Reinforce the Octagon: Lesnar vs. Overeem set for Dec. 30

Dana White's Twitter confirmed a fight that MMA fans have clamored for. Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem, who reportedly signed a UFC contract Tuesday, will take on former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar on Dec. 30.

This announcement puts many rumors to bed. First, Lesnar's battles with diverticulitis are not as dire as rumored if he can agree to a fight in December. It also confirms that Overeem, who was cut from Strikeforce because he refused a Strikeforce fight set for this weekend, is headed for the UFC. There was also rumors that the UFC would put together an event in Dubai for New Year's Eve, but a Vegas event the day before puts that into doubt.

Overeem talked about the fight to the Los Angeles Times:

"Brock is a big name, a dangerous guy, and this is a dream matchup," Overeem told The Times on Tuesday, just after signing a standard UFC fight contract in the office of Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta. "Brock's a big guy, an exciting wrestler with his takedowns.

"I want to see this fight myself. Overall, I'm a different fighter. A striker, athletic, big. These are going to be two big trucks going at it on a collision course."

He articulated the exact reasons why MMA fans should be excited for this fight. Both fighters are enormous and muscle-bound, but they don't have the same strengths. Lesnar is a better wrestler, while Overeem can hit like a freight train. (I assume, having never been hit by Overeem or a freight train.)

[Related: Overeem excited about big matchup with Lesnar]

Lesnar lost his belt to Cain Velasquez, a smaller, faster fighter who could defend Lesnar's takedowns. He hasn't fought since that bout, which took place last October, and had surgery shortly afterward due to a flareup of diverticulitis. Overeem's last fight was a bizarre decision win over Fabricio Werdum in June.

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We know there?s at least one Diaz fan left; White gives him Penn fight at UFC 137

Just when you thought everyone was steaming mad at Nick Diaz, Dana White pulled off a shocker by re-booking the quirky fighter for another fight at UFC 137 against B.J. Penn.

Thursday evening, White announced the move via Twitter. This was less than 24 hours after he dropped Diaz from the main event title fight against Georges St-Pierre.

When it comes down it, White is willing to deal with all of  Diaz's drama to simply satisfy fight fans. Are you any less excited for the Diaz-Penn versus Diaz-GSP? That's been a dream fight for many fans, for years. White could've easily banished Diaz to the MMA minor leagues for life, but the recognizes the guy is a great fighter with some serious psychological issues.

The door opened for Diaz when a Penn-Jon Fitch rematch couldn't be made. Penn ripped Fitch on Twitter and said he had enough of waiting for Fitch to commit. Twitter is hilarious though. Penn went from nasty to nice in 42 minutes when he was offered the Diaz fight.

Why did Diaz get another chance? White spoke to him and got a basic understanding of what was going through his head when he missed two prefight conferences and missed three flights.

"To tell you the truth, the excuses he gave me made no sense," White told Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole. "You've interviewed Nick Diaz before. You know what I'm talking about. But I started thinking about this: This kid is a real fighter and I love the B.J. Penn-Nick Diaz fight. He always does show up to fight. We have trouble with him doing p.r. We also sometimes have problems with [his brother] Nate, whom I have a great relationship with, in getting him to do his p.r."

"What basically happened is, Nick freaked out. He disappeared. He told me he couldn't handle the pressure of the main event. It wasn't that he couldn't fight it or wouldn't have fought it, but all the responsibilities that come with fighting in the main event, he said he couldn't deal with that. The fighting part is the easy part to him."

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Rockhold takes Strikeforce middleweight belt with win over Souza

CINCINNATI --  Luke Rockhold became the new Strikeforce middleweight champ with a tight decision win over Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza at Strikeforce on Saturday night. In a bout that saw Rockhold outstrike Souza 145-63, the judges saw the fight 50-45, 48-47 for Rockhold.

Souza took Rockhold down early in the first round, but then had trouble maneuvering him. Rockhold worked to his knees, where was able to land punches, then get to his feet. Jacare took him right back down, but they worked back up again, and Rockhold was able to break free. Jacare took advantage, and stalked Rockhold down with kicks. Rockhold responded with a dazzling array of strikes, including three straight punches as Souza held Rockhold's leg.

Rockhold started the second round off well, showing a spinning back kick, but was wobbled by Souza twice. They continued to go back and forth, both landing powerful strikes, until Rockhold took over the round in the final seconds.

Early in the third round, Rockhold landed  a shot to Jacare's groin, halting the fight. When it was restarted, Jacare avoided Rockhold's strikes to get a takedown. Rockhold slipped back to his feet and pressured Jacare around the cage.

Blood dripped from Rockhold's face by the fourth round, but he did not slow down. He continued to stalk Jacare around until the Brazilian forced the fight into the cage. Jacare tried to turn their clinch into a takedown, but Rockhold slipped out. He returned to the clinch and landed damaging knees to Jacare's face.

Rockhold started well in the fifth and final round, but couldn't maintain his pace of landing strikes and pressuring Jacare around the cage, as Jacare managed a takedown halfway through the round. Still, Rockhold returned to his feet, withstood a front kick to the face, and landed more punches and kicks as the fight hit its final minute.

