We’re not sure why so many people are talking about Saturday’s Gabriel Gonzaga/Fabricio Werdum fight at UFC 80 like it’s a foregone conclusion that Gonzaga’s getting his arm raised at the end of the night. Werdum is unquestionably a tough dude — he beat Gonzaga once before, back in 2003, and is only the third person (in addition to heavyweight legends Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Josh Barnett) to have defeated Aleksander Emelianenko. Here’s the Werdum/Emelianenko fight from “2H2H: PRIDE and Honor” in November 2006. We kind of think Aleks was having an off night, but Werdum dominated the entire match, putting things to a stop with a triangle choke in the first round. Werdum’s next fight was an ugly unanimous decision loss to Andrei Arlovski; here’s hoping he finds his balls again.

He wouldn’t be the first one to be a champion in more than one division. But three? That would put Georges St. Pierre, the UFC’s interim welterweight champ, into a completely different sphere. And he wants to do so after completely dominating the welterweight division, according to an article over at Sherdog. GSP has been around the sport since 2002 and has been more than impressive against the dudes he’s beaten.

The piece references GSP’s win over Pete Spratt in 2003 as the beginning of the welterweight’s climb. This got him into the UFC, where – after two wins – he lost his first fight, a submission to Matt Hughes. We’ve since heard Georges explain – several times – that he had already lost in his mind before the fight even started. Maybe he should have listened to his opponent’s advice. Regardless, St. Pierre won their second (and third) meeting, only to immediately lose the belt to Matt Serra – who he will meet again in April.

GSP is in the Centennial State right now working with Nathan Marquardt to help the fighter train for his fight with Jeremy Horn at UFC 81. After kicking the shit out of Matt Hughes, St. Pierre remains a little too humble:

“Hughes is an amazing fighter,” he said. “I just had a good night that night, and he had a bad night.”

“If we fight again, I don’t think he’s going to beat me, but he will probably come closer. Maybe he had a bad day — it’s a matter of circumstances as well.”

Oh please. Just admit you kicked his ass and would do it again and again.

#10: ‘Hood boxing:
A clinch on the sidewalk evolves into an all-out striking contest literally in the street. The guy in the Rivera jersey has a much longer reach and lands some nice shots on the dude in the white shirt, but the little guy has some spunk in him, even after getting rocked. And you gotta love the commentator, whose main contribution is “Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Oh! Oh.” Watch out Mike Goldberg, someone is eyeing your job.

#9: Batman and Spiderman kick the shit out of some fat kid: Apparently the kid was a heckler, and “Batman and Spiderman” are just costumed actors pretending to be the superheroes. But it’s still trippy to see them whale on a civilian. “The police are on their way, Batman” — awesome.

(Tank Abbott, after eating 200 deviled eggs.)

Heads up, Potato Nation: EliteXC is holding a media conference call today at 4 p.m. ET, where Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, David “Tank” Abbott, and EliteXC live events president Gary Shaw will be taking questions about the upcoming “Street Certified” event in Miami on February 16. I’ll be liveblogging it, so be sure to tune in later for the play-by-play.

Each media outlet generally gets to ask 1-3 questions at these things, so if you have any queries for the guys that are relatively insightful and won’t get me banned from future conference calls, post ‘em in the comments. And if you haven’t thrown in a prediction for the Kimbo/Tank fight yet, do it!

(Carlos Condit: “You’ll never grow old, and you’ll never die…but you must feed!”)

The WEC has announced the full lineup of fights for their next event, which will go down Feburary 13 at the Santa Ana Star Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dubbed “Wec: Condit vs. Prater,” the event features three championship bouts. Welterweight champ Carlos Condit (thought by many to be one of the top ten welterweights in the world) will try to avenge a 2004 loss to contender Carlo Prater; lightweight champion “Razor” Rob McCullough faces off against Jamie “The Worm” Varner; and bantamweight top dog Chase Beebe defends his belt against 19-1 jiu-jitsu sensation Miguel Torres. Also fighting on the card are undefeated Mexican bantamweight Manny Tapia, 19-year-old Boston native Josh Grispi (who already has a 10-1 record in the featherweight division), UFC vet Leonard Garcia, former featherweight title challenger Chance Farrar, and the WEC debut of K-1/Shooto star Hiroyuki “Streetfight Bancho” Takaya.

