(The inspiration for the IFL’s new ring design.)

This morning we got a spam e-mail from the IFL imploring us to buy presale tickets to “IFL Summer Throwdown,” which goes down August 15th at the IZOD Center in the Meadowlands, New Jersey. And just as we were about to hit the delete button, we saw this at the bottom:

The night will also feature the world debut of “The HEX,” the IFL’s brand new six-sided ring. This is the future fighting surface for all of MMA. To introduce this new era in fighting, the IFL Summer Throwdown fight card will present the most explosive Mixed Martial Arts action the East Coast has ever seen!

Ho. Lee. Shit.

Merriam-Webster defines “hex” as a “jinx” (in its noun form), or “to affect as if by an evil spell” (in its verb form), which is astoundingly appropriate considering how cursed the IFL is. This is their response to public disinterest? A six-sided ring!? As we saw last week, IFL CEO Jay Larkin believes that since MMA fans haven’t taken to their events, we all must be Affliction-wearing, Xyience-swilling jokers who care more about light shows and dancing girls than high-level mixed martial arts competition. (The rebuttal to that misguided viewpoint is long and complex, and is expressed in the analysis and comments in the original post.)

So, my first thought was wow, what an idiot. Doesn’t Larkin know that gimmicky ring surfaces are the tool of the desperate and creatively bereft? American MMA fans don’t respond well to the ring, so the answer is to give them a different, more fucked-up ring? Really?

But now I’m starting to think that the “HEX” is Larkin’s final “Kiss My Ass” to all of us.

MMA legend Randy Couture finds himself in a strange position these days. An ongoing legal battle with the UFC threatens his future as a fighter, and his affiliation with clothier-turned-MMA promoter Affliction has prompted the UFC to keep him and the “banned brand” off any of their broadcasts. Recently Couture talked with Cage Potato about his life as a fighter, the future of MMA, and this summer’s Fedor-Sylvia bout.

CagePotato.com: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, Randy. How’s everything at Xtreme Couture? It seems like you guys have so many fighters in so many different organizations now. Does it ever get hard to keep track of who is fighting and where?

No, it’s not too hard. We’ve actually just got a big grease board and we just write who’s fighting and where and when and we do a pretty good job of keeping track of it that way. We’ve got new gyms opening up in Long Island and in Toronto. Everything is going really great.

What are your thoughts on Tim Sylvia signing to fight Fedor this summer? You’ve beat Tim, and the Fedor fight is the one you wanted more than any other. How does it make you feel to see Tim get that chance before you do?

I think it’s going to be a great fight. Tim’s a seasoned veteran and he presents some unique challenges with his height and his size. People knock Fedor because he hasn’t fought any top guys recently, but Fedor’s an excellent fighter. It should be very interesting to see how he handles this challenge. I know I’ll be interested to see it. It’s going to be a good one and I hope to be right there at ringside when it happens.

But Tim got let out of his UFC contract and that’s why he can take this fight. Does it bother you that it happened that way for him and not for you?

He didn’t get let go so he could do this fight, he got let go because the UFC didn’t want to pay someone that much money to fight on the undercard. They knew he wasn’t going to fight for a title any time soon and he only had one more fight on his contract, so they made the decision to let him go for financial reasons.

I can see how it made sense for them to let him go and it doesn’t make sense to want to let me go. I’ve got the belt, so that’s different. The way I look at it, that’s his good fortune to be able to go take the fight with Fedor. I’m not upset about it. I’ve still got a few more good fights left it me.

Tito Ortiz recently made some public statements about the lack of respect he feels from the UFC and from Dana White. He referred to the way they no longer show you on pay-per-views when you’re there cornering your fighters, never even mention your name or your gym. How much is this stuff about respect and how much is about money?

Adrenaline MMA officially has a fight poster, a fight card, and a web site. Now all they need is butts in the seats. I suppose we should take this as a good sign. They’ve already accomplished more than M-1 Global did, even if they don’t have Fedor to dress up in a suit and look bemused by Monte Cox’s antics.

What’s interesting about this event is how heavily Adrenaline is pushing local fighters, which is smart. While the rest of the MMA world battles over TV deals that may or may not be profitable, Adrenaline seems smart enough to know — as the UFC did back when the Fertittas first took over — that ticket sales can sustain you through the rough times, especially if you market the hell out of the local guys and build a regional fan base.

That explains why they’re pushing “Chicago Policeman” Mike Russow against Jeff Monson as their main event. It also explains why they were so quick to snatch up local fighters like Rory Markham, Bart Palaszewski, and Kerry Schall (just to name a few) for this card. Chicagoans might not cross the street to see Daiju Takase fight, but when he’s taking on Terry Martin it suddenly seems like a match with some drawing power.

Pretty savvy, Adrenaline. Perhaps instead of hemorrhaging cash like some other MMA startups, you will merely bleed slowly while waiting for the paramedics to come back from their coffee and whiskey break. Sounds like fun.

(Spirited debate is always welcome.)

To better encourage communication and interaction among the witty and energetic members of the Potato Nation, we’re pleased to announce that CagePotato.com now has its own Forums section! Head to Forums.CagePotato.com (or just click the button at the top of the page), register your screen name, and help us build this thing up by tossing in your two cents on the latest MMA news, upcoming fights, and everything else related to God’s Chosen Sport; or you could just shout out your favorite Thin Lizzy song, because apparently that works too. We had a couple friends test it out yesterday and all seems to be well, but if you run into any bugs, let us know at feedback@cagepotato.com. Thanks, as always, for your support. How ’bout we take this CagePotato thing to the next level?

