(Not interested in being a celebrity. Nope. Not one bit.)

You might think Phil Baroni would be pretty pumped about being on the Elite XC card this weekend. It’s a pretty big deal, what with it airing live on CBS and all. But Baroni? He’s keeping it in perspective, or so it seems from his recent interview with MMANews.com:

I’m not that excited like some of these guys are because I never got into fighting to be a Rockstar. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve been a pro for 8 years now. When I turned pro it was to fight and to be a professional fighter and to compete. There was no getting rich or being famous. You had the hardcore but it wasn’t about being on TV, hell, it wasn’t even about being on PPV when I started out. It’s cool that the sport is growing and that there are better opportunities and all but to me if I wanted to be on The Ultimate Fighter or a reality TV star than I would have went to drama club when I was in school and tried to be an actor or I would have taken more ground balls when I was in baseball and maybe played in the Major Leagues at third base or some shit.

Wait, back up a minute. You’re telling me Baroni wasn’t a member of his high school drama club? So he’s just a natural, then?

Also, it’s good to know that even pro fighters sometimes tell themselves that if only they’d taken a few more ground balls in high school baseball practice they’d be in the big leagues by now. I thought it was just me.

Watching this promo video for the WEC’s Urijah Faber-Jens Pulver bout on Sunday, I was all set to praise the clean, understated style. This is a nice break from the monster-truck-rally feel of a lot of promos, I thought. Then I got to the 0:46 mark, where they explicitly promise that this will be “the greatest cagefight in history.”

Let’s ignore the fact that “cagefight” is not, as Walter Sobchack would say, the preferred nomenclature. Instead, let’s ask who thought it was a good idea to make a claim that attempts to predict the future while simultaneously setting viewer expectations unreasonably high?

I think the Faber-Pulver match-up will produce an exciting fight, but now that I’ve seen that promo I’m going to be really disappointed if, once it’s over, I manage to think of even one bout in cagefighting history that was better. Why not aim just a little lower? Like, “greatest cagefight this week”. Or maybe, “one of the top twenty or so cagefights in recent memory”? I guess this is why I don’t work in marketing. Plus, those types always want you to wear a tie and pants and stuff. Squares.

Anyway, if you’re up for more gross exaggerations of the future, Versus is airing their “WEC Outside the Cage” special again tonight at 6 pm. It should be the greatest pre-fight hype special in history.

As many of you were disappointed to learn, my UFC 84 ipecac pick-off against Fightlinker‘s Ryan Harkness ended in a 19-19 draw; with no contingency plan in place in case of a tie, neither of us were required to film ourselves violently projectile vomiting. That’s the bad news. The good news is that last night Ryan and I decided on the terms of the rematch. They are as follows:

— We will predict the entire card of UFC 85, which goes down just 11 days from now on June 7th.
— The three-point scoring system will be the same as before, with the person who scores lowest having to film themselves drinking ipecac. (I’m assuming you can get this stuff at the nearest Walgreen’s, because I actually don’t have any in my medicine cabinet.) Look for my new picks to go up next Wednesday, give or take.
— In the event of a tie, a tiebreaker will be determined via who picked the most “perfect” matches (fighter/round/method). If that’s also a tie, we’ll judge it by which of us called the most winning fighters. If that’s also a tie, then the ipecac bet is officially cursed and we will both drink ipecac to entertain you vultures.

Sound good? I’d also like to announce that CagePotato reader “ehummel” was the winner of the BetUS $100 free play credit contest, with a highly impressive score of 21. Hit us up at feedback@cagepotato.com, and we’ll let you know how to claim your credit.

