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ESPN The Mag’s Ryan Hockensmith had a few interesting nuggets to pass along. He sounds very confident that a deal will get done to revive EliteXC and there’s a good chance they’ll end up back on CBS in 2009. Here’s an excerpt from his report on ESPNtheMag.com.

It appears Elite XC has rounded up enough financial backing to at least take another breath of air. In turn, the company appears to have kept the ear of CBS executives.

Will Elite XC be back on CBS soon? Are Kimbo and crew even still Elite XC fighters? Where did the money come from? Details are sketchy.

But would that mean Elite XC, specifically? Kahl declined comment on that, saying CBS is entertaining several possible promotions. But if CBS wants to continue doing MMA, and CBS has a standing relationship with the Elite XC people, and those Elite XC people helped put on seven of the 10 most-watched MMA events ever, wouldn’t that give Elite XC a big leg up on the competition?

“Let’s just say this: We really like the people and the product at Elite XC,” Kahl says. “But we’re speaking with multiple promotions.”

Hockensmith also mentioned that the relationship between the UFC and AKA is still on the rocks. He said don’t be surprised if things with Koscheck and other AKA guys gets ugly. I guess Koscheck couldn’t have picked a better time to deliver the most brutal knockout of his career.

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ESPN MMA Live Archive

UFC Fight Night 16 “Fight for the Troops” took place earlier tonight at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Josh Koscheck fought for the second time in six weeks against Yoshiyuki Yoshida in the night’s main event.

Mike Swick faced Jonathan Goulet in a welterweight match-up.

Steve Cantwell made the transition from the WEC to the UFC against UFC newcomer Razak Al-Hussan.

Tim Credeur took on Nate Loughran in a welterweight match-up.

Jim Miller jumped in on short notice to take on Matt Wiman.

Results after the jump.

The UFC Fight Night 16 “Fights for the Troops” weigh-ins took place today at the Sports USA Bar in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

It appears all fighters made their contracted weight limits with the exception of Brodie Farber and Luigi Fioravanti who appear to be fighting at a 173lbs catchweight.

The weigh-in results via UFC.com:

• Josh Koscheck (171) vs Yoshiyuki Yoshida (171)
• Jonathan Goulet (171) vs Mike Swick (171)
• Razak Al-Hassan (205) vs Steve Cantwell (206)
• Matt Wiman (156) vs Jim Miller (156)
• Brodie Farber (174) vs Luigi Fioravanti (173.5)*
• Johnny Rees (169) vs Steve Bruno (171)
• Brandon Wolff (170) vs Ben Saunders (170)
• Nate Loughran (185) vs Tim Credeur (186)
• Dale Hartt (156) vs Corey Hill (155)
• Justin McCully (228) vs Eddie Sanchez (246)

Fighters in non-title fights are allowed to weigh in one pound over the weight class limit.

UFC Fight Night 16 “Fights for the Troops” will take place tomorrow, Dec. 10, at the Crown Center of Cumberland County in Fayetteville, North Carolina and will live air live at 9PM ET on Spike TV.

Just a quick note on the Liddell-Couture IV rumor. Franklin McNeil says in the video above that Liddell-Couture IV is not happening, and confirms what Chuck Liddell said in the video earlier today that neither fighter has even been approached by the UFC to make this fight. McNeil did state that if this fight were to ever take place, it would definitely not be in Germany, it would be in the US. Thank you Franklin, everything makes sense again.