The news comes courtesy of a report by MMAjunkie.com’s John Morgan.

Lawson is 12-2 in his pro MMA career and earned a UFC contract after amassing a ten fight winning streak that dates back to November of 2006. The UK native has fought primarily for British promotions such as Cage Rage Contenders, Cage Warriors and Absolute Adrenaline. Over 90 percent of Lawson’s victories have come via submission.

In debuting against Gugerty, he’ll be challenging a fighter who has already competed in the UFC twice. The San Diego resident made his Octagon debut this past July at UFC Fight Night 14, where he submitted Dale Hart with a rear naked choke at 3:33 of round 1. He returned at UFC 90 in October, this time losing via submission against Spencer Fisher. The defeat dropped Gugerty’s overall MMA record to 11-3.

As of now, the UFC has yet to officially announce any fights for UFC 95 but matchups between Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Stevenson, Wilson Gouveia vs. Nathan Marquardt, and Justin Buchholz vs. Terry Etim have all been reported. Additionally, Neil Grove and Stefan Struve are expected to compete on the card in separate bouts.

The reason for Guillard’s removal from the card is not yet known and the UFC has yet to officially name a replacement. However, MMAjunkie.com is reporting that Fisher’s new opponent is Shannon Gugerty.

Gugerty is 11-2, according to Sherdog’s fight finder and made his UFC debut during UFC Fight Night 14 on July 19. Facing fellow newcomer Dale Hartt, Gugerty won via submission after executing a rear naked choke at 3:33 of round 1.

Fisher, a member of Pat Miletich’s Miletich Fighting Systems, is a veteran of nine UFC fights and holds a career record of 6-3 when competing inside the Octagon. His last fight took place in June during the live season finale for the seventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Facing fellow native Iowa native Jeremy Stephens, Fisher recorded a unanimous decision victory.

UFC 90 is scheduled to be headlined by UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva defending his title vs. challenger Patrick Cote. Diego Sanchez and Thiago Alves are also scheduled to square off in a match in which the winner is guaranteed a future shot at the UFC welterweight title.

Apy Echteld, one of Fedor’s agents, told ESPN The Magazine that Fedor could be a free agent as early as next week:

Apy Echteld, one of Emelianenko’s agents, confirmed what a source close to the situation previously told The Magazine: M-1 Global and Emelianenko will part ways some time in the next week, making the Russian a free agent. Divorce negotiations are ongoing right now, with a formal announcement likely for in the next few days. “Officially, yes, Fedor will be a free agent,” Echteld says.

And apparently Dana White is open to negotiation with Fedor and his people again should that be the case:

“Absolutely, 100 percent, in a heartbeat,” says White. “People think he’s the best—I don’t, not even close. But if it’s somehow possible, I would make it happen.”

“I like Randy, I genuinely like to think he’s a good guy,” White says. “As much as we’ve gone back and forth on this, I would sign Fedor and do everything possible to get Randy in the octagon with him. I’d do anything, because a., it’s a great fight and b., I think Randy would smash Fedor.”

I’ll believe all this when it comes to fruition, but don’t you think news like this regarding Fedor should be coming from Vadim Finklestein instead of Apy Echteld? Vadim is Fedor’s main agent and it just seems odd to me that this news isn’t coming from him. It’s nice to have hope, however, and for those of us pining for this fight, this is very good news.

Update (from Sam Caplan): MMAWeekly.com spoke with M-1 Global CEO Monte Cox last night and Cox indicated that Fedor is still with the promotion and he expects him to fight for M-1 Global in the spring. Without knowing with ESPN the Magazine spoke with Echteld, it’s hard to decipher fact from fiction.

Is this a case of the management of Fedor and the management of M-1 Global yet again not being on the same page? Or, is this a case of the Echteld quotes not being recent? Prior to speaking with Cox last week, I had heard many rumors that Fedor was on the verge of becoming a free agent and his management was already soliciting proposals from other promotions. After speaking with Cox several times last week, he indicated that a breakthrough had been made.

Regardless, if Fedor is indeed a free agent, I highly doubt that his management will be able to work out a deal with the UFC.

I’ll be making some phone calls today and hopefully will have an update later on.

During the interview, I put Cox on the spot on multiple occasions, even asking him to address rumors as to whether rumors were true that Fedor’s management was shopping his services around again:

Q: There have been some rumors going around that Fedor Emelianenko’s management was shopping him around to other promotions. There have also been rumors that the relationship between Fedor’s management and M-1 Global was not going very well. At any point during recent discussions, was the possibility of severing ties with Fedor ever discussed?

