Maybe you didn’t know this, but notoriously wrong MMA judge Cecil Peoples is also Sensei Cecil Peoples. Judging by the way he introduces himself in this video, it seems like maybe he didn’t know it either until recently. Well, good news. Now he knows, and he’s ready to kick some knowledge on his official website.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Mr. Peoples, he’s the judge who is generally most likely to screw up any given decision. The phrase, “Judge Cecil People scores the bout,” is the kind of thing to make MMA fighters who think they have won a clear-cut decision instantly paranoid.

Strange, considering his website identifies him as “the foremost Kick Boxing expert in the United States”. And if that’s not enough of a top-notch pedigree for you, he also has a black belt in karate! How could a guy like that possibly get it wrong?

(Props to CP reader BPD for this find)

(This is what happens when you don’t play nice with Pride.)

In a recent interview with MMAyou, Guy Mezger divulged some not quite shocking but still interesting information about his days in Pride. Apparently (are you sitting down?), not everything that happened in Pride was on the up-and-up. And when you didn’t “play ball”, you paid for it:

MMAyou.com: Here’s a question from one of your fans that I thought was a really good question. Why did the Pride judges hate you so much?

Mezger: You know, I’ll tell you truthfully man, I wouldn’t play ball with them on certain things. They wanted me to do certain things that’s just not something that I’m gonna do. It’s against my, kind of my moral code and I think it pissed them off because I’m not gonna do some of the stuff that they wanted me to do. And I knew the moment that I disagreed, that I wasn’t gonna play the game with them on that that things were gonna go south for me there.

There are a couple different ways of looking at this. One is to lob the old ‘sour grapes’ accusation at Mezger. That could be part of it, but it’s not as if Mezger is some washed-up bum hanging around bars and telling people that he could have been a contender. He’s the President of HDNet Fights these days, so, you know, he’s doing all right.

He can also point to some questionable decisions that went against him (such as in his fight with Ricardo Arona), as well as Pride’s general credibility gap in this area. While he stops short of flat out saying he was screwed by Pride judges for refusing to work fights, he does heavily imply it:

(Photo courtesy of myspace.com/nathandiazmma.)

The UFC’s next “Fight Night” card on SpikeTV will reportedly go down September 17th at the Omaha Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska, and matchups are beginning to be sorted out. TUF 5 winner and Stockton-repper Nate Diaz has agreed to fight Josh “The Dentist” Neer in a lightweight bout on the main card; Diaz has gone 4-0 in the UFC since his reality show stint, including a legendary no-hands triangle choke victory over Kurt Pellegrino at UFN 13, while Neer (24-6-1, 3-3 UFC) last defeated Din Thomas by decision at the same event, and holds notable wins over Joe Stevenson and Melvin Guillard.

Omaha’s own Houston Alexander is also expected to appear, taking on Eric Schafer. The fight marks Schafer’s return to the Octagon after picking up a couple of wins in the Gladiators Fighting Series organization; he’d previously dropped two in a row to Michael Bisping and Stephan Bonnar. A middleweight fight between Ed Herman and Alan Belcher has been rumored as well.

In other UFC news…

— Dana White has denied that his mind-blowing announcement is related to New York MMA regulation. Epic Fail averted, for now.

— BloodyElbow is floating a rumor that Anderson Silva and Yushin Okami could fight in October, at the UFC’s next U.K. show. We’d rather see the Spider in a light-heavyweight super-fight, but sure, why not, clean out the division once and for all.

— French welterweight David Baron has reportedly signed with the UFC. Baron is the former 168-pound champion of Shooto Europe who most recently pulled off a huge upset at Shooto Tradition 1 by submitting Hayato Sakurai in the first round.

(Tim Credeur in happier times.)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris blogs 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 Forrest Griffin proved that white men can jump, and Mongo Taylor smothered his way into the finals.

***

This episode was pretty good, but I can’t wait until next week. It feels like yesterday, I was sending in an application and audition tape. Now, I’m sitting at home watching all the action unfold like I wasnt a part of it.

