(Props: shosports via Bloody Elbow)

Behold, the opening video for tonight’s broadcast of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers (CBS, 9 p.m. ET/PT). As Strikeforce doesn’t have the rights to show clips from Emelianenko‘s last two Affliction fights, we have to settle for a montage of Sherdog photos soundtracked by Mauro Ranallo’s high-pitched re-enactments. But we do dig the Citizen Kane-esque shots of Fedor perched in this throne in the middle of a broken-down warehouse. Is Rogers ready to take the crown. Or will his coup attempt end in a humiliating public execution?

Not that it matters much, but Emelianenko/Rogers will in fact be contested for Emelianenko’s WAMMA heavyweight title. Said Vadim Finkelchtein: “Recognizing Fedor as the undisputed WAMMA heavyweight champion means that Fedor is the world champion wherever and whenever he fights.” Suck it, Overeem.

After the jump: Footage from yesterday’s Fedor vs. Rogers weigh-ins, courtesy of MMA Fanhouse.

(Brett Rogers is going to miss this world, and everything in it.)

With Strikeforce on CBS — which we’ll be liveblogging, naturally — just a day away, we put the meager power of our two brains together to see if we can’t figure out a thing or two about what’s going to happen when Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers get their scrap on in Chicago, and what it will all mean once it’s over.

What would Brett Rogers have to do to convince you that he’s the best heayweight in the world?  Is simply winning enough?

BF: No, sad as it is to admit, beating the world’s best heavyweight would not be enough.  If Rogers were to throw one big right hand that knocked Emelianenko out cold and left his entourage of bearded priests and shady hangers-on with their mouths agape, by the time he made it to the post-fight press conference people would already be whispering the dreaded f-word – fluke.  My gut tells me Rogers wouldn’t really give a damn.  He’d take his check and his undefeated record and publicly declare that both us and our rankings can all kiss his ass, and I wouldn’t blame him one bit. 

On Saturday night Jason “Mayhem” Miller will get his chance to fight for a title on network TV in front of an American audience that might only recognize him as the “Bully Beatdown” guy.  He’s just fine with that, but damn if he can figure out why Jake Shields is the betting favorite in this fight.  I spoke with Miller for an SI.com feature earlier this week, and, as usual, he was at no loss for words.  On every topic from Shields’ stand-up game to medication and cliff notes, “Mayhem” has an opinion.  He’d like to go ahead and share them with you, if you don’t mind.

BF: First off, I have a bone to pick with you.

JM: What did you just call me?

We met this summer at UFC 100 when the whole Fight Magazine crew was hanging out in Vegas, and you and I had what I thought was a pleasant conversation.  Then I read your column in Fight the next month and you referred to that specific conversation while referring to me as a “chisel-faced zombie.”

Well, are you?

I guess I have kind of a square head, but zombie?

Hell man, I don’t know.  Maybe.  If the shoe fits.

Okay, fair enough.  Let’s talk about your fight.  Last time I checked, Shields was a pretty heavy favorite against you.   

Yeah, I know.  I’m shocked.  I really am.  But he’s on a pretty good streak, so I guess I understand.

(Nobody makes Jacare bleed his own blood.)

Details are beginning to emerge about Strikeforce’s next big card, which is slated to take place December 19th at their familiar haunts in San Jose’s HP Pavilion. Though a headlining bout is still in the works, the event — dubbed "Evolution" — will reportedly feature…

— A middleweight bout between jiu-jitsu specialist Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and old-schooler Matt Lindland. Souza is coming off his chaotic no-contest rematch against Jason Miller, while Lindland hasn’t competed since he was added to Vitor Belfort’s highlight reel at Affliction: Day of Reckoning. The winner of Souza vs. Lindland seems like a logical choice to challenge the winner of Saturday’s Jake Shields vs. Jason Miller fight for Strikeforce’s brand-new middleweight title.

(Photo courtesy of this set on MMA Junkie.)

