After taking much time off from the fight game (a 21-month absence to be exact) to focus on a budding movie career, Le, a former San Shou world champion, came back reinvigorated in his rematch with Smith which took place last June, and after hurting his opponent several times with body kicks, would eventually earn the TKO victory in the second round, leaving Scott Smith with the biggest win of his career taken away just as fast in defeat.

While “Hands of Steel” has had a lengthy career that began as a heavyweight, he has become a staple in any organization he fights in, as the guy who can deliver a knockout victory in any moment of the fight. Just ask Benji Radach, who after seemingly taking the first two rounds in their 185-pound match up last April in Strikeforce, succumbed to a third-round knockout at the hands of Smith, who now owns the moniker of the “Comeback Kid”.

Strikeforce obviously has invested interest in Scott Smith, and would much rather have him back in the win column. But, that means bad news for Jesse Finney.

Finney, who has competed exclusively in the 170 pound division, is coming off a loss to former UFC fighter Josh Neer in his last outing. Neer, a fighter who often bounces between both the lightweight and welterweight divisions, choked out the previously undefeated Jesse with a guillotine inside of the first round.

The bout is expected to take place on the main card of Strikeforce’s 29th event, at the Scottrade Center in St Louis, Missouri on December 4.

The headlining bout of the evening is said to be a light heavyweight tilt pitting legends Dan Henderson and Renato “Babalu” Sobral against one another.

So, mma peeps, what say you about this middleweight match up? Is Finney being thrown to the wolves at just 6-1 and coming off a loss? Or is there something more to the kid? Will Scott Smith come back and deliver another KO victory? Sound off in the comments section below.

The winners of these fights will face each other in the Season Two finals in June with the winner earning the right to face Fighters.com third-ranked and Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez (17-2) in a title fight.

Rebney made the announcement today at a presser at the Wang Theatre, where he was joined by Curran and Alvarez, whose much-anticipated Bellator Super Fight with former UFC contender “The Dentist” Josh Neer (27-9-1) headlines the May 6th Boston card.

“As a fan, I can’t wait for our May 6th show in Boston,” Rebney said.  “Alvarez vs. Neer should be explosive, with Eddie making his first appearance in the U.S. since he won our lightweight title last summer.  Huerta vs. Curran just got really interesting coming off of Pat’s one punch KO of previously undefeated Mike Ricci. Toby’s world class submission wrestling vs. Carey’s world class wresting should be a great fight as well.”

The fallout from recent lightweight fights has the rankings in a mess right now and leaves Alvarez in a position to take the number one spot after the consensus one and two both lost. “The Prodigy” BJ Penn (15-6-1) lost his title at UFC 112 while second-ranked “Tobikan Judan” Shinya Aoki (19-5) lost in his American debut on the Strikeforce: Nashville card.

Fighters.com believes that Alavarez is one of the most overlooked fighters in the lightweight division. His only two losses come at the hands of Aoki in 2008 and “The Goat” Nick Thompson (38-11-1) back in 2007.

Bellator has been putting together tough fights in this highly anticipated season and fans are flocking to the tournament format to recapture some of the nostalgia from the early days of the UFC and of Pride Fighting Championships.

Rua weighed in at 204.5 pounds.

Machida has weighed in to a UFC light heavyweight fight as low as 199-pounds and is undefeated, however he has been more likely to win by stoppage when weighing 204 pounds or more the day before a fight indicating his weight does affect his performance.  Machida might expect a stand-up war versus the crisp striker Rua and therefore want to be lighter on his feet.

On the flips side of the coin, welterweight prospect “Rumble” Anthony Johnson (7-2) weighed 176 pounds, five pounds over the welterweight limit, for his fight versus eighth-ranked “Zenko” Yoshiyuki Yoshida (10-2), who weighed in at the limit.  The two agreed to fight regardless of Johnson’s apparent disregard for the rules and disrespect for Yoshida.

Lightweights “Dentis” Josh Neer (25-8-1) and Gleison Tibau (16-5) both missed weight in their matchup.  Neer weight 156.5 pounds and Tibau weighe 157 pounds.

