109, but doesn't care one bit if it's Silva who's defending the belt.

"I would imagine, who knows what Anderson's doing. At the end of the day, who cares," said Sonnen. "If he wants to leave the division, leave the sport, who cares. Beat it, nobody tunes in to watch him anyways, and his little fake 'I don't speak English.

"You want me to let you in on a secret, Anderson Silva speaks perfect English. He just has such a low amount of respect for you and all the rest of the media that he pretends he doesn't. I've had conversations with Anderson Silva in perfect English, and on top of that he's so boring to listen to that he and his rocket scientist manager, Ed Soares, who is also about as exciting as watching grass grow, have decided that Ed is better on the mic than Anderson, so just let Ed do the talking."

Sonnen says Silva's disdain for the media reaches back to other fighters as well, who speak about the subject in private amongst themselves.

"It's quite ironic that all the media comes on and talks about how great this guy is for reasons that are completely un-understandable to me. How great Anderson Silva is, and all of us fighters are in the back going, 'jeez, they're out there massaging his ego, Anderson hates them so much, he pretends he can't understand them,’" Sonnen stated.

One person who will not be signing up for the Anderson Silva fan club anytime soon is Sonnen, who also slammed the champion for his top pound-for-pound status, and believes that if they ever do fight, the verbal warfare will be decidedly one-sided.

"That guy's no more the top fighter out there than Bigfoot is roaming the woods," said Sonnen. "That is an absolute myth, and all these guys can buy into it, but there's a young man out in Portland, Ore., that is not signing up on that bandwagon.

"If Anderson ever signed to fight me, which is highly unlikely, he'll be getting a verbal beating like you've never seen. And his language barrier won't be the point of interest."

Silva's manager spoke exclusively with MMAWeekly Radio after hearing Sonnen's comments and actually had some complimentary things to say about the Team Quest fighter, but believes that everything being said has a purpose behind it.

"Who is this that we're talking about?" Soares joked when Sonnen's name came up.

"I think Chael's a really super nice guy and every time I've met the guy he's always been really cool to me. That's weird that he would say stuff on the radio, but I think at the end of the day, Chael's not a dumb guy, he's a pretty smart guy," Soares commented. "I think no one will really pay attention to what he has to say unless he probably talks about Anderson."

Soares also reacted to Sonnen's comments about Silva's performances and believes he needs to look in the mirror before pointing the finger at anyone else.

"Anyone that has a mouth can say what they want," he said. "I don't think people pay too much attention to what Chael does. Saying that Anderson's boring or Anderson's this, Anderson's that, we don't even need to go back and see what Chael has done. If you really want to analyze Chael's career over the past couple years, he's had some wins, but he said he didn't tap against Paulo Filho. If the ref wouldn’t have stopped the fight, Paulo Filho would have his arm in Brazil with him.

"And when he beat Paulo Filho, he was 35 to 40 percent of a Paulo Filho and he took him to a decision. Then he went and fought Damien Maia, got submitted quick, and now he's going to fight Nate Marquardt which Nate just ended up knocking out Damien Maia. I think Chael should be really focused on his fight that he's got against Nate Marquardt because I can tell you right now that's probably going to be the hardest fight of his life. I would put my money on Nate."

Commenting about Silva's willingness to speak English also came up. While Soares admits that the champion has had some issues with the media in the past, overall he understands that it's all part of the business.

"He doesn't speak perfect English. It's definitely improving a lot and he can start to have a little bit more of a conversation with people, but at the end of the day when the lights are on and the camera is there, he likes to have someone next to him there to translate for him," Soares said.

The Brazilian manager understands that the fight game is a business, and Sonnen may be playing the part of the villain to perfection. He also knows that talking the way he is could prompt a rivalry and a shot at Silva's middleweight title.

"I don't know what he's doing, but I would be keeping my mouth shut and in the gym training, especially training his stand-up," Soares said in closing.


Although Anderson can speak English pretty well, Sonnen is such a tool. I really hope he gets to fight Silva. He would go down faster than Forrest.

Who does Chael Sonnen think he is? Rex Ryan. Anytime I hear Sonnen's name I think of him getting triangled from the mount by Damein Maia.

[NCRadioMan]

Originally Posted by Steelergar

Who does Chael Sonnen think he is?

He is Dana's official nuthugger. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAo2ryuRmEk

The guy is a joke.

[Tripp]

Originally Posted by NCRadioMan

He is Dana's official nuthugger. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAo2ryuRmEk

The guy is a joke.

