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The Ultimate Fighter Live Finale is official.

The Ultimate Fighter Live Finale is scheduled to take place the Pearl at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, Friday, June 1 on FX beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. The card will be headlined by a pivotal welterweight contest between Jake Ellenberger and Martin Kampmann, as the two will meet for a chance to earn a title shot in the division.

The only other official match scheduled for the card to date is the finals in the ongoing season of The Ultimate Fighter: Live, which is being coached by UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and No. 1 contender Urijah Faber.

Ticket info below.

• UFC Fight Club Presale: Wednesday, April 13, 2 p.m. ET
• UFC Newsletter Presale: Thursday, April 12, noon ETT
• Public On-Sale Date: Friday, April 13, 2 p.m. ET

Tickets are priced from $104 to $354. They can be purchased at the Pearl box office or Ticketmaster.

The latest Ultimate Fighter Live Finale fight card and event info can be found in our fight cards section.

Strikeforce’s return to San Jose is official.

Strikeforce will return to the HP Pavilion on May 19, with the main event planned to feature the finals in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier have been waiting for months to square off, as Cormier has been recovering from a broken hand.

To date, Barnett-Cormier is the only bout that has been announced, but, Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez is also expected to compete on the card.

Ticket info below:

• UFC Fight Club Presale: Thursday, April 5, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. ET

• UFC Newsletter Presale/Strikeforce Insider: Thursday, April 5, 3 p.m. ET

• Public On-Sale Date: Friday, April 6, 1 p.m. ET

Tickets can be purchased at Ticketmaster.

Photo credit: Twitter.com/Strikeforce

UFC 146 is official.

UFC 146 is scheduled take place Saturday, May 26 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will air live on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. The card will be headlined by a UFC heavyweight title match between champion Junior dos Santos and No. 1 contender Alistair Overeem.

Other matches made official for the main card include Cain Velasquez and Frank Mir in a battle of former champions to determine the next contender to the title; Roy Nelson vs. Antonio Silva; Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Shane Del Rosario; and Stefan Struve vs. Mark Hunt.

The preliminary card features Edson Barboza-Evan Dunham, Dan Hardy-Duane Ludwig, Darren Elkins-Diego Brandao, Jason Miller-C.B Dollaway, Glover Teixeira-Kyle Kingsbury, Paul Sass-Jacob Volkmann, and Mike Brown-Daniel Pineda.

Ticket info below:

• UFC Fight Club Presale: Wednesday, March 28, 3 p.m. ET

• UFC Newsletter Presale: Thursday, March 29, 1 p.m. ET

• Public On-Sale Date: Friday, March 30, 1 p.m. ET

Tickets are priced from $75 to $800 and can be purchased at Ticketmaster and StubHub.

The latest UFC 146 fight card and event info can be found in our fight cards section.

A middleweight contest between Rich Franklin and Cung Le has been added to UFC 148, which takes place July 7 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. UFC officials announced the fight late Sunday evening.

The card is expected to feature a main event between UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and No. 1 contender Urijah Faber. Currently, the two are coaching against one another on The Ultimate Fighter: Live. It is likely that Franklin-Le would serve as the co-main event for the night.

“Ace” suffered a loss to Forrest Griffin in his last bout, but that took place early in 2011. Franklin, a former UFC champion, was scheduled to return to action against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira late in the year, but shoulder surgery knocked him from the fight.

Le, who spent several years away from MMA filming movies, was defeated in his UFC debut by the hands of Wanderlei Silva. The ex-Strikeforce champion suffered a broken nose in the loss.

With Franklin having been on the sidelines for over a year, the thought of Octagon-rust will play a huge role. Le will need to strike early to take advantage of what could be a slower “Ace.”

Photo credit: Dave Mandel/Sherdog

Heads up everyone. Things are going to be a little slow around here this weekend. I’ve been planning a big move for awhile now and the time has finally come. I’ll spending the weekend packing up my house and moving to a different city. I’ll do my best to stay on top of any major breaking news, but otherwise I won’t be doing much posting, probably just a weekend round-up post when I’ve settled in on Sunday or Monday.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend everybody!

You don’t have to look hard to find MMA fans and media members complaining about the lack of mainstream media coverage of mixed martial arts. While many major media outlets continue to ignore our beloved sport, USA Today continues to embrace it with open arms.

USA Today announced today that they are expanding their online mixed martial arts coverage with the addition of 11 new content partners who will be featured on USA Today’s newly redesigned MMA page. I’m very proud to say that MMAConvert.com is one of those content partners. It’s a tremendous honor to be a part of USA Today’s growing commitment to the sport of mixed martial arts.

Full press release below.

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