The guys over at MMAPRIME.tv had a quick interview with fan favorite, Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva in regards to his upcoming match with Cung Le. Silva talks a bit about his training over at Rafael Cordeiro’s Kings MMA, and sounds pretty confidant in at least delivering an amazing fight. Watching the interview you really do get a sense on how much he really cares about making his fans happy, and keeping them entertained.

Silva mentions testing Le on the ground, but seems pretty aware of the Sanshou master’s highly praised take down defense. It’s not a bad match up, but really I don’t want to see either of these guys lose. A loss at this stage in both fighter’s careers could really mean the end of legendary story. Wanderlei Silva vs Cung Le will take place at UFC 139, on November 19th, in San Jose California.

Chuck Mindenhall of ESPN spoke with the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion about his film career and his plans to get back into the cage. All signs point to “not any time soon”:

Le has five movies coming out in the next year — the biggest a Universal Pictures film called “The Man With the Iron Fists”, starring Russell Crowe. At this point, as a burgeoning Hollywood commodity, Le isn’t exactly sure if and when he’ll fight again.

“Just to see Russell Crowe work was amazing, and just to be a big part of the film was amazing. I think I had the third most working days out of the whole cast, and then I got to kill like 20 people. I feel blessed.”

When asked about a dream fight between current reigning UFC middleweight champion, Le added “that would be impossible” due to his demanding work load.

It looks like we have lost Le for good at this point, or at the very least an extremely long time. On the plus side, Gina Carano is returning to the Strikeforce cage soon but who knows how long. The glamourous life of Hollywood is a much easier than one than training hours a day to smash someone’s face in, as to which one is more rewarding that is for them to decide.

Le’s last appearance in the cage was his win over Scott Smith last June at Strikeforce: Fedor VS Werdum, where he redeemed himself against Smith who handed him his first career loss months earlier. Do fans still care about Cung Le at this point, or has his time in the MMA spotlight come to an end?

Paul Daley has had a rough year. “Semtex” started off the year with a big push towards the UFC Welterweight title, and quickly became a fan favorite, but after the infamous sucker punch following three rounds of action with Josh Koscheck, Daley found himself out of not just contention, but of the company entirely. Daley has now found himself back in Strikeforce, after being away for two years, looking for redemption against Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith on December 4. I spoke with the explosive brit via email to get his thoughts on his upcoming fight, what life is like months after the Koscheck incident, and what else is happening in the life of “Semtex”.

Fight Nerd: You are returning to Strikeforce on December 4 against hard-hitter and hard-headed Scott Smith, how are you getting ready for this fight?

Paul Daley: …..Erghhh Training?????…..lol! No seriously, we just started where we left off from my last fight. I’m improving all round, Striking, Wrestling, BJJ, Mind Sciences and Saki Jutsu.

Fight Nerd: Smith’s last two fights were against Cung Le, did you learn anything about him from those two bouts?

Paul Daley: He can take a lot of punishment, and he never quits, you gotta KO him out COLD, or stop him via submission.

Fight Nerd: At your last fight in Shark Fights against Jorge Masvidal, you had a bit of trouble making weight and had to give up some of your purse. What do you attribute to that problem and will it happen again at this fight?

Paul Daley: I arrived the Wednesday of the fight cause my visa was delayed. So my weight cutting schedule was thrown off because of the flying.

Fight Nerd: Were you happy with your performance in this fight?
Hit the jump for the rest of this interview!

Paul Daley: I won the fight, so yes.

Fight Nerd: Just about everyone in the MMA world remembers what happened after your fight with Josh Koscheck in May. Months later, does this still hang over you or have you (and the MMA world) moved on?

Paul Daley: I moved on, once the apology was out. I have fought twice since the Koscheck fight, business don’t stop for me, I have to keep moving forward.

Fight Nerd: Koscheck was fighting for what could have been your spot against Georges St Pierre for the welterweight title, how do you think Josh will do against GSP?

Paul Daley: Ok, but I think GSP will win, via a TKO stoppage or submission.

Fight Nerd: How would a fight with you and GSP go down?

Paul Daley: He ain’t on my radar now, so my focus is Scott Smith, and the current champion Nick Diaz……if the SF bosses want me to take him on next.

Fight Nerd: How serious do you think Dana White was when he said you would not be welcome back in the UFC?

Paul Daley: Only time will tell.

Fight Nerd: How would you compare your treatment with the UFC compared to other companies like Strikeforce (such as taking care of expenses, medical bills, things like that)?

Paul Daley: The UFC have great people behind the scenes, they were awesome, but I have found this with most promotions, it’s those behind the scenes, that are often taking care of you and are the unsung heroes of the promotion.

Fight Nerd: Aside from fighting, I hear you are a video game fan. Tell us your thoughts on the new EA Sports MMA video game and if you have played it yet?

Paul Daley: I am not officially in the game, the character that I’ve seen in the game is not an official one and was created by a user/fan/game player. But here’s some trivia, I was the 1st fighter up on fighter share……..even before Anderson Silva or other top names……….at least that’s what I’ve been told, which was nice to know. I have not played it yet, but I look forward to playing it, my copy is in the post. I have a PS3, and a PSP, I like gaming, good R n R……….I look forward to taking some of the fans on online!

