There were suggestions yesterday that Mike Swick may be set to face Matt Serra at the event, but he has today ruled himself out of that fight.

“Not fighting Serra guys. Most likely having surgery soon,” Swick revealed on his twitter account, before adding, “Dr appt on Mon. to figure out how they are going to fix my arm which is most certainly only w/surgery. MRI results were pretty bad.”

While several of the other major players in the welterweight division are currently tied up with other fights there are still potential opponents available to Serra though.

For instance Chris Lytle emerged with a quick Submission Of The Night victory against Brian Foster at UFC 110, and a rematch between the two, who originally fought in the final of The Ultimate Fighter Season 4 (with Serra earning the split decision victory), would make sense.

Another credible option would be the fighter who just defeated Swick in February, Paulo Thiago.

If the UFC are indeed planning an event on April 17th then no doubt we’ll start to hear official word on the card in the near future – though they might hold off announcing it for as long as possible to ensure that Strikeforce don’t have time to shift their event to the following week to avoid the head-to-head encounter.

Serra’s long time coach and close friend Ray Longo has a definite idea of who he’d like to see him face.

“Me personally, I’d like to see him fight BJ (Penn), if BJ wanted to come up in weight,” he admits.

Serra and Penn fought back at UFC 39 in September of 2002, with Penn emerging the victor by unanimous decision. A rematch would be interesting, and is certainly a possibility if Penn does indeed decide to move up to 170lbs in his quest to get a rematch with Georges St.Pierre.

Dana White has already suggested that Penn will need to fight one or two contenders in the welterweight division first before he would grant him a third bout with GSP, so Serra could well be one of the names in the hat at that stage.

Whether it’s BJ Penn or not, Longo says he want’s to see the 35 year old Serra competing in meaningful bouts at this stage of his career.

“I’d like to see Matt now stay with the marquee names and some big fights.”

Watch Ray Longo’s interview courtesy of Fight! Magazine below:

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Randy Couture Secures Easy Victory Over Mark Coleman

It was apparent from very early on that there was a gulf in class between these two veterans.  Mark Coleman’s previous UFC opponents  Mauricio Shogun Rua and Stephan Bonner should hang their heads in shame for making such heavy weather of a fighter so clearly over the hill.  He looked painfully slow, showed poor defensive ability, and was short of ideas.

Randy Couture may be a year older than Coleman, but on the night he looked 10 years younger.  Everything he tried worked, though I would hesitate to read too much into his striking or submission skills though since in reality this was his easiest fight in years.

Personally I don’t think fighting Mark Coleman should be the stepping stone to a title shot for Couture, but I wouldn’t argue with Dana White’s belief that he is in the mix in the light-heavyweight division.  He still has the skills and stamina to compete at the highest level – but I think his chin will prove to be his downfall against the heavy handed strikers that currently populate the upper reaches of the division.

As for Coleman,  though you have to admire his heart and competitive instinct, his retirement is clearly long overdue.  Thankfully post fight comments from Dana White suggest he is thinking along the same lines.

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Chael Sonnen Becomes A Legitimate Title Contender With Win Over Nate Marquardt

Last night Chael Sonnen proved that he can back up his words in the cage as he overwhelmed Nate Marquardt to earn a title shot against the winner of Anderson Silva Vs Vitor Belfort.  The dominant wrestling  he showed against Marquardt suggests that he may well be a handful for either of those two fighters.

Though it’s hard not to be impressed with Sonnen’s control from top position, Marquardt’s performance was still a disappointment.  He looked devoid of ideas from his back for much of the fight, rarely threatening offensively aside from the sharp elbow that cut his opponent in the 2nd round. I expected more from the BJJ black belt.

Before last night my feeling was that I’d have liked Sonnen to get one more fight – perhaps a rematch with Demian Maia (who he lost to previously) – in before receiving a title shot, but after the way things panned out on the night I’m warming to the idea.

As for Marquardt, this is undoubtedly a setback in his own title aspirations, but at 30 years of age he remains one of the divisions top talents and if he can learn from his mistakes in this fight he can come back even better than before.

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Paulo Thiago Goes 2-1 Against AKA Fighters After Submission VictoryAgainst Mike Swick

Though I’ve had my doubts about Paulo Thiago, slowly but surely he’s winning me over.  He continues to show solid striking and mat work, and it was nice to finally see a submission from him, since it’s not been something we’ve seen him utilize to often in the UFC despite the majority of his wins back in Brazil coming via his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu skills.

As for Mike Swick, this was another lackluster performance.  Whether Thiago’s previous performances against his AKA team-mates, or his own previous loss to Dan Hardy was weighing on his mind or not, Swick appeared somewhat gun-shy and not the fighter we’ve seen in the past who, up until November of last year, had been beaten only once in 10 UFC fights.

In the post-fight press conference Dana White admitted that Thiago is now one of the top contenders at 170lbs and it will be interesting to see what comes next for him.   It’s possible that we’ll need to wait for the outcome of the Josh Koscheck Vs Paul Daley and Jon Fitch Vs Thiago Alves fights first before his next opponent becomes clear – though Martin Kampmann is perhaps another interesting option to be considered

As far as Swick is concerned, with back-to-back losses now on his record he has to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to rectify his recent loss of form.

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Demian Maia Tests His Stand-Up Skills Against Dan Miller

After being knocked out for the first time in his last fight it was a brave move by Demian Maia to get into a striking match with Dan Miller, and while it wasn’t a performance that’s going to to get the front-runners in the middleweight division quaking in their boots, he did enough to earn the victory.