"Fedor vs. Rogers" may be getting all the attention lately, but it’s just one of three events that Strikeforce is putting on this month. The first one goes down tonight at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, when undefeated AKA prospect Billy Evangelista (9-0) takes on UFC vet Jorge Gurgel (13-5), who’s coming off his exciting decision win over Conor Heun at the June 19th Challengers show. Elsewhere on the card, Jesse "JT Mongo" Taylor tries to rebound from his loss to Jay Hieron at "Carano vs. Cyborg" when he takes on 5-1 up-and-comer Luke Rockhold, while Brandon Cash and Shane Del Rosario put their undefeated records on the line in a heavyweight tilt. Plus: Warrior Princess vs. Knuckles, and Cole Escovedo continues his comeback. Showtime will broadcast the main card of "Strikeforce Challengers: Evangelista vs. Gurgel" at 11 p.m. ET/PT. The full lineup and weigh-in results are after the jump…

(Where do you even begin trying to explain this to him? Photo courtesy of M-1Global.com)

It’s one thing for a network executive to sit down with a reporter from an MMA media outlet and say the right things.  We’re not that hard to please, after all, and our expectations are sufficiently low.  Just don’t call it Ultimate Fighting or human cockfighting and we’re generally satisfied.  But what about when they talk to other media outlets, the ones who might be asking them, ‘Seriously, what’s with this Ultimate Fighting stuff you guys are running?’ 

Kelly Kahl of CBS spoke with MarketWatch – the kind of website that follows up mention of any public company with that company’s current stock quote – about the network’s decision to try another go-round with MMA, and Kahl offered an interesting perspective we might not have previously considered.  To hear him tell it, they might as well give it a shot, because young men aren’t watching a lot of CBS on their Saturday nights as it is:

…and Brett Rogers can appreciate an attractive woman. Photo courtesy of the Strikeforce Fedor vs. Rogers: Press Conference Pics set on CombatLifestyle. A few more good ones after the jump.

Want to know how pumped up Roxanne Modafferi is about fighting on Saturday night’s Strikeforce event in Chicago?  She’s so jazzed that she’s even excited about meeting Fanhouse’s Ariel Helwani.  Can you believe it?  In all fairness, she does seem to be pretty excitable in general, almost to the point of being what a twelve-year-old might label a "spazz."  But damned if seeing someone so excited about her fight doesn’t make you legitimately excited about it too.  This childlike enthusiasm of hers is actually a very effective self-promotional tool.  Who knows what Marloes Coenen is up to right now, but she’s not posting videos of herself breathlessly describing video games, so eff her, right?

Modafferi’s chances of having her fight make the CBS broadcast seem pretty decent considering that "The Last Gypsy" probably won’t need very long to put away Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, and between them Antonio Silva and Fabricio Werdum only have a handful of fights that have gone the distance.  We sure hope she gets on TV, although you can’t help but worry that the excitement might be too much for her.  If she gets that worked up about talking to Helwani, an appearance on CBS might make her head explode.

For those of you unfamiliar with Modafferi’s work, a video primer is after the jump.

Do you think there’s any way that Fedor Emelianenko realizes what a sensation his Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory has become on the American MMA scene?  Here he is, a man just trying to stay warm and accentuate his natural contours with some horizontal stripes, and the world (okay, mainly just us, "Mayhem" Miller, and a few other people) is captivated by this signature sweater of his.  I actually hope no one tries to explain it to him.  I’m afraid he might take it the wrong way if he hears that the nice boy with the severe mental disorder who gave him the thumbs up was not entirely sincere.

What’s more, I suspect the ubiquitous sweater might be having an effect on internet oddsmakers.  Since yesterday the odds on Fedor went from an already extreme -500 with most bookmakers, to as high as -550 in some places and -625 in others.  The line on Rogers has also moved, making him slightly greater than a 5-1 underdog with one oddsmaker.  Maybe you ought to hold off on putting money down on "The Grimm."  If Fedor keeps showing up around Chicago in that invincibility cloak of his, Rogers could hit +700 by fight night.

