(Aoki vs. Boku, courtesy of Youtube user mike devro. Check it out before it gets taken down.)

______’s smothering grappling game was once again on display at OneFC 8, which transpired early this morning from the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Looking to exact some revenge for his fallen friend/training partner, ______, who was defeated by ______ back at OneFC 6, ______ utterly dominated the 20-8 _____ en route to a second round submission via _____-_____ choke. With the win, ______ secured the OneFC lightweight title, which will fit nicely on his mantle alongside his DREAM strap.

In the night’s co-main event, a UFC and WEC veteran whose name sounds a lot like Block Arsen survived some dicey moments to secure a decision victory over renowned kickboxer _____ ___hoef. Featuring some truly impressive, albeit sparse exchanges in the first two rounds, ______ was able to brave the storm and use his patented ground-n-pound game to work over the Dutchman, who was clearly gassed by the time things hit the third round.

Now, onto ______. In the past five years, we have seen the career of the former _FC lightweight champion go from the staggering lows of a five-fight losing streak in the WEC (with 4 of those coming by stoppage), to a 2-0 win streak over a couple of cans in smaller promotions, to the current 3-4 stretch that concluded with a second round loss via, you guessed it, submission, in the One FC Bantamweight Grand Prix ___finals this morning. We can’t really say anything about _____ that we haven’t already said; he’s a great guy and a once great fighter who shouldn’t still be fighting but is for the simplest of motivations: money. It could be a lot worse, but it still breaks our hearts to see him continue to drift in the bowels of mediocrity.

A video of the ______/______ fight and the full list of results are after the jump. 

(Well, it was fun while it lasted. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

According to multiple reports, veteran middleweight Denis Kang has been released from his UFC contract following his second-round TKO loss to Michael Bisping at UFC 105, officially making him the UFC’s Biggest Bust of 2009. Once considered a top-ten middleweight due to his impressive performances in PRIDE and Spirit MC — including an epic 23-fight stretch in 2003-2006 where he didn’t lose a single match — Kang has now lost five of his last nine attempts, including two out of three in the UFC. The dismissal is somewhat surprising since Kang hadn’t lost two in a row, and his scrap with Bisping earned UFC 105′s Fight of the Night. Still, his employers didn’t see a future with him in their organization, and he’s on the free market again. According to MMA Fanhouse, Kang is currently in talks with several promotions in the US and abroad.

Other recent UFC firings include…

(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.

(Photo courtesy of Newsday.)

— TUF 3 finalist Ed Herman, who broke a two-fight skid in April with a unanimous decision win over David Loiseau, has been tapped to replace James "Job" Irvin against Wilson Gouveia at UFC 102, according to Sherdog. Irvin was forced to withdraw from the fight this week due to yet another serious knee injury. Herman was previously scheduled to face Aaron Simpson at UFC Fight Night 19 (September 16th, Oklahoma City).

— UFC 104 (October 24th, Los Angeles) will reportedly host a lightweight battle between Joe Stevenson and Spencer Fisher. "Joe Daddy" broke a two-fight losing streak of his own when he scored a decision win over Nate Diaz at the TUF 9 finale in June. Fisher is riding a three fight win-streak and most recently outpointed Caol Uno at UFC 99. The match will likely be on the main card, supporting the light-heavyweight title fight between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

(Kaplan/Roop is easily going to be Fight of the Night. And Dana went to MIT. Photo courtesy of this set on CombatLifestyle.com)

Spoilers after the jump…

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Chris Wilson‘s month just went from incredibly awful to unbelievably terrible. As if getting home-invaded and robbed of all his valuables by Brazilian marauders wasn’t bad enough, the Team Quest welterweight now can’t even earn the money to replace what he lost. Bad, bad tidings from his blog:

The UFC has released the finalized lineup and bout order for UFC Fight Night 18, which will go down April 1st at the Sommet Center in Nashville. Leading up to the main event between the WEC’s final welterweight champion Carlos Condit (who has won his last eight fights) and Martin Kampmann (who is 5-1 in the UFC) will be three televised bouts featuring alumni from The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir — all of whom are undefeated in their professional careers.

Lightweight winner Efrain Escudero (11-0) will take on the heavy-handed Jeremy Stephens (14-4), who’s coming off a submission loss to Joe Lauzon at Fight Night 17 earlier this month. The infamous Junie Browning (3-0) will get a big step up in competition when he faces ATT submission specialist and TUF 5 alum Cole Miller (14-3). And in the light-heavyweight division, TUF 8′s 205-pound winner Ryan Bader (8-0) will welcome Carmelo Marrero (10-2) back to the Octagon. The official lineup is below:

MAIN CARD
Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann (WW)
Efrain Escudero vs. Jeremy Stephens (LW)
Ryan Bader vs. Carmelo Marrero (LHW)
Junie Browning vs. Cole Miller (LW)

(No man has seen Xavier Foupa-Pokam’s real face and lived.) 