We all know the negotiations between CBS and the UFC have gone the way of the Hollywood writer’s strike: nowhere. MMAPayout is reporting that creative differences might be to blame – which means Dana was being a dick (see the failed attempt at a Fedor vs. Randy fight as reference). An HBO deal bit the dust even before the CBS deal did, so now it looks like Dana’s next failed negotiation attempt could be NBC – although this may already be DOA.

Check it:

…the UFC has reportedly reached out to NBC as late as last week. The reception was reportedly cold with the peacock network having little interest in working with the UFC and particularly Dana White. NBC does not appear interested in prime time programming, making the UFC a poor fit in addition to any concerns they might have about White.

NBC continues to talk with a number of players about late night time slots, including the IFL, Strikeforce, M-1, and K-1. Speculation within the industry suggests that Strikeforce, with financial backing from Hewlett-Packard, may have already came to terms with the network, however, such a deal would not preclude other promotions involvement.

Looks pretty grim if you were jonesin’ to see Edith strut her stuff between rounds on one of the Big Four. But the other prospects sound cool.

(Eddie Alvarez)

Today over at CBS Sportsline, there’s an interview with former Bodog welterweight champ Eddie Alverez who got derailed after losing for the first time – via TKO to Nick “The Goat” Thompson last year at “Clash of the Nations”. Alverez (11-1) is now with EliteXC and has dropped down to the 160-lbs club. Probably better suited for him anyway, since he stands at 5’8″. The article reveals that Alvarez’s chick just popped out their second son, but he’s such a decent dude (the article’s tone, not ours) that he still took time to chat about his upcoming EliteXC fight with Ross “Da Boss” Ebanez (16-5) on January 25th.

Some highlights:

Q: You just recently signed a contract with EliteXC. You had been with Bodog but EliteXC live events president Gary Shaw alluded to the fact in the press release that announced your signing that you weren’t happy with Bodog. What were some of the reasons you were unhappy?

EA: I was completely happy with Bodog up until recently. I disagreed with the fact that they fired Miguel, Miguel Iturrate, their matchmaker. I thought he did a great job. He does have his downfalls but I think altogether he’s a guy who knows what he’s doing in the sport. They fired him and I think that was a bad move. That made me think twice about staying with them in the first place.

And then when I trained for a rematch (vs. Nick Thompson) for a couple of months and the rematch fell through — and I understand fights fall through, that happens with promotions — just as it is my obligation to train for fights and be prepared, I feel it’s the promotion’s obligation that if a fighter drops out then find me a backup fight.

There are people out there. There are people out there willing to fight for food; they don’t even give a s— about getting money, they’re willing to fight for exposure. And I was a little upset at the fact that I trained that long and I wasn’t given the proper compensation or even given a secondary fight after Nick dropped out.

Um, willing to fight for food? Perhaps you’d be more comfortable over at Bum Fights.

(We know what you’re thinking, and yes, Marcus is standing on a box.)

Known as the “Bonus Kid” for the way he pulls down Knockout/Submission/Fight of the Night bonuses, UFC welterweight Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis will face Jess Liaudin at Saturday’s “Rapid Fire” event, where he’ll try to extend his 10-fight win streak to 11. Besides the fact that he’s been undefeated since losing to Melvin Guillard on the TUF 2 finale in November 2005, and the fact that he’s Irish, we don’t know too much about the guy — luckily, MMA Madness’s new interview with Davis sheds light on the rising star, revealing him to be a humble but entertaining dude. (Kind of like the anti-Guillard.) Some highlights…

On not being a spoiled bitch:

MMA Madness: Being undefeated in UFC competition, how many fights do you think it’ll take before you earn title consideration?
Marcus Davis: I’m patient so I don’t really care (laughs). I fight to fight. I’m 5 [UFC] wins in a row, about to be 6, so if I get up to 25 wins, at some point, I’ll get a title shot. If I don’t get one during my career, I’m not gonna look back and say I should have had one. I’ll just say “geez, I had a great time doing that.” I won’t have any regrets and I’m in no rush.

