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.

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!

“Strikeforce Challengers 10” event faces a considerable setback as one of their projected bouts is at stake. The promotion had set up a tournament with four women of 135 pound category. But one of the fighters, veteran Brazilian fighter Carina Damm has not been able to secure a work visa yet to enter the country.

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.

A couple of weeks back, the Strikeforce officials announced their plan to put up a mid-week fight card in Los Angeles. The announcement caught everybody’s attention as such show ups are quite rare in MMA industry.  However, the officials announced three competitors for this event. Fans can see Bobby Lashley, Robbie Lawler and K.J. Noons in action at “Strikeforce: Los Angeles” which will take place on June 16 at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

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.

Though many are under the impression that Fedor Emelianenko’s mixed martial arts career is heading towards its end, the former top heavyweight fighter may well be taking a new step forward towards a new career path. “The Salamander Key” which premiered on Thursday in Moscow marks Fedor’s entry into the cinematic world. Apart from Fedor, the film also stars Michael Madsen and Rutger Hauer. Before Thursday’s premiere, certain details of the movie were released by M-1 Global which works as personal management company of Fedor.  “The Salamander Key” deals with a breakthrough scientific invention that falls in wrong hands and is abused for personal gain. Wrestler Speaks wishes Fedor all the best for his new endeavor.

The first round matches of Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix organized in East Rutherford saw two major upsets as both the bouts were taken by the underdogs. The remaining two bouts will be taking place on 9^th April; however the exact location is yet to be confirmed (Rumors are all over there about Japan being the country though).

Antonio Silva surprised many after forcing Fedor Emelianenko, the mma legend to suffer a TKO loss. Counting this, Fedor has lost for two times consecutively. In the first round, Fedor used combinations of four and five punch; however most of the shots did not land up properly. The second round was mostly dominated by Silva as Fedor struggled to match up with the much bigger opponent. After the second round, Silva was declared the winner by the referee. However, that was not all! There was a shocker waiting for the fans as in the post-match interview, Fedor Emelianenko hinted about his possible retirement from professional mma circuit. You can watch the entire match and the post-match interview here.

In the other bout, it was Sergei Kharitonov who pulled the victory against Andrei Arlovski with help of a 1^st round knock-out. This marks Arlovski’s 4^th straight loss, 3 of them being 1^st round knock-outs. Kharitonov was visibly ecstatic after the victory and described his bout to be a tough challenge. Many are now considering Kharitonov to be the dark horse as he came out of nowhere and entered the semifinals. Kharitonov’s next opponent will be winner of the match between Josh Barnett and Brett Rogers. You can watch the entire post match interview of Kharitonov here.

What do you think of Fedor Emelianenko’s loss? Do you think the mma legend should really retire? Also, do you have a say about Antonio Silva or Sergei Kharitonov? Share all your thoughts here!

Strikeforce is growing popular along with time and the promotion has plans to increase their number of events in 2010. They have a busy summer ahead as they have planned two events in small intervals; one in June and another Challengers show in July. But “King” Muhammed Lawal, the Light Heavyweight Champion of the promotion has stated in a recent interview that Strikeforce will be heading to Houston for a show on 21st August, 2010. Lawal has also confirmed that he will be participating in the event but his opponent is yet to be decided.

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.

This is definitely the biggest buyout in MMA circuit in recent years as Zuffa, the parent company of UFC buys Strikeforce, the rival promotion of UFC. The news was confirmed by Dana White, UFC’s president. At the same time, White also ensured that Strikeforce will continue operating on its own, all the existing contracts of the fighters will be honored and the television deal of ShowTime that Strikeforce currently has will also be taken care of.

Dana White also revealed that there are no plans of bringing Strikeforce superstars in UFC; however, they are working out on a new model for having better buy rates of Strikeforce events. Incidentally, in a single year, now 16 different Strikeforce events are being organized.

Scott Coker, the CEO of Strikeforce also confirmed the deal and described it to be an exciting opportunity to be able to work with Frank Fertitta, Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White. The financial details of the deal were not divulged.

The verbal battle of John Cena and The Rock seems to reach some new heights. The battle started in 2008 when John Cena, during an interview to The Sun, expressed his dissatisfaction of Rock deciding to abandon WWE completely. He expressed his disagreement as The Rock wasn’t present before the WWE fans in the crucial events like the 15th Anniversary of Raw or at WrestleMania. He said the fans love him and they made Rock what he is today. Abandoning those fans is something Cena didn’t like. Now Rock is the “host” of WrestleMania 27 and on his first appearance on Raw after 7 long years, Rock gave Cena a piece of his mind. A couple of weeks later, Cena replied The Rock in his impeccable style. Recently, Cena tweeted about coming to Raw to settle some business which clearly indicates The Rock. WWE Universe will be watching!!

WWE is in negotiations with Strikeforce women’s Middleweight Champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. The Brazilian MMA fighter may sign a deal as she was offered an instant contract when she came to a WWE live event in California with his husband Strikeforce fighter Evangelista Santos. Since 26th June 2010, Cristiane has not offered a fight. Strikeforce is yet to make any official statement but it seems the promotion has failed to find a willing participant to fight her in last nine months.

There is good news for Evan Bourne fans! After a serious injury forced him to stay away from the ring for a long period time, the high flyer is now back in action. He made his TV return on Raw last week. He faced King Sheamus with a strong fan support behind him. Sheamus had to face Bourne after being badly beaten by Triple H. Bourne made a triumphant come back after finishing the match with his signature Shooting Star Press.

This is definitely a piece of wrestling news that will shake the fans of this form of entertainment. “The face of female MMA” will soon be back in action. Her fans will love it as Gina Carano; the Strikeforce star has given a positive nod to enter the ring again. As the news that Gina Carano returns, was announced by Scott Coker, the CEO of Strikeforce, Coker was visibly ecstatic. He stated that Gina Carano informed him about her intentions only a few weeks ago and he did not take much time to sign a contract with her after that. Gina Carano’s last fight was against Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, where she experienced first defeat in her MMA career. She did not sign a new contract for a year and in the meantime, tried her hands into acting. Her film “Haywire,” is slated to release this August. Despite starting training already, the exact time when Gina Carano returns is yet to be declared. Insider reports however say it’s going to be late June.

Former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley is not going to quit his fighting career after his loss at August 21^st, 2010’s Strikeforce event against Chad Griggs. Rather, he has decided to take part in a bout against James Jack at Kansas City’s Historic Memorial Hall for Titan Fighting Championship. The news was confirmed by Joe Kelly, the CEO of the brand. Apart from the high voltage Lashley vs. Jack main event, Phil Baroni will take on Nick Nolte at the same night. Lashley was doing well in Strikeforce and won all of his first 5 matches, before going down to Chad Griggs. Now it is to be seen that whether James Jack, who is considered to be an M-1 Challenge veteran can give Lashley his 2^nd defeat in a row or the former WWE superstar hits back.