All of the bouts have been confirmed by UFC officials. Interestingly enough, all six men are coming off losses making success at the show even more important than it might normally be.

Phan holds an overall record of 17-10 and is perhaps best known for his pair of entertaining efforts against Leonard Garcia, while Miller (18-6) is a fellow Ultimate Fighter alumnus with fifteen finishes in his eighteen total wins.

The 14-3 Grispi has been out of action since June 2011 to deal with family issues and was considered to be a top divisional contender until suffering back-to-back losses in his last two outings. Comparably, Garza (11-3) has also dropped two in a row after notching consecutive bonus-winning victories.

A TUF finalist, Gamburyan (11-7) has come up short in his last three scraps including decisions to Tyson Griffin and most recently Diego Nunes. Meanwhile, Omigawa (13-11-1) built a reputation for himself in Japan as a tough draw for any adversary and even owns wins over top 145ers Marlon Sando and Hatsu Hioki.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

“I’m off from the UFC 135 card. I hurt my shoulder and MRI is not looking good. I just wanna say sorry to all my friends and fans. I’ll be back,” Gamburyan added with an exclamation point after revealing his unfortunate circumstances.

Gamburyan dropped to 145 pounds after mixed results as a lightweight in the UFC and won three straight fights in WEC including victories over Leonard Garcia and former champ Mike Brown. However, after earning a title-shot with his performances he fell in the second round to Jose Aldo and was outpointed by Tyson Griffin in June at UFC Live 4.

The UFC has not officially announced his removal from the card though it’s likely a replacement will be found given the amount of time remaining before the September 24 event.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Their addition to the September 24 card was announced through the UFC’s website.

Gamburyan, a 155-pound finalist on TUF 5, had won a trio of bouts in WEC before falling to current champ Jose Aldo and subsequently being outpointed by Tyson Griffin in his return to the Octagon last month. He holds an overall record of 11-6 with a number of impressive performances under his belt including knockouts of Mike Brown and Jorge Santiago.

Nova Uniao’s Nunes also competed in June, suffering a hard-fought Unanimous Decision defeat to Ken Florian at UFC 131. The 28-year old has yet to be stopped in his career while racking up victories over Brown, Tyler Toner, and Raphael Assuncao under the Zuffa banner.

The preliminary pairing adds to what is already a number of other interesting offerings at UFC 135 including Nate Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi, Matt Hughes vs. Diego Sanchez, and of course a battle between headliners Jon Jones and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

News of the withdrawal was broken by MMAFighting where it was also stated the UFC is actively seeking a replacement for the 11-5 Gamburyan but hadn’t yet signed an opponent for Assuncao.

The match-up would have marked Gamburyan’s first fight in the UFC since January 2009 after going 2-3 in the promotion and deciding to drop down to featherweight. The 29-year old Armenian compiled a 3-1 record in WEC including wins over Leonard Garcia and former 145-pound champ Mike Brown. He has been out of action since a September TKO loss to current title-holder, and now UFC champ, Jose Aldo.

Gamburyan’s expected date with Assuncao would have been part of a stacked preliminary card as UFC 128 is set to feature a number of exciting undercard bouts including Luis Cane vs. Eliot Marshall, Dan Miller vs. Nick Catone, Kurt Pellegrino vs. Gleison Tibau, and Mike Pyle vs. Ricardo Almeida.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Headliners Manny Gamburyan and WEC featherweight champ Jose Aldo measured in without incident. In fact, both men weighed 145-pounds on the dot. Aldo will put his title on the line for the second time in his career during the main event, the first defense being a dominating decision win over Urijah Faber at WEC 48 last April.

While their weigh-in may have gone off without a hitch, the same could not be said for a number of the other match-ups including that featuring former 135-pound champion Miguel Torres. Torres came in slightly heavy for his bout against Charlie Valencia but was eventually able to make the 136 pound limit after stripping down.

