The Patrick Cote-Ricardo Almeida bout could turn out to be one hell of a fight when all is said and done at UFC 86. It’s a timely matchup because it helps to slim down the list of serious contenders in the middleweight division, and both guys are at a point where they can’t afford to lose. Plus, I love a good contest of accents.

Check out Cote’s plans for a sprawl-and-brawl victory above. Almeida is after the jump. He might not be the last guy left in MMA who refers to his desire to go out and “represent jiu-jitsu”, but he’s definitely part of a dying breed.

You may think that typing out a sentence about what a no-talent mama’s boy some fighter is has no real effect on anything, but Joe Stevenson begs to differ. In a recent interview with MMA Rated he admitted to scouring the internet in the past to read what people were saying about him:

In (the) rankings, you know, I don’t really check the Internet too much, I stay off of it because when I first started, I remember the headache that I would get from watching people say, ‘oh yeah, this that and the other’ and, I mean, emotionally it does hurt you. You’re like, ‘wait a minute! You jerk!’ You know, it doesn’t really matter if it’s a 13-year-old kid with acne or if it’s a 27-year-old guy that thinks he can do it or someone that’s really legit and has an opinion. It still hurts, words hurt.

As our Cage Potato comments pie chart revealed, the internet is a place for all the negative/racist/sexist/nonsense things people can’t say in polite company, so it’s probably best for Stevenson not to take it to heart. Of course, by writing that I’ve probably opened the door for some thirteen-year-old kid with acne to call me a Stevenson nuthugger while perhaps also questioning my sexual preference.

Also in the interview, Stevenson looks back on his loss to B.J. Penn, especially the now infamous moment where Penn licked his blood off his own gloves.

By request, and courtesy of HDNet Fights, here’s the MFC 15 match between UFC vet Pete Spratt and top MFC welterweight contender Ryan Ford (who was slated to fight Drew Fickett for MFC’s vacant welterweight title this month before everything turned to shit). Ford gets rocked near the end of the first round, but answers back by nailing Spratt a good five seconds after the round ends — no point deducted by Herb Dean there, but you’d better believe he takes a point later for shorts-pulling. The still-undefeated Ford mobs the muddled Spratt in the second frame, and eventually secures the flying rear-naked choke. Freakin’ Fickett…him and Ford would have been good together.

To keep on top of the latest HDNet Fights news and to see more great fights, check out the official HDNet Fights Facebook page.

(Legislation! Sweet!)

Some victories in the ongoing battle to convince ignorant states that MMA is truly The Greatest Sport on Earth. First, Tennessee has passed legislation calling for the sanctioning of mixed martial arts. Memphis native Quinton Jackson and UFC VP Marc Ratner can share much of the credit, as they both met with lawmakers to sing MMA’s praises. Governor Phil Bredesen will put the legislation into effect today, and Tennessee plans to create a state athletic commission to regulate the sport. Said Ratner:

“[O]nce the new Tennessee Athletic Commission is formed and has all the rules in place, we will be looking at Tennessee as a state to host a fight. We believe that with their beautiful arenas and diehard fan base, Memphis or Nashville would be great hosts for a UFC event.”

Meanwhile, the executive director of the Florida Athletic Commission told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that amateur mixed martial arts will also become fully sanctioned today in his state. Amateur MMA is already allowed in Florida (to some extent), but head strikes on the ground are prohibited. Now the ammys can ground-and-pound just like the pros. God bless America.

Chris Leben: The Evolution of an Icon – Watch more free videos

Somebody over at Icon knows what they’re doing. This mini-documentary on Chris Leben promises to be not only entertaining, but also very well done and effective at driving up interest in his bout with Michael Bisping at UFC 89.

On a related note, am I the only one who thinks that body surfing next to cliffs with sharks in the water is a bad idea for a pro athlete? Imagine Leben getting hurt and then trying to explain that one to Dana White.

(Mike Ciesnolevicz covers his nipples for the sake of decency.)

