— The hype of Brock Lesnar washed over us like a dark, awesome wave.

— We ranked the members of the legendary Gracie family in order of importance.

— You bastards went all-out in the first Chuck Liddell caption contest, and three people won autographed copies of Chuck’s new book. Come back Monday and at least two more signed books will be up for grabs.

— Details started to leak about The Ultimate Fighter 7.

— We never thought we’d write the phrase “pit fighting” again, but here we are.

— We took our Power Rankings to the next level.

— The gory image of a post-fight Joe Stevenson compelled the Potato Nation to dispute the specific legalities of inserting fingers into orifices.

— What we do in life echoes in eternity. Also, a bunch of losers share a very ironic nickname.

— At the time of this posting, 39% of you think Frank Mir will beat Brock Lesnar by submission, while 38% of you think Brock Lesnar will beat Frank Mir by TKO/KO. We shall see, won’t we…

(“Ladies and gentlemen…I’m just a caveman. I fell on some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your strange weight-measurement machine frightens and confuses me! My primitive mind can’t grasp these concepts. But there is one thing I do know — those girls behind me have glorious racks.”)

Alright settle down, settle down:

— Weigh-ins for UFC 81 go down today at 4pm PT / 7pm ET, and will be broadcast live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center on UFC.com.

— More importantly, we will be liveblogging UFC 81 tomorrow starting at 7pm PT / 10pm ET. Readers who have experienced our previous liveblogs know that it’s the best party on the Internet. Especially if you’re too cheap to pay for the event.

— In other UFC news, Michael Bisping has confirmed that his first fight as a middleweight will be against Charles McCarthy at UFC 83 in Montreal on April 19th. Dana White predicts that 83 will be “the biggest UFC event ever.”

— And: FiveOuncesofPain reports that a match between lightweights Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard has been added to the talent-bloated Ultimate Fight Night 13 (Broomfield, CO; 4/2). Man, they should really break that card up into two back-to-back nights. Especially if they expect us to watch 16 non-stop fights directly afterwards. Our minds need time to recover…

Chuck Liddell is now saying that his next fight could be against Shogun in June — which would be a hell of a lot more interesting than Jardine. Since we haven’t featured Rua on F.o.t.D. lately, here’s his match with Alistair Overeem at PRIDE 33 (2/24/07). Though Overeem dominated early with his striking, Rua eventually got the Demolition Man on his back and punished him with strikes from the top. The fight starts at the 5:14 mark:

UPDATE: The Liddell/Rua fight is official. Nice! Judging from their last fights, the Iceman will smoke Shogun like a pork shoulder…

(The Nogueira brothers: Like lookin’ in a mirror.)

Lots of MMA action this weekend and we’re not just talking about UFC: 81 Breaking Point. Let’s start with tonight.

Hardcore Championship Fighting: Destiny
Tonight’s event features Antonio Rogerio Nogueira against Todd Gouwenberg, a 7-2 journeyman who is riding a four fight win streak. The event will air on The Score, a not-so-high-profile Canadian sports network. Should be an adjustment for “Little Nog” since he’s been used to fighting under some pretty bright lights. The Western Canadian organization is fighting for recognition and Rogerio was a great score, but someone like Gouwenberg is not the type of talent he should have to step down to fight. Also on the HCF card are some other fighters you’ll recognize – and some you’ve never heard of:

-Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos v Gegard Mousasi
-Thomas Schulte v Garett Davis
-David Loiseau v Jason Day
-Brendan Seguin v Derrick Noble
-Damir Mirenic v Mike Pyle
-Andrew Buckland v Dan Chambers
-Myles Merola v Ariel Sexton
-Tim Hague v Miodrag Petkovic
-Nabil Khatib v Lucas Rota
-Fabian Cortez v Juan Barrantes

BodogFIGHT: Nick Thompson vs. John Troyer
The main event tonight will feature Nick “The Goat” Thompson vs. John Troyer, hence the title. This one goes down in Vegas and will see Troyer in the biggest fight of his young career. This welterweight title fight is also notable because it will apparently be The Goat’s last bout for BodogFIGHT. Losing a character like Nick Thompson will certainly be a blow to Bodog, especially for an organization that is already hurting for fans.