MC: I think in the last five months we’ve looked at every scenario possible. We’ve looked at continuing without Fedor and I’m sure Fedor has looked at working with somebody else. It’s been a difficult five months but like (M-1 Chairman) Mitchell Maxwell says, anything worth doing takes time. And there’s difficulty involved in that and that’s what I think is happening here. I think it would have been easy to just say let’s go out and do a show and then figure it out. And all of us involved said “No, no, no.”

When we go out and do a show we’re going to have all of our ducks in a row. We’re going to have complete agreement as to how we’re doing something at that date and time. The language barrier is something that definitely adds to the time. All documents have to be translated into Russian, and that’s not easy. Then it goes back after a few changes and it gets translated and then we re-change it. So it’s really been a lot more difficult than I expected but we had a breakthrough this week and I think we’re getting close.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you want the full inside scoop on M-1 Global and Fedor, I recommend you click here to check it out.

*                    *                    *

I’ve received several e-mails requesting what my predictions are for UFC 82. My picks for tonight’s show are available on CBSSports.com in the Head-to-Head preview put together by editor Denny Burkholder. Burkholder, Gregg Doyel, Ben Fowlkes, and Todd Martin have all submitted picks as well. Click here to check them out.

There are also unconfirmed reports that Randy Couture will be heading up an American team, but we have yet to find a source to back up this claim.

Click after the jump for the team rosters.

From m1mixfight:

M-1 Global is launching a new project – M-1 Challenge that will show the best teams all over the world battle it out against each each other. The events will take place in different countries. Each team will consist of 5 MMA-fighters competing in the following weight categories: 70, 76, 84, 93, +93

Based on the information from the Dutch MMA sites the teams (and their respective trainers) from the following countries will be represented:

Russia – Fedor Emelianenko

Finland – Petteri Maunu

Spain – Alexandro Iglesias

Germany – Human Niklasmak

Poland – Maciej Kawulski

Skandinavia – Marco Leistens

France – Bertrand Amoussou

Holland will be represented by 2 teams under Remco Pardoel and Bob Schrijber.

March,2: The inaugural M-1 Challenge show is scheduled to take place in Holland (Topsportcentrum in Almere) where 4 teams will be placed in brackets with one fighter in each weight class competing against an athlete from another country.

Muay Thai
Anuwat Kaewsamrit vs TBA

Saenchai Sor Kingstar vs Rachid Bellaini

Samranchai 96Penang vs Menno Dijkstra

Andy Souwer vs Yodsaenklai Fairtex
Germaine de Randamie vs Maria Verheijen

Ali Gunyar vs Farid Villaume

MMA

M-1 Team Challenge Russia vs France
Red Devil (Russia) – Team Amossou (France)

-70kg Mikhail Malutin – Casimir Bendy

-76kg Erik Oganov – Khacha Mohamed (to be confirmed)

-84kg Dmitri Samoilov – Amassou Karl

-93kg Mikhail Zayats – Daffreville Christophe

+93 Kirill Sidelnikov – Assenin Akim

M-1 Team Challenge Holland vs Germany

+93kg: Jessie Gibbs vs Thorsten Kronz

-93kg: Gegard Mousasi vs Jacoub Ünül

-83kg: Jason Jones vs Daniel Weichel

-73kg: Romano de los Reyes vs Franco de Leonardis

-65kg: Jordy Peute vs Robert Scott Westermann

MMA Single Bouts

Brian Lo-A-Njoe vs Sergey Bytchkov

Dave Dalgliesh vs Kamil Uygun

Oktay Karatas vs Furdjel de Windt

i have one fight left on my contract i want to stay with the ufc but i am going to go were the money is right now Brock is making more m0ney then me that has to change i have a better name then him and i am a better fighter then him, in case u didn’t know my manager runs m1 so i have a pretty good in so we will see what happens in the next few months.

If this is for real, this will be another serious blow to the UFC heavyweight division, obviously. This seems like just another indicator of how Zuffa is really running the UFC. It’ll be interesting to see how Zuffa handles this situation, be it giving Sylvia more money or letting him leave for M-1, and if it will effect other fighters perception of the UFC and how Zuffa is handling their fighters.

For UFC 81, Sylvia earned $100,000 for his losing effort against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, plus an addition $60,000 for “fight of the night” honors. Brock Lesnar on the other hand, earned $250,000 for his loss against former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir, and had he won he would have earned an additional $200,000.

Rumors about a potential show in May have been rampant on the Internet with several potential matches being reported. However, many of rumored matchups thus far appear to be untrue. In fact, the M-1 Global official indicated that aside from Fedor Emelianenko, the promotion currently doesn’t even have any other fighters under contract. While the promotion is in talks with several fighters, nothing has been finalized.