Well, one more of these and it’s a full-blown epidemic. At King of the Cage “Opposing Force” on May 15th — just one day before Shaun Parker and Tyler Bryan exchanged simultaneous knockout punches at LFC 25 — Anthony Lapsley and Aaron Wetherspoon’s match also ended with both guys getting their lights turned out. Near the beginning of the second round, Lapsley cranked Wetherspoon with a perfect right straight, but clashed heads with his opponent on the way in. As they both hit the mat, referee Herb “I’m Getting Too Old for This Shit” Dean patiently waited for somebody to get up. Despite the fact that the dazed Lapsley immediately started making the “no mas” hand signal, the fight was ruled a no-contest.

($225,000: Enough to buy a new pickup truck and a healthy white baby.)

Official salary and bonus numbers for UFC 84′s fighters have been released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Here’s how the guys stacked up:

B.J. Penn: $250,000 ($125,000 to show, $125,000 to win)
Wanderlei Silva: $225,000 ($150,000 to show*, $75,000 for Knockout of the Night)
Tito Ortiz: $210,000
Lyoto Machida: $100,000 ($50,000 to show, $50,000 to win)
Wilson Gouveia: $93,000 ($18,000 to show, $75,000 for Fight of the Night)
Rousimar Palhares: $85,000 ($5,000 to show, $5,000 to win, $75,000 for Submission of the Night)
Goran Reljic: $81,000 ($3,000 to show, $3,000 to win, $75,000 for Fight of the Night)
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou: $80,000 ($40,000 to show, $40,000 to win)
Thiago Silva: $50,000 ($25,000 to show, $25,000 to win)
Rich Clementi: $40,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 to win)
Dong Hyun Kim: $40,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 to win)
Sean Sherk: $35,000
Kazuhiro Nakamura: $20,000
Ivan Salaverry: $20,000
Shane Carwin: $12,000 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 to win)
Yoshiyuki Yoshida: $12,000 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 to win)
Terry Etim: $10,000
Keith Jardine: $10,000
Christian Wellisch: $10,000
Jon Koppenhaver: $8,000
Antonio Mendes: $4,000
Jason Tan: $3,000
* Wanderlei Silva’s guaranteed $150,000 salary doesn’t depend on a win bonus.

Overpaid: Wilson Gouveia. Looking back on UFC 84 a year from now, is the two-round almost-war between Gouveia and Goran Reljic going to be remembered by anyone? Yes, Reljic’s relentless left head-kicks were pretty, but Gouveia should have eventually figured out that they were coming. (For us, the presence of Mirko Cro Cop in Reljic’s corner was the early tip-off.)

Underpaid: A lot of people — particularly Shane Carwin, whose Knockout of the Night bonus was robbed from him by Wanderlei Silva. The way I saw it, Carwin’s single-punch, mouthpiece-ejecting KO of Christian Wellisch was more deserving then Wandy’s slightly more prolonged ground-and-pound TKO of Jardine, and Carwin could probably use the money more. Other than that, what the fuck is up with the UFC’s newcomers making three, four, and six thousand dollars to show? Goddamned slave wages. The UFC made $3.7 million off of “Ill Will”‘s gate; they could certainly afford to establish a minimum base salary of $10,000 for their fighters if they wanted to.

(Ole!)

In case you missed it somehow on Saturday night, Joe Rogan wants you to know that Lyoto Machida is elusive. And because he doesn’t trust your ability to pick up on this right away, he relies on repetition to get the point across. Conveniently, this viewpoint — the one that deems Machida elusive and Tito Ortiz hopelessly confounded by that elusiveness — is right in line with the plans of the UFC brass. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

I’m not saying that Rogan doesn’t truly feel this way about Machida. For all I know, he does. But the mere fact that the UFC was looking toward a future with one of the fighters in the Ortiz-Machida bout and probably not counting on any such future with the other really makes it difficult to take what we hear at face value.

If it had been Ortiz circling cautiously away for most of the fight, relying on a few sporadic fits of action to win a decision, would Rogan have praised him for being so elusive? Or would he have suggested, in some roundabout way, that Ortiz was avoiding the fight?

