We were anticipating this when Carano was ringside at Cyborg's last fight. I got to find an excuse to get into this one. Hopefully Cung will field a fighter on the undercard somewhere...
California trumps Las Vegas for MMA news
WEC 41 sets attendance, gate records; Carano to face ‘Cyborg’ in August
By Andy Samuelson
Mon, Jun 8, 2009 (3:30 p.m.)
Associated Press

Neighboring California became the hot spot for major mixed martial arts news over the weekend.

World Extreme Cagefighting enjoyed its most prosperous night in the promotion’s eight-year history Sunday in Sacramento. The sister organization to the UFC set attendance and live gate records as 12,706 fans showed up to watch WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown defend his title against hometown hero Urijah Faber.

The California State Athletic Commission confirmed to MMAjunkie.com that the attendance figure from WEC 41, which was unofficially announced at 13,027 Sunday at ARCO Arena, did in fact break the WEC record of 12,682 from WEC 34 — which was held in the same building.

The live gate amount of $815,415 from Sunday’s Faber fight topped the $738,855 mark from Faber’s fight against Jens Pulver in June 2008 inside ARCO.

For fans who missed the fight Sunday, VERSUS (Cox Cable Ch. 67) will re-air the featherweight bout Wednesday at 6 p.m. and again at 9 p.m.

The WEC’s next event — WEC 42 on Aug. 9 at the newly remodeled Joint at the Hard Rock, which will feature bantamweight champ Miguel Torres against top challenger Brian Bowles — marks the Las Vegas-based promotion’s return to the city for the first time since Torres defeated Manny Tapia in December.

The WEC’s success might not have even been the biggest headline to come out of California this weekend.

Scott Coker, CEO of the San Jose, Calif.-based Strikeforce promotion, announced at his organization’s show in St. Louis that top female fighters Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos will face each other Aug. 15.

“That’s going to be the No. 1 and the No. 2 females fighting in the world,” Coker said of the long-rumored 145-pound main event. “It will be our first Strikeforce female title belt. We’re going to be proud to put that on.”

The show at the HP Pavilion will also feature a lightweight title unification bout between champs Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez, and a heavyweight title tilt with Alistair Overeem against a yet-to-be-named opponent, likely Brett Rogers.