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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.

On this week’s edition of Fox Fight Game, Mike Straka and crew talk to Scott Smith about his big comeback win over Cung Le. Also, Renzo Gracie makes an appearance to talk about fighting for the UFC.

The CSAC has released the fighter payouts for Strikeforce “Evolution.” Keep in mind, these figures represent the base contracted pay the fighter receives from the promotion. These figures do not include any additional undisclosed bonuses or sponsorship money, which in many cases exceeds a fighter’s base pay. These numbers also do not account for taxes, insurance, and license fees.

As always, Esther Lin has an awesome photo gallery from last night’s Strikeforce “Evolution” on Showtime event.

Strikeforce ‘Evolution’ post-fight press conference videos and interviews via Fanhouse, Showtime Sports, Strikeforce and Sherdog.

Strikeforce “Evolution” took place earlier this evening at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

Fanhouse and Showtime Sports deliver Strikeforce “Evolution” pre-fight interviews with Cung Le, Scott Smith, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thomson, Matt Lindland, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, King Mo and Mike Whitehead.

EA Sports announced a handful of fighters for their upcoming EA Sports MMA video game earlier today in a live chat. Those announced were Cung Le, Scott Smith, Robbie Lawler, Josh Thomson, Gilbert Melendez, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Matt Lindland.

They join Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture, Brett Rogers, Gegard Mousasi, Jake Shields, Nick Thompson, Frank Shamrock, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal, Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Jay Hieron on the official roster. You can keep track of the roster on the EA Sports MMA official website.

If you’re interested a few juicy rumors, Middle Easy is all over them. According to a story they found in Fighting Spirit Magazine, there were strong hints that DREAM will be one of the organizations in the game, PRIDE rules (soccer kicks and foot stomps) will be an option, Sakuraba will make the roster, ring restarts are still being worked out and the targeted release date is sometime in September 2010.

Meanwhile, Dave Meltzer says they’re shooting for August. Meltzer also foresees a potential battle between EA and THQ over the UFC license when THQ’s grasp on it expires next year. Via MMA Payout:

EA MMA is still sticking to its guns of no women in the game even though Gina Carano would probably be the most marketable person they would have if they signed her. The problem is decisions on personnel were made by hardcore purists. The game is right now scheduled for an August release. What will become interesting is that the THQ license for UFC expires next year and EA MMA will not sell close to UFC numbers, and EA hates to be second place in any genre. Even though Dana White has dissed EA in the past because people running the company at one point told White they had no interest in MMA, those in the industry believe EA, if the new game doesn’t do well, will make a big offer for the UFC license.

If EA is able to produce a superior experience to UFC Undisputed 2010, things could definitely get interesting. We all know once you burn Dana White, getting off his shit list is a very difficult, if not impossible task. Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta say EA blew them off in the past, so you have to wonder if their personal animosity towards the company would impede a potential working relationship in the future. That said, Dana and Lorenzo are businessmen, good ones at that, and they don’t like to lose so if EA makes a better product and proves they can add more to the UFC’s bottom line than THQ, the possibility of a EA Sports UFC game in 2012 shouldn’t be ruled out.

Here’s your first look at Herschel Walker training at AKA. What do you think? Does he look ready for his first professional mixed martial arts bout?

Cung Le talks about his return to the cage against Scott Smith after the jump.