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Love him or hate him, there's no denying Ken Shamrock's place in the history of MMA.

But with all the accolades, the UFC Hall of Famer's name in recent years has instead been attached to controversy. There's been questions as to why Shamrock, now 46, continues to fight (he's lost seven of his last nine), and in his lone recent win last year, tested positive for steroids.

In this exclusive interview below, Shamrock, who headlines this Saturday's Impact FC 2 pay-per-view from Sydney, Australia, talks about his next fight against fellow UFC old schooler Pedro Rizzo, his brother Frank's retirement, his recent confession of taking performance-enhancers and much more.

Stop and think for a moment about where Chris Leben was in his mixed martial arts career at the beginning of 2010: In his most recent fight he had been submitted by the eminently mediocre Jake Rosholt. Before that he had served a suspension for testing positive for steroids following his loss to Michael Bisping. It had been 22 months since he last won a fight, and he was probably one more loss away from getting cut from the UFC.

But what a 2010 it's been: Leben is 3-0 this year, he's cashed bonus checks for Fight of the Night and Knockout of the Night, and he's gone from being known mostly as a guy who acted like a jerk on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter to getting a huge ovation from the crowd after winning the co-main event at the UFC's biggest card of the year.

Dana White can finally stop having to answer questions about signing Jake Shields. The former Strikeforce middleweight champion is UFC bound, says the official website of Shields' Cesar Gracie camp.

"Jake's opponent is one of the UFC's top contenders and will be announced shortly," GracieFighter.com stated.

Shields will move down to the division where he spent the majority of his career, 170 pounds.

At some point this weekend, Paul Daley is going to have to look around at the company he's keeping in Australia and ask himself some tough questions.

Who knows, maybe he already has.

Maybe when he sat down for the pre-fight press conference and looked around to see himself surrounded by aging ex-champions and noted MMA misfits of every stripe, perhaps that's when it started to sink in that he had found himself in a sort of MMA purgatory.

Daley already knows why he's on the Impact FC card in Sydney this Saturday and not in the UFC. We all do. After losing a decision to Josh Koscheck at UFC 113, he threw what may have been the most notorious and yet least damaging punch in UFC history. Least damaging to the recipient, anyway.

The United States MMA calendar has been relatively quiet this month, but that doesn't mean referee Dan Miragliotta isn't keeping busy.

"Big Dan" will reprise his role as the referee on "Ultimate Mustache Fighter" on the Thursday night (really Friday Morning) edition of NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Strikeforce on Thursday made official the full fight card for its Challengers show July 23 in Everett, Wash.

Heavyweight Shane Del Rosario (9-0) puts his unbeaten record on the line against Lolohea Mahe (4-1-1) in the main event.

All nine of Del Rosario's fights have been stoppage victories and just one has gone to the second round. His last win came more than eight months ago, an omoplata victory over Brandon Cash. Mahe is coming off a loss in his Strikeforce debut in March against Lavar Johnson.

In the co-main event, Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion Sarah Kaufman (11-0) puts her title on the line against Roxanne Modafferi (15-5), who upset Tara LaRosa by split decision at Moosin's God of Martial Arts show in Massachusetts in May. It will be Kaufman's first defense of the title.

After pulling the upset over Jeff Curran at Bellator 14, Bryan Goldsby has extended his contract with Bellator and will compete in the promotion's upcoming bantamweight tournament.

"I want to be the face of the bantamweights in Bellator," Goldsby told MMAFighting.com on Thursday. "I want to win the tournament, defend the belt and take it from there."

The 28-year-old of out of Macon, Ga. will take part in the season premiere card on Aug. 12 at Bellator 24 in Hollywood, Fla.

As you may recall, much of the talk surrounding UFC 115 was whether the organization would ever return to Vancouver following its first show. High insurance rates and a lack of provincial support, led many to believe that until things changed for MMA in Western Canada, the UFC (or another professional organization, for that matter) would think long and hard before holding another event at GM Place or any other arena in British Columbia.

A month later, the MMA scene in Vancouver became a little hazier, as Vancouver Athletic Commission chairman Mirko Mladenovic, a supporter of MMA, was impeached and replaced by Dave Rudberg. Why was he fired? Well, The Vancouver Sun reported that "city staff and others complained about his conduct during the recent debate over allowing an Ultimate Fighting Championship event."

Moreover, there is a growing concern among MMA supporters in Vancouver that the two-year trial period for MMA in Vancover, which began in December 2009, might expire with only one major MMA event ever taking place in the Olympic city.

No one has been covering this story better than The Score's Paul Lazenby, and MMA Fighting spoke to the fighting analyst about some of the issues surrounding MMA in Vancouver and the sport's future in Western Canada. The interview is below.

Within minutes of Fabricio Werdum beating Fedor Emelianenko on June 26, Fedor's handlers at M-1 Global began calling for a rematch, and in the weeks since then, Fedor's promotion has been steadfast in its insistence that the only fight it wants to make is Fedor-Werdum 2, hopefully in the fall.

But it takes two to make a fight, and Werdum does not appear to be on board with the idea of a quick rematch.

It's tough to know what to make of Moosin. Earlier this week, the upstart MMA organization was eyeing a bout between "World's Strongest Man" Mariusz Pudzianowski and former internet brawler Kimbo Slice for their fall event. Then the very next day the company sent out a press release wherein the "face" of the company, Eric "Butterbean" Esch, harshly criticized the Polish strongman's fighting abilities.

"I know he allegedly broke his foot in the fight against [Tim] Sylvia," Butterbean is quoted as saying about Pudzianowski, "but he didn't show anything before he quit."

It only gets more out of hand from there, as Esch insists that Pudzianowski punches "like a girl," and says he needs to prove himself before he gets another big fight with Moosin.

Fun stuff for a press release, but what gives? Is any of this for real, or are Moosin and Butterbean working an angle? To find out, I called up the Bean himself to try and get some straight answers.