(One of these men fought Anderson Silva on Saturday — can you tell which one? Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

Affliction’s next show will maybe be held on November 8th, maybe in Atlantic City, and Aleksander Emelianenko maybe doesn’t have hepatitis. (MMA Junkie)

Anthony Johnson’s agent Ken Pavia is going to formally appeal Rumble’s loss via eye-pokes. (Five Ounces of Pain)

Frank Shamrock says he’ll fight Robbie Lawler in November if Lawler beats Scott Smith this Saturday. (CBS)

UFC Undisputed will allow fans to see exactly how UFC matchmaker Joe Silva ranks each division’s fighters. (Bloody Elbow).

If you like watching things that are boring but sort of historic, then this video of Forrest Griffin being laid on by UFC legend Dan Severn for three rounds is a must-see. (MMA Scraps)

Anderson Silva is kinda bummed that he fucked James Irvin up so hard. (The UG)

Anybody wanna buy the Chicago Cubs? (Wall Street Fighter)

If you feel like blowing a half-hour, check out this collection of 81 amazing animated gifs. Rampage and Minowaman make an appearance! (Holy Taco)

…so said Silva’s manager Ed Soares, when asked by ProMMARadio about a potential Georges St. Pierre/Anderson Silva superfight:

“That sounds great, I think GSP is an incredible fighter. But I think GSP needs to prove himself. He still hasn’t had a successful title defense (at 170 lbs.). I don’t really feel that he deserves (a Silva fight) yet. Go defend your title a few times and then we’ll talk.”

The thing is, St. Pierre has proven himself many times over to be an elite-level fighter, and Soares is veering uncomfortably close to Juanito Ibarra territory, wild statement-wise. But what makes his dismissal of GSP particularly ironic is that Spider’s next fight is likely going to be against Patrick Cote, who doesn’t deserve to be in the same room as Silva or GSP. With Yushin Okami suffering a broken hand, Cote is really and truly next in line for a title shot; that little shitshow could happen at UFC 88 (September 6th, Atlanta).

A relatively one-dimensional striker, Cote doesn’t bring any more to the table than James Irvin did, and their bout will almost certainly be another brief exhibition for Silva. The silver lining is that with this belt-defense obligation out of the way quickly, Silva will be free to “test the waters” at light-heavyweight again — and he does plan on fighting at least one more time before the end of the year.

Sort of related: “UFC Silva vs. Irvin” was a ratings smash. The broadcast averaged 3.1 million viewers, peaked at 3.8 million viewers, and according to SpikeTV, beat all basic cable and broadcast networks in that timeslot for the “males 18-49″ and “males/females 18-34″ demographics.

(Photo courtesy of the UFC.)

The UFC’s impromptu SpikeTV card cost them $623,000 in fighter payroll, the breakdown of which is below (props to MMAJunkie). Looks like Anderson Silva is now making a lot more than he did for his last fight, though that could just be a one-time bump for helping suck some of the interest from “Banned.” Here are the numbahs:

Anderson Silva: $200,000 (no win bonus issued)
Brandon Vera: $200,000 (includes $100,000 win bonus)
Frankie Edgar: $51,000 (includes $13,000 win bonus and $25,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus)
CB Dollaway: $45,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus and $25,000 “Submission of the Night” bonus)
Hermes Franca: $42,000 (includes $25,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus)
Rory Markham: $37,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus and $25,000 “Knockout of the Night” bonus)
James Irvin: $20,000
Tim Credeur: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
Reese Andy: $15,000
Cain Velasquez: $14,000 (includes $7,000 win bonus)
Jake O’Brien: $11,000
Kevin Burns: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
Brad Blackburn: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
Anthony Johnson: $9,000
Nate Loughran: $8,000 (includes $4,000 win bonus)
Jesse Taylor: $8,000
Cale Yarbrough: $8,000
Shannon Gugerty: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus)
Johnny Rees: $4,000
Brodie Farber: $3,000
James Giboo: $3,000
Dale Hartt: $3,000

Underpaid: Anthony Johnson, who pocketed less than the living wage of $10,000 to show, while having to suffer the insult/injury of losing a fight via multiple eye-pokes. Everyone whose base salary was under $8,000 can be considered “pathetically underpaid” — that’s 45% of the fighters on this card, by the way — except for Rory Markham, thanks to his Golden Foot.

Overpaid: Brandon Vera is turning into one of the most overpaid human beings on Earth, in any profession. And it hurts me to say it, because the dude used to be a walking highlight reel. Look for the UFC to renegotiate his contract at their first opportunity. Now they know better than to invest a six-figure contract into a “next big thing” heavyweight. Sucks to be you, Cain Velasquez — Vera just cockblocked your wallet.

