(Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

About two weeks before Thiago Silva‘s UFC 108 showdown with Rashad Evans, rumors began popping up that Silva had suffered an ankle injury in training, and the UFC was paying him extra money to stay on the cursed card and save the main event. Silva’s manager, Alex Davis, immediately set the story straight with MMA Junkie, saying "That report is completely false. Thiago is 100 percent and he’s busy preparing for this fight. Not only has the UFC not paid any extra money for Thiago to fight through an injury, but to the contrary, in my 10 years of dealing with the UFC, (matchmaker) Joe Silva and the staff have always said it’s better to pull out of a fight if you’re hurt rather than lose a fight because you’re injured."

But now that Silva lost his fight, Davis has come back to say that "100 percent" might have been overstating the case:

(Come on, Dan — how many times did we go over the inverted-Colemura escape in training? Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Not only did Rashad Evans‘s $375,000 paycheck from UFC 108 eat up a hefty 36% of the event’s total disclosed payroll — $1,043,000, including end-of-night bonuses — Sugar was also the only fighter to earn six figures on Saturday night. Considering there were no other major UFC stars on the card due to The Curse of ’09, it makes sense; hopefully Evans bought at least one round at the afterparty. Full UFC 108 salary figures are below, courtesy of MMA Junkie:

Rashad Evans: $375,000 (includes $175,000 win bonus)
def. Thiago Silva: $55,000

Paul Daley: $84,200* (includes $18,000 win bonus, $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
def. Dustin Hazelett: $19,800*

Sam Stout: $74,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Joe Lauzon: $62,000 (includes $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Jim Miller: $30,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus)
def. Duane "Bang" Ludwig: $12,000

Junior Dos Santos: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Gilbert Yvel: $30,000

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Though UFC 108 had a lot of great finishes and battles to choose from, the recipients of the traditional end-of-night bonuses should come as no suprise. Picking up the $50,000 bumps are:

– Knockout of the Night: Paul "Semtex" Daley, for the IED he detonated on Dustin Hazelett.

– Submission of the Night: Cole Miller, for his inverted triangle on Dan Lauzon; I know it’s early, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing that one on "Best of 2010" lists.

– Fight of the Night: Sam Stout and Joe Lauzon. After suffering through Lauzon’s takedowns and elbows in the opening minutes, Stout put on the striking performance of his life en route to a lopsided decision.

Other notes on the evening…

("’Ey check me out, guys, I’m Joe Hogan. ‘Duhhhh…I do drugs…duhhhh…crazy, high-level zhoo-zhitsu…duhhhh…eat this buffalo penis and I’ll give you money…duhhhh’." Photo courtesy of the UFC 108 Weigh In Pics set on CombatLifestyle.)

Strap yourselves in, fight fans — IT’S TIME FOR THE MOST HIGHLY ANTICIPATED GRUDGE MATCH OF 2010. (So like, since yesterday, basically.) After a powerful curse stole nine fighters from the lineup, the survivors are ready to show that their brothers didn’t blow out their knees and catch staph in vain. For those of you paying for this pay-per-view, console yourself with the fact that the shittiest cards can often be the most suprisingly awesome. They can also be just as shitty as advertised, but we’ll try to stay positive for now. Complete UFC 108 results — from the Spike TV prelim fights all the way through Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva — await you after the jump. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest…

(Chandella Powell makes her big debut. Photo courtesy of the UFC 108 Weigh In Pics set on CombatLifestyle.)

From UFC.com…

MAIN CARD (10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT)
Thiago Silva (205) vs. Rashad Evans (205)
Paul Daley (172*) vs. Dustin Hazelett (168)
Sam Stout (155) vs. Joe Lauzon (155)
Jim Miller (155) vs. Duane Ludwig (156)
Gilbert Yvel (239) vs. Junior Dos Santos (237)

SPIKE TV PRELIMINARY CARD (9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT)
Jacob Volkmann (171) vs. Martin Kampmann (171)
Dan Lauzon (155) vs. Cole Miller (155)

OPENING BOUTS
Ryan Jensen (186) vs. Mark Munoz (185)
Jake Ellenberger (170) vs. Mike Pyle (171)
Rafaello Oliveira (156) vs. John Gunderson (155)

* Due to safety concerns, the Nevada State Athletic Commission wouldn’t let Daley attempt to cut to 171 pounds. According to CageWriter, Daley appeared shaky and off-balance directly before hitting the stage. Hazelett agreed to a catchweight bout of 172 pounds and Daley will be fined 10% of his purse.

