Boxing great and possible future matchup for Anderson “The Spider” Silva will be in attendance at UFC 101.

The eight time champion Jones Jr. will be taking a day off from his intense training as he prepares to take on Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy in Bolixi Mississippi on August 15th.

A match against Jones Jr is something that Anderson Silva has wanted for a long time now and has not been able to do because of his UFC contract. Silva recently declared that he would be hanging his 5 ounce gloves for boxing gloves once his UFC run comes to an end, mainly to fulfil his ambition of fighting Roy Jones Jr.

STRIKEFORCE and DREAM to exchange fighters.

STRIKEFORCE and the japanese based DREAM promotions have agreed to enter a partnership that will facilitate the exchange of fighters between the two organizations. The official statement is expected to be released today.

“We’ve talked about [the partnership] for a long time,” Coker said on the Carmichael Dave Show. “It’s finally going to happen now so maybe [Sergei] Kharitonov could fight Fedor at some point.” This not only opens up the possibility of Fedor fighting in Japan, his favorite hunting ground, but also opens up the possibilities of a lot of high potential fights in both organizations. The exchange really helps STRIKEFORCE further strengthen their welterweight and lightweight divisions as well with the additions of notable fighters such as Marius Zaromskis, Hayato Sakurai, Andre Galvao, Andre Dida Amade, Vitor Ribeiro, Shinya Aoki, Joachim Hansen, Gesias Calvancante, Tatsuya Kawajiri, etc.

This could be the deal that STRIKEFORCE and DREAM both needed to finally get some mileage going and will definitely help STRIKEFORCE as they go into their TV deal with CBS, having to put on more shows than ever before.

The promotions already share a few fighters such as Gegard Mousasi, an M-1 fighter similar to Fedor and the current challenger to STRIKEFORCE light heavy weight champion Babalu Sobral’s belt.

Fedor Emelianenko has officially signed with STRIKEFORCE! The blockbuster announcement has been released via M1Global and Fedor’s management. The entire announcement is available below:

World’s No. 1 MMA Heavyweight To Fight In STRIKEFORCE / M-1 Global Co-Promoted Events

First Fight To Air This Fall, Live on SHOWTIME®

NEW YORK (August 3, 2009)–After a week of intense negotiations and speculation, the hottest topic of discussion in the professional fight world has come to a head as the world’s number one heavyweight and most sought after mixed martial arts (MMA) champion Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko has signed a historic, multi-fight agreement that will see him headline mega-events co-promoted by world championship promotions STRIKEFORCE and M-1 Global.

Emelianenko, known globally as Fedor, will make his premium television debut this Fall when his first fight under the new agreement airs live on SHOWTIME®. Up until now, Emelianenko’s live fights have aired exclusively on pay-per-view in the United States.

“I am looking forward to going back to work and fighting at the highest level,” said the 33-year-old Emelianenko. During his nine year professional fight career, which included a four and a half year stay with the world’s former top MMA promotion, the now defunct PRIDE Fighting Championship, the Russian native has faced and defeated all comers.

In his last effort, the 6-foot, 235-pound Emelianenko decimated the number two ranked heavyweight at the time Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski with a single punch in the first round (3:14) of the main event of Affliction: “Day of Reckoning” at Anaheim, California’s Honda Center on January 24.

“STRIKEFORCE is a top fight promotion that houses some of the greatest fighters in the world,” continued Emelianenko. “I am prepared to fight any of them.”

“We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to work with M-1 Global and Fedor,” said STRIKEFORCE Founder and CEO Scott Coker, a martial arts fight promoter of over 25 years. “Fedor has been the reigning king of MMA’s heavyweight division for quite some time now so being able to work with M-1 and Fedor will substantially increase the level of competition amongst the athletes in this weight class.”

With all the rumours of the announcement of Fedor signing to the UFC floating around, the collapse of Affliction’s promotion business might turn out to be a good thing for a lot of the fighters. Of course, this does not include fighters who have since signed with STRIKEFORCE such as Gegard Mousasi, Jay Hieron et al.

This makes UFC’s Friday conference call an even more anticipated one with all the major announcements that can come through at the call.

Hieron Signs with STRIKEFORCE

The pieces are falling ladies and gentlemen! Jay Hieron follows in the footsteps of fellow Affliction victim Gegard Mousasi and has signed with STRIKEFORCE. This strengthens Strikeforce’s welterweight division a little more since having an absolute stud like “The Thoroughbred” is a real nice addition to a weak division depth wise.

Hieron who is coming off a 45 second KO victory in his last outing at Affliction “Day of Reckoning” is one of the better welterweight fighters not fighting in the talent rich UFC division and was actually offered a UFC contract before he signed on to Affliction due to business reasons.

Hieron is now being touted as Nick Diaz’s next opponent and may in fact be fighting on the August 15th card, replacing Joe “Diesel” Riggs and further strengthening an already stacked card on Strikeforce “Carano v/s Cyborg”.

If this match is made, this could possibly be the show stealer in this card and makes Strikeforce’s next event an even more must-watch.

It had to happen and it did. Gegard Mousasi now has the chance to announce his arrival on the US scene in grander style when he takes on veteran Renato Sobral for his Strikeforce Light heavyweight title on August 15th. The fight will be telecast during the SHOWTIME portion of the Carano vs Cyborg card.

“STRIKEFORCE is one of the world’s top promotions and I am proud to be a part of their roster of world-class fighters,” Mousasi said.

Mousasi, the last DREAM middleweight champion relinquished his belt to move to the light heavyweight division had in the past two days expressed his regret about the demise of Affliction just days before the event in which he was to be featured. This announcement, I am sure, comes as a major relief to not just Mousasi but to Sobral as well.

Sobral, a very highly respected and dangerous fighter, is on a 5-fight win streak and was last seen choking out Sokoudjou on the second Affliction card.

This is going to be a major fight in the LHW division and the addition of Gegard Mousasi to the roster only means that STRIKEFORCE is once again moving in the right direction in becoming a legitimate top two organization in the MMA sphere.

Back to the UFC?

The rumours are strong and the rumours are good! The latest rumour coming out of the demise of Affliction is that Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort is finally making his return to the UFC.

Belfort was scheduled to fight Jorge Santiago on Affliction’s now defunct MMA event on August 1st. With Dana White’s previous comments about wanting Belfort back in the UFC, the recent happenings made it easier to get the deal done apparently.

The question is, of course, who gets to fight Vitor first as he gets back in the octagon. The possibilities are amazing!

Well, I guess its wait and watch again as far as Fedor’s future holds but a contract with Strikeforce only means that Fedor will have an option of fighting against Overeem, Brett Rogers and Fabricio Werdum as big names …

With the UFC of course, you get the entire gamut of big names coming in. The only problem is that M-1 and the UFC have not always met eye to eye to say the least. Keep tuned in to MMARumours to hear the latest on this development.

Of course, the damage due to this news is mostly to the Affliction MMA figters who are now without an expected pay day and bills to pay on top of that. Another major player who will be hit by this is possibly M-1 Global who just lost one of their major sponsors/ partners.

Meanwhile Affliction Co-Founder, Eric Foss. had this to say:

“Our brand is synonymous with the “Live Fast” approach to life and UFC is the perfect venue for us to market our brand. We have come to an agreement with the UFC which we feel will be the best for the sport and will help the UFC continue delivering the highest caliber of fights.”