All the talk about Drew Fickett’s MFC/Strikeforce debacle raises the issue of whether fighters should be free to take bouts that are close together but in different organizations. Of course, breach of contract is a separate issue, but Mike Ciesnolevicz recently tested his durability by fighting twice in one weekend, in two different weight classes and in two different states.

Initially, that sounds impressive. Ciesnolevicz must be a very tough bastard or a very poor bastard to agree to that. First he beat Andrew Force in Decatur, Ill. in the Courage Fighting Championship on Friday night, then went up to heavyweight to beat Matt Anderson in Extreme Challenge 100 in Iowa on Saturday.

But check out what Ciesnolevicz had to say about his strategy after Friday night:

“I was trying to throw no punches, because I didn’t want to hurt my hands for (Saturday’s fight). (Saturday) I can go all out.”

Now, I don’t want to pick on Ciesnolevicz for doing something that few fighters would even attempt, but maybe he’s unwittingly hit upon the reason people don’t normally fight twice in two days. By saying he was saving himself for Saturday, when he could go all out, he’s essentially saying that the people who paid to see him fight on Friday got less than their money’s worth.

From MMANews.com:

With a potential win over Rashad how do close do you think you are to getting a title shot?
Chuck Liddell: After I beat Rashad I think I deserve the next title shot.

Would you every welcome a fight between yourself and [Anderson] Silva?
Sure, it could be a good fight but I think I’m too big for him. He’s a tough fighter and I have all the respect in the world for him but I think I’d be too much for him.

I know you’ve briefly talked about it before but would yourself ever entertain the thought of moving up in weight class?
Yeah, I have talked about that a bunch of times, when I get done with what I wanna do at light-heavyweight I’ll be looking to move up in the weight class.

If you could have an open weight fight with anyone in the world who would it be?
I’d really like to get a shot at Fedor; I think I match up well with him.

The Iceman faces Rashad Evans at UFC 88 (September 6th, Atlanta) and is “hoping to be close to 100%” by the time of the fight, following a hamstring injury which he’s still recovering from. All respect to Chuck, but beating Evans shouldn’t put him next in line for a title shot, with the UFC’s 205-pound division as crowded as it is — though an additional win over Mauricio Rua at the end of the year would certainly clinch it. The thought of Chuck at heavyweight is compelling, as is a potential light-heavyweight match with Anderson Silva (who probably wouldn’t be too small to deal with Liddell, no matter what he says). And is this the first time Liddell has mentioned an interest in fighting Fedor? And when he said that, did a silent alarm go off, alerting the UFC’s lawyers that they may soon have another “situation” on their hands?

Check out the intro to SpikeTV’s “Countdown to UFC 86″ special, which features Juanito Ibarra vowing to retire if Rampage loses. Finally, this fight matters!

Here’s a segment on Patrick Cote from the “Countdown” show, which details his hard luck in the Octagon before putting together consecutive wins against Scott Smith, Kendall Grove and Drew McFedries.

And finally, a slam-packed Rampage Jackson highlight clip, courtesy of the UFC.

The 10 Most Important Fighters to the Business of MMA, part 1. (MMA Payout)

Mac Danzig discusses his knee injury, Clay Guida, advice to Amir Sadollah, and who he’d like to fight next. (MMA Weekly)

How a fighter might, theoretically, beat Lyoto Machida. (Fightlinker)

UFC/WEC/TKO vet Mark Hominick blogs his training for his upcoming Affliction fight against Savant Young. (MMA Training)

Fuck Delaware. (Five Ounces of Pain)

UFC marketing targets insomniacs and the unemployed. (BloodyElbow)

Affliction is using a quote from Dana White to publicize their event. That’s chutzpah! (MMA Madness)

Rich Franklin to return at UFC 88? (MMA Junkie)

Eight Truthful Celebrity Autobiography Covers. Mario Lopez’s life story is so close to my own… (HolyTaco)

Wal-Mart’s new logo looks terrible. (WallStreetFighter)

Click for larger image!

