Though recent reports suggested the bout could headline UFC 105 in Manchester, England, MMAWeekly.com sources indicated that it would take place on Dec. 12 at UFC 107 in Memphis, Tenn.

Mir (12-4) recently got knocked off the rails of a three-fight winning streak, losing his interim heavyweight champion designation in a title unification bout against champion Brock Lesnar at UFC 100. It was a rematch of their fight at UFC 81, where Mir welcomed the former WWE superstar to the Octagon by submitting him with a kneebar. He then won the interim designation when he became the first man to stop Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Kongo (14-5-1) was widely considered to be a step away from a UFC heavyweight title shot before he was unable to get out from under a smothering Cain Velasquez at UFC 99, losing a unanimous decision. Kongo has amassed a 7-3 record during his tenure with the UFC, winning three straight fights prior to the loss to Velasquez.

A bout pitting Ultimate Fighter 10 coaches Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans against each other was the original headline bout for UFC 107. That fight was recently supplanted by a UFC lightweight title defense, pitting champion B.J. Penn against Diego Sanchez.

Originally counting on Jackson’s hometown popularity, the TUF coaches were removed from the card when Jackson’s acting commitments to a Hollywood remake of popular 1980s television show “The A-Team” conflicted with the bout.

If only two of the best fighters in the world had gloves strapped on.

Pacquiao, considered the pound-for-pound best, and welterweight champion Cotto were there merely to announce their Nov. 14 fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It’s a hotly anticipated ticket, and certain to lure a sellout crowd to the desert destination known in the boxing world as “Fight Town.”

Yet their presence Thursday was reminiscent of the days when New York City held that mantle, when major boxing events were common at Madison Square Garden and the old Yankee Stadium.

While there are still sporadic attractions at the Garden, most of the punches thrown in the Bronx the last three decades came from irascible former Yankees manager Billy Martin. All could be changing, promoters and team officials said, alluding to the possibility of major fights at the new, $1.5 billion stadium next year.

“We have a history of bringing big fights to the Yankee Stadium,” said promoter Bob Arum, who put on Muhammad Ali’s bout against Ken Norton on Sept. 28, 1976, a fight remembered more for the chaos caused by a police strike than anything else.

“It’s something we’d like to do again.”

Arum had approached the Yankees several times over the past 30 years about staging another event at the stadium, but George Steinbrenner and club brass were tepid about erecting a ring and seating on the immaculate infield grass.

With the new leadership of Hal and Hank Steinbrenner, and better means of protecting the field, Arum is hopeful that a fight will come off at the ballpark next year.

“I think one of the reasons we had the press conference here is a precursor for a big, big event,” Arum told The Associated Press. “Certainly a big fight is going to happen next year, and it’s going to happen at Yankee Stadium.”

The obvious megafight would pit the winner of Pacquiao-Cotto against the winner of next weekend’s showdown between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez — an idea that even appealed to Yankees chief operating officer Lonn Trost.

“There’ll be a winner of this fight and a winner of the Mayweather fight,” Trost said. “Where better to hold that fight than Yankee Stadium?”

Trost declined to say whether there have been negotiations about holding a fight in the “House that Jeter Built,” but the Yankees are eager to bring revenue-producing events beyond baseball to the stadium. Already, several college football games are scheduled for the next few years, including Notre Dame vs. Army in November 2010.

Arum said it’s unlikely that the Mayweather-Marquez and Pacquiao-Cotto winners would face each other, but it’s possible that Cotto could cede his traditional spot at Madison Square Garden on the even of the Puerto Rican Day parade to up-and-coming star Juan Manuel Lopez. That would free Cotto, who has a huge following in the Bronx, to headline in the ballpark.

“We’re going to get one here at Yankee Stadium,” said Melvina Lathan, the head of the New York State Athletic Commission. “We’ve got to come back and revisit Yankee Stadium.”

Great fights have been held in ballparks for decades, including some of the seminal moments for a sport that treasures its history.

Yankee Stadium, of course, is where Ray Robinson collapsed in the heat against Joey Maxim, and where Carmen Basilio shocked the world by beating Sugar himself. Joe Louis not only knocked out Max Schmeling under the twinkling lights, but struck a blow against Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany when he dropped the Black Uhlan of the Rhine in the first round.