He seemed like an OK guy when he was fighting in the WEC, and I really felt like he got robbed during the Paulo Fihlo fight. But ever since he moved back up to the UFC, he acts like such a tool. I can't stand him anymore.

[NCRadioMan]

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Forrest Griffin UFC 113

A light-heavyweight match-up between former UFC lightweight champion Forrest Griffin (17-6 MMA, 8-4 UFC) and recent Brazilian import Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (18-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC), otherwise known as "Lil Nog," is in the works for the recently rescheduled UFC 113 event in Montreal.

The fight was first reported Tuesday by Tatame.com and subsequently confirmed to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) by sources close to the situation.

Verbal agreements are in place, and contracts are expected to be finalized shortly.

[NCRadioMan]

Mixed martial arts has many opponents in the mainstream media, but few are as vocal or high-profile as Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, the hosts of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption.

So Herschel Walker accomplished something extraordinary in an appearance on PTI Wednesday by convincing both Kornheiser and Wilbon that they should check out his fight on Saturday night at Strikeforce Miami.

Knowing that Kornheiser and Wilbon were skeptical about MMA, Walker patiently explained to them why they shouldn't view MMA as a brutal endeavor.

"This sport has been cleaned up," Walker said. "I think football and boxing is worse. In boxing you get knocked down, they give you a standing eight count, you're still woozy and then you get back in there and fight. In football you've got all the concussions. Years ago this was a brutal sport, years ago there's no way I would have gotten involved in it, but it has become a sport, it has become an art."

Both Kornheiser and Wilbon have a long history of saying they find MMA abhorrent, but they obviously respect Walker.

"Herschel, what you're doing sounds insane to me, but I know you're very serious about it," Kornheiser said, adding that Walker seems like too sweet a person to hurt anyone,

Walker responded, "I don't know that I'm stepping in the cage to hurt anyone. I'm stepping in the cage to compete."

Strikeforce signed Walker for exactly the kind of publicity that he got in his Pardon the Interruption appearance, during which he was sure to promote Strikeforce and Showtime and to note that there are better fighters than him on Saturday night's card.

At the end of the interview, Walker had converted two MMA haters into people willing to give the sport a shot.

"I'm going to watch it now," Wilbon said. "I would not have watched otherwise, but I'm checking it out now."

Kornheiser added, "I'm going to watch with one eye."

http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/01/2...-interruption/

[NCRadioMan]

SF Miami Weigh In results!

My picks in bold.

Main Bouts:
Nick Diaz (169.5) vs. Marius Zaromskis (169) [title fight]
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (144.5) vs. Marloes Coenen (143.75) [title fight]
Greg Nagy (210.5) vs. Herschel Walker (214.25)
Robbie Lawler (185.75) vs. Melvin Manhoef (185.75)
Bobby Lashley (252.25) vs. Wes Sims (258.25)
Preliminary Bouts: (on EASportsMMA.com)
Jay Hieron (170.25) vs. Joe Riggs (170.5)

Herschel is not a normal human.




AL-TURK IN DOUBT FOR UFC 109 WITH VISA ISSUES

Rolles Gracie is still set to make his UFC debut on Feb. 6, but it may be against a new opponent. Mostapha Al-Turk has run into visa issues that could prevent the British fighter from making the trip to Las Vegas for the upcoming fight.

Sources close to the situation informed MMAWeekly.com about the visa problems on Friday, stating that if Al-Turk is not able to make the fight, Gracie would face an alternate opponent.

[NCRadioMan]

Originally Posted by NCRadioMan

My picks in bold.

Main Bouts:
Nick Diaz (169.5) vs. Marius Zaromskis (169) [title fight]
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (144.5) vs. Marloes Coenen (143.75) [title fight]
Greg Nagy (210.5) vs. Herschel Walker (214.25)
Robbie Lawler (185.75) vs. Melvin Manhoef (185.75) FAIL!
Bobby Lashley (252.25) vs. Wes Sims (258.25)
Preliminary Bouts: (on EASportsMMA.com)
Jay Hieron (170.25) vs. Joe Riggs (170.5)

5 out of six correct but that Lawler punch came out of nowhere after he was getting chopped down. He could barely walk after the fight. I would love to Lashley actually fight somebody worth a flip just to see what he can do. Herschel impressed me with his takedown and sub defense but obviously needs more time at striking. Decent card but not spectacular. The refs are stopping fights way too early more and more and I hate that. Does Mazagatti run a reffing school nowaways?

