Former UFC fighter Rory Markham, following his release from the UFC and recovering from amounting injuries, was recently signed to budding promotion, Bellator Fighting Championships. Bellator has done an excellent job in bringing in relevant talent to their fold, while giving their home-grown fighters some credibility, should they prove successful in defeating some of the imported, former UFC standouts. Markham will forever be remembered in infamy, when he knocked out Brodie Farber in his UFC debut in 2009, with a vicious head kick. After the initial UFC outing, he struggled in performances against contender Dan Hardy and "The Ultimate Fighter" season five winner, Nate Diaz. ...

Bellator's welterweight semifinals take place May 20 and the match-ups have been officially announced with Ryan Thomas (13-4) getting a second chance against Ben Askren (4-0). ...

One month after Fighters.com’s Heavyweight Champion “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (29-1) and Strikeforce light heavyweight champion “Dreamcatcher” Gegard Mousasi (22-2-1) rattled Memorial Hall in Kansas City at M-1 Global Breakthrough, mixed martial arts will return to the venue 2 October with Titan Entertainment's Combat Sports Championships' Fight Night 1.

"After having established a strong track record with my old Titan MMA shows, I am excited to be back to promoting full-time MMA in the Kansas City market," said Titan Entertainment President Joe Kelly. "With Titan MMA on hiatus, we were able to bring some nationally televised MMA events to Kansas City and that gave me the itch to start promoting shows on my own again, but this time on a bigger and better scale."

Fight Night 1's card features a pair of fighters who fought at Breakthrough, middleweight Rudy Bears (10-3) and lightweight Tim Bazer (10-8).
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