He’s here.

The number two ranked featherweight in the world, Hatsu Hioki, has finally made his way to the world’s largest fight promotion to ply his trade inside the Octagon. Now his debut is set.

The date? Oct. 29, 2011. The place? Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event? UFC 137: “St. Pierre vs. Diaz.” The opponent? George Roop.

The promotion brought word of the pending match-up earlier today via its Twitter.

Hioki, more substance than pomp, piled up titles fighting overseas where he compiled an outstanding record of 24-4-2 with notable wins over Mark Hominick (x2) and Marlon Sandro.

The consensus opinion in the fight world is that he’s already ready already for a fight against Jose Aldo. Why not test him first, though?

That test will come in the form of George Roop. Is he a world beater? Certainly not. In fact, he hasn’t strung together back-to-back wins since March 2008.

But he’s got enough respectable wins (see Sung Jung, Chan and Grispi, Josh) to throw him in against one of the best featherweights in the world, right?

No one is calling him a sacrificial lamb but — baaaaaaaa.

UFC 137 will feature a welterweight championship match for the ages as Georges St. Pierre puts his coveted title on the line against former Strikeforce king Nick Diaz.

Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more on this still-developing fight card.

Much has been said about M-1 Global, most of it negative because of the press coverage of the management portion of the company. M-1 Global as a fight organization is actually one of the better promotions in the world. I speak from first hand experience where former teammates have been taken care of by the Russian company at events they participated on. Tonight was M-1 Global’s second show on Showtime and the expectations were pretty high as they made a major push towards the MMA media to build up this event. 

M-1 Global falls into a grey area of MMA. It isn’t quite regional MMA due to the fact that they host events internationally but the fights just don’t have that “Big Event Feel” often associated with major MMA shows. Tonight demonstrated that while they have been able to expand internationally, they still have a long way to go if they plan on being considered a world power when it comes to MMA. 

The card kicked off with a fight between Jason Norwood and Eddie Arizmendi. Norwood has a reputation for being an extremely boring fighter who fights to win decisions instead of working to finish fights. Arizmendi was able to defend the takedowns and utilize his far superior stand up. Norwood opted to defend Arizmendi’s boxing with his face instead of using head movement to minimize damage. This ultimately was the decider as Arizmendi finished the fight with a beautiful left hand that put Norwood out before his head hit the mat. 

The next fight between Beau Baker and Daniel Weichel demonstrated why M-1 shouldn’t be considered a top-tiered organization. Weichel came into the fight with over 30 fights while Baker was coming off of a loss and an injury. Weichel dominated the entire fight as expected and won a one sided decision that saw a judge score the fight 30-25. This score card, while a bit surprising, summed up the fight perfectly. Baker was fighting to surive, not to win. Weichel lacked the ability to finish the fight.

We were then treated to two quick first round knockouts. Mairbek Taisumov ended Josh Bacallao‘s night with a right hand. In the pre-fight interview he let us know he doesn’t blow and that he’ll show us. I don’t know what this meant but he proved that he has some knockout power in his right hand. Following this fight, Tyson Jeffries met Arthur Guseinov. The fight will be remembered for the spectacular spinning back fist finish with many proclaiming it the knockout of the year. While it was a great knockout and a perfect spinning back fist, placing it ahead of classic knockouts like Anderson Silva’s front kick to Vitor Belfort or Lyoto Machida’s crane kick to Randy Couture is downright ridiculous. 

The main event was a rematch between Patrick Bennett and Kenny Garner. This was an extremely sloppy and entertaining heavyweight fight but the key word is sloppy. Bennett is best known for taking Cole Konrad to a decision in Bellator. Getting finished in the second round against a guy like Garner really should question the overall skills of Konrad who wasn’t able to finish Bennett at Bellator 17. Fun knockout but neither fighter came way impressive.

Overall feelings on the card? M-1 produces fun fights. But there are a lot of people who put finishes ahead of competitive decisions against top talents. The fights were entertaining but the quality of fighters was no better than a regional card. It’s not a bad way to spend a Friday night but shouldn’t be compared to quality Strikeforce or UFC cards. Guseinov was the most impressive in victory with his spinning back fist while Garner was most likely the least impressive. As the M-1 brand continues to grow, so should the level of talent. But until that happens, it will still only be considered a regional MMA brand.  

SBN coverage of M-1 Global Challenge 26

PRIDE NEVER DIE!