As you know by now, Team Rampage has been losing a lot in everything except Go Karts and shit-talking, so when the basketball challenge was announced I “assumed” we finally had a chance to win. My college coach told me that when you assume you make an ass out of yourself and I felt like a big hairy ass when Forrest started kicking Rampage’s. Before the game started I did every dance move known to man as I held 10 grand in cash, but they were slowly shut down by Forrest’s accurate shooing and Rampage’s attempt to build a house with all them damn bricks. He admitted that he sucked at basketball, but it hurt to lose again — not only did we lose, but Forrest put some stank on it and dunked at the end. Damn!

Well, once again America gets to see the many sides of Jesse. Me and Jesse were cool because of Team Quest and I mentioned before that we were both fathers, so we talked about missing our families. I was obviously rooting for him, but I doubted him because of his actions in the house. You didn’t see me in many scenes of his outburts, but I thought he was throwing his opportunity away; I felt like he was taking his position for granted. Little did I know that he’s an animal — not CoCo the monkey, but like King Kong in that damn cage. He’s not that exciting, but very solid. Sure, the dude pisses his shorts, but he kicks ass, so what can you say?

It’s not exactly a scientific study, but MMA Rated’s Ariel Helwani took to the hotel lobby of the MGM Grand to assess interest among MMA fans regarding the July 19 Affliction show. He seems…less than optimistic. Again, we have to ask ourselves what success would look like for Affliction, whether it’s pay-per-view buys, ticket sales, or t-shirt revenue. There’s also the possibility that they’ll ramp up their advertising effort now that they have Trump money backing them.

In another video offering, Tito Ortiz talks with Maxim.com and manages to overstate his own importance to the world of MMA. Shocking. He also fields an awkward question about who taps out first in bed between he and Jenna. He’s a good sport about it, but it’s still weird.

Plus, we all know Jenna doesn’t tap. She’s been through some wars.

(Ultiman Premium T-Shirt, only $29.95)

Earlier today we clued you in to the news that UFC is beginning an all-out merchandising blitz following their action figure announcement on Tuesday. We hypothesized that an influx of UFC gear at fine retail outlets such as J.C. Penny’s would just lead to more idiots walking around feeling like instant bad-asses with their official UFC caps cocked sideways. Some of you disagreed in the comments section. Apparently we underestimated your zeal for UFC watches and “wall decor.” Fair enough.

But if that’s the case, you’re going to love this.

In an email blast sent out today, the UFC is encouraging fans to buy hot items such as t-shirts (see above), beer mugs, and leather wallets as gifts for the men in their lives who were courageous or unlucky enough to have sired children. Order now to ensure delivery by Sunday!

I can only speculate what would happen if I gave my father a UFC shirt with “Ultiman” (he’s the embodiment of the UFC, resurrected from the early nineties logo), or a leather UFC wallet as a gift, but I can tell you that it wouldn’t go well. He’d probably look at me and look at Ultiman and wonder why I hadn’t at least bothered to shoplift him a pair of Dockers.

Of course, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he’d love something like the UFC’s Black Discharge T-Shirt (is it just me, or does “black discharge” sound like something you should see a doctor about?), and maybe he’d wear it without knowing or caring about the logo, the same way my fat white Mormon neighbor wears FUBU clothing in blissful ignorance. Stranger things have happened, I suppose.

Just brace yourselves, because this is only the beginning. We might sound like alarmists now, but when you go to the pharmacy and see those Official UFC Condoms sitting right next to the UFC One-Step Pregnancy Tests (if you see Chuck Liddell appear on the stick, that means you’re knocked up), remember that you heard it here first.

(Don’t uncork the champagne bottles just yet…)

Sam Caplan at FiveOuncesofPain says an anonymous source let the cat out of the bag regarding the big-time UFC announcement that we’ve been frothing about for the last couple of days. Here’s the story, as he hears it:

[T]he committee for Tourism, Arts, and Sports Development of New York recently held a vote on Wednesday to decide whether the state should regulate Mixed Martial Arts…According to the source, the bill was voted down in overwhelming fashion…

This web site has also learned that the possible legalization of Mixed Martial Arts in the state of New York was the planned announcement that UFC president Dana White had hinted at during an interview that was published on ESPN.com last week.

According to a source, White was confident that the vote was going to pass and believed he had assurances that the proposed bill would be approved by the committee for Tourism, Arts, and Sports Development of New York. However, the proposal was unexpectedly voted down for reasons that are not yet clear. In a strange turn of events, it is believed that the chair of the committee, Assemblyman Steve Englebright, who introduced the proposal, ended up voting against it…

(Breathtaking.)

