MMAJunkie claims to have confirmed that "Sugar" Rashad Evans will face Thiago Silva at UFC 108, and the January 2nd match will serve as the co-main event underneath the Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort scuffle. Both gentlemen were recently dealt the first official defeat of their careers by the blazing speed and accuracy of Lyoto Machida's straight left hand.  Since the loss at UFC 94 in January, Thiago Silva got back on track with a fierce knockout of Evans' teammate, Keith Jardine.  Evans has not competed since his collision with Machida at UFC 98, and was expected to face opposing TUF coach Quinton "Rampage" Jackson before Rampage nixed the bout by committing to his role of B.A. Baracus in "The A-Team" movie. The light-heavyweight division is ripe with talented and exciting fighters that all offer appealing match-ups; you could pluck any two of the familiar faces at 205 and find that they offer an intriguing equation that's suitable for co-main or main event billing, and this fight is no exception.  Rashad and Thiago are both extremely well-rounded, highly explosive strikers, and more than confident in their skills on the ground, although Rashad's style is takedown and wrestling based where the BJJ blackbelt Thiago excels at positioning, passing, and submissions.

  A lengthy interview from USA Today with Roy "Big Country" Nelson about his decisive defeat of Kimbo Slice on The Ultimate Fighter 10 last night.  Nelson takes a jab at Herb Dean for the stoppage, mentions some special treatment taking place for Kimbo, touches on his strategy, and addresses the perfunctory topic of his big belly.  The highlights:

"I could have stayed in mount and finished him there with elbows and punches, but my game plan was to get to the crucifix, and once I got to the crucifix, finish the fight there.  First round was 44 punches to the face, and then (referee) Herb Dean doesn't know how to ref, but we've seen that before. And then the next round was 22 punches." "I was surprised. You could even see me yelling at Herb Dean,  'Come on, ref.'  But the thing is, there's a lot of people; there's a lot of money. Kimbo's the only one that I know that had an entourage there; he actually had his family there, his management, while the rest of us kind of had to suffer. The UFC made, we'll say, different concessions for Kimbo. I think he had a media room. Kimbo's definitely, I guess we'll say, special. I don't see the specialness fighting-wise, but more for TV-wise. He puts butts in the seats.  So I think it was more that Herb Dean was afraid to lose his job, because there's a lot of people with a lot of money that can have a lot of influence with his career." "Your game plan is just to go in there, take no damage, win. Dana's said that for, I don't how long, since the UFC's been (doing) The Ultimate Fighter — I think it's five years. He's been saying it every show: you want to get in there, get the win and then fight in the finale; you want the easiest road."

Full article:  USA Today

As we saw briefly last night, it looks like Marcus Jones is picked to fight next, but the giant man experiences some kind of health issue.  It looks like Kimbo does not need any time off, and is chomping at the bit to get back into the octagon and fight again.

The TUF 10 mega-fight between Roy "Big Country" Nelson and Kimbo Slice took place last night, unfolding with a less than dramatic TKO win in the 2nd round for Nelson. The fight basically played out as one would expect when a highly experienced and much heavier Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt and ADCC veteran fights a smaller, less experienced striker.  Kimbo was much more fluid and threatening with his punches (we even saw Kimbo snap off a low kick), but he looked a bit uncertain with his footwork, stance, and levels when trying to balance the mechanics of unloading his shots and defending the Big Country takedown. Roy Nelson is the best TUF 10 fighter, one of the best HW grapplers in the game, and the worst possible match-up for Kimbo out of all the contestants.  Why?  Because no matter how hard you hit, no matter how much natural talent you have, no matter how hard you have been training for the last several years, there is no way to catch up quick enough to perform at the blackbelt level on the ground.  There has been some discussion about the referee's choice to intervene and call the contest a TKO victory for Nelson when he had attained the crucifix position and was landing unthreatening but uncontested blows, such as we saw in the Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera fight.  Situations like this are a tough call for the referee.  On one side of the coin, a fighter must "intelligently defend himself", and taking a dozen or so unanswered shots to the head with both of your arms trapped and no apparent escape plan could aptly fit that description.  On the flip side, Nelson's punches were far from fight-ending  blows, and one could argue that it is somewhat intelligent to absorb short and soft shots to the top of the head in such a compromised position where the slightest mistake leaves you open for a submission or more forceful blows.  Personally, I would like to see the fighters decide the outcome versus the referee.  I would prefer to have seen Kimbo tap out, Roy abandon the position for a submission or more effective striking, or the rest of the round playing out in that position.  No, the latter outcome would not have been exciting, but the referee is there to enforce the rules and the burden of excitement falls on the fighters. I'm not sure how much this really told us about Kimbo Slice and his potential in the UFC, that is, unless anyone was expecting him to be on par with the top echelon of heavyweight grappling in MMA.  It would be my guess that Nelson can and will put the same type of grappling clinic on each and every one of the barely-experienced fighters on the show, although he may have more trouble getting the fight to the ground with some of the bigger and stronger guys.  I'm not trying to favor Kimbo-- I'm just trying to give him a fair chance.  Roy Nelson is ranked the #33 heavyweight in the world on Fightmatrix, so I don't think we should close the chapter on Kimbo just yet.

Dana White on Kimbo Slice and TUF 10   Dana White on the Quinton "Rampage" Jackson Situation

After filling in for the injured Mike Swick at UFC 103 against Martin Kampmann and knocking him out, Paul "Semtex" Daley is determined to keep turning heads in the welterweight division. Semtex speaks with The Sun and expresses his irritation at Swick's recent comments, which somewhat belittled Daley's career, citing his losses, and denounced his trampling of Kampmann.  Although confident that his friend and training partner Dan Hardy will take care of him at UFC 105, Daley offers to smack Swick around, and also mentions that Josh Koscheck and Matt Hughes would be great fights for him.

"Dan is going to smash Swick — he will absolutely smash him. I've sparred with Dan for years, we started Team Rough House together and I know how good he is.  Mike hasn't got great punching power, he punches in straight lines and he hasn't got enough to beat Dan. I don't see how he can win this fight." "I saw Mike's comments saying I've got a lot of losses on my record, but he's someone who's never fought a top guy.  I don't want to waste too much time on him because he's going to get a beating at the hands of Dan anyway.  But if he wants to pull out of his fight with Dan — I'll gladly knock him out instead!  I might even ask Dan to put an extra beating on him just to shut him up once and for all!" "...I would welcome a fight with Koscheck if it was offered because it would be entertaining for the fans.  However, Matt Hughes, being a former champion, is a bigger scalp and a better name for me to fight, so I'm calling him out."

Full article:  The Sun

  A first look at the precedental "white cage" that will be implemented for DREAM 12 on October 25th was revealed by the promotion yesterday.  Photographs courtesy of kamipro.com.