This could be a big move for M-1, gobbling up some more of the UFC’s talent pool from which to draw fighters. While it never sounded like Barnett and the UFC were interested in coming to terms with one another and burying the hatchet from years past, it still leaves them without the option of signing Barnett. With the UFC’s heavyweight division in serious need of an infusion of talent, taking a heavyweight like Josh Barnett off the market is a pretty big deal.

Not to mention that if Josh Barnett has signed a deal with M-1, fans would possibly get a matchup that they’ve asked for many times before. If we can’t have Couture vs. Fedor right now then we’ll take Josh Barnett vs. Fedor as a consolation prize until Randy is done with whatever the hell he’s doing.

With the writer’s strike expected to become protracted, major networks are exploring various programming alternatives. The networks will start running out of fresh shows early next year, at which time it is anticipated that viewers will start being presented with increased offerings of reality television and sports telecasts.

One of the top sports options being explored by major networks in mixed martial arts and reports leaked out last week that CBS and the UFC were engaged in talks that could lead to a prime time telecast on Feb. 2.

Neither CBS or the UFC have confirmed the reports.

While CBS has yet to sign a formal agreement with the UFC and has had talks with other fight promotions, the UFC is considered the leading candidate to sign with CBS. One of the other promotions that has had talks with CBS is EliteXC, a promotion in which CBS is partially invested in.

Despite the talks with EliteXC, it would surprise me if a deal with the UFC was not reached. I’ve been told that CBS is entertaining talks with other promotions to decrease the UFC’s bargaining leverage. It is also believed they want to have a backup plan in the event that CBS and the UFC can’t come to mutually agreeable terms.

Using other promotions as leverage when trying to strike a deal with an MMA promotion is nothing new to the industry. The UFC had been engaged in prolonged talks with Showtime last year. Once the prospect of a deal with HBO came to light, Zuffa took the UFC deal off the table and tried to pitch the WEC to Showtime. I’ve been told that Showtime senior vice president Ken Hershman didn’t appreciate Zuffa’s negotiation tactic and green lighted a deal with EliteXC. If EliteXC hadn’t been an option, the WEC could possibly be on Showtime instead of Versus.

In regards to NBC and a potential partner, the MediaDailyNews article speculates that K-1, the IFL, and M-1 Global as potential options. FiveOuncesOfPain.com learned late last week that NBC has indeed spoken to the IFL and M-1 Global. Talks with both promotions were not categorized as being serious in nature.

The IFL has a current deal with MyNetworkTV but a deal for 2008 has not been executed. The team-based promotion also has not secured a deal for a live broadcast of the finals for their World Grand Prix on Dec. 29, although we were informed last week that talks toward a deal for a two-hour live broadcast on MNTV were expected to intensify this week.

It will be interesting to see how serious NBC is about M-1 Global. I’ve heard that M-1 has already approached ESPN and HBO about a television deal but to my knowledge, talks have yet to progress to a serious level. The fact that Fedor Emelianenko is not a household name with the U.S. audience has been an initial hurdle. In order to facilitate a deal, M-1 Global may need to sign some fighters that have strong name recongition with North American audiences. It remains to be seen if such fighters are available.
It also wouldn’t be surprising if the UFC ends up talking to NBC. Just as CBS wants to have leverage during talks, I’m sure the UFC would like to have leverage as well.

Zach Arnold from FightOpinion.com also brings up that the WWE could be a possibility as an MMA option for NBC. The WWE already has existing deals to televise wrestling on NBC and the USA Network, which are both properties of NBC Universal. And when Vince McMahon created the XFL, NBC got involved as a television partner.

No one can deny that the WWE has a strong relationship with NBC Universal but I tend to doubt the possibility of NBC using them for mixed martial arts. The Chris Benoit tragedy and negative press regarding a multitude of steroid suspensions over the past few months could be major drawbacks. The idea of also televising a legitimate sport that is being produced by a company that is primarily known for a scripted product would also have to be a concern. Granted, NBC decided to broadcast the XFL but that enterprise can’t exactly be considered a success (unless you’re a fan of Rod Smart).

In addition to CBS and NBC, I’ve also heard that FOX and ABC have explored televising MMA from a cursory perspective. Regarding FOX, it also owns MNTV. The IFL not only broadcasts on MNTV but also Fox Sports Net.

It will be interesting to see if the UFC becomes tempted to resurrect PRIDE so that they have an additional brand that they can market. The biggest question is whether there is enough available talent to stock a new version of PRIDE. As such, trying to market the WEC to major networks might be a more feasible idea.

2008 is already shaping up as an interesting year for MMA.