Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney announced the signing on Twitter.

A former IFL featherweight champ, Fabiano was thought to be the second best 145-pound fighter in the world (behind Urijah Faber) when he entered the WEC in 2008. After winning his first two bouts in the WEC cage, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt was upset at WEC 43 when Mackens Semerzier submitted him with a triangle choke in the first round. Following the loss, Fabiano dropped to 135, where he won two more bouts before losing via guillotine choke to former WEC bantamweight title challenger Joseph Benavidez.

He was released from the organization and hasn’t competed in MMA following that November 2010 loss to Benavidez but in March 2012 he’ll step back into the cage and move back up to 145 when he enters the Bellator featherweight tournament.

PHOTO CREDIT – WEC

The news of the match-up between the two comes via Fabiano himself who revealed that the contracts have recently been signed for the bout in an interview with Tatame.com.

WEC 43 will take place on September 2 from the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio. The event is set to feature a main event for the WEC lightweight interim championship between Donald Cerrone and Ben Henderson.

Fabiano has put together an impressive 12-1 record with seven of those victories coming by way of submission. His sole defeat came came in the form of a split decision loss at the hands of Jeff Curran back in 2006, and the talented Brazilian has rebounded with eight consecutive victories.

Koch is undefeated up to this point in his career, sporting an unblemished record of 7-0 fighting in the Midwest region of the United States. Like Fabiano, the bulk of Koch’s victories have also come by tap out.

Fabiano made the revelation during a recent interview with the Brazilian MMA web site Tatame.com.

According to Fabiano, his next opponent could be none other than the “California Kid” himself, former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber.

“I’ll be back at April 5 and we’ll see what will happen,” Fabiano told Tatame. “I still don’t know who’s gonna be my opponent, but I think It’ll be Faber. And I’ll be ready for him.”

According to Fabiano, he’s already begun preparing for him.

“I have to be well trained, with no injuries at all and I’m already training for this fight,” Fabiano is quoted. “I sincerely think that I’d complicate his life with my game style. He’s good fighting standing, but I don’t fear his striking at all. The deal is be careful with those elbows, but we’ll see. We’ll set a good strategy for him.”

The Rio de Janeiro native has not fought since making his WEC debut at WEC 37 this past December. Facing former Shooto star Akitoshi Tamura, Fabiano was victorious after securing an armbar submission at 4:48 of round 3.

Shad Lierley shocked the world when he took Chris Horodecki to decision at an IFL event a little over year ago, almost defeating the Xtreme Couture prospect in the process. Once the IFL created a 145 lbs. weight class it only made sense for Lierley to drop down to his normal fighting weight and face off against the champion Wagnney Fabiano. Fabiano looks to show the world why he’s ranked in the top ten by showing that he not only has submission skills but striking skills as well. Lierley is a very tough kid and proved it in his loss to Horodecki but will Fabiano’s skills be far too much for him at his natural weight class? Or will Lierley scrap his way to a victory? You will not want to blink during this fight!

Be sure to check out the HDNet Video Vault for lots more fights and MMA action!

“Faber is the best of the world now. To beat him, I think you have to be in a good shape. He’s an expert fighter and he has a good gas, it’s complicated to beat a guy like him. You have to set a good game plan and be calm and watch the elbows, because if he hits you it can change a whole fight”, said the Nova União athlete.

This is a great move by Fabiano who is extremely underrated at 145 lbs. He is one of the most dynamic fighters in the entire weight class with an outstanding ground game, solid striking, and as he showed in his last fight, knockout power. He most recently defeated highly touted Shad Lierley in his only title defense in the IFL, knocking him out cold in the first round with a right hand that connected right on the button.

I don’t think Fabiano poses a legitimate threat to Urijah Faber at this point but it is definitely a fight that I would love to see. If the WEC knows what’s good for them, and it seems they do, they will give Fabiano a couple of warmup fights and then build to a Faber vs. Fabiano title fight. No matter what the outcome it’s highly likely that the fight will be an exciting one. Great signing for WEC as they are now really establishing themselves as the premier league for the lighter weight fighters.

The marijuana positive still doesn’t explain the umbrella. I know that was his deal in Pride but it seemed even more out of place in the UFC. Does CSAC test for LSD?

Seriously though, I still think it’s rather silly that some commissions test for marijuana. I don’t smoke it (only because I’m already a paranoid person to begin with and I also hate cottonmouth) but even someone like me who has no use for it believes it should be legal.

Also, it doesn’t look like the results are back yet for the performance enhancers. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Other notes:

- Brazilian website Gazeta De Povo is reporting that Mauricio “Shogun” Rua had ligament damage in his knee leading up to his UFC 76 bout with Forrest Griffin and that it limited his ability to train. According to the report, Shogun will be undergoing surgery this Friday. He doesn’t expect to resume training until late-January or early-February.

