FanHouse PhilBaroni

Phil Baroni will make his return to the Octagon at UFC 106 on Nov. 21 against Amir Sadollah. The official bout agreements have yet to be signed, but both fighters have verbally agreed to the fight. This will mark the first time Baroni competes in the UFC since his UFC 51 loss to Pete Sell in February 2005. It's a big fight for both men, as each needs a convincing victory to help get their respective careers back on track.

Baroni told FanHouse via e-mail on Wednesday that while he is happy to be fighting in the UFC again, he still feels like he has a lot to prove.

Lost in the buzz surrounding the Gina Carano vs. Cris Cyborg women's title fight was the news that veteran Phil Baroni signed a new deal with the UFC.

Baroni made his UFC debut at UFC 30 in February 2001, defeating Curtis Stout via unanimous decision. He went 3-5 inside the Octagon, and was released from the organization following his loss to Pete Sell at UFC 51. FanHouse spoke to Baroni via e-mail recently about his surprising return to the UFC. The full interview is below.

A year ago, Joey Villasenor was feeling really good about his MMA career. He had just defeated Phil Baroni on the first-ever MMA event broadcast on network television and was primed to make a run at the EliteXC middleweight title. He was then three weeks away from receiving that shot and an opportunity to avenge an October 2006 loss to Robbie Lawler, until the organization suddenly ceased operations and cancelled the event in November.

Since then, Villasenor has been anxiously awaiting his chance to get back in the cage. "I just can't wait to be under the lights, man," he said. "That's what I have done over frickin' 30 times professionally. I just can't wait to feel that numbness in my stomach. I've kind of grown addicted to it."

On Friday night, Villasenor will feel that numbness again when he faces Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos in the main event of "Strikeforce: Challengers" on Showtime (watch their weigh-in scuffle from Thursday). FanHouse spoke to the native of Albquerque, N.M., about resuming his career and his place in Strikeforce's middleweight division. The full interview is below.

Saturday night's fight between Phil Baroni and Joe Riggs may not be the most interesting bout on the Strikeforce card, but it certainly stole all the headlines in the weeks leading up to it.

Seems like every day another trash-talking episode popped up between the two out-spoken fighters. Whether it was Baroni calling out Riggs for missing a pre-fight conference call or Riggs accusing Baroni of being a drug user, if nothing else, both men did a fantastic job of selling this 170-pound clash.

FanHouse spoke to "The New York Bad Ass" via e-mail about restarting his career as a welterweight and what he hopes to accomplish in the future. The full interview is below.

On Saturday night, Strikeforce put on its first MMA show of 2009, and on Sunday night Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker talked to me about how he thinks the first show went and where he sees Strikeforce going in 2009.

Among the topics we discussed were the success of Nick Diaz, the future of Frank Shamrock, the weight of Cris Cyborg (and her likely future fight with Gina Carano), as well as the possibility that big names in MMA including Kimbo Slice, Tito Ortiz, Royce Gracie and Fedor Emelianenko could fight in the Strikeforce cage. The full interview is below.