Bloody Elbow, for MMA and UFC news

Rick Hawn has been forced out of Bellator's season five welterweight tournament with an injury. He was scheduled to face Ben Saunders at Bellator 49 on September 10th in the quarter-finals, but he announced his withdrawal via twitter: "@RickHawnMMA - Have to call off my fight against Ben Saunders in the Bellator tourney. Hurt my knee but ill b back stronger than ever in a few months." No replacement has been announced by Bellator as of yet.

Ben Saunders reveals on Facebook that he has been released by the UFC following his decision loss to Dennis Hallman at UFC 117: "Sorry everyone I tried to fight my best these past two fights but ended up getting out worked. The UFC has officially cut me. The good news is they told me to work on my wrestling and ground game and then come back. So that is all I am going to be doing, improving dramatically and show them I belong." HT: TSMStudio Photo: UFC.com

Ben Saunders receives his BJJ brown belt: "Ben started training in the gi in 2003. He received his blue belt in 2005 from Gracie Barra Orlando, his purple belt in January 2007, and his Brown Belt in 2010. He has met all the requirements (application of skill in sparring, technical knowledge and proficiency, training hours in the gi, history knowledge of BJJ and his lineage, etc..) to be a brown belt. On top of that, like our students who don't fight in the UFC, Ben formally tested in front Ricardo Liborio to seal the deal..." -- image via shomanart.com HT: ATT Orlando via the UG UFC 111: St-Pierre vs. Hardy coverage [vs. Martin Kampmann]

UFC 106 Photos by Esther Lin HT: allelbows.com UFC 106: Ortiz vs. Griffin 2 coverage

Marcus Davis (16-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC) vs. Ben Saunders (7-1-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) in the works for UFC 106: - Brock Lesnar -325 vs. Shane Carwin +250 - Tito Ortiz -380 vs. Mark Coleman +295 - Kenny Florian -190 vs. Clay Guida +155 - Jon Fitch -325 vs. Ricardo Almeida +250 - Karo Parisyan -125 vs. Dustin Hazelett -110 - Marcus Davis vs. Ben Saunders - Phil Baroni vs. Amir Sadollah HT: MMAMania.com