In a follow-up to the story about UFC President Dana White nixing a proposed fight between current UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva and boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. (picture), despite both fighters wanting the bout, GracieFighter.com is reporting that Strikeforce founder Scott Coker would like to match Jones against Nick Diaz. Diaz had challenged Jones to a boxing-rules fight after his victory over Frank Shamrock last month. "We would absolutely set this fight up," Coker reportedly said. "Of course we would have to run it by Showtime for final approval, but I don't see why we wouldn't have this fight."

According to some source, Coker denied making that quote during yesterday's Strikeforce media call, saying "I've had several calls from different people saying, 'Roy Jones vs. Nick Diaz, Roy Jones vs. Cung Le, Roy Jones vs. this guy or that guy, but it's something that we haven't really talked about. I really don't even know how serious it is. But the question is, 'Does he want to fight in MMA? Does he want to fight in just boxing?' These are all things that haven't been fleshed out."

"I did get a call from Nick's manager asking me if I'd be interested in looking at a fight between Roy Jones and Nick. I said, 'Are you talking about boxing? Are you talking about MMA?' He says, 'In MMA.' I said, 'Well, that's something we can definitely have a conversation about. That just happened this morning. That's the extent of it."

Showtime Senior Vice President Ken Hershman was even more poignant, saying that the fight "would be a very long shot of ever happening".

"It has nothing to do with money," Hershman noted. "I think it's an insult to the integrity of mixed martial arts to think Roy Jones, or any professional boxer, could just come in and fight Nick Diaz in a mixed martial arts context. In a boxing context, it's completely different."

"But beyond that, it's not the strategy we're employing. We're looking to build the best mixed martial arts brand. I believe we have the best professional boxing brand on television, and I think our fights month in and month out prove that. I don't see the need to combine the two at the moment."

Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz will be streamed live on Saturday night from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, for a price tag of $24.95.

The online option is for those without subscriptions to Showtime, but an incentive to order the online stream is the options to choose camera angles and audio commentary.

Below is the fight card for the event:

Showtime bouts:

• Frank Shamrock vs. Nick Diaz

• Josh Thomson vs. Rodrigo Damm

• Scott Smith vs. Benji Radach

• Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos vs. Hitomi Akano

• Brett Rogers vs. Ron "Abongo" Humphrey

Preliminary bouts:

• Luke Rockhold vs. Buck Meredith

• Eric Lawson vs. Waylon Kennell

• Raul Castillo vs. Brandon Michaels

• James Terry vs. Zak Bucia

• Jeremy Tavares vs. Shingo Kohara

"We're going to continue supporting women's MMA and we're going to be inviting Gina to come fight on April 11. And we've already got confirmation from Cyborg that she is available if we can put that match together. We will be supporting women's MMA in Strikeforce," said Strikeforce President Scott Coker.

Coker has been working feverishly behind the scenes to put together what would be seen as the biggest fight in the history of women's MMA, a matchup between undefeated media favorite Gina Carano (picture) and the highly skilled Brazilian Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos.

Coker announced last week that Santos had signed with the promotion with the intent of facing Carano. And sources have indicated that the company is working hard on securing the fight for it's first Showtime event this April 11.

The show looks to add Carano versus Cyborg to previously announced match-ups featuring former UFC Champion Frank Shamrock going up against Nick Diaz and Scott Smith facing off against Benji Radach.

MMANews.com was able to catch up with Ken Shamrock prior to his fight this weekend at the WarGod's and KSP St. Valentine's Day Massacre show on Feb 13th in Fresno, CA and when the topic of Frank Shamrock, his adoptive brother, came up, Ken was not to pleased about the way things have turned out for their proposed match up.

"Frank's been talking about fighting me forever. Every time it comes down to fighting me though, he backs out. From early on I was very skeptical about fighting him because all he does is get all the press he possibly can out of fighting me - doing interviews and getting time on TV and stuff - and then when it comes time to fight he doesn't. This is the fourth time he's back out of a fight with me. It's the same thing with Kimbo Slice. He wants none of me because he knows he'll get his ass kicked."

When asked about Frank recently stating that Ken was the one who didn't want to fight, the UFC Hall of Famer had the following reply:

"Dude, I've given that many interviews about this and not one time have I ever said I didn't want the fight. He is the only one that ever brings anything up about not fighting. Every single time this is what happens and I keep telling people that. You've never heard me say I don't want to fight Frank. He will always come up with an excuse to not fight me. He did it with Wanderlei Silva, he did it with Sakuraba, and he did it with Rickson Gracie. He challenges people to fight because he wants the press and people to cover him but when it comes down to fighting he always finds a way out of it."

Frank will be fighting April 11th against Nick Diaz for Strikeforce on Showtime and Ken was surprised to see that fight happen when they had been planning a fight.

"Tell me this; I was supposed to fight Frank. Who is he fighting now? He's fighting a 155lb Nick Diaz instead of me because he is telling people I was having personal problems. He's a chump, he's a poser, and he's a punk. He needs to either get in there with me and fight or he needs to shut up."


