JAMES IRVIN TO FACE RASHAD EVANS AT UFC 85

Although the UFC has made no formal announcement, reliable sources have confirmed that James Irvin has agreed to step in and face Evans on June 7 in London in Liddell’s absence.

Irvin competed recently at the April 2 event in Broomfield, Colo., which makes for a quick return by UFC standards. His bout with Houston Alexander lasted just eight seconds though, leaving Irvin tied with Don Frye for the quickest knockout in UFC history.

Following an impressive knockout of Sean Salmon little more than a year ago, Evans enters the bout coming off of a frustrating draw with former UFC champion Tito Ortiz and then a split decision over Michael Bisping.

If that's gonna be the main event for UFC 85, they're in trouble because there is no way that fight is gonna sell tickets as a main eventer.

The UFC needs to do something to make UFC 85 appealing to pay per viewers. The fight card is mediocre at best. Rumors are running that Dana White wants to have up to 13 fights on the fight card to make up for the lack of important fights. Usual UFC events have around 7-9 fights per fight card. Of course they brag about how many great fights they put on at each event, yet we, the viewer, only get to see 4 fights, 5 at most.

It's frustrating when you purchase a pay per view and have to root for quick knockouts only to get to see more fights for your money. Something has to be done about that.

Kevin Randleman lines up Kawamura, Monson

Former UFC heavyweight champion Kevin Randleman (16-12) has two solid opponents lined up for the next two months. One is a 2006 Pancrase Neo Blood tournament champion and the other is a former number one contender for the UFC heavyweight title.

On May 18, Randleman will face Pancrase standout Ryo Kawamura (8-2-2) at World Victory Road's "Sengoku" 2 in Tokyo. Randleman will be making his debut with the promotion, while Kawamura is coming off a unanimous decision over Antonio Braga Neto at "Sengoku" 1 last month.

On June 21, Randleman will take on Jeff Monson (24-7) at a Global Fighting event at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Randleman has been out of action since October 2006, when he lost to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at PRIDE 32. Randleman was soon after fined and suspended for submitting a fake urine sample. Last year Randleman had a staph infection that bore holes in his hamstring (nasty).

Rich 'No Love' Clementi Keeps a Busy Schedule

Lightweight contender Rich “No Love” Clementi is taking no time off after his three round win over Sam Stout at UFC 83 last Saturday. Instead, the pride of Slidell, Louisiana will be back in the gym preparing for a May 24th bout against UK rising star Terry Etim on the star-studded UFC 84 card at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena. Clementi replaces Rob Emerson, who was forced to withdraw from the bout against Etim due to injury.

Clementi is on a serious hot streak since moving back down to his natural weight class of 155. He looked average at best fighting at 170 but since the drop he's been on a steady climb up the ranks. Sam Stout is a tough fighter and Clementi was a slight underdog in the fight. I guess he's trying to keep himself sharp and Terry Etim is no walk through either. It'll be interesting to see if Clementi bit off a little more than he can chew.

Kalib Starnes Requests Release from UFC

This news doesn't come as a big shocker but the way it played out does. After Kalib Starnes performance at UFC 83 we were certain that he wouldn't be fighting in the UFC anymore, however it was his decision, not management, to no longer compete for the UFC.

In a UFC 83 televised bout, Starnes continually backpeddled from his opponent, and the Canadian crowd turned on the British Columbia fighter during the lackluster performance.

In a post-event press conference, White said that Starnes would regret the performance, which resulted in scores of 30-27, 30-26 and an extremely rare 30-24. After the fight, cameras caught Starnes yelling an obscenity and a deragoratory gay reference to members of Quarry's corner.

The following day, White told Yahoo! Sports that Starnes had been cut from the organization.

However, Starnes said that the story came out only after he asked Joe Silva to terminate his contract, which the organization was willing to do.

Starnes also questioned White's integrity.

"In my opinion, it was inappropriate to make public statements regarding my character and my future and so on the way that he has, especially without having the courage and the respect to call me up and speak with me personally," Starnes told The Fight Network. "All of these comments come from a man that has never had a fight in his entire life who claims to be the ultimate authority on fighting and courage. I couldn't be happier than to be released from the most oppressive contract I've ever been under in my life."

Starnes also told The Fight Network that he broke his foot early in the fight, which prompted his hesitation to engage with Quarry.

You almost have to believe Starnes in this situation. As poor of a performance it was, his previous fights showed he has talent and definitely comes to fight. He beat Chris Leben, was beating Alan Belcher when a cut forced an early stoppage. His only blemish was when he cracked a rib fighting Kendell Grove during TUF 3 and had to quit.

His fight with Nate Quarry shouldn't be an indication of how he performs and he should get picked up by another organization fairly quickly, however he will certainly have to prove himself again no matter who signs him. He also will forever have the dubious distinction to lose 30-24 in a fight. Usually when someone is dominated like that the fight is stopped but he ran so much that Quarry could never catch him.

On a side note, Kalib Starnes has already been erased from the UFC's website. Talk about pissing off the boss. Ken Shamrock and Randy Couture are still on the website and are both locked in bitter lawsuits against the UFC. It looks like Dana White is going to make an example of Kalib Starnes.

LIDDELL INJURED, OUT OF UFC 85 MAIN EVENT

The main event of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to London on June 7 hasn’t found the day all that lucky. The promotion on Monday announced that one half of its headlining bout, former UFC champion Chuck Liddell, had to withdraw due to a severe right hamstring injury.

Liddell was originally slated to face former Pride Fighting Championships champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. His opponent was later changed to Rashad Evans when Rua had to withdraw due to a knee injury.

Now, with Liddell out of action for the foreseeable future, it is Evans that is left waiting and wondering.

