FanHouse Frank Trigg

If you're wondering why Matt Serra hasn't been booked to fight since his UFC 98 clash against rival Matt Hughes in May, it's not because he's been injured or taking the loss too hard. No, Serra has simply been busy working on his new 8,300 square foot MMA gym that will be opening soon.

"It's going to be a beautiful martial arts facility," Serra told FanHouse on Thursday. "It's going to be the best one on Long Island, that's for sure."

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.

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Josh Koscheck said prior to his fight with Frank Trigg at UFC 103 that he's a younger, stronger, better version of Trigg. He showed Saturday night that it wasn't just talk, beating Trigg by first-round TKO.

This is the UFC 103 live blog for Frank Trigg vs. Josh Koscheck, one of the featured bouts of the night's pay-per-view card.

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.

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As the 37-year-old Frank Trigg approaches his UFC return on Saturday against Josh Koscheck, the two-time UFC title challenger could very well be looking at the start of his final run fighting against the highest competition. And after fighting mostly locally the last couple of years, the UFC is where he wants to be.

"I'm in the game to get titles, I'm in the game to get victories," Trigg told FanHouse. "I'm in the game to battle my way up to the top."

In this exclusive interview with FanHouse, Trigg talks returning to the UFC and welterweight division against Koscheck at UFC 103 in Dallas, Texas.

Matt Hughes has signed a new multi-fight deal with the UFC, officially ending rumors and speculation that the former UFC welterweight champ had fought his last fight at UFC 98 in May.

"Last week I went out to Vegas and I signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC, which is much like my last contract," Hughes wrote Thursday on his blog. "I also brought up the fact that I wanted to do a hunting show and they thought that would be a good thing."

Hughes (43-7) was victorious in his last fight against Matt Serra, but had entered UFC 98 with three losses out of his previous four fights.

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?

The other day I noted that I've asked three professional MMA fighters who they think is going to win the UFC 91 showdown between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar, and all of them picked Lesnar to win.

That's no longer the case. I asked Frank Trigg today, and he said he's very confident that Couture is going to beat Lesnar.

"If you sit down and analyze the fight, how is [Lesnar] going to beat Randy?" Trigg said. "Anything can happen, but the only thing that Brock can do is kind of hold Randy down. He showed against Heath Herring that he can't finish anybody. All he can do is be a big bull. He can't really do much. Other than take Randy down he can't do much.

"Randy is going to win the stand up, he's more skilled on the ground, and he's going to finish Lesnar. Randy Couture beats Brock Lesnar for sure."

Everyone wants to know when, where and against whom Fedor Emelianenko will fight next, so when I talked to Frank Trigg today, I had to ask him that.

"My guess is New Year's Eve over in Japan for Dream," Trigg said. "That's my guess. Against whom, I'm not sure. It's Dream -- they don't have many heavyweights. If Dream falls apart then obviously the next fight for him would be in Affliction. If Affliction and EliteXC join anything could happen. There's just not a lot of good opponents left for him because the organizations he's in haven't had a lot of top heavyweights."

Trigg knows Fedor pretty well personally, and he said Fedor is a nice guy with a soft side.

"Quiet," Trigg said, when I asked him how he'd describe Fedor. "Very humble. A jokester. Smiles a lot. Better than decent English. He can communicate without a translator. I have to speak slowly to him and be more animated, wave my hands around to get my point across, but he can understand English. He's a good guy to talk to. He's not scared of sharing information with you. He'll explain the way he approaches fights, why he does things."

The soft side to Fedor is something we don't see in the ring, but it's actually quite easy to see from his interviews. He really does seem like a regular guy who just happens to be great at his job, which is beating people up.

Anderson Silva is widely regarded as the best mixed martial arts fighter in the world. Frank Trigg is not. But Trigg told me today that he believes he could beat Silva.

"I never thought of myself as a Top 10 guy in any weight class -- ever," Trigg said. "But I think I match up very well against Anderson Silva. I think my style, my technique, matches up against Anderson Silva better than, say, Dan Henderson or Travis Lutter. Conversely, I think Dan Henderosn would be very difficult for me to match up against. A guy like Rich Franklin is a guy that I can beat."

Trigg, who will fight for Strikeforce on Friday night, told me he thinks he has the right style to fight Silva, and when I asked him what his game plan would be in that fight, he gave me a detailed analysis.