Other ballparks have showcased big fights, from Louis winning the heavyweight title against James Braddock at Chicago’s Comisky Park, to epic battles at the Polo Grounds, Griffth Stadium, Ebbets Field and Fenway Park.

Some see those days as a bygone era, a moment in time that can never be replicated. Arum sees an opportunity to return boxing to the forefront of the American psyche, in one of its most hallowed sporting grounds.

“Yankee Stadium had a great tradition of boxing,” he said, “and hopefully with the new Yankee Stadium, we’ll start a new tradition.”

Here’s the likely next opponent for Cris Cyborg, Marloes Coenen being interviewed by Ariel Helwani from AOL Fanhouse after Saturday’s Strikeforce event:

Not surprisingly, similarities abound when it comes to the promotion of male and female fighters. There remain, however, distinct differences. For example, when Strikeforce CEO and founder Scott Coker‘s cell phone chimed 24 hours before the most important event of his professional life with news that one half of the main event was pregnant, he couldn’t just slough it off as nonsense.

Fortunately for both his heart and promotional company, it turned out Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos pulls off pranks about as well as she throws punches.

“She scared the crap out of me,” Coker relayed an hour after Santos pummeled Gina Carano to capture the vacant Strikeforce women’s lightweight title.

With women headlining a major mixed martial arts event and a Showtime-televised card for the first time, a milestone in female combat sports history, Coker could ill afford for anything to happen to Santos or Carano. While three testosterone-fueled championship fights had fallen apart over the past eight weeks, both women dutifully fulfilled their end of the promotional bargain. More important for 13,524 raucous fans on hand in San Jose, Calif.’s HP Pavilion, the pair showed up to fight — a testament to Coker’s faith in the drawing power and entertainment value of women mixed martial artists.

Well, at least one of them.

The oft-described face of female MMA, Carano was everywhere in the lead-in to Saturday. She owned the record, recognition, exposure and intangibles. In Coker’s case, for as passionately as his company got behind Carano-Santos, most of its success was rooted in 18 months worth of hyped, ready-to-sell material.

“We were lucky,” he said. “We were the beneficiary of CBS and Showtime teeing that fight up. I wanted to see that fight even when ProElite was going to do it. So when fights happen like that, it’s great.

“Now we gotta go in and build some matchups, make them relevant and put ‘em together.”

In other words, the hard part.

Carano was the star walking into the cage. She received overwhelming support from virtually the entire arena, as well as a slew of fans around the country.

Cyborg? Well she brought viciousness and aggression.

It was a back-and-forth clash until Cyborg (8-1) found herself on top of Carano wailing away with lefts and rights. When referee Josh Rosenthal stepped in to call a halt to the contest with one second remaining in the opening round, Coker was forced to contemplate life sans Carano (7-1) at the top. The 27-year-old Las Vegan isn’t going anywhere, of course. She just isn’t the same promotable commodity today as she was on Friday. And therein lies the difficulty for Coker when it comes to delivering marketable women’s fights for fans and his television partner Showtime. Had Carano won, Strikeforce would be sitting pretty with a roster that includes Fedor Emelianenko, the best male heavyweight in the world, and an immensely popular female fighter. As it stands now, Strikeforce is left with a champion who doesn’t speak English, hasn’t appeared in Pepsi commercials, hasn’t drawn a tremendous amount of press, and isn’t nearly as marketable as Carano.

Santos, 24, needs fans to embrace her wild gun-slinging style, a staple of the academy out of which she trains, if she’s going to be any kind of draw. For years, Chute Boxe, one of the most respected gyms in Brazil, churned out exciting champions like Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Rua and Jose Pele Landi-Jons. Santos is their eighth and perhaps most unique world champion.

“She’s very happy doing what she’s doing right now,” said Chute Boxe founder Rudimar Fedrigo. “I think she’s very capable of receiving [Carano's mantle as] the female face of MMA. She worked hard for that and will take care of that title.” Perhaps. Cyborg said since she owns the belt, a version made especially for women, Carano could keep the label.

