Dana White tweeted the news earlier today.

UPDATE: It has since been confirmed unbeaten grappler Chris Weidman will step up and fill in for Bisping against Maia.

Bisping will be looking to add to his four-fight win streak, which includes victories over Dan Miller, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Jorge Rivera, and Jason Miller. The British middleweight is 8-2 at 185, with his only two losses coming against MMA legends Wanderlei Silva and Dan Henderson.

Sonnen returned from a year long suspension due to a failed drug test following his UFC 117 bout for the middleweight strap this past October and made things look easy against Brian Stann, submitting him in the second round with an arm triangle. The Oregon native has won four of his last five bouts.

UFC on FOX 2 is scheduled for January 28 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. The night will be headlined by another #1 contenders bout as former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans will face the undefeated Phil Davis, with the winner earning a shot against current 205 king Jon Jones.

*PHOTO CREDIT – UFC*

Of course that doesn’t mean White’s reverence for the match-up’s marketability has changed any as he made clear on a recent episode of UFC Tonight.

“If we can get Chael Sonnen versus Anderson Silva that will probably be held in Brazil in a stadium,” said White. “Everyone in the world will want to watch that.”

A transcription of the UFC executive’s quotes was provided by MMAFighting.

While the venues may have changed it appears the organization’s intentions of filling a stadium with Sonnen-Silva as bait to surpass the 55,000+ in attendance at UFC 129. White has made mention of wanting to put upwards of 100,000 fans in the seats in Brazil, mentioning the overwhelming popularity of the UFC in Brazil relating to their return to Rio this past August.

Heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos has also mentioned his interest in defending his title against Alistair Overeem in Brazil as well, a perfect compliment to Silva-Sonnen II when it comes to potentially selling out a soccer stadium in the South American hub.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Originally hoping for another crack at Anderson Silva and the middleweight title following his victory over Brian Stann at UFC 136, Sonnen will need to win at least one more bout before he has the chance to go five rounds with the champ again. After being away from the action for over a year due to a drug suspension following his first fight with Silva, the Oregon native reminded the MMA world that he can back up his mouth with his skills as he dominated Stann with his wrestling in the first round and then submitted the former Marine with an arm triangle choke in the second round. Never one to shy away from the microphone, Sonnen challenged Silva in his post-fight interview, wanting to fight him on Super Bowl weekend in a “loser leaves town” bout.

With “The Spider” being sidelined due to an injury, Sonnen will have to go through one of the champ’s former sparring partners and another man who called out the middleweight king in his last bout. Winner of four straight bouts, Munoz turned in his most impressive performance to date at UFC 138 when he stopped Chris Leben at the end of the second round with an onslaught of ground and pound. Along with Leben, Munoz has defeated Demain Maia, C.B. Dollaway, and Aaron Simpson during his win streak.

The winner of the bout will most likely challenge Silva for the middleweight strap in mid-2012.

UFC on FOX 2 is scheduled for January 28 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. The night will be headlined by another #1 contender’s bout as former champion Rashad Evans takes on the undefeated Phil Davis in a light heavyweight showdown.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Munoz vs. Leben will be the main event of the night, and will become the first non-title fight five-round affair. The match could also go a long way in determining a future contender to UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva.

For Munoz, he just enjoys the thrill of fighting. After claiming an NCAA Division I wrestling championship while at Oklahoma State University, Munoz ventured into the MMA world as a relative newcomer to the sport.

“I do work extremely hard,” said Munoz, in a recent interview with the UFC’s website. “When I have something in my sights I basically put blinders on like race horses. I don’t let anything hold me back. A lot of my training partners say, ‘You over train, Munoz.’ But I feel like if you’re not over-training, then you’re not training.”

Munoz has rebounded from a tough loss to Yushin Okami, defeating Aaron Simpson, C.B. Dollaway, and Demian Maia to set himself up for this pivotal clash against Leben.

“I’m a fan of Chris Leben. I like how that dude fights. He is so exciting and our fight is going to be doubly exciting,” Munoz said. “I throw bombs and he throws bombs. I like being in the first five-round non-title fight, I love it. But a fight’s a fight. I don’t think this is going to go five rounds, but I definitely will be prepared if it goes five rounds.”