The point is, we don’t know. We can’t know. But what we do know, what we’ve learned over the years, is the UFC does not cast off talent lightly. They have a way of shoving it out the door, and that alone gives us reason to wonder if what we’re hearing on a broadcast is a genuine perspective from Rogan or whether it’s the company line. Like it or not, that’s a problem.

(Jackson’s post-fight mea culpa to Sherdog.com)

In a way, it’s nice of trainer Greg Jackson to say that Keith Jardine’s knockout loss to Wanderlei Silva on Saturday night was his fault, but it’s also a little weird. Saying that he should have “reiterated the game plan a little more” seems like an odd explanation. As if the only thing that stood between Jardine and victory was Jackson reminding him one more time not to get punched in the head really hard.

I could almost understand the game plan explanation if the fight weren’t over so quickly. As it was, Jardine didn’t get much of a chance to put any game plan into practice. He got caught with a couple of hard shots early on, which is rarely a part of anyone’s game plan. Jackson taking the blame for that seems either blatantly egocentric or like a clumsy attempt to make his fighter feel better. Because Cage Potato likes to assume the best about people whenever given the opportunity, we’re going to say that it’s the latter.

Feel better, Keith.

(After a long, hard day in the courtroom, a wide-mouthed Mickey’s really takes the edge off.)

As if being the undisputed ruler of the UFC’s lightweight division wasn’t enough, BJ Penn can now add another title to his impressive resume: Beer poster-boy. According to a new press release:

Two greatly respected Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) powers are combining forces to bring added excitement to the popular sport. The partnership between BJ “The Prodigy” Penn – his league’s current lightweight title holder – and Mickey’s Fine Malt Liquor promises action inside and outside the octagon.

“BJ Penn is a favorite among MMA fans, and Mickey’s is BJ’s beer of choice, so a partnership makes a lot of sense for both of us,” said Patrick Minogue, Mickey’s marketing manager. “From the website to packaging to personal appearances, we plan to bring this alliance to life and give Mickey’s drinkers more access to this top MMA fighter.”

Wait a minute — Mickey’s is a “greatly respected MMA power”? Mickey’s is BJ Penn’s beer of choice? Mickey’s is anybody’s beer of choice? Please, guys, one bombshell at a time.

Penn’s new sponsorship deal follows Tito Ortiz, who inked a deal with Mickey’s last month. At the time it seemed like a perfect fit, as Mickey’s had just been bounced out of the Octagon in favor of Bud Light, and Tito looked to be heading for the exits as well. Now that the Prodigy is taking their money, it appears that Mickey’s replacement by a more prominent brand doesn’t mean that they’ve been banned by the UFC altogether. Could other beers follow the fighter sponsorship model in the future? It would be great to see Marcus Davis proudly representing Guinness, Heath Herring named PBR’s official Drunk Texan Brawler, and Georges St. Pierre pretending to drink from unopened cans of Molson, Xenergy-style.

(Wandy’s triumph; courtesy of UFC.com)

(Penn outboxes Sherk; courtesy of Sherdog)

(Tito Ortiz comes within a ball-hair of submitting Lyoto Machida; courtesy of Las Vegas Sun)

(Michael Jackson takes in the fights; courtesy of TMZ)

(After the show it’s the after-party. After the party it’s the hotel lobby.)

There’s a weird nightclub in my neighborhood that is 21 and up for women, 28 and up for men. The first time I saw this, I was confused on a number of different levels. Was that even legal? Was it smart? What kind of women want to go to a club that caters to old guys who want to grope them on the dance floor without having to worry about competing with younger men?

These are the same questions I find myself asking as I look through Combat Lifestyle’s photos of Dana White’s official UFC after-party. You may recall that this party was in direct competition with Arianny Celeste’s post-fight bash, only White’s soirée did not feature an open vodka bar for the ladies, as Arianny’s did. Perhaps they were relying on the appeal of forty-something men in unbuttoned dress shirts to make their party the place to be?

Whether that strategy paid off or not, you be the judge.

