While speaking to tatame.com.br, Ricardo Arona said that he is really close to a deal with the UFC to return sometime near the end of the year.

Arona, who was considered near the top of the light heavyweight division in PRIDE, has been out in the wild ever since the promotion shut shop. Arona, who holds notable wins over fighters such as Alistair Overeem, Wanderlei Silva, Sakuraba, Dan Henderson and others last fought in Brazil in the Bitetti Combat league winning an Unanimous Decision over Marvin Eastman.

Whether this news is on the heels of a “win some more and you’re in” directive from the UFC or something more concrete is something we’ll have to wait and watch.

I fought like garbage and I’m sorry to my fans for my performance. I was hesitant about throwing hard punches because I kept thinking he was going to go for a takedown. It looked like I was knocked down in the second but actually he stepped on my foot and when I tried to back out I slipped. I really don’t think I’m going to stay at 155lbs. I don’t make enough money to have to drop this much weight so I’d like to fight at 170 and only go to 55’s every once in awhile. You know if you look at his face compared to mine right now you’d think there was no way he beat me in a fight but I’ve never been too popular with the judges.

Nate Diaz’s main problems even at lightweight are his lack of power and size and his lack of hesitancy to be taken to the ground. While the latter comes to use once in a while, at welterweight, going up against beasts like Thiago Alves and Josh Koscheck, Nate is going to have a ton of problems with the frame and size that he has presently. It would be interesting though, to see if he can put on some real muscle and improve his skills. Else, he will be doomed to remain in the lower end of whichever division.

Picture Copyright: MMAWeekly.com

From the Rumour Buster department:

This is a second hand quote thanks to CindyO from the UG. Cindy, who is in the know for most things UFC, spoke to Joe Silva and quoted him on the forum as follows:

“I just touched base with Joe Silva and he explained this is basically what happened regarding Mousasi:”

“Mousasi called him Saturday because he suspected he had been lied to by his manager, Appy Echteld, regarding an offer of $40,000/$40,000 from the UFC and then encouraged to accept an offer from Strikeforce. According to what Mousasi shared, that amount was less than half of the purse agreement he had with Affliction but he trusted his manager and signed with Strikeforce. The UFC would have honored the Affliction deal of $125,000 purse plus win bonus had Mousasi signed with them.”

“Contrary to the claim made today by M-1 that Mousasi was on the phone during negotiations with Joe Silva for his services, Joe adamantly denies that is true. Had that been the case, there would have been no reason for Mousasi to call Joe to question Echteld’s claim of a $40,000/$40,000 offer from the UFC.”

Looks like Mousasi got played by his own management since they were trying to make sure that UFC doesn’t get any of the M-1 talent unless they give them what they want – co-promotion …. Will Mousasi leave M-1? I would if this was true …

Back to the UFC?

The rumours are strong and the rumours are good! The latest rumour coming out of the demise of Affliction is that Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort is finally making his return to the UFC.

Belfort was scheduled to fight Jorge Santiago on Affliction’s now defunct MMA event on August 1st. With Dana White’s previous comments about wanting Belfort back in the UFC, the recent happenings made it easier to get the deal done apparently.

The question is, of course, who gets to fight Vitor first as he gets back in the octagon. The possibilities are amazing!

Well, I guess its wait and watch again as far as Fedor’s future holds but a contract with Strikeforce only means that Fedor will have an option of fighting against Overeem, Brett Rogers and Fabricio Werdum as big names …

With the UFC of course, you get the entire gamut of big names coming in. The only problem is that M-1 and the UFC have not always met eye to eye to say the least. Keep tuned in to MMARumours to hear the latest on this development.

Werdum to replace Barnett?

The Rumour Mill is working overtime! The latest rumour to hit the MMA scene is that Strikeforce Heavyweight Fabricio Werdum is all set to replace Josh Barnett at Affliction: Trilogy against Fedor.

