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Team Black House is home to such Brazilian fighters as Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, Jose Aldo, Antonio Rodrigo & Rogerio Nogueira, Junior dos Santos, Rafael Cavalcante, and many more.

Check the Team Black House homepage at http://www.blackhousemma.com/

The Fight Fix at CSNWashington.com breaks down the biggest news makers from the month of February including this past weekends UFC 127 draw between BJ Penn and Jon Fitch. Also covered are the big news out of UFC 126 with Anderson Silva’s famous kick and Jon Jones earning a title shot with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. As well as the loss by Fedor Emelianenko to Antonio Silva at the Feb. 12 Strikeforce show.

UFC middleweight Dave Branch (8-1) knows that he’s facing a very tough opponent when he steps into the octagon this Thursday on the UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann card. At the Louisville, Kentucky event Branch meets noted Jiu-Jitsu ace Rousimar Palhares (11-3) on the preliminary card.

Branch, Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu trained black belt, enters the fight on a two fight win streak and an overall record of 2-1 in the UFC. His last fight was in December at the “TUF 12 Finale” where he earned a unanimous decision over Rich Attonito at the Las Vegas event. The other win was against Tomasz Drwal in September at UFC Fight Night 22, that victory was also by unanimous decision.

Branch admits that when he was offered the fight with Palhares that he was actually scared to fight the Brazilian, but wasn’t ready to turn down a fight with anyone. He knows just how dangerous Palhares can be and is prepared for whatever his opponent will throw at him.

“I was scared as s—. I’m serious. Nah, I was actually nervous. He’s very tough, but I’ve never turned down a fight and I never will. I just have to step my game up. I’m grateful the UFC has given me a guy that is very dangerous and has a good name because now I really get to see what I’m made of. A heel hook is a very dangerous move but it is escapable. A lot of times when he (Palhares) has injured guys they just kind of sat there. He grapples at a frantic pace and it can be very frightening when a guy like him grabs your legs. I can see why a lot of guys tap so quick because he’s going to rip their leg off. But you have to relax and do a proper escape. You can’t just stay there and panic because then your leg is going to snap.”

Read the full article with Branch at UFC.com

Spike TV will air a "UFC Prelims" special as part of April's UFC 129 event in Toronto.

UFC officials confirmed the plans during Saturday's live broadcast of UFC 127.

Although not officially announced, sources told MMAjunkie.com that welterweight bouts of Nate Diaz vs. Rory MacDonald and Brian Foster vs. Sean Pierson are the leading candidates for the cable broadcast.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship tonight hosts "UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch."

The show takes place at Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia, with a No. 1 welterweight contender's fight between former champion B.J. Penn and perennial contender Jon Fitch serving in the main event.

Follow along with our round-by-round updates and official results
beginning at approximately 7:10 p.m. ET (4:10 p.m. PT) for the preliminary
card and 10 p.m. ET for the main card.

Idaho Individual State Tournament

When: February 24th-26th

Where: The Idaho Center,  Nampa

State Tournament Schedule

Follow the Action in the Idaho Wrestling Forum

State Tournament – PHOTOS

Idaho Wrestling State Tournament – Results, Brackets & Video

It appears that the next set of quarterfinal bouts for the Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix tournament have been put on hold for right now. At last report matches between tournament fighters Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers were to have taken place at an upcoming April 9th event outside of the States, possibly in Japan.

Now Sherdog.com is reporting that Strikeforce has put the tournament heavyweights on hold as the promotion has decided to host the April 9th event in California, where tourny participant Barnett is still undergoing legal proceedings to have his license reinstated.

The website noted a couple of different matchups that could possibly be booked for the event.

A fight between Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez and Japanese slugger Tatsuya Kawajiri is expected to comprise one of the top two spots on the bill, while welterweight champion Nick Diaz is expected to fill the other slot against a yet-to-be-named opponent.

Possible opponents for Diaz include Paul Daley, who will earn a title shot if he defeats Yuya Shirai at a BAMMA 5 event this weekend, and Tyron Woodley. Woodley is fresh off a win over Tarec Saffiedine at a Strikeforce Challengers 13 event in January.

Photo via Esther Lin @ AllElbows.com

UFC fighter Rich Franklin shows off his new tattoo that he had done. It was all part of a bet with Forrest Griffin, that the loser of their UFC 126 bout would get a tattoo. As Franklin points out no one said it couldn’t be a ‘Henna’ tattoo.

My “Henna” Tattoo..Ok, nobody said it had to be REAL:-) Oh, and Forrest said he would pay for the removal so he owes me a bar of soap!

Check out a few more photos of the work in progress at www.RichFranklin.com or follow him on Twitter (@followace)