So let me see, Forrest Griffin says he won’t be ready for Dec. 29; Rampage has a hand injury that could prevent him from fighting again in ’07; and now Shogun is on the shelf? What does that leave as far as big light heavyweight fights for UFC 79? You could go Chuck Liddell vs. Houston Alexander and Keith Jardine vs. Wanderlei Silva? Or, you could go Houston Alexander vs. Keith Jardine II and Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell! I’m being serious, I think all these injuries could force the UFC to make a Silva vs. Liddell match for UFC 79.

- UFCDaily.com is reporting that Heath Herring plans to return to UFC action after some time off by early-2008.

- MMAJunkie.com broke the news on Wednesday that Ryan Jensen will be replacing an injured Marvin Eastman against Demian Maia at UFC 77 in Cincinnati on Oct. 20. It’s an Adam Morgan dream match from what I hear and the reason why he’s buying tickets to the show.

Here’s post-fight video of Jon Fitch, who doesn’t agree that his win over Diego Sanchez being a split decision. Diego also is on at the end and he accepts the loss:

Here’s video of Forrest Griffin talking about his win over Shogan via rear naked choke (btw, Forrest’s face looks jacked!):

Next is video of Chuck Liddell and Keith Jardine talking about their fight:

• Keith Jardine ($14,000) def. Chuck Liddell ($500,000)
• Forrest Griffin ($44,000) def. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua ($150,000)
• Jon Fitch ($44,000) def. Diego Sanchez ($22,000)
• Ryoto Machida ($50,000) def. Kazuhiro Nakamura ($20,000)
• Tyson Griffin ($24,000) def. Thiago Tavares ($9,000)
• Rich Clementi ($24,000) def. Anthony Johnson ($5,000)
• Jeremy Stephens ($6,000) def. Diego Saraiva ($3,000)
• Christian Wellisch ($14,000) def. Scott Junk ($4,000)
• Matt Wiman ($16,000) def. Michihiro Omigawa ($5,000)

Fight of the Night bonus went to Tyson Griffin vs. Thiago Tavares. $40,000 for each of those fighters.

Submission of the Night bonus was awarded to Forrest Griffin. $40,000 extra to him.

The total publicly announced pay outs to fighters is $1,074,000.

Check out more UFC 76 content on 5 oz of Pain. 

UFC president Dana White was critical of PRIDE management last year after a proposed match between Liddell and Silva fell through in large part because Silva suffered a devstating knockout loss to Mirko Cro Cop in September during PRDIE’s open weight Grand Prix.

“Dana White is a hypocrite,” Millen stated exclusively to FiveOuncesOfPain.com. “He said that PRIDE blew the biggest match up in MMA history when we had Cro-Cop/Silva and Silva lost. In turn he had the opportunity to put Wanderlei against Chuck this past weekend, being Wanderlei was under UFC contract. Dana had the power to change the Liddell/Jardine match but chose not to. MMA fans wanted that fight and should have gotten it, but Dana — the self professed God OF MMA — decided to wait until December. Well, now what?”

Since Liddell’s loss there has been much speculation of his future from reports of possible retirement, to talk that he’s interested in fighting Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on Dec. 29 at UFC 79 in Las Vegas. If it was up to Millen, he’d still go ahead with the Silva vs. Liddell dreamatch.

“I think the fight should still happen,” he said. “People do want to see it. If it doesn’t happen in December, Dana White will have killed the most anticipated matchup in MMA to date. With both guys coming off of two loses in a row, the bulidup could be huge if Dana handles it right.”

Due to Millen’s past close affiliation to PRIDE and its former fighters, we decided to ask him if he had a theory as to why former PRIDE staples such as Cro Cop and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua have struggled since their UFC debuts.

It wasn’t an assessment Millen completely agreed with.

“First off, I want to state that I still believe (UFC light heavyweight champion) Quinton Jackson is a PRIDE fighter,” said Millen. “Quinton has improved as a fighter but in my heart, Quinton Jackson is still a PRIDE fighter. He came over to the UFC and he’s kicked some ass.”

In regard to Cro Cop, Millen believes that the different rules used by PRIDE and the UFC might have played a role in some of their subpar showings.

“I saw Cro Cop fight Eddie Sanchez live and while I think it could have been nerves, the transition from a cage to ring appeared to be an issue,” Millen said. “If you watch Cro Cop, in PRIDE he was real good at backing his opponents into corners. In the Octagon, he couldn’t corner Sanchez and had to chase him around.”

We also asked Millen for his thoughts as to whether Cro Cop should continue to fight.

“I’ve seen a lot of Cro Cop fights and the guy is a monster; I’ve seen him destroy people,” Millen responded. “God knows what’s happened? It goes back to the cage and the different rules. I read that he said he hadn’t trained for elbows and in the UFC they throw elbows — which is a whole different world. I also think he’s having a hard time finding his range with his left high kick.

