(NOW we get why Kyle’s friends often refer to him as “The Poke” Noke.) 

After collecting three straight stoppage victories in as many UFC contests, EliteXC and TUF 11 veteran Kyle Noke was quickly building up a reputation as one of the top up-and-comers in the middleweight division. Being one of the few successful Australian fighters to grace the UFC (sorry, Elvis), Noke carried a bit more pressure on his shoulders than the average TUF alum, especially when heading into his UFC Live 5 match against resurgent TUF 3 veteran Ed Herman. Unfortunately Noke (and therefore the Australian MMA community), would fall to a first round heel hook in that fight, placing all Aussie UFC hopes in the hands of a man nicknamed after an animal relative to Africa.

But fret not, ye Fosters enthusiasts, for Noke’s path to redemption will begin in the land from which he was birthed. Yes, “KO” recently announced that he will be taking on Jared Hamman at UFC on FX 2, which goes down at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia. Hamman, whom we will forever be in debt to for knocking CB Dolloway out of the UFC, will also be looking to build up a win streak; he was most recently flattened in the first round by Constantinos Philippou at UFC 140. This match has yet to be confirmed by the UFC.

Join us after the jump for some juicy featherweight and bantamweight gossip…

(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…

(Hamman vs. Po’ai Suganuma 2, 8/15/08)

The UFC’s trip to Manchester this Saturday will feature just two new faces — and they’ll be fighting each other. So who’s got the better chance of making a successful Octagon debut? Get the know the newbies below and make your predictions…

JARED HAMMAN (LHW)
Experience: 10-1 record (all wins by stoppage in the first two rounds), with appearances in Strikeforce and ShoXC. Last competed in August 2008, where he avenged his only loss — a 15-second flying-knee-related TKO against Po’ai Suganuma that many felt was an early stoppage.
Will be facing: Alexander Gustafsson (see below)
Lowdown: A protege of Brian Warren at Unbreakable Gym and Vladimir Matyushenko at VMAT, the California-bred Jared Hamman was building up momentum as an exciting light-heavyweight prospect when his contract was put on ice in the wake of Pro Elite’s collapse. Or so he thought: "When EliteXC went down, I was told that my contract was being held and being transferred over to Strikeforce. I had plenty of opportunities to fight, but I was told that I couldn’t because I was still under contract…During a meeting with my manager it was discovered that I was a free agent. UFC made me an offer and I went with what I felt was the best decision…In the end, it has given me a whole year to work on my game and increase my skill."

(Props: MMAScraps.com)

As mentioned on Saturday, Jared Hamman avenged his questionable-stoppage loss to Po’ai Suganuma in the main event of Friday night’s ShoXC card. For those of you who missed the fight, it was a wild one, with Suganuma “all over Jared Hamman like a bad rash” in the fight’s opening minutes before Hamman chopped the Hawaiian down with a series of punches midway through the first round; the video is above.

Related: We’d previously wondered what was up with Pro Elite’s recent strange behavior; though they’ve canceled two upcoming events, Sam Caplan at FiveOuncesofPain reports that the company is not on the verge of collapse. If you’re interested in Pro Elite’s current financial situation and how they might improve their condition in the future (and if you have some time to kill), we suggest you read Caplan’s full analysis here.

(ShoXC weigh-ins become an impromptu beach party. Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

Last night’s ShoXC card from Fresno, Calif. had its share of interesting bouts, but the big news coming out of the Pro Elite camp is that the company has canceled another show, this time in the form of one its smaller confederates across the pond. Contenders 11, scheduled to take place in the UK today, has been called off. Five Ounces of Pain also reports that Cage Rage — another Pro Elite organization — has suffered a rash of layoffs and is down to only three employees. Somehow during all of this, the Pro Elite stock price jumped from $2.50 to $8.00 a share on Friday, even amid reports that they were canceling their September 20 event. As they say on the internet, WTF!?!

Something is going on with Pro Elite, no doubt, but what? Could it be that Pro Elite executives have discovered oil underneath the grounds where their offices lie, and now they’re going to quit putting on MMA shows altogether and move their families to big mansions in Beverly Hills, complete with indoor plumbing and cement ponds? There is very little evidence for this hypothesis at the moment, but we’re going to go ahead and say yes, this is precisely what is happening. You heard it here first.

