Lutter, the winner of Ultimate Fighter 4, returned to action for the first time since being cut by the UFC last spring and used takedowns and ground control to dominate the first two rounds, nabbing mount and nearly finishing the bout in both frames with rear naked chokes.

MacDonald, who got his UFC walking papers in April, came back strongly in the third, pinning Lutter in the corner of the ring and unloading with ground and pound, but with MacDonald unable to score a finish or a 10-8 round, Lutter was declared the winner with unanimous 29-28 scores.

Lightweight champ Antonio McKee topped Carlo Prater by unanimous decision in a three-round, non-title co-main event after Prater failed to make weight on Thursday for the championship bout. McKee used superior wrestling to dominate the WEC veteran Prater and earn the unanimous decision win.

In other notable action, John Alessio stopped Luigi Fioravanti with strikes in the third, Mike Nickels submitted David Heath in the third after an exciting slugfest, Ryan Jimmo edged Marvin Eastman by split decision, and Pete Spratt scored a second-round knockout of Nathan Gunn.

The complete results for MFC 22 were:

• Travis Lutter def. Jason MacDonald via unanimous decision
• Antonio McKee def. Carlo Prater via unanimous decision
• John Alessio def. Luigi Fioravanti via TKO (strikes) — Round 3, 1:34
• Mike Nickels def. David Heath via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 3, 4:02
• Ryan Jimmo def. Marvin Eastmanvia split decision
• Pete Spratt def. Nathan Gunn via KO (punch) — Round 2, 4:19
• Dwayne Lewis def. Jared Kilkenny via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 3:31
• Jason Heit def. Paapa Inkumusah via TKO (strikes) — Round 2, 4:59
• Joe Christopher def. Andrew Buckland via submission (guillotine choke) — Round 1, 1:54
• Nick Hryunchyshyn def. Jesse MacDougall via TKO (strikes) — Round 2, 4:29

The rest of the 10-fight card, including headliners Jason MacDonald and Travis Lutter, successfully made weight.

The official weigh-in results for MFC 22: Payoff were:

• Jason MacDonald (185.5) vs. Travis Lutter (185.5)
• Antonio McKee (156) vs. Carlo Prater (158)
• John Alessio (169.5) vs. Luigi Fioravanti (171)
• Mike Nickels (206) vs. David Heath (205)
• Marvin Eastman (205) vs. Ryan Jimmo (204.5)
• Pete Spratt (171) vs. Nathan Gunn (170)
• Jared Kilkenny (205) vs. Dwayne Lewis (204)
• Paapa Inkumusha (169.5) vs. Jason Heit (170)
• Joe Christopher (171) vs. Andrew Buckland (170.5)
• Jesse MacDougall (168) vs. Nick Hrynchshyn (170)

The Western Canada based Maximum Fighting Championship recently sent out a press release confirming its matches for the upcoming MFC 22: Payoff event on October 2nd just outside Edmonton, Alberta. The event will be televised live on HDNet Fights. Included on the card are several UFC castoffs, as well as a batch of MFC staples. The headlining bout will be match up between two top grapplers, as Jason MacDonald will look to topple Travis Lutter. Also on the card, Antonio McKee will take on Carlo Prater for the MFC lightweight belt, and Luigi Fioravanti will face John Alessio.

The full card for MFC 22 is:

• Jason MacDonald vs. Travis Lutter
• Antonio McKee vs. Carlo Prater
  MFC Lightweight Title Bout
• Luigi Fioravanti vs John Alessio
• Ryan Jimmo vs Marvin Eastman
• David Heath vs Mike Nickels
• Pete Spratt vs Nathan Gunn
• Thiago Goncalves vs Jesse Juarez

The Spokane, Washington based Arena Rumble will hold its debut event this Saturday, September 12th at the Spokane arena. To kick things off they have enlisted the services of a few TUF alums, and a few recent UFC castoffs, as well as some up and coming fighters. Headlining the event is a match up between Jason Guida (known for not making weight on “The Ultimate Fighter 8″) and Jeremy Horn, a veteran of over one hundred fights. Other notables in action on the card include former UFC fighters Trevor Prangley, Brad Imes, and Terry Martin, as well as undefeated Strikeforce prospect Lyle “Fancy Pants” Beerbohm, who has yet to have a fight go the distance.

