New UFC champion Brock Lesnar during his run as IWGP champion for New Japan Pro Wrestling defends the belt against Yuji Nagata:

Doubtful, though there have been some persistent rumors in the Japanese fight media that “The Babyface Assassin” will fight Kevin Randleman at the event. He was supposed to fight at Sengoku 6 but no opponent could be found.

Randleman has said in several recent interviews that he’s planning to stay at light heavyweight, and that’s a much better place for him physically. He’s always been small for a heavyweight, and visually at least lost a lot of bulk due to his health related issues (kidney problems, staph infection) during 2007. At 6′4″, 250 Barnett would throw the 5′10″, 205 Randleman around like a ragdoll.

Plus, Barnett is scheduled to fight at the Affliction: Day of Reckoning card on 1/24 in Anaheim. That would be a turnaround between fights of less than three weeks and that would make Barnett’s clearance to fight by the California State Athletic Commission very problematic. His rumored opponent at the Affliction show is Aleksander Emelianenko, who could have his own issues with getting medical clearance from the CSAC. He was denied a license to fight at the first Affliction show due to an “unspecified medical condition” rumored to be Hepatitis B. California doesn’t release medical records of this sort for fighters due to privacy concerns, so no official reason is known. Aleks has repeatedly denied that he tested positive for Hep B, suggesting that it was an issue with incomplete medical records. He does have a three fight deal with Affliction, so obviously they’d like to see him available to fight at their January event.

Paulo Filho has been released from his WEC contract following his bizarre and/or non-competitive behavior during a 11/5 fight with Chael Sonnen. Filho has experienced problems with depression and substance abuse in the past, but according to his management he’s not currently suffering from any issues of this sort. They further suggest that he’s been approached by both Affliction and Strikeforce in the US and DREAM in Japan…

Here’s the story from the English version of Brazilian MMA site Tatame.com:

After suffering his first loss in MMA career, Paulo Filho is now involved in some rumors, from WrestlingObserver.com site, about the possibility to be released from WEC’s contract after the bad performance at the event – after not making weight for the fight and other problems. With the rumors, TATAME.com called his Boxing coach, Josuel Distak, who confirmed the rumors. ”Joinha (Filho’s manager) called me now and confirmed. He’s out of WEC, but there are other three big events in American trying to sign him and we’re defining that. A guy like Paulo Filho wouldn’t be unemployed for a long time”, revealed Distak. Stay tuned on TATAME.com for further news.

Paulo Filho released from WEC @ Tatame.com

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, here’s something you can be thankful about: the uncertain contractual status of the former EliteXC fighters appears to have put the kibosh on a rumored Kimbo Slice vs. Seth Petruzelli rematch for the K-1/DREAM Fields! Dynamite New Years Eve show. It is precisely the sort of train wreck that Japanese fans love, however, so it may just be a temporary reprieve and the fight that drove the final nail in EliteXC’s coffin could be reprised sometime in 2009.

That’s the word according to Hiroyuki Takaya in recent interviews in the Japanese fight media. According to Takaya, DREAM is planning to hold a featherweight GP with 8 Japanese fighters and 8 gaijin competitors. Takaya is still under contract to the WEC in the US, where he was last seen getting KO’d in the first round by Leonard Garcia (though after Garcia’s destruction of Jens Pulver at the last WEC card that loss isn’t quite as ugly for Takaya).

Too bad that Joseph Benavidez has signed with WEC (he’ll make his debut on the 12/3 show from Las Vegas) since he’d have been a force to reckon with in the DREAM tournament. Benavidez, who trains with Urijah Faber, will face Danny Martinez on the 12/3 show that’ll be televised on the Versus network in the US.

Here’s the latest “official” card released by Affliction with their ticket sale announcement today:

MAIN CARD–PPV/Showtime (the rumor is that it’ll be broadcast on Showtime but as of today the “official” card still indicates a PPV)

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski
Josh Barnett vs. TBA (rumored to be Aleksander Emelianenko)
Vitor Belfort vs. TBA (DREAM middleweight GP champ Gegard Mousasi has been a rumored opponent)
Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Matt Lindland
Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon

UNDERCARD–to air live on HDNet

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
Jay Hieron vs. Jason High
Mark Homnick vs. LC Davis
Albert Rios vs. Antonio Duarte
Brett Cooper vs. TBA
Paul Buentello vs. Kiril Sidellnikov

AFFLICTION: DAY OF RECKONING FIGHT CARD

Hidehiko Yoshida will take on Pancrase veteran Sanae Kikuta at the Sengoku New Years event scheduled for January 4, 2009 in Tokyo. Kikuta has a 27-6-3 career mark, mostly in Pancrase. He defeated Chris Rice via submission earlier this year at Sengoku 3.

