Last night, I received a text from a friend that simply read ‘Barnett beats Cain.’ Moments later, LayzieTheSavage called as I was leaving the American Airlines Center to tell me the various ways in which Fabricio Werdum was robbed in last night’s bout against Alistair Overeem. The next call I received was from my roommate who told me that someone should speed up the Werdum vs. Overeem fight and place the Benny Hill music in the clip. I nearly wrecked the car that I was driving. Lesson to all: Don’t drive and talk MMA. It’s a large detriment to one’s survival, especially in Dallas. Now that we’ve hopped out of our beds still breathing, check out the Sunday Morning Rumor Mill.
- We interviewed Cesar Gracie last week and he mentioned Gilbert Melendez has been self-negotiating with the UFC for a shot in the organization. Logically, one would assume Jorge Masvidal would get a title shot against El Nino. However with Coker’s recent statement that Melendez vs. Masvidal is not on the horizon, it’s rumored that Melendez may be one step closer to the UFC.
- Clothing company ‘Black Scale‘ will toss their hat in the MMA clothing arena by the end of this summer.
- Strikeforce’s new ‘sponsorship tax’ is gauged on the type of company sponsoring the fighter. In short, it’s not a ‘flat tax.’
- The next portion of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand-Prix will go down at some point in October.
- While Mark Pavelich mentioned that his ban on Gammo-O will be removed once the company has allegedly ‘paid up,’ it seems as if this ban will be indefinite — even after the company has settled their debt.
- We will be talking to the new CEO of ProElite tomorrow, however it’s rumored that the primary investor of the now-defunct ‘Impact FC’ will financially team-up with ProElite and they have every intention to compete with the UFC once again.
- It’s rumored that Chad Griggs vs. Brett Rogers is slated for a future Strikeforce event. Seems premature at this moment to even consider this fight, but it’s a rumor nonetheless.
- Due to the sponsorship tax, some fighters on last night’s Strikeforce card had to expunge sponsors from their banners with tape that was provided to them at the American Airlines Center.
- Not really a rumor anymore, but last week it was discovered that Fedor Emelianenko owns 8.5% of M-1 Global.