MMABay.co.uk reports that Michael “The Count” Bisping is all set to face Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva at UFC 105 in Manchester, England.

Bisping is coming off a devastating KO loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 100 whereas Wanderlei is coming off a decision loss to Rich Franklin in what was an exciting fight at a catchweight of 195 pounds. The fight is scheduled to be at middleweight meaning that Wanderlei will have to make the full cut down to 185 pounds this time. Judjing by his last fight, this might be a tough task for the Brazilian superstar. To add to this, Wanderlei has lost 5 out of his last 6 fights and that makes this fight extremely important for him to win.

Should be an absolute war. Bear in mind the papers have not been signed yet, although knowing both fighters, if Joe Silva has approached them with this, the deal should be done soon.

MMAWeekly has a great interview with UFC Middleweight and TUF3 winner Michael Bisping in which he shares his thoughts about the upcoming fight between Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson, the winner to coach opposite him in the next season of the Ultimate Fighter.

Popular Opinion and all indications are that the winner in the eventual fight between Bisping and the other coach will get to face UFC Middleweight Champion and Pound-for-Pound fighter Anderson “Spider” Silva. Bisping, who since moving down to the Middleweight division has been on a tear analysed the fight, breaking down each fighters strengths.

“Rich Franklin is probably the smarter fighter out of the two. I think he’s got better footwork, probably more technically composed fighter. Dan’s got great knockout power obviously. They’re both fantastic fighters,” Bisping commented.

“If I had to pick a winner, I’d probably go out on a limb and say Rich Franklin by decision, to be honest.”

A win against either of the fighters will cement Bisping’s position at the top of the contenders list at middleweight and solidify his claim to the throne. As popular as “the Count” is as a fighter, this will probably be the most important fight that he will have to fight post UFC 93.

“I want to dominate him striking, in the clinch, taking him down, ground and pound. I want to dominate him everywhere, that is my goal,” says Henderson.

Dangerous Dan also says that he knows that Rich is a good striker and is hard to finish. This is what motivates him to finish Franklin even more come UFC 93 next week.

Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin headline a UFC card that features exciting fighters such as Shogun Rua and Mark Coleman come next week. The fight also decides who goes on to become one of the coaches in the next season of the Ultimate Fighter: US vs Britain with the other coach being “The Count” Michael Bisping, who has looked really great after his transition to the 185 pound division.

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.

“The depression is over and now is just happiness, I’m ready for the war.”

Filho also touched upon a lot of topics such as his training with Andre Galvao, mentioning that this was a very important part of his training as Galvao and he traded experience and technique in Jiu Jitsu and MMA. Filho mentioned that there is a lot of weight that he needs to cut – him being at 93 kgs right now.

Paulo also spoke about his contract with the WEC mentioning that he has two fights left on his contract. On being asked about a potential match up against fellow Brazilian Anderson Silva for the UFC crown, Filho says that he will never fight Silva because he does not want to fight a countryman and a really close friend in Silva.

As far as Anderson’s fight against Patrick Cote goes, Filho predicts a quick and easy victory for the Brazilian superstar, saying

“Anderson will win, and I know it’ll be easy and fast. Cote isn’t fight for Anderson Silva, he’s a level above.”

He also predicted that “Toquinho” Rousimar Palhares will win the fight against Dan Henderson in the first round and that too via a leg lock.

When asked about his own fight in the WEC – the rematch against Chael Sonnen on September 10, Paulo had this to say:

I think he doesn’t wanna fight me again, lose another arm. There’s no strategy, is just fight and be ready to protect and attack.

UFC 88 is a cross roads for many different athletes. Some, young and hungry, look to move to the next level and closer to their dream of a title shot whereas, others, veterans of the sport, looking to get back to where they once where and hoping to win their way back to the title shot by beating the young lions who look to make them a stepping stone to future glory. This fight in a way, sets the mood of the evenings’ most talked about fights.

Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares, a BJJ black belt and BTT fighter, made the mainstream audience take notice with his victory over Ivan Salavery but has been for a long time, one of the most talked about products out of the Brazilian Top Team. He is an excellent ground fighter with better than average strikes. He uses his strikes mostly as setups for a takedown so that he can implement his ground game. He comes from the same BJJ pedigree as current UFC interim heavyweight champion Noguiera and will definitely try and take the match to the ground and try and get a submission, once he gets past the first few minutes of the first round. What remains to be seen is how dominant he can be on the ground against an excellent wrestler in Dan “Hollywood” Henderson.

Dan Henderson, one of the most acclaimed MMA middleweights of all time, is coming off two title match losses and is fired up and ready to get some wins under his belt. His right hand is by now legendary and having KO’ed Wanderlei Silva, no one thinks that Hollywood is an easy opponent on his feet. Dan is probably the better wrestler and will be able to defend Palhares’ submission attempts pretty well, having being able to do so against Minotauro as well in PRIDE.

Hendo’s game plan seems pretty simple: Keep the fight on the feet as much as possible and go for the KO. If that doesn’t work, keep ground control and look to get mount and go for the Ground and Pound from there on. What remains to be seen is whether Hendo can keep Palhares’ shots at bay and remain aggressive and attacking past the first few minutes if he is taken to the ground by Toquinho.

A real toss up but I believe this will be a decision victory for Henderson.

Prediction: Dan Henderson by Decision.