Dana White was in Toronto yesterday with a handful of the fighters from the UFC 129 card and although he didn't drop any remarkable news during the press conference, a few interesting tidbits came out during the fan Q&A session they did at Rogers Centre.

First off, the Baldfather said that the UFC is working towards making all main event non-title bouts five rounds. I'm not sure the commissions will go for the idea considering the Unified Rules clearly state that only championship bouts can be five rounds. It would be awesome if they could get it done -- unless of course it's a Fight Night card main event, then it might be painful.

Strikeforce tried and failed to make all of the heavyweight tournament bouts five rounds, but I'm guessing the conversation went something like this:

"Hey guys, it's Scott Coker. Do you think we could make the tournament bouts five rounds? I have to put the request in writing? Forget it. We'll just do three rounds."

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From yesterday’s conference call where Nick Diaz accused Josh Koscheck and Georges St. Pierre of fighting lesser competition as Diaz himself prepares to defend his Strikeforce title against, uh, Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos to Cesar Gracie telling Ariel Helwani that he doesn’t think Greg Jackson is actually that good of a coach, things are just getting bizarre with the Scrap Pack these days. Whatever planet these dudes are living on, it’s clear that they own the place, while the rest of us are just visiting.

Enter Gilbert Melendez, who tells RingsideReport.com this week that he’s the man to beat at 155-pounds right now. All this noise about Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard? Melendez ain’t trying to hear that, see. But just in case you’re wondering if Melendez might be interested in proving his point, of signing with the UFC so he can actually fight the other top contenders in his weight class: Forget it. It’s those guys who should be coming to him.

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Only 17 years removed from its inaugural bout, the UFC is just now exiting its awkward teen years and developing into a suave, sophisticated adult. After an extended bout of growing pains that at times threatened the sport’s very existence, MMA is finally coming into its own. Today’s fans witness seemingly daily achievements and milestones that speak to the sport’s rapid expansion. In 2010 alone, the UFC held its first events in Abu Dhabi and Australia, opened offices in China, set a new North American attendance record for an MMA event, crowned its first Mexican heavyweight champion, and launched their first attack in the Battle for New York.

But the UFC’s epic tale is not unlike any other in that each chapter begins where another one ends. For every historic first, there is an all but forgotten last.

Here is a short list of some of the UFC’s important lasts -- the rules and regulations sacrificed in the fight for our sport’s survival.

Check them out after the jump.

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Our friends at MiddleEasy.com scored a pretty awesome exclusive interview with someone claiming to be Lee Murray who says he was texting them answers to their questions via a cell phone he smuggled into the Moroccan prison he'll call home for the next 25 years.

According to the story, someone close to the former UFC fighter got wind of ME's "Free Lee Murray" shirts and offered to facilitate the Q&A, which seems pretty legit.

It looks like "Lightning" might be planning an appeal and hasn't given up hope that his fate is sealed as he told MiddleEasy that he couldn't talk about his part in the Securitas heist, which he is purported to have put together.

We won't steal their well-earned traffic by copy and pasting the interview, but we will post an incredible quote from Murray in which he takes a shot at Tito Ortiz, who Lee is said to have knocked out during a street fight in London.

"...i pass some time by reading some books or mags, watch some DVDs, UFC, movies. I see a great porno of Tito's wife getting the life fucked out of her by a bunch of dudes. That was pretty fun...not for him i bet :)...It's not too bad. Not the first three years four months I done by myself in solitary confinement. I didn't see no one. It was a fucking hole with rats & shit coming out the hole u piss in It's not a prob when you piss, it's a prob when you have to squat over it to take a s***, praying a rat don't jump out and grab your balls :)"

Apparently lot can change in a few years.

Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich had a change of heart and has re-signed lightweight Drew Fickett to a multi-fight deal with the Edmonton, Alberta promotion. The news wouldn't be as interesting if Pavelich hadn't proclaimed in 2008 that "Knight Rider" would never fight in the MFC.

To recap what led up to Pavelich's assertion that Fickett's days as an MFC fighter were numbered before he ever cashed a paycheck from the promotion, it all started when "The Master" breached a clause in his 2008 contract by taking a fight within two months of a scheduled MFC bout.

