Report: Dos Santos to Fight for UFC Interim Heavyweight Strap; The Question is, Will it Be Against Lesnar or Carwin?

("Blackhouse Brazilian Iced Tea? Those foolish MMA fans will buy anything.") While on Larry Pepe’s Pro MMA Radio show yesterday, Yahoo! Sports MMA writer Kevin Iole threw out a crumb likely fed to him by Dana White that Junior Dos Santos wi…


("Blackhouse Brazilian Iced Tea? Those foolish MMA fans will buy anything.")

While on Larry Pepe’s Pro MMA Radio show yesterday, Yahoo! Sports MMA writer Kevin Iole threw out a crumb likely fed to him by Dana White that Junior Dos Santos will not sit around waiting for UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez to heal from his torn rotator cuff, but will instead face a yet-to-be-named opponent for the UFC’s popular interim heavyweight strap.

"[Dos Santos] is going to fight for an interim title. They just have to find a contender to fight him. So for that one, I don’t think he should have to wait because he was going to fight for a championship. The UFC will declare the winner of Dos Santos versus "X" the interim champion, so it is his championship fight. He will go down in history if he wins that fight; even if he loses subsequently to Cain on the way back, he’ll be known as a former UFC heavyweight champion, just like Frank Mir’s second reign," Iole explained. "When Shane Carwin beat Mir he became the interim champion, so there were guys that even though the belt was out, they were still recognized as a champion. I think that situation is very simple. Dos Santos should fight, he will fight, they’ll find a heavyweight contender he’ll fight for the interim championship while Cain heals and that will be that. Just like [the runner up in the] Miss America [pageant], he’ll assume the duties [of the champion] while the champion is healing."

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Wild-Ass UFC Booking Roundup: Miller vs. Shalorus, Faber vs. Wineland, Bruce Leroy, Kid Yamamoto + More

("This big horsemeat-eating motherf*cker is next.")
There’s been a veritable orgy of UFC fight-bookings happening over the last couple days, and we might as well throw them all at you in one lump sum. We’ll start with one that might…


("This big horsemeat-eating motherf*cker is next.")

There’s been a veritable orgy of UFC fight-bookings happening over the last couple days, and we might as well throw them all at you in one lump sum. We’ll start with one that might not be the biggest of the bunch, but definitely struck us as the strangest…

Jim Miller vs. Kamal Shalorus – UFC 128:
When Dana White proclaimed that Miller’s impressive kneebar submission win over Charles Oliveira at UFC 124 put him in the mix of  lightweight contenders, nobody figured that would mean that he’d be paired with an Octagon newcomer in his next bout. But this is the UFC, and sometimes the organization’s MMA math just doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. The Sparta, New Jersey native will attempt to increase his winning streak to seven when he takes on  (7-0-2) WEC veteran Shalorus at UFC 128 in his backyard in New Jersey.

Dan Miller vs. David Branch – UFC 128:
Considering that his brother is on the card and they can save on cornermen hotel rooms and plane tickets, it’s a no-brainer that the UFC would have another local fighter like Miller on the card for UFC 128. The fact that they now have to pay Chuck Liddell’s seven-figure salary,  bar and strip club tabs has not been lost on the accounting department who have undoubtedly suggested some cost cutting measures that will be implemented in 2011. Wait until you see the beat-up budget ex-strippers they bring in to replace Arianny and Chandella.

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Brendan Schaub – UFC 128:
It turned out that reports earlier this week that a rumored bout between Schaub and Stephan Struve had been verbally agreed to by both fighters were incorrect. Instead, Schaub will look to climb over former PRIDE wrecking machine, Cro Cop on his way to a top five opponent in 2011.

Filipovic will attempt to prolong his rapidly shortening career by defeating the up-and-coming fighter who is riding a three-fight winning streak which includes a "W" over Gabriel Gonzaga — the last man to put Cro Cop to sleep prior to Frank Mir turning his lights out in his last outing at UFC 119.

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Our Top UFC Photos of 2010

Filed under: FanHouse ExclusiveEvery photo tells a story and the best ones capture the complexities of the subject and situation in ways words can’t always depict.

Between our two lead photographers, Daniel Herbertson and Esther Lin, there were more …

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Every photo tells a story and the best ones capture the complexities of the subject and situation in ways words can’t always depict.

Between our two lead photographers, Daniel Herbertson and Esther Lin, there were more than an handful of memorable imagery collected this past year on MMAFighting.com. Daniel captured all the great action in the Japanese MMA scene, while Esther was just as tireless, shooting nearly all the major U.S. events from cageside.

As we close out 2010, we asked Esther to narrow down her UFC favorites from her personal collection (Note: Daniel’s Japanese MMA favorites will be published next week). So without further ado, below are Esther’s 13 favorite shots accompanied by her observations.

MMA Top 10 Bantamweights: Moving to the UFC

Filed under: UFC, WEC, Rankings, BantamweightsWorld Extreme Cagefighting is over, and its fighters are heading to the UFC — which means the UFC now has, by far, the strongest bantamweight division in mixed martial arts.

In fact, although Japan was on…

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World Extreme Cagefighting is over, and its fighters are heading to the UFC — which means the UFC now has, by far, the strongest bantamweight division in mixed martial arts.

In fact, although Japan was once home to most of the sport’s best small fighters, in 2011 just about every single significant 135-pound fight will take place inside the Octagon.

The biggest fight will be the first UFC title defense for bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, who’s No. 1 in our bantamweight rankings and ready for a rematch with No. 2 Urijah Faber. See how the rest of the bantamweights stack up below.

Dana White Expects to Know ‘Ultimate Fighter’ Coaches on Friday

Filed under: MMA Media Watch, UFC, WECIn the week and a half since the Finale of The Ultimate Fighter Season 12, speculation has run rampant about who the coaches will be for the show’s 13th season, which will begin taping in early 2011. UFC President …

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Dana WhiteIn the week and a half since the Finale of The Ultimate Fighter Season 12, speculation has run rampant about who the coaches will be for the show’s 13th season, which will begin taping in early 2011. UFC President Dana White said on Wednesday that he’s about 48 hours away from knowing the coaches’ identities.

“We should have it done by Friday,” White said at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro, where he announced that the UFC would host a fight card in Brazil in August.

So who are the likely choices?

Dana White Names Possibilities for Ultimate Fighter Coaching Jobs

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, NewsUpon returning to his Las Vegas office on Monday morning after a hugely successful UFC 124 event, company president Dana White has several items that will require fairly immediate attention. Among the most pres…

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Upon returning to his Las Vegas office on Monday morning after a hugely successful UFC 124 event, company president Dana White has several items that will require fairly immediate attention. Among the most pressing is selecting coaches for the upcoming season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter.

The series is scheduled to begin taping in just a few weeks, and White admits he’s late in picking the men who will lead two teams in competition and later battle it out themselves.

Though he says the decision is far from made, he shared with MMA Fighting some possibilities for the job.