“Do I think he’ll ever be the UFC heavyweight champion? No, but I do think Cro Cop has something left and that we’ll see highlights from him in the UFC because he was such a great fighter while with PRIDE.”

And, as for Shogun?

“I’m not really sure what happened with Shogun,” stated Millen. “Maybe nerves played a role? The Shogun I saw at UFC 76 was not the Shogun that I know. I just think there is a huge difference between the cage and the ring and we’re starting to see that.”

Not to be outdone, Millen couldn’t resist taking a parting shot at his former archnemesis.

“Sometimes I think Dana should go back to his past and schedule aerobics classes and let a professional handle the matchups, because he clearly needs some help!”

Check out more UFC 76 content on 5 Oz. of Pain.

With permission from MMAFighting.com, 5 Oz. can bring you that video right here. Special thanks to Ray for making this available:

http://view.break.com/370993 – Watch more free videos

- Loretta Hunt from The Fight Network spoke with John Hackleman, the trainer for Chuck Liddell, who says he’s unaware of any retirement talk. In fact, he not only claims Liddell told him he’ll be back in the gym next Monday, but didn’t rule out a December fight for Liddell:

“He’s already said he’ll be back in the gym next Monday,” said Hackleman, who has coached Liddell for 16 years. “He’s going to fight again, hopefully as soon as possible, maybe in December. We’re looking at ‘Shogun.’”

- It was revealed during the UFC 76 post-fight press conference that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s hand injury worsened during his UFC 75 title defense against Dan Henderson and that he’s unlikely to fight again in 2007. It doesn’t look like the UFC can fall back on a Forrest Griffin vs. Rampage UFC light heavyweight title match for UFC 79 on Dec. 29.

- According to John Pollock of The Fight Network, Karo Parisyan has confirmed he’ll be fighting Judoka standout Hector Lombard at UFC 78 in Newark, NJ.

- MMAJunkie.com broke the news that Dean Lister’s opponent at UFC 79 on Dec. 29 could very well be Jordan Radev, the dude who got wrecked by Drew McFedries at UFN 10.

- UFCDaily.com is reporting that Doug Evans will be fighting in a preliminary match on the UFC 79 undercard on Dec. 29.

- According to this week’s print edition of The Wrestling Observer, BodogFIGHT welterweight champion Nick Thompson is having contract issues with the company. He’s one of the most underrated fighters in the world right now (right up there with Jon Fitch) and would be a tremendous addition to any fight promotion’s talent roster.

- In case you missed it, Ricco Rodriguez confirmed on Inside the Cage Radio with Matt Cava and I this past weekend that he’s still under contract to EliteXC (although a debut match has not been scheduled) and that he plans to continue to fight at heavyweight for the time being. His ultimate goal in the next year is to fight at light heavyweight and he also challenged former friend Tito Ortiz to a catch weight fight at 225 lbs.

- In a previous interview with me for CBSSports.com earlier in the year, Joe “Diesel” Riggs claimed he was transferred from the WEC to the UFC per his request. During Inside the Cage, he indicated that was not actually the case and that the idea was actually pushed on him by Zuffa. Riggs has signed what he believes is a five fight contract with Strikeforce and he’ll make his debut for the promotion this Saturday at the Playboy Mansion against 41-year old Eugene Jackson. It’s a non-exclusive deal but he needs to get permission from Strikeforce to fight outside of it (hey, how about Riggs vs. Nick Diaz II?). Riggs also confirmed there’s a chance he could fight Cung Le if he beats Jackson but said that while he wouldn’t mind fighting Le, he’d love to fight Frank Shamrock.

- I came across this interview via a story on MMANews.com, but in an interview with IronLife.com, Pride lightweight Joachim Hansen indicated he is still technically under contract to Zuffa through the Pride acquisition but there are no immediate plans to fight for the company. It appears they don’t want to use him under his existing deal, and wanted to re-negotiate his contract for less money:

They offered me a fight some months ago – I wasn’t sure if they had bought Pride for what the hell was going on. They offered me a fight against Marcus Aurelio, they offered me half the salary of what I got in Pride. Obviously at the time they had already bought Pride, in my opinion they also bought my contract, so how can they offer me half the salary?

- According to The Fight Network, NSAC officially decided not too suspend Renato “Babalu” Sobral following his extended choke on David Heath following their match at UFC 74 on Aug. 25. However, he will not receive the $25,000 win bonus that the commission decided to withhold, which means he’s been fined $25,000 in essence. All because a guy called him a mother fucker?

- According to MMAjunkie.com, Jake O’Brien, who underwent what what considered at the time to be possible career-ending back surgery, will resume training next year.

