(Renzo Gracie tells the charming tale of his fight with Oleg Taktarov.  Just for fun.)

– Nick Thompson says he’s been picked up by Strikeforce and will compete for them as soon as they give him an opponent.  Thompson told MMA Weekly that he was excited to join the promotion, and would also continue to fight for Sengoku, saying he has plans on winning a welterweight tournament in the works for later this year.   

– According to sources at MixFight.nl, Remy Bonjasky has accepted the proposed K-1 bout with Alistair Overeem, and the two will square off at the end of March with the big gloves on.  This means no MMA any time soon for Overeem, and likely no UFC in the foreseeable future as he reportedly still has several fights on his contract with Dream.

– AKA teammates Mike Swick and Cain Velasquez are both expected to fight at UFC 99 in Germany, though not against each other, obviously.  No opponents have been named yet for either one, but it would seem like both are due for a step up in competition after Velasquez throttled a UFC rookie his last time out and Swick knocked out the hairstyle-challenged Jonathan Goulet at Fight For The Troops.

- MDS over at MMA Fanhouse went straight to the source at HDNet to find out why they’re airing Sengoku live, but Dream.7 on a tape delay six days after it happens.  The answer, according to Andrew Simon, CEO of HDNet Fights, is that Dream has screwed themselves by having their fight on a Sunday night in Tokyo, and the good people at HDNet figure no one in the U.S. is going to want to watch MMA at odd hours when they have work in the morning.  Because we’re totally not a bunch of weirdos who would stay up late/get up early to watch fights on a Sunday, thus making us zombies for the work day.  Noooo way….