A Wrestling Fan's Guide To UFC 180 And Bellator 131

With the UFC ravaged by injuries, UFC 180 hopes to be a turning point for the company. Although Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez was injured and removed from the promotion's important debut in Mexico, the card still holds major implications as Mark Hunt stepped in to replace him and will now contend for the interim UFC Heavyweight championship.

Hunt is one of the most unique stories in MMA. An overweight kickboxer, the New Zealand native "Super Samoan" was an overnight success in Japan's PRIDE FC after he defeated legends Mirko Cro Cop and Wanderlei Silva back-to-back on his way to five consecutive victories. Shortly after his string of wins his ground game was exposed, and Hunt would lose six straight fights, with five of those being due to variations of the double wristlock (kimura, americana).

In 2009, the UFC made an effort to buy Mark Hunt out of his contract and simply grant him his release. Hunt, who is now 40, declined the lucrative offer and instead opted to fight in the UFC. After a small sputter Hunt has turned into one of MMA's biggest cinderella stories, having lost just once in his past seven fights.

Across the cage from Hunt stands Brazilian Fabricio Werdum, known as the first man to topple the iconic Fedor Emelianenko. Werdum has lost once in his past 8 fights, and was previously exposed by power punchers Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos before significantly improving his standup game.

Hunt has the ability to knock any man on the planet out with one punch, but Fabricio Werdum has the ability to submit any UFC fighter from a bevy of positions. Despite Hunt's formerly weak ground game, he's also developed excellent takedown defense, just as Werdum has grown in the striking department.

The atmosphere in the arena will be interesting. The national hero Velasquez was forced out of the fight, and Hunt's comeback story is well documented. Werdum, however, has been the Spanish-language announcer for the UFC and also a coach on the Ultimate Fighter: Latin America. Either way, Saturday night's winner walks out with gold and a future date with Velasquez.

Undefeated Ultimate Fighter winner Kelvin Gastelum will take on Jake Ellenberger in the evening's co-main event, that looks to gauge Gastelum's place in the divison. He's currently riding a similar path to that of Ryan Bader a few years ago as a promising TUF winner who needs a victory over a solid opponent to catapult himself into the division's elite.

For the 7th-ranked Ellenberger, this is a must-win situation. He's coming off of back-to-back losses, albeit to title challengers, but three losses in a row often signifies end for a UFC fighter. Dolph Ziggler's losing streaks don't seem so bad now, do they?

Former title challenger Ricardo Lamas stands in the way of the championship path in which Dennis Bermudez seems poised for. Bermudez, ranked 7, is riding an unbelievable seven-fight winning streak in the UFC and looks for a signature victory over the fourth-ranked Lamas.

Elsewhere on the show The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America champions are determined, as well as a prelim battle between top-15 women's bantamweight fighters Jessica Eye and Leslie Smith.

Over on the Bellator side of things, TNA fans will see a few familiar faces as both Tito Ortiz and King Mo Lawal will both be on the Bellator 131 show, which airs live on Spike TV.

Ortiz will face fellow UFC Hall of Famer and one-time pro wrestling hopeful Stephan Bonnar in the night's main event. The two have been embroiled in a personal feud over the past several months, with Bonnar making personal verbal attacks towards Ortiz. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this fight is that someone has to actually win.

King Mo will be in a much less competive bout against late notice replacement Joe Vedepo, who will be moving up from middlweight for the fight. Mo has excellent wrestling which should take him to victory, but he has been known to abandon that skill in favor of a standup game in which has cost him several fights since signing with Bellator.

While unknown to casual fans, perhaps the most exciting fight of the night will be between Bellator Lightweight Champion Will Brooks against former champion Michael Chandler. The two had a razor-thin battle at Bellator's first pay-per-view that saw the underdog Brooks take home the interim lightweight title before being promoted to undisputed champion after Eddie Alvarez moved to the UFC. If you have down time and don't feel like ordering the UFC pay-per-view, this show is for you.

If all of that wasn't enough for you, World Series of Fighting will also hold a free card on NBC Sports Network. The show was originally set to feature three title fights before lightweight challenger Melvin Guillard missed weight. Regardless, his bout with champion Justin Gaethje has the potential to be the best fight of the night across all three shows. Also on the show is the world's number-1 ranked women's strawweight fighter Jessica Aguilar defending her title against Kalindra Faira, and WSOF Middleweight Champion Dave Branch defending against UFC veteran Yushin Okami.

Sure, it's a lot to digest, but if you've got some down time on Saturday night there's plenty of MMA to check out. If you've never given MMA a chance, Saturday is your night. Of course we'll have live coverage of the UFC 180 pay-per-view here at Wrestling Inc, and we encourage you to come join the live viewing party!