You've read it, listened to it...now watch the announcement! (VIDEO)

Now LISTEN to Dana White's Press Call Announcement!

MiddleEasy.com | Dana White announces the WEC will merge with UFC by middleeasy

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UFC - WEC Merge!

The best top-to-bottom cards in mixed martial arts on a consistent basis were, unquestionably, delivered by the World Extreme Cagefighting. Those fights will now take place on a significantly larger stage as Zuffa has folded the WEC into the Ultimate Fighting Championship, effective with UFC 125 on Jan. 1.

The UFC and the WEC each had its own lightweight divisions and their own champions, but those divisions will merge. WEC champion Benson Henderson will defend his title on Dec. 16 against Anthony Pettis. The winner will meet the winner of the UFC lightweight title fight at UFC 125 between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard later in 2011 for the undisputed belt.

The UFC will simply fold the WEC’s bantamweight and featherweight divisions into its stable, giving it seven weight classes now, joining lightweight, welterweight (170 pounds), middleweight (185), light heavyweight (205) and heavyweight (265). WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo will make his UFC debut at UFC 125 when he defends his title against an opponent to be named. The UFC will recognize the winner of the Dec. 16 fight between Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen as its bantamweight champion.

The addition of the WEC fighters to the UFC roster should provide deeper pay-per-view cards and provide higher-quality fights.

The downside for fight fans, at least in the short term, will be a reduction of free fights on television. In 2010, the UFC had two fights on Versus, which will expand to four under a new deal announced Thursday by UFC president Dana White. But the WEC has already had five fights on Versus and still will air cards on the cable network on Nov. 11 from Las Vegas and Dec. 16 from Glendale, Ariz. As a result, that was nine shows, which will be cut to four under the new deal.

Unless the UFC adds an additional television deal, those five shows won’t be replaced on free television, though White did not seem to mind.

“I’m not looking at this thing as a negative like, ‘Oh, we lost a couple of fights on Versus,’ ” White said. “It’s a positive. We’ve got the UFC on Versus. The last one we did pulled killer numbers. Now that we’ve added these other two weight classes to the UFC, everything is positive. I’m not looking at it like, ‘Oh, we lost two fights. We have to pick them up somewhere else.’ ”

White said the merger became necessary because of the UFC’s expansion and the growth of the business in general. Adding high-quality fights from the WEC to UFC pay-per-view shows will clearly strengthen the UFC cards and should at least lessen common fan complaints about the lack of championship fights and diluted pay-per-view cards.

White has become irate when fans complained about shows such as UFC 119 in September, which didn’t have a title fight or many of the company’s star attractions on it. But with the WEC fighters coming aboard, guys like Aldo and bantamweight Urijah Faber should instantly become household names and the complaints should decrease.

“It’s time,” White said of the long-sought merger. “As we continue to grow globally and we’re going into these new markets like China, India and Mexico, it’s time to do it. We’re doing enough fights, et cetera, et cetera, to fold this thing into the UFC. What’s always been in the cards is to continue to grow this sport and add every weight class, not just 135 and 145.

“The reality is, all of these weight classes should be in the UFC. There was a time early on, when we first bought this thing, that 155 didn’t even exist. Now, as we continue to grow and we’re doing more fights every year, and we’re going into these different markets, we can continue to add weight classes. That’s always been our goal. Our goal is to build this sport worldwide and continue to add weight divisions until we have every single weight division in the UFC.”

The two missing weight classes are flyweight, which has a limit of 125 pounds, and super heavyweight, which is everything above 266. White said the UFC will eventually add flyweight, though he’s not sure when, but will not add either super heavyweight or a women’s division. He’s long maintained that there are not enough super heavyweights or women to make a viable division and held that stance again Thursday.

The WEC used a 25-foot cage, but White said that all shows will be contested in the UFC’s 30-foot cage.

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Bob Reilly against MMA in New York.....we hate him!

Do you know who this douchebag is?  Well, he's the guy who's pretty much keeping MMA out of New York.  The sport of MMA is a little too much grit and pushes the limits of this former high school nerd's sensibilities.  Read what he recently said about MMA and the UFC;

"Probably the single effort that I did, and I won’t say that it's the most important, is my single effort to keep ultimate fighting out of New York State. And why those who advocate this violent and vicious sport for the reason that it will bring money to this state, I, in fact, claim it will not. The owners of ultimate fighting [sic] who have recently spent $174,000, giving that money to various legislators and political parties and have paid their lobbyists $10,000 a month for a number of years are in fact in bankruptcy court in Las Vegas at this very moment to the tune of $7 billion. These are the people who some people advocate bringing in to New York. I'm proud of the fact that almost single-handedly I have kept this out of New York not only because violence begets violence and it’s not what we should have in our state, but also it ultimately saves us money by not having this sport in New York."

First of all, the UFC in bankruptcy????  Come on now....

Well, until the scandal comes out that he's just another politician caught giving bj's at a rest stop, we'll have to deal with his relentless crusade of stopping our beloved sport in Madison Square Garden!  Where's a hitman when you need him?

