Word of their addition was first reported by MMAWeekly where it was also mentioned discussions are ongoing to possibly air preliminary bouts on HDNet and Sky Perfect TV in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Aoki’s last official MMA fight occurred in October and resulted in an opening round submission of Yokthai Sithar. However, the colorful, often polarizing lightweight old suffered a knockout in the Mixed Martial Arts portion of a “special rules” feature against kickboxer Yuichiro Nagashima on New Year’s Eve at Japan’s annual “K-1 Dynamite!!” extravaganza. He holds an overall record of 26-5 including highly respectable wins over Gesias Cavalcante, Joachim Hansen, Tatsuya Kawajiri, and Eddie Alvarez. The 27-year old has fought once before under the Strikeforce banner in a one-sided outpointing by Melendez a little more than a year ago.

Unlike Aoki, Takaya will be making his promotional debut on the California card. The 15-8-1 striker is currently riding a three-fight winning streak including a recent unanimous decision victory over Bibiano Fernandes. He has also beaten standouts like Hansen, Yoshiro Maeda, Hideo Tokoro, and Hatsu Hioki over an eight-year career.

PHOTO CREDIT – ESTHER LIN / STRIKEFORCE

Davis had been added to the card as a late replacement for Cub Swanson, who broke his hand in training. The report goes on to state that sources close to Takaya’s camp are saying that Takaya turned down the fight against Davis.

Davis was 3-1 with the IFL, his only loss coming in the featherweight grand prix finals against Wagnney Fabiano. He is expected to make his WEC debut sometime later this year.

Here is Silva following his second round TKO over Rich Franklin:

Here’s Sylvia after his unanimous decision victory over Brandon Vera:

Props to Adam Morgan for finding this pic on the Project Alpha blog.

Editor’s Note: The picture was not taken after UFC 77 but after another UFC event.

I’m quite fortunate that a friend of mine’s sister knows a guy who works for the UFC. He told her a few months ago that he could get tickets, so I was like “Cool, I won’t buy any,” even though it wasn’t a sure thing. So, weeks pass, still no word on these tickets. Thursday comes and there’s still no word on these tickets. Friday comes and they’re leaving them at will call for us. But they’re not in my friend’s name, they’re in his sister’s name. So then we have to have his sister call the guy from the UFC and have him change the name on the tickets to my buddy’s name. Needless to say, I brought plenty of cash with me last night just in case these tickets didn’t pan out.

We ended up getting the name change done on the tickets, we roll downtown and head up to the Will Call line and there’s a special window for “UFC/ZUFFA Will Call.” That’s us, baby. There’s no line, of course, and my friend walks up, says his name, and they slide him a UFC envelope with two UFC 77 tickets inside of it. We’re in, baby!

Section 108, Seat 6. Sounded like Lower Bowl to me, but I didn’t really have any clue. I was just happy to have a seat and not have to pay a dime for it. So we wait in line and I listen to the most annoying know-it-all MMA fan ever in front of me. The guy couldn’t keep his yap shut, he was like a walking version of the Sherdog forums. He looked a lot like Kevin Smith, the director. Either way, he was annoying as all get out and I couldn’t wait to just get inside and see where we were sitting.

The seats turned out to be pretty sick. Even better! We were in the lower bowl, probably six rows from the floor, on the right hand side of the cage if you were looking at it from the entrance of U.S. Bank Arena. We were on the side with the cage door, which was also nice. Once I got in my seat, I checked out my ticket in detail. It read “COMP $0.00.” That’s how we roll! Much props go to my buddy Adam Lightfield and his sister for hooking up the tix and letting me roll with him.

Before the show starts, they’re showing UFC hype and playing some decent music. Some montages of fighters and KOs are being shown on the big screens, so at least they entertain you while you’re waiting for the show to start. At pretty much exactly 8:15, the lights dimmed and they played a bass beat over the speakers and synced the lights with it. Pretty cool effect to get you pumped up and then that old familiar music blared over the speakers and they showed the first fight matchup. Matt Grice v. Jason Black.

