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Ken Shamrock's next fight has been signed and it will be against Johnathan Ivey for the USA MMA promotion on Oct. 16 in Lafayette, La.

MMAFighting.com learned Wednesday from sources close to the event the Shamrock vs. Ivey headliner as well as the co-main event, Ricco Rodriguez vs. Mike Perez.

The always-controversial UFC Hall of Famer Shamrock (27-14-2) made news again in June when he signed to face fellow UFC veteran Pedro Rizzo at Impact FC 2 and admitted to the use of steroids during his career on HDNet's Fighting Words. Shamrock went on to lose in a sad outing to Rizzo on July 18 by way of TKO due to leg kicks. Shamrock has lost eight of his last 10 fights dating back to February 2002.

Shamrock's opponent, Ivey (29-42), is a heavyweight who has been around the sport since 1998. Ivey holds a laundry list of losses to UFC veterans in Jeremy Horn, Travis Wiuff, Ben Rothwell, Justin Eilers, Dan Severn, Jake O'Brien, Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee and Sam Hoger. His list of losses even includes a future UFC veteran, as his most recent fight this past May was a TKO loss to Sean McCorkle, who is set to make his UFC debut later this month at UFC 119. Ivey might be most notable for actually landing a "People's Elbow" in a mixed martial arts bout.

Rodriguez, a former UFC heavyweight champion, is currently on a nine-fight win streak as he continues to campaign towards another run with the UFC.

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BJ and Florian have a jiu-jitsu base so I had a hard time dealing with them but the champion has a wrestling base so I can fight him calmly. I’m aiming for the belt? Yes, I am. I think I can take the belt. Hmmm…I wonder if I’m stronger than the champ?

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"That's the main reason I came to MMA. At least MMA guys got guts and they will get in a cage with me. The boxing guys are all talk and no walk. My thing is, all of these bums, David Gaye and Bucktooth Bernard Hopkins, talk all that shit; come and see me! They were quiet as mice until they saw I was signed to fight in the UFC and then they all had an opinion. I'm doing both and I ain't going nowhere. I'm in it for the long run baby. I'm the only two sport athlete out there and I'm doing the 2 most dangerous sports in the world. No other man will try to do that."

"Man, the fans in MMA are great. These motherfucking fans are...they fanatics man. It's great. I love the atmosphere that they bring. It reminded me of the old days of boxing; the 70's, 80's and early 90's. Boxing fans used to be like that and we need to bring that back. The MMA scene is so crazy and it's great. The fans stand in the hotel lobby from early in the morning until late at night. They are there when you wake up in the morning and they are there when you go to bed and that's fucking crazy. I love that shit. It was crazy man... I had a lot of support out there in Boston. They are a fight town and a couple of them actually remembered me from when I fought Ramon Garbey out there 10 years ago. It was great. I mean, 20,000 fans man? That's crazy. They showed me so much love in that city. I can't wait to go back."

"I knew Dana was trying to throw me to the dogs, but I wanted that. In fact, he didn't throw me to the dogs; I went looking for them. I went looking for trouble. That's why they call me JT, "Just Trouble." I loved it. I had fun in there and I can't wait to do it again."

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Aspiring mixed martial artists find few better places to establish themselves than in the fight capitol of the world, Las Vegas.

Once you're established, though, it's nice to get a break from the hum of Sin City.

That's why the fighters of Team Takedown, one of the sport's more unique management firms, recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) that they're turning over a new leaf in the Lone Star State.

"We want everything right there where we're at," Team Takedown co-founder Ted Erhardt said. "That's because now we're really going to push forward and start to grow this thing that we've seen is proven."

Erhardt said the team plans to move its base of operations from Vegas to a 30,000 square-foot training center in Arlington, Texas. Takedown coach Marc Laimon is also relocating and plans to coach the team's fighters while opening a satellite branch of his Las Vegas-based Cobra Kai jiu-jitsu academy within the center.

"I think we're in a situation now where it's the right time to grow and expand the brand," Laimon said.

Team Takedown took root in March 2007 when it signed collegiate wrestling standouts Jake Rosholt, Johny Hendricks and Shane Roller to seven-year management deals. In a model unique to MMA, team members earn a salary and have their living and training expenses paid in exchange for half of their fight earnings. It costs about $450,000 per year to support each fighter, according to Erhardt.

The fighters have found modest success in the transition from wrestling to MMA. Rosholt (7-2) is rebuilding after a three-fight stint in the UFC in which a win over the hot-and-cold Chris Leben was sandwiched in between losses to Kendall Grove and Dan Miller. Roller (8-3 MMA, 5-2 WEC) earned a top spot in the WEC's lightweight division but twice has fallen short in title eliminator matches, most recently against red-hot Anthony Pettis earlier this month at WEC 50.

So far, Hendricks (9-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) is the breakout star of the group and holds an unblemished record, which includes a four-fight win streak in the UFC.

However, thanks in part to Team Takedown, they've all found success on the sport's biggest stages much more quickly than most MMA newcomers.

Erhardt said, theoretically, the company needs just one of its fighters to make it to the UFC's upper echelons in order to be profitable.

"Our hopes and our projections are starting to come around now, where the guys are going to start making enough money where they're paying for themselves and paying back to Team Takedown so that we can add on some younger guys," he said. "We're going to add on some really solid wrestlers in the future.

"There's a couple more investors, so we're really going to try to up the size of Team Takedown."

Erhardt said he's also working on getting Las Vegas-based striking coach Ken Hahn to make the move to Texas in the near future.

Laimon said he's turned down several offers to train fighters outside of Las Vegas but believes Team Takedown is the right fit.

"Going to Texas and working with these guys, it's unbelievable," Laimon said. "You've seen how Johnny and Jake and (Jake's brother and three-time All-American wrestler) Jared (Rosholt) have been progressing, and it's a dream come true."

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