If you haven’t finished your 200th replay of Dan Henderson vs. Shogun Rua, then you need to take your DVR out to a restaurant, buy it a chicken plate dinner and pay for the bill because you’re going to be doing a lot of one-on-one time with it throughout the week. That’s right, I want you to date inanimate objects for the greater good of MMA. Whatever we can do to progress the sport, we must make it a priority. Date your DVR, have a one-night stand with your Xbox 360, make out with your $19.99 Epson printer that you got at Wal-Mart. Do whatever you need, but just remember to read the Sunday Morning Rumor Mill, coming at you on Monday evening.
- Let me preface this by saying I think the following rumor is ridiculous and has 0.01% probability of happening, however it’s being placed here because I actually heard this twice in two days from two separate sources. It’s rumored that ZUFFA was looking closely at Fedor’s M-1 Global bout against Jeff Monson over the weekend and now that Fedor is slated to face Satoshi Ishii at DREAM’s NYE event, if he wins Fedor will be signed to the UFC and face Cain Velasquez once he recovers from the injury he sustained in his recent bout with Junior dos Santos. Ridiculous, right? However, we’ve seen crazier things happen in the MMA world. What derails this rumor (for me, at least) is M-1’s persistence on ‘co-branding’ with UFC. It’s what prevented Fedor from coming to the UFC when Affliction collapsed so I can’t see M-1 backing down from their demands — or the UFC softening their stance. Also, MMA is set to ignite in Eastern Europe. With companies like KSW to compete with, I believe they would want to have Fedor as the primary selling point in their promotion.
- I’ve heard this for a while now, but it appears that ZUFFA/Strikefore is erasing the women’s 145lb division. In a recent interview, Cyborg claims Strikeforce even asked her to drop down to 135lbs. If this is true, then it clearly shows ZUFFA does have a plan for the future of Strikeforce and they’re not going to let it decay, like a large portion of you may believe.
- If you guys follow MiddleEasy on Twitter, you probably remember that I tweeted (twatted?) on Friday there’s a 99.9% chance that Cheick Kongo vs. Mark Hunt is going down at UFC in Japan. Now both fighters have acknowledged that they verbally agreed to fight in the event. See, that’s why you should be following us on Twitter.
- Bobby Green is one fight away from fighting for the Strikeforce lightweight title.
- ONE FC plans to do 24 shows in 2014 and a total of 60 events within the newly announced ONE FC network.
- ONE FC will also be announcing a massive partnership with ESPN.
- At Strikeforce Challengers, when Ronda Rousey dislocated Julia Budd’s arm, she actually felt Budd tap, but due to the angle at which she had the armbar, she needed to flip Budd over to show the referee that the submission was more than secure.
- Shine Fights is officially nonexistent.
- DREAM will have 4-6 shows in 2012. Expect one of those shows to be with their new partner, ONE FC.
- It’s rumored that MusclePharm is close to acquiring a nutrition company that was a former partner/affiliate/sponsor with UFC.
- At the UFC Fight Club Q&A, Josh Koscheck casually revealed that he was fighting Carlos Condit. Apparently he was not supposed to release this news until today.
- Expect ONE FC’s first show in 2012 to debut women fighting within the promotion. Amanda Lucas has been a name that’s been thrown around.
- According to Chael Sonnen’s Twitter, he will be facing Anderson Silva in Brazil.
- I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but the next stateside TUF will feature Urijah Faber and Dominic Cruz as coaches.
- MiddleEasy received a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter from an attorney due to a video we placed on the site this month. I’ll let you guess which one it was.
- Russian news is reporting Jeff Monson actually knocked out two cops in Russia just before his M-1 bout. According to the rumor, Monson injured his leg in the process and that’s why his performance against Fedor wasn’t that impressive.
- Oh, one more thing. It appears Minowaman has joined the UFC. Update: It appears that UFC just places people who’ve competed within the organization on their page, both past and present. Update 2: It appears Brian Stann was supposed to fight Minowaman at UFC 144 (UFC in Japan) but the fight fell through.
