FanHouse RandyCouture

The news that a heavyweight fight between Gabriel Gonzaga and Chris Tuchscherer has been officially added to the UFC 102 fight card reminds me of something I've been thinking about for a while now: There are way too many good fights on the UFC 102 card.

Obviously, it sounds ridiculous to complain about too many good fights. But the UFC only puts five -- or at most six -- fights on the live pay-per-view broadcast, and this UFC 102 card, headlined by Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the main event, has eight fights that are very pay-per-view worthy.

After UFC 99, I wrote that Cain Velasquez looks like a future UFC heavyweight champion. I've heard some pushback on that from people who take a contrary view, saying Velasquez didn't look very good in the stand-up, and that he ate some hard punches from Cheick Kongo at the start of all three rounds of their fight.

I agree that Velasquez needs to work on his stand-up, and he definitely needs to learn better head movement so he doesn't get punched right on the button the way he did against Kongo. But I also think Velasquez showed a lot of heart in taking those punches from Kongo and managing to quickly take him down in all three rounds, and I think people are too quick to dismiss how impressive it is to win all three rounds against Kongo: In nine previous UFC fights, Kongo was 7-2, and the two losses were by split decision. No one has ever dominated Kongo in the Octagon the way Velasquez did. And that's why Velasquez is on my list of the Top 10 heavyweights in MMA, which is below.

Is Brett Rogers really one of the 10 best heavyweights in mixed martial arts? It still sounds crazy to say it, but really: After he destroyed Andrei Arlovski in just 22 seconds, running his record to a perfect 10-0 with nine first-round stoppages, how can I deny him?

So in my latest rankings of the Top 10 heavyweights in MMA, I've got Rogers on the list for the first time, and Arlovski off the list for the first time. I've also got great news for fans who like to see heavyweights: This summer is stacked, with Cheick Kongo vs. Cain Velasquez at UFC 99 on June 13, Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar at UFC 100 on July 11, Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett at Affliction Trilogy on August 1, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Randy Couture at UFC 102 on August 29 and maybe Rogers vs. Alistair Overeem at the Strikeforce event on August 15.

Now that Lyoto Machida has won the UFC light heavyweight title, there's a growing sense that we're headed into -- in the words of Joe Rogan -- a Machida Era: A time when Machida simply dominates the light heavyweight division and defends the belt several times in a row.

But as great as Machida is, everyone can be beaten. So which fighters would have a chance of beating Machida at 205 pounds? My list is below.

Miesha Tate and Sarah Kaufman have a mandate, and that's proving to the world that women's MMA goes deeper than just Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg.

The pair gets the opportunity to do so on May 15's Strikeforce Challengers event in Fresno, Calif., broadcast on Showtime.

Tate was originally booked to fight Kim Couture on the event, but after the latter dropped out due to personal reasons, she was replaced by Kaufman, who openly campaigned for the fight and got her wish granted when Strikeforce president Scott Coker moved her from a June 19 match with Shayna Baszler. Barring injury, the winner of the Tate-Kaufman bout will face Baszler.

Kim Couture, the wife of UFC legend Randy Couture, has dropped out of her upcoming "Strikeforce Challengers" fight against Miesha Tate on May 15 due to "personal reasons." A Strikeforce source confirmed the news and the reason to FanHouse earlier this morning. No specific explanation was given for her decision.

MMAWeekly.com first reported the news citing a blog post on Tate's MySpace account. Tate insinuated that the reason Couture pulled out of the fight was due to marital problems with her husband, Randy.

UFC middleweight Demian Maia has a perfect MMA record of 10 wins in his 10 pro fights, but he's about to get a much stiffer challenge in his 11th. Cage Potato is reporting that Maia's camp expects to get the next shot at UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, most likely at UFC 102 on August 29 in Portland.

Of course, that's assuming Silva beats Thales Leites at UFC 97 on April 18 in Montreal. But seeing as every single UFC fan I know is making that assumption, it seems fairly safe to pencil in Maia vs. Silva for the UFC 102 co-main event. No disrespect to Leites intended, of course.

We're probably never going to see Fedor Emelianenko fight Randy Couture in real life. But we will get to see it in the alternative reality of March MMAdness.

For those who haven't been following along, March MMAdness is my cockamamie idea for what would happen if we entered the 64 best mixed martial artists in the world in an openweight tournament.

Just like the NCAA Tournament, March MMAdness started a week ago and is down to the Sweet 16. And the latest results set up the fight that MMA fans most want to see in the East Region final.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira says his fight with Randy Couture at UFC 101 has not been signed, but he also says he expects the fight to happen, and he is already formulating a game plan.