Huerta enters the tournament on a two-fight slide from the pinnacle of his career, losing to Fighters.com’s seventh-ranked lightweight “KenFlo” Kenny Florian (12-4) at UFC 87 in August 2008 and to fifth-ranked “Bully” Gray Maynard (9-0) at UFC Fight Night 19 last September.

Thirty-eight year old Hinton has won all six of his professional fights, all in the two Cincinnati-based promotions ICF and MMA Big Show.  At ICF 16 in Cincinnati last October, he knocked out Justin Moore (6-5) for the ICF lightweight strap.

Huerta will obviously be a quantum leap in competition for Hinton; but, Huerta has suffered from a lack of focus to match his immense physical and fighting capabilities. Hinton faces the biggest opportunity in his career in a no-lose situation while Huerta faces questions about whether he’s committed to fighting.

That next fight will be his first title defense and comes against high profile Strikeforce import “Hendo” Dan Henderson (25-7). Typically we see organizations use the “champion clause” in contracts to keep their investments with them once they become a champion.

Shields told MMA Junkie that his fight with Hendo is in fact his final obligation on his Strikeforce contract.

This leaves him in a very unique position. When Jake appeared on MMA Gospel Radio with myself and Gary Friedman, who mentioned that he really wanted a chance to fight Fighters.com and UFC welterweight champion “Rush” Georges St. Pierre (19-2). Georges has stated that he would also welcome a fight with Shields as he feels that he is one of the best in the world.

Shields has recently been a coach on the soon to air UFC program The Ultimate Fighter 11 which leaves many to wonder if this is a step towards him heading to the UFC to get bigger fights with some of the top fighters in the world.

Obviously Jake would like to test the waters to see what he is actually worth on the open market. This could be a tool he can use to get a bigger contract with Strikeforce. The UFC can make him an offer and he could allow Strikeforce to counter if he decides he really wants to stay there.

However there are a few problems with all of this. First, he has to face Henderson before becoming a free agent and a loss would dramatically drop his stock on the market. However, even with a loss the UFC may decide to strike and make him an offer that Strikeforce just can’t match. After all, Dana White seems to love to kick Strikeforce any chance he gets and this would be a Shogun style kick if he can steal Shields.

Even more of a kick in the pants to Strikeforce would be if Shields were to beat Hendo and then leave for the UFC. This would leave them without a champion and one less fighter that they can use to promote big fights. He has been a cornerstone of many of the major cards they have put on to date.

This is without a doubt a very high risk, high reward for Shields and I know all of us will be watching to see just how this unfolds.

Razor Rob is having a viewing party this Sunday at Beachfront 301 on Main Street in Huntington Beach, California and I will be joining him to represent Fighters.com and MMA Gospel Radio. The party starts at 6 PM PST.

This is the first event the UFC has held on Versus and is headlined by “The Truth” Brandon Vera (11-4) versus “Bones” Jon Jones (9-1). The co-main event for the event has “Napao” Gabriel Gonzaga (11-4) taking on Fighters.com fifth-ranked heavyweight “Cigano” Junior Dos Santos (10-1) in a fight to determine yet another challenger for the UFC heavyweight title.

Make sure to get there early and look for me wearing my MMA Gospel Radio signature shirt from KOBC Clothing. We look forward to meeting you.

Rua told Tatame, “Glaube is a guy who comes from karate and I am very honored to have him in our academy. It is a privilege, I think he is the best in Brazil. At heavyweight, he was the guy who most represented Brazil abroad. Everyone here at the academy is a fan of his.  Glaube is living in Curitiba and is with us for two months. We already were fans of the guy before this. The guy is an extraordinary person, super humble. He has a lot to help the people there in the gym. It’s an asset to the academy.”

Rua is scheduled to rematch Fighters.com and UFC Light Heavyweight Champion “Dragon” Lyoto Machida (16-0) at UFC 113 in Montreal May 8.  Machida is a karate stylist, though not from the Kyokushin tradition like Feitosa.