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Now, Munoz will take his talents to England where a meeting with Chris Leben in the main event of UFC 138 will take place. In conjunction with the change in headliners, their bout is scheduled for five rounds and goes down November 5 from Birmingham.

Riding a three-fight winning streak, Munoz (11-2) knows that a victory over Leben will place him right back into contention for a shot at UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva. He seemed to be well on his way to becoming a top challenger last year, but a Split Decision loss to Yushin Okami ultimately kept him from achieving his goal.

“I felt like I’ve learned a lot from that fight against Okami,” said Munoz, in a recent interview with Tatame. “You know, I was just a wrestler when I fought Okami, but now I’ve improved a lot of stand-up and jiu-jitsu and all my game, and I feel that I’m ready. I feel that I’m prepared now, I feel that my game as evolved and now I’m a totally different fighter.”

Leben, who is 22-7 and has won four of his last five bouts, is an opponent who has the same desires as Munoz in terms of wanting to be a champion. In his last fight, “The Crippler” knocked out Wanderlei Silva just 27 seconds into their meeting.

“The fight against Leben will definitely get my closer to where I wanna be,” Munoz said. “(Anderson) is a good friend of mine. (Fighting him) won’t change our friendship at all. I definitely gotta talk to him about that, but hopefully he’ll be retired by then, we’ll see. I’ll always be friends with Anderson and hopefully it doesn’t change the relationship we have. For me, it won’t change at all.”

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Now Chris Leben and Mark Munoz will do their best to give the public a different reason to remember the fifth of November, as the UFC announced earlier today the two talented 185ers have agreed to face off at the event in headlining action.

A highly decorated amateur wrestler, Munoz actually has more strike-based stoppages than outpointings (6/5) including knockouts against Kendall Grove and C.B. Dollaway in the Octagon. He holds an overall record of 11-2 with wins in six of his last seven fights, including three straight, and has only lost once since dropping to 185 pounds (a Split Decision to Yushin Okami).

Leben was last seen delivering a 27-second knockout to Wanderlei Silva earlier this month at UFC 132 and should be more than happy to engage Munoz while standing if allowed to given his past performances in the UFC. In addition to Silva, “The Crippler” has TKO victories in the organization over Jorge Rivera, Aaron Simpson, Alessio Sakara, and Jorge Santiago.

Though UFC 138 is still in the development stages, the UFC also announced Leben vs. Munoz will be under the new five-round format for main events and that the show will be broadcast on Spike TV for fans in America.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

The 14-2 Maia has been out of action since a December decision over Kendall Grove at the Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale. Eight of the Brazilian’s overall wins have come as the result of a tap-out. The performance against Grove brought the submission savant’s record in the Octagon to 8-2 including victories over Dan Miller and Chael Sonnen.

In Munoz he will face a foe who has found success five of the last six times he’s fought with the one exception being a Split Decision to Yushin Okami. “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” most recently rendered C.B. Dollaway defenseless from strikes less than a minute into their March 3 bout at UFC Live 3.

UFC 131 is headlined by Brock Lesnar’s return to the ring in hopes of earning a rematch against current heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez later this year with hard-hitting fellow contender Junior dos Santos standing in his way. The card also features Ken Florian debuting at featherweight against 16-1 Diego Nunes, Shane Carwin against a yet-to-be-named opponent, and rising star Dustin Poirier taking on talented grappler Rani Yahya.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

An Intimate Look at Josh Koscheck’s Training/Life (FIGHT! Magazine)

Greg Jackson Talks About Nate Marquardt’s Recent Win Over Rousimar Palhares (MMAScraps.com)

WEC Officials Comment on Donald Cerrone’s Inflammatory Comments (MMAConvert.com)

A Japanese Trailer for EA Sports MMA (MiddleEasy.com)

TUF 12 Contestant Talks Comparisons to Mike Tyson (MMAFighting.com)

Dustin Hazelett fighting Mark Bocek at UFC 124 (CagePotato.com)

Kevin James, a.k.a. “Paul Blart”, Starring in MMA-Related Movie (Versus.com)

Aaron Simpson Fighting Mark Munoz at UFC 123 (WatchKalibRun.com)

UFC Lightweight Jim Miller Talks About his Present and Future (Heavy.com)

MMAWeekly.com is reporting that the bout was confirmed to them on Sunday by sources close to the fight.

