Marquardt was rumored to have been set to face Paul Daley, but terms could not be worked out between the two sides. Both have made mention of wanting to fight each other in numerous interviews and press events since Marquardt was released by the UFC and signed to the England-based promotion.

After failing to receive medical clearance by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission before his UFC Live 4 main event fight with Rick Story, Marquardt was released from the UFC. It was later found out that a prescribed testosterone led to Marquardt’s positive test, but his hormone levels were higher than the commission had set for him.

“Although we had planned for Nate’s first fight to be in December, we believe it is worth waiting a further eight weeks for such a great matchup,” BAMMA CEO David Green stated in a release.

Marquardt is 31-10-2 in his career, including a loss to Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title. He also lost two eliminator bouts that would have led to rematches with Silva, dropping decisions to Yushin Okami and Chael Sonnen.

Yoshida (13-6) competed for the UFC previously, as well, going 2-4. Three straight losses to Anthony Johnson, Mike Guymon, and Chris Lozano led to his release.

The fight is expected to be for the BAMMA’s vacant welterweight title.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Though not the headliner, the match-up meriting most of the MMA community’s attention will go on as planned with UFC veterans Phil Baroni and Yoshiyuki Yoshida both came in at their agreed-upon catchweight (175). Baroni and Yoshida both got back to their winning ways in recent fights after struggling to notch a victory in the ring meaning success in Singapore should produce some solid momentum for one while sending the other back to the proverbial drawing board.

The only fight to not hit his required mark was Ultimate Fighter alumnus Andy Wang who came in four pounds over his contracted weight and will be docked 15% of his purse as a result.

Interested viewers can tune in to ONE FC for free tomorrow morning on Sherdog starting at 7:00 AM EST.

Read below for full ONE FC weigh-in results. All figures have been rounded to the nearest quarter-pound:

Daniel Mashamaite (136 lbs) vs. Yodsanan Sityodtong (135 lbs)
Eddie Ng (159.5 lbs) vs. Yuan Chun Bo (154.25 lbs)
Soo Chul Kim (135.5 lbs) vs. Leandro Issa (136.5 lbs)
Vuyisile Colossa (160.75 lbs) vs. Ma Xing Yu (155.25 lbs)
Radeem Rahman (125.25 lbs) vs. Susovan Ghosh (125.25 lbs)
Gregor Gracie (171 lbs) vs. Seok Mo Kim (169.75 lbs)
Andy Wang (163 lbs)* vs. Zorobabel Moreira (159 lbs)
Mitch Chilson (145.5 lbs) vs. Eric Kelly (142.5 lbs)
Yoshiyuki Yoshida (174.75 lbs) vs. Phil Baroni (176 lbs)
Eduard Folayang (156 lbs) vs. A Sol Kwon (155 lbs)

* – Wang will forfeit 15% of his purse after missing weight

PHOTO CREDIT – TITAN FC

While Phil Baroni’s form has been up and down over the past few years, the fan-favorite from Long Island has agreed to face fellow UFC veteran Yoshiyuki Yoshida on September 3 in Singapore at the opening event for newly formed promotion One FC where a combination of unified and PRIDE rules will be used. Baroni went 3-2 in the famed Japanese organization including victories over Ryo Chonan and Ikuhisa Minowa.

Their match-up along with other bouts expected on the card were announced through a press release earlier today. As far as the parameters of the pairings, kicks and knees to a grounded opponent are expected to be allowed, as will elbows, with the fight to be contested inside a cage.

Baroni is coming off a win last March at Titan FC 17 after dropping three straight in the UFC/Strikeforce. Though his overall record may only be 14-13, the 35-year old striker has earned a reputation for never failing to entertain whether in front of a microphone, during his trademark walk down to the ring, or while slugging it out against an adversary.

Though Yoshida may not be known for the same brashness as Baroni, his flare for finishing foes is equal with ten stoppages in twelve total victories including two inside the Octagon. Among his past victims are Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver, Luis Santos, Katsuya Inoue, and Akira Kikuchi.

The rest of the announced One FC lineup thus far is as follows:

Eduard Folayang vs. Ole Laursen
Mitch Chilson vs. Eric Kelly
Gregor Gracie vs. Wang Sai
Andy Wang vs. Zorobabel Moreira

PHOTO CREDIT – Titan FC/UFC

Bellator 31 will be broadcast live in prime time nationwide on Thursday on FOX Sports Net and during special Bellator highlight shows this Saturday night on NBC, and mun2.

