In the Cage – 12.11.12

Each day, The MMA Corner will provide a recap of results, event announcements, fight matchups, and injuries/cancellations from throughout the world of MMA.

The UFC-Fox relationship came under a bit of scrutiny for the declining ratings but the UFC on Fox 5 card is sure to put an end to that discussion. The card averaged 4.4 million viewers which represents an 83 percent increase from the UFC on Fox 4 broadcast.

UFC on Fox 5 was headlined by a lightweight title between Benson Henderson and Nate Diaz. Henderson was able to retain his title in a five round decision. Alexander Gustafsson, Rory MacDonald, and Mike Brown also picked up impressive victories.

The Season 7 Featherweight final between Rad Martinez and Shahbulat Shamhalaev has been moved back once more. The two were originally supposed to meet at Bellator 83 but the bout was scrapped after some food poisoning.

After that the two were expected to be bumped back to Friday’s Bellator 84 event but will now be pushed back to Season 8 of Bellator programming. The reason is that Martinez is the primary caregiver for his father and will have to tend to his father as his brother is unable to do so this weekend.

Dream announced an additional three match ups to their New Year’s Eve card today.  Hiroyuki Takaya will take on Georgi Karakhanyan in a non-title affair, Hayato Sakurai will face Phil Baroni, and Satoru Kitaoka will face Will Brooks.

Also expected to compete on the card are Shinya Aoki, Antonio McKee, and Bibiano Fernandes. Dream 18 is set to take place on Dec. 31 from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Chris Fields is set to defend his middleweight crown on the Cage Warriors 51 card. Fields won the title after defeating Pavel Kusch earlier this year. Attempting to take the title will be Team Quest’s Jesse Taylor.

Conor McGregor, who is the promotion’s featherweight champ will look to capture the CWFC lightweight title as well when he takes on Ivan Buchinger. Cage Warriors 51 will take place on Dec. 31 from Dublin, Ireland.

Bellator is set to debut on Spike TV on Jan. 17 in 2013. The move is expected to make a huge increase in Bellator’s fan base along with boosting ratings for the cable network. Today Bellator announced some of the participants expected to compete on the card.

Pat Curran will defend his featherweight title against Patricio Freire. The co-main event will be a lightweight title clash between champion Michael Chandler and Rick Hawn. Also expected on the card is the Bellator debut of the well known Brazilian, Renato “Babalu” Sobral.