(Any guesses on what they had to black out in the lower-left corner?)

Last night, the UFC officially confirmed Chuck Liddell’s hamstring injury and pullout from UFC 85. To quiet down the cynics who suggested that Chuck simply didn’t feel like traveling all the way to England to fight Rashad Evans, they released the above photo of a man showing off an enormous strawberry while cupping his taint ever so gently; apparently, it’s Liddell. According to Dana White:

“Chuck Liddell tore his right hamstring during training last week, and being the warrior that he is, he still wanted to fight, which is the reason why everyone in the world loves him. But I wouldn’t let anyone fight with his leg looking that way. Let him heal and come back and fight when he is 100 percent. We’re adding fights to the card and rearranging it so the UK fans won’t have to worry, we’ll still be bringing an amazing card to London and the O2 Arena.”

Sherdog is floating the rumor that James Irvin may step in to face Evans, though that certainly wouldn’t be the show’s main event. (It must be said that, historically, Irvin has performed very well against African-American fighters.) You’ll know more when we do…

I admit it: I didn’t know much about Cain Velasquez before his UFC debut. Word had it he was a big time college wrestler, a two-time All-American at Arizona State and Pac-10 wrestler of the year in 2005. Call me cynical, but it’s hard to accept that at face value these days. Plenty of guys are great college wrestlers, only to become mediocre once they lace up the gloves.

Velasquez (3-0), however, seems like he might have a real future. He dismantled Brad Morris (9-3) in their undercard bout, and while Morris was also making his UFC debut – and while a win over him may or may not mean a great deal – it doesn’t change the fact that Velasquez looked good on Saturday night.

There’s something about a decorated wrestler who’s won all of his first three bouts via TKO that you have to like. Sure, Jake O’Brien started the same way before eventually being dropped from the UFC for reasons that seemed at least partially style-related, but with Velasquez training at AKA and putting people away like this, he seems like he might be someone to keep your eye on in the heavyweight division.

(Sorry Nate, the Iceman has been doing the goofy-punch for years.)

It seems that the curse of Mauricio Rua extends past Shogun himself. MMARated brings us the disappointing news that Chuck Liddell recently sustained an injury and will not be fighting Rashad Evans in the main event of UFC 85 (June 7th, London); Liddell and Evans will supposedly face each other later in the summer. Liddell was originally supposed to fight Rua in UFC 85′s main event, but Rua ruptured his ACL and was replaced by Evans. No other information on Chuck’s condition is available at the moment.

Since UFC 85 doesn’t have a title fight attached to it — the other notable bouts on the card are a heavyweight match between Brandon Vera and Fabricio Werdum, and a welterweight bout between Marcus Davis and Mike Swick — Chuck’s injury represents a big loss for the event. If I was Dana White, I’d be calling Michael Bisping right now to see how his knees were doing. Not only is the Count a huge draw in his hometown, but he’s also two dominant wins away from being a credible opponent to Anderson Silva (from a marketing standpoint, at least). Unless they want the Spider on ice for the better part of a year, dreaming about boxing money, the UFC would be wise to arrange those fights for Bisping as soon as possible; and six weeks is about as soon as it gets. Nate Marquardt is already penciled in on the card to face Thales Leites. Why not poach him for an opponent?

(Yeah, hilarious.)

If you told me six months ago that one day we’d publish three posts involving Kalib Starnes within a seven-hour period, I would have thrown my scotch in your face and damned you as one of Satan’s deceitful minions. And yet here we are…

As we all knew he would, Kalib Starnes has been formally let go by the UFC for embarrassing the proud nation of Canada with his relentless backpedaling. And it wasn’t a cordial goodbye, either. Said Dana White: “He just doesn’t belong in the UFC and after his performance the other night, he should consider a new line of work.”

We’re all still scratching our heads at what exactly Starnes’s game plan was on Saturday night. As a couple commenters pointed out in our last post, there’s a report going around claiming that Starnes’s performance was boring on purpose, intended to protest the UFC’s low salaries and failure to pay medical bills; apparently, he didn’t get his broken ribs paid for after his fight with Kendall Grove. The fight with Quarry was the last on his contract, and he wanted to use it to “screw over the UFC.” To which we can only say, buddy, you think you were underpaid before UFC 83? We can’t wait until you find out what the pay’s like for smoker matches up in British Columbia.

(Props: FiveOuncesofPain)

(Combat Lifestyle chronicles the stuff Kalib Starnes’s nightmares are made of)

Kalib Starnes did his best to turn a fight with Nate Quarry into a track meet at UFC 83 on Saturday night. Normally, that might make him nothing more than the subject of a few days worth of open mockery on the internet, but in this case it’s bound to become more than that, and it should.

