Showtime and Strikeforce have sealed a new deal and it states that the top 8 main events of Strikeforce will be telecasted on Showtime and its sister concern Showtime Extreme. The main card bouts will be telecasted on the prime channel and the preliminary card bouts will be telecasted on Showtime Extreme, as confirmed. Any timeframe for those 8 shows (Except the first) are however yet to be announced. The events are not expected to run under Strikeforce Challengers brand though and financial terms of the deal were not published publicly.

The first event part of this deal will be “Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine” to be held in Las Vegas on 7^th of January. In addition, the event is scheduled to take place in one of the free-preview weekends of Showtime and hence more than 60 million households will be able to watch the fights without spending any extra dime.

That’s not all though. Current fighters part of Strikeforce brand such as Luke Rochhold, Miesha Tate, Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos and Gilbert Melendez (All of the 4 are champions in the brand in different categories) will continue to fight under Strikeforce and not be drafted (It happened with several Strikeforce fighters such as Dan Henderson, Nick Diaz and Alistair Overeem) into another Zuffa owned promotion UFC.

The official announcement was made by Stephen Espinoza, the executive of Showtime. Dana White, the UFC president later echoed similar sentiment as well. Dana White also stated that he looks forward to build Strikeforce into a bigger brand in 2012.

A true UFC fan must be waiting for the ultimate showdown to take place at UFC 141 on 30^th December. Well, if you still have not got it, I am talking about the bout to take place between Brock Lesner and Alistair Overeem. These two huge independent circuit superstars (The former had a successful WWE career as well) will fight it out for becoming the No.1 contender to the UFC heavyweight championship. The winner will ultimately face Junior dos Santos, who knocked out Cain Velasquez last November to win the championship.

The bout between Lesner and Overeem has already garnered huge hype among the fans and the recent comment made by Overeem has only helped to boost the same. The 31 year old fighter, who is considered to be one of the top five heavyweights in the world now, stated that he can definitely match power with Brock Lesner. Not only that, he pointed out that the official UFC Poster publicizing their match has side by side measurements of the two and it clearly indicates that Overeem is a bigger man.

Overeem incidentally is yet to lose a match in UFC and already has a 10-0 winning streak. According to him, he was not lucky enough to born as a great MMA fighter, but, he worked hard, trained a lot and that has helped him to become great. He also added that he made many sacrifices throughout his life and it’s his time to claim the gold by winning the UFC Heavyweight Championship.

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Who do you think is going to win the bout between Overeem and Lesner? I would appreciate if you vote for your favorite and also share your ideas on why that person will win. If you are a fan of Brock Lesner, you can check out this book written by the former WWE wrestler himself.

Dana White is fine with Brock Lesnar being featured in the upcoming game of WWE, titled as WWE 12. According to him, it will help Brock make some good money, help WWE to create a great video game and as WWE is the history of Brock Lesnar, he would never mind if Brock makes a merchandise deal with WWE. However, he isn’t that comfortable with the idea of Lesnar returning to WWE for wrestling; even if it is for a single match.

In recent months, chances of Lesnar featuring in a WWE match were widely anticipated. Some even reported that Dana White himself is keen on Lesnar participating in a WWE match as it will give his brand a better exposure. However, Dana has put all rumors to rest and confirmed that he won’t allow Brock Lesnar to participate in a WWE match as long as the wrestler has a signed contract with UFC.

Lesnar, after a super successful stint with WWE from 2002 to 2004, went on to fight for UFC. Using his mainstream appeal and great wrestling skills, Lesnar became one of the major stars in the independent wrestling circuit and soon became UFC World Heavyweight Champion.

Brock Lesnar will be back soon. The former WWE and UFC Heavyweight champion will be returning to the independent circuit against Alistair Overeem, the former Heavyweight champion at Strikeforce.The match will take place on 30^th December this year at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas. The winner of this match is expected to face the winner of Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.

This will be Lesnar’s first official match after being diagnosed with intestinal disorder diverticulitis and undergoing colon injury. Brock probably will start training for this match pretty soon; however we are yet to hear any words from him regarding this high-voltage heavyweight match.

Overeem on the other hand, is all set to face Lesnar and describes this match to be an important stepping stone for him to take the next leap. UFC should expect packed houses for this match. The match, as soon as the announcement was made, has become a rage among fans and the excitement level is only expected to increase with passing time.

On April 9, 2011, Ronnie Mann was supposed to battle Josh Arocho and make his Bellator debut. But due to some visa related problems, that never happened. Mann is yet to get the proper permission for entering United States and most probably it will take around 2-3 more weeks before he makes is in-ring debut for Bellator. Mann is definitely one of the fastest rising featherweight stars in independent circuit and had a very successful career in Sengoku. Though nothing has been officially confirmed yet, if rumors are true then Mann may debut for Bellator on 23^rd April, provided visa issues get sorted out by then.

