Latest Herschel Walker Stories

Seven months after making his mixed martial arts debut, former NFL star Herschel Walker says he hasn't lost any of his enthusiasm for MMA and will be back in the cage fighting for Strikeforce this year.

"I have a little one, so my number one focus is my child, but after that my focus is on fighting," Walker told MMAFighting.com. "I'm training at AKA with some of the best trainers and some of the best fighters and as I get closer I'm trusting them to make the decision to tell me when I'm ready for my next fight. This is a very serious, very tough sport and I want them to tell me when they think I'm ready."

UFC President Dana White isn't the only one who wants to put on a Texas-sized event. Strikeforce has also had preliminary internal talks about staging a show at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, MMA Fighting has learned.

The discussions, which were confirmed by two separate sources with knowledge of the situation, have not gone past the exploratory stages.

When contacted by MMA Fighting, Strikeforce representatives downplayed the possibility of such an event.

On July 3, Brock Lesnar beat Shane Carwin in the UFC's biggest heavyweight fight of the year. Cain Velasquez was sitting cageside and had already been declared next in line, and the UFC soon said Lesnar would fight Velasquez in October at UFC 121. Fans are already getting excited about that fight, and the UFC's heavyweight division hasn't lost any of the momentum the Lesnar-Carwin fight built.

A week before Lesnar beat Carwin, Fabricio Werdum beat Fedor Emelianenko in Strikeforce's biggest heavyweight fight of the year. Alistair Overeem was sitting cageside and was expected to be next in line, but the three weeks since that fight have provided nothing but confusion about what's next for those three heavyweights.

Strikeforce puts on plenty of good fights, but its biggest problem as a promotion is an inability to do what the UFC did when it announced Velasquez vs. Lesnar: Strikeforce never has a good answer when fans want to know, "What's next?"

MMA Fighting spoke to NFL legend turned MMA rookie Herschel Walker this past weekend at Strikeforce: Nashville about why he didn't end up fighting on the most recent CBS card, when he expects to fight again and Dana White's recent criticism over the amount media attention he has received.

Check out the video interview below.

First, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said he would not consider signing Jose Canseco. Soon after, reports of a meeting with Canseco surfaced (he denied them). Next, Canseco produced a picture of him at dinner with Coker. Now, Coker's saying Canseco is back in play.

I think we all know where this is going.

While Coker apparently told MMAJunkie.com that he wasn't actively pursuing Canseco, he left the door open to the possibility. The gradual changing of his stance surely means the thought is in his mind. It is one that needs to be flushed with a quickness.

After a long period of off-again, on-again courtship, the UFC has pulled the trigger and signed 41-year-old boxing champion James Toney.

UFC President Dana White confirmed the signing to MMA Fighting after it was first reported by FiveOuncesofPain.com.

Toney had actively campaigned for a contract from the UFC, following White around the country to several events and eventually meeting with him in Las Vegas. Toney reportedly turned down at least one contract offer before signing.

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With the long-rumored April 17 Strikeforce on CBS card now official, new details continue to leak out.

Among Tuesday's news items revealed on Sirius' The Fight Show with Mauro Ranallo: the CBS broadcast portion of the event -- scheduled for a two-hour block -- may feature only three bouts.

The cause of the decision is simple: all three fights will be conducted as championship matches, and the network has to plan for the possibility that all three fights could go the 25-minute time limit, making a fourth match a difficult proposition.

If things go right for Strikeforce and CBS over the next six weeks, their April 17 MMA show will feature Herschel Walker returning to the cage in addition to a lightweight title fight of Gilbert Melendez vs. Shinya Aoki, a light heavyweight title fight of Gegard Mousasi vs. Muhammed Lawal and a main event of Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson for the middleweight title.

But while CBS wants Walker on the card, it's no sure thing that he'll participate. And as great as those other three fights are for hard-core MMA fans, there are potential problems with having three title fights on one card.

Although there were plenty of critics, Herschel Walker did everything right when he made his mixed martial arts debut last month: He said all the right things, he took his training seriously, he showed respect for the sport and for opponent Greg Nagy, and he left the cage with his hand raised.

So it's no surprise that Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker says he hopes Walker makes a return to the cage. But Coker said Jose Canseco, who has been talking up a potential fight between himself and Walker, will not be fighting in Strikeforce.

Jose Canseco made over $45 million playing baseball and wrote a book that cracked The New York Times bestsellers list. But if you're wondering why the former major league slugger is lobbying hard for a Strikeforce payday against Herschel Walker, it's probably quite simple: he needs the cash.

The Detroit News "Tax Watchdog" column reports that Canseco owes a total of $320,195 in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and the state of California.

Stephen Neal is a former NCAA wrestling champion and NFL Super Bowl winner, but he's apparently thinking of adding one more sport to his resume: mixed martial arts.

Neal, a longtime offensive lineman for the New England Patriots, is a free agent. And according to CSN New England, his agent Neil Cornrich says Neal is considering a variety of possibilities for his future, including fighting.

"He's excited to continue in the NFL and perhaps after that take a chance at the UFC," Cornrich said. "Getting back involved in Olympic-style wrestling is definitely a consideration."