Whoa, there's a lot going on for Minnesota fighters right now, and even more on the horizon. So here's a quick-hitter notebook with some of the bigger events coming up for Minnesota fighters.

First up, Minnesota Martial Arts Academy's Nik Lentz is in action Saturday night at UFC 118 in Boston. Lentz will fight Andre Winner during the undercard of Saturday's event. But remember, Lentz vs. Winner is one of the two fights selected for the LIVE broadcast on Spike TV, which begins at 8 p.m.

Winner was a finalist on "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 9. He'll bring an 11-3 record into the fight against Lentz, who is 18-3-2, including 2-0-1 in the UFC.

Winner trains with Team Rough House in Nottingham, England, and he most recently defeated Rafaello Oliveira by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 21 in March. It was his second consecutive win in the UFC; he also knocked off Roli Delgado at UFC 105 in November.

Those two wins came after Winner fell to Rough House teammate Ross Pearson in the TUF 9 finale.

Lentz earned his second UFC victory at UFC Fight Night 21, claiming a unanimous decision over Rob Emerson.

Make sure to tune in to Spike on Saturday night to cheer on "The Carnie."

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Next up for Minnesota fight fans is Travis "The Hurricane" Reddinger, who will make his Bellator debut on Thursday, Sept. 2.

The Hurricane is competing in the eight-man Bellator 135-pound tournament, the organization's first bantamweight bracket. Reddinger (14-2),

who trains with Sergio Cunha at the Minnesota Fight Factory, is riding a four-fight winning streak into his contest against Ulysses Gomez.The Hurricane has won eight of his past nine fights.

Gomez is an experienced grappler with a 6-1 record. It will also be his Bellator debut. He's the current Tachi Palace Fights flyweight champion and five of his six career wins have come by submission. Gomez currently trains with Marc Laimon's Cobra Kai Jiu-Jitsu.

Gomez and Reddinger will do battle as part of Bellator 27, which will be broadcast live in some parts of the country on Fox Sports Net and is being held in San Antonio, Texas. Minnesota's Fox Sports Net North generally shows the fights on taped delay, after the Twins game and postgame show. The Twins host Detroit that night at 7:10 p.m.

Today, MMAJUNKIE.com wrote a story about Gomez. To learn more about "Useless," click this link.

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One week after Reddinger makes his Bellator debut, another Minnesotan will return to Bellator for the third time. Carey Vanier gets another shot with that organization on Thursday, Sept. 9, in New Orleans as part of Bellator 28.

Vanier, who was a contest in last season's lightweight tournament, will square off against UFC veteran Rich Clementi.

Vanier defeated Joe Duarte in the opening round of the Season 2 lightweight tournament, but he fell to eventual runner-up Toby Imada in the semifinals. The loss snapped a seven-fight winning streak for Vanier, who is 9-3.

Clementi is a veteran of more than 50 fights and has compiled a 36-16-1 record. He will be making his Bellator debut. Clementi is 5-2 since his third and most recent sting with the UFC, which included an appearance on TUF 4. Clementi's five wins since leaving the UFC have all come by submission.

Bellator 28 will be the same drill as Reddinger's Bellator 27; the event will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Net. There is no Twins game that night so it's possible Fox Sports North will show the event live from New Orleans. It's unclear whether Vanier's fight will be part of the live broadcast, though it currently is one of only two fights made official by Bellator.

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Minnesota's own Brock "The Brainerd Brawler" Larson will be back in action on Sept. 11 at Shark Fights 13 at the Amarillo Civic Center in Amarillo, Texas.

Larson was previously announced as a Shark Fights participant, and his opponent was made official today. Shark Fights announced that Larson, who is 30-4, will take on Strikeforce and DREAM veteran Tarec Saffiedine (9-2).

The main card for this event will be broadcast live on pay-per-view.

Saffiedine trains with Team Quest and has made two appearances at Strikeforce Challengers in 2010. He won both of those fights. Saffiedine's lone loss in his last nine fights was in October of 2009 against Dong Sik Yoon.

