FanHouse James Irvin

All indications are that the Ultimate Fighting Championship will continue its usual practice of putting on huge shows Memorial Day Weekend, with the heavyweight title unification fight between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir taking place at UFC 98 on May 23.

James Irvin was beaten, badly, by Anderson Silva at this month's Ultimate Fight Night event. But he has no regrets about taking a fight against such a great opponent, saying he's glad to have had the opportunity:

"I think I was almost a step down," Irvin said, adding that he knows Silva has beaten better fighters. "...I'm really grateful for Dana White. They blew it up and now everyone recognizes me. ... I wish the fight would have went a little longer so I could have tested him and tested my skills, but I'm happy with it either way."

Irvin said he needed 20 stitches because of the gash Silva opened on his face, and that although he thinks the referee stopped the fight at the right time, he doesn't remember anything after Silva's first strike landed.

I assume that interview was conducted before news broke that Irvin had tested positive for methadone and oxymorphone, and that obviously casts a shadow on Irvin. But he comes across as a likable guy who was thrilled to have the opportunity to fight the best in the world, even if he could only last a minute before Silva knocked him out.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva moved up to light heavyweight tonight and did what he usually does: He dominated, beating James Irvin with a first-round TKO.

Silva showed once again that he is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, catching Irvin's kick in the first round, punching Irvin in the face with one hand while holding his foot with the other, and finishing the entire fight in just 1 minute, 1 second.

The Silva fight was the main event on a Spike TV card that UFC put together to go head-to-head with tonight's Affliction show on pay-per-view. In a pair of undercard fights featuring Ultimate Fighter season seven cast members, C.B. Dollaway beat Jesse Taylor and Tim Credeur beat Cale Yarbrough, both in the first round.

In what was supposed to be the most important of the undercard fights, Brandon Vera put together an incredibly lackluster unanimous decision victory over Reese Andy. It was a very disappointing showing by Vera, who just isn't as good a fighter as UFC wants him to be.

In other televised UFC fights tonight, Frank Edgar beat Hermes Franca with an impressive unanimous decision, Cain Velasquez dominated Jake O'Brien and Kevin Burns beat Anthony Johnson with a questionable TKO after Burns poked Johnson in the eye. In the non-televised fights, Rory Markham beat Brodie Farber, Nate Loughran beat Johnny Rees, Brad Blackburn beat James Giboo and Shannon Gugerty beat Dale Hartt.

Here's the promotional video that UFC is using to advertise Saturday night's Anderson Silva-James Irvin fight on Spike:

The most interesting thing to me is that the announcer says Silva is "moving up from middleweight to fight the biggest names in the light heavyweight division" while images of Forrest Griffin, Rampage Jackson, Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell appear on the screen.

If UFC is planning to pit Anderson Silva against those guys, that suggests that the long-term plan is to have Silva leave the middleweight division, where he's UFC champion, and move up to light heavyweight on a full-time basis.

Currently, the plan is for Silva to move back down to middleweight and defend his title at least a couple more times, but from the way UFC is promoting this fight, it sounds like the long-term plan is for Silva to add his formidable presence to the already stacked light heavyweight division.

When he steps into the Octagon against Anderson Silva on Saturday night, James Irvin knows he's a huge underdog -- to the point where some view him as more of a sacrificial lamb for Silva's first light heavyweight fight than an opponent who actually has a chance of winning.

Irvin, however, says that too many Silva opponents give Silva exactly the kind of fights he wants. He tells UFC.com:

"It's like having two hunters in the ring and he takes the shotgun right out of his opponent's hands. He then becomes the hunter. He waits for them to backpedal or get tired. He's used to bullying people around. ...

"I'm not afraid of him," Irvin said. "I've been fighting scary guys my whole career. Houston Alexander is one of the baddest looking guys in the sport. Terry Martin was known for being a big puncher. But I wasn't afraid of them and I'm not afraid of Anderson."

Irvin is an aggressive fighter who owns the UFC record for fastest knockout, and I like the fact that he's not planning to backpedal. But I also think his game plan is going to play right into Silva's hands, and I think Silva will beat him in the first round.

Here's the promotional video for the July 19 UFC Fight Night on Spike, featuring a main event of Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin:

After the jump is the promo for Affliction: Banned on pay-per-view the same night, and we ask: Who's got the better video?

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

The focus of the show, of course, was UFC 86, and the UFC light heavyweight title fight between Quinton Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin. Former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir, who was a guest on the show, noted that the lack of animosity between Jackson and Griffin may have made UFC 86 a tougher pay-per-view to sell.

But as both Mir and Kenny Floridan noted, this fight doesn't need trash talk to make it a great one. Both Jackson and Griffin have aggressive approaches, and they'll put on a good show in the Octagon, even if they haven't put on a good show in the pre-fight trash talk.

UFC President Dana White appears in this ESPN-produced video to talk up his middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, who will be moving up to light heavyweight to fight James Irvin on July 19:

"This guy wants to fight six pounds a year," White said. "He's basically cleaned out the 185-pound division and he's always looking to challenge himself, so he wanted to move up to 205 to test the waters there. I'm not going to tell him no. It's never been a better time to be a mixed martial arts fan right now -- you can turn on Spike TV on July 19 and for free see the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world make his first move up to 205 pounds."

It's interesting that White insists that giving the fans Silva for free is a good thing, but a lot of MMA fans seem to be turned off by the move. Is it really good for fans, or just bad for Affliction?

The news that Chuck Liddell is out of UFC 85 with a torn hamstring has UFC scrambling to find a replacement for the show's main event, which will take place June 7 in London.

The early reports are that James Irvin, fresh off the fastest knockout in UFC history early this month, will take Liddell's place against Rashad Evans. And Michael Bisping, even fresher off a TKO win over Charles McCarthy at UFC 83, is expected to be added to the card to take on Chris Leben.

Irvin-Evans is a fine fight, and having the British Bisping on the card against Leben should placate some of the local fans who are angry that they bought their tickets under the impression that Liddell was headlining the show. But if those two fights are the co-main events, UFC can't put UFC 85 on pay-per-view.

Keep in mind, UFC 85 comes just one week after EliteXC has its first show on CBS. And the day after that EliteXC show comes WEC 34, which is the best card in World Extreme Cagefighting history, on Versus.

Are MMA fans really going to pony up the money for pay-per-view to watch a mediocre UFC card the weekend after two big MMA events, one on free TV and one on basic cable? A few will, but the vast majority won't.

Barring the unexpected addition of a major fight to the UFC 85 card, look for the show to appear on Spike, not pay-per-view.