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With each passing day, MMA is getting closer to the interest shown towards mainstream sports. With that comes more transparency and a deeper look at everything that concerns fighters including their salaries. It was week reported last week by ESPN the Magazine that Brock Lesnar was the highest earner in 2010 at $5.3 million. If that’s the true figure, it seemed a bit short of Manny Pacquiao’s $32 million. Those are the top dogs, but what does that mean for boxers and MMA stars in the two-through-30 range?

This money talk in MMA even prompted HDNet’s Inside MMA to get into the issue a few weeks ago about Nick Diaz. The suggestion was made that Diaz needed to leave MMA to get the money he deserves. Kenny Rice said Diaz might make as much in one boxing match as he’s made in 16 of his 32 MMA fights combined (1:08 mark).

That was odd assertion considering Diaz just made $325,000 in his last two fights. Is that fair for a guy who’s roughly the 15th biggest star in MMA?

Yahoo!’s MMA/boxing expert Kevin Iole checked in with us to explain how there’s no middle class in boxing and that it’s highly unlikely Diaz would fetch anything close to 175k for a boxing match.

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Female fighters bring some unique differences to the table versus their male counterparts. They face different challenges when cutting weight, but that’s nothing compared to the reason Cindy Dandois just dropped out of the mix for a June fight against Strikeforce star Gina Carano.

Dandois is three months pregnant, and fought in mid-March, when she was just over two months into her pregnancy. She beat Jorina Baars on a fight card in Belgium. Dandois confirmed to Cagewriter that she is pregnant and was for her last fight, but didn’t know it at the time.

"I did tests before because my weight was more difficult to reach, but they were all negative so I didn’t realize it," Dandois said in an email to Cagewriter. She even took a test at a hospital before getting an X-ray, and that came up negative.

This all begs the question — do all state commissions that control fights need to start administering a pregnancy test along with tests for PEDs before females step into the cage? Nevada State Athletic Commission does require pregnancy testing, though that would not have changed anything for Dandois as her pregnancy tests came up negative.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker discussed the pregnancy news and said a new opponent will be found shortly for Carano. Carano will return to fighting after 21-plus months off while busy with a movie career. Dandois said that she hopes to return to fighting shape soon after the birth of her child.

"If I wasn’t pregnant I would’ve agreed for this fight because it was and is still my biggest dream to fight her one time," Dandois said. "I hope Strikeforce still wants me and asks me after my pregnancy. If I can sign with them I will start training again right away so I can be ready to take any fight in about 2-3 months after my baby is born, and my family will be there to support me."

Though it’s causing a hiccup in her fighting career, Dandois is grateful for the pregnancy.

"God gave me this child present. Who am I for not being thankful for it. Some women have to move earth and fire to get a child and I got blessed like this, having already two beautiful kids. I guess fighting I can still do after I got my baby, but my children are for the rest of my life!!"

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Yesterday was a big day for hot mobile payments startup Square. The company announced that it received a strategic investment from Visa, giving the company a big stamp approval. And it also announced something that got far less attention: Square will be releasing a new card reader (the thing you plug into your phone) this summer, and it will use encryption at the read head. The news was announced with little fanfare by Square Security Lead Sam Quigley during a panel at the Visa Security Summit. But it’s important for a couple of reasons. First is the fact that just last month, rival (and much larger) payments company VeriFone lobbed a heated accusation at the startup: it said that Square should recall all of its readers because they didn’t encrypt credit card data, making it easy for thieves to skim the information. Square CEO Jack Dorsey battled back, stating that VeriFone’s accusation that their reader was insecure was “not a fair or accurate claim and [that] it overlooks all of the protections already built into your credit card.” Dorsey also outlined all the ways that credit card fraud could still be committed, regardless of encryption, and explained that users aren’t responsible for fraudulent charges regardless. But now we have Square doing almost exactly what VeriFone was crying foul on. So what gives?

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Can gadgets betray us? Is the Pope Catholic? Last week, we ran an interview with Robert Vamosi, a senior security analyst at Mocana, and the author of When Gadgets Betray Us, about the iPhone location tracking kerfuffle. But Vamosi?s new book goes beyond a critique of Apple and Google. When Gadgets Betray Us is a broad warning about how the latest technology hardware ? from smart meters to medical devices ? is leaking our data. And Vamosi offers a broad critique of technology, even arguing that we need to redefine the concept of ?hacking? in an age where both privacy and traditional notions of intellectual property are in crisis.

