Coming Soon: Rich Franklin vs Dan Henderson

Gotta read Dave Meltzer's Yahoo! columns closely because there are always little nuggets in there. In this case its news about upcoming Welterweight and Middleweight mega-matches:

New welterweight champion St. Pierre was offered a title defense with Jon Fitch, but felt his hands were damaged in his win over Matt Serra in Montreal and he couldn't be ready in such a short period of time. Franklin, who also fought in Montreal, was offered a match with Dan Henderson, but felt after such a hard training camp that he wouldn't be able to peak again so soon. Both fights are expected to take place later this year.

Franklin/Henderson is a really smart match. Both guys lost convincingly to Anderson Silva and in Franklin's case, he won't be getting a third rematch. Henderson needs at least 2 or 3 impressive wins to get another shot, and beating Franklin would be a great start along that road. It's also a very good chance for Franklin to show that even though he can't beat A. Silva, he's still a top middleweight.

Meltzer also reveals that Anderson Silva was contacted to rescue the UFC 85 card but couldn't for some ominous sounding reasons:

Silva recently underwent an undisclosed operation and hasn't given UFC a timetable on when he'll be available to fight. There is an issue regarding a potential fight with Roy Jones Jr., since UFC refused to allow the match and didn't like him talking abut it. But Silva has continued to talk about Jones as an opponent, largely to the exclusion of everyone else.

He also has some speculation on who Chuck Liddell's next opponent will be:

Liddell, meanwhile, hopes to be back for a show in September. His likely opponents would either be Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, who he was originally scheduled to face in London before Rua had surgery for a torn ACL, or more likely whoever wins the May 24 match between Wanderlei Silva and Keith Jardine.