This weekend, I decided to go through all 13,768 comments that CagePotato has received from readers since we launched seven-ish months ago, and classify them into a multi-colored pie-chart. (I also did some totally crazy, badass stuff this weekend. I swear.) The results are above. It’s possible — though very unlikely — that I left out some significant categories, so if you notice any omissions, holler in the comments section.

(Eilers, jobbing in the “fat guys with shirts” circuit.)

Sam Caplan at 5oz. reports that a verbal agreement has been reached for a bout between EliteXC heavyweight standout Antonio Silva and Justin Eilers, which would go down at EliteXC’s second CBS broadcast on July 26th. Jared Shaw indicated that the league’s vacant heavyweight belt would “more than likely be at stake,” though he stopped short of an actual confirmation.

Let’s just say this is a step down from those Sergei Kharitonov rumors. A 19-6-1 veteran of various MMA leagues, Eilers won his Octagon debut against Mike Kyle at UFC 49 (8/21/04), but was bounced out of the league after consecutive losses to Paul Buentello, Andrei Arlovski, and Brandon Vera (all by first-round KO/TKO). Since then he’s gone 10-1, but hasn’t beaten anybody noteworthy, unless you consider Sherman Pendergarst and Jimmy Ambriz noteworthy.

In short, he’s a successful journeyman, but doesn’t quite deserve to fight for a major title on network television. If this is the best heavyweight EliteXC can scare up right now — and honestly, where the hell is Roy Nelson? — they’d be much wiser to save the credibility of their heavyweight strap while it’s still non-existent, and use Silva/Eilers as a non-title squash match to open the CBS broadcast, introducing viewers to the scary power of Bigfoot. If Silva does well, fans would surely welcome him back to fight for the title against someone legitimate. We’ll keep you posted…

Props to MMAFightGirls for digging up this footage of a violent confrontation between a group of hoodlums in a Russian supermarket and the store’s well-trained staff of ninjas. One of the punks makes the mistake of throwing the first punch at one of the blue-jacketed security guards, and is immediately dealt with. Following all the action requires multiple viewings, but we’d just like to point out that the guy who scores the one-punch knockout at the 0:30 mark is the same dude who scores the one-punch knockout at the 0:48 mark. Gary Shaw, get this man a contract!

Forrest Griffin may have started in the UFC as the original “Ultimate Fighter,” but since then he’s proved himself in several tough bouts and endeared himself to fans. This Saturday he faces his first title bout against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 86 and another career-defining moment.

In this exclusive interview, Griffin spoke with CagePotato about his experiences coaching drunken fighters, his plans for “Rampage,” and much more.

CagePotato.com: Thanks for talking with me, Forrest. Tell me, how have you been getting ready specifically for “Rampage”?

You know, a little of this, little of that. I’ve just been having people scowl at me a lot. That’s the first thing you’ve got to prepare for with Rampage. He’s got a good scowl. If you’ve ever watched him fight, have you ever watched him fight?

Yes, I’ve seen him fight.

He’s got a nice little scowl, doesn’t he?

It’s not bad. What else do you think he has in his arsenal, aside from the scowl.

He’s got a good chin. He’s a powerful guy, very explosive. He hits hard.

His trainer mentioned that he expected you to try and stay away from “Rampage” for most of the fight.

Sounds good. I think I’ll do that. Stay on the move. I like that. No, but I don’t want to stand in front of him for too long. Unfortunately he hits harder than I do and has a better chin than I do, so that’s not a good idea.

The K-1 World GP 2008 went down last night in Fukuoka, Japan, with Brazil’s Ewerton Teixeira winning the eight-man tournament, knocking off Tsutomu Takahagi, Tsuyoshi Nakasako, and Keijiro Maeda along the way. In the night’s featured bouts, Morocco’s Badr Hari defended his heavyweight title with a first-round TKO victory over Glaube Feitosa, Semmy Schilt defended his super-heavyweight title by getting the better of Jerome Le Banner in a decision, and Peter Aerts waited until the third round to put down Jan Nortje via TKO. The Hari/Feitosa fight is above, and the Schilt/Le Banner match is below, courtesy of MMA Scraps. Teixeira/Takahagi and Aerts/Nortje are after the jump.

