MMA legend Bas Rutten has scored a gig as a host of the upcoming “Ultimate Women Challenge” which basically sounds like TUF but with women. What’s interesting is that the show will air on NBC, though there’s no scheduled time or date.

Here’s the info, as per the show’s website:

The Ultimate Women Challenge on NBC marks the ascent of the “fairer sex” in this emerging world of sport. In a reality elimination show format hosted by actress & model Joanna Krupa (“Dancing with the Stars”) and former MMA Heavyweight Champion Bas Rutten, sixteen women will be given the chance to take off their make-up and put on their gloves in a historic competition. These contestants will leave the security of their homes to board planes bound for an undisclosed location, and compete against the best and brightest the sport has to offer.

Their coaches will be top ranked and world-renowned fighters themselves who know what it takes to make it in the hard-hitting world of MMA. They will settle for nothing less than perfection as they train their fighters to compete against each other and go for the glory. But, along the way, each episode of the series will feature entertaining and informative challenges that organically fuse elements of MMA with educational take-away information all for the benefit of charity. Through these challenges and a fly-on-the-wall perspective of the contestants as they go about their daily lives together, favorites will emerge because of their heart and spirit, their hard work & respect for the sport, and their touching personal stories. When the final bell rings, viewers will have plenty to root for as all of the women of Ultimate Women Challenge live together, train together, and compete together for the ultimate prize – a chance to reign supreme and take home the title of Ultimate Women Challenge Champion

SAN JOSE, Calif. (July 22, 2010) – Four women, three fights, one night!

With a world title shot on the line, STRIKEFORCE Women’s welterweight prospects Miesha “Takedown” Tate, Carina “Beauty But The Beast” Damm, Hitomi “Girlfight Monster” Akano and Maiju Kujala will compete in the first-ever STRIKEFORCE Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) women’s single-elimination tournament at STRIKEFORCE Challengers on Friday, Aug. 13, from Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Ariz., live on SHOWTIME®.

The draw to determine the semi-final matchups for the two-round tournament will take place at the Official Weigh-In on Thursday, Aug. 12. A complete list of tournament rules will be provided in the coming days.

The SHOWTIME telecast (live at 11p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the west coast) will begin with the two semi-final bouts. The winners of each bout will compete in the tournament final later that night, just before the main event matchup of Joe Riggs vs. Louis Taylor. Each of the three tournament fights are scheduled for three, 3-minute rounds.

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Press Release

Bellator’s much anticipated Women’s World Championship Tournament will kick off on Thursday, Aug. 12th at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., with two opening-round fights featuring four of the planet’s top-ranked female fighters.

In the first televised fight of the evening, the No. 1 pound-for-pound female fighter in the world, Megumi Fujii, will look to improve upon her flawless 20-0 pro MMA record against fast-rising submission grappler Angela Magana, the world’s No. 8-ranked female fighter at 115 lbs. Magana has hopes of making history against the Japanese phenom while Fujii is looking to make an example out of the New-Mexico based fighter on her way to the semifinals.

Then, in another nationally-televised opening round fight, the world’s No. 6-ranked 125-pounder, Lynn “Lights Out” Alvarez, will square off against the world’s No. 7-ranked 115-pounder Jessica Aguilar, who calls South Florida home. Both fighters are currently riding impressive winning streaks and have reputations for ending fights early.

The event — which will be broadcast LIVE nationwide on FOX Sports Net and during weekend highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and the cable network mun2 — also marks the beginning of Bellator’s Season 3 Men’s Heavyweight Tournament and features a special non-title Main Event bout between reigning Bellator Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard and former NFL standout Herbert “Whisper” Goodman.

The two fighters in the event’s Heavyweight Tournament fight will be announced in the coming days.

“I can think of no better place than the Hard Rock to kick off the action for our third season and our Women’s World Championship Tournament Read more »

CHICAGO, Ill. (June 28, 2010) – Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto, who shocked the MMA world with her stunning KO of the world’s top-ranked and heavily favored Rosi Sexton at Bellator 23 last Thursday, has been added to Bellator’s upcoming Women’s Tournament.

