Falcao vs. Spang Winner to Face Alexander Shlemenko to Crown New Bellator Champion


Bellator’s philosophy after the defection of middleweight champion Hector Lombard to the UFC? The show must go on.

And the show will go on in the middleweight division as they will crown a new champion later this year.

According to Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, the winner of the current middleweight tournament between Maiquel Falcao and Andreas Spang will then move on to face the last tournament winner, Alexander Shlemenko, to crown a new champion.

Rebney confirmed the plans via Twitter on Wednesday.

“Winner of Falcao vs. Spang will face Alexander Shlemenko for the world title this fall,” he wrote.

Falcao and Spang will battle it out in just a few weeks for the latest Bellator middleweight tournament title, and then the winner faces multi-time Bellator veteran Alexander Shlemenko.

Currently, Shlemenko is recovering from an auto accident that happened a couple of weeks ago in his native Russia. The middleweight contender suffered a broken collarbone and dislocated thumb in the wreck, but should be recovered to return to action later this year.

The good news for Shlemenko, however, is that when he does come back he’ll be fighting for the Bellator middleweight title; it just won’t be against Hector Lombard.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/falcao-vs-spang-winner-to-face-alexander-shlemenko-to-crown-new-bellator-champion

It wasn’t long ago that Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker was more than confident that former women’s champion Gina Carano would one day return to fighting.

Well, it appears that Coker’s wish has gone up in rubber peeling smoke after the latest news about Carano’s acting career surfaced on Monday.

Carano is currently close to landing a deal to become a cast member in the sixth installment of the hugely successful ‘Fast and Furious’ film series.

The Hollywood Reporter released details about Carano’s latest acting gig.

The former Strikeforce fighter first stepped away from fighting to star in Steven Soderberg’s action flick ‘Haywire’, with Carano in the starring role.

She has already been cast as the lead in another action epic titled ‘In the Blood’, but now Carano has landed a role in the hugely successful street racing film series that has grossed over a billion dollars worldwide.

According to the report, Carano will be cast as a team member under former WWE superstar Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, who also starred in the fifth installment of the film series.

Carano will join a cast that also includes ‘Fast and Furious’ regulars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker.

When speaking to MMAWeekly.com in January, Carano didn’t sound ultra confident that she’d ever return to fighting after finding a new love for an acting career.

“I’ve had such a wonderful time in mixed martial arts. I’m not trying to be greedy and snatch up all the dreams, but I’m just gonna keep going forward and see what happens.” said Carano.

The filming for Fast and Furious 6 is set to begin principle photography later this year with a targeted May 24, 2013 release for the movie.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/gina-caranos-return-to-mma-fades-fast-and-furiously

That's a good look for gina, go and get that hollywood loot

Jay Hieron Headed To Legacy Fighting Championships, Debuts July 13 On HDNet


Recent Bellator title challenger Jay Hieron (22-5) is headed to Legacy Fighting Championships.

LFC promoter Mick Maynard today told MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com) the fighter – who's also competed with the UFC, Strikeforce, WEC and IFL – has verbally agreed to a three-fight deal with the promotion.

The 35-year-old Hieron is expected to make his promotional debut at Legacy Fighting Championships 12, which airs live on HDNet on July 13.

Legacy Fighting Championships 12, which is also expected to feature Robert Drysdale vs. Isaac "Ike" Villanueva, takes place at Houston's Arena Theater. Hieron's opponent will be finalized in the coming weeks.

Hieron leaves Bellator following an October title loss to champion Ben Askren, which came via close split decision. The defeat snapped Hieron's 10-fight win streak, which included his victorious run through Bellator's eight-man season-four welterweight tournament, as well as a pair of victories under the Strikeforce banner.

After the fight, Hieron told MMAjunkie.com Radio he thought the win was his.

"I think I'm the champ, man," Hieron said. "I think I did enough to win. I think I won the first round, the third round, and the fifth. I closed the show, the championship round, hands down."

Hieron's Bellator tourney run included victories over ex-KOTC champ Anthony Lapsley, Bellator regular Brent Weedman, and Olympian Rick Hawn.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/28307/jay-hieron-headed-to-legacy-fighting-championships-debuts-july-13-on-hdnet.mma

Legacy Fighting Championships Extends Deal With HDNet, Joins Europa Expo


The Texas-based Legacy Fighting Championships has signed a new deal with HDNet.

Although terms of the multi-year agreement weren't disclosed, it'll assure that one of MMA's top regional promotions remains on the MMA-centric channel.

