Grappling machine Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro has joined the ranks of the Strikeforce roster, nicely augmenting their narrow but talented lightweight division alongside notable fighters such as Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thomson, and Mitsuhiro Ishida.  MMAJunkie broke the story. Shaolin boasts one of the most powerfully applied Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu attacks in MMA and a 19-3 record against phenomenal competition.  He lost his most recent fight in an uncharacteristic striking exhibition at DREAM 10 with Shinya Aoki, and Tatsuya Kawajiri and JZ Cavalcante mark his only other shortcomings.  Shaolin holds a win over Kawajiri from their first meeting, and other impressive victories litter his resume like Joachim Hansen, Eiji Mitsuoka, and fellow Strikeforce lightweight Mitsuhiro Ishida. Shaolin is a four-time winner of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championships, and has been around the block in MMA promotions (Shooto, K-1, DREAM, Cage Rage, Rumble on the Rock).  This is one of the best possible additions Strikeforce could hope for to add legitimacy to their 155 pound class.  With the recent news of Josh Thomson breaking his leg again, it looks like he will be out of the LW title race for some time, so this respectable addition couldn't have come at a better time. No opponent has been mentioned for him yet, but look for Shaolin to start out taking on a mid-level Strikeforce LW, such as Mike Aina, Billy Evangelista, or Jorge Gurgel, and quickly work his way up to challenge for the title.

Greetings MMA fans. I am down here in beautiful Tulsa, Oklahoma corning Kevin Jordan in his fight with Ray Sefo in the co-main event tonight. But I'm also covering the event for the only MMA website that counts, TheGARV.com. Here are some weigh in pics from last night. I'll try to do some live blogging tonight if I can get a signal at the venue. Make sure to tune into Showtime for the fights. I'll be mean mugging in the corner, because of my pathological need for LOLs. [gallery]

Accelerating MMA promotion "Shine Fights" announced at their last show that they had acquired MMA's best boxing prospect yet.  Former WBA and WBC champion Ricardo Mayorga will bring his scowling face and street-flavored punching style to the cage to test his propensity to apply the sweet science to the slugfest of mixed martial arts. In an interview with MMASpot, Mayorga comments on the anticipation of his MMA debut, and why he made the crossover from boxing to MMA:

"I'm anxious. I want to fight. I'm excited about fighting for Shine, I'm just waiting for Don King's letter of release." "I always enjoyed fighting in the streets, but I became a professional so I had to stop… I was always seen a very violent, aggressive person in the ring, and now I'm going to take my aggression into the cage."

No opponent has been named as of yet for Mayorga, but Shine Fights co-founder Devin Price mentioned that Mayorga is looking for a top fighter right out of the gate, and already has his sights set on the title.

Despite featuring another fight that failed to deliver, last night's episode of TUF revealed that next week would mark what every fan tuning in has been waiting to see:  Kimbo Slice fighting in the octagon. Kimbo is speaking softly and smiling gold behind a fluffy black beard while wearing a giant target on his head.  The first few minutes of this season clearly set the crosshairs of Dana White on the Youtube brawler, who is literally fighting to show he belongs there. Unlike the lovable Rampage, Rashad Evans has wisely selected an opponent who presents a serious challenge, which is grappling and submission sensation Roy "Big Country" Nelson.  He is the man on the show with the most MMA success, so don't let that monster-truck sized spare tire fool you.  With a 13-4 record, he's cleaved through standard competition to reach the top level of heavyweight MMA (Andrei Arlovski, Jeff Monson, Ben Rothwell) only to fall short, and he does hold a win in submission grappling over former HW champion Frank Mir. His stand-up is far from as daunting as his ground game, but he's not a total slouch on the feet.  He possibly presents the biggest threat to Kimbo Slice out of all the competitors.

All signs from this video point towards the DREAM organization conducting an experiment on their October 6th show by interchanging the traditionally used ring for a white six-sided cage. The cage setting is not entirely foreign to Japanese MMA (the Greatest Common Multiple or GCM promotion uses one), but it's never been featured by any of the major organizations.  This is another definite sign of the impact of American MMA's recent boom on global MMA, coinciding with the recent news that Vale Tudo Japan will be revived by Shooto promoter Sustain and will serve as a platform to test changes to Shooto rules, such as the use of standard-sized MMA gloves and five-round fights. Perhaps equally enticing as the potentially improved aesthetics of the white-colored cage is the prospect of lightweights Eddie Alvarez and Katsunori Kikuno having a showdown at  DREAM 12.  This match-up was rumored after Bellator FC was shopping Alvarez to DREAM in exchange for a DREAM fighter to compete in the Bellator tournament.  Katsunori Kikuno currently presides as king over the DEEP LW division, and just clobbered Andre "Dida" Amade with his signature crescent kick for his DREAM debut in July.  He is an incredibly exciting and unorthodox fighter with unique and effective striking that is complimented by adept Judo and a strong top game.  Alvarez was swimming with the top-ranked lightweight sharks in DREAM before transferring to Bellator, enjoying "fight of the year" nominated wins over Joachim Hansen and Tatsuya Kawajiri, but also suffering a tough submission loss to Shinya Aoki. I know many will agree that it feels like Alvarez may have left some unfinished business to be dealt with in DREAM, and it would be great to see him back in the promotion against their stellar lightweight talent.

Former world kickboxing champion Louis Neglia is a survivor.  His MMA promotion, Ring of Combat, has thrived where many others have failed.  Fresh off a sold out show earlier this month, Lou is already getting started on his next show, ROC 27, scheduled for November 20th at the Tropicana Casino Hotel. In the following video, Lou talks about how his promotion has been able to survive in an MMA world dominated by the UFC.  He talks fondly about the more than two dozen fighters who got their start him and went on to fight in the UFC.  He also comments on Bob Arum's controversial remarks regarding MMA.