(Awww, who could stay mad at that face?)

Drew Fickett and Maximum Fighting Championship boss Mark Pavelich have been engaged in a war of words since Fickett agreed to fill in for Joe Riggs at “Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson,” and Pavelich has had enough. Here’s a new press release from MFC, courtesy of TKO Xtreme:

I would like to take this opportunity to offer a personal response to comments and actions taken by Drew Fickett over the past 72 hours.

Drew had agreed to and signed a contract to fight on the Maximum Fighting Championship show on July 25 for the welterweight title against Ryan Ford. Over the last few days, Drew has caused severe problems and therefore we find him in complete breach of his contract.

We were shocked to learn Drew agreed on one day’s notice to fight as a middleweight in another organization’s event this past Friday. When I contacted this other organization, its owner immediately cancelled Drew’s fight when informed that he was under contract to fight on the MFC show and as part of Mr. Fickett’s contract he was not allowed to take another fight up to five weeks before the MFC show.

When I learned of Drew’s intentions to take this fight, I repeatedly attempted to reach Drew’s manager to find out why. After numerous attempts to reach his manager went unreturned, I did leave a voice mail which has since been made public. I admit to being very upset, angry and frustrated not only by Drew’s action but also by not being able to reach his manager and the tone of that voice mail reflected my feelings.

For all his high-kickin’ domination in Chuck Norris’s World Combat League, Raymond Daniels was absolutely demolished in his MMA debut against journeyman Jeremiah Metcalf. Daniels had no answer for Metcalf’s takedowns and ground-and-pound, and didn’t even land one effective strike. Personally we think he should have been given a delay-of-game penalty for his ridiculous psyche-up at the beginning, but it all worked out at the end.

Bobby Stack vs. Jose Palacios was just one of many dull decision fights at “Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson,” but it contained possibly the best escape-from-mount we’ve ever seen. Here’s the end of the fight — the camera angle is horrible at 0:59, but you get the full effect of Palacios’s reverse-somersault-escape during the replay at 2:04. Unfortunately, Stack’s top control throughout the match earned him the victory.

Miesha Tate vs. Elaina Maxwell contained a similar mount-escape by Maxwell, who seemed to have Tate in trouble a couple times in the fight with scissor-lock chokes. It was one of the better matches of the evening and you can see it here (part 1) and here (part 2).

Thomson vs. Melendez is after the jump…

Josh Thomson overwhelmed Gilbert Melendez for all five rounds last night to become the new Strikeforce lightweight champion, despite entering the bout as a 2-1 underdog. Strikeforce reportedly packed in almost 7,500 fans into San Jose’s HP Pavilion to see the show. Too bad fans don’t care about MMA outside the UFC.

Full results from last night’s show:

Josh Thomson def. Gilbert Melendez via decision, 5
Billy Evangelista def. Nam Phan via decision, 3
Bobby Southworth def. Anthony Ruiz via decision, 3
Eric Lawson def. Jesse Gillespie via submission (RNC), 1
Miesha Tate def. Elaina Maxwell via decision, 3
Jeremiah Metcalf def. Raymond Daniels via submission (RNC), 2
Chris Cariaso def. Anthony Figueroa via submission (RNC), 2
Bobby Stack def. Jose Palacios via decision, 3
Brian Caraway def. Alvin Cacdac via submission (RNC), 1
Cyrillo Padhillo def. Jesse Jones via decision, 3
Jorge Interiano def. Travis Johnson via TKO (doctor stoppage), 2
Alexandre Trevino def. Eric Jacob via submission (armbar), 1

— Luke Thomas weighs in (heavily) on our “Broken Jaws and Double Standards” article. (BloodyElbow)

— A first-hand account of Jesse Taylor’s Palace Station rampage, courtesy of Matt Riddle. (MMA Junkie)

— Brazilian PRIDE/Cage Rage vet (and Thiago Silva’s roommate) Edson Draggo just wrecked himself in a motorcycle accident. (Sherdog)

