(Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

The BF half of the Cage Potato duo is in Omaha for tonight’s Ultimate Fight Night event. If you’re headed to the Civic Auditorium later this afternoon for the event, keep an eye out for the handsome devil with the laptop. I’ll be sitting behind that guy, scribbling my thoughts on a wax tablet. What? I just think all this new technology is a fad. It’ll blow over.

But if you can’t get to the fights tonight but want to find a way to make yourself sweat over the results anyway, allow me to suggest gambling. BestFightOdds.com has compiled all the lines for tonight’s event, and here’s what it’s looking like at the moment:

Nathan Diaz (-200) vs. Josh Neer (+200)
Clay Guida (-121) vs. Mac Danzig (+125)
Houston Alexander (-212) vs. Eric Schafer (+215)
Ed Herman (-220) vs. Alan Belcher (+215)
Joe Lauzon (-675) vs. Kyle Bradley (+500)
Drew McFedries (-200) vs. Mike Massenzio (+210)
Wilson Gouveia (-350) vs. Ryan Jensen (+326)
Alessio Sakara (-115) vs. Joe Vedepo (+128)
Jason Brilz (-209) vs. Brad Morris (+215)
Dan Miller (-110) vs. Rob Kimmons (+105)

Some thoughts…

(Just level with me here: does this mean no Hex?)

Well, it’s finally happened. The IFL has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Something tells me a government bailout isn’t coming any time soon. Anyone want to buy a Quad Cities Silverbacks t-shirt? It’s a collectible. Seriously, I’ve got about seven of them. I’m entertaining all offers, including interesting trades. Seems to me like we wouldn’t be in this financial mess to begin with if we hadn’t abandoned the barter system.

As a former employee of the IFL, it’s possible that I’m the only one who cares about this news. It’s also possible that the ones who are really to blame here are the fans. In other words, you. The fans the IFL didn’t have. If you didn’t love gay foreplay so much, the IFL might be thriving and AIG would still be financially viable. You just won’t be happy until you destroy everything, will you?

In a last gasp of IFL news, Lithuanian lightweight Deividas Taurosevicius has signed with Affliction, joining other IFL refugees like Roy Nelson, Chris Horodecki, and Jay Hieron. Hope they can box.

Because we may never again have cause to mention the IFL, I’ll leave you with this.

(Photo courtesy of JoeDuarteMMA.com.)

You might remember Joe “Hybrid” Duarte as the jacked Chamorro and TUF 8 contestant who may or may not have been called out by Dana White as “the next Anderson Silva.” With all the hype he was getting, many assumed that he’d go far in the show’s lightweight bracket. Well, according to a new report on TKO Xtreme, that doesn’t seem to be the case:

[Colloseo Championship Fighting] has announced that they have signed Sinister Brand’s new blood Joe “Hybrid” Duarte and Bad Boy fighter Pat Speight to six-fight contracts. Duarte, a native of Hagatna, Guam, possesses an unblemished mixed martial arts record of 3-0. Duarte made his MMA debut in September 2006 at TC 16: Annihilation in San Diego, California. Duarte scored a hard fought split decision over fellow newcomer Chris Kennedy. Since then, Duarte has reeled off consecutive submission victories over Ulfrano Rodriguez and Randy Bowers. Duarte will be appearing on the UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter 8.

I don’t know anything about Colloseo besides the fact that they’re based in Canada and their promo videos are God awful. Here’s one thing I do know: The UFC makes all TUF contestants sign confidentiality agreements forbidding them from revealing any results from the show until they’re aired. Which means one of two things: 1) CCF just accidentally blew up Duarte’s spot, and he’s now in deep doodoo with the UFC, or 2) Duarte fucked up so bad in the house that the UFC doesn’t care if people know he’s out of the organization. Either way, don’t expect to see the dude compete at the TUF 8 finale. Sorry, Guamanians…

(Don’t stop believing. Photo courtesy of Fighters.com.)

— Evan Tanner’s memorial will be held at 2 p.m. on September 27th at the Civic Center (401 South Buchanan Street) in Amarillo, Texas. Tonight’s Ultimate Fight Night broadcast will be dedicated to Tanner, and an Evan Tanner tribute show will be airing soon on Spike.

— Even though the ink on Houston Alexander’s new five-fight contract extension hasn’t even dried yet, Dana White admits that if the Assassin loses against Eric Schafer tonight, he’ll need to leave the UFC for a while to rack up some wins in other promotions.

