Strikeforce Potentially to Sign With NBC

A Strikeforce show is expected to air on Saturdays beginning in mid-April on NBC.

The show will apparently be patterned after the "PRIDE Fighting Championships" shows that air on FOX Sports Net and the "UFC Unleashed" episodes that broadcast on Spike TV. However, the Strikeforce shows will likely also include fighter interviews with the organization's better-known personalities, such as Frank Shamrock, Cung Le, Gilbert Melendez and Nick Thomson -- fighters that have been significant draws in California, where Strikeforce is headquartered. One source said the shows could also "extensively" promote Strikeforce pay-per-views and other upcoming live events.

As it stands, the only major network currently slated to feature live events is CBS, which announced a deal with EliteXC's parent company earlier this month. The deal will put four live EliteXC events on CBS every year. The first is expected to take place in May and will air in primetime on a Saturday night.

As of right now, no other organization is ever on TV except for UFC though. While people are murmering about the emergence of other organizations landing tv deals, we have never seen one on our television sets. EliteXC, HdNet, Dream 1, IFL (which lost it's tv deal), Strikeforce, M-1 Global, HFC, XFA. None of those fights have been on anything other than the internet. It's tough to have a few people over to watch a 17 inch monitor full of scrambled fights.

As much as Dana White may be treating the fighters like garbage, he has a seriously valid point about all these other organizations talking about how big they're getting and the deals they're putting together. I haven't seen it, and neither has anyone in the U.S.

The only thing we can be assured of is every month there is a UFC event live on pay per view (which have been sub par as of late) and a live event on Spike TV every 3 months.

I'll prove to you how little it means that these other organizations are out there. Mirko 'Cro Cop' fought last night and no one probably even knew he was even supposed to. If that fight was in the UFC you would have heard about it for a full month prior to the fight.

These other organizations are just trying to dip into the popularity of MMA and try to make a quick buck off a rising product. However, if the product is invisible, there's not going to be any thing to dip into. By the way, Cro Cop fought a spaz and won in 56 seconds.

WEC Champ Paulo Filho Withdraws from Title Fight

WEC middleweight champ Paulo Filho (16-0) has pulled out of a March 26 title fight and rematch with Chael Sonnen (19-9-1) to check himself into an undisclosed rehabilation center, the organization announced on Thursday.

Filho is seeking help for a substance-abuse problem.The WEC event will now feature a main event between WEC light heavyweight champ Doug Marshall and Brian Stann. It takes place at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., and airs live in high-definition on the VERSUS network at 9 p.m. ET.

Filho and Sonnen first met in December at WEC 31. Filho kept his undefeated streak alive with a second-round submission via armbar. However, the fight ended with a bit of controversy as Sonnen, who had dominated much of the fight, claimed he never verbally tapped. Sonnen groaned in pain from the submission -- and it was clearly audible to the television audience -- but he said it was never intended to be a verbal tap-out.

Filho, widely regarded as one of the world's top middleweight fighters, first joined the WEC last year after a successful career with PRIDE Bushido. He won the the WEC middleweight title with an August TKO victory over veteran Joe Doerksen.

Angle to Face Couture in Submission Bout

It's been confirmed that Kurt Angle will face AWOL UFC Heavyweight Champ Randy Couture in a modified submission only bout. It's not exactly MMA but might be a step in the direction Dana White has been pushing the 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist. Angle says the bout should take place sometime in the late summer or early fall.

"I've always wanted to do (MMA), from after the Olympics, and I just never got the shot," Angle said. "I've been keeping myself in really, really good shape, but not in the fighting shape you have to be in to go into MMA."

After the match, Angle will continue to pursue a transition into MMA, something the 39-year-old has been trying to do for several years. Angle has had contract negotiations with several organizations, including the UFC, though none of those discussions led to a deal.

Thales Leites vs. Nate Marquardt Set for UFC 85

Visa issues forced Thales Leites (12-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) to cancel a scheduled October 2006 bout with Nate Marquardt (26-7-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC), and then a broken hand forced him out of a second attempt at the fight last month at UFC 81. However, the two UFC middleweights will give the fight a third try at UFC 85 in London.

The fight has been accepted and Marquardt has signed a bout agreement.

UFC 85 takes place June 7 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Chuck Liddell meets Marquardt's training partner, Rashad Evans, in the night's main event.

With the UFC's middleweight division short on contenders, the winner of the Leites-Marquardt bout could inch very close to a potential title shot.

After Leites pulled out of the UFC 81 fight, Marquardt instead took on late replacement and veteran fighter Jeremy Horn. Marquardt dominated the fight and earned a second-round victory after securing a guillotine choke. It was the 28-year-old's seventh victory in his past eight fights, with the only loss coming in a title shot with Anderson Silva at UFC 73.

