Out of all the countless hours I’ve spent roaming MMA message boards, the numerous emails and the wild chatter I receive on a weekly basis, it’s appropriate to have a place that we can dump all of this pseudo-news. The following rumors have all been collected throughout the net and published on MiddleEasy for you to ogle over this Sunday morning while you try to recover from your hangover. Enjoy.
- Once Jake Shields’ contract ends with Strikeforce, Dana White plans to have Georges St. Pierre vs. Jake Shields sometime this summer. This will be GSP’s second bout of 2010 with his third bout going down with the winner of Josh Koscheck/Paul Daley, regardless of whether St. Pierre loses to Shields.
- Dana White insisted that Jake Shields appear on camera at WEC 48 as ‘payback’ for GSP appearing in the audience at Strikeforce: Miami.
- The reason why the WEC logo did not appear anywhere at WEC 48 was not part of a master plan as proclaimed by Dana White, but tough contractual issues with SpikeTV and Versus.
- The surprise that FEG has for Dream 14 that will ‘rival American MMA’ is not the aspect of a cage. They already tried that at Dream 12 and it received mixed reviews. The real shocker is that Dream 14 will be under Pride rules which means soccer kicks, head stomps and all that other (dangerous) good stuff.
- Bobby Lashley was offered Alistair Overeem for Strikeforce St. Louis but refused due to a minor error on his manager’s part. Apparently Lashley’s manager was under the belief that Fedor was the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion and that Lashley either wanted to continue to progress in MMA like he’s been doing, or have an immediate shot at the title.
- ProElite Inc. (EliteXC, Cage Rage) plans to hold their first event after the buy-out by the end of this year.
- The reason why Tito Ortiz dropped out of TUF 11 was because he aggravated his back injury and required either emergency surgery or extensive rehab.
- Holding UFC in Afghanistan may be a lot easier than Dana White initially thought. Broadcasting the event is still an option.
- A rematch between Jacare vs. Mayhem will be held at Dream 15.
- Gegard Mousasi vs. Dan Henderson is on tap for a Strikeforce event to be held in California this summer.
- King Mo vs. Stanislav Nedkov is in the works to be Mo’s first title defense. Nedkov still has two fights left on his Sengoku contract so Strikeforce is either looking to buy out his contract or do a minor ‘co-promotion’ with Sengoku.
- Jens Pulver has not retired from MMA.
- Gina Carano has retired from MMA.
- ZUFFA has their eyes on KOTC champion, Bobby Green.
- When Ricardo Mayorga and Din Thomas hit Los Angeles this week to promote their upcoming Shine bout, another staged altercation will occur similar to what happened in New York this month.
