June featured a dominating win by Wladimir Klitschko as well as a narrow margin of victory for Miguel Cotto over Joshua Clottey. Check inside to see how each fight effected our pound-for-pound boxer rankings at Inside Fights.

Now that the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Juan Manuel Marquez bout has been postponed, what is the best fight to watch in July?

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According to a report from Fighters Only, Lorenzo Fertitta flew to Croatia late last night/early this morning to have a private conversation with Mirko Filipovic regarding a return to the UFC. The report also states that Fertitta made Filipovic an offer “he couldn’t refuse” and that the Croatian striker will be rejoining the UFC.

This has been one hell of a soap opera, but it looks like it’s about to reach a conclusion. Fertitta only gets involved in matters that are important to the company or in situations where Dana White is too close to the situation.

He’s a very big man.

You were well aware of this, of course. But standing next to Brock Lesnar gives a true sense of just how big her really is. His 280 pounds are filled to the brim with hard-earned muscle, the kind that typically only starts to develop on farms in the Midwest where he grew up.

Lesnar’s strength is certainly his most visible asset. He’s far and away the most powerful man in mixed martial arts.

Heavyweight champions have never looked like him.

They looked like Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianenko, who’s widely considered the best fighter in the world: Men who are bigger than your average civilian, but not overwhelmingly so. Couture is 6-foot-2, 220 pounds; Emelianenko 6-foot, 230.

Lesnar, on the other hand, is so massive that it nearly borders on comical. But, it’s not just his size and strength that’s overwhelming. Lesnar, an NCAA wrestling champion in 2000, is as quick as some of MMA’s top light heavyweights. He can pummel an opponent or just dominate him on the canvas.

Heading into next Saturday’s title unification bout at UFC 100 versus Frank Mir, Lesnar is considered the prototype for the new heavyweight, just as Georges St. Pierre is thought to be the new mold for lighter fighters. Lesnar’s the reason some pundits are clamoring for a cruiserweight division, a place for people who would typically be considered a heavyweight but don’t even come close Lesnar’s size.

He may weigh in at the UFC heavyweight limit of 265 pounds, but on fight night, he’s 280 again and dominant.
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Here’s a sneak preview of the Countdown to UFC 100 show:

From what I’ve heard, the footage they’ve captured for this show is some of the best they’ve ever done. The show airs Tuesday night at 10pm ET.

Our good friends over at the Houston Chronicle are running a contest that will interest quite a few of you: the UFC has donated a piece of the canvas that will be used at UFC 100, and they’re giving it away to a lucky reader.

All you have to do is leave a comment on the post linked above predicting the winner, round and method of victory for each of the UFC 100 main card fights. The entry with the closest prediction will win the piece of canvas.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to write up my entry. I’m winning that canvas.

Georges St. Pierre is a heavy betting favorite over Thiago Alves for next weekend’s UFC 100 card, and Inside Fights seemingly concur that Alves has little chance against the Canadian welterweight champion and reigning king of the Inside Fights pound for pound rankings.

In our latest Inside Fights Poll, we asked you who will win the battle between St. Pierre and Alves, and 81% of you voted for St. Pierre.

We now turn our attention to the main event of the evening: the heavyweight rematch between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir. Vote now by going over to our right sidebar and picking your winner for the fight!

With UFC 100 upon us it’s only natural to contemplate the best of the best to emerge from the first ninety nine fight cards. UFC 1 took place back on November 12, 1993 with Royce Gracie winning an eight-man single elimination tournament format. The matches then ended only by submission, knockout, or throwing in the towel, therefore no judges were necessary.

In the last 16 years a lot has changed.

The rules of years gone by hardly resemble today’s extended list. That original tournament had no weight classes or weight limits. Today there are five weight classes with the heavyweight division capping out at 265 pounds.

Comparing fighters from one generation to the next can be a dubious task. Can you honestly compare the impact Royce Gracie had to that of Anderosn Silva? It’s a pitfall any sport has to sidestep when ranking the best and we journey onward.

For this list only fights that took place within the octagon will be considered. A fighters impact on the sport beyond overall fight record will be heavily considered. Title fights, title defenses, win streaks and things of that nature are all factors that are considred when ranking the list.

With all that said we give you our list of the Top Ten greatest fighters to emerge from the first ninety nine UFC fight cards.

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I’ve heard a lot of whoppers in my day, but the story that Loretta Hunt is trying to pass off over at Sherdog takes the cake. If you missed it on the first pass, let me summarize for you: Loretta believes that the Gina Carano/Cyborg Santos fight will generate more publicity than UFC 100.

It seems ludicrous, but Strikeforce has apparently bought into the hype. They’re having the expected press conference for the August 15th main event, but they’re not having it in the typical Strikeforce markets. No, they’re holding it in New York City, as if doing a press conference in the world’s biggest media market will guarantee them the kind of hype and exposure they’re looking for.

The problem is that Strikeforce is still flying below the radar, and this show is going to be on Showtime. That’s a severe handicap for a fight that would probably have garnered quite a bit of interest from mainstream America. So we’re hyping up a show that won’t be seen by a huge majority of mixed martial arts fans because they don’t have Showtime, and it’s certainly not going to get people to subscribe to an ongoing addition to their cable or satellite bill. Pay per view would have been a much better choice, but a network television slot would have been the ultimate coup.

This fight is a big fight, certainly the biggest non-UFC fight of the summer, but anyone who claims that it’s going to outshine UFC 100 in terms of publicity is fooling themselves. I’m looking forward to the fight just as much as the next person, and it’s certainly a landmark event (and will be treated as such), but to say that it’ll garner more publicity than UFC simply because of the combatants involved in the show is laughable.

Look, we all know that Vitor Belfort is leaving Affliction after his fight in August. That much was confirmed on the night that Dana White went on Spike television and talked about Belfort facing Anderson Silva, because despite what White now claims, he’s not going to go on television and talk about a guy unless he feels like he has him under contract. It would be a display of bad promotional skills to promote someone who you don’t have under contract, and White’s burning at the hands of Mirko Cro Cop likely only solidified his distrust of doing anything that he doesn’t have locked down. He went on television to talk about Belfort, and therefore he must feel like he has an iron-clad deal in place with Belfort.

The fact that White is backpedaling from his statements at this point is likely due to a legal issue. He made the mistake of talking about a guy coming into the UFC who is under contract with another promotion, and he did so on television. I’m not sure if Affliction sent any kind of cease and desist order to Zuffa headquarters or if White is just heeding the advice of his own company lawyers, but the words coming out of White’s mouth regarding Belfort at this point are the words of someone who is very gently stepping around a legal landmine.

Obviously, Belfort has to beat Jorge Santiago, and that’s not a guaranteed win.  Belfort can certainly win the fight (and should win the fight), but he can lose. If he loses, will White still be interested in bringing him in? Probably, but it won’t be for an immediate title shot against Anderson Silva, which seems to be the focus of Belfort’s efforts in dropping to the middleweight division.

There would still be plenty of interesting fights available for Belfort even if he were to lose to Santiago, but he could cost himself a potential title shot and a ton of money with a loss.