UFC 96 kicked-off with former contestant from TV reality show The Ultimate Fighter Gray Maynard dominating his opponent, Jim Miller, in London's O2 octagon. With his wrestling expertise and his stunning display of boxing prowess, Miller clearly didn't even have a chance. Admirably, Miller made it to the third round, even coming out of his beaten down daze to put in a few last licks, but it wasn't enough, as the judges handed Maynard the night's decisive--and deserved--lightweight division victory.

In the next bout, light heavyweight Matt Hamill showed the same absence of mercy to his opponent Mark Munoz, knocking him out in minute 5 of round one with a kick to the head.

The welterweights were up next, and in an interesting turn of event, it was victor Matt Brown begging the referee to end the fight as opponent Pete Sell looked increasingly like he couldn't take it anymore. Eventually the referee caved in and Brown was finally declared the winner by TKO.

Framed by a little filler action before and after (middleweights Kendall Grove beating Jason Day before; welterweights Tomoan McCrory beating Ryan Madigan after) was the heavyweights, with Gabriel Gonzaga losing his religion to Shane Carwin.

Finally, it was time for the main event, and it was an exciting match to the end, when the judges gave Quinton Jackson the unanimous win over Keith Jardine.

The light heavyweights head the night with former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin battling it out with former PRIDE welterweight and middleweight world champ Dan Henderson.

Franklin has home-field advantage, with the 3-round bout taking place at the O2 Arena in his native Dublin, Ireland. But oddsmakers have once Olympic wrestler Henderson as the clear favorite.

UFC 93 will also see Mark Coleman step back into the Octagon--after a 2 year hiatus, following a loss against Fedor Emelianenko--for a long-awaited rematch against Mauricio Rua (aka "Shogun"). This'll also be a long-awaited return for Shogun too, as he was sidelined early in '08 after an ACL injury.

Odds favor Coleman's strength and stand-up skills against Rua's Brazilian Muay Thai.

It will happen at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay on January 31, 2009, which also just so happens to be Super Bowl weekend.

Penn and St. Pierre are currently touring with Dana White, UFC president, in promotion of the event, which won’t be the first time these two have faced off.

The last time they met in the octagon St. Pierre won in a tight split decision. But Penn’s skills have vastly improved in that time, and he seems to be ready to take down his heavier-weight opponent.
Since both of these fighters are already the best in their weight class, this bout will determine something far more than “mere” championship title status. It will determine who deserves to be called the next MMA legend in recent UFC history.

This is only Lesnar's fourth MMA fight, coincidentally the same feat achieved by the man whose crown he took, "The Natural" Couture who 11 years earlier, when in his fourth MMA fight he topped Maurice Smith and claimed the title for himself.

Although most MMA fighters couldn't hope to even compete in the UFC after just a few fights, Lesnar is a unique case, with not only a WWE title under his belt, but an NCAA wrestling title a well.

To his credit, Couture was not only 11 years younger than his spry opponent, but also an inch shorter and 50 pounds lighter, plus he hadn't stepped into the octagon in 15 months.

One of the highlights, earning both fighters an extra $40k for giving fans the “Fight of the Night”, was between Paul Taylor and Chris Lytle, with Lytle winning in a contentious split decision.

Lytle and Taylor weren’t the only ones to win $40,000 bonuses, though. Brazlilian Luis Arthur Cane took home “Knockout of the Night” for his obliteration of Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou of Team Quest by second-round strikes. This is the 3rd such bounty for Taylor, who won the same honor in UFC 80 and UFC 75. That’s a lot of bonus money for a fighter who just joined the UFC in April of 2007.

Also that night, Brandon Vera delivered Keith Jardine his very first loss

Undefeated 24-year-old Croatian middleweight MMA fighter Goran Reljic 1-0 UFC, 8-0 overall) has suffered a back injury that’s forced him to back out of his scheduled bout with UFC veteran fighter Thales Leites (4-1 UFC, 13-1 overall), who is seeking his 5th straight win with this bout, his most recent coming in a split-decision against Nate Marquardt in UFC 85.

Leites, who is currently in the midst of a 4-fight long winning streak, will now be fighting Drew McFedries (3-3 UFC, 7-4 overall).

In response to the scheduling change, the fight between lightweights Rich Clementi (5-3 UFC, 32-12-1 overall) and Gray Maynard (3-0 UFC, 5-0 overall), which previously was not intended to televised, has now been bumped up to be broadcast on Pay-Per-View as part of the Main Card.

Mustafa Al-Turk will have his UFC debut in December’s UFC 92 against Cheick Kongo (who was last seen at UFC 87 TKO-ing Dan Evansen) after Cain Velazquez recently pulled out of the match because of pressing surgery to fix a recent knee injury.

And Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will get a third shot against rival Wanderlei Silva, this at UFC 93 where the match-up will be listed as the top bout on the Penn-St. Pierre undercard.

As Randy Couture sees it, according to a Joe Rogan interview at UFC 88, the biggest challenge of battling with Brock Lesnar will be his size (280 pounds to Couture’s 225) and the fact that he, like Couture, has a wrestling background.

Typically Couture relies on those elements as his edge over other combatants, but he says that considering the atypical evenness of the matchup, he’s going to have to bone up on his striking and submissions, not his greatest skills but also, he believes, not Lesnar’s either.

Fans wonder how much the age difference between them (Lesnar is 31, Couture 45) will come into play.

Everyone watching the UFC is already on the edge of their seats waiting to see whether a pro-MMA freshman can take out a Hall of Famer.

Replacing UFC Hall of Famer and former PRIDE heavyweight star Mark "The Hammer" Coleman is Heath Herring (2-0 UFC: 28-13 MMA) as the man out to pummel Brock Lesnar (0-1 UFC: 1-1 MMA).

Lightweight co-headliners are Kenny "KenFlo" Florian battling Roger "El Matador" Huerta.

Other fights slated for the main card include:

• Georges "Rush" St. Pierre vs. Jon "Two Face" Fitch
• Cheick "The French Sensation" Kongo vs. Dan Evensen
• Demian Maia vs. Jason "The Athlete" MacDonald

Antonio Rodrigo is also on the fight card, against an as-of-yet unnamed opponent.

Lightweight Frankie Edgar will be stepping into the UFC 87 cage as well, looking to reclaim his good name after a loss by unanimous decision loss Gray Maynard.

And two The Ultimate Fighter 5 contenders, Rob Emerson (1-0 UFC: 7-6 MMA) and runner-up Manny Gamburyan (2-1 UFC: 8-2 MMA) will also face off.

Speaking of Fedor Emelianenko, the long sought after PRIDE heavyweight champ and free agent is still being courted by the UFC. No doubt, the UFC wants him bad; Emelianenko currently holds a 27-1 record with a pair of wins over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, the current interim UFC heavyweight champ.

Sylvia isn’t the only fighter hungry to step into the Octagon with Emelianenko. Wearer of the current UFC heavyweight belt, Randy Couture, is in the thick of a legal battle primarily over his desire to battle Fedor himself.

Meanwhile, undefeated IFL Quad City Silverbacks champ Ben Rothwell was also signed to Adrenaline MMA at the same time as Sylvia. Both Sylvia and Rothwell will be training at Bettendorf, Iowa’s Miletich Fighting Systems.