Does anyone remember Nick Ring? He was pegged as one of the favorites to claim "The Ultimate Fighter" contract during season 12, having been one of the more well-rounded fighters in the middleweight field, which was also made evident when coach and former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz chose Ring as his number one pick in the middleweight field. After his initial elimination bout to enter the house was behind him when Ring defeated Woody Wetherby via TKO inside of the first round, he next defeated eventual show winner Court McGee in the preliminary round, by Majority decision at the end of the two round affair. Sustaining an knee injury during the show, Nick went under the knife for the third-time in order to have his ACL replaced in reconstructive surgery. Now back in action after a long rehab, Ring is looking to make a successful debut in the UFC against veteran Riki Fukuda this February, in the organization's second foray in Australia. ...

DEEP's middleweight tournament kicked off at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo Friday. The tournament seeks a successor to Ryo Chonan, who vacated the DEEP title for the UFC last year. The first bout featured Akihiro Gono and Kazuo Misaki Grabaka stablemate Riki Fukuda taking a unanimous decision over former title holder Ryuta Sakurai, 15-14-4, to improve to 9-3. Yuichi Nakanishi pulled even to 7-7-3 with a split decision over another Grabaka fighter, Eiji Ishikawa, who dropped his fifth straight. MMA vet Daijiro Matsui, 10-18-4, also eeked out a split decision over 9-4 Young Choi. The final tournament session saw 10-5 Yuya Shirai taking a unanimous decision over 5-2-4 Sojiro Orui. In undercard action, Yasuhito Namekawa submitted Carlos Toyota in an Achilles lock 2:58 into round one to improve to 20-16-3. Toshiaki Kitada and Isao Terada added draws to their records at 143-pounds,  as did "Barbaro44" Yoshihiro Tomioka and Seigo Inoue at 154-pounds and Ken Hamamura and Chigetoshi Iwase at 176-pounds. Yoshiyuki Nakanishi was able to find a definitive finish with a unanimous decision over Shunsuke Inoue, remaining undefeated at 3-0. In the event's only Future Fighting Spirit matchup, Ryoji Suzuki submitted Kenta Okuyama by rear naked choke at 2:08 of the second round to improve to 2-2. ...