Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans and UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva took to the runway last Monday to help debut Silver Star's line of clothing for 2010.
Evans said he prepped for the event by practicing his "blue steel."
In the face of all the controversy surrounding Dan Henderson's status with the UFC, he tells Inside MMA that he expects his next two fights will probably be Nate Marquardt and Anderson Silva, although he is currently without a contract with any promotion.
(Inside MMA airs each Friday night on HDNet at 9 p.m. ET)
This week, MMA Live looks back at WEC 43, which included a fight-of-the-year candidate. Plus, an update on Anderson Silva's next move, news on King Mo Lawal taking his act stateside, and the UFC 104 preview gets underway.
The Countdown to UFC 101 airs Tuesday night at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Spike TV. UFC 101 features lightweight champion B.J. Penn defending against No. 1 contender Kenny Florian, and middelweight champ Anderson Silva once again moving up to light heavyweight to take on Forrest Griffin.
Vitor Belfort is currently under contract with Affliction Entertainment, scheduled to compete on the promotion's third effort, Trilogy, on Aug. 1 in Anaheim, Calif. He will face current Sengoku middleweight champion Jorge Santiago on the pay-per-view portion of the fight card.
But could he end up back in his old stomping grounds, the UFC... facing current UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva, no less?
Stranger things have happened.
UFC president Dana White on Saturday night -- during The Ultimate Fighter Finale telecast -- more than alluded to the possibility of a return of "The Phenom."
"I know (Anderson) wants to stay at 185 pounds. So, while he's fighting Forrest (at 205 pounds in August), I'm working right now on some other 185-pounders," stated the UFC big-wig.
And just who might he be working on... well, he at least has his eyes on?
"Vitor Belfort. Vitor is a former heavyweight, moved down to 205, now at 185. He's got great hands, great on the ground. If his head is right, he's a dangerous, dangerous guy. I think that'd be a great match-up," said White.
Would it be no surprise that he might want Belfort back, especially after he destroyed Matt Lindland -- a fighter that White isn't exactly fond of -- at Affliction's sophomore effort in January?
And more than that, could Belfort actually be "the bad match-up" for Silva? Could he be the one to dethrone the king?
Inside MMA's Bas Rutten and Kenny Rice talk with Patrick Cote about his fight against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 90 and recovering from a severe knee injury.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin has plunged headlong into main event with Anderson Silva at UFC 101. The affable fighter was originally booked to face Thiago Silva, but jumped at the idea of fighting "The Spider."
"This is going to be one ridiculous match," Griffin wrote on his official blog for sports nutrition company BSN. "I need to be mentally prepared to fight this guy. The past few fights, it looks like nobody has really lived up to their potential when going up against Spider. I want to at least come in and fight up to my ability. I'm just focused on dealing with him, showing up prepared and getting an actual fight going."
To get the fight going, he'll need to have his mind and heart right, and that's where Dr. Phil comes in.
The Texan talk show host had Griffin as a guest Wednesday in an episode to air on May 14. The show's theme is unknown, but if history is any indication, don't count on Griffin getting too touchy-feely.
Griffin will also embark on a book tour next month for the soon to be released "Got Fight?" featuring his quirky ideas on life and the fight game.
The latest edition of ESPN.com's MMA Live features Kyle Maynard following his unsanctioned MMA debut, the Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin match-up for UFC 101, an update to Strikeforce's June 6 fight card, Bellator, and more.
Though middleweight champion Anderson Silva's stock has taken a big hit, it's hard to argue that a superfight with Georges St. Pierre wouldn't be big business.
UFC president Dana White thought December might be a good time to do it, in Toronto no less, if the welterweight champ got past Thiago Alves in July.
In a recent appearance for UFC Fight Club fans prior to UFC 97, St. Pierre weighed the idea of a fight with "The Spider."
"It would be interesting, but it depends on the outcome of my fight and his fight," he said. "We'll see."
One fan broached the idea of making the two coaches of opposing teams on "The Ultimate Fighter," leading to the super fight.
"I would have to sit down and see what the opportunity is," he continued. "How long I have for the fight. Because if I fight at 185, if I do it, I want to do it well. I want to put some extra muscle on me, some extra weight. I would have to go on a I would have to go on a diet for a couple extra weeks, and it would take me some extra time, but I'm always excited for a new challenge."
Mixed martial arts will always be the first love of UFC welterweight champion, Georges "Rush" St. Pierre, but when the Canadian champion isn't dominating in the Octagon, he's picking up a few new skills in front of the camera as an actor.
St. Pierre recently filmed scenes alongside other fighters such as Anderson Silva, Heath Herring and ironically enough, B.J. Penn, in a movie set for release in 2009 called "Never Surrender."
"It was great," St. Pierre told MMAWeekly Radio recently about the movie experience. "I liked it and I actually have another filming planned for February after my fight. I'm very excited about it."
According to online movie resource, IMDB.com, St. Pierre is set to star in two new movies, one called "Hell's Chain" and another titled, "Death Warrior."