(Courtesy of MMA-Core.com)

In case you’re wondering what a TKO via eye poke really looks like, here’s a close-up view from the Anthony Johnson-Kevin Burns debacle that you can watch again and again. Notice how, after the poke and the ensuing uppercut, the left hand that Burns comes back around with also has the fingers extended outward in poke-ready mode. I would suggest refining his punching technique, but it did result in him getting the win. As my grandfather used to say, if it ain’t broke, why not poke?

In other UFC Fight Night news, check out the below video of the post-fight press conference. Skip to 6:45 to hear Dana White give his take on Affliction and their fighters. Then he goes ahead and bashes the IFL one more time, mostly out of habit.

(Looks like Jesse Taylor picked the wrong week to quit drinking. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

The UFC’s always fluctuating end-of-night bonuses totaled $25,000 apiece for Saturday’s “Silva vs. Irvin” event. The four lucky men who left the Palms one-fortieth of a million dollars richer are…

Knockout of the Night: Rory Markham for his skull-crushing head-kick KO of Brodie Farber.
Submission of the Night: CB Dollaway for his “Peruvian Necktie” choke of fellow TUF 7 castmember Jesse Taylor.
Fight of the Night: Frankie Edgar and Hermes Franca for their three-round tussle that Edgar took unanimously thanks to his takedowns and GnP.

The must-see Markham/Farber knockout is below, and the Dollaway/Taylor scrap is after the jump — and we threw in Cain Velasquez’s beatdown of Jake O’Brien for good measure. (If you find a working link for Edgar/Franca, please post it in the comments section.) Serious props to MMA TKO.

Videos removed by request…

Hello all and welcome to CagePotato’s live blog of “UFC Fight Night: Silva vs. Irvin” from the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. As the incontestable Mr. Goldstein mentioned yesterday, my name is Chad Dundas and I am the editor-in-chief over at www.mma-america.com, the mixed martial arts blog for the discerning gentleman. For the next few hours I’ll be your humble scribe here as we slog through the UFC’s bid to endanger Anderson Silva’s career in a needless and petty attempt to sideswipe the competition. Should be a kick.

Why exactly you’re reading the live blog of a show that’s on free TV, I’ll never know. But hey, it is my first time here and I’m not going to judge you. We’ll save that for later. Right now, we’re about ready to roll … right after the first of many 30 minute commercial breaks. Live round-by-round results from the event are after the jump; refresh your browser every few minutes for all the latest.

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com; more weigh-in photos here.)

MAIN CARD
Anderson Silva (206) vs. James Irvin (206)*
Brandon Vera (204) vs. Reese Andy (206)
Frank Edgar (155) vs. Hermes Franca (155)
Jake O’Brien (236) vs. Cain Velasquez (236)
Anthony Johnson (170) vs. Kevin Burns (171)
CB Dollaway (186) vs. Jesse Taylor (184)

UNDERCARD
Brodie Farber (171) vs. Rory Markham (170)
Johnny Rees (183) vs. Nate Loughran (183)
James Giboo (170) vs. Brad Blackburn (170)
Dale Hartt (156) vs. Shannon Gugerty (156)
Cale Yarbrough (186) vs. Tim Credeur (185)

* James Irvin initially weighed in at 207.5 pounds. He was allowed an hour to sweat off the excess and made it down to the one-pound allowance.

Remember, CagePotato will be running live results + commentary for both “Silva vs. Irvin” (starting at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET) and “Banned” (starting at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET).

(Props: BloodyElbow)

It’s surprising how similar Anderson Silva’s new light-heavyweight build looks compared to his old middleweight frame. In fact, trying to spot the differences between these two pictures is like playing the most boring game of Photo Hunt ever. Sure, his stomach is a little more filled out now and he changed his shorts, but then it gets a little tricky. Does his neck look bigger, or is that just the lighting? Is he retaining water in his ankles?

(Ladies go crazy for a sharp-dressed man, courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

One thing I’m going to miss with Gary Shaw backing into the shadows at Pro Elite is the name-calling and childish back-and-forth between he and Dana White. It was just so entertaining, what a shame to see it go. But the Dana White-Tom Atencio rivalry could be the next best thing. Sure, Atencio doesn’t wear a track suit, but he does have a wardrobe that appears to consist entirely of Affliction t-shirts, which is almost as good. Plus now he’s taking pages out of the Dana White playbook:

For the money-conscious cable-ready consumer, the difference between watching a free UFC show and paying $39.95 to watch Affliction might be a no-contest.

