RVCA sponsored athlete, BJ Penn, confirmed in an interview with IGN.com on Monday that RVCA is once again an approved sponsor for UFC fighters. In addition to Penn, the trendy lifestyle brand also sponsors UFC middleweight contender Vitor Belfort.

IGN: RVCA clothing was recently banned from sponsorships inside the UFC. You’ve always been related to RVCA, they’ve got you on their website. Has that decision been a problem for you?

 

Penn: No, RVCA are actually back with the UFC, and they’re going to be back for my next fight. It’s all good.

Penn also reiterated the news via Twitter and Facebook.

Payout Perspective:

RVCA was ostensibly banned from the UFC because it also sponsored Fedor Emelianenko prior to his fight against Brett Rogers on Strikeforce’s debut CBS show last November. This left Penn without the use of his primary sponsor for his UFC 107 title defense against Diego Sanchez in December.

Rumors are now swirling that Fedor has been dropped by the clothing company, which might make sense if he’s the reason it was banned in the first place. The decision is likely a smart one, too.

Fedor’s immediate fighting future is still very uncertain and he will not be appearing on the next Strikeforce on CBS show slated for April 17th. In the UFC, RVCA will be able to sponsor Penn on April 10th at UFC 112 and possibly Vitor Belfort by mid-summer as he recovers from his shoulder injury.

Imagine going 6-foot-3, 245-lbs. and feeling like a child as you're being punched in the face by Brock Lesnar. That's what happened to Frank Mir during his loss at UFC 100 against the heavyweight champ. In the weeks after, Mir was in freak out mode. He was buying into the excuse that Lesnar was too big to compete with at only 245. 

Mir employed the services of former World's Strongman Contestant Mark Philippi and began to pack on the pounds. He said his goal was to add enough weight to walk around at 285 and then cut down to the 265 limit just like Lesnar does. 

It worked to a certain degree. In less than five months, Mir added about 20 pounds and was around at 272 before his fight against Cheick Kongo at UFC 107. But when he got home he wasn't adding anymore weight. He had to admit that genetically there was only so much productive size he could add.

"I was obsessed with it at first but being around people who are very intelligent when it comes to strength training like Mark Philippi, I realize strength doesn't always necessarily mean size," said Mir.

Mir then realized something many fans still haven't processed about the gigantic Lesnar. 

"I think mentally i had to come to grips with the fact that it wasn't all strength that Lesnar beat me at on the ground," said Mir. "I think that was an early excuse and a mental weakness on my part. There were some technical aspects that I had issues with. It was kind of a cop out on my part to say it was just because he was stronger."

Mir mentioned mistakes that he made with his half guard, hips and spacing. 

"I didn't make certain adjustments because of my own ego on the gorund," said Mir, who's now working more with Mike Whitehead, an MMA fighter and former college wrestler. "Instead of me trying to move somebody else [now I'm] moving my own self out from underneath him. Certain principles, that are real basic fundamentals, through my own success that I strayed away from."

Before his press conference last week, Mir said he weighed in at 264. And he's fine with that. He doesn't want to deal with weight cutting. Most importantly, through his training with Philippi, he feels stronger and faster than ever. It showed during the win over Kongo when he knocked down the dangerous striker with one punch and then mauled him on the ground. Shane Carwin next week at UFC 111 is a good trial run for another Lesnar fight. Carwin, a former NFL offensive line prospect, is mammoth as well at 262. Mir gets to show off his new physique and more importantly, revamped mental approach. 

Today, as much of the country descends into March Madness, discussing brackets, Gus Johnson and which #15 seed has the best chance to upsetting a #2 seed, fight fans should care about a different tournament that will take place in Omaha, Neb.

The NCAA Division I wrestling tournament.

Why should fight fans care? First, wrestling is an integral part of MMA. Wrestlers can dictate the location of a fight, and wrestlers are well-equipped to handle the training, weight management and competition demands of a fight career. Learn the basics of wrestling, and you're already a better fan. 