Also notable were lightweight rivals Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone for going head-to-head during the proceedings…literally. The two, who came in at 156 and 155.5 pounds respectively, had to be separated by WEC officials after aggressively pressing their foreheads together throughout their pairing’s standard stare-down.

WEC 51 will be broadcast on the Versus Network starting at 9:00 PM EST. In addition to the above fights, the event also features George Roop facing Chan Sung Jung, aka “The Korean Zombie”, and Leonard Garcia testing his stand-up against well-rounded veteran Mark Hominick.

Here is a complete rundown of WEC 51 weigh-in results:

Nick Pace (135 lbs) vs. Demetrious Johnson (135 lbs)
Chad George (135 lbs) vs. Antonio Banuelos (136 lbs)
Diego Nunes (145 lbs) vs. Tyler Toner (145 lbs)
Cole Province (146 lbs) vs. Mike Brown (145 lbs)
Pablo Garza (154 lbs) vs. Tiequan Zhang (154 lbs)
Ed Ratcliff (155 lbs) vs. Chris Horodecki (155 lbs)
Mark Hominick (145 lbs) vs. Leonard Garcia (146 lbs)
George Roop (145 lbs) vs. Chan Sung Jung (146 lbs)
Charlie Valencia (136 lbs) vs. Miguel Torres (136 lbs)
Donald Cerrone (155.5 lbs) vs. Jamie Varner (156 lbs)
Manny Gamburyan (145 lbs) vs. Jose Aldo (145 lbs)

According to a report on Sherdog.com, both UFC lightweight veterans have verbally agreed to the match up and should be made official soon.

Gamburyan 9-4 was a participant on The Ultimate Fighter Season 5, but came up short in the finale with Nate Diaz. In the second round of the bout, Gamburyan suffered a shoulder injury which ultimately cost him the fight. He went on the win his next two fights, but fell in his final two UFC appearances. Respectively, he decided to move to the WEC where he could compete in his more natural weight class of 145 pounds. Gamburyan made his WEC debut at WEC 41 with a unanimous decision win over John Franchi.

Garcia 13-4 also made a name for himself fighting in the UFC before making the switch to the WEC featherweight division. He ended his UFC lightweight career with a record of 1-2, but is remembered by fans for his hard fought decision loss to Roger Huerta back in UFC 69. His debut as a featherweight was at WEC 32, and has gone 3-1 since joining the organization. His lone loss in the WEC came at the hands of Mike Brown, when lost by submission in his championship title bid.

WEC 44 is expected to be on November 18th in Las Vegas, with a rumored championship bout between Mike Brown and Jose Aldo.

Gamburyan, who is coming off a split decision loss to Thiago Tavares at UFC 94, has finally made the call to drop down a weight class after suffering a second consecutive defeat.

A cousin to UFC welterweight Karo Parisyan, Gamburyan made a surprising run all the way to the finals of season five of The Ultimate Fighter, where he lost due to injury to Nate Diaz has been fighting at a disadvantage for some time now.

The Armenian-American told MMAWeekly.com that he wasn’t sure how hard the cut was going to be and that he hadn’t fought at 145 in almost 10 years but he had plans on doing it right and having a successful camp.

Gamburyan said he was approached last summer prior to his UFC 87 bout vs. Rob Emerson by the UFC’s co-owners Lorenzo & Frank Fertitta about making the jump to the UFC’s sister promotion.

He initially declined but began to reconsider as time went on. Gamburyan went on to say that he wanted to settle some unfinished business with Nate Diaz and Sean Sherk and then make the move but his decision was expedited following the loss to Tavares.

Gamburyan said he still has plans on fighting at lightweight again but realizes the many opportunities fighting in the WEC’s marquee division has to offer. He mentioned WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown, Leonard Garcia, Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver as potential opponents.

Gamburyan also added that he feels he’ll be a lot stronger and quicker fighting at 145. Fighting at 155 was becoming more and more of a disadvantage come fight day he would be giving up close to 20 lbs. to his opponents and he was unable to deal with that at this time.