Werdum, who is thought of by some as the best heavyweight Jiu Jitsu fighter outside of Minotauro Noguiera, is a dangerous fighter who has upped his striking game after joining the always infamous Chute Box camp. Werdum, who started gaining notoriety after working as Mirko Cro-Cop’s Jiu Jitsu coach, is a championship level grappler and will prove to be a relaly tough test for Fedor, if the fight does happen.

Werdum was slated to fight Alistair Overeem for the Strikeforce Heavyweight title in August on the card headlined by the Carano-Cyborg fight but had to sit out due to Overeem re-aggravating an injury to his hand.

Sensei SporTV, a show on the Brazilian cable channel SporTV interviewed UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva recently. The feature will air on September 27th, but the editors released an incredible excerpt from the interview.

“I’ll retire next year, I already gave my all and don’t need to prove anything to anyone. Within a year, I will put my gloves aside.” – said Silva.

Silva, who is at the peak of his career and is undefeated in his UFC career is considered one of the top fighters of all time, featuring in almost all pound-for-pound lists. This is a shocking revelation seeing as how the future seems to be cross-weight class superfights for the champion, including fights against greats like Chuck Liddel.

Silva or his camp have received quiet throughout.

image courtesy: sun.co.uk

One of the clearer choices is of course, Michael Bisping for the coach of Team UK. Bisping also mentioned recently in a newspaper that he would be more than happy to be the coach, if approached for the role. I am fairly sure that this would be a done deal once Bisping finishes with his current assignment – a much anticipated fight against Chris Leben on the UFC 89 card in October.

Rumours are also circulating regarding Dan Henderson being roped in to coach Team USA. This makes a lot of sense as Hendo and Bisping, along with Nate Marquardt are the three fighters in the UFC middleweight division who can be looked on as contenders for Anderson Silva’s title. TUF9 will prove to be a great platform to see who out of Hendo and Bisping can be called the No.1 contender for the belt.

Henderson, a long time coach and co-founder of Team Quest is also going to be Michael Bisping’s biggest match in the UFC to date, should this match happen.

Tryouts for TUF 9 begin October 20th.

Nick Diaz and Eddie Alvarez might be the two fighters chosen to fight for the now vacant EliteXC Lightweight title come November 8th. The title that is vacant after EliteXC stripped their champion KJ Noons for not defending the title against Nick Diaz, is now up for grabs and the fighters chosen to fight for the title are non other than the opponent that Noons refused to fight and the fighter he wanted to.

Eddie Alvarez is currently 1-0 in EliteXC and has cemented his place in the DREAM lightweight circuit by going till the finals of the lightweight tourney. He was forced to withdraw from the final match that had Joachim Hansen win the belt after defeating Shinya Aoki, due to injury.

Nick Diaz, who after a lackluster performance, was chosen to fight Noons by EliteXC promoters last seen creating a ruckus at the UFN 15 post-fight press conference.

EliteXC is currently not commenting on the situation.

Old school fans might remember the picture above as Ultimate Japan. But what is it doing on a website after so many years?

The rumour of the day is that UFC is planning to restart its operations in Japan!! The date is not yet decided but possibilities of it being as soon as next year around the same time is not out of the question.

In a recent interview with the japanese media, Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White made some announcements that included their tentative plans for Japan. Its been more than a year since Dana White announced his interest in Japanese fighters such as Kid Yamamoto, Takanori Gomi and Sakuraba. Add to that the fact that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva is really high on Shinya Aoki, this makes for an interesting news piece indeed!

With both Sengoku and DREAM reportedly not in the best of shape financially, the UFC entrance into Japan could be timed perfectly by around end of year next year.

Another really interesting thing for the UFC to do would be to get ex-PRIDE fighters such as Wanderlei Silva, Rampage Jackson, Antonio Noguiera, Shogun Rua, etc to fight in front of an audience who are already enamoured by them. The platform is all set. The return is awaited.

MMARumours will definitely keep all of you posted on developments as and when they happen.