Iole now has a full-length feature devoted to the topic and the article includes several telling quotes from UFC president Dana White:

But White, Liddell’s former manager and a close personal friend, speculated that Liddell may simply no longer have the passion to fight. White said he didn’t see the fire that Liddell used to exhibit and that it resulted in a flat performance. At the post-fight news conference, Liddell deferred questions about his future. He said he would go home and think about whether he would fight again, which in and of itself was newsworthy since he’d never had given an indication before that he was remotely considering that option.

But White said he spoke with Liddell in the locker room and they had a frank discussion.

“There’s a hunger thing that you have to have to be an elite fighter and I just didn’t see a Chuck Liddell who was as hungry as he used to be,” White said Sunday. “Chuck has made a lot of money in this business and he’s done a lot of things, but he wasn’t the Chuck of old.

“Chuck was never a guy who fought for money; he fought because he loved to fight. He’d just as soon go out and fight in the back yard for free as fight before 20,000 people on a card he was making a ton of money because he just loved to fight.”

I’d hate to see Liddell retire. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time and I think his exit would hurt the sport. I also think that it would be a mistake though for him to continue fighting if the “fire” isn’t there anymore. However, and I’ve said this already, I think that with some time off that the urge to return will become too great.

If Dana is correct that Chuck truly loves to fight, then he’s not going to be able to stay away from the cage for an extended period of time if he continues to go to shows and be a part of the scene.

Check out more Chuck Liddell content on 5 Oz. of Pain.

For now, what appeared to be the three biggest money matches, Jackson against Rua, Jackson against Liddell, or Liddell against Silva, look to be out the window. White had been attempting to put together Silva vs. Liddell for five years, and having recently signed Silva, had it planned for Dec. 29 if all went well.

“It’s just not meant to happen,” said White, who talked about a conversation with Silva as the fight was going on, and telling Silva that he thought Jardine was going to win the fight. He noted Silva was in complete denial, seeing huge dollar signs fly out the window.

Say it ain’t so Dana! C’mon, you have both fighters under contract in the same organization and you’re telling me that both men will see their careers end without having ever fought each other?

I’m sure Dana was in a crappy mood last night but the UFC can’t write off a Chuck vs. Wanderlei match as long as the two are still alive and breathing. As I said in a previous post, just make it happen for Dec. 29.

Ivan Trembow of MMAWeekly.com made a good point in the comments area on 5 Oz. that both are in equal standing considering both are coming off consecutive losses.

You can still sell this match to the public, and here’s how you do it:

- Come out and say even though Chuck didn’t get it done, the match is being made as a token of appreciation to all the hardcore fans who have supported MMA over the years and have waited with baited breath for this match. Dec. 29 is only four days after Christmas so Dana can say that even though the timing isn’t the best, he’s making the match happen as his gift to the fans. Doesn’t that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

- You can still market it a little bit to the mainstream audience. Promote the match as both fighters being at the crossroads of their career and that just a year or so ago that they were at the top of the mountain. Sell the drama whichever of the two legends loses will in all likelihood have no choice but to retire. In reality, they don’t have to retire but hype it up that way and have both fighters say if they lose that they’re done. And in regard to the guy who loses, he can just come out of retirement in three months. Boxing has been pulling that stunt for years.

- Stack the card for Dec. 29! In addition to Liddell vs. Silva also have B.J. Penn vs. Joe Stevenson (in all likelihood for the lightweight title), Matt Serra vs. Matt Hughes for the welterweight title, and how about Rampage vs. Forrest Griffin for the light heavyweight title? Three title fights and a legends match. That’s going to be a huge buyrate regardless of the fact that Liddell and Silva are both coming off consecutive losses.

Meltzer also reported the following in the same column:

He also was very confident of signing Fedor Emelianenko, but felt it wouldn’t happen until after Emelianenko competes in a Russian sambo tournament in the fall. White said it was incorrect the story, claimed by Kurt Angle, that Brock Lesnar had signed with UFC. But he did hope to make the deal.

Not much for me to add. I just found it interesting.

But I was on Steve Cofield’s post-UFC 76 show last night on ESPN 920 in Vegas and went off on a rant. Steve has made the audio available to 5 Oz. listeners so you can hear my analysis by clicking here.

“I’m contemplating in my mind if I’m going to drop to (1)55 or not, because I’m a smaller welterweight. I could do more powerlifting and put some more weight on or I could lose some weight.”

It sounds like he’s on the fence. He must have been pretty emotional coming off the loss. When I interview him on Steve Cofield’s Fox Sports Radio show in Vegas prior to UFC 74 he sounded pretty committed to 170 lbs. I think in the end, that’s where he’ll stay. Although, Diego at 155 lbs. would be pretty damn scary.