Munoz,  an All-American wrestler who had made two successful appearances in the WEC, is coming off a loss to fellow wrestler Matt Hamill at UFC 96. Hamill landed a head kick to Munoz about four minutes into the first round and sent the Philippine fighter crashing to the canvas where he laid motionless for a few moments. At 6 feet tall fighting as a middleweight is probably the best move for him and cutting weight should not be a problem for him what so ever.

Catone finally made his debut in the UFC at Fight Night 17 where he defeated Derek Downey via second round submission. He was scheduled to fight The Ultimate Fighter season 8 winner Amir Sadollah on two separate occasions but Sadollah was forced to pull out each time. Catone made a quick return to the octagon at Fight Night 18 less than two months later where he was submitted in the second round by Tim Credeur.

UFC 102 is starting to shape up nicely with Randy Couture facing Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera in a battle of former UFC heavyweight champions. Also scheduled for the card is the return of Chris Leben from suspension as he will battle WEC veteran Jake Rosholt, Junior dos Santos takes on Justin McCully in a match-up of heavyweights and Chael Sonnen will face Wilson Gouveia. Couture, Sonnen and Leben have ties to the area as they have all at one time trained with Team Quest, in fact Sonnen still trains there and should attract a lot of local fans. There has been rumblings of Anderson Silva defending his middleweight championship against an unnamed opponent but nothing is set in stone.

We will commence our special series with a look at the UFC 96 light heavyweight main card fight between two former amateur wrestling standouts.

Matt Hamill (5-2) vs. Mark Munoz (5-0)

A former NCAA wrestling champion in 1999 at 197 pounds while competing at Oklahoma State, Munoz is one of the brightest light heavyweight prospects in all of MMA.

Currently training under Urijah Faber out of Faber’s Ultimate Fitness gym in Sacramento, UFC 96 will mark the Filipino-American’s UFC debut.

Munoz is making the move to the Octagon after going 2-0 for Zuffa-owned World Extreme Cagefighting. As high as Munoz’s upside is though, one has to wonder if he might not have benefitted by the WEC keeping its 205 pound division in business for a little longer.

While he’s an amazing athlete, five fights as a pro is not an ideal amount to have when making your UFC debut. Fortunately, UFC Vice President of Talent Relations Joe Silva has found a great matchup for him in Hamill.

Hamill does a lot of the same things that Munoz does, except that Munoz does them better. Munoz also is a better tactical fighter and should have a signfiicant cardio advantage.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure where this fight will be contested but whether the majority of the bout takes place on the ground or on the mat, I see Munoz winning wherever the fight goes.

Final Prediction: Munoz via unanimous decision.

The news is courtesy of a report on MMA Weekly.

Munoz had been scheduled to fight Steve Steinbess at WEC 36 on Sept. 10 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. but was forced to pull off the card due to injury. WEC 36 would ultimately be postponed until Nov. 5 due to Hurricane Ike, but Munoz was never booked for the re-scheduled event.

Zuffa will be disbanding its middleweight and light heavyweight divisions upon the completion of WEC 37 with Munoz expected to be transferred to the UFC regardless of whether he wins or loses.

WEC 37, which will air live on VERSUS, is slated to be headlined by WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres defending his title vs. Manny Tapia.

The news was revealed earlier in a report by MMAWeekly.com.

According to MMA Weekly, the former Oklahoma State competitor if off the card vs. Steve Steinbeiss due to an undisclosed injury.

Steinbess, who trains out of Trevor and Todd Lally’s Arizona Combat Sports, could remain on the card against a new opponent.

The WEC’s Sept. 10 event, to be televised on VERSUS starting at 9 p.m. ET, will feature two title fights involving WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber taking on Mike Thomas Brown and WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho squaring off against Chael Sonnen. Former NCAA champions Jake Rosholt and Johny Hendricks are scheduled to make their debuts as well.

Mezger revealed to interviewer Ariel Helwani that the IFL and HDNet have reached an accord that includes an agreement to televise the promotion’s World Grand Prix finals on Dec. 29 along with 2008 events.

Mezger left the impression that HDNet would be the sole carrier of the IFL’s WGP finals.

However, when contacted by FiveOuncesOfPain.com (www.FiveOuncesOfPain.com), the IFL offered a position that differed from Mezger’s comments.