(“Sic semper tyrannis, bitch!”)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris will be blogging his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which Jeremy May got his comeuppance and Team Rampage finally pulled out a win.

***

I don’t think too many people were surprised by the punishment dished out by Matt Brown. People ask me about him all the time — they think he’s a serial killer and mean as hell. To tell you the truth, I thought the same thing, but he’s actually one of the coolest dudes in the house. He opened up a lot about how fighting kept him alive and changed him in a positive way. He earned a lot of respect by doing that and whoopin’ ass in practice.

May definitely asked for it, but I gotta give it too him for coming out strong. The only thing that pissed me off is that the admitted to faking the knee injury. Now, if you don’t already know, I’m probably Jeremy’s only friend and I didn’t even know that. A lot of people were cautious of overtraining, but to sandbag is another story. The fight went well — it was all emotion, so they got tired pretty quick. But Brown had the better cardio and weathered the storm, then finished May with a kick to the nose. As bad as some people wanted to see Jeremy lose, I hated to see Team Forrest in control again.

(Lost in thought, Debi Purcell? Cause I’m lost in your eyes. Please don’t hit me.)

So female MMA fighter Debi Purcell and I are MySpace friends. It’s pretty cool. I’m not sure she knows that she’s friends with me, but she is. Good thing too, because today she sent out a bulletin announcing that she’s just signed a three-fight deal with Elite XC and will begin by taking on Brazilian Carina Damm on June 27.

This is encouraging for those of us who thought Elite XC was only interested in promoting Gina Carano and therefore would only bring in female fighters who Carano could beat. Both Damm and Purcell are legitimate competition, and while they may not be quite as hot as Carano, they’re not bad either. Something about a woman in a sports bra and MMA gloves.

Is that wrong? You know, talking about their attractiveness in the same way we talk about their fighting ability, which we would never do when talking about a male fighter? It’s only wrong if you say negative things about their looks, right? Women don’t get pissed off when you tell them how pretty they are, do they?

I don’t even know anymore. I’m just going to shut up and let you check out this Debi Purcell highlight video. In case you’re wondering what the tattoo on her lower back says, it’s “Hooray for me, fuck you.” That’s our kind of woman.

(You don’t mess with a Southern man’s tobacco.)

It’s pretty customary for the UFC to send out an email on Wednesday reminding people that The Ultimate Fighter is on that night. What’s not at all customary is for them to hype that episode’s fight or even tell you what it is. The show diverged from its typically wooden format to make this week’s fight announcement at the end of the last episode, and now they seem hell bent on getting their money’s worth out of the grudge match between Matt Brown and Jeremy May.

This begs the question: is the fight really that good, or is the budding rivalry the only interesting thing that happens this season?

Hard to tell. The email claims that “everyone is shocked when two nice guys become fierce combatants in the Octagon.” That’s strange, because it seems pretty clear that Jeremy May is not a nice guy and everyone hates him, except for perhaps Cage Potato guest blogger Gerald Harris, who is just so damn nice.

In Matt Brown’s Inside Fighting blog this week, he revisited the old lime-juice-in-the-tobacco prank that first set things off:

I was actually using it all day. I was chewing all day and just thought that maybe it was a little bit wet and that maybe I had dropped it in water but it didn’t bother me at all.

If my friend does that to me, it’s a funny joke. Just last night we were at a bar and one of my friends emptied it out and put lime in it. I laughed about it because my friend did it.

But when you are my enemy, when we might be fighting one another soon, it‘s different. Me and Forrest had already discussed my possibly fighting Jeremy next if we kept control, in fact I’m pretty sure we had set that fight in the line up so I was already thinking about fighting Jeremy and that’s why I told him after that now I had a real reason to fight him.

Two points worth making here: 1) That’s a fair way to look at things. What’s a funny prank when a friend does it is downright assault-worthy when some jerk you don’t really know does it. Matt Brown makes a compelling case as this season’s blue-collar everyman. 2) Is this really what it’s come to? The show is so boring outside of the fights that this lime juice prank, which didn’t even really work, is a legitimate source of entertainment? The things we’ll sit through just to see a fight at the end.

Lastly, Matt Brown’s hanging out in bars, huh? That doesn’t sound like what you’d be doing if you had fought your way into the finals and were preparing for the championship bout. Things that make you go ‘hmmmm.’

Tracy Lee of Combat Lifestyle has a new photo set up of Urijah Faber during one of his predictably brutal days of training, followed by a rare day off. Check it out, particularly if you’d like to see Urijah with his hair in some broke-ass cornrows, and Tracy in a bikini. (They may not be real, but they’re still fabulous…)

(An early trailer for the upcoming UFC video game.)

The boring but important notes and errata currently floating around this crazy MMA world of ours…

— THQ’s planned UFC video game has been give a rough release date of Spring 2009, which will coincide with “one of the UFC’s major events.”