But that's not the reason he was banned by Pavelich.

When the promoter read online that Fickett had agreed to fill in for an injured Joe Riggs on a Strikeforce challengers card last-minute participation, he attempted to contact the fighter's camp to tell them that he would be breaching his contract if he took the fight as he had an MFC bout less than a month later. When his calls and messages went unanswered, he contacted Scott Coker to tell him that Drew couldn't fight on the card and the Strikeforce promptly rescinded the offer to Fickett.

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(Video courtesy YouTube/MMAPromo)

When Chuck Liddell isn't looped on Nyquil and ether, or teary-eyed from announcing his retirement, he's actually pretty well spoken and has incomparable knowledge about the sport of MMA.

In this interview with HDNet's Mike Straka, The Iceman talked about his recently announced retirement, reflected on his career and talked about about how he can't stand when non-fighters and reporters criticize the men who put it on the line in the ring or cage.

Well, that explains why he refused to do an interview with us last summer...that or he's read the site.

Hopefully Chuck's fancy new position with the UFC doesn't entail him "having a word with" bloggers who aren't a friend of theirs.

Part two is after the jump.

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(Video courtesy YouTube/MMAPromo)

When Chuck Liddell isn't looped on Nyquil and ether, or teary-eyed from announcing his retirement, he's actually pretty well spoken and has incomparable knowledge about the sport of MMA.

In this interview with HDNet's Mike Straka, The Iceman talked about his recently announced retirement, reflected on his career and talked about about how he can't stand when non-fighters and reporters criticize the men who put it on the line in the ring or cage.

Well, that explains why he refused to do an interview with us last summer...that or he's read the site.

Hopefully Chuck's fancy new position with the UFC doesn't entail him "having a word with" bloggers who aren't a friend of theirs.

Part two is after the jump.

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(Now that MMA is legal in Ontario, the bandwagon will undoubtedly carry in a glut of Dana White wannabes. Let's hope the OAC knows how to weed out the legit promoters from the scumbags.)

It looks like the UFC might get beaten to the proverbial punch when it comes to holding the inaugural sanctioned MMA event in Ontario.

CagePotato.com has learned from a source close to the situation that several promotions, including San Jose-based Strikeforce and Edmonton's Maximum Fighting Championship have applied for promoter's licenses in Ontario and pending approval by the Ontario Athletic Commission, at least three shows have been penciled in ahead of the UFC's April 29 show in Toronto.

Although none of the shows have been given the go-ahead by the province as of time of writing, a number of venues have been tentatively reserved -- some by first-time promoters -- across the province in such locales as Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and Orillia. 

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With the current buzz surrounding the recently announced Strikeforce 2011 heavyweight grand prix, we figured we'd take a look at what kind of tournament the UFC could put on if they were so inclined.

Contrary to popular opinion, the calibre of the UFC's HW GP would be just as good, if not better than Strikeforce's. The only noticeable difference is that there really wouldn't be any mismatches in Zuffa's heavyweightpalooza.

Even if Joe Silva decided not to put the matches together that we hypothesized in order to save some of the more anticipated pairings for the sem-final and final rounds, shuffling the card around would not cause a great disparity in the calibre of opponents.

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(Video courtesy Vimeo/MMANews.se)

Our Swedish friends from MMANews.se caught up with Chuck Liddell following the UFC's announcement yesterday that "The Iceman" retired and effective immediately would be taking on the role of Executive Vice President of Business Development with Zuffa LLC and it seems that the former UFC light heavyweight champion is unsure about what his job will entail.

Chuck attempted to explain his role as diplomatically as he could from what little details he had been given about the job, but the iconic UFC fighter admitted he wasn't quite sure what he would be doing from day to day.

"Well, we're gonna get more into the details of it, but it's business development, so I'm gonna be working with all the new projects and different things trying to help and promote the sport and the UFC. I'm gonna be doing that. I need something. I'm competitive and I need something to keep me driven. I need something to go after and do. I think this is probably the best way that I can keep continuing to grow the sport."

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