(“Hey, sorry I’m late, the beer line was crazy, did I miss anyth-OH SHIT.” — Steve Mazzagatti / Photo via Sherdog)

By Andreas Hale

July 13, 2002.

What’s so significant about that date? It was the last time that Jon Fitch lost via submission. The last time, until his World Series of Fighting debut in the main event of WSOF 3 on Friday night, where Fitch was swiftly put to sleep via guillotine choke by Josh Burkman. Yup, that Josh Burkman. The Josh Burkman who was little more than average during his UFC stint, going 5-5 with one of those losses from being choked out by who? You guessed it, Jon Fitch.

Even though the World Series of Fighting announcer called the Fitch vs. Burkman rematch “years in the making,” nobody who has watched MMA believed that nonsense. It was supposed to be Jon Fitch snuffing out Burkman and then grabbing the microphone and telling the UFC to kiss his grits. You know, with Jacob Volkmann lurking over his shoulder mumbling some nonsense about a fighter’s union. But, as they always say, there’s a reason why they actually fight.

Burkman, meanwhile, continued his surprising run of upending former UFC fighters in the WSOF, as he is now 3-0 in all three World Series of Fighting events with victories over Gerald Harris, Aaron Simpson and now Jon Fitch. But who the hell expected him to beat Jon Fitch? I’ll tell you, nobody…except Josh Burkman. And of that nobody percent, who thought that Burkman would choke Fitch to sleep in 41 seconds? Nobody…not even Josh Burkman.

“Who thinks they are going to choke out Jon Fitch?,” Burkman said through a wide smile after the shocking main event that capped off a fairly ho-hum third outing for WSOF.

Prior to the jaw dropping main event, WSOF trudged along with a string of relatively boring fights that yielded very little excitement for those in attendance at The Joint inside of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. After the first few matches, most fans drowned themselves in spirits and had loud (mostly drunk) conversations that could be heard throughout the venue. The first five fights of the night are barely worth mentioning. Dan Lauzon beat up on a John Gunderson who looked lifeless in the cage. Carson Beebe earned a controversial unanimous decision despite being completely outclassed on the ground by Joe Murphy. The other disgruntled former UFC employee, Jacob Volkmann, put such a snoozer of a performance in a unanimous decision victory over Lyle Beerbohm that Ben Askren tweeted “That fight had less strikes than one of my fights!” So, you know, when Ben Askren pretty much calls your fight boring, you are in trouble.

No one saw this coming. Months after being released by the UFC despite being ranked in their own top ten and having one of the roster’s best overall records, Jon Fitch debuted at World Series of Fighting (WSOF) Friday night against Josh Burkman and got choked unconscious in just forty one seconds.

The fight was was a rematch of the pair’s 2006 UFC bout, which Fitch won via rear naked choke. Burkman was released by the UFC in 2008 but since that time has been on a tear.

After a few moments of feeling one another out, Fitch pressed forward with punches but got caught, first by a short right hand and then a left hook by Burkman. Fitch stumbled and then fell to the floor.

Burkman pounced and locked up a guillotine choke on Fitch, rising back to his own feet to crank on the neck. Fitch, his neck still locked to the right side of Burkman’s torso in the choke hold, worked for a take down instead of immediately defending the submission.

Fitch got Burkman to his back but the underdog held on to the guillotine choke from his half guard. A moment later, Fitch went limp, Burkman let go of his prone body and stood over the former number one title contender with his arms raised in the air.

Check out the stunning video above. What do you say, nation? Does beating a top ten fighter like Fitch now thrust Burkman into the global welterweight top ten rankings?

Should Burkman get a call back to the UFC? Where does Fitch go from here?

Interview with Burkman about the huge win after the jump.

(Fitch vs. Burkman face-off video via YouTube.com/MMAWorldSeries. Skip to the 2:10 mark to see Burkman zip his entire body inside a jumpsuit. Wow. He is just the *master* of mind games, isn’t he.)

The 18 fighters competing at tonight’s World Series of Fighting 3: Fitch vs. Burkman event successfully weighed-in yesterday at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The main card — which also features Jacob Volkmann‘s promotional debut against Lyle Beerbohm, and undefeated prospect Justin Gaethje facing off against Brian Cobb — will be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network starting at 11 p.m. ET. Check out the weigh-in results below (via MMAJunkie), click past the jump for a WSOF 3 “Countdown” feature on Jon Fitch, and let us know if you’ll be watching tonight.