— Affliction is reportedly close to locking down Fabio Negao as Matt Lindland’s opponent at their debut event on July 19th. Negao (8-3) is a veteran of the Super Challenge and Fury FC promotions who last competed in December, losing to Rousimar Palhares via first-round leglock submission. (Translation: He’s kind of a scrub.) Pedro Rizzo, who’s fighting Josh Barnett at the event, claims that it will indeed take place in California, most likely at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

— The UFC is trying to distract its fans from the fact that a historic MMA event is taking place on May 31st by scheduling a Chuck Liddell-themed programming block on SpikeTV that night. At 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, Spike will premiere “Ultimate Iceman: Chuck Liddell,” a documentary chronicling Liddell’s life inside and outside of the Octagon. Directly following at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT will be “Liddell vs. Silva: UFC Unleashed – Special Edition,” featuring the UFC 79 fight between Liddell and Wanderlei Silva, which has never been broadcast on cable. The UFC might be clever, but I have a DVR, which makes me more clever.

— The WEC has already sold out nearly all of the 8,000 seats in the ARCO Arena‘s lower bowl for WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver, and will be releasing tickets for seats in the upper sections for a quite-reasonable $35 bucks a pop. If you’ll be anywhere near Sacramento on June 1st, go get ‘em.

— Ali “#3″ Sonoma will be appearing on the fifth season of ABC’s The Mole, which premieres June 2nd. Catch a glimpse of her in the background on the promo vids at ABC.com.

(Artist’s rendition of Big Nog and Silva one year from now.)

It’s starting to look like Florida is the place to be if you’re trying to learn how to do the MMA. First you had American Top Team in Coconut Creek, and now Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Anderson Silva are starting their own gym in Miami. At this rate, the combined Brazilian and Cuban population down there could result in dangerous levels of upbeat dance music and thong bikinis.

The “Nogueira and Silva Mixed Martial Arts Academy” – yes, that’s seriously what they’re calling it, according to the Sun-Sentinel – isn’t the best name I could think of for a gym operated by two of the best fighters in the world. Hopefully they haven’t already had a bunch of t-shirts made up.

The gym is 15,000 square feet, and will apparently be located inside an existing sports complex. As for Nogueira, he sounds as excited as he ever gets about the whole venture:

“The sport is growing here now and is a hotbed for mixed martial arts. … Big things are growing here,” Nogueira said. “This has been a dream to open an academy together here.

“This is a good area and the weather is very good. In Miami, you can walk in the street and see people. It’s like Brazil. This is the right time and right place. This is the biggest time right now, in America, for this sport.”

That’s true about Brazil. You can walk in the street and see people. Happens all the time.

So, how long before ATT and the Nogueira-Silva crew are engaged in a bitter South Florida turf war? Six months?

(Nothing could console him after the tanning salon burned down.)

When the Nevada State Athletic Commission announced that it would begin random drug testing of MMA fighters, rather than just testing them immediately before and after a fight, this was generally hailed as a good decision. If anything, some of us wondered why it took this long. Giving dirty fighters a solid date for their drug tests lets them plan their steroid cycles just a little too efficiently.

But over at Bloody Elbow, Michael Rome doesn’t agree. In an article posted on the site yesterday, he had this to say about the oppressive fascism of drug-testing professional athletes:

Recently, NSAC has started a policy of random drug testing, in which fighters are tested for drugs randomly before fights. NSAC is a branch of the Nevada state government, meaning the government is conducting drug testing completely at random without any probable cause (“being a fighter” is not probable cause).

I’m shocked to see writers across the MMA spectrum approve of this gross abuse of basic rights. Everyone justifies this because it is for the fighters own good, a rationale that is generally used to justify any oppressive government tactic. Is there anybody out there willing to fight for the fighters? From random testing to the presumption of guilt upon a positive test, the entire system is completely bogus and one-sided.

I respect Michael Rome’s opinions, and normally I’m the first guy to complain about the government. God knows they’ve made my life hell with their stupid laws about how many wives I can have or how much of my paycheck has to go to supporting the many illegitimate children I’ve sired. But this argument doesn’t hold up.

Drug testing for professional athletes is a good thing, and here’s why: 1) steroids are illegal, not to mention potentially very dangerous to the user, 2) in a sport that involves men using their bodies as weapons against one another, steroids provide an unfair advantage and create a potentially dangerous situation for both combatants, 3) we want to believe that our athletic competitions are as fair and safe as reasonably possible.

I don’t think Rome would argue in favor of no drug testing at all in MMA (at least I hope not) so I’ll assume that we agree on the basic premise that some testing is necessary.

That said, I’m going to go one step farther and assert that it is also a good thing that the state athletic commission is the one doing the testing, and not a private entity like the UFC.

(Could this tragedy have been avoided?)

“I fought in Canada two weeks ago versus a Canadian. So that big 22,000-people crowd was booing my name. How would you feel about that? It was awful. If I fought the same guy in Madison Square Garden things could’ve been different.” — Matt Serra, addressing New York state legislators yesterday.

Racked with guilt over Serra’s loss in Canada and moved by his eloquent oratory, the New York State Legislature declared that the ban on MMA competition would be lifted immediately; furthermore, MMA would henceforth be recognized as New York’s official sport, and May 6th would be known as “Matt Serra Day.”

No, not really. But the UFC is making a heavy push to get New York to fall in line with the other 32 states that now sanction MMA competition in the U.S., sending Serra, Matt Hamill, and Zuffa’s Executive Vice President/general counsel Lawrence Epstein to plead their case in Albany. “We need to educate people about the sport and I think when people have certain perceptions, when confronted with evidence, those perceptions change,” said Epstein, who cited MMA’s increased safety measures since the sport was banned in New York eleven years ago by Governor George Pataki. The UFC lobbyists were also eager to point out the economic incentives enjoyed by UFC host cities, claiming that UFC 82 generated over $11 million in revenue for Columbus, Ohio.