— The next Strikeforce at the Playboy Mansion event will go down September 19th, and will feature Kazuo Misaki, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, the winner of Thomson/Melendez, and (hopefully) Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos. (MMARated)

— Ironically, the Shamrocks are the unluckiest clan in MMA. But that didn’t stop 18-year-old Lion’s Den product Jeff Shamrock (Ken’s nephew) from signing a multi-fight deal with Strikeforce. (FiveOuncesofPain)

— “Lay and Pray” vs. “Hit and Run” (Fightlinker)

— Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen is looking for a sponsor. (Japan MMA)

— 8 countries with weak pesos but hot women. (WallStreetFighter)

— Pictures of the chick that Mini-Me banged on that sex tape. OMFG, little Verne in his U of M onesie is presh! (Holy Taco)

Miesha Tate, who will be taking on Elaina Maxwell at “Melendez vs. Thomson,” and who is pretty damn attractive, as fighters go. Tate’s only previous pro experience was the November 2007 HOOKnSHOOT tournament that Kaitlin Young famously cruised through with three consecutive first-round knockouts; Tate defeated Jan Finney in a decision, but was put down by Young in the semi-finals. The live main card of tonight’s Strikeforce event begins at 10:30 p.m. ET on HDNet. The Tate/Maxwell bout isn’t guaranteed to be on the broadcast, but we’ll cross our fingers. Props to Sherdog and “Card” on the UG for the images.

Some of you will look at the above image and start doing joyous cartwheels around the room. Some of you will just see a poster for a local MMA card held at a county fair and say “I don’t get it.” And that’s because you haven’t been introduced to the prophetic glory of Dan Quinn.

For the unfamiliar, Quinn is a 4-4-1 professional fighter who’s had the dual honors of being choked out by Frank Mir and going three rounds with Jason Lambert. As a linebacker at Notre Dame, he once picked Iron Head Heywood out of the air at fourth and inches; it was, in Quinn’s estimation, the greatest stop in college football history. (Quinn was later kicked off the team amid allegations of sexual assault.) He once knocked out five men in one night at Juanita’s in Encinitas, California. He’s discovered the secret of weight loss and tumor-melting, via Stevia and cold fission. And oh yeah, he’s preparing for his first fight since a January ’05 TKO loss to Dan Molina, and will be facing Dave Huckaba, who has knocked out Bo Cantrell twice, once in 26 seconds and once in five seconds.

But those are just facts, and statistics, and they don’t really tell the story of a man. To understand who Dan Quinn really is, you’ll have to watch his shirtless mirror-rants on YouTube.

Clear your schedules for August 9th, people. Like UFC 84, the three headlining bouts at “Seek and Destroy” are worth the cost of admission and the rest is just gravy. So, GSP/Fitch, Lesnar/Herring, and Florian/Huerta…who ya got?

Sort of related: The UFC has confirmed what most of us already knew — Michael Bisping and Chris Leben will meet at UFC 89, which will be held at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England, on October 9th.

(They say that shoe is his, but it barely even resembles him.)

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is one of MMA’s most charismatic stars, but the UFC light heavyweight champ has also become one of the world’s best fighters since moving from Pride to the UFC. In this exclusive interview, “Rampage” discusses his evolution as an athlete, his upcoming title fight against Forrest Griffin, and what he hates most about life as an MMA fighter.

CagePotato.com: Hey, “Rampage.” Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. How is your training camp going? I hear that you really don’t like training.

“Rampage” Jackson: That’s true. I hate training. I don’t know why. I guess because I’m lazy. I do it anyway and I train really hard, but I hate every minute of it.

If you hate it so much, how do you get through weeks of it without losing your mind before every fight?

I joke around and have fun in the gym. I like to have fun people around me. It helps me get through it. I also think about what I’m going to do to my opponent, how I’m going to take it out on him for making me do all this training.

How have you been preparing specifically for Forrest? What are you expecting out of him?

I’ve just been training to whip his ass. Other than that I don’t really know. I think he’s probably going to try and use those leg kicks and keep moving. He’s pretty good with leg kicks. But I’m pretty sure that after I hit him a couple of times he’ll forget about all that.

