(Mike Tyson‘s first night as Dana White’s bodyguard was also his last. / Photo via the UFC 160 weigh-in photos gallery on MMAFighting.com)

The FX Prelims broadcast for UFC 160 kicks off tonight at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, and our man Anthony Gannon will be laying down live round-by-round results after the jump. So will Khabib Nurmagomedov redeem himself after shitting the bed at yesterday’s weigh-ins? Can Mike Pyle enter the four-fight win streak club? And which obscure TUF winner will we have to start caring about, Colton Smith or Robert Whittaker? Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest updates, and use the comments section to let us know you’re here.

The UFC’s most promising (and most eerily emotionless) welterweight prospect has just experienced an important rite of passage — his first injury withdrawal. As confirmed by UFC officials, Icelandic grappling phenom Gunnar Nelson will be unable to meet Mike Pyle at UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2, scheduled for May 25th in Las Vegas. According to Gunnar’s father/manager Haraldur Nelson, it’s a knee injury that will require surgery. A timetable for his return hasn’t been announced.

Injuries have actually plagued both of Nelson’s previous UFC fights. His first win in the Octagon came against DaMarques Johnson, who was replacing the injured Pascal Krauss. Nelson’s second win came against Jorge Santiago, who was replacing the injured Justin Edwards. And now, the UFC Injury Demon has gone from teasing Nelson to actually taking a chunk out of his ass, so to speak.

Replacing Nelson against Pyle at UFC 160 will be Rick Story, who most recently TKO’d Strikeforce/KOTC standout Quinn Mulhern at UFC 158 last month. Pyle is coming off a superb 2012 during which he scored first-round KO/TKOs of Ricardo Funch, Josh Neer, and James Head. Pyle vs. Story is expected to be on the FX portion of the 5/25 card.

Props: mmafanmade.tumblr.com

By George Shunick

If there’s a word that sums up UFC 153, it’s got to be “wow”. Anderson Silva gave another performance indicating that we do indeed live in the Matrix. Jon Fitch was in the most exciting fight of the night, and one of the best of the year. Big Nog submitted a man impervious to jiu-jitsu. Demian Maia choked/neck-cranked a man so hard he had a mini-hemorrhage and blood spurted out of his nose. And perhaps most impressive of all, Wagner Prado actually stopped a hat thief.

The bottom line is UFC 153 was an amazing card that delivered from top to bottom. Could it have been better if it had Frankie Edgar square off against Jose Aldo? Probably. But I’ll take another transcendental show from Anderson Silva any day of the week. And that’s exactly what his fight with Stephan Bonnar was. After a slip, Bonnar pressed Silva into the cage, presumably looking to wear the smaller fighter down. Silva wasn’t having any of it, offering a few knees, shoulder shrugs and nothing else. Bonnar backed away and then things got weird. Silva remained on the fence, hands down, encouraging Bonnar to hit him.

Now, I know Stephan Bonnar isn’t the world’s greatest striker. He’s never shown serious knockout power, and his technique has never been the best. But he’s still a 230 pound man who’s spent the majority of his adult life learning how to hurt people. He’s a professional fighter. And for about 4 minutes and 40 seconds last night, those facts didn’t amount to jack shit. Silva dodged, deflected or simply absorbed Bonnar’s offense for about two minutes, demonstrating what a black belt in Tae Kwon Do is worth against a man who seems to know what you’re going to do before you do. Then, Silva decided to end the fight. He tripped Bonnar, established some separation, and then connected with a debilitating, pin-point knee to the solar plexus. Bonnar – who had never been stopped with strikes before – collapsed and waited for the end to come. Mercifully, it did.

(“Now, Demian! Use the muscle-spasm death touch that I taught you!”)

Demian Maia‘s welterweight debut at UFC 148 was over before it really began, thanks to a poorly timed muscle spasm suffered by Dong Hyun Kim. But the former middleweight title contender will be getting another chance to make an impression against Rick Story. Their bout is scheduled to take place at UFC 153 (October 13th, Rio de Janeiro), a card that is quickly stacking up with top Brazilian talent. Story recently outpointed newcomer Brock Jardine at UFC on FX: Maynard vs. Guida, which snapped a two-fight losing streak against Charlie Brenneman and Martin Kampmann.

Speaking of Brenneman, “The Spaniard” has booked his return fight after being choked out by Erick Silva in June. He’ll be appearing at UFC 151: Jones vs. Henderson (September 1st, Las Vegas) against TUF 11 competitor — and former Crocodile Hunter bodyguard — Kyle Noke, who is coming off of two losses at middleweight and will be making his welterweight debut.

