MMAWeekly.com is reporting that Canadian middleweight Jason “Dooms” Day has withdrawn from his scheduled September 6th bout with Jason “The Punisher” Lambert. According to the report, Day suffered an elbow and biceps injury that will require him to undergo a MRI and keep him out of the fight.

Sherdog.com is now reporting that Day’s replacement will be fellow Canadian Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald.

MacDonald, a native of Pictou County, Nova Scotia, possesses a UFC record of 4-3 with victories over Ed Herman, Chris Leben, Rory Singer, and Joe Doerksen. MacDonald’s most recent outing came at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy where he fell victim to the ground game of Demian Maia after three grueling rounds.

Jason Lambert is looking to test his hand at 185 pounds after spending the majority of his career in the light heavyweight division. Lambert has gone 4-3 in the UFC with victories over Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Branden Lee Hinkle, Terry Martin, and Rob MacDonald.

UFC 88: Breakthrough is scheduled for Saturday, September 6, 2008 at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. The card will be headlined by a light heavyweight bout featuring former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell and Rashad Evans.

Over the past week, Canadian-middleweight Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald has been covering the happenings at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy on his blog at Sportsnet.ca.

In his most recent post, MacDonald discussed his upcoming bout with Demian Maia and how a lot of fans are focusing solely on Maia’s jiu-jitsu skills. MacDonald said, “Everyone’s talking about Maia’s jiu-jitsu, and there’s no doubt he’s a superb jiu-jitsu fighter. But I’m not going to turn this into a jiu-jitsu fight. I’m going to make this a mixed martial arts fight. That’s the bottom line. So, my prediction: I’ll TKO Maia in the second round.”

MacDonald is entering the fight as a +220 underdog but he feels he’ll flourish in the role. The last time the UFC considered MacDonald a stepping stone he submitted The Ultimate Fighter alumni Chris “The Crippler” Leben and Ed “Short Fuse” Herman.

MacDonald is currently 4-2 in the UFC but has failed to secure the necessary wins to consider him a legit contender. MacDonald’s two defeats came to former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin and Yushin Okami.

Another interesting note from MacDonald’s blog was that he used an IV to re-hydrate following Friday’s weigh-ins. “Afterward, when I got back to the hotel, I actually got an IV, which is I believe is one of the safest ways to re-hydrate,” said MacDonald, “I was probably already back up to 200 pounds by the evening.”

An anticipated Strikeforce lightweight title match between incumbent Gilbert Melendez and challenger Josh Thomson that was expected to have taken place on the undercard of the Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le main event on March 29, is now off.

The report comes from Sherdog.com’s Josh Gross, who indicates that the match was scratched after Thomson sustained an injury while training with “Razor” Rob McCullough at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif.

Apparently the shoulder had been previously injured and Thomson suffered a separation. The severity of the injury is not yet known but Gross reports that Thomson will undergo surgery on Thursday.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

Not only were there fights on Friday night at Strikeforce, but there was also news. Jerry Millen, of all people, announced that Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez will defend his title against Josh “The Punk” Thomson on their Strikeforce 8 card on March 29th.

That’s a big fight right there, ladies and gentlemen.

Also, after Cung Le’s impressive domination of Sam Morgan, he challenged Frank Shamrock for his Strikeforce middleweight title. Shamrock accepted.

Don’t be surprised if this fight is added to the March card as well. With these two fights coming up and coming off of a solid show on Friday, Strikeforce is moving in the right direction.

Strikeforce middleweight champion Frank Shamrock is no stranger when it comes to litigation in MMA and according to a new interview with Strikeforce lightweight title contender Josh Thomson on PunchDrunkGamer.com, Shamrock could find himself involved with another lawsuit.

During Yahoo!’s live stream of Strikeforce’s show this past Saturday from the Playboy Mansion, Shamrock claimed while he was commentating that Thomson is “MMA’s first openly gay fighter.”

Now, Thomson is apparently considering a suit for slander:

PDG: Last night during the broadcast on Yahoo sports, Frank Shamrock was commentating. When you entered the ring Frank said that you were “The first openly gay fighter in mixed martial arts.”

Josh: Yea I know I have been hearing about that. I think that my agent is in the process of hiring a lawyer to file a lawsuit against Frank for slander. We’ll see how that goes.

During the interview, Thomson also addressed the origins of the bad blood that exists between he and Shamrock:

PDG: Well the two of you have gone back forth recently with the taunts. What lead to the dislike between the two of you?