Okay, Dana Jacobson of ESPN.  We know you’re not an MMA reporter, so the sight of Fedor Emelianenko‘s name on the teleprompter was probably pretty jarring.  But seriously?  Umalenenko?  How do you look at a name that starts with an E, contains no U’s, and come up with that?  You didn’t want to maybe ask someone beforehand how it was pronounced?  Brett Rogers was sitting right there, and chances are he’s heard the name enough by now to help you out, even though "The Grimm" is too much of a goddamned gentleman to make you feel bad about it. 

If you saw the "Fight Camp 360" episode, there’s really no new information on Rogers here, but it is interesting to listen to him talk about fighting Fedor as if he is not an extreme underdog.  I can’t decide if he just needs to tell himself that it’s going to be as simple as going in there and banging, or if he truly believes it.  He says he has no other option but to win, and yet almost no one expects him to.  If he does pull it off, could this be the greatest upset in MMA history?

Semi-related: Yeah, Strikeforce and CBS are putting a lot into promoting the Fedor/Rogers bout, and this ESPN appearance is proof of that, but what about the other fights on the card?  That’s exactly what Ariel Helwani and I discussed, among other topics, on this week’s roundtable discussion over at MMA Fanhouse.  Be a doll and check it out, won’t you?

(Props: sports.sho.com)

For Brett Rogers, the challenge on Saturday will be to strip away the myth from Fedor Emelianenko and approach him like he’s any other man. Which he is, of course. Fedor, as we saw last night on Fight Camp 360, is just a guy who loves his family and God, who works out in a community gym alongside schoolchildren, who still lives in the small mining town he grew up in, who enjoys a good oak-twig whipping in a Russian sauna. It’s unnerving how normal Fedor is. His priest/BFF, Father Andrey, says: "You can feel the kindness come out of him, and when you communicate with him, you are being charged by his kindness." Really? Are we talking about the same guy who did this to Gary Goodridge?

(Props: M1mixfight)

Letting Jerry Millen and his D-bag friend Ron introduce this footage of Fedor Emelianenko kickin’ it in Stary Oskol may be an immediate buzzkill, but stick with it and you’ll catch the Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory paying its respects at church and settling down for a nice cup of tea. Hopefully tonight’s episode of Fight Camp 360 will shed a little more insight on where the sweater came from and what it might want from us.

(A quick game of rock, scissors, paper to determine who has to sit next to Jerry Millen. Photo courtesy of MixFight.ru.)

If there’s anything the old Gambling Addiction Enabler loves more than placing irresponsible bets on sporting events, it’s placing irresponsible bets on sporting events that are broadcast on network TV.  It has an odd way of making you feel less like a degenerate and more like a regular citizen with a crippling addiction.  It’s like going from drinking malt liquor behind T.J. Maxx to drinking it in a nice, drafty flophouse.  You end up sleeping on broken glass either way, but there’s something that feels so much classier about indoor broken glass, you know?

The best betting odds on the internet come to us courtesy of BestFightOdds.com:

Fedor Emelianenko (-495) vs. Brett Rogers (+497)
Jake Shields (-266) vs. “Mayhem” Miller (+236)
Gegard Mousasi (-460) vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (+393)
Antonio Silva (+156) vs. Fabricio Werdum (-165)

The breakdown…

(Props: sports.sho.com)

With Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers just five days away, Showtime is spreading the word with an episode of their new half-hour hype-series, Fight Camp 360; the Fedor/Rogers installment debuts tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT, so set your DVRs now. As you can see from the preview clip above, Emelianenko is being presented as a living embodiment of "fear of the unknown" — an immortal of MMA with no apparent weaknesses — while Brett Rogers is the man of little fear and great faith, who can create his own legend with a win on Saturday.

