UFC 90 in Chitown?

Wanted to update about a rumour swirling around about a possible Chicago debut of the UFC at UFC 90. Tentatively scheduled right now for the week after UFC 89 in Birmingham, England the UFC plans to put the weak UFC 89 card on free TV on spike to pump up and hype the UFC 90 card that will take place in Chigaco the following weekend. The issue at hand is will Spike fork over the cash it will take to broadcast a show from the UK with the main event being a non-fan favorite vs. a fan favorite .. sounds good on paper, until I reveal the names of Bisping and Leban. The main event between those 2 individuals will probably be the breaking point of the deal, and could force the UFC to put the UFC 89 card on PPV as well, which would mean they would most likely bump back the Chicago show and UFC 90 a couple weeks.

In other brief news, Quinton Jackson will resume training soon as his leg turned out to only be a deep bone bruise. Also, his trainer Juanito Ibarra said they plan on filing a protest to the Nevada State Athletic Commission on the outcome of the controversial decision that cost Jackson the belt. Among the reasons for a protest, Ibara said the 2 judges scoring round 1 for Griffin was ludicrous. Ibara also said he wants to be the judges to explain how they scored the 1st round for Griffin based on the criteria used by judges to score rounds. If you didn't see the fight, check out my previous post for a detailed description of how the fight went and highlights of each round. Since the fight, fans from both sides have been very vocal on how the fight went and who they thought won with many calling it a fix. The truth of the matter is, it was a close fight that could have went either way depending on how you scored the 3rd and 5th rounds, of course if you scored the 1st round Jackson, something that bothers Jackson supporters and most MMA fans is that the 1st wasn't scored for Jackson by 2 of the 3 "official" judges.

Fedor Emelianenko plans on fighting 3 times in 2008 says his agent Vadim Finkelstein. The plans right now for Fedor is to fight his bout in July vs. Sylvia, followed by a bout in October for the Affliction brand and than a fight on New Years eve in Japan for M1 Global or another fight promotion. Its been almost guaranteed in the last few years Fedor would fight in Japan on New Years, and it looks like he won't dissappoint the fans in Japan again this year.

And finally, the announcers for the July 19th Affliction show have been announced and they are Jay Glazer, Frank Trigg and former UFC/MMA referee "Big" John McCarthy. Trigg and Glazer worked together from the FSN broadcast of PRIDE, McCarthy will make his announcing debut. Michael Buffer will be the ring announcer for the evening. Also, I wanted to update there will be only 2 FSN televised fights instead of 3. Vernon White recently failed a drug test and has been suspended. Now the 2 free fights will be Paul Buentello .vs Aleksander Emelianenko and Vitor Belfort vs. Terry Martin. I think this a strong move by Affliction considering 3 of the 4 on the free portion of the show are UFC vets and should bring in some viewers based on them knowing them. The main PPV card is also stacked with IFL and UFC vets including Arlovski, Babalu Sobral, Sylvia, Rizzo, Linland and Barnett.

Be sure to keep checking back for daily updates and continue to send questions and comments in for the daily mailbag portion that will take place weekly starting very soon.