Major MMAMania.com announcement!

Earlier this month we promised that big site news was coming for MMAmania.com and its growing community of mixed martial arts maniacs.

Now it's time to let the cat out of the bag.

We are proud to announce that we have joined the SB Nation -- the best network of sports-related blogs on the Internet. It's a collection of fan-focused (and friendly) Web sites that cover all major sports ... from the National Football League (NFL) to Major League Baseball (MLB) and everything between.

That, of course, includes our favorite combat sport, among others.

Most of our readers more than likely are familiar with another MMA blog on SB Nation, BloodyElbow.com. Before this revolution even started -- back when BloodyElbow.com Editor in Chief Luke Thomas was better known as Mad Squabbles -- we were solid acquaintances. That relationship has grown leaps and bounds over the last 18 months to where we are at today.

MMAmania.com has always been (and still is) proud of the fact that we built our Web site from the bottom up to become one of the top destinations for mixed martial arts. It was a passion and a labor of love that exceeded even our wildest expectations.

The news that we have joined forces with SB Nation is the fruit of that labor. It's a new beginning that will help us reach even greater heights and deliver even more timely and breaking news.

So what's it mean for you? What will change? What can you expect? That's where this partnership gets really good.

SB Nation has always advocated community participation, empowering fans to share their thoughts and have their voices heard. That means you will soon get to do much more than debate hot issues and opinions in the comments sections of our posts.

That won't change.

But what will change is that you get to create daily threads and submit stories through "Fan Posts" and "Fan Shots." No more "off topic" comments or having us decide what gets posted and what does not.

You, the reader, will have the power to create your own stories and have other maniacs comment on them. It also means unique log in IDs, which is a major issue that our readers have been asking for since we started way back when.

That's just the tip of the iceberg of all the benefits that will be rolled out real soon. Of course, I will continue to steer the ship and Jesse Holland has for whatever reason agreed to come along for the ride. James Iannotti, Adam Wagner, Stefan Manojlovic and the other MMAmania contributors will also still continue to chip in.

Again, nothing will change in how we operate. In fact, the new format will help us build on this winning formula with more talented writers emerging through the new blogging opportunities. We will also more than likely work with BloodyElbow.com more closely to create the best possible destination for all the information you can handle.

It's a powerful partnership that ensures you don't have to go anywhere else to get your MMA fix.

We're excited about what 2009 holds and beyond. And we would not have done it or compromised our integrity if we didn't think that it would benefit our awesome community. It's a win-win situation all the way around.

Thanks to all our readers -- old and new, young and old -- who have helped us get to this point. For those who don't know, we've been at this for more than three years. MMAmania.com is among the longest-running and most successful blogs on the Internet.

And we're about to get a whole lot better.