It’s hard to express the love we have for you all right now. When we posted our first Chuck Liddell caption contest on Monday, we thought we’d be lucky if we got a couple dozen entries. Well, you guys must really want those signed Iceman: My Fighting Life books, because the contest brought in 100 captions before today’s deadline, and almost all of them were LOL-funny. Seriously, you guys kicked ass, and we had a great time reading your one-liners. In fact, we’re going to give out three autographed books today instead of the two we were originally planning on parting with. This was a very difficult decision, but…

WINNERS
Than: “Yeah, my buddy Tim is outside, he’s down for a gang bang, but be warned his championship belt is gonna bruise you.”
[Ed. note: Oh! It's so topical!]

Colin G: “Hey baby, did you read my book? …… Me neither”
[Ed. note: Good pickup line...great ghost-writer. Jokes aside, our contact at Dutton has assured us that Chuck has read every page of his book — and he loves it!]

Brad: “People say that I don’t train hard anymore, but they have no idea how hard you have to work to get laid with this haircut”
[Ed. note: ...and in just 25 words, Brad has summarized the entire essence of Chuck Liddell.]

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Toolman: Chuck: Man…uhhh i tellya wut..man..there’s eh um. yeah dude…for real. i was like….yeah..uh..er..you know whut i’m sayin.
[Ed. note: That probably comes closest to what Chuck was actually saying at the time.]

KLovick Says: What has one thumb and wants to replace your cigarette with his dick?………
[Ed. note: Clever.]

MMA-hole: “Nikki — my Range Rover, 15 minutes. Andre — the bathroom, now.”
[Ed. note: The idea of a pansexual Chuck Liddell terrifies us.]

natureboy: Ultimate Fighter Chuck Liddell attempts to recruit a camera operator for a “3 Girls, 1 Chuck” internet video.
[Ed. note: We love "3 Girls, 1 Chuck." But shouldn't she be a co-star? I don't know if I'd relegate her to the crew...]

beast: Would you mind putting out the cigarette, maam? This is a no smoking area.
[Ed. note: "Plus, my tiny bald friend says you've been using his head as an ashtray."]

RawDawg: “Then I said ‘careful my thumb might be a little cold,’ then POW! Right in the pooper! — Oh hey babe.”
[Ed. note: "...I was just telling my friend about the time I stuck my thumb up your ass."]

Roark: “Sorry lady, I thought that was the belt Rampage took from me!”
[Ed. note: Damn, that is a big belt.]

DISHONORABLE MENTION:
sean: Iceman Brakes The Ice By Braking a Midgit.
[Ed. note: Lame pun + misspelling "break" twice and "midget" once = quadruple failure points.]

Than, Colin G, and Brad: Please drop a line to feedback@cagepotato.com with your addresses and we’ll get the books out to you as soon as we can. As for the rest of you — we still have seven more autographed Iceman copies left to give away, so come back Monday and we’ll do this aaaaaaall over again.

Since it was such a success* last time, we thought we’d take another crack at predicting which fighters will pocket tomorrow‘s end-of-night bonuses. But first we’d like to predict the amount of the bonuses themselves. If you’ve been paying attention, you know that the UFC’s Fight/Submission/Knockout bonuses have decreased from $55,000 to $50,000 to $35,000 over the last three pay-per-view events. After the last drastic reduction, the general opinion was that the amounts were going down to recoup some of the money lost to the UFC’s European expansion effort. Now that the show is back in the U.S., they can be a little more generous. And they will — but just enough to demonstrate improvement and shut people up. We’re saying the bonuses will be $40k each. Now let’s get to the fight card:

