Multiple breaking news items have come out of the Dana White press conference today: (click “read more” to continue)

- The UFC and Fedor negotiations have gone sour, it seems. Dana White is saying that the UFC gave up everything other than co-promoting with M-1.

- Tito Ortiz has re-signed with the UFC and will return to the Octagon later this year. White says that Tito will retire in the UFC. White also says that Mark Coleman is likely the first opponent for Tito.

- Vitor Belfort has re-signed with the UFC and will fight Rich Franklin in the headline bout at UFC 103.

- Dan Lauzon, Ben Rothwell, Chase Gormley, and Paul Daley contracts have been picked up by the UFC.

- Dan Henderson will fight next for Anderson Silva’s middleweight title.

- ESPN UK will begin showing UFC shows for free, beginning with UFC 101.

Mitsuhiro Ishida will replace Josh Thomson against Gilbert Melendez
at the Aug. 15 "Carano vs. Cyborg" Strikeforce event. Strikeforce
director of communications, Mike Afromowitz, confirmed the news with
FanHouse on Thursday.

Thomson
(16-2) could not receive medical clearance from his doctor and has been
once again forced out of a scheduled title defense. It is the same leg
injury that forced him out of a title defense against Melendez (15-2)
in April.

read more

Filed under: UFC

UFC President Dana White has said he’ll break big news on a conference call Friday, and we’ll have live Dana White Twitter updates to give you all the details.

White’s press conference has MMA fans buzzing: Is he going to announce the signing of Tito Ortiz or Fedor Emelianenko? Has the UFC secured a new television deal? Find out by following along below at 2 PM ET or following my UFC Twitter updates.

Live Updates on Dana White

Dana White Twitter: Live Tweeting a Big UFC Announcement originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:07:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez will get his rematch with Japanese wrestling expert Mitsuhiro Ishida a little sooner than he expected.
STRIKEFORCE announced on Thursday that Ishida will replace the injured Josh “The Punk” Thomson, owner of the STRIKEFORCE lightweight belt who was unable to get medical clearance for an injured leg. [...]

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