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Unlike some guys, groom-to-be Nick Lachey is fully involved in all aspects of his wedding planning!

During the Alex Maine store opening event in Hollywood, the former boy bander told In Touch he has been helping his fiancée Vanessa Minnillo prepare for their big day. “We?re a team, we?re in it together,” Nick confessed. “We make our decisions collectively.”

And those decisions even include planning for a baby. ?I?m a big family person so a family has always been very important to me,” revealed Nick. “It’s definitely one of the things I look forward to the most.”

So how long will we have to wait before the couple decides to expand their family? Nick kept things vague, by saying, ?Those things have a way of handling themselves, so we?ll see.” We hope they don’t wait too long ? that is sure to be one cute baby!

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In its second acquisition in two weeks, eBay’s PayPal unit has bought mobile payments startup FigCard. Terms of the acquisition, which was announced on the PayPal blog, were not disclosed. Boston-based Fig Card allows merchants to accept mobile payments in stores by using a simple USB device that plugs into the cash register or point-of-sale terminal. All the consumer needs is the Fig app on his or her smart phone. The connection with PayPal is that when consumers setup their payment information, they could add PayPal as a payments option. You can see the video below for a demo of Fig Card’s technology

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The mixed martial arts world is fired up for the UFC to hit Brazil. The sport, built upon the backs of great Brazilian fighters like Royce Gracie, is still on the fringe in his homeland. The UFC has a chance to make it mainstream.

Once the Olympics announced it would hold the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, the UFC decided it was time to make a push in Brazil. Rumors began swirling immediately that Gracie would fight on the card.

He was the champion, in a tournament-style format, back at UFC 1 and UFC 2. Gracie was the smallest fighter in the field. That was 1993 and 1994. He’s 44 years old now without a professional fight since 2007.  Gracie wants the chance to close his career in the Octagon and it sounds like the UFC is willing to give him the opportunity:

"It would be the perfect place to do my last fight," Gracie told UOL Esportes (via Bloody Elbow). "I never fought in Rio de Janeiro and I couldn’t be more psyched. We are negotiating [the fight deal], but we should have it finalized in two weeks. We only had an initial contact and I don’t even have an opponent yet, but we should have that finalized soon … My weight is the same as it was twenty years ago [80kg], I am still training, keeping the blade sharp. I follow a very strict diet. I never drank, never party, Carnival, none of that… I’m ready to fight"

There’s also rumors that his cousin Renzo, 43, will fight on the card as well. It may be a feel good moment for a few seconds when they enter the Octagon, but it seems like the UFC could be walking a fine line with this one.

In 2006, Royce was never in his fight against Matt Hughes at UFC 60. Hughes grounded and TKO’d him in just 4:39. Renzo was slightly better against Hughes, losing at UFC 112. But it doesn’t appear either should be in there with anything resembling a top 20 welterweight.

UFC heavyweight Roy Nelson was tweeting last night asking fans for their opinion on a Royce fight:

Nelson’s "on the juice" mention was a reference to Gracie’s positive steroid test following his last fight against Kazushi Sakaraba.

Eliminate Matt Serra from the list of candidates. Serra, a Gracie fighting disciple, isn’t going to cross his mentor Renzo to fight a member of the family. The other names are puzzling. Could Royce really be competitive against Dan Hardy or Amir Sadollah?

Tip via MMAMania

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Tokyo Five bills itself as an apparel company with the Bushido spirit, and they’re acting on it in the wake of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. They are teaming up with Global Giving to raise money for Japan with the sales of a new shirt:

The shirt is just $20 and 100% of the proceeds will go to Global Giving Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. Click here to buy it and help with the relief.

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‘You can only spit on a certain level in order to even keep up,’ Royce tells MTV News about Bad Meets Evil EP.
By Rob Markman

Royce Da 5’9″
Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage

When it comes to SoundScan, it’s no secret that Eminem is a juggernaut. His 2010 album, Recovery, is fast approaching 4 million copies sold and earlier this week, his sophomore album, The Marshall Mathers LP, was certified diamond.

But according to Royce da 5’9,” when he and Slim Shady began recording their upcoming Bad Meets Evil EP, the only thing on their minds was creating raw hip-hop.

“Me and Em, when we started hangin’ again — he don’t go anywhere — so we were hangin’ at the studio,” Royce recalls. “And we just started making records, just making ‘em because we were both in the lab and we had free time.”

