LOS ANGELES -- Chael Sonnen was very vocal prior to his UFC 104 fight against Yushin Okami about being disappointed with his placement on the card, but after his dominating victory on Saturday, Sonnen told FanHouse that he is very much a player in the UFC's middleweight division. Sonnen also talked about who he would like to fight next.
LOS ANGELES -- This is the UFC 104 live blog for the four preliminary bouts of the night's event featuring middleweights Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen, Jorge Rivera vs. Rob Kimmons, heavyweights Stefan Struve vs. Chase Gormley and light heavyweights Kyle Kingsbury vs. Razak Al-Hassan. 
Saturday's UFC 104 card features two bouts pitting Top 10 fighters against each other. One of them, of course, is the main event, Lyoto Machida vs. Shogun Rua. The other one won't even be televised.
On this week's jam-packed edition of The MMA Hour, we first spoke to heavyweight Brett Rogers about his showdown against Fedor Emelianenko on Nov. 7. Rogers was his usual confident self, predicting what round and time he'll beat the "The Last Emperor."
After a nine-month suspension for using steroids, UFC middleweight Chris Leben is soon to return to action. Usually in a situation like that, a fighter would have to worry about negative public reaction to his comeback, but in this case, Leben is likely to be hailed as a conquering hero, as the 29-year-old veteran has the good fortune of returning at UFC 102 in his hometown of Portland, Oregon.
The match itself, however will not be easy; Leben (18-6) will take on former three-time NCAA wrestling national champion Jake Rosholt as a featured bout on the televised card.
"The Crippler" recently took a few moments out of his training to talk to FanHouse about his steroids suspension, returning to the octagon, and preparing for Rosholt.
UFC middleweight contenders Yushin Okami and Chael Sonnen will meet at UFC 104 on Oct. 24 in Los Angeles, the UFC announced today on the Japanese version of its website. 
The middleweight division in mixed martial arts is a mess. The undisputed best middleweight in the world, Anderson Silva, looks bored with the middleweight division in the UFC, and he's moving up to fight Forrest Griffin at light heavyweight, at least for the time being. The UFC 99 main event of Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin features one star (Silva) moving down from light heavyweight to middleweight because he wants a shot at Anderson Silva's belt, and another star (Franklin) moving up from middleweight to light heavyweight because he knows he'll never get another shot at Anderson Silva's belt.
If you want to know the difference between good Brazilian jiu jitsu and great Brazilian jiu jitsu, watch Chael Sonnen's last two fights. On Saturday night at UFC 98, Sonnen beat someone with good BJJ, Dan Miller. Three months ago at UFC 95, Sonnen lost to someone with world-class BJJ, Demian Maia.
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