But what’s to stop me from taking Dana’s pre-UFC 76 and post-UFC 76 comments from places like MMANews.com (which had a summary on some comments he made on Scott Ferrall’s show on Sirius) and Yahoo! (where Kevin Iole has some post-show Dana quotes) an posting them here and giving my response?

Nothing. So here it goes.

First, Dana called out the blogging community during a post-UFC 76 rant and Iole has the comments in a article on Yahoo! that can be found here.

Here are the comments in question:

White launched into a tirade against the Pride fan boys and the Internet sites he said who encourage them to denigrate the UFC.

“I want to say something and everybody knows how I’ve felt for years about these goofy Internet websites,” White said through gritted teeth. “I hate them. They’re biased, crooked and there are a lot of other bad things I can say, but I don’t want to waste my time.

“They’ve been biased against us for years. Their reporting was always biased against us. They talk about fights that don’t make any sense. Let me tell you what: We’re the best in the business. Our matchmaker (Joe Silva) is the best. We put on the best and the biggest fights.”

As an operator of of a goofy Internet website, I feel obligated to address the comments.

I’m not so arrogant to think that Dana reads this blog but I hope someone who knows him does read this and word gets back to him.

First off, why is Dana lumping all the bloggers together? That’s really unfair. There are a lot of blogs out here now and we all do different things. Some are indeed anti-UFC but some cover nothing but UFC and even have “UFC” in their URL.

And then there are blogs like this one, MMATakedown.net, BloodyElbow.com, Sprawl-N-Brawl.com, etc. that call it down the middle. Do we always call it the UFC’s way? No, but we’re not biased. Do I say some anti-UFC stuff sometimes? Yeah, but I’m just being honest. Dana presents himself as a guy who is honest and who tells it like it is. So why can’t he appreciate other people who are cut from the same cloth? Does he have a trademark on being outspoken?

C’mon Dana, just be fair and don’t write off all blogs just because you have issues with the way a few sites out there cover the UFC. Call out the specific sites you have a beef with instead of blasting an entire community. How would you feel if someone who knew nothing about MMA blasted BodogFIGHT and lumped the UFC into the same category without acknowledging any differentiation? Well, that’s what I feel like he’s pretty much doing to the MMA Internet community.

I’m a little offended that he’s lumping all bloggers into together (yes, I know Dana could give two shits about how I feel) but maybe I shouldn’t take his words too seriously. I don’t profess to know him but I’ve been told by those who do that he can be a pretty emotional guy. Iole alluded to the fact in his article that White was probably unhappy that Liddell lost.

He also had to have been pissed that Shogun lost too. It would have been one thing if Shogun put on an awesome performance and lost in a way where both fighters came out a winner but he gassed and didn’t look good. Rua is young enough that it’s not the end of the world but the UFC deserved a better effort for what they’re paying the guy.

Busy start of ’08 planned for the UFC?

When I was on the Vegas version of the ESPN 920 last night with Steve Cofield he mentioned that in addition to planning a show on Feb. 3 (Super Bowl weekend) that the UFC is talking about running shows in New Castle, England and Montreal, Canada in January.

That’s just crazy talk. The UFC can’t be serious?

But the crazy talk doesn’t end there. I wasn’t able to catch Scott Ferrall’s show on Sirius yesterday because I had to tape Inside the Cage and because it was a holiday. Fortunately, MMANews.com was on the ball and posted a recap of what Dana said.

Dana addressed the UFC going to Montreal but said GSP probably won’t be on the card.

You’ve got to be kidding me?

How do you run Montreal and not have GSP headline the show fighting for the welterweight title? That’s bigger than big.

My thinking is that cooler heads will prevail. I think they’ll do a show in Newcastle in January and then the Super Bowl weekend show and then save the Montreal show for later so GSP can headline it. Dana may have said a Montreal show without GSP could happen but I don’t for a minute believe that will be the case in the end.

Dana thinks Cro Cop might retire

In the same MMANews.com Dana interview recap, the article indicates that White doesn’t know what’s up with Cro Cop and that he thinks he might retire soon.

That’s a pretty interesting take on the topic coming from the president of the UFC. At $350,000 per match (at least), I’m sure there would be no tears shed at the Zuffa offices if Cro Cop hung up the gloves.

Mark Hunt under contract to Zuffa?

According to MMANews.com, a caller asked Dana about Mark Hunt. Here’s how the article recapped the exchange:

Caller asks about Mark Hunt. He says Hunt is under contract from the PRIDE deal and they are working some things out still.

Mark Hunt in the UFC? Is that more crazy talk? Dana doesn’t like super heavyweights and Mark Hunt would really have to re-dedicate himself to MMA to make 265 lbs. on a consistent basis.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see Hunt in the UFC and it’s newsworthy that Dana isn’t ruling him out.

Dana tired of being asked about Fedor

This is what MMANews.com said when Fedor’s name was brought up on Ferrall’s show:

Says he is tired of people asking about Fedor Emelianenko. He says Fedor has a sambo match in November/December and he hopes to have him signed to a deal by December.

