The Perfect Storm: An Early Look At The Strikeforce, Bellator, And UFC Events All Planned For Next Week

In mere hours, strikeforce is set to present “Overeem vs. Werdum”. It’s an event that I’ve spoken about at length, and one that I’m incredibly excited for. In terms of pure excitement, the only thing that really comes close is the trifecta of shows planned for next week. You read that right, fans and friends: throughout next week, three major MMA promotions will hold three major MMA events on three separate days. Instead of two shows going head-to-head and forcing viewers to choose which one to watch and which one to skip or record or flip to occasionally, we’ll be getting a “perfect storm” of good MMA. Here are some early details on all three major shows planned for next week.

It all starts next Friday, June 24. On that date, Strikeforce will hold its “Challengers 16” event. The next entry in a long-under-appreciated series that was once deep in the running to be crowned my next “dark horse favorite”, this will be the final “Challengers” show before the series moves to its new, permanent home: the Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The event features a pair of Lightweight fights anchoring the show, with four lighter-weight fighters sure to turn in interesting performance. In the co-main event you’ve got a returning Ryan Couture, who is currently 2-0 both in Strikeforce and as professional Mixed Martial Artist. Couture is, of course, the son of Mixed Martial Arts legend Randy Couture. In the main event, 10-3 Caros Fodor faces 10-2 James Terry. Both men have won their last three fights, and finished two opponents.

Then on Saturday, June 26, Bellator FC will present its “Bellator 46” event. This will be the first event to ever host Bellator’s new “Summer Series”. All four televised fights will be part of an eight-man featherweight tournament. With names like Pat Curran, Ronnie Mann, Marlon Sandro, and Nazareno Malegarie, the event seems destined to impress and should be another in a long line of great Bellator events.

And finally, on Sunday, June 27, the UFC will hold its latest “UFC LIVE” event, also commonly known as “UFC on Versus”.

In the main event, former Middleweight Championship contender Nate Marquardt drops down to Welterweight in order to face Rick Story, one of the hottest prospects at 170. A pair of Heavyweight bouts should also guarantee instant fireworks, with Matt Mitrione taking on Christian Morecraft and Pat Barry locking horns with Cheick Kongo. All four men love to knock people out: Kongo has nine (T)KO victories, Barry has five, Mitrione three, and Morecraft three. While the numbers for Mitrione and Morecraft may not look impressive at first glance, it should be noted that Mitrione has only had four fights as a professional Mixed Martial Artist while Morecraft has had eight. And with Pat Barry, you’ve got a man that has five of his six professional wins come by way of dropping and stopping his opponents.

I honestly think next week is going to be one of the best weeks of MMA, in the summer of 2011 and perhaps for the entire year. I’m interested in all three events. “UFC on Versus 4” has some great-sounding matchups, especially the main event. And while both the “Challengers” show and the Bellator show may be perceived as lesser-known shows from lesser promotions, in truth both shows have fantastic “sleeper hit” potential. And both the “Challengers” series and Bellator in general have a good, established track record of enjoyable fights and quality programming.

I’m going to be scrambling to give all my traditional pre-fight coverage to all three of these events, and I look forward to detailing all of them at length. It’s going to be a great week next week, and it really will be “the perfect storm”.