Affliction appeared to land one last counterpunch, however, making a deal to broadcast its card on closed-circuit television at Gold Coast casino, which is directly across from the Palms on Flamingo Road.

“It’s just another opportunity to watch our fight,” Atencio said.

Granted, it’s more of a symbolic gesture and not quite on par with scheduling an event on the same night as your competitor, but you have to love how Atencio — like White — plays dumb about it. The L.A. Times article actually has quite a few fun nuggets, most notably quotes from White where he plays the role of grizzled veteran MMA promoter:

(One more Ben never hurt anything.)

At Wednesday’s press conference in Los Angeles every single Affliction employee made sure to refer to their event as “the biggest event in MMA history.” That may be a blatant exaggeration, but this coming weekend is still a monumental one for our sport, not to mention a great one for those of us who love it. With that in mind, we bring you another edition of Ben vs. Ben, where Cage Potato’s similarly named editors battle it out. This time it’s personal.

Which underdog has the best chance of scoring an upset this weekend?

Fowlkes: There are underdogs and then there are underdogs. By that I mean there are the guys who are betting underdogs and the guys who are mostly just perceived to be underdogs, even if the line on them doesn’t really reflect it.

For the latter I like Ben Rothwell. It might only be a mild upset for him to beat Andrei Arlovski, but it would go a long way toward silencing the Rothwell haters who still think his thirteen-fight win streak was all IFL hype. Some of it was, sure, but Rothwell is a monster. He can do everything Arlovski does, only better. He’s also matured and become a real workhorse in the gym since leaving the IFL, whereas a lot of guys might have slacked off with no fights on the horizon.

As for real betting underdogs, at +400 Reese Andy’s my man (okay, so the old IFL loyalties are starting to show, I admit it). It’s not that he’s so much better than Brandon Vera, but I just don’t believe Vera’s head is really in this fight. He’s still dwelling on the Werdum fight, still feeling like he ought to be a heavyweight, and now Andy’s going to come in, take him down, and grind away at his face for a decision victory. It’s definitely not out of the question.

Goldstein: Wow. You should have prefaced that response with “Caution: Extreme Nuthugging Ahead.” I like Rothwell too, but to say that he does everything Arlovski does, only better — well, it’s a statement that can only be proved by the fight itself. Still, I have to agree that Rothwell has a good shot at surprising a lot of people. Arlovski vs. Rothwell is the only fight on the Affliction main card that isn’t completely lopsided, and Big Ben has the tools to win.

From a new interview on Tatame.com.br, translated by CagePotato’s Luiz De Souza.

***

How does it feel to go against another Brazilian fighter?
I wouldn’t want to go against another Brazilian, but we are all professionals and that’s how it goes. There are fights amongst people of the same nation; it’s inevitable. Only one will come out champion from this group of Brazilians, and it will become our job to go against friends. The most important thing is to deal with this as professionals. The Americans already have this in their culture, they understand it, they are friends, but when the fight comes…This happens a lot in K-1, they fight against each other and still have good relationships…I obviously would rather not go against another Brazilian, we are together representing the same country, but then again everyone is defending their own flags. I know [Silva] hasn’t had a loss yet either, he comes from great victories in the events, but I am doing my homework so that I can win this fight.

Have you started studying your opponent?
I’ve seen a couple of his fights, but it is still early to start training specifically for him. What I am doing now is my basic training, physical preparation, and in August I will train to go against him. He is tough, like all others, there has to be a built-up strategy and some good studying of his game for me to win.

Do you think that the next fighter to get a chance at the belt is the winner of your fight against Thiago, Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans, or do you think Wanderlei can be the one too?
I think anything can happen, but I think that Liddell, since he is an ex-champion, has great chances of getting the shot at it if he wins. Wanderlei also has a chance, but he was a Pride champion instead, so his chances are maybe lower than Chuck’s. Wanderlei is good enough to fight for the belt, for everything he has already done and for everything he still does, but the UFC is the one who decides.

Are you going to train with Anderson Silva for this fight?
Yes I will. In August I should be going to Rio to train with Anderson.

In this NBC Sports video Andrew Falzon from MMA Payout looks at this weekend’s UFC vs. Affliction battle by breaking down the Affliction card and its chances for success against the free Silva vs. Irvin event. Aside from him referring to Tim Sylvia as “Emelianenko’s first real challenge” (um, Nogueira? who beat Sylvia recently? ringing any bells?) he does a great job as an on-camera commentator.