Apparently, action figures were just the beginning. According to a news release on UFC.com:

[F]ans of the Ultimate Fighting Championship will soon be able to collect Jakks Pacific UFC figures, use UFC-branded Bic lighters and Silver Buffalo watches, shop with a UFC credit card, and pick up UFC apparel at JC Penney stores…

Already, UFC-branded Bic lighters are hitting retail shelves, and after April’s ‘soft’ launch of UFC t-shirts at 450 JC Penney stores, the retailer will create “UFC Hot Zones” in August that will sell shirts and headwear in the Young Men’s department. Silver Buffalo, which has developed licensed products for such brands as WWE, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, and Kiss, will come on board this summer with UFC-branded watches, barware, bar accessories, lighting, wall décor, and billiards and darts accessories, and on June 15th, US Bank launches its UFC VISA card with no annual fee and the option to receive points for UFC merchandise…

There are also going to be more than a few happy faces when official UFC action figures hit major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, and Toys R Us in Fall of 2009. Expected in this launch will be Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Brock Lesnar, Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira, Michael “The Count” Bisping and UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva. Octagon playsets and role-play items based on the UFC brand and its classic and current roster of star fighters are also planned.

On the one hand, I’m really looking forward to the day when the checkout girl at the grocery store asks me “debit or credit,” and I slam down my customized UFC Visa card with the image of Joe Stevenson’s bloody face and say “What the fuck do you think?” But I’m also growing increasingly wary of the “WWE-ization” of MMA’s most prominent organization.

(We get it, Vitor. Stop looking so smug.)

The news today is that Vitor Belfort has indeed been added to the July 19 Affliction event in Anaheim, Calif., where he will face another former UFC fighter, Terry Martin. Belfort is perhaps best known for being a once-brilliant prospect in the world of MMA who has since struggled to live up to his early potential, while Martin is probably best known for being on the wrong end of a couple of brutal knockouts.

But here’s the thing that makes me curious: this bout will most likely not be shown on TV, according to reports. Not on the portion of the undercard that will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Net, nor on the pay-per-view portion.

So what’s the point? Are they betting that Belfort (a Brazilian unknown to most newer MMA fans) and Martin (a Chicago native with a mediocre record) will be a local draw? Judging by the rest of the card, it doesn’t look like they need it.

The undercard features somewhat well-known California fighters like Orange County’s Justin Levens, San Diego’s Patrick Speight, and L.A.’s Savant Young. While these names might not knock your socks off, the truth is they are something of a local draw in Southern California. Maybe not enough to convince you to buy a ticket by themselves, but if you also get to see Fedor and Tim Sylvia, yeah, why not?

But then the presence of Belfort and Martin, along with fighters like Aleks Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Mike Whitehead, “Babalu” Sobral, and Ben Rothwell — guys who are known among hardcore fans, though not necessarily the American mainstream — makes you think that Affliction is smarter than people are giving them credit for. They’ve got local appeal on the undercard, but are also setting themselves up as a destination for not only heavyweights, but light heavyweights as well.

That’s called hedging your bets. Maybe they sell a t-shirt or two on top of this, and things just might work out.

Amir Sadollah came into season seven of “The Ultimate Fighter” without a single professional MMA bout to his credit, and yet with the show winding down he finds himself in the semifinals and (though he can’t say in what capacity just yet) fighting on the Spike TV season finale card on June 21. Though he’s been portrayed as the lovable, self-deprecating underdog on the show, Sadollah now has his shot at a UFC career thanks to reality stardom.

In this exclusive interview, Sadollah talks to Cage Potato about being the man people want to fight, leaving his job to pursue his passion, and what he learned from his time on the show.

CagePotato.com: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, Amir. What’s it like now to sit down and watch the show and see it all edited together? Does it seem accurate to you?

It’s kind of crazy. We were there and we lived it so on some level it’s familiar, but seeing it on TV just sort of reinforces for you that it really happened. It’s strange though, to see something you lived through on TV.

For the most part it’s pretty accurate. So much is left out just because they don’t have time to show it all, I guess. Obviously, they didn’t show anything that didn’t happen, but they definitely did show the things they wanted to in order to help them make people look a certain way. If they wanted to cast you a certain way, they made sure to show the stuff that helped them do that.