— Roger Huerta’s loss to Kenny Florian last month was very hard on him emotionally, and he’s desperate for a rematch. In an interview with Fighters Only Magazine, he also seemed to imply that he’ll be leaving Greg Jackson’s team: “I would like to go back to the way I used to train, with the people I used to train with. Those guys were like brothers to me, not just trainers.”

— TUF 7 finalist C.B. Dollaway will reportedly return to the Octagon at UFC 92 (December 27th, Las Vegas) against middleweight veteran Jorge Rivera. Dollaway is officially 1-1 in the UFC at this point, after being submitted by Amir Sadollah via armbar at the TUF 7 finale in June, then submitting Jesse Taylor via Peruvian neck tie at “Silva vs. Irvin” in July.

— Speaking of fight bookings, Mike Swick and Jonathan Goulet have agreed to fight each other at the Ultimate Fighter 8 finale on December 13th. Both men have won their last two fights in the UFC.

— Round 5′s new Sean Sherk collectible figure doesn’t really look like Sean Sherk. But the Wandy and Spider figures are definitely worthy of being displayed in your cubicle.

Gina Carano, her form-fitting yoga pants, and an extremely drowsy dog hang out with Shape magazine. Remember, girls — it’s okay to be you! Props to Showtime Sports.

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Courtesy of FiveOuncesofPain, here’s the new trailer for M-1 Challenge, which premieres on HDNet this Friday at 8 p.m. ET. Ten MMA teams from eight different countries competed against each other in a series of tournaments held around the world over the last year; the TV series shows how it all went down. Friday’s episode showcases the battle between Team France and Team Russia (Red Devil).

Something truly awful awaits you after the jump…

(Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Ah, beautiful Omaha, Nebraska. Where any mention of the Cornhuskers is enough to work a crowd into a frenzy. I just returned from the Ultimate Fight Night 15 weigh-in, which was fairly uneventful except for the odd fact that every single fighter weighed in precisely on the mark. Every middleweight hit 185 on the button. Every lightweight, 155 exactly. You get the picture. It was eerie. Makes you wonder if the athletic commission here isn’t just phoning it in. One guy who seemed a bit nervous about the whole thing was Clay Guida, who stepped on the scale as if he were trying to sneak up on it. Maybe his brother’s troubles have him worried.

But the most interesting thing to happen at the weigh-in had nothing to do with the fighters on Wednesday night’s card. Before things got underway, Matt Hughes answered questions from the fans who arrived early. He talked at length about how good Robbie Lawler is, how he wouldn’t advise Lawler to fight Anderson Silva, but would like to see him face Georges St. Pierre, whose stand-up game is not as good as Lawler’s, according to Hughes.

“I know I want to see that fight,” he said. “I wouldn’t even want to corner Robbie. I’d just want to sit on the side and watch.”

But then, when the Q&A session was over, Hughes asked for a couple extra minutes on the mic. He said that he often gets asked about his most memorable story in the fight game, and then proceeded to share, unprompted, a tale from his “pre-Christian” days.

It seems Hughes was down in New Orleans and on Bourbon Street with Pat Miletich and some of the boys after a fight. He and Miletich got into a drinking contest, chugging beers out on the street with both fists. They had just finished slamming a couple and were walking down the street when Miletich stopped and bent over to puke in the street. Then he walked a couple steps, puked some more, then kept going, stopped, and puked some more. At some point, Miletich looked over at Hughes and pointed to the gaping space where his false teeth should be. Pat Miletich, MMA great, had just realized that he puked out his false teeth.

So what did he do? He walked back and sifted through each pile of vomit until he found them. And when he found them? He poured beer on them, put them back in his mouth, and kept going.

If you still care about the official weigh-in results after that, they’re after the jump:

For the past month, UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre has been chronicling his fighting life through an exclusive blog on Yardbarker.com — a fan-driven sports site that happens to be CagePotato’s new content partner. In last Thursday’s installment (re-published below), St. Pierre writes about traveling to Brazil to drill his jiu-jitsu at the Gracie Barra Academy in Rio. You can keep up with future entries on GSP’s blog at yardbarker.com/georgesstpierre. Enjoy…