[NCRadioMan]

Originally Posted by NCRadioMan

Preliminary Bouts: (on EASportsMMA.com)
Jay Hieron (170.25) vs. Joe Riggs (170.5)

Forgot to mention, this was an Epic Fail. The EA servers crashed. They didn't anticipate how many would log on to see this fight. Saw about 3/4 of the first round.

[zitro_joe]

I was laughing at Herchel salsa dancing. He was solid for training two months, looked green but did everything right for a newb...

I bet lawler has a cracked bone. Lawler was hurt but I don't think he was about to KO'd like the commentary noted. His head movement was on point, and a lot of the shot where deflected. That being said a deflect shot from Melvin can still put most other to sleep. Shamrock stated that Melvin never saw the punch coming, I completely disagree. Robbie was standing right in front of him, RL was hunched over when he threw that overhand right so essentially in was straight down the pipe. I watched fight like eight times (that KO was nasty). RL saw that lead hand down at his waist and knew exactly what to do. Very impressed, I still remember the RL back in the day, the young that got KO'd b Nick Diaz. Diaz was entertaining - as always.

[NCRadioMan]

Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham welterweight fight UFC 111

Nate Diaz (11-5 MMA, 6-3 UFC) moves up a weight class to fight Rory Markhman (16-5 MMA, 1-1 UFC) next month on the preliminary card of UFC 111.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) first reported the likelihood of the bout last month, and UFC executives recently made it official.

UFC 111 takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The fight card, which includes two title fights, will be complete once a previously reported welterweight bout of Thiago Alves vs. Jon Fitch is officially announced for the main card.

[NCRadioMan]

Gracie vs. Beltran at UFC 109

Just three weeks removed from a regional-show win over Houston Alexander, the "Mexicutioner" will make his UFC debut.

The UFC today officially announced that heavyweight newcomer Joey Beltran (10-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has agreed to step in for Mostapha Al Turk and face fellow octagon rookie Rolles Gracie (3-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) on the preliminary card of Saturday's "UFC 109: Relentless" event.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) first reported the likely switch on Monday.

UFC 109 takes place Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The main card airs live on pay-per-view.

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Nelson vs Struve UFC Fight Night 21

A heavyweight bout between "The Ultimate Fighter 10" winner Roy Nelson (14-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC) and fast-rising contender Stefan Struve (19-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC) is set for next month's UFC Fight Night 21 event.

A source close to one of the competitors today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) bout agreements have been signed for the long-rumored bout.

Nelson posted a Twitter message earlier today that he had been granted a fight with boxer James Toney, though MMAjunkie.com confirmed it's simply the latest prank from "Big Country."

UFC Fight Night 21, which serves a lead-in for the debut season of "The Ultimate Fighter 11," takes place March 31 at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, N.C., and airs on Spike TV. Top lightweight contender Kenny Florian is expected to meet UFC newcomer Takanori Gomi in the night's main event.

WAR Nelson! I will have see about tickets for this one.

[ActionAndy]

I like Gomi but I don't like his odds against Florian. It'd be nice to see some more Japanese fighters, they seem to be really underrepresented in the UFC. When the hell is Akiyama fighting again?

[NCRadioMan]

Strikeforce, UFC draw big TV numbers
By Dave Meltzer

The television head-to-head battle on Saturday night between UFC and Strikeforce turned out to be a win on both sides.

Strikeforce’s live event on Saturday night from Sunrise, Fla., largely built around the mixed martial arts debut of football legend Herschel Walker, drew 517,000 viewers. It is the second-most viewers for an MMA event on Showtime, trailing only the 571,000 viewers on Aug. 15 for the Gina Carano vs. Cris “Cyborg” Santos fight.

As is usually the case when Strikeforce has a major event, UFC countered on Spike TV with the cable debut of a taped major event, in this case airing the Dec. 12 UFC 107 show, headlined by B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez and Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo.

That show had a 1.64 rating and 2.2 million viewers. It would be the second-highest rated for a replay of a UFC PPV event in history. Most UFC PPV replays put against a Showtime event are in the 1.2 rating range.

This trailed only the 1.7 rating that a replay of the UFC 91 show, headlined by Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar, did. Even though it was taped, it was the most watched television show on cable on Saturday among men in Spike’s key demographics, males 18-34 and males 18-49.

The show drew more viewers than many UFC live events on the station, including beating all but one live Fight Night special in the last 17 months. The show peaked with 2.5 million viewers for the Mir vs. Kongo fight at about 11:45 p.m.

