The status of the world's top heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko, changed significantly this week with the announcement of a firmer partnership between Affliction Entertainment and M-1 Global, as well as a Donald Trump-led press conference to announce his backing of the “Fighting Fedor” reality show. Trump announced his intention to help in the distribution of M-1's reality series, in which 16 fighters vie in a tournament to face Emelianenko. The show, which has been floated all year, does not have a broadcast contract yet.

Affliction also confirmed Emelianenko would headline their tentative Jan. 24 pay-per-view in Anaheim, Calif., against Andrei Arlovski, which appears to rule out Emelianenko competing in Japan on New Year’s Eve. M-1 Global's chief operating officer Joost Raimond told MMAWeekly.com that Affliction and M-1 will also co-promote a pay-per-view card in the United States in April or May featuring a Josh Barnett vs. Aleksander Emelianenko main event.

• This week's episode of "The Ultimate Fighter" saw a cooling down period for Junie Allen Browning, the brash lightweight whose inflammatory antics last week boosted the show’s ratings markedly, upping a record-low 0.8 share to a 1.42, a number sustained again this week. Browning's storming the cage after Efrain Escudero's win last week was briefly touched on, with UFC President Dana White saying Browning likely would have had his fighting license taken away for the stunt if Nevada athletic commission officials witnessed it.

Browning faded into the background for the rest of the episode, which centered on Anderson Silva helping Team Nogueira train (including an intense sparring session with Ryan Bader), as well as tit-for-tat pranks at the house that caused tension. Light heavyweight Vinny Magalhaes showed no tolerance for the pranks or jokes, which included itching powder in beds and sardine juice on walls, and channeled Chris Leben in urinating on Escudero's pillow. Coach Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira noticed Escudero hadn’t gotten proper sleep, and sought Frank Mir's help in quelling the pranks. Mir appeared to blow the request off, creating the first real moment of friction between the coaches. Nogueira convened a meeting at the house to call an end to the behavior, which also fell flat.

In this week's fight, light heavyweight Eliot Marshall eliminated Shane Primm with a first-round rear-naked choke. The Junie Allen Browning Show resumes next week, as he will fight Roli Delgado, a jiu-jitsu specialist whom Browning quipped "bought his black belt from McDonalds."

• Dave "Pee Wee" Herman kept an increasingly impressive streak of first-round victories intact on Oct. 10, battering Kerry Schall in a heavyweight bout topping the latest ShoXC “Elite Challenger Series” event on Showtime from Hammond, Ind. The 24-year-old Indianan, something of a jester who was shown reading a soft-cover an hour before his fight, came out using point-karate style kicks until getting clipped by a right hook. He then went to knees from the Thai clinch that dropped Schall, apparently catching him low. Herman finished with hammerfists for the TKO. His trademark deadpan, sarcastic interview style did not seem to impress the crowd as much as his fight performance did.

Also on the Showtime-aired show, Jason Guida, whose weight-cutting exploits were at the center of the first episode of the current season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” again proved he is good for a spectacle. His fight with Mamed Khalidov featured a bizarre minute-long search for Guida's mouthpiece, and Guida shoved the referee following a second-round stoppage called after Khalidov teed off with punches against the fence that Guida was blocking but not answering. Also picking up wins were Alexander Schlemenko, Anthony Lapsley and Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm, who challenged the winner of the Eddie Alvarez-Nick Diaz lightweight title fight on Nov. 8.

• The scrutiny around the Kimbo Slice meltdown at the hands of Seth Petruzelli continued this week. A representative from the Florida State Boxing Commission told Sherdog.com that an investigation into whether EliteXC improperly influenced the fight will be completed in the next two weeks. The probe will start with conversations with promoters and then possibly fighters.

UFC President Dana White continued to earnestly deride the situation, and ranted on quotes from EliteXC officials on a YouTube video posted Saturday. White has harped on the idea that a knockout bonus offer Petruzelli received before the fight meant that people gambling on the Slice bout, without knowledge of Petruzelli’s incentive to stand, were finagled out of their money.

NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer said he will closely watch how EliteXC runs its operation when it brings a Showtime card to Reno, Nev., on Nov. 8. EliteXC's Jeremy Lappen said in several interviews he was happy to hear Florida officials will be investigating so speculation can be put to rest.

• More details on the all-important ratings for the Oct. 4 EliteXC broadcast on CBS became clear this week. According to The Wrestling Observer, the Kimbo Slice-Seth Petruzelli fight, with 5.53 million viewers, is, when measured by the rating for the 15-minute quarter it took place in, the fourth most-watched fight in MMA history, behind Slice's May 31 fight with James Thompson, Ken Shamrock-Tito Ortiz 3 in Oct. 2006 and Quinton Jackson-Dan Henderson last September. Ratings for Gina Carano’s fight with Kelly Kobold were also impressive; the bout drew 1 million new viewers to the broadcast, including huge gains in the Males 18-34 demographic. The event proved a draw in markets much different than those from which the UFC culls much of its pay-per-view buyers. The broadcast drew the highest share ratings in markets in Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Carolina.

• The void left by the cancellation of Affliction's Oct. 11 event in Las Vegas was filled by the second "Night of Combat," promoted by Superfights MMA’s Skip Kelp in conjunction with KC Concept’s Kim Couture.

The card, held at the Thomas and Mack Center, was stocked with Xtreme Couture fighters. Eight of nine fighters representing the camp won, as Mike Pyle put away Brian Gassaway with an armbar, Jay Hieron dominated three rounds over Chris Kennedy, John Alessio pounded out Gideon Ray and Josh Haynes used an Achilles lock to submit Sean Salmon. Fiveouncesofpain.com reported that Hieron's original opponent, Bryson Kamaka, failed a drug test for marijuana and was pulled.

In the main event, UFC veteran Hector Ramirez kept legendary kickboxer Rick Roufus on the floor to notch a decision victory. Roufus, 41, one of the great titleholders in the history of the International Kickboxing Federation, is 4-4 since switching to MMA earlier this year. Ramirez, Hieron and Pyle topped the pay scale that night, with all three taking home $20,000. Unlike the first Night of Combat in June, where admission was free and the card also featured boxing matches taped for ESPN, this card was all MMA and only for paying customers. Sherdog.com reported that the event sold a disappointing 1,063 of 8,911 available tickets. The card premieres Oct. 18 on HDNet.

• Weeks after Dream’s middleweight tournament concluded, World Victory Road announced matches for its own four-man middleweight tourney that takes place on Nov. 1. Kazuhiro Nakamura, considered the favorite, faces Yuki Sasaki, while American Top Team's Jorge Santiago faces Shooto star Siyar Bahadurzada. Joe Doerksen will face Izuru Takeuchi in an alternates match. The next "Sengoku" installment, from Saitama Super Arena, will also feature world-ranked lightweight Takanori Gomi against Russian Red Devil fighter Sergey Golyaev, as well as collegiate wrestling powerhouse Mohammed "King Mo" Lawal taking on the 11-4 Fabio Silva in Lawal's second professional fight.