As Luke Thomas's blog, Bloody Elbow, pointed out this week, there is a lot of MMA events this month that feature some fighters you may know and some fighters you may not know of. I wanted to take a little look at some of the matchups that some of these smaller organizations are beginning to set up as MMA begins to become bigger and have more of a talent pool to pull from. Let's look at a rundown of each event and the matchups they offer they may be intriguing to some of the more hardcore fans or many of you who may be in the area who can go and check out a MMA show.

EFWC - The Untamed on October 6th at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California

The Extreme Fighters World Championships presents "The Untamed" that will feature Nam Phan, King of the Cage veteran, vs. Shad Smith. Nam Phan just recently came off a :26 second loss to K-1 Hero's Middleweight Champion Gesias Calvancanti at K-1 Dynamite in June and also suffered defeat at the hands of Josh Thomson by unanimous decision at Strikeforce - Triple Threat in December of last year. Although he has suffered some losses to top lightweights, Nam Phan still sports a considerable striking game alongside his excellent ju-jitsu skills on the ground. Overall, he is a fairly complete fighter, but lacks overwhelming skill to beat some of the best near the top of the food chain. He is a fighter that you should see in action when he's on his game and has really only had problems defeating the top fighters in the world.

Also on the card, although definitely not an impressive name is Richard Dalton. You may know Dalton as the man who took Puder to decision just this last weekend. He will turn around and be fighting at the EFWC event only one week after the Strikeforce @ the Playboy Mansion event. I only mention this due to the ridiculously short amount of time Dalton is allowing himself to rest before taking on his opponent at the event, Mychal Clark.

DEEP 32 Impact on October 10th from Tokyo, Japan

I did a little searching and found a few Japanese MMA blogs that had the event roster posted. From the looks of it, the fight card will look something like this:

Hidehiko Hasegawa 14-8-3 VS. 8-0-0 Dong Hyun Kim
Imanari Masakazu 12-5-1 VS. 7-12-3 Hiroyuki Abe
Ryuta Sakurai 14-13-4 VS. 14-12-2 Eiji Ishikawa
Satoko Shinashi 24-1-2 VS. Sachi
Seichi Ikemoto 15-14-4 VS. 31-22-8 Kiuma Kunioku
Mizuguchi Seigo 1-2-0 VS. 2-0-0 Yusuke Kawaguchi
Yoshihiro Tomioka 9-3-2 VS. Han So Fan
Yasuhito Namekawa 17-13-3 VS. 8-12-1 Katsuhisa Fujii
Takeshi Yamazaki 11-7-2 VS. 2-3-2 Koji Yoshida
Inoue Shunsuke Vs. Wakaarashi
Muscle Hiranuma 1-2-0 VS. 0-0-0 Hosaka Masanari

According to Japan MMA blog, check it out.

This card looks to have some pretty good battle on it. Hidehiko Hasegawa and Dong Hyun Kim have fought each other before in a non-title fight in which Dong Hyun Kim won by TKO in the 3rd round of their battle. This time around, the bout will be for the title and in their last bout, Hasewaga didn't fair well against Kim at all. You can check out a video of the fight here.  Also fighting on the card is Satoko Shinashi, the current Smackgirl women's MMA champion. If you haven't had the pleasure of watching Shinashi work her ground tactics on unsuspecting victims, it's a treat. Her 105 lb. frame allows her to pull off some unbelievable armbars and holds. She is currently 24-1-2 in competition. Here is a little teaser as to what she has done in the ring.

CFFC VI: Tank vs. Kimbo - October 12th in Atlantic City, NJ

This event by the Cage Fury Fighting Championships will feature underground street brawler, Kimbo Slice, vs. equally tough brawling Tank Abbott. This is actually a hotly anticipated matchup due to the brawling aspect of the fight. Both guys won't be looking to go to the ground, it will be an all-out war of a standup battle in which somebody is going to most likely get knocked out. Kimbo is coming off a submission win over Ray Mercer, the legendary boxing champion. Kimbo is fairly strong and can throw huge punches, but I doubt Mercer thought the battle would end in such a manner. Abbott has only won 1 out of his last 8 fights, beating Wesley Correira after he initially lost to him in the previous fight. Look for Kimbo to improve his record to 2-0, but if it becomes a slugfest, it may be a fight that could end fantastically.

