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This Friday, Bellator continues the opening rounds of their new season of tournaments, this time in the Heavyweight division. The televised card will feature four heavyweight bouts live from Hammond, Indiana. The name most familiar to most MMA fans is Brett Rogers (12-4), who took part in Strikeforce's Heavyweight Grand Prix. While originally from the Midwest, Rogers has since moved to Florida to join American Top Team and is looking to rebuild his career after being released from Strikeforce due to domestic abuse charges.
In the opening round of Bellator's tournament Rogers will take on Russian fighter Alexander Volkov (16-3), both fighters are strikers and this promises to be a real fire-fight. Also on the card is Mark Holata (12-3) taking on Vinicius Queiroz (5-2), Richard Hale (19-4) will face Mike Wessel (12-4), and Eric Prindle (7-2) will fight Thiago Santos (10-1).
The Bank United Center in Coral Gables, Florida will host Championship Fighting Alliance (CFA) which was originally going to pit local prospect Valdir Araujo (10-3) against UFC and Pride veteran Marcus Aurelio (21-10). But Aurelio was forced to withdraw due to injury and Paul Bradley has stepped up into the main event. The card is stacked with local talent and if you're in the Miami area and feel like some live fights on Saturday night, this well worth the price of admission. If you have a fight itch and are not near Miami the fights will be streaming online at the CFA's facebook page.
If your're still looking for MMA on Saturday, there is also the all women's MMA promotion Invicta Fighting Championships is putting on their third show. Though this promotion is very young it is already developing a reputation for putting on extremely exciting cards. This event will crown an Atomweight champion with the match of Japanese fighter Naho Sugiyama (8-0) against slick grappler Jessica Penne (9-1).
Early Saturday morning the biggest Asian MMA promotion, One Fighting Championships, put on a card featuring Japanese grappling guru Shinya Aoki (30-6) will take on French fighter Arnaud Lepont (9-1). One FC will also crown their first Ligthweight Champion with a match between Zorobabel Moreira (7-1) and Kotetsu Boku (19-7-2). One FC streams online at their website if you happen to be awake in the post-dawn hours of Saturday.