I’ve talked to some TUF contestants who said that a lot of the footage has been taken out of order. Stuff that happened in week six was shown in week one, that kind of thing. Is that true?

A lot of the stuff is out of order, and some things they purposely left out to make certain points. But I think everything they did was for a reason. At least I hope so. I don’t know, I’m not a TV editor or anything.

They’re really good at getting you to believe what they want you to believe as you’re watching it. It makes me think twice now whenever I watch another reality show. I know now that it isn’t necessarily really how things were, but how they made what happened into what they wanted it to be.

Can you give me an example of that?

Now you’re going to make me back up my statements? Aw, man. Well, okay, definitely in the confessionals is where they did a lot of the scripting of the show. Not that they told you what to say or anything, but they would ask these very leading questions, like, ‘do you think this guy is scared?’ And you don’t get to hear the questions when you watch the show, just the answers. It gives it a different feel when you think someone is just saying something, rather than answering a specific question.

Obviously, you saw previous season of the show before you went on it. What did you think about it then, and what made you decide that you wanted to be on the show?

Though Gary Shaw previously stated that EliteXC was tentatively looking at early Fall for their next “Saturday Night Fights” card on CBS, the impressive ratings that the May 31st show pulled in has the network wanting to bring it back in the summer. As Dave Meltzer reports:

Shaw said the date of the next CBS card is expected to be finalized this week in a joint decision with CBS. Due to the success of the first show, CBS wants to have a return date in late July to capitalize on the momentum. Shaw feels Lawler and Smith wouldn’t be ready for a July date, nor would Slice.

As disappointing as the Kimbo Slice/James Thompson fight was, Kimbo is still EliteXC’s biggest draw, and CBS may be shooting themselves in the foot a bit by scheduling the next SNF broadcast before he’s ready to return. To ensure strong ratings for their second CBS event in his absence, EliteXC would probably need to bring back Gina Carano, and stack the rest of the card with recognizable names. Unfortunately, Nick Diaz, KJ Noons, Yves Edwards, and Murilo Rua are already booked for this Saturday’s EliteXC show in Hawaii, which will be televised on Showtime. Outside of setting up a Brett Rogers/Antonio Silva bout for EiteXC’s vacant heavyweight title, there aren’t many compelling matchups that Shaw & Co. could schedule for six weeks later. Waiting until early Fall definitely seems like the best option — but good ratings tend to make people do crazy things…

(Fist bump: BloodyElbow)

(Props: MMAMania)

Above is the first video promo for UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin (July 5th, Las Vegas). The main event should be fantastic, but it doesn’t bode well that Cote vs. Almeida is the only other match that warrants a mention in the clip. And even if the winner will technically be “moving up the ranks toward a middleweight title shot,” it’s not like they won’t have to beat 2-4 more guys to get there. The current lineup is below; is it better or worse than UFC 85′s?

MAIN CARD
Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin
Patrick Cote vs. Ricardo Almeida
Joe Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau
Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Lytle
Tyson Griffin vs. Marcus Aurelio

UNDERCARD
Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Justin McCully
Jorge Gurgel vs. Cole Miller
Melvin Guillard vs. Dennis Siver
Corey Hill vs. Justin Buchholz

Unrelated, but important: The earth-shattering news that Dana White was promising to deliver tomorrow has been pushed back to this coming Tuesday. My guess? The UFC needs a little more time to obtain rights to “The Hex”…

Wes Sims kicks ref at TKO 34 – Watch more free videos
(Props: Fightlinker)

This highlight video from TKO 34 really confirms what I’ve suspected about Wes Sims ever since he stomped Frank Mir’s face in UFC 43, and that’s that Sims has absolutely no impulse control in a fight. The guy has been disqualified twice in his forgettable career and still he seems to see the rules as a mere suggestion.

In the above instance, the referee was moving in to penalize his opponent, Steve Bosse, for holding on to the fence in order to keep his balance while he pounded Sims’ face. Sims seemed to think he was stopping the fight, so he responded by kicking the ref in the chest. This hardly needs to be said, but you can’t do that.

What’s more, Sims wasn’t even penalized for this. According to reports, Mark Coleman jumped in the cage to argue the point with the referee, everyone stood around in utter confusion for a while, and then the match resumed. Sims eventually lost by submission, and I assume that everyone went home feeling empty and dead inside.

