Kevin Iole interviews Frank Mir over at Yahoo sports about his comments on Cheick Kongo's ground game (or lack thereof.) As has been previously reported, Mir is not afraid to speak the truth:

“There’s one other heavyweight I can think of in the division who is (worse), but you know, it’s just some of the mistakes he makes on the ground, the body stuff,” Mir said. “He just scrambles to get back up on his feet. Honestly, he’s one of the least dangerous guys (on the ground). If you asked me to rank 10 guys who might arm-bar me and ask where he’s on that list, I’d have to say probably dead last. The only thing I do give him credit for is he’s actually very good on ground and pound.

When Iole asked Mir whether or not it was part of his game plan to try to anger Kongo in the pre-fight build-up and get him to fight emotionally (which could obviously lead him to make more mistakes for Mir to capitalize on, ie Dan Hardy vs. Marcus Davis,) Mir acknowledged that the possibility, but he also had this to say:

“It’s crazy. I’m a fighter. What, am I supposed to worry that he’s going to beat me up if he hears me say that? We’re going to fight anyway, so I think I might as well just say what I’m thinking. So I’ve kind of gone that route.”

I have to admit, I can't argue with his logic.

According to mmaweekly, Gouveia asked for a catchweight of 190 lbs. However, Belcher was already at 195 and decided he didn't want to cut any more weight, and made a counter-offer of 195 lbs.

Gouveia has had trouble making weight in the past, while Belcher has never come in over the 185 lb. limit (to my knowledge.) If Gouveia was killing himself to make weight and Belcher was in the middle of his usual, relatively comfortable weight drop, this should give Belcher an ever bigger advantage in cardio (which he would have had anyway, considering Gouveia's tendency to gas in later rounds.)

This news comes courtesy of MMA Fanhouse:

Dong Hyun Kim has been forced to pull out of his UFC 110 bout against Chris Lytle due to a knee injury. No replacement has been signed just yet.

I have to admit, I am disappointed I was looking forward to seeing Kim take on a legitimate challenge in Lytle. Kim looked great in his UFC debut against an overmatched Jason Tan, but struggled with a split decision win over the underrated Matt Brown before losing a split decision to Karo Parisyan (later turned into a NC due to Parisyan's positive drug test.) Kim's last fight was a unanimous decision win over the Canadian T.J. Grant. 

Much has been said lately about the fact that UFC 108 and UFC 109 are both weak cards. Neither card will feature a title fight or even have a truly compelling main event. Looking at the lists of fighters slated for those two cards, I think it should be possible to cancel UFC 109 and use those fighters to beef up the UFC 108 card. I'm not saying that this even probable at this point, but it's worth a look to see what kind of match-ups could be made. In addition, fighters who have recently fought but not taken serious damage should be considered as well. This makes for a number of compelling match-ups:

antonio rogerio nogueira vs. thiago Silva

Ben Saunders vs. Paul Daley

Dustin Hazelett vs. Paulo Thiago

Jon Jones vs. Brandon Vera

Tyson Griffin vs. Joe Lauzon

Sean Sherk vs. Jim Miller

Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman

This way, Rashad could be kept on the sidelines until Rampage returns and there could still be a very appealing card. Just my opinion.