Greetings from Fort Lauderdale. Believe it or not, lots of excitement around these parts so let's get to the notes...

* First and foremost, we just returned from a very exciting field trip to the American Top Team headquarters. Pretty impressive place. It's an amazing feeling to walk into a gym and see 15 of the best mixed martial artists in the world training together. In the house today were Thiago Alves, Thiago Silva, Wilson Gouveia, Antonio Silva, Yves Edwards, Jorge Santiago, Mike Brown, and many others. Luckily for us, we got to speak to most of the big names so expect some interesting videos on the horizon.

* One of the big name fighters in attendance, but not training, was "JZ" Cavalcante. The lightweight star has officially been cleared to train after rehabbing an injured knee and will get back to it starting early next week. Even better news is that he expects to return to action on New Year's Eve against current DREAM lightweight champion Joachim Hansen. The fight is not 100% just yet, but Cavalcante told us that it has been offered to both fighters and he is just awaiting the official word. It's interesting to note that the fight will not be for Hansen's title as this will be on a K-1 Dynamite! show and not DREAM.

* Former WWE champion Bobby Lashley was in attendance, as well. Lashley told us that he will be fighting in December after the AFL loaned him out to another promotion, however, he wasn't able to disclose where, when and which fighter he will be facing. First they loan out Tara LaRosa, and now Lashley. Looks like trouble ahead for the AFL.

* Antonio Silva was in a bit of bad mood as he just received word that his CSAC hearing was being postponed from October 8th to October 22nd.

* Jorge Santiago is expecting to face Kazuhiro Nakamura in the semi-finals of the Sengoku middleweight tournament at Sengoku 6 on November 1st.

* As for the EliteXC show, there appears to be a little bit of buzz surrounding it, but nothing major. I overheard some EliteXC officials talking about wanting to setup a shuttle service for some local fraternities to come to the event, so that makes me think that ticket sales are slow. The media turnout at the press conference had to have been considered a little disappointing as there were only a handful of non-MMA media outlets in attendance.

* Sadly, I didn't get a chance to talk to Andrei Arlovski as he left the press conference pretty quickly, but I'll have some other opportunities before the weekend is over so here's hoping I can get that follow-up.

More later...