MMAJunkie recently revealed its poll results  for the question, besides Anderson Silva, who is the best Middleweight in MMA?  Apparently, despite not even fighting at 185lbs anymore, the answer is Rich Franklin.

These poll results are probably accurate considering how dominant Rich Franklin was in the Middleweight division during his reign as champion.  Interestingly, Dan Henderson, who fights Franklin in the 205lb division in January at UFC 93,  is the runner up to Franklin in the Poll Results.  You would have to consider Paulo Filho somewhere in the runnning, despite his being close to insane, and you would have to consider Cung Le, even though he hasn't fought recently and does not plan to fight anytime soon.

Another reason why it would be easy to consider Franklin as the top contender for best Middleweight is simply the fact that there are so little good Middleweight fighters out there, especially in the UFC.

Jorge Gurgel

Jorge Gurgel, famed UFC under-performer, has signed with Strikeforce after being released from the UFC.  Despite receiving fight of the night honors after his last bout in the Octagon, the UFC decided to let him go.

“I am very very excited to be part of Strikeforce and given a chance to fight new blood and capture a belt. UFC has been my family for a few years now but I am ready for the next chapter. There are some amazing contenders in my weight class including Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez. I will do whatever it takes to climb to the top of this league.”

Gurgel has had some memorable fights in the UFC refusing to fall back on his strength, BJJ, and always choosing to stand and strike with his opponents.  Jorge says he will go to his jui-jitsu while fighting with Strikeforce and wants to eventually return to the UFC.

The UFC is working out a deal to bring UFC 99 to Germany June 13th.  This is big news for German Mixed Martial Arts fans who have been waiting for years for this.

Apparently the UFC is trying to make Randy Couture Vs. Chuck Liddell 4 the headline.  It is not known whether the match would take place at Heavyweight or Light Heavyweight.  Chuck Liddell has never fought at Heavyweight in the UFC but Couture has.  The two faced off at Light Heavyweight in their previous three bouts, two won by Liddell, the first won by Couture.

Couture would be a draw for the German fans as he spent four years stationed in Germany and speaks German.  The UFC would likely add more local draws to the fight card.

Urijah Faber, who is looking for a rematch against Mike Brown for the WEC Featherweight Title, may face Jens "Lil' Evil" Pulver instead in the WEC's January fight card.

Faber recently lost the Featherweight Title to Brown at WEC 36.  Mike Brown capitalized on a reverse flying elbow manuever by Faber with a stiff right hand that knocked down Faber and ultimately did him in.  This was Faber's first loss in three years.

Jens Pulver fought against Urijah Faber at WEC 34 in what may go down as the MMA fight of the year.  Urijah dominated the judges scorecards, however, winning a uninamous decision and winning every round.  Pulver definately had Faber rocked a few times during the bout and Faber is presented with a challenge in having to go into another war with the hard hitting Pulver.

It's probably not the best matchup for either Pulver or Faber at this point.  It would be good for both fighters at this point to regress a bit in competition and face some up-and-comers, however, this may be the best fight for the WEC.  Faber Vs. Pulver 1 was a huge success for the company and was an all around awesome match.  Both fighters gave their all for five full rounds and put on a great show.  We should expect nothing less from a possible second match but it's probably to soon.  Jens Pulver needs some solid wins to get back in to contender status and Urijah Faber should be put in a position to showcase his skills against other contenders.

Josh Koscheck is scheduled to fight Yoshiyuki Yoshida in the main event of UFC Fight Night: Fight for the Troops.

Yoshida most recently beat War Machine by anaconda choke at UFC 84: Ill Will.  Josh Koscheck most recently lost to Thiago Alves by unanimous decision at UFC 90, a fight in which Koscheck had just two weeks to prepare for as he was a late substitute.  Look for Koscheck to try to rebound against up and comer Yoshiyuki Yoshida.

Also on the nights list of fights:

Jonathan Goulet vs. Mike Swick
Razak Al-Hussan vs. Steve Cantwell
Tim Credeur vs. Nate Loughran
Frankie Edgar vs. Matt Wiman
Brodie Farber vs. Luigi Fioravanti
Steve Bruno vs. Johnny Rees
Ben Saunders vs. Brandon Wolff
Dale Hartt vs. Corey Hill
Eddie Sanchez vs. Justin McCully

 Plenty of ex-Ultimate Fighter competitors on this card and Frankie Edgar vs. Matt Wiman should be fight of the night.

Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson will headline UFC 93: Franklin Vs. Henderson.  This is a dream fight for UFC fans as both these fighters are very respected and trying to make a run in the extremely volatile UFC Light Heavyweight division.  Also on tap for the maincard is a Light Heavyweight rematch between the very exciting Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and the very first UFC Heavyweight Champion, Mark "The Hammer" Coleman.

