The opponent of John Salter for UFC 118 has been changed yet again! Salter was scheduled to meet Phil Baroni. But Baroni recently forced to step out from the scheduled bout for his collarbone injury which left Salter with a no-compete situation initially. But Dan Miller came forward and he is now scheduled to meet Salter in the event’s preliminary card.  The official announcement, however, is yet to be made by the UFC officials.

Last-minute opponent change in a pre-scheduled bout is nothing new to Salter. Recently, during UFC 113 in Montreal his pre-scheduled opponent Nick Catone was forced to withdraw his name due to a back injury. Initially, UFC veteran David Loiseau was thought to be Catone’s replacement. But Quebec’s athletic commission took him off the table. Finally, Salter was scheduled against another UFC veteran Jason MacDonald on a short notice of one week. Salter, however, won the match when MacDonald broke his leg in the very first round of the match.

UFC 118 is scheduled to take place on 28th August, 2010 at the TD Garden in Boston. A lightweight title rematch between former champion B.J. Penn and current champion Frankie Edgar is the featured headliner of the pay-per-View. The updated status of the UFC 118 event is as follows:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)

# Champ Frankie Edgar vs. B.J. Penn (for lightweight title)

#  Randy Couture vs. James Toney

# Nate Marquardt vs. Rousimar Palhares

#  Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard

#  Marcus Davis vs. Nate Diaz

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)

#  Gerald Harris vs. Alessio Sakara

#  Terry Etim vs. Joe Lauzon

PRELIMINARY CARD

#  Nik Lentz vs. Andre Winner

#  Dan Miller vs. John Salter**

#  Nick Osipczak vs. Greg Soto

#  Amilcar Alves vs. Mike Pierce

** Yet to be announced officially

Michael Bisping and Dan Miller, the two competitors in UFC 114’s co-main event are in contrasting frame of mind. Fans believe this will make Saturday’s event at MGM Grand Garden even more interesting. The last year was a nightmare for Dan Miller in his personal front. His newborn son, Daniel Miller Jr. is having some serious health problems. Miller lost his beloved daughter in last May. To make the situation even worse, his UFC career is also standing in a crucial juncture. In his two recent performances against Chael Sonnen and Demian Maia; Miller fell short by his standards as he lost both the matches. He believes this will be his last chance to prove his worth in this promotion. In an interview, Miller made it very clear that I spite of all the turbulences in his personal life, nothing other than Michael Bisping will be in his mind in those 15 minutes on Saturday night.

Michael Bisping, on the other hand, looks a lot more prepared and confident for the match. He was the champion of “The Ultimate Fighter” (TUF) season three. In spite of his recent loss against Wanderlei Silva in last February, he feels confident to take Miller out this time. Bisping has failed to be a popular guy among the fans and critics. Since his arrival as a competitor in TUF 3 and his tenure as a coach in TUF 9, the fighter has been criticized a lot. But it seems such criticisms won’t affect him anymore as he looks totally focused for his bout against Miller. His girlfriend has recently given birth to their third child and the fighter misses his dear family very much. Bisping has plans to visit his family after the event and spend some quality time back home.

It seems that UFC’s first ever venture in Australia has been a pretty successful one. New South Wales Combat Sports Authority, the commission in charge of regulating UFC 110 this past weekend will soon release the complete list of medical suspensions from the brand’s accomplishments in Australia. UFC, however, has already confirmed the current status of Wanderlei Silva, one of the high-profile fighters in the company.

Marc Ratner, the Vice-President of UFC’s Regulatory Affairs, has recently declared in an interview that Wanderlei Silva, the champion of the newly created Middleweight category will be able to return to the ring after a suspension of 30 days. Silva was previously scheduled to face Akiyama at UFC 110 until UFC booked Michael Bisping for the same match. UFC president Dana White recently hinted that Akiyama may get a chance to try his hand on Silva soon. He stated that Akiyama wants to fight Silva badly and something may pop-up after Silva recovers from the injury. But White wasn’t sure whether Silva can become match-fit again in mere 30 days time. But it seems White would love to see a match between these two big fighters of his brand. Silva’s 30 day suspension includes a 21 day order to refrain from contract in training. But Silva has almost 3 months in hand to prepare himself for a fight against Akiyama.

