Anyone who is paying attention to modern MMA can see that the biggest names in the business are not consistently offering a top shelf product. Elite XC put together a card that pits their champions against mediocre fighters and will make for a less than entertaining night aimed at getting attention, not at putting out a high quality product.

The UFC put on one of their best events ever, which had three interesting light heavyweight matchups, the debut of a man many consider a future phenom (Shane Carwin, just so we’re clear) and the biggest matchup that they can offer at 155 pounds.

Still, as I scroll down the cards of upcoming events, I found something bizarre.

The UFC is promising to put out shows that are far from interesting, namely it’s utterly uncreative UFC 85 card which consists of two interesting matchups on the entire evening (Davis vs. Swick and Vera vs. Werdum) and it’s unpromising TUF finale card which is headed by two fighters hardly at the top of their game, while the only two interesting matchups it has to offer (McFedries vs. Eastman and Lister vs. Horn) will remain in the middle of the card and will probably not be broadcast but for the grace of God.

So I am damned to look for incredible fights on the outskirts of the MMA world, but what I found is that I don’t actually have to look, because everybody else seems to actually care about putting out top notch fight cards.

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This should be interesting. I had just finished an article about Monte Cox and Adrenaline MMA when the news of a summer showdown between technically undefeated Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko and ex-UFC fighter Tim Sylvia. Will Emelianenko finally fight an ex-UFC heavyweight champion this summer? Better yet, will Emelianenko fully regain his undisputed #1 heavyweight status with a win over the much larger Tim Sylvia? Or will the nay sayers continue to beat on the Russian fighter for being inactive for too long even though he has clearly dominated most of his opponents?

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Can the man who supposedly worked with the disputed #1 heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko, last year as the leader of M-1 Global finally get an organization together? Or will Adrenaline MMA turn into another defunct company filled with empty promises like it’s Russian counter-part?

Steve Sievert of the Houston Chronicle has an informative article about Monte Cox’s involvement in MMA throughout the past 13 years and 500 events. Most of the article focuses on working with the Russian heavyweight, Emelianenko, and why the deal with signing him failed. A difficult language barrier coupled with an immense loss leader with signing Emelianenko to $2 million per fight led to the breakdown of the to-be-signed contract that Emelianenko never signed. Instead, he had signed a letter of intent and was given a signing bonus of $1.5 million which he has since returned.

The newest supposed stars of Adrenaline MMA will be IFL heavyweight Ben Rotherwell and UFC heavyweight Tim Sylvia. While Sylvia recently left the UFC on his own after losing two of his last three fights, Rothwell was forced out of the IFL after the 2007 season due to contractual reasons. He left the organization on a 13 fight win streak including prior wins in other organizations before moving to the IFL. What makes it somewhat interesting is that both fighters have already fought each other, back in 2001, when Sylvia proved to the judges that he was deserving of the decision win over Rothwell. Now seven years later, both men may end up fighting again - who knows if the hype will still be there, however.

What’s great about Monte Cox, all issues with Emelianenko aside, is his ability to get things done for MMA. The Adrenaline MMA organization will begin with an inaugural show near Chicago, a major city that could appreciate some big-name MMA action. Then the organization will move to the smaller city of Joline, Illinois and then hopefully throughout the rest of the U.S. during the summer months. While the IFL has been focusing on the east coast this year and the UFC headquarters is Las Vegas, the Midwest is in need of something new and big. Can Cox deliver like he has done for over a decade? With reported numbers of $3 million for Syvlia per fight and Rothwell seeing paychecks he has never dreamed of in the IFL, I sure hope so. This will be an interesting summer for MMA fans for sure.