Someone just mentioned it’s President’s Day – which is cool, I guess. So in honor of the day, here’s some news.

— The Dayton Daily News is confirming what we all suspected: That a light heavy fight between Keith Jardine and Wanderlei Silva at UFC 82 will not be happening. The show is set for March 1st in Columbus, Ohio. The rumors for this match were given more fuel when ads for UFC 82 shown on Versus during WEC 32 straight-up promised that Jardine was going to be there. An editing snafu is being blamed, but the fight could happen this year. The DDN is saying a source close to Jardine has confirmed the fight is in the works and could go down this summer – MMA Junkie is saying UFC 84 could be the card for this fight.

— Chuck Liddell believes he’ll smoke Mauricio “Shogun” Rua during their fight on June 7th. And “The Iceman” also believes he should be fighting Rampage for the title…like NOW. Chuck had this to say to Brawl Sports:

10. Trainer John Hackleman

Hack kind of looks like something Jim Henson might have sewn together while drunk and depressed.

9. Matt Lindland

A five-head that could cut glass…

8. Ben Rothwell

Don’t worry, Susie…those things will develop in a few years.

(Gono won’t be doing the ‘airplane’ at UFC 82.)

As UFC 80 was the focus of the MMA world this weekend, UFC 81 & 82 saw some adjustments to their cards. On Friday, Akihiro Gono announced on his personal blog that a hand injury is forcing him out of UFC 82 against Jon Fitch. Here’s the message (unedited):

I have a pain in my righthand from November(UFC debut fight)
So I could not train enough
I wondered it,Doctor checked my hand again,and This condition was so bad,
Doctor ordered me to stop fight and all training.
And operation is done. maybe in Junuary
I am verry sorry,my fans and John Fitch……..
I will annnounce operation schedule and come back time

Gono, an eccentric welterweight, debuted for the UFC back in November when he beat Tamdam McCrory via a second round submission. It is not clear who will replace him against Fitch since many of the top welterweights in the division have fights already booked or have fought too recently to accept another so soon.

UFC 79: Nemesis fighters will suck in their guts for their official weigh-in this Friday, December 28 at 7 pm (EST). It’ll go down at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and is free to attend if you happen to be in Sin City. If you want to check it out on-line, you can watch it live at UFC.com, Yahoo!Sports.com, FOXSports.com and NBCSports.com.

Bodoglife

• Chuck Liddell (-105) vs. Wanderlei Silva (-125)
• Georges St. Pierre (-240) vs. Matt Hughes (+190)
• Ryoto Machida (-125) vs. Sokoudjou (-105)
• Melvin Guillard (-260) vs. Rich Clementi (+200)

BetUS

To get yourself good and educated about the whole process, MMA Betting Blog and MMA Junkie has some good info.

Hey guys. Sorry I got all serious and heavy with that last post. To make up for it, here’s a picture of UFC middleweight champ Anderson “The Spider” Silva wearing a ridiculous t-shirt.

I wonder what’s more effective with the ladies — that shirt, or the pickup line “I can choke you out from any position, plus I have knockout power in both my fists, as well as my knees,” delivered in a totally incomprehensible Portuguese accent.

How hated, exactly, is Tim Sylvia? Let’s put it this way: He got booed more after his win over Brandon Vera on Saturday night than Anderson Silva did after knocking out Rich Franklin in Ace’s hometown of Cincinnati — while Silva was wearing Pittsburgh Steelers colors. Now that’s hate.

Scoring a unanimous decision over the good-humored, charismatic Vera in a fight that generally consisted of the two men clinching on their feet against the fence, Sylvia did nothing to change his image as a boring fighter who relies on his size to win matches. But you gotta feel for the dude; it can’t be fun to get booed at weigh-ins, and to have Brandon Vera explain to the crowd after the fight, “he’s a nice guy once you get to know him.” (Vera, it should be said, didn’t look too impressive against the Maine-iac, was responsible for most of the clinching that made the fight so dull, and should probably give up the ice cream and drop down to light heavyweight.)