This coming Wednesday (April 1st) free on Spike the UFC will be broadcasting the 18th version of their popular Fight Night. This is the first Fight Night since the WEC eliminated all weight classes above and including Welterweight. Carlos Condit, who was the current WEC Welterweight champion, fights in this new pool trying to prove he belongs amongst the best in the world. As usual here are the cards and my picks.
Watch and enjoy!

Main Card:
Welterweight Carlos Condit vs Martin Kampmann - Condit by Sub (round 1)
Light Heavyweight Ryan Bader vs Carmelo Marrero - Bader by KO (round 1)
Lightweight Tyson Griffin vs Rafael dos Anjos - Griffin by Dec
Lightweight Cole Miller vs Junie Browning - Miller by Sub (round 3)

Preliminary Card:
Lightweight Gleison Tibau vs Jeremy Stephens - Tibau by Sub (round 2)
Middleweight Ricardo Almeida vs Matt Horwich - Almeida by Dec
Middleweight Tim Credeur vs Nick Catone - Credeur by Sub (round 1)
Welterweight Brock Larson vs Jesse Sanders - Larson by Sub (round 1)
Middleweight Jorge Rivera vs Nissen Osterneck - Rivera by KO (round 1)
Middleweight Rob Kimmons vs Joe Vedepo - Kimmons by Sub (round 1)
Middleweight Tim McKenzie vs Aaron Simpson - McKenzie by KO (round 2)
Middleweight Steve Steinbeiss vs Ryan Jensen - Jensen by Sub (round 1)

Well Fight Night 18 included some good fights and so not so good ones. For started the first televised match (Browning-Miller) was over just at 1:58 min of the first round where Browning looked very inexperienced. Miller took advantage of the situation early and submitted Browning with a guillotine. Is this the end of Junnie's MMA career and antics? I certainly hope so.

The second fight Griffin-Do Anjos was named "Fight of the Night". The most impressive Griffin found ways to get out of hold after hold winning by unanimous decision

The match between Bader and Marrero also lasted all 15 minutes showing a very dominant Bader. His wrestling skills and the constant pressure over Marrero gave him a victory by unanimous decision. Bader is definitely a fighter to watch as he continues to improve his skills.

The Main event Condit-Kampmann where I thought Condit was going to be able to dominate from the start ended up being a very even back and forth between the two fighters. It was so close that Kampmann ended up winning by a razor thing split decision. I personally was disappointed as I'm a big Condit fan. I was expecting Condit to come in, dominate and submit Kapmann on round one. I have to admit that I picked this fight based on emotions as the fighter numbers point to a very close match. The fight was great but the result disappointing.

Here are the official results:

Main Card
Welterweight Carlos Condit vs Martin Kampmann - Kampmann by Split Dec
Light Heavyweight Ryan Bader vs Carmelo Marrero - Bader by Dec
Lightweight Tyson Griffin vs Rafael dos Anjos - Griffin by Dec
Lightweight Cole Miller vs Junie Browning - Miller by Sub (round 1)

Preliminary Card
Lightweight Gleison Tibau vs Jeremy Stephens - Tibau by Dec
Middleweight Ricardo Almeida vs Matt Horwich - Horwich by Dec
Middleweight Tim Credeur vs Nick Catone - Credeur by Sub (round 2)
Welterweight Brock Larson vs Jesse Sanders - Larson by Sub (round 1)
Middleweight Jorge Rivera vs Nissen Osterneck - Rivera by Dec
Middleweight Rob Kimmons vs Joe Vedepo - Kimmons by Sub (round 1)
Middleweight Tim McKenzie vs Aaron Simpson - McKenzie by TKO (round 1)

Good for Cole Miller. Hopefully the UFC will now realize any ratings draw Browning has is over and he can go back to his factory job.

That was some sick leg compression dos Anjos put on Griffin. So sick I wished he'd won the fight.

Condit/Kampmann was just a good old-fashioned barn-stormer!

(Maybe instead of 'Combat SPorts', they could call this the 'ClimberTC' site.

Well I'm very glad that that you always contribute to the discussion. I love MMA and it seems you do too. I'm always hopeful that some other guys/gals will read these treads and get excited about the sport.

By the way, have you heard of Bellator? They have their first event down here in South Florida tomorrow and I bought tickets to it. Eddie Alvarez will be fighting. He is the only well known in the card. I'll let you know how it goes.

I hope some other promotion like Bellator ends up succeeding (since Affliction keeps disappointing). The UFC needs some real competition. It is shameful what they pay and how they treat their fighters. The UFC has become the MMA monopoly.

I agree that Dana White & Co. have everyone by the short hairs (There are a few fighters I'd love to get by the short hairs). I'm sure he figures they'd all be working in factories (or in prison) if it wasn't for him.

And now I know you live in FL!

lol; I thought my profile said it but I just went and checked and it wasn't there...

where are you? I know you told me once...

BTW, Bellator was very cool. Several preliminary matches with inexperienced fighters and then the 6 tournament fights 3 for the Lightweight championship and the other 3 for featherweight. The big attraction was Eddie Alvarez (ranked 3rd in the world) who dominated Greg Loughran and finished him with a guillotine choke in the first round. Another cool fight was Jorge Masvidal vs. Nick Agallar where Masvidal finished Agallar by TKO punches in the first.

What made it cool was for the first time being in a live MMA event. I got to see Rory Singer (from TUF) and Antonio Minotauro Nogueira who were supporting some of the fighters from their training camps.

Bellator will continue their tournament every Friday night until the Finale on June 19. The fights will continue to take place all throughout the country and will be broadcast every Saturday at 9PM on ESPN Deportes in Spanish and every Wednesday on their Website in English.

I'm thinking of getting tickets for the final match on June 19 as it will take place at the Hard Rock down here again.

I live in NY - Ithaca (well, just outside). NYS still "outlaws" MMA matches but I think that will change quite soon.

Really? I've been to Ithaca twice (as a kid in the early 80s) Is the Pyramid mall still around? lol