There can be no question about this. You absolutely cannot attack the referee. I know it’s been done before, but that doesn’t excuse it. No matter how mad you get or how bad a job you think he did, you just can’t do that. We live in a society here, Wes Sims (and, to a lesser extent, James Thompson). Get a hold of yourself.

The IFL has officially canceled their August 15 event in New Jersey as of today. Jay Larkin told reporters in today’s media conference call that the next event had been called off because “to do an event in August would put the company in jeopardy. …Had we continued with the August event we would have run out of cash.”

We’ve all known for some time that things were grim at the IFL, so this isn’t exactly a surprise. But this latest announcement, coupled with the morose tone sounded by Larkin on today’s call, suggests that there is very little hope left within the IFL that things will eventually turn around.

“Despite what some say, this has not been a good day for the sport, the fighters, or the fans,” said Larkin, who went on to speculate once more about whether there was a real market for MMA outside of the UFC. “When you look at the number of companies that spring up and fold overnight, it makes you wonder about the fan base.”

Larkin also said the IFL would be downsizing its staff to cut costs. While he said they did not want to release fighters as part of that downsizing, he acknowledged their willingness to work with other promotions who were interested in their fighters, and said he would deal with that on a case-by-case basis, but he didn’t want to “hold anyone back from a good opportunity.”

Larkin also noted that there were more members of the media on this call than he could recall for any other IFL conference call, which he described as “interesting.”

Scheduled to face Mike Russow in the main event of Adrenaline MMA‘s debut show in Chicago, Jeff Monson has been forced to pull out of the match due to a not-quite-healed broken hand that he sustained in his Sengoku II bout against Josh Barnett last month. Replacing Monson will be Jason Guida, a Chicago-based fighter (and brother of UFC lightweight Clay Guida) who has built a record of 17-15 in various regional organizations. It’s an odd choice considering Guida has competed mostly as a middleweight, two weight classes under Russow, but according to Adrenaline honcho Monte Cox:

“It made sense for me at this point to go with two Chicago guys fighting each other. And they come from different camps in the same city and I just thought, you know what, this will probably sell me more tickets than anyone I can get on a week’s notice.”

Jeff Monson is still officially on the Godz of War card in Charlotte, even though it takes place just one week later. Saddled with a dodgy hand, the Snowman probably knew that he wouldn’t be able to compete on consecutive weekends, and was forced to make a decision — and it looks like he went with the higher-profile opponent in Ricco Rodriguez.

Recently dug up by MMA Scraps, here’s the video of a totally bald Brett Rogers winning the vacant EFX heavyweight championship in February ’07 by knocking out Josh Melichar in 9 seconds. Whoever that announcer is, he’s giving Scott Ferrall a run for his money. (“Are you ready to crank it ahhhhhhhhh, BAY-BAYYYYY!”) Another, somewhat less impressive performance by “The Grim” is after the jump.

Via Fightlinker: Beleaguered ref Dan Miragliotta mistakes Jess Liaudin for Paul Taylor at the end of their UFC 85 undercard fight. Poor guy really picked the wrong month to quit sniffing glue…

We can all calm down, at least for now, because today’s announcement from Dana White on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” was, well, less than thrilling. White announced that the UFC has entered into an exclusive four-year licensing deal with toy-maker JAKKS Pacific to churn out some UFC action figures, which will be available next Christmas.

You getting goosebumps yet?

According to a press release posted earlier today on Five Ounces of Pain, the deal covers licensing for action figures of Chuck Liddell, “Minotauro” Nogueira, Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, and Michael Bisping, among others.

Lesnar appeared via satellite (White was live) and fielded questions about the difference between the UFC and the WWE — one is real and the other is “purely entertainment” — as well as whether he really had that oddly phallic tattoo on his chest, as his action figure showed. Lesnar attempted a joke, saying it was a “peel-off”, before conceding that yes, he had a sword on his torso for no good reason.

The action figure deal obviously isn’t the mind-blowing announcement that White promised last week, but he did address some of the more prevalent rumors about it.

Asked if the announcement had to do with Floyd Mayweather Jr., a partnership with the WWE, or a new TV deal with Fox or ESPN, White responded “no” on all counts.