Machida beat Rua in a controversial five-round unanimous decision at UFC 104 in Los Angeles last October.

WEC 48 will take place April 24 and is the very first WEC pay-per-view. This fight between Scott and Antonio will be the first fight of the televised portion of the fight card.

Many may remember that these two have already gone to war once before at WEC 41 where Antonio came out on the better end of a split-decision. This fight was in the running for fight of the year as it was an absolute war.

Since then Jorgenson has pulled the hat trick with three consecutive wins including a fight at WEC 45 that earned him “Fight of the Night” honors.

Scott joined myself and Gary Friedman on MMA Gospel Radio Episode 28 back in January and told us he thought he had won that fight. He stated that during the first exchange he got hit right on the eye and it effected his vision and he believes he lost the first round but after that he took control of the fight. He also said “I learned a lot from that fight” I learned to stick to my strategy and to not get drawn in and fighting with emotions”

If Jorgenson comes back to avenge his previous loss he very well could be in line for the next shot at the title.

This is a fight all fans should be excited see after watching the first one and seeing the improvement from Scott in his fights since then. If Scott can stick to his game plan of mixing up the striking with his wresting we should be in for a real treat to start off the pay-per-view.

Mousasi holds convincing TKO victories over both Babalu and Sokoudjou, his last two opponents in Strikeforce.  He’ll defend his Strikeforce belt versus “King Mo” Muhammed Lawal (4-0) in Nashville April 17.

Sobral’s last fight was the first-round TKO loss to Mousasi in San Jose last August.   Before that he submitted Sokoudjou at Affliction in Anaheim in January 2009.

Sokoudjou’s last fight was a TKO loss to “Minowaman” Ikuhisa Minowa (44-30-8) at K-1 Dynamite!! on New Year’s Eve.  Between losses to Mousasi las November and Sobral the January before, he TKO’d “Beast” Bob Sapp (10-5-1) and “Giant” Jan Nortje (2-6) at DREAM.

Rua told Tatame, “Andre Dida went today to Japan to fight at DREAM.13 and I’ll fight in the next edition, at April 24 in Seoul, South Korea. I don’t have an opponent yet, but I’m already training.”

Rua TKO’d Golden Glory’s Jason Jones (3-9-1) at Bitetti Combat 5 in São Paulo December 12.

Rua is also expected to fight Falaniko Vitale (25-8) at Shine Fights third iteration May 15.

MMA Junkie reported that no opponent has been chosen and the fight is unlikely to air live on CBS, but could air on taped delay if time permits.

Lashley TKO’d SpikeTV’s The Ultimate Fighter 10 contestant “Whole Show’ Wes Sims (22-14-1) at Strikeforce: Miami January 30.

Like UFC champion and second-ranked heavyweight Brock Lesnar (4-1), Lashley is a collegiate wrestling champion and WWE wrestler.

Canseco has publicly lobbied for a matchup with Strikeforce heavyweight and former former NFL Pro Bowl running back Herschel Walker (1-0).

But, no contract has been signed with Canseco and Coker added that “he’s not trying to create a ‘freak show’.”

Canseco’s MMA career has thus far only featured a hilarious beatdown by “Techno Goliath” Hong Man Choi (2-3) after which Canseco claimed he was led to believe before the fight that the fighting wasn’t going to be real.

Tatame quotes Conan Silveira, Lombard’s jiu-jitsu instructor at American Top Team, saying, “We’re ready for anything. I just came from Australia, I didn’t know if Paulao had signed it yet.  That’s a sad situation because Paulao comes from the same school that I came, from Carlson’s, he’s my friend, but this is professional.”

Filho submitted Tatsuhiko Nishizaka (3-5-1) at Bitetti Combat 5 in São Paulo December 12.

Lombard defended his Australian Cafe Fighting Championships belt in Sydney March 12 with a TKO of “Pachuco” Art Santore (18-8).