ufc “Fight Night 24”, currently scheduled for March 26, 2011, is quickly shaping up to be one of the biggest, most important “Fight Night” specials of quite some time. In the main event, Tito Ortiz will fight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in a fight that, if Ortiz loses, will likely end up being the last main event Ortiz is ever booked in, the last UFC fight Ortiz ever has, and even perhaps the last fight of Tito Ortiz’s MMA career as a whole. Add in fights like Dan Hardy vs. Anthony Johnson and you’ve got quite an event that’s shaping up. Recently, two new fights have been announced for the event. ...

The ufc’s increasingly competitive nature has been the subject of much debate recently. UFC President Dana White has, as always, been brash and single-minded in his views: he believes that a UFC performer should perform at his best and give his all in each and every single fight, or else he won’t be a UFC performer for long. This has led to the recent high-profile firings of talent like Todd Duffee, Efrain Escudero, and Gerald Harris. But recently, despite their up-and-down careers, word recently came down that the UFC has decided to retain the services of both Duane Ludwig and Joe Stevenson. Here are all the details. ...

Fighters.com’s ninth-ranked lightweight “Muscle Shark” Sean Sherk (33-4-1) has withdrawn from a matchup versus “Mongoose” Jim Miller (15-2) at UFC 108 in Las Vegas January 2, according to MMA Weekly. ...

“Bang” Duane Ludwig (18-8) defeated Yves Edwards (34-15-1) in a surprising unanimous decision Friday night at Strikeforce: Destruction in San Jose. After Edwards muscled Ludwig to the mat at the start of the match, he spent most of the remainder of the round smothering Ludwig, while Ludwig threw a few ineffective punches.  Ludwig twice attempted a triangle, which Edwards fended off with hammers.  The lack of any real action elicited boos from the crowd as the horn signaled the end of round one. The start of round two was promising, as Edwards caught Ludwig’s chin in a right uppercut and attempted a knee while Ludwig countered with some looping rights.  Edwards tripped Ludwig but they didn’t stay down for long.  It continued that way until the horn went, with Ludwig throwing knees into Edwards’s midsection. Round three was more of the same, but this time Ludwig spent more time on top, dropping elbows into Edwards’s gut.  Back to standup, Ludwig push-kicked, and Edwards charged forward, wrapping his arms around Ludwig’s waist.  Edwards picked him up and the round ended on the mat. The judges scored it 29-28 across the board for Ludwig, to the disbelief of many in the crowd. ...

Fighters.com was live at the Strikeforce: Destruction weigh-ins Thursday night at the Hotel DeAnza in San Jose. All fighters made weigh and, despite a delayed start and “Diesel” Joe Riggs’s (28-11) displeasure at having to strip, everything went smoothly. Riggs was not the only one who had to strip further than his ginch; the California State Athletic Commission requested that each fighter have only one crack at the scale, resulting in several weigh-ins behind towels. Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Bobby Southworth (9-4) looked cut.  He told Fighters.com Thursday afternoon that he had hired a new strength and conditioning coach. “Everybody’s been commenting on how my physique looks and how I’ve been performing.  So we’ll see how I perform tomorrow night,” Southworth said. Join Fighters.com Friday night for the live results. ...

Strikeforce is planning a welterweight bout between “Bang” Duane Ludwig (17-8) and “New York Bad Ass” Phil Baroni (13-10) for early 2009, reported MMA Junkie Sunday. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said, “We're going to try to put [Ludwig] and Baroni together.  Since they're so close in weight now, we should definitely put that fight together at 170 [pounds]. They should fight either in Denver or Seattle." Ludwig TKO’d “The Squeeze” Sam Morgan (19-12) in the first round at Strikeforce’s last event 3 October. Baroni was scheduled to fight on the same card, but he suffered a cut requiring stitches during his unanimous decision win over Olaf Alfonso (7-9) the previous week and was pulled. ...

"Bang" Duane Ludwig  (17-8) tapped "The Squeeze" Sam Morgan with strikes at 2:01 of the first round Friday night in Broomfield, northwest of Denver. "I've got to thank Sam, man," said a gracious and elated Ludwig who avenged a 2005 knockout with the win.  "He came in and did his job last time.  But, much respect to that warrrior because he gave me a second shot." Ludwig staggered Morgan with an uppercut to the body and followed with a right hook that dropped Morgan. "I'm such a technical striker," Ludwig said.  "I finally let it go." Ludwig hammered strikes until Morgan tapped in pain from the initial body shot. ...

