Recent interview with The Oregonian, Dana White talks about future UFC events and mainly, the upcoming card this Saturday: UFC 102.

UFC President Dana White talks UFC 102

Ten fights are now official for UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun on October 24 in Los Angeles, as the UFC on Tuesday added eight additional bouts to the event’s official lineup, joining the previously announced main event between light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua as well as a confirmed heavyweight matchup between Ben Rothwell and Cain Velasquez.

Notable additions to the card include middleweight contender Yushin Okami, a winner of three-straight and 7 of his 8 UFC fights, who meets Chael Sonnen on the untelevised UFC 104 preliminary card, as well as former lightweight champion Sean Sherk, whose fight against Gleison Tibau has been shifted from UFC 103 to the UFC 104 main card.

The official fight card for UFC 104 now features:

MAIN CARD

Lyoto Machida (c) vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
UFC Light Heavyweight Championship
Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell
Sean Sherk vs. Gleison Tibau
Joe Stevenson vs. Spencer Fisher
Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida

PRELIMINARY CARD

Antoni Hardonk vs. Pat Barry
Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen
Jorge Rivera vs. Rob Kimmons
Ryan Bader vs. Eric Schafer
Razak Al-Hassan vs. Kyle Kingsbury
Chase Gormley vs. Stefan Struve

Top-ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko will make his Strikeforce debut against Brett Rogers this fall, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker announced at an open workout for Emelianenko on Wednesday in New York City.

A date and location have not yet been confirmed for the matchup, which ends weeks of speculation that have ensued after Emelianenko’s August 1 Affliction fight against Josh Barnett was cancelled and he subsequently signed with Strikeforce following the collapse of Affliction. Earlier this month, Coker said Emelianenko’s debut would likely headline a November Showtime event.

Emelianenko (30-1) brings a 26-fight win streak into the contest that includes a reign as the heavyweight champion of PRIDE as well as back-to-back victories over Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski in his most-recent fights.

Like Emelianenko, Rogers (10-0) is also coming off a first-round knockout of the former UFC heavyweight champion Arlovski. “Grim” defeated Abongo Humphrey in April in his Strikeforce debut and previously won three-straight fights in EliteXC.

With Fedor now set to fight Rogers, Fabricio Werdum, the other likely opponent for Emelianenko, is likely to fight Strikeforce heavyweight title-holder Alistair Overeem at the promotion’s November or December event, with the winners then meeting in 2010.

New photos have Surfaced of Chuck Liddell practing dancing for his debut on the Dancing with the Stars. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

A welterweight match-up between submission specialists Karo Parisyan and Dustin Hazelett (pictured) has been agreed to for UFC 106.

Sources close to the bout have recently confirmed to MMAWeekly.com that both fighters have agreed to the match-up.

UFC 106 is set for November 21 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card is expected to feature a heavyweight championship bout between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin as the headliner.

Parisyan, a Judo fighter crafted under the guidance of grappling legends Gokor Chivichyan and Gene Lebell, he has established himself as a force in the UFC’s welterweight division since his arrival in 2003, accumulating a record of 8-3-1 during his time spent in the Octagon. Parisyan’s most recent decision victory over Dong Hyun-Kim was overturned after it was revealed that Karo had tested positive for banned pain-killers following the bout.

Hazelett, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Jorge Gurgel, was expected to be fight Ben Saunders at UFC 96, but had to withdraw due to injury. Prior to the injury, Dustin has picked up the coveted “Submission of the Night” in both of his prior appearances in the Octagon. Submmiting Josh Burkman, and Tandem McCory with two of the most impressive Armbars I’ve ever seen.

Just two months short of the biggest fight in his UFC career, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua stated that if the right offer came up he would move up to heavyweight and possibly face off with men such as Brock Lesnar or even Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.

In a recent interview with the Brazilian website Terra.com.br, Shogun stated, “Depending on the money I would fight at heavyweight division. If I receive a good proposal and my moment is good and it is great for my personal marketing, I would have to give it consideration.”

