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Jason "Mayhem" Miller has spent the better part of the last year campaigning for a fight with Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz. Now it seems as if that door may be closing for good.

"We almost had the fight together," Miller told MMA Fighting on Wednesday.

Almost, but not quite.

After getting ganged up on by Diaz and his teammates on live network TV in April, the goal of getting Diaz alone in the cage seemed to nearly consume the "Bully Beatdown" star. He printed t-shirts, started a website, and did countless interviews all about how badly he wanted the fight. Now that Strikeforce has decided to match his nemesis up with Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos instead, Miller can't help but feel a little disappointed.

"I figured that maybe if I made enough noise about it, it would come to fruition," Miller said. "I knew that one of two things was going to happen. Either I was going to get the fight with Diaz and expose him, show that he's not some damn unstoppable, pitter-pat punching tank, but just some dude who can get beat up. Or, the other option, I was going to expose him for what he is, which is a guy who picks favorable fights constantly."

Renzo Gracie's camp wants you to know that his MMA career isn't close over and that he wants to fight on the UFC card in Brazil on Aug. 27.

MMA Fighting recently spoke to Gracie's manager, Ali Abdel Aziz of Dominance MMA Management, about the 43-year-old's desire to fight on what will be the first UFC card in Gracie's home country since October 1998.

"It's Renzo's dream to fight in a UFC in Brazil," Abdel Aziz said, "but it's up to the UFC and Dana [White] to make it happen."

Forget about adding Satoru Kitaoka's name to the recent list of Japanese fighters signed by the UFC.

Contrary to several Internet reports, UFC president Dana White confirmed with MMA Fighting on Wednesday that organization had not signed the lightweight fighter.

The New Year's Eve DREAM Dynamite!! 2010 card has added major star power to their event, adding Strikeforce heavyweight champ and recent K-1 World Grand Prix champ Alistair Overeem to the lineup.

DREAM made the addition official in a Wednesday press conference in Tokyo, Japan.

Overeem's opponent was not named during the press conference. Though several names have been rumored as possible opponents, sources speaking to MMA Fighting say that Overeem's foe has yet to be finalized.

With their new TV deal in place, Bellator has turned its attention to Season 4, which according to CEO Bjorn Rebney, will kick off in March 2011.

On Monday's episode of The MMA Hour, Rebney announced that the organization will feature a light heavyweight, welterweight, lightweight and featherweight tournament in their upcoming season.

This will mark the first time the organization holds a 205-pound division tournament, and while no names have officially been announced for it, Rebney hinted that Daniel Gracie and Raphael Davis will be a part of the eight-man field.

After his third straight setback in the promotion, the UFC has parted ways with Dustin Hazelett.

Sources close to Hazelett's camp confirmed his release to MMA Fighting. MMA Weekly reported the news Tuesday night. The pink slip comes after Hazelett was submitted by Mark Bocek in the first round at UFC 124 earlier this month in Montreal.

At 6-foot-1 and around 240 pounds, Cain Velasquez is no small man in the ordinary world, but among the UFC's supersized heavyweights, he hardly stands out for his size.

In fact, many heavyweights are either taller or heavier than Velasquez, and most are both. Yet by the end of 2010, it was Velasquez that reigned over the group of monster athletes.

For capturing the UFC heavyweight championship and completing a rapid rise to the top, Velasquez is MMA Fighting's 2010 Fighter of the Year.

Nick Diaz's next fight won't be against Jason "Mayhem" Miller after all.

Instead, the Strikeforce welterweight champion has agreed to defend his title against Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos on Jan. 29 in San Jose, Calif. Sources close to Strikeforce confirmed the booking with MMA Fighting early Wednesday morning.

The proposed Diaz vs. Miller fight couldn't be agreed upon by both parties due to Diaz not willing to fight at 185 and Miller not willing to drop down to 170. Neither camp was able to agree on a suitable catchweight.

Strikeforce will try to make Herschel Walker vs. Scott Carson happen a second time at its Jan. 29 event in San Jose, Calif.

Sources close to the promotion confirmed with MMA Fighting Tuesday that the heavyweight fight, which was supposed to take place in December before Walker suffered a cut under his eye in training, has been signed for the event. MMA Junkie first reported the news on Monday.

Also signed for the card is a light heavyweight bout pitting Roger Gracie vs. Trevor Prangley, according to sources.

If I had one MMA-related wish to use in 2011, I'd wish for Fedor Emelianenko to fight at least half as often as his promotional team at M-1 Global renegotiates. If I had two wishes, I'd wish that one of those fights would be against someone who matters in the Strikeforce heavyweight division – Alistair Overeem or Fabricio Werdum, I'm not picky.

Alas, I have no wishes. Neither does Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, apparently. If he did, Emelianenko would likely be wrapping up the final fight in his three-fight deal with the promotion on January 29.

As it is, Coker couldn't get Emelianenko into a cage this January with anything less than a net and a tranquilizer gun.

It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder, if this is how Emelianenko is planning to spend the remaining years of his career, how will the MMA world remember him when it's all over?