MAIN CARD
Josh Burkman (170) vs. Jon Fitch (171)
Steve Carl (169.5) vs. Tyson Steele (170)
Lyle Beerbohm (155.5) vs. Jacob Volkmann (155.5)
Brian Cobb (155) vs. Justin Gaethje (156)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Jerrod Sanders (146) vs. Jeff Smith (146)
John Gunderson (154.5) vs. Dan Lauzon (156)
Carson Beebe (135) vs. Joe Murphy (135.5)
Kendrick Miree (185) vs. Krasimir Mladenov (185.5)
Brenson Hansen (146) vs. Josh Montalvo (145)

By all accounts, former K1 star and current World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo is an incredibly likable, humble, and charismatic guy — a guy who understands and tends to the needs of fighters competing in his promotion because he once was (and still is to some degree) a fighter himself. His nuanced attitude towards fighters and the sport in general has undoubtedly been one of the driving forces behind WSOF’s success, however, when he announced that he would be competing on his own promotion’s fourth card in August, it made anything but good business sense.

Yes, Sefo told The MMA Hour just moments ago that he would be setting aside his presidential duties for fifteen minutes on August 10th. If Luke Thomas’ theory holds any water, Sefo will likely compete against either Dave Huckaba or Rolles Gracie, who were scheduled to meet at the upcoming WSOF 3 before Gracie went down with an injury.

From almost every conceivable angle, this seems like a terrible idea. Setting aside the obvious conflict of interest that comes into play here, it’s just a plain bad idea from the standpoint of Ray Sefo, the fighter, who was tapped out in just over a minute by Valentijn “You hit, I fall” Overeem in his last MMA contest at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva. As any magic 8-ball will tell you, challenging a Gracie after being submitted by an Overeem results in an “outlook not so good.”

Sure, Affliction VP Tom Attencio pulled a similar switcheroo back in 2009, but his fight took place under an entirely different promotion. Can you imagine what either Huckaba or Gracie (if they are in fact deemed Sefo’s next opponent) will be thinking heading into a fight with the man who signs their paychecks? If they straight up embarrass the guy, it could possibly be reflected in their future with the promotion, whether transparently or not. And if they treat the fight like Pat Barry treated his fight with Mirko Cro Cop, the results will be skewed and pretty much render the whole fight pointless to begin with.

Sure, everyone probably wants to take a swing at their boss from time to time, but turning that fantasy into a reality is…shit, I just gave Mayhem Miller his next reality show hosting gig. I’ll see myself out…

-J. Jones

(“[Beerbohm's] not even close to being able to stop my takedowns. This is going to be a ground battle and I’m hoping to finish it.” / Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

By Andreas Hale

In case you haven’t heard, Jacob Volkmann is a disgruntled former employee of the UFC who is preparing to start a new chapter in his career when he faces Lyle “Fancy Pants” Beerbohm at World Series of Fighting 3 this Friday, June 14th, in Las Vegas. Of course, being a disgruntled ex-UFC fighter doesn’t make Volkmann unique, as everyone from former champions and title contenders like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Jon Fitch to lower-tier fighters like John Cholish have been airing their dirty laundry recently.

Volkmann was recently cut after a loss to Bobby Green at UFC 156 back in February despite having a 6-2 record in the Octagon as a lightweight, after starting his UFC career with an 0-2 run at welterweight. The walking papers came as a shock to Volkmann who couldn’t understand how he could be sent on his merry way. However, Volkmann’s departure came secondary to the shocking announcement that Jon Fitch had also been released despite having had a crack at Georges St-Pierre’s welterweight title and holding a stellar 14-3-1 record in the UFC. If you ask Volkmann, he’ll tell you that it is because the UFC is looking to condition their fans into watching guys who stand and bang instead of crafty ground competitors.

“That was the biggest reason why I was released,” Volkmann says of his fighting strategy, which often sees him bringing fighters to the canvas rather than trading punches. With only one of his UFC victories coming by way of stoppage, Volkmann has often been labeled “boring” by the type of fans who prefer their MMA fights to look like bar brawls. And though Volkmann’s success should speak for itself, he says that the UFC prefers its fans to see mindless clubbing rather than a ground game of chess. “They are making their fans like the stand up fighters. They could put more ground fighters on the card but they are dictating who watches and what is considered [exciting]. The mainstream isn’t promoting the ground game.”

Whether Volkmann’s declaration is true depends on the viewer. But what most fans don’t understand is the disparity in pay between the UFC’s top-tier fighters and the rest of the bunch. Volkmann has fought on his fair share of main cards but says that the perception that the UFC takes care of its fighters financially is completely false.

“They don’t take care of their fighters all that well,” Volkmann says, while citing that he made $50,000 last year while going 3-0. But the money isn’t the entire issue. “I’m talking about benefits. Their health care is a joke. There is no retirement. If you get injured, you don’t get paid. I’d like to see you get paid something when you are injured.”