From the time he entered an independent circuit arena for the first time, he always had a dream of facing his personal hero and now that dream of Chris Leben is going to be fulfilled. At UFC 132, Leben will get a chance to square it off against Wanderlei Silva. The match has been officially confirmed by both UFC and Leben’s manager Gary Ibarra. Silva won his last match, contested around 14 months ago against Michael Bisping. Bisping was however very vocal about the result of that match as he believed he should have been the winner after the fight of three rounds. Leben, on the other hand lost his last match at UFC 125 against Brian Stann in January, 2011. Leben’ s loss surprised many as the MMA fighter had 3 impressive wins in 2010 over the likes of Aaron Simpson, Yoshihiro Akiyama and Jay Silva. Incidentally, UFC 132 will be headlined by Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz as the two will square it off against each other for the bantamweight title.

MMA is gradually drawing some serious attention and now-a-days its fan following is gradually increasing. The current TRP of UFC televised programs is a genuine proof of the popularity of this form of sport. Last Wednesday, the two-hour episode of “TUF 12” gained a strong 1.3 rating with an average audience of 1.7 million viewers. The statistics is officially confirmed by Spike TV.

This was episode no 11 of “TUF 12” and the rating fell just short of the season high record of 1.9 million viewers. UFC gained this rating only in the last couple of episodes prior to this one. The televised episode of last Wednesday saw the booking of “TUF 12” Finale when Michael Johnson won over Nam Phan in a split-decision win. Jonathan Brookins, on the other hand, managed a unanimous-decision victory over Kyle Watson, a popular MMA blogger.

“The Ultimate Fighter 12” Finale will be aired on Spike TV live on Saturday.

The final fight card for Saturday’s TUF 12 Finale is now officially ready. There had been some recent inclusions to the card which includes a bout between Jonathan Brookins and Michael Johnson to determine “The Ultimate Fighter” 12 champion. There is also another match that has been booked between Nam Phan and Leonard Garcia for the featherweight bout.

This event is scheduled to take place at The Pearl located at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The main card of this event will be aired on Spike TV. In the televised event, TUF 12 Finale is headlined with a match of light heavyweight Stephan Bonnar against Igor Pokrajac. Two other matches, a middleweight fight between Demian Maia and Kendall Grove and a welterweight bout between Johny Hendricks and Rick Story, are also scheduled to be aired.

The TV broadcast may include some six-fight preliminary card if time permits which includes “TUF 12” cast members like Cody McKenzie, Sako Chivitchian and Aaron Wilkinson. But Alex Caceres, a notable performer, is not performing in the “TUF 12” Finale. Some sources say he was scheduled to meet Phan but was forced to step down due to a late injury. He, will, however, fight for UFC in future. The full line-up for “TUF 12” Finale is as follows:

MAIN CARD

* Stephan Bonnar vs. Igor Pokrajac

* Jonathan Brookins vs. Michael Johnson (“TUF 12″ championship)

* Kendall Grove vs. Demian Maia

* Rick Story vs. Johny Hendricks

* Leonard Garcia vs. Nam Phan

PRELIMINARY CARD

* Rich Attonito vs. Dave Branch

* Pablo Garza vs. Fredson Paixao

* Will Campuzano vs. Nick Pace

* Kyle Watson vs. Sako Chivitchian

* Ian Loveland vs. Tyler Toner

* Cody McKenzie vs. Aaron Wilkinson

Not everything was wrong with “Strikeforce: Los Angeles”. This rare mid-week show was intended to give a promotional push to the brand’s latest video game, “EA Sports MMA” by Electronic Arts. “Strikeforce: Los Angeles” was actually a part of Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) that took place in last June.  The event was decorated with lesser number of fights and couldn’t manage the usual Strikeforce ratings. But Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker was impressed with the unique venue and seems to have plans to return to Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles in 2011.

Nokia Theater is a part of the well-known L.A. Live complex. This 7,000-seat venue has hosted some big-shot events that include FOX’s “American Idol” and ESPN’s ESPY Awards. In a recent radio interview, Coker expressed his admiration for the theater and its state-of-the-art facility. He said both the attendees and viewers watching from home simply loved the great venue and this positive response helped Coker to determine a return here. He’s not sure about the exact date but sometime in the first and second quarter of the next year, Nokia Theater will again experience the Strikeforce fever!

WEC 51 brought yet another victory for the WEC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo. With this victory, Aldo has not only sealed his name in the list of WEC all-time greats; but he also raised a question: with this kind of form, is there anybody among the present day MMA fighters who can beat Jose Aldo in the 145-pound division? It seems the MMA pundits and the fans need to wait longer to find the answer.

WEC 51 took place in Broomfield, Colorado last Thursday. The bout between Aldo and Manny Gamburyan was the main event of the night. This was Aldo’s 11th consecutive victory and the Brazilian is yet to be defeated since his debut in WEC. While entering the ring, he was greeted by chorus of boos. But Aldo, surprisingly, stood by the fans and explained it was obvious.

“I think that’s normal with a fight that’s a little stale”; fans come to see action and when they don’t get it, they may react otherwise, Aldo said during an interview through his interpreter. But Aldo doesn’t seem to be carried away with his victory. He believes there are a lot of fighters who deserve the No.1 contender spot for his title. Mark Hominick, for example, must be in the spotlight after his WEC 51 victory. Another WEC lightweight Donald Cerrone has also made a nice case for himself after a key win in WEC 51. But the 24 year old Brazilian pound-for-pound fighter believes he is ready to accept any challenge the company puts in front of him.