Leites, a 26-year-old Brazilian, made his UFC debut at The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale and dropped a unanimous decision to middleweight standout Martin Kampmann; it was the first loss of his career. Leites has bounced with a three-fight winning streak, which includes victories over Pete Sell, Floyd Sword and Ryan Jensen.

Chuck Liddell Willing to Fight for Heavyweight Title

First things first: Chuck Liddell wants to remain at 205 lbs. so he can reclaim his light heavyweight title. However, the former champ says he's willing to move up to the heavyweight division to fight interim champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira if the UFC makes the request.

Liddell talked about the possible move while a recent guest on Fight Network Radio.

"That's a possibility if they want to do it," Liddell told host Mauro Ranallo when asked about the fight with Nogueira. "If they want to set it up. I'm willing to do it."

Nogueira, the former PRIDE heavyweight champion, made his UFC debut in 2007. After a victory over Heath Herring, he took on Tim Sylvia at UFC 81 and won the organization's interim heavyweight title with a third-round submission.

UFC hall-of-famer Randy Couture is the organization's current heavyweight champ, but he resigned from the organization in October after a dispute with key UFC executives. The UFC maintains that Couture, in fact, retired from the sport, and UFC president Dana White said he won't strip him of the title until Couture fulfills the terms of his contract (fighting twice more in the UFC). Couture and his lawyers maintain that he's free to fight for other organizations when his contract expires in October. The matter will likely be determined by the courts.

In the meantime, the organization is moving forward with Nogueira -- for all intents and purposes -- as the UFC's current heavyweight champion. Fabricio Werdum was expected to get the next title shot, but rumors are circulating that he'll be fighting Brandon Vera at UFC 85 in June.

The UFC has yet to schedule Nogueira for his first title defense.

Liddell, meanwhile, will fight Rashad Evans in UFC 85's main event. With a victory, he hopes he'll get a third shot at Quinton Jackson, who took his belt this past May at UFC 71, if he gets by Forrest Griffin in July (at UFC 86).

"I would definitely like it to happen before the end of the year," Liddell said. However, he's not ruling out a fight with Nogueira.

"Honestly I would like to get my title back at light heavyweight and then talk about moving up," he said. "But if that came up, (that) too is a possibility."

As it stands, there may be no better time than now to move up since the UFC's heavyweight division is in a bit of disarray. A year ago, the division never looked so stacked. However, Couture recently resigned, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic suffered back-to-back losses and left the UFC, former champ Tim Sylvia lost to Nogueira in February, one-time contender Gabriel Gonzaga has lost two fights in a row, fringe contender Cheick Kongo was recently stopped by Heath Herring, and former title-holder Andrei Arlovski may be on his way out of the organization now that he's a free agent.

There is, however, a strange rumor that Liddell would even like to fight Fedor Emelianenko. Liddell has stated that he matches up against the former Pride Phenom, saying Fedor doesn't trade well and he'll be able to stuff Fedor's takedowns. That fight would be much better than Fedor and Couture.

Herman vs. Maia Set for UFC 83

The UFC today made official the long-rumored UFC 83 bout between middlweights Ed Herman (14-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC) and Demian Maia (6-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC). With the booking, UFC 83 now features a total of 11 bouts.

UFC 83 takes place April 19 at the Bell Centre in Montreal; it'll be the UFC's first-ever event in Canada. UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra meets interim champ Georges St. Pierre in a title-unification main event, and former middleweight champ Rich Franklin meets "The Ultimate Fighter 4" winner Travis Lutter in a co-main event.

The 27-year-old Herman, one of the most experienced fighters cast for the third season of "The Ultimate Fighter," made it to the show's finals but lost to Kendall Grove. In his very next fight, he was quickly submitted by Jason MacDonald for his second straight loss, but the Team Quest fighter quickly turned things around. First came a first-round submission of Chris Price at UFC Fight Night 8, then came a second-round submission of Scott Smith at UFC 72. He most recently earned a third-round knockout of veteran fighter Joe Doerksen -- the first knockout of his career -- this past November at UFC 78.

Herman now faces an undefeated Maia, who's racked up a 6-0 record since turning pro in December 2006. The 30-year-old made his UFC debut at Cincinnati's UFC 77 event, where he submitted Ryan Jensen with a first-round rear-naked choke.

Although Maia hasn't fought the biggest names in MMA, every fighter the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt has beaten currently has a winning record. Five of the six victories have come via first-round stoppages.

UFC events have traditionally featured nine fights, but with approximately 250 fighters signed to contracts, the organization has been booking a growing number of bouts for each event. UFC Fight Night 13, for example, will likely feature 12 fights next month.

