MMAConvert.com

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.

DREAM.6 took place earlier today at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

It was the finals of the DREAM middleweight grand prix. Four fighters—Gegard Mousasi, Melvin Manhoef, Zelg Galesic, and Ronaldo Jacare—battled it out in the semi-finals with the winners coming back at the end of the show to fight for the grand prix championship.

Mirko Cro Cop was back in action for the second time this year. He didn’t get a softball this time around though. Instead, he looked to end months of trash talking from the always dangerous Alistair Overeem.

Shinya Aoki, Hayato ‘Mach’ Sakurai, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Sergei Kharitonov were also in action.

If you haven’t seen the fights yet, and want to before spoiling yourself with the results, you can check them out here.

Results and wrap-up after the jump.

The UFC may not be the only promotion holding a mini heavyweight tournament in the near future.

In a recent interview on Croatia’s NovaTV, Mirko Cro Cop, who is scheduled to face Alistair Overeem at DREAM.6, stated the winner of his bout and the Sergei Kharitonov/’Mighty Mo’ bout, also scheduled for DREAM.6, will fight for the DREAM Heavyweight Championship at an upcoming DREAM event. Cro Cop predicted that he and Kharitonov would the ones would move on to fight for the title.

For the record, I am picking Cro Cop to win his fight against Overeem, but it never seems to work out when a fighter starts talking about fighting for the title when he still has a fight he has to win to get the shot. Chuck Liddell, anyone?

Of course, this all assumes that DREAM.6 isn’t the last DREAM event.

CR: Kakutougi.info via Bloody Elbow

[UPDATE 9/16/08 11:20AM ET] – Shinya Aoki has been added to DREAM.6.

DREAM.6 is rapidly approaching. On Sept. 23, FEG and DSE will hold their sixth DREAM event at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. It will feature the finals of their middleweight grand prix.

There wasn’t a whole lot of news to report today—just some trash talkin’, sponsorship deals, and Rampage’s new home away from home—so I thought I would pass along a few rumors that have surfaced.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that Antonio Silva would be fighting on July 26 at “Unfinished Business” for the EliteXC Heavyweight Championship. Now, Silva may have an opponent, and a formidable one at that—PRIDE veteran Sergei Kharitonov. According to Sherdog.com, the bout has been verbally agreed upon and is pending approval by the CSAC.