Neil Grove file photo: Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com
• The first tournament final bout of Bellator Fighting Championships’ third season was set this week, as heavyweights Neil Grove and Cole Konrad toppled their semifinal opposition in divergent fashion on a Sept. 16 card in Wisconsin.
Coming off a 90-second knockout win a month earlier, Grove stopped Russian submission specialist Alexey Oleinik in 45 seconds with a body kick and punches to advance. He will face Konrad, a two-time NCAA wrestling champion, who grinded out a decision over Damian Grabowski. A date for the tournament final has not been set.
Meanwhile, a semifinalist in Bellator Fighting Championships’ bantamweight tournament has fallen off due to a severe staph infection, MMAWeekly.com reported. Ulysses Gomez defeated Travis Reddinger by split decision on Sept. 2 to advance, but will be replaced by Bryan Goldsby, who dropped a decision to Ed West in the opening round. West faces Jose Vega in the next round, and Goldsby faces Zach Makovsky.
• WEC lightweight star Donald Cerrone landed in hot water with his employer for calling his WEC 51 opponent and rival Jamie Varner a “f-g” and expressing a desire to kill him in an interview with Tapout radio. Cerrone said he hopes the Sept. 30 rematch “is the first death in MMA.” WEC issued a statement on its Web site condemning the comments and slurs used saying they are “not consistent with our company values.” The episode was reminiscent of the UFC’s taking to task of Frank Mir for saying he wanted to kill Brock Lesnar earlier this year, which apparently resulted in his removal form the WEC broadcast team. Cerrone apologized on his Twitter for the remarks before the WEC reprimand went public.
• Strikeforce announced its next “Challengers” event on Showtime has been booked for Oct. 22 in Fresno, Calif. The card will be headlined by local favorite and surprise ratings draw Lavar Johnson against a heavyweight opponent to be named. The card will also feature a rematch of a May 21 fight between prospects Bobby Voelker and Roger Bowling. Bowling won the fight via technical decision after he couldn’t continue due to an accidental eye poke in the third round.
• Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia will make a venture into professional wrestling on Sept. 25, facing fellow former champion and experienced pro wrestler Josh Barnett on a card in Japan. The move makes Sylvia the 10th of 13 UFC heavyweight champions to try pro wrestling. Also reportedly performing on the card are Mark Coleman, Bobby Lashley and Bob Sapp.
• It appears THQ, the UFC’s video game partner, will not be following an initial plan to release a new “Undisputed” title every year. The company announced its release schedule and will not unveil a UFC game in 2011, waiting until January or February 2012 after deciding the game needs more development time. While the first 2009 title was a smashing success, this year’s follow-up did relatively flat sales and was quickly on discount racks. Electronic Arts, which releases its first MMA game next month, plans to release a new MMA game every other year.