The Ultimate Fighter 7 to kick off with sixteen bouts

The seventh season of The Ultimate Fighter, coached by UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and season one winner Forrest Griffin, will begin with a total of 32 middleweights, Spike TV has confirmed.

But the number of middleweights competing for the six-figure UFC contract will be cut in half by the end of the second episode. A total of 16 elimination bouts will air, mostly through highlights, in the first two episodes to narrow down the field of contestants.

According to Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports, this season's cast includes:

David Baggett (4-2), Steve Byrnes (6-1), Paul Bradley (5-0), Matt Brown (4-2), Erik Charles (0-0), John Clarke (5-2), Daniel Cramer (0-0), Tim Credeur (9-2), Mike Dolce (3-4), Clarence Dollaway (0-0), John Hall (3-3), Gerald Harris (6-2), Nick Klein (3-0), David Mewborn (0-0), Mike Marrello (7-1-1), Jeremy May (5-5), Prince LaDonas McLean (4-5), Aaron Meisner (2-0), Reggie Orr (4-5-1), Matthew Riddle (0-0), Jeremiah Riggs (1-0), Dante Rivera, (10-2), David Roberts (5-7), Nick Rossborough (0-0), Amir Sadollah (0-0), Patrick Schultz (0-3), Brandon Sene (2-0), Dan Simmler (0-0), Jesse Taylor (6-2), Cale Yarbrough (0-0), John Wood (6-3) and Luke Zachrich (7-1).

The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest premieres April 2 at 10:00pm ET and will air every Wednesday until the season finale on Saturday, June 21 from the Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The first episode directly follows a live broadcast of the Kenny Florian-Joe Lauzon headlined UFC Fight Night in Broomfield, Colorado.

'Cro Cop' draws new opponent for March 15 DREAM

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (22-6-2) will now take on Tatsuya Mizuno (3-2) on March 15 at the inaugural DREAM event at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan, promoters announced today.
"Cro Cop" was previously slated to face fellow PRIDE veteran Yoshihiro Nakao. It is unknown why there was a change of opponent.

Mizuno, a member of Kiyoshi Tamura's U-FILE camp, will be competing for the first time outside of Pancrase, where is he currently ranked third in the promotion's light heavyweight rankings. The 26-year-old Judoka's two losses were both against UFC veterans in Assuerio and Thiago Silva.

Following back-to-back losses in his most recent two fights with the UFC, "Cro Cop" announced in February his return to the country he's had the most success in his career. "Cro Cop" expects to fight three times for DREAM before returning to the Octagon to resume his goal of winning the UFC heavyweight championship.

CAGE RAGE 25 REVIEW

Cage Rage 25 played out to a full house of 8,300 people at the Wembley Arena who witnessed a blinder of a card featuring the legend Ken Shamrock fall to the hands of Robert “Buzz” Berry via first round KO. Berry has cemented his place into British MMA history with the win and appeared to be ecstatic with the victory.

I just watched the main event on the internet and it appears that Shamrock needs to hang it up.

From early on in the round it appeared as though Shamrock was tentative and unwilling to fully commit to a striking offence. When he did step in, he had to deal with a larger deficit in reach as well as an opponent who wouldn't be drawn into a brawling exchange. Berry had instead preferred to circle and pick off 1-2 combinations; a tactic that gained effectiveness as the fight wore on.

Shamrock appeared to catch a few shots on occasion, forcing him to try and close the distance. But, it appeared as though Berry had the advantage in strength and was able to avoid being drawn to the canvas. 3:26 into the first round and a big hook off the back of a knee sent the UFC Hall of Famer crashing to the canvas and out of the contest.

His son Ryan didn't fare any better as he was advised not to continue for the 2nd round when he broke his hand in the first round while fighting Giorgio Andrews. The fight was a brawl for the entire first round and both fighters looked awesome. The doctor stopped the fight after examining Shamrock's hand giving the fight to Andrews via TKO. Actually Ryan did fare much better than his dad as he put on an awesome fight.

Ken, however, needs to do some serious pondering of his future. I doubt EliteXC is gonna feature him in any more fights, especially main events. You can also kiss the Kimbo-Shamrock rumors goodbye.

If he continues to fight, he's just risking injury. He's not even competitive anymore either and has only 1 win in about the last 9 years and that was over Kimo who was also at the end of his career. Yet he just said how he was healthy for the first time in years and we were gonna see a new and improved Ken Shamrock. Let's be honest, he got the main event only because of his name and that's all. Now he's not going to able to use his name anymore. He's a legend and his legacy is getting tarnished every time he enters the cage.

His son might have a great future in MMA though. He looks like he's a great athlete and if he has any of his fathers heart, he could be s force someday.