“Shogun”, from Curitiba, Brazil; on October 24 Rua will be challenging Lyoto Machida for the UFC light-heavyweight championship at UFC 104.

Shogun will be coming back from consecutive TKO stoppages over Mark Coleman and Chuck Liddell after being derailed at the hands of Forrest Griffin in his UFC debut. While Machida has gone undefeated in his professional career, this will be Machida’s first title defence since knocking out Rashad Evans at UFC 98 to take the 205 pound title.

A back injury suffered while training has forced lightweight Dan Lauzon to withdraw from his UFC 103 matchup against Rafaello Oliveira, which was set for the preliminary card of the September 19 event in Dallas.

According to MMA Weekly, which first reported the injury on Monday, Lauzon will soon undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the injury and establish a timeline for his return.

It is not yet known whether the UFC will seek a replacement for the fight, or whether Oliveira will instead be scratched from the 13-bout card and booked to fight at another upcoming event.

Lauzon (12-2) made his UFC debut against Spencer Fisher in late-2006 as the youngest fighter in UFC history, losing via first-round TKO. After suffering another defeat to Deividas Taurosevicius in his next bout, “The Upgrade” has won 8-straight, including a first-round submission of Bobby Green at a January Affliction event.

Oliveira (8-1), a training partner of current UFC lightweight champ BJ Penn, has won three-straight.

Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort headlines the UFC 103 pay-per-view card, which also features Junior Dos Santos vs. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Martin Kampmann vs. Mike Swick.

Welterweights Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy (pictured) and Dong Hyun “Stun Gun” Kim are set to fight at UFC 105 from the Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena in Manchester, England, on Nov. 14.

Hardy is coming off perhaps the biggest win of his career — a semi-controversial split decision over Marcus Davis at UFC 99 in June 2009. It was a very close call and one that left a lot of mixed martial arts fans divided.

However, it was the third straight win for “The Outlaw” inside the Octagon and his sixth since a disqualification loss to Yoshiyuki Yoshida in late 2007. In fact, Hardy has won 11 of his last 12 fights, including a brutal first round knockout of Rory Markham and a split decision win over the respected veteran Akihiro Gono.

The rising British star has not had an easy road since his debut for the organization, and that difficult journey will continue against the South Korean judo player.

Kim scored a unanimous decision over Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylist TJ Grant at UFC 100. He dropped a split decision to Karo Parisyan at UFC 94 earlier in the year, which was later overturned to a no contest after Karo tested positive for pain killers. And before that, Kim went the distance against Matt Brown in another close split decision, but this time in a winning effort.

Both fighters will likely want to keep this one out of the judges hands at all costs to avoid any and all controversy.

(props to mmaweekly.com for pic.)

Former Elite XC welterweight champion Jake Shields and former ICON Sport middleweight champion Jason “Mayhem” Miller (pictured) will battle it out for the interim Strikeforce middleweight title sometime soon.

No date or location is known at this time. Miller made the announcement in a recent forum post over at MyFightTeam.com.

Mayhem stated:

“I’m set to take on Jake Shields for the middleweight championship of the world in Strikeforce.”

It’s expected that the winner of the 185-pound contest between Shields and Miller will challenge reigning Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Cung Le later this year to unify the belts.

Howver, Le is currently tied up with several Hollywood-related projects outside the cage that have kept him out of action for almost two years. But has vowed to make a return early in 2010.

Seth Petruzelli returned to the cage on Saturday for the first time since his nationally-televised 14-second knockout of internet celberty turned ultimate fighter; Kimbo Slice, last October, earning a first-round TKO of Chris Baten in the main event of Art of Fighting 4.

Petruzelli put Baten lights out with a huge overhand right and followed with several more punches on the ground before the referee stopped the contest at 2:23 of the opening frame.

Petruzelli’s next fight is not yet scheduled, though he’s likely to receive multiple offers having won three-straight fights since leaving the UFC following an April 2007 loss to Wilson Gouveia. With Strikeforce lacking in 205 pound fodder for their new champ, Gegard Mousasi – don’t be surprised if you see Seth fighting over there.