For a sub-par card, fireworks ensued.  World Victory Road's "Sengoku" promotion has taken a bit of a backseat to the DREAM organization, even more substantially now that DREAM will be co-promoting in the states with M1 Global and Strikeforce.  The acquisition of Takanori Gomiproved to be somewhat of a bust.  Jorge Santiago has established himself as a premiere 185 pound fighter, but he, much like rising HW star "King Mo" Lawal, is faced with extremely slim pickings on the Sengoku roster. The announced line-up for Sengoku X lacked that substantial "oomph" that fans feed upon in order to swirl a buzz of excitement andanticipation around an event, and following a week punctuated by two UFC events, this show snuck under the proverbial radar.  We should have known that this writing on the wall set the stage for a great night of fights, as Mother MMA smacks us in the face yet again with a left hook full of irony.  There was no lack of action or momentum, as out of 11 fights, 8 were finished, and 5 of those 8 were stopped in the 1st round. Although not the main event, the outcome dominating the MMA scene is lanky left-hander Dan Hornbuckle TKO'ing Nick "The Goat" Thompson early in the 2nd round for Hornbuckle's second consecutive stellar performance.  Hornbuckle exuded confidence after dishing out one of the most devastating knockouts in MMA history in his last fight versus Akihiro Gono (gif here), taking the center of the ring and showing Thompson he would not rely solely on his striking by rushing into the clinch and snatching a strong body lock, eventually taking Thompson's back and attempting a rear-naked choke after "The Goat" released the kimura he was using to counter. Thompson calmly escaped back to his feet, where he uncharacteristically seemed to display a sloppy and open stance that allowed Hornbuckle's quick, straight right jabs and long lefts to land far too easily against a fighter that more than held his own standing against star-striker Paul Daley.  After securing the first round on the cards, Hornbuckle hunted Thompson down and capitalized on his opponents erratic footwork by finding his range once again with a quick right jab/left straight combination that dazed Thompson, allowing Hornbuckle to pounce for the finish.  Dan Hornbuckle solidifies himself as the man to beat at 170 lbs outside of the United States by blasting two highly esteemed welterweights in a row.  ATT's own Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva made quick work of Jim York by securing an arm triangle in the opening moments of the bout for another convincing win, bringing his record to 13-1.  Bigfoot is rumored to have a very handsome fork in the road ahead of him: one path leading to a Sengoku HW championship fight with Josh Barnett, for which I cannot resist the obvious correlation that both were banished to Japan for positive steroid tests stateside, but nevertheless, Barnett is still a top HW and would immediately legitimize Bigfoot as the same should he defeat Barnett; Silva also allegedly has contracts in hand to compete in the U.S. now that his suspension is over, with Strikeforce being the most logical and likely destination. The main event of the evening was catered to the Japanese audience as Hiroshi Izumi, an Olympic silver medalist in Judo, made his MMA debut against Antz Nantsen.  Despite having a name that rolls nicely off the tongue, Nantsen the New Zealander stole Izumi's thunder by rocking him with combinations sharpened from his extensive kickboxing experience, methodically ending Izumi's night with a barrage of punches in what was also Nantsen's professional MMA debut. Joe Doerksen looked fantastic on the feet against Takenori Sato, chaining punches together and almost putting Sato away early in the first, only to delay the same outcome to the 2nd round.  Doerksen experienced showed as he imposed his will on Sato throughout the fight, dictating the pace andstaying in the driver's seat from the get-go, wielding impressive striking to compliment his adroit ground skills. In retrospect, signing with Sengoku seems to have spelled doom for Ryan "The Lion" Schultz, who has wins over Roger Huerta, Mike Aina, Gil Castillo, Aaron Riley, Savant Young, and fought to a draw with JZ Cavalcante.  This was Schultz's 3rd fight in Sengoku after being KO'din the first round by Mizuto Hirota and Jorge Masvidal, and lightning struck thrice as Kazunori Yokota had nothing but the same to offer.  Badboy Maximo Blanco used pure strength to escape Tetsuya Yamada's slick submission attempts and swarmed the young fighter incessantly with massive left and right hands throughout the fight until the 19 year old Yamada folded in the 2nd round due to Blanco's punching power. Full results: Antz Nansen (1-0) def. Hiroshi Izumi (0-1) via TKO (Punches) in R1 Antonio Silva (13-1) def. "Big" Jim York (11-3) via Submission (Arm-Triangle Choke) at 3:51 of R1 Makoto Takimoto (6-5) def. Jae Sun Lee (2-4) via unanimous decision Kazunori Yokota (10-2-3) def. Ryan Schultz (20-12-1) via KO (Punch) at 2:31 of R1 Fabio Silva (12-5) def. Ryo Kawamura (10-5-2) via TKO (Punches) at 2:28 of R1 Dan Hornbuckle (19-2) def. Nick Thompson (38-12-1) via TKO (Punches) at 1:30 of R2 Joe Doerksen (43-12) def. Takenori Sato (9-7-4) via KO (Punches) at 4:27 of R2 Maximo Blanco (4-2-1, 1 NC) def. Tetsuya Yamada (3-2) via TKO (Punches) at 1:12 of R2 Ikuo Usuda (6-0) vs. Woo Hyun Baek (1-1) via TKO (Punches) at 4:59 of R1 Shigeki Osawa (4-0) def. Ki Hyun Kim (0-1) via unanimous decision Jae Hyun So (3-6) def. Ryosuke Komori (4-2) via unanimous decision