The Franklin-Henderson bout is one mma fans have been itching to see for a while.  Both Franklin and Henderson have been involved in legendary matchups.  Rich Franklin has moved up to Light Heavyweight having not been able to find an answer for Anderson Silva.  He recently defeated Matt Hamill in convincing fashion.  Franklin is an excellent striker and has uncanny strength.  Dan Henderson is coming off a recent win against Rousimar Palhares and losses to Anderson Silva and Quinton Jackson, both being Title losses.  Henderson has a big right hand that he used to knockout Wanderlei Silva and has world class Greco Roman wrestling.

The rest of the card for UFC 93 has yet to be finalized.  UFC Event Tickets may still be found for this event.

UFC 94 is set to showcase two of the best pound-for-pound MMA fighters on the planet with George St. Pierre putting his UFC Welterweight Championship title on the line against "The Prodigy" B.J. Penn.  This is a rematch between the two from UFC 58 in which St. Pierre won a split decision against Penn.

This is a highly anticipated matchup as both fighters have improved  by leaps and bounds since their last fight.  Georges has added wrestling to the list of things he's better at than everyone else and B.J. has dedicated himself to being the best fighter he can be as opposed to just being a the best fighter  he can be without having to try hard.

I would like to give an early prediction to this fight and say that B.J. Penn will be the victor.  I think Penn is much more tenacious than Pierre.  Penn wants to beat Pierre more than anything while it seems that to GSP, this UFC thing is just a job.  That's not to say Georges can't beat Penn.  I just think that Penn wants it more.  As far as skill, athleticism and professionalism go, St. Pierre is tops.  Let's hope he comes in wanting to destroy Penn.

The fight may be sold out, but you can still find UFC Event Tickets for sale.

With EliteXC having folded, many of it's fighters are already looking for new organizations to call home.  Jake Shields is one of the more high profile fighters of that group being a top-ranked Welterweight.

Shields is calling himself a free agent after having filed a breach of contract against EliteXC.  Jake is ranked 4th in the 170lb division by WAMMA and it should not be difficult to find a place to fight very soon.  He would like to be a UFC Fighter.  "My dad manages me," says Shields. "He's just started looking around today. Obviously the UFC being the top show that I'm looking at, but I'm definitely going to look around a little bit. Hopefully I'll be signed somewhere in the next month and be fighting within two or three months."

It would be good to see the UFC give him a contract.  Shields is a world class fighter and would present many UFC veterans with a challenge.  Jake Shields has good striking, is an excellent grappler and has a black belt in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu.

Dana White went off the deep-end again recently cutting top Welterweight contender UFC Fighter Jon Fitch.  White said he would not be dealing with Fitch or anyone else with American Kickboxing Academy.

Said White in an interview, "We're looking for guys who want to work with us and not against us, and frankly I'm just so [expletive] sick of this [expletive] it's not even funny."

The problem apparently stems from a new UFC game in the works for 2009.  The makers of this UFC video game want lifetime rights to the UFC Fighters in the game and Jon Fitch has a problem with that.  "I'm more than willing to work with them, but I don't see why we have to give up our whole lives for this," says Fitch. "Why not a time limit? If we did a 10-year deal with them, is that unreasonable? I don't understand how this happened, honestly. It's tough."

This whole thing to me is borderline insane.  I don't think it's unreasonable for Dana White to ask for his fighters to participate in this video game.  I do think it's unreasanable for him to think that it's appropriate for him to can one of his fighters because they might want to be involved in another video game some time in the future.  Not only that, White decides to flip out about this at a press conferance and thinks that we should all just agree with his tantrum.

Jon Fitch seems like a level headed dude.  He's put in work in the octagon and racked up a record matching winning streak for the UFC.  Why would White go after this guy in that manner?  It makes zero business sense to take this public.  It seems like Dana White's emotions got the better of him.  I don't think it was in the UFC's best interest to let this make headlines.

Any way, Dana White got his way again.  Jon Fitch went ahead and signed the agreement for the video game and he has been returned to UFC fighter status.  He is again scheduled to fight Akihiro Gono at UFC 94 in January.

It is being reported by MMAJunkie that Chuck Liddell may face Anderson Silva next at UFC 95 in London.

Anderson Silva recently defeated Patrick Cote via TKO.  Liddell lost his last fight against Rashad Evans by knockout.

I am fascinated by the idea of a Liddell-Silva matchup.  Anderson Silva normally fights at 185lbs. and is currently the UFC Middleweight Champion.  He has fought at 205lbs and recently beat James Irvin in that weight class.  Liddell might be the UFC's most popular fighter ever, and held the UFC Light Heavyweight Title from April of 2005 until May of 2007.

I love Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell's style of fighting.  He is a counter puncher for the most part and has one of the best sprawls in MMA making him extremely difficult to take down.  This creates very exciting fights for fans and almost always end in a knockout of some sort (either for Liddell or his opponent.)

Anderson Silva is typically a counter puncher himself and has excellent Brazillian jiu-jitsu, having earned a black belt from the Nogueira brothers.

I don't believe this fight would make it anywhere near the ground.  These two would stand and duke it out with Anderson scoring the bulk of shots while Liddell would look for the big knockout punch.  I would hope Liddell would utilize his kicking in a fight like this as I believe he has become far to dependant on his big right hand.  Let's hope the UFC can make this fight happen.