The latest season of The Ultimate Fighter is almost upon us and Frank Mir, one of the coaches of the latest season talks about his coaching style, the assistant coaches he is bringing in such as Robert Drysdale – who choked out Marcelo Garcia in a minute and some. Mir even mentions guest coaches such as Demian Maia, Greg Jackson and Dan Henderson. Mir talks about getting the best in the business in for his team because he believes he owes it to his team to get them the best all-round perspective in the game for them to excel. Spike does not allow us to embed the video, so check it out here: Mir’s Coaching staff

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!

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.

Randy Couture: Past and Future?

Former heavyweight champion, future MMA Hall-of-Famer Randy Couture might be on his way back to the UFC one last time. Couture reportedly does not mind fighting in the UFC one more time, possibly against interim champion Minotauro Noguiera as a way out of his contract dispute with the UFC.

The possibility of UFC agreeing to these stipulations is very low though as a win for Couture against Noguiera would mean that the heavyweight division would once again be in turmoil with the then champion walking away and into another organization.

Other than his fighting contract, Couture has a couple of other disputes with his ex-fighting home, the UFC. Couture’s UFC contract expires on October 11th.