"Minotauro" Noguiera scratched from UFC 108 main event

The hits just keep on coming.

The replacement fight for the scratched Brock Lesnar/Shane Carwin heavyweight title fight, has now been broken up as well for UFC 108 as Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Noguiera has suffered a severe staph infection and will be unable to fight undefeated Cain Velasquez in their No. 1 contender showdown.

If you're keeping score at home, that is two top heavyweights now down for the count -- Lesnar and Noguiera.

Once again, this is devastating news for the UFC which can't seem to buy a break these days.

"Nogueira got staph infection, bad, to the point now it’s in his bloodstream, and he’s probably going to have to be hospitalized and intravenously given the antibiotics," UFC president Dana White revealed at the UFC 105 post-event press conference.

"It’s crazy," White said, "In nine years of being in this business, we haven’t had this many injuries in one year."

So unless White can scrounge up some other sort of main event caliber of fight, it appears that the Rashad Evans/Thiago Silva fight will be promoted up to main event and perhaps some other fight will be put together to boost the main card.

However, this is probably more disconcerting to Noguiera. This is now the second time in just under a year in which the great Brazilian fighter has fallen victim to staph. Do they not clean the mats down there in Brazil? I don't get it. It doesn't seem to be affecting any other fighter from that camp so maybe Noguiera just doesn't like to shower?

Whatever the case maybe, Noguiera needs to recover from this and recover fully to continue to be a force in the heavyweight division. If for whatever reason he is unable to get back to 100 percent, he will be passed over by guys like Velasquez, Kongo and Dos Santos.

Previewing UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun

With its 104th pay-per-view event, the UFC returns to Los Angeles featuring a main event in the Light Heavyweight division as champion Lyoto Machida takes on fellow Brazilian and challenger Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Machida, 31, will be making his first title defense and first appearance since dethroning then champion and fellow undefeated star Rashad Evans back in May at UFC 98. Machida will be looking to further establish the discipline of Machida Karate not to mention the "Machida Era" in the UFC Light Heavyweight division.

But he's going to have to do it by beating a very capable challenger in Rua, 27, whom presents a very formidable fighting style with his duo black belts in Muay-Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Rua is capable of dominating the stand-up portion of a fight ala Anderson Silva or take you down and submit you ala BJ Penn. Prior to arriving in the UFC, Rua was widely considered the top 205 lb prospect after his dominance in Pride.

Certainly Rua's first year and a half in the UFC was a brutal disappointment to everyone: himself, his camp, the fans and the UFC brass. But since the Griffin fight and overcoming not one, but two ACL tears in his right knee, "Shogun" appears now to be the "Shogun" of 2006 -- a very dominating and imposing force. He controlled a game Mark Coleman, the veteran wrestler, back in January and then stopped Hall-of-Famer Chuck Liddell in the first round in April via TKO.

In the two fights alone we saw progression Rua's game from poor conditioning to solid conditioning, improved technical striking and aggression in the stand-up game as well as on the ground. He's tenacious and you better believe that he's going to give Machida a test that he has yet to encounter.

Also featured on the UFC 104 card is a heavyweight matchup between rising undefeated star Cain Velasquez (6-0) and veteran Ben Rothwell (30-6) of IFL fame who has finally broken through to the big show and wants to make his presence known.

Velasquez enters this fight after an impressive performance against Cheick Kongo in which he withstood some very hard shots from the imposing French-man and still managed to take the fight to the ground and dominate a much bigger fighter.

Against Rothwell, Velasquez will have to be more precise in his stand-up to minimize his errors while controlling Rothwell with his superior wrestling game. When he enters the Octagon on the 24th, he's going to be facing a fighter in Rothwell who has overcome a number of hardships in his life to get to this very point and he's going to be fighting with a great amount of emotion because of it.

The undercard bouts feature some talented fighters such as welterweight stud Anthony Johnson (7-2) who takes on Yoshiyuki Yoshida (11-3), lightweights Joe Stevenson (35-10) and Spencer Fisher (24-4) as they prepare to do battle and top middleweight contender Yushin Okami (24-4) as he takes on Chael Sonnen (24-10).

The General's Predictions:

Shogun by submission, 4th round Cain Velasquez by unanimous decision Gleison Tibau by TKO, 2nd round Joe Stevenson by submission, 3rd round Anthony Johnson by TKO, 2nd round Antoni Hardonk by TKO, 1st round Eric Schafer by unanimous decision Yushin Okami by submission, 2nd round

UFC 108 card starting to take shape

As per usual, the UFC will be holding another year end card in Las Vegas featuring some of the promotion's most talented fighters.

Only this time there are a few differences. Most notably, the fact that the year end card -- UFC 108 -- will actually be held in the new year, January 2nd to be exact.

The usually star-studded event is trending that way again with three of its first four rumored bouts. The main attraction looks to be a middleweight title defense as Anderson Silva (25-4), the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, defends his title against recent middleweight acquisition Vitor Belfort (18-8).