No one would blame you if you felt it did just that, though, when former king of Japan, Wanderlei Silva, ran face first into a barrage of Chris Leben uppercuts that ended his night in just 27 seconds at UFC 132 this past Saturday in Las Vegas.

The loss marked the sixth time in eight fights “The Axe Murderer” has come up short, four of which have ended by way of brutal, turn the lights off, knockout.

In fact, Silva has spent so much time on Queer Street these past five years he practically makes his home there.

This is a cold, hard fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed by promotion President Dana White, who all but put the bow on the Brazilian’s legendary career when he said he thinks it’s time for Wandy to hang ‘em up.

As it turns out, there’s at least one former Pride great that didn’t appreciate the bossman’s comments and made his feelings known to R7 Esportes (translation via Bloody Elbow):

“I think he was unfortunate with his comments. They’re idols of the sport, (Dana’s) not a God who decides on everyone’s career. I loved the fact that Tito Ortiz won his last fight. You see that these people were not champions for nothing. Ortiz, Wanderlei and Fedor were top fighters for a reason. But Dana White can’t decide that, he’ll have to eat his words regarding Tito (laughs).”

Who knew Nogueira was such a boat-rocker?

If you can’t imagine a scenario in which White will be okay with these comments it’s likely because there probably isn’t one. Sure, Dana knows he’s not a God but rubbing the Ortiz win in his face?

That means war.

Or maybe it doesn’t and the boss will take these words at face value. After all, “Minotauro” is in the midst of a career spiral himself. The proud former heavyweight champion used to possess a chin made of granite and it took an entire decade of fighting for his finally getting stopped via strikes.

That technical knockout loss came at the hands of Frank Mir, not exactly a noted knockout artist. Just one fight later, “Big Nog” was put to sleep courtesy of a right hand from hell delivered by Cain Velasquez, who, deserved or not, has long been saddled with a reputation for having pillow fists.

Simply put, if Silva makes his home on Queer Street, Nogueira has been looking into property there as well.

Two fading former Pride kings banding together to take on “The Man.” Thoughts on this? 

Portly pugilistic powerhouse James Toney seems to be making friends wherever he goes.

The bloated boxing “champion” is set to slug it out against fellow fossilized fomenter Ken Shamrock in a special mixed rules bout later this year.

And he has to find a new place to train for it, according to Larry Brown Sports:

Toney used to do his training at the 360 Health Club in Reseda, California, but was kicked out after having an incident with another member. The gym would not comment on the matter citing company policy, but they did confirm that Toney is no longer a member. We’re told Toney made another member feel uncomfortable with a verbal and/or physical threat.

When asked what happened between him and 360, Toney told LBS “We had a disagreement with the managers. We had too much traffic coming in — the wrong traffic.” We did not press Toney for details on the specifics of the incident, but officials at 360 say the suggestion that bringing in “the wrong traffic” was not the issue.

Peace out, Jimbo.

Toney’s first and only mixed martial arts fight was a Boston massacre, as “Lights Out” was made an example of by Randy Couture in front of a “Beantown” crowd last August.

While Shammy is known for being a brawler, he might want to follow “The Natural’s” lead and take this thing south as soon as it’s humanly possible or risk getting mummified in the opening frame.

Something he seems to have perfected over the past ten years.

Not to suggest “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” has been on hard times as of late, but he makes the struggling Wanderlei Silva look like William the Conqueror.

Two combat sports legends (way) past their prime in a mixed rules grudge match.

Anyone plan on checking this one out?

Competing for the second time in just six days, Jared Rosholt took on
fellow heavyweight Kirk Grinlinton in a featured main-card bout at Titan
Fighting Championships 18.

The May 27 event took place at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan., and aired live on HDNet.

“Again, what The Wall Street Journal put out and what everyone is saying, none of that stuff is true. People are out there speculating about what’s going on. We have no deal with anybody. We’re out there talking to everybody. So I don’t buy into that stuff, but when deals are done and everybody does what they’re going to do, then we’ll see what happens.”

But a source at Spike, speaking on the condition of anonymity, indicated that the company has essentially abandoned any notion of a new deal with the UFC, since it believes the UFC is “very close to a deal with G4.”

“They want their own channel, and this is an opportunity for their own channel,” the source said.

As for the programming moves, it’s “pretty obvious why we’re doing what we’re doing,” the source said, but it hasn’t resulted in any animosity between UFC and Spike employees.