Rockhold, a product of the well-known American Kickboxing Academy, came up through Strikeforce's Challengers series before getting bigger shots. That system is in place just so that fighters aren't hurried along, and they did a good job with Rockhold, who is now their champ at just 26 yars old. .

But like with other Strikeforce championships, the future is vague. Though middleweight is one of their deeper divisions, it's not clear what will happen next. The young man can now just savor his victory before worrying about what's next.

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Off UFC 137, Nick Diaz speaks his mind via YouTube

In a matter of days, Nick Diaz went from headlining UFC 137 in the title fight against Georges St-Pierre that he has asked about for years to a much-maligned man without a fight. He did not show up for multiple press obligations, with a no-show at today's press conference in Las Vegas being the breaking point for UFC officials. In what was supposed to be a routine pre-fight press conference, Dana White announced that Diaz was off the card and that Carlos Condit would step in to fight GSP for the UFC welterweight title.

Now, Diaz spoke his mind through his YouTube channel. Be warned that this video contains NSFW language.

Entitled, "Looks like someone didn't want me to win," it's possible that Diaz will spin this as a grand conspiracy to keep the belt in GSP's hands, but it's just not true. Diaz had the opportunity that he has begged for within his reach, but he had to "play the game," as Dana White would say. Show up for media appearances. Talk to reporters. Sell the fight.

Diaz didn't want to do that. Guess what, Nick? Everyone has a part of their job that they hate. Filling out timesheets. Cashing out drawers. Speaking at board meetings. Cleaning counters. Playing politics. For me, it's transcribing interviews. But you do it so that you can do the part of your job that you love and get paid.

Few fighters want to break camp to talk to media, but it's what they do so that they can headline fight cards and walk away with a big paycheck. Fighters have done it before, and they'll happily do it again for the chance that Diaz walked away from.

Instead of filming videos and wondering what happened, Diaz should take a hard look at himself and ask why he sabotages himself when he gets so close to the top of the mountain.

Thanks to Leland Rolling for the heads up.

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Union urges FTC to investigate UFC and Strikeforce?s parent company

Rumblings of Zuffa's union problems grew a bit louder today as the Culinary Union's Local 226, based in Las Vegas, sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, urging them to investigate the company that owns the UFC and Strikeforce for anti-trust violations.

The letter, provided to Yahoo! Sports and dated Aug. 31, 2011, said that Zuffa has risen to the top of the MMA marketplace by buying up entities like PRIDE, World Extreme Cagefighting and Strikeforce. They estimate that Zuffa controls 80-90 percent of the MMA market, and because of that power, they can wield power over their fighters.

Some examples from the letter include:

-- The champion's clause, which automatically renews a contract for UFC champions.

-- Merchandising rights that give Zuffa rights to a fighter's image in perpetuity. This clause is what Jon Fitch had a problem with when he was briefly cut from the organization.

-- Restraints on athlete's mobility and pay, meaning that by buying up the marketplace, Zuffa can keep a fighter from engaging the marketplace for fair pay.

The letter distinguishes Zuffa, who is not a league, from a league like the NFL, because contracts within a league must have these sorts of restraints for competitive balance. Zuffa is not competing with anyone.

"The anticompetitive restrictions it imposes on athlete mobility serves no legitimate business justification beyond stifling competition and increasing Zuffa's already dominant position in the market."

The letter is concluded by urging the FTC to look into Zuffa's practices.

The Culinary Union is not without ulterior motive in this case, as they take issue with Zuffa's majority owners, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta. The Fertittas own Station Casinos, one of the largest non-union casino companies in the world.

But while their motive might be suspect, it doesn't soften who they are and what they have to say. Unions are meant to protect workers, and fighters are without union protection. Zuffa has made great strides in taking care of their fighters. Providing health insurance was a huge milestone in that, but all the benefits in the world doesn't mean that Zuffa can violate anti-trust laws.

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Healy starts off Strikeforce main card with submission

CINCINNATI -- Pat Healy came from behind for a submission win over Maximo Blanco at Strikeforce on Saturday night.

Blanco quickly sent Healy to the canvas with a takedown. Healy was able to get back to his feet, but Blanco took over from there, knocking Healy around until with knees and punches until Healy was forced to shoot in for a takedown. It didn't work, as Blanco took top position. Healy grabbed Blanco's leg, which forced an odd position where he put his hands on the ground, and kicked back at Healy's head. Since Healy was a downed opponent, the move was illegal. A point was deducted, and Healy was given time to recover.

When the fight restarted, Blanco started with a quick flurry before Healy took over with a takedown and short strikes.

In  the second, Blanco's striking was worlds ahead of a much slower Healy's. He landed several strikes unanswered, but Healy was able to control the bout at times with wrestling. At one point, he was close to choking Blanco out, until he was able to maneuver out. Late in the round, Healy rolled into the same rear naked choke. This time, he held on for long enough for Blanco to tap at 4:24 in the second round.

This is Healy's third win in a row. His last two were decision wins, so this sort of come from behind victory was a nice change of pace. After a long career with Sengoku, this was Blanco's Strikeforce debut. His record falls to 8-3-1, while Healy's moves to 26-16.

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