• The MMAFrenzy.com rumors section has been completely updated. [MMAFrenzy.com/rumors]
• UFC fighters Rousimar Palhares and Thiago Tavares are likely to return in the fall from injuries. [MMAjunkie]
• With just one fight remaining on his current contract, Rich Franklin is ready to renegotiate with the UFC before his next fight. [MMAjunkie]
• Roger Gracie will make his Strikeforce debut against an opponent to-be-named at Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg on August 15.
• Featherweight contender Wagnney Fabiano will fight at WEC 43 on September 2 in Youngstown, Ohio. An opponent has not yet been set. [MMAjunkie]
• Bobby Lashley will next fight in September. [MMA Fanhouse]
• Gilbert Yvel vs. Paul Buentello has officially been added to the fight card for Affliction: Trilogy.
• Heavyweight veteran Jeff Monson has signed with Ohio-based NAAFS and will debut against Tony Sylvester at Rock N Rumble III at the Nautica Pavilion in Cleveland.
• A timetable for UFC heavyweight Heath Herring’s return has not yet been set. [MMAjunkie]
• Middleweight Rob Kimmons has signed a new four-fight contract with the UFC. [MMAjunkie]
• Mark Hominick vs. Deividas Taurosevicius and LC Davis vs. Javier Vazquez have been booked for the HDNet-televised “Affliction: Trilogy” preliminary card
• Weigh-ins for UFC 100 will take place on Friday, July 10 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, the same venue which will host the July 11 pay-per-view event. (Note: MMAFrenzy.com will be providing a live stream of the weigh-ins)
• WEC lightweight contender and former champion Rob McCullough is likely to return in the “late fall” [MMAjunkie]
• Diego Sanchez will get the next lightweight title shot against the winner of the August 8 matchup between BJ Penn and Kenny Florian. [Yahoo! Sports]
• Ticket sales for UFC 101 on August 8 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia have surpassed 14,000 for a Pennsylviania record-breaking $3+ million live gate. [MMAjunkie]
• Strikeforce will hold a press conference for the promotion’s August 15 matchup between Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos on July 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
• Luiz Cane wants to fight Rich Franklin. [MMAjunkie]
• UFC heavyweight Antoni Hardonk thwarts a robbery in LA. [Yahoo! Sports]

[Pictured: Rich Franklin]

Note: Items without bracketed-links ([]) have either been officially announced or confirmed by MMAFrenzy.com

Gabriel Gonzaga

Heavyweight up-and-comer Chris Tuchscherer will reportedly make his UFC debut at UFC 102 on August 29th in Portland, Oregon against Gabriel Gonzaga.

UFC 102 is headlined by Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and is also expected to feature Demian Maia vs. Nate Marquardt, Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva, and Matt Hamill vs. Brandon Vera.

Tuchscherer (17-1-1), a two-time NCAA Division II All-American, suffered his only career loss to Travis Wiuff last April in the finals of the disaster that was YAMMA. He’s since reeled of three-straight victories, winning the Max Fights and SNMAA heavyweight championships with wins over Tony Mendoza and Branden Lee Hinkle respectively, and most recently TKO’d Jamie Klair in the opening round of their April bout.

Gonzaga (10-4) challenged then-heavyweight champion Randy Couture for the title in 2007 following his head kick knockout of Mirko Cro Cop, but suffered a third-round TKO loss in the championship bout. After suffering another loss to Fabricio Werdum, “Napao” rebounded with back-to-back victories over Justin McCully and Josh Hendricks. In a bout against fellow contender Shane Carwin in March, Gonzaga was stopped with strikes just over one minute into the first round.

Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest UFC 102 news.

Each episode of “UFC’s Ultimate 100: Greatest Fights” will count down the top 100 with action-packed moments from each contest. The first one-hour installment will premiere Sunday, July 5 at 9:00pm ET/PT, with the next three episodes airing Monday July 6-Wednesday, July 8 at 9:00pm ET/PT. The final episode airs Saturday, July 11 at 9:00pm ET/PT which will conclude a re-broadcast of the entire voted UFC bout.

UFC 100 will air Saturday, July 11 at 10pm live on pay-per-view from the Mandalay Bay Events Center, in Las Vegas, NV. The details of the participants will be announced at a later date.

Strikeforce also acquired other specific assets of ProElite, including a library of EliteXC events, which were distributed live on either CBS or Showtime Networks.

“This is a tremendous development that will bolster the Strikeforce roster and allow us to produce even more competitive matchups between top fighters,” said Scott Coker, Founder and CEO of Strikeforce®. “Some of these athletes have been on the sidelines for a while now and are eagerly waiting to return to competition. We look forward to providing them with the opportunity to do so in the next few months.”

Strikeforce and EliteXC joined forces to deliver the first live SHOWTIME PPV® MMA event, “Shamrock vs. Baroni,” on June 22, 2007. In the headlining contest, former UFC middleweight champion and MMA legend Frank Shamrock submitted knockout artist Phil “The New York Badass” Baroni in the second round, where upon Shamrock became the first Strikeforce World Middleweight Champion.

On March 29, 2008, the two promotions collaborated once more to deliver a live telecast on SHOWTIME® featuring one of the sport’s most anticipated showdowns – Shamrock versus undefeated world kickboxing champion Cung Le. In a battle that has since been proclaimed “Fight Of The Year” by critics, Le seized the Strikeforce® middleweight crown by pouring on a relentless offensive and fending off Shamrock’s counter attacks before breaking the defending champion’s arm with a hard roundhouse kick. Shamrock retired from the bout after the third round of a five round match.

