Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva has a huge opportunity in front of him after many experts felt that Silva's best days were beyond him after losing three fights in a row. Now he's looking at a showdown with a familiar opponent that could yield one of the biggest opportunities of his career, a chance at the UFC light heavyweight championship.

"I think after I beat Rampage (Quinton Jackson), it may be possible I fight with the champion," Silva told Fighter's Only Magazine.

If the Brazilian mixed martial artist were to win and Forrest Griffin got past Rashad Evans, it could setup a fight between sparring partners. When asked how he would deal with that possibility, Silva responded, "I am a professional and he is a professional. I like him, he is a very nice guy. Outside the Octagon, I am his friend, but inside the Octagon it is a business, a job."

The good thing is that we will not have to wait long to see if Silva would get a crack at Griffin as both fighters will be on the same card on December 27 at UFC 92.

November is never a great month for sports. The World Series is already over, the NBA and NHL's interminable regular seasons are just starting, and the NFL ruins the Thanksgiving by subjecting football fans to the Detroit Lions.

But on Saturday night, the heavyweight title will be on the line in the Ultimate Fighting Championship -- perhaps the biggest fight ever in the burgeoning sport of mixed martial arts.

Some sports fans have never heard of MMA, while others are under the impression that its fights are barbaric spectacles. The reality is that the UFC has intricate rules and boasts world class athletes. The sport attracts Olympic wrestlers and black belts, not street fighters and bar brawlers.

But Saturday night's fight will have be a spectacle, and deservedly so. The sport's greatest living legend, the 45-year-old Randy Couture, takes on the enormous Brock Lesnar, a former NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion who made a career in professional wrestling before returning to legitimate sport and giving MMA a try.

John McCarthy, who has worked as a referee in the sport since the second UFC event in 1994, calls the fight "The classic matchup -- probably the most physically impressive man in mixed martial arts (Lesnar) going against the most mentally impressive man (Couture)."

Dana White, the irascible president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, likes to say that his sport's biggest fights will some day be bigger than the Super Bowl in this country and the World Cup in the rest of the world. Like all great fight promoters, White is prone to hyperbole, but as the sport of mixed martial arts marches toward mainstream acceptance, the Couture-Lesnar fight could be its turning point. The fight will be purchased on pay-per-view by close to 1 million fans, and it is receiving a level of coverage from mainstream news sources that is unprecedented for the sport.

Although Couture is an intelligent, articulate man who is beloved by fans and doing something extraordinary by continuing to compete into his 40s, a victory by Lesnar would probably do more for the sport's long-term prospects. Fans are naturally drawn to the 31-year-old Lesnar, a strikingly impressive athlete with a gift for self-promotion.

Look for Couture to win because of his superior experience and knowledge -- Couture's background is in amateur wrestling, but he has also become a student of Eastern martial arts and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. But if Lesnar beats Couture in dominant fashion, it could be a star-making performance similar to Mike Tyson's 1988 knockouts of Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks.

Two decades after the pinnacle of Tyson's career, big fights have virtually disappeared from water-cooler conversations in America. But if there's a fight that can change that, it's Couture vs. Lesnar.

Taken from: nbcnewyork.com

According to an SEC filing (a public companies' financial statement or other formal document submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission) by ProElite, Inc. on Thursday, the company is refusing to close its doors without a fight.

On October 31, the company received a notice from Showtime Networks announcing the sale of ProElite assets at a public auction. On November 4, the cable network made an SEC filing announcing the sale and placed ads on several MMA websites advertising it. Showtime's Senior Vice President of Sports and Event Programming, Ken Hershman, also sits on ProElite's board of directors.

In line with a recent letter to fighter managers promising a return in early 2009, ProElite said it would do everything in its power to stay off the auctioning block.

"The Company plans to take all appropriate measures to prevent the sale from occurring," the filing states. "Such measures may include raising additional financing, filing a lawsuit enjoining the sale, filing a bankruptcy petition or negotiating a settlement with Showtime. There can be no assurances that the company will be successful in any of these actions."

According to some sources, ProElite's first tactic may be to sue CBS Networks over gate revenue produced by its third show, "Heat". The embattled company could argue the network forced them into default on a one million dollar loan from Showtime by misrouting the funds from the Sunrise, Florida, show.

A condition of Showtime's loan, dated June 18, said ProElite's assets could be sold or taken over if it did not maintain $550,000 in cash reserves.

"CBS took the gate revenue directly from Miami, and it was contracted to go through ProElite first," a source said. "If that had happened at the time that (Showtime) called in the note, there would have been enough money that they couldn't have called in the note. So there's a legal argument there."

"ProElite's claim would be that they could have raised the money in that time, but once Showtime called in that note, publicly, it ruined any chances of raising money."

An SEC filing on December 9 detailed an agreement between CBS and ProElite where CBS would cover all costs associated with the show, and "receive" all revenue from the event, though details on how that would occur were not specified.

The question now is whether ProElite can afford to go to battle with CBS in a civil court.

Requests to CBS and ProElite representatives asking for comment were not immediately returned.

The auction, however, could possibly determine the futures of fighters like Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Frank Shamrock, Nick Diaz, Cristiane Santos, Yves Edwards, Wilson Reis and many others.

Following the UFC 90 event at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, on October 25, 2008, three UFC fighters have been issued medical suspensions, following their performances.

Patrick "The Predator" Cote (picture), who suffered a knee injury shortly in to the third round of his fight with Anderson "The Spider" Silva, has been suspended for 45 days and can have no contact for 30 days. Cote will likely be sidelined longer depending on the nature of his knee injury.

UFC heavyweight Fabricio Werdum has been suspended 60 days, no contact for 45 days. Werdum lost to Junior Dos Santos via a stunning TKO in the first round.

Drew McFedries, who fought on the preliminary card, was also suspended for 30 days following his submission loss to Thales Leites in the first round.