The UFC announced another major breakthrough Tuesday. During a press conference in Toronto, Dana White confirmed that the promotion finally has an event set for Ontario in 2011. From an earlier post by the Toronto Sun:

The UFC will stage its first fight in Ontario on April 30 at the Rogers Centre, president Dana White said Tuesday morning. White told media at a press conference at the Air Canada Centre that he expects the UFC 131 event will be the most attended of all time.

The Toronto Sun says a huge crowd is expected. 

The provincial government expects that a major UFC event in Ontario would draw up to 30,000 fans and generate up to $6 million for the local economy, including cash from hotel rooms rentals, restaurant meal expenditures and retail purchases.

The promotion, led by the efforts of Marc Ratner, has worked for years to get MMA licensed in Canada's most populated province. It finally got initial approval back in August.

The event is also significant because it will mark the first time the UFC will hold an event in a stadium.

Formerly known as Skydome, Rogers Centre, the home of MLB's Toronto Blue Jays, can seat 49,000 for baseball and 54,000 for football.

Dana White stated on many occasions that he was hesitant to hold an event in such a big venue. The UFC president worried about the integrity of the event. Said White via SB Nation:

"I don't want to do one of these big stadiums and lose the live experience, where it's too big and you're looking down and seeing these little ants fighting inside the Octagon." 

UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta was bullish on the possibility. Said Fertitta in October (via TSN.ca):

"It looks like we're going to try and do the Rogers Centre [...] We looked at the [Air Canada Centre] too, but we want to break the record for attendance to MMA... We'll try to get about 40,000 to 50,000 people in there."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-officially-headed-to-Toronto-s-Rogers-Centre?urn=mma-292735

Kendall Grove Clay Guida

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The UFC's spring schedule for 2011 has gotten a bit of a shakeup, as MMAWeekly.com reports on same name changes for events currently on the docket.

The UFC had initially planned to bring an event to Abu Dhabi on March 12, which would have been UFC 128. However, plans for that event have been scrapped, and the March 19 event at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, will now take the UFC 128 moniker.

Additionally, while the UFC's announcement for the April 30 event in Toronto stated it would be UFC 131, it will now be dubbed UFC 129.

Link to Original Source Article

Penick's Analysis: These changes makes sense, and means they won't be packing in quite as many pay-per-view events into that short a time period. There was a fear of two pay-per-views in February, March and April, and now we'll have just one each in March in April, along with a number of free events on Spike or Versus strewn in there as well.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_7862.shtml

He Peng David Heath Delson Heleno Dan Henderson Josh Hendricks

If you missed Saturday night's card, and want to see the replay - order it now at http://www.ufc.com/live or from your cable provider.

Source: http://mmalice.com/ufc-124/ufc-124-highlights-video_6051dd035.html

Achmed Labasanov Jason Lambert Jose Landi Jons Icho Larenas Bobby Lashley

Josh Koscheck laid down a lot of smack during the summer. Georges St. Pierre had to listen to Koscheck's big yapper for nearly three months and then watch it again during the fall on Season 12 of "The Ultimate Fighter."

Tomorrow night, we find out if Koscheck has awakened the beast inside GSP.

Larry Pepe from ProMMARadio.com and Damon Martin from MMAWeekly.com both thought the usually vibrant and loquacious Koscheck was subdued (video) at yesterday's UFC 124 prefight press conference. Does that mean, he's lost his confidence? Is he overwhelmed by the fact that the entire Bell Centre filled with 23,000 fans will be rooting against him?

Pepe, Martin and myself break down the main event. What's the best approach to betting the fight? In this RawVegas.tv video, GSP is listed as a minus-400 favorite, but most Las Vegas sportsbooks have him even higher.

UFC 124 betting odds (Courtesy Lagasse Stadium):

Josh Koscheck (+350) vs. Georges St. Pierre (-500) - UFC welterweight championship
Sean McCorkle (+130) vs. Stefan Struve (-160) - Heavyweight
Charles Oliveira (-115) vs. Jim Miller (-115) - Lightweight
Mac Danzig (+190) vs. Joe Stevenson (-240) - Lightweight
John Howard (+250) vs. Thiago Alves (-330) - Welterweight
Jesse Bongfeldt (+115) vs. Rafael Natal (-145) - Middleweight
John Makdessi +110 vs. Pat Audinwood (-140) - Lightweight
Joe Doerksen (+220) vs. Dan Miller (-300) - Middleweight
T.J. Grant (+150) vs. Ricardo Almeida (-180) - Welterweight
Dustin Hazelett (-115) vs. Mark Bocek (-115) - Lightweight
Sean Pierson (+220) vs. Matt Riddle (-300) - Welterweight

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-124-picks-Vegas-style-Has-Koscheck-broken-?urn=mma-294384

Volk Han Joachim Hansen Antoni Hardonk Dan Hardy Lee Hasdell

Ive Literally just finished it Its Part 1 of of Silva's entire career from MMA To UFC Feedback would be greatly appreciated hope yall like it...

