“The Natural” John Alessio (24-11) knocked welterweight Gideon Ray (15-10-1) cold on the mat in 45 seconds.

Xtreme Couture’s Alessio whipped a left hook over a Ray right hand and dropped Ray.  Alessio finished the job with hammer strikes, leaving the fellow former UFC fighter unconscious.

“Quicksand” Mike Pyle (18-5-1) of Xtreme Couture transitioned slickly into an armbar from full mount to tap welterweight Brian Gassaway (28-19-2) as he attempted roll free at 4:21 of round one in another battle of former Octagon fighters.

Xtreme Couture welterweight “Thorobread” Jay Hieron (16-4) won a one-sided unanimous decision over late replacement Chris Kennedy (6-6) by judges’ scores of 30-27 three times.

Hieron’s original opponent, Bryson Kamaka (6-13), failed his pre-fight urinalysis.

Light heavyweight “Sick Dog” Hector Ramirez (8-3-1) also won a UD over “The Jet” Rick Roufus (4-4) by scores of 29-28 three times. 

After blocking a high kick with his head in round one, Ramirez kept the kickboxing legend off his feet for the “W”.

TUF 3 finalist “Bring the Pain” Josh Haynes (11-10-1), of Xtreme Couture, tapped middleweight Sean Salmon (15-6) in an Achilles lock at 2:49 of round two.

“JJ” Jonathan Mix (2-3) TKO’d welterweight John Halverson (16-7) at 4:25 of round one.

Xtreme Couture prodigy Kui Gonsalves-Kanoho (2-0) tapped “Mighty Mouse” Shawn David (2-2) in a Kimura at 3:51 of round two.

Ryan Haas (1-0) tapped Ian Omalza (2-1) in an armbar at 3:09 of round one.

The “W” was Herman’s third under the ProElite umbrella, a promotion whose heavyweight division has been stung recently with champion “Big Foot” Antonio Silva’s (11-1) positive test for banned substances and poster boy “Kimbo Slice” Kevin Ferguson’s (3-1) 14-second KO loss.

The victory came by a combination of knees with Schall in Herman’s Thai clinch and punches once Schall dropped.

After his brief TUF 8 appearance, light heavyweight Jason Guida (17-18) was overwhelmed by “Cannibal” Mamed Khalidov (15-3-1) by second-round TKO at 4:53.

King of the Cage Welterweight Champion Anthony Lapsley (14-3) won a majority decision over Mike Stumpf (10-2) by judges’ scores of 30-27 twice and 29-29.

Middleweight Alexander Shlemenko (22-3) TKO’d “Bubba” Robert McDaniel (11-5) with a knee to McDaniel’s chest the rendered McDaniel unable to answer the second-round bell.

Lightweight Lyle Beerbohm (8-0) opened up a blood-gushing split in Rafaello Oliveira’s (5-1) head with an elbow from the top position, causing the doctor to stop the fight between the first and second round.

Matt Jaggers (8-4) won a UD over Orville Smith (8-1) by judges’ scores of 30-27 twice and 30-26.

“Spider” Jared McMahon (9-0-1) tapped Jacob Hey (4-2) in a rear naked choke at 3:11 of round one.

Jeff Cox (1-2) tapped Jay Ellis (9-25) in a guillotine choke at 0:28 of round one.

Tiawon Howard (6-2) tapped Johnny Hughes (2-5) in a rear naked choke at 3:42 of round one.

Josh Barnes (2-0) TKO’d Jeremy Norton (7-3) at 2:22 of round one.

Deray Davis (3-0-1) tapped John Kuner (0-1) in an armbar at 3:53 of round two.

“Cyrille Diabate is not going to fight (Rafael) ‘Feijao’ for the title. We offered him the fight, but he felt like he didn’t have enough time to get ready,” Lappen said.

“We’re still looking for an opponent for ‘Feijao.’”

Lappen said that Diabate is interested in facing Cavalcante, and “wants to do that fight in the future.”

EliteXC: A Night of Champions will feature Fighters.com’s fourth-ranked middleweight and EliteXC champ “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler (16-4) and Joey Villasenor (26-6) in a title match, and a fight for the vacant 160-pound title between third-ranked lightweight Eddie Alvarez (15-1) and Nick Diaz (18-7).

Quarry stalked Kalib Starnes (8-3) to a unanimous decision victory in April.

Maia submitted “Athlete” Jason McDonald (21-10) with a third-round rear naked choke in August.

Riddle won his professional debut by unanimous decision over Dante Rivera (10-3) at the TUF 7 finale in June.  He trains at Arizona Combat Sports.

Thomas took a fight with “Berserk” Ben Saunders (6-0-2) in August on short notice and lost via second-round armbar.  He attends Eastern Illinois University where he is studying Elementary Education.

A match between Emelianenko and Arlovski was planned for Affliction’s second event, originally scheduled for 11 October in Las Vegas, but Emelianenko was forced to withdraw with a hand injury.  Third-ranked “Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (23-5) was announced as Arlovski’s opponent instead.

No date or location has been officially announced, but Emelianenko told Russian television station HTB this week that he would be fighting 24 January for Affliction.

Emelianenko most recently fought in July, submitting seventh-ranked heavyweight and former UFC champion “Maine-iac” Tim Sylvia (24-5) with a rear naked choke in 36 seconds.

Arlovski last fought last weekend at EliteXC: Heat, knocking out “Big Country” Roy Nelson (13-3) in the second round.

