While nothing has been made official by the promotion, Strikeforce is expected to announce a date and location for the show soon. Rumors have Portland, Oregon as the host site with a middleweight title-fight between Luke Rockhold and Tim Kennedy serving as the main event.

MMAFighting confirmed the news of the Gracie-Jardine bout and event location with several sources.

Gracie (4-1) lost his last match at light heavyweight to Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, pushing him to make the drop to the ranks of the middleweights after starting out strong at 205 pounds. As his last name might indicate, Gracie is a widely respected BJJer with numerous awards at the highest level relating to his chosen discipline.

Meanwhile, Jardine (17-10-2) is a UFC veteran who made his 185-pound debut in Rockhold’s first and only title-defense, losing in the opening round of action. Regardless of the stumble, Jardine has racked up a number of impressive wins in his career including those of Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Gracie suffered the first loss of his MMA career in his most recent bout with former Strikeforce champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal earning a knockout victory over him this past September. Along with a 4-1 mark in MMA, Gracie is also 65-7 while competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission grappling events during his career.

“Roger Gracie signs with UFC, might train with Anderson Silva before his first bout,” GRACIEMAG posted on its Twitter site late Friday night.

Gracie had recently been linked to a move down in divisions though nothing was mentioned in terms of whether or not his change to the UFC will affect those plans.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

According to his team, decorated submission specialist Roger Gracie is contemplating a move down from light heavyweight now that he’s fully focused on a career in MMA rather than on the mat.

Word of Gracie’s pending decision came from a conversation between manager Jorge Guimaraes and TATAME where the representative said, “He’s considering dropping, but it’s not set in stone yet.”

“To me, he has all the tools to build up a great MMA career, he just needs some work, (and to be) focused,” Guimaraes continued.

Guimaraes also revealed Gracie could be joining Anderson Silva’s Team Blackhouse in the coming months as well.

Gracie is 4-1 in MMA including wins over veterans like Trevor Prangley and Kevin Randleman. His first loss came in September when he was stopped with strikes by former title-holder Muhammed Lawal. He is also one of the most accomplished BJJers in recent history, winning numerous titles including one in the coveted ADCC Absolute bracket.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

According to Strikeforce, female welterweight champ Marloes Coenen will put her gold up for grabs against 11-2 Miesha Tate before the PRIDE veterans duel it out in the main event, while former 205-pound king Muhammed Lawal will look to get one step closer to reclaiming his divisional crown against undefeated submission artist Roger Gracie.

“Takedown” Tate solidified her shot at Coenen’s belt with back-to-back victories this past August in a single-night tournament while also running her current winning streak to five in the process. The 24-year old has found success in the ring against the likes of Hitomi Akano and Zoila Gurgel. Interestingly enough, Tate has yet to be tapped out in her career while fourteen of Coenen’s nineteen total wins have come by way of submission.

The defense will mark the second for Coenen after having originally earned the strap by beating Sarah Kaufman last October and retaining it, albeit after absorbing a good deal of damage, against Liz Carmouche a few months ago at “Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson”.

Also set for the July 30 show, BJJ royalty will grace the Strikeforce cage as world-class grappler Gracie will go for the fifth victory in as many attempts since transitioning from the mat to Mixed Martial Arts. All four of his performances thus far have resulted in a submission win including an opening round Rear-Naked Choke of Trevor Prangley this past January.

Gracie’s opponent, Lawal, has been sidelined since losing the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt to Rafael Cavalcante ten months ago after undergoing knee surgery. The loss was Lawal’s first taste of defeat after racking up seven straight wins to open up his career including an April 2010 outpointing of Gegard Mousasi.

PHOTO CREDIT – STRIKEFORCE

However, it looks as though signing with Strikeforce has finally cured the infrequency of his appearances in the cage, and fans may finally start having some answers in terms of how far Gracie can go in MMA.

According to a report first broken on MMARising, Gracie will look build off his win over Kevin Randleman this past May against seasoned veteran Trevor Prangley at Strikeforce’s upcoming show on January 29 in San Jose.

