Jose Vega was born in Miami and had been a fan of MMA since his childhood. In a recent interview, Vega said how is father encouraged him and his eight other siblings to learn the art of fighting. Vega gathered some first-hand experience in fighting during his one year tenure of collegiate wrestling and made his professional MMA debut in 2002. Vega’s recent performance has not been much impressive as he lost 3 of his last 5 bouts and won only 2. In spite of this average performance, Vega believes he is at the top of his game. “I’m more complete now than I’ve been ever before”, Vega stated in the recent release.  This 5’6” fighter has now joined the other confirmed participants Danny Tims, Travis Reddinger, Ulysses Gomez and Nik Mamalis. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said Vega has already showed what he is capable of and his inclusion in this tournament perfectly indicates the overall goal of Bellator.

The event is headlined with a 182 pound catchweight bout between Louis Taylor and veteran Jorge Riggs. The news is being confirmed by the Strikeforce officials late Wednesday night. Mike Afromowitz, the Strikeforce Director of Communications believes with only a little more than two weeks in hand; Damm can still manage to fight her scheduled opponents Maiju Kujala, Hitomi Akano and Miesha Tate. But if she fails to show up, Strikeforce officials are ready with a replacement.  Damm is the sister of Strikeforce and ‘BodogFIGHT ‘veteran Rodrigo Damm. She is unbeaten since December 2006 and her last fight was against Aline Serio at Jungle Fight 17 where Damm won by first-round TKO.

“Strikeforce Challengers 10” will take place on 13th August, 2010 at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix Arizona. The officials are working diligently to help Damm secure a visa in time. They are confident that the problem will soon be resolved and the scheduled bout will remain intact.

Last-minute opponent change in a pre-scheduled bout is nothing new to Salter. Recently, during UFC 113 in Montreal his pre-scheduled opponent Nick Catone was forced to withdraw his name due to a back injury. Initially, UFC veteran David Loiseau was thought to be Catone’s replacement. But Quebec’s athletic commission took him off the table. Finally, Salter was scheduled against another UFC veteran Jason MacDonald on a short notice of one week. Salter, however, won the match when MacDonald broke his leg in the very first round of the match.

UFC 118 is scheduled to take place on 28th August, 2010 at the TD Garden in Boston. A lightweight title rematch between former champion B.J. Penn and current champion Frankie Edgar is the featured headliner of the pay-per-View. The updated status of the UFC 118 event is as follows:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)

# Champ Frankie Edgar vs. B.J. Penn (for lightweight title)

#  Randy Couture vs. James Toney

# Nate Marquardt vs. Rousimar Palhares

#  Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard

#  Marcus Davis vs. Nate Diaz

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)

#  Gerald Harris vs. Alessio Sakara

#  Terry Etim vs. Joe Lauzon

PRELIMINARY CARD

#  Nik Lentz vs. Andre Winner

#  Dan Miller vs. John Salter**

#  Nick Osipczak vs. Greg Soto

#  Amilcar Alves vs. Mike Pierce

** Yet to be announced officially

Lawal snatched the Light Heavyweight title from Gegard Mousasi last April and that was only his seventh fight as a pro. He said during the interview that he would love to face Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante as Cavalcante is considered the No.1 contender for the title by most of the fans. But Lawal is also interested to move up a weight class and fight the heavyweight Andrei Arlovski.

The Strikeforce officials neither confirmed nor denied the possibility of another event in August at Houston. There is no confirmation of the event in Strikeforce’s official website as well. If the event takes place, it will be the promotion’s very first event in the “Lone Star” state. The venue is yet to be confirmed, but it might take place in Toyota Center, the home of the Houston Rockets.

Morecraft is a 23 year old Massachusetts based young fighter. He trains at Cape Cod Mixed Martial Arts in Plymouth. He has turned a pro in 2008 and since then, Morecraft has secured 6 consecutive victories. None of his opponents could last more than 2 minutes and 40 seconds against him in the ring.  Amongst his 6 victories so far, 3 were submission wins and the rest were knock out victories.

His proposed opponent, Stefan Surve, had almost grabbed a title contention after he managed 3 consecutive victories against Paul Buentello, Chase Gormley and Denis Stojnic. These 22 year old, later, suffered defeats against the winner of “TUF 10″ and later against former IFL champion Roy Nelson.

UFC officials are yet to confirm this bout which will take place on 7th August, 2010.The main card of the night will be aired on pay-per-view and the proposed bout between Morecraft and Struve is expected to be the night’s unaired preliminary contest.