More surprising than Maia’s decision to stand though was Miller’s lack of offense.  Usually a scrappy fighter he appeared reluctant to exchange, perhaps overly fearful that the BJJ wizard would take him down if he did.  With Maia’s striking still a work-in-progress this left this left the majority of the fight to unfold in a less than thrilling manner.

This wasn’t the impressive display that Maia needed to really propel himself back into the title picture and so he’ll now have to wait while Chael Sonnen, the man he comfortably beat in February of last year, takes the No.1 contender spot.

Miller on the other hand will surely have been disappointed with his display, though he will perhaps take some solace from the fact that he emerged unscathed from the little time he spent on the mat with Maia in this fight.  Now two fights without a win, the pressure will be on to get a win in his next fight.

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Matt Serra Serves A Reminder Of The Power In His Hands With A KO Win Over Frank Trigg

Early on in this fight Matt Serra looked to be having a little trouble getting into range with Frank Trigg without being tagged, but when he did get an opportunity to get inside he made it count, making effective use of body punches to set up a powerful overhand right that dropped his counterpart.  A few more accurate strikes to the grounded Trigg was all it took for the referee to call a halt to the proceedings – slightly early in my opinion, though to be fair the eventual outcome of the fight did not look in any doubt at that stage.

Back in the win column, and with his popularity at an all-time high thanks to his recent wise-cracking video blogs and interviews, Matt Serra is in a good place right now, but it’s not clear when we’ll next see him in the octagon.  He has never been a prolific fighter – since 2005 for instance he’s been fighting just once a year, spending the rest of his time running and teaching at his successful Jiu-Jitsu schools.

Frank Trigg’s future seems more clear however.  He’s now suffered two convincing first round defeats in the UFC and it’s more than likely that he will now be cut from the roster.  He has previously went on record saying that he has no desire to fight again in the regional promotions, so at the age of 37 and with a pro record of 19-8, it may well be that we’ve seen the last time that he will step into the cage.

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Undercard Thoughts:

Mac Danzig did enough to defeat Justin Buchholz and remain in the UFC, but it perhaps wasn’t the dominant display he had been looking for. 

Melvin Guillard also got back to winning ways, showing improved skills on the ground to avoid danger from the submission savvy Ronys Torres to claim the unanimous decision victory.  It was a close fight so I wouldn’t argue with the decision, though personally I believed Torres should have got the nod.

TUF runner-up Phillipe Nover stepped into the octagon for the first time since passing out back stage at UFN 19, but again he struggled to make his mark, and this loss to Rob Emerson may have put his future in the promotion at risk since he is now 0-3 in the UFC.

Light-heavyweight prospect Phil Davis made it through his UFC debut with a solid win over Brian Stann.  He’s still a work in progress at this stage though with his striking looking rough, and a general lack of a cutting edge in this encounter, but his wrestling ability was evident for all to see, and if he is given the opportunity to develop and round out his skills then he could become a force to be reckoned with in the future.

Chris Tuchscherer meanwhile scraped through to his first UFC victory with a majority decision win over Tim Hague. In the other heavyweight clash in the prelims Rolles Gracie didn’t do his famous name justice, showing rudimentary stand-up skills and a gas-tank that ran-out midway through the first round.  Joey Beltran, fighting for the first time in the UFC on only a weeks notice, was more than happy to capitalize on those weaknesses and claimed a second round TKO victory.

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Randy Couture:

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Mark Coleman:

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Chael Sonnen:

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Nate Marquardt:

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Mike Swick:

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Matt Serra:

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Phil Davis:

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As usual Serra is on good form, though his father-in-law threatens to steal the show.

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As it stands this generally revolves around Trigg making fun of his opponent’s height, “he’s just an angry foot stomping midget,” while Serra returns fire by mocking Trigg’s appearance, “you got the nail polish AND the tramp stamp…that’s getting a little weird.”

If you look beyond that though then this is a serious fight for both fighters.  Serra, now 35, is two fights without a win in the octagon since his shock win over GSP in 2007, while Trigg was soundly beaten in his return to the UFC in September at the age of 37.

The fact that they both already have their retirments plans mapped out (Serra plans to coach at his successful Jiu Jitsu schools while Trigg is eyeing further media work after previously commentating for PRIDE) only emphasizes the fact that one more defeat could potentially spell the end for their career.

For Serra it’s possibility, but for Trigg it’s a certainty having already been informed by UFC bosses that a loss would see the end to his second spell in the promotion.

With that in mind we can rest assured that despite the trash-talking, both these fighters will have their minds firmly focused on the task in hand come February 6th.

In the mean time, check out the latest interviews with both fighters ahead of the fight.

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Matt Serra UFC Video Blog Day 1:

Matt Serra Interview With Ariel Helwani

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Frank Trigg Interview With Steve Cofield:

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Frank Trigg Interview With MMAPrime:

In the 20 minute interview no stone is left unturned as he holds court on pretty much any subject you can think of, making plenty of wisecracks at Strata and his trainer Ray Longo’s expense along the way.

It’s entertaining stuff and you can check it out in full for yourself below…

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Part 1:

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Part 2:

Meanwhile a fight between Nate Marquardt (29-8-2) and Chael Sonnen (24-10-1) which was originally predicted to be on the UFC 110 card has apparently been switched to UFC 109 according to mmajunkie.

The card is beginning to take shape after it was announced earlier this week that Randy Couture (17-10) would square off against Mark Coleman (16-9).

Wanderlei Silva recently announced that his next opponent will be Japanese star Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 110 in Sydney, Australia. Meanwhile Matt Serra doesn’t officially have a fight scheduled yet, but recent rumors suggest Frank Trigg may be his next opponent.

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