“We are looking at several TV and new media opportunities right now and expect to have an announcement in the next week about December 29,” IFL Senior Vice President of Communications Joe Favorito said in a statement to FiveOuncesOfPain.com. “There has been interest among several entities and we are right now evaluating which one is best for the fans, the sport and the event itself. Nothing is confirmed.”

Mezger stated during the JarryPark.com interview that an official announcement about the IFL and HDNet relationship is due to be made on Monday.

He also confirmed a story first reported this morning by FiveOuncesOfPain.com contributing writer Adam Morgan, who stated that Sean Salmon is out of a co-main event against Jason “Mayhem” Miller scheduled for HDNet Fights’ next card on Dec. 15. He will be replaced by Tim Kennedy, who holds a previous win over Miller.

Kennedy is scheduled to fight on the undercard of the IFL’s WGP finals on Dec. 29 but we have learned that his involvement on the HDNet Fights card on Dec. 15 comes with the IFL’s consent. As of now, he is still scheduled to fight on Dec. 29 but a backup plan is being devised.

Mezger’s interview is very informative and I highly recommend everyone check it out. There’s tons of great audio content on JarryPark.com, a site that I visit regularly.

Involved on the call were HDNet Fights president Andrew Simon, HDNet Fights matchmaker Guy Mezger, along with fighters Sean Salmon and Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who will be fighting each other in a clash of middleweight during the show’s co-main event. The other main event will feature Frank Trigg vs. Edwin Dewees.

Here’s a recap of the conference call:

- The rumors of Randy Couture joining the promotion were brought up. Mezger wasn’t real comfortable with the topic and said he wanted to focus on talking about the card. He said that if there was a way to get Couture on board at HDNet Fights that it would be “awesome.”

- Miller and Trigg have signed three-fight contracts that are non-exclusive. However, there are some restrictions when it comes to their exclusivity, such as they don’t want fighters that they’ve signed to multi-fight deals competing a month before they’re supposed to fight for HDNet Fights.

- 22-24 shows are planned for 2008. The number of shows will include live HDNet Fights cards as well as cards presented by their partners, such as the IFO and Ring of Combat. The plan is for HDNet Fights to hold their cards in Dallas during the next 12 months in order to build a fanbase and them start doing shows around the country. Pay-per-view is also an option they are looking at for the future. Also, titles could be introduced once they fill out their divisions and gain some traction.

- Mezger revealed during the conference call that their next show after the Dec. 15 event will be in February. Team Takedown standout and Masters of the Cage light heavyweight champion Jake Rosholt will be debuting for the promotion on that card. Mezger was asked if there was interest in the other three members of Team Takedown (Johny Hendricks, Shane Roller, and Eric Bradley) and he indicated that there was. He was very complementary to the team’s management and the fighters they’ve signed.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

HDNet already televises MMA content but today’s announcement confirmed recent reports of an extension of MMA coverage on the network with fights being offered every Friday night. The plan is to offer 24 MMA event telecasts in the upcoming year. Additionally, a new magazine-style program called “Inside MMA” that will also air every Friday and be hosted by Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten. The show debuts this week.

HDNet Fights will be working with other promotions such as the IFO and Art of War, however, Cuban’s new group will promote cards of its own. The first Cuban-promoted card is scheduled for October 13 from the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, TX.

Guy Mezger, who is essentially Cuban’s day-to-day MMA operations manager, was on the call and announced several matches.

They are as follows:

- Main event: Erik Paulson from Shooto fame will be taking a break from his training duties and coming out of retirement to fight 5-time kickboxing champ Jeff Ford. This will be a light heavyweight matchup.

- Former UFC heavyweight title contender Justin Eilers will be taking on Justin Howard.

- Freddie “Speedy” Espiricueta will fight Jason House

- Former UFC fighters Pete Spratt (of Houston) will be taking on Sammy Morgan

- Sean Salmon will be fighting Leopoldo Serao

- T.J. Walberger will go against Anthony Lapsley

- Justin McDowell will fight Ivan Jorge

- In a battle of super heavyweights, Joel Traves will do battle with Sunia Filikitonga

Other fighters are listed on the promotions web site (HDNetFights.com) so I’m assuming there will be more matches.