Asked if the announcement was that the UFC was going public, he also said no, then later commented, “We don’t need to go public. Me and my partners built this from the ground up. We don’t need geeks on Wall Street telling us how to run our business.”

This, on a financial news show. And you thought the three minutes of air time wouldn’t be enough for White to effectively alienate anyone.

Matt Hughes is back home following his loss to Thiago Alves at UFC 85 this weekend, and he’s venting his frustrations on his blog. While many Hughes apologists have been blaming the loss on Alves’ weight advantage, Hughes graciously refuses to do so. He is, however, continuing to hype the grudge match with Matt Serra:

Well, I didn’t think I’d come back writing something up after a loss. I fully expected to win, things didn’t go my way. Thiago came in big, some people told me that he looked bigger than me in the octagon. I didn’t expect that but I also think that had nothing to do with the outcome of the fight. I think Thiago came up with a good game plan. He didn’t throw too many punches or any kicks to where I could take him down. He was stronger than I thought and he was quite defensive on the ground. So, where does that leave me? I’ve got one more fight on my UFC contract. I’m wanting to fight Matt Serra (but that’s for the UFC to decide). We’ll see what happens and decide after that fight what I’m going to do.

You have to admire Hughes’ strategy for getting the fight he wants. He talks it up in public every chance he gets, then appeals to Dana White’s ego by saying that it’s entirely up to the UFC. Guess you learn a few things when you’ve been with the company this long.

Lest you think Hughes (and his wife) are the only ones who want to see that fight, he includes a pleasant little email he received from an ardent supporter.

(Satan and his minions.)

From UFC.com:

Dana White and heavyweight sensation Brock Lesnar will appear live on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” today to announce an exciting new UFC deal. The show airs at 12:40pm ET.

Previously, White promised a major announcement to come this Thursday that “is going to blow people’s minds.” Could he be spilling the beans early? And what’s Lesnar’s role in all this, unless the major deal is somehow WWE-related?

Which is a distinct possibility, of course. MMAPayout had this to say:

[F]inancial giant Morgan Stanley has reportedly been working on a collaborative/financial deal between Zuffa and another party…

Sources have told MMAPayout.com that a significant licensing deal may be part of the planned announcement. Licensing and merchandising has long been identified as a major untapped revenue stream for the UFC. Adding even more intrigue is WWE’s rumored involvement in the deal. The WWE also has a press conference scheduled for Thursday.

Last night a poster on the Underground Forums added the following rumor “from a reliable source” to the mix: “a group of investors led by Dana White have agreed in principle to purchase the UFC from Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta for an undisclosed amount. Included in this investment group is WWE’s Vince McMahon who will now own a minority stake in the company. They also have plans on taking the company public by years end.”

It’s possible that today’s announcement will be about a licensing deal with a tangential relationship to the WWE, and White’s saving the real mind-blower — which he said would require the renting out of a separate venue for his employees — for Thursday. We’ll let you know what comes of it…

In his first match at last weekend’s World Jiu-Jitsu Championships, Andre Galvao was paired up against someone who clearly wasn’t in his league. What followed was an unforgettably ridiculous display of grappling domination, in which Galvao turned the Mundials into his own personal And 1 Mixtape of jiu-jitsu. At the 1:09-1:17 and 1:42-1:56 marks he’s basically breakdancing on his opponent’s back, and we’d like to see more MMA fighters do the somersault guard-pass that Galvao pulls off at 1:35. Props to StoryLords.tv.

(KJ Noons splits your face open once and he never lets you forget it.)

Hot off the ratings success of their first CBS show, Elite XC returns to Showtime this Saturday night with “Return of the King” in Hawaii. You’re probably wondering, who is the king in this scenario? Is Elvis on the card? Turns out, no, he isn’t. The king is K.J. Noons, who was raised in Hawaii until he was sixteen and is now returning to fight there. Also he sometimes goes by “King Karl”, just to remind us that alliteration alone is not enough to base a nickname on.

In a media conference call today Noons did his best to dispel reports that he has been avoiding a rematch with Nick Diaz, who he defeated in order to claim the Elite XC lightweight title back in November.

“I’ve won a lot of titles, but winning the EliteXC title was one of the most powerful things to happen to me,’’ said Noons. “I’m just proud that I keep trying to get better and just follow my dreams.

