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From the Rumour Buster department:

This is a second hand quote thanks to CindyO from the UG. Cindy, who is in the know for most things UFC, spoke to Joe Silva and quoted him on the forum as follows:

“I just touched base with Joe Silva and he explained this is basically what happened regarding Mousasi:”

“Mousasi called him Saturday because he suspected he had been lied to by his manager, Appy Echteld, regarding an offer of $40,000/$40,000 from the UFC and then encouraged to accept an offer from Strikeforce. According to what Mousasi shared, that amount was less than half of the purse agreement he had with Affliction but he trusted his manager and signed with Strikeforce. The UFC would have honored the Affliction deal of $125,000 purse plus win bonus had Mousasi signed with them.”

“Contrary to the claim made today by M-1 that Mousasi was on the phone during negotiations with Joe Silva for his services, Joe adamantly denies that is true. Had that been the case, there would have been no reason for Mousasi to call Joe to question Echteld’s claim of a $40,000/$40,000 offer from the UFC.”

Looks like Mousasi got played by his own management since they were trying to make sure that UFC doesn’t get any of the M-1 talent unless they give them what they want – co-promotion …. Will Mousasi leave M-1? I would if this was true …

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.

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.