New Three-Part Series Premieres On Spike TV Wednesday, March 10 At 10:00 PM ET

New York, NY, March 9, 2010 – In anticipation of their world welterweight title clash at UFC 111: ST-PIERRE vs. HARDY, UFC® champion Georges St-Pierre and challenger Dan Hardy will be featured on UFC Primetime®, a weekly, three part series premiering Wednesday, March 10 at 10:00 PM ET/PT on Spike TV.

In the first episode, Hardy boastfully speaks about his chances of dethroning the champion, St. Pierre.

“I know that I can give GSP hell when the times come. It’s so sweet stepping out into the Octagon on the other side saying, ‘I told you so.’

“All these GSP fans that are betting the house on him, when they wake up Sunday morning…they aren’t going to be too impressed with themselves.”

The confident champion St-Pierre countered by saying:

“I am the most confident guy I’ve ever been in my life, I got the knowledge, the experience of championship fights. I’ve got everything on my side.”

“One round I can strike with him and try to knock him out. The other one I can try to put him down and submit him. He doesn’t know what I can do to him. I can do it all.”

A clip of the show can be found here

Go to the  UFC Poker Room on Thursday for an exclusive tournament for UFC fans. Play against UFC president Dana White and win cash prizes.

Prizes include:
$500 for the winner
$25 for placing in the top 10
$1000 to whoever knocks out Dana White

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – Canada will get their first dose of the Kimbo Slice phenomenon on Saturday, May 8th, when the Ultimate Fighter alumnus looks to make it 2-0 in the Octagon on the UFC 113: Machida vs Shogun 2 card at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

Slice (4-1), fresh off his three round unanimous decision victory over Houston Alexander at the TUF10 finale last December, will be in with a familiar foe on May 8th, as he takes on his Ultimate Fighter castmate, Matt Mitrione in a heavyweight bout made official today.

Mitrione (1-0), an NFL veteran, made his proper mixed martial arts debut on the TUF10 finale card and showed impressive poise and power as he knocked out Marcus Jones in the second round, and he hopes to make another statement when he squares off with Kimbo this spring.

Swick just announced, via his twitter account, that this fight will not happen on 4/17 as he is probably going to need surgery for an arm injury.

KANSAS CITY (March 1, 2010) – Bellator Fighting Championships, Everlast and The Kansas City Power & Light District announced today that they are sponsoring an open tryout that will provide a once-in-a-lifetime chance for undiscovered fighters to earn a spot in one of the promotion’s upcoming nationally televised Season 2 events.

The winner will participate in a featured fight during Bellator’s April 29th event at the Power & Light District, a state-of-the-art, open-air, mixed-use entertainment venue at the center of downtown Kansas City owned and operated by The Cordish Company. The event, like all of Bellator’s Season 2 and 3 events, will be broadcast live on FOX Sports Net and during special highlight shows on NBC and Telemundo.

The tryouts–which are presented in partnership with Everlast–will take place on Saturday, March 6th at Ringside, Inc.’s John Brown Training Center in Lenexa, Kansas. Members of the media are cordially invited to attend. Fighter registration begins at 12 noon with tryouts starting at 1 p.m.

“In the spirit of Rocky Balboa, this tryout will give an undiscovered up-and-coming fighter the chance of a lifetime to be highlighted on a national stage,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “We look forward to seeing a solid pool of fighters who are looking for their shot to compete at a world-class level.”

Professional Mixed Martial Arts fighters with valid Federal ID cards are encouraged to sign up. The open tryouts will be held in a cage and will include grappling and bag-striking. Competitors will be judged by Bellator Fighting Championships executives and officials. To participate, fighters must provide proof of at least two professional fights. Participants are expected to bring their Federal I.D. and their own protective gear.

The April 29th event is one of four that Bellator will be staging at the highly popular Kansas City Power & Light District. The Power & Light District encompasses multiple square blocks in the heart of Kansas City’s downtown area and features an exciting blend of restaurants, nightlife, and shopping, welcoming in excess of 6 million visitors annually.

