Humberto Soto stepped up in class and weight. It proved to be a good change. The 29-year-old Mexican was workmanlike in downing former WBC champ David Diaz via unanimous decision, 115-111, 117-109 and 117-109, in the final fight before the main event at Cowboys Stadium.

Soto sealed the fight with knockdowns in the first and final round. He landed a big left hook in the final minute of the first that forced Diaz to put a glove on the canvas. Diaz fought hard the rest of the way. HBO ringside judge Harold Lederman actually gave Diaz five rounds the rest of the way. One judge agreed while the other two had it 9-3 for Soto. The title was locked up in the 12th when Soto blasted Diaz with another good left hook. Diaz fell forward off balance to the canvas and quickly bounced back to his feet.

The 33-year-old Diaz (35-3-1, 17 KOs) has now lost two-of-three fights…

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Former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin (25-5) will not face Chuck Liddell (21-7) at UFC 115 on June 12 in Vancouver despite numerous reports that surfaced earlier today.

On the contrary, “Ace” will headline the show opposite former heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, Randy Couture, in a 205-pound showdown, according to UFC President Dana White.

In addition, White assured fans that “nothing happened to Tito” and the he and the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” are still “cool,” indicating that he is still set to battle nemesis Chuck Liddell as planned at the conclusion of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 11.

More on this breaking news as soon as possible.

In addition to Couture vs. Franklin, UFC 115 is expected to feature a heavyweight mash-up between Mirko Cro Cop and Pat Barry while welterweights Martin Kampmann and Paulo Thiago make their case for 170-pound contendership…

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Rumors ran rampant around Twitter and different MMA sites today that the planned bout between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz was off, and that Liddell would instead face Rich Franklin.

Those rumors were all refuted by one simple tweet from UFC president Dana White.  

Ortiz and Liddell are coaches of the upcoming eleventh season of "The Ultimate Fighter." The bout will be the third between them, with Liddell winning the first two bouts. Though some sites reported that Tito Ortiz had left the taping of TUF, White said via Twitter that, "Nothing happened to Tito. Tito and I are cool."

The fight for Franklin will be his first since getting TKOed by Vitor Belfort in September, while Couture is coming off of two wins: a tight decision over Brandon Vera and a rear naked choke of fellow Hall-of-Famer Mark Coleman. White did not say when the bout between Couture and Franklin would happen…

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What athlete can essentially shut down a nation? He’s only 5-foot-6, 145 pounds but Manny Pacquiao has the power to do so. The Philippines goes to special lengths to make sure as much of the nation will see their hero in action tonight against Joshua Clottey. In Manila, the huge crowds make extra security a necessity.

According to Ric de Guzman, Mayor Alfredo Lim’s chief of staff, members of the
Manila Police District will augment the security marshals that have been tasked
to maintain peace and order in the areas designated for the purpose of the free
showing of the Pacquiao-Clottey match.

There will be huge screens set up around the city in six different districts showing a commercial free airing of the fight. In Pacquiao’s hometown of General Santos City, there’s a different issue to deal with. Because of the recent earthquake, power is at a premium…

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There’s still a bizarre dynamic. For some reason many boxing head honchos still view MMA as the enemy. Some like Bob Arum even lash out at the growing fanbase by saying the fighters "roll around like homosexuals" and the followers are "skinheads."

I’ve never gotten it. I never will. There are plenty of fans who like and watch both boxing and MMA. This weekend’s bout, with Manny Pacquiao fighting Joshua Clottey is a prime example. For some reason, HBO pay-per-view chief Mark Taffett continues to claim MMA fans don’t like boxing.

"We’ve done a lot of research at HBO talking to our pay-per-view distributor, we haven’t found more than five percent overlap between the audiences," said Taffet…

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Former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin (25-5) has reportedly agreed to return to the light heavyweight division to face Chuck Liddell (21-7) at UFC 115 in Vancouver after Tito Ortiz was forced to withdraw from the June 12 event for undisclosed reasons.

MMAWeekly confirmed the change in opponents based on an initial report by Fighter’s Only earlier today.

Speculation had been mounting regarding the inclusion of Ortiz for the upcoming Canadian event after “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” and wife Jenna Jameson continued to post discouraging tweets via their official Twitter accounts.

It’s unclear at this time whether or not Ortiz was able to complete his duties as coach on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 11 but “Ace” is expected to take his place opposite “The Iceman” in June…

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Does “The California Kid” have a chance against the seemingly-invincible Brazilian at WEC 48?

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“The irony of it all was that even for the WEC, we all said, ‘Let’s not have the fight on that date with (WEC general manager) Reed Harris. Let’s support him and move it to the 17th. I don’t know if that serves everybody properly and what I mean by that is is it going to help them? Is it going to help us? Is it going to help the fans of MMA? To me, I think CBS had the right idea when they decided to put the show on a day where everybody could watch it,. There’s nothing else (MMA-related) on TV and let’s try and get as many eyeballs as we can to watch it and make some new fans out of people that aren’t MMA fans already. Dan Henderson left the UFC and came over to us. This is his inaugural fight with us and I feel really confident that he’s going to be a draw in Tennessee and in the ratings. We’re in a great market…

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Full trailer coming on Monday (March 15)…

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Pay-per-view events that are broadcast on a delay from international feeds traditionally never sell quite as well as domestic, live events.

Part of it is the idea that you can go online and get results immediately, lessening the need to spend $45 on alleviating your suspense; part of it is the idea that delayed events don’t give off that lurid, anything-could-happen vibe. (If something did, it probably got edited out.)

So what do we make of February’s UFC 110 event, by the measure of Yahoo’s…

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