The question now seems to be not so much if Starnes will be released from the UFC, but when. At the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White did little to hide his displeasure:

“If I was Kalib Starnes and I was fighting in my home country, I’d rather get knocked out than run around in circles the whole fight. I think Kalib Starnes is going to wake up tomorrow and look back on this fight and wish he’d fought a different fight.”

Translation: he’s going to wake up tomorrow unemployed, or at least on his way there.

This wouldn’t be the first time the UFC has cut a guy for failing to put on a show. The same thing happened to Ivan Salaverry in 2005 after a highly, uh, strategic performance against Nate Marquardt. The difference is that even after he was cut, Salaverry seemed contrite and apologetic for his poor performance. Starnes, on the other hand, reacted to criticism with slightly less grace when he shouted obscenities and suggested that a member of Quarry’s corner preferred the company of men.

That exclamation point on the night makes it easier to feel good about seeing Starnes fired from the UFC, but there’s more to this than just what happened in the Octagon on Saturday. For Starnes, this seems to be part of a pattern.

The Terror gets slaughtered, Chainsaw says “no mas,” and Demian Maia unleashes the Submission of the Night in the second round of his undercard fight against Ed Herman. Get ‘em while they’re hot; for more UFC 83 vids, hit up MMALinker.

(“We’re here to pick up your daughter.”)

No, it won’t be a re-match of their BodogFight brawl — on Friday, Fedor Emelianenko announced on his website that he would indeed be facing Tim Sylvia on July 19th in the United States, a match that was somewhat called into question when Vadim Finkelchtein started going on about unsigned contracts. Fedor also claims he’ll be fighting in October (date/location/opponent TBA) and New Year’s Eve in Japan (opponent TBA).

Matt Lindland added another piece to the puzzle during HDNet’s SportFight XXII broadcast on Friday night, confirming that he’ll also be competing on the July 19th card, and that it will take place in Dallas under the Affliction banner. Though an opponent for Lindland has yet to be named, The Law named Murilo Bustamante (who choked out Lindland at UFC 37) and David Terrell (who knocked out Lindland at UFC 49) as guys he’d like to fight. According to FiveOunces, Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell, and Aleksander Emelianenko are rumored to be fighting on the Affliction card as well.

In unrelated fight-booking news, Frank Trigg has denied earlier reports that he’s signed to participate in DREAM’s middleweight tournament. Said Trigg:

“I haven’t heard anything from [DREAM] in about a week and a half. We started talking about a month ago, but lately, there’s been no communication…We have no contract, and we have no numbers we’re even close to agreeing on. Like I mentioned on TAGG, my wife is very pregnant and can’t fly. She’d miss the whole tournament, and that’s a big deal to take a fight without her there by my side.”

The end of the Quarry/Starnes fiasco at UFC 83. Props to reader “Noah.”

(Respect the fleur-de-lis. Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

The final tally from last night’s action:

Main Card
Georges St. Pierre def. Matt Serra via TKO (knees to the body), 4:45 of round 2
Rich Franklin def. Travis Lutter via TKO (strikes), 3:01 of round 2
Nate Quarry def. Kalib Starnes via unanimous decision (high-stepping and goofy-punches)
Michael Bisping def. Charles McCarthy via TKO (unable to answer bell), 5:00 of round 1
Mac Danzig def. Mark Bocek via submission (rear naked choke), 3:48 of round 3

Undercard
Jason MacDonald def. Joe Doerksen via TKO (strikes), 0:54 of round 2
Jason Day def. Alan Belcher via TKO (strikes), 3:58 of round 1
Demian Maia def. Ed Herman via submission (triangle choke), 2:27 of round 2
Rich Clementi def. Sam Stout via split decision
Cain Velasquez def. Brad Morris via TKO (strikes), 2:10 of round 1
Jonathan Goulet def. Kuniyoshi Hironaka via TKO (strikes), 2:07 of round 2

All three Best of the Night bonuses went to undercard fights, and they came in at a whopping $75,000 each. As we saw in a brief clip at the end of the broadcast, Demian Maia picked up the Submission of the Night bonus for his mounted triangle choke of Ed Herman. Jason MacDonald earned the Knockout of the Night for beating down Joe Doerksen (we’ll get the video up soon), and somewhat surprisingly, Jonathan Goulet and Kuniyoshi Hironaka each got the Fight of the Night windfall for their match, which didn’t strike us as all that exciting when they showed it after the main event. It’s too bad they couldn’t give Nate Quarry a few bucks for “Best Humiliation of a Cowardly Opponent of the Night,” but we’ll just have to console ourselves with the fact that Kalib Starnes is probably getting his UFC contract torn up as we speak.

