Ian and I were lucky enough to get current Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion and Dream-contracted fighter Alistair Overeem on the latest edition of the PWB Podcast Hotline. Overeem is a candid guy, and he discussed several topics during the interview, including:

• His upcoming kickboxing match against Badr Hari on New Year’s Eve at the K1 Dynamite show
• How training for kickboxing is different than training for MMA
• His controversial fight against Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipović
• The war of words with “Cro Cop” since the fight, “Cro Cop’s” invitation to fight him in his “personal cage” in Croatia
• His future with Strikeforce and other American promotions like Dream

The best part of the interview is definately about the fallout from his fight against “Cro Cop.” For those of you who haven’t seen how the fight went down, here’s a video:

If you’re interested in seeing the knees in question, there’s a nice replay at about 5:30 of that video.

For more on Alistair Overeem, please visit his official web site, alistairovereem.com.

Also, I’m working on a new PWB podcast that should be out soon, so look out for that.

Bobby Lashley will make his long-awaited MMA debut on December 13, according to MMA Mania.

He’ll be fighting for the Mixed Fight Alliance promotion at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. No opponent has been announced, but I’d imagine it will be someone Lashley should handle pretty easily.

Lashley is signed to a contract with the American Fight League, but that promotion has put off it’s first show until early 2009.

The MFA show sounds like the type of the smaller MMA show that might end up on HD Net Fights, so if you’ve got that channel on your HD package, stay tuned.
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Fedor Emelianenko told Sherdog.com today that he will be facing off against former UFC star Tim Sylvia on July 19:

“[Sylvia] is a good fighter, a strong fighter, the former UFC heavyweight champion, which is important,” Emelianenko said via telephone from Stary Oskol, Russia. “I am looking forward to fighting him and training hard for this fight.”

In more good news for those of us in Dallas, Sherdog is reporting that the bout will headline a card at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. This has lead to speculation about HDNet’s involvement in the fight, with rumors having the bout televised on HDNet and promoted by Affliction.

Those rumors also will most likely add speculation about Golden Boy’s involvement. Golden Boy Promotions, Oscar De Loya’s company, was rumored to be starting an MMA promotion with Affliction back in February. Last month, rumors surfaced that the Golden Boy/Affliction partnership had fallen apart.

I’m sure more rumors will surface since Tim Sylvia has signed with the new Adrenaline promotion. They’ll obviously have some part in promoting this fight card. That leads to another question: is Affliction now partnering with Adrenaline? I’d say that’s the likely scenario.

Another thing here: Mark Cuban is smart. It’s possible that he’ll latch on to Adrenaline and Affliction, and try to build a partnership with them to televise all of their cards, whether it’s on HDNet or on PPV. If he combines forces with both of those outfits, his goal of successfully promoting big-time MMA might not be too far off, especially with a Randy Couture-Fedor fight waiting in the wings.

One thing is certain. Despite all the rumors, good things are hapenning for MMA fans here in Dallas.

In an interview with MMA Madness, Randy Couture again confirmed his desire to leave the UFC for good:

“I can’t see myself fighting for the UFC again,” he said. “Too much has happened.”

He also confirmed his interest in Mark Cuban’s promotion:

HDNet owner Mark “Cuban is helping out,” Couture said. “More than likely, I will end up signing with HDNet and Affliction. Realistically, that is the best option.”

Couture to HDNet would be a huge coup for Mark Cuban’s fledgling promotion. I’ve caught several of their events on TV, and while there have been some exciting fights, they are definitely short on big names. This could be what they need to propel them to the big time.

The main problem is the fact that HDNet isn’t widely available. In fact, you have to pay extra for it on some cable systems. Many of Randy’s fans may not be able to see him fight if he does indeed sign with Cuban’s promotion.

Still, I’m all for it–if Couture fights for Cuban, it should be here in Dallas.  Rumors that I’ve heard here in town already have Cuban trying to sign Randy for a megafight with Fedor Emilianenko that would take place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. That would be sweet justice for a city that’s seen the only UFC events in Texas go to Houston.