(Props: MMA Fanhouse. Skip to 4:44 for the good stuff.)

At yesterday’s UFC 97 conference de presse (that’s fancy talk for press conference) Dana White made the bold claim that an Anderson Silva win over Thales Leites on Saturday night would solidify him as the greatest champion in UFC history.  In other words, if the guy who is a 5-1 favorite according to some bookmakers does what everyone expects him to do, this will prove that he’s the best.  

This is a difficult line of reasoning to follow.  If Silva wins at UFC 97 he’ll be 9-0 in the Octagon.  That’s a record.  It breaks the previous streak set by Royce Gracie and tied by Jon Fitch.  But there’s a reason why, even before Jon Fitch tied that record, none of us (with the exception of that one dude who stopped watching MMA in 1997) talk about Royce Gracie as the greatest champion in the history of the UFC.

It’s not just how many people you beat; it’s who you beat.

According to Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza’s manager, they’re planning on a fight “for the title” at Dream.9 on May 26.  Nothing is confirmed yet, Jacare’s manager told Tatame, but right now it looks like it will be a rematch between Jacare and “Mayhem” Miller for Gegard Mousasi’s vacated middleweight belt.  If true that would make for a tight turnaround for Miller, who’s slated to take on Kala Hose in Hawaii at Kingdom MMA on April 18.  Call it making up for lost time.  Or maybe he’s just assuming that it won’t take much out of him to whup on Hose in front of his Hawaiian peeps.

– As we saw earlier today, Dana White’s threats to step back from the limelight might be the slightest bit hollow, but ESPN plans to actually make him talk on video when they send their E:60 crew to Montreal for a story on his recent video blog controversy.  The piece will allegedly seek to compare White to the heads of other major sports organizations, asking what would have happened to them had they gone all nasty on a female sports reporter and her anonymous sources.  We just hope E:60 has learned from their past mistakes.  If they ask him about steroids, the interview’s over.

– Spike TV sent out another ‘in your face!’ press release today to announce that Saturday night’s replay of UFC 94 was the “#1 program among Men 18-34 in all of television (cable and broadcast) during its time period.”  The replay peaked at 2.4 million viewers for the main event and averaged 1.9 million over the three-hour broadcast, which, as Spike is kind enough to point out, bested HBO’s Winky Wright/Paul Williams bout, which drew a measly 1.5 million viewers.  What you’re wondering is, did they mention how it compared to Strikeforce’s viewership?  They did not.  But they know you’re thinking about it anyway.

– Remember the rumored bout between Mark Coleman and Stephan Bonnar?  The UFC made it official for UFC 100 today, but relegated it to the “may not be broadcast” prelims.  On one hand, that’s a hell of a place to end up after such a great career (talking about Coleman, obviously. I said great career, not one great fight).  On the other hand, if there’s one UFC card where you can feel okay about being pushed to the prelims, it’s that one.

(Just tell me you didn’t kiss him.)

Lyoto Machida recently talked with Brazilian website/magazine Tatame about his training and preparation for his title fight against Rashad Evans at UFC 98, and he decided to disclose a secret that he probably should have just kept to himself: “The Dragon” drinks his own urine.  Every day. 

Even worse, he learned it from his father:

“My father does that for a long time and bring it to us. People think it’s a joke (laughs). I never said it in the United States because I don’t know how the fans will react (laughs). I drink my urine every morning like a natural medicine.”

We’ll soon find out how American fans will react.  My guess is they’ll scrunch up their faces and say, with one loud, clear voice, ‘You nasty, Lyoto!’

(A chubby Filho tries to muster the interest to block a jab. Photo courtesy of WEC.tv)

True to their word, Paulo Filho’s camp will be sending Chael Sonnen the WEC middleweight title belt that he wants so badly, according to Josh Gross. Sonnen didn’t officially win the championship, what with Filho not making weight, and he may not have looked dazzling in his decision victory but he still clearly deserves the strap more than Filho. Ed Soares, Filho’s manager, said he’d be shipping Sonnen the belt “as soon as he could.”

What’s perhaps more interesting is Soares’ description of Filho after the bizarre fight. Apparently, he didn’t even seem to realize what had happened, which is sort of odd for a guy who made it all the way through three rounds:

Having returned to his locker room after refusing to engage for 15 minutes, Filho (16-1), told several times he’d lost, reacted as if he was unaware the fight had even reached its conclusion, Soares said.

Soon, Filho drew attention from doctors when the dilation of his pupils didn’t match. Later that evening, however, the 30-year-old grappler was released from a local hospital, his eyes functioning as close to normal as they’d done all night.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get weirder. The confusion on Filho’s part might help explain his performance, though. If he was unaware the fight had ended, perhaps he was also unaware it had ever started. Wait until he sees the tape of the fight. Boy, is his face going to be unemployed. I mean red.

(Penn and St. Pierre during their first fight at UFC 58 in 2006, which GSP won by split decision. Photo courtesy of Brawl Sports.)