I’m tired of talking about Fedor too. Why does Dana keep saying he hopes to have a deal done? Just say we’re talking to his people and we’re interested in signing him. If we have something to report, we’ll make an announcement. But by continuing to present themselves as the front-runner to sign him is a high-risk/low reward situation.

If the UFC does sign Fedor, how impressed will people be when he’s been saying for months now that he’d get it done? It’s not all that impressive when you do something you said you were going to do. It’s a lot more newsworthy when you do something that’s out of left field. And if Fedor signs somewhere else, then Dana has to eat crowd. Why does he box himself into corners like that? As a media guy, I’m not complaining; the more quote worthy the better. But if I take a step back, he adds more stress to his life then he needs to sometimes.

I’ll try and have some more post-fight press conference stuff for you guys later (man, the UFC needs to televise it live on their web site and not chop it down in tape-delayed bits).

But let’s begin with Liddell vs. Jardine:

Remember when I said they should have canceled the match? A lot of you said I was crazy. Remember when I said this was a legit main event caliber match? A lot of you said I was full of it. Well, I have to eat crow when I make bold picks like Koscheck over GSP that don’t pan out and I have to own up to it but there are a lot of you that need to own up to your reaction to my comments.

Liddell simply fought a poor tactical fight. I’m sure he prepared. He just didn’t prepare for Keith Jardine specifically. The fact that at this stage of the game he doesn’t know how to defend leg kicks is a joke. And did John Hackleman really tell Liddell not to worry about the kicks? Not only were they hurting Liddell’s mobility and limiting his punching power, Jardine was scoring points with them. Liddell wasn’t answering them and taking the points back. That’s one of the first things I learned in Muay Thai class: someone scores points on you, answer back and neutralize the scoring.

I’m a crappy wanna-be MMA fighter and even I can defend kicks better than Liddell. Did he check more than one kick? And the kicks became predictable. Why didn’t he try and catch some of those kicks and pull Jardine in close and pop him on the chin? Or even catch him and sweep him and put him on his back and ground and pound him?

It just seemed like Jardine really started to get confident in round two. He was inviting Liddell to walk into him and engage because he had the reach advantage and almost every time Liddell tried to advance Jardine greeted him with a left jab, a left hook, a teep, or a cut kick. I mean, who the hell throws a Muay Thai teep in an MMA match as much as Jardine did tonight? You don’t see teeps happen in MMA all too often because a fighter can catch them and put a guy on his ass. But since Liddell had no kick defense Jardine could do whatever he wanted.

Liddell lost the match because he had a crappy game plan. Plain and simple. Looking at my notes here, I scored every round 10-9 for Jardine. That’s right, I even felt Jardine won the first round.

And why was Wanderlei clapping after round two? He should have ran his ass down to cageside and screamed at Liddell to get his shit together because he was going to cost him millions. This match never should have happened. You know, Dana ripped Pride last year for blowing the Liddell vs. Silva match when Cro Cop “murdered the axe murderer” so what’s his explanation for this?

You know what? Fuck it. Dana, please book Chuck vs. Wanderlei for UFC 79 on Dec. 29 anyway. With a strong undercard with matches like Serra vs. Hughes and Penn vs. Stevenson, I think you can get away with it. To try and spot Wanderlei or Liddell with wins would risk further putting their careers into the abyss unless you want to give Liddell a total slam dunk and book him against someone like Alessio Sakara.

When I was on with Steve Cofield tonight on ESPN 920 in Vegas he made a point that it might not be fair to match Liddell vs. Silva up in December when Jardine and Griffin are more worthy of facing Wanderlei. Well, Steve is right but I’m just a hopeless fanboy who has been dying to see Silva vs. Liddell for five years now. The two aren’t getting any younger. To wait any longer would jeopardize us never having gotten to see the two fight. Really, you could match Jardine or Forrest Griffin up vs. Wanderlei but what happens if one of them beat him?

Let’s move onto Forrest Griffin vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua:

Sorry, but I am going to talk more smack. I’ve got some haters on the Junkie comments area who always rip me whenever I write an article and give me crap for my Koscheck vs. GSP prediction. Well, I told everyone that Griffin was going to make this a closer fight than most people were anticipating. Some of you agreed while others slagged on me. I got some pretty nasty e-mails based on my CBSSports.com preview of the fight. Well, where are you haters now? Man, I just wish I had had the balls to to man up and go all the way and predict the upset.

Forrest is just a smarter fighter now. He’s had good offensive boxing skills from day one and now he has good defensive boxing skills. He’s also not too shabby on the ground. Having a tactician like Randy Couture as your head trainer is invaluable. They had the perfect gameplan and they executed it perfectly.