“But I don’t dodge anybody. As a champion, you can’t duck anyone. You only have one option. You fight the best. Whoever that is, that’s who I fight. Unfortunately, Nick’s not the best now. I have to fight the top guy as the champion. Right now that guy is Yves Edwards.

“Of course, it would be great to fight Nick in the future. It would be a great payday for me. (But) Nick is such a big crybaby. Let him rebuild himself and then we’ll fight again. I’d love an easy payday.

“It’s ridiculous what Diaz’ camp was saying. Why would they think I’m dodging him? I gave him plastic surgery on his face. That’s a fact. As long as he can get a doctor’s note, (I’m all for) round two.’’

Uh-oh. You know who’s not going to like that? World-famous hothead Nick Diaz. And here it comes:

(Bisping’s piercing gaze is better than Silva’s. So there’s one thing he’s got.)

Dana White has been floating the idea of a UFC stadium show in Hawaii at some point in the future, but according to the Lancashire Telegraph he’s not ruling out the possibility of doing one in Britain with his favorite UK poster boy in the main event:

“He looks better every time he is out,” [White] said. “And it would be great to bring a Bisping title fight to a football stadium in England.”

Title fight you say? As in, for the UFC middleweight title? Against Anderson Silva? Interesting.

It’s hard to disagree with White’s point about Bisping improving in every outing, but at the same time there are some major differences between looking good against Jason “Dooms” Day and doing the same against “The Spider.” For instance, imagine what Dan Henderson or Rich Franklin would do to Jason Day, and then let your imagination run wild after that.

For his part, Bisping seems realistic/optimistic about that prospect:

(That don’t look healthy. Photo courtesy of BringthePain.tv.)

On June 21st, the first “Godz of War” event goes down at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, NC; though the official website still loudly boasts a main event of Jeff Monson vs. Kevin Randleman, it was widely reported last week that Randleman had to drop out due to a shoulder injury, and will be replaced by YAMMA participant Ricco Rodriguez.

Personally, I’m more concerned about the featured bout between former UFC middleweight champion/PRIDE veteran Murilo Bustamante and TUF 3 finalist Josh “Bring the Pain” Haynes. Yes, you read that correctly: the Brazilian Top Team co-founder who whipped Dave Menne and Matt Lindland’s asses before rumbling with some of the best in the world in Japan is going toe-to-toe with the guy who was bounced out of the UFC after losing consecutive fights to Michael Bisping (understandable), Rory Singer (ouch), and Luke Cummo (uh-oh). The best part? Though they list Bustamante’s record accurately as 14-7-1, they inflated Haynes’s record from 9-10 to 17-8. Seriously, go to the site and see for yourself. Unless they’re crediting Haynes one victory for every 15 pounds he successfully lost after being a 300+ pound wideass, I’m gonna have to call bullshit.

Of course, Bustamante is well past his prime so this won’t be a total squash match. But I just wanted to point out that there’s a new MMA promotion called Godz of War, and Josh Haynes is one of their marquee names. Best of luck, gentlemen.

(Nate Marquardt knows he’s been point-deducted out of a victory and decides to have a little WWE-style fun at the end of his fight with Thales Leites on Saturday. Strangely, Herb Dean decides to let this one go. Image courtesy of this UG thread.)

(“Chained Fists,” only available at NathanDiaz.com.)

On Friday, we put two Nate Diaz-related t-shirts up for grabs to the readers who could provide the best captions for the above photo involving Randy Couture, Gina Carano, and three of their groupies. And apparently you really want to represent tha’ 209, because you came full force with it. First, our honorable mentions…

Matt Herpes: This is exactly why Kim bought that testicle-scale.

F.A.S.: Xtreme Ho-ture

Damien: Looks like Fedor isn’t the only heavyweight that Randy wants to get his hands on.

boobah: Gina later realized that Applebee’s was not the best choice for cutting weight.

MMA-hole: “Yeah, that’s right…I’m Bruce Willis…”

TheFeniX: Shown here: People who make a living destroying others for monetary gain, every 6 months or so. Also pictured: Randy Couture and Gina Carano.

bmwtech: Just goes to show you that every group of girls has a DBUF. Designated bald ugly friend.