Great fight, back and forth. Grice was able to take Black down pretty easily throughout the fight and pound him. Grice tried multiple submissions throughout the first round but was unable to secure anything. When they were standing, they traded pretty good punches. Grice landed a huge left hand in the second round that dropped Black to the mat. At one point during the round, Black appeared to have Grice in a triangle and a kimura at the same time. Grice didnt’ tap, but was eventually mounted and Black was controlling one of his arms, allowing him to rain down punches on his head. I thought the fight might get stopped, but the horn sounded to end the round.

Grice looked like shit when he got up and stumbled back to his corner. In the third round he landed some good shots standing, took Black down, and ground and pounded his way to a decision victory. Best fight of the night.

Initially Bruce Buffer announced it as a draw, but during the post fight interview, he interrupted Rogan to let him know one of the judges’ scorecards was added up incorrectly. What a bunch of dumbasses. How does this happen? “It’s a draw, great fight, you guys! Wait a second, we made a mistake, Grice wins!” Idiots.

Here is one thing I’ve learned about UFC events. Whether you’re sitting in the stands or you’re on the floor next to the cage, you’ll be watching the big screens roughly 40%-50% of the time you’re there. The cameramen, the cage poles, and the cage itself make it hard to view the entire fight. This is true moreso when the fight goes to the ground. You cannot see the intricacies and technique of what is going on when they’re on the ground unless you watch the big screens. From time to time we had a very good view of what was going on, but for the most part, the big screens are obviously there for a reason.

At some point during the Black/Grice fight, someone spilled a beer behind us without my even noticing. It was everywhere. It was also at this point in time that the people beside of us would get up and go to the aisle for the first of what seemed to be 100 times. To complicate matters even further, she was wearing a boot on her foot and had crutches. So they get up, I’m trying to lean back and let them through and slipping on puddles of beer at the same time, basically almost busting my ass and breaking her other foot. Thanks for the heads up on the beer, assholes. I don’t care that you spilled it, accidents happen, but at least give me a heads up.

Burkman v. Petz was an entertaining fight. I thought Petz won, but I was wrong, Burkman won a split decision. Petz’s body shots are beast. He had Burkman gassed midway through the second round. ”The People’s Warrior” didn’t win over anyone with his performance on Saturday.

They moved the fights along at a really good pace, not much time in between. Once they shuffled the fighters out of the cage, it was on to the next fight.

Ryan Jensen basically got tooled by Demian Maia. Maia sunk in a rear naked choke rather easily, fight is over. Maia should get a better opponent next time.

McDonald and Okami are up next and I think everyone is expecting a snoozer and that’s exactly what we got. Lots of boos during this fight, unfortunately. The booing was a little much on Saturday. Not like UFC 73 booing, but it was a bit much. Either way, this fight was lots of clinching on the cage, a decent amount of standup, and Okami ground and pouding from McDonald’s guard.

McDonald actually came up and sat right behind us after his fight was over. During the Sylvia/Vera fight he said something to the effect of the fact that all the boos during the fight didn’t make him feel as bad about the boos he heard during his fight. That’s a shame, because nobody has the right to boo these guys. They have the nuts to step into the cage and fight another human being for 15 minutes, something a lot of us, including myself, will probably never do. I turned around to Jason and told him he fought a good fight and that he should be proud of just getting in the cage and laying it on the line.

Between the main card and the undercard, there was a little ten minute break where they showed a montage of all kinds of UFC fighters and played “Teenage Wasteland” by The Who. It was the perfect little segway between the fights to get you ready for the main card and the PPV portion of the fights. Nice touch by the UFC.