You may have heard about Volkmann’s idea of starting a fighters’ union as well to ensure that fighters are protected. “I’d like to see a two-year contract with two fights a year minimum, where the minimum pay is $15,000 for the fight and $15,000 to win,” Volkmann explained. “At least you get paid a minimum of $30,000 a year and I think the UFC can afford to pay their fighters that.”

(Newell chokes out Eric Reynolds at XFC 21 last December. Photo courtesy of Brian Siskind via facebook.com/nicknewellmma)

World Series of Fighting officials have confirmed with MMAFighting.com that they’ve signed undefeated lightweight and former XFC champion Nick Newell to an exclusive multi-fight contract. Newell’s debut date and first opponent haven’t been announced yet, although WSOF executive vice president Ali Abdel-Aziz suggested that Notorious Nick’s promotional debut will likely happen in August or September.

After leaving the XFC to seek out higher-profile opponents, Newell fielded offers from “everyone but the UFC” before coming to terms with World Series of Fighting. If Newell’s goal was to fight a higher caliber of 155-pound talent, it seems like he made the right decision; WSOF’s third event scheduled for June 14th features Jacob Volkmann, Lyle Beerbohm, Dan Lauzon, Brian Cobb, and Justin Gaethje, all of whom could be a solid test for Newell later this year.

World Series of Fighting is planning to host future events on August 10th and September TBA, featuring the semifinals of a four-man middleweight tournament.

Previously: Nick Newell Gives His Side of the Story Regarding XFC Fallout, Explains Why He Never Accepted Fight Against Scott Holtzman

(*crickets* / Photo via US Presswire)

Looks like getting picked up right away by the World Series of Fighting after recently being fired by the UFC did not take away any bitterness from our favorite President-threatening lightweight, Jacob Volkmann. This past February, Volkmann lost by submission for the second time in his last three fights and was subsequently released by the UFC.

The elfin warrior tells AboveAndBeyondMMA.com that he didn’t deserve to be cut and is now on a mission to expose what he sees as the UFC’s unfair treatment of fighters.

“Well, I didn’t realize there was that much politics in martial arts, especially in the UFC. That was kind of frustrating. It’s not who is the best; it’s more of a political kind of BS,” he said.

“I was released after a loss against Bobby Green, which I should’ve never lost. It was kind of a fluke loss, going into the fight sick. I lost and then after that, they cut me. I was 6-2 at lightweight and they still cut me.

“You’ve got to know the right person, have the right manager in there. And your style determines if you stay in, too. The guys that stand and bang are the ones who are still fighting for the UFC. The ones that take the fights to the ground and focus more on the technique on the ground, they’re not in there because apparently the fans don’t like that.”

(Quite possibly the strangest reaction to Pig Destroyer’s “Gravedancer” that we have ever seen.) 

Bad news, Potato Nation, as it has been recently announced that the upcoming World Series of Fighting 3 card has taken a major hit in the form of Tyrone Spong, who has allegedly been pulled from the event due to visa issues. The kickboxing powerhouse was expected to face 11-2 Angel DeAnda in the co-main event of the June 14th-scheduled card, which features Josh Burkman vs. Jon Fitch II to determine the promotion’s inaugural welterweight championship.

On the heels of a successful MMA debut beatdown of Travis Bartlett at WSOF’s first event (as well as a second round KO over Remy Bojansky in his latest kickboxing exhibition), Spong was heavily favored to make short work of DeAnda as well. Fortunately for DeAnda, he will live to fight another day. Unfortunately for DeAnda, no replacement opponent has been named as of this write-up, and even if one is, it is very likely that the fight will now be buried on the prelims. The sorrowful life of a stepping stone, you guys.

Based purely off name value, this setback would presumably make Rolles Gracie vs. Dave Huckaba the co-main event of WSOF 3. In other words…

-J. Jones

(Griffin pops Nik Lentz a good one at UFC 123. / Photo via Getty Images)

From Anthony Johnson and Jon Fitch to Josh Burkman and Miguel Torres, World Series of Fighting seems to have no problem with raiding the UFC’s leftovers for usable scrap. Their latest acquisition is Tyson Griffin, the tenacious lightweight/featherweight contender who spent five years in the UFC — and collected five Fight of the Night bonuses along the way — before being cut in October 2011 following a 1-4 stretch that ended in a blown weight-cut and knockout loss to Bart Palaszewski.

Griffin announced the news of his World Series of Fighting signing this morning via twitter, saying that he hopes to compete on WSOF’s August card (date/venue TBA); Griffin’s opponent hasn’t been confirmed yet. Currently training at American Kickboxing Academy, the 29-year-old last competed in November 2012, scoring a unanimous decision over fellow UFC castoff Efrain Escudero in the headliner of Resurrection Fighting Alliance 4 in Las Vegas.

