Respectfully the UFC has plans to remember one of the organizations fallen soldiers this week during UFC Fight Night 15 which takes place on Wednesday.

During the broadcast, the UFC will pay homage to former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner who died last week from heat exhaustion in the Palo Verde desert.

“Dana White said this morning that they will be dedicating Wednesday night’s live show on Spike from Omaha, headlined by Houston Alexander vs. Eric Schafer, to Evan Tanner and that they will be airing an Evan Tanner TV tribute show on Spike. White said they’ve also put together 30 second tribute spots for Tanner that will be airing soon.”

Round 5 MMA recently secured their fourth and final fighter to round out their Series 2 collection which is expected to hit stores before Christmas.

Previous speculation that the 4th mystery fighter would be BJ Penn was put to rest when Round 5 President Damon Lau revealed that it would instead be “The Axe Murderer” Wanderlie Silva.

Round 5 debuted their caricature style action figures in March with Series one which included Randy Couture, Matt Hughes, Tito Ortiz and Quinton Jackson (complete with neck chain). Since that time fans have been eagerly anticipating the launch of series 2 which will no doubt surpass the success of series 1 with Anderson Silva on the roster.

Need a good laugh? Check out these hilarious UFC action figures that I ran across today. The phony action figure series features “Talking” Dana White, “Spaz-Action” Joe Rogan and Cecil Peoples.

Dana White’s figure says 17 different combinations of profanity and comes complete with accessories such as “Chuck Liddell’s balls” and a “Tito was my Bitch” removable shirt.

Rogan’s figure will spaz out with the touch of a button and comes complete with “Hallucinogenic Drug Cache & Bong.”

Pics after the jump…

Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio hit Vegas today with Golden Boy Promotions at his side to announce a new groundbreaking deal between the two companies that will attempt to cross promote MMA and Boxing at an elite level on PPV for the first time in history.

“We’re looking to put together top MMA fighters as well as top boxers in one night. I think the two worlds have finally merged, and this is a perfect example,” Affliction vice president Tom Atencio said.

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, who was in Vegas today promoting the Joel Casamayor vs Juan Marquez boxing fight, used the occasion as a pedal stool for the landmark announcement.

War Machine, formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver, recently found out the hard way that you don’t play hardball with the UFC and more specifically you don’t play hardball with UFC matchmaker Joe Silva.

The cast member of “The Ultimate Fighter 6″ recently spoke with MMAJunkie.com about why he was cut from the number one MMA organization citing comments about Evan Tanner’s recent death and a declined fight as the determining factors for his immediate release.

The first blow to the UFC came via comments that War Machine left in a Myspace bulletin about the possible cause of UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner’s death.

MMARated.com in association with Beef Merciful has released the third installment of their FacePunchMen series.

The MMA Comic, titled “Don’t Sweat the (Nipple Tweak) Technique, features some of the UFC’s stars participating in the act of “nipple twisting.” This rapidly growing phenomenon was on display in the main event of UFC 88 as Rashad Evans “tweaked” his nipples before the fight in the hopes of successfully defeating “The Iceman.”

This mythical tradition, said to bring good luck, was started by UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre who passed on the tradition to his teammate Rashad Evans.

As we mourn the loss of former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner who died this week at the age of 37, we look for ways to pay homage to one of MMA’s greats.

Xvideoproductionx did so in the form of a video which features highlights of some of Tanner’s most memorable moments in the UFC.

Tanner died on September 8 due to heat exhaustion after his motorcycle ran out of gas in the Palo Verde desert. His friends reported him missing after their text messages went unanswered for a couple of days.

Enjoy the video after the jump!

Immediately following speculation of Affliction’s big announcement in a couple of weeks, reports surfaced that Fedor Emelianenko will be featured on Affliction’s rescheduled “Day of Reckoning” card at the Honda Center in Anaheim on January 17th.

NBCSports.com spoke exclusively with Michael D Cohen who revealed the breaking news of “The Last Emperor’s” return. Emelianenko was originally scheduled to face Andrei Arlovski at “Day of Reckoning” in October but was forced to withdrawal due to a lingering hand injury.

The return of the undisputed WAMMA heavyweight king should single-handedly turn around ticket sales which were reported by Tom Atencio to be abysmal thus far.

As we reported earlier in the day, Affliction has rescheduled their encore event “Day of Reckoning” to take place in January at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA.

Well apparently Affliction has good reason for the postponement of their sophomore show. According to Affliction COO Michael D Cohen, the organization has plans for a big announement that will change the world of MMA.

At this present moment, I can not give the reason but what I can tell you is that there is going to be a public announcement made and…

UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste is busy being hot. Her latest gig is to conquer the field at Maxim’s 2008 Hometown Hotties competition.

So get on over their and vote for Celeste, it’s easy and you don’t even need to sign up to cast your vote. While your there check out Arianny’s scorching new pics and videos shot exclusively for this contest.

There is also a bio with some very interesting personal quotes from the 5′5 110lb bombshell including our personal favorite.