Josh: Really it is the fact that he left our gym and the American Kickboxing Academy fighters didn’t go with Frank. So he got all butt-hurt about the situation. So he started taking credit for all the AKA fighters. Saying we were all trained by him when in fact we were not. Frank likes to think that he trained me and Mike Swick and all the other guys. He never rolled or worked with any of us guys. My trainer Javier brought him in to spar with me, which is no different than Gilbert Melendez coming in to spar with me. He came in and worked with me a couple days a week — that doesn’t mean he is my coach. He was my training partner. If Frank wants to take credit for that then he is barking up the wrong tree. He was never my coach.

Click here for the entire interview.

Probably the biggest news coming out of tonight’s Strikeforce event at the Playboy Mansion is the news that UFC outcast, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, has just signed a contract with Strikeforce. He announced it during the main event of tonight’s card.

As for the fights themselves, they were pretty mediocre. Gilbert Melendez pretty much dominated Tetsuji Kato from the get go, peppering him with his superior boxing game. At one point, he knocked Kato flat on his ass and it appeared that the fight might be stopped. Kato recovered, however, and was able to weather the storm.

Melendez appeared to have hurt his right hand early in the second round and threw it very sparingly throughout the rest of the fight. It didn’t seem to matter much to Melendez, as he continued to win the fight with just his jab and a couple of takedowns. Melendez won a unanimous decision and said he’d love to fight Josh Thomson, who fought earlier in the night.

Melendez v. Thomson is something I think we’d all love to see. Those guys are both top-notch lightweights.

Regarding Josh Thomson, he won rather easily. The story coming out of the night regarding Josh Thomson was Frank Shamrock’s comments about Thomson as he was coming into the cage. Shamrock said something along the lines of “Josh is the first openly gay MMA fighter.” Shamrock shows, once again, that he’s a classless kinda guy. Something tells me he’s still salty over the whole “Frank Glamrock Is My Bitch!” tee shirt that Thomson wore into the cage one night.

Later on, Cung Le would go on to say: “Um. Josh Thomson has a girlfriend. I’ve met her.”

Two former UFC fighters, Joe Riggs and Eugene Jackson fought on the card, with Riggs coming out on top. The fight was really never in question as Riggs dominated the entire fight, eventually pounding Jackson out about halfway into the second round. Riggs belongs back in the UFC. Everyone says he’s a beast in the gym, but he needs to put it together when fight time comes. Even though the competition tonight was nowhere near top caliber, Riggs took care of business.

In other action on the card, WWE Tough Enough winner, Daniel Puder won a three round decision. His fight was a snoozer for sure. The entire first round he tried to pull off a standing guillotine. I’m not kidding. 5 full minutes of straining to pull off a standing guillotine. He was trying so hard that his legs were shaking. Incredible waste of energy. I personally have no interest in seeing Puder fight again.

Overall, this show was a D+. Production was weak, you couldn’t even tell they were at the Playboy Mansion. Light the place up a little, give us a little atmosphere. Terrible commentating from Shamrock. Sometimes the camera angles would just be zoomed in on one of the padded poles in the cage and would completely miss action inside the cage. The fights overall were pretty lackluster, but it was good to see Riggs, Thomson, and especially Melendez get back into the cage.

San Jose-based fight promotion Strikeforce has announced the first official match for its upcoming show on Saturday, Sept. 29 at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Josh “The Punk” Thomson (34-2) will square off against former IFL fighter Adam Lynn (11-7) in a clash of 155 lbs. fighters.

No other matches have officially been announced although Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Bobby Southworth, and Daniel Puder are still being advertised for the card.

Former Pride lightweight title contender Gilbert Melendez will be returning to his roots when he fights for the Strikeforce promotion on September 29 in Beverly Hills, Calif. at the Playboy Mansion.

Yes, you read that right: the Playboy Mansion. MMA and an abundance of fake breasts is a brilliant combination. Scott Coker is a genius. There’s going to be a ton of celebs there and media requests from all over.

Melendez, who is undefeated, became a free agent not too long after Dream Stage Entertainment sold Pride to Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta. He announced in June in an interview for ProElite.com that he was officially free to negotiate with other organizations. However, FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned that Melendez has not signed a new deal with Strikeforce, but will be fighting under the terms of an existing deal that has been signed since last April.

Regardless, it’s good news knowing that one of the most gifted lightweights in the world is going to start fighting again.

Strikeforce has also announced that Josh Thomson, Bobby Southworth, and Daniel Puder will be fighting on the 10-fight card.

I’ll have more details as they become available.