Main Card

B.J. Penn (-260/-303) vs. Diego Sanchez (+250/+187)

Frank Mir (-174/-210) vs. Cheick Kongo (+170/+140)

Kenny Florian (-181/-238) vs. Clay Guida (+180/+160)

Jon Fitch (-415/-600) vs. Mike Pierce (+400/+325)

Stefan Struve (-125/-150) vs. Paul Buentello (+126/-105)

Undercard

Rousimar Palhares (-325/-405) vs. Lucio Linhares (+305/+225)

Johny Hendricks (-400/-500) vs. Ricardo Funch (+325/+300)

Kevin Burns (-105/+105) vs. T.J. Grant (-125/-139)

Matt Wiman (-325/-400) vs. Shane Nelson (+280/+250)

Edgar Garcia (-225/-303) vs. Damarques Johnson (+215/+185)

Wilson Gouveia (-105/-125) vs. Alan Belcher (EV/-125)

The move may come as a surprise to most but there had been reports of some discontent between Florian and Dellagrotte while he was training for his bout with UFC lightweight champion, B.J. Penn at UFC 102 last month.

Leaving Sityodtong also means no longer working with strength and conditioning coach Kevin Kearns.

Florian has come a long way since his days as a middleweight on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. He was riding a six fight winning streak that included wins over Joe Stevenson, Joe Lauzon, Din Thomas and Roger Huerta before being submitted in the fourth round by Penn.

The head trainer at TriStar gym is Firas Zahabi who is credited with helping GSP become one of the top fighters in the world. St. Pierre splits time between TriStar and down in New Mexico where he trains with Greg Jackson.

Florian will take on Clay Guida at UFC 107 in December as he prepares to rebound from a devastating loss to Penn. Many fighters, fans and pundits have said that Florian has become one of the best all around lightweights in the UFC, so one will have to wonder if breaking away from DellaGrotte, who is one of the best striking coaches in MMA, is a smart idea.

Thanks to Fighter’s Only for the story.
We will find out on December 12th as Guida will certainly be a tough test for Florian and his new coaches.

Both fighters are coming off of losses. Florian lost his first fight in almost three years earlier this month to lightweight champion B.J. Penn. It was Florian’s second unsuccessful attempt at capturing the UFC lightweight championship.

Guida lost one if the most exciting, if not the most exciting fights of the year to current number one contender Diego Sanchez. The bout was the main event of The Ultimate Fighter Finale 9 back in June.

From the beginning of round one until the final horn sounded, Guida and Sanchez waged all out war on one another. Sanchez earned a hard fought split decision victory that night.

The loss ended a three fight winning streak for Guida. He had rattled off wins against Nate Diaz, Mac Danzig and Samy Schiavo during that time.

Both Florian and Guida are known for their great conditioning. Guida is like the Energizer Bunny in that he keeps going and going. Florian has evolved into a top tier martial artist since his days on the intial season of The Ultimate Fighter where he lost in the finals against Diego Sanchez. Both Sanchez and Florian went into that fight as middleweights but immediately dropped down to lower weight classes. Sanchez initially fought at 170lbs until dropping down to the lightweight division earlier this year.

Guida will look to take Florian down and use his ground and pound skills while Florian will look to utilize his fantastic Muay Thai striking skills. Florian is a black belt in jiu-jitsu which will make Guida fight a bit more cautiously if he is able to take Florian down to the canvas. Either way this should be an interesting fight.

UFC 106 will be headlined by Brock Lesnar making his first defense of his undisputed heavyweight championship that he won by defeating Frank Mir at UFC 100. His opponent will be the 260lb Shane Carwin who is undefeated and has yet to be taken out of the first round in all 11 bouts.

November 21st will mark the return of “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy”, Tito Ortiz. He wil take on 44 year old Mark Coleman in his first fight since losing to current light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida at UFC 84 in May of 2008.

Main Card

BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian

Forrest Griffin vs. Anderson Silva

Amir Sodallah vs. Johny Hendricks

Kendall Grove vs. Ricardo Almeida

Kurt Pellegrino vs. Josh Neer

Undercard

Shane Nelson vs. Aaron Riley

Matt Riddle vs. Dan Cramer

Tamdan McCrory vs. John Howard

George Roop vs. George Sotiropoulos

Jesse Lennox vs. Danillo Villefort

Former top boxer (with an emphasis, in many minds, on the “former”) Roy Jones Jr. is looking to take on Nick Diaz, who seems to have forgotten what weight class he fights in. Sort of makes me wonder if Diaz is thinking that, as he gets older, he’s going to look to have to make the weight increase permanent. That said, we’ll see if he does end up making a run at one of the Strikeforce titles or if he continues to fight in these catchweight bouts against bigger opponents. Diaz will fight Scott Smith on June 6th in St. Louis.

Before UFC 100, the UFC will induct two fighters into it’s Hall of Fame. The MMAJunkie says White alluded to Chuck Liddell as a possible inductee, and other discussed candidates include the late former middleweight champion Evan Tanner. This will expand the Hall from five fighters to seven. The current list includes: Royce Gracie, Randy Couture, Ken Shamrock, Mark Coleman and Dan Severn.

Five Ounces has the full card for the “Ultimate Chaos” event, which will be headlined by Pedro Rizzo vs. Gilbert Yvel (which should be an awesome fight between two basass strikers) and Bobby Lashley vs. Bob Sapp (in what should be the weirdest bout since, well, about a month earlier when Sapp fought Ikuhisa Minowa). The card also includes Chris Horodecki, Din Thomas and the MMA return of Tom Atencio, the wealthiest shirt manufacturer with the balls to step into a cage. Also, my favorite submission grappling dummy, Danny Abbadi (from TUF 3) will appear on the card.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will be fighting in his home nation of Brazil for the first time in a long while. After being knocked out by Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in February of 2007, Nogueira has strung together four straight wins, including a brutal TKO of Vladimir Matyushenko on the Affliction: Day of Reckoning card in Los Angeles.