(Sorry Kimbo, that goes for fluffers too.)

Though the fighters involved in EliteXC’s “Saturday Night Fights” event stand to make record amounts of money from sponsorship deals, the way the fighters represent those sponsors is being strictly regulated by CBS. As FiveOuncesofPain reports:

[W]hile fighters can wear hats during their cage-walk entrance, they must wear an EliteXC hat while in the cage during their post-fight interview. The respective corner of a fighter also cannot drape a banner on the inside of the cage. Banners can only be displayed on the outside of the cage and can only advertise the fight camp that the fighter is representing.

Of course, CBS must give their blessing before a sponsor’s name is allowed anywhere in a fighter’s appearance, and not all sponsorships have made the cut. The most prominent 86′ing is that of Reality Kings, the porn web site company that Kimbo Slice used to bodyguard for, and which has had a visible place on Slice’s clothing and signage during his professional fights. As Gary Shaw said during a conference call on Thursday, “We understand what’s socially responsible, and CBS has a very high standard for standards and practices. And every logo we put on or whatever we do goes through CBS in their standards and practices.”

Disassociating MMA from porn is unquestionably a wise decision for this historic broadcast, and we can only hope that Mauro Ranallo has to submit all of his kooky metaphors for approval before the event as well. A girl-on-girl cagefight on national TV is edgy enough. Baby steps, people…

Get ‘em while they last…

BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk

Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine (Knockout of the Night)

Rousimar Palhares vs. Ivan Salaverry (Submission of the Night)

(‘I am waaaaay too high for this bullshit right now.’)

It is inevitably the most uncomfortable, unproductive moment of any UFC broadcast. It’s more worthless than the extended video game/shitty action movie promos. More worthless even than the closeups on celebrities in the crowd, which at least has the virtue of Shaquille O’Neal’s childlike exuberance for the sport and Mandy Moore’s impressive cycle of facial expressions (wholesome, enthusiastic, coquetteish — all in a few seconds!).

The most cringeworthy moment of any UFC pay-per-view comes when we hear those magic words from Joe Rogan: “Talk us through the (insert name of alcoholic beverage sponsor) replay.”

Please, someone tell me when this has ever yielded any commentary worth hearing. It’s not that fighters don’t have anything interesting to say. It’s just that they usually don’t have anything interesting to say right then. They’re out of breath, riding high on adrenaline, and already thinking about the after-party. What do you want them to say?

(Voted most likely to give you lice that he picked up in a foreign youth hostel.)

UFC 87 may have lost its Mark Coleman-Brock Lesnar match-up, but another interesting lightweight contest has been added, says MMA Junkie. Ultimate Fighter winner Mac Danzig has reportedly agreed to a bout with Clay Guida to take place on the August 9 event.

This adds to an already strong fight card featuring a welterweight title contest between Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch, as well as a lightweight showdown between top contenders Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta and Heath Herring stepping in to replace Coleman against Lesnar.

This will be Danzig’s first real test since fighting his way into the UFC. Guida has had his share of tough bouts lately, with mixed results. While it’s still a few months away and as vulnerable as any other card to the typical assault of injuries, imprisonments, and other unfortunate happenings, you have to admit that as of now it looks like a solid lineup. Now let’s just hope that nobody gets struck by lighting in the meantime.

(Props: Five Ounces of Pain)

So you think you’re going to take attention away from Tito Ortiz just because a) he didn’t fight in the main event, and b) he lost a unanimous decision? Not likely. Leave it to Ortiz to find some way to get us all talking about him the morning after. Thank God Jenna Jameson was there to make this whole encounter seem that much weirder.

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.com)

Well, that was fun, no? A night full of surprises, a few knockouts, and the dreaded Ipecac bet ends in a tie, thus making it possible for Ben Goldstein’s mother to rest easy, at least for now. Now that we’ve all had a chance to digest the evening’s events and process the alcohol through our systems, let’s see if we can’t pull it together for a painfully sober look at what really happened last night.

