Combat Sports: An Encyclopedia

Ryan Martinez vs Mark Ellis

Ryan Martinez will be stepping in to face Richard Hale in the Heavyweight semi-finals for Bellator 96 tomorrow (June 19). Seems the Spartan had to pull out. Makes it a much better fight imo.

Lauren Taylor Highlights

by: TiffATatProductions

Sucks Laruen didn’t try out for TUF. She was one great surprises from Invicta FC 5 with her comeback win over Kaitlin Young. She’s 6-0 (5 of her wins coming by t(ko)). She fights out of Alaska and is a very promising 135er. She’ll be fighting Sarah D’Alelio at Invicta FC 6 on July 13.

Vitaly Minakov vs. Vladimir Starcencov

Combat Sambo Champion and future Bellator heavyweight champion Vitaly Minakov looks to start his run to the title tomorrow (June 19th) when he takes on Ron Sparks in the semi finals of the Bellator Heavyweight tournament to decide the new number 1 contender to challenge Alexander Volkov.

Richard Hale vs Thiago Santos

Straight up gave up. Anyway former Bellator Heavyweight and light heavyweight tournament finalist, Richard Hale is gonna be looking for one more shot at Bellator gold when he takes on Vinicius Kappke de Queiroz tomorrow (June 19th) at Bellator 96.

Lance Palmer vs Patrick Reeves

Another top prospect that will be fighting this at this weekend’s RFA 8 is Lance Palmer. The 4x All American is considered one of the best (up and coming) talents outside of ZUFFA. Fighting out of Team Alpha Male, he’ll hope to capture the RFA featherweight title with a win over Jared Downing this Friday (June 21st). It’ll be live on AXS TV.

Justin Scoggins vs Jacob Hebeisen

In my efforts to build flyweight awareness for dudes the UFC could (AND SHOULD) pick up, I came across Justin Scoggins. It’s rare that I talk about American prospects unless they’re big time wrestlers or fight on big regional shows, but Justin Scoggins gets a nod today. Scoggins fights out of American Top Team and has shown a very good, versatile striking game. He’s racked up a 5-0 on the regional circuit. He’ll be defending his Warfare Flyweight title this Friday (June 21st) against Len Cook.

Could someone make me a gif of the end of this fight?

Volkan Oezdemir vs Bruno Grancheux

Another Light Heavyweight that will be fighting on the Bellator 96 prelims is Switzerland’s Volkan Oezdemir. The powerful striker is 9-0 (7 by way of KO) and will be making his Bellator debut. The 23 year old will fight Joe Yager.

Brandon Halsey vs. David Zabriskie

Bellator returns this week with Bellator 96. While one can debate the merits of two 4 man tournaments that are basically a reshuffle of fighters that lost in the last tournaments (save Butler and Minakov), there’s still some good talent on the card. On the prelims, which will air on Spike.comm, we’ll see a few up and coming 205ers. One will be former Cal State Bakersfied wrestler Brandon Halsey. He’s 3-0 in MMA and PAC-10 wrestling champion. He actually upset D1 wrestling champion and brother of Bellator WW champion (Ben Askren), Max Askren in the 2007 NCAA tournament. He’ll be facing Mikey Brown this Wednesday (June 19th).

5-souls:

Watch This:  We finally have video to show you of 5 Souls own Lainel Briones winning the amateur MMA Bantamweight title by kneebar last weekend.

Sergio “The Phenom” Pettis vs Josh “Short Stack” Robinson

On my never ending crusade to get these flyweights into the UFC.

First up is younger Pettis. It’s gotta be tough being Showtime’s younger brother. There aren’t any other fighters like ‘em. I can’t help but fear the inevitable comparisons are gonna permanently label him Anthony’s little brother. He’s not as flashy, he’s not as creative, and he’s not as deadly. What he is though is a very talented fighter with a whole lot of upside, especially for being only 19 years old. Pettis will be in the main event of this Friday’s RFA 8 live on AXS TV (June 21st). His opponent will be Dillard Pegg, a late replacement for Jeff Curran. With an impressive win, Sergio could see himself pushed onto the UFC 164 card in his hometown of Milwaukee.