FanHouse WanderleiSilva

It looks like Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama is all but official for early 2010 in Sydney, Australia.

"The Axe Murderer" posted a video on his YouTube Channel late Thursday night announcing that he will be facing "Sexyama" on Feb. 21 in the UFC's first event Down Under.

Yoshihiro Akiyama said at a UFC press conference Tuesday in Japan that he will fight Wanderlei Silva inside the Octagon some time in early 2010, possibly in the main event of UFC 111 in Sydney, Australia.

A reality show competition is currently in the works that will feature Wanderlei Silva scouting aspiring fighters for his Wand Fight Team, and FanHouse has confirmed that the show will be broadcasted on a television network to be announced.

With his face looking noticeably different, UFC star Wanderlei Silva has posted a video on his official YouTube channel explaining that he went through multiple facial surgeries to repair injuries he has suffered in his long mixed martial arts career.

No one can confidently say Keith Jardine's UFC 102 fight against Thiago Silva is a must-win situation for "The Dean of Mean." Sure, he's coming off a unanimous decision loss to Rampage Jackson at UFC 96, but he also seemed to raise his stock in standing toe-to-toe with the hard-hitting Jackson for three full rounds.

FanHouse spoke to Jardine about reinventing his game for his fight against Silva and the balancing act when it comes to marketing oneself to the fans. The full interview is below.

Gina Carano is no stranger to making history. The first to fight in a sanctioned women's MMA bout in the state of Nevada, the first woman to fight MMA on cable TV and later on network TV, on Saturday, the 27-year-old will add another impressive note to her resume, when she and Cris 'Cyborg' Santos become the first women to headline a nationally televised MMA event.

Cyborg vs. Carano is enjoying the type of media buildup that is usually reserved for top-level men's bouts, but will it live up to the hype?

Let's take a closer look at the matchup.

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.

Last week, UFC President Dana White surprised a few people by saying that he'd like to put together a matchup between middleweight champion Anderson Silva and current Affliction middleweight Vitor Belfort.

The statement was surprising because White's been burned in the past announcing matchups that never happened and deals that fell through. Most recently, he did a verbal contract with Mirko Cro Cop prior to UFC 99, but the Croatian star bolted after one fight. Most famously, he had then-PRIDE fighter Wanderlei Silva enter the octagon at UFC 61 to announce a matchup with UFC superstar Chuck Liddell. But talks soon fizzled and White wasn't able to put the two together until after he bought PRIDE and acquired Silva's contract.

So what do those situations tell us about Belfort?

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.

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.