Author: John Morgan [kingofabuelos]

This week’s installment of HDNet Fights Video Vault, our weekly
fight-of-the-week feature, features PRIDE, UFC and WEC veteran John
Alessio and Canadian welterweight Andrew Buckland.

Alessio and Buckland met on the main card of Maximum Fighting
Championship’s May 2009 event, “MFC 21: Hard Knocks.”

The HDNet-televised event saw Alessio (24-14 at the time) come to the
bout in desperate need of a win after dropping back-to-back fights to
Andre Galvao and Paul Daley. Meanwhile, Buckland (9-3), entered the
fight having won three of his past four contests and looking for the
highest-profile win of his career.

Irish MMA fans rejoice – the UFC is coming back to The Emerald Isle in
2010.

During a Wednesday press conference for this weekend’s “UFC 111:
St-Pierre vs. Hardy” event, UFC president Dana White told the gathered
crowd that the promotion would return to Ireland before the end of the
year.

“We’re going back to Dublin this year for sure,” White said.

NEW YORK – The famed Radio City Music Hall in New York hosts today’s
“UFC 111: St-Pierre vs. Hardy” pre-fight press conference and Q&A session.

The event, which begins at 3 p.m. ET, is free and open to the public,
and you can catch a live stream of the proceedings here.

Expected to take part in today’s press conference and Q&A are UFC
president Dana White and event headliners Georges St-Pierre, Dan
Hardy, Frank Mir and Shane Carwin

A featherweight match-up between Anthony “Cheesesteak” Morrison and Mackens “Mack da Menace” Semerzier
is now official for the non-televised portion of WEC 48.

MMAjunkie.com first reported the match-up earlier
this month, and the WEC confirmed the fight today in an official Twitter
post.

WEC 48 marks the promotion’s pay-per-view debut and takes place April 24
at ARCO Arena in Sacramento, Calif. Two new WEC champions make their
first title defenses in the event’s headliners: featherweight champion
Jose Aldo faces former champion Urijah Faber, and lightweight champion
Ben Henderson meets Donald Cerrone in a rematch of their WEC 43
barnburner.

Middleweight standout and “The Ultimate Fighter 7” cast member Luke
Zachrich (9-1) has been added to Bellator’s season-two middleweight
tournament, the promotion announced today.

Zachrich, a protégé of UFC Hall of Fame member Dan Severn, is the
seventh confirmed participant for Bellator’s eight-man tournament.

He joins Bryan Baker, Jared Hess, Sean Loeffler, Matt Major, Ryan
McGivern, and Eric Schambari in a field that boasts an 84 percent
winning average, according to Bellator.

Four amateur fights have been added to seven previously announced
professional contests for Friday night’s “Strikeforce Challengers VII:
Johnson vs. Mahe” event.

The full 11-bout event takes place at Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif.

The main card, featuring a heavyweight contest between Lavar “Big”
Johnson (13-3 MMA, 1-0 SF) and undefeated Hawaiian Lolohea Mahe (4-0-1
MMA, 0-0 SF), airs on Showtime.