But all this media attention on Affliction and their struggle against the UFC’s counter-programming efforts only makes me wonder if it’s not really helping Affliction get the word out about their event. If the thinking behind putting a free event on Spike TV the very same night is that it will keep casual fans from paying for Affliction, it seems like the UFC also risks drawing attention to the Affliction event as media outlets inevitably run stories on the raison d’être of this UFC show.

That’s not to say those same fans who learn of Affliction by hearing about the UFC’s anti-Affliction show will all shell out the pay-per-view bucks, but it does help put Affliction on the map. Maybe the better tact would be to kill them with silence, though that’s never been Dana White’s way. Especially when it comes to t-shirt guy.

From the latest episode of ESPN.com’s MMA Live, Kenny Florian demonstrates a technique for clinch-domination that you should definitely add to your bar-fight repertoire. Speaking of which, James Irvin doesn’t believe that Anderson Silva is “real technical in terms of the clinch.” Yeah, he really said that — video proof is below.

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

After Lyoto Machida scored the biggest win of his undefeated career by out-pointing Tito Ortiz to a unanimous decision at UFC 84, he immediately became the subject of intense debate in the MMA community. While his fans praise his impenetrable defense and technically perfect counter-attacks, there are others who find his stick-and-move style to be boring — or worse, cowardly. Our resident Brazilian Luiz de Souza called Machida at his home base in Belém, Brazil, to get his take on the criticism, and to find out where he thinks he stands in the UFC’s light-heavyweight title picture.

***

CagePotato: Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us today. Do you have any idea who your next opponent will be?
There’s been a lot of speculation, but there’s no confirmation of anything yet. But I think it could be Thiago Silva, or even Quinton Jackson.

We’ve heard that multiple fighters have turned down fights with you. Why do you think people are trying to avoid you?
It’s like I said in other interviews, this is a business, and so many times people don’t want to fight, not because they are scared, but because they want to get to the top quicker. Many times, fighters have better opportunities of getting higher-ranked in other fights, which makes them choose their fights sparingly, not accepting all challenges. It’s not a matter of being scared.

Some UFC fans refer to your style as “boring.” How do you respond to that?
The truth is that my style of fighting is very technical, and many times people do not understand what I am trying to show them. But this is my style. I can add to it, try to get better combinations, improve my aggressiveness, but this is my style; it’s each person’s characteristics. There are fighters that try to add to their styles, but it’s very difficult to change completely. I fight for a positive result, and I believe that if I add a few things to my style I can still get these positive results.

I don’t feel that this is the only way fans see me. There are many of them who compliment me, and tell me they enjoy watching me fight, so it’s not only negativity coming from them. But it’s something that depends on each person’s point of view, and how the person is looking at the fight. If the person is only looking at it as a brawl, then it gets harder for the person to understand. But when they look at it with a more technical view, looking at the martial arts in it, maybe they’ll understand it better.

Has the UFC ever asked you to press the action more, or are they content with how your fights have been going?

Ace does his best to make the match sound competitive, but it’s pretty obvious who his money’s on in this one. FYI, the rest of the “Silva vs. Irvin” lineup is looking like this:

MAIN CARD
Brandon Vera vs. Reese Andy
Hermes Franca vs. Frank Edgar
Cain Velasquez vs. Jake O’Brien
Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns
Jesse Taylor vs. C.B. Dollaway

UNDERCARD
Brodie Farber vs. Rory Markham
Nate Loughran vs. Johnny Rees
James Giboo vs. Brad Blackburn
Dale Hartt vs. Shannon Gugherty

(Video props: UFC.com via MMA Mania)

This Tatame.com.br interview with Anderson Silva has been picking up some heat today over Silva’s statement that Lyoto Machida is the UFC’s true light-heavyweight champion, and that he doesn’t actually intend to make a run at the 205-pound title. (Dana White apparently didn’t get that memo.) The entire article seemed interesting, so we had our new Portuguese-speaking friend Luiz De Souza translate the entire thing for us. Enjoy.

***

Are you in Brazil or Las Vegas?
I’m in Brazil for a little more than a month. I’m here in Rio training.

What do you expect from this fight with James Irvin in the light-heavyweight division?
My training has been going pretty well. It’s a new experience that we are trying to do. I only train with people above my weight class, I have always trained this way. Lets wait and see how it goes. Coming out of my fights alive like I always do is something good, going back to my family is the most important thing. We made a chronogram of training and physical preparation, we studied it with some [knowledgeable] people, and we are going there to put it into practice, to see if everything we trained and innovated will work.