HDNet's "Inside MMA" show first announced the deal, which includes a possible event on conjunction with Europa Expo, on Monday.

The organization's next event, Legacy 11, takes place May 11 with a championship headliner between Jorge Patino and Jesus Rivera for the vacant lightweight belt. Other bouts from the card, which takes place at Houston's Arena Theater, include Chad Robichaux vs. Joseph Sandoval and Robert Drysdale vs. Isaac "Ike" Villanueva

The remaining 2012 pro schedule includes Legacy 12 on July 13, Legacy 13 on Aug. 17, Legacy 14 on Sept. 14, and Legacy 15 on Nov. 16. All of the shows except Legacy 13 take place in Houston. That event will take place in Dallas with the Europa Sports Expo, a top bodybuilding competition and expo. The expo takes place in locations throughout the country, and Legacy may go on the road to host shows in conjunction with it.

Legacy, which also hosts untelevised amateur events, plans up to 10 pro events in 2013. All will air on HDNet.

Legacy recently has sent some of its top fighters to major promotions. For example, middleweight champ Andrew Craig recently upset Kyle Noke at UFC on FX 2, and featherweight/lightweight champ Daniel Pineda signed with the UFC and submitted Pat Schilling at UFC on FX 1 earlier this year.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/28087/legacy-fighting-championships-extends-deal-with-hdnet-joins-europa-expo.mma

Ben Askren and Jordan Burroughs jokingly face off in Iowa City.

Jordan Burroughs, 2012 London Olympics And MMA's Near Miss: We Lost One And Didn't Even Know It


The Olympic Trials for the United States wrestling team took place over the weekend in Iowa City, Iowa. Within Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the mixed martial arts world probably gained and lost a few potential stars with little fanfare to announce their metaphorical blips dropping on and off the radar screens of the MMA world.

Thirteen thousand, two hundred and fifty was the reported attendance in the stadium - which is likely the largest crowd ever gathered to watch freestyle and greco-roman wrestling in the Eastern Hemisphere. In attendance were MMA stars like Ben Askren and Chael Sonnen and very likely some future MMA stars in the years to come. Not everybody can be an Olympian and in wrestling, not everyone can continually turn down the bigger paydays of MMA.

Most eyes were firmly affixed to the 74 kg division, where golden boy Jordan Burroughs resides. As Bloody Elbow has noted before, Burroughs is reigning world champion at 74 kilograms (163 pounds) and has been vocal about his future plans to do MMA after winning a string of world and Olympic titles.

On some levels, it may be a tough choice to decide whether to root for Burroughs the possibly transcendent talent in his wrestling career, or to root against him temporarily so he turns to MMA as Muhammad Lawal and Dan Cormier did. Those of you who follow football may recall Stephen Neal, the New England Patriots offensive lineman, who shifted to football after losing an Olympic Trials match-up he was heavily favored to win. Burroughs is the same type of rare talent who may have taken a loss in the finals as an opportunity to change careers and rule sets.

The man that the freestyle and folkstyle wrestling-inclined of us looked to as the Burroughs-beater was Andrew Howe, the New York Athletic Club and University of Michigan wrestler. Howe was the reigning 74 kg representative on the world scale for the Americans prior to Burroughs' arrival and is a phenomenal wrestler in his own right. Howe and Burroughs were favored to meet, but David Taylor, Kyle Dake, Trent Paulson, Tyler Caldwell and Moza Fay all looked to be tough outs for the two stars to work through.

After a first round bye, Howe had to battle his way through three matches in the brackets to reach the finals and gain the shot at Burroughs. In his first match, Howe blanked David Taylor, the current NCAA Division I champion at 165 lbs, in their match 1-0, 5-0 (each match was decided by best two of three periods). Howe was never threatened at all by Taylor, who'd spent most of the year making other folkstyle collegiate wrestlers look like they did not belong on the mats with him at all. Taylor would go on to win a match in the wrestleback/consolation bracket, but was pinned in dominant fashion by Kyle Dake, the reigning NCAA Division I 157 lbs champion, who would win the wrestleback. Howe controlled Taylor easily and moved on to his next match.

After Taylor, Howe grappled with Tyler Caldwell, a redshirting college junior who'd been the 2011 NCAA runner-up to Burroughs and is now a regular training partner of Burroughs. Howe beat him 1-0, 1-0 and again looked very hard to score on and firmly in control of the match. Kyle Dake lost the third period disastrously to Trent Paulson in the other half of the brackets and moved on to the wrestleback bracket.