MAIN CARD
Tim Sylvia vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (heavyweights)
Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar (heavyweights)
Jeremy Horn vs. Nate Marquardt (middleweights)
Rob Yundt vs. Ricardo Almeida (middleweights)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Gleison Tibau vs. Tyson Griffin (lightweights)
Chris Lytle vs. Kyle Bradley (welterweights)
Marvin Eastman vs. Terry Martin (middleweights)
David Heath vs. Tim Boetsch (light heavyweights)
Keita Nakamura vs. Rob Emerson (welterweights)

Knockout of the Night: Eastman vs. Martin is a battle between two good fighters who have had terrible luck in the Octagon. The winner will prove that he still belongs there; the loser could very well be banished forever. Thus, we expect both men to come out swinging their asses off. We were tempted to give this a Fight of the Night nod, but it feels too much like a first-round-TKO kind of match. Marvin Eastman has been knocked out every time he’s fought in the UFC. Four of Terry Martin’s last five fights have resulted in KO/TKO victories — and we think he’ll do it again tomorrow night, picking up the bonus in the process. Dark horse: Kyle Bradley. If you want to talk about good fighters who have had rough times in the Octagon, Chris Lytle is Exhibit fucking A (34-15-4 MMA record, 3-7 in the UFC). There’s nothing to suggest that his fortunes will improve at “Breaking Point,” and his opponent Kyle Bradley is a guy who has been paying his dues in regional promotions as a knockout artist. His current seven-fight win-streak includes five first-round KO/TKOs, and he could be on his way to adding one more.

Yeah, you’re probably sick of this one by now. But we thought we’d run it One! More! Time! as we enter the home stretch to Lesnar’s UFC debut tomorrow against Frank Mir. Lesnar’s opponent at K-1 Dynamite USA (6/2/07) was an overfed can whose most notable fights were losses against Bob Sapp and Don Frye. And what did we learn? Brock has no time for the customary pre-fight fist-bump. Yes, that’s ex-WWE superstar Bill Goldberg freaking the fuck out when his homeboy scores his first MMA win.

And sure, why not — here’s the video of Frank Mir breaking Tim Sylvia’s arm.

(It’s his party, and he’ll cry if he wants to!)

The usual UFC event parties hosted by fighters are being planned, one for tonight and another for Saturday when UFC 81 blows up in Vegas. Of course, you actually have to be in Vegas to join in the merriment.

Joe Daddy Stevenson – who fought at UFC 80, losing to BJ Penn – will be the man of the hour this evening at TAO, which is in the Venetian. On Da Strip, no less. It is open to the public and Joe Daddy will be there signing autographs with his blood and posing for pics starting at 10 p.m. (PST). Luckily, you’ll have two days to get rid of the hangover before the next par-tee.

On Saturday, Frank Mir will host a post UFC 81 party at Rum Jungle, which is in the Mandalay Bay. How convenient since that is where he will be fighting Brock Lesnar. This will be the party to be at since a lot of fighters and MMA execs usually attend the closest after-party. It’s being sponsored by Xyience Warrior Wear and MMA Warehouse. If you have trouble finding Rum Jungle, just follow the pieces of the penis tattoo that Frank Mir ripped off of Lesnar during the fight.

If trying to find Joe Daddy’s party, follow the blood trail.

Looks like Dave “Pee Wee” Herman is being added to the EliteXC February 16th card. The heavyweight is 9-0 and will be fighting Seth Petruzelli – yes, the same Petruzelli from TUF 2. Petruzelli is 9-4. The two heavyweight fighters will square off in Miami. This is the first in a multi-fight deal for “Pee Wee”.

Herman is a hot prospect and has knocked out six of his nine opponents and has never gone to the second round. He’s only been pro for about 13 months, so he obviously likes the cage. Petruzelli is 2-2 since TUF 2, both of those losses coming in the UFC.

Showtime will air the “Street Certified” event where the main event will see Kimbo attempting to rip that dumbass goatee right off of Tank Abbott’s face.

