James Thompson on US Soil - MMAUniverse.com

One guy flying the flag come Saturday in sunny Miami, Florida is none other than the "Colossus" James Thompson who comes up against Brett Rogers who is undefeated in his career thus far.

Thompson is a huge name in the UK despite recent poor form from the Gloucestershire fighter on UK soil.

His last 3 fights for UK promotion Cage Rage have ended in two KO's and a TKO, although one fight as a last minute opponant against "Butterbean" Eric Esch which was a little controversial at the time as some felt the fight was stopped earlier than it should of been.

Thompson's success in MMA stems from his performances in Japan where he built a 4-3 record for the Japanese based Pride organisation, defeating fighters such as MMA legend Don Frye, the giant Paulo Ceasar Silva and Hidehoki Yoshida, who has had encounters with Mirko Flipovic, Wanderlei Silva and legend Royce Gracie.

Thompson has since shut up shop and headed across the Atlantic to take his game to the next level.

The place Thompson has gone to is none other than Randy Couture's HQ in Las Vegas, Xtreme Couture, so the Englishman can train with the best and make an impact in the USA, and in Gary Shaw's EliteXC organisation, and with the two main fights on the card both being heavyweight fighters, Thompson will be looking at possible future opponents if he can brush Rogers heavy hands off.

Street Certified is headlined by two big sluggers in the business who love to throwdown. Transformed street fighter and something of a celebrity on the internet, turned MMA fighter, Kimbo Slice (real name Kevin Ferguson) under the tutelage of Bas Rutten will look to make an example over legend David "Tank" Abbott who is mostly known for his wars back in the old UFC days.

Ferguson is 2-0 in his MMA career coming off two wins, a submission and TKO, combined only a total of one minute and thirty one seconds fighting against opponantsRay Mercer and Bo Cantrall.

There were some rumours circling around the Cantrall fight as apparently there was a problem with Ferguson's trademark facial hair and for health reasons the fight was under pressure and there was the possibility that it wouldn't go ahead, but still the proceedings followed whereby Ferguson finished Cantrall in a mere nineteen seconds.

A man who'll never turned down a fight is Abbott, for example the Gary Turner fight at Cage Rage where he had six hours notice before catching a flight to the UK. In his last 9 fights, Abbott has gone 2-7 which is unimpressive to say the least, but he always possesses a threat in his punching power - just ask Wesley Correira.!

Apart from the main event, the other main fight is Antonio Silva and Ricco Rodriguez which is more than likely going to add to the view count if Kimbo and Tank don't bring them in for the first Elite show in Florida.

Also on the card is former middleweight fighter Scott Smith taking on tough Australian fighter Kyle Noke.

EliteXC Street Certified happens 16th February at the University of Miami's BankUnited Center.