The Paulson/Dake match set up a Howe/Paulson semi-final. Trent Paulson is a regular in the U.S. freestyle scene at 74 kgs and his brother Travis is also a regular in the scene at 84 kg. The Paulson brothers also have a famously cheesy website complete with fiery Olympic rings and a mishmash of career accomplishments. Howe beat Trent 1-0, 1-0. Nobody scored a point on Howe - until the finals.

When the long awaited showdown occurred, quite a bit was at stake here. Howe was looking to regain his spot as the preeminent 74 kg wrestler in the U.S. and Burroughs was attempting to keep his top dog status and gold medal hopes alive. Burroughs had a bye to the finals due to his stellar achievements at the world championships, but was perhaps wishing he had more time on the big stage to hone his skills and show the world what he could do - as Andrew Howe did. The two would wrestle for best two out of three matches, with three periods within each match.

In the end, Jordan Burroughs took the first period 4-2 and the third period 1-0. Howe managed to win the second 2-1, but suffered a knee injury that caused him to default the two matches. Burroughs would remain the 74 kg U.S. freestyle representatives and his Olympic dreams are still intact. That is terrific news for Burroughs and for the U.S. wrestling team and the patriots/medal groupies among us.

However, we MMA fans may have lost a world-class athlete - for now. Burroughs has said time and again that he will come over (perhaps in 2017). In the mean time, perhaps we can convince Andrew Howe, Ed Ruth or some of the other wrestling phenoms like Henry Cejudo (now retired from wrestling at the ripe old age of 25) to come over. If we can get Rulon Gardner for a match, we can get some of the others to dip their toes in and perhaps more. Let us Twitter Bomb these underappreciated wrestlers to try out MMA instead of working for Mark Hunt to gain an undeserved title shot. It is effort and time better spent and would yield more results

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/4/25/2974451/jordan-burroughs-going-to-olympics-and-farther-away-from-mma-london-2012-andrew-howe

Vinny Magalhaes Clarifies Why He's Not Currently Signed With Any Organization


In the ongoing saga of "When is Vinny going to be in the UFC?", we finally get a little clarity from Mr. Magalhaes himself. After several months of not fighting, despite holding the M-1 light heavyweight title, numerous pleas to the UFC and Dana White to get him signed, and a plethora of media attention to his current status, Vinny released a public statement via his Twitter, earlier today.

In short, his M-1 contract is up, and the right to exclusive negotiation expired in March. Now, the right to match phase is still in effect, and is valid until July. The young Brazilian has decided to wait out the terms of his champion's clause, so he can be free of any interference from the Russian based organization. From there, he'll be able to entertain serious offers.

Check out the post he made today on his Twitter via the Twitlonger application after the jump

Hey friends/fans,

I'd like to clarify for those who are wondering why I haven't been scheduled to fight or haven't been signed by any promotion yet.

I AM done with my contract obligations with M-1 Global, I am a free agent, that means that I'm free to take offers from any promotion, but since I finished my contract as M-1 Light Heavyweight Champion, I had champions clause on my contract, that gave M-1 Global a 60 days "Right to Exclusive negotiation", which was over in March (When I became free agent). Now I'm under the "right-to-match period" which will be over in couple months.

For those who don't know, that means that whatever offer I get from any other promotion, M-1 Global will have the right to match that same offer, and if they do it, I'm 'obligated' to resign with them. So I have decided to NOT take any offer from any other promotion until the right to match period ends, so I can just walk away from M-1 Global, and take whatever offer I choose to, after that period is over without having to worry about the threats that Evgeni Kogan made to me and my manager by email, which was "to match whatever offer I get just to prove a point" (basically saying that he'd want to keep me under contract just to f**k with me, excuse my language).

So with me not taking any offer, there's no offer for him to match, therefore I just have to wait for the right-to-match period to end, so I can sign with whatever promotion that I want to sign without having to deal with bullshit.

That period ends sometime in July, so if you're wondering when I will be fighting again, I can not give you that answer, but In july I should be signed and scheduled to fight somewhere. As soon as I take an offer AFTER that period ends, I will find that out.

Vinny Magalhaes
Still the M-1 Challenge Light heavyweight Champion of Russia

Magalhaes also made a similar thread on the UG forum, to which another stinging post, directed at M-1 was made:



Looks like the wait isn't quite over yet, but late summer seems to be promising for Vinny. Hopefully, the UFC will have everything lined up where we'll be able to see him fighting shortly after this static period is over. Until then, he will have to remain the Brazilian LHW champ of Russia.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/4/25/2975419/vinny-magalhaes-m1-mma-quote