So was their trip a success? Epstein had this to say:

“We’re battling everyday and I think we’ve come a long way, and you know there are always going to be those who don’t investigate this or look at it as deeply as we’d like them to. I guess we will continue to have that, but I think we’re over the hump.”

(Props: FightOpinion)

Here’s the short follow-up to E:60‘s profile on Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson that aired last December. To answer the first question you’ll have after seeing this: Blood and Bone is about a drifter who gets caught up in a mob-controlled street-fighting ring. It’s Kimbo’s first acting role, and the flick also features appearances by Bob Sapp, Gina Carano, “Justice” and “Toa” from American Gladiators, and coincidentally, another guy named Kevin Ferguson. It will be released, probably straight-to-DVD, sometime later this year. And hey, why not check out the trailer after the jump.

(Ah, the good times)

With Sean Sherk about to make his return to the UFC, it kind of makes you wonder: what’s old Hermes Franca up to these days? He also tested positive for the ‘roids after that fight last summer, only he immediately admitted to it instead of appealing and getting his sentence reduced.

Since Franca got stuck with the full weight of his year-long steroid suspension from the CSAC, he’s still not eligible to fight until early July. He originally considered fighting overseas to earn some cash, but it turns out those damn athletic commissions won’t let you wait out your suspension from MMA competition by competing in MMA outside their jurisdiction.

Now Franca tells MMA Weekly that he’s ready to get back into action once his time is served, and he says there are some organizations that will be glad to see him come back:

“I’m hungry. Even though I’m busy right now, I want to fight soon. I hope to fight in July, but if not, I’m going to keep busy and wait for my next fight.

“I have a big name, I’ve fought very much and a lot of guys know me, and a lot of shows are looking for fighters. EliteXC, Affliction, the UWC, some big shows, and a lot of guys are showing interest in me. I’m just waiting for my moment right now.”

Since the suspension kept him from making a living in the cage for the past year, Franca has kept busy teaching jiu-jitsu seminars. One imagines that he also ends each seminar by hinting that it would be really cool if someone would let him crash on their couch and also perhaps give him some food.

What’s really strange though is that while Franca seems very into his life as a jiu-jitsu instructor, this statement makes you wonder if it hasn’t also had a negative effect on his career:

“(Other fighters train) a few weeks before fights, and I never did. I am always teaching and training fighters. I’m going to let my instructors teach at my affiliations academies, and I’m going to camp for myself for six weeks or seven weeks just training. That’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to do things like a professional, and so I’m going to come back stronger than ever.”

Huh. Doing things like a professional. That sounds like a pretty good idea. Also sounds like it would have been a good idea back when you were fighting for the UFC lightweight title. But whatever.

Here’s the thing about this video. You know when you ask Dan Henderson who he wants to fight that he’s going to say Anderson Silva. And after that, when you ask him if he really thinks he has a legitimate shot at beating Silva, you know he’s going to say yes. You know that. But you have to ask him anyway, on the off chance that he’ll say he wants nothing more than to face Rich Franklin next. Then we could all relax without having to challenge one another’s illusions.

No such luck. However, note that Hendo says he wants to “get back in there and earn another shot.” Would beating Franklin accomplish that? Probably.

Also note the Dan Henderson-Wanderlei Silva highlight in all its slow motion, sound effect-y glory. Then tell me you wouldn’t want to see that one happen again. Just saying.

(“The Law” will sue you so fast your head will spin. Believe that.)

You can train to escape a triangle choke, and you can train to avoid taking serious damage when you’re mounted, but it’s hard to prepare for the first time your name is dragged through the mud in public. Northwest NewsChannel 8 reports that “The Law” — who’s currently running for a seat in Oregon’s House of Representatives — is threatening the campaign consultant of his opponent with a lawsuit, alleging that Elaine Franklin told several Republican leaders that Lindland was a convicted felon:

Oregon Right to Life Director Gayle Atteberry, told NewsChannel 8 that Franklin called her last month. She said Franklin asked her if she realized that Lindland had a felony on his record. Atteberry, who said ORTL endorses Lindland, couldn’t believe what she heard.

“I was upset by what (Franklin) told me, so I checked (Lindland’s) records and learned the truth [which] is that he didn’t have a felony.”

Lindland’s opponent, Phyllis Thiemann, distanced herself from Franklin’s dirty tactics in the most passive-aggressive way possible. An e-mail she sent to Lindland read:

“I am not aware of what Elaine Franklin may or may not have told others…Although I have a copy of your prior conviction, I have never intended to use it in my campaign and still do not.”

Except that conviction wasn’t for a felony at all, but for a Class 3 misdemeanor he received when he was working in the produce section of a grocery store when he was 19. Lindland was told to throw out loads of old produce, but kept about $30 dollars worth; he was caught, and was hit with 30 hours of community service, a year of probation, and a $20 fine. As Lindland, who has fully repaid his debt to society, explained:

“I thought, ‘this is a waste, I’ve got a lot of hungry wrestlers who’ll eat this stuff,’ but it wasn’t my produce to give away. It hasn’t been brought up and 19 years later, I run for office and Elaine Franklin decides to drag it out and turn it into a felony.”