Source: http://www.mmaforum.com/ufc/85492-ultimate-anderson-silva-highlight.html

Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Ao Hailin  Shinya Aoki  Andrei Arlovski 

Try as I might, I just can?t stop posting about Jason Miller. The man known as ?Mayhem? and the host of the popular MTV reality TV show ?Bully Beatdown? has been on a tireless crusade to chase down a catchweight bout with current Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz for what feels like forever now. In [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/12/14/jason-mayhem-miller-nick-diaz-doesnt-want-to-fight-he-wants-to-sit-in-his-bedroom-with-cesar-gracie-and-cuddle

Jai Bradney  Ebenezer Fontes Braga Chris Brennan Marcelo Brito  Rob Broughton 

If there?s one thing Japanese MMA promotions know how to do throughout the numerous ups and downs the sport has been faced with lately? it?s how to end the year with a bang. The annual ?DYNAMITE? event brings together both K-1 and the Japanese-based MMA promotion DREAM for a mixed-card extravaganza that takes place on [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/12/17/dreamk-1s-dynamite-continues-to-develop-gegard-mousasi-to-compete-in-k-1-fight

Rey Phillip Santos Bob Sapp Rumina Sato Kerry Schall Nino Schembri

Overeem's management are still negotiating a deal, but the likely candidate if this gets pulled off seems to be Bobby Lashley. ...

Source: http://ninjashoes.net/forum/showthread.php?71632-Alistair-Overeem-vs-Bobby-Lashley-for-Dream-HW-Title&goto=newpost

Georges St Pierre Masanori Suda Genki Sudo Amar Suloev Mike Swick

Source: http://www.mmamania.com/2010/12/17/1882427/wec-53-eddie-wineland-eyeing-the-ufc-bantamweight-title

Karo Parisyan Sherman Pendergarst B J Penn Anthony Perosh Seth Petruzelli

Dominick Cruz made MMA history, defending the WEC bantamweight title and earning the first-ever UFC bantamweight title with a dominating win over Scott Jorgensen at WEC 53 in Glendale, Ariz. on Thursday night. On all three judges cards, Cruz won 50-45.

Cruz started the fight just as expected. He did not stop moving, throwing combinations and leg kicks, then dancing away from Jorgensen. When Jorgensen could get a hand on Cruz, he tried to take him down but had to settle for a clinch. He could only hold the clinch for a few seconds, as Cruz broke away and returned to the constantly moving stand-up. As the round ended, Jorgensen took Cruz down, but couldn't stay on his back. Cruz rolled out and ended up on top of Jorgensen.

Even with Cruz continuing his stick-and-move game, Jorgensen was able to land a few more punches early in the second round, opening a cut on the bridge of Cruz's nose. Cruz took Jorgensen down halfway through the round and followed that up with damaging elbows. They returned to their feet near the end of the round, but Jorgensen couldn't capitalize on the opportunity.

With Jorgensen's eyes swelling up, Cruz turned up the pressure in the third round. He wobbled Jorgensen with a right hand early. Jorgensen returned to his feet, but Cruz didn't slow. He followed up with kicks to the head and body, all the while dodging and moving between strikes. With a minute left in the round, Cruz hit a beautiful takedown. After that, Jorgensen came close to being able to generate offense, reversing Cruz and taking his back, but Cruz slipped out and returned to his feet.

By the fourth round, Jorgensen needed a home run as he was clearly behind in points. Jorgensen came out strong early, but every time he seemed to get going, Cruz took him down and followed with nasty strikes. Jorgensen, a Division I collegiate wrestler, had no answer for Cruz's kneetap takedown.

Somehow, Cruz did not slow in the fifth and final round. Jorgensen continued to move forward and even got a takedown, but couldn't do anything with it. Cruz answered Jorgensen's takedown with a blast double leg of his own, taking Jorgensen straight down to the canvas.

When the final horn sounded, Cruz walked to the side of the cage where former WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber was sitting, and glared at him. Faber is the only man who has beaten Cruz, and he recently dropped to bantamweight. Cruz didn't hesitate to ask for a bout with Faber after the fight. Faber made comments on the WEC pre-show that made it obvious that he would welcome this fight.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Cruz-makes-UFC-bantamweight-history-with-victory?urn=mma-297126

Chris Horodecki Harold Howard Tom Howard Roger Huerta Matt Hughes