On his (and Tim Sylvia’s) origin story:

It was 1995 and Tim and I were doormen together at a bar. I became the GM of the bar and so I had all the doormen going to a boxing and MMA school inside a Gold’s Gym. I made it mandatory that the doormen go there to train. Tim was a real big guy, about 235 pounds and playing semi pro football, but he needed to learn how to throw some hands. So I started working with Tim and he said he wanted to try the Pancrase stuff. He did three or four of those, ended up meeting Pat Miletich, and that’s how it all started…after Tim left, I was still training boxing. I wanted to do some MMA stuff too so I went out, trained with Tim, met Miletich, and decided that I wanted to do this.

On his last UFC win against Paul Taylor:

I’m a much better grappler than the guys he’s fought and the guys he trains with. All the UK grapplers are way behind the ones in the United States. It’s like going to Japan and they’re still wearing Wrangler Jeans and listening to disco. That’s where they are when it comes to the ground game.

By the way, Jess Liaudin’s nickname is “The Joker.” With that in mind, we have to give the fight to the Irish Fucking Hand Grenade. (Unless, of course, Liaudin catches him in the jumping guillotine…)

ProElite has put together a new promo video to hype the Kimbo Slice/Tank Abbott fight on February 16. Two things stand out: First, Tank only gets about 1.5 seconds of screen time; maybe this was done so that uninformed Kimbo fans don’t see recent footage of Tank in action and immediately lose their excitement for this ugly mismatch. Second, ProElite is getting a lot of mileage from Kimbo’s three-punch victory over Bo Cantrell. This is like the video-editing equivalent to Native Americans using every part of the buffalo.

So let’s try to call it. I’m saying that the fight will end at 0:59 of the first round — generous, I know — with Kimbo winning it by TKO (punches). Put down your predictions in the comments section below. The reader who calls it closest gets a fantastic prize to be named later. I’m also willing to entertain side-bets from readers who think Tank is going to pull out a surprise victory. Watch the video, then have at it…

UPDATE: Alright, this is Tank’s promo clip. There’s something a little sad about that shot of him running up the hill and stopping to shadow-box. Getting strong now!

Fightlinker found a picture of Ryan Shamrock. This is what he looks like.

That is all.

Another classic Rampage jam from PRIDE, this one against Ikuhisa “The Punk” Minowa at Shockwave 2003 (12/31/03). I’d argue that Quinton Jackson officially became a star when he brushed away the hand of the referee who was checking his junk at the beginning. (The man certainly does not play that shit!) It’s an exciting fight from start to finish, featuring no less than three body-slams from Jackson, repeated knees to the head, and a sort-of-early stoppage that compels Minowa to get up in Jackson’s face then immediately think better of it.

Need a little science to explain why guys like Rampage and Chuck seem a little educationally-challenged at times? Well, now you can get your geek on when National Geographic crunches the numbers on Sunday, January 27th at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Here’s what the NG site says about the new “Fight Science”, the series that examines…well, fighting stuff:

At the pinnacle of mixed martial arts (MMA) is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which has sought to legitimize MMA in a league that has become a pop culture phenomenon. Now, scientists analyze the unique fighting styles and capabilities of legendary fighters like Randy Couture, former UFC heavyweight champion Bas Rutten, former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz and two-time world submission grappling champion Dean Lister. Among the results, scientists determine that Rutten’s kick generates a force equivalent to a 35 mph (56 kph) car crash, and Couture’s endurance is nearly 10 times better than that of the average person and his blows generate double the force of a heavyweight boxer’s best punch.

As usual, things like the brain bouncing around in fluid after you get punched and your nerves sending signals to your jock that you’re in pain, are sure to be a big part of the show. The computer fighters – aka, creepy digital skeletons – will also factor into every test to help us simpletons understand just why guys go to sleep after being pummeled in the head a few times.