The Brainerd Brawler is riding a three-fight winning streak since being released from his UFC contract. After the WEC cut its 170-pound weight class, Larson moved over to the UFC and won his first two fights against Jesse Sanders and Mike Pyle. But then Larson lost to Mike Pierce and Brian Foster and was released by the UFC.

Since then, Larson has defeated Brian Green, Nick Almen and Eddie Larrea, all here in Minnesota.

Soon after his fight against Saffiedine for Shark Fights, Larson will be back in action in Minnesota in the main event of a King of the Cage show at Jackpot Junction in Morton, Minn.

That show has been reported by some news outlets as a live HDNet show. But KOTC's Jeff Michalec confirmed that the event will not be shown live on HDNet, but it will be on pay-per-view and will air at a later date on HDNet.

Larson's opponent for the main event has not been officially announced.

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Minnesota Martial Arts Academy's Paul Bradley will be in action on the same card as Larson at Shark Fights 13 at the Amarillo Civic Center in Amarillo, Texas, on Sept. 11.

Bradley, who is a Strikeforce and TUF veteran, will take on UFC veteran Johnny Rees that night. Rees and Bradley are both 12-2. Rees started his career 10-0 before advancing to the UFC. He went 0-2 in the big organization but has since won two straight. Bradley started his career 11-1. He is 1-1 in Strikeforce.

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Sept. 11 figures to be a busy night. There are local events in Savage and Buffalo, Chris Tuchscherer has a loaded event planned (Zak Jensen, Tat Romero, etc. in action) up in Fargo, plus Larson and Bradley in action at Shark Fights 13.

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On Wednesday, Sept. 15, "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 12 will debut on Spike. Minnesota's own Mike "The Marine" Richman is one of the fights who will be battling to make it into the house this season. Two other upper-Midwest fighters are competing this season: Pablo Garza and Dane Sayers.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 12 will crown its champion at a live event in Las Vegas in December.

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On Sept. 25, Minnesotan and former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk will make his return to the Octagon as part of UFC 119 in Indianapolis.

Sherk (33-4-1) will fight prospect Evan Dunham (11-0) in a lightweight showdown. The fight will be part of the main card and will be shown on pay-per-view.

UFC 119 features a main event of Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in a rematch.

"The Muscle Shark" has not been in the Octagon since UFC 98, when he suffered a unanimous-decision loss to now champ Frankie Edgar. He was supposed to fight Rafaello Oliveira at UFC 108, but he was forced to withdraw due to injury.

Just two months after UFC 108, Sherk was supposed to face Clay Guida in the main event of UFC on Versus 1, but he again had to pull out of the fight due to injury.

The Minnesota Martial Arts Academy standout was the UFC's 155-pound champion when he defeated Kenny Florian at UFC 64. Sherk defended the belt against Hermes Franca at UFC 73, but he lost the belt five months later when the California State Athletic Commission said he took performance enhancers. Sherk completely denies the use of any illegal substances.

He returned to action almost a year later and fell to BJ Penn at UFC 84.

Dunham is a black belt in jiu-jitsu and recently knocked off Tyson Griffin at UFC 115.

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Jon Madsen, who trains with Brock Lesnar up in Alexandria, recently found out his next UFC opponent, and it was to be Todd Duffee (6-1, 1-1 in the UFC). But it was announced yesterday that Duffee has suffered an injury and was forced to withdraw from the bout, which was scheduled for UFC 121: Lesnar vs. Velasquez in Anaheim, Calif., on Oct. 23.

Duffee's knee injury was made public yesterday, and the UFC has already found a replacement. In Duffee's place will be veteran Gilbert Yvel, who has a career record of 36-15-1, but is just 0-2 in the UFC.

Madsen (6-0) was a contestant on TUF 10, and since then he has earned wins over Justin Wren, Mostapha Al-Turk and most recently, Karlos Vermola at UFC 116.

UFC 121 will be live on pay-per-view. It's not been made public yet if Madsen's fight will be on PPV.