("The Theory of Competition." Props: Tap or Sleep via Fightlinker)

– Diego Sanchez’s amazingly drunken acceptance speech at the World MMA Awards. (Watch Kalib Run)

– The UFC 108 injury curse claims matchmaker Joe Silva. (MMA Weekly)

– Shinya Aoki sort of apologizes for awful behavior at Dynamite!! 2009. (Sherdog)

– Fitch vs. Alves rematch rescheduled for UFC 111 in March. (MMA Mania)

– "Best of PRIDE" highlight series debuts January 15th on Spike TV. (MMA Junkie)

– Rashad Evans credits Rampage Jackson with helping him cope with loss. (MMA Fighting)

– Which fighters were the biggest UFC draws in 2009? (MMA Payout)

– The worst NBA draft picks of the decade. (Bleacher Report)

– Get psyched for Bikini Model Search 2010. (Bullz-Eye)

– Five things to watch for in the Rose Bowl. (Scores Report)

– Hey, check out this monkey eating Jell-O. (Asylum)

– The top 10 New Year’s resolutions that all men should make. (Ask Men)

– Denzel Washington trains to kick ass for Book of Eli. (Screen Junkies)

– The top 10 NASCAR women of 2009. (All Left Turns)

– World leaders you didn’t know were drunk. (Made Man)

– Dominican kid goes berzerk on his classmates. (Nothing Toxic)

– Jessica Cho is your Girl of the Day. (Break)

By Elias Cepeda for CagePotato

Joe Lauzon (17-4) has held many roles throughout his 25 years — college student, 9-5er, web designer, coach, business owner — but above all else, he’s always been a fighter at heart. So when doctors told Joe he would have to sit out for at least a year after a surgery to repair a torn ACL, he took on the challenge the same way he approaches every endeavor — he trained for a fight.

“In training camp I’m absolutely miserable between doing all our rounds of sparring and cardio and I focused on my knee rehab the same way," explained the rising UFC lightweight, who has won five of his six official Octagon appearances.

"The place I did my rehab had a mix of people, young and old, and most just go through their exercises and don’t work up a sweat. I had to change my shirt just to drive home because I was soaking wet from pushing it. The place where I did my therapy was also in a gym so there were people there for other reasons than to rehab. My great physical therapist, Chris, pushed me and I progressed so fast that it got to the point where people were coming in thinking that I was in there for something else, like I was already in training camp for a fight, not knowing I had just had ACL reconstruction. I could have taken an easier approach to it but doing it that way really made a difference.”

It certainly appears that way. Based on what his doctors initially told him, Lauzon had planned for a March 2010 return to the cage, but he’s a few months ahead of schedule, fighting Sam Stout (15-5-1) Saturday night at UFC 108.

(Steve Cantwell buckles Razak Al-Hassan‘s arm at Fight for the Troops last December. Karma’s a bitch, homey.)

And the curse keeps a-rollin’, all night long: According to MMA Weekly, former WEC light-heavyweight champ Steve Cantwell has pulled out of his UFC 108 match against Vladimir Matyushenko for reasons that are unconfirmed at the moment. Cantwell joins Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Gabriel Gonzaga, Carlos Condit, Tyson Griffin, Rory Markham, and Sean Sherk in the list of fighters who have been removed from this Saturday’s card due to health issues.

The UFC is currently looking for a replacement opponent to step in against Matyushenko. "The Janitor" was successful in his return to the Octagon at UFC 103, where he earned a unanimous decision victory against Igor Pokrajac. Cantwell had dropped his last two bouts against Luiz Cane and Brian Stann, both by decision.

Anybody ever heard of the Poltergeist curse? This is what UFC 108 feels like at this point. For the fighters who actually make it to the show intact, I fear that the horrors may be just beginning…

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

By Elias Cepeda for CagePotato

Losing is always miserable, but in a combat sport like MMA, getting beaten is no figure of speech. If you lose, you hurt; physically and badly. The risk and danger involved in MMA competition helps make it more exciting than other sports, but behind every highlight-reel knockout and submission is ugly and unfortunate pain — at least for the guy laid out.