The bout marks the first time is his career he will have fought twice in the same twelve-month span, while comparably his opponent will enter the match-up with 10X the in-ring experience including career wins over Keith Jardine and Niko Vitale, as well as accomplished submission-grapplers like Travis Lutter and Matt Horwich. Additionally, Prangley has only been tapped twice in his career with his last loss via submission coming almost six years ago.

On top of Gracie’s attempt at continuing to live up to his last name, the card in question is also expected to feature a title-fight between middleweight champ Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and devastating striker Rob Lawler, as well as Herschel Walker in action and rumored appearances by Jason Miller, Tim Kennedy, and Nick Diaz.

In a recent interview with Tatame.com the decorated Brazlian Jiu-Jitsu black belt had this to say, “I have plans to fight, maybe on November 20. I still don’t have an opponent, but if my knee is good and I could train until then, I think there’s a lot of chances of me to fight until this day“.

Now if Roger has his dates correct, this would most likely be a possible event being aired on Showtime, being that a Strikeforce Challengers card is already set for Showtime on November 6, with the highly anticipated Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers event taking place the next day, November 7, live on CBS.

As it stands right now, this big man of the long respected Gracie clan has compile a 2-0 record, ending both fights via first round submission.

Roger’s first bout took place at a Bodog event in 2006, before most recently seeing action during Sengoku 2 in May of 2008 where he finished Yuki Kondo off with a first round rear-naked stranglehold.

The news comes courtesy of a recent report made by GracieMag.com.

Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg is set to take place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

No news of an expected opponent for the 6’4″, 220 pound Gracie has been announced at this time.

Roger is a second degree black belt under Carlos Gracie Jr., a multiple champion in Ji-Jitsu and sports an unblemished record of 2-0 up to this point in his professional mixed martial arts career. Both of his previous victories have come by way of submission, and both have come in the first round.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker confirmed they are close to finalizing the terms of a multi-fight deal with Gracie In a recent report published by Sports Illustrated columnist Josh Gross.

Gracie who is 2-0 in his MMA career and comes from a long line of great competitors as the Gracie family is known world-wide, and  are credited with teaching their style of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu all around the world. The 27 year old Gracie would compete in the heavyweight division which currently has Alistair Overeem as its champion with Fabricio Werdum and Brett Rogers leading the pack of contenders.

In 2005 Gracie won the ADCC World Championships at 98 Kilograms. He also won the open-weight division by becoming the first man to submit all 8 of his opponents.

According to Coker they will bring Gracie along slowly by placing him on their Strikeforce: Challenger Series events which will air on Showtime. Although he carries the Gracie name they will need to build him up to MMA fans and this is the perfect way to do so. Coker went on to say that he was hoping to get Gracie an opponent sometime in the fall.

Wiuff is 53-11, according to Sherdog’s fight finder, and is currently on a 10-fight winning streak. He last fought at Sengoku 3 in June, where he knocked out Kazuyuki Fujita at 1:24 of round 1. Prior to that Wiuff won YAMMA’s eight-man, single-night heavyweight tournament on April 11 by recording wins over Marcelo Donald Pereira, Chris Tuchscherer, and former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez.

Gracie, one of the best pure heavyweight grapplers on the competitive circuit, is 2-0 in his brief MMA career. He debuted in 2006 with a first round submission of Ron Waterman during BodogFIGHT’s “USA vs. Russia” event. Gracie then returned to action this past May during Sengoku 2, where he submitted Yuki Kondo with a rear naked choke at 2:40 of round 1.

Sengoku 5 will emanate from Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan and in addition to Wiuff vs. Gracie, the show will feature the first round of the Sengoku middleweight Grand Prix. First round matchups include Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Paul Cahoon, Jorge Santiago vs. Logan Clark, Yuki Kondo vs. Yuki Sasaki, and Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos vs. Siyar Bahadurzada.

Non-tournament fights for the card also include Takashi Sugiura vs. Xande Ribeiro (light heavyweight), Kiuma kunioku vs. A Sol Kwon (lightweight), and former IFL lightweight champion Ryan Schultz vs. Jorge Masvidal (lightweight).