The event is slated to feature 15 professional bouts, with no broadcast plans, according to MMAJunkie. The main card for Arena Rumble is:

• Jason Guida vs. Jeremy Horn
• Trevor Prangley vs. Dennis Reed
• Lyle Beerbohm vs. Josh Martin
• Brad Imes vs. Josh Queen
• Mike Hanks vs. Sidney Silva
• Justin Grizzard vs. Ben McCombs
• Terry Martin vs. Julio Paulino

Pictured: Jason Macdonald

Jeff Monson plead guilty to charges related to spray-painting graffiti on the Washington state Capitol on Tuesday, and was forced to surrender his passport as part of a plea deal, which may force his to withdraw from several upcoming bouts abroad. [The Olympian]

Pictured: Jeff Monson

[Kris Karkoski contributed to this post]

Travis Lutter

A middleweight matchup featuring UFC veterans Travis Lutter and Dean Lister will headline Maximum Fighting Championship 21 “Hard Knocks,” which is slated to take place on May 15th at the River Cree Resort and Casino in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

MFC promoter Mark Pavelich announced the bout in an appearance on “Carson’s Corner” earlier this week.

Lutter (9-5), the winner of the middleweight tournament on The Ultimate Fighter 4, famoulsy missed weight for his title bout against Anderson Silva at UFC 67 in early-2007. With the title no longer up for grabs, Lutter was defeated by Silva via second-round submission. He reuturned to the octagon over a year later at UFC 83 last April, losing to Rich Franklin via second-round TKO. Lutter was released by the UFC following the back-to-back losses and has not fought since.

Lister (11-6), regarded as one of the top grapplers in the world, compiled a 4-2 record in the UFC between 2006 and 2008 that included victories over Jeremy Horn and Alessio Sakara. After losing a unanimous decision to Yushin Okami at UFC 92 in December Lister requested and was granted his release by the UFC.

For the latest MMA news check out the MMAFrenzy.com news category.

“Friday afternnon I was told by my manager that UFC matchmaker Joe Silza had left my him a message on his phone that I had been released from my UFC contract because of my 2 losses in a row.”

Spelling errors aside, I think we all get the idea.

Travis Lutter (9-5 MMA, 2-4 UFC), a Brazilian jiujitsu specialist trained by Carlos Machado, fought in a variety of promotions (including the UFC) before entering and winning the 4th season of The Ultimate Fighter, where he submitted Patrick Cote in the finale. Lutter received a six fight contract for his troubles, but has now been cut off only two fights into that contract. Lutter also makes history as the first TUF winner to be released by the UFC.

Travis Lutter also made some news of his own earlier in the week when he responded to fans that had been sending him hate mail, something which obviously did not sit well with the former UFC middleweight:

“Some of them I wrote back, “What have you done? What have you accomplished with your pathetic life?” It’s not a nice thing to say but it just sucks having these guys write to you and say the things that they say. It’s crazy. It really is….People suck. I think it’s amazing. I definitely don’t fight for those people. I fight for me. Use that in your article or not, whatever. But, fans suck.

I think most of them are dumb-ass kids. I’m not saying MMA fans. I’m saying the people that are writing me this shit. I think the average MMA fan rules. They’re following my sport. I like them a lot.

Maybe I shouldn’t even touch on this subject…Whoever is getting hate mail. Kalib Starnes – he got fired from the UFC for his performance. And that was a bad performance. He didn’t fight. Me, I went in there, I tried to kill the guy and I ended up getting beat and I’m getting an amazing amount of hate mail. I don’t understand it from a fighter’s perspective.”

Did Lutter’s comments contribute to his being cut by the UFC? Perhaps. It’s difficult to say since the UFC has made it known that they will be trimming their contract roster down by about fifty fighters, so it’s possible that they just don’t think they have room on their plate for someone like Travis Lutter any more.

While the sudden release surely stings Lutter considering it comes only about a week after his UFC 83 loss, I imagine the guy will still be able find work in one of the many other MMA promotions out there, assuming he wishes to continue fighting professionally of course.

Matt Serra vs. George St. Pierre (welterweight championship)
GSP via TKO, round 3

As many MMA diehards well know, there are a number of great fighters out there that for one reason or another, just cannot for the life of them beat a certain opponent. Rampage can’t beat Wanderlei, Liddell can’t beat Rampage, Barnett can’t beat Cro Cop, Franklin can’t beat Anderson, Tanner can’t beat Franklin, Trigg can’t beat Hughes, Hughes can’t beat Hallman, the list goes on. The big question is, will Serra soon be added to the list of people who serve as kryptonite for an otherwise dominant fighter? I think not.

Though Serra definitely made St. Pierre look foolish the first time around, I think the smart money is still on GSP for this one. I will say that I don’t think that Serra can win this fight, but that GSP can lose it. If Serra wins it will only be because GSP is unprepared in some way, shape or form. Simply put, Serra on his greatest day is still not a better fighter than George St. Pierre on a good day. Don’t get me wrong, I believe Matt Serra is a top ten UFC welterweight and could hang in the UFC for quite some time, but there is no amount of improvement or training that Serra could undergo which would make him the type of fighter that GSP is. GSP is bigger, stronger, faster, and more dominant in pretty much every aspect of the game. Serra is a great ground guy, but I can’t give him a definitive advantage there because GSP is also ridiculously dangerous on the ground. Not to mention that outside of his TKO over GSP, Matt Serra has not finished a fight since 2002. I feel like Serra plays better defense than offense, and that will not be enough to get him past GSP.

