FanHouse Dave Kaplan

All indications are that the Ultimate Fighting Championship will continue its usual practice of putting on huge shows Memorial Day Weekend, with the heavyweight title unification fight between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir taking place at UFC 98 on May 23.

The ultimate bad boy on The Ultimate Fighter, Junie Browning, won his first official fight in the Octagon, defeating Dave Kaplan tonight at the Ultimate Fighter Finale.

Just seconds into the fight, Browning landed an unintentional kick to Kaplan's groin. After that, Browning showed some impressive stand-up skills, landing punches and kicks, as well as a flying knee. Browning slipped while throwing a kick and the fight went to the ground, and for a moment Kaplan appeared to have him in trouble. But Browning showed great flexibility in getting out of a submission attempt and getting into advantageous position. It was a very good first round of fighting.

Two MMA up-and-comers will earn six-figure UFC contracts tonight in the finale of Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter. We'll be providing live results and letting you know who won all the fights.

In the lightweight finals, Efrain Escudero will fight Phillipe Nover, and in the light heavyweight finals, Vinny Magalhaes will fight Ryan Bader. Several other fighters from this season of The Ultimate Fighter are on the undercard, including, somewhat controversially, Junie Browning, who will take on Dave Kaplan.

The event takes place at The Palms in Las Vegas, with the early results starting to roll in a little after 6 p.m. Eastern and the televised portion of the card beginning on Spike at 9 p.m. Eastern.

UPDATE: Bader, Escudero Are Stars; Browning Stole the Show

Full results are below.

Ultimate Fighter coach Frank Mir thinks Dave Kaplan is going to give Junie Browning a beatdown in Saturday night's Ultimate Fighter Finale.

"Junie will quit," Mir told me. "You saw that against Efrain (Escudero). He fought hard for a few minutes, but when he realized that Efrain is a tough guy, he laid down. That choke only took three or four seconds to develop. No one's ever going to choke me with that. He was looking for an excuse to lose the fight. In his mind it was better to tap than get knocked out."

But while Mir thinks Browning is weak, he has a lot of respect for Kaplan.

"David Kaplan is really tough mentally," Mir said. "If he follows his game plan he'll win the fight. Kaplan's leg kicks are vicious. If David chooses to put his hands down and do what he did against Philippe (Nover) and take two or three shots in a row, then yeah, anyone can get dropped."

Mir sees a lot of promise in Browning, but he questions whether Browning will ever commit himself to his sport.

We're not done with Junie Browning.

Even though Efrain Escudero gave Junie the beatdown that so many of us wanted to see him take on last night's episode of The Ultimate Fighter, Browning will still step into the Octagon next Saturday. Browning will take on Dave Kaplan in the finale of The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 on December 13 at The Palms in Las Vegas.

Obviously, this is smart scheduling on the part of the UFC. Junie was the biggest villain of Season 8, and we all love to watch a villain because we hope to see him get his ass kicked. Junie's a jerk, but he's a jerk who's good for ratings.