~ World Extreme Cagefighting will, in fact, make its Ohio debut in 2009. WEC General Manager Reed Harris today informed that WEC 43 is set for Wednesday, Sept. 2, at the 6,000-seat Covelli Centre in Youngstown. The main event is Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone (10-1) vs Ben Henderson (9-1) for the interim Lightweight title with the winner slated to face Jamie Varner later in the year.



~ Fighter weigh-ins for next week's UFC 100 event take place Friday, July 10, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The weighins, which are free and open to the public, are set for 3 to 5 p.m. PT (6 to 8 p.m. ET) with the first fighter on the scale at 4 p.m. PT.



~ A welterweight bout between Akihiro Gono (29-14-7) and Dan Hornbuckle (17-2) has been signed for World Victory Road's upcoming "Sengoku Ninth Battle" event.



~ EliteXC veteran Riki Fukuda captured the Deep middleweight title from Yuichi Nakanishi in the main event of Deep 42 Impact on Tuesday at Korakuen Hall.In victory Fukuda avenged his decision loss to Nakanichi in May 2008, when Nakanichi originally won the title at Deep 35 Impact's middleweight tournament. Fukuda took the title by split decision.



~ The entire 16-man cast for the upcoming 10th season of "The Ultimate Fighter" will be revealed next week during the UFC 100 and UFC Fan Expo festivities. "The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights" began taping last month and is set to debut on Spike TV on Sept. 16. All 16 cast members, including Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson, will be unveiled on Friday, July 10 at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT local time) before signing autographs from 11 a.m. to noon PT at the UFC Fan Expo.



~ Former UFC fighter and "The Ultimate Fighter 4" cast member Mikey Burnett (5-2), who hasn't fought professionally in a decade, said a potential rematch with Pat Miletich (29-7-2) that would take place in Strikeforce is no longer an option. A troublesome neck will make the Miletich fight – any future fights – impossible. "I'll never be cleared to fight again," Burnett wrote. "Got a new MRI a few weeks ago. Arthritis has set in my spinal cord, and [the doctor] is not sure the surgery would change anything this long after – too much damage done to the cord."



~ GERWECK.NET is seeking a live reporter for the upcoming UFC 100 PPV. If anyone is available and interested, E-Mail GERWECK