The card will then move over to Spike TV at 7PM ET for a three hour fight card headlined by “King Mo” Lawal taking on Seth Petruzelli in the evening’s featured bout.

Tomorrow’s show will serve as the lead in for Fight Master: Bellator MMA, which will make its debut at 10PM ET on Spike TV.

Main Card

• ‘King Mo’ Lawal (205.2) vs. Seth Petruzelli (204.8)
• Renato Sobral (204.2) vs. Jacob Noe (206.2*)
• Ryan Martinez (263.8) vs. Rich Hale (240.1)
• Vitaly Minakov (246) vs. Ron Sparks (264.6)
• War Machine (170) vs. Blas Avena (170)

Preliminary Card**

• Justin McNally (135.8) vs. Steven Artoff (138.8*)
• Brandon Girtz (155.7) vs. Derek Campos (159.2*)
• Brandon Halsey (205) vs. Joe Yaeger (205.5)
• Jeremiah O’Neal (260.5) vs. Raphael Butler (261)
• Keith Miner (155.8) vs. Damon Jackson (154.8)
• Mike Maldonado (135.8) vs. Chavous Smith (137.7*)
• Keith Berry (190*) vs. Cortez Coleman (185.6)
• Jarrod Card (145.7) vs. Chas Skelly (145.9)

*- Fighters had two hours to make weight, with only Berry and Campos missing on their second attempts

**-Not all bouts will be televised

Be sure to stay tuned to MMAFrenzy for more updates on Bellator 96 and the latest Bellator News.

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Speaking of big name heavyweights, Jordan was asked about the possibility of facing Miocic, while appearing on MMA Junkie.com Radio recently. The 28 year-old fighter responded by saying:

“We don’t really ever get to say who we’ll fight … but yeah, I like Stipe. He’s awesome, and we were hanging out at all week. … If they asked me to fight him, hey, I just fought a guy who’s been my buddy for a few years. Absolutely, if they ask me to fight him. I’m sure we both feel the same way.”

Miocic vs. Jordan huh? Now that’s a fight you wouldn’t want to utilize for a beer break. Will it happen though? Maybe, but considering Miocic just stormed through the promotion’s #7th ranked heavyweight (who was #5 heading into the event) and is now himself sitting at #8, probably not.

Who are the other top ten  heavyweights who don’t currently have fights booked? Daniel Cormier, “Bigfoot” Silva and Fabricio Werdum. Let the match-making begin.

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UFC 163 takes place August 3 at the HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The UFC 163 fight card is headlined by a UFC featherweight title bout pitting champion José Aldo against “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung.

Light heavyweights Lyoto Machida and Phil Davis will co-headline the August billing. The card will also feature a welterweight battle between Demian Maia and Josh Koschek.

UFC 163 Fight Card:

Main Card (Pay-per-view 10PM ET)

• UFC Featherweight Title Fight: José Aldo (c) vs. Chan Sung Jung
• Phil Davis vs. Lyoto Machida
• Josh Koscheck vs. Demian Maia
• Cezar Ferreira vs. Clint Hester
• John Lineker vs. Phil Harris

Preliminary Card (FX 8PM ET)

• Vinny Magalhaes vs. Anthony Perosh
• Sheila Gaff vs. Amanda Nunes
• Neil Magny vs. Sergio Moraes
• Thales Leites vs. Tom Watson

Preliminary Card (Facebook)

• Josh Clopton vs. Rani Yahya
• Ian McCall vs. Iliarde Santos
• Viscardi Andrade vs. Bristol Marunde
• Robert Drysdale vs. Ednaldo Oliveira

For the latest on UFC 163 and the latest UFC News, stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.

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Another reason fans should be pumped about the UFC on FOX 8 match-up is because there’s a lot riding on it. Case in point, in a recent interview with Rebellion Media’s Rick Lee, Ellenberger relayed:

“I was told when I signed this fight with Rory MacDonald that it was going to be the number one contender fight, which is exactly why I signed it. Regardless of who the name is, you could have put any name in there and I would have signed the contract. That’s the only reason I’m in the sport, fighting for that title, and I don’t want to waste my time. After the fight with Rory I will be the number one contender.”

Of course, the news that the fight could determine who will challenge the winner of this fall’s Georges St. Pierre-Johny Hendricks bout shouldn’t come as huge surprise. Ellenberger is currently ranked #4 by the UFC, and MacDonald is positioned at #3. The #2 ranked welterweight is Carlos Condit, but considering he’s coming off losses to GSP and Hendricks, he likely needs a couple of big wins before he gets another crack (he’ll fight Martin Kampmann on August 31st).

While a win for either Ellenberger or MacDonald would be huge that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll fight for the belt next. If Hendricks were to beat GSP, the promotion might decided to give him a rematch, depending on how the fight goes down. Then there’s also the fact that GSP and MacDonald are teammates. So, things could get pretty interesting if both men win their next fight.

Stay tuned to MMA Frenzy.com for all your UFC news and coverage.

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“Ryan’s a huge potential player in our HW division,” Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said. “We had him slotted for our next HW tournament, but paid him to be here and make weight as if he was going to fight, just for this reason.  And, his back to back camps with [King Mo] and Roy [Nelson] have him ready for tomorrow night’s fight.”

Weigh-ins for tonight’s card are set to begin tonight at 6PM live from Oklahoma.

The Bellator 96 lineup is a solid one for the promotion’s June 19 return trip to the WinStar Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. The card will feature a pair of tournaments as the light heavyweights, featuring Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, do battle in their own four-man tournament alongside the heavyweights.

