With this update, the game now has a total of 25 fighters, including Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, Gegard Mousasi, Cung Le, Brett Rogers, Jake Shields, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Nick Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thompson, Robbie Lawler, Bobby Lashley, Marius Zaromskis, Scott Smith, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Matt Lindland, Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal, Shinya Aoki, Hidehiko Yoshida, Melvin Manhoef, Jay Hieron, Joe Riggs, and Nick Thompson.

Also featured are Strikeforce commentators Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo, along with ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr., and referee “Big” John McCarthy.

EA Sports MMA is scheduled for release in fall 2010 on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

The fighters include Bobby Lashley, Nick Diaz, Marius Zaromskis, Melvin Manhoef, and Joe Riggs.

The game’s roster now features a total of 25 fighters, including Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, Gegard Mousasi, Cung Le, Brett Rogers, Jake Shields, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thompson, Robbie Lawler, Scott Smith, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Matt Lindland, Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal, Shinya Aoki, Hidehiko Yoshida, Jay Hieron, and Nick Thompson.

Also included are Strikeforce commentators Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo, along with ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr., and referee “Big” John McCarthy.

EA Sports MMA is scheduled for a fall 2010 release on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

He said, “You never know, anything is possible. I don’t want to say the Pride name is dead. It’s still a strong powerful brand. But the reality is that us running Pride in Japan, that completely fell apart.”

Pride FC was founded October 1997 in Japan. The organization was home to some of the world’s top fighters, including Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Mirko Cro Cop, and Anderson Silva. After running into financial problems, the promotion was sold in March 2007 to Zuffa, LLC, parent entity of the UFC.

Since the purchase, no Pride events have been held. Many of the fighters were brought into the UFC, while others fledged to different promotions. Most notably, Emelianenko, arguably the top pound-for-pound fighter, opted not to sign with the organization.

With the large library of Pride fights under their ownership, the UFC created a Best of Pride FC series, which recently began airing on Spike TV.

Werdum said, “The fight against Fedor is 99% confirmed to April 16th. I have three months to train to the most important fight of my life. I already have a strategy set. I can’t submit a guy like Fedor in the arm, in the leg, he would never tap… I’ll make history. Beat Fedor doesn’t mean I’m better than him, because he’s the man, but I’ll be better than him in that night.”

Since making his Strikeforce debut in August 2009, Werdum (13-4) has won back-to-back fights over Mike Kyle and Antonio Silva. This will be his first opportunity to challenge for a mixed martial arts title.

Emelianenko (31-1-1), the current WAMMA heavyweight champion, is coming off a TKO win over Brett Rogers at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers in November. The only loss on his record was to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka at a Rings event in December 2000. The defeat was a TKO stoppage due to a cut he suffered at seventeen seconds in the first round.

He said:

“Today I heard the rumors of me allegedly stating on my twitter account that we are negotiating with the UFC. I want to state that there are no talks with the UFC whatsoever. Our partner in the USA is STRIKEFORCE, we are happy to cooperate with STRIKEFORCE. Fedor (Emelianenko) and Gegard (Mousasi) fight there and they are quite happy with the conditions and how they are treated with respect there. Finally, I don’t have any account on Twitter. The account that ignited the rumors is false. Our attorneys are already aware of the situation and shortly this fake account will be deleted.”

It looks like everyone will have to wait until Emelianenko fullfills his three-fight contract with Strikeforce to possibly see him negotiate with the UFC again.

He said:

“Listen, I think that there’s a different million ways to cut deals. Believe me, I want Fedor more than the people who are out there that are yapping that they want him in the UFC. I want him more than they do. And I like Mousasi too. So, I would love to have them both in the UFC, and there’s a lot of different ways to cut a deal.

How do I think he (Fedor) does (in the UFC)? Me and the fans can debate, there’s only one way to find out. Get his a** over here and let’s get him in there and get him fighting. I could do the same thing with Mousasi. I like Mousasi, I don’t know how he’d do over here. There’s a lot of really good guys here. It’s not like fighting in other promotions. They’re not deep enough. There’s not enough good fighters over there for them to challenge. There is here, so that’s what makes it fun and makes it interesting.”

EA Sports recently announced at a press conference in Tokyo the addition of Japanese superstars Hidehiko Yoshida and Shinya Aoki to its EA MMA video game.

This brings up the game’s roster to a total of 20 fighters, including Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, Gegard Mousasi, Cung Le, Brett Rogers, Jake Shields, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thompson, Robbie Lawler, Scott Smith, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Matt Lindland, Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal, Jay Hieron, and Nick Thompson.

The game also features Strikeforce commentators Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo, ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr., and referee “Big” John McCarthy.

EA Sports MMA will be released in fall 2010 on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

UFC President Dana White recently spoke with the L.A. Times about the recent CBS-televised Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers event and gave his opinion on a Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelianenko match-up.

He said:

“CBS would be out of their mind to put that rinky-dink [Strikeforce]… on the air again… and without that backing, [promoters] won’t have the money to pay [Emelianenko]. The guy just got his face smashed in by Brett Rogers. Do you know what Brock or [UFC heavyweights] Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez would do to Brett Rogers? It’s time to bring this guy [Fedor] in, to see Brock Lesnar smash his head.”