On the flip side, Matt Serra has a short frame and uses good head movement, making him a difficult target to pinpoint. And while Serra has not finished a fight since 2002 as I mentioned above, he has also only been finished off once, by Shonie Carter back in 2001 via that famous spinning backfist. Some forget that Serra has also gone the distance with Karo Parisyan and B.J. Penn, not an easy task by any means. So if Karo and Penn couldn’t finish Serra, who’s to say the St. Pierre will either?

Of course, let’s not forget about the mental mumbo jumbo. Lots of chatter leading up to this fight about who’s got the mind game advantage. Will GSP’s hometown crowd help him or weigh him down with nerve-racking pressure? Will Serra have such a mental edge because he has relatively nothing to lose (other than the title) and GSP has a reputation on the line?

The final word: I think that all of the mental-toughness controversy coming into this fight is total B.S. I think its clear cut simple. GSP underestimated Serra once upon a time, he wont this time, and he will destroy him. I give Matt Serra a good chance at holding off GSP, but it won’t last more than a couple rounds. GSP via TKO 3rd round.

Travis Lutter vs. Rich Franklin
Lutter via split-decision

After speaking with the confident Travis Lutter personally, you would think that Franklin doesn’t even have a chance coming into this fight. But the truth is, Franklin is the all-around better fighter. While Lutter maintains a superior ground game, he will have to get Franklin on the ground to employ it. So if Franklin sprawls and brawls all night, Lutter will either get knocked out or lose on points. But that’s not how I see it going down. I think that Lutter will eventually be able to score the takedown, and will be able to neutralize Franklin for at least a round or two. I don’t think Lutter will be able to secure the submission, but I also don’t think that Franklin will be able to end the fight either. I predict a split-decision upset victory for Travis Lutter.

Nate Quarry vs. Kalib Starnes
Quarry via TKO, round 2

Starnes will have the crowd, but Quarry has the skills. I think that Nate Quarry is a much better fighter than Kalib Starnes, and should be able to throw down some crazy ground and pound somewhere in the second round. Gotta go with Nate Quarry on this one.

Charles McCarthy vs. Michael Bisping
Bisping via TKO, round 2.

Many who frequent this particular website will noticeably comment “Bisping Sucks” from time to time, and at 205lbs, I can almost agree with that statement. But at 185lbs the man seems much better positioned to climb to the top of the division. Charles McCarthy is a better ground guy but Bisping has been working on his jiujitsu a lot lately, and should be able to defend a take down fairly easily. I say Bisping catches McCarthy in the second round and scores the TKO.

Mark Bocek vs. Mac Danzig
Danzig via unanimous decision.

Though I never really cared for Mac Danzig while he was on TUF, the guy does have undeniable skills and is rightly the favorite to win this fight. Danzig is very well rounded and at 155lbs, a lot better proportioned than when he fought at welterweight. Maybe Danzig won’t be able to finish Bocek off, but I bet he gets the decision once the final bell tolls.

Joe Doerksen Vs. Jason MacDonald
MacDonald via unanimous decision

Ah, the dueling Canadians. Jason MacDonald actually defeated Doerksen via rear naked choke once before back in 2005. While both fighters have surely improved since then, I really don’t see this fight going any differently than the first meeting. Maybe Doerkson will avoid the submission this time around, but I doubt he dominates the fight at all. Cruising decision for MacDonald.

Jason Day vs. Alan Belcher
Belcher via TKO, round 3.

Tough fight to call. Belcher has the heavy hands, Day has the ground game. I say this one goes to the ground but Day fails at securing the submission and ends up on the receiving end of some ground and pound. It doesn’t take many shots from Belcher to spell lights out.

Ed Herman vs. Demian Maia
Herman via split decision

Demian Maia has solid and tested BJJ, but I don’t know if he will able to combat the experience and well roundedness of Ed Herman. Close one to call, but I say Ed Herman squeezes out the decision.

Rich Clementi vs. Sam Stout
Clementi via submission, round 3.

Sam Stout definitely has the striking advantage, but Clementi is strong enough to weather the storm and should be able to get Stout down and submitted by the end of the third.

Brad Morris vs. Cain Velasquez
Morris vis submission, round 2.

We don’t know much of anything about Cain Velazquez other than that he is 2-0, with both wins coming via TKO. Brad Morris on the other hand is 9-2 with most of his wins coming by way of either submission or decision, but I haven’t been able to watch any of his fights, so it’s tough for me to say who the better fighter is. I will have to go with Morris on this one simply because of the experience factor. I’m assuming Morris will eventually look to take Velasquez down and apply a submission, which he probably gets due to Cain’s lack of ground game-familiarity inside the octagon.