Most mixed martial arts fans remember Noah Thomas (13-4) for his disastrous stint on The Ultimate fighter 5: Penn vs Pulver which saw Thomas involved in a drunken backyard brawl with housemate and self-proclaimed “King of The Streets” Marlon Sims. The two were subsequently kicked out of the house and banned from the UFC by president Dana White. Thomas however is now back under the Zuffa banner, as he has signed to fight on the upcoming WEC 41: Brown vs Faber II on June 7, 2009 at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, California.

On Friday June 19th, Strikeforce will put on their sophomore Sho- MMA Challengers series. The event takes place live from the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington. A main event of Joey Vilasenor (26-6) vs Evangelista Santos (16-12) has already been announced and now three more fights have officially been announced.

"UFC 101: Declaration" is set to take place Saturday August 8th live from the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania. The card is headlined by a lightweight title fight between BJ Penn vs Kenny Florian and has a co-main event of Anderson Silva taking on Forrest Griffin. Tickets were made available on Saturday, May 23rd and more than 10,000 tickets have already been sold.

Strikeforce has announced that the official weigh ins for "Lawler vs Shields" will take place Friday, June 5th at the Al Hrabosky's Ballpark Saloon located at 800 Cerre Street in St. Louis, Missouri. The weigh ins will start at 3pm Central and are free to attend. The main card will air live Saturday, June 6 on Showtime starting at 9pm Central.

"UFC 98: Evans vs Machida" took place May 23 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. A total of nine fighters have been medically suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Executive Director Keith Kizer issued paperwork announcing the suspensions.

Strikeforce "Lawler vs Shields" takes place Saturday June 6th from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. On Wednesday, May 27th, Strikeforce and Showtime held a conference call to promote the event. This marks the third event for Strikeforce that will be shown on Showtime. Mike Afromowitz of Strikeforce and fighters Andrei Arlovski, Scott Smith, and Brett Rogers were on hand during the call.

During an intermission during the Dream 9 event, several participants for the upcoming Dream 10 event were announced. The event, which takes place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, will include Shinya Aoki, Melvin Manhoef and Paulo Filho.

Dutch knockout artist Gilbert “The Hurricane” Yvel has relocated to the United States and plans to put his June 27th opponent, 3-time UFC heavyweight title challenger Pedro “The Rock” Rizzo, to sleep in the “Ultimate Chaos” co-feature live on pay-per-view from the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi.

After back-to-back knockout victories in the octagon, over former champ- ions Mark Coleman and Chuck Lid- dell, Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua has finally found his place amongst the elite in UFC light heavyweight div- ision. Now with a consensus top 5 ranking, Shogun is well aware that the fights will continue to get harder en route to possibly becoming the #1 light heavyweight in the world once again.  Accordingly, he sees "Sugar" Rashad Evans as the next obstacle in his path. 

It appears that for the second time Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante is getting a replacement opponent for the June 6th event "Stirkeforce: Lawler vs Shields." Although unconfirmed at this time, its seems that UFC Veteran Mike Kyle will be stepping in for the injured Jared Hamman.