(Couture and a pre-Headblade Dana White.)

The Las Vegas Review Journal has reported that lawyers for Zuffa have filed suit alleging that Randy Couture’s comments about the UFC have led to significant financial losses for the company, and that he is in breach of his contract. The lawsuit is complicated by a “conspiracy” charge, claiming that other people worked with Couture to intentionally inflict harm on the UFC, and the breach-of-contract refers specifically to a stipulation that prohibits him from engaging in “direct or indirect competition” with the UFC for a year after he leaves the organization. Couture’s sponsorship of a team in the IFL may violate this, and Zuffa is seeking an injunction to prohibit him from continuing his participation. According to the article, “The lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $10,000 and states that the amount of both compensatory and punitive damages would be proven at trial.”

Said Dana White:

“What’s really tough for me, to be honest, is we have been friends for a very long time,” White said. “The hard part is that he is not living up to his obligations. Captain America is not keeping his word.”

(*No*, Quan, I do *not* need a *spotter* in the *bathroom*!)

I’m starting to get the feeling that EliteXC doesn’t want to be taken seriously.

Ten days after they announced that Kimbo Slice’s next victim would be washed-up “pit fighter” Tank Abbott — who MMA fans born after 1982 do not give a fuck about — Elite distributed a new press release stating that the organization has signed Ken Shamrock (!) and his 19-year-old-son Ryan (!!) to multi-fight deals. Ryan Shamrock fights as a bantamweight, and scored a victory by rear-naked-choke in his professional debut in April; his father is that dude who was supposed to retire after Tito Ortiz beat him for the third-straight time in 2006. Both Shamrocks will compete at “EliteXC Presents: Cage Rage 25’’ on March 8th at Wembley Arena in London, against yet-unnamed opponents.

To be honest, if Elite had announced that Kimbo Slice’s next opponent would be Ken Shamrock rather than Tank Abbott, I would have bitched a lot less. Sure, Shamrock and Tank have both lost seven of their last nine fights, but at least Ken takes the sport seriously; Tank’s training regimen seems to consist of carbo-loading and 12-ounce curls.

For those of you still holding your breath since UFC 79, you can finally take that breath of cigarette smoke-filled oxygen. Not that it’s a slow news day or anything, but the Nevada State Athletic Commission has assured the world that every fighter that was tested for the December 29th PPV event was clean. By clean, they mean of any banned substances – performance enhancers and mood enhancers alike (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Yo to MMA Weekly for digging this up:

According to the commission’s executive director Keith Kizer, “The NSAC tested Georges St. Pierre, Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, Lyoto Machida, Sokoudjou, Rich Clementi, Melvin Guillard, Manny Gamburyan, Dean Lister, Jordan Radev, and Mark Bocek.”

Kizer also confirmed that all of the athletes on a privately held show at the Riviera Hotel & Casino on Jan. 8 were cleared of performance enhancing substances. “All the steroid tests are back for the Jan. 8 show and they were all negative.”

This ‘private event’ on the 8th certainly sounds too official to have been a bachelor party that turned into a fight night. They released the names of the fighters, which include: Jesse Forbes, Victor Moreno, Jacob McClintock, Chris Kennedy, Robert Scott, and Steve Steinbeiss. However, the NSAC may have blown their load a bit early as tests for the good stuff mood altering drugs are still up in the air for the fighters from the Riviera event.

(David “The Crow” Loiseau)

Maybe some of the cancelled WCO bouts will live on in another organization – and for more than $100 and ‘a figure to be named later’. The Fight Network is reporting that Hardcore Championship Fighting has offered fights on the February 1st “Destiny” card to Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Vernon “Tiger” White. Canadian David Loiseau has also been offered a gig. The fighters were among those cast away when the World Cagefighting Organization shit the bed seemingly minutes before their much-hyped event was to go down in San Diego this past weekend. Everything was cancelled when the fighters refused to rip up their contracts and fight for a Ben Franklin – and the rest to come later. How dare them!

