Friday Morning Rumor Fun

With March Madness upon us it only makes sense for the MMA-verse to be hit with several awesomely weird rumors all at once.

The Tito Ortiz, broken neck, out of TUF 11, he's actually an alien, rumor is certainly the crown jewel of MMA gossip talk but here are two more rumors that are equally gooey.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Hideheko Yoshida at ASTRA

If you think gossip about Tito Ortiz's head is a guilty pleasure then you've never been introduced to the cocaine that is Fedor MMA rumor talk. Middle Easy provides us with a translation of an upcoming Japanese publication, which says that Fedor vs. Yoshida may be going down: 

An article in tomorrow's Nikkan Sports newspaper says that Yoshida's retirement fight in ASTRA will most likely be against Fedor. The exact quote is "Retirement match against Fedor, world's strongest man". According to the newspaper, Fedor's camp got in contact with Yoshida when he announced his retirement fight somewhere around February 8th and both parties have been negotiating ever since. There is a final meeting that will be held in Japan at DREAM.13 which should finalize the negotiations. If nothing pans out after DREAM.13, then they apparently have other fighters readily available to fight Yoshida.

Oh my god! Fedor is going to be at DREAM.13? Will he be ring side? Does this mean he is leaving Strikeforce? Will Fedor demand that they bring back a-track tapes?! WKR needs to know!

D.W. of Head Kick Legend says 'hold on a second'.

As always, a grain of sand, possibly salt when it comes to rumors like this, especially from a dirtsheet like Nikkan Sports. They can be incredibly accurate or they can grasp at straws for strong headlines to peddle their wares. Until we get something official, consider this a rumor.

Tabloid headlines, eh? We would never do that...

Update: Fedor may be fighting in an exhibition bout a week prior to Strikeforce in April.

Erin Toughill left Strikeforce

Say what? According to Frank Pozen, who covers women's MMA, Toughill announced on her Facebook page that she is leaving Strikeforce. Um, okay?

Kind of weird for Toughill to leave Strikeforce when she has never actually fought for them and is widely considered to be the next challenger for Cyborg. How many fighters do you know that would leave a promotion prior to receiving the most prominent fight of their career.

I think there is a Raffi song for this...

Now for the disclaimer. WKR looked for Toughill's Facebook account and couldn't find one. Hooray for rumors!

Update: Here's Toughill's Facebook message:

Well, the possible Cyborg-Toughill fight just spectacularly flamed out.