Hero to the working man, much? Lindland claims that he’ll file a defamation lawsuit against Elaine Franklin if she doesn’t publicly go on the record that she knew Lindland wasn’t a convicted felon when she made her statements.

Matt, listen: You may think you’re tough because you fight in a cage, but these local politicians are a totally different breed. Rotten Vegetable-gate is just the beginning. They live to drag out the ol’ closet-skeletons. The public will forgive a little dumpster diving — but wait until this photo mysteriously surfaces just days before the election. “Wrestling,” huh?

…backstage at PRIDE Total Elimination 2004, directly after being subbed by Fedor Emelianenko via armbar. Lovely bit of behind-the-scenes MMA history, with Kevin Randleman and Fedor making plans to drink some vodka at the end. Props to MMAScraps for the find. (Audio NSFW.)

(To think that such a beautiful marriage could go so wrong.)

It seems like nothing comes easy for Nick Diaz. First he gets pulled from the Strikeforce show just because of a little medical marijuana, then he tries to get back into action by signing on to fight at Dream.3 on May 11. It seemed fine, what with his next scheduled Elite XC bout not until June 14 in Hawaii, but then big bad Gary Shaw had to show up and ruin everybody’s fun.

According to a report from Sports Illustrated’s Josh Gross, Shaw insisted that Diaz be pulled from Dream.3, much to the dismay of Cesar Gracie, who claimed that Elite XC minions already approved the fight.

“Gary Shaw is going to honor the agreement that one of his underlings made, even though they didn’t pass it by him,” said Diaz’s manager Cesar Gracie. “He would have never agreed to it. [That] is what he told me, because it was too close to June 14. Right now, the fight that’s in jeopardy is the June 14 Hawaii fight.”

Except now it seems that the Diaz camp has caved. Diaz will not fight at Dream.3 unless, in the words of GracieFighter.com, Shaw has “a change of heart.”

Too bad Shaw doesn’t seem like the change-of-heart type of guy. More like the change-of-track-suit type. Those are two very different types of guys.

(Leben pauses to rethink the Sesame Street underwear, but the damage is done.)

In case you’ve forgotten, Chris Leben is still in the pokey. And it isn’t fun. According to Icon Sport Academy owner and unofficial Chris Leben spokesman, T. Jay Thompson, it’s downright unpleasant. Especially when time you’re spending in the hoosegow is time you’re not spending getting ready to fight in a month.

“It’s not a fun thing and it sucks for anybody to be in jail but it’s not like he’s afraid. He won’t be getting the right nutrition and workouts in but that’s his only concern,” Thompson told Inside Fighting recently.

Fair enough, but that seems like a significant concern. While Bisping is training twice a day, eating grilled chicken breasts and getting good rest, Leben is laying awake listening to the meth addict with night terrors a few cells down and thinking about how he can sneak an extra waffle at breakfast in the morning. That’s not how you want to prepare, ideally.

If that’s not enough stress for “The Crippler”, he’s still got an uncertain fate awaiting him at his hearing on Thursday. Thompson admitted that while he had reason to hope for Leben’s release after the hearing, it’s possible he may have to stay in jail.

“Yes, we knew that was always a possibility and it still is. We won’t know until his hearing on the 8th. We are talking to attorneys and we are confident that it will be okay but there are no guarantees.

“I think its part of the growing process for Chris. Everything is meant to happen for a reason and this may be one of those things put in front of him. With any challenge there is growth on other side.”

Leben is facing is a probation violation charge stemming from a DUI arrest in Oregon back in 2005. Thompson seems eager to support Leben in dealing with his “wreckage from the past,” but admits that maybe they were too optimistic to think that they could deal with it quietly.

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Breaking into the U.K. is still a battle, and they’re just starting to dip their toes south of the border, but the UFC’s foray into Canada can now be considered a big, fat, stinking success. Dave Meltzer estimates that UFC 83 brought in as many as 650,000 pay-per-view buys — which would tie it for the third best-selling PPV event in UFC history — on the strength of a record number of Canadian buyers (estimated at about 100,000).

Expect the UFC to return to the Great White North on a recurring basis; and expect those events to be The Traveling Georges St. Pierre Roadshow. You thought Marcus Davis was typecast as “the guy who always fights in the U.K.”? Ho baby. GSP is a true star in Montreal now, and the UFC will be giving the new fans what they want. Now if they can only find a couple of other Canadian fighters to give a marketing push to, because right now they’re stuck with that one guy, and the other one, and what’s-his-face, and the dude with the crazy hair.

Somewhat related: Travis Lutter thinks Matt Serra should be worried about his job security after UFC 83. In an interview with FightHype, he said:

“I would guess Serra will have a similar fate as me if he loses the Matt Hughes fight…I mean, he was in the same locker room with me, Kalib and I think there were five other fighters that shared a locker room with him that night. Usually, the main event guys and the guy that has the belt get the nice locker room and stuff like that and here he is with one of the most crowded locker rooms. It’s really strange. They wanted GSP to get that title back so bad and he is marketable, but so is Serra. Serra is as funny as they come, but I’m sure there is a rhyme and a reason in their eyes behind doing everything; it’s just unfortunate.”