The casual recording led to some serious heat, Royce said. So much heat, in fact, that Shady Records decided to release an EP rather than let the songs fall by the wayside.

Nickel Nine and Em first teamed up to form Bad Meets Evil more than a decade ago, releasing the songs “Nothin’ to Do,” “Scary Movies” and “I’m King” on Game Recordings in 1999. The pair had a falling out, but eventually reconciled. In January, it was announced that Eminem had signed Royce’s rap quartet, Slaughterhouse, to his Shady Records label. And earlier this week, the duo revealed plans to release an a-yet-untitled Bad Meets Evil EP in June.

The reunion forced the already well-regarded Royce to step his game up lyrically.

“To me, [Eminem is] one of the greatest rappers ever. So if you’re standing in there with him and watching him create, you can only spit on a certain level in order to even keep up,” Royce said. “With me, I feel like it’s good for me because I get pushed. It brings more out of me.”

In the end, the veteran lyricist insisted that, with Bad Meets Evil, there’s no pressure to make hits. “We went in and did actually 11 records, two of ‘em leaked, so we’re gonna use the other nine and that was it,” he explained. “We didn’t go do 15 records and try to pick the best. We didn’t make it an Eminem album so Eminem is under the same pressure of selling what he normally sells. We’re not really thinking about that.

“We just wanted to do a raw hip-hop record that’s put out on a bigger stage,” Royce added. “I think that’s what hip-hop is missing.”

What are you expecting from the Bad Meets Evil EP? Let us know in the comments!

Related Artists

• Royce Da 5’9″
• Eminem

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If you’re on an Android device, you may know that there are already plenty of ways to conduct video and voice calls using various third party applications (Qik, Fring, etc.). But that functionality has never been included with stock builds of Android (at least, not for phones), the way Apple’s FaceTime has been integrated into iOS for the last year. Today, that’s starting to change. Google is currently rolling out an update to Nexus S devices that adds voice and video chat to Google Talk, which is included as part of the core set of Google applications that come pre-installed on many Android devices. The feature will work on both Wi-Fi and 3G/4G wireless networks, and allows calls between phones, tablets, and any computer with Gmail and Google Talk enabled. The update is gradually rolling out over the air (a process that usually takes a couple weeks), and it also includes numerous bug fixes. The Nexus One will be getting an update as well, but it won’t include the video chat support (it doesn’t have a front-facing camera, though it would have been nice to have a voice-only feature for VoIP calls).

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Check out our exclusive photo gallery from Tracy Lee, including a very bloody Keith Jardine, an emotional Shinya Aoki, UFC executives at Strikeforce, and dogs and cats living together in harmony.*

*No dogs or cats are pictured in this gallery. Everyone knows dogs are better, anyway.

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MMA’s in its infant stages in Ontario, but the Canadian province won’t have the chance to grow slowly and work out any issues below the radar. After debuting the sport with events that drew around 5,000 last month, this weekend Toronto hosts a UFC event with 55,000 in attendance and the MMA world watching. Will everything be up to snuff with the officiating inside and out of the Octagon?

Yahoo!’s lead MMA writer Kevin Iole joined us to talk about the referees assigned to the event and how the ringside officials will handle different situations during the card.

Check out what happened during the MFC 29 fight in Ontario between Marcus Davis and Curtis DeMarce. There was a little confusion about getting doctors into the cage during round three. You’ll also see fighters being allowed to use towels and wipe their own faces (9:05 mark). That’s a no-no. It also took roughly 35 seconds for doctors to get into the cage and then 1:53 for the fight to restart.

After speaking to Marc Ratner, the UFC’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Iole sounded confident that all the kinks have been worked out.

The key to things running smoothly revolves primarily around the referees judges. Ontario has gone above and beyond to bring in some of the best refs MMA has to offer. John McCarthy, Herb Dean, Dan Miragliotta and Yves Lavigne will work the event.

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In a highlight that should bring a smile to some fans’ faces, Patricio "Pitbull" Freire scored another devastating finish for the "Pitbull" Brothers. See, the UFC doesn’t have every good fighter in the world under contract … yet.  The smaller of the two dynamos, took out a high level featherweight in Wilson Reis. "Pitbull" dominated most of the fight. Reis, a top level grappler and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt had trouble getting Freire to the ground, and eventually wore down on the feet as "Pitbull" scored the finish at 3:29 of the final round.

