The UFC, in its ever-ambitious quest to keep doing what works, returns to Brazil for UFC on FX 8, which will showcase native son Vitor Belfort in what could be a very exciting and important match against Luke Rockhold. Belfort’s last two title shots have been less than impressive, as Anderson Silva knocked him out in the first round at UFC 126 and Jon Jones got him to tap in the fourth round at UFC 152. Despite those losses, Belfort remains one of the top contenders in the Middleweight division, and with yet another win in front of his fellow countrymen, he could soon find himself squaring off against Silva once again.

But Belfort will have to get through Rockhold first (and then wait for Chris Weidman’s shot, natch) and that might not be very easy. Rockhold is one of the former Strikeforce fighters that a lot of people have been waiting to see in the UFC, as he was the reigning Middleweight champion when the promotion folded. Rockhold won the title in 2011 and successfully defended it twice, but a shoulder injury would have stopped a third defense from happening last November, if the event hadn’t ultimately been canceled.

So for those of us who appreciate the new blood and want to see Silva face a wider variety of talent like Georges St-Pierre in the Welterweight division, this main event could end up being very special if Rockhold wins. Otherwise, we can look forward to Silva-Belfort II down the road.

As always, join us tomorrow night at 9 PM ET for UFC on FX 8, as we will have one of our award-winning live discussions (our last chat was named Best in Show at Westminster). Check out the entire fight card after the jump, and bring your best LOLs and OHSNAPs for tomorrow night’s free fights.

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These live discussions started as sort of an experiment for me, as I wasn’t a UFC fan in the least and didn’t know a thing about mixed martial arts, other than it was fun to make jokes while I watched the fights and pretty much all of these guys could kick my ass into next week. And now, thanks to some exceptional steps forward in gender quality, these women can kick my ass, too. But as we’ve watched these fights together – some of them good, some of them bad, most of them “I can’t believe I paid for that” – I feel like I’ve become a bigger fan than I could have expected, and I realized that when I looked at the fight card for tomorrow night’s UFC on Fox 7 and thought, “Come on, this can’t suck, can it?”

Any time that the UFC wants to give us a free evening of fights that is headlined by Benson Henderson, I am not going to complain. Except, in this case, I am going to furrow my brow all serious like, and say, “Guys, can we put a little extra into this one?” I mean, I feel like we’ve been getting .50 on the bitcoin these past few fights. It would just be nice to watch an event and not say, “The Fight of the Night was definitely not that one fight.”

Anyway, bitter ramblings aside, I’m excited to watch Jordan Mein’s second fight in the UFC after his shocking first round TKO over Dan Miller. And I’d like to see Myles Jury get a win over Ramsey Nijem so I can shout, “The Jury has handed down the verdict!” That’s going to be great when you don’t expect that joke at all.

Join us tomorrow night for the prelims starting at 5 PM ET on FX and then for the main event at 8 PM ET on Fox. And as always, brush up for the fight with our very own Lobster Mobster’s primer. In the meantime, last chance to get those new badge suggestions in, because they will be up and ready for UFC 159 next week.

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Okay, so our last live discussion didn’t go over so well because of that whole 1 PM on a Final Four Saturday thing, but now we’re back with primetime FREE FIGHTS and the Ultimate Fighter 17 finale on an otherwise boring sports weekend, so we have no excuses. Help me help you, and let’s use tomorrow night to decide a theme for the next series of With Leather UFC badges. You make the suggestions, you make the decisions, I’ll make the badges, and then I’ll cap it off by debuting some new WL/UFC t-shirts and I’ll give some out to our favorite live discussers.

That said, like most of us pugilistic poop-joke-makers, I’m very excited about the potential of this card. The last few events have reminded me not to get my hopes up too much for awesome fights across the board, and I’m also bummed that we’re not getting a flyweight championship match. Get better soon, Demetrious Johnson.

