UFC 90 Preview, EliteXC Cleared, Dana White Speaks on EliteXC Demise, More

Another Saturday night...another big UFC card, this being Saturday's UFC 90 event coming to the good folks LIVE from just outside Chicago, IL. The world's best pound-for-pound fighter goes in a main event no one expects him to lose. Can Patrick Cote the Matt Serra to be Anderson Silva's GSP?

>World Middleweight Championship: Anderson Silva (c) vs. Patrick Cote: Simply said, Silva is awesomely dominant, no matter what the weight class. While not answering questions about an impending post-contract retirement, the 22-4 champion has been knocking out and submitting anyone in his path to the tune of eight straight and 10 of out his last 11 fights. Against him is the 14-4 Cote, a French-Canadian who has won his last five fights and seven of his last eight. Does he have a chance against the Brazillian buzzsaw? Of course. A good chance? Ehhhh. We'll take Silva to win via KO in the 2nd against a game Cote.

>Josh Koscheck vs. Thiago Alves (welterweight): Koscheck was a late switch for Diego Sanchez, who had to pull out due to injury. Even so, this is one of the more anticipated bouts on the card. Koscheck (11-2) had been training for a 12/10 fight and has wins in seven of his last eight fights with tallies over Sanchez, Chris Lytle and Dustin Hazelett. Alves (15-3) has won six in a row and eight of his last nine, the last five by knockout. By the way, the last win for Alves? A second-round KO of Matt Hughes in June. Yeah, THAT Matt Hughes. We like Koscheck, but the numbers point to Alves as winning this one via KO in the 2nd round.

Other televised fights include:

-Rich Clementi (40-12-1) vs. Gray Maynard (6-0-1) @ 155
-Sean Sherk (36-3-1) vs. Tyson Griffin (12-1) @ 155 (Fight of the Night prediction)
-Fabricio Werdum (11-3-1) vs. Junior Dos Santos (6-1) @ heavyweight

For the whole card, click here.

In other news:

-The Florida State Athletic Commission cleared ProElite/EliteXC of any accusations of fixing the Kimbo Slice/Seth Petruzelli fight. Unfortunately, this will be merely a footnote in the history of the organization that officially closed its doors this week. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Weekly put it best:

"The irony is that it was this investigation that led to Showtime pulling out of negotiations to purchase the company, which will close its doors tomorrow. Pro Elite filed for bankruptcy because after Showtime pulled out of negotiations, Showtime claimed a breach in its loan to the company by not maintaining enough of a bank account balance, called in the loan, which forced the bankruptcy filing."

-You knew that UFC Prez Dana White couldn't keep his feelings about ProElite in check. Check out this must-see YouTube video blog.

-Fedor vs. Arlovski has been made official by Affliction. The bout will take place on January 24th from the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, on PPV.

-Five Ounces of Pain reported that they were told by several fighters that the weight classes on the ninth season of The Ultimate Fighter will now be welterweight (170) and lightweight (155), the latter taking place of middleweight (185). Also, three professional bouts is the minimum to be considered, no more amateurs.

-Matt Hughes said on his blog recently that his long-awaited bout with Matt Serra might take place in April. The two were supposed to fight last December, but Serra had to pull out with a back injury.

-Last Saturday's UFC 89 event featuring Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben drew 2.6 million viewers, translating to a 1.7 household rating.

Josh Nason has owned/written for Ropes, Ring and Cage since 2007. He can be reached at [e-mail].