Fight Camp 360 will take viewers inside the training camps of both fighters, from Fedor’s remote compound in Stary Oskol, to Rogers’s home base in Minnesota. For a better idea of what you’ll be seeing tonight, check out MMA Fanhouse’s detailed recap of the show, and MMA Junkie’s exclusive photo set from Emelianenko’s camp (warning: shirtless Jerry Millen). Replay times are after the jump…

(Props: twitpic.com/photos/allelbows)

In an attempt to guard himself from all the stray bullets that continuously fly around Chicago, Fedor Emelianenko once again donned the Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory during an appearance at the Bears/Browns game on Sunday. Emelianenko sustained no bullet wounds, and the Bears won — once again proving the fearsome power of the horizontally-striped invincibility cloak.

Speaking of the Last Emperor, Emelianenko just wrapped up a media conference call with Brett Rogers and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. Some highlights, via MMA Fanhouse:

(All hail the new Cro Cop. Props: lqdocelot19)

Dream Welterweight Grand Prix champion Marius Zaromskis — who recently scored his third-straight first-round head-kick knockout at Dream.12 — has signed a multi-fight contract with Strikeforce, according to Sherdog. The 29-year-old Lithuanian will still be able to compete in Dream, but could make his U.S. debut at Strikeforce’s December 19th event in San Jose. As you can see on Strikeforce.com’s fighters section, Zaromskis’s awesome but slightly-racially-tinged nickname "The Whitemare" has been changed to the more generic (but still appropriate) "Raging Demon."

It’s a fantastic pickup for Strikeforce, which has been basically waiting for Nick Diaz to get his shit together before they can crown somebody their welterweight champ, to the great disgust of Jay Hieron. Now, Zaromskis can take on Hieron for the vacant belt if Diaz continues to act squirrelly, or kick the crap out of someone like Joe Riggs to establish himself in America first. More to come…

Semi-related: Undefeated lightweight prospect Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm signs two-year contract with Strikeforce.

Remember when "Mayhem" Miller and Jake Shields vowed to hype the hell out of their Strikeforce title fight to make sure fans tuned in to CBS on November 7?  Yeah, well, that hasn’t really happened.  They exchanged some barbs over Miller’s stated goal to "beat the piss" out of Shields, but since the fight’s been signed the trash talk has really stayed at a simmer.  We can only assume that Shields’ recent Twitter post is an attempt to kick things up a notch.  It simply can’t be a legitimate possibility that Shields would replace Miller as "Bully Beatdown" host, because no MTV executive not currently trying to bring the company down from the inside would trade Miller’s lower-primate-on-crack persona for Shields’ stoic hard-ass routine.  Don’t get us wrong, Shields is great as a bully-beater, but the only thing that guy could host is a tapeworm.  Dude just doesn’t have the panache.

According to oddsmakers, however, he does have the better chance to bring home the belt.  Shields is currently going off at about a 3-1 favorite, with Miller at +220.  Whaddaya say, anyone in the Potato Nation have the grapefruits to take a chance on an underdog with a severe chemical imbalance? 

(Overeem, pictured here shortly after eating the 2003 version of himself.)

After winning his second meaningless fight via standing guillotine choke in as many weekends, Alistair Overeem voiced his desire to fight Fedor Emelianenko in April of 2010.  Beyond just the specificity of that request, what’s interesting is that he followed up by saying that if he had his choice he’d rather do the fight in Dream than in Strikeforce.  Not surprisingly, Dream’s Keiichi Sasahara would prefer that too, saying, “I’ll do what I can to make that happen in the near future.”

Wouldn’t that just be a kick in the pills for Scott Coker and his crew?  They go to all this trouble to sign and then promote Fedor through their CBS connections, and they spend over two years waiting for Overeem to come back and defend his heavyweight title, and then Strikeforce’s new partner threatens to swoop in and steal the fight. 