Freire (16-1) advances to Bellator Season 4 featherweight final where he’ll face Daniel Straus. That won’t be an easy fight. Straus is a monster at 145 pounds and very good grappler. He dominated Kenny Foster, finishing with a third round guillotine choke in the other semifinal on Saturday. The win was particularly impressive for the massive Straus since the fight began with Arizona afternoon temperatures around 99 degrees.

Patricio’s older brother Patricky, 25, reached the Bellator Season 4 lightweight final where he’ll face Lloyd Woodard.

Joe Warren was successful in a non-title fight, but barely against Marcus Galvao. Warren, a bantamweight by trade, holds the Bellator featherweight title as well. By the looks of Straus and the Patricio "Pitbull," he’ll be hard pressed to exit 2011 with that Bellator 145-pound strap. Warren and "Pitbull" met in the Season 3 final, where the American posted an amazing comeback victory after getting torn up in the first round. It looks like "Pitbull" has shored up any weakness that he had with his takedown defense.

The "Pitbulls" are on the verge of stardom. The MMA blogger for the Daily Mirror in the U.K. says they have a chance to be the next Nogueira brothers.

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Ryan Phillippe, proud parent to Ava, 11, and Deacon, 7, with ex Reese Witherspoon, is clearly enamored with the role of dad. When the actor was asked what he loves most about being a father at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of The Bang Bang Club, he beamed. ?Everything! Everything! I can?t pick one thing!? he told In Touch.

In the film, Ryan, 36, portrays a real-life combat photographer who covered the unrest in post-apartheid South Africa in the early ?90s. At home, his life is much simpler, as he balances the pressures of fame to create a good life for his kids. ?It?s pretty easy,? Ryan said. ?I don?t work all the time, so months go by when I?m at home with the kids full time. It?s not that much of a challenge.?

It?s been an eventful year for the handsome actor. Reese recently wed Hollywood agent Jim Toth, and Ryan is rumored to have moved on with girlfriend Amanda Seyfried, 25. But controversy struck again when ex-girlfriend Alexis Knapp revealed she was pregnant with Ryan?s child in March. Until the baby is born in June, Ryan is reportedly waiting for a paternity test to confirm that he is indeed the father. But The Bang Bang Club?s director, Steven Silver, is fully convinced that Ryan will handle all of his challenges with strength and dignity. ?Ryan is tough as hell,? Steven told In Touch. ?He?s had a lot of stuff thrown at him, and he just handles it.?

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Chael Sonnen has not had a good 2011. The former UFC middleweight contender was fined $10,000 and given two years probation on a money laundering charge. He was suspended by the UFC. In applying to the Nevada State Athletic Commission for a fight license after he failed a drug test in California, he ticked off Keith Kizer, the head of the NSAC, which puts his chance of getting a license in jeopardy.

Has all this humbled Sonnen? Convinced him to quiet down and quit talking trash? Not a chance. On Monday’s MMA Hour on MMA Fighting, he didn’t mince words.

"I called them up and said, ‘Give me the worst guy you’ve got under contract,’" he said. "They said, ‘Chael, Wanderlei [Silva] won’t fight you.’ I said, ‘Alright. Give me the second worst guy you’ve got under contract?’ They said, ‘Chael, how many times do we have to tell you: [Mirko] Cro Cop’s a heavyweight.’ I said, ‘Alright, is there anybody available? How about Bisping? Is his dance card open? And then they said that might be a possibility. So that’s where we left off. But that’s just not my focus. My focus is making things right with director Kizer."

Ah, there’s the Chael we know and tolerate. Ripping people he can’t possibly fight because of their fight obligations — Silva is facing Chris Leben at UFC 132 — or the fact that they outweigh Sonnen by at least 50 lbs.

Next, he rips light heavyweights for not calling out Jon Jones enough.

"The hot topic that everybody should be talking about is that he’s been the champion for three weeks and not one coward at 205 has challenged him. Not one guy has called him out and said, ‘I want to fight that guy.’ If you’re all scared of a 23-year-old kid, turn your gloves in, sign your pink slip and show yourself the door."

That ignores the fact that most of the top light heavyweights have a fight in front of them, or just completed one. Of the MMA Weekly Top 10 205 lbers, three (Machida, Bader and Jackson) have fights in the next three months. Jones and Rua just fought, Dan Henderson isn’t in the UFC, Thiago Silva is suspended and Rashad Evans is already slated to fight Jones. That leaves Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who just lost to Phil Davis, or Forrest Griffin.

Fine, Chael. Why hasn’t Griffin called out Jones? Perhaps it’s because he knew that Evans was already going to fight Jones and a "call out" would be a waste of breath?