In other booking news…

Talk about stepping in a turd and turning it into gold. Word broke late last night that Yoshihiro Akiyama suffered an undisclosed injury that has forced him out of his upcoming UFC 149 bout with Thiago Alves. To say that the MMA blogosphere entered a brief yet hysterical state of mourning upon hearing this news would be an understatement…until we found out that Afghanistan-born power puncher Siyar Bahadurzada would be stepping in as his replacement. Then there was much rejoicing.

Bahadurzada is coming off a quick and brutal first round knockout of Paulo Thiago at UFC on FUEL 2, the first stoppage loss of Thiago’s career. The win instantly put the welterweight division on notice, and a victory over Alves would further cement Bahadurzada’s status amongst the division’s elite. To be fair, Alves has been struggling a bit as of late, sandwiching a first round submission win over Papy Abedi at UFC 138 between a decision loss to Rick Story at UFC 130 and a most recent submission loss to Martin Kampmann at UFC on FX 2. Despite the fact that “Pitbull” seemed on his way to a clear cut decision victory in that fight, an ill-timed takedown at the end of the third round provided Kampmann all the leeway he would need to snatch up a fight-ending guillotine choke.

Alves should not have to fear the submission prowess of Bahadurzada coming into this one, as two of his four losses have come by way of submission — the most recent of which was a first round heel hook to Jorge Santiago at Sengoku – Sixth Battle back in 2008. What we’re saying is, expect a brawl, Potato Nation, because what appeared to be a decent scrap at first glance has now been updated to an early candidate for Fight of the Night and/or Knockout of the Night.

Speaking of injury replacements…

(Pictured above: The REAL reason Nate Marquardt got fired.) 

When taking a look at Nate Marquardt‘s Sherdog profile, we were kind of shocked to find that it has only been a little over a year since he last fought. Perhaps it was a result of his repeated delays when signed under the BAMMA banner some 6 months ago, but it feels like it has been a long time since we’ve seen the one-time UFC middleweight title contender in action. Like Gina Carano long.

And go figure, it all began with TRT. Because it always begins with TRT. After going 2-2 in his last four UFC fights, including a most recent UD win over Dan Miller at UFC 128, Marquardt was expected to make his welterweight debut against Rick Story at the main event of UFC Live 4. Things took a turn for the worse, however, when he was pulled from the card at the last minute for elevated testosterone levels. He was subsequently ousted by the UFC and replaced by Charlie Brenneman, who went on to score the upset over Story and completely derail his hype train.

News broke in February that Marquardt had signed with Strikeforce and was expected to face Tyron Woodley. No date was set for his ever-elusive welterweight debut, likely due to the fact that the Strikeforce website developers hadn’t yet learned how to spell Marquardt and couldn’t afford to scan the Word document twice.

Well, ladies and gents, a date has finally been set for the return of “The Great.”

(Yeah Dan, we’re stoked for the new Cung Le/Jean-Claude Van Damme movie too!) 

It looks like Demian Maia won’t be the only one making his welterweight debut in the near future.

Featuring a main event clash between top lightweight contenders Clay Guida and Gray Maynard, the UFC on FX 4 card is really starting to take shape, adding four more fights in the welterweight division last night. It seems a little odd that this plethora of fights have been added when the UFC on FX 3 card, which goes down two weeks earlier, has confirmed only two fights thus far. Then again, if we were in charge of matchmaking, Pat Barry would fight every weekend and Rousey/Caraway would already be booked.

But back to the welterweights. Yes, it appears that our buddy Dan Miller will be back in action at UFC on FX 4, and in fact will be making his welterweight debut when he takes on Ricardo Funch. Miller has not fought since his clusterfuck of a fight against Rousimar Palhares at UFC 134 that saw Palhares leap onto the cage in premature celebration, only to be talked off the proverbial tower by Herb Dean. Upon re-entering the octagon, Palhares was almost immediately KO’d by Miller, but managed to gather the few remaining marbles in his brain to pull out a unanimous decision victory. The loss was Miller’s second in a row and fifth of his last seven. But given Miller’s tendency to put on exciting fights, we don’t imagine a loss here will cost him his job. The same cannot be said for Funch, however, who has dropped all three of his UFC appearances to Johny Hendricks, Claude Patrick, and Mike Pyle.