The HCF’s current card looks like this:

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Todd Gouwenberg
Gegard Mousasi vs. Evangelista Santos
Thomas Schulte vs. Garett Davis
Brendan Seguin vs. Derrick Noble
Damir Mirenic vs. Mike Pyle
Andrew Buckland vs. Dan Chambers
Solomon Hutcherson vs. Amir Rahnavardi
Myles Merola vs. Ariel Sexton
Tim Hague vs. Miodrag Petkovic
Nabil Khatib vs. Lucas Rota
Babian Cortez vs. Juan Barrantes

Late last year, the lure of Hollywood came calling for Gina Carano. Though she was one of the brightest rising stars in MMA — not just female MMA, but MMA in general — she decided to forsake her undefeated record and career momentum, signing on to star as “Crush” on NBC’s remake of American Gladiators. Metaphorically speaking, she gave it up to the first guy with a flashy car and a slick pick-up line.

It was tragic, for a number of reasons. Carano’s been a role model to untold numbers of young women, proving that you can retain your femininity while still being tough-as-nails, but she’s taken a hiatus from fighting to suit up in Spandex and do silly things above pools of water. In other words, she’s reinforcing the idea, held by too many young Americans, that doing stupid shit on national TV has more value than doing something worthwhile in relative obscurity.

I’m sure part of the reason Carano took the Gladiators role, besides the money, was to promote herself as viable television talent; if not acting roles, Carano could surely score hosting gigs post-AG for shows in the vein of Fear Factor or Wild On. The problem is, in all the press and promo clips we’ve seen for the show, Carano’s name is rarely mentioned. Instead she’s just “Crush,” a Gladiator, a Warrior; she’s occasionally identified as some sort of pro fighter, though her legitimate MMA pedigree is never discussed. Any hopes that her presence on the show would be a good thing for MMA should by now be deflated.

So when I see this clip of her on The Today Show this morning, standing next to a ridiculous man-beast named “Wolf,” half-naked in 40-degree weather, being swatted with a pugel stick by Ann Curry, getting chastised by Matt Lauer for getting too rough with another NBC fluff-piece reporter, and having to deal with Meredith Viera’s minstrel dress-up antics (the housewives love that shit), I just hope that they’re paying her enough to deal with this humiliation. And I hope that diehard “Beautiful Disaster” fans take her back when the guy with the flashy car and pickup line moves on to the next pretty face…

(Thanks to 5oz. for the heads-up.)

(Remember this? Because Houston Alexander doesn’t…)

According to an interview on Tatame.com (translated into English here), undefeated light heavyweight Thiago Silva claims he’ll be fighting Rashad Evans on May 24th. Excellent news, considering that we were just wondering when Silva was going to get another fight, and Evans could really use a definitive beat-down. On Rashad and the rest of the UFC’s LH division, Silva said:

I wanna continue unbeaten, that’s my goal. I know he likes to get down and work on ground n’ pound. He has a heavy hand too, but nothing that scares me. I’ll work on a better way to defeat him, because I wanna fight for the UFC belt this year…There’s a lot of guys that I would like to fight in UFC, but I think I would [like] to fight against Lyoto Machida and Chuck Liddell, because they like an exchanging fight.

Silva, a former member of the famed Chute Boxe academy, also stated that he’ll be joining the Florida-based American Top Team outfit at the end of the month, where he’ll get to roll with such MMA heavy-hitters as Denis Kang, Jeff Monson, Gesias Cavalcante, Marcus Maximus Aurelio, and Alessio Sakara.

In other news, TUF 6 winner Mac Danzig has been booked to face Mark Bocek at UFC 84, according to The Fight Network. The event goes down April 19 at the Bell Centre in Montreal; it’s been rumored that Rich Franklin and Mauricio Rua will also be on the card, but so far only the Serra/St. Pierre main event seems to be officially confirmed. Bocek, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist from Toronto, had a 4-0 record before entering the UFC, where he suffered a TKO loss to Frankie Edgar at UFC 73 in July, then won a decision against Doug Evans during the undercard of UFC 79: “Nemesis.” In other words, the guy’s no pushover, but he’s about as inexperienced as the rest of the reality show jokers that Mac had to dispose of on The Ultimate Fighter, and the fightin’ vegan should have no problem turning his first UFC lightweight match into a victory.