The rest of the card made weight:

Cain Velasquez (6-0) 238 pounds v Ben Rothwell (26-6) 265 pounds
“Daddy” Joe Stevenson (30-9 155.5 pounds v “King” Spencer Fisher (23-4) 155 pounds
“Darth” Ryan Bader (7-0) 205 pounds v “Red” Eric Schafer (12-4-2) 205.5 pounds
“HD” Pat Barry (2-2) 237 pounds v Antoni Hardonk (8-5)  249.5 pounds
Fighters.com’s seventh-ranked middleweight Chael Sonnen (22-10-1) 185 pounds v “Thunder” Yushin Okami (23-4) 185 pounds
“El Conquistador” Jorge Rivera (16-7) 185 pounds v Rosedale Reaper” Rob Kimmons (21-4) 185 pounds
Kyle Kingsbury (8-2) 205.5 pounds v Razak Al-Hassan (7-1) 204.5 pounds
Chase Gormley (2-0) 262 pounds v Stefan Struve (13-2) 243.5 pounds

Since returning to the UFC in April 2008, Neer has notched a 2-2 record, but in several of the gnarliest fights of the last two years. He lost a three-round UD to “Batman” Kurt Pellegrino (15-4) at UFC 101 in Philadelphia 8 August.

Tibau lost a split decision to “Young Assassin” Melvin Guillard (22-7-2) The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale in Las Vegas 20 June.

The matchup currently remains on the broadcast portion of the fight card, but losing the big name of Sherk certainly weakens the draw for casual viewers.

UFC 104 will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles 24 October and be broadcast live on PPV at 10:00 PM EST. Tickets starting at $51.75 can be purchased at Ticketmaster and doors open at the Staple Center at 4:45 PM PT. Fighters.com will post live results.

Pellegrino’s takedowns went undefended by Neer and the lightweight pecked away at Neer with hammerfists and elbows while Neer shrugged at the referee from his back.

Neer did more damage and made more attempts to finish the fight. In the first round, Neer threw up several armbars and in the second round he attempted triangle chokes, but Pellegrino bucked them all.

In the third round, Neer opened a cut over Pellegrino’s right eye with elbows from his back, then chiseled away in the clinch, leaving Pellegrino bloddied at the final bell.

The fight card from Philadelphia includes:

“Prodigy” B.J. Penn (13-5-1) v “KenFlo” Kenny Florian (11-3) for the UFC lightweight strap

Fighters.com’s third-ranked light heavyweight Forrest Griffin (16-5) v UFC middleweight champ ““Spider” Anderson Silva (24-4) in 205-pound matchup

The Ultimate Fighter 7 champ Amir Sadollah (1-0) v John Hendricks (5-0)

“Cacharrao” Ricardo Almeida (10-3) v The Ultimate Fighter 3 champ “Spyder” Kendall Grove (10-5)

“Batman” Kurt Pellegrino (14-4) v “Dentist” Josh Neer (25-7-1)

Aaron Riley (27-11-1) v Shane Nelson (11-3)

“Doomsday” John Howard (11-3) v “Barn Cat” Tamdan McCrory (11-2)

Thales Leites (14-2) v “Legionarius” Alessio Sakara (13-7)

Dan Cramer (3-0) v Matt Riddle (2-0)

George Sotiropoulos (9-2) v George Roop (9-2)

“Indio” Danillo Villefort (7-2) v “Ox” Jesse Lennox (13-1)

Danzig announced his fight via MySpace and Catone confirmed the bout to iguillotine.

Catone and Sadollah were originally scheduled to fight at UFC 91 in November, but Sadollah was forced to withdraw days before the bout due to a leg infection.

Danzig will look to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to “Carpenter” Clay Guida (24-9) at Fight Night 15 in September.

Neer also lost his last fight at the same event via split decision to Nathan Diaz (10-2).

Catone, who will be making his UFC debut, won his last three fights via first-round TKO.  Most recently he defeated Eric Tavares (5-9) in June.

Sadollah last fought in June, submitting “Doberman” CB Dollaway (7-1) with an armbar to become the winner of TUF 7.

“This dude is down,” Diaz said of Neer after the “W”.

Neer had no quit trying to avenge his only stoppage loss to Nate’s brother, Nick Diaz (18-7); but, Nate seemed to have a counter for every position, submission, and strike Neer threw.