Another high-profile matchup has been added to Affliction’s July 19th debut card (Location TBA), as Josh Barnett confirmed last night that he’ll be taking on Pedro Rizzo. It’ll only be Barnett’s second match on U.S. soil since UFC 36 (3/22/02), where “The Babyface Assassin” knocked out Randy Couture to win the UFC’s heavyweight belt, but was stripped of the title directly after for failing a steroid test; Barnett then re-launched his career in Japan, where the drug policies were, shall we say, less judgmental.

Adding to the drama is the fact that the two fighters have previously met. Barnett suffered his first career loss at UFC 30 (2/23/01) against Rizzo, who knocked out the Seattle native in the second round. Said Barnett:

“[A]fter he knocked me out with one of those really nice, well put together Pedro Rizzo right hands, I stood right there for the challenge and said you know what, I’m going to come back here, I’m going to fight him again and next time I’m knocking his ass out. So I’ve got to make good on my promises and I’ve got to stick to my word.”

Regarding Affliction 1′s current lineup — which includes Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia, and Matt Lindland vs. TBA — Josh was his usual sardonic self:

“As much as I love my buddy Fedor, it’s going to suck for him because I’m stealing the show.”

Barnett is consistently ranked among the world’s top ten heavyweights by any MMA news outlet with an opinion (this one included), despite the fact that he hasn’t had an impressive win since 2006. Beating Rizzo would help remind American MMA fans who he is, but a bout with the Brazilian UFC/PRIDE vet isn’t quite the return match we were hoping for. Rizzo has gone 2-2 since leaving the UFC in 2003; true, he scored both of his recent wins last year, but he’s also old enough to have fought Tank Abbott at Ultimate Brazil. Is anyone else getting a “Masters Superfight” vibe from this one?

Video of Barnett vs. Rizzo at UFC 30 is after the jump…

(Dirty cheater or wrongly accused?)

Sean Sherk doesn’t get much love in the MMA blogosphere. Some of that is because he tested positive for steroids. Some of it is because his fighting style is not always the most exciting to watch. Some of it is because he clearly wears hair gel into the Octagon.

These are all fair points, to varying degrees.

But as fun as it may be to bash Sean Sherk, and as much as he may or may not have it coming, it’s important to put it in perspective. It may just be possible that Sherk deserves a break. Maybe. It’s at least worth considering, one point at a time.

First, there’s the anabolic elephant in the room: his positive steroid test. Sherk swears he’s innocent on this charge. He’s taken polygraphs. He’s filed for appeals. He’s spent money, time, and effort trying to clear his name. But it’s not going to work. Even if he is innocent, even if the positive test was a result of a screw-up at the lab, it doesn’t matter.

That’s because we’re all skeptics when it comes to pro athletes and steroid use. The mere accusation is almost enough to ruin a man’s reputation. A positive test is practically as damning as a picture of him with a needle in his arm. Pro sports and steroids go together like politicians and hookers. By the time there’s an accusation, it already feels like a fact. It fits with a narrative we’ve come to expect.

Let’s imagine, for the sake of argument, that you’re Sean Sherk and you know for certain that you’ve never used an illegal substance in your life. Let’s say that the lab somehow tainted your sample, and it came up positive. Imagining that to be true, what could you possibly do to clear your name now? You know you’re innocent, but here you are walking around with a chiseled physique, a positive steroid test, with a nickname like “The Muscle Shark” and trying to tell people that it’s not what it looks like.

(It’s good to know that Tommy Speer has other skills to fall back on. Calf-lifting is a skill, right?)

We all knew these roster cuts wouldn’t be easy. With as many as fifty fighters scheduled to get the axe, some hearts are bound to get broken. Today Din Thomas, Tommy Speer, and Kuniyoshi Hironaka became the latest UFC fighters to hit the free agency market against their will. If you would, a moment of silence for the fallen.

Okay, that’s enough. While we’re all no doubt saddened by these departures, we should remember the good times.

Like Din Thomas. Remember when he was arrested for holding unlicensed fights at his gym in Florida? And remember when those charges were later dropped because of a loophole in state law? That was fun. Two losses in a row spelled doom for him, though, especially in the talent-rich lightweight division.

Or Kuniyoshi Hironaka. He won “Fight of the Night” for his bout with Jonathan Goulet at UFC 83. He received a nice bonus for his valiant effort in the loss, and then was shown the door for losing three of his four UFC fights.

And who could forget Tommy Speer? He made things easy on the editors of “The Ultimate Fighter” by repeatedly casting himself as a strong young farm boy every time the cameras turned his way. It was enough to get him to the finale, but a loss to Mac Danzig followed by ending up on the business end of a highlight reel KO by Anthony Johnson suggested that maybe he wasn’t ready for the big time just yet.

The important thing is that, while they may be gone from the UFC, they are not forgotten. Thomas could easily move down to 145 and be a strong contributor for one of the smaller organizations. Speer still needs a little seasoning, and working his way back up the ranks the old-fashioned way (not on a reality show) is probably the best way to do it.

As for Hironaka, he will likely return to Japan and perhaps join the sprawling but beautiful chaos that is Dream. That, or commit seppuku. Either way, we wish him the best.

(“Adrianu!”)

With a replacement unable to be found for the injured Shinya Aoki, DREAM officials have decided to allow Aoki to remain in their lightweight tournament, with his quarterfinal bout against Katsuhiko Nagata pushed from DREAM.3 (May 11th) to DREAM.4 (June 15th). Interestingly — and I only use the word “interestingly” because “bullshiteously” isn’t a word — Aoki’s doctor claims that the injury Aoki sustained against Calvancante on April 29th was a severely bruised rib, and not anything to do with his face, as was initially fabricated reported. Also, the doc says that during the Aoki/Calvancante re-match, Shinya was still recovering from a cervical injury he received during his first fight with JZ on March 15th, which impaired the feeling in his right arm. And cervical injuries are no joke, people; ask all my ex-girlfriends.