This was the 10th fight of Kid Yamamoto’s current 14-fight win streak, and ended, as most of Kid’s fights do, with a first-round knockout. Yamamoto most recently put Rani Yahya to sleep at K-1 Premium 2007 Dynamite!! Genki Sudo is perhaps best known for his near-victory on Ninja Warrior.

Literary giant Matt Hughes is in Los Angeles this week hawking his autobiography “Matt Hughes – Made in America”. I caught his interview on the Mark and Brian show over at 95.5 KLOS this morning, where Hughes chatted about having “farmboy strength”, his kids, his allegedly hot wife, eating carbs, and his future plans. While nothing in this interview blew my skirt up, hard-core Hughes fans might want to check out the podcast when it goes on line – most likely later this week. Matt also took calls from listeners and dished out sage advice, like this piece of wisdom to one 14-year-old aspiring fighter:

“Never take a fight you don’t think you can win.”

Um, no shit. Guess that’s his farmboy smarts coming into play. The former champ also confirmed again that he will fight for another year or two, but is taking some time off right now. If you do check out the podcast, be ready to cringe at Mark and Brian’s idea of witty, as well as their absolute zero knowledge of the sport.

Over at ProElite there’s a list of additional fighters on the losing end of the “TUF 6” stick that have been cut by the UFC. We mentioned Richie Hightower and Dorian Price already. Joining them are John Kolosci, Paul Georgieff, Dan Barrera, Blake Bowman and Billy Miles. ProElite states:

This is a large amount of cuts so close after a TUF season has ended. The combination between casting inexperienced fighters coupled with welterweight being the UFC’s deepest division is the likely reason behind the high number of cuts.

Hightower was a quarter-finalist and his agent, Ken Pavia (there he is again), has stated that Richie will be back and it seems the plan is for him to go get some quality fights under his belt at 170 – he used to fight at 240 – and then try to come back to the UFC. It didn’t take long to find a home, because Hightower has already signed with the Palace Fighting Championship joint in California.

If you’re a regular CagePotato reader, you probably know about our savage crush on Joanne of the MMA Girls, whose UFC prediction videos and girl-on-girl training clips never fail to make us feel light-headed. Well check this: We e-mailed Joanne a bunch of questions to get to know the girl behind the teddy-bear, and she was cool enough to answer them all in video form. You already know that she’s an ace when it comes to predicting fights — now get ready to learn about where she likes to party in Orlando, her hard times as a Domino’s Pizza order-taker, and what she would do to Angelina Jolie if given the chance. Come on…you know you want to click that play button.

Thanks again to Joanne and the MMA Girls crew! For more good stuff, check out:
MMAGirls.net — their official page
MySpace.com/panicpulse — be their “friend” and check out more pics of the girls
MMA Girls on Spike.com — the latest vids, all in one place

An appropriately mysterious post was published yesterday on M-1 Mixfight, the Russian propaganda arm of M-1 Global. Titled “Fedor to Los Angeles,” it reads:

Fedor Emelianenko, Vadim Finkelstein and Apy Echteld will leave for Los Angeles on Thursday, 17 where they are going to meet with Affliction representatives. Also Fedor plans to meet Randy Couture there to discuss things in person. All the details of the meeting will be revealed soon.

Besides locking down Fedor’s involvement as a t-shirt model, those “things” they’ll discuss will likely include the details of their superfight-to-be. Finkelchtein (M-1 Mix Fight’s president, Emelianenko’s manager) and Echteld (M-1 Global’s VP of fighter development) could very well — dare we say it — be flying out to L.A. to sign Couture to an M-1 contract, which would surely provide the Natural with more freedom and at least as much money as his UFC contract (which, again, he’s not even close to being released from). Or at least that’s the rumor we’d like to believe. If Randy and Fedor are getting together just to see the handprints at Mann’s Chinese Theatre, do some roller-blading on the Venice Beach boardwalk, and hit up Knott’s Berry Farm, we’re going to be very upset.