Also set for the fourth FX card will be a welterweight tilt between submission specialist T.J. Waldburger and manscaping aficionado Brian Ebersole. Waldburger has scored a pair of brilliant back-to-back victories in his last two UFC appearances, leaping into a triangle against Mike Stumpf in September before notching a lightning quick armbar of Jake Hecht at UFC on FX 2: Kampmann vs. Alves earlier this month. He will be facing a tough test in Ebersole, who is riding a 10 fight win streak including three straight in the UFC over Chris Lytle, Dennis Hallman‘s balls, and Claude Patrick.

Nothing against Waldburger, but we’re kind of pulling for Ebersole in light of recent events.

And in other UFC on FX 4 news…

(In a way, we were all the “Screaming PRIDE Lady” that night. / Photo courtesy of Esther Lin, MMA Fighting)

By Jason Moles

The suits on Wall Street keep whispering about a ‘Halloween indicator‘ and how now is not a time to sell; rather we should sit back and let our riches mount. Call it what you will, but millions watched UFC on FOX and UFC 139 and concluded the same thing: Most fighter’s stocks are rising steadily. Even if you’re not sure which is the true Fight of the Year from this weekend — Dan Henderson vs. Marucio Rua or Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler — you’ll know how to safeguard your hypothetical MMA portfolio’s worth after playing another round of ‘Buy, Sell, Hold’.

Stephan Bonnar: Buy

It’s hard to believe that any TUF veteran could take nearly a year off from the sport and return with the engine firing on all cylinders, but Stephan Bonnar did just that. The BJJ schooling he dished out was almost as surprising as his apology to Josh Koscheck for making those damn shirts. Even that wasn’t the most unexpected thing to happen; one judge gave the ‘American Psycho’ a 30-25 victory. Grab hold of any unclaimed stock before he starts getting big fights and Dana declares him “in the mix.”

Party Like a Rockstar also came out in 2007. Your mind = Blown. Props: Fox Sports

I’m willing to bet that more than a few sports writers have pointed out that four years ago, Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua would have been just as worthy of main event status as it was last night at UFC 139. That four years later, we’re still willing to pay to watch guys like Wanderlei Silva, Cung Le, Urijah Faber, Stephan Bonnar and Miguel Torres. That last night’s event appropriately enough took place in Strikeforce’s old stomping grounds in San Jose. For that matter, I’m pretty sure you heard all of that stuff at some point from Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan last night.

I tried to avoid those clichéd observations, but they’re too appropriate to ignore. As fans of mixed martial arts, we’ve been waiting at least four years for a fight between Pride legends Dan Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to come together. Yet for as long as we’ve wanted to see this fight, what we were given last night was worth every second of the wait.

By Jason Moles

Over the last 18 months, we’ve been lucky enough to get six live fight cards on Versus, completely free of charge. This past Saturday marked the end of Versus’s run as the “home away from home” for the UFC on basic cable. Not to worry, though: More free, live fights will be coming your way soon on FOX, FX, and Fuel TV. We thought we’d take a look back at the best of the best from the “UFC Live” series, but first, here’s how those sixty-five fights were decided: 24 (T)KOs, 15 Submissions, 23 Judges Decision, 2 Doctor Stoppages, and 1 No Contest.

Now let’s hand out some hardware, shall we?

Biggest Upset: Charlie Brenneman Beating Rick Story

(The UFC is calling this ‘a potential Fight of the Night’)

A welterweight scrap between Martin Kampmann and Rick Story has been added to UFC 139, which is scheduled for November 19 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

The UFC announced the bout Wednesday.

(It was at that moment that Rick noticed Charlie’s ‘Carpe Diem’ tramp-stamp, and terror washed over him like a warm, rancid wave.)

Wrestling — it’s all fun and games until you wind up on the wrong end of it. That’s the reality for Rick Story, whose six-fight UFC win streak was snapped by the takedown-happy Charlie Brenneman last month at UFC on Versus 4.  Now, Story — a former collegiate wrestler himself — is channeling his inner Dan Hardy, asking for a follow-up opponent who will just stand in front of him and throw hands. And as he told MMAWeekly, he even has a guy in mind:

“(Dong Hyun Kim) just recently came off a loss, like myself. And he’s still a Top 10 (fighter) and he’s game, too. I wouldn’t have to be worried too much about takedowns and I’ve been working on my boxing skills tremendously and (I’ll) be able to showcase a knockout…Most of my opponents that (I’ve had) punch a couple times and they don’t want to fight anymore. They just want to wrestle or run away. The other opponent that I had that was game was Brian Foster and we ended up getting fight of the night.”