Also, am I the only one sick of people using the different rules excuse for the reason why so many Pride fighters have struggled in the UFC? I’m all about what Rampage says in his belief that’s a fight is a fight. Are the rules different? Of course. Do some adjustments need to be made? Sure. But the difference between fighting in Pride and UFC is way overblown. People act like it’s two separate sports. It’s not like someone is crossing over from boxing to wrestling. It’s all MMA. I’ve fought in a ring and a cage and sure there are some differences but a fight is a fight.

Why do I think some Pride guys have struggled? Maybe the lifestyle change. How much time did Cro Cop and Shogun spend in Japan before their fights? It was a long ass commute so they pretty much hunkered down at their respective camps in Croatia and Brazil. Then they come to the U.S. and the expectations are different. Cro Cop doesn’t spend much time stateside but he seemed a bit thrown off by the media coverage and the fan response. In Japan, he could kind of do whatever he wanted and wasn’t under constant scrutiny and there was less pressure. Was Sakikabara ever critical of his performances like Dana has been at times?

As for Shogun, we saw his brother gas out vs. Robbie Lawler last Saturday and we saw him gas tonight vs. Forrest. The Ruas claim they are still with Chute Boxe but from what I hear they are spending a lot of time in LA. Maybe too much time.

Also, what the hell is Shogun doing getting married two weeks before his UFC debut? Maybe I’m talking out of my ass here because for all I know is he could have trained the morning of his wedding, had the ceremony, and then trained later that night. Somehow I doubt that though. If I got married to a Victoria’s Secret model I don’t think I’d be spending my wedding night in the gym.

Jon Fitch vs. Diego Sanchez:

This match went exactly how I and a lot of other people expected. I just muffed the prediction. Sanchez was the better grappler but Fitch was the better wrestler. We all knew this. Diego tried to catch Fitch in submissions but couldn’t seal the deal. Fitch was the stronger fighter and his strength is deceptive in my opinion. He was really able to control Diego most of the match.

I don’t think there are any excuses for Diego though. I believe the change in camp helped. I believe he wasn’t lying to me when he said he had given up the party lifestyle and was refocused. We saw the old warrior spirit from Diego right out of the gate when he bum rushed Fitch as soon as the match started. He wasn’t the same guy who fought Koscheck. Diego simply got beat by a better fighter. Fitch is the real deal and is the third best welterweight fighter in the UFC right now behind GSP and Matt Hughes. If you disagree, you’re entitled to your opinion but your opinion is wrong.

Sanchez may have made a tactical error though. Despite being the better submission guy, maybe exerting so much energy trying to take Fitch down wasn’t a great idea in hindsight. I think maybe he should have tried to keep the fight on the feet more and work the standup. If Fitch has a weakness, it’s his standup so why not make that the area that you’re going to attack? Perhaps Diego could have stolen a round or two.

I had this fight 10-9, 10-9, 10-9 for Fitch. The third round was a little closer than the first two but Fitch really controlled Sanchez on the ground even though he didn’t do a lot of damage. I’m pretty sure the scoring will come into question here for this one. My take is that yes, Fitch didn’t do a lot of damage and Diego had more submission attempts. But Fitch controlled the majority of the match and how much damage did Diego do with his submissions when Fitch kept getting out of trouble? Doesn’t he deserve some points for submission defense? How many points should you get for a submission attempt if your opponent neutralizes it?

I think the best thing for Sanchez might be a move back to headlining UFC Fight Nights for now and let him work his way back to PPV since he’s coming off two losses.

Lyoto Machida vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura:

I’d like to issue a public apology to Spike TV.

A few months back I ripped Spike for promoting a Machida match and then editing it off the telecast. Now I know why you guys did it and I just wanted to say thanks.

Look, Machida is a hell of a fighter and he belongs in the UFC based on the merit of his abilities. But that doesn’t mean it still isn’t painful to watch the guy fight.

Can I be real with you all for a second without you guys jumping down my throat?

I actually nodded out during the last two minutes of round three and missed the entire Sanchez vs. Fitch fight. Luckily, I magically woke up right before Forrest vs. Shogun. And I was also luckily able to find a copy of the Diego vs. Fitch fight online so I could watch it and be able to comment on it.

Seriously, who needs Ambien when you have Machida? Doctors should prescribe DVDs of his matches to their patients who suffer from insomnia.

I feel bad for making those smart ass comments about the guy because I wish I could be a quarter of the fighter he is and I definitely believe he deserves to be in the UFC. I just have no desire to watch him.

Oh yeah, remember when I said on Luke Thomas’ “Any Given Saturday” show this week that they should move Machida to 185 lbs.? Can we forget I said that? Because what’s the point? He could cut to 185 and he’s still going to be boring. He could cut to featherweight and he’d still be boring. He’s just is who he is and he has an effective fighting style that just doesn’t happen to be crowd pleasing to most people.

