Mixed Martial Arts fans must have heard this a thousand times: Anderson Silva refuses to, and will not consider any possibility of fighting his training partner and friend Lyoto Machida.

And it goes deeper than that.

Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida is highly favored to win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in this week’s UFC 104. However, there is still a possibility that Shogun could beat Machida. If that happens, would Silva come in seething with revenge on a Silva vs. Shogun tiff? We think not… if we follow the depth of friendship and loyalty between Silva and Machida.

You see, if Machida loses over Shogun, he would lose his Light Heavyweight belt. It would be like Silva stealthily snatching that belt from his friend Machida by winning over the Shogun. If this happens, Machida could only regain the title by getting inside the octagon against his friend Silva. Silva fighting Shogun after a Machida defeat would make a mess of the friendship.

Silva has been talking about Machida since day one – even before Silva rose to popularity. He is not interested in getting into the light heavyweight fray as he would get in the way of his friend. If Machida loses to Shogun, he would want to take the title back and Silva wouldn’t want to get in the way.

Silva does not only refuse to fight his friend, he would also refuse any match that would lead him to eventually facing his old buddy inside the octagon.

But how long can he (and Machida) stand his ground?

Dana White, the guy who knows how to make serious bucks with his promotional instincts, is already setting his sights to a Silva Machida match – despite the two warriors’ pronouncements. Can’t blame the guy, a Silva vs. Machida bout is going to be one of those superfights that would surely fill venue seats at two asses per chair. White is looking at 2010 when this Silva vs. Machida ticket could happen.

In an interview with ESPN, megabucks boss White said, “Anderson Silva is two fights away from cleaning out his entire division, and he’s had two fights at 205 pounds where he’s looked absolutely phenomenal – he’s actually looked better at 205 than he did at 185.” MMA fans couldn’t help but be thrilled by this friendship-busting tiff when White said, “I think we’re probably a couple of fights away from a mega-fight like that.”

The question is: How would Dana White convince the two?

Well, Silva and Machida would eventually have to face each other if they both would keep on winning. It’s either that, or they’d just fight lame fights with non-winners, or they (or one of them) would just retire for the sake of friendship. That last option sounds lamer than fighting lame fighters, don’t you think?

Thanks to his latest brush with the law, we at MMA Weekly News (and most of UFC and mixed martial arts fans) are awaiting with bated breath whether UFC will allow “The Dentist” to compete against Mac Danzig on February 7 this year at UFC Fight Night 17 in Tampa Florida.

Josh Neer was arrested and was placed behind bars for drunk driving, hit-and-run, and eluding arrest, among other traffic violations January 1 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Neer’s management company CEO Mickey Dubberly asked “everyone to reserve their judgement until all the facts are known in the court of law.” Saying that there are still a lot of unclear details on the incident, Dubberly said that they are backing Neer 100% in having the issue resolved the soonest, “and putting this matter behind us and moving forward.”

They have all the reason to get this issue done and over with ASAP because if we base it on what happened to other mixed martial arts warriors, Josh Neer would be pulled from the UFC Fight Night 17 card. MMA fighters who were arrested (except for Quinton “Rampage” Jackson) were not allowed to compete.

In an interview with the WHO-TV News (see video clip below), Neer apologized, "I just want to apologize to my friends, my family, and fans. I made some bad choices and I basically want to move on and put this behind me."

MMA Tap-out Josh Neer DUI Arrest

Whether UFC will pull him out of the February 7 card or totally end his mixed martial arts career with UFC remains an uncertainty. The UFC or Dana White has not commented about the case yet but the video clip below says UFC will determine Neer’s case within the week.

When asked about his fate, Neer said, “It’s all up to the UFC at this point. There's nothing I can really do so I just got to sit back and hopefully they'll let me fight and I'm gonna move on from this and no more troubles."

Dubberly, on the other hand, was quick to appease UFC by saying, “In no way do we ever want to bring any negativity towards the UFC as they have been nothing but great to Josh."

Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best comes February 7, 2009.