As Ferrall might say, this “beautiful matchup of warriors and freaks ready to dance” is about to pop off, so pour yourself some iced tea or red wine and settle in. Click the “MORE” link and refresh the page every few minutes for round-by-round updates. Montreal residents, let’s get ready to riot!

(Somebody’s been cutting back on the fish and chips)

Michael Bisping’s move down to 185 looks to be going smoothly. At yesterday’s weigh-in he showed up looking ripped, though not emaciated. A good physique doesn’t win fights all by itself, but it does indicate that the cut is not a significant problem for “The Count”.

If he’s in half as good of shape as he looks, McCarthy will have his hands full tonight.

Props: Tracy Lee at Combat Lifestyle, via Bloody Elbow

In this new video released by Triumph United, the fighter known by his momma as Kevin Ferguson vents some frustration at “all these MMA fighters talkin’ shit about me,” and invites Chuck Liddell to come see him at Elite MMA, maybe set up a bareknuckle match, y’know, whatever. Also: James “The Colossal” Thompson is dead!

(‘Okay fists, I don’t like you and you don’t like me, but let’s work together here.’)

Mike Dolce may have been eliminated in this week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter, but that doesn’t mean he’s ready to fade into the scenery just yet. In a well-written and surprisingly insightful blog entry for MMA Weekly, Dolce lets us in on some info that didn’t make it to air on Wednesday night.

Apparently, “Rampage” Jackson has his own ideas about how to prepare for a fight, even when you just fought a few days ago. Dolce doesn’t agree with him, but like most of us would have done when confronted with a big, bad man like “Rampage”, he went along with it despite being battered and exhausted and well under the weight requirement the day before the weigh-in:

The plan was for Rampage and Zach to alternate taking me down and just as I scrambled up, for the other to shoot back in and take me down again. For 15 minutes with no break.

Do you see the comedy in this? I’m laughing again as I write this.

Again, I tell both coaches I’m shot, and they tell me, “Don’t worry, we’ll just go light.”

Light? It was more like a live-drill pace than a fight pace, but in no way was it light.

When that was finally over, the other seven athletes on my team were brought into the cage and told to start in on double legs (takedowns) and make me fight out of it.

This fun little game ended when Dolce tore a ligament and damaged his rotator cuff, an injury he says he’s still being treated for.

“Surprisingly,” Dolce writes, “none of this made it to the television screen either.”

To Dolce’s credit, he doesn’t offer this as an excuse for his loss. He was pretty well dominated on the mat in that fight, and one gets the sense that the rotator cuff injury wasn’t all that stood between him and victory. Still, you can’t help but feel for him when he writes this:

“All things are possible to him who believes.” – Mark 9:23

I must have repeated that statement five thousand times, between the weigh-in and actual fight. You see, at no point did I ever question the outcome of the fight. I knew I was going to win. Losing wouldn’t even register in my mind. Even while lying on the floor of the octagon, with two grown men rubbing heating lube on my bare thigh and torso with television cameras catching every sordid detail, I did not question my chances of winning this fight. No way.

Damn. Tough break for Dolce. If only The Bible had made clear the need for a good takedown defense, things might have turned out differently.

(Feel. The. Intensity. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

Whoo-hoo! Unlike his epic fail at UFC 67, Travis Lutter hit 185 right on the button at today’s weigh-ins for UFC 83. Serra and St. Pierre both played it safe, coming in at half a pound under, while the combined weight of UFC newcomers Brad Morris and Cain Velasquez is less than that of any other heavyweight bout we can remember; not that we blame 225-pound Morris for choosing the soft ripples of the UFC’s heavyweight pool over the Class 6 rapids of the 205 division.

Boos for Matt Serra at the Bell Centre were as loud as expected — Serra responded to the crowd with “If you’re pissed right now, wait until Saturday night” — while Michael Bisping and Charles McCarthy bumped heads and swapped obscenities during their face off. Full scale results are below:

MAIN CARD
Matt Serra (169.5) vs. Georges St. Pierre (169.5)
Rich Franklin (185.5) vs. Travis Lutter (185)
Nate Quarry (185.5) vs. Kalib Starnes (186)
Michael Bisping (185.5) vs. Charles McCarthy (186)
Marc Bocek (154.5) vs. Mac Danzig (154.5)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Joe Doerksen (184.5) vs. Jason MacDonald (185)
Rich Clementi (155) vs. Sam Stout (155.5)
Alan Belcher (185) vs. Jason Day (183.5)
Jonathan Goulet (169.5) vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka (170)
Ed Herman (185.5) vs. Demian Maia (184.5)
Brad Morris (225.5) vs. Cain Velasquez (235.5)

(Rickson. That’s all you need to know.)