("Stay…off…my…LAWN!" Photo courtesy of Fighters.com)

While Strikeforce is still locking down fights for their November 7th "Fedor vs. Rogers" card, the UFC already has their plans finalized. In an effort to draw eyes away from the World’s Greatest Heavyweight, Spike TV will be airing a two-hour special at 9 p.m. ET/PT called "UFC Main Events." The lineup will include:

– Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira from UFC 102
– Vitor Belfort vs. Rich Franklin from UFC 103
– BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian from UFC 101
– Forrest Griffin vs. Anderson Silva from UFC 101

None of these fights have ever been seen on basic cable, which is good news for those of you who haven’t had the time or money to keep up with the UFC’s recent pay-per-view broadcasts. But while previous viewership battles between the UFC and Strikeforce haven’t always been held on level playing fields, the UFC will now be putting some of its best product on Spike to compete with a potentially massive audience on CBS. Tables, they turn sometimes. We’re about to find out how strong the UFC brand really is…

(The latest Fedor/Rogers video promo, courtesy of YouTube.com/CBS. Props to MMA Fanhouse for the tip.)

Just as HBO uses the 24/7 series to plug notable boxing matches, Showtime has launched its own behind-the-scenes hype series with Fight Camp 360, which debuted October 10th with a profile on the Super Six World Boxing Classic. But 360 won’t be limited to just boxing. According to Brett Rogers, Showtime is preparing an episode of the show to promote Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers, slated to air about a week before their November 7th fight.

Of course, that event will air on CBS, not Showtime. But Showtime is owned by CBS Corporation, and it’s the network outlet for most of Strikeforce’s events, so it’s in their best interest to pitch in with the promotional effort, which has taken a while to warm up. But hey, better late than never — and it’s great to see MMA fighters start to get the "all-access" treatment before big fights. Though if you’re one of the Showtime video producers who has to fly to Stary Oskol and freeze your ass off while shooting some B-roll of a new swingset being installed at Fedor’s training facility, our condolences…

(Walla Walla-themed fan art courtesy of bojanelezovic.com. We also recommend checking out this breathtaking drawing of Fat Fedor.)

As one of Dana White’s official mouthpieces, you sometimes have to take Kevin Iole‘s articles with a grain of salt. Following the report that Dan Henderson is on the verge of signing a deal with Strikeforce, we’re now wondering: Was the story put out in an attempt to put pressure on Hendo or affect public opinion of him? Because at the moment, Henderson is denying it completely. As Henderson’s friend and business partner Aaron Crecy told MMA Fanhouse, "We had a brief get-to-know-you session with (Strikeforce) and met them for coffee, but to say he’s close to signing would be a gross misrepresentation." And as Dan himself told MMA Weekly, "I’m still hoping to come to terms with the UFC, until I heard this…I’ve never even seen an offer from (Strikeforce).”

So, a ray of hope for Hendo fans who want to see him get his rematch with Anderson Silva at some point, even if he still isn’t close to terms with the UFC when it comes to money. But why would Yahoo! and the UFC puff up a "possibly" story into an "imminently" story? Could they be testing MMA fans to see how much people really want Henderson to stay in the UFC? And will the UFC adjust their offer depending on the results?

Thursday we looked at CBS’ first efforts at promoting the November Strikeforce event featuring some bored-looking Russian guy named Fedor.  What that ad failed to mention, however, was that this Fedor character wouldn’t just be hitting tires and scowling at the camera on November 7 — he’d actually be fighting someone.  That someone is none other than Brett Rogers, but could a brother even get a Stephan Quadros quote about how good he is?  Not with Fedor hogging the spotlight, apparently.  Fortunately, there’s the internet, which never forgets anything that happens to anyone, ever.  Above, we start with Rogers’ first pro fight against Chris Clark, who looks suspiciously like D-Lo Brown with dreads.  Don’t worry, this won’t take long.

The journey continues after the jump.

(Somebody go tell Bisping that the coast is clear now.)

