Author: Matt Erickson [matt-erickson]

Cung Le’s MMA career has been marked by several extended layoffs as he’s tended to a budding movie career. Just this past week, his face popped up on big screens in “The Man With the Iron Fists.”

But the 40-year-old fighter/actor said he’s been more consistent than ever in the past 12 months, and he expects his work to pay dividends in the cage against Rich Franklin at UFC on FUEL TV 6.

“I’ve just got to go out there and execute the game plan and make sure Rich doesn’t throw me off my rhythm,” Le told MMAjunkie.com Radio.

All fighters on Thursday successfully made weight for Friday’s Bellator 80 event.

The official weigh-in event took place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., the same venue that hosts Friday’s event.

The event features a pair of tournament semifinal bouts in the Season 7 heavyweight and featherweight tourneys, plus the return of former featherweight champion Joe Warren in his drop back to bantamweight.

Owen Evinger’s name rolls off the tongue like a fighter’s name should. He just sounds like he should be a fighter.

So it should come as no surprise that he has been fighting just about all of his life – and that fighting is all in the family for him. He fought with his twin brother. He fought with his sister. Look at him cross back in the day, and it seems like he’d just throw down.

Now Evinger gets paid to do it. But to one day get paid at the next level, he faces the stiffest test of his fighting career, pro other otherwise, on Friday night.

A main-card fight has been added to Score Fighting Series’ event later this month at the same time a fight has fallen off.

Tristan Johnson will meet Will Romero in a featherweight rematch, while an ankle injury has forced unbeaten Josh Hill out of his bout against WEC vet Rafael Rebello. Promotion officials recently announced the news.

Score Fighting Series 7 takes place Nov. 23 at Hamilton Place Theatre in Ontario, Canada. The main card will air live on AXS TV.

The card for the UFC’s return to the Windy City continues to experience rapid growth.

Another pair of fights is headed for the January card in Chicago. Clay Guida will make his featherweight debut after a long run at lightweight when he meets Hatsu Hioki. And heavyweights Mike Russow and Shawn Jordan will clash.

UFC officials late Wednesday announced the fight bookings, which had been reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

A month after their title fight was shut down due to injury, and then card cancellation, it appears Luke Rockhold and Lorenz Larkin have a new dance date.

Rockhold, the Strikeforce middleweight champion, and Larkin are being targeted for an as yet unannounced Strikeforce card on Jan. 12. Sources close to the promotion on Wednesday told MMAjunkie.com that the fight booking is in the process of being finalized.

Rockhold and Larkin were scheduled to meet at Strikeforce’s canceled Nov. 3 show in Oklahoma City.