FIGHT! Magazine‘s May issue just hit newsstands and features a list of the seven best fighters who never did battle in an Octagon. This exclusive excerpt showcases four of them, starting with the undefeated legend of the Gracie family…

RICKSON GRACIE
Career: ‘94-‘00
Record: 11-0
Prime: ’94-’97

Tournament Experience:
Rickson won both the 1994 and 1995 Vale Tudo Japan eight-man tournaments.

Key Victories:
“Zulu” Nascimento, Masakatsu Funaki, Yoshihisa Yamamoto

Why it never happened:
This one is easy to answer. Rickson should have been in the UFC because it was designed with him in mind. As the family’s recognized champion, Rickson was Rorion Gracie’s first choice to show the world what Jiu-Jitsu could do. It was only after a falling out between the two brothers that younger brother Royce was selected to represent the family in the UFC. Rickson did help train Royce for the event, and he eventually established himself in another arena: Vale Tudo Japan.

IGOR “ICE COLD” VOVCHANCHYN
Career: ‘95-‘05
Record: 51-10-1
Prime: ’96-’99

Tournament Experience:
Vovchanchyn is the winner of six eight-man tournaments, including three eight-man tournament titles and a four-man tournament in just sixty days. He competed in three other tournaments, losing in the semifinal or final bout.

Key Victories:
Kazushi Sakuraba, Mark Kerr (1-0-1), Gary Goodridge (2-0), Enson Inoue, Yuki Kondo

Key Losses:
Mark Coleman, Quinton Jackson, Mirko Filipovic, Mario Sperry, Alistair Overeem, Heath Herring

Why it never happened:
In 1996, Vovchanchyn’s name was mentioned for participation in the UFC 11 tournament, but visa issues kept the Ukrainian nightmare from ever stepping foot in the Octagon. Ironically, Mark Coleman went on to win that tournament. Like the PRIDE FC 2000 Grand Prix, he only fought twice that night to claim the title. Had Igor faced “Tank” Abbott in the semifinals, or Coleman in the final of UFC 11, we might be discussing a much different UFC history.

(The Kimbo Slice LTD tee — only available at Triumph United.)

Heads up, people:

— We’ll be liveblogging UFC 83 tomorrow night starting at 10 p.m. ET, so come back for thrilling round-by-round updates and semi-coherent commentary. And please share your own thoughts during the broadcast via the comments section, especially because…

— We’ve teamed up with Triumph United to launch our Comment of the Week contest. We’re not going to lie; some of your comments have been making us LOFL lately, and we want to start rewarding you for your creativity. Thus, every Friday starting next week we’ll call out our favorite comments from the previous week and award one winner a Triumph United shirt of his/her choosing. If you’re tired of MMA-inspired shirts that induce headaches and seizures, you should definitely check out some of T.U.’s more reserved, aesthetically-pleasing designs. I’ve paid actual money for two of their shirts in the past, which I think demonstrates my genuine love for this brand. So keep hitting us with your witty/insightful comments and good luck. Lurkers, emerge from the shadows!

— Do us a favor and check out this interactive trailer for The Forbidden Kingdom. Then do Jackie Chan and Jet Li a favor and see the movie.

(Will Serra prove to be MMA’s Buster Douglas, or will he send thousands of Canadians home drunk and angry?)

As UFC 83 draws nigh, we’re faced with the daunting task of predicting the winners in Saturday night’s bouts. But just picking the victor isn’t enough. In addition, we’ve decided to get really specific with our predictions, to the point where it’s mostly absurd. This makes it almost as much fun as the UFC drinking game, where you chug every time Mike Goldberg sounds way too excited about some upcoming movie/event/paid sponsor.

Hope you’ve got your Molsons ready for the UFC’s first Canadian event. It could be a long night.

Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre

Here’s the thing: a lot of people have been quick to write off Matt Serra, and we can understand why. His victory over St. Pierre was so utterly shocking – and he hasn’t been back in the Octagon since – that it’s hard not to think of that win as a one-in-a-million lucky shot. In other words, Serra seems to have about the same odds as someone launching a half-court shot at the buzzer. Sure, you can do it once, but twice in a row?

