Taking a look at some of the major, national MMA events that will take place before the end of the month.

9.10 Shine Fights Lightweight Grand Prix Shine takes a stab at the tournament format with 8 lightweights, many of whom have UFC or Pride experience.

9.11 Shark Fights 13 Big names aplenty will be fighting on this card in Texas. Keith Jardine, Trevor Prangley, Joey Villasenor, Sokodjou, Paul Daley, Brock Larson and Jorge Masvidal to name a few.

9.15 UFC Fight Night 22 The premiere of the new season of “The Ultimate Fighter” will air right after this event, which features Nate Marquardt vs. Rousimar Palhares as the main event. Huge fight for Marquardt if he wants back into the title hunt at middleweight.

9.16 Bellator 29 Bellator brings their MMA tourneys to the state of Wisconsin. Cole Konrad will fight Damian Grabowski in the heavyweight tournament match.

9.18 KSW14: Judgment Day World’s strongest man Mariusz Pudzianowski will fight Eric “Butterbean” Esch in Poland.

9.25 UFC 119: Mir vs. Cro Cop There will still be a Nogueira on the card; but it’s Rogerio, not Rodrigo. Rogerio will battle up and comer Ryan Bader, while Cro Cop fills in for the injured Nogueira to fight Frank Mir. Mir needs a win to stay relevant in the UFC heavyweight division. He’s lost 2 of his last 3 fights. One more and it’s to the back of the line for a title shot.

9.25 Dream 16 Kazushi Sakuraba gets a fight with Jason “Mayhem” Miller. New Bellator champ Joe Warren fights Michihiro Omigawa, and Gegard Mousasi battles Tatsuya Mizuno.

9.30 WEC 51: Aldo vs. Gamburyan Amazingly stacked card for this event. Miguel Torres vs. Charlie Valencia, Donald Cerrone vs. Jamie Varner, Leonard Garcia vs. Mark Hominick, Chris Horodecki vs. Ed Ratcliff and “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung vs. George Roop.

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Here’s the promo for WEC 51: Aldo vs. Gamburyan, an incredibly stacked card.

This card is absolutely loaded. So much so that we don’t even see Miguel Torres in the promo, nor do they mention former champ Mike Brown, the Mark Hominick vs. Leonard Garcia fight, the Chris Horodecki vs. Ed Ratcliff fight or The Korean Zombie. Yes — WEC 51 is stacked to the hilt.

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Palaszewski was on the televised card and looked amazing in his battle with Zach Micklewright. Bartimus was trading with the taller, Miletich fighter, but started winning most of the exchanges toward the end of the 1st round. In the 2nd round, Bart rocked him with a flurry of punches up against the cage, landed a vicious body kick and then finished him with a right hook at :31. Bart is now 4-2 in the WEC with 4 straight wins.

Top Notch fighter Ricardo Lamas needed all 3 rounds, but won a unanimous decision over Dave Jansen. Lamas had several sub catches in the fight and won 29-28 on all the judges cards. The picture above tells how much of a war this was, as does this photo of Lamas’ shorts after the fight.

Lamas improved to 9-1 with the win, his 3rd straight. He is now 4-1 in the WEC, his only loss coming to Danny Castillo at WEC 42.

photos h/t: MMA Weekly and Bloody Elbow

Fans can vote online at AMPEnergy.com/WEC or text their zip code to a secret number available only at Hess and Maverik locations.

“AMP Energy is giving consumers the authority to tell a major sport where an event will take place, and I’m not sure that’s ever been done before,” said Pat Santangelo, assistant marketing manager, AMP Energy. “We know how passionate WEC fans are, so we partnered with the WEC, Hess, Maverik and Versus on this collaborative effort that is sure to make serious noise this year. We want fans to be a part of the process.”

Fans who don’t live near the winning city still have the opportunity to attend the fight by visiting participating Hess and Maverik stores. One winner will represent Hess and one lucky fan will represent Maverik. For complete contest details and a Leader Board update, log onto www.AMPEnergy.com/WEC.

MMA Junkie is reporting that local fighter Ricardo “The Bully” Lamas will fight Dave “The Fugitive” Jansen at WEC 50.

The Team Top Notch fighter is coming off a vicious KO win of Bendy Casimir at WEC 47 in March. In round 1 of that fight, Casimir went for a takedown and Lamas delivered a fierce knee to Casimir’s head that crumbled him to the canvas and left him unconscious. The Bully got the win and improved to 8-1 overall and 3-1 in the WEC. His lone loss as a pro came via a Danny Castillo TKO last August.

Jansen has also been defeated only once as a pro. He lost via unanimous decision to Kamal Shalorus in January after rattling off 15 straight wins to start his MMA career. Jansen’s last fight was also his WEC debut, beating Rich Crunkilton by unanimous decision.

WEC 50 features the first title defense for current champ Dominick Cruz, who will battle the electric Joseph Benavidez, “WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez”. It takes place August 18 at The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort and the main card airs live on Versus.

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Moral victories tend to have little worth in professional sports, but the losing effort of Wisconsin’s Dan Downes offers yet another strong counterargument to that norm. Based on first impressions of his lanky, pear-shaped frame, as the young Irish-American walked into the cage he appeared to be the human equivalent of chum about to be served to a frenzy of sharks (or in this case, his opponent, former International Fight League champion Chris Horodecki). Sure enough, Horodecki had his way with the Marquette University college graduate from the opening horn, scoring a takedown and locking in a deep guillotine choke. Downes, who had taken the fight on just a few days’ notice as a replacement for Ed Ratcliff, fought off the oxygen deficit for a long time before escaping. With thousands of his fellow Canadians spurring him on, Horodecki earned another takedown and “Danny Boy” showed his grit and determination once more by fighting off a rear naked choke attempt.

In the second stanza, Horodecki, a noted Muay Thai specialist under Shawn Tompkins, reverted to his bread and butter attacks. He wasted no time tagging Downes with a 1-2 combination to the face and followed that up with a knee to the face. Downes, perhaps due to the ridiculously abbreviated training camp, seemed to be winded and fighting back on fumes. Yet he stubbornly kept charging forward and winging punches that had little steam on them. On three different occasions in the fight Horodecki had landed spinning back kicks that wowed the crowd but did nothing to stop his flat-footed foe from coming forward.

Horodecki racked Downes with a high kick, clipped him with an uppercut and a 1-2 combination to the head and body. And Downes slowed down but never folded. Unfortunately for the former U.S. Secret Service intern, well-applied chokeholds trump toughness. As the late great Helio Gracie declared, the choke is the best maneuver in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, precisely for the aforementioned reason. And so Downes had met his match in the third stanza when Horodecki took him down and sunk in a rear naked choke. Finally, 1 minute and was 9 seconds into the round, “Danny Boy” was forced to concede defeat and tap out.

It was the first loss of Downes’ career after six straight wins, but his stock probably rose in defeat. He certainly earned the respect of Horodecki.

“Danny is super-tough. He’s a tough, tough Irish kid.” Horodecki said. “Thank you for stepping up to the plate … Hat’s off to him.”

Former WEC champion Miguel Torres was honored by his hometown of East Chicago, IN. The mayor declared June 4, 2010 “Miguel Angel Torres Day.” The talented bantamweight was honored not just for his accomplishments in mixed martial arts, but his contributions to helping the community.