Be sure to stay tuned to MMAFrenzy for more updates on Bellator 96 and the latest Bellator News.

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I wanna come back at a big and healthy 185. No more sickly 170 for me! ;)

Swick returned to the Octagon–after his stint on the sidelines–last August and KO’d Damarques Johnson in the second round. At UFC on FOX 8 in December, however, he was knocked out by Matt Brown. Swick competed at 185 to begin his UFC tenure, and won five straight bouts, but after being manhandled by Yushin Okami (he has a tendency of doing that) the well rounded fighter dropped to welterweight.

When asked specifically about the UFC 69 bout with Okami, which took place in April, 2007, Swick responded.

Yup. I was 182, in ring, when I fought Okami. I am 200 now.

That’s quite the difference. Swick has gone 5-3 competing at 170 since he left the middleweight division. The 33 year-old vet also added that he still needs “a few more tests” before he makes a final decision.

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Brunson (10-2) is coming off a unanimous decision win over Chris Leben at UFC 155 in December, after he was knocked out by Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza last August when he was still with Strikeforce. The former collegiate wrestler has gone 3-2 in his last five bouts.

Romero (5-1) scored a quick KO via a flying knee and punches over Clifford Starks in his Octagon debut, which took place at UFC on FOX 7 in April. Before that, the “Soldier of God” was knocked out by Rafael Cavalcante at a Strikeforce event in 2011. The former Olympian and decorated Cuban wrestler turned pro in 2009.

Hamman (13-5) will be looking to end a two fight losing skid, as “The Messenger” is coming off stoppage losses to Costa Philippou and most recently Michael Kuiper. Prior to the defeats Hamman stopped C.B. Dollaway at a UFC Live card in 2011.

Cedenblad (10-4), meanwhile, will be competing for the first time since April, 2012, when he was submitted by Francis Carmont at UFC on FUEL TV 2. The bout marked the Swedish fighter’s Octagon debut.

UFC 164 will be hosted by Milwaukee’s Bradley Center and will feature lightweight champ Benson Henderson taking on TJ Grant in the main event.

Stay tuned to MMA Frenzy.com for all your UFC news and coverage.

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I’d wager most would agree. Go ahead, watch the fight, and give Evans vs. Henderson whatever judging criteria you like. Count all the effective strikes, subtract the blows received, give a little more credit for aggressiveness, divide by two, carry the one… go “old-school” and consider the ten kg. rule (okay, maybe not), use Shooto’s old “catch” call, allow for Pancrase rope breaks, eh, whatever. You’ve still got a “toss-up” of a fight. It wasn’t the most dramatic, but it was certainly a competitive main event.

At the same time, it’s not too hard to see where the judges are coming from. Fight Metric, the official statistics provider of the UFC, offered a helpful graphic.  Evans out-struck Henderson by a total margin of 66 to 53. He was credited with 49 of 75 attempts at his jab to the head against Henderson’s 28 of 61. He landed more jabs than Henderson at an almost two-to-one clip in the critical second round. However, Henderson landed four power shots in that second round to Evans’ two. Henderson punctuated the performance with a nasty elbow to the head which ended the stanza.

In addition, Evans attempted the only takedowns of the bout. He failed with all eight, and the bout was entirely contested in stand up – but it speaks to his aggressiveness, anyway.

You’ve got a worthy victor in Evans, or at you can at least build an argument for him.

But, more importantly, did you really have a fight worth buying?

Well, not really. Sadly, you can use whatever criteria you like on that question, too.

Look, I don’t want to sound like a spoiled brat. MMA is everywhere now and I should be happy about it. But with UFC now showing its wares on more affordable venues like Fuel, FX, and Fox, this show was just not PPV-worthy. The sheer amount of shows these days is staggering and there’s just not enough of the “big fights” to go around.

Evans and Henderson are quality wrestlers whose ability cancels out one another’s best attribute.  If you’re excited for standup fighting, HBO had a bout Saturday between Mikey Garcia and Juan Manuel Lopez – a rising young star against a former pound-for-pound entrant. The night prior, most with cable could watch World Series of Fighting and get a decent MMA fix. Heck, on the night of UFC 161, game two of the Stanley Cup Finals was vying for your attention, too.

Take all this into account and maybe the decision from the judges probably isn’t the one White should be concerned about. I’ll agree that decision was reasonable. It’s really any fans decision to pay — or not pay — for this product which is questionable.  If the UFC can’t schedule a title bout each time they make a claim at your $60 (?), then they should offer several fights with major title implications. This had one bout – and it failed to impress.

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“This law has been in existence since we legalized mixed martial arts in the commonwealth of Mass­achusetts,” said Terrell Harris, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, which regulates prize fighting.

“It’s been brought to the attention of the UFC more than a few times since we legalized the fighting here. But they’ve chosen basically to ignore the law and hope that they could skirt it somehow,” Harris said.

Foreign fighters are able to obtain a temporary number through the Social Security Administration by acquiring a work visa.

The UFC had apparently asked for a one-time exception to the law, however the state was unwilling to grant the exemption to a law that had been on the books since the sport was legalized in Massachusetts. State House Speaker Robert F. DeLeo asked UFC officials to go to lawmakers for help resolving the situation.

The UFC has yet to comment on the matter.

UFC on FOX Sports 1 1 is currently set to take place August 17 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Light heavyweights Chael Sonnen and Maurício “Shogun” Rua are currently set to face off in the main event. The card will also feature a bout between former Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem and Travis Browne.

For the latest on UFC on FOX Sports 1 1 and the latest UFC News, stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.

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