***

MORE TRAVEL WOES: I was going to Brazil, but unfortunately my plane was delayed until the next morning and I had to spend the night in Toronto. So I called my friend Steven Wong, who is the craziest Asian guy that I know, by the way. He came to pick me up & we went to eat at The Keg, which is one of my favorite steakhouses because their quality/price is good and their waitresses are normally beautiful. So after another of my friends came to meet us at the restaurant — he’s a club promoter and I asked him where was the best places to go out on a Tuesday night in Toronto. We finally ended up somewhere pretty good. I also called my friend and BJJ instructor from Montreal who now lives in Toronto, Bruno Hernandez, to come reach me. I had a very fun night and I came back in my hotel not too late because I didn’t want to be tired the next morning when I catch my flight to Brazil. The next morning, I woke up at 6am and I went to the airport. I really looked like a zombie that morning. Because the flight was carrying many of the passengers from the previous night’s cancelled flight, the plane was packed. So unfortunately, I spent 10 hours on a plane stuck between 2 Canadian heavyweights it was probably the longest & most boring flight of my life. However, my flight from Sao Paolo to Rio was a bit more interesting, as the Brazilian Olympic team was also on the plane and I made new friends.

(“I’ll pose with you bitches but I ain’t gonna enjoy it.”)

Though the rumored UFC 91 match between Quinton Jackson and Wanderlei Silva has yet to be confirmed by the UFC or by either fighter, sources at Wolfslair Academy tell MMA Junkie that Rampage has already begun a six-week fight camp in preparation for the November 15th scrap. If those shifty limeys can be believed, the Jackson/Silva bout will serve as the co-main event for the Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar headlining fight. UFC 91 is slated to go down at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and will also feature a lightweight bout between Kenny Florian and Joe Stevenson.

Hopefully Jackson can keep his head clear in the run-up to his third attempt at not getting KTFO by Wanderlei, because the fight isn’t the only thing he’ll be dealing with. Jackson is scheduled to appear in court on November 3rd, where it will be determined whether or not he’ll go to trial for his July arrest; Jackson pled not guilty to felony counts of evading police, hit-and-run and reckless driving.

Rampage’s former trainer Juanito Ibarra has been laying low since Jackson’s one-man monster truck rally in Costa Mesa, but SI.com’s Josh Gross dug him up for an interview that’s chock-full of vague, evasive statements. For example:

I hope I’m not jinxing myself, but our beloved “You’re posting comments too fast” error seems to be…fixed? Holler if you come across it again, but it looks like we’re all good. So please, everybody, get back to sharing your thoughts on these blog posts. You’ll actually have a great opportunity to do so tomorrow night, as we liveblog Ultimate Fight Night: Diaz vs Neer, which kicks off at 8 p.m. on Spike TV. In fact, why don’t you go ahead and throw a comment down on this post, about whatever comes to mind. It’ll be like a little experiment…

And just to remind you, our forums are starting to get cookin’ again (and they need your participation), our Wiki section is steadily expanding (and it needs your contributions), and our Fight Schedule is up to date with every upcoming event that’s big enough for you to care about (and it needs nothing from you). So, you know, explore the space.

(‘I came to chew bubblegum and represent the 209. I am all out of bubblegum.’)

No one can see the future, but as long as we’re going to speculate as to how things will turn out in Omaha on Wednesday (and let’s face it, we are), we might as well go all the way with predictions so specific they can’t possible come true….or can they?

Nate Diaz vs. Josh Neer

Despite his impressive performances since coming off “The Ultimate Fighter,” the UFC doesn’t seem interested in moving Diaz up in competition. Instead they move him laterally, pitting him against the journeyman Neer, who Nate’s big bro already beat. It’ll be no easy task for Diaz to top his double-birdie performance against Kurt Pellegrino, but he’s a showman. Diaz will get bullied around the Octagon by Neer early on, but at some point he’ll remember he’s the better submissions fighter. The thought will dawn on him all at once and he’ll jump on Neer’s back, lock in a standing rear-naked choke, and extend his middle fingers on either side of Neer’s head as he submits.

When will it happen: 3:17, round two.

What to watch for: the look on Joe Rogan’s face when he has to interview Diaz after the bout and ask him to talk us through the Bud Light replay. What isn’t bleeped out will be completely unintelligible.

Mac Danzig vs. Clay Guida

This is the kind of fight worth getting excited about. The stoic, cerebral Danzig takes on Enkidu, the wild man of the woods (officially known as Clay Guida). It’s the classic highly-technical vegan vs. tough-but-crazy caveman battle. Danzig will start overly cautious and be initially overwhelmed as Guida wades into him with reckless abandon. But as the fight wears on Danzig will start to figure things out, striking and circling and wearing Guida out with knees to the body. Then Guida will freak out, charging right into a triangle choke, and his face will be blocked by his hair as it changes colors before he finally consents to tap.

When will it happen: 2:03, round three.

What to watch for: Guida’s brother, who failed to make weight for his first “Ultimate Fighter” bout and was reportedly kicked off the show for it, will appear on camera at some point looking sad and not eating.

