MMA Melee: The WWE, Shaquille O'Neal, & Other Legitimate MMA Issues

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua returned home to Brazil with his new UFC Light Heavyweight title and his 2005 Pride FC Grand Prix belt in tow among a throng of fans. Its a visual reminder of what all Rua had to go through between 5 years of very up, and very down times. Congratulations again to the new champion.
An interesting note, much has been made of the fact there have been 6 different champions Mauricio Rua, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, Quinton Jackson, & Chuck Liddell) at the UFC's Light Heavyweight class. Can "Shogun" be the 1st Champ since "Rampage" to successfully defend the title (* I am not counting the robbery of the 1st bout between Rua & Machida as legitimate therefore disqualified from this writing). Also strange to note that infamous MMA judge Cecil Peoples still scored the fight 10-9 for Machida even after the end result. Yes Lyoto will be back but stop sucking the overrated Karate cock.

Kimbo Slice, the clock is at about 14:59 buddy. Big mouth Dana White actually said something smart after UFC 112 and the release of said Fergusen. When asked how they could cut Kevin knowing how popular he still is with the fans and he replied,"It's not about being a huge draw. It's about having the right to be here. Because whether you're a big draw or not, this is about the sport and about who's the best and, you know, there's other people out there who deserve to be in the UFC." Well spoken sir.

No news yet as to where Slice might possibly land a fight though the current rumors have Strikeforce not interested (according to CEO Scott Coker) which I find hard to believe, but DREAM could always use a new Bob Sapp character (according to me).

Dan "The Beast" Severn recently stated retirement is nearing for the 51 year old veteran with a record of 93-16-7. The cagey mustachioed wrestler has fought and won as recently as April of 2010 and had this to say about retirement.

"I've spoken to both Mark Coleman and Ken Shamrock about rematches. It would be nice to get those matches...have my last hurrah, you know?

Not sure if those fights will happen in the UFC. But it would be nice if they could. That way, I'll be finishing my career where it started.

I just want to do those last couple of matches and I'll be done."

Sounds very unexciting and sad.

Strikeforce is open to co-promoting with Bellator, and possibly a dream bout between Gilbert Melendez and Eddie Alvarez who are Lightweight Champions of the respective MMA promotions. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said he's open to co-promoting the champion-vs.-champion bout.

"If the stars align and we can work out all the terms and conditions and timing, we'd do it," Coker told MMA Junkie. "Of course we would. Why wouldn't we? Let's go do this." That has potential "Fight Of The Year" written all over it.

After getting his 2nd win in a row after some disastrous outings, Tim Sylvia and his exaggerated self-importance called out some fighters for rematches.

"I want to fight Overeem, Fedor again, Werdum is a good fight and me and Rogers would be a good fight. Arlovski I think would be [like our fight] number three again, me knocking him out. I think I ruined the poor guy, since I knocked him out he hasn’t been the same."

Heavyweights everywhere have begun giggling. Its not that Sylvia isn't a decent Heavyweight because he is. It's just that you have just beaten Mariusz Pudzianowski who is too big to possibly keep his muscles oxygenated and has had a mere 3 pro MMA bouts. Let's calm it down a bit Timmay and sign with Strikeforce 1st.

UFC Undisputed 2010 is jam packed with upgrades for the MMA game and none are more interesting than Shaquille O'Neal. The "Big Aristotle" is an unlockable character in the Zuffa game as well as TUF alumni James McSweeney, Brendan Schaub, Roy Nelson, the recently retired but beloved Marcus Jones, and the deceased "Maske" from the Tapout crew. Enjoy Joe.

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will soon be co-hosting the June 7 episode of WWE Raw. Jackson is appearing with Bradley Cooper and Sharito Copley on the show to promote their upcoming A-Team film, based on the popular 80s adventure series. This has hilarious disaster written all over it.

We went a sultry 8-1 on our picks for Strikeforce Challengers and the initial Moosin event.