It seems like you’ve become a much different fighter in the last couple of years, ever since coming to the UFC. You look more polished and more technical. What do you think has made the difference?

(Joe Riggs won’t be fighting tonight. Sucks, buddy. Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

Yesterday, we passed along a Sherdog report that claimed Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva had agreed to face Sergei Kharitonov in an EliteXC heavyweight title fight. Awesome matchup, right? Unfortunately, EliteXC’s Jared Shaw refutes it, telling FiveOuncesofPain “That fight is 100 percent not happening.”

When asked about whether an opponent was in place for Silva, Shaw indicated that one has been selected that is worthy of fighting for a title but that a deal was in the process of being finalized.

Worthy? Possibly. As worthy as Kharitonov? Probably not. But J. Shaw wasn’t quite finished peeing on our parade. Regarding previous reports that Kimbo Slice was slated to face Brett Rogers in October, Shaw said “A fight could possibly take place between Kimbo and Rogers within the next 12 months,” but nothing was official yet. And as for rumors that Gary Shaw was on his way out of EliteXC, Jared denied those as well:

“I’m not gonna lie to you; the Tim Russert episode really struck a cord with Gary. He has an extensive travel schedule and is a workaholic much the way Tim was… And (the) truth is he’s getting up there in age. So Gary is at a point now where he just can’t keep up the constant back and forth to California from his home (in New Jersey). And so he’s just taking a step back in his life, not in the company (and) not being pushed. Just taking some time to be healthy and enjoy everything he’s built from the ground up. The creator rarely gets to smile at his artwork because he’s so busy making more.”

Well, pat yourselves on the back, people — who would have thought a simple, innocent picture of Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes, and their dates enjoying a log ride could be turned into something funny? First, the most honorable mentions:

MMA-hole: “You’re right Matt, this is *way* better than fornication!”

I’m confused: Jens kept telling Matt he didn’t want to ride up front.

reality: According to Cecil Peoples, the kid was the bravest one on the ride.

totaldb: Next week on Extreme Baptism…

jakey: “now son, which character from pirates of the carribean do you think i am?”

Roach: An up-close photo of Chuck Norris taking a dump.

And now, the winnah…

(Props: Fightlinker)

One thing I miss about the old days of MMA was the martial arts purists who claimed that kung fu/taekwondo/karate/other very specific martial art that they trained in was better than MMA, only they couldn’t prove it because their styles were too deadly/illegal/would make your heart explode inside your chest. Good thing this feud has erupted between Iron Ring’s “Maoshan” and Nick “The Goat” Thompson.

The above video is an answer to Thompson’s challenge. What I’d like us to focus on here is how lazily and predictably done it is. You find this out right away when they refer to Thompson as “The Bitch Goat”. Really? The guy gives you a head start by being nicknamed “The Goat” and the best thing you can think of is to add the word bitch?

I also wonder about Maoshan’s assertions that a) most MMA fighters are, like Thompson, hopelessly unskilled, and b) he can’t participate in the challenge match because he lives in the hood and doesn’t have $40,000.

I’m no economist, but I’d think that if I were a poor person who knew beyond all doubt that I was a better fighter than the losers making money as MMA fighters (except Rampage and Anderson Silva), I might do whatever it took to tone down my deadly killing moves just enough to make some cash as a fighter. Then again, I guess once your body is a killing machine, as this guy’s clearly is, there’s just no turning it off.

(You boys need a ride?)

Busy week for Matt Hughes. On his website the former welterweight champ revealed that he has a totally torn MCL and a partially torn PCL. He says he’s holding off on surgery in the hopes that the tears will repair themselves.

In other Hughes news, he settled out of court with one Jed Leist who alleged that Hughes had battered and assaulted him, among other things. Sherdog has the scoop:

The suit contended Hughes and/or other unnamed defendants “grabbed and placed” Leist in a hold “as to cause injury and damage.” Hughes’ actions were “unwanted, not consented or authorized,” by the plaintiff and inflicted “over his protests,” stated the documents.