(Irony, how does it work? PicProps MMAJunkie)

CagePotato.com has learned that former UFC welterweight contender Karo “The Heat” Parisyan contacted the UFC to offer to step in for Nate Marquardt to face Rick Story on last night’s UFC Live on Versus 4 card.

According to a source close to Parisyan, the Armenian Judoka texted UFC president Dana White moments after the news broke that Marquardt was unable to compete on the card because he not met the medical testing requirements of the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission and would immediately be let go from the remainder of his Zuffa contract as a result, to let him know that he was in shape, his medicals were up to date and he could make the 170-pound welterweight limit in about in an hour or two. White, who chose instead to give Charlie Brenneman the fight, simply texted back, “:).”

Seems like you should be able to predict the fight based on the shorts alone. PicProps: MMAJunkie

It happens everytime. You write off a UFC card as uninteresting and decide to paint along with Bob Ross (or whatever it is you do with your personal time), and the fighters get wind of it and take your lack of interest personally.

They get in to the Octagon and perform stupifying acts of athleticism and heartitude, Dana White gets a huge boner at the press conference, and now you have to read recaps and watch GIFs to catch up on the action. Sucks to be you, we guess.

Frankly, you need to be making better choices in your life — you cannot paint those happy little clouds and friendly little mountains like Bob Ross — no one can. Frodog himself couldn’t even paint like that; all of Bob Ross’s shows were actually produced by Industrial Light and Magic. There, the secret is out, and we can die in peace.

For those dedicated souls that tuned in, hey wow, how about that show, huh? Like you, we had some thoughts during the fights, and unlike you, we wrote some of these thoughts down during and after the fights. Come on in and let us tell you how you’re feeling right now.

All hail Zombie Prophet!

FACT: At some point tonight, someone will refer to this man as “Kongo Slice”, and consider him/herself incredibly clever for doing so. Props: MMAJunkie.com.

The UFC will be holding its fourth installment of live MMA on Versus Network tonight at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, headlined by Nate Marquardt versus Anthony “Rumble” Johnson Pat Barry versus Cheick Kongo. Eh, what are you going to do? Plus, Rick Story and Charlie Brenneman battle for welterweight contendership, Matt Brown and John Howard more than likely fight for their jobs and Matt Mitrione squares off with Christian Morecraft.

The prelims are currently happening on Facebook now, so why not check them out? We’ll be here when you get back with live updates starting at 9 PM, ET. And yes, we know you’ll be back. It’s a Sunday night, now’s not the time to start acting like you have other plans. Refresh this page every few minutes for the latest results.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

While we all wildly speculate what exactly caused Nate Marquardt to be pulled from tonight’s card and ejected from the UFC, we can likely eliminate one potential reason. As seen in the NBC Sports video above, the weight cut looked extremely smooth for Marquardt as he made his first drop down to welterweight. Incidentally, his replacement Charlie Brenneman says that he was notified Friday that he may be stepping in to take on Story.

Perhaps the cutting of Marquardt reminded the rest of tonight’s cast just how fickle a UFC career can be, but something seemed to light a fire under the asses of several fighters at yesterday’s weigh-ins. Weigh-in results and videos of tense staredowns await you after the jump.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Rick story, blatantly holding back his true feelings regarding Nate Marquardt.

In preparation for UFC on Versus 4 this Sunday night, Ariel Helwani has been busy interviewing fighters. Since you probably have a major concerns regarding his interviews, I’ll address it now: Nobody gets slapped. For those of you still here, Nate Marquardt and Rick Story don’t exactly speak highly of each other, Christian Morecraft talks beer and Black Sabbath and John Howard talks about the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup.

For more of Ariel Helwani, be sure to check out the pre-fight and post-fight shows on Versus Network, beginning at 8 PM ET and 11:30 PM ET, respectively. You’ll get analysis from Ariel, Todd Harris and Stephan Bonnar. You’ll also get a special appearance by our favorite reader (No, not Cheick Kongo). And also watch the other videos after the jump.

How ’bout we keep this fight-picking train rolling, eh? I’ve just come into the possession of a Blu-ray copy of UFC Ultimate Royce Gracie — which hit stores last month — and I figured one of you jokers might wants it. Hit us with the synopsis, Amazon:

This comprehensive Blu-ray collection captures the jiu-jitsu master at his best with nearly six hours of content, including interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and of course, his classic fights against Ken Shamrock, Kimo Leopoldo, and Kazushi Sakuraba.