That’s just Chael being Chael. But to put the rough start of 2011 behind him, Sonnen might consider how running his mouth got him into trouble with the NSAC. Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Maybe it’s time for a change, Chael.

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Chael Sonnen has not had a good 2011. The former UFC middleweight contender was fined $10,000 and given two years probation on a money laundering charge. He was suspended by the UFC. In applying to the Nevada State Athletic Commission for a fight license after he failed a drug test in California, he ticked off Keith Kizer, the head of the NSAC, which puts his chance of getting a license in jeopardy.

Has all this humbled Sonnen? Convinced him to quiet down and quit talking trash? Not a chance. On Monday’s MMA Hour on MMA Fighting, he didn’t mince words.

"I called them up and said, ‘Give me the worst guy you’ve got under contract,’" he said. "They said, ‘Chael, Wanderlei [Silva] won’t fight you.’ I said, ‘Alright. Give me the second worst guy you’ve got under contract?’ They said, ‘Chael, how many times do we have to tell you: [Mirko] Cro Cop’s a heavyweight.’ I said, ‘Alright, is there anybody available? How about Bisping? Is his dance card open? And then they said that might be a possibility. So that’s where we left off. But that’s just not my focus. My focus is making things right with director Kizer."

Ah, there’s the Chael we know and tolerate. Ripping people he can’t possibly fight because of their fight obligations — Silva is facing Chris Leben at UFC 132 — or the fact that they outweigh Sonnen by at least 50 lbs.

Next, he rips light heavyweights for not calling out Jon Jones enough.

"The hot topic that everybody should be talking about is that he’s been the champion for three weeks and not one coward at 205 has challenged him. Not one guy has called him out and said, ‘I want to fight that guy.’ If you’re all scared of a 23-year-old kid, turn your gloves in, sign your pink slip and show yourself the door."

That ignores the fact that most of the top light heavyweights have a fight in front of them, or just completed one. Of the MMA Weekly Top 10 205 lbers, three (Machida, Bader and Jackson) have fights in the next three months. Jones and Rua just fought, Dan Henderson isn’t in the UFC, Thiago Silva is suspended and Rashad Evans is already slated to fight Jones. That leaves Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who just lost to Phil Davis, or Forrest Griffin.

Fine, Chael. Why hasn’t Griffin called out Jones? Perhaps it’s because he knew that Evans was already going to fight Jones and a "call out" would be a waste of breath?

That’s just Chael being Chael. But to put the rough start of 2011 behind him, Sonnen might consider how running his mouth got him into trouble with the NSAC. Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Maybe it’s time for a change, Chael.

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Hayden Panettiere?s heavyweight-class boyfriend Wladimir Klitschko may take charge in the boxing ring, but won?t be putting a ring on Hayden?s finger anytime soon.

In Touch caught up with Hayden at the premiere of Klitschko ? Inside the Ropes, a documentary about her boyfriend and his brother Vitali Klitschko. The Klitschko brothers are both world-class fighters who hold doctoral degrees from a top Ukrainian university. The Scream 4 star explained that marriage is ?a bridge [that] should be crossed when you?re ready to cross it. If you see marriage as a necessity you should do it, but I don?t right now.? She also adds, ?I just try to live life day-by-day and not over-think things like that.?

The 21-year-old starlet may have a case of cold feet, but that didn?t stop her from gushing over her 35-year-old beau. She added, ?He?s very clever and boxers tend to develop a very not-so-clever name for themselves? and that her man has ?an incredibility interesting and entertaining life.?

Let?s hope Wladimir doesn?t lose the fight for the top spot in Hayden?s heart!

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MMA’s in its infant stages in Ontario, but the Canadian province won’t have the chance to grow slowly and work out any issues below the radar. After debuting the sport with events that drew around 5,000 last month, this weekend Toronto hosts a UFC event with 55,000 in attendance and the MMA world watching. Will everything be up to snuff with the officiating inside and out of the Octagon?

Yahoo!’s lead MMA writer Kevin Iole joined us to talk about the referees assigned to the event and how the ringside officials will handle different situations during the card.

Check out what happened during the MFC 29 fight in Ontario between Marcus Davis and Curtis DeMarce. There was a little confusion about getting doctors into the cage during round three. You’ll also see fighters being allowed to use towels and wipe their own faces (9:05 mark). That’s a no-no. It also took roughly 35 seconds for doctors to get into the cage and then 1:53 for the fight to restart.