In Strikeforce, Cyborg has a willing promotional partner. And since the UFC declines to promote women based on the declaration that there’s not enough depth among female competitors to round out divisions, Coker’s group has an opportunity to corner the market on one, albeit niche, area of the sport. Whether fans care enough in the long run is a worthwhile question. To that end, a concerted effort is under way to bolster Strikeforce’s female ranks. And highlighting Cyborg’s tremendous physicality will be key.

“When I think of Cristiane Cyborg I think of an athlete where you could see her in Shape Magazine,” he said. “I could see her in Muscle and Fitness. There’s a whole different promotional angle you can take with her. You could say she’s one of the fittest women in the world. She’s an amazing athlete, and that’s how we’re going to try and promote her. She’s obviously the best female fighter in MMA.”

With Showtime’s blessing, Strikeforce will promote eight-woman tournaments at 135 and 145 pounds with the idea that winners earn title shots. Established talent such as The Netherlands’ Marloes Coenen, a highly regarded lightweight, is also being brought in to create compelling championship fights.

“For women in MMA, it was a perfect night,” Coenen (16-3) said. “I gave a lot up so I could keep on training. Now, finally, after 10 years everything is coming together. I hope it really happens and we don’t stop. MMA is growing so much in America.”

Buzz from Santos’ stoppage of Carano was strong enough to rank “Gina Carano,” “Cris Cyborg,” “MMA,” and “Strikeforce” among Twitter’s 10 Trending Topics in the hours after the fight. That news brought a smile to Coker’s face.

“It’s a historic night for us, for Showtime, for female fighting period,” he said.

For young women “there’s a future in this sport,” said Meisha Tate, a popular 135-pounder who might participate in one of Coker’s tournaments. “There are doors that are open, and doors that are being opened. I hope they can watch this and be inspired by it.”

No joke.

In a sport where rivalries between promoters generate as much buzz as fights between fighters, there’s a couple battles worth mentioning Saturday night.

Holding its first card since trumping the Ultimate Fighting Championship for the rights to feature Fedor Emelianenko in the U.S., Strikeforce returns home to San Jose, Calif., for what its CEO and founder Scott Coker expects to be the company’s most important show in the 25 years he’s been in the fight promotion business.

While bout sheets for the event (Showtime, 10:30 p.m. ET/PT) haven’t remained intact for so long as a week since the “mega-fight card” was first announced two months ago, the top of the bill — a fight between female star Gina Carano, one of mixed martial arts’ unique characters, and Brazilian mauler Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos — has held firm. That’s good, considering a handful of quality title bouts fell apart, and Strikeforce and Showtime invested nearly all of their marketing resources toward building up what has been dubbed the most anticipated fight in women’s combat sports. Whether or not that translates into a good rating for Strikeforce’s premium television partner, Carano-Cyborg is history making — and it should deliver a pretty solid scrap.

Since debuting as a professional in 2006, Carano (7-0) emerged as one of MMA’s first crossover stars. Listed ahead of First Lady Michelle Obama on a poll conducted by Yahoo! of the 10 most influential women of 2008, the 27-year-old Las Vegan has been asked to strike a balance not often required of her male counterparts.

After losing her pro debut in 2005, “Cyborg” — a nickname taken from her husband, fellow fighter Evangelista Santos — rattled off seven consecutive wins. While she sports a respectable ledger, the brutality with which Santos wins fights makes her compelling as she vies for Strikeforce’s vacant 145-pound women’s title — a bout scheduled for five, five-minute rounds.

In all likelihood, Carano-Cyborg will be remembered as a battle of attrition. The fighters have touted a war, one likely to play out on the feet as each is comfortable in a firefight. Will Santos’ aggression and pressure wilt Carano? Can Cyborg put away a skilled opponent who won’t give up 10 to 15 pounds?

The consensus holds that Cyborg’s Muay Thai will overwhelm Carano’s. That’s entirely plausible, but so is Carano mustering the courage to stand in the pocket and unload straight punches against a wild opponent.

As these things go when women fight on the same card as men, they often steal the show. On Saturday, they’ve been handed the keys.

Courtesy of the L.A. Times