But you can’t win if you don’t play. This Sunday night, UFC Live: Marquardt vs. Story goes down at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, featuring Marquardt’s debut at 170 and a heavyweight clash between Pat Barry and Cheick Kongo. Submit your predictions for these two fights in the comments section below, including the winner’s name, the method of victory, and the time/round of stoppage, if any. Your entry should be in this format:

(Get used to this mug. Props: MMARatings.net)

Anthony Johnson was slated to welcome Nate Marquardt to the welterweight division at this month’s UFC Live event (June 26th in Pittsburgh), but due to a rotator cuff injury suffered in training, ‘Rumble’ won’t be able to make that date. Coming in on short-notice against Marquardt will be rising welterweight star Rick Story, who was in action just last weekend at UFC 130, picking up his sixth-consecutive win against Thiago Alves.

It’s a gamble for Story, but taking out a longtime middleweight contender like Marquardt would earn the Washington native even more respect in the crowded contender pool at 170. Will Story be able to use his wrestling to stifle Marquardt in the same way that Chael Sonnen did at UFC 109, or is Nate going to put the welterweight division on notice, starting with Rick?

The current lineup of UFC Live: Marquardt vs. Story (aka ‘UFC on Versus 4′) is after the jump…

(Meanwhile in Roy’s stomach, a dozen undigested cheeseburgers cried for mercy. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

Look, I was all for sweeping UFC 130 under the rug and never mentioning it again, but since ReX has shamed me into doing this, it’s time to look back at Saturday’s big winners (and big, big losers) and see if we can devise some future matchups for these guys that will actually produce interesting fights. Make it happen, tiny atheist.

Quinton Jackson: Dana White seems dead-set on giving Rampage a title shot if his hand is healthy enough to accept it. Ugh, terrible. Why the UFC isn’t interested in promoting the hottest rivalry in the sport is anybody’s guess. (And don’t give me that bullshit about “timing”; it’s more likely related to White’s personal feelings about Rashad Evans.) In a perfect world, Rampage sits out for a few months and faces the winner of Shogun vs. Forrest at UFC 134 in Rio. With losses to both on his record, I don’t think motivation would be an issue.

Matt Hamill: Sure, on paper Hamill was coming into the fight against Rampage with a five-fight win streak — but considering that the most impressive victory in that streak (by far!) was his knockout of Mark Munoz, you have to wonder where the Hammer really sits in the light-heavyweight pecking order. My first thought was that Hamill should face the resurgent Vladimir Matyushenko next — but Vlad already has a date in August. So give him the winner of Kyle Kingsbury vs. Fabio Maldonado at this Saturday’s TUF 13 Finale. Either Hamill rebounds, or a rising prospect gets a big-name notch on their belt. Seems win-win to me.

“…and I saw his knee looked like it was getting bigger and bigger … and then it hit me.” (VidProps: Karyn Bryant)

Karyn Bryant caught up with Ricky Story after UFC 130, and he wasn’t getting his jaw wired up.   After determining that he wasn’t suffering from a concussion, Bryant asks him about the fight, and reminds him that he absorbed some damaging shots in the process. Story allows that, yes, he was hit with some fearsome blows, and he even wound up taking a bite out of his mouthguard (!!!). Sounds like maybe you don’t want to order from that mouthguard manufacturer any more?

Story seems a little sheepish, saying his performance “was definitely good enough for the win,” except he doesn’t seem so definite.    Awww, cheer up, big guy.   MMA crowds boo, it’s their thing.  It’s like Red Wings fans throwing octopi on the rink, or Philidelphia Eagles fans being turbo douches and needing a jail in the stadium.

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com. Rampage’s victory reaction gif is now after the jump.)

When the anticipated rematch between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard was scrapped from this card, we were left with a few big names and a lot of hope. Despite a few stellar knockouts earlier in the evening, UFC 130 ended much like my date to see “No Strings Attached”: a lot of booing, a disappointing 15 minute fight, and I was out $50.

Every UFC card has to be about something, and with no gold up for grabs the storyline for this event became Quinton Jackson’s climb back up to the top of the Light Heavyweight division. Dana White declared and Rogan and Goldberg echoed that an impressive, entertaining victory over Matt Hamill would land Rampage a title fight with champ Jon Jones. Rampage secured the win, but his shot at the belt is still up in the air.