Here’s what things are looking like for the 16th:

Tank Abbott vs. Kimbo Slice
Ricco Rodriguez vs. Antonio Silva
Yves Edwards vs. Edson Berto
Dave Herman vs. Seth Petruzelli
Kyle Noke vs. Scott Smith
Brett Roges vs. James Thompson

In Kimbo’s latest video, he talks about his web mastering skills, making his johnson look big, and the guy is obsessed with beatin’ down Sean Gannon.

He also talks about some other stuff, like his love of steak. But my goodness, if Lesnar can withstand the questions lobbed at him by these boring hacks, he can withstand just about anything. I got to the 4:41 mark before tapping out.

(Props: BloodyElbow)

So, here’s something interesting I noticed while looking up fight records on Sherdog today:

Ross “The Gladiator” Pointon: 5-10-0

Greg “The Gladiator” Wikan: 11-13-0

Orlando “The Gladiator” Weit: 1-3-0

Gabriel “Gladiator” Santos: 4-5-0

You hear that, people? The ghost of Maximus — father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife — does not want you to cheapen his memory by using “Gladiator” as your nickname. If you do, he will curse you with a losing record. And he will have his vengeance, in this life or the next.

Please spread awareness.

Before he was the scariest man in the UFC, Anderson Silva had to make a name for himself at a lowly Ultimate Fight Night against Chris “Bed Pisser” Leben. Leben had put together five straight UFC wins by the time he stepped into the Octagon against the Spider at UFN 5 (6/28/06), but he was woefully outgunned by Silva’s laser-guided striking, and the match was called in less than a minute. Silva got a title shot against Rich Franklin for his very next fight.

(“Do I look like a junkie?”)

Tatame.com is quoting Paulo Filho‘s boxing coach, Josuel Distak, as saying that the WEC middleweight champ will next fight real estate agent Chael Sonnen in a rematch of their December ’07 fight (WEC 31). The last fight ended with Chael Sonnen submitting and claiming he didn’t. Distak claims Paulo “wasn’t well” in that fight and “Sonnen asked for a revenge and we accepted.” We’ll get to see if Chael really has turned a corner – since he was bitch-slapping Paulo for two rounds until the submission – or if Paulo truly “wasn’t well”. That fight made us look a little closer at Filho and the rematch will be very telling.

The excuse coming out of the champ’s camp for his ass-dragging at WEC 31 is that he had some difficulty making the 185 lbs for the fight. Distak is saying they’ll remedy this by moving the fighter up to a light heavy.

“Thanks God this will be Paulão’s last fight at 84 category. After this fight he’ll go up to 93kg category.”

For all you non-metric system Americans, 93kg is 205 pounds. And at light heavyweight, Filho might be a little outsized. Nothing a little juice won’t cure, according to Dan Henderson in a recent MMANews interview.

MMANews.com:What are your thoughts on Paulo Filho?

Dan Henderson: I don’t think he has been very impressive in his last two performances since coming to the US but I think that’s what not being able to use Steroids will do to you.

MMANews.com:Are you saying Filho may be a juicer?

Dan Henderson: Well that’s my opinion anyway. He hasn’t looked good since he left Pride.

MMANews.com: Was steroid abuse a problem in Pride?

Dan Henderson: People didn’t get tested.

MMANews.com: So I suppose if you can get away with it why not.

Dan Henderson: Exactly.

Here’s the video from Chuck Liddell’s appearance on Late Night With Conan O’Brien on Monday. The best exchange:

Conan: There’s an old adage in fighting…no sex before a fight. And when you’re training for a fight, no sex. What’s your feeling about that?
Chuck: I don’t believe in that, I never have. I actually go the opposite, I think.
Conan: Sex during the fight?

As Chuck explains, what’s harmful is going out and chasing sex all night, but he doesn’t have to chase it anymore so there’s no problem. Makes sense…

(Props: MMA Mania)

(We couldn’t find any photos of Rob Yundt, so here’s a Google Image Search result for “Alaska.”)