- B.J. Penn dominates; Sean Sherk relies on worst game plan ever. I have to give it to Penn. He looked like a champion from start to finish, picking Sherk apart without getting too frantic and then showing his class after the fight was over. But at the same time, what was Sherk thinking? Standing and trading punches with Penn clearly wasn’t working, as evidenced by Sherk’s face after two rounds. He never seemed committed to getting the fight on the ground, and as a result only allowed Penn to grow more confident of his striking game as the minutes wore on. Maybe he hoped Penn would gas out after punching him in the face for fifteen minutes?

- Tito Ortiz’s exit surprisingly graceful…until the press conference. It seemed strange that the UFC would even give Ortiz any time on the mic after his decision loss to Machida, but even more bizarre that he was mostly cordial about it. Then came the press conference, which Ortiz showed up at uninvited and caused a minor scene. Dave Meltzer describes an odd scene where Ortiz is asked to leave the press conference by UFC officials, but then told to stay put by Jenna Jameson. Guess who he listened to? What followed was a minor flare-up as Ortiz and Dana White accused one another of trying to be “superstars”, an accusation neither is in a position to refute. Oh, Tito. You will be missed.

Forgive the G’n'R reference, but I’m really that excited. Click the “more” link and refresh your browser every few minutes for live updates from the “Ill Will” pay-per-view broadcast, beginning at 7 p.m. PT. Good luck to the fighters, the betters, the pickers, and the soon-to-be pukers.

(Get used to this look.)

MMAWeekly has confirmed that Heath Herring has agreed to face Brock Lesnar at UFC 87 (August 9th, Minneapolis), filling in for Mark Coleman, who dropped out of the event after tearing a knee ligament during a sparring session last Friday.

Most MMA fans believed that Coleman was being set up for a steamrollin’ — and this video sure didn’t help — but Herring isn’t nearly the underdog that Coleman would have been. One of the most experienced heavyweights currently active, Herring holds notable victories over Mark Kerr, Igor Vonchanchyn, and most recently Cheick Kongo at UFC 82, and has had the honor of being beaten by Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko Filipovic, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (three times!). Though he’s good with submissions and wouldn’t be giving up a size advantage to Lesnar, Herring’s questionable takedown defense could make this a favorable matchup for the ex-WWE star.

As for Coleman, he’s pretty bummed about his injury, although he’ll only be out of action for six weeks and won’t need surgery. Check out this short video interview from MMARated to watch Coleman try to stay positive in the face of Ariel Helwani’s probing questions.

(Oh yeah, this also happened today.)

Goldstein here. Ryan Harkness and I were guests on BetUS Radio today to talk shit to each other for a half-hour in honor of our UFC 84 ipecac pick-off. Go here to listen, and say a little prayer for my gastrointestinal tract.

(Consider yourself warned: the “Tiger” is loose.)

Affliction continues to add to its first fight card with the announcement that recently signed Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will take on MMA veteran Vernon “Tiger” White. White’s management confirmed the bout today, and the match-up is expected to take place on the pay-per-view portion of the card.

While White is one of the most experienced fighters in the business, he’s not exactly as A-list as the other names on the Affliction card. His last victory came via disqualification against Jeremiah Constant, and his record now stands at an unimpressive 26-32-2.

Just the same, perhaps Affliction is hoping that White has enough name recognition to help the card as a local draw in California, or maybe they’re just setting Nogueira up with a beatable opponent to hype a later fight between Little Nog and the winner of “Babalu” Sobral and Mike Whitehead.

In other news…

Gina Carano Workout – Watch more free videos

Does Gina Carano do anything that isn’t filmed? All signs point to no, she doesn’t, but then who can blame her? If you were that attractive and could kick like that, you’d probably want cameras around to document it as well. Too bad you’re not, though. Your life would be so much better. Think more money and a bunch of free American Gladiators stuff and less crippling loneliness and TV dinners. Better yet, don’t think about it. It will only get you down.