Semi-related: Light-heavyweight kickboxing ace Tyrone Spong has been forced out of his WSOF 3 co-headlining matchup against Angel DeAnda due to visa issues. His return will likely be postponed to the promotion’s August card. Wait a minute…are you thinking what I’m thinking? WSOF 4: Spong vs. Griffin. It’s not like they’re above a good freak show.

(Knocks out a former UFC star, still can’t get his friends backstage passes. No respect, I tells ya. Photo via Dave Mandel of Sherdog.) 

On the heels of a successful second event in March, upstart promotion World Series of Fighting has officially announced the date, location, ticket dates, and TV lineup for WSOF 3 earlier today. Featuring a main event rematch between Josh Burkman and Jon Fitch for the promotion’s inaugural welterweight title (a ballsy decision considering Fitch’s somewhat…ahem…polarizing style of fighting), WSOF 3 is set to transpire Friday, June 14th from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tickets for the event are set go on sale April 19th and start at just $29.00.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “Thirty bucks for a rematch between to mid-tier UFC castaways? My mom will never float me the money for such nonsense!” Well, tell those shyster parents of yours that WSOF 3 will also feature the likes of Tyrone Spong, Rolles Gracie, and Justin Gaethje as well.

On the heels of a straight vicious performance in his MMA debut at WSOF 1, Spong will face off against Angel “The Dream” (Author’s note: Uh-oh…) DeAnda, an 11-2, 5’8″ light heavyweight currently riding a four-fight win streak over a bunch of guys you’ve probably never heard of. DeAnda’s last loss dates back to 2010, where he was knocked out by one-time XARM competitor (and former UFC fighter, we’re being told) James “Why Me?” Irvin in under two minutes. Expect something similar to happen to this poor bastard here as well.

The rest of the announced lineup for WSOF 3 is after the jump. 

(This “20 Staredowns That Got Physical” video conveniently cuts off before Ricardo Mayorga flash-KO’s Din Thomas with a karate chop to the neck. Props: MMADigest)

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(Filho’s first and last appearance under the WSOF banner. We tried to find a video of just the highlights, but there are none.)

Every time it appears that Paulo Filho has hit rock bottom, someone throws him a shovel.

After starting his career with 16 straight wins (!), the former WEC middleweight champion has been sifting through the bowels of sub-mediocrity for the past five years, thanks in no small part to his on-again, off-again roofie addiction and general carelessness in regard to his own career. When Filho crawled out from under his rock to announce that he would be taking on David Branch at World Series of Fighting 2, we pretty much knew that we were in store for a shitshow. The fact that Filho appeared to be suffering another one of his mental breakdowns just days prior only furthered this notion.

And indeed, shit was shown at WSOF 2, with Filho putting on his best dying fish impression for what was probably the longest 15 minutes of Oliver Chan’s life. If you thought Filho’s performance was a joke in and of itself, just wait until you hear the details surrounding Filho that WSOF CEO Ray Sefo revealed in an interview with MMAJunkie:

(Burkman bombs out on Aaron Simpson at WSOF 2 last weekend. Photo via Rick Albrecht for CagePotato)

World Series of Fighting’s third event is slated for June 14th in Las Vegas (venue TBA), and will be headlined by Jon Fitch‘s promotional debut against Josh Burkman. MMAFighting.com first confirmed the news with WSOF president Ray Sefo, adding that the fight will be a non-title bout.

It’ll be the second meeting for Fitch and Burkman, who previously faced off in April 2006 at UFC Fight Night 4, with Fitch scoring a second-round victory by rear-naked choke. Burkman was cut by the UFC following an 0-3 skid in 2008, and has since gone 7-1 outside of the Octagon, including impressive wins over Gerald Harris and Aaron Simpson at World Series of Fighting’s first two events.

Fitch vs. Burkman represents a very different strategy for WSOF compared to the headliner of their last event. Instead of putting on another moneyweight freak-show, the promotion is simply fielding the two best welterweights they have under contract — which makes sense in theory, though it does lack Arlovski vs. Johnson‘s novelty value. And if you were a Fitch-hater before he was released from the UFC for being too expensive, your opinion probably hasn’t changed much since.

So what do you think? Is Fitch vs. Burkman 2 a compelling main event, or should WSOF just stick to “fun” fights to draw viewers in?

Special thanks to Oliver Chan and photographer Rick Albrecht for the photos.

If there’s one thing that I took away from last night’s World Series of Fighting card, it was that even a high profile promotion that puts on a night of entertaining fights is going to encounter some hiccups during its second event. Join us as we relive the highs and lows from WSoF 2.

