(If only all of Jake Shields fights were sped up and accompanied with Benny Hill theme-like music. Video courtesy of YouTube/JayCosta7)

The UFC announced last night that Jake Ellenberger will step in for Brian Foster against Sean Pierson at UFC 129 later this month in Toronto and that fellow welterweight Diego “The Dream” Sanchez has been added to a four-man grappling tournament at the weekend’s UFC Expo.

(Lucky for Foster, the OAC is dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.)

With as much rhetoric opponents of mixed martial arts spew about how unsafe and barbaric the sport is, you would think that the number of fighters dying from MMA-related injuries would vastly outweigh the number of fighters who have been saved from potentially tragic circumstances by the sport.

Well, you can chalk another one up for the good guys.

According to MMAJunkie, an Ontario Athletic Commission-mandated MRI has revealed a dangerous brain abnormality in UFC welterweight Brian Foster that has forced him out of his upcoming UFC 129 bout with Sean Pierson, but more importantly may have saved his life.

(Props: Heavy)

The UFC handed out $40,000 performance bonuses to five fighters following UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares, including two separate "Submission of the Night" awards. The honorees are:

Knockout of the Night: Brian Foster, for his 67-second storming of Forrest Petz, which was the lone stoppage on the preliminary card. Petz now drops to 0-2 in his current UFC stint, and will most likely be shown the door.

Submission of the Night (1): Cole Miller, for dropping Ross Pearson with punches in the second round of their fight, then icing him with a rear-naked choke. Miller has scored the SotN award in three of his last five appearances, and officially enters the UFC Performance Bonus Leaderboard. 

Submission of the Night (2): Charles Oliveira, who pushed his record to 14-0 with a huge win over TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero, secured via standing rear-naked choke in the third round. Though he had trouble getting Escudero to the mat in the first two frames, Oliveira showed off his tenacity in the victory, as well as some impressively unorthodox striking.

Fight of the Night: Kyle Kingsbury and Jared Hamman, for their fast-paced three-round brawl in the prelims. Despite a third-round rally from Hamman, Kingsbury’s domination and damage in the first two frames secured him 29-28 scores from all three judges.

Some other notes on the fights…

(We haven’t seen anything look this lifeless in Hughes’ arms since the end of the second B.J. Penn fight. Hi-yo!)

Matt Hughes still hasn’t said for sure what his future in the UFC will look like, opting instead to narrow down possible matchups through the process of elimination.  But just because he hasn’t been given anybody to ground-and-pound recently doesn’t mean he’s lost his taste for blood.  Hughes posted pictures from his recent deer hunt on his blog, and also took time to congratulate HIT Squad product Brian Foster on his brutal TKO of Brock Larson:

Last Saturday was UFC 106, HIT Squad’s own Brian Foster fought a very tough Brock Larsen. I knew the match up was going to be tough, so we really put our time in with Brian at the gym. If you watch the fight, you will know that Brian did very well and almost made Brock look bad. Brock’s a great guy, I’ve trained with him a lot and I’m sure he’ll rebound from this.

Almost made him look bad is one way of putting it.  Totally owned him is another.  The dominating win for Foster was a great way to bounce back from his loss to Rick Story at UFC 103.  And as you’ll see after the jump, not only did he finish the fight in impressive fashion, he also stuck the landing on the celebratory backflip.

(Props: Esther Lin)

With a full 13 bouts scheduled for UFC 103, fight fans are going to get their money’s worth tomorrow night in Dallas. Six fighters will be stepping into the Octagon for the first time, most of them trying to make the transition from hometown hero to big-time player. Read on to get acquainted with all the new faces, from Semtex to Tractor to Carny...

PAUL DALEY (WW)
Experience: 21-8-2 record, with 16 wins by KO/TKO. Was the former welterweight champion of Cage Rage. Holds stoppage victories over Duane Ludwig, John Alessio, Jess Liaudin, and Xavier Foupa-Pokam.
Will be facing: Martin Kampmann (15-2, 6-1 UFC)
Lowdown: You should already know about this guy. He knocks dudes out, and has never been knocked out himself. Still, if Kampmann can get this one to the ground, it’s a wrap. UFC.com tries to put a positive spin on the reality of the situation: "Chances are, when Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley is around, you’ll either witness a Knockout of the Night or Submission of the Night."

STEVE LOPEZ (LW)
Experience: 12-1 record, primarily in Midwestern regional leagues. Holds a submission-via-strikes victory over The Gooch. Last competed in October 2008, when he scored a decision win over Alejandro Villalobos.
Will be facing: Jim Miller (13-2, 3-1 UFC)
?Lowdown: A South Bend native and member of the Bulldog Fight Team, Lopez comes to this fight as a replacement for Thiago Tavares. The UFC first noticed Lopez when he tried out for TUF 9 — and injured his shoulder in the process. The former wrestler was inspired to try MMA when he saw The Smashing Machine, and made his pro debut in February 2007 at a four-man tournament, which he won via two consecutive knockouts. He just wants to get in there and scrap: “Win or lose, I hope the fans say ‘man, this kid’s tough – he’s got heart and he don’t back down.’ And this fight is the type of fight I’m looking for – Jim Miller, Roger Huerta, Tyson Griffin – I’m looking for grinders. Those just have Fight of The Night written all over them. I’m not afraid to stand and bang, and I can take a whuppin’. We throw down hard in practice, I’ve never been knocked down, and these are the fights that interest me.”