Highlights of the press conference include:

- There was talk of Fedor but nothing new to report. Cuban confirmed they’ve offered some things that interest Fedor’s camp and that the UFC has offered Fedor’s camp some things that interest them.

- I asked Mezger about other big name free agents. He wouldn’t get into specifics but I asked him if they’d be interested in Josh Barnett. He not only said that they’re interested but that discussions have taken place. He mentioned that if they were to sign Fedor, they’d need someone to fight him and that a lot of people aren’t willing too. We all know that Barnett would be willing too.

- A lot of fighters signed for the first card are on one-fight deals. Mezger is exploring possibilities with certain fighters who could fit into a situation where they’d be signed to multi-fight contracts.

- There was a lot of talk about the IFL. Ring of Fire, Art of War, and Richard Steele’s IFO will all be promotions that HDNet Fights will be working with but with 24 shows planned, they will need to work with more companies. The IFL’s HD rights for 2008 are not secured so there’s nothing to stop them from working with Cuban at this point in addition to their deals with Fox Sports Net and MyNetwork. Also, don’t rule out HDNet as a possible solution to the whole IFL live telecast issue.

- Josh Gross from Sherdog.com mentioned in an article today that Cuban has been talking to the WWE and Vince, Shane, and Linda McMahon.  Gross didn’t offer much detail so I asked Cuban if he could elaborate. Basically, the McMahons aren’t looking to start an MMA promotion. However, they have existing PPV distribution and Cuban expressed an interest in talking to them about production since they are already doing so much of it.

- Justin Eilers dropped a nice little nugget of info. He’s training in Vegas now at the Vegas Fight Club where Tony Fryklund trains. Eilers actually trained in a boxing gym for a while in Iowa after leaving MFS. Apparently his decision to leave MFS wasn’t one that came on good terms. He reluctantly revealed that he had a beef with Tim Sylvia. Basically, when Eilers got the title shot against Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia didn’t feel like he deserved it and felt that the title shot should have been his. Instead of being a good teammate and sucking it up, he just refused to work with Eilers in helping him get ready for the match. You know, I’ve defended Sylvia in the past but that’s a bullshit move on his part.

- Right now HDNet has 6 million subscribers. It’s available to most people who have satellite. Technically, you don’t even need an HD set. You just need the HD box and you can hook it into the S-video connection of your TV and subscribe. It’s not available on Comcast but Cuban said they are working on that.

On to the news…

- I was able to touch base with Guy Mezger today and ask him for some more detail behind Mark Cuban’s new MMA project. You can read the highlights of my conversation in an article I that I wrote for CBSSports.com by clicking here.

- There’s a new promotion in Canada called Hardcore Championship Fighting that’s planning a big show on Oct. 19 in Calgary. The main event that’s being floated around right now is Wesley “Cabbage” Correia vs. Aleksander Emelianenko. HCF apparently has big money behind it and I’m hearing they are talking to some very big names.

- Do you want to speak with the most underrated fighter in MMA? Luke Thomas’ Any Given Saturday will be on a special night tonight at 10 p.m. ET and the guest will be UFC welterweight Jon Fitch. You can access the show at BloodyElbow.com and call-in as well (646-478-5091).

-  There’s a new Rampage interview available at Complex.com. You can check it out by clicking here.

Cuban has hired MMA veteran Guy Mezger to run the day-to-day operations of his MMA project, and will rely on Mezger to handle tasks such as talent evaluation.

“We have already started,” Cuban said. “Our first hire was Guy Mezger, who will be responsible for managing fight cards, attracting and signing fighters.”

Mezger runs the Lions Den affiliate in Dallas, TX and has served as a commentator and matchmaker for several MMA organizations. His reputation in the industry is impeccable.

In addition to working with Mezger, it appears that Ed Fishman, formerly of Pride, could be involved somehow as well:

In White Chocolate’s press release, they indicated that former Pride Fighting Championships USA president Ed Fishman was present for the recent meetings with Cuban and Mezger. Fishman was the driving force behind Pride FC’s pay-per-view events held in Las Vegas in 2006 and early 2007, in the days before the company was sold to UFC parent company Zuffa LLC.

I’m only giving you bits and pieces here. You really should go to CBSSports.com and check the entire report out by clicking here.