Though Dana White has previously stated that the UFC 94 superfight between BJ Penn and Georges St. Pierre would be a non-title bout, Dave Meltzer is reporting that the UFC has changed their mind, and GSP’s welterweight title will be on the line. This would give Penn the opportunity to be the first UFC fighter to hold championships in two different weight divisions at the same time. Of course, he’ll have to win a five-round fight against St. Pierre to do so, which ain’t gonna be easy. UFC 94 is slated to go down in Las Vegas on January 31st, and will also feature the much-anticipated light-heavyweight scrap between Lyoto Machida and Thiago Silva. In other UFC news…

— If Anderson Silva makes it out of Saturday’s fight against Patrick Cote unscathed, he could possibly fight again at UFC 92 on December 27th, a card that’s already stacked with heavyweight and light-heavyweight title fights, as well as the match between Quinton Jackson and Wanderlei Silva. Josh Koscheck may have a quick turnaround as well.

— Brock Lesnar will be profiled in a segment on ESPN’s E:60 tonight at 7 p.m. ET., in which he discusses, among other things, his disappointment in not making it in the NFL and his minor addiction to booze and pills.

(Game face. Photo courtesy of Sherdog)

The latest installment of Elite XC’s “ShoXC: Elite Challenger Series” went down live on Showtime from Santa Ynez, Cal. last night. If you’re wondering why you didn’t hear much about this event throughout the week leading up to it, well, they didn’t want to just tell everybody. What kind of sense would that make?

Wilson Reis was the big winner in last night’s action, claiming the organization’s first bantamweight (140 lbs.) title with a unanimous decision victory over Abel Cullum to remain unbeaten in his MMA career. Reis’ grappling was enough to carry the day, even if he was unable to finish the wily Cullum.

Full results from last night’s event are after the jump.

Former UFC light heavyweight champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson must really be feeling better. Apparently not content to have his name in the news just for felony charges and rumors of his November return to the Octagon, now he’s revisiting the topic of his loss to Forrest Griffin. Maybe he felt that his clash with “delirium” after the fight robbed him of the opportunity to talk about it, but he’s making up for lost time with this visit from the Ghost of Shit-Talking Past in a recent interview with the UK’s Fighter’s Only Magazine:

“I just want my fans to know, I was at my worst and Forrest was at his best – and I still beat him. …A man is not a man if he can’t ‘fess up to when he gets his ass kicked. See me, if I get my ass kicked I am like ‘yeah, I got my ass kicked’.

However, Jackson says that when he said those exact words at the end of the fight in July, “I was being sarcastic, because I really could not believe that it went the way it did”.

“I’m not a sore loser, shit happens. But I was hoping that Forrest would be a man and come out and say ‘You know what, I didn’t win that fight’, especially after he watched it.

“I wasn’t really sure, right at the end of the fight… I know he hurt me and punched me in the face a couple of times but I was bobbing and weaving and making him miss, stuff like that. I was hoping that he would come out later after he saw the fight and say ‘yeah, I saw the fight and I lost that fight.”

Daaaaaamn! First of all, Rampage really expected Griffin to come out after the fight and voluntarily say that he did not deserve to win the title? Has Rampage ever met any pro fighters? That’s just not their style. Especially with a fight that close, it’s standard operating procedure for both guys to claim they won and for both to go to their graves truly believing it. So basically Rampage wants Griffin to do what no other fighter, including him, would do in this situation.

(Last strut to a battle for “Semtex”?)

Paul “Semtex” Daley…what a tangled web you weave.

We reported some few odd days ago that the 17-6-2 “Semtex” would be retiring soon, but would first defend his Cage Rage welterweight crown on May 10th. Well, I suppose we jumped the gun — aided in part by Daley’s apparent bi-polar disorder — because the fighter has now ditched vacated his Cage Rage title. The report comes from the Cage Rage official site and it states that the welty might not return to defend the title until next year — if ever. From the site:

This has come as a surprise to many of Paul’s fans, but he has openly said he will return but now needs some time to focus on other areas of his life. Everybody at Cage Rage would like to wish Paul Daley all the best in his new ventures and we look forward to seeing him back soon.

With Paul Daley vacating the title, the door has opened for two new contenders to throw down the gauntlet for the Cage Rage British welterweight title, phenomenal striker and veteran of some of the greatest Cage Rage wars, Marius Zaromskis will once again be strapping on his gloves to fight the very durable and hard hitting Che Mills. These two fighters met once before in an awesome battle at Cage Rage Contenders 2, where the fight ended via a big KO from a knee that Che Mills landed during a trade off of strikes. This one has war written all over it, so get yourself ready as the bombs begin to fly.

After “Semtex” KO’d “TUF” alum Sam Morgan in January, he decided on an early retirement. He was expected to at least defend again before said retirement, but we guess the thought of an early vaca was too much for Daley to pass up. Chances are he’ll be back, but for now, we’ll continue to assume he’s 12 shades of crazy.

In case we never see him fight again, enjoy the “Semtex” highlight vid after the jump.