Editor's note: Column posted Oct. 27, updated Nov. 3.

Albeit in controversial fashion, Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida remained unbeaten in the octagon and retained his light-heavyweight title by beating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua via unanimous decision Saturday (10/25) at Staples Center in Los Angeles. All three judges scored the fight 48-47 for Machida.

In the heavyweight division, Cain Velasquez destroyed Ben Rothwell with a knockout via strikes early in the second round at UFC 104. Patrick Barry garnered KO of the Night honors and a $60,000 bonus with his win over Antoni Hardonk midway through the second round.

Looking ahead, UFC 105 is slated for Nov. 14 in Manchester, England. This card will be highlighted by a fight between Randy “The Natural” Couture and Brandon Vera. Couture, the 46-year-old UFC Hall of Famer who owns a 16-10 career record, is looking to shake off back-to-back defeats.

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Couture lost a unanimous decision to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 102. Before that setback, Couture lost his UFC heavyweight title to Brock Lesnar in a second-round KO at UFC 91. The ageless Couture isn’t going away anytime soon, as he signed a new six-fight contract with the UFC that started with his clash against Nogueira.

Vera (11-3) was also on the UFC 102 card, winning a unanimous decision over Krzysztof Soszynski. He hasn’t tasted defeat since a split-decision loss to Keith Jardine at UFC 89.

Michael Bisping returns to the octagon in Manchester in hopes of bouncing back from a second-round KO loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 100. Bisping (18-2) will face Denis Kang, who is 1-1 in the UFC and 32-11 in his MMA career.

The biggest news of late came when Lesnar was forced to pull out of his UFC 106 heavyweight-title match against unbeaten Shane Carwin. Lesnar had been battling the flu for 25 days. The Carwin-Lesnar bout for the heavyweight title has been moved to UFC 108, which is now incredibly stacked as we’ll discuss in a moment.

Now UFC 106, scheduled for Nov. 21 in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, is left with Tito “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Ortiz against Forrest Griffin for its main event.

Ortiz (15-6), the former UFC light-heavyweight champ, is making his return to the octagon after an 18-month absence due to a contract dispute with Dana White and a back injury. He last fought at UFC 84, losing a unanimous decision to Machida. Ortiz was originally scheduled to fight Mark Coleman, who had to withdraw because of a knee injury.

Griffin is in bounce-back mode after getting dropped by Anderson “The Spider” Silva in the first round at UFC 101 in Philadelphia. Griffin came under heavy scrutiny following the fight because he immediately left the octagon and sprinted back to the locker room.

There were rumors that he did so due to a dislocated jaw that needed medical attention, but those reports have been denied by Griffin’s camp and he’s healthy for his rematch against Ortiz. These fighters met at UFC 59 with Ortiz winning a controversial split decision.

Before losing to Silva, Griffin went down against Rashad Evans in his first light-heavyweight title defense after winning the belt from Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 86. Evans won the title (that he eventually lost to Machida) by knocking out Griffin in the third round at UFC 92.

Evans and Jackson were supposed to headline UFC 107 in Memphis, Jackson’s hometown. However, the two coaches for this season’s Ultimate Fighter will not square off because Jackson is taking time off from fighting to play the role of Mr. T in the remake of The A-Team.

Now the event at FedEx Forum will be headlined by B.J. Penn defending his lightweight championship against Diego Sanchez. Penn (14-5) has successfully defended his belt twice since winning it from Joe Stevenson at UFC 80.

Back to UFC 108, which will be held at the MGM Grand in Vegas on Jan. 2. This event will feature a pair of title fights, not to mention Evans’ next match against Thiago Silva. In addition to Lesnar-Carwin, Silva will put his middleweight title on the line against Vitor Belfort.

Silva has a perfect 10-0 record in the UFC and is 25-4 overall in his MMA career. He hasn’t tasted defeat since January of 2006. He was coming off a pair of ho-hum performances in wins over Patrick Cote and Thales Leites. Both fights were boring and White was threatening to keep Silva off of future main-event slots.

But Silva came through in the City of Brotherly Love with his dominance of Griffin, who had never been defeated so soundly in a career that’s included fights against a slew of UFC legends.

Belfort, who has a 19-8 career MMA record, has won five consecutive fights, including a first-round KO of Rich Franklin at UFC 103 in Dallas. Belfort won KO of the Night honors with his win over Franklin.

Quick Hitters:

--A good friend of this space, the Cagewriter Steve Cofield, does outstanding work for Yahoo! Sports with his MMA blog. Let's link you to a few of his recent thoughts/reports.

--Tito Ortiz is talking trash about Forrest Griffin leading into their UFC 106 showdown. Ortiz recently said that Griffin quit on the fans with his sprint from the octagon after losing to Silva.

--The seventh episode of TUF 10 had a fight with an exciting first round. However, as I watched, I was stunned with how out of shape the fighters were. That's not something you ever see in real UFC events, at least not in the first and second rounds. Cofield touched on what an embarrassment the fight was for the sport.

Brian Edwards can be reached at briane@vegasinsider.com.

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