FanHouse EfrainEscudero

Efrain Escudero (12-0) will now be facing Evan Dunham (9-0) at January's UFC Fight Night 20 event in Fairfax, Va., not Nik Lentz, as was originally reported. No word on why a change in opponent was made, but MMA Junkie reported on Wednesday that Lentz is now scheduled to face Jeremy Stephens on the card.

A lightweight bout between Efrain Escudero and Nik Lentz is in the works for the upcoming UFC Fight Night 20 show in Fairfax, Va.

The organization has yet to announce the event, but MMA Junkie reported on Thursday that the UFC is targeting a date in mid-January as its debut in the Virginia area. No bouts have been made official for the card just yet.

DALLAS -- While Floyd Mayweather managed to steal most of the major sports headlines away from UFC 103 on Saturday night, UFC President Dana White was in full belief he put on the better event.

How did he know? Because even though White was in the midst of a 13-fight card, he bought the Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez fight and had it playing on a monitor near him.

"It sucked," he said. "It sucked just like I said it would and knew it would."

DALLAS – While Rich Franklin will likely never say it, he didn't want a fight in September, let alone one against Vitor Belfort. Franklin would have preferred some time off, but the need for a headliner for UFC 103 pushed him into making the decision to participate.

Franklin may be a company man, but that loyalty – along with Belfort's considerable skills – cost Franklin, as Belfort returned to the UFC with a shocking first-round TKO over the ex-UFC middleweight champion in front of 17,428 at the American Airlines Center.

---

---

The UFC 103 fight card on Spike TV concluded with Efrain Escudero, in his first fight since winning The Ultimate Fighter last year, dominating Cole Miller and winning a first-round knockout in brutal fashion.

This is the UFC 103 live blog for the Spike TV portion of the night's event, featuring fights between Cole Miller and Efrain Escudero, and Tomasz Drwal and Drew McFedries.

I'm cageside at the American Airlines Center in Dallas for all the blow-by-blow. You can also keep track of all the action by following me on Twitter.
The live blog begins below.

---

---

The Ultimate Fighter 8 winner Efrain Escudero is all healed up and ready for his first stab at making a mark in the UFC lightweight division since securing a six-figure UFC contract last December.

Escudero is a superb submission wrestler who tapped out all three of his opponents on the show until decisioning Phillipe Nover in the finals. At UFC 103 on Sept. 19, he takes American Top Team's Cole Miller, who, like himself is a master of choke holds.

In this exclusive interview with FanHouse, Escudero talks about returning from injury for the Miller fight, Drew Fickett's recent slump and why it's important for him to finish college even with all the dedication required as a professional fighter.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship formally announced today that UFC 103 will take place on September 19 in Dallas, and four fights have been set: Mike Swick vs. Martin Kampmann, Efrain Escudero vs. Cole Miller, Josh Koscheck vs. Frank Trigg and Tyson Griffin vs. Hermes Franca.

Notice anything missing?

Here's the latest installment of ESPN.com's MMA Live:

The panelists discussed Ultimate Fighter winners Ryan Bader and Efrain Escudero, the upcoming UFC 92 show, and whether Bobby Lashley could follow Brock Lesnar into the UFC.

Giving some more thought to the way things turned out at Saturday night's Ultimate Fighter Finale, I have to think that UFC President Dana White is laughing all the way to the bank about the way things played out.

Specifically, White has to think that he has three new lightweight stars under the age of 25: This year's lightweight Ultimate Fighter, Efrain Escudero, and the guys Escudero beat in the semifinals and finals, Junie Browning and Phillipe Nover.

The Escudero-Nover fight in the Finale was outstanding, and it was close to even. Check out the stats at CompuStrike.com: Escudero and Nover landed almost the exact same number of strikes, with Escudero doing enough in the first two rounds to earn the unanimous decision despite a great third round from Nover.