A Look at MMA in October 2013

Here's a look at what to look forward to in October 2013.



The UFC will hold three events. One will be the PPV where the UFC will hold UFC 166 on October 19th. The main event will feature the third fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. The card will also feature Daniel Cormier vs. Roy Nelson and Gilbert Melendez taking on Diego Sanchez.

The other two events will be fight nights. The first will be held in Brazil on October 9th. The main event will feature two former title contenders in Damien Maia and Jake Shields. Other fights will see Dong Hyun-Kim vs. Erick Silva in the co-main event, Thiago Silva vs. Matt Hamill, and Fabio Maldonado vs. Joey Beltran. The second event takes place in England on October 26th. It will feature Michael Bisping vs. Mark Munoz in the main event. The co-main event will see Ross Pearson take on Melvin Guillard.

(Thoughts: I really like the 166 show as it's probably the most stacked PPV in the last few months. The only complaint is that I personally would prefer to see Cain defend against Fabricio Werdum instead of Dos Santos since it's a little too soon to do a third fight. The fight nights are ok for fight nights though the UK one is a little weak.)

Bellator continues their Season Nine as we see the next rounds of the Featherweight (October 11th), Lightweight (October 25th), Welterweight (October 18th), and Middleweight Tournaments (October 4th). The month will also see the conclusion of both the Summer Series and Season Nine Bantamweight Tournaments as well as the beginning of the Season Nine Heavyweight Tournament. We will also see the return of Season Eight Lightweight tournament winner Dave Rickels and former Season Eight Light Heavyweight Tournament runner up Mikhail Zayats.

(Thoughts: Bellator hasn't released all their October shows as of writing but what we know, I like. I'll admit, I enjoy Bellator and it's probably the MMA promotion I look forward to the most.)

WSOF will present their sixth show on October 26. The main event will see WSOF crown their first champion when Josh Burkman faces Steve Carl to determine the first ever WSOF Welterweight Champion. Jon Fitch will return in an attempt to bounce back from his disastrous debut when he faces Marcelo Alfaya in the co-main event. WSOF prospects Marlon Moraes and Justin Gaethje will also be in action.

(Thoughts: WSOF isn't anywhere near as big as UFC or Bellator but it's still a nice promotion and it's great they're beginning to crown champions.)

ONE FC will return for their ONE FC: Total Domination event on October 18th. The main event will feature a unification fight between ONE FC Bantamweight Champion Soo Chul Kim and ONE FC Interm Bantamweight Champion Bibiano Fernandes. The co-main event will feature two of ONE FC's top prospects in the lightweight division as Eddie Ng takes on Peter Davis. Former 2010 DREAM Light Heavyweight Grand Prix finalist Tatsuya Mizuno will return to ONE FC now a middleweight as he takes on Rafael Silva (not the Bellator fighter of the same name). Shinya Aoki will also make his debut in featherweight.

(Thoughts: This is a much better card than September but ONE FC needs to stack these cards a little better than having most of the card be guys and girls who are making their debuts or have less than five fights.)

ROAD FC will hold ROAD FC 013 on October 12th. The main event will feature Yui Chul Nam defending the ROAD FC Lightweight Championship against Takasuke Kume in a rematch from ROAD FC 011 back in April. The event will also see the debuts of former UFC fighters Riki Fukuda & Issei Tamura and the return of MMA legend Minowaman.

(Thoughts: Should be a good event seeing two japanese stars debuting and Lightweight Title rematch.)

M-1 Global will have their M-1 Challenge 42 on October 20th. The main event will see Kenny Garner defend the M-1 Global Heavyweight Championship against Bellator fighter Alexei Kudin. Satoshi Ishii will make his debut against Jeff Monson and the finals of the M-1 Global Heavyweight Grand Prix between Konstantin Gluhov and Marcin Tybura.

(Thoughts: These fights interest me. Garner is a good fighter to watch and he vs. Kudin should be good. Ishii vs. Monson could be a great chess type fight on the ground or a lousy kickboxing fight.)

Japan will see two legends retire as Megumi Fujii will face Jessica Aguilar in a rematch at Vale Tudo Japan on October 5th while Ryo Chonan will challenge Dan Hornbuckle for the DEEP Welterweight Championship on October 20th.

(Thoughts: I hope Fujii and Chonan will both win)