Frausto, a 26-year-old Central California native who improved her pro MMA record to 7-1 with the highlight-reel knockout, replaces Sexton, who was forced out of the tournament due to a 60-day medical suspension from the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority.

Frausto joins seven other female fighters who are all ranked among the world’s 10 best in their respective weight classes.

The others are Japanese MMA sensation and the world’s No. 1 pound-for pound female fighter, Megumi Fujii, 12-5 Seattle submission artist Lisa Ward, 7-0 Southern California striker Jessica Pene, 8-4 New Mexico-based submission specialist Angela Magana, 5-1 Las Vegas-based powerhouse Lynn Alvarez, 9-0 Irish sensation Aisling Daly and 8-4 American Top Team product Jessica Aguilar.

Overall, the eight women boast a career winning percentage of .835 (76 wins and 15 losses).

“With a highlight knockout that’s already generated over 70,000 YouTube views, Zoila stamped her ticket to our women’s Tournament,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “The purpose of our women’s tournament is simply to determine the best pound-for-pound female fighter in the world, and with such a dominant performance against the worlds’s No. 1-ranked 125 pound fighter, there was no way to not include Zoila in this line up. She earned her place by beating the best.”

Frausto’s shocking knockout – which can be seen here- came roughly two minutes into Round 1 of her fight against Sexton.

The left knee to the chin knocked Sexton her unconscious and dropped her to the canvas before the referee stoped the fight when Frausto delivered three right hands to the jaw. It was just the second career loss for Sexton in 12 pro MMA fights.

“I saw the opening and I just threw the knee up,” Frausto said after the fight, adding that she thinks she now deserves to be ranked No. 1 in the world at 125. “I’ve been shooting for No. 1 since I got into the sport. This is exactly why I got into MMA.”

The tournament begins on Aug. 12 and will once again be televised LIVE in primetime every Thursday night on FOX Sports Net and during special weekend highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and the cable network mun2.

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator. Tickets are available at www.Ticketmaster.com.

“Cyborg” Santos talks about her dominating victory over Jan Finney in her second title defense in the co-main event of “Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum” event.

HT: Showtime Sports

HT: Strikeforce.com

Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (9-1) just watched her husband Evangelista Santos defeat Marius Žaromskis last Wednesday at “Strikeforce: LA” and will fight herself next Saturday against Jan Finney.

In a recent interview with Tatame.com, the female champ talked about her husbands victory as well as her hopes for another knockout victory against Finney.

What did you think of your husband’s win on Strikeforce?
Cyborg has been training a lot, had the opportunity to show his work here and thanks God everything went right… But we hadn’t time to celebrate, because I’m the next one to fight… Let’s celebrate later (laughs).

What are your expectations for this fight?
I’m well trained, on the last phase of my preparation. I’ll stick to my game plan, always trying the knockout, but what I want to do it a good fight, the win is just a consequence. I’ll bring this belt home.

What do you know about Jan Finney, who will do her debut on this event?
I watched her fights standing, but I’m ready to fight that way and if I have the opportunity to submit her on the ground, I will. I don’t have a plan, I have to feel how things are going during the fight.

Both women will co-headline the “Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum” event at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Cali. on June 26.

With so many fights happening this past week, Strikeforce: LA, Bellator 22, TUF 11 Finale, and WEC 49, it’s easy to forget that there are some excellent promotions across the ocean in Japan.

The DREAM promotion updated it’s DREAM.15 card with a couple of bouts. The weigh-ins for World Victory Road’s latest Sengoku Raiden Championship event, SVR 13, took place on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. A women’s event completed itself on Saturday with Valkrye 6, culminating with a flyweight championship bout between Naoko Omuro vs. Yasuko Tamada.

DREAM.15 will host the promotions opening round of it’s four-man Grand Prix tournament to determine it’s first-ever light-heavyweight champ, will see K-1 kickboxer Melvin Manhoef (24-7-1) take on Tatsuya Mizuno (7-5). Also announced was a lightweight matchup between Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante (14-3-1) vs. Katsunori Kikuno (13-2-1).