The UFC posted this message on their website late yesterday:

Unbeaten UFC newcomer Rob Yundt (7-0) has stepped in on short notice to replace middleweight up and comer Alan Belcher against Ricardo Almeida on Saturday night’s UFC 81 card in Las Vegas. Belcher was forced to withdraw from the bout due to a severe case of bronchitis.

Our most sincere “Sucks, bro” goes out to Belcher, who last fought at UFC 77 in October where he sliced a Panama Canal-sized gash through Kalib Starnes’s forehead. But hey, he probably would have been stomped by Almeida, a Brazilian middleweight who has beaten Ryo Chonan, Nate Marquardt and Kazuo Misaki in his last three fights.

All of Rob Yundt’s matches have been in the Alaska Fighting Championship organization, and judging from the following highlight reel, the dude’s a scary-strong wrestler. Going from fighting in the Alaskan wilderness to fighting on the main card of a UFC pay-per-view event is a huge opportunity for the kid, and we hope he makes he most of it. Still, that whole “three-days notice” thing could be an issue.

(He’s got a little Captain in him.)

Though the UFC had been in talks to bring one of the best lightweights in the world to the Octagon, the two sides couldn’t come to terms, and it was announced today that Takanori Gomi has signed with Japan’s World Victory Road organization instead. Gomi will earn approximately $190,000 per fight, and makes his WVR debut at “Sengoku” on March 5th, to be held at the National Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo. No opponent for Gomi has been named yet, but the card is expected to host fights between Phil Baroni and Sanae Kikuta, Kazuo Misaki and Siyar Bahadurzada, and Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos and Makoto Takimoto; a bout between Roger Gracie and Hidehiko Yoshida has also been rumored.

So, this blows. With every botched high-profile negotiation, the UFC’s claim to having “the best fighters in the world” becomes even more suspect, and Gomi was a big one. In particular, we would have loved to see a potential re-match between him and B.J. Penn. Penn submitted “The Fireball Kid” at a Rumble on the Rock event in 2003, after which Gomi went on a ten-fight win-streak, plowing through the likes of Jens Pulver, Ralph Gracie, Luiz Azeredo (twice) and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai. If the UFC can’t open their pocketbooks for guys like Sakurai and Norifumi Yamamoto and offer them what they’re worth, this is going to keep happening. Until then, we’re stuck waking up at six in the morning to watch Japanese fight cards on HDNet…

Announcement! Please check out our Power Rankings page, which now features insightful commentary on some of the fighters’ rankings. You can also leave comments for each individual weight class now, so fire away…

(Keith Kizer can’t wait to stick it to you.)

Recently the Nevada State Athletic Commission announced that they would be conducting random drug tests. Meaning, MMA fighters can be tested at any time, regardless of whether they are scheduled to fight or not. And a missed test gets you a big “F” for fucked. While not a ton of details were provided in the initial announcement, MMA Junkie has since pulled a little more out of the executive director of the NSAC, Keith Kizer.

Although his answers started off like this – “I don’t know off the top of my head. I can’t think of anything specific….it’s hard to know all the possibilities….Ehhh. It’s hard to know in advance.” – he did answer some questions, one of which we already stated: if a fighter looks like he’s changed physically, then he’ll be tested.

Oh yeah, sure, sure. That’s possible. I don’t want to say it would be (a reason), but it could be. That’s a possible deal. I don’t want to say that would be a major reason to test a guy, but that’s a possible reason to test a guy.

Restating the point adds up to: “Yes, that will be the main reason we test a fighter.” But the good thing for fighters who – like those of you who have spent a night downtown because you were with your bud (who had some bud) when he got busted – they won’t be tested just because a fighter they train with got nailed for juicing. Although, Kizer admitted that if you were treated by the same doc or team, they might look into it. Again meaning, “yes.” But don’t misunderstand. No organization that is set up to police people and administer drug tests actually want to bust anyone. Cops don’t enjoy writing you tickets, do they?

