UFC president Dana White held a press conference today and made a few announcements including the return of “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz, who many though the bad blood between White and Ortiz could not be settled, but I guess it is all good now. This raises some interesting matches that could be in the future as Tito came close to beating Rashad Evans and “almost” submitted Machida giving him a great fight. According to the press release we probably won’t see him in the ring until November or December and maybe against UFC veteran Mark Coleman.

More news comes with the change in the headlining fight of UFC 103 with Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfort. The match orginally had Franklin vs. Dan Henderson, but with Henderson’s domination over Michael Bisping another title shot with Anderson Silva could be in his future. Belfort is a great fighter and has wins over Wanderlei Silva and Randy Couture.

But the biggest news is that with the cancellation of Affliction’s league after Josh Barnett tested positive (again) for steroids and the main event of Barnett vs. Fedor Emelianenko being cancelled, which pretty closed down shop for the organization. Rumors had Fedor coming to the UFC to fight Brock Lesnar, which would be the largest UFC match ever and probably the highest rated pay-per-view of all time for them. Things get tricky as Fedor’s management want to co-promote and ride what the UFC has built over the last 10 years. I would love to see this fight happen and I’m sure most would as this could catapult MMA into the limelight even further.

Next weekend is the boy lightweight champion BJ “the Prodigy” Penn vs. Kenny Florian at UFC 101 and with BJ’s new training program at the RVCA gym he is looking to be in great shape. I hope that BJ wins in a big way and puts all doubts aside after his loss to GSP. The other main event fight is with middleweight champion Anderson Silva stepping up a weight class to fight former light weight champion Forest Griffin. I really think this will be a good match, but Anderson will get the win in the end.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has been heavily criticized for his most recent performances, lackluster affairs against Patrick Cote and Thales Leites. He and his camp have become vocal about wanting bigger challenges.

It appears that his boss has been listening. UFC president Dana White on Tuesday informed Yahoo! Sports that the champion will take part in the co-main event of UFC 101 when the promotion lands in Philadelphia on Aug. 2. His opponent will be inaugural Ultimate Fighter winner and former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin.

“Forrest loved the idea and said he’d do it right away, and Anderson told me he would fight anyone I wanted him to fight, no matter who it is,” White told Yahoo! Sports. “So we got the deal.”

The fight fits right in with desires of Silva and his camp.

“I just think Anderson wants to be involved with the biggest fights possible and the biggest fights that the UFC can put together. If it’s at 205, 185 or if it’s at some catchweight, it doesn’t make a difference,” Silva’s manager Ed Soares told MMAWeekly.com recently. “He’s got four fights left on his contract and he wants to make them the biggest fights possible. He wants to leave a legacy behind.”

With the recent criticism of Silva putting a damper on his draw as a headliner, the bout with Griffin will give him a chance to win back fans and headline pay-per-view fight cards. UFC 101, however, will be headlined by lightweight champion B.J. Penn’s title defense against No. 1 contender Kenny Florian.

Griffin had initially expected to face Thiago Silva at UFC 101, but the bout with Anderson Silva is obviously a higher profile opportunity. It is unclear what will happen with Thiago Silva at this point, as he has recently been training for the Griffin bout.

- I personally think that this is a great match-up and will be a good test for Anderson Silva. I would of liked to see Anderson and GSP as well.

sorry for the blurry photos…small camera from a long distance = poor photo

I was disappointed by BJ’s conditioning or lack of conditioning in this fight. GSP just overpowered him in every aspect of the fight. The energy in the arena was crazy with chants of “BJ Penn” and “GSP” throughout the night even through other matches. Most of the fights were a little stale with most going to a decision, but Machida vs. Silva was the definite fight of the night with Machida knocking out Silva at the end of the 1st to retain his undefeated record and become next in line for the light heavyweight championship against Rashad Evans.

Machida!

BJ!

the winner!

standard ring shot

After the fight we planned on attending the BJ Penn afterparty, but since it looked like he might not make it we decided to head to the Hard Rock for some food and drinks and ended up checking out Wasted Space. Wasted Space at the Hard Rock is their new mini club / concert venue and it is owned by Carey Hart. Good we got in free thanks to DJ Melo D, because the crowd was very peculiar and random. Overall it was a good time and this dude kept us entertained with his insane dance moves.

Even go-go dancers make friends

Sundays in Vegas are always the day to recover. Excessive drinking and gambling can wear on you. So we decided to do a little more gambling and visit my brother at Encore then headed over to the Luxor for the “Bodies” exhibit. I’ve wanted to check this out for a long time and it was amazing. Photos weren’t allowed, but I do highly recommend visiting this exhibit.

Watched the Superbowl, while eating all you can eat sushi and then headed home…4 Vegas trips in 3 months, 2 for 2009 already. I’ll have to keep count this year.

Here is the fight card:

Now my picks…let’s see how I do.

I’ll start with the guys I’ve actually heard about and know a little bit about rather than just guessing.

Manny Gamburian vs Thiago Tavares – Tavares by KO (I can’t stand Manny and hope he gets TKO’d again like his match against Rob Emmerson)

Jon Fitch vs. Akihiro Gono – Jon Fitch by TKO (he looked impressive versus GSP and I heard he took time off to train in Thailand so maybe that will effect the outcome a bit)

Nate Diaz vs Clay Guida – Nate Diaz by submission (as much as I like Guida’s crazy style and hair, Diaz is more sound on the ground and has been impressive lately)

Karo Parisyan vs. Dong Hyun Kim – Don Hyun Kim by TKO (I don’t know much about this guy, but I just don’t like Karo much)

Stephan Bonner vs Jon Jones – Stephan Bonner by decision (Bonner has been out of it for awhile due to injury, but he is a good fighter)

Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva – Thiago Silva by TKO (Silva is very aggressive and plays to Machida’s style, but I see Silva connecting and dropping Machida…on the ground both hold black belts in BJJ, but I see Silva ending via ground and pound)

Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn – BJ Penn by KO (despite being a large fan of both fighters and GSP as an incredible athlete and at the top of his game. It’s BJ’s destiny to hold 2 titles at once and his heavy hands can do some damage to GSP if he can get inside. GSP has shown to be prone to heavy hands with his match against Matt Serra. GSP’s wrestling may take BJ down, but BJ’s BJJ may make it hard to submit his or do any type of damage. Now it’s a whole other story if the match goes beyond the 3rd round depending on BJ’s conditioning…)