Secondly, many of your favorite fighters have competed in this very tournament. Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, Mark Coleman, Rashad Evans, Brock Lesnar, Urijah Faber, Muhammed Lawal, Chael Sonnen and many, many more top fighters wrestled for their schools at the NCAA tournament. Tune in, and you'll see the future of fighting. 

What should you look for?

Traditional powers are back at the top: Iowa and Oklahoma St. long ruled the wrestling terrain, but both experienced dips this decade. Those days are over. Iowa is looking for its third national championship in a row, while Oklahoma State took the Big 12 championship. Iowa State and Ohio State will look to challenge for the team titles. 

Will coaching changes make a difference? The biggest news in wrestling this past summer was that Cael Sanderson, the arguably greatest college wrestler of all time, left the head coaching job at his alma mater, Iowa State, for Penn St. Former Olympic coach Kevin Jackson took over at Iowa St. This tournament is a perfect test for both coaches.

Ohio State's Lance Palmer vs. Iowa's Brent Metcalf: After losing four times to the seemingly invincible Metcalf in the 149-lb. weight class, Palmer pulled out the win over Metcalf at the Big Ten championships (pictured above). Assuming both wrestlers get to the finals, this should be a match for the ages.

Arizona St.'s Anthony Robles: By now, the wrestling community is used to seeing Robles dominate at 125 lbs. Only Indiana's Angel Escobedo and Edinboro's Eric Morrill have beaten him this season. You should look for Robles for more than his winning ways. He was born with one leg, but that didn't stop him from winning All-American honors last season. 

The tournament starts Thursday morning, and you can follow along here and here. You can also follow me on Twitter as I tweet from the championships starting Thursday evening. ESPN, ESPNU and ESPN360 will provide coverage of the tournament all weekend long.  

• Bellator and Everlast announcing equipment, merchandising and sponsorship deal
• Strikeforce Nashville Almost Finalized, Last Day for UFC to File for 4/17 Event in Nashville
• Cung Le, Scott Smith and Nick Diaz featured in new “EA Sports MMA” gameplay trailer
• GSP Evolving The Business of MMA
• Massachusetts Commission: Double Weigh-Ins at Fighters’ Discretion

Bellator and Everlast announcing equipment, merchandising and sponsorship deal

Bellator Fighting Championships and sports-equipment giant Everlast today announced an exclusive partnership.

As part of the deal, Everlast becomes the organization’s exclusive equipment provider – for fight gloves, cages and training equipment – while producing a co-branded line of consumer offerings.  (MMAJunkie) … (MMAPayout Perspective)

Strikeforce Nashville Almost Finalized, Last Day for UFC to File for 4/17 Event in Nashville

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told Nick Solomon, reporting for JabsNGrabs.com and MMAWeekly.com, on Wednesday that the promotion had already submitted an opponent for Lashley and was awaiting approval from the Tennessee Athletic Commission. He declined to name the opponent. (MMAWeekly)

***

STRIKEFORCE: APRIL 17, 2010 ON CBS
Sommet Center in Nashville, Tennessee

CBS Main Card:
Jake Shields (24-4-1) [SF MW Champ] vs. Dan Henderson (25-7)
Gegard Mousasi (28-2-1) [SF LHW Champ] vs. “King Mo” Lawal (6-0)
Shinya Aoki (23-4) [DREAM LW Champ] vs. Gilbert Melendez (17-2) [SF LW Champ]

Rumored Prelims:
Bobby Lashley (5-0) vs. TBA (SWING BOUT: CBS Bout)
Cody Floyd (5-0 am, 0-0 pro) vs. Thomas Campbell (17-2-1 am, 0-0 pro)
Andy Uhrich (5-1) vs. Dustin West (2-2)
Ovince St. Preux (4-4) vs. Chris Hawk (3-4)
Hunter Worsham (5-1) vs. Zach Underwood (4-0)
Dustin Ortiz (1-0) vs. Justin Pennington (0-0)

* MMAPayout thanks PROMMA for information relating to the under-card.

