Fronted by Luke Thomas.

Jordan Breen has the scoop:

The middleweight grand prix semifinals, set for Sept. 23 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, will pit Brazilian jiu-jitsu all-star turned hot MMA prospect Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza against Croatian Zelg Galesic (Pictures), while Dutch-based Armenian Gegard Mousasi (Pictures) meets fellow Netherlander Melvin Manhoef (Pictures), with the two victors set to square off in the finale later that evening.

In June, Souza punched his ticket to the semifinals by taking a unanimous verdict over colorful cult hero Jason "Mayhem" Miller, while Galesic saw only 65 seconds of action before his rematch with Taiei Kin (Pictures) ended due to a dislocated elbow. Their first bout last October ended in only 36 seconds due to a cut. On the same bill, Mousasi successfully knocked off South Korean judo star Yoon Dong Sik with a unanimous nod, while Manhoef smashed MMA icon Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) in a brief but brutal 90 seconds.

While no reserve bout was announced for the middleweight finale, a source close to the promotion has told Sherdog.com that FEG are interested in a pairing of quarterfinalists Miller and Sik. However, the proposed bout is still in its most embryonic stages.

On his attitude towards the sport and his opponents:

Before we get started, I want to say that I know there are a lot of people and everybody is trying to protect the sport. And everybody wants to be sportsmen and that type of thing where everybody shakes hands and everybody is great friends and whatever. And that’s great. But you know what, this sport is (expletive) established. That’s obvious. There are people out there doing a great job making it look like a non-violent sport. That’s not my job. My job is warfare. I’m over here to (expletive) kill. We’re mortal enemies until we fight and then we can shake hands and be cool.  But until then, if I’m signed to fight you I don’t (expletive) like you and I hate you’re (expletive) guts and we’re fighting until we’re cool. We’re not cool until I win or I lose and we can settle this. So that’s how I am about this sort of thing.

On why he was in the cage and his feelings towards KJ Noons:

T.J. Thompson from Icon Sport. He brought me in there. He told me, ‘It’s time to go to work. Let’s go in there and talk about this rematch.’ So he brought me in there.

...

They came in there with me and the next thing you know his dad starts talking (expletive) to my brother (Nate) or whatever. And, you know, my brother is hardcore. So he comes in there and someone says (expletive) you or whatever and his boy (Noons) is acting all bad like he wants to fight me. I’m like, ‘Why you trying to act bad now?’ They walked past us in the halls and they all looked at the floor. They walked past us like they are scared or something, you know what I mean. It’s like that we’re going to fight, but if they are going to talk (expletive), we’re going to talk (expletive). I ain’t going nowhere and they ain’t going nowhere.

...

That’s (expletive) … my bottom line is he is a poser. He’s over here trying to rush me in front of the cameras and look like hardcore in front of the cameras. He shows up in a (expletive) suit. He’s a rich kid. I can’t afford a suit. I got no money to spend on a suit. I can’t retire right now if I want to. he fights every however many months.

More quotes after the jump.

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Found this reading the Sherdog forums today.

Check it out

My thoughts:

-In the coming weeks, will the TBA besides Ben Rothwell turn into Andrei Arlovski? Ben Rothwell has confirmed it on the Sherdog forums but nothing official has been announced yet.

-Will there ever be an Affliction 2? Like others have already pointed out, even though Fedor may be the best fighter on the planet, none of his performances have turned into big PPV buys in the US. Add that in with the huge payout the fighters on this card are promised, this could simply be another one-and-done MMA promotion.

HT: Sherdog's Contenders Forum

This diary entry was promoted to the front page by Luke Thomas.

Today I received a message on Facebook from HDNet Fights saying to watch out for a huge announcement about a partnership with an org. At first, I thought it was simply confirmation of the Sylvia/Fedor fight with Affliction. I mean, there's no way it could be DREAM. How could a company that just lost it's prime time spot in its own country get a deal with HDNet? Wishful thinking but no way it could happen. Too good to be true. Probably something to do with Affliction or the IFL. No need to get my hopes up.

Well...

Mark Cuban and his HD network are quickly making a mark on the mma scene. Now if only HDNet were available in more areas.