“This tryout is the kickoff event for a spring and summer of excitement the likes of which Kansas City hasn’t seen before,” said Nick Benjamin, executive director of the Power & Light District. “It’s a great opportunity for a local talent to make his name in front of thousands of his fellow Kansas Citians in Kansas City Live!1—and the millions who’ll be watching on national TV—during the first main event on April 29.”

Tickets for the event go on sale March 6 at Tickemaster.com and at the Midland Theater box office downtown. Tickets will also be available at the tryout event and in select Power & Light District venues. Check out www.powerandlightdistrict.com for more information on ticket availability.

Dates for the Kansas City Power & Light District events are as follows: – April 29, 2010 – Bellator XVI – June 24, 2010 – Bellator XXIV – August 26, 2010 – Bellator XXVII – October 14, 2010 – Bellator XXXIV

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – He’s one of the premier boxers of the last 25 years, a future Hall of Famer who has won world titles in three weight classes while taking on a Who’s Who of the sport, including fellow champions Evander Holyfield, John Ruiz, Hasim Rahman, Vassiliy Jirov, Roy Jones Jr., Mike McCallum, Iran Barkley, and Michael Nunn. But there is one more mountain left to climb for James “Lights Out” Toney, and that’s to show if he can defeat the mixed martial arts warriors of the UFC®.

So later this year, UFC President Dana White is prepared to give Toney his shot, signing the boxing superstar to a multi-fight contract this week to compete in the UFC.

“A lot of pro boxers have made a lot of noise about how they would do in mixed martial arts, but nobody on the level of a James Toney has been willing to back up his talk,” said White. “He’s a legend whose boxing record speaks for itself, and he’s a guy who I’ve got a lot of respect for. Now he’s got every intention of matching that success in MMA, and I think he’s got the right attitude – let’s see if he can do it.”

Owner of an amazing 72-6-3 (2 no contests) record that includes 44 wins by knockout, 41-year old James Toney is respected throughout the boxing world for his old-school approach to the fight game. For him, that means fighting anyone at anytime, and doing so by emphasizing all aspects of the sweet science.

31-2 as an amateur, Toney soon turned his sights to the pro game in 1988, and in 1991 he won his first world title at middleweight by knocking out unbeaten champion Michael Nunn in the 11th round. After six successful defenses, he moved up to 168 pounds and defeated Iran Barkley for the super middleweight championship in 1993, but he wasn’t done yet. After a stay at light heavyweight, Toney won the cruiserweight world title by defeating Vassiliy Jirov in 2003’s Fight of The Year, and his success continued at heavyweight, where he defeated Evander Holyfield, Dominick Guinn, and Fres Oquendo. In his most recent bout, on September 12, 2009, Toney – a two-time winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America’s Fighter of the Year award – halted Matthew Greer in two rounds.

Current UFC fighters Marcus Davis, Chris Lytle and Alessio Sakara have competed as professional boxers in the past, but with today’s announcement, Toney becomes the most accomplished boxing veteran to ever compete in the Octagon™.

An opponent and date for Toney’s UFC debut has not been determined, and will be announced at a later date.

Gegard Mousasi Will Defend Light Heavyweight Crown Against “King Mo,”
Gilbert Melendez Risks Lightweight Belt Against Top-Seeded Rival Shinya Aoki

Tickets For World Championship Tripleheader Go On Sale Friday, March 5; Pre-Sale Begins Tomorrow/Wednesday, March 3, via “STRIKEFORCE Insider”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (March 2, 2010) –Mixed martial arts (MMA) legend and two-time United States Olympic wrestling competitor Dan Henderson (25-7) will challenge STRIKEFORCE World Middleweight (185 pounds) Champion Jake Shields (24-4-1) in the main event of a highly anticipated STRIKEFORCE fight card at Bridgestone Arena (formerly known as Sommet Center) in Nashville on Saturday, April 17.

In other featured bouts, STRIKEFORCE World Light Heavyweight (205 pounds) Champion Gegard Mousasi (28-2-1) will defend his crown against undefeated MMA star and two-time NCAA All-American wrestling star “King Mo” (6-0) while STRIKEFORCE World Lightweight (155 pounds) Champion Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez (17-2) will put his title on the line against DREAM Champion and top-ranked Japanese superstar Shinya Aoki (23-4).