In the first round, Neer backed Diaz up with a left hook; but, Diaz closed and peppered Neer’s body with slasshing punches, followed by an overhand right as Neer clinched.  Neer countered with an uppercut, countered by Diaz with a right hook.

In the second round, Diaz dove head first into Neer’s guard as Neer wrapped his legs into a triangle choke; but, Diaz stepped over Neer’s body to break the lock.

On their feet, Neer slammed Diaz and took his back; but, Diaz defended the choke and rolled into Neer’s guard.

Again in the final round, Diaz peppered Neer with pitty-patt combos and nearly dove into a triangle choke before stepping over Neer to defend.

Diaz repeated a hip toss in the third that he had scored in the first round.

Judges’ scores were 29-28 twice for Diaz and 29-28 once for Neer.

Diaz, who won his season of The Ultimate Fighter when the other finalist, “Pitbull” Manvel Gamburyan (8-2), injured his shoulder in the second round of the finale, has submitted every opponent he as faced since then: Junior Assuncao (6-4), “Kid” Alvin Robinson (9-3), and, most recently, Kurt Pellegrino (11-4).

Neer is a UFC veteran who left the organization after two consecutive losses (one of them to Nick Diaz (16-7), Nate’s older brother).

Neer went 6-1 fighting in other organizations before returning to win a unanimous decision over “Dinyero” Din Thomas (22-8) at Ultimate Fight Night 13.

“I would love a shot at [Yushin] Okami,” exclaimed Fighters.com’s ninth-ranked welterweight “The Goat” Nick Thompson (35-9-1), when asked if he would like a shot at redeeming a loss years prior.

“Thunder” Okami (22-4) is Fighters.com’s fifth-ranked middleweight.

“No disrespect to him, but I got injured in the fight right after taking him down.  I took him down fairly easily.  I’m fairly confident that when I’m on top of anybody I’m going to end the fight.”

To the average MMA fan, this might seem like a lofty goal, but it doesn’t stop there for Thompson.

“I have my last final [exam before graduating University of Minnesota Law School], then I take the bar [exam] in July.”

Not to mention his fight scheduled for 3 June at Sengoku III versus Chute Boxing Academy’s “Maicon” Michael Costa (9-3).

“I’ll fight at heavyweight if the offer is right! Or 155, I’ll just cut off a leg!”

Perhaps a fight against sixth-ranked heavyweight “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (28-1).  “It’d be scary, but fun from my position!”

There is no shortage of personality for the man that has enough sense of humor to be known as “The Goat”.  Not to mention continuing with MMA after starting 1-3.

“I just enjoy it.  I was never really good at it.  It was just something that I was enjoying, then I started beating people I wasn’t supposed to beat.
 
“I would be brought in as an opponent.  I think Josh Neer is a prime example.  He had just fought in the UFC; and, they brought me in just to get him a win, then I beat him [via rear naked choke in the second round] and a couple of black belts from Top Team.

“I was just being brought in as a tune-up fight and, suddenly, I was beating guys; and, my coach pulls me aside and says ‘Hey, you should really think about doing this and really taking a shot at it.’”

“It wasn’t even really until after the Karo Parisyan fight that my wife sat me down and said that I had to make a decision whether I was going to train full time or not.  Until the Karo fight, I was only training maybe four hours a week.  Now I’m training four or five hours a day.”

Of course, that isn’t to say that all of Thompson’s fights have been lined up as he would like.  Thompson admits that “there have been sometimes when I wasn’t excited to fight.”

“My last fight, [a controversial unanimous decision win over "Pitbull" Fabricio Monteiro (16-7)], I was excited to be in Japan; but, just style-wise and where I was coming from in my career, it seemed like a lose/lose fight.

“If I beat him, I was supposed to be him.  If I lost to  him, I lost to a guy that wasn’t very good.  Fights like that are hard to get up for.

“Mark Weir was another example when I fought him in BoDog.  Mark is a tough guy, he will knock you out if you make a mistake.  He hits fairly hard, but, at the same time, he was on like a four- or five-fight losing streak; and, it’s kind of like: If I beat him, so what?  And, it’s not an easy fight.”