(Dan Lauzon as “Jigsaw”)

World Championship Fighting’s new season is set to kick-off on February 8th. Along with some okay fights, the WCF has already announced they’ll have Dana White’s bald head glaring under the lights that night. And as if that wasn’t enough, they’ve got another announcement on their website. Seems that “Tapout” – the Versus reality show made by the guys at Tapout that travels around profiling up-and-comers – will be filming at the event as well.

MMA Fightline has a portion of the press release:

World Championship Fighting announces the filming of the “Tapout” reality show at the February 8 event.

The Tapout Crew will be filming another episode of their self-titled reality show on the Versus network at the World Championship Fighting (WCF) event in Wilmington, Mass., on Feb. 8 where Brockton-native Dan Lauzon will be the featured fighter for the episode which documents the Tapout Crew’s quest to search for the best up and coming Mixed Martial Arts fighters in the Country.

As a testament to the phenomenal growth of Mixed Martial Arts, The Tapout Crew went from selling t-shirts out of a trunk in the parking lot at mixed martial arts (MMA) shows in California 10 years ago to building their company into the largest apparel brand in the sport. The Tapout Company now grosses millions of dollars per year, has their own magazine publication, their own television reality show and sponsors many of the top fighters in the world including those in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Shall we stroke each other a little more?

A lot of notable stuff happening this afternoon — none of which is interesting enough to warrant an entire post. Onward…

— HDNet Fights has formed a broadcast partnership with Canadian MMA outfit Hardcore Championship Fighting, and will air three of its events this year, starting with a February 22nd card featuring UFC vet Pete Spratt (17-10) against Ryan Ford (4-0).

— Zuffa has gone to some very shady lengths to rescue Xyience from bankruptcy. As Adam Swift reports on Sherdog, Xyience has stiffed fighters like Matt Serra and Rich Franklin to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, yet Zuffa remains its third-biggest share-holder (through a made-up company named “Bevanda Magica” — Italian for “magic drink”) and its biggest creditor (through another made-up company called “Zyen,” which gave the floundering company an additional $1 million loan last week). Are the Fertittas allowing an inexplicable personal loyalty come in the way of good business? Don’t ask me!

— MMA Agent/M-1 Global exec Monte Cox has convinced Jeremy Horn to use a cover of Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” — sung by a 17-year-old girl — as his entrance music on Saturday. In other words, Horn’s dignity has a price, and Cox was able to match or exceed it.

— MMA Fever has the Fight Science: MMA episode in its entirety.

— Nick “The Goat” Thompson has revealed that he’s close to signing with World Victory Road and HCF (see above). He would sign with the UFC, if not for two things: 1) The UFC pays dick. 2) Georges St. Pierre would kick his ass.

— We’re just going to close our eyes for like 15 minutes. Wake us up if we start snoring.

Frank Mir’s last two fights in the UFC lasted just 77 and 69 seconds; one went well, one went not-so-well. Either tap your opponent early or get punched out just as quickly — those are pretty much Frank’s options on Saturday.

(Frank Mir vs. Antoni Hardonk, UFC 74, 8/25/07)

(Frank Mir vs. Brandon Vera, UFC 65, 11/18/06)

10. Roger Gracie In 2005, 23-year-old Roger Gracie won the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling World Championship by submitting all eight opponents, something that had never been done before. The son of Reyla Gracie, Roger has racked up numerous first place finishes in jiu-jitsu tournaments around the world, and won his first MMA match in December [...]

(From ESPN via BloodyElbow)

Holy, freakin’, crap. Looks like we already have a top contender for this year’s “10 Best MMA Photos” list.

By the way, Joe wants you to know that he was totally not crying at the end of that fight.

(Coach Forrest Griffin, ready for war.)