He said that you ran over the people from your weight class, and that he does not fear your game plan and that he will show you the reason why there are weight classes. What do you think of that?
I believe that weight classes exist for that reason, but when I used to fight in PRIDE there wasn’t a category up to 83kg (183lb) only 93kg (205lb), and I always fought in it. But I did not have the same physical and technical qualities I have today. It’s an experiment, we are doing it for many reasons, and one of them is because Dana White asked me to fight, and myself, along with my friends that help me a lot, have decided that it is doable. We’ll see, I will look to do my job like I have been doing regardless of the results, and I am going into it to test myself, to see if I can. If it turns out to be a positive result, it will mean that our experience plus our experiments worked. People own their own mouths, so he can say whatever he wants, and he is right about the reason for weight classes. I did not have the intention of going for this belt, this belt is Lyoto’s and he has proven that. I am going into this fight because I like to fight, I like challenges.

(Get ready for war, kind of.)

With Elite XC’s next CBS show planned for July 26, the UFC is once again putting on its counter-programming hat (which one assumes looks a lot like a viking helmet) to try and screw with their ratings. So what is it this time? Anderson Silva fighting a pack of wolves live on Spike TV? The debut of the long-awaited Chuck Liddell-Girl Scout Troop 104 sex tape?

Not quite. Try a rebroadcast of UFC 84: Ill Will, featuring B.J. Penn and Sean Sherk. Spike TV will be running it all night, beginning at 9 pm EST, to be preceded at 4 pm by a rebroadcast of the Silva vs. Irvin Fight Night from a week before, just in time to match main events with the Showtime portion of the Elite XC card, which begins at 8 pm.

Oh, the indignity.

Realistically, the UFC couldn’t be expected to do much more than this just one week after their frantically thrown together anti-Affliction show, but it’s still got to sting a bit to know the UFC thinks reruns are all it takes to draw attention away from your live event on network TV.

Five Ounces of Pain is reporting that Dana White has his own network deal close to finalized. While we’ve all heard this siren’s song before, this time there’s a time frame involved:

“We’re real close to a network,” said Dana White, “I’m going to say in three months.”

As for which network, the smart money’s on Fox, though we’ll believe it when we see it. We’ve been burned too many times before and we just don’t know if we can go through that hurt again.

Following up on yesterday’s interview excerpt where he discussed Anderson Silva’s problematic tools, James Irvin tells MSNBC.com that he’s going to beat Silva in the clinch (!!!!!1!!). Shock the world, Sandman. (Props: MMA Mania)

Remember when Bruce Buffer was announcing the result of the Rampage/Forrest fight, and he was like “the winner, aaaaaand…” — like he was going to say “still champion” — and everyone, including Forrest Griffin, was like “OMFG Rampage won!”? In this RawVegas.tv clip, Griffin confronts Buffer about it, who admits to using the strange syntax intentionally to amp up the drama of the moment. And man is he pleased with himself.

Dana White has confirmed what BJ Penn has been talking about since last week — a rematch between Penn and Georges St. Pierre could happen by the end of the year:

“If St. Pierre buzzsaws through (Jon) Fitch then yes, we’ll do Penn vs. GSP,” said White.

Though by no means guaranteed, GSP buzzsawing through Fitch is a likely scenario, and Penn would be granted an opportunity to avenge his UFC 58 split decision loss against St. Pierre. Which means, theoretically, Penn could become the UFC’s first two-division champion well before Anderson Silva, who will be attempting the same feat. A lot of “if”s there, I know, but the possibility is compelling. Who ya got on GSP/BJ 2?

In other UFC news…

— Early speculation points to UFC 90 being held on October 25th in Chicago. This would depend on a SpikeTV deal being locked down for UFC 89: Bisping vs. Lebven, which would be held just a week earlier.

— Medical suspensions for UFC 86 have been released, and Quinton Jackson, Marcus Aurelio, Justin McCully, and Jorge Gurgel could potentially be out of commission until January.

— The UFC wants you to know that you can watch all of Anderson Silva’s UFC and PRIDE fights on UFC.com for $9.99. I guess this is for people who don’t have Google?

UFC Fight Night 14 – Watch more free videos

Here’s the UFC’s ad for their anti-Affliction show on July 19, which is now being billed as “UFC: Silva vs. Irvin”. If you think it’s purely a coincidence that they’ve opted to use language like “best fighter on the planet” with reference to a free event featuring Anderson Silva, while meanwhile Fedor Emelianenko fights elsewhere on the same night, then you haven’t been paying attention.

In politics, this would be a great example of using code words to send a message to certain demographics without alienating others. In this scenario, that demographic is hardcore fans, and the message is clear: Anderson Silva is a better pound-for-pound fighter than Fedor, plus our show is free.