Remember those contract negotiations that between Dan Henderson and the UFC that had slowed down of late?  Apparently they slowed all the way to a halt, and now Hendo may be headed for Strikeforce.  The crazy part? UFC president Dana White seems content to just watch him go:

“We have a good relationship with Henderson, and there are no hard feelings,” White said. “He had a figure he believed he was worth, and we had our own figure, and we weren’t able to get together.”

Just like that, Henderson’s highlight-reel knockout of Michael Bisping goes from a career-rejuvenator to a UFC swan song.  DW can’t really hold this one against Strikeforce if they do end up signing Henderson, though his grudges haven’t necessarily been limited by rationality in the past.  Still, the UFC had every chance to keep Hendo and ultimately decided he wasn’t worth the money he wanted.  What, did they feel like they had too many credible middleweight contenders at the moment?

(Props: MMA Fanhouse)

Here we are, three weeks away from the big Fedor Emelianenko-Brett Rogers Strikeforce fight in Chicago, and CBS is starting to put some of its promotional muscle behind the event.  But here’s the problem: how do you hype a guy who most Americans have never heard of when he doesn’t speak much English and you don’t own any of his fight footage?  You basically have two choices: you can show him working out while flashing various quotes about how great he is, or you can film a commercial where he fights an entire pride of lions in the big cement pit behind Vadim Finkelchtein’s house.  For reasons that I’ll never quite understand, CBS has decided to go with the first option.  Whatever.  They’re the ones who’ll have to live with that regret.

(It’s not a damn library, Mayhem. For the last time, buy something or get out.)

Strikeforce put Jake Shields and “Mayhem” Miller on a media conference call today in order to get one thing straight: you’d have to be a real jerk to miss their fight on the Nov. 7 Chicago event on CBS.  Okay, so they didn’t word it exactly like that, but Miller came close, saying that he can’t be blamed if MMA fans don’t watch because, “I’m Twittering, MySpacing and Facebooking. I’m out there. I might as well be spray painting about it on walls.”  When reached for comment about that last remark, Jeff Monson issued a prolonged, cold stare before slowly shaking his head and then disappearing into the night. 

This card also has that whole Fedor Emelianenko/Brett Rogers thing going on, but Strikeforce is drawing the heat where it can for right now.  Something about Fedor’s blank facial expressions and cryptic Russian phrases don’t translate well on conference calls, and Rogers is most likely trying not to give away any more vital parts of his game plan.  Instead, Scott Coker had to answer some hard questions about what’s going on with Strikeforce’s contracts, particularly with their champions (looking at you, Overeem).

(Time to fill out those work visa applications, girls.)

Give Strikeforce credit, now that they’ve become a major player in the MMA scene they’re busy filling the holes in their roster as quickly as they pop up.  Their most recent addition is All-American wrestler and flamboyant Sengoku terror, Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal.  Strikeforce has reportedly signed Lawal on to compete in their 205-pound division – also known as the weight class Gegard Mousasi is currently dominating – but he’ll also be able to keep fighting in Japan.  Does this mean Strikeforce is inviting another Alistair Overeem scenario, should Lawal some day become light heavyweight champ?  We’re going to go ahead and say no, based purely on the unfounded assumption that, as an attention-hungry American, King Mo would probably rather hold it down on the domestic scene than run off on a study abroad hiatus for two years. 

No word yet on who Lawal might face in his Strikeforce debut, but he could be ready to fight by December.  Maybe “Babalu” Sobral will be recovered from his own nightmare scenario at the hands of “The Dreamcatcher” by then?

(Overeem’s last Strikeforce appearance, vs. Paul Buentello on 11/16/07.)

It’s no secret that Alistair Overeem isn’t exactly eager to come back to the U.S. to defend the Strikeforce heavyweight title that he won and then absconded to Europe with almost two years ago, but hey, maybe Brett Rogers’ recent shucking and ducking accusations might be enough to get him to consider putting that belt up for grabs again, right?  Wrong, sucka.  Very, very wrong.  Not only is Overeem not even going to respond to Rogers (sounds like someone else we know), he lets us all know straight up that fighting in Strikeforce is at the very bottom of his to-do list right now: 

During the press conference you said you will not comment on Brett Rogers words, but I need to ask again. This doesn’t bother you? Him talking the smack on the internet about you and how you’re not defending your Strikeforce title? 