More details to come…

Following up their beloved “Dear Don” feature, IFL.tv has given Bas Rutten his own column called “Who’s the Bas?” (Clever!) In the first installment, Rutten tries his hand at Seinfeld-esque observational humor. Here’s what he has to say about airports:

For some reason, there are people – even after all these years – who still don’t know that you have to take all the metal out of your pockets, take your laptop out of the bag, take off your shoes, etc. How can they not know? Is this their first time on an airport in the last five years?

And hotels:

I never like the pillows in hotels. I don’t know what it is. I always bring my own pillow. That’s a travel tip I recommend for everyone. Having your own pillow with you is never a bad idea, trust me. You’d be surprised what a difference it makes.

And avoiding contact with other people’s filthy hands:

One of the reasons I stay in my room, though, is that I prefer to eat up there. It’s not that I don’t want to be around anyone (I don’t want you to think I’m some kind of jerk), but if I’m eating in a hotel people will want to come up to me and shake hands. I don’t mind, but that’s one of the easiest ways to pass germs from one person to another, and here I am eating. This, my friends, is why I recommend the fist bump. It’s the same kind of physical gesture, but it’s hygienic! People tell me sometimes that they think it’s strange. Maybe, but it’s no more strange than shaking hands. What, I’m going to hold another person’s hand in mine and move it up and down for a few seconds and that’s not strange? No, thanks. I’d rather do the fist bump. It may be strange, but at least I can go back to eating my meal without worrying about the germs I’ve just picked up from holding another person’s hand.

Did we say Seinfeld? We meant Rooney.

And speaking of Bas, click here for the funkiest jam you’ve ever heard. Who knew El Guapo had such a sick flow?

(It was either this or a picture of a beer bottle.)

Just two weeks after the UFC debuted its first big-name sponsor, with Harley Davidson taking the center of the Octagon at “Nemesis,” MMAPayout reports that a sponsorship deal with Budweiser may be close to being finalized. From Adam Swift’s report:

Negotiations reportedly began as part of the UFC’s negotiations with CBS. Once the CBS deal stalled, conversations continued between the UFC, Budweiser, and Spike TV…UFC President Dana White has been adamant in recent media appearances that the company is on the verge of landing several blue chip sponsors. Budweiser, on the heels of Harley-Davidson, would certainly fit that bill and silence much of the criticism directed at the UFC for its failure to lure mainstream sponsors.

The collapse of the CBS deal is a gut-shot, to be sure, but a sponsorship from the King of Beers would be a fantastic consolation prize, considering that the UFC will remain ghettoized to some extent as long as its biggest sponsors are Xyience and Mickey’s Malt Liquor. It’s understandable that large corporations would want to take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to associating themselves with blood-sports, but there’s no denying the UFC’s reach among young men. On the other side of the coin, a Bud sponsor in the UFC’s corner would probably give them more juice the next time they try to negotiate with a television network. As the biggest name in MMA, the UFC deserves Budweiser. Let EliteXC have Mickey’s Big Mouth. As for the IFL? We’re thinking Natty Light.

By the way, those Bud girls at the top of this post may look hot now, but in 20 years they’ll look like this:

Many of you have weighed in on who BJ Penn might have been talking about when he said he has already found the Frazier to his Ali. Here’s a bit from The Sun that might shed some more light:

“Fighting GSP is all I think about every day. A rematch would be very good and I’ll make sure that I will 100 per cent guarantee victory if we fight again.” Penn also claimed he would be happy to face former welterweight champion Matt Hughes in a rubber match, but fears the veteran could walk away from mixed martial arts.

He added: “I’d love to fight Matt Hughes again but I think he could walk away after his loss to St Pierre. If he does walk away from the sport, I wouldn’t be surprised after what happened the other night. Before his fight with Georges, I was really hoping I’d get another shot at Matt Hughes but after that fight, that was so embarrassing for him I don’t know how he’s going to rebound from that. I’d love to fight him again. If we can put the fight together somehow I’d love it but he’s also getting older so I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Is is GSP, then? Or maybe it’s Matt Hughes and he’s just hoping to fight him again. Matt Hughes claims he’s not done, so it could happen if BJ moves up. We’ll keep our eyes and ears open for ya’.

