Tickets for UFC 96, which takes place on March 7th at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, are now on sale through Ticketmaster.

Tickets were slated to go on sale to UFC Fight Club members beginning at 10am ET today, but technical issues resulted in delays until around 10:30am (I was one of the anxious fans waiting for tickets).

Non-UFC Fight Club members can get their hands on tickets this Friday, December 26th, beginning at 10am ET when a special presale begins using the password “BUCKEYES”. Tickets then go on sale to the general public on Saturday, December 27th, beginning at 10am ET.

The UFC will return to Montreal, Canada on April 18th as Anderson Silva defends his middleweight title against Thales Leites in the evening’s main event.

Among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Silva (23-4) is undefeated inside the octagon, winning a record-tying eight-straight bouts in the UFC. “The Spider” recently ventured up to the 205-pound light heavyweight division, knocking out James Irvin in one-minute in July before dropping back to 185-pounds to successfully defend his title over Patrick Cote in October.

A fellow Brazilian, Leites has won five-straight in the UFC and 13 of 14 professional fights. Leites followed up a controversial victory over Nate Marquardt with a first-round submission of Drew McFedries in October.

One-fight WEC veteran and wrestling standout Jake Rosholt will make his UFC debut against Alessio Sakara at UFC Fight Night 17, reports MMAJunkie.com.

A three-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion and four-time All-American, Rosholt (5-0) successfully made his WEC debut in November with a second-round TKO of Nissen Osterneck. The UFC’s sister promotion axed its middleweight division earlier this month and Rosholt will now transition to the UFC.

A nine-fight UFC veteran, Sakara dropped to the 185-pound middleweight division following a victory over James Lee in January, but was defeated by Chris Leben via first-round TKO in his debut in the new weight class. He got back on track and evened his UFC record at 4-4 with a first-round knockout of Joe Vedepo in September.

Other bouts slated for the Febuary 7th card in Tampa, Florida include headliner Joe Launzon vs. Hermes Franca as well as Mac Danzig vs. Josh Neer, Nick Catone vs. Amir Sadollah, and Denis Stojnic vs. Cain Velasquez.

WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown will square off with Leonard Garcia in his first defense of the 145-pound title.

MMAJunkie.com confirmed the matchup over the weekend.

The bout will headline a March event that is likely to take place in Florida.

Brown (20-4), a winner of eight-straight, earned the title with a first-round TKO of Urijah Faber. Garcia (12-3) most-recently posted back-to-back first-round TKOs ofHiroyuki Takaya and Jens Pulver.

Former heavyweight contender Brandon Vera will go for his second victory at light heavyweight when he takes on Mike Patt at UFC 96 on March 7th in Columbus, Ohio.

The bout joins Shane Carwin vs. Gabriel Gonzaga (and potentially Chuck Liddell vs. Keith Jardine) on the rumored lineup for the March event.

Middleweight contenders Wilson Gouveia and Nate Marquardt will square off at UFC 95 on February 21st in London, England, MMAFrenzy.com has confirmed.

UFC 95 is co-headlined by a lightweight showdown featuring Diego Sanchez and Joe Stevenson.

Heavyweights Shane Carwin and Gabriel Gonzaga are likely to clash at UFC 96 on March 7th in Columbus, Ohio, Five Ounces of Pain is reporting.

In other UFC 96 news, former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell, in a recent radio interview on The Tom Leykis Show, confirmed that he’s working towards a rematch with Keith Jardine at the march event. “There’s been a few names,” said Liddell. “We have Jardine listed. We want him in March.”

After much neglect over the past two weeks as I completed my finals, the MMAFrenzy.com MMA rumors section has been completely updated.

Nearly every upcoming fight card has been updated, including UFC 92, which saw Mike Wessel replace Mark Burch against Antoni Hardonk on the evening’s preliminary card, UFC 93, which has now been finalized, and UFC Fight Night 17, whose updates included Denis Stojnic vs. Cain Velasquez and Rich Clementi vs. Gleison Tibau.

The lineups for both upcoming events in Japan, FEG FieLDS Dynamite!! 2008 and World Victory Road Sengoku no Ran 2009, were also updated.

Diego Sanchez’s first fight at 155-pounds is likely to come against recent lightweight title challenger Joe Stevenson at UFC 95 on February 21st in London, England, according to Sherdog.

The bout is expected to be the co-headliner of the evening after initial plans to have UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva headline the event fell through.