Former UFC champ Frank Mir was once sitting atop the heavyweight division before a motorcycle accident nearly ended his career. His road back has been a rocky one. A couple tough losses had him questioning his decision to keep fighting, but he has since rededicated himself to the sport and has found new life after a high-profile victory over Brock Lesnar.

Now he’s coaching opposite Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in season eight of “The Ultimate Fighter,” premiering Wednesday night on Spike TV. In this exclusive interview with CagePotato.com, Mir talks about his impending fight with Nogueira, Randy Couture’s return, and just how much he hates cardio training.

CagePotato.com: Frank, we’ve heard past coaches say they don’t like how long the show keeps them out of action, how they’re fighters and not coaches. What was your experience like coaching “The Ultimate Fighter?”

I found it quite enjoyable. I really didn’t think it was all that difficult to be honest with you. Obviously nothing’s easy in the fight game, but it wasn’t like I resented the position at all. It opened my eyes up to a lot of new things as a fighter, seeing other people and how they react to different situations, how they deal with things, and helped me understand how to help them out by thinking about what I would need in that situation. It was kind of nice to jump back that way because it gave me a better understanding of myself.

What does it do to your climactic fight with Nogueira now that Randy Couture is back in the UFC and they’re hyping his match with Brock Lesnar, a man you beat, for the heavyweight title?

I definitely think it takes some of the wind out of the sails. That’s for sure. But I love the fact that Randy’s back. I think he’s a great representative of the sport and I thought it was a travesty that he might have ended his career in a courtroom.

The fact that he’s back, I think that’s great. I’m not upset with that at all, but I think that Nogueira obviously should have been his first fight back, since he’s holding the interim belt. But since Nogueira and I are already slated to fight each other I thought that with him coming back he would wait to fight the winner of Nogueira and myself. I think that would have worked out perfectly. But with contract negotiations and all that I don’t know what the deal was.

The only thing I’m at odds with is that he’s fighting a month before Nogueira and I fight, and that brings up the question of what we’re fighting for. Now he’s fighting Lesnar and he’s getting a shot at the heavyweight title while I’m getting a shot at the interim title. Since I just beat Lesnar, that’s kind of interesting.

Interesting is one word for it. Obviously you’re focused on fighting Nogueira now, so how do you think you stack up against him? What do you do better than him?

(Dan Miller kneebars the crap out of Ryan McGivern to win the IFL’s middleweight title in May. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Like other Fight Night shows in the past, tomorrow’s “Diaz vs. Neer” joint features an undercard packed with fresh faces (though there’s no guarantee those faces will be too fresh by the end of the night). Let’s take a look at some of the guys who will be trying to prove themselves in the Octagon for the first time — and who you might get to see in action if they’re on the giving or receiving end of a quick finish.

JOE VEDEPO (MW)
Experience: 7-1 record (3 TKOs, 3 subs), primarily in small, Iowa-based promotions. Last fight was a submission victory over Brian Green in June.
Will be facing: Alessio Sakara (12-7, 3-4 w/1 no-contest in the UFC)
Lowdown: The two questions that come to mind are “who?” and “why?”. We can’t really answer that last question, but we do know that Vedepo is a former standout high school wrestler who (for unknown reasons) turned down a spot on The Ultimate Fighter 7. The 25-year-old trains in Cedar Rapids with Team Hardrive MMA. The dude finishes fights, but may not be ready for the competitive leap into the UFC — even against the struggling Alessio Sakara.

JASON BRILZ (LHW)
Experience: 15-1-1 record (9 wins by submission), fighting all over the Midwest, including five appearances in the Iowa-based Victory Fighting Championships. Notable wins over Jason MacDonald and Alex Schoenauer; hasn’t lost a fight since September 2001. Last fight was a first-round submission win over Erik Jenks in May.
Will be facing: Brad Morris (9-3, 0-1 UFC)
Lowdown: Repping Omaha like Houston Alexander, Brilz was a state wrestling champ in high school who went on to be a four-year letterman at the University of Nebraska. The 33-year-old pays the bills as a firefighter and an assistant wrestling coach for U of N.

(He could have been as famous as Sean Gannon.)

From a new MMA Weekly profile on Joe Riggs:

The year is 2003. Riggs is at least a year away from his UFC debut. He’s fighting for $1,000 a show, good money for him at the time. Slice’s manager, Icy Mike, puts out a challenge to tough guys around the country — come to Florida if you think you can beat up Kimbo Slice. Win, and you get $10,000.