His WEC debut has yet to be announced but he expects to fight in either May or June.

MMA Mania has learned the recipients of the UFC Fight Night 14 bonuses for Fight of the Night, Submission of the Night, and Knockout of the Night. They are as follows:

• Frankie Edgar and Hermes Franca added an extra $25,000 to their payday for the Fight of the Night. Franca and Edgar fought a three round war that had Edgar controlling the fight but Franca not going away quietly and dropping bombs on Edgar throughout.
• C.B. Dollaway earned a $25,000 bonus for Submission of the Night. Dollaway’s Peruvian Necktie submission on Jesse Taylor was a thing of beauty.
• Rory Markham padded his wallet with an extra $25,000 bonus for Knockout of the Night. Markham’s head kick to end the fight against Brodie Farber is right up there with some of the best knockouts all year.

The UFC handed the bonuses out to the correct people. Dollaway’s submission was one of the best of the year, Franca vs. Edgar was the clear cut best fight of the night, and Markham’s knockout of Farber was one of those moments where you hit rewind six or seven times and each time it gets worse. Anderson Silva’s knockout of James Irvin was devastating but it didn’t deserve the knockout bonus.

A middleweight matchup between alumni from the seventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter” between Jesse Taylor and C.B. Dalloway is planned for UFC Fight Night 14 on July 19.

The news comes courtesy of a report on MMAJunkie.com, which is citing sources within the camps of both fighters.

While it’s unknown for sure at this time whether the Taylor vs. Dalloway bout will be televised, it would be a surprise if it didn’t make the Spike TV telecast based on all the television time the two received on TUF 7.

Taylor was headed to the finals of the TUF 7 finale against Amir Sadollah until he was removed by UFC President Dana White for disciplinary reasons stemming from an incident that occurred in Las Vegas in the days after the show had originally wrapped.

Dalloway had been eliminated in the semifinals but was giving a second chance to make the finals after he defeated Tim Credeur in a bout to determine who would replace Taylor.

The former Arizona State University wrestling standout rematched Sadollah in the TUF 7 finals during the live finale on June 21 but lost when he submitted to an armbar in the first round.

UFN 14 is scheduled to be headlined by the UFC light heavyweight debut of Anderson Silva, as he takes on James Irvin. Featured bouts between Brandon Vera vs. Reese Andy and Frankie Edgar vs. Hermes Franca are planned as well.

Despite being kicked out of The Ultimate Fighter Finale, it appears that Jesse Taylor is set to make his return to the UFC. Sources close to the situation have informed us that, less than one month after he was supposed to face Amir Sadollah in the finale, Taylor will be entering the Octagon on the July 19th card headlined by Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin. Although an opponent has yet to be named, it’s rumored that CB Dolloway, who replaced Taylor in the finale and ultimately lost a second time to Sadollah via first round submission, could be the frontrunner to land the fight.

Taylor vs. Dollaway is a fight that I would love to see to see who has the better wrestling for mixed martial arts. Hopefully Jesse’s learned his lesson and the time away from the fighting and the glamor have literally sobered him up.

In its official statement on Tuesday, the university sited “economic realities experienced over a long period of time” as the primary reason for shutting down the wrestling program.

According to ASU’s Vice President of University Athletics, Lisa Love, “These three sports were selected with the following criteria: financial impact, potential competitive success, conference/regional support and gender equity. Our revenue trajectory has been positive, however, our ongoing financial challenges have been well documented by the media. The decision to discontinue sport programs is a last resort, yet necessary.”

The report from MMA Weekly goes on to talk about Arizona State not being the only university to fall on economic hardship right now and may be the first of many schools to put athletic programs on the chopping block. As we’ve seen in recent history, wrestling programs are usually one of the first to be considered to go. For mixed martial arts’ sake let’s hope this is an anomaly and not the standard.