Alan Belcher vs. Kalib Starnes opened up the pay per view. This was a good fight and a muay thai clinic put on by Belcher. The gash on Starnes’ forehead at the end of the fight looked like a coin slot on a vending machine. Just nasty stuff. The whole crowd “Oooooh”ed when they showed it on the big screen. Justified doctor stoppage in my opinion, even if Kalib wanted to continue.

Stephan Bonnar then dominated Eric Schafer. Bonnar was impressive on Saturday, he took the fight to Schafer, who is no slouch and a real ground master. Bonnar is very underrated and I look to see him get a step up in competition next time around. He’s destroyed his past two opponents and deserves a step up. Wouldn’t we all like to see Griffin/Bonnar 3 eventually?

Jorge Gurgel absolutely just choked on the big stage in front of a supportive “hometown” crowd. He kept going for a sloppy armbar and paying for it. He won round one but had no answer for Robinson in round two. He did nothing to control his posture and went for that sloppy armbar for 10 minutes. As a result, his face looked like deli meat afterward. Needless to say, the Cincinnati fans were disappointed and so was Jorge. Oh well, at least we had Vera/Sylvia to look forward to, right?

Wrong. One of the most boring fights I hav ever seen. Outside of a few kicks from Vera, one that sounded like a gunshot, and a few flurries of punches from Sylvia, most of this fight was spent on the cage in the clinch. I thought they were going to start making out at one point. Sylvia’s posse was in front of me and they all had on “Tim Sylvia: Born To Fight, Live To Hunt” shirts on. I couldn’t stop laughing. How can you even be a fan of this guy? He used to be exciting but he’s just not that same fighter anymore.

As for Vera, well, he was a disappointment. Broken hand or not, the outcome would have been the same.

And then, ladies and gentlemen, it was time for the main event of the evening. You think Bruce Buffer gets you pumped up at home? Being there is a whole other story. There’s something that you don’t see on television that Buffer does when he’s introducing the fighters. He turns to each of them and points to them and emphasizes with his little card as he’s saying his little speel, getting them all revved up and pumped up for the fight. It’s pretty sweet.

Even sweeter when the guy is a UFC superstar and he’s from the town you’re in. Needless to say there was a lot of electricity in the air for the fight. Cincinnati wanted to will Rich Franklin to victory. If he would have won, I’m almost positive that the roof would have popped off the building. You couldn’t hear anything when he was walking out except for the music and the fans.

Another ironic thing was that Franklin wore the colors of the Cincinnati Bengals and, ironically, Silva wore the colors of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Bengals’ main rival in their division. We usually get our teeth kicked in by the Steelers, so it was quite fitting.

It wasn’t meant to be for Cincinnati or Franklin. What is there to be said about Silva? The guy’s a monster. His striking is pinpoint accurate, he works angles, and outside of about three minutes of the first round, the fight was a carbon copy of the first fight. Surgically vicious, as Matt Cava would say. Rich’s only chance was to take Silva down, which he did easily in the first round, but it never came to fruition.

Rich fought well for the most part. He avoided the thai plum very well, except for the end when he ate a knee. You could tell he had worked extensively on trying to control Anderson’s arms and keep him from getting into position to land knees and elbows from the thai plum. Anderson Silva was just too skilled, too quick, and too dangerous. Who’s next if not Dan Henderson?

We dipped out of there as soon as Rich lost, not sticking around to hear Cincinnati boo Anderson Silva. Did they boo him? I haven’t had a chance to watch yet.

Overall, a fun event even if my hometown guys didn’t win. Always fun to see world class mixed martial arts live, especially in your hometown.

Ricardo Almeida, David Terrell, and Thales Leites are all mentioned as possibilities, as is current PRIDE welterweight (183 lbs.) champion Dan Henderson.

However, UFC president Dana White apparently expressed some frustration in his recent attempts to convince Henderson to compete at 185 lbs. as opposed to 205 lbs.

“I want to head butt the guy every time I talk to him,” Stupp quotes White as saying during the post-fight press conference for UFC 77. “He could be a force at (185), and it’d be a great match-up (with Silva). But he’s very hard-headed.”

