The On Deck Circle

This article has been submitted by MMA specialist Kyle Norton. Normally it will appear every Sunday, but today is a special Wednesday debut.

Welcome to the delayed debut of This Week in MMA (TWIMMA). Every Sunday, I will cover the top stories from the week in mixed martial arts.

• Anderson Silva cemented himself as the best middleweight in the world with a submission victory over Dan Henderson at 83. You can catch a full breakdown of this Saturday’s event here.

• It was announced during Saturday’s broadcast that the UFC’s first ever heavyweight champion, Mark “the Hammer” Coleman, will be the next man to take on Brock Lesnar at UFC 87 in Minnesota on August 8th. This is a great move for the UFC because it could give Lesnar a win over a fighter with serious credentials (even though Coleman is washed up and hasn’t been a decent fighter since 2001) or if Coleman were to win, he would have a high profile win allowing the UFC to feed him to heavyweight champ “Minotauro” Nogueira.

• Also on Saturday was the season opener of the IFL’s 2008 season. The Miletich-trained Ryan McGivern became the new middleweight champion by defeating Team Quest’s Matt Horwich by decision. Roy Nelson held onto his heavyweight strap by knocking out Fabiano Scherner in the first round. And lightweight champion Ryan Schultz also held onto his belt with a snoozer of a decision over John Gunderson.

• New Japanese promotion World Victory Road will debut on March 4 in National Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Titled “Sengoku,” the event will be headlined by the return of number 1 ranked lightweight and Japanese superstar Takanori Gomi taking on Duane “Bang” Ludwig. Also returning from lengthy year-long layoffs since Pride’s demise are Josh “The Baby-Faced Assassin” Barnett and Hidehiko Yoshida, who will meet in a heavyweight clash.

• K-1 owners Fighting and Entertainment Group and former Pride executives have teamed up to create a second new Japanese MMA promotion, Dream, which will premier March 15th with the first round of their Lightweight Grand Prix. The GP is absolutely loaded with six of the top ten lightweights in the world, including: Shinya Aoki, Gesias “JZ” Calvancante, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Joachim Hansen, Mitsuhiro Ishida, and Gilbert Melendez. Dream will also be hosting a Middleweight Grand Prix starting April 29th, in which it is rumored that Dennis Kang, Matt Lindland, Kazushi Sakuraba and Zelg Galesić will all compete.

• The battle between Randy Couture and UFC’s parent company Zuffa raged on this week when Zuffa was granted an injunction against Couture “from engaging in any promotion or production of events or programming related to unarmed combat during the February 29, 2008 (International Fight League) event.” Xtreme Couture is supposed to have a team participating in this year’s IFL season, which has now changed its name (most likely temporarily) to Team Tompkins after striking coach and former IFL head coach, Shawn Tompkins.

• Montreal-based promotion TKO hosted a great night of fights on Friday, headlined by a bout between Brian Gassaway and Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons. Gassaway scored a TKO victory over Pele via one of the most brutal injuries seen in MMA history. Pele connected with a low kick and in turn snapped his shin bone, causing it to project outwards below his knee. Also on the card, Jess Bongfeldt defeated TJ Grant for the TKO welterweight title, which has previously been held by George “Rush” St. Pierre.

• In MMA business news, ProElite’s Elite Xtreme Combat signed a network TV deal with CBS, which you can read more about here. The UFC also made noise by signing a lucrative endorsement contract with the best-selling beer in the United States, Bud Light. They have signed on to a three-year contract that will make Bud Light the title sponsor of the Ultimate Fighting Championships. Both these moves bring mixed martial arts closer than ever to mainstream sports fans and show how lucrative the sport of MMA can be.

This article has been submitted by MMA specialist Kyle Norton. Normally it will appear every Sunday, but today is a special Wednesday debut.