The 2008 Canadian Athlete of the Year admits that acting can be fun, and it takes him back to his childhood, and he hopes one day he can be as iconic as the "Muscles from Brussels."
"It's pretty fun, I like it. It's like make me remember when I was a kid, playing games, it makes me remember those days," St. Pierre commented. "It's a little bit like come back as a kid and play games, and I when I do it sometimes I feel like the Canadian version of Jean-Claude Van Damme. It's pretty funny."
Unless Van Damme pulls out the Dim Mak from his movie "Bloodsport" he probably wouldn't stand much of a chance against St. Pierre in a real fight, but the 170lb king says he still has a lot to learn in the Belgian's medium as well.
"Maybe I'm better in the Octagon, but I still have a lot to learn on the camera."
MMAInsider took a trip to the famed Wild Card Boxing gym on Wednesday, a living photo album of a room headed by boxing coach Freddie Roach.
Roach is currently working with Andre Arlovski for his fight with Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction's "Day of Reckoning" on Jan. 24 in Anaheim, Calif. Roach and Arlovski have been working together on and off for three years. The former UFC heavyweight champ arrived at the gym this week.
Towards the end of an interview in his gym's spare room, Roach revealed that UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva was dropping in to spar with "The Pitbull" that night. Indirectly, he also hinted that Silva's dreams of boxing Roy Jones Jr. were not dead.
"I've been working with Anderson for a little while now," Roach said. "He's 4-0 in Brazil as a boxer. He wants to fight Roy Jones, he told me. I don't think Anderson's quite ready for Jones yet, but he's a talented guy; he has good movement, and (Silva and Arvlovski sparring) should be interesting."
"The Spider" vs. "The Pitbull"? An interesting match-up indeed.
Every great fighter in the world has to take time out of a busy training schedule to relax and enjoy some down time...even the best pound for pound fighter on the planet.
That's what UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, did recently when along with manager Ed Soares and others attended an Usher concert.
"I'm actually headed over to pick up Anderson (Silva), heading out to the Usher concert right now," Soares told MMAWeekly Radio on Wednesday.
"You wouldn't think that we'd be going to an Usher concert but Usher and Anderson got to meet each other and Anderson's a big fan of Usher, and as you saw in his fight against James Irvin, Usher was there in the audience watching his fight."
The R&B superstar has sold out hundreds of arenas and sold millions of records around the world, but having the best fighter in MMA in your corner may be one of the best people to have around!
Before Georges St. Pierre stepped into UFC 87 to defend his welterweight title against Jon Fitch, rumors began to circle about his current contract expiring after only 1 more fight following the August match-up.
Even back then GSP assured fans that he would make the UFC his home for a long time to come, and he didn't plan on fighting anywhere else.
"We'll end up to an agreement, I'm sure," St. Pierre told MMAWeekly Radio in August.. "I like the UFC, I'm glad I'm champion, I want to represent the sport and also the UFC well."
"The UFC, that's what made me known, and if possible I want to retire there."
While the UFC never really talks much about fighters' contracts, it would have to appear that St. Pierre has been locked into a new deal going into his title fight with Penn.
Also, recent comments from UFC president Dana White saying that if the Canadian was successful in his next bout, he could see a fight with pound for pound king Anderson Silva in his future, would almost solidify St. Pierre's long term plans with the company.
"If GSP beats BJ then you'll see Silva v GSP, possibly at a catch weight," White told The Sun, a British newspaper in October.
St. Pierre's manager, Shari Spencer, had no comment when reached by MMAWeekly.com, but with the Canadian's prospects for big fights in 2009 it looks like "Rush" will be in the Octagon for the foreseeable future and beyond.
ESPN's MMA Live Episode 25 covers everything from UFC 90 in Chicago this past weekend and breaks down next week's WEC 36, which features Urijah Faber vs. Mike Thomas in Hollywood, Fla.
UFC President Dana White presents his sixth blog for the UFC 90 weekend. In this edition, Dana takes us behind the scenes at the Allstate Arena for UFC 90. Some of Dana's special guests in this blog entry include UFC Hall of Famer Dan Severn, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra, interim heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, welterweight beltholder Georges St. Pierre, middleweight champ Anderson Silva, and many of the other fighters from UFC 90.
UFC President Dana White presents his fourth blog for the UFC 90 weekend. In this edition, Dana heads over to the UFC 90 press conference and talks with the media in attendance about the downfall of ProElite and EliteXC, and then does ESPN radio with Steve Cofield.
He really layed into EliteXC again, saying, "Guys that (expletive) fix fights shouldn't be in the business... I don't need scumbags like that blowing it for everybody."
UFC President Dana White takes you behind the scenes of UFC 90 as he prepares for the production side of the show. Also catch training footage of UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, and other fighters competing on this weekend's card.
UFC President Dana White presents his second blog for the UFC 90 weekend. In this edition, Dana talks about the downfall of ProElite and EliteXC as well as a beef with radio host and former Yamma announcer, Scott Farrell.
"Obviously today is a great day in MMA, ProElite is dead... so today is a good day," says White in this latest edition of his UFC 90 video blog.