The Good:

Anthony Johnson looked legitimate at heavyweight: Heading into last night’s main event, a lot was riding on Anthony “Rumble” Johnson actually fighting like a true heavyweight and not just looking like one. With all of the focus from fans and pundits alike on the “former UFC welterweight” issue, a poor showing from Johnson could have caused many fans to dismiss WSoF as an organization of squash matches and freak show fights. Fortunately for the organization, last night Rumble proved that his fight against Andrei Arlovski didn’t deserve freak show status. Johnson was too quick for Arlovski early on, and almost finished the fight before the end of the first round. He may have gassed out early – that’ll happen when you take a knee to the juevos during your first fight as a heavyweight – but at least he demonstrated that he’s capable of being a competent heavyweight if Ray Sefo needs him to be one again.

Right before Josh Burkman and Aaron Simpson locked horns last night in New Jersey at the World Series of Fighting event, the organization’s President Ray Sefo announced that the winner of the bout would get Jon Fitch in June for his promotional debut. Fitch is the former #1 UFC welterweight title contender that was recently released by the top promotion and snatched up by Sefo and WSOF.

Both Burkman and Simpson are also UFC veterans. Fitch was ring side last night in Jersey and appeared ready to make good on Sefo’s plan.

Burkman, however, may not be. After knocking Simpson out in the first round and stringing together his fourth straight win, Burkman balked at fighting Fitch next. Burkman believes that he has earned a shot at the organization’s vacant welterweight title and that Fitch has yet to.

(Admit it. You kind of missed that tongue. / Photo via facebook.com/MMAWorldSeries)

Tonight in Atlantic City, former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski headlines World Series of Fighting 2 against former UFC whateverweight Anthony Johnson, in a battle that will surely earn the 2013 Minowaman Freak Show Hall of Fame Award. Also on the card: UFC vets Josh Burkman and Aaron Simpson throw down in the welterweight division, Paulo Filho hopefully shows up to fight David Branch, and Marlon Moraes returns from his win over Miguel Torres to face Bellator champ killer Tyson Nam.

Our man Oliver Chan is on the scene tonight at the Revel Casino, where he and photographer Rick Albrecht will be posting round-by-round updates, commentary, and visual aids after the jump, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest from the NBC Sports Network main card broadcast, and let your voices be heard in the comments section.

(Photo via Jessica Sutton’s Model Mayhem page. Click for larger version. Full gallery is after the jump.)

A member of World Series of Fighting‘s all-star crew of ring girls, Jessica Sutton is a New Jersey-bred model who will be returning to her home state for WSOF 2: Arlovski vs. Johnson this Saturday in Atlantic City. Now making her home in Las Vegas, the self-described “hustler” also works as a rental property owner, licensed hair-stylist, and cocktail waitress. Check out more of our favorite Jessica Sutton photos in the gallery below, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter for more!

(I believe that’s the universal puppy expression for “get me away from this crazy fucker.” / Photo via: sportv.globo.com)

World Series of Fighting took a major risk by putting Paulo Filho on the main card of its “Arlovski vs. Johnson” event this Saturday. Eccentric at best and tragically troubled at worst, the Brazilian cautionary tale has suffered countless career setbacks due to drug addiction, emotional breakdowns, and simple clerical errors. So maybe we should start preparing for the possibility that his scheduled match against David Branch might not happen. Let’s just call it a hunch — a hunch based on the fact that Filho missed his flight to Atlantic City on Tuesday due to a panic attack.

MMAFighting passed along that news last night, adding the following: “On Wednesday, though, Filho confirmed that he was on a plane headed to New Jersey, so as of Wednesday night, the Filho vs. Branch fight is still on.” Oh, Filho confirmed it? Well, then. Crisis averted. I’m sure he’s not hiding in an underground bunker somewhere deep within the Amazon rainforest, surrounded by boxes and boxes of sleeveless flannel shirts.

We’ll keep you posted if we hear more. I think at this point, a blown weigh-in and distracted performance would be a best-case scenario. The smart money’s still on “no-show,” though.

(“Why yes, I did smell what The Rock was cooking. In fact, I went back for seconds. Why do you ask?”) 

“Anthony Johnson is trying to shed the tarnish of being one of the best welterweights in the world…that couldn’t make the weight.”

In the opening moments of the extended preview for this weekend’s second World Series of Fighting event, we are informed of the above dilemma facing former UFC contender Anthony Johnson by a silky-voiced narrator — over a melancholic piano soundtrack of course, because emotions. And while this bit of info would usually serve as the precursor to an inspiring tale of Johnson’s welterweight redemption, it kind of loses its pop when you realize that Johnson is now fighting at upwards of 50 pounds heavier than he was in the UFC.

