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Former UFC standout Keith Jardine will look to extend his two-fight winning streak next Saturday in San Diego when he steps in to replace the injured Mike Kyle against international star and former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi on April 9th's Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley card at the Valley View Casino Center.

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After speaking to TUF 12 alum Kyle Watson (16-7-1), one comes away with the impression that the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor and UFC fighter is a man on a mission.

At 31 years old, he doesn’t have time to bounce around from promotion to promotion. He’s been there and done that. He is also aware that being a lightweight in the UFC, one of the most stacked and deepest divisions since the WEC merger back in December, means every fight is a must win situation.

“I feel like we’re all in the position where we’re all fighting for a job every time we step inside the Octagon,” says Watson, who faces undefeated Canadian John Makdessi (8-0) April 29th at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada.

“There’s so much talent and so many people waiting for their chance to prove themselves, if you slip up, just like Dana (White) says in a lot of interviews, ‘It’s like any other organization. If you’re not playing your best you’re going to be sidelined.’ Obviously I’m not happy with it,” says Watson. “I’d like to know I could get multiple chances, but it’s the name of the game; you just have to go in knowing that and give it your best shot.”

Watson has given mixed martial arts his best shot, and he’s done pretty well.

A full-time jiu-jitsu and Jeet Kune Do instructor, Watson has been fighting professionally since 2003, and he’s faced guys like Spencer Fisher and Bart Palaszweski long before The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV put him on the MMA map.

“I want to prove to myself, my friends and family and any critics out there that I’m not just a reality show guy,” says Watson, who lost to season 12 winner Jonathan Brookins before winning a unanimous decision against a tough Sako Chivitchian on The Team GSP vs Team Koscheck Finale card.

“I don’t want people thinking that I just got lucky and got on The Ultimate Fighter and got in the UFC that way,” said Watson. “I’ve had a lot of experience before the show, I put a lot of years of hard work in, I’ve had a lot of fights and I’m just ready for the challenge now and I deserve to be here.”

As if the pressure of being in a must-win situation on a card that has already sold a record 55,000 tickets -mostly to his opponent’s fellow countrymen - isn’t enough, Watson is set to be married April 9, just twenty days before the fight.

He laughs out loud when I ask him if he still plans to get married.

“Yeah of course I am,” he says. “I’m not saying it’s easy, but I’m a pretty organized person. It has been a challenge trying to balance what is one of the crowning moments of my life, my marriage, and training for my fight. I’m trying not to short-change my wedding, but at the same time I have to focus on my job. I don’t want the UFC bosses thinking I don’t know where my priorities are.”

Watson will spend his honeymoon at an all-inclusive resort in The Dominican Republic, but he and fiancée Laura will wait until May to celebrate their nuptials.

“She’s going to be in school until then anyway so it works out better for both of us,” he said.

In Makdessi, Watson faces a tough striker who trains daily with the number two-ranked pound for pound fighter in the world and reigning welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. The two trained together when Watson visited Tristar Gym in Montreal while he was part of Team GSP and training for the TUF Finale.

“The only training we did together was sparring and we didn’t really ever go to the ground and do any wrestling,” he said. “And honestly I came away feeling like I had the better end of it. I feel like I match up well. I don’t by any means think it’s an easy fight or am I thinking I’m going to get a quick submission or anything like that. He’s undefeated for a reason and he looked really sharp in his last UFC fight so I’m definitely expecting to have a tough battle.”

Stylewise, on paper, Makdessi is the better striker. He’s knocked out six of his eight opponents in impressive fashion, and he handled Team Bombsquad’s Pat “Awesomely Awesome” Audinwood fairly easily on the way to a unanimous decision win at UFC 124 in his Octagon debut last December.

“It’s going to be one of those classic matchups of striker versus grappler,” said Watson. “But if he thinks that I just need to desperately get the fight to the ground he’s got another thing coming. I’m not a one-dimensional fighter. I’m not saying I’m going to walk in there and try to beat him at his own game, but if he thinks the ground game is all I got he’s going to be surprised.”