"Frank wants attention. He wants people to think he is a legend. He wants people to call him a legend. No one ever called him a legend. He started calling himself a legend, he gave himself that name. He'd an idiot. He tries to get people to buy into him. For so long people have been trying to get him to fight somebody credible and he won't fight them."

Shamrock is not getting any younger and there will come a point where Ken's body may not have the go it used to. He wants the fight with his brother but it seems to be just getting tiresome for him at this point.

"I'm tired of talking about it. Every time I do Frank uses it to get media attention. I say this over and over again, I want the fight but it won't happen because Frank will make an excuse when it's time to fight for it not to happen. If he comes to me again with the fight what am I suppose to do? This is four times now. What are people going to think? I want the fight. If he walked in front of me today I'd punch a hole in his head because he's a poser and a fake. He's a chicken."

Ken also says that this is the most personal the fight has ever been due to the fact Frank won't go and visit there dying father, Bob.

"My father is lying in a bed dying. My father went to prison when Frank was in there and would help him out and took care of him while he was in prison. When Frank got out he took him in and asked him me to take care of him. I put him up in my house. My father took care of him and I trained him. I got him fights, I took him to Japan, I got him to where he needed to be and then he walked out on us. My father is dying in a hospital bed and has asked Frank to go see him numerous times and he doesn't go see him. He's supposed to be his son. I want to put Frank in a hospital bed. He's been doing this for years and I'm just tired of it. I'm sick of him talking. He's a pussy. He needs to put up or shut up."

Whether in happens in a ring or cage has been the question for many MMA fans out there, but with all the bad blood and heat between these two, it could happen elsewhere.

"I won't wait, because eventually I'm going to run in Frank. End of story."

Source: MMANews.com

According to an SEC filing (a public companies' financial statement or other formal document submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission) by ProElite, Inc. on Thursday, the company is refusing to close its doors without a fight.

On October 31, the company received a notice from Showtime Networks announcing the sale of ProElite assets at a public auction. On November 4, the cable network made an SEC filing announcing the sale and placed ads on several MMA websites advertising it. Showtime's Senior Vice President of Sports and Event Programming, Ken Hershman, also sits on ProElite's board of directors.

In line with a recent letter to fighter managers promising a return in early 2009, ProElite said it would do everything in its power to stay off the auctioning block.

"The Company plans to take all appropriate measures to prevent the sale from occurring," the filing states. "Such measures may include raising additional financing, filing a lawsuit enjoining the sale, filing a bankruptcy petition or negotiating a settlement with Showtime. There can be no assurances that the company will be successful in any of these actions."

According to some sources, ProElite's first tactic may be to sue CBS Networks over gate revenue produced by its third show, "Heat". The embattled company could argue the network forced them into default on a one million dollar loan from Showtime by misrouting the funds from the Sunrise, Florida, show.

A condition of Showtime's loan, dated June 18, said ProElite's assets could be sold or taken over if it did not maintain $550,000 in cash reserves.

"CBS took the gate revenue directly from Miami, and it was contracted to go through ProElite first," a source said. "If that had happened at the time that (Showtime) called in the note, there would have been enough money that they couldn't have called in the note. So there's a legal argument there."

"ProElite's claim would be that they could have raised the money in that time, but once Showtime called in that note, publicly, it ruined any chances of raising money."

An SEC filing on December 9 detailed an agreement between CBS and ProElite where CBS would cover all costs associated with the show, and "receive" all revenue from the event, though details on how that would occur were not specified.

The question now is whether ProElite can afford to go to battle with CBS in a civil court.

Requests to CBS and ProElite representatives asking for comment were not immediately returned.

The auction, however, could possibly determine the futures of fighters like Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Frank Shamrock, Nick Diaz, Cristiane Santos, Yves Edwards, Wilson Reis and many others.

The final chapter in the Shamrock family feud will be written next year as Frank Shamrock confirmed the fight between he and his brother Ken will take place in March or April 2009.

The fight has been dubbed "Blood Brothers" for some time now, but speculation has run rampant for the past few months if the bout would actually take place. Frank says it's signed, sealed and will be delivered.

"We are definitely going to see it happen; it's a done deal," Frank said of the fight. "I've just got to get his old ass into the cage now. Now he's so old he can't even get in the cage."

"We finally got it done and we're looking forward to March or April for kicking it off, try to get him a wheel chair so he can get himself into that cage next time."

With the negotiation to put the two brothers in a cage together over with, now Frank is focusing on which promotion will put the fight on and right now it appears EliteXC is the front runner, but others could join the show.

"Currently I don't," Frank said about what organization would promote the show. "We've got a real good relationship with Elite and Showtime and CBS, so I've got a feeling it's going to be those guys and I'm going to see if I can drag Affliction aboard here."

Of course with EliteXC comes the possibility of working with Showtime or CBS, but Frank feels the fight between he and his brother calls for a pay-per-view broadcast.

