The Donald, facing declining ratings, has put a new spin on his reality show The Apprentice. This season, the show will feature “celebrities” with UFC star and MMA fighter Tito Ortiz being part of the cast. As reported by the Associated Press, the 14 “celebrities” won’t be vying for a job with Donald Trump, as in the previous six “Apprentice” seasons, but instead will compete in business-oriented tasks around New York City to raise money for their favorite charities. The official “Celebrity Apprentice” will win a $250,000 bonus to donate.

The full list of cast members include (more…)

Tonight Cung Le kept his perfect record in tact as he TKO’d Sam Morgan in the third round of the Strikeforce main event. After the fight he and Frank Shamrock announced that they will fight. Cung told Frank and the crowd that it was all about the fans and a fight between the two would be the biggest MMA fight in northern California history. Both Le and Shamrock have schools in the bay area and are huge fan favorites. This could be a mega payday for these guys.

A date has not been set, but I know that in the next couple of days the MMA forums will be chalk full of fight prediction over this bout. My early prediction, Frank Shamrock by whatever means he wants. Frank has way too much experience to lose this one. Cung has only 5 fights under his belt as hasn’t even faced a top 20 contender. Shamrock is crafty enough on his feet to avoid Le’s strikes and will have complete control of him on the ground. Period.

At this point it’s total speculation, but I’ve seen some rumors floating around that former Pride fighter Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou has signed with the UFC and will fight on the UFC 79 card in Vegas. This would be a HUGE pick-up for the UFC and add to an already stacked light heavyweight division. Sokoudjou is a monster. A great judo player with heavy heavy hands. In his last two fights he took out two top 10 fighters via KO in the first round, Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

The source of this speculation comes from an interview with HAC where he dropped a couple of hints, including

-His thoughts on Alexander Houston, “He’s a pretty good striker, and I’m looking forward to facing him in a near future.”
-”And I’ll be back not in the ring but in the cage DEC 29th in Vegas!”

Here’s the entire interiew, you be the judge.

First Evan Tanner sinks his boat back in October and now someone has broken into his Land Cruiser. I caught this from his MySpace page:

“I’m really disappointed. I had some things stolen out of my Land Cruiser last night while it was parked in front of the gym. The UFC had just given me a brand new workout bag full of shirts and beanies, with a personalized engraved name tag. They took that. What I’m most upset about though, is that they took all of my mma trading cards that I sign for the fans and the kids. Come on now, that’s really uncool. It was all in a storage container in the back of the Cruiser. I’m not sure what else was in it. If whoever did this happens to read this, be cool, at least give my trading cards back. I need those for the fans. It would also be nice to have the name tag back. My car will be in the same place as it was last night. You can just drive by and throw the cards in the back. No questions asked. It would be nice to have everything returned, but at least give the cards back.”

On the positve side for Tanner, he has signed a 4 fight deal with the UFC. Opponent and date still TBD.

Source: Evan Tanner MySpace

Just when it looked like Sherk’s failed drug test was going to strip him of of Lightweight title, Yahoo! Sports has reported that Dana White has decided to not strip Sean of the title. White appears to be fed up with the way the California State Athletic Commission has been handling this whole ordeal and the way they have handled Sherk’s steroid case.

The CSAC was supposed to have an appeal hearing this Wednesday but due to some missing paperwork the case will be postponed until November 13th.

So here is the good news. Until Sherk is eligible to fight again, the UFC will have BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson fight for an interim title at UFC 80. Also said to be on the card will be Gabriel Gonzaga and Fabricio Werdum.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

In was announced today that UFC fighter Din Thomas has been arrested for running unlicensed, unsanctioned mixed martial arts events in Florida.

Thomas, 31, faces a felony prohibited competitions charge after police got a tip Oct. 19 about the matches at a facility he uses in St. Lucie West.

Here is a link to the article that appeared in a Florida newspaper today.

As a side note, as usual small town newspapers try to paint MMA in a bad light. An excerpt:

“Thomas is well known in the world of ultimate fighting, commonly known as mixed martial arts, a brutal combination of boxing, kickboxing and wrestling in a boxing ring or cage. The fighting is so intense that most fights are limited to three five-minute rounds.”