mma news

Gegard Mousasi racked up 15 consecutive victories before running into Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal in April. In that fight, Mousasi was taken down repeatedly and stuck under a smothering top game that sapped him of any offense. He lost his Strikeforce belt and it looked like we found Mousasi's weakness.

At DREAM.15 on July 10, Mousasi will face Jake O'Brien in a four-man tournament for the DREAM light heavyweight title. O'Brien is a wrestler who is famous for a smothering top game that saps you of any offense.

The former Strikeforce and DREAM champion spoke to the press on Thursday about an opponent made to beat him, fighting his weaknesses and his goals for more belts.

It's the question that few of us have bothered to ask, probably because even fewer of us bothered to care, but what's the status of Fedor Emelianenko's WAMMA heavyweight title after his submission loss to Fabricio Werdum?

I know, I know. Somehow, what with Brock Lesnar winning a dramatic comeback victory and the heavyweight ranks getting shaken up like a snow globe in the hands of a petulant child over the last few weeks, it doesn't seem all that important.

That said, is Werdum now the WAMMA champ? Did Fedor FedEx him the belt? And if so, will he wear it with the same sense of pride that Fedor did? I did a little asking around in order to find answers to these and other almost relevant questions, and what I discovered was that the fans aren't the only ones who haven't given the issue much thought.

With UFC 119 on the hunt for star power, it's the Nogueira brothers to the rescue.

MMA legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira gets his long-awaited rematch with Frank Mir in the main event of UFC 119, MMA Fighting has learned.

UFC President Dana White has confirmed the matchup to MMA Fighting.

A report surfaced today that the UFC has signed two new heavyweights to meet at UFC 119, and MMA Fighting has confirmed from a source close to the organization that Sean McCorkle and Pride and K-1 veteran Mark Hunt will fight in Indianapolis.

Though UFC 119 has not yet been officially announced, it is expected to take place at Conseco Fieldhouse, home of the NBA's Indiana Pacers, on Sept. 25. The Hunt-McCorkle bout is slated for the preliminary card, according to the source.

Shinya Aoki has not allowed me to take a decent photo of him in over a year. Every time I ask him for a photo he covers his face. I have never had any problems with him, and we used to have a good working relationship. It wasn't just me though, it was all foreign press. I have often wondered what caused this dramatic change in attitude.

Watching the signing ceremony for his title fight against Tatsuya Kawajiri at DREAM.15, I noticed that he was doing the same thing with the Japanese media. On Thursday, a member of the Japanese press commented on it.

"At the signing ceremony you had the aura that it was difficult for us to get close to you..."

Aoki commented without looking up.

"Well I don't feel any different now."

The opening round of Sengoku's Welterweight Grand Prix will conclude at Sengoku 14 on Aug. 22 at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan.

The promotion announced Thursday that Nick "The Goat" Thompson will face Taisuke Okuno, and Kenta Takagi will meet Yasubey Enomoto to determine the two remaining semifinalists. Already slotted are Keita Nakamura and Takuya Wada, who advanced with with wins over Omar de la Cruz and Jae Sun Lee, respectively, at Sengoku 13 last month.

The winner of the Grand Prix will be crowned the first-ever Sengoku welterweight champion.

After co-authoring one of the most memorable matches of 2010, the "Korean Zombie" is back.

Chan Sung Jung, who endeared himself to the worldwide MMA audience following a three-round battle of attrition with Leonard Garcia in April, will return in September to face George Roop at WEC 51, a source close to the situation confirmed to MMA Fighting.

If there's anybody who should understand what Chuck Liddell is going through these days, it's Dana White. The UFC president said this weekend that the 40 year-old Liddell remains undecided about retirement, and apparently attending all these live MMA events as a spectator isn't exactly helping him let it go.

"He told me tonight the show open messed him up, watching [UFC 116] open," White said. "This guy's in this longer than me. He's been around forever and loves the sport. All I'm hoping is that he makes the right decision."

Reading those words, your heart has to break a little for the former champion. Imagine him sitting there on fight night -- the music blaring through the arena, the UFC highlight reel bringing the crowd to a boil, the entire cocktail of emotions he used to live for -- only now he's watching from the outside, struggling to stay in his seat.

DREAM Executive Producer Keiichi Sasahara met with the press Thursday to attempt to clarify the on-again, off-again situation regarding Alistair Overeem's participation at DREAM.15. Well, clarify is probably the wrong word.

"Towards the end of the negotiations, because of reasons that I am not able to tell you, although the two fighters agreed to fight, it happened that these fighters could not fight. It's not because of money, but if the reasons are something that I cannot tell you then you might be able to guess what they would be. Because of that, we are not able to have these two fighters fight."

Ricco Rodriguez was at no point mentioned by Sasahara as Overeem's opponent. Instead, former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski was planned.

Sasahara's full statement after the break.

After more than a year layoff, Sean Sherk will return to action at UFC 119 against Evan Dunham.

MMA Junkie first reported the news on Wednesday, and MMA Fighting has confirmed from a source close to Sherk's camp that the former UFC lightweight champion will be back on the Indianapolis card on Sept. 25.

Sherk (33-4-1, 7-4 UFC) last fought at UFC 98 in May 2009, where he lost a unanimous decision to future champion Frankie Edgar. Following the fight, in an odd turn of events, Sherk ran from the MGM Grand Garden Arena and was tracked down nearly a mile away, still needing to submit his post-fight urinalysis.

And then the injury bug hit him. Repeatedly.