For the more casual fans, they also manage to justify showing Chuck Liddell, “Rampage” Jackson, and light heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin (still feels weird to type that) simply by mentioning the “stacked” 205-pound division. Well-played, UFC.

Unless the Affliction pay-per-view numbers exceed all expectations, the UFC can also take credit for torpedoing their event once it’s all over. Something tells me Dana White has his ‘I told you so’ speech ready to go.

After reading MMA Mania’s recent interview with James Irvin, we have new respect for the Sandman. The dude is just plain ballsy. Not only did he accept the UFN 14 fight against Anderson Silva when four others refused it, but the man actually has the stones to explain why Silva really isn’t that much of a threat. For a guy selected to be the Spider’s first roadkill en route to a light-heavyweight title, Irvin’s taking his long odds in stride…

Jesse Holland (MMAmania.com): Well you don’t get Rashad Evans but now you’ve got UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
James Irvin: Yeah that’s a pretty big jump, huh? I can’t think of an opponent outside of Rampage or Liddell — maybe even Fedor that would be more shocking. But hey, Dana White seems to repay the people who fight hard for him…I’m gonna stand there and trade and I’ll take one to give one. In this case I might have to take two to give one.

Can you take two from Anderson Silva? Can anyone?
Absolutely. He has one or two tools that are problematic [ed. note: understatement of the decade?] but I know what they are. I think he’s more of a right-handed guy but he stands in a southpaw stance. He likes to lead with that left leg and he’s comfortable now. He’s used to getting guys on the defensive. There’s nothing he can do that I’m afraid of. I’m not afraid of him taking me down — that would be a shame, wouldn’t it? He’s a showman. He moved up to 205 to make a point. Maybe he feels like he ran through the 185 division and now he’s gonna start picking off the 205 guys.

And you’re not taking that lightly I assume.
No way! If anything I kind of feel like a representative of the light heavyweight division. I want this guy to know there is a reason we have weight classes.

I suppose Irvin can have such a cavalier attitude when he knows that he’ll be rewarded no matter what the outcome (i.e., whether he’s hospitalized after the fight with Silva, or if he actually dies in the cage). Not only does Dana White repay guys who fight hard, he also shows love to “real fucking fighters.” And Irvin definitely considers himself a member of that fraternity:

(Be careful what you wish for…)

His split decision victory over Ricardo Almeida at UFC 86 may not have been electrifying to watch, but it was enough to get Patrick Cote a shot at the middleweight title. At least, that’s what the UFC is saying.

“He’s getting a title shot,” Dana White said following Cote’s victory.

The question now is, when? The Canadian Press says that after his fight with James Irvin, Silva will most likely defend his middleweight strap against Yushin Okami at UFC 88 in Atlanta, which would mean less than two months between bouts for Silva. Two months after that, they say, is when Cote is likely to get his chance.

Apparently not everyone was happy with Cote’s performance, though:

There was some drama outside the cage after the fight. Manager Stephane Patry said a UFC official — not White — had berated his fighter for the lacklustre bout. Patry said he promptly complained to UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, who assured him Cote would be treated right.

“Obviously it wasn’t the most exciting fight but Lorenzo’s a good guy, he understands,” Patry said.

Now we get to play everyone’s favorite game, “Guess That Mystery UFC Official”. My money’s on Wilder Valderrama. He’s an official, right?

Barring any unexpected defeats or freak injuries, Anderson Silva will fight at least three more times by the year’s end, Dana White said in a press conference held yesterday. First, of course, is his light-heavyweight debut against James Irvin at UFN 14 on July 19th. Said White:

“If everything goes well, he wants to move back to 185 and fight Sept. 6 in Atlanta [at UFC 88], probably against Yushin Okami, then he wants to fight again two months later.”

And who might that next opponent be?

“(Ricardo Almeida) and Patrick Cote are going to fight on Saturday night and see who’s next in line for Anderson Silva’s 185-pound title,” said White.

The long-term plan is for Silva to keep testing the waters at 205, in preparation for an eventual run at the title. And for the first time in the UFC’s history, one of its champions would be allowed to hold two titles at the same time. “Normally I won’t let guys do stuff like that because it’s just…stupid,” White said. “I’ll let Anderson Silva do it.”

Anyway, this has to be bittersweet for Almeida and Cote. The good news is that the winner of their fight is getting an immediate title shot; the bad news, of course, is that the winner is slated to get the worst beating of his life in November. I’m not saying that throwing the fight intentionally and leaving the country for a while would be the best idea, but it’s probably not the worst either.