Easy or not, Thompson has strung together 11 straight wins after losing to “Heat” Karo Parisyan (18-5) at UFC 50 in April 2006, many of which he has fought at 170-pounds, a difficult achievement for a fighter who stands 6’1″ and walks around at around 210-pounds, according to his trainers.

And now, fighting at Sengoku, the welterweight fighter will have to drop even more weight to get to the required 167-pounds for his division.  Nick confessed that on Mother’s Day he, “went over to my mom’s house; and, they made a great dinner; and, I brought my own Tupperware of chicken, heated it up in the microwave.”

For a moment, Nick’s usually cheerful face suddenly showed a sign of regret.  “It’s not just hard on me, it’s hard on my wife.  We’re newlyweds, 25-, 26-years old.  Most people like to go out and get burgers or go to bars with friends.  I can’t do that.”

Of course, that isn’t to say that he has to either.  Remember, Thompson is a graduating law student who has more than just mixed martial arts as an option.  So, why wouldn’t he give up being hit in the face for a living?

To Nick the answer seemed simple.  “I can be a lawyer when I’m 40!”

After years of fighting and enduring strain to personal relationships, Nick has learned the hard lessons he wishes he had known earlier.

He said, “One [lesson] is really surrounding yourself with good guys.

“Coming to a  school like [Minnesota Martial Arts Academy] may be more expensive than going to a smaller school, but the learning curve is just so exponential.  If you are paying $15 more a month to come and train with top level guys, it really pays for itself.”

Without pausing to think, Nick offered more advice for prospective fighters.  “Another one is: Get management!  It is really tempting when you’re a young fighter that, if a promoter says, ‘Here’s $50 and a sandwich, go fight this guy.’

“When you are a young fighter, you should have the mentality that you will fight anyone, but you really need a manager or a coach to say, ‘Hey, no, here’s what you are going to do.’

“And the last thing is something I learned too late in my career.  I wished I had learned sooner…to train out of your comfort zone.  If you are really good at jiu-jitsu and suck a wrestling, you need to practice your wrestling.

“It’s better to suck in practice than to get in a fight and realize ‘this guy is better than me at jiu-jitsu and I don’t know how to wrestle’.  It isn’t terribly fun at practice, but it’s better than losing in a fight.”

As always, Nick is thankful for his wife, his training partners at Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts Academy, and his sponsors Tapout and Island Nutrition.

Photos of Thompson with Emelianenko and Thompson in Costa Rica are copyrighted by Nick Thompson from www.nickthompson.tv.

The former title challenger from Sityodtong, Florian, dominated the quirky computer tech.

“KenFlo” opened a gash on the back of Lauzon’s head with elbows from his full guard in the first round, but was warned by referee Herb Dean for striking behind the head.

It was a call Dean missed while refereeing a lightweight fight between “Cleat” Rich Crunkilton (16-2) and Sergio Gomez (7-2) at last week’s Las Vegas WEC event.

After the stand-up, Lauzon clinched for a takedown and stepped over Florians body in half-guard for a knee bar that turned into a Achilles lock that Florian yanked free from.

Lauzon snatched an ankle again and reclined into a heel hook that Florian was again able to wriggle free from to end the round.

The frantic mat work and elevation exhausted “J-Lau” for the second round and Florian was able to score a takedown into full mount that Lauzon never bucked free from.

Florian poured on a cocktail of elbows, straights, and hammerfists from the mount, but Lauzon defended.  Dean called an end to the fight after it was clear Lauzon was to spent to transition out of the bad spot.

In a grueling war game between undefeated wrestlers, “The Bully” Gray Maynard (5-0) won a decisive unanimous decision over “The Answer” Frank Edgar (8-1).

Maynard set the pace in the first round by stuffing Edgar’s takedown attempts and deciding when he’d take the inevitable wrestling match to the mat.

Edgar made it a scrap in the second round with crisp 1-2 combos that scored, but Maynard continued to stuff “The Answer’s” shot and score his own powerful takedowns, though neither fighter did much more than molest the other on the mat.

Edgar was gassed by round three and the bigger “Bully” slammed Edgar three times to convince all three judges he was dominant.