Serati, who will be making his Octagon debut, KO’d Claudio da Silva (0-1) at 2:15 of round one in August.   Seven of his ten victories came in under a minute.

Drwal’s thirteen-fight win streak ended with his last fight in September 2007, when he was TKO’d in the second round by Fighters.com’s tenth-ranked Thiago Silva (13-0).

The remaining bouts are:

Luigi Fioravanti (13-4) v Brodie Farber (13-4)
Dale Hartt (5-1) v Corey Hill (2-1)
“Berserk” Ben Saunders (6-0-2) v Brandon Wolff (7-2)
Timothy Credeur (10-2) v Nate Loughran (9-0)
“Hater Hurter” Johnny Rees (10-1) v Steve Bruno (11-4)
Justin McCully (8-4-2) v Eddie Sanchez (8-2)

Five fighters on the card have served in the military.  Fioravanti was a Marine, Hartt, Credeur, and Bruno served in the Navy, and Wolff was a Navy SEAL.

Missing from the card is a previously announced match between former WEC Light Heavyweight Champion “All American” Brian Stann (6-1) and current champ Steve Cantwell (6-1).  Stann, a former Marine, has reportedly sustained a foot injury in training and was forced to withdraw from the event.

Fioravanti last fought at the TUF finale in June and was TKO’d by “Nightmare” Diego Sanchez (19-2) in the last minute of round three.

Farber had his six-fight win streak snapped at Fight Night 14 in July when Rory Markham (16-4) KO’d him with a head kick at 1:37 of the first round.

Hartt suffered his first career loss in July at his UFC debut, submitted via first-round rear naked choke by fellow debutant Shannon Gugerty (11-2).

Hill, a TUF 5 lightweight, lost his last fight to Justin Buchholz (8-2) via rear naked choke in round two in July.

Saunders, a TUF 6 alum, won his last six, most recently submitting Ryan Thomas (9-2) with a second-round armbar in August.

Wolff will be making his Octagon debut.  He won his last fight in May with a split decision over “The Grinder” Chad Reiner (18-6).

Credeur, from TUF 7, TKO’d Cale Yarbrough (0-1) in round one in July.  He has gone past round one only once,

Loughran, who has submitted all but one opponent, caught Johnny Rees with a first-round triangle choke at their UFC debuts in July.

Bruno lost his Octagon debut in August by unanimous decision to Chris Wilson (14-4).

McCully was submitted via kimura in 1:57 by Fighters.com’s eighth-ranked heavyweight “Napao” Gabriel Gonzaga (9-3) in July.

Sanchez was TKO’d in round two by Antoni Hardonk (7-4) at UFC 85 in June.

As first reported by Fighters.com, “Demolition Man” Alistair Overeem (28-11) will follow-up his impressive performance in a No Contest versus “Cro Cop” Mirko Filipovic (23-6-2) 23 September in Saitama, north of Tokyo, in the Glory 10 main event versus “Big Daddy” Gary Goodridge (23-18-1).

“Blitz” Stefan Leko (1-3) will be featured in a Muay Thai rules fight versus a yet-to-be-named opponent.

All together, there’ll be three Muay Thai fights, five fights fought under K-1 rules, a boxing match, and seven MMA fights.

The rest of the MMA card includes:

Hamid Corassani (3-2) v Gregorz Tredowski (8-2-2)
Vincent Latoel (12-11-2) v Omar Samb (2-1)
Dion Staring (14-3) v Markus Halkossaari (0-0)
Matthieu Lawalata (4-12) v “The Terrible” Ivan Mussardo (7-3)
Assan Njie (7-1) v Brian Maulany (9-13-1)
Cesario di Domenico (1-0-1) v Natek Tomajev (0-0)

According to Fighters.com’s source, Strikeforce has narrowed their list of opponents to up-and-coming Chris Horodecki (12-1) and veteran “Uno Shoten” Caol Uno (25-11-4).

Twenty-one-year old Horodecki won a UD over Nate Lamotte (6-3) in East Rutherford, west of New York City, 4 April, then signed with Affliction and agreed to fight on Affliction’s 11 October event before it was rescheduled.

A veteran of Shooto, UFC, K-1 Hero’s, and DREAM, Uno lost a UD to Fighters.com’s ninth-ranked lightweight “Tobikan Judan” Shinya Aoki (18-3) in the semi-finals of DREAM’s Lightweight Grand Prix in Osaka 21 July.

North American fans may be more familiar with Horodecki because of his nine-fight stint in the now-defunct International Fight League.  His only loss was by TKO in a rematch versus “Lion” Ryan Schultz (20-11-1) for the IFL lightweight title.

Uno fought seven times in the UFC between 2001 and 2003 going 3-3-1.  The last time Uno was stopped was in September 2005, before Horodecki even began his professional MMA career.

The two fighters present different challenges to Thomson, but both would be significant challenges.

Thomson TKO’d “Archer” Ashe Bowman (9-5) in Beverly Hills, north of Los Angeles, 20 September in a non-title fight.  He has been campaigning for a big-name fight since beating “El Nino” Gilbert Melendez (14-2) in San Jose 27 June for the Strikeforce belt.

Atencio had announced that Affliction would partner with Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions for the January show, originally scheduled for 11 October.

A mixed MMA/boxing event is still something they are planning for the first quarter of 2009, but “it’s just not something we could work out (by January),” Atencio said.

Details of the upcoming Day of Reckoning, including the fight card, date, and venue, are expected to be announced next week.