I will not comment on this, I am very busy with K-1 right now, with all the fight I have there. When there will be time to meet in the ring he will see. For now, I will not comment. I am very busy these days, i have a fight in Glory, then in DREAM.12 and after that I’ll fight in the K-1 Finals so I am very busy with training and fighting and I don’t have time for this bullshit.

First of all, if you have time to give interviews where you talk about how you’re not going to talk about something, then you have time to issue a response.  I mean, if you really wanted to.  Second, and most importantly, Overeem’s list of upcoming engagements makes it very clear that Strikeforce is the least important obligation on his dance card, which ought to be just plain embarrassing for Scott Coker and the boys.  Like cleaning out the garage, he keeps saying he’ll get to it eventually.  And yet he makes no movement whatsoever to put his shoes on and get to work.

(As you can see, Antonio’s head is roughly the size of Fabricio’s torso.)

According to a report on MMA Junkie, bout agreements have been finalized for heavyweights Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva and Fabricio Werdum to face each other on the main card of Strikeforce’s "Fedor vs. Rogers" event on November 7th. With Alistair Overeem pissing his career away in Holland, the Silva/Werdum matchup would logically produce the next opponent for the winner of the night’s main event.

Silva has gone 2-0 in Sengoku since catching a one-year steroid suspension from the California State Athletic Commission following his victory over Justin Eilers at EliteXC: Unfinished Business. Werdum made his Strikeforce debut in August with a quick submission win over Mike Kyle; two weeks ago, he swept the heavyweight division at the 2009 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship. With the addition of this bout, the Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers main card looks like this…

("I came here to catch dreams and chew bubblegum, and I’m all out of bubblegum." Photo courtesy of URdirt.com.)

According to a new post on M-1global.com, Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi has confirmed that he will be participating in a title fight at the upcoming "Fedor vs. Rogers" event on November 7th:

Yes, they’re referring to steroid-using donkey-man Paulo Filho, who was recently engaged in a war of words with Mousasi. We’re hoping that Filho is booked for this fight, because while Sokoudjou has been kicking ass in the highly competitive Super Hulk division, he hasn’t beaten a top-level light-heavyweight in two-and-a-half years. (As you might recall, Sokoudjou’s last fight at 205 pounds ended in him getting choked out by Strikeforce’s previous LHW champion, Renato Sobral.) At least Filho poses a threat on the ground, even if he’d probably get the snot knocked out of him in the standup exchanges. The Reward Hunter most recently took a light-heavyweight tune-up match at last month’s Bitetti Combat event, where he won a decision over TUF 1 vet Alex Schoenauer. In other Strikeforce news…

(Great, everybody’s got a belt or two. Big deal.)

The continuing saga of Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem gets weirder with each new chapter, and more and more it’s looking like he’s willing to do just about anything but fight in the United States.  More proof for that hypothesis comes by way of news that his next MMA fight may be against 8-4 UFC washout Sam Hoger.  Inside Fights says the fight has been verbally agreed to by both parties and will take place on an upcoming Shooto event.  We can’t help but think that Dream might be the more likely venue since they did make some vague promises recently about getting Overeem into their poorly designed cage later this month. 

On his Twitter page Hoger wrote that he “MAY have a date” with Overeem, and implored whoever might be reading that message not to “ruin it for me now.”  Unless one of Hoger’s 137 followers is in a management position at an MMA organization we’re not sure exactly how that would be possible, but for Christ’s sakes, if any of you Hoger fans have any pull, now’s the time to exert it.  Not only would this fight be a farce, but it might also be the kind of farce that results in Hoger taking his meals through a straw for the next several months.