Earlier in the night, “Rumble” Anthony Johnson (5-1) pummeled TUF finalist Tom Speer (9-3) over 51 seconds, knocking home the stoppage “W” with a clean straight right that slumped Speer against the cage.

“I’m crunk right now, I’m real crunk,” said Johnson after the fight.

Johnson began the end with a left kick to Speer’s head as the wrestler attempted to shoot, followed by a knee that backed Speer to the cage.   Speer was out on his feet when he absorbed the death blow.

In a welterweight clash, “The Pitbull” Thiago Alves (14-3) crumpled “The Heat” Karo Parisyan (18-5) with a left knee strike to Parisyan’s head in the second round as Parisyan sought the clinch.

At 34-seconds of the round, referee Steve Mazzagatti dove across the downed fighter as he defended Alves’s follow-up pounding.

“The referee did a good job,” Alves claimed after Parisyan disputed the stoppage.  “He was out!”

Parisyan had won round one with deft, one-off striking versus the American Top Team trained kickboxer, who appeared wary of Parisyan’s takedowns. 

In his UFC debut last February, “The Barbarian” Tim Boetsch (7-2) surprised David Heath (7-3) with an onslaught ending in a first-round Boetsch TKO.

Tonight, “The Hammer” Matt Hamill (4-1) weathered Boetsch’s first round avalanche of strikes to reveal “The Barbarian” couldn’t continue his barrage passed the first five minutes.

Hamill began the fight with a powerful double-leg takedown, but couldn’t capitalize before the referee stood the fighters.

Boetsch proved effective with a repeating knee strike that split Hamill’s lip like a ripe peach, splashing blood across Hamill’s chest.

In round two, Boetsch heaved heavily from his corner.  He shot for a single-leg takedown and held Hamill’s leg as the champion wrestler hovered over him hammering punches.  Boetsch rolled into guard, but had nothing left as “The Hammer” finished him at 1:25 with undefended plugs to Boetsch’s face.

Fast-rising Nathan Diaz (9-2) submitted Kurt Pellegrino (11-4) in an air-tight leg triangle choke in the second round of their undercard match, flashing double middle fingers in the air as Pellegrino tapped helplessly.

Diaz was cut on his right eyelid by Pellegrino punches in a first round controlled on the mat by Pellegrino.

Pellegrino dumped Diaz at will and hammered punches and elbows inside Diaz’s full- and half-guard.  Pellegrino passed to side control and pinned Diaz’s arms, hammering Diaz’s unprotected face to open the cut.

But, durable Diaz escaped a lost first round.

The second round continued as the first, with Diaz getting dumped to the mat by Pellegrino.  This time, Diaz ran his guard up Pellegrino’s back and submitted the lightweight in a leg triangle at 3:06 of the round.

“He shouldn’t have pinned me down like that,” Diaz scolded Pellegrino after the hard-won “W”. 

In the televised card’s first fight, “The Assassin” Houston Alexander (8-3) got touched by “The Sandman” James Irvin (14-4) in the first exchange of their light heavyweight match.

Alexander was beaten to the punch by a right Superman punch from Irvin as Alexander launched his own right cross.

Alexander fell to the mat and Irvin followed with a right exclamation point to Alexander’s noggin as referee Steve Mazzagatti dove to Alexander’s rescue at :08 of the fight, tying a UFC record for quickest KO.

“I was still conscious,” Alexander repeated after the stoppage.

Amidst boos, Irvin challenged, “We can do it again right now.  If you want to go out into the parking lot, we can do it right now.”

 In untelevised fights, “The Dentist” Josh Neer (24-6-1) won a unanimous decision over “Dinyero” Din Thomas (20-8), who was returning from a knee injury in his last outing.

 ”Maximus” Marcus Aurelio (16-5) submitted lightweight Ryan Roberts (8-3) 16 seconds into the fight.

“Pitbull” Manvel Gamburyan (8-2) submitted Jeffrey Cox (9-5) in guillotine choke at 1:41 of the first round.

“The Carpenter” Clay Guida (23-9) TKO’d lightweight Samy Schiavo (10-5) at 4:15 of round one.

Finally, welterweight George Sotiropoulos (9-2) TKO’d Roman Mitichyan (5-2) 2:24 into round two.