Fighters.com got a chance to speak briefly with welterweight "Bang" Duane Ludwig (16-8) about his upcoming fight against "The Squeeze" Sam Morgan (19-11) in Denver Friday. Fighters.com: What are your thoughts as you prepare to step into the cage for the second time against Sam Morgan? Duane Ludwig: Mostly I'm looking at this as my chance at redemption. Fighters.com: Does that mean that Strikeforce: Payback is going to live up to its name? Duane Ludwig: Yeah, hopefully that's how it turns out. Fighters.com: You've had knockouts against formidable strikers like Jonathan Goulet (22-9) and "Lil Evil" Jens Pulver (22-9-1), are you looking to take out your revenge in the form of a knockout? Duane Ludwig: No, I'm just looking for a win.  I don't care how it happens, I'm just want to get the win back. Fighters.com: Having fought Morgan before, what aspects of your training have changed for this fight? ...

“I fight to live, I don’t live to fight,” is how welterweight “The Squeeze” Sam Morgan (19-11) summed up his Strikeforce main event versus “Bang” Duane Ludwig (16-8) Friday, 3 October in Broomfield, northwest of Denver. When Fighters.com spoke to him at Team Bison's Brunette's Gym in Minneapolis-St. Paul Friday, Morgan had just returned from a training trip at Fighters.com’s seventh-ranked welterweight Matt Hughes’s (41-7) new H.I.T. Squad Gym in Granite City, northeast of St. Louis. “I’ve been saying that I would go down there and train with him for the longest time, since I was on The Ultimate Fighter.  So, I was finally able to make it down there.  I thought, 'No better time than now to go down there and train for a fight that I have coming up against Duane Ludwig.'   And, uh, you know, I was keeping a promise to an old friend.” ...

Strikeforce announced this week that it will hold an event 3 October at the Broomfield Event Center in Denver, CO, titled Payback, to follow up its September show at the Playboy Mansion. The event will feature a rematch between welterweights “Bang” Duane Ludwig and “Squeeze” Sam Morgan (19-10). Morgan knocked out Ludwig in 52 seconds at Ring of Fire 16 in 2005. Denver-native Ludwig lost his last fight to Fighters.com’s third-ranked lightweight “Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi (28-3). Morgan is coming off back-to-back TKO losses, first to current Strikeforce Middleweight Champion and April's Fighter of the Month Cung Le (6-0) in November, then to “Semtex” Paul Daley (18-6-2) in January. ...

Josh Barnett, judo champion? "The Babyfaced Assassin" from Seattle tread the path of his catch wrestling forefather Ad Santel Wednesday by submitting Japanese Olympic gold medalist judoka Hidehiko Yoshida (7-6-1) by heel hook at 3:23 of round three at World Victory Road's inaugural Sengoku fight card in Tokyo. A century ago, Santel waged war with judoka and proclaimed himself the world judo champion after defeating fifth-degree black belt Tokugoro Ito. "I revived this rivalry when I fought Kazuhiro Nakamura," Barnett (21-5) told Sherdog.com. "And, so I'm keeping it going for this century now." The fight was the American's first in MMA since losing a unanimous decision rematch with current interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-4-1) on New Year's Eve 2006. His layoff had erased his name from most rankings which require activity in the previous 365-days; but, vanquishing the samurai establishes Barnett's status as a top five heavyweight. Also returning to active duty, former PRIDE Lightweight Champion "The Fireball Kid" Takanori Gomi (28-3) sliced open "Bang" Duane Ludwig (16-8) of Denver to earn a first round stoppage at 2:28. Gomi had been out of commission  since tapping to Nick Diaz (15-7) in a gogoplata at PRIDE's last American card in February 2007.  After Diaz tested positive for smoking a doob', the outcome was deemed a No Contest by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. "Grabaka Hitman" Kazuo Misaki (19-8-2) got back to winning Wednesday with a guillotine submission of middleweight Afghan Siyar Bahadurzada (13-2-1) at 2:02 of round two. Thick-skulled Japanese wrestler Kazuyuki Fujita (15-6) posted a north-south choke tapout of MMA-debuting Aussie kickboxer Peter Graham (0-1). "Cyborg" Evangelista Santos (16-11) won the second of his two-month trilogy by wrapping Japanese judoka Makoto Takimoto in a heel hook at 4:51 of round one. Santos will fight Joey Villasenor on a San Jose Strikeforce card at the end of March. Middleweight Pancrase vet Ryo Kawamura (8-2-2) of Japan won a unanimous decision over formerly undefeated Brazilian Antonio Braga Neto (5-1). Bodog Fight welterweight king "The Goat" Nick Thompson (35-9-1) also won a unanimous decision over Gracie Barra "Pitbull" Fabricio Monteiro (16-7). ...