And for what it’s worth, BJ has also said he thought Matt Hughes fought like a pussy against GSP. We just think Hughes got his ass kicked.

We already dished out our thoughts on the World Cagefighting Organization’s event set to enter the cage tonight in San Diego. According to Sherdog, the WCO’s weigh-in took over five hours yesterday – and when all was said and done, two fights were dropped from the fight card. Luckily for people who relish watching things like Britney Spears’ many public meltdowns, or smile at the trainwreck that is Danny Boneduce, there are still some great circus acts left on the card. eBay vet and addict Ricco Rodriguez will still battle Mike Kyle, who is fighting for the first time since his attempted murder of Brian Olsen after their fight was already decided, is 9-5-1 to Ricco “not-so-sauve” Rodriguez’s 27-7. Kyle was suspended by the CSAC after his incident, even though they did not sanction the fight.

Renato “Babalu” Sobral, the occasional prisoner and disgraced ex-UFC fighter, will face Vernon White in the main event. Obviously, someone hates Vernon White and wants to see him killed in the bout. Why else would the journeyman and his 25-32-2 record be thrown into the pit with the blood-thirsty Babs? Another ex-UFC fighter, David “The Crow” Loiseau, will face Leopoldo Serao, which will be both fighters first fight since last May.

You may have been following the Trekkie-style dork – with socks even Tinker Bell wouldn’t wear – in nine documentary episodes where he trains for four weeks alongside MMA fighter Matt Ruskin. Thomas “Baby Balls” Morton (the aforementioned dork) won’t win any broadcasting awards and would likely get his ass kicked at a 4th grade slumber party, but if you’re running low on your MMA juice this weekend, check out “Balls Deep”. Yes, that is the title of the show – which I’m sure has lured in thousands of unassuming truck drivers surfing the net on the truck stop’s courtesy computer. The ninth and final episode went on-line recently. Nothing mind-blowing or earth-shattering here, but by episode seven, I was having a good laugh. Morton looks fucking wrecked as he still works out MMA-style every day while starving himself. The ninth episode is Ruskin’s fight in Hot-lanta. Episode one is below. Enjoy.

— The UFC went on a frantic fight-booking spree.

— We played an extremely respectful game of FMK.

— Rob Emerson and Melvin Guillard had a contest to see who could be the biggest douchebag on Earth. Rob won, but just barely.

— Ali Sonoma got even hotter.

— Shamrock vs. Shamrock is definitely happening…eventually.

— We questioned the credentials of Quinton Jackson and Shawn Tompkins.

— We gave props to fighters with good musical taste.

— Roy Nelson and Kendall Grove had a lot of interesting things to say about the IFL’s organizational problems and weed, respectively.

Answering yesterday’s call for first-hand stories about the UFC 79 viewing party at Madison Square Garden, a CagePotato reader named Serafin wrote in with the following:

“I was at the MSG show for UFC 79. I gotta say that although the place was empty as sh*t, the crowd that was there (guessing about 700 at most and that can be a bit generous as I don’t know for sure what the numbers were) was hyped up at seeing Matt Serra and Forrest Griffin. Everybody seemed to have enjoyed themselves and were badgering all the fighters with questions about when the UFC is going to do a show at The Garden. A lot of people just dont seem to understand the politics and craptastic attempts of the NY State Athletic Comission to keep MMA out of this part of the northeast. Funny, cause when you really look at things….Jersey has been having shows for quite a while and it’s where we got a chance to see Frankie Ed…..ok I take that back. Not a great point but a point nonetheless.”

So to summarize: Good times, but even less-attended than earlier reports suggesting that 1,000 people would show up. Damn, with those numbers they should have just reserved a block of tables at ESPN Zone and held the party there. Anyway, big ups to Serafin. If you have any follow-up questions, leave ‘em in the comments section and we’ll try to squeeze more info out of the dude.