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Gregg Mullen returns to bring his unfiltered thoughts on some of the latest MMA news in this weekly round up:

Let’s start off with the big news of the week, all of which comes from Bellator.

First up…KEN SHAMROCK vs ROYCE GRACIE 3!!!

Are you pumped?! Nah? Me neither. What a joke of a fight this is.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I respect and admire both guys and what they have done in, and for, the sport that has brought all of us so many highs and lows, and I realise that they are both huge names in the history of MMA.

The fact of the matter is, however, that they are both decades past their prime years, are from the one dimensional early years and never evolved past the one dimension they had. Let’s not even get started on the fact Shamrock last fought at heavyweight and Royce is something more like a welterweight…

There should be no place for a fight like this as a main event in what is supposed to be the second biggest promotion in the world, if we wanted to watch middle-aged men fight then we would go down to our local pubs on a Saturday night and watch the guys who have had one too many, at least it would be entertaining.

What is even worse is that the co-main event of the card will be the great (sarcasm, by the way) “Kimbo Slice” (5-2) going up against his former bodyguard-turned enemy, “Dada 5000” (2-0). For those of you not familiar, go to Netflix and watch “Dawg Fight”. This is a fight which would not be out of place in someone’s backyard. In actual fact,that’s exactly where it should take place.

Bellator have just released young, relevant guys like Alexander Sarnavskiy and former Heavyweight Champ Alexander Volkov before they even hit their prime years and who are already in the top echelon of their respective divisions, but yet continue to bring in people like Dada 5000, Kimbo Slice, Stephan Bonnar, Shamrock and Gracie. If this is a sign of things to come, guys like Will Brooks, Mike Chandler, Michael Page and Eduardo Dantas should be looking at the exit.

Brooks Vs The Pitbulls

No this isn’t an old 1996 ECW match you should try and look up on YouTube, it is the story of the Bellator lightweight champion taking on Brazil’s version of the Diaz brothers in a hotel hallway days before defending his belt at Bellator 145.

The trouble between the sides started when (then featherweight champion) Patricio “Pitbull” Freire was made headliner of Friday’s Bellator 145, and Will Brooks’ (17-1) lightweight defense against Marcin Held (10-2) was made the supporting act. Freire thought it a good idea to rub salt in the wounds on social media and, when Things got a little heated, “Ill” Will promised to slap either Patricio or his lightweight brother Patricky- whomever he encountered first.

All we know so far is that a scuffle ensued involving all three men and came to light when Brooks posted a picture of a bloodied shirt on twitter and made claims that the two brothers jumped him. The Brazilian brothers have released statements claiming Brooks was true to his word and started the fracas by slapping Patricky in the face when “Pitbull” confronted him. We won’t know the truth until the promised video footage comes out, which I for one can’t wait to see!

Bellator 145 results

To say it was a bad week for Patricio Freire would be an understatement.

Days after honing his inner Diaz in a hotel with Will Brooks and being questioned by police and company officials, and amidst claiming he was on par with Jose Aldo as best featherweight in the world, Freire would drop his featherweight title to familiar foe Daniel Straus via unanimous decision.

Brooks, on the other hand, is more relevant than he has ever been due to the well documented brawl and dominating his Polish opponent to retain the belt. At 17-1 and with a penchant for speaking his mind, Brooks could now breakout and be a star in the making. Time will tell.

UFC Fight Night 77

Now that we have Bellator out of the way, lets get on to Saturday nights UFC Fight Night 77 from Brazil. An event which also had two guys past their peak atop the card, keeping down the younger guys, but who have at least stayed relevant over the past decade to merit their position.

38-year-old Vitor Belfort rolled the clock back about two years and delivered a knockout over 45 year-old Dan Henderson, eerily similar to the one he earned in their last meeting at Fight Night 32. Landing a left head kick and following up with ground and pound, Belfort forced the stoppage at the 2.07 mark of the first round. Vitor keeps himself relevant in the division and will continue to get big fights for the foreseeable future, “Hendo” on the other hand should probably have retired on a high after knocking out Tim Boetsch in his last outing.

On a card which featured four KO’s and four submission finishes, as well as a couple of legends, it could be hard to stick out of the pack. Not for Thomas Almeida. At 24-years-old, “Thomasinha” is one of the brightest prospects in the game. Coming in to his fight with Anthony Birchak, Almeida looked to keep momentum going from a huge KO of the year contender over Brad Pickett at UFC 189, and did just fine.

Almeida unloaded toward the end of the first round, culminating in a beautiful right hand which instantly put Birchak’s lights out, earning his 16th knockout in 20 fights and another clip for his highlight reel. At 20-0 (and 4-0 in the UFC), the sky is the limit for the young Brazilian, who has almost surely guaranteed himself a top ten guy in his next outing.

The Last Emperor has an opponent

To keep in with the theme of this week, we will end things with yet another one of the old guard returning to main event a big card. “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko took the money and will return Dec. 31st for Noboyuki Sakakibara’s Rizin FF, that much we knew for the past month or so. What we didn’t know was his opponent.

At one time it was rumoured to be little known 2-0 former kick boxer Jaideep Singh who would get the nod, the promotion ultimately decided to pull the plug on that in spite of Singh apparently having signed a contract for the bout. Fans will now be treated to a 45 year-old who hasn’t fought for almost a decade.

Tsuyoshi Kohsaka was, for a long time, the only man to beat Fedor (albeit it controversially) and given that Fedor earned a win to even the score back in 2005, Sakakibara felt it merited a rubber match. A whole 10 years later.

“TK” (28-18-2) was one of the early guard and holds experience in the likes of RINGS, the UFC and Pride FC, but at his age, ten years out of the game and mixed results toward the end even back then, this just feels like yet another let down from what was supposed to be a huge event. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still watch, it’s Fedor Emelianenko after all, but I’ll be watching it as spectacle more than sport. Which I suppose is probably what the Japanese fans are accustomed to and what Rizin was looking to put on all along.

Hit me up with your thoughts @GeeMullen on twitter.