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Ex-WEC Champ Ben Henderson, Surging Jim Miller to Meet at UFC on Versus 5

By Mike ChiappettaPosted: 05/11/2011 01:29 AM ET

Fresh off his first UFC win at UFC 129, Ben Henderson is wasting no time in continuing his forward momentum. The former WEC lightweight champion has already agreed to his next fight, and it will come against one of the the division's surging talents.

Henderson will face Jim Miller at UFC on Versus 5 on August 14, the UFC confirmed late on Tuesday night.
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Gus Johnson Signs With Fox but Stays With Showtime

By Michael David SmithPosted: 05/10/2011 05:30 PM ET

Last week it was revealed that Gus Johnson's contract with CBS had expired, and on Tuesday morning it was reported that Johnson has accepted a job at Fox. But that doesn't mean he's done as the voice of mixed martial arts on Showtime, the sister network of CBS.

Sources told MMAFighting.com that Johnson's contract with CBS was for basketball and football, and that his deal to call fights (both MMA and boxing) for Showtime was a separate contract. That contract is still in effect, and Johnson will call Saturday night's Andre Ward-Arthur Abraham boxing match for Showtime. Although Showtime hasn't yet announced who will broadcast its next MMA show (a June 18 Strikeforce card), Johnson is expected to call that event as well.

Theoretically, it's even possible that Johnson could be back on the CBS airwaves if CBS ever aired another Strikeforce fight: When Johnson called EliteXC and Strikeforce fights on CBS in the past, that was part of his Showtime deal. It's probably a long shot that we'd see Johnson back on CBS, however.
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Stephan Bonnar vs. Karlos Vemola Booked for UFC on Versus 5

By Ray HuiPosted: 05/10/2011 11:12 AM ET

UFC light heavyweight Stephan Bonnar will aim to make it three straight when he faces Karlos Vemola at UFC on Versus 5 on Aug. 14, sources close to the fight confirmed with MMA Fighting.

The UFC on Versus 5 event has not yet been officially announced, but early reports indicate the event will likely take place at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisc.
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The Truth About Knowing When to Walk Away

By Ben FowlkesPosted: 05/10/2011 11:00 AM ET

In the weeks leading up to the night he was supposed to formally announce his retirement from professional fighting, Frank Shamrock kept telling himself that he wasn't going to go through with it. Not really. Not now.

It was classic Kübler-Ross Model stuff, he realized afterward, and not without reason.

"For me, it really was like a death," Shamrock said. "I went through the various phases. At first it was disbelief. I'd think, I'm not really going to do it. But then, I am feeling like I should do it. Second was, once I started moving in that direction, I didn't really want to do it. I thought maybe I could change it and do something different. Then after a couple weeks, I finally accepted it. I knew I had already made that decision and started it, so I had to accept it. That was the crying phase."
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Mark Hominick Says It's Bittersweet to Get Congratulated After a Loss

By Ben FowlkesPosted: 05/10/2011 10:00 AM ET

On Monday's episode of The MMA Hour, Mark Hominick had a message for fans who were concerned about the softball-sized lump growing out of his forehead by the end of his featherweight title bout against Jose Aldo at UFC 129: it looked worse than it felt.

And yeah, he knows it looked pretty bad.

"I remember watching fights, like the [Hasim] Rahman [vs. Evander Holyfield] fight, and it was like, oh my God. I could just imagine what the crowd and everybody else was feeling when they saw that, because it's definitely disturbing to see that," Hominick told Ariel Helwani. "But again, it's a superficial injury. It's not affecting my vision; it's not affecting my performance. After I had an icepack on it after the fight, it went right down."
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Bellator Signs MFC Champion Douglas Lima

By Ariel HelwaniPosted: 05/10/2011 09:30 AM ET

Maximum Fighting Championship's current welterweight champion Douglas Lima has left the organization to sign with Bellator, Bellator announced Monday.