DREAM.15 will take place on July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. HDNet will carry the event for fans in North America. You can see the current DREAM.15 card near the bottom of the post.

World Victory Roads Sunday event, Sengoku Raiden Championship 13, will see a featherweight title fight and the opening round of it’s welterweight grand prix tournament. The weigh-ins took place on Saturday at East 21 Hotel in Toyocho, Tokyo. The actual event will take place in Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan, also known as Sumo Hall, and will be shown on HDNet in North America on June 25.

Defending his Sengoku featherweight title will be Masanori Kanehara (65.7kg) who takes on Marlon Sandro (65.7kg). The full weigh-in results and event match ups can be found near the bottom of the page.

The womens event, Valkyrie 6, took place on June 19 at the Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan and featured five female bouts. Yasuko Tamada picked up her thenth victory as well as the Valkrye flyweight title after earning a unanimous decision over Naoko Omuro.

Keeping her record unbeaten at 7-0, was Rin Nakai who defeated Megumi Yabushita, who holds 36 professional fights under her belt, via unanimous decision. With so few female fighters in the sport of MMA, the 135 pound Nakai could find herself as a potential opponent of Strikeforce bantamweight Strikeforce champ Sarah Kaufman.

The full results from the Valkyrie 6 event can be found at the end of the post.

Props to MMAFighting.com for providing updates on the Japanese events.
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HT: FightMagazine.com

Submission specialist, Lynn “Lights Out” Alvarez (5-0) was added to the growing number of female fighters participating in Bellator Fighting Championship’s upcoming Season 3 Women’s Tournament.

“I’m so excited to be a part of the tournament because Bellator is signing all the best female fighters in the world and that’s who I want to compete against,” Alvarez said. “My goal is to put on some exciting fights and win the tournament to prove that I’m the best in the world.”

The 25 year old Alvarez is the sixth name added to the tournament which include other notable female fighters such as undefeated Japanese sensation Megumi Fujii, British striker Rosi Sexton, Lisa Ward, Jessica Pene, and Angela Magana.

Alvarez has won four of her five victories by submission, winning all but one of her fights in the first round. Her last appearance was against Shoni Esquiro at a Freestyle Cage Fighting event in July of last year.

You can find more updates on Bellator’s Season 3 tournament at Bellator.com.

On Tuesday, Bellator Fighting Championship announced the addition of female 115 pound fighter Angela Magana (9-4) to their upcoming Bellator Season 3 Women’s Tournament which kicks off in August.

“We are very pleased to add Angela Magana to the compelling list of 115 pound women competing in our Season 3 tournament. There is not an easy fight anywhere in this tournament and Angela should present a very tough fight for everyone she faces in this tournament,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney.

The fighter currently trains at the Team Four Corners gym in Farmington, N.M.

Joining her for the Season 3 tournament will be the undefeated Japanese mma star Megumi Fujii, British fighter Rosi Sexton (currently ranked No. 1 in the 125 lbs. female weight-class), 11-5 Lisa Ward and 7-0 Jessica Pene.

HT: Quote and picture courtesy of Bellator.com

MMAPrime.tv reporter Aaron Tru squares off against Womens Strikeforce champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos in a “loser drinks their own urine” bout, similar to a loser leaves town match. Tru joined “Cyborg” at MMA Conditioning in a previous video to join her in a Strength & Conditioning workout that proved way too much for the reporter.

This time, Tru steps into the ring with Santos after making a side wager with her. If he can last two minutes in the ring then she has to drink her own urine, but if she forces him to quite before those two minutes are up then he has to drink his own. Find out who pulls a Machida at the end of the video.

HT: Aaron Tru’s Youtube page

Thursday’s Bellator XXI event took place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., headlining the event was the lightweight tournament final between Pat Curran and Toby Imada. Curran earned a split decision over Imada. The co-main event saw undefeated Japanese female fighter Megumi Fujii defeat Sarah Schneider via TKO.

Photos courtesy of Tom Hill of TomHillphotos.com.

Pat Curran def. Toby Imada via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).

More photos after the jump Read more »