Bloody Elbow, for MMA and UFC news

Lyoto Machida is ready to step back into the Octagon and has a few potential opponents in mind, as his manager, Ed Soares, tells MMA Weekly: "He's out here training, we're ready to go right now," said Soares. "He's ready to fight whoever, he wants to fight the best too." A few different names have been mentioned as possible opponents, including Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Forrest Griffin, while there are others that intrigue the former champion as well. One name that popped up was former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin, who just knocked out Chuck Liddell in June, and could be looking for a big fight at 205 pounds. Franklin and Machida actually fought in 2003 in Japan in what was Machida's third professional fight. "That could be a big fight," Soares said about a fight with Franklin. "At the end of the day that's the first guy who gave Rich Franklin his first loss, maybe Rich Franklin would like to avenge that. That could be a good fight." "You know what I think would be interesting is how about a Vitor Belfort?" said Soares. "Vitor Belfort/Lyoto Machida? I think Vitor now will get another fight before he fights Anderson Silva. Put it this way, anything can happen, you never know."

Chuck Liddell signs Rich Franklin's cast. HT: The UG UFC 115: Liddell vs Franklin Coverage Promoted to the Front Page by Anton Tabuena

UFC 115 flops at the movie theaters: (Observer Radio audio) Dave Meltzer - "Oh, by the way, from everything that I can gather, the UFC closed circuit bombed [Saturday] night." "I mean just a lot of reports of 20 people, 16 people, 35 people in theaters." "It wasn’t the show for it." "You know, I mean the bar stuff I’ve heard you know people say that there was 1/5th as many people as [UFC 114] and… again, I mean, you know you can’t come, it’s two weeks, it’s real quick to come back and I mean for any show and this was I mean you know they ended up having a good show but it was just too quick and you know in between two monster main events, ... they booked a match that people really didn’t want to see. ...Most people really don’t want to see Rich Franklin get knocked out, and everyone loves Chuck." -- transcribed by fightopinion.com UFC 115: Liddell vs. Franklin coverage

Rich Franklin - "I broke my ulna n my forearm. I find out today if i need surg today. Either way im casted at least 8 wks" HT: twitter.com/FollowACE UFC 115: Liddell vs. Franklin coverage

BloodyElbow.com's updated UFC 115 picked to win %: - Rich Franklin (26-5) 60% vs. Chuck Liddell (21-7) 40% - Pat Barry (5-1) 77% vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (26-7-2) 23% - Paulo Thiago (13-1) 88% vs. Martin Kampmann (16-3) 12% - Ben Rothwell (30-7) 45% vs. Gilbert Yvel (36-14-1) 55% - Carlos Condit (24-5) 66% vs. Rory MacDonald (10-0) 34% - Tyson Griffin (14-2) 67% vs. Evan Dunham (10-0) 33% - Mac Danzig (19-7-1) 52% vs. Matt Wiman (11-5) 48% - David Loiseau (19-9) 57% vs. Mario Miranda (9-1) 43% - James Wilks (6-3) 86% vs. Peter Sobotta (8-2) 14% - Claude Patrick (11-1) 75% vs. Ricardo Funch (7-1) 25% - Mike Pyle (18-7-1) 70% vs. Jesse Lennnox (11-2) 30% Don't forget to get in your Fantasy Picks and Fantasy Wagers for UFC 115. UFC 115: Liddell vs. Franklin coverage