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All right, things are looking great - at least on paper - in the world of MMA for the rest of the year. Here are just some the major match-ups I've heard about, most confirmed, some still just rumor, but probably will happen:

-- Matt Lindland Vs. Trevor Prangley at Affliction 2 - Day of Reckoning.

-- Jay Hieron vs. Drew Fickett, also at Affliction 2.

-- Jake Shields vs. Paul Daley at EliteXC's Oct. 4 show on CBS.

-- Georges St-Pierre vs. BJ Penn on UFC's Jan. 31 show.

-- Also upcoming on a UFC event is Brock Lesnar vs. Cheick Kongo and Joe Steveson vs. Kenny Florian.

-- Also on the CBS show, Gina Carano vs. Kelly Kobald and Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson vs. Brett Rogers.

-- And finally, another Affliction match-up, former IFL lightweight champion Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon.

Holy crap! That's a lotta MMA.

-- So Florian beat Huerta. The UFC had said a while back that this fight would be to determine the number one contender to BJ Penn's lightweight belt, but then reportedly backed off from that days before the bout. One could make the connection the souring on the signifcance of the fight was due to Huerta's disparraging comments in FIGHT! magazine, where he doubted their loyalty and said they paid him $50 a day for a promotional tour. So, the question is, now that Florian won, will he get a title shot, or is Dana White's next move going to be to let BJ Penn jump up a weight class to take on welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre?

-- Cheick Kongo (who some call "Cup Check" because of the four or so knees he fired at CroCop's nuggets in their fight) beat Viking Dan Evenson (who was waaay into his entrance music, by the way) ... so where does Kongo go from here? I'm still not too impressed with this guy - Herring gave him problems .. let's see how he does against tougher competition on the ground, like maybe Shane Carwin or Brock Lesnar, or even Frank Mir.

Ok, here's three fights that really impressed me so far this year. The biggest factor I look for is a battle that is evenly fought, where either guy could win it at any time, where it almost boils down to a battle of wills, who's gonna quit first, or who pulls something out of his butt and wins the fight:

-- Jonathan Goulet vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka at UFC 83

-- Carlos Condit vs. Hirmitsu Miura at WEC 35

-- Forrest Griffin vs. Quinton Jackson at UFC 86

and the latest addition:
-- Georges St-Pierre vs. Jon Fitch at UFC 87

Toward the end of the year, I might add a few more fights and more detailed descriptions of each one (maybe some video too).

Caught a few of the fights on saturday night. Here are some thoughts:

In Lesnar/Herring and St-Pierre/Fitch, we saw the polar opposites of sportsmanship. Lesar thrashed Herring for three rounds. Totally dominated him with wrestling, but didn't seem to know how to put the veteran fighter away, a la jiu-jitsu or ground-n-pound. We did see another vicious one-punch knock-down, like he did to Frank Mir, so people better start fearing his hands.

It was a great victory for Brock. I was happy for him, until he started taunting and laughing at Herring. Before the final bell rang. Nah. That ain't cool.

St-Pierre vs. Fitch went the full 25, and gets my nomination for Fight of the Year, but more on that in a minute. St-Pierre was the first fighter to pass Fitch's guard and also handed Fitch his first loss in the Octagon. Fitch proved to the world he deserved his title shot, absorbing punch after punch, elbow after elbow, takedown after takedown.

After the grueling contest, St-Pierre got down on his knees and shook Fitch's hand. If I were to guess, he was thanking Fitch for giving him the fight of his life. Fitch in turn got down on his knees, knowing that he gave St-Pierre his biggest challenge. He then picked St-Pierre up to display him to the roaring hoard.

That's the way MMA should be. That's what makes it so special. The camaraderie between fighters. There is some unexplainable bond that is forged when you push someone to their physical and mental limits. No matter what happens in the lives from that point on, St-Pierre and Fitch will never forget that night.

BJ Penn, who seems to be making a habit of post-fight cage appearances, materialized and yelled to St-Pierre to make a re-match between the two happen. St-Pierre, in a not-so-enthusiastic repsonse, said he would fight anyone who was worthy. "Eee can't andle my widdum," anyone?

UFC.com has the video of the 87 Seek and Destroy weigh-ins up. Click here to see it.

Thanks to mmajunkie.com:

Champ Georges St. Pierre (170) vs. Jon Fitch (170)
Heath Herring (250) vs. Brock Lesnar (265)
Kenny Florian (155) vs. Roger Huerta (155)
Jason MacDonald (185) vs. Demian Maia (185)
Rob Emerson (155) vs. Manny Gamburyan (155)
Luke Cummo (167) vs. Tamdan McCrory (170)
Dan Evensen (244) vs. Cheick Kongo (235)
Andre Gusmao (205) vs. Jon Jones (205)
Steve Bruno (170) vs. Chris Wilson (170)
Ben Saunders (170) vs. Ryan Thomas (170)