***

MMAPayout Note:  According to Tennessee State Athletic Commission regulations, Zuffa has until Thursday, March 18, to file an event permit application should the Las Vegas-based promotional company wish to counter Strikeforce’s April 17 date in Nashville. (Josh Gross, Sports Illustrated)

Cung Le, Scott Smith and Nick Diaz featured in new “EA Sports MMA” gameplay trailer

In anticipation of its upcoming release of “EA Sports MMA,” EA Sports’ first mixed-martial-arts videogame title, the gamemaker today released a preview video containing actual gameplay footage.

Some of the notable fighters (and playable characters) featured include Cung Le, Scott Smith, Nick Diaz, Bobby Lashley, Brett Rogers and Jeff Monson.  (MMAJunkie) … (MMAPayout Perspective)

GSP Evolving The Business of MMA

“I didn’t make a lot of friends in the beginning when I was turning down a lot of the fight specific brands, but I really saw from the beginning when I started working with Georges, that he had the potential to transcend the sport ala Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan,” Spencer told MMAWeekly Radio in an interview.

Making the move against signing on “fight specific” sponsors for St-Pierre was a risk, but a calculated risk, according to Spencer. The gamble paid off when the Canadian signed on with CAA, a lucrative company that also represents athletes like Derek Jeter and David Beckham.  (MMAWeekly)

Massachusetts Commission: Double Weigh-Ins at Fighters’ Discretion

For the time being, double weigh-ins will remain on the books in Massachusetts, but it will be up to fighters whether or not to adhere to them.

The state’s athletic commission this past weekend amended its unusual weigh-in policy, which bars fighters from weighing more than 1.0625 of their contract weight on fight night. The rule discourages excessive weight cutting and gains. Under the change, fighters will not be weighed twice if both agree to waive a second weigh-in. (Sherdog)

***

The policy has nice intentions, but it’s blithely ignorant of how foolhardy athletes can be: Few will be warned off enough to consider going up a weight class. If Massachusetts is serious about making radical alterations to weight classes, a better idea would be to conference in the Association of Boxing Commissions and petition for uniform change across the board. The state doesn’t operate in a vacuum, and there is little sense in policy varying so widely across the country. (ESPN)

VIDEO OF THE DAY

• EA Sports MMA Gameplay Trailer: EA Sports released gameplay footage for EA Sports MMA, scheduled to be released late this year.

IMAGE OF THE DAY

QUICK HITS

• Paulo Filho on “short list” of possibilities for Bellator champ Hector Lombard, no title (MMAJunkie)
• Bellator hasn’t forgotten West Coast, but Eastern markets to host 2010 shows (MMAJunkie)
• Stephan Bonnar hosts “The Ultimate Fighter Aftermath” wrap-up show for “TUF 11″ (MMAJunkie)
• Lyle Beerbohm vs. Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro targeted for May 15 Strikeforce event (MMAJunkie)
• Ortiz Was Hospitalized With Flu (MMAFighting)
• Shinya Aoki: Two Title Belts Would Mean Something Special (MMAFighting)
• St. Pierre’s Quest for ‘Beautiful’ Perfection (Sherdog)
• NO WORRIES AS AOKI STEPS IN CAGE WITH MELENDEZ (MMAWeekly)
• BELLATOR COULD TAKE HUERTA TO MEXICO (MMAWeekly)
• High school blogger meets his prom date, Arianny, on national TV (Cage Writer)
• Neck injury forces Tito Ortiz out of TUF 11 and bout with Chuck Liddell (FiveOuncesOfPain)
• Pat Curran Completes Bellator Lightweight Tournament (Heavy)

TV LISTINGS

• HDNet Fights Presents K-1 Classics (Masato, Drago, & Andre Dida) at 8 PM ET on HDNet (03/19/10)
• InsideMMA (Dan Henderson, Mike Straka & Donovan Craig) at 9 PM ET on HDNet (03/19/10)
• HDNet Fights: XFC X-Night of Champions at 10 PM ET on HDNet (03/19/10)
• UFC on Versus: Vera vs Jones at 10 PM ET on Versus (3/21/10)