The event will be headlined by the Women’s Tournament Semi-Final grouping of Zoila Frausto, Jessica Aguilar, Lisa Ward, and the top pound-for-pound female in the sport, Megumi “Mega Megu” Fujii. Also in action at the card, Chris Lozano takes on UFC veteran Yoshiyuki Yoshida.

The official results of the weigh-in are as follows:

Scott Stapp (165.8 lbs) vs. Mike Chandler (164.4 lbs)
Dave Herman (241.6 lbs) vs. Michal Kita (226.2 lbs)
Tim Ruberg (185.8lbs) vs. Aaron Davis (186.2 lbs)
John Harris (155.2lbs) vs. Kyle Miers (155.4 lbs)
Mark Holata (261.8lbs) vs. Shawn Jordan (262 lbs)
Chris Lozano (170.4 lbs) vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida (170.6 lbs)
Zoila Frausto (116.2 lbs) vs. Jessica Aguilar (115.4 lbs)
Megumi Fujii (114.8 lbs) vs. Lisa Ward (115.2 lbs)

“Chris and Yoshiyuki both have knockout power in both hands, which makes this a very exciting qualifier at 170 lbs,” said Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “They’re fighting for one of the spots in our $100,000 welterweight tournament, so fans can expect both of them to put it all on the line.”

Entering the fight with a perfect 5-0 record, Lozano has ended every fight by TKO or KO. “The Assassin” is fresh off of a TKO victory of UFC veteran Jason Dent. The Cleveland native takes pride in his accomplishments, but also knows how quickly things can change.

“Any fighter who steps into the cage doesn’t want to lose,” said Lozano. “With that said, all it takes is one tiny mistake, one split second mental error, and you’ve lost. I want to maintain my undefeated record, but if I don’t, I will return hungrier and more passionate than before.”

However, Lozano is not focused on the prospect of losing, rather of going straight to the top.

“Being a Bellator Champion means you are one of the best in the world at what you do,” said Lozano. “It means you are elite. It is a dream to be champion for an organization like Bellator.”

For Yoshida, the chance to take on a fighter like Lozano is something the Japanese born fighter relishes.

“Lozano seems like a real good striker,” said Yoshida. “I have trained very hard for this fight, and I not only expect to win, but also provide a great fight for my fans.”

MMAHawaii.com was the report to report the possibility of the matchup, but FiveOuncesOfPain.com has since confirmed the matchup with a source close to one of the fighters. A date and venue for the fight has yet to be determined despite MMA Hawaii’s reporting that claimed the Yoshida vs. Wolff matchup is a definite for UFC 98 in Las Vegas on May 23.

Both Yoshida and Wolff last competed in December during the “UFC Fight for the Troops” event held in Fayetteville, North Carolina in order to help raise funds for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

Yoshida, 10-3, was knocked out in the night’s main event against Josh Koscheck at just 2:15 of round 1. The defeat ended a nine fight win streak for Yoshida that included wins over Dan Hardy, Akira Kikuchi, and Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver.

Wolff, 7-3, also lost as well, suffering a first round TKO in a non-televised undercard bout against Ben Saunders that also marked his debut in the UFC. Wolff, a former Navy Seal, had won his previous four fights heading into the event, including notable victories over Josh McDonald, Chad Klingensmith, and former UFC veteran Chad Reiner.

If Yoshida vs. Wolff is assigned to UFC 98, it will join a card that will reportedly be headlined by Brock Lesnar defending his UFC heavyweight title against interim UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. Other reported matchups include Matt Serra vs. Matt Hughes; Sean Sherk vs. Frankie Edgar; Andre Gusmao vs. Houston Alexander; James Irvin vs. Drew McFedries; Phillipe Nover vs. Kyle Bradley; and George Roop vs. Dave Kaplan.

With only slightly more than 24 hours before the card is scheduled to take place in Atlanta at the Phillips Arena, the UFC has scrapped the bout entirely and will not find a replacement for Yoshida. UFC 88 will now go on as a nine bout card as opposed to the previous ten scheduled bouts.

It is believed that the Parisyan vs. Yoshida fight had been one of the five fights scheduled to appear on this weekend’s pay-per-view portion of the card. The UFC did not immediately announce which bout from its preliminary card it intended to promote to the main card but the most logical candidates would be a welterweight bout between Matt Brown vs. Dong Hyun Kim or a lightweight bout between Kurt Pellegrino and Thiago Tavares.

