Mike "Joker" Guymon apparently has avoided his walking papers for now.

Fellow welterweight DaMarques Johnson recently posted news of an upcoming fight with the veteran at a currently unannounced Jan. 22 UFC event.

As MMAjunkie.com previously reported, the event is expected to take place in conjunction with Fort Hood in Texas, likely as a "UFC Fight for the Troops" event as UFC Fight Night 23.

(Step one of trying to create a strategic partnership with another organization: Publicly claim CEO of other organization is a goddamned liar. That's some Dale Carnegie shit, right there. PicProps: Connect.in.com)

We’ve got a classic (and totally stupid) media gambit on our hands here between Bellator honcho Bjorn Rebney and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. Ever since Bellator decided that one of its primary corporate strategies would be to continually repeat the dubious claim that Eddie Alvarez is the No.1 lightweight fighter in the world, it’s been publicly pushing for a co-promotional, company vs. company show with Strikeforce. Rebney took the idea to the MMA media, saying he’d “love” for the two promotions to double-up on a pay-per-view effort featuring a bevy of cross-brand championship matches, but that Coker wasn’t calling him back about it. In response, Coker – who’s always down for totally mishandling a public relations opportunity – went on Sherdog Radio this week to say he too was interested, but denied he’d ever heard from Rebney and accused Bellator of pulling a PR stunt. Naturally, Bellator’s next move was to release what it alleges are a bunch of Rebney’s text messages to Coker. Ruh-roh.

It's pretty easy to imagine someone in the Bellator office pumping their fist and yelling out, “Checkmate, motherfucker!” as they hit “send” on this particular email, which reportedly contained four fairly low-quality snapshots of Rebney’s texts. The images are after the jump, of course. If you squint, you can even kind of read them.

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Former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber will be making the drop down to the Bantemweight division for his next contest and spoke with MMAWeekly about the weight change and why it works for him:<br><br> "The whole reason I’m able to do this is because I’m the same size as all the 135-pounders anyways. It’s just not going to be like at 145 where I could eat full meals the night before weigh-ins and stuff like that. It’s not necessarily going to be the worst thing in the world, but it’s not going to be fun either. I knew this was going to happen. When I first started fighting I wanted to fight at 135, but no one was offering the weight class. I went up two weight classes and I came back down to 145 and made a stand and said, hey, I’m going to fight here and really helped to build up that weight class. The bottom line is it’s getting more competitive and it’s just like college wrestling now. It wasn’t as competitive because there wasn’t as many eyes on the sport. I’ve been the same size as 135-pounders for a while. When I fought Jose Aldo I walked into the cage around 153. Mike Brown said he was 166. We were fighting in the same weight class and 13 pounds difference. Basically that’s kind of what you’re looking at. I’ve been doing really well even though I’ve been giving up some size. It’s been going really well. I feel like I’m back in college, which is not necessarily a great thing because I was cutting weight all through college. I feel really good at about 147 to 149 pounds. That’s where I’m walking around at now. It’s just basically been not having to stuff myself and being real strict on my diet. I feel great."

Alex Davis, manager for Gesias "JZ" Calvancante spoke with MMAWeekly.com this week to discuss his prized lightweight's return to the Strikeforce cage and who he would like to see across from him when he does:<Br><br> "I’ve heard from Strikeforce that he’ll probably be fighting in January or February. They didn’t have enough space on the December card. JZ had been awhile without fighting. He took the fight in Japan in which he did well, he fought real safe, and then it took a little while for him to catch speed in that fight. The third round (against Thomson) that was really JZ. I think if we see another fight against Josh Thomson, that’s the fight we will end up seeing. JZ wants a rematch. I don’t think AKA or Josh Thomson would want to give him an immediate rematch cause they want (Gilbert) Melendez, so JZ is just going to have to go and beat somebody else up and get another chance at him. It will happen, he’ll get it."

This past week's UFC-WEC merger announcement is one of the biggest stories of 2010, and MMA fans discussed all aspects of it in today's edition of The Sunday Junkie, our weekly reader-feedback feature.

While it seems to be a positive for fans, can the same be said for fighters? Will they struggle to get booked fights? And why is the WEC lightweight title going to be unified instead of simply eliminated like the WEC's previously merged weight classes?

Additionally, could the merger open the door for women's MMA, and does it now make sense to make WEC star Urijah Faber a coach on "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series?

Struggling fighters looking to re-invent themselves often eye a move down in weight as they seek a potential advantage against future foes.

But when 25-year-old scrapper Nate Diaz was looking to right the ship following a 1-3 stint at 155 pounds, he did exactly the opposite.

Now competing in the welterweight class, Diaz is currently prepping for a UFC 125 clash with Dong Hyun Kim, but he's considering the future, as well. And as far as Diaz is concerned, he can fight in two weight classes - just bring on the big-name opponents.

While the WEC will officially fold into the UFC beginning in 2011, the world's largest mixed martial arts promotion apparently isn't wasting any time to start playing with its new toys.

The UFC is looking to kick off its new featherweight division at The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale with a contest between Leonard Garcia and Tyler Toner.

MMAjunkie.com today confirmed with sources close to the event that Garcia's camp has verbally agreed to the proposed contest, which was first reported by MMAWeekly.com, though bout agreements have not yet been distributed.

Maybe there's something to these Bellator vs. Strikeforce superfights, after all.

While Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney has openly lobbied for a matchup between his company's lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez, and Strikeforce's 155-pound kingpin Gilbert Melendez, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker has yet to commit to a potential superfight.

But with Rebney now publicly pushing for his champions Hector Lombard and Ben Askren to face their Strikeforce counterparts - Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Nick Diaz, respectively - Coker says it's time for the Bellator CEO to get serious if he's ready to deal.

With the UFC's announcement Thursday that the WEC's talent is octagon bound, a separate announcement is warranted.

Miguel Torres' mullet is on its way, too.

"It just gives me a bigger audience to show how much of a badass I am and what a cool haircut looks like," Torres told MMAjunkie.com Radio shortly after the huge news.

Some highlights from Thursday's Bellator season finale at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, courtesy of John Sluder.

Part 1, below: Hector Lombard def. Alexander Shlemenko via unanimous decision.
Continue to Bellator 34 photo gallery pt. 2 (Frausto vs. Fujii)
Continue to Bellator 34 photo gallery pt. 3 (The best of the rest)

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