As for last night’s show, yeah, well, here you go:

Jared Hamman def. Po’ai Suganuma via TKO (strikes) at 2:34 of round 1
Fabricio Camoes def. Sammy Morgan via submission (rear naked choke) at 0:47 of round 1
Cyrille Dibate def. Jaime Fletcher via unanimous decision
Rosi Sexton def. Debi Purcell via split decision
Ray Lizama def. Keith Berry via TKO (strikes) at 2:15 of round 2
Katrina Alendale def. Melanie La’Croix via unanimous decision
Roberto Vargas def. Ralph Lopez via split decision
Jesse Brock def. Josh Rave via unanimous decision
Lucas Gumaza def. Kenny Johnson via split decision
David “Tarzan” Douglas def. William Jacobson via TKO (corner stoppage) at 1:12 of round 1

(Worst. Pride parade. Ever. Photo courtesy of Tom Casino @ Pro Elite.)

Five fights, five first-round stoppages; last night’s ShoXC Challenger Series card was unquestionably badass. But for our money, the night belonged to Shayna Baszler. With mentor Josh Barnett in her corner, “The Queen of Spades” faced Keiko “Tama Chan” Tamai — who was clownlike in both attire and demeanor — and smoked her, dispatching the outmatched Japanese fighter with a suplex (seriously!), ground-and-pound, and finally a neck crank; maybe the first time we’ve seen that submission since Dan Severn in the mid-’90s. With the win, Baszler improves her pro record to 9-4, with all nine wins coming via submission. After the fight she claimed ownership of EliteXC’s women’s division, and declared she was ready for any challenger to try and prove otherwise. LaRosa and Carano, you’re officially on notice.

Also notable was the fight between undefeated middleweights Matt Lucas and Givanildo Santana, who had previously defeated nine of his ten opponents via armbar, earning him the nickname “The Arm Collector.” You’d think Lucas would be extra careful to avoid the same fate, but like an idiot, he got on top of Santana during the fight, leaned over too far without protecting himself and got snatched up. Make that ten wins by armbar.

(Undefeated light-heavyweight Jared Hamman looks to make it 10 in a row tomorrow night. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Just a quick reminder that the IFL has their latest untitled event tonight at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey; it will air live on HDNet starting at 8:30 p.m. ET, so set your DVRs post-haste. Champions Jay Hieron (welterweight), Wagnney Fabiano (featherweight), and Vladimir Matyushenko (light heavyweight) will all be defending their belts, while lightweight star Chris Horodecki will make his first ring appearance since his title fight loss last December.

Also, Pro Elite is putting on another ShoXC Challenger Series card tomorrow night at the Table Mountain Casino in Friant, CA; you can check it out on Showtime starting at 11:30 p.m. ET. The main event pits undefeated Californian Jared Hamman — who boasts nine straight victories, all by stoppage before the third round — against Hawaiian light heavyweight Poai Suganuma, who has put in work in Pancrase, Icon Sport, and K-1 Hero’s. You’ll also get to see Shayna Baszler kick the ass of Keiki Tamai — who has lost her last five fights — and up-and-comers Matt Lucas and Givanildo Santana battling to keep their flawless records intact. The full lineup looks like this:

Televised Card
Jared Hamman (9-0) vs. Poai Suganuma (8-1)
Fabricio Camoes (7-4) vs. Joe Camacho (10-11-3)
Shayna Baszler (8-4) vs. Keiko “Tama Chan” Tamai (16-14)
Matt Lucas (9-0) vs. Givanildo Santana (10-0)
Doug Evans (5-2) vs. Bao Quach (12-8-1)

Undercard
Melanie LaCroix (1-0) vs. KC Noland (1-2)
Jaime Iracheta (debut) vs. Brent Cooper (1-0)
Telly Sanders (debut) vs. Roberto Vargas (1-0)
Yasser Pezzat (debut) vs. Luke Riddering (debut)
Carl Saumantafa (2-0) vs. Terrell Dees (2-1)
Yoko Takahashi (13-9) vs. Breanne Vickers (0-1)

If you don’t have HDNet or Showtime, call your cable provider, and come back here this weekend for complete results and recaps.