While I can understand White’s frustration and understand it was probably nothing more than an off the cuff remark, I don’t know if it’s a good idea for him to say those things publicly and take the risk of it being misinterpeted. Henderson is a world class fighter who has just one fight left on his current contract with the UFC. With so many competitors popping up the last thing you want to do is to upset him.

Henderson is a tough guy who I sincerely believe relishes the challenge of competing at light heavyweight. But he could own the UFC’s middleweight division. I don’t think Henderson’s stance about competing at 205 is a ploy for more money, but it couldn’t hurt for the UFC to increase their offer as a way to entice him. Dana can try all the verbal convincing he wants but at the end of the day it will be money that will make the difference whether Henderson’s next fight is a “Super Bowl of MMA” match against Silva or another light heavyweight contest.

I know the UFC wants to keep fighter compensation manageable with the intent of avoiding so many of the problems other sports have encountered with escalating salaries but they’re going to have to go above what they consider to be market value if they want to retain certain guys. Dan Henderson is one of those guys the UFC should pay more than they feel he might be worth. Denis Kang and Randy Couture are two other examples of fighters the UFC should have broken the bank for.

You can click here to read Dann’s entire article, which I highly recommend.

News: Rich Franklin suffered a broken nose during last night’s loss to Anderson Silva and is believed to be considering retirement.

Views: This isn’t too hard to believe. Franklin’s path to the title is road blocked as long as Silva is wearing the belt. However, I think Franklin is too young to retire. I have no idea about his personal wealth but if there’s still good money to be made in fighting, why would you completely walk away?

Franklin has taken extended breaks from MMA in the past due to injuries and I think another extended break appears likely. He should take a step back and wait for the landscape in the middleweight division to change before making his next comeback.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of this article on Sam’s blog on ProElite.com

Click for more UFC 77 goodness on 5 Oz of Pain.

Overall Grade: B

Match of the Night: Silva vs. Franklin (I didn’t see Matt Grice vs. Jason Black but they got the $40,000 bonus for match of the night from the UFC)

Knockout of the Night: Anderson Silva

Submission of the night: Demian Maia

Match-by-match thoughts…

Anderson Silva TKOs (strikes) Rich Franklin at 1:07 of round 2

Franklin looked so much better this time against Silva then he did last time. He defended the clinch well (well, better than he did in the first match) and even took the fight to the ground at one point. You can tell Rich took the match serious and worked his ass off. He also showed a tremendous chin because he took some sick shots in the first round and was able to recover.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of this article on Sam’s blog at ProElite.com

Quick results for UFC 77:

• Middleweight: Anderson Silva def. Rich Franklin TKO (Strikes) R2

Anderson Silva remains UFC Middleweight champ by once again DISMANTLING Rich Franklin. Silva crumpled Franklin with a right hook at the very end of round one. In round 2, Silva patiently stalked, not throwing a strike for the first 30 seconds of the round, dancing and dodging Franklin, finally UNLOADING on Franklin against the fence. The hometown hero crumpled for a second time and McCarthy stepped in. Another surgically vicious win for Silva.

• Heavyweight: Tim Sylvia def. Brandon Vera – Unanimous Decision
• Light-Heavyweight: Stephan Bonnar def. Eric Schafer – TKO (Strikes)

Solid win for Bonnar, who was too much for Schafer in this one. Bonnar gives some good post-fight analysis: “I thought I would have the better stand-up but I didn’t mind going to the ground,” said Bonnar. “But then he got my back and I said, you dumbass…don’t get taken down like that. There were a couple of punches where I thought he was dazed. I just wanted to hit him good in the head, so it was a good stoppage.”