Over four years as a pro and nearly twenty fights Cole Miller (15-4) had never been the guy on his back, unconscious after a fight. But there he was being revived and staring up at the lights last September after being dropped by Efrain Escudero.

The hardest part for Miller was not losing in and of itself, or the headache he had to deal with for a bit afterwards. He says it came down to having so much seemingly productive work and sacrifice be rebuffed so abruptly.

“Knowing that I trained that hard, sacrificed a lot in my personal life for the 10-12 weeks in camp all for three and a half minutes and it didn’t go my way. That was disheartening to say the least. Being able to let it go. Accepting that that kind of thing happens and happened for the first time and that it could happen again. Knowing that I’m just a man, you know? These were the hardest parts of dealing with that loss,” Miller says.

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

Gilbert Yvel’s UFC debut against Junior Dos Santos is only five days away, and Dana White is pumped. To introduce the infamous Dutch striker to any dumbass noobs who’ve never heard of him, DW brought his video-blog operation over to Modern Martial Arts to watch Yvel work out. The gym is run by John Lewis, Dana’s first (and only) jiu-jitsu instructor, who went 1-1 in the UFC about ten years ago. Lewis complains to Dana that all he ever sees on UFC Unleashed is him getting tooled by Jens Pulver. To make it up to him, Lewis’s nasty stoppage of Lowell Anderson at UFC 22 is at the end of this video blog. Anyway, Yvel looks to be in fine form, but Dos Santos can bang too, and if he can get Hurricane Yvel to the ground it might be a wrap, son.

After the jump: Paul Daley discusses his God-given ability to knock people out; he’ll be taking on submission prodigy Dustin Hazelett at #108.

("…and I better not catch you standing up peeing. You sit down when you pee, you got that?" Photo courtesy of USA Today.)

What, you thought the UFC 108 curse had taken a break for the holidays? Bitch it’s just getting started. NWITimes.com broke the news last night that Sean Sherk has been forced to withdraw from his January 2nd bout against Jim Miller, becoming the eighth fighter to drop off the card. According to MMA Weekly, Sherk sustained a cut over his right eye in training that required several stitches, and his replacement will be UFC/Strikeforce vet Duane "Bang" Ludwig (19-9). Ludwig most recently scored a first-round submission-via-punches victory over Ryan Roberts two weeks ago at a Ring of Fire event in Denver, and picked up consecutive wins against Sammy Morgan and Yves Edwards before that; he’s also responsible for the fastest unofficial knockout in UFC history.

Sean Sherk hasn’t competed since his decision loss to Frankie Edgar in May. He was scheduled to face Gleison Tibau on the UFC 104 card in October, but had to pull out due to a shoulder injury. UFC 108′s current (but by no means permanent) lineup is after the jump.

Previously: The 10 Most Cursed MMA Events of All Time. Where would you rank UFC 108?

(Gunderson looks for a guillotine against Wagnney Fabiano in an IFL bout back in 2007.)

There is one upside to having an event so plagued with injuries and illnesses that it barely limps its way onto pay-per-view.  With so many holes opening up in the fight card, that means some UFC first-timers are bound to turn someone else’s misfortune into their own big break.  One such Octagon newcomer at UFC 108 will be IFL vet John Gunderson.  He’ll be taking on Rafaello Oliveira, who was supposed to fight Sean Sherk, who got moved up to face Jim Miller when Tyson Griffin pulled out.  That’s the kind of event this has been, and that’s the convoluted chain of events that led to Gunderson getting his shot in the UFC just a little over two weeks from now.

"I actually found out last night," said Gunderson.  "[Evan] Dunham saw it online and he told me about it.  After practice I checked my cell phone and sure enough there were a bunch of texts from my manager about it."

(Markham starches Brodie Farber during his Octagon debut last July.)

Following withdrawals by Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Gabriel Gonzaga, Carlos Condit, and Tyson Griffin, MMA Weekly reports that the latest fighter to pull out of UFC 108 (January 2, Las Vegas) is Rory Markham, who recently aggravated an old achilles tendon injury, and may be out of action for up to a year. Markham, who hasn’t competed since his first-round knockout loss against Dan Hardy at UFC 95, was slated to take on fellow welterweight Martin Kampmann, who is coming off his own loss against Paul Daley; Kampmann is still expected to compete on the card against an opponent to be named later.