Parisyan’s late removal from the card will no doubt fuel much speculation on Internet forums. He has been accused in the past of not training properly for his fights and he has admitted in recent interviews that he recently sought treatment for panic attacks.

Based on Parisyan’s recent revelation and his reputation for coming into fights with less than ideal preparation, several pundits had been picking Yoshida to upset him.

Yoshida made his UFC debut at UFC 84 in May, where he won via technical submission against Jon “War Machinda” Koppenhaver just 56 seconds into their fight after applying an anaconda choke. The victory extended his win streak to nine.

Dan Henderson, coming off a loss to Anderson Silva in March, will be stepping back into the cage against one of the UFC’s most highly touted international talents, Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares. Henderson will be looking for his first victory inside the UFC since coming over after the collapse PRIDE. Toquinho recently steamrolled Ivan Salaverry in his UFC debut with a very slick armbar.

Rich Franklin, the former UFC middleweight champion, will be facing off against fellow Cincinnati fighter Matt Hamill in a battle at light heavyweight. Franklin is coming off a victory over Travis Lutter at UFC 83 and will be fighting at light heavyweight for the first time since he fought Ken Shamrock at the first ever Ultimate Fighter Finale. Matt Hamill recently beat Tim Boetsch at UFC Fight Night 13 in April and will be looking to make it two in a row since his loss to Michael Bisping last year.

Karo Parisyan will be looking to prove to the world that he’s still top shelf in the UFC’s most talented division when he takes on one of the best Japanese stars that the UFC has signed in recent months, Yoshiyuki Yoshida. Parisyan is coming off a knockout loss to Thiago Alves at UFC Fight Night 13, a fight that would have catapulted him into title contention should he have won. Yoshida recently made his UFC debut, throttling Jon Koppenhaver at UFC 84 in the opening moments of round one.

These three fights are an excellent addition to the card and it looks like UFC 88, even without a title fight, is shaping up to be one of the better events all year.

McCullough will be defending his belt in early February, but not against Karalexis, MMAWeekly is reporting. Instead, he’ll be taking on former UFC and current WEC lightweight Jamie “The Worm” Varner, who’s earned 9 of his 13 professional victories by way of submission.

McCullough told MMAWeekly,

“I think it’s going to be an interesting fight.  He definitely has the skills to negate my skills, and therefore so do I. I think it’s going to be a great fight for the first couple of rounds, and then hopefully he’s packed a sleeping bag.”

Click here for more on McCullough vs. Varner from MMAWeekly.

Read more at FiveOuncesofPain.com (www.FiveOuncesofPain.com).

Maybe some blame can be assessed to the WEC for not finding a better opponent for Paulo Filho, but if you want to find his equal then you’re going to have to bring in Dan Henderson, Matt Lindland, Rich Franklin, or Anderson Silva. That’s not going to happen and I think Joe Doerksen was a handpicked opponent to allow Filho to look dominant and help build up his name recognition in the States. 

If that was the goal, then mission accomplished. If you had never seen Filho fight before then I don’t know how you couldn’t have been impressed with him after last night’s performance.

I do think some people are getting carried away though as I’ve read some message forum posts proclaiming Filho a good striker now. While his punches looked pretty powerful, his technique was not refined. He works hard on his striking but he still has a long way to go before he can be labeled a good, technical striker. 

I was also disappointed by the quick outcome of the Larson vs. Condit match. I expected a war. But you can’t blame anyone because looking at it from a matchmaker’s perspective, there isn’t a bigger challenge to Condit currently on the roster than Larson. It was a great matchup that just didn’t go according to plan. 

I am thoroughly impressed by Condit each time I see him fight. He’s going to be big time and will definitely be fighting in the UFC within the next two years. The WEC will need to bolster their welterweight division though if they want to make things interesting until then. If he can get past Larson that quickly then there’s no one who will pose much of a threat. 

Jeff Curran vs. Stephen Ledbetter wasn’t anything special in my book but it was just good to see Curran in a televised match. It looks like there is a build towards a WEC featherweight title match between Urijah Faber and Curran. While I think Faber would win that match, it would still be pretty exciting. 

Jamie Varner looked great in a dominant performance over Sherron Leggett. Varner is now 13-2 and should get to fight the winner of WEC lightweight title match next month between Razor Rob and Rich Crunkilton. That’s not anything I’ve heard, just my opinion. 

Random Rants: 

• I’m usually a big fan of Frank Mir’s work as a commentator. I thought he did great during the first live show several months back but I thought his game was off a little last night. It seemed like he couldn’t get his timing down.