When Animals Attack

Forrest Griffin, Stephan Bonnar, and Frank Mir help with some training and take some bites at the 20th Annual Las Vegas Police K-9 Trials.

UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez Talks about His Victory on Lopez Tonight (VIDEO)

Pic of the Day: Brock busted up!

Dan Henderson gets a flat tire on the 15

Pic of the Week: Dan Henderson on his bday!

The Undertaker and Brock have beef!

Dana White talks post UFC 121 (VIDEO)

Knee to crotch party (AWKWARD VIDEO)

Dana White Interview; Rips Frank Shamrock a new cornhole (VIDEO)

UFC 121 Press Conference Highlights (VIDEO)

Chris Leben is arrested for driving while being a drunkard....nice.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - An Oahu-based mixed martial arts fighter is scheduled to appear before a judge next month after he crashed his truck on the H1 Freeway while allegedly driving under the influence.

Officers arrested Christian Leben, 30, a middleweight fighter known as the Crippler, on suspicion of operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant Tuesday. He was released from custody after posting $1,000 bail.

Police say Leben was driving on the west-bound side of the H1 Freeway just before 2 AM, when he lost control of his pickup and crashed into a wall near the Kapiolani Boulevard off ramp. He was allegedly driving without a license and without insurance.

He is scheduled to appear at Honolulu District Court November 22.

Dana White and Oscar De La Hoya Create a Bromance On Twitter

Oscar De La Hoya, hall of fame bound boxer/Golden Boy Promotions president was just tweeting about how he was giving away tickets to the Juan Manuel Marquez vs Michael Katsidis fight as well as a meet and greet with himself to the winner of the contest he was just about to ask the question for.

Then all of a sudden UFC president Dana White responded via Twitter back at Oscar saying this sounds awfully familiar. Obviously implying that Oscar was taking the generous publicity stunt contest ideas that White is often known for when he gives away UFC tickets.

So hoping that Oscar would fire back and Dana and say something clever like, "I'm the Golden Boy b*tch!", I was anxiously waiting for Oscar's reply back to Dana. Unfortunately it was a complete 180 degrees from what I was hoping for. Oscar tweeted back that he was just learning from the master at Dana White. Which was a flattering way of saying I'm stealing your ideas.

I then tweeted to Dana White saying: KingJ323 @danawhite "someone biting ya style?"

Dana White then tweeted back to Oscar: @OscarDeLaHoya "you are the one that can fix boxing."


Harry How/Getty Images I then tweeted to Oscar: KingJ323 @OscarDeLaHoya @danawhite "well Arum and King are pushing like 90yrs old. Oscar will be the king of the world in matter of years"

Oscar tweeted back: @danawhite "you have always done a great job, goldenboy has there hands tied up because of other promoters soon I will get same valuation."

Dana replied: @OscarDeLaHoya "I hear u. Everyone knows I am a boxing fan and will be watching. Good to see you on twitter! Welcome".

Oscar responded: @danawhite "let's talk I have some great ideas as I'm sure you do as well."

Dana then says: @OscarDeLaHoya "let's do it. Just got back from london and in vegas then to LA. Follow me and I will dm u and swap numbers."

Oscar tweets back:@danawhite "let's do it I'll call your office I just landed in Canada I'll be in la next week."

Dana then finally ends the very awkward yet public conversation with: @OscarDeLaHoya "perfect, see you soon."

For the record Oscar De La Hoya has 11,887 followers and just only 65 tweets as he just became active again on Twitter.

Dana White has 1,212,576 followers and has tweeted over 5,000 times.

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The truth about the Kongo vs. Browne fight!

This is what really happened....

Cain Velasquez's Dad

Quick points about Cain Velasquez's dad:

- It's obvious charisma is not inherent. I came off caring more about Cain's dad than I did Cain after UFC Primetime.
- That is a balling cowboy hat that Efrain Velasquez is wearing.
- Am I the only one who finds it odd that the father of the number one contender in the biggest MMA organization still works the top of job he does? I mean I don't expect him to be some fatcat in an office or something like that, but to me it kind of reflects upon the company like the fighters are underpaid.
- Just by his manner of speaking Spanish, am I the only one who thought that Mr. Velasquez's English (even though he didn't speak it on the show) is actually pretty decent?
- Wouldn't it be great if Lesnar's dad hired Cain's dad to work at his farm? And they lived together and it was a reality show? I would love to watch that.

If you haven't seen episode one of UFC Primetime: Lesnar vs Velasquez, you can watch it on UFC.com, hopefully this week's episode gives me a reason to care about Cain, moreso than his father, this time.