We have to consider the possibility that Serra might legitimately present problems, stylewise, for GSP. Then again, how has Serra been preparing for this fight? Well, he had back surgery, filmed a reality show, and worked out with Pete Sell. Will that get you ready to face someone like GSP, who may be one of the best pure athletes in MMA? Doubtful at best.

CP Pick: Georges St. Pierre.

Unreasonably Specific Prediction: TKO, 2:35 of round 3.

What to Watch For: the expression on Serra’s face when the Montreal crowd gives him a good old-fashioned Canadian razzing during the introductions. Will it be a look of grim focus, or ‘I-got-your-boos-right-here-ya-turkeys!’ Wait and see.

Rich Franklin vs. Travis Lutter

DREAM has updated the official card for their second event (April 29th; Saitama, Japan), with seven fights of the upcoming middleweight tournament already locked down. The biggest surprise is the addition of Frank Trigg, who will be taking on Brazilian Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (7-1). Trigg, who we consider to be the #9 middleweight in the world, most recently competed at HDNet Fights: Reckless Abandon (12/15/07), where he submitted Edwin Dewees in the first round. The other six fights booked for DREAM’s middleweight GP are:

Denis Kang vs. Gegard Mousasi
Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa vs Kin Taiei
Kazushi Sakuraba (depending on traffic) vs. Andrews Nakahara
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masakatsu Funaki
Magomed Sultanakhmadov vs. Zelg Galesic
Yoon Dong Sik vs. Shungo Oyama

Other fighters rumored to fill out the eighth and final tourney fight include Yoshihiro Akiyama (who has been battling injuries), Daniel Acacio, Dae Won Kim, and Mamed Khalidov. DREAM.2 will also feature the do-over match between Shinya Aoki and Gesias Calvancante, to decide who will advance to round two of the lightweight GP on May 11th. In addition, GracieFighter.com is saying that Nick Diaz has verbally accepted a DREAM.2 fight against Marcelo Garcia, a former competitive grappler who lost his pro MMA debut last October at a K-1 HERO’s event. However, Garcia has reportedly backed out of the fight, and a new opponent may not be found for Diaz.

(The Fertitta brothers, preparing to order something expensive.)

The poor get poorer while the rich land on the cover of Forbes: Financial stability was a recurring theme in MMA this week, as two prominent leagues face death while another cemented its place at the top. First the bad news…

— The IFL filed their 10k SEC report on Tuesday, and things are looking grim. Since the league was founded in January 2006, it has suffered losses of $31 million. Last year’s revenues weren’t nearly enough the make up for the $15.9 million it spent on events; notably, the IFL only took in $498,000 in sponsorship revenue and $117,544 in branded merchandise sales in 2007. At this rate, the company won’t be able to survive past the third quarter of the 2008 fiscal year, and due to their continued losses, the IFL’s auditors have included a paragraph in their financial statements questioning their financial viability, which will make it even harder for the IFL to secure the additional financing it needs to sustain operations. As the report says, “If revenues grow slower than we anticipate, or if operating expenses exceed our expectations or cannot be adjusted accordingly, we may not achieve profitability and the value of your investment could decline significantly.”

— An earlier rumor that BodogFight was near death gained more traction yesterday with MMAWeekly’s report that the Bodog subsidiary may be ceasing operations next week. The company lost a reported $38 million in 2007, and hasn’t announced any more events since it sponsored a Las Vegas Tuff-N-Uff show in February. From the article:

Asked if the company was folding, one executive who declined to be named told MMAWeekly.com, “I can neither confirm or deny that.”

When asked what Bodog Fight was currently working on, the executive responded, “I’m sitting in an empty office.”

Of course, in the land of the Octagon, it’s all champagne and caviar…

(“The Law” could be headed to the Oregon Statehouse)

As you may have heard, Matt Lindland is running for public office. But what you may not know is he actually has a pretty decent chance of getting elected.

I spoke with Lindland recently about his political campaign. If you think it’s some kind of publicity stunt ala the porn star who ran for governor of California, think again. Lindland has a platform, an organization, and the backing of a real political party.

Guess which one it is. Give up? Hint: the phrase “the liberals in Salem” was peppered throughout our conversation.

That’s right, Lindland is a Republican. And while, yes, Oregon may have something of a reputation as a “granola” state, Lindland reminds us that his district leans more to the right.

