(She makes an arousing compelling argument.) 

It has not been a good year for heated rematches set against the backdrop of MMA-themed reality shows. Not only were our hopes of Faber/Cruz III dashed before our very eyes on the tail end of what has been a forgettable season of TUF 15 here in America, but even the coaches of TUF: Brazil (or at least one-half of them) have been bitten by the injury bug, delaying a rematch that not only promised guaranteed fireworks, but one that has eluded us for what seems like a decade now.

And apparently Wanderlei Silva, a.k.a the TUF: Brazil coach who wasn’t forced out of his expected matchup at UFC 147, shares our frustration. Ever since Vitor Belfort was forced to withdraw from his much-anticipated rematch with “The Axe Murderer” due to a broken hand, Silva has seemingly exploded with rage at Belfort’s…I don’t know, clumsiness? Insolence? We’re not really sure how you criticize someone for getting injured, unless that someone is Ken Shamrock, of course, but Wandy was relentless in his mockery of Belfort, calling him an “amateur” among other things in a recent Twitter tirade:

(Fighting me) with one hand (laughs)? We are professionals. It’s a great irresponsibility not to be careful on training, a great disrespect towards the fans. I’m really sad. I’m ready to knock you out, you have nowhere to run. This fight is happening. I guess you got scared of me. Nobody trains so hard that breaks his hand. We use the best equipments, gloves, bandages.

More from Silva’s Twitter rant, along with Joana’s response, are after the jump.

(Props: TMZ via MMA Mania)

Look, nobody looks good in a mugshot. But after spending all night partying, allegedly getting physical with an unnamed victim her boyfriend Praveen Chandra, then getting arrested, I’m actually surprised that Arianny Celeste looks as good as she does. It could have been a lot worse, is what I’m saying.

At long last, here’s Arianny Celeste’s mugshot from her domestic violence booking on Saturday morning. The UFC ring girl was released on $3,000 bail after about 12 hours in custody, got in a power-nap sometime during the day, and still showed up for the UFC 146 main card looking pretty damn presentable. And that’s why she’s had a steady job carrying round cards around the Octagon for over five years — other professional hot chicks simply cannot hang at that level.

UPDATE: The Las Vegas Sun has details of the incident that led to Celeste’s arrest. Read on after the jump. You will not be disappointed…

(That awkward moment when fireballs fail to shoot out of your hands.)

The UFC paid out $1,513,000 in disclosed salaries and performance bonuses for last Saturday’s UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir card, with Junior Dos Santos, Frank Mir, and Cain Velasquez‘s matching $200,000 checks eating up about 40% of the total. The full salary list is below via MMAJunkie. Keep in mind that these figures don’t include additional revenue from sponsorships, undisclosed “locker room bonuses,” or percentages of the pay-per-view revenue that are in some fighters’ contracts.

Junior Dos Santos: $200,000 (no win bonus)
def. Frank Mir: $200,000

Cain Velasquez: $200,000 (includes $100,000 win bonus)
def. Antonio Silva: $70,000

Roy Nelson: $110,000 (includes $20,00 win bonus and $70,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
def. Dave Herman: $21,000

Stipe Miocic: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Shane Del Rosario: $20,000

UFC light-heavyweight champ Jon Jones took the first step towards getting this unfortunate drunk-driving business behind him by pleading guilty to his DWI charge in a Binghamton, NY, court this morning. WBNG Action News has the details:

Jones entered into a plea deal with the District Attorney’s office Tuesday in Binghamton City Court. Under the terms of the deal he pled guilty to Driving While Intoxicated. Two traffic violations, one for an improper turn and another for deviating from a direct course were dismissed. Jones’ Attorney told the judge the agreement for punishment is a fine and a conditional discharge.

(Props to CP reader Jason Jenkins for delivering both the video and the knockout-to-end -all-CP-reader-knockouts.) 

We’ve only said this once in the history of CagePotato, but thank God for Facebook. If not for this social networking device, we would have never come across CP reader Jason Jenkins’ incredible knockout that occurred over the weekend at Ultimate Impact K1 in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

The video, which Jenkins passed along to us just a couple of hours ago, features the “Grasshopper” going full on Edson Barboza on his opponent, Phill Savage, delivering an incredible spinning wheel kick KO less than a minute into their fight. The fact that he throws an extra spin into his kick for good measure makes the knockout all the more impressive. Seriously, it is probably the coolest finish we’ve seen since Cairo Rocha’s Capoeira style destruction of Francisco Neves back in December of 2011.

The brutiful KO awaits you after the jump. 