UFC 84 press conference videos after the jump.

(And now that anonymous bald man in the sweat pants is landing magazine covers and headlining a show on CBS. God bless America.)

Fightline.com is passing along the rumor that EliteXC is working to get Kimbo Slice in the cage with Sean Gannon, the Boston police officer and former Golden Gloves champion who put Kimbo down for the 30-count during an unregulated basement brawl in 2004. As Slice has said, “I would literally give my left nut — but I wouldn’t tell anybody — to fight him again.” Slice’s fight with Gannon was a chaotic mess, hampered by a lack of clarity on the rules; Kimbo thought it would be bare-knuckle boxing like his previous fights, and was thrown off when Gannon began throwing knees and attempting choke-holds. Gannon’s subsequent notoriety landed him a shot in the UFC, where he got his ass kicked by Branden Lee Hinkle at UFC 55. Jesus Christ, did those guys tie their wagon to the wrong Internet fighter or what?

Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time I saw Gannon’s name today. He was actually name-checked today in a Wall Street Journal article (!) about police officers who moonlight as MMA fighters:

Some of the biggest names in this sport, whose main league is the Ultimate Fighting Championship, are police officers. Sean “the Cannon” Gannon, a Boston police officer, achieved notoriety when he defeated street fighter Kimbo Slice in a bare-knuckles, backyard brawl. “Big John” McCarthy is the most well-known referee; he just retired from his day job as defensive-tactics instructor for the Los Angeles Police Department…

Forrest Griffin, who ranks among the top six light heavyweights in the world, quit his job as an officer in Augusta, Ga., four years ago to become a professional fighter. He first became interested in fighting in 1999, when he trained at the police academy. Though Mr. Griffin, 29, misses some things about being a police officer — like high-speed chases — he says quitting was an easy decision. “It was like, do you want to play in the NBA or do you want to be a cop?” he says. “Everyone wants to make lots of money to be on TV.”

(Gambling rules!)

Heads-up, P-Nation: We’ll be posting live results of the UFC 84 pay-per-view card tomorrow beginning at 7 p.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET, so please stop by during the event and drop us some comment love. To make the night even more exciting, Damon D of BetUs has offered a $100 free play credit to the CagePotato reader who can predict the entire card with the most accuracy. (Go here to refresh yourself on our three-point scoring system). You’ve already seen my predictions, so head to the official UFC 84 prediction thread and throw down your final picks. You may only enter once, all entries must be posted by tomorrow at 4 p.m. PT, and if we catch any cheaters editing their entries after the event begins, the ban hammer will come down harshly upon thee. Alright, let’s kick some ass!

Related: I just got this e-mail from my mom:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: [REDACTED]
Date: Fri, May 23, 2008 at 1:34 PM
Subject: mother speaking
To: Ben Goldstein

Hi Ben,
It may be funny when other people vomit, NOT. Don’t you pull any stunts like even suggesting you would take Ipecac. I hope you know that stuff has side effects.
YOUR MOTHER.

Mommmm, you’re embarrassing me!

(It’s all fun and games until Melvin Manhoef kicks you in the head.)

Someone at Dream hates Kazushi Sakuraba. The Japanese organization announced some of the match-ups for their fourth offering, including the second round of their middleweight tournament scheduled for June 15, and while Jayson “Mayhem” Miller and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza promise to put on an interesting show, pitting walking highlight reel Melvin Manhoef against an aging and battered Sakuraba seems almost irresponsible.

Then again, if Pride taught us anything it’s that Japanese MMA organizations love a mismatch almost as much as they love to see a game Sakuraba take fights he really shouldn’t. It’s not just that Sakuraba probably should consider retiring for good, though he should. It’s also that Manhoef is a bad style match-up for him. He’s an explosive striker with the potential to really hurt you if you stand in front of him for too long. And how long is too long? Well, unless the fight starts on the mat, Sakuraba is in trouble.