“Don’t think that just because we’re close to Portland we’re all a bunch of liberals,” he said, referring to Oregon’s 52nd District, which we’re going to go ahead and dub “Lindland Country”.

Portland may be all latte-sipping, North Face-wearing, Prius-owners (that, and some awesome strip clubs…seriously), but the state representative seat that Lindland is seeking was vacated by a Republican woman.

“Outside of Multnomah County it’s a little more rural, with a different set of values,” he added.

But Lindland doesn’t seem to be running as a “values candidate”. Not really. His beef with Oregon state politics is an economic one, and judging from their high unemployment rate in recent years, that seems like a good way to court voters there.

At the heart of Lindland’s proposal is the ever-popular anti-tax stance. He says that business-owners in Oregon (of which he is one) are taxed too much already – a position that rarely gets argued against, considering even those people who don’t own businesses often, you know, work for them or buy things from them.

When we reported that Quinton Jackson had scored a part in the upcoming horror flick Midnight Meat Train, we assumed that his role would be larger than “Black Guy Who Gets Killed #4.” But from the looks of the above trailer, the only speaking roles belong to Brooke Shields, Ricky Bobby’s wife, and the dude who played the asshole boyfriend in Wedding Crashers. Do not blink at the 1:36 mark or you’ll miss him. So…totally worth your time, right?

(Yep, this again.)

A few weeks ago, FiveOuncesofPain reported that a former All-American wrestler named Paul Bradley — who was rumored to be a castmember for The Ultimate Fighter 7 — had just been signed to a fight contract by EliteXC. It didn’t mean all that much to us until this morning, when we realized, OMG, Paul Bradley is the dude who was just kicked out of the TUF house because of his cootie-neck! In a new interview on 5oz., Bradley gives his take on his TUF eviction, and his transition to the UFC’s biggest competitor. Some highlights:

Sam Caplan: Just to clarify, your condition is called Herpes Gladiatorum?
Paul Bradley: Yes, that’s right. There’s type I and type II. Type I is sexually transmitted and type II, which is what I had, is transferred from the skin. It’s basically a cold sore but I get it on my neck…

Like my college trainers say, in college wrestling you deal with this a ton because of the skin-to-skin contact. If you wrestle five years and don’t get it, you’re pretty lucky…

I went and saw a doctor that morning and he’s like, “Two days on these meds (the Valtrex) and you’ll be fine.” And I’m like, “Alright, great.” So I went back and then Dana brought in his close, personal friend and the guy is saying this and that about that I can still give it to someone, but that’s not how it works. It’s got to be broken out, which it was but two or three days on the medicine and it was going to be gone…it wasn’t going to happen again throughout the whole show — I can guarantee you that. Especially when I was taking that medicine every day.

Sam Caplan: So it was a pre-existing condition. Had you disclosed that when you submitted your medicals?
Paul Bradley: Well, I had submitted all of my medicals from college so I’m sure it was in there. But like I said, I can name a ton of fighters in that organization that have it right now. Of course I won’t (name them), but half of the guys are wrestlers and I can name a couple off the top of my head right now. A couple of them I keep in touch with and they couldn’t believe it. They couldn’t believe it because it is so common in amateur wrestling and in wrestling in general you hear about it all the time. It was no big deal in my wrestling room at Iowa. “I got the herps” today is what you would say and you’d have to sit out a few days and get your medicine and you’re good to go within two or three days.

I was just shocked when Dana said he had never seen anything like this because with jiu-jitsu, wrestling, or any sport with skin-to-skin contact, you can acquire it.

Bradley went on to say that he’s in talks to get on the undercard of EliteXC’s June 14 event in Hawaii, in the first of a potential three-fight deal. Hopefully, the bit of infamy he got from his appearance on TUF doesn’t hound him from the rest of his career. It’s not fun to be known as “the herpes guy”; we know, we went to high school. But hey, if you’re going to have an incurable disease, you’re going to want one that sounds as badass as Herpes Gladiatorum. Fun fact: “Herpes Gladiatorum” is the official name for the piece of music that plays in the UFC pay-per-view intros…

As we approach the big showdown on Saturday night, here’s some lesser-known Georges St. Pierre fights to get you in the mood. First, it’s St. Pierre’s second Octagon appearance at UFC 48, where he beats down current IFL welterweight champ Jay Hieron in under two minutes. Next, it’s GSP’s first pro fight, where Rush staves off the scrappy Ivan Menjivar to score a very questionable TKO via verbal tapout at the end of the first round. And finally, it’s the “GoldenPalace.com” TKO fight against Dave Strasser, which St. Pierre took after his first career loss (vs. Matt Hughes at UFC 50); lovely half-guard to side-control pass at 5:11 and the fight-ending kimura is just as slick.

