MMA You Want to Watch This Week 9/5 - 9/11

With all the fallout from the UFC 137 press conference and Nick Diaz's failure to show up at it, you might have forgotten that this weekend is going to be huge from an MMA fan standpoint.  Saturday is the day, and there are 3 shows coming up for you to sate your craving for combat sports. We've got some big fights to watch, and a lot of potentially fun bouts to help ease the disappointment of not getting to see Nick Diaz vs. Georges St. Pierre.  Cause that's a lot of disappointment.  At least for me.  I feel like someone just told me that beer is now illegal.  But, I digress.  Three events, one day, lots of MMA goodness, many opportunities to forget that an epic fight will now likely never happen.  That's what this weekend has for us.  And if you're on the west coast, the fun begins for you bright and early at 11:15am PT.  Nice, right?  A full day of MMA?  You weren't planning on going out or anything anyway, you know you weren't.  So read on!

BAMMA 7

Saturday, September 10, 2:15pm ET, Facebook

First of all, here in the US we'll get to watch the preliminary card as well as the main card for FREE!!  That right there is enough to get excited about.  To watch, you just need to head to BAMMA's Facebook page and LIKE it.  Then come back Saturday afternoon (2:15 ET) and watch.  Dead easy.  Right?  Right!  Now, you know how to see it, but why should you?  Well, aside from the aforementioned fact that it's FREE, there are also some familiar names turning up on this card.  Frank Trigg vs. Jim Wallhead is a good example.  You might remember "Judo" Jim Wallhead from Bellator, and Frank Trigg from - well, lots of different places, including the early days of the UFC and more recently commentating alongside Michael Schiavello at events for HDNet.  Wallhead is a late replacement for Tom Watson, who dropped out of this fight with a back injury.

Also on this card, we have Paul Daley bringing what my magic crystal ball says will be another fantastic slugfest.  TUF finalist Andre Winner is making an appearance as well, in his first fight since getting dropped from the UFC (which sucked. Just sayin'). 

So there you go.  Some fun, FREE fights, and a great way to spend a rainy, gloomy Saturday afternoon.  And if it's not rainy or gloomy where you're at, just know that I'm jealous, because it's rained here everyday for almost two weeks.

SBN coverage of BAMMA 7: Wallhead vs. Trigg

Bellator 49

Saturday, September 10, 7pm (prelims on Spike.com), 9pm (MTV2)

It's time for Bellator season 5, and this event is all about the welterweights.  All four of the welterweight tournament quarterfinals are happening Saturday night.  Plus, Spike is going to be showing the Bellator prelims every week at 7pm this season.  Yes, true believers, that means even more free fights.  The MMA gawds (along with Viacom and Bjorn Rebney) are good to us. 

The quarterfinal fights for the 170 tourney bring us some pretty familiar names.  We've got Steve Carl vs. Douglas Lima, Dan Hornbuckle vs. Luis Santos, Chris Lozano vs. Brent Weedman, and Rick Hawn vs. Ben Saunders.  Every one of those fights has the potential to be mindblowing.  And one of those men is going to be challenging Cocky Funky Ben Askren for that welterweight belt later on.  This is going to be a fantastic event, even without the addition of the prelims.  With those thrown in the mix, knowing how the local guys can really get crazy, I can hardly wait! 

SBN coverage of Bellator 49

Strikeforce Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov

Saturday, September 10, 8pm (prelims on HDNet), 10pm (Showtime)

I don't even know where to begin with this one.  There are so many fighters and fights that are worth watching on this card that it's easy to lose track.  First of all, of course, there are the Heavyweight Tournament Semi-final fights:  Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov and Daniel Cormier vs. Antonio Silva.  Then, there are some of the other names on the card:  Roger Gracie, Muhammed Lawal, Rafael Cavalcante, Ronaldo Souza, MIke Kyle, Amanda Nunes, and oh yeah, Maximo Blanco!!  It's breaking my heart that I don't have Showtime and will miss a lot of great fights on this event.  But if you have it, then you should be watching this!  And I really shouldn't have to tell you that, you probably know it already. It's going to be epic.  Watch it.

SBN coverage of Strikeforce Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov

That wraps up the weekend in broadcast MMA.  It's a beautiful thing that almost every fight from each of these events will be available to watch live, one way or another.  Much thanks to the promotions for making that happen!  And BAMMA's move to Facebook, while obviously taking a page from the UFC, is a welcome change that I'm hoping more promotions will embrace (even though Rollo will disagree).