(Man, Edith LaBelle has really let herself go.)

After sorting out some technical difficulties with my satellite company, I am set up to get this b*tch blogged for y’all.

Let’s get to it.

Spoilers are after the jump. You’ve been warned, yo.

(Video courtesy of VideoObb/IronForgesIron)

If you missed the Countdown to UFC 130 show this week, not to worry, we have you covered. During the show both Matt Hammil and Quinton Jackson’s camps give some interesting insight into their fighter’s respective opponents and we learn a bit more about some of the lesser-known fighters on the card like Rick Story and Jorge Santiago.

(Dude. Yikes. Photos courtesy of UFC.com)

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve just received word that Cody "The French Revolution" McKenzie has agreed to take on Yves Edwards at UFC Fight for the Troops 2 on January 22nd, after Edwards’s original opponent was drafted for the main event. (It should be noted that Edwards has never lost by guillotine choke in 56 career fights.) McKenzie’s big return made us wonder — what does the future hold for the other winners of last Saturday’s UFC event? Well gather around, kids, and we’ll tell you what should happen…

Jonathan Brookins: You know how this works. In his first post-TUF outing, Brookins needs to be built up against a relatively established vet who happens to be vulnerable against his skill-set. So, who’s a chokable, lateral-droppable lightweight who you’ve heard of, but who doesn’t have the kind of striking skills that will make Brookins look foolish? Huh. That actually doesn’t leave a lot of options among the UFC’s current roster.

This is going to sound random as hell, but I think the UFC needs to bring back Matt Veach. Though the H.I.T. Squad fighter was released by the UFC earlier this year after consecutive losses to Frankie Edgar and Paul Kelly (both by submission), he’s gone on to win three straight in smaller promotions; he was also undefeated before he came to the UFC, scoring stoppages in nine out of ten fights. I think we all want to see Brookins developed slowly in winnable matchups; still, Veach is far from a pushover.

("I’m sorry to tell you this, Mirko, but we discovered a scratch on your cornea. Also, there seems to be a large quantity of sand in your vagina." Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

— The UFC handed out its traditional end-of-night bonuses following UFC 103, which totaled $65,000 this time around. Fight of the Night went to Rick Story and Brian Foster, whose two-round bang-up ended with Story sinking in an arm-triangle choke. For this, Story also got the Submission of the Night Award; not a bad payday for an up-and-coming fighter. KO of the night went to Vitor Belfort for his old-Vitor-esque first-round smashing of Rich Franklin. The event drew a sellout crowd of 17.428 fans to the American Airlines Center in Dallas, producing a live gate of $2.4 million.

— During the post-event press-conference, Dana White made his intentions known about Belfort’s place in the UFC middleweight division: "To be honest with you, the way the last two fights happened with Marquardt and Henderson against Anderson Silva, I think it would be better to see them fight each other, and the winner of that become the next contender. I think Vitor is ready to fight Anderson Silva (now)…I love the fact that we have Vitor at that weight class." Belfort credited his win to a new focus on karate: "It’s just something that I want to use right now. I was taking my time. I was feeling the fight. As soon as I see something, I make sure I have the zip code, the address and the social security number…Sometimes I take my time; sometimes I’m aggressive. But as soon as I start, I make sure I fight. That’s what people want to see."

(Peter Sobotta highlight reel. How do you say "I FINISH FIGHTS!" in German?)

The UFC 99 lineup is packed with plenty of European faces, and as usual, a couple guys will be getting called up to the majors for the very first time. Get acquainted with the latest batch of Octagon newbies below…

PETER SOBOTTA (WW)
Experience: 8-1 record, with all wins by stoppage. Has competed almost entirely in Germany, where he has lived since he was three years old. (He was born in Poland.) Sobotta’s last fight was a third-round TKO of Kerim Abzailov at a KSW event last September.
Will be facing: Paul Taylor (9-4-1, 2-3 UFC)
?Lowdown: One of the local scrappers brought in for the UFC’s Deutschland debut, 22-year-old Peter Sobotta is a well-rounded prospect known for his aggressive offense. No, he’s never beaten anybody you’ve heard of, but he may be able to overwhelm the injury-addled Taylor. Sobotta grew up training in Judo and Tae Kwon Do, took up MMA as a teenager, and had his first pro fight at the age of 17. According to this interview on nokaut.com, Sobotta trains at Berserker’s Gym, is studying to be an "IT system merchant," and is not a morning person.