Four more fights have been added to the upcoming Jewels: “Twelfth Ring” card on March 11th in Tokyo, Japan. The main event will feature a non-title matchup between Jewels Lightweight Queen Champion Ayaka Hamasaki and recent Bellator 115-pound tournament participant Lisa Ward.

An opponent was also announced for Jewels postergirl Shizuka Sugiyama, who will be in action for the final time before taking one year off to study in Australia. Sugiyama will face veteran journeywoman Mayumi “Super Benkei” Aoki. Former Jewels mainstay Rina Tomita will also compete on the card.

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Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez will make the first defence of his title against challenger Pat Curran at Bellator Fighting Championships 39 on April 2nd in Uncasville, Connecticut. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney first confirmed plans for the title fight with MMAFighting.com earlier today.

Alvarez first captured the title on June 19, 2009 when he won the inaugural Bellator lightweight tournament. He has won three times since, but has yet to defend his title. Curran earned his shot at the belt with a razor-thin victory over Toby Imada last June, but was later sidelined with a shoulder injury.

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Strikeforce came to the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey tonight for the start of its much-anticipated Heavyweight Grand Prix at Strikeforce: “Fedor vs Silva.” The event was headlined by a quarterfinal bout between “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.

In a second quarterfinal matchup, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski clashed with Sergei Kharitonov. A trio of reserve bouts were also contested on the card featuring top heavyweight prospects and tough veterans. MMARising.com has live play-by-play for the event.

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Team Quest shut out rivals Xtreme Couture in a gym versus gym rematch last night at Tuff-N-Uff: “Xtreme Couture vs Team Quest 2” in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Temecula, California-based Team Quest fighters went 3-0 against the hometown favourites in Tuff-N-Uff’s first amateur caged event.

The event also featured a trio of title fights, including the main event that saw highly-touted prospect Sean Bollinger submit Dustin Chevalier in round one for the Tuff-N-Uff Lightweight Championship. Jerry Shapiro and female champion Tsui-Jen Cunanan also walked away with Tuff-N-Uff title gold.

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Two of the top female fighters in Central Europe will collide on April 16th at WKF: “The Night of the Count” in Wr. Neudorf, Austria. Unbeaten Ukrainian Lena “Hunter” Ovchynnikova will battle Austria’s Jasminka “Cive” Dizdarevic in a WKF European Women’s MMA Championship bout at 124 pounds.

The talented kickboxers, who hold impressive records in Muay Thai and K-1 rules bouts, have made names for themselves on the European circuit and each fighter has already captured multiple titles. An impressive victory in April could propel the winner on to bigger cards elsewhere in the world.

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A knee injury has forced former WEC Welterweight Champion Carlos Condit out of a planned bout with Chris “Lights Out” Lytle on February 27th at UFC 127 in Sydney, Australia. “The Natural Born Killer” has been replaced by veteran Brian “Bad Boy” Ebersole, who will face Lytle on short notice.

Sportsnet.ca was first to report on Condit’s injury, and Fight News Australia named Ebersole as his replacement today. Lytle enters the welterweight matchup on a four-fight winning streak, while Ebersole brings over 70 fights’ worth of experience into his UFC debut and has never been knocked out.

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A second women’s bout has been added to the Pancrase Impressive Tour 2 fight card on March 13th in Osaka, Japan. Former Smackgirl Middleweight Champion Hitomi “Girlfight Monster” Akano will face Chisa Yonezawa. The fight was first noted by Akano’s friend and training partner, Megumi Fujii.

Already officially announced for the card was a 48kg women’s bout between “Happy” Fukuko Hamada and Mamiko Mizoguchi. The fight with Yonezawa will be Akano’s first since a planned matchup against Roxanne Modafferi on December 30th was cancelled at the last minute due to a Modafferi illness.

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Bellator 115-pound women’s champion Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto will indeed face rival Karina Hallinan for the second time at Bellator Fighting Championships 35 on March 5th, but the bout is not scheduled to be part of the televised card. MMAjunkie.com first reported on the news earlier today.

Frausto was noticeably frustrated when informed of the untelevised status of the fight, which was not expected to be contested for her Bellator title. Her rematch with Hallinan could still be slotted into the debut Bellator broadcast on the MTV2 network if time permits, but that possibility is not assured.

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