FanHouse Wilson Gouveia

WEC's first-ever heavyweight champion James Irvin has suffered a knee injury that will force him out of his middleweight fight against American Top Team's Wilson Gouveia at UFC 102 on Aug. 29 in Portland.

Radio host Carmichael Dave of Sports 1140 KHTK in Northern California was first to report of Irvin's injury and FanHouse has confirmed the injury and removal with Irvin's management, MMA Incorporated.

The new list of the top 10 middleweights in MMA is a mess, and I'm not sure what to do about it. Despite a fairly lackluster win at UFC 97, Anderson Silva is clearly the best middleweight in the world. In fact, he's so clearly the best that putting together the rest of the list was a depressing exercise because I really couldn't see a middleweight who's likely to give Silva much of a challenge.

I also don't even know who I should consider a true middleweight anymore, considering that Rich Franklin has moved up to light heavyweight to avoid Silva, Dan Henderson moved up to light heavyweight to fight Franklin and will now move back down to middleweight, Wanderlei Silva is planning to move down from light heavyweight to middleweight and Gegard Mousasi is planning to move up from middleweight to light heavyweight.

Wilson Gouveia had one of the most impressive 2008 campaigns of any fighter in the UFC. He opened the year with a knockout victory over Jason Lambert in January, finished it by destroying Jason MacDonald in December and earned the submission of the night award in beating Ryan Jensen in September. Even the fight he lost was impressive; he earned a fight of the night bonus in defeat against Goran Reljic at UFC 84.

But as Gouveia gets ready for his first fight of 2009, against Nate Marquardt at UFC 95 (February 21 on Spike), he knows there's a lingering question hanging over him: After coming in four pounds overweight for the fight against MacDonald, some fans wonder whether he's just too big to be a middleweight.

I talked to Gouveia on Tuesday, and he said that not only is he sure that he's a middleweight, he's confident that he's a future middleweight champion. The full interview (which covers his preparation for the Marquardt fight, the importance of those UFC bonus checks and how he first saw the UFC as a teenager in Brazil) is below.

Wilson Gouveia missed weight for his fight with Jason MacDonald at tomorrow's Ultimate Fighter Finale, coming in at 189 pounds -- four pounds over the middleweight limit -- at today's weigh-in.

According to UFC.com, the Nevada State Athletic Commission won't allow Gouveia to make a second attempt to make weight, and the fight will go on at a catch weight of 189 pounds. Gouveia will forfeit 20% of his purse to MacDonald.

Missing weight -- especially by as much as four pounds -- is a sign of a lack of professionalism on the part of Gouveia, who has an 11-5 MMA record, including 5-2 in the UFC. If Gouveia doesn't put on a great show against MacDonald tomorrow night, this could cost him his UFC contract.

Everyone else made weight for tomorrow's fights. Full weigh-in results are below.

Here's Houston Alexander, a native of Omaha, talking on the local news about his bout with Eric Schafer at UFC Fight Night at the Omaha Civic Auditorium on Wednesday night:

Alexander isn't a great mixed martial arts fighter, but he does give the fans great shows: In his four UFC fights, he has two first-round knockout wins and two first-round knockout losses. I'm sure he'll have the home crowd behind him, and it's good to see that he's promoting the fight on the local news.

Also, kudos to Channel 6 in Omaha for reporting on UFC Fight Night and for explaining to the viewers that MMA is a legitimate sport. Fox 5 in New York could learn a thing or two from Channel 6 in Omaha.

After the jump, a couple more UFC Fight Night-related videos, featuring Alessio Sakara and Wilson Gouveia.

It's Saturday night of Memorial Day Weekend. Plenty of people are out partying while I'm here at home in front of the TV. Upset about it? Not at all. I'm looking forward to a night filled with high-quality fighting at UFC 84 from Las Vegas.

I hope you are too because it promises to be a helluva night. The main event, B.J. Penn defending his lightweight title against the former holder Sean Sherk, is well worth the price of admission. Luckily, we get more bang for our buck with Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida (and Dana White) in Ortiz's final match as a UFC fighter. Yesterday's weigh-in stoked an already raging fire and tonight all could bubble over again. I'm hoping for an Ortiz win, just because the interview would be an absolute classic.

FanHouse's Michael David Smith is at the event, 10 feet from the Octagon he tells me, and reports that it's a wild scene. So kick back, grab a cool one (I'm drinking Imperial, the national beer of Costa Rica!) and join us after the jump.

Saturday night's UFC 84 begins what might be the best stretch of three straight weekends that American MMA fans have ever had. It's a great card in Vegas on Saturday night, and it comes just a week before EliteXC and World Extreme Cagefighting both have the biggest events in their histories, and two weeks before yet another major event, UFC 85. It's a good time to be an MMA fan.

Here are the details for Saturday night's action:

What: UFC 84: Ill Will

Who: In addition to the B.J. Penn-Sean Sherk main event for the UFC lightweight title, four light heavyweight fights are part of the televised undercard: Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine, Thiago Silva vs. Antonio Mendes and Wilson Gouveia vs. Goran Reljic.

When: Saturday, 10 p.m. ET

Where: MGM Grand, Las Vegas

How: Pay-per-view, $44.95 ($54.95 in HD), or just follow along with Josh Alper's FanHouse live blog and my coverage live from Octagonside.

Predictions after the jump.