The show’s main event will be headlined by Antwain Britt taking on American kickboxing standout Rick “The Jet” Roufus in a light heavyweight encounter.

Britt was announced recently by Spike TV and the UFC as appearing on the upcoming eighth season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and his inclusion on the UWC card could mean that he has already been released from his TUF contract.

The show will also feature former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight competitor Carmelo “The Fury” Marrero. The Philadelphia-born fighter might be best known for his upset split decision victory over Cheick Kongo in his UFC debut at UFC 64 in 2006.

Following consecutive losses to Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 66 and Wilson Gouveia at UFC 71, Marrero’s contract was not renewed. He has not lost outside of the UFC.

Marrero also competed for the IFL this past April, fighting to a no contest with Mike Ciesnolevicz due to an accidental headbutt. His opponent at “Confrontation” will be Ryan Lopez.

Current EliteXC featherweight (150 lbs.) and Renzo Gracie jiu-jitsu brown belt James “Binky” Jones will also be returning to action in a true lightweight (155 lbs.) bout against Kyle Baker. Jones trains out of Team Ground Control in Baltimore under John Rallo and is one of the top draws in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The show will also feature two top prospects with the potential to be fighting for a major national promotion in the near future. Team Lloyd Irvin bantamweight sensation Mike Easton will be featured in the co-main event on the card against John “The Magician” Dodson. Dodson trains out of Greg Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque, N.M.

Also, welterweight LeVon Maynard, no stranger to regular readers of this website, will be returning to action against Toby Johnson, a 6-2 fighter who trains under WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit in New Mexico.

Maynard, an IFL Draft finalist during the ill-fated promotion’s tryouts last October, improved his professional record to 3-2 during Combat Sports Challenge 26 on Aug. 30 in Colonial Heights, Virginia after submitting former EliteXC light heavyweight fighter John Doyle in the first round. The 2006 WKA Amateur MMA Tournament Champion also boasts an 8-1 record as an amateur.

The promotion has also announced that BloodyElbow.com editor-in-chief Luke Thomas will be handling color commentary duties for the DVD production of the show.

(Pictured: Carmelo Marrero)

The parking lot of a Harley Davidson dealership is a unique place to be holding a Pro-Am MMA show but the reasons for the outdoor show is because the dealership is hosting a MDA summer fundraiser with an all-day festival that will be capped off with tonight’s MMA show.

I was able to help setup the cage (something I’ve wanted to do for a long time) for the show yesterday and I can tell you that it’s a pretty nice setup and I can’t wait to see my first outdoor MMA show. If you are in the area, I really recommend coming down and checking out the card because it is a great one.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com is sponsoring both fighters in one of the night’s most anticipated bouts. Regular readers of 5 Oz. know that we have been big supporters of welterweight prospect LeVon Maynard and we’re happy to once again be sponsoring him for this show. We’re also sponsoring LeVon’s opponent, John Doyle, who I first met several years ago when we both trained at Daddis Fight Camps in Philadelphia. This is a tremendous matchup and don’t ask me for a prediction, because I have no idea how this fight is going to go down.

It’s a big fight for both LeVon and John. After starting his pro career 2-0, LeVon has lost his last two fights. His first was several months back when he got caught early against Doug Gordon during a Ring of Combat show. He returned to New Jersey about a month later on a BattleCage Xtreme show and dropped a unanimous decision to Mike Medrano in a bout that a lot of people felt LeVon really won.

I first met LeVon last October during the IFL Draft tryouts in New York when he took the entire place by surprise and proved to be one of the most impressive fighters that tried out that day. There was a lot of media in attendance and the showing really put LeVon on the map and made a lot of people realize it was only a matter of time until he is fighting for a major national promotion. The New York tryouts were no joke as the UFC’s Matt Brown and the WEC’s Danillo Villefort both were there so to stand out with guys like that really speaks volumes.

Doyle was a top light heavyweight prospect on the East Coast for several years and got his shot at the big time this past February in Miami during EliteXC’s “Street Certified.” Unfortunately, I don’t think the conditions for John’s debut could have been any less ideal. Not only did he take the fight on short notice, but he was matched up against Rafael Feijao.

Despite stepping up for EliteXC and taking a fight on short notice against a fighter who will probably be a top ten light heavyweight in the next 12-16 months, the promotion decided not to pick up Doyle’s option, making him an unrestricted free agent. I hate to second guess, but I think that decision could prove to be short-sighted. I really believe John deserved a second chance having agreed to fight on short notice and the fact that he’s moving down two weight classes to welterweight is also another good reason for them to have given him another shot.

Tonight’s fight will be John’s first at 170. It was an extremely tough cut for him and he missed weight on his first attempt during weigh-ins last night. I can tell you that John worked his ass off to get down to welterweight. I hitched a ride with some of the fighters on tonight’s show and when we stopped to get gas, John got out of the van and started doing laps in the parking lot in his sauna suit. Soon as we got to the hotel, both he and his trainer, Tuan Pham, headed straight to the YMCA to hit the sauna.

When John weighed-in he was pretty drained and was still only at 174. I have seen fighters in his situation who get to that point and just quit cutting and try to force their opponent’s hand. But John went back to the Y and came back an hour later and made weight at 171. I already had a lot of respect for him and gained even more with his decision to go all the way down after such a huge cut (I think he cut over 20 pounds in the last two days).