UFC had recently pink-slipped the ‘TUF 8’ winner Efrain Escudero. This turned out to be quite shocking to most of the UFC fans and critics as they believed the 24 year old still had some room for growth. But James Wilks, the ‘TUF 9’ winner seems to think otherwise.  He stands by his brand’s decision and says victory in a reality show doesn’t come with a guaranteed job security.

A native of Leicestershire, England, Wilks currently holds a 2-1 record at UFC. He is considered as a mediocre performer in the 170 pound category. Wilks is scheduled to meet Claude Patrick at ‘UFC 120’. The event will take place on October 16, 2010 at The O2 in London, England. It is not a PPV and will be broadcasted on Spike TV via delay.  But for Wilks, this is his first chance to fight on the main card of a major UFC event. It is the second time when he is performing on the home turf though failed to impress on the first occasion when he lost to Matt Brown at ‘UFC 105”.

Wes Murch was no match for Junior Assuncao. The latter ended Murch’s challenge right in Brazil at the very first round with a rear naked choke and extended his winning streak to 6. Assuncao has not lost a single match since May of 2008 and he is eyeing a return to UFC as soon as possible.  Assuncao is mainly aiming for the featherweight division of UFC and has started training for facing his yet to be decided opponent. Two of the jiu-jitsu black belt’s brothers: Raphael and Freddy are also in UFC and it may be just a matter of time before the MMA fans will witness the brother trio fighting it out in the same division of UFC.

In recent times, the lightweight division of UFC looks most cloudy amongst the organization’s seven weight classes. The issue is not with the quality of fighters they have; the title looks good in the hands of current champion Frankie Edgar. He is scheduled to meet Gray Maynard at UFC 130 for the championship. But the organization is not sure about who will be the next. A recent poll by a leading MMA website revealed that almost 77 percent of the voters want the winner of Clay Guida vs. Anthony Pettis at June’s Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale to be crowned the top challenger for the lightweight title.

“Hamill” – the feature film based on the life of UFC light heavyweight fighter Matt Hamill has earned considerable respect from the fans worldwide. The film picked up two significant awards in last few months. The first honor came when the movie won “Breakthrough Film” award at AFI Film Festival 2010 in Los Angeles. Recently, the film also captured the Audience Award for the Best Feature Film at Miami Film Festival. Shot on a “modest budget”, the film’s overwhelming response has encouraged the producer Eben Kostbar to release it theatrically this summer which may be followed by a nationwide release.

Bellator has managed to sign Blagoi Ivanov, a big name in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. Ivanov earned instant fame when he defeated Fedor Emelianenko in a combat sambo match. The fighter has signed a multi fight deal with the organization and will soon perform in the USA for the very first time.  Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney is ecstatic about this new signing and thinks Bellator will shine even more with this incredible fighter in their roaster.  This 24 year old fighter is currently training with Shawn Tompkins at Las Vegas TapouT gym.

UFC has recently come to an agreement with Christian Morecraft, a prominent figure in MMA. Morecraft has signed a four-fight deal with Dana White’s promotion. UFC has Morecraft’s debut match at UFC 117 against another talented youngster Stefan Struve. Struve was also a MMA professional until he joined UFC. Morecraft’s manager Linda Shield has recently confirmed this new agreement.

Morecraft is a 23 year old Massachusetts based young fighter. He trains at Cape Cod Mixed Martial Arts in Plymouth. He has turned a pro in 2008 and since then, Morecraft has secured 6 consecutive victories. None of his opponents could last more than 2 minutes and 40 seconds against him in the ring.  Amongst his 6 victories so far, 3 were submission wins and the rest were knock out victories.

His proposed opponent, Stefan Surve, had almost grabbed a title contention after he managed 3 consecutive victories against Paul Buentello, Chase Gormley and Denis Stojnic. These 22 year old, later, suffered defeats against the winner of “TUF 10″ and later against former IFL champion Roy Nelson.

UFC officials are yet to confirm this bout which will take place on 7th August, 2010.The main card of the night will be aired on pay-per-view and the proposed bout between Morecraft and Struve is expected to be the night’s unaired preliminary contest.