Watson enters tough company in the 155lb division. As champion Frankie Edgar prepares for his rematch with Gray Maynard and former WEC champ Anthony Pettis gets ready to make his UFC debut against Clay Guida, guys like Jim Miller, Melvin Guillard, Ben Henderson, George Sotiropoulos and Sam Stout are chomping at the bit to get their turn for the strap.

Watson has no illusions as to his place in the pecking order.

“I think it’s one of the toughest and deepest divisions,” he says. “Not only is it the biggest division with how many guys the UFC has on contract, but every single fight you get is going to be a tough match up. For example, John Makdessi – a lot of people have never heard of him but he’s been with GSP’s camp for a long time and he’s really tough.  So it’s going to be really tough for me to climb the ladder but I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think I could climb that ladder. I love to challenge myself and prove to people that I belong in there.”

“I just want to prove to myself that I can be a contender in the division, win some matches and if at some point it puts me into title contention, then that’ll be my goal.”

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He probably doesn't have to look too hard now, considering "Suga" packed his bags and headed to South Florida to train at Imperial Athletics. But with a stable of talented fighters -- some of which compete in the same divisions -- will Jackson be able to pull it off or will it ultimately tear his world class gym apart?

"What we have to do as trainers is make sure that we're able to keep that team unity, you know what I mean? That giving environment that all these great camps have but still be able to, at the end of the day, if there's a title on the line, something big like that, be able to fight each other. Finding that balance is my job is right now, period."

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HOBOKEN, N.J. – Integrated Sports Media (ISM), the undisputed distribution champion of mixed martial arts and boxing fights in North America, will present a one-hour special featuring Georges “Rush” St. Pierre’s six non-UFC fights, including his first five and rarely seen 2002 debut, starting tomorrow (Friday, April 1) and airing for the entire month of April.

“George St. Pierre: Rush To The Top” will be exclusively distributed in the United States by ISM, premiering in April for viewing on both cable and satellite pay-per-view on the following dates (for only $9.95):

• DISH Network (April 1)
• DirecTV (Apr. 4 – CH # 120)
• Avail-TVN (Apr. 11)
• iN DEMAND (Apr. 12)
• Video On Demand

Check listings for replays through the entire month of April and into May.

St. Pierre, who sports an amazing 21-2-0 career record (8 KOs, 5 submissions), started learning Kyokushin karate from his father at the age of seven in order to defend himself from a school bully. He later studied Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), wrestling and boxing.

Today, he holds a third-degree black belt in Kyokushin, as well as black belts in BJJ and Gaidojutsu.

GSP’s most notable victims include B.J. Penn (twice), Matt Serra, Matt Hughes, Dan Hardy, John Fitch, Thiago Alves, and Josh Koscheck. Georges is scheduled to next defend his title belt April 30 headlining UFC129 against Jake Shields in Toronto.

For more information about the “George St. Pierre: Rush To The Top” PPV special go to www.integratedsportsnet.com.

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If you didn't watch "Season 1" of Alistair Overeem's online documentary series "The Reem", then frankly sir, you've been wasting your internets, and quite possibly, your life.  No, it's not Dutch scheisse porn... notice  that "Reem" is spelled with two E's.  They're some of the highest-quality fighter docs I've ever seen, ranking right up there with the work of Genghis Con.

While the first season dealt mostly with Ubereem's epic run through last year's K-1 Grand Prix tournament, it looks like this season's focus is the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix.  Check out Episode 1 of Season 2 above, in which he crushes Todd Duffee in what may have been DREAM's last event, goes to the Super Bowl, does his part to help legalize MMA in New York, and makes some promo appearances for Strikeforce.  Episode 2 is after the jump...