Evans expressed his disappointment that Liddell had to withdraw from the bout. He did, however, state that he does want to remain on the card, hopefully avoiding a rather long layoff.

The UFC has not named a replacement.

"Unfortunately, Chuck Liddell tore his right hamstring during training last week, and being the warrior that he is, he still wanted to fight, which is the reason why everyone in the world loves him," said UFC president Dana White. "But I wouldn't let anyone fight with his leg looking that way. Let him heal and come back and fight when he is 100 percent."

It will be difficult for the promotion to put together another headline bout with as much drawing power as Liddell carries into a bout. The UFC intends to make up for that by loading up UFC 85 with 13 bouts, which is the most that it has had on one fight card in more than a decade.

"We're adding fights to the card and rearranging it so the UK fans won't have to worry, we'll still be bringing an amazing card to London and the O2 Arena,” said White.

UFC 85 Bouts (officially announced):
-Rashad Evans vs. TBA
-Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera
-Martin Kampmann vs. Jorge Rivera
-Nate Marquardt vs. Thales Leites
-Thiago Tavares vs. Matt Wiman
-Marcus Davis vs. Mike Swick
-Luis Arthur Cane vs. Jason Lambert
-Neil Wain vs. Antoni Hardonk

UFC 83

First off, sorry for the lack of updates regarding UFC 83. Here's a brief rundown. Georges St. Pierre regained the welterweight title after dominating Matt Serra for almost 2 rounds before the ref stopped the fight. St. Pierre is just too good of an athlete to be stopped and Matt Serra is fighting at too high of a weight. He's probably better suited for the lightweight division. His jiu-jitsu was completely neutralized by St. Pierre simply because Serra's limbs are too short. Well that and that St. Pierre is probably the best fighter in the world. I hope he moves up in weight to fight Anderson Silva because if there's one guy on this planet that can dethrone 'the spider' it's Georges 'Rush' St. Pierre. We haven't heard the last of Matt Serra, who got an opportunity of a lifetime and parlayed it into everything it could have been and more. Serra will face Matt Hughes next just because the fight was already marketed for. If Serra wins, he'll probably get a re-match with St. Pierre but don't expect too much of a difference than what happened in this fight. But you can't ever count Matt Serra out and he's such a cool dude to root for.

Rich Franklin withstood a brutal first round by Travis Lutter but as usual, Lutter didn't show up in shape and was completely gassed by the end of the first round. In the 2nd round Franklin just picked him apart and knocked Lutter out. Travis Lutter proved again he is a spectacular fighter in the first round but absolutely sucks after. This guy is just not taking advantage of any situation that's put in front of him. Don't be surprised to see him fighting for another organization very soon.

Nate Quarry looked spectacular as he dismantled Kalib Starnes. Starnes also set a record for having the worst performance in UFC history by running away the entire fight. One judge had the fight 30-24, yet there was no knockdown or submission attempt. Quarry did a mockery of Starnes by doing a 'running man' dance. Starnes may have run his way out of the UFC with his performance. Unless he was hurt or something, but no injury was apparent. You basically saw Kalib Starnes last UFC fight and it was the worst performance in UFC history. Quarry, on the other hand, rocketed up the ranks in the middleweight division by showcasing his stand up skills he was known for. It looks like Quarry just had to battle through a bit of ring rust and should definitely be a force in the future. He will forever be a highlight reel when Rich Franklin knocked him out cold in November 2005 but at 36 years old, he's a smarter fighter now.

Mac Danzig had a successful debut as an official UFC fighter after a shaky first round in which Mark Bocek took down the TUF 6 winner repeatedly in the beginning of the fight. Danzig showed poise as he weathered the storm and eventually submitted Bocek in the 3rd round by rear naked choke.

Michael Bisbing looked absolutely unstoppable in his debut at middleweight as he destroyed Charles McCarthy. Or McCarthy was that bad but it's touch to say as McCarthy covered up while Bisbing unloaded for the entire first round. McCarthy couldn't continue after the first round with what appeared to be an injury to one of his arms. While he was covering up, Bisbing teed off on his forearms.

Unfortunately, which is something the UFC needs to improve on, we didn't get to see some good fights which were on the undercard but here's the results:

-Georges St. Pierre def. Matt Serra by TKO (Strikes) at 4:45, R2
-Rich Franklin def. Travis Lutter by TKO (Strikes) at 3:01, R2
-Nate Quarry def. Kalib Starnes by Unanimous Decision, R3
-Michael Bisping def. Charles McCarthy by TKO at 5:00, R1
-Mac Danzig def. Mark Bocek by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 3:48, R3
-Jason MacDonald def. Joe Doerksen by TKO (Strikes) at 0:56, R2
-Jason Day def. Alan Belcher by TKO (Strikes) at 3:58, R1
-Demian Maia def. Ed Herman by Submission (Triangle Choke) at 2:27, R2
-Rich Clementi def. Sam Stout by Split Decision (29-27, 29-28, 28-29), R3
-Cain Velasquez def. Brad Morris by TKO (Strikes) at 2:10, R1
-Jonathan Goulet def. Kuniyoshi Hironaka by TKO (Strikes) at 2:07, R1

Former NFL Pro Bowler defeats IFL veteran at BCX IV

Former NFL All-Star offensive lineman Carlton Haselrig won his mixed martial arts debut at the age of 42 against former IFL heavyweight Shane Ott at "Battle Cage Xtreme IV" in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Haselrig, a Pittsburgh Steeler from 1990-1993, came into the main event fight with a strong wrestling background. He won six NCAA titles while attending the University of Pittsburgh at Johnston and was inducted into the NCAA 75th Anniversary Wrestling Team in 2005.