(GSP vs. Jay Hieron, UFC 48, 6/19/04)

(GSP vs. Ivan Menjivar, UCC 7, 1/25/02; fight starts at the 4:06 mark)

(GSP vs. Dave Strasser, TKO 19, 1/29/05; fight starts at the 3:57 mark)

Props: MMAScraps

(Who could say no to that face?)

Anderson Silva must not hear the word ‘no’ very often. Just because Dana White tells him that a fight between he and Roy Jones Jr. absolutely, positively cannot happen, Silva isn’t going to let it go so easily. This refusal to accept White’s decision became clear recently when Silva told Sherdog.com:

“I’m still confident this fight will happen. This can be this year or in 2009. I respect Dana White, the UFC owners and their point of view, but my vision is that I want this boxing match.”

Now see, that Anderson Silva seems like such a nice boy. Maybe if Randy Couture had adopted this attitude…well, we won’t go down that path.

The champ pressed on with his reasoning for demanding the fight despite White’s resistance:

“[T]his is my huge personal wish, a pro boxing fight against Roy Jones, who I consider the top boxer. I’m his fan as well. I’d like this fight to happen and I’ll do everything possible to make it happen. Roy Jones stated his will to fight as well. He has an exceptional character, and we want this fight. This would be good for both sports — MMA and boxing. This would be historical! This has to happen! I can’t believe that the people responsible to make it happen don’t see that. They can’t let the fans be without this match, which can mark the story of the fight sport.”

At some point, with Silva being so vocal about this issue, you have to wonder whether Dana White isn’t secretly loving this. Maybe not loving it in the sense that he wants the fight to actually happen, but it’s a great way to get people talking, including people who might not have paid much attention to the UFC or MMA before now.

That said, don’t hold your breath waiting for this fight to happen any time soon, at least not while Silva’s value to the UFC is still so great.

(Kimbo and “Crush”: And then what? Slice photo courtesy of Esther Lin.)

CBS recently announced that they’ve set July 26th as the date for the second installment of EliteXC’s Saturday Night Fights. Coming less than two months after SNF‘s debut broadcast on May 31st, the scheduling feels premature for a couple of reasons:

1) What if, God forbid, the first show is a ratings disaster? I don’t know if CBS has the power to immediately end their agreement with EliteXC if that happened, but they’d certainly be wise to postpone the next event for a couple more months, reassess what went wrong, and spend more time publicizing their new product.

2) When you stack a card with your two biggest stars (Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano), and fill it out with a few more of your most popular fighters (Robbie Lawler, Phil Baroni, Scott Smith, James Thompson), who’s left to fight eight weeks later? Even if Kimbo and Gina are physically capable of competing again so soon, would casual viewers be interested in seeing another event with the same headliners? Could exciting new opponents be found for them in such a short time-frame? Who’s going to carry card #2?

If you answered Nick Diaz, Jake Shields, KJ Noons, and Yves Edwards — well, you’re wrong. It turns out that all four of those mid-level stars have been booked for EliteXC’s June 14th show in Honolulu. Diaz will face Muhsin Corbbrey, Shields will take on Drew Fickett in EliteXC’s first welterweight title fight, and Noons and Edwards will meet in a lightweight championship bout. Sounds like a killer card, right? It seems like Pro Elite’s best move would be to cancel the Hawaii show and move all the fights to July 26th. Sure, Diaz might be a risk with his medical marijuana routine, and Noons is reportedly staying off the CBS cards due to mismanagement, but it’s hard to think of many other names that EliteXC has in its roster, other than the aforementioned, that could carry a big show, especially when it’s all but guaranteed that no title fights will be included on the July 26th card. Unless, of course, they set up Kimbo to face someone like Antonio Silva for an ill-advised heavyweight championship match. Was Gary Shaw even thinking this far into the future?

Semi-related: Murilo “Ninja” Rua has been dropped from the May 31st CBS card for undisclosed reasons. His opponent, Phil Baroni, will now be facing Joey Villasenor, who knocked out Ryan Jensen three weeks ago at “Shamrock vs. Le.” The rest of the main card is still as-is.

From Complex.com:

Complex: Tim Sylvia caught a lot of flack during his heavyweight reign. Do you think you guys finally have a common ground to stand on now when it comes to haters?
Matt Serra: Please, never put me in the same sentence with that big retard ever again.