Also on the event, Ricardo Almeida (8-2) will be fighting Dennis Hallman (37-12-2). This is actually a damn good matchup. Almeida hasn't had an easy fight yet in his MMA career and has simply impressed many MMA fans. His lone losses are to Matt Lindland because of a disqualification and Andrei Semenov at UFC 35 via TKO. Semenov is a product of the Red Devil Sports Club ie. Fedor's training camp. It is surpising that Almeida isn't in a top organization yet. He started out in PRIDE defeating Akira Shoji, then moving onto the UFC and sporting a 1-2 record during his stint there. He moved up to Pancrase in which he went undefeated with a 4-0 record and impressively defeating Kazuo Misaki and former Pancrase champion Nathan Marquardt, taking his Middleweight title. His last fight was in May of 2004 against Ryo Chonan, again winning by unanimous decision. He hasn't fought in 3 years time due to a retirement from the sport, but his skill isn't subpar. He's had some impressive wins in his career and it should be a great battle.

Hallman, on the other hand, is considered to be a veteran fighter who has been throughout the MMA scene and in the top organizations from time to time. A submission fighter for his entire career, he currently holds a 37-12-2 record, 28 wins by submission. Some of his more notable wins include beating Matt Hughes at EC 21 - Extreme Challenge 21 back in 1998, :17 seconds into the fight. It was Hughes's 4th fight. Fast forward to 2000, he beat Hughes again at UFC 29 via an armbar only :20 seconds into the bout. Rack up another huge win for Hallman. Hughes was 21-1 at the time. Hallman is the only fighter to ever beat Matt Hughes twice and never be beaten by him. Over the years, he's lost to big names such as Frank Trigg, Drew Fickett, Dave Menne, Caol Uno, Jens Pulver, and recently Ryan McGivern in the IFL 2006 Championship event. Hallman still has some crisp ground skills and this battle between Almeida and Hallman should be an interesting chess match on the ground.

Other notable fights include Devidas Taurosevicius vs. Chris Ligouri. Taurosevicus just got through upsetting Bart Palaszewski at this year's IFL Championship on September 20th. Taurosevicus was able to sink in an armbar during the second round to complete the upset and improve his MMA record to 9-2. Jim Miller vs. Chris Brennan will also be featured on this card. Brennan just lost to Jean Silva at Cage Rage 23: Unbelievable via a 2nd round TKO, but still has a fairly veteran record of 19-12-1. He's a decent grappler and at some points during the Silva fight, almost was able to pull Silva into an armbar. Seventeen of his wins are by submission, so the matchup should be a ground battle. Miller is 7-1, with 6 submission victories and his only loss coming at the hands of UFC fighter Frank Edgar. It should be a great battle of a new fighter taking on an old veteran.

Early weeks of October look good

With the UFC tabbing their event on the 20th, these smaller events are some good shows to look forward to for feeding your MMA hunger. Look out for LIVE blogs from various sites that may be attending the events as well if there is no way you can make the events or there isn't a stream available to view online. The CFFC card definitely has some matchups on it that look very exciting. If you are in Japan or have access to viewing the DEEP cards, that card is definitely something to see. You will not only get to see one of the most dominant women's MMA fighter in the world right now, and she's a model by the way, but you can also see Imanari Masakazu, Hidehiko Hasegawa, and Dong Hyun Kim. They are some of the up and coming fighters inside the DEEP organization. Most of you probably won't be too excited about some of the other MMA around the world, but hopefully this will give you a bit of insight into some of the other organizations that are out there and some of the fighters you COULD see coming into the UFC or the other major U.S. promotions.