UFC Newsday: Weigh-in Report, Dana White QA, New Upcoming Fights

No major stories coming out of the Friday weigh-ins for UFC 106 today in Las Vegas. Everyone made weight (even Phil Baroni who was rumored to be 20 pounds too heavy earlier this week) and there were no noteworthy shoving incidents or throwdowns. These guys are too professional these days!

In looking over the card, this should be a decent show but the top two matches are really going to make or break this one:

PPV Card

• Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin
• Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson
• "Minotoro" Nogueira vs. Luis Cane
• Amir Sadollah vs. Phil Baroni
• Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann

Spike TV Pre-Show

• Kendall Grove vs. Jake Rosholt
• Ben Saunders vs. Marcus Davis (I'm surprised this wasn't bumped to the PPV. I'd rather pay to see this than Thiago vs. Volkmann.)
  

Non-Televised

• George Sotiropolous vs. Jason Dent
• Caol Uno vs. Fabricio Comoes
• Brock Larson vs. Brian Foster

*****

Dana White and Cain Velasquez were at the pre weigh-in Fight Club Q & A session today. Here are some highlights:

- Brock Lesnar is going to Mayo Clinic soon. 'He's very, very sick." (Note that Lesnar's camp posted a video earlier today that makes it seem like we haven't seen the last of him. I'd bet on that.

- Some asked when the UFC will sign Fedor. (Are you serious? Aren't we past this yet? Holy shit!). White said it takes two to make a deal and that they made a respectable offer that was turned down. He joked he wants 'that bald little fat guy over here' which apparently riles up the Fedor fans.

- He was asked about creating a Super Heavyweight Division, but said that really came up when Randy Couture was fighting heavyweight. but that Randy belongs at 205. He said all the guys at heavyweight (Cheick Kongo, Lesnar, Velasquez) are real heavyweights so there's no need to create another division.

- Said of Karo Parisyan that he's got a lot of problems emotionally and physically and needs to take care of his personal life for a while. He mentioned he's been unprofessional and unforgivable the last three fights. He likes him, but he hasn't been the old Karo for a long time.

- He was asked about Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes. Mentioned that Matt is fighting soon, probably in early '10. Said that Chuck and he haven't got to talking about his future and that Liddell has got one more finale dance for Dancing With The Stars and that after that, they will talk. (So much for Liddell definitely not fighting anymore...why did we ever think otherwise?)

- Was asked about adding a bantamweight and featherweight division. White said he always get asked by the media about it and that they've talked about it internally, but there are considerations with Versus and their contract with WEC. Coincidentally, White said they WEC inked a new deal with Versus Friday, but no details were given.

- On Rashad/Rampage: if Rashad makes it out of January's fight with Thiago Silva, we'll see Rashad vs. Rampage after that. He didn't trash talk Rampage at all, so something's getting done behind the scenes - a change of pace from his tone last week.

- Was asked about a women's division. He said his hesitation is that there are not enough good girls to fill out the division, a problem he sees is the same with women's boxing in that there are three or four that are good and a lot that aren't. He said that until the talent is more equal, he's not into doing it. He joked that maybe they should put guys and girls in the TUF house together but that would have to be on HBO.

- On the scoring for Couture/Vera, he said he was sitting with Vera's wife and when she asked about what he thought, he felt Couture was going to get the decision which Lorenzo Fertitta and Joe Silva disagreed with. He reiterated what he tells fighters: don't leave it in the judges' hands, do enough to win, be aggressive.

- When asked if he'd be a character in another UFC video game, he said he had no interest and that they wanted to keep the game as realistic as possible. Someone yelled that he could fight Tito Ortiz and he joked that they were friends now.

AOL Fanhouse posted a nine-minute excerpt here.

*****

There was some concern today when it was heard that main announcer Mike Goldberg went to the hospital today and couldn't work the Fight Club Q/A session. What was the problem? Could he work Saturday night? What if he couldn't?

Well, Goldberg is fine and Twittered that "The story of my demise has been overly exaggerated...I am sick from UK trip...Doc Stile gave me an IV...I'm going to sleep and will be ready".

I wonder if he couldn't go, who is the play-by-play backup?

*****

Not sure why Strikeforce put on a Challengers event Friday night considering the mass amount of UFC/WEC this week, but we'll get back to them Monday including a look at the event calendar they just released.

*****

MMA Weekly reported that Nate Marquardt's next fight will be against Chael Sonnen at February's UFC 109 in Las Vegas. As Anderson Silva is rumored to be defending the Middleweight title against Vitor Belfort in the first quarter of '09, Marquardt has to be the next guy in line for a shot if he can dispatch Sonnen. I guess we'll have to wait for a Marquardt/Mike Bisping fight until sometime in '10 but I gotta imagine that's coming.

They also quoted White as saying Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre's impending return vs. Dan Hardy will likely take place in Las Vegas. No date has been given.

Josh Nason has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. He is a contributor to Fight Magazine and Bleacher Report and appears regularly on Fight Network Radio. Follow him on Twitter.