Brock Lesnar file photo: Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com
• Strikeforce saw an upcoming main card fight fall through but announced a new bill for a Dec. 4 event. Promising middleweight prospect Luke Rockhold suffered a shoulder injury that forced the cancellation of his Oct. 9 fight against Matt Lindland in San Jose, Calif. The promotion replaced the fight with a welterweight tilt between Tyron Woodley and Andre Galvao. Rockhold told MMAWeekly.com the injury will likely shelve him for four to six weeks. The Dec. 4 event will air on Showtime, opposite “The Ultimate Fighter 12” Finale, and emanate from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. It will be headlined by a light heavyweight fight between Dan Henderson and Renato Sobral. Former NFL running back Herschel Walker will have his second MMA fight on the card, and popular St. Louis kickboxer Jesse Finney will face Scott Smith. A press conference to announce the fights is scheduled for Monday in St. Louis. It was thought a December Strikeforce show could feature Fedor Emelianenko, possibly against Antonio Silva. However, his camp told Sherdog.com the Russian heavyweight will not fight again for the promotion in 2010, and that the earliest he may get back in the cage would be a yet-to-be-announced card on Jan. 29. Emelinaneko’s M-1 Global management is negotiating a contract extension with Strikeforce and Showtime. Emelianenko, who suffered a stunning loss to Fabricio Werdum on June 26, has one fight remaining on his current Strikeforce deal.
• The Bellator Fighting Championships bantamweight tournament final was set Sept. 23, as Ed West and Zach Makovsky picked up decision wins to earn trips the title match. West kept the pressure on Jose Vega with an array of submission attempts towards victory, while Makovsky used a similar approach to take a unanimous decision over Bryan Goldsby. Goldsby replaced Ulysses Gomez, who withdrew from the tournament due to a staph infection. The Bellator card also saw Bryan Baker, who is in remission from leukemia, defeat veteran Jeremy Horn via decision in a middleweight fight.
• A report in Fortune Magazine revealed that the main investor behind the Bellator Fighting Championships is under FBI Investigation and has had a difficult financial year. The report states Plainfield Asset Management, a Connecticut-based hedge fund, which MMAPayout.com reported owns a 51.6 percent of Bellator, is being investigated for overstating the value of some of its investments and charging fees based on those values. Fortune also reported the firm was “hammered” in the 2008 financial crisis and saw the value of its assets drop from $5 billion in 2008 to $2.5 billion this year. The firm’s investment in Bellator is estimated to be $2.5 million.
• Desperate to draw a strong television rating, Dream announced that it was adding 2008 Olympic judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii to Saturday’s card from Nagoya, Japan. Thought to have potential to be the next golden boy for Japanese MMA when he debuted against Hidehiko Yoshida on Dec. 31, Ishii will face cult favorite Ikuhisa Minowa. Ishii, once courted by the UFC, took an amateur fight in Hawaii and a pro fight in New Zealand after losing to Yoshida and has yet to make any appreciable impact in the sport. He is contracted to Sengoku Raiden Championship, with which Dream is working in producing Dream 16. The card airs live on HDNet.
• Spike TV announced the latest “Primetime” documentary series, highlighting the Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez main event at UFC 121 on Oct. 23, will air on Oct. 6, Oct. 13 and Oct. 20. The network, as part of its “Brocktober” promotion, will also feature a free airing of the UFC 116 pay-per-view featuring Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin on Oct. 20. It will also showcase Lesnar’s other four UFC fights on episodes of “Unleashed.”
• The UFC announced a new South American television clearance with Fox Sports Latin, which will air live events with Spanish language commentary in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay. The deal begins with a live airing of UFC 119.
• Abel Cullum -- who as King of the Cage flyweight champion has become one of the faces of the promotion after it secured a television deal with HDNet -- fell from his perch on Sept. 17, dropping the title in a hard-fought decision to Jimmie Rivera. Cullum had trouble deflecting the pressure and clinch game of the Tiger Schulmann product and struggled to get the fight to the ground to line up submissions. The loss came in the main event of a card called “No Mercy” from the Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Connecticut. Scheduled headliner and former boxing champion Ray Mercer pulled out of the main event without explanation.