• Lightweight: Alvin Robinson def. Jorge Gurgel – Unanimous Decision
• Middleweight: Alan Belcher def. Kalib Starnes – TKO (Cut) R2
• Middleweight: Yushin Okami def. Jason MacDonald – Unanimous Decision
• Middleweight: Demian Maia def. Ryan Jensen – Rear Naked Choke Submission R1
• Welterweight: Josh Burkman def. Forrest Petz – Split Decision
• Lightweight: Matt Grice def. Jason Black – Unanimous Decision

By my grade, UFC 77 Hostile Territory was a B+

Sure, it probably won’t be the most exciting match of all time, and will probably end up as a slow ground n’ pound victory for Okami but this fight is most likely for the next middleweight title shot. You would think that a matchup of this importance would be shown on the main card. This seems pretty disrespectful to not only the fighters, but to the middleweight division as a whole.

Does the UFC really want another Nate Marquardt incident? I know Marquardt is a very accomplished mixed martial artist but he was given a title shot after a fight with Dean Lister on the undercard of an Ultimate Fight Night. If he had beaten Silva, the mainstream audience would of been like, “Who?”

Okami and MacDonald aren’t exactly the most marketable fighters at the best of times, and so if the UFC don’t put them on the main draw of a card that isn’t exactly filled with important match ups, it is downright crazy.

I mean come on… does anyone really want to see Kalib Starnes and Alan Belcher?

Dana should keep a copy of this video handy and play it before every interview with the mainstream media:

Below is video of Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin that was filmed following today’s weigh-ins in Cincinnati:

Here’s video of comments from Brandon Vera and Tim Sylvia:

Here are some pics from the UFC 77 weigh in and the weights are listed below:

• Middleweight: Anderson Silva (184.5) vs. Rich Franklin (184)
• Heavyweight: Tim Sylvia (260.5) vs. Brandon Vera (225.5)
• Light-Heavyweight: Stephan Bonnar (204) vs. Eric Schafer (203)
• Middleweight: Kalib Starnes (186) vs. Alan Belcher (186)
• Lightweight: Jorge Gurgel (155) vs. Alvin Robinson (155.5)
• Middleweight: Jason MacDonald (184.5) vs. Yushin Okami (186)
• Middleweight: Ryan Jensen (185.5) vs. Demian Maia (185)
• Welterweight: Josh Burkman (171.5) vs. Forrest Petz (170)
• Lightweight: Jason Black (156) vs. Matt Grice (155)

(HT to UFC Mania for the weigh in updates)
We’ll have updated UFC 77 results as they happen. Adam Morgan will be at the event so check back Sunday for notes and happenings from UFC 77.

Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin

Sam Caplan: Unless Franklin can put Silva on his back and expose his poor wrestling skills, I don’t see a way he can win. Silva via second round TKO.

Gary Herman: Did anyone see any reason in the first fight to think this one has a chance to go differently? If so, you were probably watching the wrong fight. Silva by first round KO.

Matt Kaplan: Based on their previous meeting, as well as what each fighter’s done since, I see Silva finishing this fight before it even hits the championship rounds — Round 3 stoppage.

Ben Fowlkes: My question is how, exactly, can Rich Franklin threaten the champ? Not with superior striking or submissions, so…takedowns? Not bloody likely. Silva by first round TKO.

Adam Morgan: No one has the nuts to pick Franklin, so I will. If Franklin can use his wrestling to take Silva down and stay in top control, I think Rich has a chance. If you think you’re going to see the same fight as last time, you’re sorely mistaken. It will be close. If Rich works to his strengths and takes it deep into the championship rounds, we’ll have a new champion. Rich Franklin by fourth round TKO. Plus, I’m from Cincinnati, so I can’t pick against the hometown hero.

Consensus: Anderson Silva (4 votes to 1).

Tim Sylvia vs. Brandon Vera

Sam Caplan: This will no doubt be Vera’s toughest test to date but it’s one I think he’ll pass with flying colors. Vera via second round TKO.

Gary Herman: Vera is highly skilled, but Sylvia is a determined big man with no quit. In the end, Vera will be too fast for the giant. Vera by unanimous decision.