(Props: MMA Weekly)

From Yahoo! Sports:

[Dana White] said he’s found “the next Anderson Silva,” a lightweight who is competing in Season 8 of TUF at 155 pounds, though he declined to release the fighter’s name because it might spoil the season. “I was going off when I saw this guy,” White said. “He’s 24 and he’s destroying people. It’s sick how bad ass he is. I’m getting goose bumps talking to you about him.”

Early message-board speculation is pointing to Joe “Hybrid” Duarte, a 24-year-old San Diego-based fighter who claims on his website that he’s been selected for Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir. Duarte is 3-0 in pro MMA, 9-0 in pro boxing, and 19-1 in Muay Thai. According to his bio page, he walks around at 185lb-190lb (remember, he’s a lightweight) and is “really, really, really RIDICULOUSLY strong,” thanks to his Chamorro ethnic background. And yes, he does destroy people. His last two MMA matches are after the jump:

(Photo courtesy of KeepItIntheRing.org.)

MMA Rated is reporting that Rich Franklin will move to light-heavyweight to take on Matt Hamill at UFC 88 (September 6th, Atlanta). Franklin spent much of his early career as a 205-pounder, before moving to middleweight in June 2005 when he took the UFC’s 185-pound strap from Evan Tanner. As for the matchup, there’s no danger of Franklin being torn apart by Hamill, Anderson Silva-style, but he’d better start drilling his takedown defense if he wants to avoid being laid on for 15 minutes by the hulking wrestler. And speaking of avoidance, how’s this for self-ownage — Franklin moving up in weight because he’s tired of bashing his face against Anderson Silva’s knees, while Silva is testing the waters at 205 because he cleared out the middleweight division. No matter where Ace goes, Spider is right there waiting, making sure he never gets another belt in his life. Poor guy.

In other news, we previously passed along a rumor that Jesse Taylor and CB Dollaway would fight at UFC Fight Night 14 (July 19th, Las Vegas), and multiple sources are now confirming the matchup. It feels a little premature for both fighters. Dollaway, who would be fighting just four weeks after his loss to Amir Sadollah at the TUF 7 finale, could use more time to cultivate his submission defense, and who knows if Jesse Taylor’s brief stint in AA and a couple months of groveling for Dana White has actually turned him into a stable human being. But it’s the matchup that fans of the show want to see, and it’s happening, whether they’re ready or not.

From MMANews.com:

With a potential win over Rashad how do close do you think you are to getting a title shot?
Chuck Liddell: After I beat Rashad I think I deserve the next title shot.

Would you every welcome a fight between yourself and [Anderson] Silva?
Sure, it could be a good fight but I think I’m too big for him. He’s a tough fighter and I have all the respect in the world for him but I think I’d be too much for him.

I know you’ve briefly talked about it before but would yourself ever entertain the thought of moving up in weight class?
Yeah, I have talked about that a bunch of times, when I get done with what I wanna do at light-heavyweight I’ll be looking to move up in the weight class.

If you could have an open weight fight with anyone in the world who would it be?
I’d really like to get a shot at Fedor; I think I match up well with him.

The Iceman faces Rashad Evans at UFC 88 (September 6th, Atlanta) and is “hoping to be close to 100%” by the time of the fight, following a hamstring injury which he’s still recovering from. All respect to Chuck, but beating Evans shouldn’t put him next in line for a title shot, with the UFC’s 205-pound division as crowded as it is — though an additional win over Mauricio Rua at the end of the year would certainly clinch it. The thought of Chuck at heavyweight is compelling, as is a potential light-heavyweight match with Anderson Silva (who probably wouldn’t be too small to deal with Liddell, no matter what he says). And is this the first time Liddell has mentioned an interest in fighting Fedor? And when he said that, did a silent alarm go off, alerting the UFC’s lawyers that they may soon have another “situation” on their hands?

(‘Who shall I beat up for you, my friend?’)

Every company should be lucky enough to have a team player like Anderson Silva in their employ. You ask him to move up in weight and fight on short notice just to help you stick it to a competitor, and he doesn’t complain about overtime pay or make up an excuse about needing to go to his kid’s piano recital — he just does what needs doing.

In fact, he seems pretty unconcerned about the whole thing. He told Si.com’s Josh Gross recently that he’s walking around at 212 pounds and is ready to pitch in and do his part for the UFC’s global domination efforts:

“If the UFC asks me to do something, and it’s within my capability to do so, I’m going to do it,” he said. “I feel like I’m part of the UFC family and the head of the family asked me to fight. I’m in condition to fight, my coaches say I can fight — I’m going to fight. I want to do whatever I can to help make UFC the No. 1 event around the world like it is.”

