(That pile of bricks used to be a building until Carlos mean-mugged it. Photo courtesy of DeMattos.)

The UFC’s next free show goes down this Wednesday on Spike TV at 8 p.m. ET/PT, with Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann in the headlining spot and 11 more fights supporting it. (Yes, we will be runnin’ a liveblog, so keep that evening free.) Six fighters, most of them WEC veterans, will be stepping into the Octagon for the first time. Learn about them below, and tune in on Wednesday to see if their stories end in triumph or tragedy…

CARLOS CONDIT (WW)
?Experience: 22-4 record, with all wins by stoppage, and notable victories over Frank Trigg, Brock Larson, and Carlo Prater. Won the WEC welterweight title in March 2007 and defended it three times before the division was discontinued.
Will be facing: Martin Kampmann (14-2, 5-1 UFC)
?Lowdown: He finishes fights — seriously. Just 24 years old, the Natural Born Killer is on an eight-fight win streak, and hasn’t lost since June 2006. Condit began wrestling in high school and has been training jiu jitsu and kickboxing at FIT-NHB since he was 15. His opponent Martin Kampmann is another aggressive, well-rounded fight-finisher, so Condit’s UFC debut will not only be an important gauge of his abilities on MMA’s biggest stage, but an easy front-runner for Fight of the Night.

JESSE SANDERS (WW)
?Experience: 20-4 record in various midwestern promotions like Extreme Challenge and Iowa Challenge, with 18 wins by first-round stoppage. Holds a victory over the legendary Kenneth Allen.
Will be facing: Brock Larson (24-2, 1-1 UFC; returning to the Octagon after a five-fight stint in the WEC)
?Lowdown: Sanders’s old ProElite.com profile lists his nickname as "Iron Jaw" and his background as "retired from construction became broke then started fighting." It seems like going broke was a great career move, because the former boxer has become a force on the local circuit — as a can-crusher, at least. His last win was against a guy with an 0-4 record at the time, and only three of his opponents have had winning records. According to his MySpace page, he loves anything to do with NASCAR, enjoys riding 4-wheelers, laughed his ass off at Rush Hour 3, and doesn’t read. (Again, this is a real person, not a Jeff Foxworthy routine.) Larson wins this one via quality of competition.

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)

(Carmelo Marrero winds up to club Rafael Real at a WCO event in November 2007. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

FiveOuncesofPain is reporting that TUF 8 light-heavyweight winner Ryan Bader — who defeated Vinny Magalhaes last month to win the show’s six-figure contract — will be returning to action at UFC Fight Night 18 (April 1st, Nashville). His opponent will be Carmelo Marrero (10-2), an American Top Team fighter who went 1-2 in the UFC in 2006-2007. Marrero made his Octagon debut as a heavyweight at UFC 64, where he scored an upset split-decision over Cheick Kongo. Unfortunately, he then took a first-round loss via armbar to Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 66, and was then choked out by Wilson Gouveia at UFC 71 after dropping to light-heavyweight; Marrero was released by the UFC shortly after. Since then, "The Fury" has gone 4-0 with one no-contest, most recently winning a split decision over Steve Steinbless at WEC 36 in November — and earning a return trip back to the UFC.

In other UFC news…

— A little higher up the light-heavyweight ladder, Matt Hamill (5-2) will reportedly be welcoming WEC vet Mark Munoz (5-0) to the Octagon at UFC 96 (March 7th, Columbus). A former NCAA wrestling champion at Oklahoma State and current protege of Urijah Faber, Munoz scored first-round TKO victories in his last two fights, against Ricardo Barros at WEC 37 last month and Chuck Grigsby at WEC 34 in June. Hamill most recently defeated Reese Andy by second-round TKO at last month’s UFC 92.

— Randy Couture will most likely face Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in his next fight, but not until the second half of this year. Couture had to undergo surgery recently to remove a pair of abnormally large bone spurs from his elbow, which means he’ll be out rehabbing for a while.