Author: John Morgan [kingofabuelos]

With many of World Extreme Cagefighting’s top stars just hours away from hitting the scales for the organization’s first trip to Ohio, MMAjunkie.com Radio today welcomes WEC 47 fighter Bart Palaszewski to the show.

After earning a razor-thin split-decision victory over Anthony Pettis in his most recent outing, Palaszewski now welcomes fast-rising prospect Karen Darabedyan to the cage on Saturday night. “Bartimus” will discuss the fight when he calls in to today’s program.

MMAjunkie.com Radio begins at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. Listen to
and watch a video stream of the two-hour show at www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

While the California-based Strikeforce organization has spent the past
year building its roster of athletes, one of the most burning questions
on MMA fans’ minds regarding the promotion has been, “When will
heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem return?”

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker confirmed on Thursday’s edition of
ESPN.com’s “MMA Live” that Overeem’s return will
indeed be on the promotion’s as-yet-unannounced May event in a fight
with power-puncher Brett Rogers as had been
previously reported, but one simple question remains: Will the
“Demolition Man’s” title be on the line?

Coker refused to answer that question when he recently spoke with
MMAjunkie.com, but he did say that fans could
expect some surprises in forthcoming news.

Undefeated heavyweight Travis Browne (9-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has signed a
multi-fight deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and is
expected to make his octagon debut against “The Ultimate
Fighter 10” veteran James McSweeney (4-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC).

Sources close to the situation informed MMAjunkie.com of the new deal and said both fighters have agreed
to the contest, but a date has not been finalized for the meeting.

The bout could either take place at UFC 115, expected to take place
June 12 at GM Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, or at The
Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale held one week later in Las Vegas.

New fans of MMA are tasked with learning a daunting list
of jargon when first approaching the sport, but in recent years, a new
term has made its way to the fighting lexicon: counter-programming.

With the UFC now reportedly set to go head-to-head with “Strikeforce:
Nashville” on April 17 according to report from The Wrestling Observer,
Strikeforce executives may be looking at a little retaliation of their
own.

The recently announced “Strikeforce: Nashville” show may end up going
head-to-head with the UFC’s sister promotion, the WEC, on that
company’s first-ever pay-per-view event, “WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber,” on
April 24.

When it became apparent that Strikeforce’s second show on network
television would be held without the presence of heavyweight superstar
Fedor Emelianenko (31-1 MMA, 1-0 SF), numerous theories were put together by a variety of
MMA observers.

All of them seemed to spell certain doom for the partnership between
Strikeforce and M-1 Global, the company that represents Emelianenko and
of which he is a partial owner.

But Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker today told MMAjunkie.com that the relationship with M-1 Global is still in
fine shape, and he said he’s in the final stages of negotiations for
Emelianenko’s next Strikeforce co-promoted fight.

When it became apparent that Strikeforce’s second show on network
television would be held without the presence of heavyweight superstar
Fedor Emelianenko (31-1 MMA, 1-0 SF), numerous theories were put together by a variety of
MMA observers.

All of them seemed to spell certain doom for the partnership between
Strikeforce and M-1 Global, the company that represents Emelianenko and
of which he is a partial owner.

But Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker today told MMAjunkie.com that the relationship with M-1 Global is still in
fine shape, and he said he’s in the final stages of negotiations for
Emelianenko’s next Strikeforce co-promoted fight.