But it is Johnson’s horizontal expansion that takes center stage in the above preview, understandably yet somewhat still puzzlingly juxtaposed with Andrei Arlovski’s own tale of hopeful redemption. It’s a shame that Dana White has already publicly written off the fight as “not legit,” or the (implied) idea that we could see “The Pitbull” back in the UFC would probably hold a lot more water in the above preview. Ditto for the idea that Arlovski could do so by beating up a former welterweight who has been fighting at light heavyweight for less than a year now. Then again, if you’re like Sherdog’s Jordan Breen, who is also featured in the video, you probably think “weight classes” and “champions” of said “weight classes” are meaningless restrictions meant for little more than depriving MMA fans for the fights they truly want to see (SUPER HLUK TOURNEY NEVER DIE!).

Featuring some highlights of Johnson and Arlovski crushing their respective cans at WSoF 1, as well as the aforementioned interviews with everyone from Eddie Alvarez to renowned trainer Mike Winkeljohn, check out an extended preview of WSoF 2 after the jump, along with a full rundown of the card.

(Photo via Esther Lin/MMAFighting)

Following his controversial dismissal from the UFC, top-ten welterweight Jon Fitch has found his next home with World Series of Fighting. WSOF’s senior executive vice president Ali Abdel-Aziz revealed last night that Fitch has agreed to a four-fight contract, and will likely make his debut at the fledgling MMA promotion’s third event on June 14th. Fitch confirmed the news on twitter, saying that he’ll be officially signing contracts today.

Fitch’s opponent for the 6/14 card has not been determined yet, despite Gerald Harris‘s admirable efforts to troll his way into the booking.

In a related story, former UFC lightweight Jacob Volkmann — who was also recently fired during the UFC’s ongoing mass executions — will be making his World Series of Fighting Debut at WSOF 3 against former Strikeforce standout Lyle Beerbohm. “Fancy Pants” left Strikeforce following back-to-back losses to Pat Healy and Shinya Aoki, but has racked up five straight wins since then.

World Series of Fighting’s next event — headlined by Andrei Arlovski vs. Anthony Johnson — takes place March 23rd at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City. The full lineup for that card is after the jump.

(Anthony Johnson, back in his “How in the actual f*ck does that guy make 170??” days.)

After going 3-0 as light-heavyweight last year — with no weigh-in mishaps whatsoever — ever-expanding slugger Anthony Johnson is making his next jump up the scale. As first reported by MMA Junkie, the former UFC welterweight contender is slated to face former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski at heavyweight in the main event of World Series of Fighting 2, which goes down Saturday, March 23rd, at Revel Resorts & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Both men scored easy first-round knockouts at WSOF’s debut event in November, so hell, why not make ‘em fight each other? Though “Rumble” won’t have a size-advantage to rely on this time, his powerful fists could spell doom for Arlovski’s fuzzy chin.

But that’s not even the biggest WSOF-related news we have to share. According to a press release distributed today, WSOF 2 will mark the first live event in a new three-year broadcast partnership with NBC Sports Network, which previously aired the promotion’s first card. Here’s the important stuff:

The agreement calls for a minimum of six live events annually on the national television platform that reaches over 80 million homes. Additionally, later this year, NBCSports.com will live stream World Series of Fighting events via TV Everywhere.

We’ve got a special treat for you today, Taters – not one but two dope short video documentaries that take us behind the scenes of some of the biggest recent MMA events. UFC President Dana White has released his latest vlog (above) to promote this Saturday’s event in Macao.

The vlog has footage from last month’s UFC in Minneapolis as well as the UFC in Rio and has some compelling stuff, showing Yves Edwards waiting painstakingly backstage to hear if he would get to fight the incarcerated Jeremy Stephens or not. It also shows him getting the bad news broken to him by White personally.

The footage from the Rio event shows Anderson Silva warming up by doing crazy spinning kicks back stage as well as Stephan Bonnar during intense moments of contemplation as he warmed up for perhaps the last time of his roided storied career.

Behind the scenes footage of the World Series of Fighting‘s inaugural event is after the jump.

Anthony Johnson picked up his third consecutive victory at 205 pounds over the weekend at World Series of Fighting 1, and while we described the moment as best we could, words simply don’t do justice to this Knockout of the Year candidate. Check out the moment above, in which Johnson, owner of the most cursed retinas in MMA, gets poked in the eye during an exchange with DJ Linderman, then immediately responds by turning Linderman into lumber with a single right straight. Even Johnson’s former boss was impressed.