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All 10 fighters on tomorrow’s/Friday’s SHOWTIME telecast of the STRIKEFORCE Challengers event at Stockton Arena in Stockton, Calif. made weight - In the STRIKEFORCE Challengers main event, Justin "The Silverback" Wilcox will face off with submission wizard Rodrigo Damm:

Justin Wilcox (155.2) vs. Rodrigo Damm (155.8)
David Douglas (154) vs. Caros Fodor (155.4)
Lorenz Larkin (205.8) vs. Scott Lighty (206.2)
James Terry (164.2) vs. Josh Thornburg (163.6)
Damion Douglas (168.6) vs. Wayne Phillips (170.2)

Photos via: Esther Lin/STRIKEFORCE
Strikeforce Challengers 15 coverage

Photos via: Esther Lin/STRIKEFORCE

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UFC heavyweight contender Junior dos Santos missed out on a promised title shot when champ Cain Velasquez underwent surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff after UFC 121. Dos Santos' consolation prize is a season coaching The Ultimate Fighter opposite Brock Lesnar. The two will then pair off at UFC 131 in a fight to determine who will be the first to challenge the returning Velasquez. Dos Santos spoke to Sherdog.com:

"I'm very excited to fight against Brock Lesnar. I want to fight for the title but (Cain) Velasquez got hurt and he can't fight now so I came to coach here on TUF. I'm happy for this and the fight against Brock Lesnar is going to prove I'm the number one contender for the title shot. I will try my best and use my boxing (skills). I'm looking for one more knockout."

Jun 11th, live on Pay-per-view from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:

Junior "Cigano" dos Santos (12-1) -135 [Num.3]
Win Roy Nelson - Decision (Unanimous) UFC 117
Win Gabriel Gonzaga - TKO (Punches) UFC Versus 1
Win Gilbert Yvel - TKO (Punches) UFC 108

Brock Lesnar (5-2) +105 [Num.4]
Loss Cain Velasquez - TKO (Punches) UFC 121
Win Shane Carwin - Submission (Arm-Triangle Choke) UFC 116
Win Frank Mir - TKO (Punches) UFC 100

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It's like sex minus the penetration

Since Ryan probably died last night of autoerotic asphyxia, here is something I stole from myself.

So the 4 fighters involved in the co-main and main event fights at Fight Night 24 have each been suspended for 7 days. I can think of only one reason they only got 7 days... nothing happened. You can't get injured if no one does anything. Even a submission that sucked gets a suspension. I know some of you guys have a boner for wrestling but these guys need to learn how to finish or damage.

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In Frankie Edgar's most recent appearance in the octagon he looked to avenge the only loss of his career against number one contender Gray Maynard at UFC 125. After suffering a brutal first round Edgar amazingly rebounded to not only take the next round but in the eyes of many fans and critics managed to take the victory in Las Vegas. At UFC 130, UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and number one contender Gray Maynard will get five more rounds to prove to the world who the top 155-pound fighter in mixed martial arts truly is.

May 28th, live on Pay-per-view from Las Vegas, Nevada:

Frankie "The Answer" Edgar (13-1-1) -140 [Num. 1]
Draw Gray Maynard - Draw UFC 125
Win B.J. Penn - Decision (Unanimous) UFC 118
Win B.J. Penn - Decision (Unanimous) UFC 112

Gray "The Bully" Maynard (10-0-1) +120 [Num. 2]
Draw Frankie Edgar - Draw UFC 125
Win Kenny Florian - Decision (Unanimous) UFC 118
Win Nate Diaz - Decision (Split) UFC FN 20

HT: NickTheFace2

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The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 13 premiered this past Wednesday (March 30, 2011), featuring heavyweight coaches Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos, with an average of 1.5 million viewers tuning in to Spike TV.

The cable television network reported the ratings earlier today, which most likely fell way below expectations, considering that Lesnar has historically been a box office behemoth.

By comparison, TUF 12 (with coaches Georges St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck) pulled in 1.6 million viewers. The high watermark is TUF 10, which featured YouTube street-brawling sensation Kimbo Slice and reeled in a whopping 4.1 million curious cats.

The good news is that the debut episode still managed to finish first in viewership for males aged 18 to 34 and 18 to 49 during the 9 to 10 p.m. ET time slot.

One episode down, nine to go.

In the debut episode, the two coaches worked out the 14 TUF contestants -- all of whom are vying for one "six-figure contract" -- and selected their teams. Unlike seasons past, there weren't any qualifying fights to gain entry into the TUF house.

