FanHouse RampageJackson

So there I was, killing time in a restaurant before last week's Strikeforce media workouts in Chicago, when all of a sudden the incomparable Mr. T sits down right next me.

Clad in his familiar American flag bandana and a cut-off T-shirt, Mr. T kept to himself, and surprisingly no one bothered him.

That is until I decided to ask him his thoughts on Rampage Jackson reprising his role as "B.A. Baracus" in the upcoming A-Team movie.

Lyoto Machida is still the light heavyweight champion of the UFC, but not many people agree with the three judges who allowed him to keep his belt after 25 minutes in the Octagon with Shogun Rua on Saturday night.

So does Machida keep his status as the top light heavyweight in MMA in my latest Top 10? He does, but Shogun also moves up in the rankings after a very close fight with the champ. The full rankings are below.

If the Lyoto Machida-Shogun Rua fight at UFC 104 had gone the way everyone expected -- Machida handily defeating Shogun to retain his title -- the UFC would have faced a quandary with its light heavyweight division. Machida would be perceived as so dominant that there wouldn't be any particularly interesting fights for him, and the stacked UFC light heavyweight division might have started to feel a little stale.

That's why Machida's controversial unanimous decision victory on Saturday night was a great thing for the UFC: It sets up a Rua-Machida rematch that will be a bigger fight than the first one, and it buys time for the UFC to re-establish some of its other light heavyweights as contenders to take on the Rua-Machida 2 winner.

LOS ANGELES -- At Thursday's UFC 104 press conference, Dana White talked about some of the controversy surrounding this season's edition of The Ultimate Fighter. White took exception with Roy Nelson claiming Kimbo Slice got special treatment on the show, and called the former IFL heavyweight champion an "idiot" and a "jacka**." White also called this season's cast members "a bunch of crybabies."

White also brushed off Rampage Jackson's claim that the show's editing is making him look bad. Check out the video below. (Warning: video contains some explicit language.)

The current season of The Ultimate Fighter was intended to serve largely as a means of hyping a big fight between the two coaches, Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson. As it turned out, no such fight is set to happen any time soon, as Jackson abruptly left the UFC to pursue an acting career.

Given what has transpired since The Ultimate Fighter was filmed, it's especially interesting to see the way Rashad and Rampage talk trash toward each other in the seventh episode of Season 10, which will air on Spike TV on Wednesday: Rashad told Rampage he'd make him quit fighting.

"I'm gonna make you quit," Evans said to Jackson. "You're gonna quit in the fight. Because that's what you do. You quit."

Video below.

The Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson fight that will air Wednesday night on Spike TV was set up by former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans, Nelson's coach this season on The Ultimate Fighter. And Evans said in an interview with FanHouse that he set up that fight for one reason: He wanted to see Kimbo get knocked out, and he thought Nelson was the man to do it.

Late Monday night, Dana White tweeted that he would be handing out free tickets to UFC 104 at a Pinkberry in midtown Manhattan. Several minutes before his expected arrival, I decided to check out the scene, fully expecting there to be 10 to 15 people hanging outside. Not so.

When I arrived there were at least 50 people anxiously waiting for White, and when he showed up 30 minutes later, there were at least 100 people outside, along with two police officers. Without hesitation, White promised every single person there a free ticket to UFC 104 in Los Angeles. FanHouse then briefly spoke to White while he was enjoying his frozen yogurt about Wednesday's much-anticipated edition of The Ultimate Fighter featuring Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson. The interview is below.

Left without an opponent for his next fight when Rampage Jackson walked away from the UFC, Rashad Evans said Wednesday that he expects to fight Thiago Silva next, likely some time in December or early next year.

In an interview with FanHouse, Evans -- the former UFC light heavyweight champion -- said that while nothing is official, he thinks the Silva fight is the best option for himself and the UFC after Rampage decided he'd rather act than fight.

"Thiago Silva is a good fighter, I'd like to fight him and I think he wants to fight me," Evans said. "When I saw him after he fought Keith Jardine, he kind of gave me a nasty look that I interpreted like he wanted to take me on, and I'd like that."

Shortly after Rampage Jackson wrote on his web site that he was retiring from mixed martial arts to pursue a career in acting, UFC President Dana White said he was disappointed in Jackson for "acting like a baby" -- but he added that he understands Jackson can do whatever he wants with his life.

UFC Twitter universe is abuzz over Rampage Jackson saying on his web site that he's finished with fighting and leaving the UFC because the organization isn't supporting his acting career, and that's how we begin our latest UFC Twitter mailbag.

We then move on to an interesting question about Dan Henderson, and to the issue of whether fighters are slipping in the Octagon. Your questions and my answers for our latest UFC Twitter mailbag are below.