Titan FC 29: Ricci vs. Sotiropoulos preview and live discussion thread

Titan Fighting Championships comes to you live from Fayetteville, North Carolina, where ex-UFC lightweights Mike Ricci and George Sotiropoulos share main event honors. In the co-main event is Lloyd Woodard against Strikeforce and UFC veteran Kurt Holobaugh in a featherweight title eliminator. The main card kicks off at 10 PM ET on CBS Sports Network, with preliminary card action streamed live on CBSSports.com at 8:30.

Ricci (9-4), who famously disappointed in the TUF 16 Finale against Colton Smith and was out of the UFC by his 3rd fight, made a grand entrance into the Titan cage by stopping the veteran Jorge Gurgel with a barrage of punches and elbows in the 1st round. It was the 28-year-old's first finish since a TKO of Jesse Ronson at 2011.

Sotiropoulos (14-6) was once the toast of the UFC's lightweight division, winning 5 straight fights in the division and his first 7 bouts inside the Octagon. Unfortunately, he went on a serious slide and lost 4 straight, including knockouts to Rafael dos Anjos and Ross Pearson. The Australian's bread and butter is his BJJ, but you can definitely attack him towards the body and outstrike him.

If you're wondering if the Micah Miller is the same one who fought on TUF 14 as a FEATHERWEIGHT, it is. Miller surprisingly lost in the entry round of that season, but recently jumped up to welterweight at KOTC in April and won via 1st round submission. Marunde recently snapped a 3 fight losing streak, which included 2 losses in the UFC and a defeat against "Jacare" in Strikeforce, by submitting Ian Williams in Snoqualmie, Washington.

Holobaugh perhaps got a raw deal in getting released by the UFC after losing a somewhat controversial decision to Steven Siler last year. He's proven he can hang in tough with solid fighters such as Siler and Pat Healy, even if he ultimately comes up short in the final result. Woodard was a Bellator veteran who holds a submission win over Patricky Freire, but could never get past the semifinal stage of any of the LW tournaments he'd entered.

So that's your meat of the card, and for "regional MMA" I'd say this is worth your viewing. Discuss the card in the comments section and we may even throw in some GIFs of the results over the weekend.

Main Card (CBS Sports Betwork, 10 PM ET)

Mike Ricci vs. George Sotiropoulos
Kurt Holobaugh vs. Lloyd Woodard
Micah Miller vs. Bristol Marunde
Mike Bronzoulis vs. Keith Johnson
Kevin Smith vs. Brian Davidson

Preliminary Card (CBSSports.com, 8:30 PM ET)

Dustin Jacoby vs. Lucas Lopes
Blaine Thomas vs. Robert Washington
Rakim Cleveland vs. Steve Montgomery
Luciano Santos vs. Jeremy Severn

Preliminary Card (Untelevised)

Mike Bruno vs. D'Juan Owens
Lamar Reed vs. Ururahy Rodrigues