Anyway, this is great news for the lightweight GP’s credibility, although the newly-staggered nature of Aoki’s bracket will sap a little bit of the tournament’s drama. DREAM.4 will also feature Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s match against (possibly) Jerome LeBanner, as well as the second round of its Middleweight Grand Prix.

In other news from the Far East, Yuki Kondo has been booked to fight Roger Gracie at Sengoku II (May 18th; Tokyo, Japan), which is also slated to feature fights between Josh Barnett and Jeff Monson, and Kevin Randleman vs. Ryo Kawamura. Kondo has competed mainly as a light-heavyweight in Pancrase, the UFC, and PRIDE, and holds notable victories over Mario Sperry, Semmy Schilt, Ikuhisa Minowa, and Frank Shamrock. The 6’4″ Roger Gracie competed at heavyweight in his MMA debut, a first-round submission win over Ron Waterman in December 2006. Nightmare of Battle is reporting this one as an “open weight” bout, which would make it similar to Randleman’s match, in which the 205-pound vet is taking on a natural middleweight in Kawamura. It sounds like Sengoku could a use a little assistance in its fight-booking department — or, they’re more interested in spectacles than legitimate competition. Either way, it strikes us as kinda bullshiteous…

(WEC bantamweight champ Miguel Torres [33-1] defends his belt against DEEP/Pancrase vet Yoshiro Maeda [23-4-2] at WEC 34 on June 1st. Props to MMAMania.)

(Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Quinton Jackson; Rampage’s ballsy but unsuccessful PRIDE debut, from PRIDE 15, 7/29/01.)

(This is what an unhappy millionaire looks like.)

Tito Ortiz has been a vocal critic of both Dana White and the UFC payscale for much of his MMA career, so it only makes sense that he would combine his two favorite topics as the last fight on his current contract draws near. A recent video from Throwdown features Ortiz with some incendiary rhetoric and fuzzy logic as he rails against the UFC and his former manager:

“Back then [Dana White] used to fight for things that I believe in. He fought for me to get paid more money…He was the guy battling for me. Now I’m battling against him. I’m not asking the fans for more money. I’m not asking you guys for more money. I’m asking the company that you guys pay for more money.

We’re the modern day gladiators, and we’re getting treated like gladiators…those guys were slaves. I feel like a slave. Yeah, I get paid a little money, but these guys are keeping the big revenue.”

This has become a popular line of reasoning among pro athletes in recent years. Because they only make a portion of the total revenue, the thinking goes, they are being used and exploited, much like slaves. Of course, slaves made no money and were not free to quit when they felt like it. So, yeah, there are some holes in that logic.

It also ignores the fact that while the organization is keeping most of the profit, they’re also incurring all the financial risk and paying all the promotional and marketing costs. That’s not to say fighters don’t have a gripe when it comes to pay, but that doesn’t mean that the economics of fight promotion are as simple as the fighters getting one percent while Dana White and the Fertittas pocket the other ninety-nine, as Ortiz implies.

Ortiz claims that he made $8 million in eleven years as an MMA fighter, a figure which he finds unsatisfactory. He also points out that he had to pay taxes on that money, as if that somehow makes him different from the rest of working America.

Lest you think he’s just greedy, Ortiz goes on to explain why he’s been so public and so persistent with his complaints.

(Because violence is truly a universal language)

The UFC isn’t just for white guys with mohawks any more. According to the L.A. Times, a plan is underway to reach out to the Hispanic audience with a new Spanish-language offering, “El Octagono”. The show will reportedly be an hour-long feature including interviews, highlights, and general MMA education on cable network Galavision beginning this Saturday night.

Kenny Florian, who is involved because his parents are from Peru and because he speaks Spanish, is pretty excited about the whole thing:

“It’s important to get those fans,” UFC lightweight Kenny Florian said. “They’re so passionate about boxing, and this is very much in line with what they like about combat. We know they support Latino fighters in boxing, and now it’s just about giving them more awareness about our sport, and showing them how exciting our fights are. Awareness has been the main obstacle.”

At first you might not think that Florian is the best ambassador to the Hispanic community. Sure, he has the credentials for it on paper, but guys from upscale Boston suburbs rarely become major hits with the Hispanic audience in the fight game. But then you remember that he’s fighting Roger Huerta next, who is a perfect poster boy for this effort.

According to “El Matador”, all it’s going to take is for the audience to identify with the Hispanic fighters in the UFC. Then their love for boxing will carry over, as he describes with the following metaphor:

“I love boxing for what it is, but you see so many different things, and a higher pace, in UFC fights,” Huerta said. “You can see punching, wrestling, submissions. If boxing is like shooting a 9-millimeter, imagine adding in a bazooka and machine gun. With the more weapons we have, the interest will come around. The key thing is just to educate.”

So…submissions is the bazooka in this scenario?

But hold on just a second. Boxing promoter Bob Arum is convinced that this is not a good idea, but rather a sign of desperation on the part of the UFC.

(As a rabid Dallas Mavericks fan, Fedor’s going to be very, very disappointed.)