TUF 13 will serve as the lead up to the number one heavyweight contender eliminator match between Lesnar and dos Santos, which is set for UFC 131 on June 11, 2011, in Vancouver.

For a full recap of TUF 13's debut episode click here.

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Follow UFC president Dana White on Twitter, and you've undoubtedly seen his frequent request: Vote for DeMarco Murray!

However, if you're the type of hardcore fan that rarely steps outside of the MMA bubble, you might be at a loss to figure out exactly what office Murray is seeking.

With the UFC's full backing, Murray is campaigning for a slot on the cover of EA Sports' forthcoming NCAA Football 12 video game. And if he wins, the Las Vegas native has promised to prominently sport a UFC logo at April's NFL draft.

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The official weigh-in event for Strikeforce Challengers 15 is now in the books. The last pre-fight event before tomorrow night's card, which airs live on Showtime at 11 p.m. ET, took place today in Stockton, California.

Sixteen of the 18 fighters successfully made weight the first time around. Tristin Arenal was one full pound over the 156-pound limit for his fight against Tom Peterson and Scott Lighty was 0.2 pounds over for his light heavyweight match against Lorenz Larkin.

Arenal will have two full hours to drop one pound and Lighty must drop 0.2 pounds in the same timeframe.

The main event of Strikeforce Challengers 15 will feature a lightweight battle between rising prospect contender Justin "The Silverback" Wilcox and former title challenger Rodrigo Damm. Also on the card is an exciting lightweight bout between heavy hitting David "Tarzan" Douglas and the crafty submission artist Caros "The Future" Fodor.

Check out the Challengers 15: "Wilcox vs Damm" weigh in results below.

155 lbs.: Justin "The Silverback" Wilcox (155.2) vs. Rodrigo Damm (155.8)
155 lbs.: David "Tarzan" Douglas (154) vs. Caros "The Future" Fodor (155.4)
205 lbs.: Lorenz "The Monsoon" Larkin (205.8) vs. Scott "Lights Out" Lighty (206.2)
170 lbs.: James Terry (164.2) vs. Josh Thornburg (163.6)
170 lbs.: Damion Douglas (168.6) vs. Wayne Phillips (170.2)
155 lbs.: Rafael Rios (150.2) vs. Anthony Avila (149.4)
135 lbs.: Robert Escalante (130) vs. Raul Sandoval (130.6)
155 lbs.: Tristan Arenal (157) vs. Tom Peterson (155.2)
135 lbs.: Adam Antolin (125.4) vs. Ronald Carillo (124.6)

Remember MMAMania.com will provide LIVE blow-by-blow, round-by-round coverage of "Wilcox vs Damm," beginning with the Showtime telecast starting at 11 p.m. ET.

It's going to be a great night of fights so don't miss out, and remember to check us out for all the post-fight coverage after tomorrow night's card is wrapped up.

See you then!

(Brothers Damion and David Douglas pictured above.)

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A tragedy inside and outside the Judo community. Most news outlets are running with the Associated Press release stating suicide such as USA Today, though BBC News have treated it more delicately:

Austrian Olympic judo silver medallist Claudia Heill has died after falling from a sixth-floor window in Vienna.

Her body was found in the early hours of Thursday. Police said no suicide note had been found but there were no signs of suspicious circumstances.

Ms Heill, 29, retired from judo in 2009, five years after winning silver in the women’s under-63kg category at the Athens Olympics.

She finished fifth in the Beijing games and had been working as a junior coach.

‘Irrational action’

Austrian Judo Federation president Hans Paul Kutschera said that everyone who knew her was in shock.

“Claudia was successful in her studies, she was a very active person,” he told Austrian TV.

She had been involved in marketing for the European Judo Championships in Vienna in 2010 and had recently been studying at the University of Applied Sciences at Wiener Neustadt, reports said.

Ms Heill’s former trainer Hubert Rohrauer was quoted as saying that he could find no explanation for what happened.

“We met up only the evening before,” he said. “Nobody could have predicted such an irrational action. She was a perfectionist and strong-willed.”

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