FanHouse UFC 99

Wanderlei Silva is one of the greatest fighters in the history of mixed martial arts, but after falling to Rich Franklin at UFC 99, he's lost five of his last six fights. Does that mean his fighting career is just about over?

Silva doesn't think so. When I talked to him over the weekend, he sounded excited about returning to the Octagon late this year, and about his work as a trainer and as an ambassador for MMA. He also refuted reports that he had a hard time making the 195-pound limit for the Franklin fight, offered a prediction on the upcoming Forrest Griffin vs. Anderson Silva fight at UFC 101, and talked about whether his old friend from their days fighting in Japan, Fedor Emelianenko, will ever fight in the UFC. Silva's comments are below.

After his impressive win over Wanderlei Silva in the main event at UFC 99, Rich Franklin's future has been a subject of a great deal of speculation among UFC fans, with talk that he could fight a young up-and-comer like Luiz Cane or an Octagon legend like Chuck Liddell or Tito Ortiz. But Franklin said on this week's episode of ESPN.com's MMA Live that it's way too early to determine his next step because first he needs to renegotiate his contract.

Days after his loss to Rich Franklin at UFC 99, Wanderlei Silva says he has no interest in retiring, and that he hopes the UFC will allow him to fight twice more this year, once in September and once in December.

Marcus Davis and Dan Hardy engaged in a long, drawn-out war of words prior to their fight at UFC 99 on Saturday, and Davis now says that verbal battle helped Hardy win their physical battle in the Octagon.

Welcome to FanHouse's new and improved MMA podcast. It's so improved that we decided to change its name to FightHouse Radio, tape it from the AOL Studios in Manhattan and stick a video camera in the booth. That's right, you can choose to either download and listen to the show or just watch it below.

In this episode, I am joined by MDS, Mike Chiappetta and AOL Studios' Mike Rubens to talk about the Tim Sylvia vs. Ray Mercer mess, UFC 99 fallout and the weekend ahead in MMA. Oh, we're also joined by WEC featherweight star Urijah Faber (23:00 mark). Enjoy.

There was a considerable amount of buzz surrounding Ben Askren's MMA debut in February. The two-time NCAA wrestling champion, 2008 US Olympian and two-time winner of the Dan Hodge Trophy, which is the wrestling equivalent of the Heisman, is now 2-0 in his MMA career, defeating his first opponent via TKO and the second via arm-triangle choke. Neither fight has lasted longer than 90 seconds.

However, when Askren recently spoke to Fight! Magazine, he seemed very critical of his game, not to mention refreshingly honest about his future prospects.

After his victory over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 99, Rich Franklin is now on my list of the Top 10 light heavyweights in mixed martial arts -- and Silva is off it. But what's next for Franklin? I'd love to see him get a Top 10 opponent, but most of the rest of the Top 10 are already committed to other fights: Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin vs. Anderson Silva, Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva.

I think the best option is to match up Franklin with Luiz Cane, and I think a dark horse possibility is Franklin vs. Tito Ortiz, if Ortiz returns to the Octagon. In any event, my list of the top 10 light heavyweights in MMA is below.

UFC President Dana White is back with the final installment of his UFC 99 video blog, showing him getting hounded for pictures with fans in Germany on fight day.

I want to take a little more time looking at the dominance of Cain Velasquez over Cheick Kongo at UFC 99, because I don't think people are giving Velasquez quite enough credit for what he accomplished on Saturday.

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.