Rumble grounded?

Apparently so, reports MMAJunkie. An injured knee has forced Anthony Johnson out of his June 20 fight with Matt Brown at the Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale. A representative of "Rumble" confirmed only that Johnson suffered the injury during training but would not substantiate Johnson's claims on his MySpace page, or those from a source close to Johnson, that he's out of the event.

Anyone have Showtime? Andrei Arlovski vs. Brett Rogers has been added to an already stacked June 6 Strikeforce event headlined by Robbie Lawler vs. Jake Shields. Arlovski is 5-1 in his past six fights, but that one loss was because he got too cute against Fedor Emelianenko at an Affliction show in January. He paid for it when he was knocked into middle of next week.

The MMA media is giving Mike Brown the respect he deserves. Now will MMA fans? WEC 41, one day after Strikeforce, concludes a memorable weekend of MMA that actually does not include a live UFC show (though the WEC is the UFC's sister organization). The event is expected to set new records for the organization.

Meanwhile in Yankeeland, the Yankees are on a winning streak and having a ton of fun. I conducted my first Q&A with former Yankees pitcher and current YES analyst David Cone to talk about what's gone right. We'll be doing these periodically throughout the season.