[golf clap]

(Should’ve worn a neck-condom.)

With their elimination matches behind them, the 16 middleweight finalists moved into the TUF house on last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7. Before the hour was over, teams were picked, a herpes carrier was sent home, and the fighter who looks like a meathead Nicolas Cage was 10 G’s richer.

Quinton Jackson won the opening coin toss, meaning he could pick either the first fighter or the first fight. He insisted on first fighter rights and chose early standout C.B. Dollaway, while Forrest took impressive BJJ black belt Tim Credeur for the next pick. Rampage also chose Matthew Riddle, Paul Bradley, Daniel Cramer, Gerald Harris, Mike Dolce, Jesse May, and Brandon Sene, while Forrest got Amir Sadollah, Jesse Taylor, Matt Brown, Cale Yarbrough, Dante Rivera, Nick Klein and Luke Zachrich.

As Rampage was assessing his team’s injuries from the elimination matches, Paul Bradley’s hive-y, shingle-y neck (shown above) was brought to his attention. Bradley was sent to a dermatologist, who determined that the rash was a herpes strain that could potentially spread to the other fighters. After quarantining him on the treadmill for a day, Dana White calls him into his office with some bad news; because of the risk of transmission, he’d have to leave the house. Bradley doesn’t take it well, and breaks into tears talking about the wrestling coaching job he gave up to be there. But that’s the breaks, and he’s sent packing. Rampage doesn’t want to be around someone with “cooties on his neck.” Replacing Bradley will be Patrick Schultz, the elimination round non-standout who was previously choked out by Luke Zachrich.

Forrest chooses the first matchup: Jesse Taylor vs. Mike Dolce.

(Big Nog insists on riding this gentleman everywhere, and it is his privilege to serve the champ in such a fashion)

An unofficial source tells Cage Potato that the coaches have been signed for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, and they are none other than UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and former champ Frank Mir.

Of course, this means that Mir will be getting the next shot at the heavyweight strap, and that the title will be out of circulation for a looooong time while they film, edit, and air the show.

This latest revelation might also shed some light on why the UFC has been purging its heavyweight roster. With this development off in the distance, they have less need for guys like Tim Sylvia and Jake O’Brien hanging around the water cooler down at the Zuffa headquarters.

While we’re a little disappointed that we won’t get to see Sylvia coach his own TUF team and try desperately to get them to like him, at least this might help introduce Big Nog to some of the newer fans of the sport. Next thing you know all the kids will be going crazy for the butterfly guard. Don’t think it can’t happen.

(If MMA were like this, Fightmetric would be perfect.)

Fightmetric wants to change the way you think, watch, and talk about MMA.

Their plan is very simple: they’ve created a litany of categories by which to keep stats in every fight, scoring the action based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative judgments, which they use to come up with a fighter’s TPR (Total Performance Rating), thus measuring his effectiveness and the quality of his performance.

Oh, wait. That isn’t simple at all. It’s really, really complicated.

Here’s the thing about Fightmetric: it’s not a bad idea, just an unnecessary one. I give them credit for being ambitious and creative and somehow managing to push their analysis onto Yahoo! and AOL. And I like that they’re trying to do something new. Seriously, I do. But at the same time, I just don’t see the point.

In a recent article on Yahoo! Sports, Fightmetric’s Rami Genauer performed an impressively thorough analysis of George St. Pierre’s career stats. Turns out, GSP has a median TPR of 90. Can you believe it? 90!

In case you’re wondering, that’s apparently pretty good. At the same time, it’s hard to foresee a time when internet forums will be abuzz with people arguing about the TPR’s of their favorite fighters.

Some of the stats seem legitimately interesting. For example, did you know that GSP is successful in 80% of his takedown attempts? That’s much better than the “average success rate” of 48%. His opponents are successful in taking him down only 17% of the time.

But what does that really tell us, that GSP has good takedown defense? Seems like I knew that just based on casual observation. Sports stats are useful primarily for purposes of nuanced comparison. In baseball, a guy with a .330 average is considered more valuable than someone hitting .280.

But comparing stats in fighting is more difficult because of the variable created by matchmaking. GSP, for example, has spent the majority of his career facing pretty tough competition. A TUF winner who gets fed tomato cans for a year and a half might have even better takedown stats, but it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a better fighter.

For us, it really comes down to which goofy accent you find less annoying:

(Scene from The Pink Panther)

Or…

(Scene from Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story)

We hope that helps. Let us know in the comments, or by taking our new poll. WAR hilarious regional dialects!