Matt Kaplan: I think Vera will undercut the former champion’s size advantage with his superior athleticism and skill. I’m also not totally convinced that we’ll see the aggressive, knockout-hungry Tim Sylvia of yesteryear for five rounds, so I’m going with “The Truth” via unanimous decision.

Ben Fowlkes: While I’ve always been weirdly in awe of Sylvia’s awkwardly powerful striking, I don’t think he’s going to catch Vera. I hate to go along with the crowd, but I’ll take Vera by unanimous decision.

Adam Morgan: This fight is a lot closer than most people think. It’s dead even in my eyes right now. Ultimately I think Vera’s athleticism and all around skill will be the difference in this fight. Watch out for Brandon’s solid leg kicks, they have the ability to freeze Tim Sylvia. Brandon Vera by unanimous decision.

Consensus: Brandon Vera (5 votes to 0 votes)

CLICK HERE to read the remainder of this article.

“I haven’t talked to (Couture) at all. His resignation didn’t surprise me at all. It’s the way he did that surprised me. It was done very Hollywood with his agent releasing a statement. The whole thing was pretty shitty. He’s up to something.

“He lost twice to Chuck Liddell. And then he called me up after a year and said I want to come out of retirement…I’d like to re-work my contract. He just signed a contract that he was thrilled with eight months ago. He never came to me and said can we do a new contract!”

So White is still blaming Couture’s film agent for the decision and doesn’t appear to seem hesitant on offering his feelings on how Couture announced his resignation.

I also can’t help but notice the little cheap shot at Couture where he makes a point to mention that he “lost twice to Chuck Liddell.”

Cofield will be doing shows from Cincinnati on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Houston Alexander is scheduled to be a guest today with Cofield on ESPN 920 in Las Vegas (stream available at ESPN920.com) at 8 p.m. ET and Dana White and Kenny Florian will be joining Cofield tomorrow on Fox Sports Radio 1460 (FoxSportsRadio1460.com) between 8-10 p.m. ET. Cofield will be on again on FSNR 1460 after UFC 77 from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. ET.

Franklin talks about several topics, including his training, how he mentally prepares for a fight, whether or not the PR work he’s been doing has affected his training, and a lot more. For those of you who think Franklin’s going to get slaughtered again by Silva, I’d urge you to listen to this interview. This will not be the same fight as last time. I can guarantee that much.

Also,  Jorge Gurgel was on with Gregg Doyel and Mo Egger this morning on their show. You can listen to that interview here.

On the latest edition of AGS radio, the expert panel (myself and Sam included) debated which Tim Sylvia would show up to fight Brandon Vera – the dominating Sylvia from 2006 or the tentative version from early 2007?

Well “The Mainiac” himself answers that question with the following quote from the Canadian Press

“Being the fighter that I am, I’m not the type of guy that likes to go to a decision,” he added. “I’m not the kind of guy that likes to do ground and pound or submissions, I want to knock the guy out standing up.”

“Sylvia says he knows why he has heard boos at recent fights, blaming a change in strategy that took him away from his earlier free-swinging days.
Under former boxing coach Matt Pena, Sylvia said: “the game plans we put together (against Andrei Arlovski and Jeff Monson) were to go out there and win, at all costs, but do it safely.”

“Some of my last few fights haven’t been that exciting so I just hired a new boxing coach (Teddy Mueller). I’m doing a few different things and I think the old Tim’s back, the guy that went out there and knocked people out the first and second round. So I’m going to go out there and give it my best and try and knock Brandon out.”

The 31 yr old 6’8” monster has a strong fanbase that is ready for him to put on the type of performance that can lead to another UFC Heavyweight title.

HT: UFC Mania

The winner of the Brandon Vera-Tim Sylvia fight on Saturday at UFC 77 in Cincinnati will meet Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the vacant heavyweight title sometime early next year.