After speaking to Marc Ratner, the UFC’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Iole sounded confident that all the kinks have been worked out.

The key to things running smoothly revolves primarily around the referees judges. Ontario has gone above and beyond to bring in some of the best refs MMA has to offer. John McCarthy, Herb Dean, Dan Miragliotta and Yves Lavigne will work the event.

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The media isn’t moving fast enough for the UFC, so the promotion has decided to move forward with its own prefight and postfight shows. The sport is badly in need of consistent shows before and after the fights. Various websites and even ESPN has dipped their toe into prefight/postfight field, now the UFC is introducing UFC Central at UFC 129.

According to MMAjunkie, the show will be hosted by former WEC voice Todd Harris along with CBS Sports’ anchor Molly Qerim. UFC fighters Stephan Bonnar and Kenny Florian will serve as analysts.

The UFC adds that during the PPV event UFC Central gives extra access to the viewer:

Once the UFC 129 live broadcast begins at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, UFC Central will only be available to fans that purchased the event for viewing on UFC.TV and will capture interviews with fighters on the fight card during the live broadcast as well as other analyst commentary.

UFC Central will be offered as a seventh video feed and fifth audio feed, leveraging UFC.TV’s multi-camera view and multi-audio feed experience. During the live event, fans will have the option inside of UFC.TV to select UFC Central as the main broadcast; or, drag and drop it into Picture-n-Picture or Quad View so that UFC Central can be watched and/or listened to alongside the broadcast of the main fight card.

Immediately following the live broadcast, UFC Central will be offered for free at UFC.TV with post-fight analysis, making it the ultimate destination for the most comprehensive UFC 129 news.

The show on UFC.tv airs at 8 p.m. ET. MMAConvert points out that it’s an interesting time slot because it counterprograms the UFC 129 undercard fights on Spike TV at 8.

One would assume this is the beginning of plenty of programming on "UFC Central." UFC president Dana White has always been bullish on the Internet.

"It is (the future), I’m telling you," White told MMAjunkie.com. "I’ve been saying it for 10 years. Everything is going Internet. I believe that everybody is going to be watching TV and be on the Internet."

The promotion is showing the first five undercard fights on its Facebook page beginning at 6 p.m. ET.

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Meester tells MTV News the pair, along with Katie Cassidy, travel ‘to the glitz and glamour of Paris and Europe.’
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Vanessa WhiteWolf

Leighton Meester on the set of “Monte Carlo”
Photo: MTV News

This July, Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy will find themselves swept up in the magic of France for the comedic caper “Monte Carlo.” The film was shot last summer in the very scenic world of Paris and Monte Carlo, and the cast was eager to talk about the many misadventures of the flick.

” ‘Monte Carlo’ is a tale of stolen gems and teenage high jinks — not teenage high jinks, really; young-adult high jinks,” “Glee” star and the film’s leading man, Cory Monteith, told MTV News last summer when we were on the set of the film in Monte Carlo.

“Gossip Girl” star Meester explained that crazy things happen when three small-town American girls finally get the vacation of their dreams — well, it’s more of a case of “be careful what you wish for.”

” ‘Monte Carlo’ is about three young women from Texas who go to Paris together on a trip,” she explained. “There’s a big case of mistaken identity in a really nice hotel in Paris that they end up in, and they’re whisked away to Monte Carlo.”

At the center of that mistaken identity is Gomez, who also plays a famous British heiress as well as the small-town girl. “It’s a fun movie about three girls who try to go on a vacation,” Gomez said. “And it ends up being horrible and my character gets mistaken for a British heiress, and they figure, ‘What better way to make a horrible vacation amazing than to be a British heiress?’ ”

Well, craziness ensues, and, as Cassidy put it, it’s not all that bad. “It’s kind of like a fairy tale, in a sense. The three of us go on this adventure from a lower class in Texas to the glitz and glamour of Paris and Europe,” she said. “I think fans can expect a wonderful, fun adventure that they get to go on with these adventures, full-circle, seeing all different sides of the glitz and glamour and also being able to relate to these girls in a different way.”

It’s Summer Movie Preview Week, and MTV News will be bringing you exclusive interviews, clips and photos for the most anticipated films of the coming months. Get ready to gorge on inside looks at “Captain America,” “The Hangover Part II,” “X-Men: First Class,” “Cowboys & Aliens” and more.

Check out everything we’ve got on “Monte Carlo.”

For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

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