When we first heard about the big changes Dana White had planned for the seventh season of The Ultimate Fighter, our minds raced. Would the Octagon Girls be living in the house? Would the coaches’ challenges be decided not by normal bowling, but by Cosmic Bowling? Would there be a revolutionary new pit-fighting surface?

No, nothing crazy like that. Instead, the first few couple episodes will just be a lot more action-packed. As MMA Junkie reports:

According to a source close to the show, “The Ultimate Fighter 7” will start with 32 cast members — not the usual 16 — and every one of them will have to fight as soon as the show begins. The 16 winners earn a spot in the house, and the 16 losers are sent packing for home…That’s a far cry from past seasons of the reality series, when the first fight of the season sometimes didn’t take place until a second or even third episode.

Of the rumored middleweight castmembers, two have Bowman-esque professional records of 0-0, which makes a little more sense given the new format — if they have talent, they’ll earn a bunk in the house, and if not, we get to see the inexperienced rubes get smashed right off the bat.

(GSP, comin’ atcha.)

According to MMA Mania, the UFC’s April 19th card in Montreal — which we’ve been referring to as UFC 84 up to this point — has been re-numbered as UFC 83 in light of the March 8th/Manchester event being scrapped. The Montreal event will still feature the welterweight championship fight between Matt Serra and Georges St. Pierre, and is rumored to feature Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Rich Franklin, and Mac Danzig as well. Although UFC 83 isn’t yet listed on the UFC’s Ticketmaster page, the word is that tickets will be made available to UFC Fight Club members this Sunday (2/3), to newsletter subscribers on 2/6, and to the general public on 2/8. If you’re planning on going, please be a doll and bring us back some cheap prescription meds.

Additional note: According to the blog on George St. Pierre’s official site, the UFC will be holding a press conference on Monday to make a formal announcement about UFC 83, and St. Pierre will participate. Rush’s blog also tells us that he had a great time at the Affliction commercial shoot with “Rampage Jackson and Dave Mustang from Megadeth.”

(Cube, with the black version of SkySkrape.)

It was announced yesterday that rapper/actor Ice Cube‘s Internet television network, UVNTV.com, plans on hosting a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week MMA channel called (wait for it) My MMA Network. Hmm…pretty bland by Cube standards; we would have gone with What They Hittin’ Foe?

The channel is a collaboration between Cube, writer/director DJ Pooh, and the International Fighting Championship, which will promote 10 events this year. Says IFC CIO Jeff Zimmerman:

“My MMA Network and UVNTV will not only serve as a platform for the IFC to market and broadcast their events, but allow for all MMA promoters, fighters and advertisers to showcase who they are to a worldwide audience. My MMA Network, like traditional TV, will have set programs, pay-per-view and On-Demand access right at your finger tips.”

Added Cube:

“Pooh and the guys wanted to create a platform for entrepreneurs to follow their dream, just as we did. We believe My MMA Network is on to something big here and we look forward to helping them get there.”

If you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of the IFC before, it’s because the organization is only about 10 days old. It was recently launched by Rico White, the former Director of Sales and Promotions for the IFO, in the wake of that league’s implosion. IFO bigs Steve Oshin and John Stachofsky have since accused White of exploiting the IFO’s brand marketing and media relationships for the benefit of his new organization.

As for Cube, IMDb claims that he’ll be starring as Sgt. Bosco “B.A.” Baracus in a movie remake of The A-Team, which will be directed by Boyz N the Hood filmmaker John Singleton; Woody Harrelson is rumored to play Capt. H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock, a role made famous by the incomparable Dwight Schultz. I know, that’s a whole lot of WTF?! to take in all at once. But the question is — who should play Hannibal Smith and Templeton “Faceman” Peck? And shouldn’t the Mr. T role go directly to Kimbo Slice?

(Rousimar Palhares…future middleweight superstar?)