Every time he turns around someone is asking Michael Bisping about getting a shot at the UFC middleweight title held by current king Anderson Silva. As he said after his win over Chris Leben at UFC 89, if he had a pound for every time someone asked, he wouldn't really need to be fighting.
"I'm happy with the way it's going," Bisping said at the UFC 89 post-fight press conference. "You've got to win your fights and that's what I'm doing. I just take it one step at a time. I don't want to get ahead of myself."
"Whenever it comes I'll be happy. If they said next fight, I'd be happy. If they said five fights, I'd be happy. As I've said, you've got to earn that right at a title shot. Have I done it yet? I probably haven't. I don't think I have. That's what I want to do. I want to earn it. I don't just want to be given it because I'm from the U.K. or whatever. I want to earn that right, and I want to beat the best guys in the division."
Beyond the opportunity to earn a six figure contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the fighters who make their way to the show also have the chance to train with world class coaches like B.J. Penn, Matt Serra, Tito Ortiz, Frank Mir, Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira and others.
But as seen on the most recent episode of the popular reality show, the members of Team Nogueira got the opportunity to train with the best fighter on the planet when UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva stopped by to help them train their stand-up games.
Arizona Combat Sports based fighter Ryan Bader was shown sparring with the champion during the episode and he says that Silva really is just that good.
"He's just phenomenal, he's just so fluid and just so loose in there and elusive, it was crazy," said Bader recently on MMAWeekly Radio. "He's amazing and light years above anybody else that I've sparred with."
During the televised portion of the broadcast, Bader and Silva seemed to be having a pretty hardcore sparring session, with both fighters landing some pretty heavy shots.
"We were going pretty good and he was punching back and doing normally what you'd do, and the clip they showed was at the end of our workout when he was getting me a little bit and I was kind of getting frustrated so I started swinging kind of hard at him and then he kind of invited me to come and get him in a friendly manner, so that's what you saw on TV," Bader commented.
"I hit him pretty good a few times, but he's got a pretty good chin, he's hard to hit, I mean you go in there and he's very elusive. It was just awesome getting the experience training with a fighter like that."
Not too many of today's newer fans probably remember who Lee Murray is, but his name came up on Friday when UFC president Dana White addressed fans in the U.K.
A little background... Murray was a once promising British mixed martial artist with a professional record of 8-2-1. He holds wins over fighters such as Jose Pele Landi-Jons and, at UFC 46, Jorge Rivera.
Asked about Murray facing Anderson Silva again - Murray lost to Anderson in a Cage Rage bout in 2004, which was Murray's most recent MMA action - White told the crowd, while he is definitely a tough guy "fighting Anderson Silva is the least of his problems."
That's probably putting it mildly. To most MMA fans - and UFC fans in particular - Murray is probably most famous for a brawl with former UFC star Tito Ortiz outside of a bar in England after UFC 38. Tito denies the incident happened, but Murray and others say that the Brit dropped Tito during their fight before fleeing the scene.
What White was more likely referring to though is Murray's more recent legal troubles. He is currently in a Moroccan prison for his involvement in the largest cash heist in British history... 53 million pounds!
Less than two weeks ago The Sun newspaper in the U.K. reported that Murray and his partner, Paul Allen, were named in court as the masterminds behind the heist. Allen is being held in the U.K., but Murray is still in a Moroccan jail cell because he is actually a Moroccan citizen and a judge there has yet to determine if he can be extradited to the U.K. to face up to the alleged crime.
Below is his 2004 Cage Rage fight with Anderson Silva. The fight is broken up into three parts, thus the reason for three videos below.
Since making his move to the middleweight division, popular British fighter Michael Bisping has had a very hard time keeping his name away from matchmakers across the globe putting him in a title fight against current UFC champion Anderson Silva.
Bisping takes the fans enthusiasm as a huge compliment, but also knows ultimately it's up to the UFC who he fights and when.
"Me personally, I take the compliment from it, but I don't read too much into it," Bisping said to MMAWeekly Radio recently. "Obviously, it's very flattering."
Never one to jump ahead of himself, the Brit admits that he'd always accept a title shot, but it's not something he wishes for yet at this point in his career as a 185-pounder.
"If a title fight was offered in my next fight, obviously I'd take it, but right now if I had a say in it, I wouldn't want that just yet," Bisping stated. "I'm still maturing as a fighter. I'd still want two or three more fights before I got that opportunity."
First things first, Bisping takes his shot at Chris Leben this weekend in England at UFC 89.
This is the Ultimate Fighting Championship's official promotional video for UFC 90 in Chicago. The Oct. 25 fight card features a main event between current middleweight king Anderson "The Spider" Silva and Canadian Patrick Cote.
The main card is scheduled to air live on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT: -Anderson Silva (#1 Middleweight in the world)* vs. Patrick Cote -Thiago Alves (#3 Welterweight in the World)* vs. Diego Sanchez (#8 Welterweight in the World)* -Fabricio Werdum (#6 Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Junior dos Santos -Tyson Griffin vs. Sean Sherk -Thales Leites vs. Goran Reljic
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