MMAConvert.com

Scott Coker talks to Fanhouse about their alliance with DREAM, potentially bringing Strikeforce to Japan and when Fedor might return.

Frank Mir talks to RawVegas.tv about his upcoming fight with Shane Carwin. He says the Brock comments got away from him a little — he was just trying to promote the potential fight — but he wants everyone to know he is focused on Shane Carwin. Mir also talks about who he would fight if he got the opportunity to choose between Brock Lesnar and Fedor Emelianenko.

M-1’s Vadim Finkelchtein has confirmed there are “contract issues” with Strikeforce in regards to Fedor, however it sounds like everything is going to get worked out. From an interview with MMANews.su translated by TMR from the UG.

On this week’s edition of ESPN MMA Live, Jon Anik and crew preview WEC 47. Also, Scott Coker calls in to talk about the recent Strikeforce announcement. He addresses the Fedor rumors, but doesn’t really clarify what’s going on behind-the-scenes with M-1. As he put it, they’re merely working through a few last minute details and hope to have Fedor back in the cage in the second quarter or at least sometime in the summer. Coker also confirmed the reported Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers and Andrei Arlovski vs. Antonio Silva fights are set for May 15 in St. Louis. He says Overeem will fight twice more before the end of the year for Strikeforce, but didn’t say whether the Rogers fight will be for the heavyweight title.

Josh Barnett has landed where everyone thought he would — in Japan fighting for DREAM.

Former UFC, Pride and Affliction fighter, Josh Barnett, has found a new home in Japan as the heavyweight stand-out has signed with Dream and will likely make his promotional debut at their March 22 show later this month.

The signing was confirmed by sources close to the situation to MMAWeekly.com late Monday evening, and the promotion is expected to announce Barnett’s addition in the coming days.

The next question is, who is he going to fight? Tim Sylvia and Antonio Silva have both reportedly turned down fights with Barnett for DREAM.13. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of options left, so you can almost bank on DREAM finding a can for him at the last minute. M-1 has expressed interest in Fedor fighting Barnett (not for March 22), so I wouldn’t rule out that possibility for later this year, especially if M-1 and Strikeforce don’t reach a new agreement.

Image via Sherdog

It looks like the Strikeforce April 17 event is all but officially announced for CBS. Jake Shields tweeted earlier today that his title defense against Dan Henderson and the rumored Gegard Mousasi vs. King Mo fight are official. MMA Weekly confirmed those two bouts will co-headline the event.

Here’s a highlight video of the 2010 Russian Combat Sambo Championships Fedor and Aleks Emelianenko recently competed in. With them both in the tournament, it seemed probable they would end up fighting one another at some point, but Fedor apparently injured his hand (nothing too serious) and had to withdraw. With Fedor out, Aleks was able to sweep the rest of the field rather easily. Check out Aleks below in two matches, the latter of which was him against Kiril “Baby Fedor” Sidelnikov (the guy Paul Buentello used as a punching bag at Affliction II) in the finals.

When M-1 announced that Fedor was no longer on Strikeforce’s April 17 card it seemed highly probable that CBS would broadcast the May card he’s supposedly fighting on instead, and Showtime would take the reigns for the April card headlined by Dan Henderson and Jake Shields. Well, apparently not. Both MMA Junkie and Sherdog are reporting that CBS will in fact broadcast the April event and the May card will land on Showtime.

So it looks like Fedor and M-1 is thinking what everyone else is thinking in regards to Alistair Overeem.

Dutch site Mixfight.nl decided to get in touch with Fedor’s management regarding a fight with Overeem;  M-1’s Apy Echteld said that they were interested in fighting Overeem, however they would not fight unless Overeem was drug tested leading up to the fight. In response, Martijn de Jong from Overeem’s team expressed his belief that Fedor deserves a shot at this Strikeforce title, and that they look forward to a potential fight.

Can’t blame M-1 for that, but hopefully it doesn’t become a sticking point in negotiations ala the Mayweather/Pacquiao debacle.

HKL also mentions that a few Dutch sites are reporting that Overeem could face Brett Rogers in an upcoming Strikeforce fight. Scott Coker threw that fight out there as a possibility yesterday too, so perhaps that’s a fight they’re trying to put together. Fedor-Werdum and Overeem-Rogers on the May CBS card to set up their big pay-per-view fight for the end of the year makes a lot of sense. It would at least explain why Fedor’s fight was pushed back a month since Overeem is busy in April.

Image via Sherdog. Tip via BE.