You’d think that if Dream wanted to see Sakuraba in the ring so bad they’d put him up against a grappler, where at least we could see an interesting ground war. Instead, they seem to want to see him battered mercilessly while his loyal fans look on in horror. To each his own, I guess.

The rest of the dream card is shaping up like this:

Shinya Aoki vs. Nagat Katsuhiko
Zelg Benkei Galesik vs. Kin Taei
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Jayson “Mayhem” Miller
Gegard Mousasi vs. Yoon Dong Sik
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Melvin Manhoef

(Ring girls: Who needs ‘em?)

Here’s the second half of CagePotato’s head-to-head bitchfest on “Ill Will,” brought to you by the two similarly-named editors of this site. If you missed part one, click here.

***

QUESTION: What does Wanderlei Silva’s future hold?

Fowlkes: Keith Jardine will beat Wanderlei Silva at UFC 84, and when he does it’s going to create some difficult questions for “The Axe Murderer.” Dana White says that he loves Silva. You can see why he would. But as great as he is in terms of showmanship, aggression, and “gameness” (as the Brazilians say), Silva’s best days may be behind him, as is evidenced by his lack of significant wins in recent years.

He’s just taken too many beatings and slowed down too much for his style to be effective any more. He’s got to evolve or get out the game. The question for the UFC is, do they bet on a Silva renaissance or try to convince him to drop to middleweight and start anew?

If Jardine really thumps him, the UFC has to go with door number two. If he has a strong showing, they might try putting him against someone like Matt Hamill or Sokoudjou and figure either way someone gets a bump. Regardless, anything less than a win on Saturday means Silva’s UFC career begins to slip away, even if it might take another fight or two before it completely disappears.

Goldstein: I’m also expecting Jardine to win tomorrow, but not because Silva’s game hasn’t evolved or because his physical condition is on the decline. It’s simply because the rule sets and environments of the UFC and Silva’s old home in PRIDE are so different that they’re barely the same sport. Until Silva can prove that he can work effectively in the Octagon, I’m not betting on him. But I think he can get used to the new terrain in time, and once he does, he’ll have some more thrilling fights left in him.

Losing to Cro Cop, Henderson, and Liddell doesn’t mean that your career is over — it’s the kind of setback that can befall any fighter who continuously fights top competition. Dana White knows that too. Still, Wandy will probably be ordered to drop to 185 if he loses to Jardine. There aren’t a ton of big-money matchups for Silva as a middleweight, but if he can score wins against guys like Rich Franklin, Yushin Okami, and Michael Bisping, he’ll certainly be invited back up to 205 to rematch Chuck Liddell or take on Rampage for the first time in the UFC. Dana White has to be taking the long view on the Wanderlei Silva situation, especially when there are so many other rival leagues that would step over their own mothers to pick him up.

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

We give the UFC props for not shredding Houston Alexander’s contract as soon as he took his second consecutive first-round knockout loss last month against James Irvin, but even the most compassionate among us would agree — if it happens again, he’ll be heading out the door. D-Day for “The Assassin” is now looking like September 17th; MMA Junkie reports that Alexander has agreed to a bout against Eric Schafer at UFC Fight Night 14. Schafer made his Octagon debut at UFC 62 with a submission win over Rob MacDonald, but lost his next two bouts via TKO to Michael Bisping and Stephan Bonnar. “Red” has since rallied in the Gladiators Fighting Series organization, where he’s posted back-to-back wins. Alexander had reportedly been offered several fights in August and September before settling on the Schafer matchup.

In other UFC fight-booking news, MMAMania passes along a rumor that a middleweight match between Ed Herman and Alan Belcher will also be on the UFN 14 card. Both men are coming off losses, to Demian Maia and Jason Day, respectively. And speaking of middleweights, a fight between Alessio Sakara and Rob Yundt has been added to the undercard of The Ultimate Fighter 7 finale on June 21st. Rob Yundt lost his Octagon debut to Ricardo Almeida at UFC 81 after taking the fight on very short notice. Sakara is 3-4 with one no-contest in the UFC, and was most recently dropped by Chris Leben at UFC 82.