— As previously rumored, WEC welterweight champ Carlos Condit has signed on to face Martin Kampmann in the main event of UFC Fight Night 18 (April 1st, Nashville). Brock Larson, who Condit was originally scheduled to face in a title defense at WEC 39, will also be competing on the Fight Night 18 card, likely against UFC newcomer Jesse Sanders. Larson has fought twice in the UFC, losing a decision to Jon Fitch in 2005, and winning a decision over Keita Nakamura in 2006.

— Denis Kang, who took an upset loss to Alan Belcher in his Octagon debut at UFC 93, will try to redeem himself in front of his fellow Canadians at UFC 97 (April 18th, Montreal). Kang will be taking on Xavier "Professor X" Foupa-Pokam, a French Cage Rage/Palace Fighting Championships vet and UFC first-timer who has won his last seven fights by stoppage. 

— Undefeated TUF 6 standout Ben Saunders has been forced to drop off the UFC 96 card due to a foot injury, and has been replaced by Tamdan McCrory. Saunders was originally supposed to face welterweight submission specialist Dustin Hazelett — who most recently submitted McCrory via armbar at UFC 91 — until Hazelett dropped off the card with an undisclosed injury and was replaced by 5-0 prospect Ryan Madigan. So now we’ve gone from Saunders vs. Hazelett to McCrory vs. Madigan. The world is not fair. 

Multiple sources are reporting that the upcoming welterweight title match between WEC champ Carlos "Natural Born Killer" Condit and top contender Brock Larson — scheduled for WEC 39 on March 1st — has been canceled, with Condit on the verge of moving to the UFC. Though Five Ounces of Pain first reported the news, their claim that the Condit/Larson bout was scrapped due to an injury sustained by Larson is being refuted by MMA Weekly, who says that Condit was the one who first dropped out of the Corpus Christi WEC show due to a sprained wrist.

At any rate, it seems the UFC has decided that this might be a good time to bring Condit up to the big leagues; Condit is on an eight-fight win streak and hasn’t lost since June 2006. The current rumor is that he’ll be facing Martin Kampmann at UFC Fight Night 18 (April 1st, Nashville), and it’s been speculated that this is the first step towards the elimination of the WEC’s welterweight division; the WEC discontinued its middleweight and light-heavyweight classes late last year, with the UFC signing standout fighters Brian Stann, Steve Cantwell, and Chael Sonnen.

In other UFC news…

— Replacing the injured Amir Sadollah against Nick Catone at UFC Fight Night 17 (February 7th, Tampa) will be UFC newbie Derek "The Gentleman" Downey, a Utah-based fighter who has built up a 10-3 record fighting in regional promotions. Nine of his 10 wins have come by first-round stoppage.

— Houston Alexander is getting another chance to prove himself after taking his third-straight first-round loss to Eric Schafer last September. The Assassin will be returning at UFC 98 (May 23rd, Las Vegas) against Andre Gusmao, the former IFL standout who dropped a decision to Jon Jones in his Octagon debut at UFC 87.

(Brian Bowles’s fight-ending flying guillotine of Damacio Page. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Even without franchise fighter Urijah Faber on the card, the WEC managed to put on one of the wildest events in recent memory last night, featuring six first-round stoppages and a welterweight title fight that you’ll definitely be seeing on “Best of the Year” lists in a few months. Following a kickass supporting card that saw welterweight standout Brock Larson smash Carlo Prater in just 37 seconds, and undefeated Brian Bowles choke out the tough and cocky Damacio Page in a bantamweight match, the broadcast featured a trio of title fights, and they did not disappoint.

Leading off was WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner in his first title defense, facing submission specialist Marcus “The Wrecking Ball” Hicks, who walked into the cage with a perfect 8-0 record. After an exchange of knees in a clinch, Hicks bulled Varner to the ground and nearly sunk in a guillotine choke. Hicks tossed Varner down again when he escaped, but “The Worm” scrambled to his feet and started pouring on an insane barrage of kicks, knees, and punches that continued until Hicks hit the deck at the 2:08 mark.

In the light-heavyweight championship match, Steve Cantwell avenged his only career loss and stole the WEC’s 205-pound belt at the same time, scoring a second-round TKO over reigning champ Brian Stann. The first frame saw Cantwell get the better of the previously undefeated “All-American” in a kickboxing match that turned absolutely frantic about 90 seconds in. There was a scary moment for Cantwell at the end of round one as he slipped to the ground and started taking heavy shots from above by Stann, but he was able to get to his feet as the horn sounded. Stann started the second round by kicking Cantwell dead in the nuts, but the challenger recovered with more sharp striking, eventually staggering Stann with a left hook and turning out his lights with a right hook.

As you may or may not know, tonight in Las Vegas the Thomas and Mack Center is putting on a boxing/MMA event, for which they gave away tickets for free in order to drum up interest.