Though not all of the matchups have been officially confirmed, UFC 108′s lineup is currently looking like this:

(Do yourself a favor, skip to the 4:15 mark to see Ariel Helwani ask Diego Sanchez about the Yes! Cartwheel.  It’s all cool until Helwani asks him to do it, and then it is suddenly not cool at all.)

Diego Sanchez believes it is his destiny to become a UFC champion, though there are a lot of other guys who think the same thing and will never get there.  What’s the difference between them and Diego?  A positive attitude and a willingness to look directly into the camera even when being interviewed by someone who is standing right next to him.  In other news around the MMA world:

- Paul Daley’s rant about what a "big pussy" Carlos Condit is turned out to be oddly prescient, as the UFC has reportedly decided to give him Dustin Hazelett at UFC 108, as Daley suggested.  Hazelett got screwed out of his fight at UFC 106 when Karo Parisyan threw away his career pulled out of the bout, and now the submissions ace gets what is likely to be an easier style match-up against Daley.  Provided, that is, that he can get him to the mat.

(When the going gets tough, the tough go on a massive Pedialyte bender. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

For a card that was already struggling to book big fights in the wake of a heavyweight-targeting staph-outbreak, this is the last thing that UFC 108 needed. The January 2nd show has been struck down yet again, as Carlos Condit has been forced to withdraw from his fight against Paul Daley due to a hand injury suffered in training. The Condit/Daley scrap was slated to be UFC 108′s co-headliner. As things stand now, the only fights locked down for the main card are Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva, Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout, and Tyson Griffin vs. Jim Miller — and the event is less than a month away. Not exactly worthy of "New Year’s" card status, if you ask us. Can we move this one to Arbor Day?

As you can imagine, Paul Daley is upset, and when Paul gets upset he gets personal. "Condit is a big pussy IMO, I have inside information on that dude," Daley wrote on the Underground Forum. But after venting a bit, Semtex was in solution-mode: "It’s all good as long as I fight…Koscheck is a tough motherfucker, but I accept the challenge. Hazelett has sick subs, and is dangerous, but I accept that fight too. Any top level fighter in 170lbs with a winning record. Joe [Silva] make it happen.”

Unfortunately, Josh Koscheck is already scheduled to take on Paulo Thiago in February — but then again, you don’t fight 12 times a year unless you can fill every gap in every card. Out of curiosity, how bad do things have to get before the UFC just says "eff it" and cancels an event?

(Good thinkin’, ref — give Pedro a few more seconds to wake up.)

A rumor that was reported in August then quickly debunked has been re-animated thanks to Tatame. According to Luis Dorea, boxing coach for UFC heavyweight contender Junior Dos Santos, "Cigano" will next step into the Octagon at UFC 108 (January 2, Las Vegas) against the Dirty Dutchman himself, Gilbert Yvel. Said Dorea: "We know Gilbert is a very strong guy, he likes to fight standing, but ‘Cigano’ is better in striking now. We’re doing our job and I know we’re gonna get the victory."

Yvel last competed at Ultimate Chaos: Lashley vs. Sapp in June, where he crushed Pedro Rizzo in the first round. If the Tatame report is accurate, Yvel would be coming in as a replacement for Gabriel Gonzaga, who recently went down with a staph infection. We wouldn’t exactly call Yvel a tough test for the ferocious and well-rounded Dos Santos at this point, but it does keep Junior busy against a credible opponent while the rest of the heavyweight division sorts itself out. Speaking of which, Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is definitely on for February in Australia — possibly for an interim heavyweight title — and Brock Lesnar is still in real bad shape.

After the jump: Yvel’s one-and-done head-kick KO of Gary Goodridge at PRIDE 10, and his May 2004 fight against Cheick Kongo.

(No matter how many times they told him not to walk around the gym barefoot, he just wouldn’t listen. Yet another problem that could have been solved with flip-flops.) 

The season of injuries and illnesses in the UFC shows no sign of letting up, and unless Dana White decides to man up and apologize to that gypsy he offended, we may be in for a long few months. The latest victim of the dreaded staph infection is Gabriel Gonzaga, who was slated to take on Junior Dos Santos at UFC 108. Now Gonzaga will be taking on some antibiotics instead, and the UFC is left without an opponent for the up-and-coming Dos Santos.