If you come to the show, you will see a fight between two guys in LeVon and John who are capable of competing for just about any major national promotion. This is a high-profile regional show and you’ve heard me say it before, but I think the winner of this fight will probably land an offer from a big company. Fueling some of that speculation is the fact that there are rumors that UFC Vice President of Talent Relations Joe Silva will be in attendance at the event. The UFC will be featuring welterweights for the ninth season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and Doyle and Maynard would both be perfect for the show.

As great as the Doyle vs. Maynard fight is going to be, it’s not even the main event. That spot is reserved for a 140 lbs. fight between Dwayne Shelton of Total Combat (where Amir Sadollah used to train) and Sedico Honorio of Daddis Fight Camps (home to EliteXC’s Jon Murphy, Wilson Reis, and Matt Makowski).

Shelton is a top prospect at 140 lbs. and it’s only a matter of time before you see him fighting in the big show. Despite being undefeated in MMA, Honorio is a bit of an unknown because all but one of his fights have taken place in Brazil. But his profile has increased in recent months, as he cornered Reis during EliteXC’s “Unfinished Business” on July 26 and he won his first fight in the U.S. two weeks ago in Kansas.

It’s interesting to hear that the WEC will be dropping its light heavyweight and middleweight divisions because if they want to do 10 shows next year, then they are going to have to sign move fighters for its lighter weight divisions. If the WEC goes out and adds more talent at 135 lbs., then they should sign both Shelton and Honorio. Both these guys are sick and the bout between them tonight is going to be crazy. Like Doyle vs. Maynard, I have no idea who is going to win that one.

I’m also excited to be down here because two of my teammates at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu United, Matt Nice and Lionel “Noreaga” Borelli, will both be making their amateur MMA debuts. They were supposed to debut close to home on Aug. 16 in Delaware but the card was canceled. A lot of people from our school were planning on supporting them but now that they are fighting in Virginia, not as many people can make the trip. So it’s good to be here and be able to support them. Matt will be fighting Jeremy Fields of Total Combat here in Virginia and Lionel is taking on Cory Getz of Ephrata MMA in PA. Make sure you get here early to see their fights because you will be hearing a lot from them in the future.

Two other fights I am looking forward to are Tim Williams vs. Jack Greene and Brylan Vanartsdalen vs. Israel Flores. I’ve seen a lot of Williams’ fights for Combat in the Cage and he never fails to disappoint. He’s extremely tough and hits like a mack track. It’s only a matter of time before you see him fighting on big shows as a middleweight.

Vanartsdalan is from Daddis Fight Camps in Philadelphia and was just added to the card earlier this week. I had a chance to speak with him in the weigh-ins last night and he has a strong wrestling background and is a full-time recruiter for the National Guard. He’s definitely a prospect to watch at 145 lbs. because you have to be good in order to fight for Daddis.

That’s it for now but I will be covering the show tonight. I am actually going to try and post results from my iPhone during the show and hopefully I will be able to get some interviews for you guys. If you are planning on being at the show, don’t hesitate to come up and say “hi.”

Also, the votes are in for Yahoo!’s top 10 pound-for-pound September poll. You can check that out by clicking here.

Just like last month, I’m making my ballot available to the public so they can see who I voted for and why:

1. Randy Couture - He’s been active and has been dominant in his last two wins. Plus, in head-to-head situations I feel he’d beat most people on this list. I was surprised I was the only one on the poll who voted Randy number one.

2. Fedor Emelianenko - I vote on three polls now (Yahoo!, FIGHT!, and “Inside MMA” on HDNet) and the easy thing to do is to just jot down Fedor as number one. But I really put thought into my rankings and had to ask myself, is Fedor still number one considering his inactivity as of late? The answer is no.

3. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson – When your last two wins are over Chuck Liddell and Dan Henderson it’s hard to question a guy.

4. Georges St. Pierre – As I mentioned last month, my criteria is based on fighting frequency, quality of wins, and pure fighting ability. The loss to Serra still weighs in my mind but GSP earned my respect back by dominating Josh Koscheck in August. And there aren’t many fighters in the world with more pure talent than St. Pierre.

5. B.J. Penn – Is a win over Jens Pulver all that impressive at this point? Perhaps not but Penn took care of business and the pure fighting criteria used for GSP is also a factor in this vote.

6. Anderson Silva – He’s just so dominant within his own division that it’s hard to rank him any lower. He’s fought well against top quality opponents.

7. Paulo Filho - Undefeated and has looked dominant most of the way. I’d love to see him against other top middleweights such as Silva, Henderson, Matt Lindland and Denis Kang.

8. Dan Henderson – He lost to Rampage but fought well.

9. Kid Yamamoto - He wasn’t on my top ten last month because of inactivity. Well, after fighting and winning for K-1 HERO’s earlier this month there was no way I could keep him off.

10. Gesias “JZ Calvan” Calvancanti - He rocketed up my rankings. Two dominating wins in one night will do that for a fighter. He also looked strong at USA Dynamite!! Nam Phan was giving up size but he’s still a good fighter and JZ cut right through him.