Finally, the Sunday Morning Rumor Mill has returned to satisfy your quirky need to know what’s being talked about in the MMA world. These nuggets of info sometimes hit, sometimes miss, but you guys really want them in your life — so I’ll deliver it. The SMRM took a three-week hiatus but now that it’s back, I expect all of you to bake a tray of oatmeal cookies in my honor. It’s not that unreasonable of an expectation, is it?
Also, it’s relatively easy to tell the difference between a long-time fan of MiddleEasy and bandwagon jumpers. If you’ve been with us from the beginning (or at least a very long time), then you will understand that placing a brief eight-second commercial in the beginning of our videos enables MiddleEasy to continue bringing the content that you’ve loved over the years. However, if you’re a fair-weather fan and claim you’re going to ‘stop coming here’ because of a few small ads, then frankly, we don’t even want you. MiddleEasy is for the MMA fans that can appreciate Tom Lawlor, Seth Petruzelli and a bottle of baby oil. Alright, maybe that was a bad example. The fact is, MiddleEasy was built for you — so enjoy it!
- Well, it’s not that much of a rumor as of this morning, but Dana White has been in talks with Gilbert Melendez to get him inside the Octagon in 2012. From what I’ve been told, the move is not dependent on Gilbert defeating Jorge Masvidal. There’s also a chance the Strikeforce title defense may not occur.
- There’s a very strong possibility that King Mo will be transitioned to the UFC by the end of this year and included in the UFC card in Japan, which is scheduled to go down in February 2012. One can only hope that he will be matched-up against Rampage Jackson, a guy that he has called out in the past.
- Strikeforce is planning to include Gina Carano on their December 17th card.
- Gegard Mousasi vs. Ovince St. Preux will be upgraded to a light heavyweight title fight.
- There have been some ‘shake-ups’ within the Bellator PR department for the past four months. Perhaps it’s some restructuring for Bellator’s imminent move to Spike TV.
- M-1 Global has also changed their PR department. I’m not sure what that would indicate.
- Showtime no longer uses Esther Lin for Strikeforce shows. By no longer employing the greatest MMA photographer, this may indicate that Showtime plans to leave MMA once the Strikeforce contract is up. However, that’s a pretty long stretch.
- In February 26, 2012, the UFC will host two cards on the same day. The event held in Japan will most likely air on the FX Network while the domestic card will be available live and on PPV.
- Australia’s Impact FC seem to be making a return to the MMA world in 2012.
- According to Bigfoot Silva’s manager, he is also UFC bound.
- Ex-Golden Glory fighter, Siyar Bahadurzada, claims he has signed a contract with UFC.
- The UFC has a contingency plan in case diiverticulitis inflicts Brock Lesnar before his schedlued bout against Alistair Overeem at UFC 141.
- One FC plans to include women in their second event, which is scheduled for sometime in December.
- Rashad Evans has a strong suspicion that Jon Jones will try to ‘pull out’ of his title defense against him.
- There’s a screen cap going around of several UFC 141 bouts being announced on Wikipedia, but for some reason were removed shortly after they appeared. While all of these bouts seem reasonable, they have not been officially announced by UFC. Take it with a grain of salt.
- It appears that Alistair Overeem has selected ‘Kings MMA’ to be his new gym in the US.
- You’re probably not surprised by this one, but it appears that Paulo Filho is already ‘having problems with his passport’ and his fight against KSW’s Mamed Khalidov may not occur.
