FanHouse UFC 90

As much as I enjoy watching Anderson Silva fight, I've been disappointed with the UFC's decisions on his opponents. Silva's last middleweight title defense came against Patrick Cote in October at UFC 90, and his next title defense comes on April 18, at UFC 97, against Thales Leites.

I just don't think either Cote or Leites is in the same class as Silva, and I'd rather see Silva take on Yushin Okami at 185 pounds and then move up to 205 pounds to try to win the light heavyweight title. Silva, however, says that Leites has earned the opportunity to fight for the middleweight belt, and the Spider considers Leites a worthy challenger.

In Anderson Silva's first seven fights in the UFC, he so thoroughly dominated his opponents -- including great fighters like former UFC champ Rich Franklin and former Pride champ Dan Henderson -- that no one even made it past the second round with him. But Silva's eighth fight in the Octagon went a little differently.

A brutal uppercut from Junior "Cigano" dos Santos knocked out Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90, and shortly after Werdum learned that he had been knocked out of the UFC entirely.

But while Werdum was disappointed to be dropped from his UFC contract, he now says he sees some benefits to free agency -- including the possibility of fighting for Affliction. In a new article at Tatame (translated by Free Fight Videos), Werdum mentions Affliction as a promotion he'd like to fight for.

I think it would make perfect sense for Affliction to sign Werdum to fight Josh Barnett at the January 24 Affliction: Day of Reckoning show. Affliction hasn't yet found an opponent for Barnett, and Werdum is probably the best they could get.

A full English translation of Werdum's remarks to Tatame is below.

Fabricio Werdum, last seen getting knocked out at the hands of Junior "Cigano" dos Santos at UFC 90, is now out of the UFC completely.

MMA Weekly reports:

Werdum's exit comes on the heels of a failed contract renegotiation following the loss to dos Santos. The Brazilian came into the fight with the expectation that he would soon be contending for a heavyweight title shot.

The knockout at UFC 90 derailed anything of the like in the near future, and spurred a renegotiation of his contract. Werdum and the UFC were apparently unable to come to an agreement. He has already opened talks with other promotions in the U.S. and Japan.

That's a stunning fall from grace for a fighter who once thought that he would get the first title shot against the winner of the current four-man UFC heavyweight tournament. But it's not altogether unsurprising: Werdum was never a huge draw, and that loss to Cigano was devastating. And, as Zach Arnold notes, when it comes to fighter contracts, UFC has total control. In this case, they're using their control to say goodbye to Werdum.

The latest installment of MMA Live takes a look back at UFC 90:

They talk about Anderson Silva's win, Patrick Cote's injury, Thiago Alves becoming the No. 1 welterweight contender, Sean Sherk getting back on the winning track, Junior "Cigano" dos Santos becoming a heavyweight sensation, and more.

UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre is on his way to Brazil from his home base in Montreal, and he made a stop in Chicago Saturday night to scout a likely future opponent at UFC 90.

St. Pierre writes in his YardBarker blog that he liked what he saw from Thiago Alves, who beat Josh Koscheck to become the No. 1 welterweight contender:

I was very impressed by the performance of Thiago Alves he showed everybody why he belongs in the top fighters in the welterweight division. Of course, it's up to the UFC, but I think he will be one of my next opponents pretty soon.

If he beats B.J. Penn in January, St. Pierre will most likely defend his title against Alves some time in the spring or summer. It's not going to be an easy 2009 for St. Pierre.

I like Patrick Cote. I've interviewed him a few times in the last few months, and I've always found him to be polite, well spoken and respectful. So I have a hard time even recognizing this Patrick Cote:



That interview took place after Cote lost to Anderson Silva at UFC 90, and Cote comes across, frankly, like an idiot.

Asked about Kimbo Slice after UFC 90 last night, Dana White said that now that EliteXC is out of business and Kimbo is looking for work, he's welcome to appear on the UFC's reality show The Ultimate Fighter:



Asked about Kimbo, White said, "He can be on The Ultimate Fighter. What's he done other than get 10 million hits on YouTube, what's he done to deserve to be in the UFC? Nothing. I don't consider him a real athlete. He won't win The Ultimate Fighter. The offer's out there if he wants to take it, but he won't win it."

The biggest story out of UFC 90 was the disappointing main event. But the second-biggest story is that there's a new star in the UFC heavyweight division, Junior "Cigano" dos Santos. Cigano fought outside Brazil for the first time and destroyed Fabricio Werdum, and afterward I asked him and UFC President Dana White what was next:

Cigano is a soft-spoken young man who seemed surprised that anyone wanted to ask him any questions, and he said "there's no one in particular" he wants to fight, and that he's happy to fight whoever the UFC puts in front of him.

White didn't offer any names either, but he did seem very excited about Cigano's future.

Here's the biggest difference between UFC crowds and boxing crowds: The Allstate Arena was almost full at 6:45 Saturday evening, when UFC 90's first undercard fight, Pete Sell vs. Josh Burkman, got underway. In boxing you never see the arena anywhere close to full before the first undercard fight starts.

It was the UFC's first appearance in Illinois, and the crowd in suburban Chicago got an entertaining show -- at least until that strange main event. Yes, there were a few fans who didn't seem happy. Gray Maynard isn't a crowd pleaser (more on that below), and one obnoxious guy tried to get a chant of "bo-ring" started during a stretch on the ground during the Sell-Burkman fight. But no one else joined in on that guy's chant, and through the first nine fights of the night, the fans seemed to think they got their money's worth.

The main event was another matter.