But there are several fighters on this card that could provide some fun, and hopefully the younger guys can challenge each other for several Fight of the Night contenders this time and not just the usual, “Yup, it’s that one”. I think the women’s division’s real test comes tomorrow night, as we get to see if Miesha Tate and Cat Zingano can back up their yapping and convince any of us that they could beat Ronda Rousey. And, of course, I’m giddy as a schoolboy to see Uriah Hall fight Kelvin Gastelum.

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Now that I finally have my calendar organized and I know which UFC events are taking place on which dates, let’s get excited for some free UFC fights, shall we? Tomorrow at 1 PM ET, UFC on FUEL 9 will come at us live from Stockholm, where former Strikeforce champ Gegard Mousasi will make his UFC debut against… Ilir Latifi. Obviously, a lot of people are pissed off about this change, as Mousasi was supposed to fight hometown hero Alexander Gustafsson, who would win in front of his hot blonde female fans and possibly take on Jon Jones next.

Then Gustafsson suffered a cut under his eye, and despite Dana White’s prayers and sacrifices to the Bro Gods, it was too deep to allow him to fight at FUEL 9. Enter Latifi, and at least I’ve had a blast pronouncing Mousasi and Latifi for the past 24 hours. And while I still don’t know why we couldn’t at least get Gunnar Nelson added to the card – I just can’t live without his love and affection – there is still plenty to look forward to.

Namely, Ryan Couture’s UFC debut. It’s special for a number of reasons, but mostly because:

1. His name.
2. The person he got that name from, his father and UFC legend Randy Couture, is one of his coaches and is banned from UFC events because White is Roger Goodell in an Affliction shirt.
3. Ryan’s other coach, Neil Melanson, also won’t be there because of his reason hospitalization.

Talk about stacked odds.

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While the Renen Barão fight that we all want to see involves Dominick Cruz, who will be sidelined for most of 2013 with a torn ACL, we could do a lot worse than watching Barão face off against Michael McDonald tomorrow at UFC on Fuel 7, live from London at 3 PM ET. At just 22-years old, McDonald has the chance to become the youngest champion in UFC history, and while people want to make sure that we point out that it’s just an interim title, we wouldn’t want to crap on the kid’s accomplishment in the event that he does win.

Aside from the main event, though, Saturday’s card is filled with some young, exciting talent, and I’d love to talk at great length about the potential of guys like Jimi Manuwa, Dustin Poirier and Ryan Jimmo – as they should offer us exciting fights – I’m focused on one guy and one guy only – Gunnar Nelson.

Yes, the Icelandic fighter has won 10 consecutive fights, including his UFC debut at UFC on Fuel 5 in Nottingham last September, dating back to his MMA debut in 2007. But I don’t care about that. What I care about is that he shares a name with one-half of the 80s pop rock duo Nelson, which delivered us the greatest song ever written by man, “Love and Affection”.

For so long, I have asked for the gods of organized belligerence to deliver me a new fighter to champion, and I believe that man is Gunnar Nelson. Don’t let me down, good sir.

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Thanks for joining us with preliminary action already in progress for tonight’s free UFC fight, AKA UFC on FOX 6 at 8 PM ET. My apologies for the delay, but I’m having some technical difficulties with my sinuses and let’s just say some boogers are throwing knees at my brains right now. Sexy, right? Right. Let’s get on with the chatty action, shall we?

Tonight’s fight should be a doozie, with the main main event featuring Demetrious Johnson defending his Flyweight championship against John Dodson in what promises to be one hell of an exciting fight between two guys who are much, much skinnier than me. In the other main event, Rampage Jackson makes his return to the octagon to fight Glover Texeira, and let’s just say that the man who brought B.A. Baracus to the big screen is less than excited about tonight’s fight. He’s basically just doing this to earn some extra coin, and that’s a little depressing. But I guess that’s the nature of the beast or something.

Other than those matchups, tonight’s card looks pretty strong, and you can read our own Lobster Mobster’s excellent UFC on FOX 6 primer at her blog. As always, thanks for joining us, and enjoy the free fights.

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