And, in your bizarre news of the day: Dana White, Forrest Griffin and Kenny Florian will appear on the May 14th episode of Dr. Phil. While I will not be watching, I will be sure to search for youtube for highlights and post anything newsworthy from the segment.

UFC 101 may be set for August 8th at the Wachovia Center in Philly, but nothing about the event has been made official yet. Should be a good fight, though, and it’ll give B.J. a chance to do something other than complain.

“I talked to my manager Joe Cavallaro today and [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva told him June 13,” Florian said to Sherdog.com on Monday. “That was the date they wanted because they wanted it to be the main event and the only main event. That’s what fight made the most amount of sense for June 13. July [11, UFC 100] apparently is backed up, so July’s probably out of the question, and August…”

Who is going to get their way, the UFC or BJ Penn? With UFC 100 so packed, this could be the only fight that makes since for UFC 99 as the main event. Penn is going to make Florian wait as long as possible to get a another crack at the light weight title.

UFC 99 is gangsta. If it was a gang I would do a B and E to join. UFC 99 is Harvey Keitel in Taxi Driver. UFC 99 is the reverse of getting Rick Rolled.

There is a title fight; B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian. Just rumored for a possilbe fight is Cro Cop vs Randy Couture. Phresh. The UFC is assuring Marcus Davis that he is fighting in Ireland, so no one tell him. He would be very upset if you do. While Davis is fighting some guy named TBA, other fights include Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva and Spencer Fisher vs. Caol Uno.

While many have feared that UFC 100 is going to be so huge and stacked with all the superfights the events surrounding it will suffer in quality of fights. UFC 99 is no slouch or a couch potato. The only way UFC 99 can get even more gangsta is having both Diaz brothers on the card. But if the return of Mirko Cro Cop doesn’t excite you, or that he might be fighting Randy Couture, I understand. You just hate people who get kicked in the balls. That’s okay. I don’t think Cro Cop will again be a former shell of himself.

Suggestions for Joe Silva, no Clay Guida, let’s see Gorin Reljic again and some Lytoto Machida. You’re welcome Joe.

So it’s surprising for to hear that Roger Huerta, one of the big up and coming fighters in 2007 and 2008, has decided to neglect his UFC contract to pursue acting. Another MMA fighter moving to acting? What happened when Randy Couture stopped fighting and began acting? His acting career didn’t take him much farther than a bad action movie and he returned to the UFC only to immediately relinquish his belt to an ex-WWE star.

Here’s a quote from Sherdog about the situation:

The popular lightweight has turned down a new five-fight contract with the UFC to pursue a career in acting in 2009. Huerta has one more fight on his current contract with the UFC that will see him back in the Octagon some time before December. After that, Huerta said he’d re-evaluate his options.

“I’m not burned out [with fighting],” said Huerta. “I have one fight left with the UFC and I want to honor that. As soon as they tell me to fight, I’ll fight my last fight on the contract.”

After getting bit by the bug last summer shooting a role in the film “Tekken,” Huerta said the timing felt right to tackle a wholly different challenge.

It’s kinda sad that the lure of big money from bad action movies that lured Couture away from fighting is the same thing grabbing a fighter who once graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. It’s not even that Huerta was on a downturn or nearing the end of his career. The 20-2 fighter suffered his first loss in over four years by decision against another well-rounded up and coming lightweight Kenny Florian at UFC 87.

It’s a shame to watch him walk away after his fights with Clay Guida and Florian because the only substantial gripes publicly aired by Huerta were those of the financial type. The kind that start or end with something like, “I’m not being paid enough for what I do.” Well Roger, I think I should get paid more for what I do, but I’m not about to drop my highly successful career to pursue a random acting gig. And after watching history repeat itself with once highly successful UFC fighters, like Couture and Evan Tanner, failing at their comeback attempts, neither should you.

In 2009 here are 10 fights that could happen. Of course all of these depend on health, outcomes, and money.

1. Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir: If this happens it will be because Mir beat Antonio Rogrigo Nogueira. The finale of the UFC Heavyweight Mini-Tournament.

2. Kenny Florian vs. B.J. Penn: Kenny is due for a title shot. The only way this wont happen is if Penn stays at 170 and gives up the 155 title (very unlikely)

3. Sean Sherk vs. Diego Sanchez: Welcome to 155, Nightmare.

4. Wanderlei Silva vs. Lyoto Machida: Eventually Machida is going to have to prove his worth; why not against Wand? Chuck, Rampage, Hendo, or Forrest could be a great replacement for Wand, if needed.

5. Rashad Evans vs. Dan Henderson: This could mean Rashad loses and Hendo wins, or Hendo worked his way to a title shot.

6. Rich Franklin vs. Chuck Liddell: UFC’s last ditch effort to cash in on falling stars.

7. GSP vs. Anderson Silva: Catch weight for P4P supremacy (if GSP beats Penn)

8. Randy Couture vs. Fedor (right..lol probably not): I am holding my breath…

9. Clay Guida vs. Joe Stevenson: Joe seems to be fading, why not have a fight with Mr. Excitement.

10. Diego Sanchez vs. Kenny Florian: Congrats on the wins by both fighters, battle for the belt by TUF 1 competitors.

All of these fights could happen with some having more probability than the others. The UFC very well could put some of these fights together and if they do it could be great for the avid fan. At 50 dollars a pop and a slumping American economy they need to provide the fanatic with solid fight cards. These are just 10 example of fights that we could see. We can also look forward to another season of TUF, rookie fighters to the cage, and continuous work by the UFC to stay at the top of the MMA mountain.