Brock Lesnar is the new UFC heavyweight champion, but on January 24th you can see the best heavyweight in the world at Affliction: Day of Reckoning. Fedor Emelianenko will headline against Andrei Arlovski. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, November 19th at all Ticketmaster locations and the Honda Center Box Office:

“Affliction: Day of Reckoning” takes place Jan. 24 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Tickets for the event, which features a headline bout between WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko and former UFC title-holder Andrei Arlovski, range from $50 to $450 and go on sale at all Ticketmaster outlets, as well as the Honda Center Box Office.

Affliction: Day of Reckoning Official Website

This isn’t much of a MMA story, though a lot of the other MMA websites are reporting it as such–likely because they can’t think of anything else to write about. It probably deserves a mention, though we won’t give it a “bait and switch” headline like “Promoter Charged” like some of the other sites trolling for traffic.

So Mark Cuban, who owns a TV network that shows MMA programing (HD Net), was charged by the SEC (that’s the Security and Exchange Commission, not the Southeast Conference) with insider trading related to his sale in stock of Mamma.com. If you’re interested in the protracted financial aspects of the case we’ll give you a link to the Wall Street Journal where you can do just that. Basically, the government is accusing Cubes of pocking $750k based on ‘insider information’, which is chicken feed in this arena and for this sort of charge. It’ll almost certainly cost the Federal government–aka the US taxpayers–more than that to put together and prosecute the case. Your tax dollars at work, folks…

Anyway, here’s the facts as reported by the WSJ:

The SEC alleges Mr. Cuban sold his entire 6% ownership stake on June 28, 2004, immediately after learning that Mamma.com was raising money through a private investment in private entity, or PIPE. The next day, after the markets closed, the company announced the PIPE financing. When the markets opened the morning of June 30, shares of the company dropped by 9%. By selling his stake, Mr. Cuban avoided more than $750,000 in losses, the SEC alleges.

So its not like Cubes did something like hack his ex-wife and a waiter from Mezzaluna to death (allegedly) or retrieve some sports memorabilia at gunpoint.

Cubes gave an uncharacteristically tight-lipped comment on his blog today, which is likely more at his lawyer’s behest than his own doing:

I wish I could say more, but I will have to leave it to this, and let the judicial process do its job.
November 17, 2008
RE: SEC Civil Action in the United States District

for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division

Mark Cuban today responded to a civil complaint filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States District for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. In its complaint, the Commission charges that Mr. Cuban engaged in violations of the federal securities laws in connection with transactions in the securities of Mamma.com Inc.

This matter, which has been pending before the Commission for nearly two years, has no merit and is a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion. Mr. Cuban intends to contest the allegations and to demonstrate that the Commission’s claims are infected by the misconduct of the staff of its Enforcement Division.

Mr. Cuban stated, “I am disappointed that the Commission chose to bring this case based upon its Enforcement staff’s win-at-any-cost ambitions. The staff’s process was result-oriented, facts be damned. The government’s claims are false and they will be proven to be so.”

One of Cuban’s lawyers was more verbose on the subject in the WSJ, which is what you pay lawyers to do in the first place:

We’re shocked. We find it incredible that given all the important issues that the SEC has to address with regard to today’s economy they’ve sought to bring a $750,000 case relating to a he-said she-said about one trade against a person whose integrity has never been questioned before with regard to the securities markets.” He also said he was “further shocked because the whole enforcement process was tainted by express bias by enforcement officials and certain other misconduct that we will happily detail to the judge in this case.”

What’ll probably happen is that Cubes will pay a fine, the SEC will act all excited that they “won” and life will go on. Without taking sides on this issue, Federal prosecutors are notorious for going after “big names” for the benefit of their own career. Cuban is a guy that isn’t hesitant to step on people’s toes and say what he thinks and he’s been critical of the regulatory oversight of the financial markets before. At one point he suggested that the regulatory oversight of the Nevada and offshore sports betting industry was better than the NY Stock Exchange–it most likely is, but saying that no doubt put him in the SEC crosshairs. Furthermore, while the SEC is supposed to be an independent, non-partisan agency someone could have a political ax to grind.

Here’s the WSJ’s legal editor giving his take on the situation, followed by a link to the WSJ story. Unless it comes out that Cuban used the $750,000 he allegedly netted from this to pay for DREAM broadcast rights we won’t have much more to say about this….

SEC charges Mark Cuban with insider trading @ WSJ.com

Here’s the promo clip from “Elvis: That’s The Way It Is” which is now available on DVD and chronicles “The King” during his first shows at the International Hotel in Las Vegas (now the Las Vegas Hilton). Probably the best Elvis live performance ever caught on film–if you ever question the man’s ability to kick ass check out this DVD: