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Here’s a quick rundown of news and notes from the UFC 110 post-fight press conference.

– UFC 110 drew 17,831 attendees for a $2.5 million gate. Dana White said it was the highest live gate for an overseas show in UFC history. They’re planning on making an annual trip to Australia and hope do a show in Melbourne once MMA is legalized there.

– Dana White confirmed Cain Velasquez is in the mix for a title shot by beating the “best heavyweight of all time.”

“Because of Brock’s absence, it’s a little plugged up right now in the heavyweight division, but this guy?” White said. “In my opinion, Nogueira’s probably the best heavyweight of all time, and (Velasquez) absolutely demolished him tonight. He’s for real and he’s in the line right now.”

If Nogueira is the best heavyweight of all time, then I guess we need to invent a new title for Fedor’s greatness.

Dana wasn’t the only one singing praises for Cain. Big Nog gave credit where credit is due.

“Of course I’m disappointed, but he had the best hands tonight and deserved to win,” Nogueira said after the fight. “He’s very good, a very new, upcoming guy.”

Then he stopped himself and reconsidered his words.

“He was upcoming,” he continued. “Now he’s one of the best fighters in the division.”

Cain’s next opponent will be up in the air for the next month or so as the Carwin-Mir and Dos Santos-Gonzaga fights play out, but should he get the shot at Brock in the summer, he expects it would be a war.

“For me, I have to fight a smart fight and get with my coaches and figure out a good game plan,” he said. “Definitely, with those kind of guys — super big, strong — you’ve really got to worry about the power. I think this could be a war; you’ve really got to fight to the end. You’ve gotta really try to tire them out, but that’s easier said than done.”

– The Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping was close but the numbers say the judges got the decision right. The numbers also confirm the Wand from PRIDE did not reemerge last night.

If you look at the stats from the fight between Wanderlei and Michael Bisping, the numbers don’t seem to bear this out. Silva made a career out of bull-rushing opponents throwing wild hooks with both hands. The Silva at UFC 110 was much more likely to throw single strikes, including a greater reliance on straight punches, like the lead jab. The 37 jabs he threw to the head at distance was the second-highest total of his career (the most was against Liddell).

Also notable was his new-found reliance on leg kicks. Wanderlei threw 33 leg kicks in 15 minutes, or 2.2 per minute. His previous career average was 0.51 leg kicks thrown per minute, meaning he threw more than 4 times as many leg kicks as normal. He had only twice before thrown more than 20 in a fight, despite the 20-minute time limits in PRIDE.

– Naturally, in a close fight the loser almost always thinks he won. Last night was no different. Bisping was respectful in defeat, but felt he won the first and second rounds to give him the win.

“It’s a close fight, but personally, I thought I won rounds one and two. Congrats to him though…I’m good to go. I feel like I could do another three rounds now,” Bisping said. “I’d love to have a rematch with Wanderlei. I love to fight top guys. I lost tonight. I’m pissed off; I don’t like losses. I take this very seriously, this is my life. I don’t know if people realize how hard I train.”

Wanderlei also felt he won and thought he could have finished him if he had five more seconds.

“Tough fight, close match, but I think I won. I had good position, and [the] knockdown in the last round. Maybe if the round last five more seconds, I’d win by knockout, too.”

– Looks like Yoshihiro Akiyama is next for The Axe Murderer. Dana basically announced the fight at the press conference but wasn’t sure when it would happen since Wand was a little banged up.

“Akiyama wants to fight Wanderlei very bad,” White said. “It’s a big fight that he wants. He wants this fight. We offered him another fight and he said he wants Wanderlei.”

“Wanderlei’s sitting here with stitches in his chin, and a black eye and everything else so he’s going to go home, relax, heal, and then we’ll talk to Wanderlei and see when he’s ready again,” commented White. “But yeah, Akiyama wants that fight really bad.”

“It just pissed him off that I said Akiyama wants to fight him, so now he wants Akiyama,” White said about Silva’s next challenge.

Early rumors have the fight pegged for UFC 115 in Vancouver.

– Dana was extremely impressed by George Sotiropoulos and says he’s “in the mix.”

“Everybody who knows anything about MMA knows how good Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson is, and he got dominated tonight by Sotiropoulos,” White said. “[Sotiropoulos] looked unbelievable. No matter how good you are, sometimes there’s other factors that play into your fight – like nerves, competing in his hometown for the first time – and he stepped up tonight. Not to sound condescending, but I’m proud of him tonight.

“He looked amazing. Big, big night for him. He’s in the mix. He didn’t beat Joe Stevenson; he dominated Joe Stevenson. All the judges had it 30-27. He just catapulted himself right into the mix.”

“To go in there and face competition like Joe Stevenson – and do what he did to Joe Stevenson tonight – is huge and very promising for his future,” White said. “If he continues at the pace he’s on now, I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw him in a title fight within the next year.”

– Cro Cop showed up for the post-fight press conference. He was pleased with his victory and performance.

“I can say I was satisfied with my performance. I didn’t fight my original opponent. He canceled the fight. Perosh jumped in, and I’m grateful to him for that. He showed great courage and guts. He came to fight…But where I’m at in the heavyweight division, I don’t know. I believe I belong in the top, so we’ll see in the next fights. It depends on the next fight…I changed the way I used to train. I spent four weeks in Amsterdam at Vos Gym training with a new coach, Ivan Hippolyte, a legend of Muay Thai. And this was the first time in my career I came (to the location of the fight) two weeks before (the fight) to adapt. I always underestimate so many things. I’m a very experienced fighter, but even in Japan I came two days before. In my last fight in the States, I came two days before. They needed to wake me up before the fight. My coach needed to put ice on my back to wake me up. So I just underestimate so many things. Of course there is fuel left in me, but you need to keep training more to keep in the game.”

Dana says his original opponent, Ben Rothwell, will probably be Mirko’s next.

“I think what we do is we do the fight that was supposed to happen tonight. We’ll make that fight happen, and obviously Mirko didn’t have a rough night tonight. Ben isn’t out because he’s injured or anything. He got a stomach virus, so hopefully we can make this fight quick and put this one together soon…Ring rust is a real thing, and he got to get in there and at least work on his timing and everything else. Hopefully, we can back-to-back make this fight with Rothwell now and make it happen pretty soon – get him back in there and keep him active and busy.”

Cro Cop lives to fight another day in the UFC, but it still feels like his days are numbered. Cro Cop looked decent last night, but it was against an inferior opponent. I’m not sure he would have won if he had fought Ben Rothwell last night.

Image via Sherdog

In the night’s main event, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira took on Cain Velasquez in a heavyweight bout that could determine Brock Lesnar’s next opponent.

In the co-main event, Wanderlei Silva made his middleweight debut against Michael Bisping.

Joe Stevenson and George Sotiropoulos met in a lightweight bout.

Ryan Bader looked to climb the light heavyweight ladder against Keith Jardine.

Anthony Perosh stepped in on short-notice to take on Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.

Results, thoughts, bonuses and live gate (when available) after the jump.

Results

• Cain Velasquez defeats Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira via TKO (Strikes) in Round One
• Wanderlei Silva defeats Michael Bisping via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• George Sotiropoulos defeats Joe Stevenson via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Ryan Bader defeats Keith Jardine via Knockout in Round Three
• Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic defeats Anthony Perosh via TKO (Cut) end of Round Two
• Krzysztof Soszynski defeats Stephan Bonnar via TKO (Cut) in Round Three
• Chris Lytle defeats Brian Foster via Submission (Knee Bar) in Round One
• CB Dollaway defeats Goran Reljic via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• James Te Huna defeats Igor Pokrajac via TKO (Strikes) in Round Three

Thoughts

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Anthony Perosh: Well Cro Cop won, but it wasn’t pretty. He looked like the same Cro Cop we’ve unfortunately grown accustomed to seeing in the UFC. He chased Perosh around the edge of cage for the majority of the fight. He landed a few solid left hands but Perosh was able to avoid the majority of them since Cro Cop was telegraphing nearly everything he threw. If there was a highlight of Cro Cop’s performance tonight, it was his sprawl. He stuffed every takedown attempt and made Perosh pay for it. Unfortunately, the end of the fight was very anti-climatic. Cro Cop landed a huge elbow in Perosh’s guard opening up a huge cut on his forehead. Herb Dean was forced to stop it when the doctors got a better look in between rounds. I don’t know exactly what it is with Mirko, but his new training camp definitely didn’t bring back the old Cro Cop.

Keith Jardine vs. Ryan Bader: Ryan Bader gets a big win against Keith Jardine. It was a pretty even fight through two and a half rounds. Jardine landed some big leg kicks, Bader scored a couple takedowns, but nothing too significant until Bader stunned Jardine in the third. He followed it up with a flying knee to the chest, and huge left hand putting Jardine out long enough for the ref to call it. Bader continues to climb the ladder with his biggest win in the UFC yet.

Joe Stevenson vs. George Sotiropoulos: I think I underestimated George Sotiropoulos. I didn’t think he had much for Joe Stevenson, and he sure proved me wrong. Sotiropoulos basically outgrappled Stevenson for three rounds. George never really came close to finishing him, but he completely controlled the action on the ground. Joe just couldn’t find an answer to Sotiropoulos’ jiu-jitsu. When Joe managed to get on top, George would completely neutralize him with his rubber guard. Joe threatened with an ankle lock and landed a huge upkick in the first, but it wasn’t enough to convince the judges to even give him a round. Sotiropoulos pulls off a big win in front his hometown crowd.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping: It wasn’t the balls out war we hoped it would be, but it was still a solid fight. Wand and Bisping stood toe-to-toe trading strikes for the majority of the fight. Bisping attempted several takedowns but either got stuffed or couldn’t do anything with them before Wand scrambled back to his feet. We really didn’t see the hyper-aggressive homicidal maniac Wand from the past. He was very patient picking his shots and scoring with leg kicks while Bisping scored with his quick jab. It was a very close fight, but Wand sealed the win at the end of the third when he stormed Bisping and dropped him with an overhand right behind the ear. If Wand had another 10 seconds, he may have been able to finish him. Great win for Wand, but I wished he would have went after him a little sooner. He probably could have got the knockout or TKO he was looking for. Still, a win’s a win and Wand needed one bad tonight. Props to Bisping for being very respectful and gracious in defeat.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez: Wow, Cain Velasquez just lit up a legend. Midway through the first round, both fighters threw right hands, Cain’s landed first and right on the button dropping Big Nog. He immediately pounced and drilled Nogueira four or five more times. Herb Dean had no choice but to stop it. Cain’s been known for his wrestling up to this point, but tonight he didn’t even need it. He was very sharp on the feet and noticeably quicker to the punch than Nogueira. Cain tagged him several times with crisp punches and powerful leg kicks before landing the knockout blow. His striking is definitely improving, and deserves to be in the mix for a title shot. If the Mir-Carwin winner gets Brock, and Dos Santos beats Gonzaga, I’d love to see a Velasquez-Dos Santos number one contender’s match sometime this summer.

Bonuses $50,000

Submission of the Night: Chris Lytle
Knockout of the Night: Cain Velasquez
Fight of the Night: George Sotiropoulos & Joe Stevenson

Live Gate & Attendance

Live gate: 17,831
Attendance: $2.5 million

“If you’re going to play jiu-jitsu in the UFC, you have to be comfortable enough to play on the bottom. You have to have a strong chin and not be afraid of the punches when you play guard. You can’t have any fear to play jiu-jitsu. You know you’re going to open holes. You know you’re going to get hit and take a lot of punishment, but you have to remain calm and watch very carefully because a hole will open at any time…When your opponent is punching you, yes, he’s hurting you maybe, but he’s opening holes and putting himself at risk, too. In my last fight [at UFC 102] with Randy, if you watched, you can see that Randy threw the elbow and I swept him. I let him stay [in my guard] and be comfortable because I knew he would be open. You learn from experience. There’s pain, but there’s also gain.”

—Minotauro Nogueira talking to Yahoo! Sports about what it takes to be effective from the guard in MMA

Cain Velasquez is such a strong wrestler, Nogueira will undoubtedly find himself on the bottom at least once or twice on Saturday night. That’s not a place most fighters would want to be against Velasquez, but Nogueira has made his living getting pounded from the top only to pull out seemingly miraculous submissions late in fights. He’s obviously very comfortable there, so the question at UFC 110 will be whether or not Velasquez gives Nogueira the opening he needs to pull off the win. It’s a chess match I cant wait to watch.

Image via Sherdog

Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera and Cain Velasquez meet in the main event this Saturday, Feb. 20, at UFC 110.

Cain Velasquez takes on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in a heavyweight battle on Saturday, Feb. 20, at UFC 110.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira takes on Cain Velasquez in a heavyweight battle on Saturday, Feb. 20, at UFC 110.

A win like Frank had last night surely propels him to share the top of the division with Nog, Cain and myself. If beating Kongo was enough to propel Cain to number two contender status, destroying Kongo might edge Cain out. What is more compelling is that Mir made it our of that fight injury free so not only is he at the top of the division he is likely ready to fight sooner then later…The main question I am getting is would I fight Frank? The answer is easy YES. I am not a fighter who decides who he fights, I fight who I am told to fight. I like it that way, I am not trying to build a legacy I am trying to fight the best fighters in the World and determine where I fit in. Mir is a Multiple time Champion, who has been counted out more then Mike Tyson to only find himself right back at the top. He is a LEGEND of the sport and I would be honored to fight him.

—Shane Carwin via his official website confirming he would fight Frank Mir if asked

Such a class act that Shane Carwin is, but I wonder if his admiration for Frank Mir will diminish once Mir starts questioning his chin and whatever other weaknesses he happens to find. Oh wait, he already did.

In all seriousness though, this would make for an excellent fight and both are up for it. In fact, some people are suggesting the Nogueira-Velasquez winner face the Mir-Carwin winner for an interim title if Brock’s return is too far off. It sounds good, but what if Frank Mir wins both fights? Surely he would deserve another title shot if he were to win out, but then you have Lesnar fighting Mir again in his very first fight back since destroying him. I don’t know about you, but I’m not too crazy about that potential scenario. The UFC might like it though. It would probably sell more pay-per-views than any of other three match-ups.

“It was more a statement for myself and my training camp to say that I could bounce back from such a decisive loss to Brock… a loss to Cheick would have been a pretty bad statement on my career,” said Mir. “He was an opponent that I really felt that I had to come out there and decisively smash to make a statement. If I had of went out there and won a three-round decision against Cheick Kongo, I don’t believe that would have elevated my status.”

Of course, with a timetable for Brock Lesnar’s return still in question, and Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira all in the title hunt, there’s no guarantee he’s going to get it. Even if Brock returns this summer, Mir will still need to get at least one more win under his belt before he’ll be granted another title shot. Who his next opponent will be is unknown, but you have to imagine it would be against one of the three aforementioned heavyweights. Mir, never one at a loss for words, had something to say about each of them last night.

Big Nog:

“He’s talked a lot of crap about me,” said Mir, who is the only person to have ever finished the legendary Brazilian in his entire career, in a match where Nogueira clearly wasn’t himself coming off a staph infection and a knee injury. “Look, he could say it once, but he says it so often he might as well be wearing a T-shirt that says ‘I had a staph infection and a major knee injury when I fought Frank Mir.’

“But if I was really bothered by it, I’d get back at him by never giving him a rematch, that way I’d always have it over him.”

Cain Velasquez:

“Cain Velasquez, I feel, is the best wrestler in the division,” he said. “And he’s got great cardio. But he’s lacking punching power.”

Shane Carwin:

“Shane Carwin, he’s a better Brock Lesnar than Brock Lesnar. He’s just as powerful, if not more powerful. But his defense is his weakness. He got knocked down by Gabriel Gonzaga.”

Personally, I think we still need to see Mir-Nogueira II, but with Nogueira and Velasquez officially scheduled to headline UFC 110 in late February, that match-up isn’t happening anytime in the near future. Nevertheless, Mir-Carwin would also make for a great fight, perhaps even a preview for Lesnar-Mir III, so it would be pretty hard for the UFC to go wrong here. How it will all shake out though will likely depend on what conclusions Dana comes to regarding Brock in the next six weeks.

In the meantime, Mir isn’t content with the extra 20lbs of muscle he’s put on since July. If he is indeed granted the rubber match, he wants to be the same size as Brock — 280-285 lbs. cutting down to 265 lbs.

“I want to get to where I’m cutting 15-20 pounds just to make 265 pounds,” said Mir, regarding his goal for the Lesnar showdown. “That’s going to take some time. But that way I’ll be the same size he is. I may not be quite as strong as he is, but I’ll be strong enough to neutralize his strength, and then it will come down to who is the better technical fighter. He will never be as technical a fighter as I am because he started too late.”

As SI.com’s Josh Gross has been asking though, at what point does Mir’s weight gain begin to adversely affect his speed, agility and cardio? In other words, can Frank Mir get too big for his own good? The difference between Brock and other athletes/fighters is his rare combination of size, speed, strength and agility. No one is going to dispute who’s the more technical fighter, but the answer can’t be as simple as Mir makes it sound, can it?

Well, no one knows at this point, which is why all of sudden this fight has become a lot more intriguing. I don’t know how it will all work out for Mir in the end, but if he does half as good of a job in the cage with Lesnar and he’s done selling himself for the rubber match, he might actually have a decent shot at exiting the Octagon with his face intact and Brock’s belt around his waist.

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