Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Cannon Jacques.

From MMA Junkie:

Season two of Bellator will commence this fall, and with its success this season on ESPN Deportes, the rookie fight promotion could find itself with a bigger ESPN audience for the second go-around.
. . .
"Our [April 17] show (in Oklahoma) ran last week, and a replay 48 hours after the original broadcast did a 1.2 (household rating)," Rebney said. "That's a great number especially for a replay. Anything over a 1.0 is pretty strong."
. . .
"It would be really cool and interesting to see if we're doing 1.2s on replays right now on a Spanish-language network, what would be doing if we were on ESPN2 right now?" Rebney said. "I've got to assume the numbers would be out of this world."

There's no doubt that the amount of  advances in the coverage and display of MMA in the past few years have been great. A few years ago, if you said that eventually there would be a network that's dedicated to showing regional events all over the country (HDNet), that ESPN would actually put their support towards a webshow dedicated to the sport, and one day live MMA would air on network television (CBS), you would have been considered...well...an optimist with really high (read: unrealistic) hopes. But yet here we are.

Now after all of that progress could this be the watershed moment we have all been waiting for? There's always talk about MMA eventually breaking through becoming "mainstream". Is this where it starts?

Consider this: ESPN Deportes is available in approximately four million households. ESPN and ESPN2 are available in nearly 100 million each.

Color me excited.

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

From Sherdog:

One notable name missing from an official list of possible participants released for the New Year’s Eve extravaganza was Dream's biggest rating draw, Yoshihiro Akiyama. Akiyama is reportedly no longer under contract to FEG, while fighter and promotion are rumored to not be on good terms.

A move to rival outlet Sengoku is likely, as Akiyama has expressed interest in facing fellow judoka, Hidehiko Yoshida, in what would be a huge money match. Akiyama is also believed to be in talks with the UFC, as Zuffa is said to be building their ranks for a possible Korean invasion.

After living in South Korea for a few months and being exposed to the nation's sport channels, I can honestly say whenever a Korean athlete does well in America it's covered like an event in their home country. Simply by watching the commercials, you would think the Colorado Rockies needed to be renamed Byung Hyun Kim and the Other American Dudes.

An event with Akiyama and "Stun Gun" Kim on the same card would do wonders for the UFC's popularity in South Korea. Of course, the judoka vs. judoka battle of Yoshida/Akiyama would do the same for WVR. But what does this mean for DREAM? From data in the past, it's easy to tell that Akiyama is their best ratings draw. FEG's executives have promised that DREAM will still be around for a while but without the heel "Micheal Jackson" on their cards who will bring in the viewers?

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

Jordan Breen has the scoop:

The middleweight grand prix semifinals, set for Sept. 23 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, will pit Brazilian jiu-jitsu all-star turned hot MMA prospect Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza against Croatian Zelg Galesic (Pictures), while Dutch-based Armenian Gegard Mousasi (Pictures) meets fellow Netherlander Melvin Manhoef (Pictures), with the two victors set to square off in the finale later that evening.

In June, Souza punched his ticket to the semifinals by taking a unanimous verdict over colorful cult hero Jason "Mayhem" Miller, while Galesic saw only 65 seconds of action before his rematch with Taiei Kin (Pictures) ended due to a dislocated elbow. Their first bout last October ended in only 36 seconds due to a cut. On the same bill, Mousasi successfully knocked off South Korean judo star Yoon Dong Sik with a unanimous nod, while Manhoef smashed MMA icon Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) in a brief but brutal 90 seconds.

While no reserve bout was announced for the middleweight finale, a source close to the promotion has told Sherdog.com that FEG are interested in a pairing of quarterfinalists Miller and Sik. However, the proposed bout is still in its most embryonic stages.

On his attitude towards the sport and his opponents:

Before we get started, I want to say that I know there are a lot of people and everybody is trying to protect the sport. And everybody wants to be sportsmen and that type of thing where everybody shakes hands and everybody is great friends and whatever. And that’s great. But you know what, this sport is (expletive) established. That’s obvious. There are people out there doing a great job making it look like a non-violent sport. That’s not my job. My job is warfare. I’m over here to (expletive) kill. We’re mortal enemies until we fight and then we can shake hands and be cool.  But until then, if I’m signed to fight you I don’t (expletive) like you and I hate you’re (expletive) guts and we’re fighting until we’re cool. We’re not cool until I win or I lose and we can settle this. So that’s how I am about this sort of thing.

On why he was in the cage and his feelings towards KJ Noons:

T.J. Thompson from Icon Sport. He brought me in there. He told me, ‘It’s time to go to work. Let’s go in there and talk about this rematch.’ So he brought me in there.

...

They came in there with me and the next thing you know his dad starts talking (expletive) to my brother (Nate) or whatever. And, you know, my brother is hardcore. So he comes in there and someone says (expletive) you or whatever and his boy (Noons) is acting all bad like he wants to fight me. I’m like, ‘Why you trying to act bad now?’ They walked past us in the halls and they all looked at the floor. They walked past us like they are scared or something, you know what I mean. It’s like that we’re going to fight, but if they are going to talk (expletive), we’re going to talk (expletive). I ain’t going nowhere and they ain’t going nowhere.

...

That’s (expletive) … my bottom line is he is a poser. He’s over here trying to rush me in front of the cameras and look like hardcore in front of the cameras. He shows up in a (expletive) suit. He’s a rich kid. I can’t afford a suit. I got no money to spend on a suit. I can’t retire right now if I want to. he fights every however many months.

More quotes after the jump.

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Found this reading the Sherdog forums today.

Check it out

My thoughts:

-In the coming weeks, will the TBA besides Ben Rothwell turn into Andrei Arlovski? Ben Rothwell has confirmed it on the Sherdog forums but nothing official has been announced yet.

-Will there ever be an Affliction 2? Like others have already pointed out, even though Fedor may be the best fighter on the planet, none of his performances have turned into big PPV buys in the US. Add that in with the huge payout the fighters on this card are promised, this could simply be another one-and-done MMA promotion.

HT: Sherdog's Contenders Forum

This diary entry was promoted to the front page by Luke Thomas.

Today I received a message on Facebook from HDNet Fights saying to watch out for a huge announcement about a partnership with an org. At first, I thought it was simply confirmation of the Sylvia/Fedor fight with Affliction. I mean, there's no way it could be DREAM. How could a company that just lost it's prime time spot in its own country get a deal with HDNet? Wishful thinking but no way it could happen. Too good to be true. Probably something to do with Affliction or the IFL. No need to get my hopes up.

Well...

Mark Cuban and his HD network are quickly making a mark on the mma scene. Now if only HDNet were available in more areas.