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.

Affliction has seemingly cancelled its Trilogy event officially. According to SI.com, Affliction has now officially cancelled its Trilogy event scheduled to happen on August 1st after the Josh Barnett failed drug test debacle.

“Finding an opponent for the number one ranked MMA heavyweight champion in such a short period of time was a huge endeavor and I’m thrilled at the amount of fighters willing to take on this challenge,” Affliction Vice – President Tom Atencio said in a press release. “But in the end, we just didn’t have enough time to promote a new fight to our standards.”

Following Barnett’s drug results, there was a lot of speculation of who could replace him against Fedor. The list included Brett Rogers, Middleweights Vitor Belfort, Jorge Santiago, Strikeforce Heavyweight Fabricio Werdum, perennial fighter Jeff Monson, etc.

However, in the end, Affliction MMA seems to be most hit by this turn of events and it remains to be seen as to whether they will continue promoting events or not.

In related news, the rumours have started as to whether Fedor will actually cross over and fight in the Strikeforce event scheduled after the August 15th Carano/ Cyborg card against Fabricio Werdum, although the chances of that fight happening are not as bright as it would otherwise have been.

Werdum to replace Barnett?

The Rumour Mill is working overtime! The latest rumour to hit the MMA scene is that Strikeforce Heavyweight Fabricio Werdum is all set to replace Josh Barnett at Affliction: Trilogy against Fedor.

Werdum, who is thought of by some as the best heavyweight Jiu Jitsu fighter outside of Minotauro Noguiera, is a dangerous fighter who has upped his striking game after joining the always infamous Chute Box camp. Werdum, who started gaining notoriety after working as Mirko Cro-Cop’s Jiu Jitsu coach, is a championship level grappler and will prove to be a relaly tough test for Fedor, if the fight does happen.

Werdum was slated to fight Alistair Overeem for the Strikeforce Heavyweight title in August on the card headlined by the Carano-Cyborg fight but had to sit out due to Overeem re-aggravating an injury to his hand.

Sengoku has confirmed that Josh Barnett is scheduled to fight at the November 1st Sengoku event. This event also includes the lightweight GP semi-finals. The fights confirmed so far include a fight between Satoru Kitaoka and Eiji Mitsuoka and a fight between Yukota and Mizuto Hirota.

HDNet announced on their InsideMMA show that they have signed a deal with Affliction to air preliminary fights on HDNet fights. This agreement starts with the October 11th Affliction show featuring Andrei Arlowski vs Josh Barnett. The fights that HDNet will air this time include a fight featuring Mike Pyle and the heavyweight showdown between Paul Buentillo and Roy Nelson.

HDNet also announced that they have reached an agreement with M-1 Global and they will be showing the M-1 Challenge on HDNet fights.

Here’s to bigger and better things for the home of MMA – HDNet.