UPCOMING EVENTS

• HDNet Fights: XFC X-Night of Champions at 10 PM ET on HDNet (03/19/10)
• UFC on Versus: Vera vs Jones at 10 PM ET on Versus (3/21/10)
• HDNet Fights: King of the Cage – Legacy at 10 PM ET on HDNet (03/26/10)
• Strikeforce Challengers: Johnson vs Mahe at 11 PM ET/PT on Showtime (03/26/10)
• UFC 111: GSP vs Hardy at 10 PM ET on PPV (03/27/10)
• UFN 21 : Florian vs Gomi at 10 PM ET on Spike (03/31/10)
• The Ultimate Fighter 11 Debut after UFN 21 on Spike (03/31/10)

UFC on Versus 1 is on this Sunday, a questionable move by the UFC considering how few people subscribe to Versus as compared to a network like CBS.  In Canda this event will also be shown on SportsNet and TheScore.  This card seems irrelevant, and it is, but there’s some great fights here which will provide the standing wars that so many fans love.

Brandon Vera vs Jon Jones :  Great job by Joe Silva making this fight happen, these guys are more evenly matched than the betting lines might suggest.  Jon Jones is almost a 3-1 favorite to win this fight even though Vera is the more experienced fighter.  It will be interesting to see exactly how this fight plays out because Vera is the more technical striker while Jones is more unorthodox and unpredictable.  Either style could trump the other but I tend to lean toward the cleaner and more disciplined technique in the end.  Jones has the wrestling and Judo advantages while Vera has the more dangerous clinch and submission game.  It could be argued that Vera has the advantage because of his experience but Jones has incredible speed and athleticism to counter balance that.  This is such a tough call because anywhere this fight goes it will be close and anything can happen.  I like both these guys but I think Vera pulls off the upset by split decision.

Winner : Brandon Vera

Junior dos Santos vs Gabriel Gonzaga : dos Santos has looked great lately but he’s been facing nothing but strikers, most of which are past their prime.  Gonzaga has been hit-and-miss of late and his conditioning could be suspect considering we haven’t seen him go past the 1st round in his past 4 fights.  Gonzaga needs to get the top position to work his strikes and submissions if he stands any chance of winning this fight.  Other than being on his back underneath Gabe Gonzaga, anywhere else this fight takes place will favor dos Santos who will be looking to sprawl and brawl his way to victory.  I’m picking dos Santos by KO.

Winner : Junior dos Santos

Cheick Kongo vs Paul Buentello : This is Kongo’s fight to lose and he always looks strongest when facing another striker.  Coming off 2 straight losses to Velasquez  and Mir, Kongo needs a win here and he won’t get a better chance than this from the UFC.  Buentello didn’t look great in his first fight back with the UFC, but he demonstrated that he’s still dangerous on his feet.  Conditioning is something that plagues both the fighters and we will likely see this fight go to the score cards.  I suspect Kongo will land more strikes while Buentello will land the harder strikes which will lead “the Headhunter”  to another decision loss.

Winner : Cheick Kongo

Alessio Sakara vs James Irvin : This one shouldn’t last too long considering both these guys like to throw down and neither has a great chin.  Sakara has an accomplished boxing game but it’s worked against him during his MMA career considering he’s not exactly the toughest guy in the division.  He’s been knocked out in the 1st round by Chris Leben, Houston Alexander and Drew McFedries.  James Irvin has been out of action for almost 2 years since his brutal KO loss to Anderson Silva with a recurring knee injury which forced him out of 2 scheduled UFC bouts so far.  Even with his ring rust, I believe that Irvin’s power and Muay Thai will be too much for Sakara and his Boxing to overcome.  If all else fails Irvin could still take the fight to the mat to score points and control position using his superior wrestling.  Although I have a feeling Sakara is going to sleep withing the 1st round.

Winner : James Irvin

So lets hear it, who are you picking? Also, dont forget to get your picks in at the playground.