Brazilian middleweight prospect Rousimar "Toquinho" Palhares will make his Octagon debut at UFC 84: Ill Will when he faces off with UFC veteran Ivan Salaverry. Toquinho is primarily a BJJ player but has also shown good wrestling fundamentals, using strong single and double legs to set up his ground moves. His stand-up doesn't look to be overpowering, but is more than serviceable judging from the clips above. He is a member of Brazilian Top Team, so he's got a nice pedigree. Toquinho is described by his fellow BTT members as having freakish strength, and uses his short, stocky build to overpower his opponents to the ground. Rousimar went on a tear in the Fury FC tournament, defeating Fabio Negao (Matt Lindland's upcoming opponent on Affliction: Banned) in the Semis and Chute Boxe member and Pride vet Daniel Acacio in the finals. Fans of the leglocks will be smitten with Palhares, as he finished off Negao and Acacio both on the same night with leglocks in the first round. If you see anything resembling a + next to Toquinho's name when the odds come out, he would be a nice play.

SportsNavi had coverage of the Dream day-after Press conference:

Dream Event Producer Sasahara was asked about the possibility of Kimbo Slice possibly fighting on a dream card, despite him being unknown in Japan. He was also asked if EliteXC's female superstar Gina Carano might be a possibility.

Dream Event Producer Sasahara: " Certainly, now Kimbo Slice is perhaps namelessness. But, like Mayhem Miller yesterday, there is a possibility where it can grasp the heart of the fan with 1 appearance'

In regards to the woman fighter, at present time, no. Now ' DREAM ' is in the process of growing. When ' DREAM ' has reached maturity, we would think of adding women fighters at that time."

Other Notes coming out of the day after press conference after the jump:

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Dr J over at MMAHQ is reporting and Ben Rothwell is confirming the addition of Arlovski vs Rothwell to the Affliction card. This bout is scheduled for July 19th on the undercard of Fedor Vs Tim Sylvia.

ya well i was trying to clear up that i was not fighting AA in Sept on another org. as the original rumor stated. I tried to never say if i was/was not fighting AA but most all the forum took it that way, sorry i guess.

anyway I'm excited to fight a top10 HW, so thanks for the support, peace

According to Dr J, Arlovski has signed with AdrenalineMMA and is being loaned out to the Affliction card, though there has been no independent verification of this. The Adrenaline promotion is headed up by Monte Cox and are focusing on being a mid-level regional player in the MMA landscape, much like Strikeforce in Northern Cali and the West Coast. Adrenaline has focused on the Midwest, with their initial cards being in suburban Chicago and the Quad-Cities area. Signing Arlovski to Adrenaline makes sense since he is headquartered out of Chicago and could be a significant draw for them.

Arlovski is a former UFC heavyweight champion who recently became a free agent after his Victory over Jake O'Brien at UFC 82. Rothwell became a free agent January 1st of this year, after an undefeated run in the IFL for the Pat Miletich coached Silverbacks. Rothwell recently signed to AdrenalineMMA, which is headed up by his manager Monte Cox.

Developing.....

Update [2008-5-13 9:50:36 by Luke Thomas]:: Just so everything is clear, this story is NOT - I repeat: NOT - confirmed. This is, at best, interesting speculation and should be viewed as such. Apologies for any misconception.

Undefeated Croatian light heavyweight fighter Goran Reljic (7-0) sat down with Fighthype.com to discuss Wilson Gouveia (10-4), the fight, training at Xtreme Couture and his pick for Couture vs Fedor. Gegard Mousasi and Zelg Galesic are making waves over in the Dream Middleweight Grand Prix, so don't be surprised if another Eastern European fighter opens eyes at UFC 84. MMAWeekly Interview

Wow.....Ian sure looks...umm, ready (I believe that is the BloodyElbow.com legal team approved term) ..... for his show down with Paul Cahoon later today at Cage Rage.

With a body like that he must hire a personal trainer to train every day, his meals consist of meal replacement powders, energy bars, shakes, and boatloads of supplements. Throw in a little ZMA, too. At the age of 42.

Must be great genetics.

Update [2008-5-10 15:4:10 by Kid Nate]:

Leland Roling at MMA Analyst has his usual excellent preview of the Cage Rage event Freeman will be headlining.

Cage Rage results are here.

SportsNavi covered the pre-fight press conference for Dream 3, with the most interesting item being this little nugget of info (babelfish translated)

"DREAM. Preceding day press conference of 3 "(11 days occasion Saitama super arena) on the 10th, to be done at the hotel inside capital, as the special guest, PRO ELITE William Kelly highest execution patsy (COO) and others same company staff the Noboru platform. The Sasahara Keiichi event producer (EP) who similarly rises to on the platform, the mountain stream DREAM and K which Osamu EP directs - it announced that it keeps strengthening the cooperative relationship with 1.

