According to the above poster the PRIDE Lightweight GP is set for May 20th. Here are the rumored fighters for the tournament based on the pictures on the top of the poster:

Matt Hughes
Diego Sanchez
Takanori Gomi
Marcus Aurelio
Gilbert Melendez
Joachim Hansen
Tatsuya Kawajiri
Mitsuhiro Ishida
Luiz Buscape
Shinya Aoki
Hayato Sakurai
Luiz Azevedo

If this event is truly just over a month away I would [...]

According to Sam Caplan, Dana White informally offered boxer Floyd Mayweather big money to take on UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk, likely under MMA rules. Here’s a clip from the post on the offer which was announced on the radio program “Bubba the Love Sponge”:

Back in early March news broke that UFC vet Nick Diaz tested positive for marijuana following his win over Takanori Gomi at Pride 33 throwing his upset win into question. The Nevada State Athletic Commission has changed the result of the fight to no contest as a result. MMAWeekly.com reports that Diaz was fined $3000 [...]

Sam Caplan is reporting that Mark Homininck will have his UFC contract voided to move to Zuffa-owned World Extreme Cagefighting and that UFC veteran Sam Stout has inked a contract to return to the UFC. Here’s the post:
The Fight Network is reporting that Mark Hominick has asked that his contract with the UFC be voided [...]

At UFC 69 Dana White announced that the UFC had signed Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (29-4-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) furthering the depth of the UFC’s renewed heavyweight division. Other notable recent signings include Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Heath Herring as well as Randy Couture who came out of retirement to capture the UFC Heavyweight title [...]

After Matt Serra’s UFC 69 win against Georges St. Pierre ESPN did the previously unthinkable and showed highlights of Serra’s win. TSN and other sports networks also picked up on the win marking the first time UFC highlights were shown on national TV immediately after an event.
After previous events, namely Randy Couture’s win over Tim [...]

Tags: mma, ufc, ufc 69

After lots and lots of back-and-forth flip flopping of dates and venues it appears, for now at least, that we know the dates and locations for all of UFC’s “numbered” events through early July. UFC 71 will still be held on May 26th in Las Vegas so no changes there. “UFC 72″, which we originally [...]

Diego Sanchez has gone on the record about his failed drug test after UFC Fight Night 7 in December. Here’s a quote from Diego and commentary from Steve Sievert from Brawl Sports:

The CSAC [California State Athletic Comission] said it didn’t make the failed test public because no one asked. The flunked test also was conspicuously [...]

Variety is reporting that both HBO and ESPN are negotiating with the UFC to gain rights to the growing sport. HBO is interested in premium fights while ESPN may be seeking rights to highlights as well as smaller events like UFC Fight Nights. Here’s an excerpt from the report:
“[HBO], which airs many of the premiere [...]

Josh Burkman has confirmed his match against Karo Parisyan at UFC 71 via his myspace site:
I signed the fight today, me and Karo Parysian May 26th at Mandalay Bay in Vegas. Tickets go on sale monday!
Thanks for the support and messages!
JBurk
“peoples warrior”
Not sure if Burman didn’t get the note or if the UFC has changed [...]

After I reexamined our news about Brandon Vera’s contract status and The Fight Network’s coverage I think I wasn’t very clear in conveying what Vera has in fact agreed to. His contract was set to expire in May but he was unable to schedule his last fight in the UFC before the contract expired so [...]

Fresh off the heels of us talking about Brandon Vera (8-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) getting a contract extension the undfeated mixed martial artist got a contract to stay with the UFC. Here’s the announcement from The Fight Network:
“Heavyweight contender Brandon Vera has signed an extension with the Ultimate Fighting Championship with plans to complete [...]

UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, LLC, has filed a lawsuit against one of their up-and-coming competitors Showtime’s Elite XC. The lawsuit was filed March 22nd in the U.S. District Court of Nevada and allegeges copyright infringment of UFC’s intelectual property according to court doccuments.
PWInsider has more on the story:
In a 34 page filing, Zuffa contends that [...]

It has long been rumored that UFC was trying to get their highlights and perhaps even their shows onto ESPN and ESPN.com and today may be a sign of things to come. The AP story about the UFC purchasing PRIDE was feature on the ESPN.com homepage (gasp!). Better yet it wasn’t tucked in an obscure [...]