The easy replacement might be Cain Velasquez, who just lost his opponent when Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira pulled out of their fight with a staph infection (this is why you don’t share swim trunks, guys). Of course, there’s also guys a little lower down the food chain, like Pat Barry. He’s just coming off a win over Antoni Hardonk, and if the UFC decides they’d like to reschedule Velasquez vs. Shane Carwin in light of Lesnar’s heath issues that might be the better way to let these guys build themselves up some more. Or it’s possible that the UFC will just throw up their hands and say, ‘screw it, if these guys can’t learn to use the antibacterial soap we keep sending them, this isn’t worth it.’  Probably they’ll just get someone else, though.

(Look, Dana isn’t saying that you guys have to hate each other; he’s just saying that he could understand why Thiago might be upset about some of the things Rashad may or may not have written about him on the Zuffa office’s bathroom wall.)

It’s the first rule of fight promoting, and the UFC knows it better than anyone: when life gives you staph infections, make staph infectionade.  Only, you know, don’t call it that.  After losing Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira off the UFC 108 card, and with him their main event feature attraction, the UFC has responded by pushing the Rashad Evans-Thiago Silva bout to the top spot and rebranding it a "grudge match."  They don’t go into much detail to explain the grudge part of that phrase, but we can probably assume that they’re going to be using the old ‘you beat my teammate and now I must beat you’ angle. 

In reality, Evans and Silva have expressed nothing but gentlemanly respect for one another’s skills, with the only hint of a grudge coming from Evans’ remark that Silva gave him "a nasty look" after defeating Keith Jardine.  Ken Shamrock-Tito Ortiz it ain’t, but at this point the UFC is probably just grateful to have two warm, relatively healthy bodies to put in the cage on January 2nd. 

As for Big Nog, he apologized to his fans but wisely noted "I have learned from my mistakes, and I’m not going into a fight unless I can give 100% my best performance."  Nog is currently getting medical treatment in San Diego, according to the UFC, and we wish him a speedy recovery. 

(This is why you always wash your hands after handling Maxim photo shoot props. For all you know, Fergie might have touched them before you.)

If the strongest among us aren’t safe from disease, there can be little hope for the rest of us mere mortals.  According to Dana White, Brock Lesnar is “not going to be fighting for a while” because his condition has worsened of late and doctors “don’t really know all that’s wrong with him.”  Though DW said his condition wasn’t life-threatening, he added that Lesnar did have some other health issue in addition to mono, but declined to say exactly what it was, calling it “very serious.”  Sounds like he wasn’t faking sick, after all.

Even giants get ill sometimes, so it shouldn’t be so frightening to hear that Lesnar is laid low, right?  Normally, perhaps.  But this comes near the end of an illness and injury-riddled year for the UFC, and things only seem to be getting worse.  Former champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is also going through some rough times, and a resurgent staph infection has forced him to pull out of UFC 108 and will likely result in him being hospitalized.  On its own, it might only be a personal struggle for Big Nog.  But in light of Lesnar’s illness and other current trends, it is surely a harbinger of doom. 

From Georges St. Pierre to BJ Penn to Kenny Florian, Sean Sherk has fought nothing but champions and top contenders during his current run in the UFC. But after his loss to Frank Edgar at UFC 98, the Muscle Shark may no longer be a top contender himself. And so, it’s time to rebuild. In an interview with wicombatsports.com, Sherk revealed that he’ll be returning to the Octagon at UFC 108 (January 2, Las Vegas) against Rafaello "Tractor" Oliveira, the 9-2 BJ Penn training partner who lost his UFC debut to Nik Lentz at UFC 103. Coincidentally, Lentz is a training partner of Sherk at Minnesota Martial Arts Academy. "He’s been able to give me some good advice on him," Sherk said.

For the former UFC lightweight champion, this is one of those matchups where you just have to swallow your pride and get the job done. Yes, Oliveira is "below" him; he’s 0-1 in the UFC, and has never beaten anybody with a name. On the other hand, Sherk looked completely ineffective in his last match — the fearsome wrestler has become a middling kickboxer — and he hasn’t finished a fight inside the Octagon since 2002. "Tractor" is obviously being set up to lose here. If Sherk wants to make a comeback, he’ll have to hold up his end of the deal, and do so in impressive fashion.

