Well hello again, fight friends! It’s the end of another week of drudgery, so let’s unwind with some of the good ol’ ultraviolence!
Friday
Bellator has had a fun season so far, with solid fight cards. The prelims, as usual, will be on Bellator.com starting at 7:00 PM ET, There are a few familiar names for once, like Saad “A Sad Wad” Awad and Rameau Thierry “Sudoku” Sokoudjou, but most of the prelim fighters are complete unknowns. The main card, which starts at 9:00 PM ET on Spike TV, thankfully has people I’ve heard of. There’s complete jerk Rob Emerson, who I’d like to see get beaten in hilarious fashion. Kendall “Da Spyder” Grove takes on former light heavyweight champion Christian “Ton Ton” M’Pumbu in middleweight action, while Karo “The Heat” Parisyan is looking to enjoy a career resurgence similar to Andrei Arlovski and Robbie Lawler as he faces Fernando Gonzalez. In the main event, two wrestley featherweights square off, as Daniel “I Cut My Dreadlocks to Make Weight” Straus and Justin “I Cannot Fit Through Doorways” Wilcox will smash into each other while I drunkenly make explosion sounds.
Battlegrounds MMA: One Night Elimination
I usually don’t talk a whole lot about promotions outside of the UFC/Bellator/WSoF bubble, but this upcoming Battleground pay-per-view has a ton of interesting stuff. First of all, it’s a one-night 8-man tournament, harkening back to the Ye Olden Days of mixed martial arts (I think it was just called CAGE PUNCHIN’ back then). The tournament has a ton of UFC castoffs, like Dennis “Speedos” Hallman and hobo-drifter Cody McKenzie, which is good for drawing in the semi-regular MMA crowd. Finally, the big draw of Battleground O.N.E. is that commentary will be provided by “The American Gangster” Chael P. Sonnen, and the legendary good ol’ JR himself, Jim Ross.
Of course, there are going to be other fights on the card, but again, I’ve never heard of most of the fighters. At least we’re getting an atomweight fight between Nicdali “The Night Queen” Rivera-Calanoc and Jen “Tink” Aniano, that should be cool. Things should be kicking off around 9:00 PM ET, with prelims and main card available at GFL.tv and the main PPV card will also be on regular television pay-per-view through select providers.
Saturday
Fight Night 53 is taking place in the ancient land of Sweden, so things are kicking off early. Hooray for day-drinking! Everything is on Fight Pass, so remember to steal your neighbor’s WiFi for this one. Fun stuff starts at 12:10 PM ET, so roll out of bed around 11:30, eat a breakfast and sit down in front of your computer for PUNCH MANS. The prelims feature at least four Russian/Chechen/Dagestani fighters, and that’s just the best thing ever.
The main card begins at 3:00 PM and only has four fights, so things should progress quickly. The main event features Rick Story taking on Uproxx Sports favorite Gunnar Nelson. It should be a really good grapple-fight, so yay for that.
Yeah, this is a double-header day as Fight Night “Studio” 54 is coming to us from Canadia. Thankfully, nearly everything is on TV. The early prelims, of course are on Fight Pass starting at 7:00 PM ET. That should give everyone plenty of time to recover from the Sweden card, rest, grab more booze, food, and yelled expletives. The regular prelims are on Fox Sports 2 at 8:00 PM, and the people’s main event here is Daron Cruickshank taking on Anthony Njokuani. That should be a really good kickboxing match between two fun fighters. I’m really looking forward to that.
The main card is on Fox Sports 1 starting at 10:00 PM ET. There are a lot of dudes from the Aussie-Canada season of TUF, which I still haven’t watched, so I don’t really know them. The co-main does feature Raphael Assuncao taking on Bryan Caraway, who I think has negative popularity. The main event is a contest between Tarec Saffiedine and Vancouver’s most notorious serial killer, Rory MacDonald. I don’t know if MacDonald will get a title shot with a win here, but he is ranked #2 in the welterweight division. All I know is that much like an invitation to his basement dungeon, this fight is heavy with IMPLICATIONS.
This will be the last UFC card for a few weeks, as October is pretty empty until UFC 179 at the end of the month, so savor these fights, punch-friends!