Fight Nerd: Last question – 2010 was an interesting year for Paul Daley. Looking back on it since UFC 108, was this a good year for you? What will 2011 hold for Semtex?

Paul Daley: I will be Strikeforce Welterweight Champion in 2011. I’ve opened a dojo here in the UK this year, I’m continuing to develop my brand and businesses and I’ve bought another house. Like most years, 2010 had its ups and downs, that’s how it goes.

According to the report, the movie is based on the Akira Kurosawa classic “Yojimbo”, which if you have not seen you should. Cung Le will play a mysterious man who comes from an impoverished background in New Orleans. He works to unite the city gangs against corrupt law offices, all while doing flashy spinning kicks and presumably a judo throw or sleeper here and there. No further information has been released yet, such as who else is starring alongside Le, but the one other bit of info we know is Joel Silver’s “Dark Castle” is producing with Courtney Solomon’s “After Dark Films”, and that really does not help us MMA fans at all.

The former Strike Force champion co-starred with Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster in the 2009 sci-fi thriller “Pandorum” and is also set to play Marshall Law in the upcoming “Tekken” movie, slated for a 2011 release, which is also supposed to have Roger Huerta appearing in. Shooting for “Dragon Eyes” begins next month in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Last week, EA unveiled their line-up of heavyweights and light-heavyweights for EA Sports MMA video game. This week, we now have the official list of middleweight characters you can play as!

Joining the previously announced fighters are Benji Radach, Lyman Good, Matt Lindland, Luke Rockhold, Frank Trigg, Joe Riggs, Kazuo Misaki, Scott Smith, Murilo Rua, Tim Kennedy, Pat Miletich, Jake Shields, Nick Thompson, Melvin Manhoef, Robbie Lawler, Dan Henderson, Gegard Mousasi, Jason Miller, Cung Le, Nick Diaz, Frank Shamrock, and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.

The big surprises this time around is definitely Lyman Good, since he is so far the only fighter representing Bellator FC in the game. In fact, I am more surprised by Lyman Good than I am by the addition of Luke Rockhold, no offense to the man. But, Good is an excellent fighter so I welcome him to the cast of characters. I assume he will be playable in the welterweight category as well. Lastly, Melvin Manhoef’s head is huge. HUGE!

Any middleweight fighters you wanted to see in the game that have not been put in?

Above is the new trailer for EA MMA, a video game coming out this year that we have been talking about since last year. Now we get to see some of those things we looked at in screen cap form a week ago in motion, and they definitely do look smooth! Ultimately, the true test will come when we get to test this thing out one on one, but for now we can just marvel at how pretty it looks and how sweaty they made all the fighters.

This trailer has Cung Le, Bobby Lashley, Nick Diaz, Jeff Monson, Fedor and a few others in action and is also giving us something we did not get in the UFC game, and that is entrances. Are they necessary? No, but they do add to the drama and realism and it is one thing they can say that THQ got lazy on.

Has this convinced any nay-sayers into buying this title yet or does this game automatically default to UFC Undisputed 2010 since “this game has no big name fighters”?

Over at the EA Sports Season Opener event in San Francisco last night, EA showed off some of their new sports games. One of the games just happened to be EA Sports MMA and with it, comes new screen shots!

The pics include images of Nick Diaz, Cung Le, Scott Smith, Bobby Lashley and Fedor, among others. We also get to see a few of the new venues, including a Brazilian cage and a Japanese looking ring.

EA Sports MMA will be out sometime this year, probably fourth quarter, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Info Via Destructoid.com

Check out a TON more pics after the jump!

UFC and Strikeforce Veteran Tony Fryklund makes his voice heard as we discuss where he has been in the past year and a half, why he wants to fight Frank Shamrock next, how MMA has changed since he first started and why todays fighters will not be as good as the fighters from a decade ago, and his new gym with Jens Pulver, Driven Inc Training Center.

Today, EA MMA made several additions to its fight roster for the video game set for a Fall release in 2010. The new fighters added to the list are:

Cung Le
Scott Smith
Matt Lindland
Gilbert Melendez
Robbie Lawler
Josh Thomson
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza

Previously announced for the game include Nick Thompson, Frank Shamrock, Jake Shields, King Mo, Renato Sobral, Gegard Mousasi, Jason Miller, Jay Hieron, Brett Rogers, Randy Couture, Fedor Emelianeko. If you want to stay up to date on the game, head to http://mma.easports.com/home.action. So are you more enticed to buy this game than before or still on the fence?

The Fight Nerd reviews a hidden gem in MMA documentaries, a film by Tamera Sturgis called “Under Pressure” Diary of a Cagefighters Wife”. This film shows the unique perspective of a wife of a fighter in training and gives us a different look at MMA than the usual documentary, yet has seemingly gone unnoticed by the MMA community. If you want to pick up a copy of this bad boy you can head to www.mycagefighter.com or amazon.com at the link below.