MMA Newsbits: Fedor, Andrei Arlovski, Clay Guida, Nate Diaz, The Shamrocks, More

Some quick-hit newsbits you may have missed over the past week....

-WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko vs. former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski is looking like a go for Affliction on Jan. 24th. Location, venue and PPV are to be determined. Based on their last fights, this should be a good one.

-Andre Gusmao vs. Antonio Mendes (light heavyweight) has been added to UFC 93 on January 17th from Dublin, Ireland. Gusmao (5-1) debuted at UFC 87 and lost to Jon Jones, a fight the former took on short notice. Mendes (15-3) also lost in his UFC debut, a ref stoppage losses (punches) to Thiago Silva at UFC 84 in May.

-The rumored Clay Guida vs. Nate Diaz fight to main event the eighth season finale of The Ultimate Fighter on 12/13 has been put off due to a Guida foot injury.

-The fed also announced the signing of heavyweight Mark Burch, a former BodogFight vet. The 9-2 Burch will debut at UFC 92 on December 27th in Las Vegas against 7-4 Antonio Hardonk.

-Drew McFedries will take the place of injured Goran Reljic (lower back) against Thales Leites (13-1) at UFC 90 on 10/25 in Chicago. As a result, Gray Maynard vs. Rich Clementi has been moved up to the televised PPV card

-In case you didn't hear, Ken Shamrock and Frank Shamrock have officially agreed in principle to fight each other at some point in 2009. There is no date and no official promotion booking the fight, but you have to assume that EliteXC would be interested, despite Ken screwing them over on the day of the Kimbo fight. Money, after all, is still green and that would be a great main event for a CBS card. According to this Five Ounces of Pain writeup though, it's rumored that the network isn't interested in working with Ken again after the Kimbo debacle.

-Congrats to UFC Welterweight Champ Georges St. Pierre, who was awarded his BJJ black belt last week. He was awarded the belt following the end of a monthly seminar by BJJ World Champion Bruno Fernandes. GSP is rumored to be training for a bout against UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn at UFC 94 on 1/31 in Las Vegas.

-There is currently no deal in place to air UFC 93 (Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson) from Dublin on SPIKE despite rumors to the contrary. Since this card is aired outside of the U.S., apparently it falls outside their agreement and has to be negotiated separately. In cruising various sites though, you get the feeling this is an inevitability to air on SPIKE.

-Former IFL Featherweight Champ Wagnney Fabiano (10-1) will debut for WEC on 12/3 in Las Vegas against Akitoshi Tamura (12-6-2) in a match of top featherweights.

-Brian Stann is off the 12/10 UFC Fight For The Troops card due to a foot injury. He was due to battle Steve Cantwell. You have to imagine this really stings for Stann as he is a member of the military and this is a big fundraiser for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

Josh Nason has written and maintained Ropes, Ring and Cage since 2007. He can be reached at [e-mail].