• To piggyback on a point made by Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer several months back, having Frank Mir do the post-fight interviews is just a bad idea. Mir towers over everyone and makes them look like midgets. Why not just pay some local Vegas sports reporter $2,000 per show to come in and do the interviews?

• Because of quick results to a lot of the fights they were able to show a lot of fighters in attendance. It makes the WEC seem a lot bigger. I also liked the interviews with Jens Pulver and Rob McCullough and how they promoted the next show. They did a much better job of future promotion this time than last but that’s likely because when they did the first Versus live show, there weren’t a lot of definitive details about the second show.

• Speaking of Pulver, if Mir is ever in a position where he can’t do a show because he’s training for a fight, Pulver would be an excellent substitute. He’s already done some broadcast work for the UFC and the IFL. If ESPN ever hired their own analysts for their coverage of MMA on ESPNews, Pulver would be a perfect for such a role.

• They should do an even better job with future promotion. Why is it that Joe Riggs is telling The Fight Network he’s fighting Jason Miller in October? Why do so many promotions get scooped on their own news? Maybe there wasn’t enough time, but it would have been cool if the report was addressed in some fashion.

• I am real curious to know the duration of the WEC’s contract with Versus. I just feel the product deserves a better distribution outlet. They have a lot of potential superstars in Condit, Filho, Larson, Urijah Faber, Jason Miller, Carlos Condit, “Razor” Rob McCullough, and Rich Crunkilton but I just don’t think Versus gives them enough exposure. I know a lot of people who still don’t get Versus and on systems that do carry it, it’s usually buried. I have DirecTV and it’s in between a tier of premium sports channels on channel 608. The non-premium sports channels (ESPN, ESPNews, NFL Network, etc.) are all in the 200’s. You can run all the promos of the fighters you want on Versus but what good is it if the only time people watch Versus is for the WEC? People really don’t even watch the NHL on Versus. Hell, there are already rumblings that the NHL could be going back to ESPN once their Versus deal is up.

• Prime channel positioning is important. My in-laws don’t even like MMA yet they knew exactly what the IFL was when they found out I was going to cover the show this past Thursday. They know what the IFL is because they watch it every Monday in spite of the fact they don’t like MMA. Why do they watch it? Probably because there is nothing but reruns of sitcoms or first run versions of scrub reality shows on network TV right now and the IFL is on channel 17 here in the Philly area. If you’re a channel flipper, you’re going to be passing the IFL. If you’re a channel flipper, odds are you aren’t going to find the WEC.

• If they aren’t looking into it already, Zuffa should be exploring other future television options for the WEC. I know it’s easier said than done, but I think the USA network would be great. The clearance is strong and the channel has prominent positioning on most cable systems. And of course, ESPN would be even better. You would think ESPN would have room for the WEC on ESPN II with WrekCage every Tuesday or Wednesday night along with a live monthly show.

• They should also do some kind of deal with YouTube that would put all the WrekCage shows on the Internet for free. They have a product that is very appealing to hardcores and it’s time to let everyone see it and get them all talking.

• The WEC champions are as follows: Chase Beebe at bantamweight (135 lbs.); Urijah Faber at featherweight (145 lbs.); “Razor” Rob McCullough at lightweight (155 lbs.); Carlos Condit at welterweight (170 lbs.); Paulo Filho at middleweight (185 lbs.); and Doug Marshall at light heavyweight (205 lbs.). That’s a pretty impressive lineup of champions. It could be a long time until McCullough, Faber, Condit, and Filho lose (if they ever lose in the WEC).

• Right now the only fighter currently on the WEC roster who poses even a small threat to Filho is Jason “Mayhem” Miller. If Filho gets past Miller, he’ll have smooth sailing until an inevitable debut in the UFC.

• There’s still a lot of talk that more additions will be made to the WEC roster consisting of a lot of the Japanese fighters from Pride. I still haven’t heard any names though. A non-Japanese fighter from Pride that I’d love to see is Zelg Galesic. Pride signed Galesic from Cage Rage and he debuted at Pride 34 and lost. However, the guy has a ton of potential and has earned the nickname of “Mini-Cro Cop.” He’s a prospect and would fit perfectly on the WEC roster.

• The WEC should have shown highlights of fights that took place on the preliminary portion of the card. Antonio Banuelos fought earlier on the show and has increased name recognition after being featured on TapouT. He could be a future title contender at 135 lbs. but there’s no promotion behind him coming from the WEC.