The UFC will stage its next European in June at the O2 Arena in London, England. The event, tentatively UFC 86, is the first of many upcoming events the UFC plans to hold in Europe. Locations for the future events include Croatia, Ireland, Germany, Scotland, and England.

Dana White revealed that the UFC will continue to recognize Randy Couture as the promotion’s heavyweight champion due to the contractual benefits the UFC receives by doing so. The UFC 81 bout between Tim Sylvia and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be for the interim UFC heavyweight championship and the name of the title won’t be changing anytime soon according to White who stated, “We’ll keep it [an interim title] forever.”

Andrei Arlovski will almost certainly return to the UFC in March at UFC 82 to take on Jake O’Brien. The fight will be Arlovski’s last fight on his current UFC contract.

Sean Sherk will face BJ Penn on May 24th at UFC 85 in Las Vegas. The event will also likely feature Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida.

With his win over Gabriel Gonzaga on Saturday Fabricio Werdum propelled himself to the top of the heavyweight contenders. He will face the winner of next month’s title match between Tim Sylvia and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Behind Werdum, the winner of Cheick Kongo versus Heath Herring at UFC 82 will likely receive the next heavyweight title shot.

The Ultimate Fighter 7 will begin filming this week following UFC Fight Night 12 on January 23rd.

The announced attendance for UFC 80 was 8,412

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic is reportedly still uncertain about his future with no fight yet booked for his return to the UFC later this year.

The UFC remains in talks with Japanese MMA fighters Takanori Gomi, Kid Yamamoto, and Hayato Sakurai.

The numbering for upcoming UFC shows beyond UFC 82 remains uncertain. Reports suggest that the planned show between UFC 82 in Columbus, Ohio and the April 19th show in Montreal, Canada may have been scrapped all together meaning UFC 83 will be in Montreal, UFC 84 in Las Vegas in May, and UFC 85 in London in June. We’re tentatively leaving the rumored card in our rumors section until we can confirm the event is officially off.

Jonathan Goulet will take on Kuniyoshi Hironaka on April 19th in Montreal.

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated Dana White guaranteed the UFC will soon sign a deal to air on network television.

Tomasz Drwal has suffered a knee injury which has forced him to withdraw from his UFC 81 bout against David Heath. No replacement has yet been determined for the February 2nd fight.

[via MMA Weekly, Yahoo, Pro Elite, TKO Xtreme, SI, and Ground and Pound]