To say the last couple of weeks in MMA have been busy would be as silly as saying the disaster in the gulf of Mexico is a minor inconvenience. With the top 3 (or 4 if you split the Zuffa owned UFC and WEC promotions) mixed martial arts organizations all holding events withing the same 7 day period, you would think an mma blogger like myself would have a plethora, no a veritable smorgasbord of topics to discuss, picks to mull over, post event analysis to bump gums/keyboard over.

Along with the standard random news/developments and goings on I sadly had to bow out due to my main soap box/this website going on the fritz. More accurately, there seemed to be a problem with the site posting auto save drafts from what seemed to be every article I had ever written. Thanks to Brandon for addressing the issue and getting things back in order. Now it is time for me to find my riddum and head back into the fray that is the “mma blogesphere” while the getting is still good. There is still the weekly goodness from Bellator going down along with 3 of the top heavyweights in the world fighting in a 2 week period, first on the Strikeforce: Fedor vs Werdum card and next weeks UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin which has already made headlines due to one of the co main event fighters, the legendary Wanderlei Silva being replaced due to injury by last weekds knockout of the night winner and fan favorite Chris The Crippler Leben.

I still wonder how this will look in hindsight months and years from now, these past couple of months have been the closest to constant weekly major org mma this young sport has ever seen. And if this is a sign of things to come, the future is bright in regards to human cockfighting.

The latest season of The Ultimate Fighter netted 1.9 Million viewers on Wednesday night following UFC Fight Night. Apparently last season had the highest rating with 4.1 Million.

I really enjoyed the fights that were shown and how they were shown it was a great intro the season and there’s a ton of talent so hopefully the viewership doesn’t drop off. I’m also wondering if there wasn’t a huge response due to the recent release of The Ultimate Fighter website where I’m assuming you’ll be able to view the episode soon.

From MMA Junkie,

Open tryouts for “The Ultimate Fighter 12,” which took place this morning in North Carolina, drew more than 300 reality-show hopefuls, including some notables names who previously competed for World Extreme Cagefighting, PRIDE Fighting Championships and event a past edition of “TUF,”…

And though today’s session at the Omni Charlotte Hotel’s grand ballroom in Charlotte drew notables such as recent WEC fighter Mike Budnik and PRIDE/King of the cage vet Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett, one arrival provided perhaps the biggest surprise.

Jason Guida.

Season 12 will feature fighters in the lightweight and light heavyweight divisions and is starting to look like season 4 with all the vets from other orgs looking for their second shot at the big time. One can’t help but wonder if Roy Nelsons seemingly easy path to victory over game but green opposition is setting a precedent for the show. Couldn’t help but notice Columbus, OH fighter Nick “Afrozilla” Gaston at the tryouts too. I will try not to get ahead of myself over all the TUF 12 news seeing as we still have the 11th season to finish first.

Just got finished watching both Ultimate Fight Night 21 and the season premiere of TUF 11 & here is my initial impression of them, enjoy.

- Ross Pearsons is The Real Deal both in nickname and potential. Siver put up a good fight but was visibly hurt and gassed near the end.

- Nate Quarry needs to improve his striking defense, he is taking way too many shots in his last two fights and it’s becoming cause for alarm.

- Jorge Rivera put on a heck of a performance and dare I say lol @ his “Free Weezy” t-shirt.

- Leave it to a place named the Bojangles Coliseum to have a blackout mid event.

- Glieson Tibau is a monstrous lightwieght, even the double weigh ins could stop him.

- For Stephan Struve, see Nate Quarry. Granted The Skyscraper is still growing and improving as a fighter, his ground game and bjj are solid though. Like Roy said give him a couple years and he’ll be force to be reckoned with

- Big Country is a bad man who seems to have a 6th sense for homing in on an opponents weakness and immediately attacking it.

- While Florian may suffer from #2 syndrome, but if he keeps putting away opponents like this he will never be too far away from another title shot. A proposition made even sweeter with the knowledge that BJ want to move up to 170 for a rubber match with his white whale

- The TUF 11 premiere had enough stand and bang action to keep even this guy happy. My DVR is set to record… despite.

- The French guy who quit is lucky guys like GSP (I know he’s more Canuck than Frenchman but he sounds like one so the shoe fits) & Cheick Kongo are doing a proper job of repping France.

Pic from MMA Weekly

The UFC returns to North Carolina with a card filled with up and comers and fighters making their UFC debut. The main event will feature top 5 lightweight Kenny Florian against former Pride lightweight champion Takanori Gomi who is one of the many fighters on this card stepping up to the big show Wednesday night.