Gracie, one of the best pure heavyweight grapplers on the competitive circuit, is 2-0 in his brief MMA career. He debuted in 2006 with a first round submission of Ron Waterman during BodogFIGHT’s “USA vs. Russia” event. Gracie then returned to action this past May during Sengoku 2, where he submitted Yuki Kondo with a rear naked choke at 2:40 of round 1.

Gracie’s opponent for Sengoku 5 has yet to be named.

The promotion has also announced that Yuki Sasaki has been added to a Middleweight Grand Prix field that already includes Jorge Santiago, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, and Siyar Bahadurzada.

Also added to the card in separate bouts were Jorge Masvidal and Xande Ribeiro. Masvidal had been rumored as a challenger to Josh Thomson and Thomson’s Strikeforce lightweight title during the San Jose-based promotion’s Sept. 20 show at the Playboy Mansion. It’s unlikely that Masvidal will be fighting for Strikeforce on that date in light of Sengoku’s announcement.

Marshall will fight for the promotion on July 18 at PFC 9 in Lemoore, Calif. against an opponent that has yet to be announced. All indications are that Marshall received permission to sign with the PFC and is still a part of the WEC roster.

While this isn’t the promotion’s best lineup on paper, I still think it’s a good show and you can’t judge a WEC card by how it looks on paper. Some of the best matchmaking in MMA takes place in the WEC so tonight’s show could easily be a sleeper card.

Since I can’t wait to kick back and watch this show tonight, I felt it would be a big mistake not to give my thoughts on what I am expecting from the televised bouts.

Doug Marshall vs. Brian Stann for the WEC Light Heavyweight Title:

A lot of haters out there have ripped Brian Stann in the past but I’m a fan of the guy. And after meeting him in person last year, I developed even more respect for him.

Brian Stann is all about three things: his family, the U.S. Marine corps, and fighting. I hate when people rip him for talking up his experience in the military because it’s a case of the WEC wisely promoting that aspect of his background and the media making the decision to ask him about it. If people don’t like the fact that his military credentials are being promoted, blame the media and the WEC. But to expect the media or the WEC to try and downplay his military background is kind of naive.

All Stann has done is what is asked of him and has only taken what’s been given to him. Is he ready for this spot? I think so. Granted, he doesn’t have a lot of fights under his belt but his hands are very impressive. He’s a big, strong fighter who is only going to get better once he’s able to devote even more time to training.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF SAM CAPLAN’S WEC PREVIEW ON HIS PROELITE.COM BLOG

There are a lot of things to like about Brian Stann. In addition to serving our (well, I guess it isn’t our country if you’re not in the U.S. and you’re reading this) country as a member of the United States Marine Corps, he also has an appreciation for the mental aspect of fighting. I know a lot of you think I make too big of a deal about the mental game but it’s the most overlooked aspect of fighting.

Stann focuses on his mental preparation and believes he’ll have an edge in that department when he eventually faces current WEC light heavyweight champion Doug “Rhino” Marshall.

Q: How do you think you match up with current WEC light heavyweight champion Doug “Rhino” Marshall?

BS: I think I match up great against him. He likes to slug it out and slugging it out and going toe-to-toe is not the way to beat me. I’m all about it if that’s what he wants to do. I feel comfortable going anywhere the fight can go: ground, transition, or standup with him. So I think I match up well with him.

Q: What do you think is the biggest weakness in his game right now?

BS: I think the mental side of the game. I don’t think that he’s as mentally strong as I am to stick to a game plan and overcome adversity in the cage.

Another thing I like about Stann is that he’s also from PA. Scranton to be exact. The first fighter to be featured in “Bring the Pain” was EliteXC’s Jon Murphy, who is from Minersville, PA.

I definitely think you should check out my new interview with him on CBSSports.com. We talk about a number of things, including the war in Iraq. Stann has done two tours over there and was even awarded a Silver Star. Needless to say, my interview with him wasn’t your average MMA Q&A.

Stann will be in action on Wednesday night when the WEC hits the airwaves again on Versus, live from Vegas at 9 p.m. ET. To get some more background on him, I highly suggest you read my interview with him by clicking here.