While most MMA pundits wouldn’t consider Bellator Fighting Championships
and the UFC direct rivals, they soon will be – in court.

According to a report by Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole, Zuffa, LLC, the
parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has filed suit in a
Nevada court against MMA Agents’ head Ken Pavia and the Bellator
organization.

At the center of the concern is alleged theft of “trade secrets and
confidential Zuffa documents,” which Zuffa contends Pavia passed along
to Bellator officials.

Yahoo Sports!’s Kevin Iole reports that Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, has filed suit against Bellator FC and a leading fighter agent for allegedly stealing trade secrets…

Paul Kelly isn’t getting goaded into a war of words. He just wants a plain old-fashioned war…

Thomas Gerbasi, UFC – “You gotta start growing up and taking things serious.”
The words directed at Jacob Volkmann two years ago didn’t come from his wife, his parents, or a close friend, but from the owner of a bank in his hometown of Fergus Falls, Minnesota who apparently believed that being a professional fighter wasn’t the right path for a family man who was also a practicing chiropractor.

With a career record of 22-5, UFC welterweight Jake Ellenberger was doing just fine the way things were.

But in the ultra-competitive world of professional mixed martial arts,
if you’re not moving forward, you’re about to get passed up.

With that in mind, Ellenberger took his training camp from his native
Nebraska to Orange County, California, and he’s looking forward to
displaying the results at this weekend’s UFC on Versus 2 event.

In our latest installment of HDNet Fights Video Vault, we take a look at
a female contest from a recent Xtreme Fighting Championships event.

In our fight-of-the-week feature, Marianna “The Crushen Russian”
Kheyfets made her professional debut against two-time Strikeforce
veteran Kim “Sugar Free” Couture.

The fight served as the co-main event of HDNet’s July 9 broadcast of
“XFC 11: The Next Generation” at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla.

The difference for Randi Miller came when a roommate put in a University of Iowa wrestling tape.

Before that, the daughter of a firefighter and public relations
executive didn’t feel like she was reaching her potential in female
wrestling after starting the sport as a senior at her Texas high school,
where the sport was more accepted for girls.

Now after securing an Olympic bronze medal and being named the 2008 U.S.A. Wrestling Female Wrestler of the Year, Miller eyes her mixed martial arts debut, and she’s not willing to settle for less than a championship belt.

Vitor Vianna hasn’t had a mixed-martial-arts fight in 26 months.

But just think about what he has done since: Move from his native Brazil
to Las Vegas because Wanderlei Silva was once so impressed with fights
he saw years ago he wanted Vianna in his camp. Become a teacher at
Silva’s gym. And gain a buzz that is one of the most significant for the
relatively unknown fighter in Vegas.

He just hasn’t been fighting, but not all by his choice.

Duane “Bang” Ludwig isn’t the only fighter getting back to his feet.

UFC middleweight Jason MacDonald on Tuesday had two
three-inch screws removed his ankle and was cleared for light training.

MacDonald suffered a broken tibula, a dislocated ankle and bone and
ligament damage when John Salter took him down in the first round of
their fight at UFC 113.

At 38 years old, UFC newcomer Todd Brown has a
lifetime of combat sports competition under his belt. Toughman contests,
amateur boxing, kickboxing – Brown has done it all.

So while the Indiana native certainly won’t have youth on his side when
he faces veteran slugger Tim Boetsch at August’s UFC
117 event, Brown said he’ll have something even better to rely on: a
proven track record of hard work.

“In this case, my age is probably a good thing,” Brown told
MMAjunkie.com Radio.