Lima (18-4) has won his last six fights in a row, most recently defeating Terry Martin in 74 seconds at MFC 29 in April.
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Masato and Norifumi 'KID' Yamamoto Join Forces at 'Stands Up Japan'

By Daniel HerbertsonPosted: 05/10/2011 09:00 AM ET

TOKYO -- Japan's two most popular fighters, 2003 and 2008 K-1 WORLD MAX GP champion Masato and Japanese MMA legend Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto, joined forces on Saturday at the Roppongi Hills Arena to promote the "Stands Up Japan" charity fight event in aid of victims of the March 11 Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

Masato stepped away from the ring in his prime in 2009, but he returned on Saturday to face two formidable opponents in one day in Shoot Boxing super welterweight champion and 2006 S-cup champion Kenichi Ogata and All Japan karate champion Kazuya Yasuhiro. With "KID" unable to fight due to injury, Shooto legend and former pacific rim champion Rumina Sato stepped up to take on on Jin Hirano, an Iwate-based figher who lost his home and gym in the tsunami.

Many other icons of the Japanese fight sport industry participated to support disaster victims, and MMA Fighting.com was ringside to capture the action.

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Koichiro Matsumoto vs. 'Lion' Takeshi Added to DREAM 'Fight for Japan'

By Daniel HerbertsonPosted: 05/10/2011 01:08 AM ET

Lion TakeshiAnother featherweight contest was added to DREAM's first event of 2011 as event producer Keiichi Sasahara revealed an intriguing battle of counter strikers on Monday. Reigning Deep featherweight champion Koichiro Matsumoto has agreed to square off with former Shooto 143-pound champion "Lion" Takeshi Inoue.

A bout between DREAM lightweight ace Shinya Aoki and former WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner is being targeted, but sources have indicated that no bout agreement has been signed yet and negotiations may have hit a standstill. UFC veterans Antonio McKee and Willamy Freire were also slated to face Aoki but those bouts also fell through.

The May 29 "Fight for Japan" charity event will be a scaled down version of a regular DREAM event due to power shortages and financial issues following the March 11 Japanese earthquake. The current card for DREAM's first show of 2011 is after the break.
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UFC Executives Detail New Insurance Plan; Fighters, Managers React

By Mike ChiappettaPosted: 05/09/2011 06:03 PM ET

Mark Hominick and Jose AldoOn a day that both UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Gray Maynard were forced out of their scheduled May 28 bout with injuries sustained in training, it seemed downright ironic that the organization's Las Vegas-based company Zuffa would announce its newest initiative.

In what UFC president Dana White calls a "milestone" for the company, the promotion will provide its UFC and Strikeforce contracted talented with supplementary, year-round insurance that will protect them in case of injuries sustained in training and between bouts. The coverage is a rare development in the history of combat sports, and the news came as a surprise to most fighters and managers in the MMA world, though UFC president Dana White said it had been a goal since day one, and Zuffa co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta added that it had become a laborious three-year process to find a willing insurer.

"As you can imagine, when you walk into an insurance company and say, 'Yeah, we want to get full coverage for 400 ultimate fighters that includes all of their training and all of their lives,' they pretty much slam the door on you pretty quick," Fertitta said in a Monday teleconference.
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Jeff Curran Gets New Opponent; Jamie Varner to Stay on XFO 39 Card

By Ray HuiPosted: 05/09/2011 04:50 PM ET

Former WEC title challenger Jeff Curran has received a new opponent for his main event fight at XFO 39 this Friday at the Sears Centre near Chicago.

Billy Vaughan, who in March made his Strikeforce debut in a loss to Jorge Gurgel, will step in for Curran's original opponent Joe Pearson, who was forced to withdraw after getting in a car accident, as first reported by MMAWeekly.com.

Due to the late notice, the fight will be contested at 145 pounds according to Curran's management, SuckerPunch Entertainment. Curran, who has been reinventing himself in the 135 pound division, will move up just for this fight.
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Fight Calendar

UFC 130 - Rampage vs. Hamill
TUF 13 Finale
UFC 131 - Lesnar vs. Dos Santos
UFC on Versus 4
UFC 132 - Cruz vs. Faber 2
UFC 133
Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum
Bellator 44
Bellator 45
MMA Clothing and More