Following his decision loss to CB Dollaway at UFC 146 and immediate firing, a somewhat depressed-sounding Jason Miller went on MMAFighting.com’s The MMA Hour to discuss his uncertain future, and the retirement that he promised if he lost to Dollaway. On the one hand, Miller seemed like he’d come to terms with his failure in the UFC and departure from MMA:

“I feel a little bit free, in a weird way…I know that sounds strange when I’ve devoted my entire life to fighting. I feel like life is unlocked for a whole new set of adventures…I don’t have the need to super-impress one person in particular and make them happy. I can focus on making myself happy. I don’t have the pressures of a commissioner chasing me around with a piss cup. I don’t have the pressures of everybody verbally abusing me for every one one of my missteps via social media. I feel like a weight is lifted…Every fighter gives the same answer when they say they’re retired. Pretty much every fighter says ‘I’m retired until I need money.’ But I’m a pretty smart dude, and I have a lot of avenues available to me.”

But at other times in interview, Miller’s down-in-the-dumps vibe came off as alarmingly self-destructive:

(Sources indicate that Silva’s knee buckled during an intense set of supermodel-lunges.)

According to Tatame, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has confirmed that he suffered a minor knee injury in training, about six weeks out from his rematch with arch-rival Chael Sonnen at UFC 148 (July 7th, Las Vegas). Silva later tweeted that his knee is feeling fine and it won’t stop him from settling his obligation with Sonnen.

Silva’s injury brings a discomforting sense of deja vu. After Chael inexplicably won the first four-and-a-half rounds from Silva during their first meeting in August 2010, Silva’s manager Ed Soares blamed his lackluster performance on a recent rib injury. Silva vs. Sonnen 2 originally held such promise for the champ; if Silva was 100% healthy and fighting in front of his countrymen, Sonnen was a dead man walking, guaranteed. Then the fight was moved, and this knee thing happened. Will we be looking at another tough five-round grind for the Spider?

(Who wants to learn how to maker Tater Tots the *fun* way?) 

There are two schools of thought on how a given fighter should end their career in the UFC. The first, and perhaps most honorable method, involves a fighter going out on their shield, fighting until they can fight no more, so to speak. The second involves a fighter talking a ridiculous amount of trash, losing a fight in embarrassing fashion, and throwing a hissy fit backstage that only enforces their bosses decision to fire them. Thankfully, Mirko Cro Cop chose the former method (though he perhaps stuck around a couple fights too long), and after suffering a trio of (T)KO losses to Frank Mir, Brendan Schuab, and Roy Nelson, was ousted from the UFC.

This is not to say that we got any enjoyment out of witnessing the Croatian’s demise, but more so that we were happy to see Cro Cop come to the realization that his career in mixed martial arts had gone as far as it could go. His career in kickboxing, however, has seemingly yet to come to a crashing halt, as Filipvoic managed to pick up a rather impressive second round knockout victory over Loren Javier Jorge at K-1 Rising earlier today in Madrid, Spain.

Cro Cop looked better than we’ve seen him in quite some time, unleashing a few beautiful, snappy head kicks that were nothing short of nostalgic. But the finishing blows did not come as a result of his well-documented kicks, but rather from a series of uppercuts that dropped Jorge a two occasions, the latter of which he could not recover from. Cro Cop looked quick, efficient, and more than anything else, eager to finish the fight when presented the opportunity. Again, it was a very nostalgic experience for both Cro Cop and those who had the privilege of catching the fight.

Take a trip down memory lane after the jump. 

(“Okay, maybe she didn’t actually hit me, but she was clearly trying to hurt my feelings.”)

Sorry for being late to the party on this one, but as you might have heard by now, UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste — real name Annie Schwartz-Wasserstein* — was arrested early Saturday morning and charged with “battery (domestic violence).” She was taken into custody by the Clarke County Police Department at 7:30 a.m., and later released on $3,000 bond before showing up halfway through the UFC 146 main card.

Your first assumption will probably be, “Whoa, she beat up Tiki?” But until more details surface, we can only speculate. (I mean, theoretically, she could have also choked a live-in personal assistant, right?) MMAJunkie passes along Arianny’s last few tweets before her arrest, which suggest she was on a collision course with disaster/hilarity:

Near midnight, she posted a photo of her herself in evening attire sitting at a table, with a caption that read: “Dinner at Mizumi,” referring to a new restaurant at the Wynn Las Vegas. A few hours later, she tweeted another photo of herself with a male companion who was kissing the side of her face, with a caption: “??! forever n always??” An additional tweet came around 3:30 a.m. with her making a crazy look and the caption: “I be going crayyyy ha hey bay bayyy.”

We’ll update you as soon as we know more. For the record, Dana White stated on Saturday night that the UFC has Celeste’s back and supports her 100%.

Related: Arianny Celeste Is Wonderfully Topless in FHM Philippines’ May 2012 Issue

* Not really.

Friday night, Bellator Heavyweight Champion Cole Konrad kicked off an impressive weekend for heavyweight MMA with his first title defense against Eric Prindle at Bellator 70 in New Orleans, Louisiana. After the event, I managed to catch up with the champion in order to talk about his victory and the current state of Team DeathClutch. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my microphone with me (again), so at times the interview is hard to hear. I’ve taken the time to transcribe it for you, available after the jump.