UFC Veterans Flocking to Edmonton's MFC

Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Maximum Fighting Championships is quickly becoming one of the premier organizations for fighters looking to re-establish themselves when the UFC shows them the door.

MFC 22 marks the company's 18th consecutive sellout show and will air live Friday night on HDNet, giving fans a card full of former UFC fighters and up and coming Canadians looking to make a name for themselves.

The headliner features two familiar names to UFC fans, as Jason "The Athlete" MacDonald (21-12) meets Travis "The Serial Killer" Lutter (9-5) in a fight that looks more like an Ultimate Fight Night battle to remain relevant than a battle of two fighters trying to work their way back to the UFC.

MacDonald got his walking papers after a 5-5 stint that featured wins over Chris Leben, Ed Herman and Jason Lambert offset by loses to Rich Franklin, Wilson Gouveia and Demian Maia. Across the cage from his, Lutter is best remembered as the winner of Season 4 of The Ultimate Fighter and securing the mount against Anderson Silva in what should have been a title shot for the jiu jitsu specialist.

Unfortunately, Lutter missed weight and missed out on a title shot. Though he looked impressive in the early going, his old nemesis conditioning came calling and "The Spider" was able to secure a win in the second round. A similar story played out in Lutter's last fight, a loss to Rich Franklin at UFC 83.

While both are accomplished on the ground, look for MacDonald to try and tire out the often out of shape Lutter en route to starting his journey back to the UFC with a win.

In addition to Friday's outstanding televised card, MFC recently announced the signing of Thales Leites.

Though some have a negative opinion about the Brazilian after his uninspired performance against Anderson Silva at UFC 97, it was only two fights ago that he faced the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Organizational alumni include WEC lightweight title contender Ben "Smooth" Henderson, current UFC welterweight contender Paul "Semtex" Daley, Nick "The Goat" Thompson and former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley.

With the UFC out of the picture for a couple more weeks and ten days until the WEC invades San Antonio, now is as good a time as ever to catch some regional MMA action and you won't find many cards better than MFC 22.

MFC 22: Payoff - Friday, October 2nd - Live on HDNet

Jason MacDonald (21-12) vs Travis Lutter (9-5)
Antonio Mckee (22-3) vs Carlo Prater (24 - 6) for the MFC Lightweight Title
Luigi Fioravanti (15-5) vs John Alessio (25-13)
Ryan Jimmo (10-1) vs Marvin Eastman (16-9-1)
David Heath (12-5) vs Mike Nickels (7-2)
Pete Spratt (19-15) vs Nathan Gunn (7-0)

Thiago Goncalves (11-3) vs. Jesse Juarez (11-5)
Andrew Buckland (9-4) vs. Joe Christopher (7-2)
Jason Heit (2-0) vs. Paapa Inkumusah (3-0)