In addition to auctioning off the few tickets available for tonight's Ultimate Fight Night and filling the arena with members of the military, the UFC is also holding an auction to raise money for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. One of the items on the auction block is a gorgeous Coach alligator leather duffel bag:

The UFC is also auctioning off a collector's edition copy of "Octagon," and a VIP UFC weekend experience that allows the winner to have dinner with Dana White and Rachelle Leah, walk out with your favorite fighter and act as an honorary cornerman. That is a once in a lifetime opportunity that you will be able to brag about for the rest of your life. "Hey! There's Forrest Griffin! Hey! Forrest! Remember when I told you to just hit Rashad harder, and so you did that! That was SWEET."

Or the experience could turn your life into an episode of the Chris Farley Show.

Join us for a live chat during Spike's broadcast of tonight's Ultimate Fight Night. We'll get going at 8:45

Mike Swick is clearly a better fighter than he is a golfer, especially when the golfing induces an attack by bees:

Tomorrow's tilt with Jonathan Goulet will be graduation day for both of them. Both Swick and Goulet are on winning streaks -- two in a row for Swick, three for Goulet -- and are trying to climb the ladder to get a shot at the welterweight belt. They will have to get in line behind B.J. Penn, who gets his shot on Jan. 31, and Thiago Alves, but a win will help them cut a few places.

Join us for a live chat during Spike's broadcast of Ultimate Fight Night. We'll start at 8:45 p.m. ET. Be there, or we'll send a swarm of bees your way.

At a K-1 event this weekend, Kimbo Slice told us how much he loves the city of Japan:

Since cartography is clearly not in his career path, signing on to fight somewhere is a good idea for Kimbo.

Thanks, Sporting Blog.

Wednesday's Ultimate Fight Night takes on special meaning because it will truly be as advertised, a Fight for the Troops. Only 30 tickets were made available to the public. The rest of the stands at Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C., will be filled with troops from the nearby Fort Bragg military installation. Military vets will also be in the Octagon. Steve Bruno, Tim Credeur, Dale Hartt and Brandon Wolff all served the country in the armed forces.

Beyond that, the fight will benefit the troops financially. Proceeds from the ticket auction will go to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a group who gives support to members of the military who have returned wounded from the war. The money will help build the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (pictured above), a rehabilitation center that will focus on helping veterans who have traumatic brain injury and psychological problems. It will be in Bethesda, Md., adjacent to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

This center is

Miguel Torres was unstoppable in defending his championship belt, toying with Manny Tapia and making it look easy.

The California State Athletic Commission, which had stopped drug testing because they had so many problems with the system, will begin administering tests again as of Dec. 11. Sean Sherk is not impressed.

The final card is set for the Ultimate Fighter finale, with Efrain Escudero and Phillipe Nover going for the title at lightweight and Ryan Bader and Vinny Magalhaes at light heavyweight. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira thinks that Phillipe Nover is the next Anderson Silva. Junie Browning is more interested in his own "talent."

The New York Assembly doesn't think they need to learn about MMA before they ban it.

Not all Germans are excited about the UFC's possible trip to their country.

Another writer weighs in on the idea of getting caught, this time about Chuck Liddell.

Instant replay was used for the first time in MMA at a fight in New Jersey.

The WEC event and semifinal matches of The Ultimate Fighter on Wednesday reaffirmed one of my strongest beliefs about fighting: the little guys take the cake. More often than not, you can count on bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight fights to be more exciting that the fights at the heavier end of the spectrum.

Miguel Torres threw some of the most interesting strikes I have ever seen in his fight against Manny Tapia. Though it was not landed, the front roll axe kick was awe-inspiring, and the perfectly employed spinning backfist will on the WEC highlight reel for all time.

Before he lost the title last month, Urijah Faber took part in one of my all-time favorite "little guy" fights. His tilt with Jens Pulver was the picture of why smaller is better. Faber showed smaller fighters can still have insane power in their punches yet still have the endurance to last an entire fight.

One of the strengths of the WEC is that they are unapologetically a promotion that favors the smaller

New Yorkers, your tax dollars are being wasted. In working to keep mixed martial arts illegal in the Empire State, Assemblyman Bob Reilly has led his fellow Assembly members down a dark and ignorant tunnel. Sadly, the other Assembly members followed happily, no questions asked:

"I'll express ignorance of this sport, but after Bob described what a vicious sport it was, it was voted down by everybody on the committee," said Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, D-Niagara Falls.

Really? Is that how Assemblywoman DelMonte approaches all of her legislative work? Apparently she couldn't spare an aide to write up a two-page summary of mixed martial arts before she, a member of the Committee on Tourism, Arts and Sports Development, voted on a bill that could have brought in millions of dollars to her state.

Reilly is also wasting taxpayer time and money by cultivating a false holier-than-thou attitude:

The people who are drawn to mixed martial arts are attracted by the brutality of it, which

Onto to the next episode of the Ultimate Fighter. This one will feature Junie Browning vs. Efrain Escudero and Krzysztof Soszynszki vs. Vinny Magalhaes. The last episode was 100% focused on fighting. With Junie in the picture, that is unlikely in this episode. Let's go -- on with the show!

Everyone's favorite Polish-Canadian, K-Sos, is up first against Vinny, the jiu-jitsu whiz kid. They go directly into the fight that K-Sos calls a classic grappler vs. striker match-up. After a little less than a minute of stand-up, Vinny pulls K to the ground and begins to work a rubber guard. K gets out of it and they stand up. They don't do much for about a minute of stand-up, and then Vinny gets aggressive and throws some punch-kick combos, which leads to taking down K, and an armbar. K taps, and as they say, it is all over.

K takes the loss as a learning experience, and now we will have Bader vs. Vinny next Saturday in the finals.

At training, Junie feels like his timing is off. He is telling