As for the latest announcement Dynamite of 07 years! ! Those where furthermore it will strengthen the cooperative relationship with FEG which is built with USA, player interchange and event opening probably will keep doing together. As for concrete execution step still undecided, as for William COO, slice, the lobby roller, name of the player such as Shields was listed, the dream match actualization by the DREAM player and the ProElite player eagerly desired."

And now my translation of the translation. ProElite and K-1/FEG are looking to build on the relationship that started with the 2007 Dynamite card that took place at the Los Angeles Coliseum. They are discussing further Co-promotion opportunities and an exchange of talent with Jake Shields and Kimbo Slice as EliteXC fighters that would be desired for future Dream cards. ProElite Exec William Kelly was on hand to further comment on this development and to watch tomorrow's card. Current EliteXC fighters Eddie Alvarez and Nick Diaz will be prominently featured during Sunday morning's Dream 3 fight card.

If EliteXC is going to work with Dream, and the Dream fights are going to be aired on HDNet, it seem to make sense for Elite and Cuban's group to use this common relationship as a bridge to working together. Both companies are amassing rather large video libraries that could possibly have synergies when it comes to online, dvd, and other distribution channels. MMA Weekly has more.

Update [2008-5-10 12:20:59 by Nick Thomas]: Added more pictures after the jump.

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Dream lightweight superstar Gesias "JZ Calvan" Calvancante was a recent guest on the Savage Dog Radio Show on Sherdog.com. During the interview Calvan confirmed he had a torn meniscus that was scoped before the Aoki fight. After the fight he was examined and a completely torn ACL was diagnosed. Surgery has been scheduled for May 16th and Calvan stated that there will be at least a four month rehab, and he is most likely out until the end the year.

With an an extended lay off due to the injury and rehab, JZ will probably be groomed to face the Dream Lightweight Grand Prix winner sometime in mid-2009, and Calvan stated he wants to fight for the title.

The photo shoot for the shoe.

It's good to be King, er, I mean champ..... you got folks giving you chedda to put out your custom shoe.....

I think these shoes will go nicely with my Affliction shirt and Tapout hat ..... Can anyone suggest some garish MMA-themed board shorts to complete the ensemble?

As the Affliction show switches venues and the show even coming off at all begins to be in doubt, I think that Fedor, his handlers and the Affliction people need to remember how this will affect the little guy ...or in this case gal.....

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Josh Thomson vs Nam Phan, plus MMA Fight Weekly featuring IFL Champ Jay Hieron after the jump.

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Lightweight Tournament Round 2:
Caol Uno 24-10-4 vs. 16-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri 21-4-2 vs. 12-3-0 Luiz "Buscape" Firmino
Joachim Hansen 17-6-1 vs. 13-1-0 Eddie Alvarez
Katsuhiko Nagata 4-2-0 vs. ????

Welterweight Champion Eliminator:
Nick Diaz 15-7-0 vs. 16-5-3 Katsuya Inoue

Middleweight Tournament Round 1:
Jason Miller 20-5-0 vs. 2-3-0 Katsuyori Shibata

Middleweight Tournament Reserve Fight:
Melvin Manhoef 20-4-1 vs. Kim Dae Won

Non-Tournament Fights:
Jung Bukyung 0-2-0 vs. 13-9-0 Daisuke Nakamura

HT to Genghis Con for the find.

Luke and Nate seemed to enjoy the MW Primer so I threw one together for the LW's, with emphasis on Ishida, Kawajiri, Hansen, Alvarez and Uno.  Hansen vs Alvarez looks to be a barn-burner.  Hansen has fought a who's who of LW's but Alvarez seems to have brought his power with him down from welterweight.  

Great highlight video of a very young Kazushi Sakuraba.  It is interesting to see him before his early fights in Pride, before he took on the Gracie family and made himself a legend, and launched MMA in Japan to a whole other level.  This fight was basically Sakuraba debut in mma, as his first fight against Kimo is widely regarded as a work.  A lot of the showmanship of his later career is missing, but the tenacity and heart that  he has always been admired for shines through.

Looking back at this video and other early UFC's, it is obvious the the reffing  for MMA has evolved.   While Big John McCarthy is now regarded as the best MMA ref ever, and rightly so, you can tell from watching this vid that it was a process.  Big John had to go through horrible stoppages like this and watching Jeremy Horn choke out Chuck Liddel in their first fight (1999) while remaining clueless in order to grow as an official. BJM had the luxury of time as there were few other refs out there with experience on the big stage, or even competent refs for that matter.  At this stage in his career McCarthy was the King with one good eye who ruled a land of the blind.

While we are on the subject of Saku and the UFC, I have always thought it would be a nice gesture for the UFC to induct Saku into their Hall of Fame.  While Saku's presence in UFC was minimal, inducting him into the Hall would be a nice gesture to the greater MMA community and a nice way to honor a legend in the twilight of his career. It would also so give an indication that UFC would be a proper steward of the legacy of Pride Fighting Championships.  I doubt it will happen, though.  If it isn't going to generate $$$ for Zuffa, they really have little impetus to do it.

Update [2008-5-3 20:11:3 by robnashville]: Full fights after the jump...

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