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Last Friday we saw Bellator kick their season off with a very entertaining opening round to the Featherweight tournament. Capping off the card was one of the more prolonged, brutal finishes MMA has seen in quite some time, as Pat Curran usurped Joe Warren as the promotion’s 145lb champion. Curran put the remaining four tournament competitors and current #1 contender Patricio ‘Pitbull’ on notice that he intends to remain atop the Featherweight mountain. This week we move up to the Middleweight division and take a look at the eight men gunning for a shot at Hector Lombard.

While the UFC has one of their longer gaps between events in recent memory, the timing couldn’t be more perfect for the biggest non-Zuffa organization in North America. Bellator resumes action this weekend with its 60th offering, kicking off their sixth season of tournaments. This season, tournaments from the Bantamweight through Middleweight divisions will be bringing us fights every week for the next few months.

One of the major narratives coming out of the Rousey/Tate fight is the new champion's dominance, and her place as perhaps the biggest star in the history of Women’s MMA. However, something I find interesting and mildly disconcerting coming out of the fight is the celebration of Tate’s “toughness,” in regards to her unwillingness to tap to the second armbar Rousey had her in. As much as I hate to reference Twitter in any journalistic sense, it’s quite apparent that MMA has a disproportionate presence on the medium. Fellow fighters, fans and even some media were lauding the former champion for her “warrior spirit,” “fighting to the bitter end,” and the like. This is the part that I don’t understand.

Strikeforce comes through again and this time does it with Women's MMA! Last night ended up being a good night of fights but the two women's bouts really stole the show. The question is what Strikeforce does now as Tate/Rousey was easily the most anticipated female bout since Carano/Cyborg. There are also some interesting questions surrounding the LW and WW titles and who should be contending for them. Here are my thoughts, what are yours?

So the second UFC on FX card ended up being a pretty good night of fights. While the undercard did not feature very many well-known fighters it did have some nice finishes and some fun scraps. The main card developed just as we had hoped with the Flyweight division kicking off in style and the Welterweight division gaining a familiar name back in title contention talks. Lots of interesting fights can be made coming out of tonight and I have listed what I would like to see happen but what are you guys thoughts?

The MMA world is such a vast expanse that no fan can possibly follow every fighter, fight, event or organization. In that sense, this new series intends to weed through fighters that the average fan may not have heard of in an attempt to garner them some more attention. Although our first subject is very accomplished in his career, he has competed in a corner of the MMA universe which has long been hidden from the sight of the majority of fans.

In this third installment of "Five Fights to Watch" we look forward to the month of March. March is an interesting month for MMA as it features a Strikeforce card, the return of Bellator weekly action, and a UFC card. Suprisingly though, March will be the first calendar month since February of 2009 without a UFC PPV offering and the first time since January of 2007 without a numbered UFC card being shown. Has Zuffa bitten off a bit more than they can chew with all these Fox shows? Even without a PPV however there are some really great fights to look forward to and especially if you are a fan of the lighter weight-classes like me. Continue reading to see my most anticipated fights of March.

UFC 143 has already been heralded as one of the best UFC cards in recent memory, and even perhaps one of the best UFC cards in history. With numerous upsets, comebacks, and exciting fights, the event certainly turned many perceptions about divisions on their ear. So, what next? Where do these fighters go? Joshua Taylor takes a first look at what's next for each of the fighters on this card. Take a look.

Dan Henderson might be the toughest MMA fighter most of us have ever seen. At the age of 41 Hendo is still a top contender in the UFC and even though he is getting older he still knows how to put on a show. This Olympic, Greco-Roman wrestler got his UFC start when he won the Middleweight Tournament in 1998 and then won numerous other championships like the King of Kings tournament, Pride WW Grand Prix, Pride MW championship, and the Strikeforce LHW championship. Dan will fight at almost any weight and he is still gunning for his last chance to become a UFC champion. With Rashad Evans' and Chael Sonnen's recent wins it eliminated Dan from getting a title shot at either MW and LHW, but Dan recently stated he would consider moving up to Heavyweight. No matter which weightclass he fights he always brings it and puts on a good fight.

The return of FLD's FOTW is back and who better to showcase then the one fighter everyone has been talking about this week, the one and only Nick Diaz. Nick Diaz has a love'em or hate'em personality and his current status as a fighter is up in the air. After his loss to Condit for the Interim WW belt at UFC 143 he announced that he would retire from MMA and then later tested positive for marijuana. So the future of Nick Diaz in MMA is unknown but that doesn't change the fact that he has put on many great performances in the cage/ring.