Affliction’s first MMA show — previously slated to be held July 19th in Dallas, featuring the fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia — has hit a major speed-bump, as it has reportedly lost its venue as well as a TV deal. FiveOuncesofPain bears the bad news that an agreement between Affliction and HDNet has fallen through, and Affliction was not able to book the American Airlines Arena as the venue for its debut card; according to Randy Couture on Saturday night’s installment of Rear Naked Radio, the event could instead be held at The Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. Perhaps more important than the venue change, Affliction’s up-in-smoke relationship with HDNet means they’ll have to find another TV broadcast partner. It was rumored that HDNet was going to televise several matches from the undercard on July 19th to drive buys for a live pay-per-view telecast, then air the tape-delayed main card a week later.

The failed deal follows a previous botched partnership between Affliction and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. At a recent press conference, De La Hoya shed some light on why his promotion company stepped back from Affliction’s upstart MMA league:

“We decided that we are going to focus all our energies on promoting boxing. Boxing is the game that we have to focus on because there’s so much room for growth and the potential is enormous. We definitely want to capitalize on that and have all our focus and energy be on taking boxing to another level…MMA is going through some very rough patches and transition issues…recently two companies that are public had FCC filings that raised doubt about their ability to continue [ed. note: Referring to the IFL and EliteXC]. We want to see what’s going to happen with the sport. Maybe we will enter the MMA business to diversify in the future.”

Fine, Oscar — don’t be a pioneer.

In an unrelated (but also crappy) development, FiveOunces reports that EliteXC has banned its fighters from wearing Affliction clothing during cage entrances; the UFC put the kibosh on Affliction back in January. No word yet on whether EliteXC’s decision was made to prevent their fighters from promoting a competing MMA league, or because Affliction’s t-shirts offend Gary Shaw’s finely-tuned sense of style.

(Savant Young and Takeshi Inoue: Guess who won the decision? Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

It looks like we’ll be putting together another update to our Power Rankings pretty soon — #5-ranked welterweight Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and #4-ranked featherweight Takeshi Inoue got punked yesterday at Shooto’s first 20th anniversary series show in Tokyo. Sakurai faced European Shooto vet David Baron in a slugfest that ended suddenly when Baron sunk in a guillotine choke during a takedown attempt by Sakurai. It was Sakurai’s first loss since being knocked out by Takanori Gomi at PRIDE Shockwave on New Year’s Eve 2005. In the night’s other upset, IFL vet Trenell “Savant” Young (who had an 8-7 record going into the fight) outlasted former Shooto featherweight champ “Lion” Takeshi Inoue en route to a unanimous decision victory. Near the end of the second and final round, Young caught Inoue in a guillotine choke and Inoue scrambled through the ropes to escape; Inoue seemed to be momentarily unconscious when the ref broke up the fighters and moved them to the center of the ring.

In other action, Shooto’s welterweight Pac-Rim champion Takashi Nakakura became the league’s World Welterweight champ with his unanimous decision win over Ganjo Tentsuku, and Akitoshi Tamura submitted Rumina Sato near the end of an action packed three-round brawl. Full results are below, and videos are after the jump.

Takashi Nakakura def. Ganjo Tentsuku via decision
David Baron def. Hayato Sakurai via submission (guillotine choke), 4:50 of round 1
Akitoshi Tamura def. Rumina Sato via submission (north-south choke), 2:37 of round 3
Savant Young def. Takeshi Inoue via decision
Ryuich Miki vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani ended in a draw
Yusuke Endo def. Vince Ortiz via submission (rear-naked choke), 3:34 of round 1
Bendy Casimir def. Shinji Sasaki via decision
Shinpei Tahara def. Katsuya Murofushi via TKO (doctor’s stoppage due to cut), 0:46 of round 2
Hayate Usui def. Sakae Kasuya via decision

(‘Oh, hello there. This? Just some stuff I’m autographing because I’m famous. No big deal’)

He may be still trying to fill out the first fight card for his new promotion, but Monte Cox is always looking ahead. The Adrenaline MMA CEO told MMA Weekly that the organization’s second show will take place in Moline, Ill. on September 6, and it will feature both Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell.

Of course, this means that Sylvia will be fighting for Adrenaline less than two months after taking on Fedor Emelianenko in their July 19 Affliction bout. When asked about how the suddenly overwhelming demand for Sylvia’s services might be affecting the new promotion and its non-exclusive contracts, Cox played it cool.

“We signed Tim Sylvia to Adrenaline. That’s a great sign for us. Then the Affliction thing comes along, what am I supposed to do? Tell Tim that he can’t fight the No. 1 fighter in the world in one of the biggest fights ever?” said Cox of the decision to allow Sylvia to fight for another promoter. “I’m not gonna tell him that. Why, just because I have a contract for him to fight for Adrenaline?

“We’re not going to do that stuff. If there are better fights out there that they have a chance to fight in and they want to do them and we want them to do them. Then that’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to fight outside of our own event.”

It’s a smart decision by Cox to put Sylvia and Rothwell on the card in the Quad Cities, which we like to refer to as “Miletich Camp Country.” Much will depend on who they can find as opponents, however. Regardless of what happens in Sylvia’s bout with Fedor, his stock is likely to move in one direction or another as a result. Still, it could be a long and busy summer in the world of new MMA organizations, so planning for September may be nothing more than hopes and dreams at this point.