Muhammed Lawal returned to his winning ways Wednesday night with a vicious knockout of Seth Petruzelli in the main event of Bellator 96 at the Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla.

Sherdog.com reports from the Global Event Center at WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Okla., at approximately 5:10 p.m. ET with live Bellator 96 updates.

One day prior to his debut in the World Series of Fighting, Jacob Volkmann took a fall -- not on the mat, but in his Las Vegas hotel room.

UFC fans can expect to see a thinner Hector Lombard the next time the southpaw sets foot inside the Octagon.

Statistical anomalies and obscure tidbits precede the return of Bellator MMA on Wednesday in Oklahoma.

From “King Mo” and “Babalu” to War Machine and tournament fare, Bellator MMA returns with a bang after a six-week hiatus.

Five underdogs turned the tables on the oddsmakers on Saturday in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Not even a star-studded main event could prevent UFC 161 from being forgettable on many fronts on Saturday in Winnipeg.

For the better part of two years, Chael Sonnen had one mission in life—the absolute destruction and obliteration of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

Unfortunately, Sonnen fell short in both of his attempts to take Silva's title away from him, losing in the first bout by a late fifth round submission and being stopped by strikes in the second round of their rematch.

Sonnen has moved on since the fights with Silva, and now competes in the light heavyweight division while also spending much of his time behind the desk as an analyst for the UFC on Fox and Fuel TV.

On Tuesday night during a broadcast of UFC Tonight, Sonnen gave his most recent opinion on Silva's upcoming fight against top middleweight contender Chris Weidman.  Sonnen has never been shy when taking a dig at Silva, but when giving his unabashed opinion on the fight, he knows the champion is in for a tough matchup.

"You don't have to look too far to see Chris Weidman has the exact skill set to beat Anderson Silva, and he's also got it upstairs.  He wants this fight," Sonnen said.  "He has a better top game, at least submission wise, than I do.  I was able to have some success for several minutes with Anderson from that position.

"Weidman's going to get on top, he needs this, he's never tasted defeat."

Weidman's wrestling background combined with his growing jiu-jitsu arsenal has him becoming quite the popular pick amongst fighters in the UFC.  Stylistically, Weidman's best weapons appear to be the areas where Silva is the weakest.

It's hard to ignore, however, that Silva is the best fighter the UFC and MMA have ever seen. He's faced wrestlers and jiu-jitsu practitioners numerous times throughout his career, and continuously came out on top.

The general consensus across the MMA world is that Weidman could be the toughest test Silva has faced to date, and even Sonnen can't deny what a win at UFC 162 would do for the middleweight king.

"Let's also understand, if Anderson Silva wins this fight, the debate ends—he is the best fighter of all time," Sonnen stated.

Sonnen has never bent much on his belief that Silva isn't the greatest fighter in the world, but it appears he's turned the corner knowing the champion has a truly tough fight in front of him on July 6 in Las Vegas.

 

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Roughly three years ago, and shortly before the first of back-to-back fights with Frankie Edgar, few would dare to argue that any lightweight on the planet could trump the skills of B.J. Penn.

Sporting an 11-1-1 career record in the division, with six wins coming via KO and four by submission, "The Prodigy" hadn't suffered a loss at 155 pounds since getting nipped by Jens Pulver at UFC 35.

But it took just two straight upset losses to Edgar at UFC 112 and UFC 118 for Penn to foolishly decide to bump back up to 170 pounds.

Following a win over Matt Hughes at UFC 123 and a draw with Jon Fitch at UFC 127, the undersized Penn got mauled in succession against Nick Diaz and Rory MacDonald at UFC 137 and UFC on Fox 5, respectively.

The consecutive losses left Penn, one of two fighters in UFC history to wear belts in two divisions (Randy Couture being the other), contemplating retirement. It also forced the 34-year-old Hawaiian to do some significant soul-searching, especially in regard to his proper fighting weight.

In the time since, speculation has arisen that The Prodigy will soon make his return to the UFC's lightweight division—claims that have yet to be substantiated. 

However, if he does decide to come back at 155, here's a look at how he'd fare against today's top 10 UFC lightweights. 

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