The issue is that the UFC will never let him touch one of their elite fighters because there’s a good chance he might beat one of them and then what do you do with him? If you allow him to elevate himself into high-profile matches you’re going to see a very boring guy hurt the credibility of marketable fighters.

BTW, I gave all three rounds to Machida 10-9.

Thiago Tavares vs. Tyson Griffin:

Normally I am a big defender of Mike Goldberg but when he suggested Griffin should take the fight to the ground, I cringed. I think he’s a strong announcer who gets a bad wrap. I just think instead of making statements he should phrase more questions to Joe Rogan. He already defers to Rogan a lot, but I’m saying he should do it even more. Maybe not as much as Todd Harris of the WEC in what he does with Frank Mir, but I think you get the drift.

Speaking of the WEC, this reminded me of a WEC match. Frenetic ground fighting with a lot of transitions and momentum changes.

Both Tavares and Griffin are tremendous fighters and this easily deserved match of the night honors. All Tyson Griffin, Spencer Fisher, and Clay Guida do is put on great fights. These guys should be rock stars and I hope Dana is hooking them all up with nice bonuses.

I really liked the spot where Griffin flipped Tavares off his back and into side control and then there was another awesome transition in round 3. The live crowd reacted to it really nicely. See, I think MMA fans do appreciate ground fighting — so long as there is action. Fans boo the standup too sometimes if guys aren’t doing anything. It’s not a ground vs. standup issue. It’s an action vs. inaction issue.

One other thing I liked was the corner audio for this fight. They had some audio for a few of the other fights but it was not mic’d properly. I love how HBO gets the between round audio for boxing and I think all MMA shows need to follow suit. It gives you insight into adjustments that might be made and you can kind of tell who has a strong corner and who doesn’t. To be honest, I think you or I could give better strategic advice then some of these corners in MMA. But it seemed like Griffin’s corner did a good job. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have Randy Couture as one of your corner guys but I was more impressed with what Jay Hieron was saying.

I scored the fight 10-9 Griffin in the first, 9-10 Tavares in the second, and 10-9 Griffin in the third.

General Comments:

On a scale of 1-10, I give this show a nine. Did I want to see Shogun and Liddell win? Yeah. But the fights were both good and I enjoyed the drama of the upsets. Especially Griffin’s reaction after the fight. I also will always have a lasting memory of Liddell slouching down against the cage in disbelief after the decision was announced. Did anyone else see that too?

Bottom line, I thoroughly enjoyed this show and felt I got more than my money’s worth.

I also loved Mayhem clowning it up whenever they cut to Wanderlei. Does that dude know how to market himself or what? You know Zuffa couldn’t have been happy with that. He’s got one fight left on his WEC contract and if they don’t sign him to a UFC deal my prediction is that he’ll make his way to EliteXC. Hell, he’s already at their offices whenever he does stuff for ProElite.com. I know for a fact that Zuffa is really unhappy about that but Mayhem has got to pay the bills. Pro Elite is trying to make this guy a star and they don’t even have him under contract. Why isn’t Zuffa doing the same thing when they are the ones who have him?

A couple of other notes:

What was Dave Doyle doing working security tonight inside the Octagon tonight? I’m just kidding. But that dude was a ringer for Dave.

I should have some audio here later of an appearance I did with Steve Cofield on ESPN 920 in Las Vegas (weird, I was on ESPN 920 in Philadelphia this morning and then another ESPN 920 in Vegas at night… but I guess most of you could care less about that useless bit of info. I was pretty heated.

Tomorrow I’m going to start a new column called “What’s Next.” Basically, I am going to analyze the repercussions of the outcome of all the fights last night and give my thoughts on where I think each fighter should go from here.

Also, please remember to keep checking back for the Inside the Cage Radio show that we taped earlier today with Kenny Florian, Ricco Rodriguez, and Joe Riggs. I can’t say enough about how awesome the show went.

Please feel free to leave all your post UFC 76 comments here and be sure to praise me for saying that Liddell vs. Jardine is a fight that never should have happened.

Did I have the stones to pick a Forrest Griffin upset over Shogun? Check out the preview to find out.

BTW, my editor, Denny Burkholder, has been hard at work making some changes to the MMA and boxing section and expanding the coverage so check it out.

Rumor has it that a new writer is also being brought on board but I can’t divulge details.

Involved with the call were Chuck Liddell, Keith Jardine and Kenny Florian. Dana White and Din Thomas had been advertised for the call but did not attend. UFC PR rep Jennifer Wenk indicated that White was on another call. At one point they thought he might be able to join in later in the call, but that wasn’t the case. There was no word on why Thomas was not available.

There was nothing all too earth-shattering, but here’s a general rundown of several things the fighters said:

(to read the rest of this article, just click here)