"I think if any fight ever were a pay-per-view match, this is the one," he commented. "I really feel like network television and cable television can really support this pay-per-view by showing other media properties that kind of tell the story of this sport and tell the story of the Shamrock family. That's my real focus right now, get these other networks to kind of drive some stories to help boost this fight."

One idea that Frank Shamrock is working on to help promote the show is a documentary style show, similar to HBO's popular "24/7" series, to help build the fight and tell the story of two brothers who will battle in out in the cage.

"I'm looking further than Showtime; I'm looking at primetime television," Frank said about where the documentary would air. "Imagine if the Klitschko brothers fought? There's rarely ever been two brothers who've been superstars in a sport, champions in a sport, in the same time period, and more over there's never been an opportunity for those two brothers to fight."

"I just think that an overall story can accomplish and bring everybody involved in the real meat of the story, which is the history of the sport, things that have happened with the family, with each other."

Frank is also hopeful to close a deal that will put the fight on in San Jose, California, but nothing has been negotiated for an arena yet.

As for Ken Shamrock, following a debacle that saw him removed from the main event of the recent EliteXC show against Kimbo Slice, a match-up against his brother Frank could be exactly the kind of huge show to put his name back on the map while putting on a historic event pitting brother against brother.

From The MMA News:

In the world of mixed martial arts, Frank Shamrock has done it all. Shamrock’s been the Interim King of Pancrase champion, won the UFC light heavyweight title, then won the WEC light heavyweight title which he vacated to win the Strikeforce middleweight championship which he only recently lost to Cung Le. The MMA News recently had a talk with Shamrock and here’s what was said:

The MMA News: How’s your injury and what’s the update on your overall condition?

Frank Shamrock: I’m cleared so the arm is back to normal. I’m training at about 60% now.

The MMA News: Are you still looking to fight this year?

Frank Shamrock: I’m looking for a fight in November if I can get all the cards in place. I’m trying to pick a fight with Robbie Lawler.

The MMA News: How many fights do you have left on your contract?

Frank Shamrock: With Strikeforce I have one, with Pro-Elite I have two more.

The MMA News: Do you find that you don’t always get the credit for helping to innovate MMA conditioning to the levels that it has achieved now?

Frank Shamrock: I don’t know. I mean I don’t know if I need credit but I was at the forefront of it for a long time. Even now I think I’m still pretty advanced with what’s going on. The sport grows so fast and the history of it is so cloudy that I’m just glad that guys are in good shape and the level of athletism continues to grow.

The MMA News: What’s going on with you outside MMA?

Frank Shamrock: It’s all about the kids.

The MMA News: How’s the commentating with CBS working out?

Frank Shamrock: I’m the official CBS MMA expert guy. I’ve signed up for 4-6 a year, and I put a lot of juice into it.

The MMA News: What’s your take on Kimbo Slice?

Frank Shamrock: He’s generally a nice guy. He’s medium skilled but he’s dedicated. If you can’t be the best at least you can make the best of the opportunity.

The MMA News: How about Fedor Emelianenko?

Frank Shamrock: I’ve met him on a couple of occasions and he’s the nicest guy in the world. He’s a fan of mine, and he’s so nice and respectful. He’s always been wonderful to me.

The MMA News: How was Affliction:Banned for you?

Frank Shamrock: I had a blast at the show.

The MMA News: How’s your relationship with Ken?

Frank Shamrock: I don’t think we’ll ever be okay. We grew up weird. Ken and I grew up in the media in a sport that was just like the wild west and we’re totally different people.

The MMA News: Are you still looking at trying to fight Ken?

Frank Shamrock: Yes. The first quarter of ‘09 is when we’re looking at making it, and I think we’re on schedule to do that.

The MMA News: How about Tito Ortiz?

Frank Shamrock: I talked to Tito about it and he was pretty game. I think it’s going to happen and I think that Affliction will play a big part in that.

The MMA News: Where Is MMA headed?

Frank Shamrock: I think that the media property outside the industry will spur mainstream attention to what we’re doing. I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be the fighting itself, but perhaps a book or a docu-drama that will bring the attention and push the sport to the next level

The MMA News: Other than yourself who would you say is the pound for pound best fighter in the world.

Frank Shamrock: Probably for popularity I would say GSP or Anderson Silva. It’s so funny because I’ve been that guy on multiple occasions and all of a sudden you’re not that guy and you think “Wow that’s interesting” and you eventually learn it doesn’t mean anything. At one point I was the highest paid fighter per second and the best pound for pound fighter in the world and we had the smallest audience ever. Does it really mean all that much? I just smile because next year there’ll be another guy.

The MMA News: Give us some last words, first for your fans and then for your opponents.

Frank Shamrock: For the fans: Keep working out, keep training. For my opponents: Keep working out, keep training.

It's finally official! Frank Shamrock will face the Vietnamese-American sanshou kickboxer Cung Le on March 29. The bout will be the main event of a Strikeforce promotion emanating out of San Jose's HP Pavilion. It will be shown live on Showtime as a prime time special.

Interestingly, the superfight between Frank and his brother Ken which was originally planned for March 31 has been pushed back a full year according to bloodbrothersppv.com.