Chris Liguori fights on the main card and must have conflicting thoughts.  He will surely be prepared and motivated to take the ROC LW title Vs. Cory Mahon but Liguori was one of the unsung fighters affected by the fall of EliteXC. The Ricardo Almeida student had been training to fight on Showtime for EliteXC in their previously scheduled November card.

Jersey’s Dante Rivera will be eager to get back in the win column in his first fight since going 2-1 on the Ultimate Fighter 8 show. He lost his last show fight to Jesse Taylor, and then lost his last overall fight on the TUF 7 Fight Night final to Matt Riddle.

Lou Neglia hits up the Midwest tapping undefeated Paul Bradley, out of Bloomington, IN, to fight Dante Rivera.  Bradley has never lost in ten fights and will take a big step forward if he can knock off Rivera in his backyard.

Costas Phillipou returns to the cage after defeating Brendan Barrett due to cut stoppage at ROC 21 to face John Doyle.  The Serra-Longo fighter has been busting out brutal workouts as a partner to Pete Sell in his recent preparation for Josh Burkman.  Phillipou told us he thought he would be fighting either Brendan Barrett in a rematch or Ricardo Romero at ROC 22 but both declined the offer to bang with the Long Islander by way of Cyprus.

Jay Isip returns to action and may not carry the biggest name on the card, but to insiders he is one of the most exciting fighters on the East Coast.  Jim Genia recently wrote on mmajournalist.blogspot.com about Isip …

That’s right, Jay Isip is coming back. “Who?” you ask? Back when BAMA FightNight was the only show in town, Isip - who hails from Team Endgame and fights like a 155-pound wrestler on crystal meth - was kicking ass in Shootfighting tournaments, and he made the leap to Reality Fighting and Sportfighting when those promotions rolled around. Yes, his record sucks, but the dude had zero problems fighting the best (Kurt Pellegrino, Frankie Edgar, Deividas Taurosevicius), and every time he fought you could count on a balls-to-the-wall performance.

Isip is now with Team Pellegrino and fights John Salgado at ROC 22 from Team Ross Zocchi.

Mike Stewart looks to rebound in the middleweight division after getting choked out by Andrew Riddle at ROC 21.  Additionally, Stewart was briefly a contestant on the current Ultimate Fighter 8 show as a replacement for Jason Guida.  He lost to Krzysztof Soszynski and never made it into the house. Stewart fights under the tutelage of Justin Chim Chim Garcia at Jungle Gym in the Bronx.

Nick Pace is the kid I am most excited to watch.  This is his first pro fight yet he has been a beast at 135-141lbs in the New Breed Fighters amateur league going 6-0.  R. Scott Morgan, the president of New Breed Fighters, believes Pace is destined for greatness. Pace is a Tiger Schulmann MMA fighter.

For more details about ROC 22 go to www.ringofcombat.com.
All photos except for the Phillipou pic are courtesy of Ring Of Combat.