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The EA Sports MMA team has released a bunch of sweet new screenshots for their upcoming title. For the first time you’ll see Nick Diaz, Cung Le and Scott Smith with their signature fighting styles along the different venues and a quick look at Bobby Lashley’s ring entrance. We should be getting some new gameplay footage soon too so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Check out more pics at the official EA Sports MMA website.

Middle Easy found these scans of a EA Sports MMA feature in Game Informer magazine which gives us our first look at Randy Couture and reveals Jeff Monson, tatoos and all, will be included in the game.

Scott Coker has mentioned a few times in the past week that Strikeforce will announce two major heavyweight signings this week, and if I remember correctly at least one of them he said is a worthy competitor for Fedor. Considering they’ve been negotiating for the past several weeks, I’m guessing Bobby Lashley is one of them, but he’s not ready to compete with Fedor yet. My other guess was Josh Barnett, but as Coker implies in the Heavy.com interview above, they’re not really interested in Barnett until he gets his steroid issues straightened out with the CSAC. So who else could it be? Not that I think any of these guys would be particularly interesting opponents for Fedor, but Arlovski, Monson, Yvel and Kharitonov (only because Coker has mentioned him before) are the only other names I can think of. Am I missing anyone?

Update: Fanhouse is reporting that Andrei Arlovski is in negotiations with both Strikeforce and FEG to compete on one of their year-end cards, Evolution or Dynamite!! 2009, respectively.

This is why I love Don Frye.

“If Tom was smart, he’d have me fighting Fedor instead of whoever he’s hiring on a one week notice. My phone works if he wants a real fight with someone who sell a fight in four days, somebody who will beat that bald-headed commie too.”

“He ain’t seen anything I have to offer. He built his whole reputation (as a) waffle house chef. They’ve been serving him up ham and eggs with a side of canned tomatoes. I’ll bring it. And if he can bring it, you’ll have the best fight you’ve ever seen on the planet.”

LOL, that made my day.

By the way, Tank Abbott wants to fight Fedor too. And Jeff Monson (the only legitimate opponent mentioned here).

A pretty big rumor originating from a Croatian daily newspaper has hit the internet. Either a major Affliction-DREAM co-promotion is going down in Japan, or one Croatian sportswriter got a little creative with his writing, because this would be pretty big news if it’s true.

Bobby Lashley vs Jason Guida

I’m not gonna lie, I thought Jason Guida was poking the wrong bear during the pre-fight festivities, and would end up getting smashed because of it. Instead, all his pre-fight smack talk actually worked in his favor (sort of, he didn’t get smashed). Bobby Lashley admitted in the post-fight interview he let Guida get in his head, and because of it, his performance suffered. For a man whose former job was to play to the crowd and talk trash on a nightly basis, who would have thought? For Lashley’s sake, hopefully it was a lesson learned, because Guida isn’t going to be the last fighter that will try to get under his skin.

That said, I don’t think Lashley did as bad as many of the comments and recaps I’ve read made it sound. He controlled the entire fight with his wrestling, with the exception of a guillotine choke scare in the third round, and even connected with a few heavy strikes. The problem with Lashley in the striking department though is nearly everything he throws is a telegraphed haymaker. He definitely needs to learn how to use his jab and put together combinations to set up his power shots. It’s apparent Lashley’s still green, but I think he has quite a bit of potential if he stays healthy and continues to learn. His physical attributes and wrestling base are going to put wins on his record at this level, and he could probably even be competitive against the lower-level heavyweights in Strikeforce and even the UFC, but right now, it’s a little too soon to start calling him the next Brock Lesnar. If his skills ever start catching up to his speed, power, and explosiveness though, Lashley’s most definitely going to be a heavyweight to watch out for.

Props to CagePotato for the video finds

Jeff Monson vs Roy Nelson and full event results after the jump.

Roy Jones Jr., Eight-Time World Champion, returns to Pensacola to fight for the first time since January of 1999 when he battles Omar Sheika at the Pensacola Civic Center on Saturday, March 21, 2009. Jones Jr. will be joined on the card by a handful of recognizable mixed martial artists in the hybrid MMA/Boxing pay-per-view event “March Badness.”

MMA Fight Card:

• Seth “The Silverback” Petruzelli vs. Doug “Rhino” Marshall
• Bobby Lashley vs. TBD
• Roy “Big Country” Nelson vs. Jeff “The Snowman” Monson

Full press release after the jump.

Above is a photo ESPN the Magazine took and subsequently printed of Jeff Monson vandalizing the Washington state Capitol that landed him in some pretty serious trouble with the law. The Olympian has the details.

Prosecutors have charged Olympia mixed-martial-arts champion and avowed anarchist Jeff Monson with first-degree malicious mischief based on photographs published in a December edition of ESPN The Magazine that showed him spray-painting an anarchist symbol on the state Capitol, court papers state.

A warrant for Monson’s arrest was filed today in Thurston County Superior Court. Monson, 37, is charged with first-degree malicious mischief, a Class B felony carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

The graffiti cost $19,000 to clean up, court papers state.

Not that I condone criminal activity by any means, but if you’re going to break the law, wouldn’t the first item on your pre-crime checklist be something along the lines of making sure no one is around to take a picture of you committing the crime???

EliteXC matchmaker Jared Shaw’s response to Monson.

Get some wins and then maybe we’ll put him in line down the road to face Kimbo. If we fought every person that’s called out Kimbo or that wants to fight Kimbo we’d be fighting everybody from a 3rd grader in Duluth to a 65 year old in Boca Raton. So take a number, get in line and get some wins; then we’ll talk.

Monson, you should have known all you have to do is show up at the next EliteXC event that Kimbo attends and start a riot. EliteXC secretly loves that kind of stuff. YouTube videos just aren’t going to cut it. Differentiate yourself.

Adrenaline MMA, formerly the American side of M-1 Global, has officially announced its inaugural event, set to take place in Chicago, Ill., at the Sears Centre Arena on June 14. The organization, led by Monte Cox, has signed two high-profile heavyweights to date—Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell—however, they won’t be competing for Adrenaline until its second show in September due to their participation in Affliction: Banned. Because of that, Cox has lined up Jeff Monson and Mike Russow to battle it out in the night’s main event.