Prior to the dismissal, Leist was seeking damages in excess of $10,000 per each charge plus attorney’s fees and additional expenses due to “severe humiliation, mental anguish and emotional distress.”

The suit also claimed Leist was both partially and permanently disabled from the alleged assault.

That’s weird. Assaulting people in public for no reason doesn’t sound like something Hughes would do. Oh, wait. There’s this extra little nugget of information:

Strikeforce’s “Melendez vs. Thomson” event goes down tomorrow at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. You can watch the main card live on HDNet beginning at 10:30 p.m. ET; here’s what you’ll be seeing…

Gilbert Melendez (14-1) vs. Josh Thomson (14-2) [for lightweight title]
With five straight wins in Strikeforce and an impressive ground game, Josh “The Punk” Thomson would be a credible threat to Gilbert Melendez’s Strikeforce belt, except for two things — he’s still recovering from shoulder surgery, and he and Melendez are longtime training partners, which means the champion already knows his game a little too well. It won’t be a gimme, but El Niño’s relentless aggression will likely win the day, as it usually does; though maybe he’ll go easy on his friend and let it go to a decision.

Bobby Southworth (8-5) vs. Anthony Ruiz (20-10) [for light heavyweight title]
205-pound champion Southworth actually lost his last fight against Anthony Ruiz, via TKO due to cut at “Strikeforce: Four Men Enter, One Man Survives” in November. For unclear reasons — and if you know, please enlighten us — the match was a non-title fight, and it set up tomorrow’s rematch for the championship. Though Southworth hasn’t fought since, Ruiz has scored wins against Jimmy Ambriz and Brad Imes. Submissions are Ruiz’s kryptonite (eight of his ten losses come from chokes and armbars), so Southworth would be wise to get it to the ground before he’s stuffed again by Ruiz’s sharp striking. Still, I see Ruiz taking it by decision and earning the belt he should already be wearing. Fun fact: Southworth picked up a no-contest against James Irvin at “Strikeforce: Revenge,” when both men fell from the cage at the 17-second mark of round 1.

LOFL! Props to American Top Team.

(Look who’s back.)

When Dana White kicked Jesse Taylor off “The Ultimate Fighter” Finale for being a drunken knucklehead, he also told Taylor to call him when he matured and got his act together. Apparently that only takes a few months, because Fight Hype is reporting that Taylor will be added to the July 19 event on Spike TV, and guess who he may be up against:

Despite being kicked out of The Ultimate Fighter Finale, it appears that Jesse Taylor is set to make his return to the UFC. Sources close to the situation have informed us that, less than one month after he was supposed to face Amir Sadollah in the finale, Taylor will be entering the Octagon on the July 19th card headlined by Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin. Although an opponent has yet to be named, it’s rumored that CB Dolloway, who replaced Taylor in the finale and ultimately lost a second time to Sadollah via first round submission, could be the frontrunner to land the fight.

Well isn’t this a twisted little scenario. At least we know Dollaway is relatively unscathed after his fight with Sadollah, and probably also pretty eager to get back in the Octagon to erase the painful memory of his one-tap defeat. It just goes to show that opportunity knocks more often for everyone when the UFC has a competitor they need to crush.

Now maybe if the AFL would hurry up and get huge Kalib Starnes might even find his way back into the Octagon. Probably not, though.

In an attempt to dispel the rumors that he may be a punk for avoiding Lyoto Machida, Brandon Vera claims he had good reasons for turning that fight down (he needs time to train with awkward kung fu enthusiasts) and insists that Wanderlei Silva and Dan Henderson both turned down fights against him. So now who’s the punk? Answer: everyone but Machida.

It’s all here in this MMA Rated video, where Vera goes on to say that he moved down to light heavyweight to take the fight against Reese Andy as “a favor”.

Seems like a lot of UFC fighters are doing favors in order to get this July 19 Anti-Affliction card off the ground. And you know what they say, fighters are like the mob when it comes to favors. One day — and that day may never come — they’ll call upon you and ask for a favor in return. That is what they say, right? If not, they should.