The full list of salaries included:

• B.J. Penn ($250,000) def. Sean Sherk ($35,000)
• Wanderlei Silva ($150,000) def. Keith Jardine ($10,000)
• Goran Reljic ($6,000) def. Wilson Gouveia ($18,000)
• Lyoto Machida ($100,000) def. Tito Ortiz ($210,000)
• Thiago Silva ($50,000) def. Antonio Mendes ($4,000)
• Rousimar Palhares ($10,000) def. Ivan Salaverry ($20,000)
• Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou ($80,000) def. Kazuhiro Nakamura ($20,00O)
• Rich Clementi ($40,000) def. Terry Etim ($10,000)
• Yoshiyuki Yoshida ($12,000) def. Jon Koppenhaver ($8,000)
• Dong Hyun Kim ($40,000) def. Jason Tan ($3000)
• Shane Carwin ($12,000) def. Christian Wellisch ($10,000)

Spike TV announced today that the Season 7 finale of The Ultimate Fighter will be in high definition. This card will also be extended to 3 hours instead of the 2 hours that it has been in the past. This show will be at The Palms in Las Vegas on June 21 at 9PM (PT/ET).

This season of TUF features Light Heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (28-5) and former TUF season 1 winner Forrest Griffin (15-4) as coaches. This season is focused on middleweights and looks to be exciting. Here is that anticipated fight card:

 

Frank Mir (11-3) and current Interim UFC champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-4-1) will serve as coaches for the 8th season of Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter” TV show. After the show Nogueira and Mir will fight for the Heavyweight title on a future UFC pay per view in the fall.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is known better by his nickname of “Big Nog” was the former Pride champion before coming to the UFC. “Big Nog” is known for his ability to take a punch and still deliver the winning submission victories. His comeback victories over Mirko “Cro Cop” (23-6-2), Bob Sapp (9-3-1), and most recently Tim Sylvia (24-4) in UFC 81 are what legends are made of. This show will give him more exposure to the public and give people a chance to know his personality.

Former UFC Heavyweight champion Frank Mir will be the other coach. Frank Mir also does the play by play for WEC which is owned by Zuffallc which also owns UFC. Frank Mir beat Tim Sylvia for the heavyweight championship back in UFC 48. Shortly thereafter, he was involved in a very bad motorcylce accident and it has taken several years to return to the Frank Mir we once new. Frank Mir is coming off 2 straight victories including his most recent win against UFC fighter and former WWE champion Brock Lesner (1-1) in UFC 81. This should be interesting so stay tuned.

The IFL will be returning tomorrow (5/16) with a fight card at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. This card will be carried live on HDNet at 8:30 PM (eastern). There will be 9 fights on this card including 3 champion fights. The first title fight will be IFL Lightweight champion Ryan “The Lion” Schultz (19-9-1) vs. Deividas Taurosevicius (9-2). After destroying Chris Horodecki (12-1) in a title fight at the end of last year, Schultz since then defended his title against John Gunderson (16-6). Also, Middleweight champion Ryan McGivern (12-5) will be defending against Dan Miller (7-1).

The main event will have former UFC fighter and Season 2 Ultimate Fighter finalist Brad Imes (11-4) challenge IFL Heavyweight Champion Roy “Big Country” Nelson (12-2). Here is the full fight card:

Championship Fights:
Roy Nelson vs. Brad Imes
Ryan Schultz vs. Deividas Taurosevicius
Ryan McGivern vs. Dan Miller

Non-Title Fights:
Matt Horwich (21-10-1) vs. Joey Guel (12-5)
Josh Souder (6-2-1) vs. Zac George (12-2)
Lamont Lister (5-3) vs. Aaron Stark (5-4)
Nick Calandrino (4-0) vs. John Howard (8-3)
Danillo Villefort (6-2) vs. Mike Massenzio (10-1)
Frank Latina (4-1) vs. John Franchi (3-0)

The UFC let go of 3 more fighters from their roster of an estimated 200 fighters. Din Thomas (22-8 MMA, 5-4 UFC), Tommy Speer (9-3 MMA, 0-2 UFC), and Kuniyoshi Hironaka (11-5 MMA, 1-3 UFC). It will be interesting to see where these guys end up. Especially, Din Thomas who has been fighting on and off with the UFC since 2001.

Spike Tv/UFC is going to try and steal some of Elite XC/CBS’s thunder. Spike is going to have programing dedicated to Chuck Liddell at the same time as Elite XC first show on CBS (5/31). Which program will you be TIVOing?

 

Tennessee might be another state looking to legalize MMA in that state. Yesterday the “Tennessee Athletic Commission Act of 2008″ passed and is awaiting state senate approval. This might open up the door for Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (28-6) to fight in his home state with the UFC.

The UFC is making a big push to legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York state. New York banned MMA in 1997 during the John McCain labeled “human cock fighting era”. MMA is legal 32 states and the UFC wants New York to be next and then have an event by late 2008 or 2009

In Japanese fashion, Dream announced with a week before the event that Nick Diaz (15-7) will be fighting Katsuya Inoue (16-5-3) in Dream 3. This event will be live on HD net on May 11th at 3 am (eastern).

There is a rumor that Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin will be facing each other in a UFC event later on this year. They are both have had loses to the UFC middle weight champion Anderson Silva. This fight should be interesting to see who wins and puts themselves back into title contention.