Silva, 34, is coming off a dominating performance in the light heavyweight division against former champion Forrest Griffin. Belfort, 32, meanwhile, is coming off a big win over another former champion in Rich Franklin in his return to the Octagon. It will certainly be an intriguing showdown between two of the best and most explosive middleweight fighters in the sport.

In addition to that fight, there is a rumored battle between light heavyweights Rashad Evans (18-1-1) and Thiago Silva (14-1) and a heavyweight fight between top contenders Gabriel Gonzaga (11-4) and Junior Dos Santos (8-1).

Each of those two rumored contests has numerous intriguing storylines. Evans is coming off a brutal knockout loss to Lyoto Machida in which he lost his belt while his opponent, Silva, will be looking to continue his winning ways by completing the Jackson camp sweep by knocking out best friends Keith Jardine (who he KO'd at 102) and Evans. Which fighter will put himself back into title contention at 205?

Meanwhile at heavyweight, two Brazilian natives will do battle. Will youth prevail? Or will the veteran savvy Gonzaga have too much power and speed -- not to mention experience -- to derail the up-and-comer?

We shall see if the card develops as expected. So far so good however, for the promotions' highlight event of the year.

UFC 104 main event an important fight for UFC as well as both fighters

As the UFC has grown over the past few years, it has been widely recognized that their glamor division, strongest division was its 205 lb league of Light Heavyweight fighters. Over the years it's had some of the sports most widely recognized champions: Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson, Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans.

Now not only does the division have the star power it has easily the most depth. Which can be a bane as much as it is a positive.

Current champion Lyoto Machida, 31, will face fellow Brazilian native Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, 27, at UFC 104 from Las Vegas on October 24th in his first title defense. Machida is the organization's first champion whose primary language is anything other than English since Vitor Belfort held the belt shortly more than a decade ago.

The onus, thus, will be on the undefeated karate specialist to re-establish the fading brightness of a once brilliant division. That isn't to say that the division has suddenly fallen on hard times, more that it is in need of a powerful champion to reign supreme like that of Anderson Silva for middleweights or Georges St.-Pierre does in the welterweight division.

At 15-0 Machida certainly has shown the ability to be dominant especially in his most recent victory -- a two round demolition of Rashad Evans which he finished with a brutal TKO. The question isn't whether he has the talent to remain champion, he has shown this at least in the opinion of this writer, but whether he can move the audiences around the world enough with this next performance to be a constant main event draw.

Rua (18-3), the latest contender of the deep 205 lb division, has the chance to do the same. If he can upend the undefeated champion in spectacular fashion, the crowd could easily fall behind a fighter who only a few short years ago was considered by most as the elite light heavyweight talent in the world.

Regardless of whether Machida or Rua emerge victorious on Saturday night less than three weeks from now, the key will be whether one of them takes up the torch left by the former stars of the elite division.

Chuck Liddell has most likely fought his last battle inside the octagon. TUF alums Rashad Evans and Forrest Griffin have been exposed. "Rampage" Jackson has taken an indefinite hiatus. Tito Ortiz is, well, past his prime to be nice. The division appears to be there for the taking, in desperate need of a future star to emerge.

The UFC hopes it will happen at 104 with either Machida or Rua.

"A-Team" filming to scratch "Rampage" Jackson from UFC 107 card

It appears scheduling conflicts will postpone the heated grudge match between light heavyweights Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (30-7) and Rashad Evans (18-1-1) at UFC 107 on December 12th.

Jackson, 31, recently landed the role as B.A. Baracus in the upcoming "A-Team" remake and will soon begin shooting according to the Vancouver Sun. The six-week film shooting schedule will apparently hamper Jackson's ability to put in a solid camp in time for the December 12th, UFC 107 date with Evans which was set to take place in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion will oppose Evans , 29, as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter season 10 set to air on Spike beginning on September 16th. The two will be coaching two teams of eight prospective heavyweight fighters for the UFC which includes Kimbo Slice and three former NFL players.

It has been a rough year filled with scheduling conflicts for Jackson. Ever since exacting revenge upon his nemesis Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92 back in December, "Rampage" has seen his title shot get put off because Evans wasn't ready and then put off again because Evans couldn't beat Lyoto Machida.

It will also mark the second time this year, "Rampage" has now chosen to put off fighting for the big screen. Instead of taking on a guaranteed title fight with new Light Heavyweight Champion Machida, Jackson opted to coach alongside the former champion Rashad Evans on TUF season 10. Now despite begging for an opportunity to fight in his hometown, he will pass in favor of more training camp time.

With a six week film schedule, "Rampage" should be free to return to training at his Wolf's Lair camp in England by mid-October. This would give him roughly an eight week camp to train, seven at the worst, for the fight with Evans. I guess that's just not good enough for the Memphis native.

The postponement shouldn't go longer than a few weeks, with the fight taking place sometime in early January 2010 in Las Vegas on the UFC's annual Christmas/New Year's show.

Let's hope 2010 brings more of Jackson in the Octagon and less behind the camera.