Of course, the damage due to this news is mostly to the Affliction MMA figters who are now without an expected pay day and bills to pay on top of that. Another major player who will be hit by this is possibly M-1 Global who just lost one of their major sponsors/ partners.

Meanwhile Affliction Co-Founder, Eric Foss. had this to say:

“Our brand is synonymous with the “Live Fast” approach to life and UFC is the perfect venue for us to market our brand. We have come to an agreement with the UFC which we feel will be the best for the sport and will help the UFC continue delivering the highest caliber of fights.”

Machida Ready for Silva

One of the front runners for the title of contender at Light Heavyweight, Lyot “The Dragon” Machida believes that he sees some holes in the new UFC Light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans’ game that he believes he can exploit. However, he says this is not the right time to think about it since he is comlpetely focused and preparing for his next fight against the always exciting Thiago Silva.

This clash of Brazilians will be one of the most exciting matches on the UFC 94 card and is a match with definite title implications. When asked about what he is training most on for this fight against fellow Brazilian Thiago Silva, Machida says:

“I’m training on my Karate a lot since that is my speciality along with the takedown part and the ground game. I train all aspects of the game but prioritize on training my strongest weapon, stand up fight. We always study the opponent completely, for about three months, seeing how he is, where he works, so I can beat up on these things not being surprised.”

Machida also mentions that his weight is where he wants it to be and that he is completely prepared to take the fight to Thiago Silva and come out of the fight undefeated.

When asked about the comments that Dana White had about him, Lyoto mentions that he is pleasantly surprised and honoured by the UFC President’s compliments and that he will work with humility to get better and live up to the expectations of the UFC president and all his fans, especially since every fighter goes through stages in his career and it is important to keep training and fighting to win.

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.

The UFC finally announced what was already expected by the MMA community: Randy Couture is back in the UFC.

The only difference was, he was still the heavyweight champion AND the announcement that the fight between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar, something that we have spoken about, will be for the heavyweight championship. This is a great opportunity for Brock who, in only his 4th professional fight will be fighting for arguably the most prestigious title in the business, The UFC Heavyweight championship. But where does this leave Interim champion Minotauro Noguiera? What about Frank Mir? The man who gave Lesnar his very first loss in his first UFC fight?

According to Dana White, the winner of the Randy vs Brock fight will then take on the winner of the Big Nog vs Frank Mir fight in a title unification fight. This is similar to a tournament for the title, the only difference being that there are two fighters holding belts who should ideally be fighting each other. Unfortunately, since the interim champion is unavailable due to his involvement with The Ultimate Fighter Season 8, the format of the goings on will be as mentioned above.

So, how does all this affect the parties involved? Let’s take a quick look:

1. Randy Couture: This is the natural’s third return to the UFC and as always, there were a few compromises. His fight with Fedor is still uncertain, although, the possibilities towards it happening seem higher now. He does not even get to fight Noguiera immediately. He has to return to action and face a monster in Brock Lesnar, who is a really good wrestler, plays the same game as Randy and is bigger and younger. Beating Lesnar, of course, would mean that the need for a Fedor fight would reach a crescendo and would be the ultimate heavyweight fight in MMA!
2. Antonio “Minotauro” Noguiera: Big Nog has to be really confused right now. He should be the ideal choice to fight Randy but was put into the TUFs latest season. He now has to wait and fight Frank Mir to be able to prove to the world that he is the true world champion, should he get past Frank Mir. He also has to live with the fact that the UFC is almost giving signals towards the fact that they are still not very comfortable having him as their champion since his appeal in the US is limited to hardcore MMA fans – the smaller segment of the core audience.



3. Brock Lesnar: Definitely the biggest winner in the whole situation. Lesnar’s impressive win over Herring catapulted him to top contender status in a division with very little options. With two out of three contenders for Couture’s title engaged in the latest season of TUF and Cheick Kongo out of action for a good amount of time, Lesnar gets the goose and the golden egg and gets to fight the world champion. Lesnar has a really good chance against Couture, especially since his game plan is virtually a mirror of Randy’s favorite gameplan – use strikes to get the opponent to the ground, control him with ground and pound and get the TKO or decision victory. Add to that the fact that he is younger, faster and stronger than Couture, this opportunity seems like something he can take to the sky.
4. Frank Mir: How would you feel if the guy you beat suddenly gets a shot at the real world champion according to your boss and you get a shot at the interim (read not real) one? After having defeated Lesnar to get a go at one of the best in the business, you now are told that you have to win against Noguiera and then go ahead and fight once more to get to the glory and fame that you want must surely suck. However, this gives Frank a good opportunity to focus on his immediate goals and gives him something to motivate himself for: a fight for the title.
5. Fedor Emelianenko: Fedor is probably the only person waiting to see this go down as much as all the fans around the world. If Noguiera comes out of this as the winner, he has already beaten Nog twice and has nothing to prove. If either Randy comes out of this the winner, there is the possibility of a dream fight to take place and a lot of money to make. If Lesnar is the champ, the debate is rekindled and there is something left to prove for which Fedor will surely be amped up. Should Mir win, he might not be that intrigued simply because beating another BJJ whiz is not something he has done before.

Regardless of what anyone thinks, the return of the Natural does bring a breath of fresh air into the UFC heavyweight division and I am sure will mean a lot more interesting matches will be forthcoming in the near future in a rather lacklustre division.

The biggest winners in this situation is of course, the UFC and Dana White!

The latest rumour is that “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz has finally concluded his deal with Affliction and is now a part of their Light Heavyweight Roster. Although no details have been confirmed as yet, what is sure is that this is not the “groundbreaking” deal that Tito had hoped for it to be.

If this is true, Affliction has pulled a coup by getting Ortiz on board before their October 11th show and can easily build on this hype for their future events. Ortiz is a big acquisition for Affliction because he brings in more than just a MMA fan following. Tito has more of a mainstream audience following than most of the other MMA stars do and with him being in the news and on major media outlets for a consistent time, will be a “trump” in Affliction’s hand (pun intended).

With rumours floating around of Tito still being pursued by the UFC despite Dana White’s obvious dislike for the fighter, Affliction can indeed use the media coverage a news such as this will bring.