Since 2006, the 24-year-old Mousasi has reeled off 15 consecutive victories to become the top 205-pound fighter in the world. An aggressive, Dutch-Armenian fighter, who relocated with his family from Iran to The Netherlands when he was four-years-old, captured the STRIKEFORCE light heavyweight title by impressively stopping Renato “Babalu” Sobral one minute into the first round of their meeting at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. on Aug. 15, 2009.

Unbeaten since he made his MMA debut in Japan with a first round (2:11) TKO over Travis Wiuff on Sept. 28, 2008, the 28-year-old King Mo is a former NCAA Division I All-American and Big 12 wrestling champion for Oklahoma State University. With a mere 11 months of MMA experience under his belt, the Murfreesboro, Tenn.-born fighter decimated two-time UFC tournament champion and MMA legend Mark “The Smashing Machine” Kerr just 25 seconds into their meeting with a barrage of punches on Aug. 28, 2009.

Melendez, a 27-year-old Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu stylist, reclaimed the STRIKEFORCE lightweight belt from the man who took it from him – Josh “The Punk” Thomson – with a five-round unanimous decision in one of the most ferocious battles of all time in the cage at HP Pavilion on Dec. 19, 2009. The stunning victory came just four months after the San Francisco native avenged the only other defeat of his career by stopping Japanese wrestling ace Mitsuhiro “The Endless Fighter” Ishida with an onslaught of punches in the third round (3:56) of a rematch on Aug. 15, 2009.

The 26-year-old Aoki, a dangerous submission expert who holds a black belt in both Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as well as judo, is recognized as one of the sport’s premiere 155-pound fighters. His tremendous flexibility has allowed him to surprise many opponents, thus earning him the nickname “Tobikan Judan,” which is Japanese for “master of flying submissions.”

On Oct. 6, 2009, Aoki seized the DREAM lightweight title by submitting superstar Joachim Hansen with an armbar in the second round (4:56) of a championship bout in Yokohama, Japan.

The event will air live on the CBS Television Network on April 17.

Q: Does the Bellator contract allow you to fight in Dream, and other organizations?
A: Yes, yes. They’ve [Bellator Fighting Championships] bent over backwards for me to get me to be part of this organization and I appreciate everything they have done. They are going to continue to let me wrestle. Maybe let me stop and train for the Olympics if that is something I want to do. They are going to let me finish out my contracts and stuff in DREAM.

Q: How many fights do you have left in DREAM?
A: I am going to have 3 more fights this year. Which I could have more, but we signed a three fight deal. I am hoping to fight 4 times for Bellator this year also.

Q: Now I remember watching you on Inside MMA; you were pretty gung ho about wrestling for the USA team in the Olympics. Has that changed at all now that you are training more MMA?
A: Yeah the mindset has changed. When I had these conversations before I was just jamming for as much technique and strategy as I could put in at once. It’s hard to learn that way. Since I signed these contracts I have been training MMA, and I see myself now as an MMA fighter and I am going to focus everything on I have on MMA instead of wrestling. If I am going to wrestle for the Olympics then I will take a little time off for the Olympics and train.

Q: Do you have one dedicated training camp or do you hop all over?
A: I train at Denver Colorado at the Rhino. It’s my brand new training club; it’s a wrestling club, jiu-jitsu and MMA. It’s in downtown Denver, and that is where I have been training. Other places I train are up at Urijah Faber’s gym in Sacramento, and at Boise Idaho with Scott Jorgenson. Those are my two training partners.

Q: How soon do you think you will be fighting in Bellator?
A: I’ll be fighting April 9th, in Miami at the hard Rock. I am real excited to be back in the cage, man. I am real happy to fight in front for the American Public.

Q: They have an opponent set for you?
A: They might, but they haven’t told me (laughs). I don’t really care who they put in front of me. I have been lifting real hard, gaining some size. Not really worrying about my weight as much as I usually do when I wrestle. I am really gaining a lot of strength, and things that I haven’t been able to do before because I have had to maintain a high level of cardio, to keep my weight kind of low.

