FanHouse Ken Hershman

Showtime's Sports general manager, Ken Hershman, said that he is "thrilled" concerning the success of last weekend's two super middleweight bouts of the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament, even as he expressed concern and well-wishes toward Jermain Taylor, who was diagnosed with a concussion following his 12th-round knockout loss to Germany's Arthur Abraham.

After losing to Abraham (31-0, 25 KOs) in a clash of former middleweight (160 pounds) champions, Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KOs) was hospitalized for a few days in Germany following their 168-pound battle.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - As Showtime's senior vice president and general manager of sports and event programming, Ken Hershman has been around some major combat sporting events. However, none may be as unique as Saturday night's Strikeforce 145-pound women's title match between Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg.

FanHouse spoke to Hershman about this historic match-up and the future of MMA on Showtime. As for Dana White's recent "Strike-Farce" comment, Hershman said, "As far as Dana White, I'm never surprised with what he says. Sometimes I'm disappointed; sometimes I'm amused." The full video interview is below.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - October is shaping to be another can't miss-month for mixed martial arts fans.

We already knew that DREAM.11 would take place on Oct. 6 and UFC 104 on Oct. 24, but now it looks like Fedor Emelianenko will make his Strikeforce debut on Oct. 10. Ken Hershman, Showtime Sports' senior vice president and general manager, informed FanHouse of the news on Thursday. Emelianenko's first fight for the organization will air live on the premium cable network.

Earlier this week, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said that he would like to "build" to a title fight between current Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem and the organization's newest big man, Fedor Emelianenko.


After hearing these comments, some MMA fans and pundits were left wondering why arguably the best fighter in the world would not receive an immediate title shot when Strikeforce newcomers Fabricio Werdum and Jay Hieron, for example, were granted title shots in their debuts. However, on Thursday's conference call, Coker seemed more open to the idea of Emelianenko challenging for the title right away.

On a Thursday conference call, Fedor Emelianenko is making his first public comments since signing with Strikeforce. The call has started, and you can follow along right here at FanHouse by refreshing this page, or by following my MMA Twitter updates.

Fedor is being joined on the call by M-1 Global Co-Owner and President Vadim Finkelchtein, Strikeforce boss Scott Coker and Showtime Sports VP Ken Hershman. The call has begun and the live tweeting begins below.

Showtime has announced the creation of a six-boxer super middleweight tournament that has fans both excited and puzzled.

The excitement comes from the fact that the six boxers -- Mikkel Kessler (right), Carl Froch, Arthur Abraham, Jermain Taylor, Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell -- are some of the world's best super middleweights and are virtually guaranteed to provide several exciting fights leading up to the finale in 2011.

The puzzlement comes from the fact that a tournament like this -- including a round-robin group stage that awards points for wins (and a bonus point for a knockout) in '09 and '10, followed by a single-elimination four-boxer playoff in '11 -- has never been done before. There are also questions about the selection of the boxers, and whether all six boxers will stick around to the tournament's conclusion.

So I asked Showtime boxing boss Ken Hershman on Monday to explain how he can pull this whole thing off. The full interview is below.

UFC president Dana White recently stated that he has no interest in ever booking a Roy Jones Jr. vs. Anderson Silva mixed martial arts match. Apparently, Strikeforce wants no part of the former pound-for-pound boxing king, either.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker revealed on Wednesday's conference call to promote the May 15 Strikeforce Challengers event on Showtime, that Nick Diaz's manager called him hours prior to see if he would be interested in setting up a Nick Diaz vs. Jones MMA match. While Coker appeared to be lukewarm to the idea, his television partner, Showtime Sports SVP and GM, Ken Hershman, made it clear that he wants nothing to do with televising a Roy Jones Jr. MMA match