The wax museum of Tussauds is based in London, England. But the museum has a branch at The Venetian Hotel Casino and the figurine will be on display there. The wax figurine was on display only for 25 minutes and was later transported to the Madame Tussauds museum in Vegas. The museum officials confirmed that the sculpture costs approximately a stunning amount of $300,000! It will be kept for display in a UFC octagon inside the museum.

The 40 year old MMA legend has earned an UFC Hall of Fame in 2009. In the figurine, Liddell stands in a celebratory post and wears a UFC Championship belt. The legendary fighter will first see this idol at a special VIP ceremony in July. He is currently working as a coach on the “TUF 11”. Choosing Liddell as the first representative of MMA in the Tussauds was not a surprise at all. His legendary title run in the “Light-Heavyweight” division is still an unbeaten record and “The Iceman” is still one of the most respected and popular fighters in the sport.

Michael Bisping, on the other hand, looks a lot more prepared and confident for the match. He was the champion of “The Ultimate Fighter” (TUF) season three. In spite of his recent loss against Wanderlei Silva in last February, he feels confident to take Miller out this time. Bisping has failed to be a popular guy among the fans and critics. Since his arrival as a competitor in TUF 3 and his tenure as a coach in TUF 9, the fighter has been criticized a lot. But it seems such criticisms won’t affect him anymore as he looks totally focused for his bout against Miller. His girlfriend has recently given birth to their third child and the fighter misses his dear family very much. Bisping has plans to visit his family after the event and spend some quality time back home.

UFC 113 is taking place in Montreal, Canada on May 8, 2010. No wonder this event is heavy on Canadian fighters. This is UFC’s third venture in Canada and the previous two cards, in Vancouver and British Columbia, were a huge success in the history of MMA. MacDonald is an accomplished performer in UFC and has won three “Submission of the Night and one “Knockout of the Night” award already in his ten appearances. Salter, on the other hand, has lost in his octagon debut against Gerald Harris at UFC Fight Night 20. The official UFC 113 matches are:

MAIN CARD

• Alan Belcher vs. Patrick Cote
• Champ Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (Light Heavyweight Title)
• Jeremy Stephens vs. Sam Stout
• Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson vs. Matt Mitrione
• Paul Daley vs. Josh Koscheck

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Jason MacDonald vs. John Salter
• Joe Doerksen vs. Tom Lawlor
• Joey Beltran vs. Tim Hague
• Marcus Davis vs. Jonathan Goulet
• Mike Guymon vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
• T.J. Grant vs. Johny Hendricks

This open tryout invites fighters of all weight classes and both male and female participants are welcome to attend the event. It is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. ET at the famous Sityodtong Academy in Somerville, Massachusetts. The fighters are requested to register at least one hour prior to the session and they should also bring their gloves, protective gear and Federal MMA ID.  This open tryout is scheduled only a couple of days prior to the promotion’s latest event, Bellator 17 at Boston’s Wang Theatre. The Bellator officials will pick one winner from here who will earn the opportunity to fight a local featured fight during Bellator Season 3 taking place in August, September or October.

Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney said their last two tryouts in South Florida and Kansas City helped them discover some great talents like Tyler Stinson and Bryan Goldsby; he believes this one will also prove to be a rewarding one. In fact, Stinson, the winner of such a tryout slot earlier this year, had earned himself an opportunity to enter the Welterweight tournament bout in Bellator 15 as the pre-scheduled competitor Sean Pierson was forced to withdraw from the event.

The pre-sale tickets of the event are available from April 29, 2010 and the public on sale date is scheduled for May 1, 2010. The Nokia Theatre is a popular venue for award functions and music acts. This event is believed to promote Electronic Arts’ MMA-based video game called EA Sports MMA. In this new game, Strikeforce has acquired a special place as the ‘premier league’ where the fighters compete. This game is set to be released in late 2010 and the experts believe it will be a serious competitor to the already released ‘UFC Undisputed’ franchise launched by THQ and UFC last year.

This will be Lashley’s second appearance under Strikeforce banner. This former WEE star made his debut in January and defeated out-of-shape Wes Sims in the very first round of the match. Fans will also keep an eye on Robbie Lawler as it will be his return to the Strikeforce cage after the first round knock-out win over Melvin Manheof in January’s “Strikeforce: Miami”. This event will experience the debut of K.J. Noons, the first and only EliteXC Lightweight Champion. The opponents of these there Strikeforce superstars are not revealed yet.