We recently told you that the UFC had signed Brazilian fighter Rousimar Palhares and now it looks like his first action is being slated for May. MMA Junkie is reporting that Palhares will pop his UFC cherry Mary 24th. His opponent will be Ivan Salaverry, who is 12-5 and has been spotty in the UFC against good fighters. He owns a notable win against Joe Riggs, but has struggled in the UFC since. Salaverry literally just received the fight offer and it’s expected to move forward.

Palhares trains with Brazilian Top Team and recently won Fury Fighting Championship’s 185lb Grand Prix tournament. He’s won five fights in a row and is a die-hard disciple of BJJ – he’s won five of his fights by submission. He’s never been knocked out and his lone professional loss was to Arthur Cesar.

This should be a good one for Palhares to get his feet wet in the UFC. Dana White and Co. are hoping he’s a future star in the lagging middleweight division and he looks to have the skills to fulfill their hopes. By the time the fight rolls around, it will be a year since Salaverry has fought – a loss to Terry Martin. An injury kept him away from the game for a while, but if he’s at full speed now, he’ll be a nice test for Palhares.

Their fight will be on the UFC 84 card – which was originally UFC 85 until UFC 83 was…what number are we on again? Anyway, you guys know that old chestnut by now. The possible heavy hitters on the card could be Tito Ortiz in his UFC swan song vs. Lyoto Machida and the Sean Sherk/BJ Penn fight-to-the-death match. With new blood like Palhares thrown in, too, I’m digging how this one’s shaping up.

(Please don’t let Sylvia have a chance at another ‘sexual experience’.)

If you’re in a betting mood or – whatever the odds – you just want to bet against douches like Tim Sylvia and Brock Lesnar at this Saturday’s UFC 81: Breaking Point, here’s a peak at the current odds:

From Bookmaker:

TIM SYLVIA +160
ANTONIO RODRIGO NOGUEIRA -200

FRANK MIR +120
BROCK LESNAR -150

JEREMY HORN +215
NATE MARQUARDT -275

ALAN BELCHER +115
RICARDO ALMEIDA -145

GLEISON TIBAU +300
TYSON GRIFFIN -370

KYLE BRADLEY +450
CHRIS LYTLE -600

MARVIN EASTMAN +190
TERRY MARTIN -240

TIM BOETSCH +175
DAVID HEATH -215

ROB EMERSON +195
KEITA NAKAMURA -245

(Y’all know who it is.)

Man, the UFC really, really, really wants you to watch the season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter. You know how we told you that UFC 83 was canceled, and the Alexander/Irvin and Bisping/McCarthy fights would have to be re-scheduled? Well, it looks like Houston Alexander will be facing James Irvin at the UFC’s Ultimate Fight Night 13 on April 2nd, a live lead-in to the TUF 7 debut that’s also expected to feature the following bouts:

Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon
Stephan Bonnar vs. Matt Hamill
Karo Parisyan vs. Thiago Alves
Spencer Fisher vs. Marcus Aurelio
Clay Guida vs. Samy Schiavo
Tommy Speer vs. Anthony Johnson
Josh Neer vs. Din Thomas

Jumpin’ Jesus on a pogo stick. Ken-Flo/Lauzon, Bonnar/Hamill, and Parisyan/Alves are already on the promotional materials, so they’re probably safe from being stuck on the undercard. But since Fight Nights are generally set up with only three or four fights scheduled for the live main card, UFC stars like Alexander, Spencer Fisher, Clay Guida, and TUF 6‘s Tommy Speer may be relegated to dark matches. Let’s hope for a lot of quick knockouts, UFC 80-style, so we can see as many of the fights as possible.

For real though, why can’t UFC 81, a pay-per-view card, have some action like this? “Breaking Point”‘s main event may turn out to be a boring disappointment, and the “co-headlining event” is getting by on hype alone. Quick poll: How many of you are psyched for Horn/Marquardt, Almeida/Belcher, or Tibau/Griffin? Those are freakin’ Fight Night-caliber matches. I’d happily pay to see Guida, Alexander, and Speer fight again — UFC 81′s main card, on the other hand, I’m not so happy about.