Keep talking like that, Anderson, and Dana White’s going to show up at your house with flowers and an engagement ring.

Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, has a realistic though mathematically hazy take on the champ’s move up in weight.

(No ice cream makes Brandon Vera sad.)

Yesterday, we reported on the July 19th event that the UFC was throwing together — definitely not in an effort to siphon off interest from Affliction: Banned, by the way — which will be headlined by Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin (ha!). Though the event isn’t listed on UFC.com yet, it’s being widely referred to as “UFC Fight Night 14,” and some notable matchups are coming together:

Brandon Vera will reportedly be making his light heavyweight debut against Reese Andy, a 7-1 Octagon newcomer and IFL vet who holds notable wins over Kala Kolohe Hose, Jamal Patterson, and Krzysztof Soszynski. Vera makes the move to 205 just six weeks after his UFC 85 loss to Fabricio Werdum.

UFN 14 will also see the return of Jake O’Brien — who was dropped from the UFC after losing to Andrei Arlovski in March — as he’s been re-acquired to take on AKA heavyweight prospect Cain Velasquez.

In the welterweight division, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson (who most recently beat the freckles off of Tommy Speer at UFN 13), will reportedly return to the cage to do battle with Kevin “The Fire” Burns, who’s coming off a shocking choke-out of BJJ black belt Roan Carneiro during his Octagon debut at UFC 85.

And finally, the source is unclear but MMA Weekly and MMA Junkie are listing Frankie Edgar vs. Hermes Franca on the UFN 14 card; the lightweight bout had originally been announced for UFC 87: Seek and Destroy on August 9th.

More to come…

(Who can you count on in a jam? This guy.)

Remember that UFC event they’ve been planning for July 19? You know, the one they only started putting together recently, and which is purely by coincidence on the same day as Affliction’s MMA debut? Yeah, well, looks like it may actually happen. And it looks like the UFC is pulling out all the stops.

MMA Rated is now calling the July 19 event on Spike TV “official” and says it will be headlined by Anderson Silva making his light heavyweight debut against James Irvin.

What’s that you say? It’s totally insane for one of the sport’s pound-for-pound best to be pushed into moving up a weight class to face, of all people, James Irvin, on a show that is being thrown together a month in advance just to screw with Affliction? Yes, you’re right. Deal with it.

The initial story had Wanderlei Silva taking on Brandon Vera, who is said to be dropping to light heavyweight after his loss to Fabricio Werdum. And MMA Rated also reports that a rematch between Silva and Dan Henderson was considered. But Silva has reportedly turned down the fight because — get this — he doesn’t have enough time to prepare.

What? A last-minute offer to fight in a month on a hastily thrown together show doesn’t appeal to you, Wanderlei? Man, don’t make Dana White question your heart in the press again. He’s not above it.

Cain Velasquez is also said to be a candidate to fight on this show, which is expected to take place at the Palms in Vegas. The UFC is still looking for someone to face Brandon Vera at the time of this report, though the way this thing is going he could be signed to face BJ Penn by tomorrow morning.

(Photo courtesy of myspace.com/nathandiazmma.)

The UFC’s next “Fight Night” card on SpikeTV will reportedly go down September 17th at the Omaha Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska, and matchups are beginning to be sorted out. TUF 5 winner and Stockton-repper Nate Diaz has agreed to fight Josh “The Dentist” Neer in a lightweight bout on the main card; Diaz has gone 4-0 in the UFC since his reality show stint, including a legendary no-hands triangle choke victory over Kurt Pellegrino at UFN 13, while Neer (24-6-1, 3-3 UFC) last defeated Din Thomas by decision at the same event, and holds notable wins over Joe Stevenson and Melvin Guillard.

Omaha’s own Houston Alexander is also expected to appear, taking on Eric Schafer. The fight marks Schafer’s return to the Octagon after picking up a couple of wins in the Gladiators Fighting Series organization; he’d previously dropped two in a row to Michael Bisping and Stephan Bonnar. A middleweight fight between Ed Herman and Alan Belcher has been rumored as well.

In other UFC news…

— Dana White has denied that his mind-blowing announcement is related to New York MMA regulation. Epic Fail averted, for now.

— BloodyElbow is floating a rumor that Anderson Silva and Yushin Okami could fight in October, at the UFC’s next U.K. show. We’d rather see the Spider in a light-heavyweight super-fight, but sure, why not, clean out the division once and for all.

— French welterweight David Baron has reportedly signed with the UFC. Baron is the former 168-pound champion of Shooto Europe who most recently pulled off a huge upset at Shooto Tradition 1 by submitting Hayato Sakurai in the first round.