“We’re all just doing our jobs,” said the source.

Who knows if Mystery Source from Spike knows what’s what, but for what it’s worth MMAFighting.com is generally more reliable than MiddleEasy and it’s Sunday Morning Rumor Mills, so there’s that. Here’s just hoping that ‘a deal with G4′ means a deal with all of Comcast to do crazy UFC madness on G4, Versus, NBC, USA, and on and on and on. If it’s just G4 and Versus, then I’m gonna do some armpit farts and start looking for a new sport to blog about because that just ain’t gonna get things done. It’ll be the worst TV decision the UFC has ever made … like ION times a bazillion.

MMAjunkie.com today confirmed with UFC officials
that in addition to the previously announced pay-per-view and Spike TV
broadcast plans, the promotion will also stream four preliminary-card
matchups on Facebook.

Brian Bowles vs. Takeya Mizugaki, Aaron Simpson vs. Brad Tavares,
Anthony Njokuani vs. Andre Winner and Jeff Hougland vs. Donny Walker
will stream live beginning at 6 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT local time).

The main event pits UFC veteran and current interim Shark Fights
welterweight champ Josh Neer against Jesse Juarez, and
Elvis Mutapcic meets fellow middleweight Arteneas Young in
the night’s co-feature.

Shark Fights 16 takes place at Ector County Coliseum in Odessa, Texas.
The event will be filmed by FUEL TV and air later this year as part of
FUEL TV’s “Friday Fight Night.”

MMAjunkie.com has learned that Strikeforce
executives have booked The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort for the
prospect-focused event.

An official announcement from the promotion is expected shortly.

Let’s try this thing again.

Women’s Welterweight Champion Marloes Coenen has been booked (again) to square off against women’s welterweight tournament winner Miesha Tate at the upcoming Strikeforce: “Fedor vs Henderson” event on July 30 in Chicago, Illinois.

The promotion made the contest official just last night.

These two lethal ladies were originally set to square off back in March; however, Tate suffered a knee injury that put her on the sidelines and Coenen instead defended her freshly won strap against Liz Carmouche.

After getting pummeled for the better part of four rounds, “Rumina” threw up a hail mary triangle submission and forced the tap of “Girl-Rilla” with just six minutes remaining.

Whew.

She’ll face an equally difficult test in Tate this summer.

Miesha Tate will make her long awaited return to the cage after nearly an entire year away from action.

She was last seen tearing through the women’s welterweight tournament at the Strikeforce Challengers 10 event in Aug. 2010, decisively defeating Maiju Kujala and Hitomi Akano … on the same night.

Those victories, not to mention an impressive armbar submission of Bellator Champion Zoila Gurgel a couple months prior, earned her this chance to “Takedown” Coenen to earn yet another championship belt.

Can she do it?

Strikeforce: “Fedor vs. Henderson” is all set for the Sears Center in Chicago, Illinois and will feature legendary Russian Fedor Emelianenko taking on Light Heavyweight Champion Dan Henderson in a heavyweight attraction.

In addition, Muhammed Lawal will hit the mat to tangle with jiu-jitsu ace Roger Gracie.

Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more on this still-developing fight card.

Chad Griggs was looking to avoid Valentijn Overeem‘s high kick in their bout Saturday at “Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum” in Dallas. He did that, ducking the kick and eventually taking Overeem down, where he finished the fight as Overeem tapped to punches in the first round.

Griggs clinches after Overeem misses a high kick. A lateral drop puts him in half-guard in the center of the cage. Overeem hangs onto to the left arm and all Griggs can do is land little pity hammerfists. Overeem lets go of the hold and Griggs starts landing shots. Overeem turns his back and Griggs pounds away until Overeem taps to the onslaught.

The time was 2:08.

Griggs landed 66 percent of his shots (29-of-44) according to Compustrike while Overeem attempted only two strikes, landing one.

Griggs came into the fight coming off wins over Bobby Lashley and Gian Villante. The win moves him to 3-0 in Strikeforce. Overeem defeated Ray Sefo in February. He had won three in a row.

Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum coverage

The Showtime-televised event, which features two opening-round matchups
in the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix, takes place at American
Airlines Center in Dallas.

Follow along with our round-by-round updates and official results
beginning at approximately 7:30 p.m. ET (6:30 p.m. CT local time) for the preliminary card and 10 p.m. ET for the main card.