After the fight, Johnson began speculating wildly (our favorite kind of speculation!) about how crazy it would be if the WSOF decided to book him against Andrei Arlovski:

“I thought about that fight too, I’d take it if they offered it to me. I was actually thinking about it today. I was thinking about it today whenever I watched the fights, I watched the whole card today, and I was like it would be crazy if I got to fight Andrei Arlovski…If it happened, I would accept it. Andrei’s a great athlete. I remember when he won the title, I remember when he lost the title, I’ve followed his career. He’s a great fighter, a real athlete, a real fighter too, so it would be an honor to fight him. If it happens it happens, if it doesn’t it doesn’t. That’s just something that popped in my head this morning, what if it did happen? That would be crazy.”

That would indeed be crazy — especially considering that AJ was competing successfully at 170 pounds as recently as October 2011. Then again, their size difference isn’t much of a difference at all. Arlovski was also victorious in his World Series of Fighting appearance, TKO’ing Devin Cole in the first round of the show’s main event. Arlovski has now gone four fights without suffering a scary concussion, which is as impressive an accomplishment as anything else that happened this weekend. Check out the Arlovski vs. Cole fight after the jump, and tell us who you think would win the hypothetical moneyweight matchup between Rumble and the Pitbull.

“My management paid HOW MANY Pitbull bucks for this song?! Paulo Filho won’t be impressed.”

The Nevada State Athletic Commission has released fighter salaries for the inaugural World Series of Fighting event, held last Saturday night in Las Vegas. Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski made the most money that evening, bringing home $60,000 for crushing Devin Cole in the main event. While we’re all glad to see Arlovski get paid, hopefully he spends some money on better entrance music; having some rapper bark your name is something that an amateur on the undercard of a local show would do to get people to notice him (assuming none of his friends knew how to shave stars into his hair, of course), not something a former UFC champion should do to keep people interested in his career. Just saying, it was pretty cheesy.

Taking home the second-largest purse of the evening was Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, who earned $55,000 for his highlight reel knockout against D.J. Linderman. Since moving up to a weight class that he should reasonably be fighting at, Anthony Johnson has looked pretty impressive. It’s a shame that he sacrificed so much of his career – not to even mention his health – cutting to welterweight, but at twenty-eight years old it’s by no means over for the UFC veteran.

Keep in mind that none of these salaries include any undisclosed bonuses or end of the night bonuses that World Series of Fighting may have given out. Also, even though this promotion is riding a lot of hype and had recognizable talent throughout the card, keep in mind that WSoF is a brand new promotion that just put on its first event. Basically, no one made Anderson Silva money, is what I’m trying to say:

By CagePotato contributer Andreas Hale

The World Series of Fighting held their first event at the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, NV. Although the main card appeared to be stuffed with squash matches, it was a pretty good night of fights and I was there to get a good gauge on the atmosphere and if WSoF could become a player in the MMA world that Dana White rules with an iron fist.

First things first, it wasn’t the sellout they promised as word is that they only sold 1500 tickets and comped double that to ensure a nice fight atmosphere. Nevertheless, it was a good evening of fights that the crowd was receptive to. Oh yeah, ring girls. Lots of ring girls. They were like a platoon that switched in and out. I didn’t know ring girls needed breaks but whatever. It’s enough variety to keep fans engaged between rounds. I mean, Brittany Palmer and Arianny Celeste are great but six beats two every single gotdamn time. Right? But I digress…

Media sat on a stage that put us eye level with the cage and we could damn near touch it (or slap a cameraman) if we tried hard enough. We could actually feel some of the punches landed. Pretty good stuff. Oh yeah, and there were fights.

In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been all about the inaugural World Series of Fighting event around here lately. We’ve snagged interviews with former UFC welterweight Josh Burkman, who is taking on fellow UFC vet Gerald Harris on the undercard, and world renowned badass/WSOF President Ray Sefo. In the meantime, we’ve been doing our best to undermine the legitimacy of the UFC, in turn allowing the WSOF to rise to MMA supremacy and grant us exclusive press passes for all future events.

And regardless of whether or not our preposterous pipe dream ever becomes a reality, we will be tuning in on Saturday to catch all the action. Sherdog will be hosting a live stream of the undercard starting at 8 pm. EST and the NBC Sports Network will be picking up the main card at 10 p.m. EST, so none of you should really have any excuse to miss this. On the off chance you still do, however, here are five of our attempts to convince you otherwise.

1. Shit is Stacked

At first glance, the above event poster looks like some kind of sick joke. You’ve got three UFC veterans — two of which are former UFC/WEC champions — in Andrei Arlovski, Miguel Torres, and Anthony Johnson, taking on three completely unknowns in Cole, Moraes, and Linderman. On the other hand, squash matches are the new black, so if it’s good enough for the UFC, why not WSOF?

(Photo via Sherdog.)

