“Nate’s been bothering the UFC about getting somebody to stand up and bang with him, because Clay Guida went in and just took him down and out-wrestled him. Stevenson did the same thing. Everybody knows I am a great wrestler, but I’m also a great striker and I want to have a good stand-up battle. I mean, if he really wants someone to go in there and stand up and bang with him? I’m that guy.”

– UFC lightweight Melvin Guillard discusses his UFC Fight Night 19 headlining matchup against Nate Diaz with UFC.com.

UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn, fresh off his successful title defense against Kenny Florian earlier this month at UFC 101, recently told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald that he hopes to fight top 155-pound contender Diego Sanchez within the next two months and would like a third matchup with current welterweight title-holder Georges St-Pierre.

More light as now been shed on rumors that M-1 Global may have misled Gegard Mousasi in negotiations with the UFC before the light heavyweight signed with Strikeforce as CBS Radio host Carmichael Dave recently spoke to UFC Vice President of Talent Relations Joe Silva on the subject of Mousasi and M-1, and later posted a transcript of that conversation to the Sherdog Forums:

“Gegard called me about a week ago. He asked if it was true that the UFC offered 40/40 (40k to show, 40k bonus to win), Silva said. “I told him no, because we never actually made an offer. Not only did we not make an offer, but we would’ve assumed his Affliction contract and its terms. So whatever Affliction was paying him, that’s what we would’ve honored, and it was considerably more than 40/40.”

UFC President Dana White was in Abu Dhabi yesterday on business when news broke that top-heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko would pass on the UFC’s lucrative offer by accepting a contract with Strikeforce that offered co-promotion.

“Fedor is a [expletive] joke. [He] turns down a huge deal and the opportunity to face the best in the world to fight nobodies, for no money. Fedor is a [expletive],” said White on Monday.

In an appearance on Inside MMA, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou discussed the controversial ending to his DREAM 9 victory over Jan Nortje. "I was pounding and I didn't want to stop. But I should have stopped. I feel like a douchebag doing it. I'm really sorry for it."

Vitor Belfort speaks to Tatame on his rumored matchup with Gegard Mousasi at Affliction 3. "Now I have to see if he’ll get down to middleweight. Who defines this isn’t him. I fight at 185lbs. If they want to do this fight at 185lbs, it’s done, otherwise I see no option to go up."

Welterweight challenger Thiago Alves, who meets UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre on July 11th at UFC 100, has predicted he'll shock the world with a knockout of GSP. "I'm not just going to win, I'm going to knock him out. I'm going to shock the world."

In a recent interview with Croatian website Index.hr, heavyweight Alistair Overeem disclosed his rather odd choice for a new diet: "Before I ate a lot of vegetables that are healthy but contained little energy. Now I mainly eat a horse meat, rice and protein shakes."

UFC President Dana White in a post-UFC 97 interview with Yahoo! Sports: "I can honestly tell you that I’ve never put on an event that I was embarrassed to be at until tonight. I want to publicly apologize to all the fans. I apologize."

UFC President Dana White on Sunday issued the promotion's first comments on Affliction's rumored July 11th event. "I love it. I don’t like these guys and I want to see them spend more of their t-shirt money," said White.

Kevin Randleman has signed with Strikeforce, Showtime has announced the Strikeforce broadcast team, Joe Riggs and Brett Rogers are under consideration to complete the April 11th main card, plus quotes and photos from Strikeforce's Thursday press conference.

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