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UFC 120 FIGHT CARD

UFC 120: BISPING VS AKIYAMA -- October 16, 2010

Location: The O2 Arena in London, England, United Kingdom

Broadcast: Spike TV


MAIN CARD

Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-2) vs. Michael The Count Bisping (19-3)

Carlos Natural Born Killer Condit (25-5) vs. Dan The Outlaw Hardy (23-7)

John The Hitman Hathaway (14-0) vs. Mike Quicksand Pyle (19-7)

Travis Hapa Browne (10-0) vs. Cheick Kongo (15-6)

Claude The Prince Patrick (12-1) vs. James Lightning Wilks (7-3)


PRELIMINARY BOUTS

Cyrille Snake Diabate (16-6) vs. Alexander The Mauler Gustafsson (9-1)

Rob Broughton (14-5) vs. Vinicius Spartan Queiroz (5-1)

Steve The Robot Cantwell (7-3) vs. Stanislav Nedkov (11-0)

Mark Boots Holst (8-2) vs. Paul Sassangle Sass (10-0)

Spencer The King Fisher (23-6) vs. Curt Warburton (6-1)

Fabio Maldonado (17-3) vs. James The Hammer McSweeney (4-5)

Dana White Addresses Oxford Union Society

Bleacher Report's "The 10 Best Fighters You've Never Heard Of"

CLICK HERE

Fight News: Xande Ribeiro Update (VIDEO)

Cyborg goes naked for ESPN

Here's Cris Cyborg Santos and her husband, whatever his name is, getting naked for ESPN.  Looks like two dudes hanging out at a nudist colony.

Pic of The Week: The Terminator & Josh Koschek

Dana White ESPN photo shoot (VIDEO)

War Machine writes from prison...

Mr. Machine's latest blog entry;
So another fake ass back stabber gets added to the list: Steve Bruno. Him and Junie Browning both have volunteered to be stepping stones on my climb back to the UFC.


On a different note, my old celly is gone. I hope he is able to stay clean and out of trouble. Funny [expletive] is my new celly is GAY! LOL! He's been in the same module as me the whole time but I never knew it! Now that he lives with me he knows that I'm not a homo-phobe so he told me and holy shit! You wouldn't believe the stories. I asked him if he's got any "action" and he's hooked up with two guys since I've been here. Crazy part is one was this skinhead guy and the other a young dude who actually had a hot girlfriend, I saw her at a visit. I wonder if she knows!? Weird, I guess you never know how people are behind closed doors. It's a trip though. Whatever, it doesn't bother me as long as no one pulls none of that gay [expletive] on me! lol.


What else, this big white guy came in to our module last night. [Expletive] man... All of us "housed" here are chill, get along great. Then once in a while we get one of these random [expletive] in here. They literally will be here only 2 days and almost start a riot. It took everything in me to not beat his ass! The problem was that he was disrespecting the blacks. The blacks all like me, but if they jump him all the other Whites & Mexicans are gonna jump and you have a riot. All I want to do is stay out of trouble and get on with my life so I pulled kind of a "[expletive] move" and let a guard know what was brewing on the D.L. You can say what you want but it solved the problem.


I'm not about to get dragged into a riot and possibly get new charges over one dumb [expletive]. Long story short, they moved his [expletive] to a different module. Yesterday I got an e-mail from a guy in Russia! I guess someone has been translating my blogs and putting them on a Russian MMA site... Crazy! Cool as [expletive] though! It's neat to know my words reach so far away. So after I wrote last weeks blog, I got to thinking... I really want to help out other up and coming fighters in their quest for "making it." It's really hard working full-time and training/fighting in the early years. So I decided to take a page out of the old Lion's Den book and start a "Fighter House" along with my gym in Austin, TX.


Once our gym is up and running my partners and I are gonna rent a 3 bedroom house and a van in Austin. We're gonna keep the pad stocked with basic things like eggs, oatmeal, brown rice, chicken, tuna, and bread. There will be bunk beds in each room and 2 dressers and a couch, big screen, and DVD player in the living room. We're gonna have try-outs in the weight classes of 145-185. The 6 guys we pick will live in the pad and become a part of our team in Austin. In return, the fighters will be responsible for cleaning the gym, passing out flyers, and covering instructor's classes when out of town. For extra $, they'll be able to teach privates to the members/personal train them, whatever. If need be they can work a night or two at one of the local bars or something. No girls, alcohol, or drugs allowed in the house. But yeah, that's the basic run down of things. There will be a little contract and other details still need to be worked out, but I really like the idea! We're gonna have great trainers and a great facility, and I really hope we'll be able to give some guys a "kick-start" into the game while building my team up at the same time. SPREAD THE WORD!

What kind of music does Dan Hardy enjoy?

We're glad you asked.....watch this to find out.

Creepy see-through Chuck Liddell doll

This thing is being sold on the UFC store for $25 bucks. Who would want to buy this???

UFC 123 Set With 11 Official Bouts

Main Card

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Lyoto Machida
Matt Hughes vs. BJ Penn
Maiquel Falcao vs. Gerald Harris
Tim Boetsch vs. Phil Davis
George Sotiropoulos vs. Joe Lauzon

Preliminary Card

Mark Munoz vs. Aaron Simpson
Matt Brown vs. Rory MacDonald
Dennis Hallman vs. Karo Parisyan
Darren Elkins vs. Edson Barboza
Gabe Ruediger vs. Paul Kelly
Nik Lentz vs. Tyson Griffin

MMA - The Knockouts of 2010 - Vol.1 (VIDEO)