(Conspicuously absent from this boxing training montage? Anyone seriously trying to hit him back.)

Big news, Potato Nation.  I was just clicking around Twitter, you know, waiting for my Hot Pocket to cook and reading every inane thought that pops into War Machine’s head, when I saw that Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco has formally challenged Anderson Silva to a fight in the UFC and Dana White, presumably after doing a thorough check with Silva’s management, accepted the offer.  Boom!  January 2nd, UFC 108 in Las Vegas, Chad Ochocinco vs. Anderson Silva for the middleweight strap.  Done deal.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  This seems just a little far-fetched.  I mean, isn’t Silva too hurt to fight in January?  And not only does Ochocinco not have any professional MMA fights, much less a contract with the UFC, but the Bengals actually have their last game of the season the very next day at the New York Jets.  How’s he going to swing that?  The answer is, I don’t know and I don’t care.  It must be true because it was on freaking Twitter, the most trusted source of information/self-absorbed sentence fragments of our time. 

According to Ochocinco, he’s "dead serious" and has "a good chance at winning against Silva."  And why not?  One of the world’s best pound-for-pound fighters, if not the best, facing an NFL wide receiver who’s never fought professionally, sounds like a totally serious, not at all absurd, fight of the year candidate to me.  I just wonder how current UFC 108 headliners Cain Velasquez, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Rashad Evans, and Thiago Silva are going to feel when they see this:

(You can blame Kurt Angle for this one.)

From a post on shane-carwin.com titled "UFC 108 Not Happening For Me":

Heavy.com confirms that Lesnar has been struck down by what teenagers refer to as "the kissing disease," and not the flu as originally reported. There’s currently no timeframe on when Brock will be healthy enough to return to competition.

Unfortunately, this means UFC 108 is currently being headlined by Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva. But there is hope: To shore up the January 2nd card, a heavyweight clash between Cain Velasquez and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira may be in the works — which would surely determine who’s next in line for a title shot after Shane finally gets his turn.

(Well, at least you’re both winners in *our* book. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

The "immediate rematch" between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua just got a lot less immediate. Following the controversial outcome of their title fight at UFC 104, Dana White wanted to set up a re-do as soon as possible, hoping for UFC 108 on January 2nd. Unfortunately, Yahoo! is reporting that Machida needs surgery on one of his hands, and won’t be ready to return in two months. As of now, it’s unclear when Machida vs. Rua II will actually happen.

The postponement is just the latest in a unbelievably cursed stretch for the UFC that’s seen a number of headlining fights go down due to acting aspirations, injuries, and illnesses. Speaking of which, don’t expect to see Anderson Silva defend his middleweight belt against Vitor Belfort any time soon either. According to Silva’s manager Ed Soares, the Spider is still recovering from elbow surgery, and won’t be ready to compete in time for UFC 108. As with Machida, Silva’s return date is uncertain. Said Soares: "At the end of the day, it’s going to be a great fight [against Belfort]. Like I said before, I don’t think he deserves a title shot, but that’s over with now. It is what it is."

(‘Tell your friend he’s next! Well, I guess he’s just right over there. You know what, don’t worry about it. I’ll tell him myself.’)

With “Rampage” Jackson running off to play a mohawk-less B.A. Baracus in the “A-Team” movie, the MMA world was left wondering whether Rashad Evans would get a replacement opponent, or if he would just have to go out there on his own and entertain the crowd with fifteen minutes of stand-up about how different the Catholic church would be if the pope was black.  Thankfully, that seems like it won’t be necessary, as both Evans and Thiago Silva have reportedly verbally agreed to meet at UFC 108 in January. 

Obviously this isn’t as satisfying as the fight between Evans and Jackson would have been after a long season of reality TV trash talk.  But at least there’s something resembling an interesting angle, what with Silva knocking out Evans’ teammate, Keith Jardine at UFC 102 and both Silva and Evans suffering knockout losses to Lyoto Machida.  Think of this as a fight to determine who still stands a chance at getting another turn on the Machida karate beatdown-go-round.

In other bookings news/rumors…