Fighting on the MMA portion of that event is John Alessio, who will be facing Pete Spratt. If you’re wondering whether Alessio has moved past his DQ loss against Brock Larson in the WEC, the short answer is no. The long answer, which can be found in the above video from MMA Rated, is that Alessio thinks Larson is a “fucking pussy.” So there you go.

It should be interesting to see where this zany idea of putting boxing and MMA together goes from here. As anyone who’s ever been to a show that combined MMA fights with “submission grappling” matches can tell you, the response to the thing that is not MMA is often very, very negative. And very, very drunk.

But that could be different when the other option is boxing, because at least that still involves punching people in the face. Or this could all be a ruse to try and trick boxing fans into watching MMA. If that’s the case, expect a lot of hilarious comments equating ground fighting with gay male sex. That never gets old.

(Chael Sonnen, pre-WEC.)

Chael Sonnen earned some real estate commission-sized dough this week at WEC 33, raking in $34k. The official payouts for all 20 of the event’s participants have been released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and Sonnen was the night’s big money winner. The event saw Chael easily handle Bryan Baker, and also saw the light heavyweight title switch from Doug Marshall to Brian Stann. The total payout for the night hit $213k, or about what Kimbo makes for winning a fight. After looking at the WEC’s payments, the phrase “salary commensurate with experience” comes to mind.

Here’s the dish:

– Brian Stann ($18,000) over Doug Marshall ($10,000)
– Chael Sonnen ($34,000) over Bryan Baker ($5,000)
– Marcus Hicks ($10,000) over Ed Ratcliff ($7,000)
– Steve Cantwell ($8,000) over Tim McKenzie ($6,000)
– Hiromitsu Miura ($8,000) over Blas Avena ($6,O00)
– Brock Larson ($24,000) over John Alessio ($15,000)
– Richard Crunkilton Jr. ($20,000) over Sergio Gomez ($4,000)
– Alex Serdyukov ($12,000) over Ryan Stonitsch ($3,000)
– Chris Manuel ($3,000) in a draw with Kenji Osawa ($5,000)
– Logan Clark ($12,000) over J. Scott Harper ($3,000)

Fighters in the win column got 50% of their haul as base and the other half as a win bonus. Sucks to be Kenji Osawa and Chris Manuel, who fought to a draw and got stuck with only their “to show” money. NSAC head Keith Kizer confirmed to MMAJunkie that the fighters are not given a bonus if a draw happens. That fine print will get you every time.

As always, none of this includes subtractions for insurance, taxes, etc. Let’s just hope the fighters had some healthy sponsors to help off-set this brand of payday. We’re talkin’ Chael Sonnen style sponsorship.

(Doug Marshall will be hunting for his third title defense.)

WEC 33 goes down tonight at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas; if you have Versus, you can watch the action live starting at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m PT. Unlike the last two WEC events which featured three title fights each, only the light heavyweight belt is on the line at #33, with champ Doug “Rhino” Marshall — 7-2, and coming off a 55-second tapout victory over Ariel Gandulla at WEC 31 — facing Brian Stann, who has ended all five of his professional fights by first-round TKO. The complete fight card is below:

MAIN CARD
Doug Marshall vs. Brian Stann (light heavyweights)
Chael Sonnen vs. Bryan Baker (middleweights)
Ed Ratcliff vs. Marcus Hicks (lightweights)
Steve Cantwell vs. Tim McKenzie (light heavyweights)
Hiromitsu Miura vs. Blas Avena (middleweights)

UNDERCARD
John Alessio vs. Brock Larson (welterweights)
Sergio Gomez vs. Richard Crunkilton Jr. (lightweights)
Ryan Stonitsch vs. Alex Serdyukov (welterweights)
Chris Manuel vs. Kenji Osawa (bantamweights)
Logan Clark vs. Scott Harper (middleweights)

— BloodyElbow has weigh-in results and photos here.

— MMA Analyst posted (and yes, analyzed) WEC 33′s betting odds yesterday. Unsurprisingly, Chael Sonnen is the night’s biggest favorite, at -355 to Bryan Baker’s +285. Somewhat surprisingly, Doug Marshall is a +130 ‘dog, compared to Brian Stann’s -160 line.

— Websites that care a lot more than we do ran down the matchups here and here.

— While describing Doug Marshall, Sherdog dropped a David Draiman reference without any sort of explanatory clause or link. But I suppose if you’re reading Sherdog you’re already pretty well-versed in nu-metal singers.

Carlos Condit — who we have ranked as the #8 welterweight in the world — will defend his WEC welterweight title for the second time next Wednesday at WEC 32. Here’s his last fight, against Brock Larson at WEC 29 (8/5/07). A submission specialist with 12 tapout victories under his belt, Condit kept his cool while on his back, waiting for the perfect moment to snap onto Larson’s arm and wrench him into submission.