What has been rumored for some time has become a reality as Zuffa, LLC and German concert promoter Marek Lieberberg during the UFC 91 event came to terms, bringing the preeminent MMA organization to Germany for the first time.  The UFC will make their debut at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne on June 13, 2009; the venue holds 20,000 - easily the biggest indoor site in Germany.

While the fight card is nowhere close to being filled - although the rumored Chuck Liddell-Randy Couture superfight has been talked about - when that time comes when names are inked to contracts, Octagon Buzz will have them for you along with the most up-to-date MMA news.

Just some brief MMA notes from over the Thanksgiving weekend:

• Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le did an interview recently with Ask Men magazine; among items discussed were his strength and conditioning plus much more.  For the entire interview, click here.
• According to Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports, the preliminary estimates for the UFC 91 buyrates are in the 800-850,000 range; while not as high as UFC president Dana White had hoped for, the estimated numbers - if proven to be accurate - would still make this pay-per-view the second highest grossing UFC PPV in history.  The final numbers should be available in a few weeks or so; Octagon Buzz will have them for you when they become available.

In this episode of MMA Live, the departure and return of Jon Fitch to the UFC is discussed, the UFC’s trip to Germany and the possibility of Randy Couture possibly fighting there, Affliction and Golden Boy possibly going head to head plus much more.

Another light heavyweight is making the move over from the WEC to the UFC as according to LG Sports Marketing, client Steve Steinbeiss is transferring over to the UFC from their affiliate promotion the WEC; Steinbeiss will in the meantime finish out his four-fight deal that he signed with the WEC.

Steinbeiss originally started his career in the Bodog Fight promotion, going 2-1 there; he lost his WEC debut on November 5 at WEC 36 when he lost a split-decision to Carmelo Marrero.  No word as of this writing as to who Steinbeiss’ first opponent will be or when his UFC debut will take place.

Below are the final card results for Shooto Tradition 4, which took place Saturday in Japan:

• Takeshi Inoue defeated Hideki Kadowaki, unanimous decision
• Hatsu Hioki defeated Rumina Sato (TKO), 3:32 of Round 1
• Takashi Nakakura defeated Bendy Casimir (rear-naked choke), 4:58 of Round 1
• So Tazawa vs. Hiromasa Ogikubo, draw
• Yutaka Ueda defeated Jin Kazeta (TKO), 3:32 of Round 1
• Atsushi Takeuchi defeated Katsuya Murofushi (rear-naked choke), 1:44 of Round 2
• Taisuke Okuno defeated Daisuke Okumiya, unanimous decision
• Nobuhiro Hayakawa vs. Yuta Nezu, draw

Even the highly regarded mixed martial arts fighters can be released, either due to internal strife or the size of their contracts with the promotion; a good example of this was the announcement of Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou being released by the UFC, according to FiveOuncesOfPain.com.  During his brief time with the UFC, his record was 1-2.

Following his victories over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona during his stint in PRIDE in 2007, Sokoudjou was signed by the UFC; he made his UFC debut at UFC 79, losing to Lyoto Machida but rebounded to defeat Kazuhiro Nakamura at UFC 84 before losing to Luiz Cane at UFC 89.  One thing is for certain - despite his mediocre record in the UFC, some promotion will sign him up.  You can take that to the bank.

UFC 93 is gradually taking shape as two more bouts have been added to the fight card; the event is scheduled to take place on January 17 at the O2 Arena in Dublin, Ireland; according to MMAJunkie, Warrior Promotions Fighter Management confirmed the bout between Tomasz Drwal and UFC newbie Ivan Serati while a source has confirmed a bout between Rousimar Palhares and Jeremy Horn.

Drwal last fought in his UFC debut in September 2007 when he suffered a loss to Thiago Silva while Serati is on a 4-fight win streak with his last loss being at a Cage Rage event in April 2007 event to Vitor Belfort.  Even though Horn has lost two in a row, he gets another chance to redeem himself in the UFC; his last 2 losses were to Nate Marquardt and Dean Lister.  Palhares last fought in September at UFC 88, a loss to Dan Henderson.

The UFC 93 fight card, with the addition of the above 2 bouts, currently looks like this*:

• Dan Henderson vs. Rich Franklin
• Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio Rua
• Marcus Davis vs. Chris Lytle
• Alan Belcher vs. Denis Kang
• Jeremy Horn vs. Rousimar Palhares
• Tomasz Drwal vs. Ivan Serati
• Nate Mohr vs. Denis Siver
• Andre Gusmao vs. Antonio Mendes
• Abdul Mohamed vs. TBA
• Tom Egan vs. John Hathaway

*Fight card suject to change.

Although he is under suspension by the California State Athletic Commission, that’s not going to stop Antonio Silva from accepting a bout overseas as World Victory Road announced on Friday that Silva will take part in their Sengoku 7 event, scheduled to take place on January 4 in Japan.  The bout would be Silva’s first since capturing the EliteXC title over Justin Eilers on July 26.

Japan is not bound by the suspension rules set forth by the CSAC; however, by accepting this bout, Silva may possibly jeopardize his chances of fighting here in the States in the future.  The Sengoku 7 fight card, as of this writing, looks like this:

• Takanori Gomi vs. Satoru Kitaoka
• Jorge Santiago vs. Kazuo Misaki
• Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Sanae Kikuta
• Antonio Silva vs. TBA

When more fighters are added to the Sengoku 7 fight card, Octagon Buzz will get them to you, along with the most up-to-date MMA news available.

The official preview of UFC 92, scheduled to take place on December 27; Forrest Griffin talks about his upcoming bout with Rashad Evans.