Along with the main event there is a interesting fight in the heavyweight division between the young gargantua in Stephan Struve and the TUF 10 champ and journeyman behemoth Roy “Big Country” Nelson. Now on to the picks for spikes lead in to the season premiere of the eleventh season of The Ultimate Fighter.

* Heavyweight bout: Roy Nelson vs Stefan Struve

It goes without saying that the UFC is the biggest and most respected MMA organization on the planet. And despite the legit nature of this bout with the beyond lanky 6′10 Struve and 6′1 portly vet Roy Nelson most people tuning in will mistake this for a freak show. As a firm believer that Struve will be a major player in heavyweight division as he gets older, the guy has a huge mountain to climb in the heavyweight division that seems to be filled with either cans or killers. With both fighters being experienced grapplers it seems like the fighter with the better stand-up game will prevail.

- Roy Nelson via blubber bludgeoning

* Lightweight bout: Ross Pearson vs. Dennis Siver

My pick for fight of the night, two European strikers who like to finish. Even though I can see Pearson taking this, I can’t help but hope for another spinning mule kick from Siver.

- Siver via whirling dervish tko

* Middleweight bout: Nate Quarry vs.Jorge Rivera

I am going with the veteran and TUF alum in Quarry based purely on being a fellow comic book fan. MMA blogger cred be damned.

- Quarry via old school Namor thrashing

* Lightweight bout: Kenny Florian vs Takanori Gomi

In the biggest lightweight fight before BJ defends his title at UFC 112 we have a fight with title implications for the winner. Both Florian and Gomi have already been bested by the current champ, but how they stack up against each other is another story and a decidedly one sided one at best. Florian should take this fight easy, with his offensive capabilities namely his razor elbows and improved ground game it should be a short night for the Bostonian. In Gomi we have a fighter who succeeded in Japan due to his solid boxing skills and (what I believe to be his biggest asset) a nobody-can-fuck-with-me bravado. Unfortunately for the former Pride champ whose mystique has lost its luster over the years since the fall of the preeminent Japanese mma org. Florian has way too many tools and has continuously faced a high level of competition to handle anything Gomi can throw at him.

- Florian via TKO

* Lightweight bout: Andre Winner vs. Rafaello Oliveira
Winner has yet to be in a boring fight in the UFC and while his ground game is still an unknown quantity I will still give him the benefit of a doubt.

- Winner via TKO

* Lightweight bout: Jacob Volkmann vs. Ronnys Torres
Volkmann has lost both of his fights in the UFC at welterweight and is dropping down to lightweight to see if it will help. It won’t.

- Torres via can crush

* Lightweight bout: Rob Emerson vs. Nik Lentz
I cannot in good faith pick a man whose nickname as undesirable as “The Carnie” who are one step above Lefties (don’t worry Brandon and Obama are one of the good ones) in my book

- Emerson via whatever he damn well pleases because I hate damn Carnival Folk

* Lightweight bout: Caol Uno vs. Gleison Tibau
Another freakshow-esque fight this time in the lightweight division between one of the smaller fighters in the division in Uno and the enormous former welterweight in Tibau. Assuming the weight cut gives Tibau only one round to do anything worth while before he gasses and can only go for sloppy takedowns I see Uno surviving and prevailing.

Uno via Unanimous Decision

* Middleweight bout: Yushin Okami vs. Lucio Linhares

- Okami via bullying rassler UD

* Middleweight bout: Gerald Harris vs Mario Miranda
Flip a coin, and hope the fight is enjoyable.
- Harris via…something victorious

* Welterweight bout: Charlie Brenneman vs. Jason High
-It seems that every time Jason High steps up in competition he gets finished in savage fashion. While Brenneman is making his debut I will give him the nod based soley on the unimpressive performances High has racked up recently.

- Brenneman via UD

Finally, I’m really glad this was launched. I’m just hoping that the new episodes from this upcoming season will be the next day after being aired on Spike. Being greedy, I wish they’d air at the same time…I’ll take what I can get though.

From MMAWeekly.com:

The ad-supported website will feature every episode, every fight and every fighter from all 10 seasons of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which premiered on Spike in January 2005. The launch of UltimateFighter.com marks the first time that complete UFC fights are available on the Web for free in an ad-supported model and it is the first vertical website launched for a Spike TV series. Both UFC.com and Spike.com will redirect all traffic related to “The Ultimate Fighter” to the new site.

Pretty brilliant.