Sounds like UFC trounced SF..........however:

A huge reason the UFC got more viewers was because Showtime is a premium cable channel with 12 million subscribers, while Spike is in nearly 98.6million homes. So if you compare numbers Strikeforce actually outperformed the UFC by a ratio of 4.3/2.2 or about 2:1 if you put the numbers to scale based on actual viewership vs. potential viewership. 4.3% of Showtimes potential viewership watched Strikeforce while 2.2% of Spikes potential viewership watched UFC. These are rough numbers, but you get idea of how they performed against eachother.

[NCRadioMan]

Lots o' bits today:


Coker: Overeem to defend title in May; Herschel on CBS?

On The Fight Show with Mauro Ranallo: (audio)
- Alistair Overeem will defend the Strikeforce Heavyweight Title in May. Opponent is yet to be determined. (It's about freaking time.)

- Erin Toughill will be the next opponent for Cris Cyborg, targeting a late summer title fight.

- The 145 pound women's tournament will have a Summertime launch.

- Nick Diaz will go up and down in weight, fight out of his weight class but also defend the welterweight title.

- Herschel Walker will want to fight again and Strikeforce will support him. The $600 purse took care of licensing fees, as he as not fighting for a purse and donated his purse to charity.

- Despite WEC and UFC pay per views, Strikeforce is still targeting April CBS show.

- Jake Shields offered fight contract but not yet signed.

- Mousasi vs King Mo: will happen but not yet confirmed.

"UPDATE" - Herschel game for another fight in April according to Sherdog.com:
A CBS representative told Sherdog.com Wednesday that the network would be open to hosting Walker’s next fight on the April card.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said he planned to call Walker and his trainers on Thursday to a gage their interest in another bout. Coker didn’t rule out an April return.

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Griffin vs. Nogueira likely for UFC 114 in Las Vegas, not UFC 113 in Montreal

An intriguing light heavyweight matchup between perennial fan favorite Forrest Griffin (17-6 MMA, 8-4 UFC) and recent Brazilian import Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (18-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC) is still happening in May, but both fighters have a few extra weeks to get ready.

MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com) has learned from sources close to Griffin that the contest, which was originally believed to be taking place at UFC 113 in Montreal on May 8, is actually targeted for UFC 114 in Las Vegas on May 29.

Bout agreements for the matchup, which is likely for a co-main event slot, are expected to be finalized shortly.

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Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves II completes UFC 111 pay-per-view main card

A welterweight bout and long-awaited rematch between Jon Fitch (21-3 MMA, 11-1 UFC) and Thiago Alves (16-6 MMA, 9-3 UFC) officially has been added to next month's UFC 111 event and completes the March 27 fight card.

MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com) first reported the UFC 111 bout, which was initially expected to take place at UFC 107, back in December.

UFC 111 takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., and Fitch vs. Alves is one of five fights slated to air on pay-per-view.

(A source close to the event told MMAjunkie.com that a one-hour "UFC Prelim" special will likely air in conjunction with UFC 111 on Spike TV.)

The official UFC 111 lineup now includes:

MAIN CARD

Champ Georges St-Pierre vs. Dan Hardy (for welterweight title)
Shane Carwin vs. Frank Mir (for interim heavyweight title)
Thiago Alves vs. Jon Fitch
Martin Kampmann vs. Ben Saunders
Mark Bocek vs. Jim Miller

PRELIMINARY CARD

Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham
Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown
Fabricio Camoes vs. Kurt Pellegrino
Jared Hamman vs. Rodney Wallace
Tomasz Drwal vs. Rousimar Palhares
Ricardo Funch vs. Matthew Riddle

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Wisconsin Signs MMA Regulation Bill Into Law

Wisconsin became the 43rd state to sanction mixed martial arts when Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law a bill to regulate the sport.

The state's Department of Regulation and Licensing will govern the fights, adding MMA to its duties overseeing pro boxing contests.

Unlike other states, Wisconsin's law passed through the legislative process in just a few months. The bill was first introduced in September 2009.

MMA fighters and notables that have links to the state include Eric Schafer, Pat Barry, Duke Roufus, Anthony Pettis and Jameel Massouh. Organizations have run unsanctioned events in the state for years but will now fall under state jurisdiction.

New York is the most prominent state that does not sanction MMA, but Gov. David Paterson recently unveiled a bill to regulate it in the Empire State.

The other states that have yet to sanction the sport are Alabama, Connecticut, Vermont, West Virginia, Alaska and Wyoming. The last two states, however, have no athletic commissions in place.

[ActionAndy]

If Overeem ends up fighting Fedor...

[NCRadioMan]

Unfortunately, Fedor is scheduled to fight on the CBS April card so he won't fight Overeem......yet.