By Andreas Hale

It only made sense for Ray Sefo to start his own MMA promotion. Well, it only made sense once the stars aligned in a unique way that told him he’d better start an MMA promotion or else. You see, back when K-1 was falling apart, Sefo happened to do an interview where he discussed how much money the promotion owed him and the possibility of starting his own company. The thought ran through his mind heavy after the call. After all, he has put on a successful K-1 event in New Zealand, and he had a pretty good idea how to handle the business. So he decided to sleep on it.

The next morning, a wealthy friend of his named Sig Rogich gave him a call out of the blue and invited Sefo to breakfast so they could discuss something. Mind you, Rogich had never heard the interview from the night before.

“(Sig) said ‘What do you think about starting an MMA fighting league?’” Sefo says when reflecting on the origins of World Series of Fighting. “I looked at him and said ‘Are you kidding me? That’s exactly what I was going to talk to you about on Monday!’ It was just meant to be. The stars aligned for us and this was meant to happen.”

Plans were laid out, business was taken care of, and fighters were signed. November 3rd marks the inaugural fight night, which will emanate from the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, and air on NBC Sports (formally Versus). It’s not your average rinky-dink startup operation, as WSoF 1 features a loaded card that includes the likes of Andrei Arlovski, Anthony Johnson, and Miguel Torres on the main card. While newer promotions may struggle to land talent, WSoF has had many of its fighters fall right into their lap. In particular, guys like Johnson and Torres had been cut by the UFC this year for weight issues but are still marquee names in the sport. Inking with WSoF made perfect sense for them, partly because of Sefo’s own background

“Many of them were up for it right away because of my involvement and with the understanding that I am a fighter becoming a promoter,” Sefo explains. “I understand what a fighter goes through to prepare for a fight. That appealed to a lot of the guys.”

By Jared Jones

Unless you’ve been a close follower of the Utah MMA scene over the past few years, chances are that you’ve probably forgotten all about TUF 2 alum Josh Burkman. After a three fight skid saw him ousted from the UFC back in 2008, Burkman took over a year and a half off to recover from several injuries that could have ended any lesser man’s career, injuries Burkman admits in hindsight that he should have addressed much earlier. But if you were to ask Josh how the past few years have treated him, you’d think he was on top of the world.

I called Josh at approximately 5:15 p.m. EST yesterday. He was just stepping into his house after a long day of training for his November 3rd match against fellow UFC veteran Gerald Harris on the inaugural card of the Ray Sefo-run World Series of Fighting promotion. It’s a win that could very well propel “The People’s Warrior” back into the octagon for the first time in over four years, yet he doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of the pressure getting to him. I ask him how he’s doing. “Life is good,” he tells me, making sure to kiss his ten day old son as soon as he enters the house. From the get-go, I can tell that Josh is a much more open and laid back guy than some of the fighters I’ve dealt with in the past. But little did I know that before our conversation was over, we would discuss everything from his career comeback and newly found lease on life to his infamous in and out of the ring brawls with Jeremy Horn and Phil Baroni.

(Photo via Kat’s ModelMayhem page. Full gallery is after the jump.)

There are some moments in life where the only logical response is hnnnng. Discovering Kat Kelley was one of those moments. The Las Vegas-based model was recently tapped to be a ring girl for the World Series of Fighting promotion, and will be in action during its inaugural event in Las Vegas, which will air live on the NBC Sports Network at 10:30 p.m. on November 3rd. Follow Kat’s life on Twitter and Facebook, and check out a whole mess of our favorite Kat Kelley photos in the gallery below. You’re very welcome.

(Now that Anthony Johnson competes at light-heavyweight, we can all stop freaking out about this photo.)

You don’t call yourself the “World Series of Fighting” without lofty aspirations. The upstart MMA promotion launched by former K-1 star Ray Sefo (!) will be hosting its first event on November 3rd at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, and has already inked a deal to air its first card live on the NBC Sports Network (?!?).

And to give viewers a reason to tune in, the WSOF has been hard at work snatching up as many big name ex-UFC fighters as possible, and putting them in surprisingly competitive fights. Here’s a little taste of what the matchmakers have planned for World Series of Fighting 1…

- In the night’s main event, Andrei Arlovski will be returning from his no-contest/moral victory against Tim Sylvia to face Strikeforce vet Devin Cole, who won unanimous decisions over Shawn Jordan and Gabriel Salinas-Jones in his last two appearances.

- Anthony Johnson, now 2-0 as a light-heavyweight, will look to make it three in a row against 14-3 moneyweight DJ Linderman, who holds the Cage Warriors heavyweight title and was a semi-finalist in Bellator’s season 4 light-heavyweight tournament last year.