Here’s the second episode of ESPN’s new online series, MMA Live, co-hosted again by Kenny Florian. In this installment, the panel breaks down UFC 84′s main event, Tito Ortiz’s career, Mike Tyson’s rumored jump to MMA, and Rich Franklin’s rumored jump to 205. In the “MMA for Dummies” segment, Bas Rutten runs us through “The Exorcist,” a neck crank sub perfect for when your opponent just ain’t givin’ up that rear-naked choke. If you missed the first episode, it’s after the jump.

(In retrospect, this was the wrong time to tell them that there’s no Santa Claus)

UFC.com announced today that a knee injury has forced Mark Coleman off the UFC 87 card in Minnesota on August 9, though Brock Lesnar will remain to face an as of yet unnamed opponent. They also announced the night’s main event, a welterweight championship match between title-holder Georges St. Pierre and top contender Jon Fitch. Also on the card, of course, will be Kenny Florian taking on Roger Huerta.

While the addition of the GSP-Fitch title fight isn’t exactly a surprise, it should make for an interesting fight and it’s encouraging to see that the UFC isn’t keeping GSP on the bench for too long following his win over Matt Serra.

As for the loss of Coleman, we won’t suggest that his knee injury isn’t legitimate, but, well, you saw this video we posted earlier, right?

(Could Kimbo be getting a shiny new belt to play with?)

A championship belt is good for several things. Hitting unsuspecting rivals is one, picking up girls in the supermarket is another, but the biggest advantage lies in its ability to signify that someone has defeated the best in their field and attained the top spot. In order for that to work though, there has to be a legitimate field. Elite XC doesn’t really seem to get that last part.

Live Events President Gary Shaw said in a conference call recently that he has plans to introduce a heavyweight title some time this year, then proceeded to rattle off all of three people who might be vying for it:

“Kimbo’s there, James Thompson’s there, and obviously (Antonio) Junior Silva is right there at the top.”

Well, that sounds fun. You have a heavyweight title and three heavyweights — one of whom will necessarily lose next Saturday — to fight for it over and over again. Thrilling.

I might be more optimistic about the chances for Elite XC pulling together a strong heavyweight field if Affliction didn’t already have so many of the top non-UFC big men locked up. As it is, you have to expect that Elite would be eager to hand the belt to Kimbo Slice if he beats James Thompson. So does mean that he would then turn around and fight Silva? And then what?

Assuming Kimbo does end up with a gold and leather strap of some kind declaring him champion of the world, and assuming Elite XC can’t land any more quality heavyweights, the only sensible thing to do is to work for some kind of cross-promotion with the IFL to have Kimbo face Roy Nelson. The contrast in experience and personalities, the clash of two “champions”, it’s a no-brainer. Not to mention, the virulent racists out there would just love it.

(‘All right, time to stop screwing around and get serious here.’)

As some of us have been saying leading up to UFC 84, Saturday night’s bout with Keith Jardine is close to a do-or-die situation for Wanderlei Silva. While a loss won’t necessarily sign his walking papers from the UFC, neither will it provide him with a lot of job security. If you don’t believe us, just take a look at what Dana White had to say:

“Wanderlei has lost three in a row,” White said. “This guy has to win some fights here to stay in the UFC and stay at the top of the 205-pound division.”

“He’s one of these unique fighters who people just love to watch fight because of his mentality on fighting,” White said. “Obviously, though, [he] has to get a win.”

Now, obviously there’s a difference between saying Silva has to win a fight and saying he has to win this fight, but the implication seems to be that he’s certainly not immune from the roster cuts if things don’t turn around for him soon. Got that, Wanderlei? Just in case you were suffering from a lack of pressure.