Q: You touched on this before, and I have heard this from a couple of different fighters. You were supposed to fight NYE on DREAM but it didn’t work out. How does that work?
A: They pretty much told me I was fighting, so we were training real hard. You got to understand that in Japan, it’s pretty much entertainment. The fighting, the MMA over there is entertainment for them. So it is on prime time television and there are big numbers, lots of fans. I think what happens over there is the TV time is sold to like the major network over there and the network picks the fighters. I don’t know if DREAM has a lot of say in that. I think I was going to fight Kid [Kid Yamamoto] again, and I don’t think Kid wanted to fight me, which is probably a smart idea for him. And they pulled back and decided to do that DREAM Sengoku. That sucked. I was ready to rock and roll. Whatever. I got some training in. I got another two months of my training in. We will be able to probably fight once a month in April, May, and June.

Q: Do you feel that you are burning yourself out since you have been training for so long ?
A: No. The only thing I know is training. Since I was in third grade, most of the thoughts I have are about training. It’s a daily deal for me. It’s fun for me. I am learning so much, so much different technique. I respect the sport of MMA a lot more now then I used to. The first two fights were… I was just trying to get through the fight. But now I am trying to learn jiu-jitsu and learn striking . It’s a pleasure for me. There’s so much technique involved in MMA that poeple don’t realize. This 5 or 6 different sports. I have spent my whole life on one sport, and I have finally perfected it. But I have been doing it since I was in fourth grade. For someone to be a complete MMA fighter, it’s going to take some time. Its muscle memory, it’s time in there drilling, and its live competition. It’s hard to simulate live competition in MMA unless you are actually competing. It’s hard to just beat someone as hard as you can and someone not get hurt in practice.

Q: Your first pro fight was in Japan. Did you have any amateur fights in the states or did you jump right into pro?
A: Nope. I jumped right in. I was training for a few weeks before then, and then I was back in Colorado and I got in the DREAM tournament, and that was only a few weeks before the tournament. So we went to California and had a training camp there.

Q: So you have never had an MMA fight in the States. Are you excited for the Bellator debut?
A: Oh yeah man, real excited. I won several medals for this country. I bleed red white and blue baby! I am real excited to be back and compete. I got a lot of fans in the states and they are excited to take a few hour plane trip instead of a 10-20 hour trip to Japan.

Top Lightweight Contenders Do Battle On “UFC Fight Night”
Wednesday, March 31 At 8:00 PM ET/PT

New York, NY, February 3, 2010 – Two of the world’s best lightweight (155 lb.) mixed martial arts fighters, Kenny Florian and Takanori Gomi, will square off in the main event of Spike TV’s “UFC Fight Night” on Wednesday, March 31 at 8:00pm ET/PT. Emanating from the Bojangles Colisuem in Charlotte, NC, the bout marks the long-awaited UFC debut of the Japanese lightweight mixed martial arts star, Gomi.

Florian (14-4), fighting out of Brookline, MA. burst onto the mixed martial arts scene as a finalist in Season 1 of “The Ultimate Fighter” in April 2005. After losing to Sean Sherk in a title bout at UFC 64 in October 2006, Florian went almost three years without a loss, riding an impressive six fight winning-streak defeating many of the lightweight division’s top contenders including Joe Stevenson and Roger Huerta. Florian’s streak ended at the hands of UFC champ BJ Penn, who submitted Florian in the fourth round of their lightweight championship bout this past August at UFC 101. Following a victory over Clay Guida at UFC 107 in December, Florian is back on the winning track and needs a win over Gomi for a third shot at the belt.

“The Fireball Kid,” Gomi (31-5) has a long, decorated career fighting in his native Japan. He is a former Shooto Welterweight Champion and was the final holder of the lightweight title from the defunct promotion Pride Fighting Championships. He is also a four-time All Japan Combat Wrestling champion. The 31 year-old has fought many of the division’s elite fighters including BJ Penn and Jens Pulver, and is now looking to secure the belt in the world’s premier mixed martial organization, The Ultimate Fighting Championship.®

Season 11 of “The Ultimate Fighter” premieres at 10:00 PM ET/PT directly following the “UFC Fight Night.”