Recently, former UFC contender Paul Daley has been announced as the next man in line to face the winner of Nick Diaz vs. Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos--who battle for the Strikeforce welterweight title this Saturday. Daley made the claim to fame when he knocked out the proverbial knockout artist in Scott Smith in his promotional debut last December, and he needed no less than the first-round to do so. However, Paul has recently accepted a fight in his native U.K. for this February, and should he come out in the losing end of things, he will lose his current position as the next in line for the Strikeforce title, so needless to say the Rough House product will be treading with caution. ...

After years in the fight game, becoming one of the corner stones for Japanese MMA, mixed martial arts promotion Deep will hold its 50th event on October 24, celebrating it's 10 year anniversary at the Tokyo JCB Hall, in Tokyo, Japan. A bevy of some of the most notable fighters will grace the card, including DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki, who will be returning to Deep after a 6 year absence from the promotion that gave him his start as a professional mixed martial artist. ...

Bulgarian wrestler Jordan Radev (13-3), whose UFC career consisted of getting knocked out in 33 seconds by "Massacre" Andrew McFedries (7-3) and losing a UD to "Boogieman" Dean Lister (11-5), will fight Japanese middleweight Yuya Shirai (12-6) as a member of Team World at M-1 Challenge in Korea 29 August. Welterweight Jake Ellenberger (18-4) will return after a successful Team USA debut in July to face Korean Doo Won Seo (1-2) on the card. Lightweight Daisuke Nakamura (16-9) returns to Team Japan versus Berlgian "Moreno" Wim Deputter (18-2) while welterweight Hidehiko Hasegawa (13-10-6) debuts versus American Top Team's Norman Paraisy (4-0). Russian Roman Zentsov (17-12) will headline the event in a rematch versus Korean Sang Soo Lee (8-4). ...

DEEP's middleweight tournament kicked off at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo Friday. The tournament seeks a successor to Ryo Chonan, who vacated the DEEP title for the UFC last year. The first bout featured Akihiro Gono and Kazuo Misaki Grabaka stablemate Riki Fukuda taking a unanimous decision over former title holder Ryuta Sakurai, 15-14-4, to improve to 9-3. Yuichi Nakanishi pulled even to 7-7-3 with a split decision over another Grabaka fighter, Eiji Ishikawa, who dropped his fifth straight. MMA vet Daijiro Matsui, 10-18-4, also eeked out a split decision over 9-4 Young Choi. The final tournament session saw 10-5 Yuya Shirai taking a unanimous decision over 5-2-4 Sojiro Orui. In undercard action, Yasuhito Namekawa submitted Carlos Toyota in an Achilles lock 2:58 into round one to improve to 20-16-3. Toshiaki Kitada and Isao Terada added draws to their records at 143-pounds,  as did "Barbaro44" Yoshihiro Tomioka and Seigo Inoue at 154-pounds and Ken Hamamura and Chigetoshi Iwase at 176-pounds. Yoshiyuki Nakanishi was able to find a definitive finish with a unanimous decision over Shunsuke Inoue, remaining undefeated at 3-0. In the event's only Future Fighting Spirit matchup, Ryoji Suzuki submitted Kenta Okuyama by rear naked choke at 2:08 of the second round to improve to 2-2. ...