A martial arts promoter for over 23 years, Coker has gained widespread acclaim among industry colleagues and the media, including Rolling Stone magazine, Yahoo! Sports, and The San Jose Mercury News. Coker elevated his 14-year-old Strikeforce organization to become a major player in the World’s fastest growing sport. Strikeforce’s® inaugural MMA event hosted a capacity crowd of 18,265 at San Jose’s HP Pavilion on March 10, 2006. The live gate figure also broke the then all-time record for attendance at an MMA event held in North America.

EliteXC burst onto the MMA scene with “Destiny,” the first live, SHOWTIME®-televised MMA fight card in history, on February 10, 2007. Held at Southaven Mississippi’s DeSoto Civic Center, the main event pitted Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert, Renzo Gracie.

The promotion made history again by bringing, for the first time, a live MMA event to the CBS Television Network on May 31, 2008.

UPDATE (by Kris Karkoski): SI.com’s Josh Gross confirmed with ProElite CEO Chuck Champion on Thursday that Strikeforce has finalized its purchase of select ProElite assets.

According to the report the deal includes:

With Strikeforce:

• Strikeforce and ProElite agree to a limited asset purchase, including some fighter contracts and options for additional fighter contracts
• Strikeforce obtains library footage for EliteXC events
• Strikeforce obtains licensing of the ShoXC brand name

With CBS:

• Paid off debt to CBS/Showtime
• Showtime remains a partner with ProElite, same ownership stake

“Moving forward ProElite will not dissolve, as was previously expected. The company will continue promote MMA events, primarily under the King of the Cage brand, though it still owns the rights to EliteXC-branded events. ProElite has a television deal with Fox Sports that needs renegotiating for previously-taped fights. It has yet to be determined what it will do with other promotional brands.”

*****

Rumors began circulating yesterday that ProElite had finally been sold to Strikeforce, and that an announcement would be forth coming. But, Strikeforce executive Mike Afromowitz told MMAInsider “Any reports of a done deal are a complete fantasy.”

Numerous buyers have been rumored since this Saga began with ProElite’s demise in October, but recently it seems that California based Strikeforce has become firmly planted in the front runner position. The deal is complicated by numerous factors, including fighter contracts and TV deals. It is rumored that if the purchase actually takes place, select fighter contracts, as well as the CBS and Showtime television deals will be one of the products purchased. Strikeforce already has a contract with NBC to show pre-recorded fights in a half hour format, but as yet have not secured an arrangement for live TV.

Afromowitz had this to say, regarding the details of the sale, “It’s complicated, and that’s why I don’t want to speculate. If anything is done, it will be very technical. It’s not as straightforward as you think.”

“Showtime Networks Inc. has adjourned the previously announced public sale of personal property of ProElite, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries scheduled for November 17, 2008,” read the statement announcing the cancellation. “Showtime reserves all of its rights, including the right to further adjourn or cancel the public sale and thereafter dispose of such property in a public or private sale or in any other manner provided under its agreements with ProElite and by applicable law.”

The auction was set to sell the promotion’s fighter contracts, along with other assets, but faced heavy opposition from MMA agents who, on behalf of their clients, claimed that the agreements were not transferable and could not be sold.

“The Company plans to take all appropriate measures to prevent the sale from occurring,” reads a portion of the filing. “Such measures may include raising additional financing, filing a lawsuit enjoining the sale, filing a bankruptcy petition or negotiating a settlement with Showtime. There can be no assurances that the Company will be successful in any of these actions.”

The auction is set to take place on November 17th, leaving ProElite little time to prevent Showtime from auctioning off their assets.

Although the promotion’s greatest asset is without a doubt their fighters, ProElite is unlikely to have success in auctioning off their contracts because, as Zach Arnold points out, they are personal service contracts which, as we learned in the UFC’s purchase of PRIDE last year, are not transferable to another party.

“On October 31, 2008, Showtime gave the Issuer a notice pursuant to the Security Agreement, as amended, that it intends to sell all of the Issuer’s personal property, whether tangible or intangible, to the highest bidder at a public sale to be held on November 17, 2008,” reads a Securities and Exchange Comission filing published today. “Showtime reserves its rights under the Security Agreement, as amended, and applicable law to adjourn or cancel the sale and thereafter dispose of such property in a public or private sale or in any other manner provided by applicable law.”

This latest development is in line with our prediction that EliteXC was attempting to retain fighters contracts in order to sell them to the highest bidder.

“EliteXC and ProElite are currently downsizing its staff in an effort to improve its business moving forward,” read a portion of the statement. “As this process is implemented, EliteXC cancelled the event previously scheduled for Nov. 8 in attempt to re-schedule another event in early 2009.”

The move is likely a last-ditch effort by the struggling promotion to keep its fighters under contract in hopes of selling of its assets, including fighter contracts, to the highest bidder. Since news first broke that the promotion was going out of business, numerous fighters have submitted formal breach notifications to EliteXC that could result in the fighters being released from their contracts in the coming weeks.

This latest development appears to be simply delaying the innevitable, as all of the promotion’s contracted fighters are likely to hit the open market by year end.

Requests for comment to EliteXC executives have gone unanswered.

The results of the investigation were released by the commission late Thursday and a full investigation into the matter will not take place.

Accusations of potential fight fixing began to swirl following an appearance by the late-replacement Petruzelli on a radio show in which he stated he was paid to stand up with the knockout artist Slice. Though both Petruzelli and EliteXC management immediately issued statements clarifying Petruzelli’s comments as referring to a standard knockout bonus, the claims picked up steam as other sources seemingly substantiated the claims.

However, the Florida investigation uncovered no evidence of wrongdoings and the case in now closed, though the bout will forever be remembered not only for its shocking finish by the heavy underdog Petruzelli, but also as the nail in EliteXC’s coffin, forcing the promotion to close its doors less than two weeks later.