And now, the shirt-winners…

(Props: Five Ounces of Pain)

(Video courtesy of NBC Sports)

Listening to Brandon Vera make the case against the stoppage in his fight with Fabricio Werdum, I’m filled with mixed emotions. On one hand, yes, that was an early stoppage. Considering the time left in the round, as well his activity and defense once Werdum had mounted him, Vera should have been allowed to try and ride out the final seconds.

On the other hand, some of his comments make me think that Vera is not completely in touch with what was really happening in that fight.

Brandon Vera, you were not winning that fight. Werdum was controlling you and systematically taking you apart. That said, I still have to disagree with the stoppage, even though it was completely by the book. Of course, that only makes me think that something is wrong with the book.

The conventional wisdom in MMA is that a fighter who isn’t “intelligently defending himself” is in danger of having his fight stopped. We all know that. We’ve seen it over and over again. But the question is, given that situation — mounted by an excellent jiu-jitsu fighter with less than thirty seconds left in the round — what would an intelligent defense look like?

(“Boom! Another hit is landed…” The Pitbull mauls old-ass Matt Hughes. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Now that the adrenaline has subsided, we can have a normal conversation. Here’s what I’ve been thinking about since Saturday afternoon…

— Matt Hughes carved out a legendary career without ever being a particularly dangerous striker. And good for him, but the young fighters coming up these days will not stand for that shit. There’s no way you can compete at an elite level anymore without a complete game. Hughes never had one, and it’s now been fully exposed. After Alves stuffed Hughes’s takedown attempts during their fight, the former champ had no more weapons left, and it was only a countdown until the inevitable. I’m interested in seeing Hughes settle his grudge match with Matt Serra; I’m not really interested in seeing Hughes continue to be tooled by other athletic and well-rounded members of the UFC’s welterweight division.

— Michael Bisping looked deadly once again. Obviously he’d be wrecked by Silva, Franklin, or Henderson (or Marquardt on a good day), but he’d have to be the favorite against any other middleweight in the UFC. I’d guess he’s two wins away from a title shot, and luckily for him, Anderson Silva might not be around by the time he gets there. (The chatter is that Silva may move up to light-heavyweight for a marquee fight, but it’s totally unsubstantiated at this point, so don’t get your hopes up.)

— I don’t care what Jason Lambert needs to do to get down to 185 — stomach stapling, breast reduction surgery, whatever — he just needs to get there. He also needs to understand that his boxing sucks; just like in his fight with Wilson Gouveia, Lambert’s wild and sloppy haymakers led to his own damn self getting knocked out against Luis Cane. I think the biggest lesson I learned from “Bedlam” was that if there’s a noticeably out-of-shape guy fighting a guy in great physical condition, don’t bet on the fatty. (See also: Eddie Sanchez.)

(Kazuo Misaki cracks Logan Clark a good one. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Far less publicized or attended than their first two cards, Sengoku held its third event yesterday at a half-full Saitama Super Arena, marked by former PRIDE star Kazuyuki Fujita’s upset by YAMMA heavyweight champ Travis Wiuff (who is now riding a nine-fight win streak), as well as Kazuo Misaki and Nick “The Goat” Thompson coming away with victories, and MMA elder statesman Maurice Smith’s comeback bid hitting a painful speed bump at the hands of Hidehiko Yoshida. Full recap is at Japan MMA; quick results are below.

Hidehiko Yoshida def. Maurice Smith via submission (neck crank), 2:23 of round 1
Travis Wiuff def. Kazuyuki Fujita via KO, 1:24 of round 1
Kazuo Misaki def. Logan Clark via unanimous decision
Nick Thompson def. Michael Costa via submission (kimura), 4:13 of round 2
Sanae Kikuta def. Chris Rice via submission (armbar), 3:54 of round 1
Marcio Cruz def. Choi Mu Bae via submission (triangle choke), 4:37 of round 1
Rodrigo Damm def. Jorge Masvidal via TKO, 4:38 of round 2
Fabio Silva def. Kazuo Takahashi via KO, 0:24 of round 2

At the event, it was announced that Sengoku IV (August 24th) will mark the beginning of a lightweight GP, with the winner to face Takanori Gomi. Satoru Kitaoka, Eiji Mitsuoka, Kazunori Yokota, Duane Ludwig, and Rodrigo Damm have already been booked for the tourney.

In other MMA news from the Far East…