Riggs’ manager at the time, Trevor Lally, jumps at the offer. He emails Mike and says he’s got someone for him. He offers to put up $50,000 of his own money as a show of faith.

Riggs begins training in earnest and mentally preparing for a fight with Slice. But when Mike finds out about Riggs’ credentials, the door is promptly closed.

“I’d of beat the (expletive) out of him,” Riggs told MMAWeekly.com. “It would have been done. No Kimbo. I would have rubbed him out and saved everyone the headaches.”

Or Riggs could have videotaped his street brawls, something he jokingly wishes he did.

Back then, Riggs was a bloated heavyweight who had made his name beating up fellow fatties in the Phoenix-based Rage in the Cage promotion — and Icy Mike was still shuckin’ and duckin’. Luckily, Kimbo was able to find other opponents with acceptable credentials. And the rest, as they say, is history.

(Props: Steve Cofield, again)

We just had to go and complain that Elite XC and CBS weren’t doing enough to hype their Oct. 4 event. Then came “Hits & Chicks.” Now it’s “the greatest mixed martial arts show in Florida history” featuring “undefeated Miami street fighting legend” Kimbo Slice. Oh, and just in case you were worried that his street fighting days weren’t being well-represented enough, they made sure to include plenty of clips. I don’t know if they’re referring to him as undefeated in MMA, which is true, or undefeated in street fighting, which is not (Sean Gannon, anyone?), but either way you get the point. They stop just short of showing Kimbo working out with the Milf Hunter, presumably because they had to give Ken Shamrock his obligatory three seconds of screen time.

When it comes to selling tickets, I guess you hype whatever you got, however you can.

(Still waiting on that Affliction tracksuit.)

Former Elite XC honcho Gary Shaw dropped by Steve Cofield’s radio show to discuss the Affliction/Golden Boy partnership — something he is actually uniquely qualified to do as one of the few people who has experience promoting boxing and MMA with varying levels of success. His forecast for the partnership’s chances was grim, to say the least, and he doesn’t think much of Affliction’s plan to get into the boxing apparel biz, either:

Golden Boy’s doing a very good job in boxing. There’s nobody there who knows MMA. …I don’t think it’s going to work out… They’re talking about Affliction doing all the boxing gear, and I was looking around the room while they were doing the press conference, there wasn’t one person in the whole press conference wearing anything of a shirt, hat, or pants, having to do with boxing. And if you go to an MMA event, it’s a lifestyle, everybody’s in MMA clothing. And I think it’s going to be a lesson to both. I think they’re in for some surprises.

I don’t think they can build the market. I think it’s a good t-shirt. I love their line. I like all their MMA stuff. But boxing people, they come to an event, it’s not a lifestyle. The next day they’re not training. A lot of people in MMA train. It’s a cult, it’s a lifestyle, it’s different. They’ll learn.

If you’re wondering whether Gary Shaw’s doom and gloom attitude regarding the “cult” of MMA might be due in part to his failed attempts at trying to get them to believe any manner of bullshit, you just may be on to something. The frosty reception he got from fans, journalists, and other promoters seems to have had a lasting effect on Shaw’s fragile psyche:

“UFC Fight Night: Diaz vs. Neer” goes down this Wednesday at the Omaha Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska. You can watch the action on Spike TV beginning at 8 p.m. ET/PT — conveniently, right before the premiere of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir. To begin the psyche-up process, here are the fighters from the card’s three key fights, discussing their matchups. Diaz/Neer is above, Danzig/Guida and Alexander/Schafer are below; props to BloodyElbow. The full lineup for the event is after the jump.

(Photo courtesy of MMAFrenzy.com.)

We previously mentioned that UFC lightweight Melvin Guillard had to pull out of his UFC 90 bout with Spencer Fisher for undisclosed reasons. Well, now those reasons are disclosed — and it ain’t lookin’ good. Sherdog is reporting that the Young Assassin is in custody at the Harris County jail in Houston, due to an August 13th arrest for violating probation on a 2007 drug charge. Guillard will be released to a drug treatment facility “as soon as space becomes available per the terms of his recently amended probation.” And it probably won’t be one of those cushy drug treatment facilities that lets patients take days off to go fight in Chicago, so there you have it.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Guillard has had drug/legal trouble since his UFC career began in 2005. The New Orleans native was suspended for eight months after testing positive for cocaine following a submission loss to Joe Stevenson at UFC Fight Night 9 in April 2007. (Guillard admitted using the drug six days before the fight, thinking it would be out of his system within 72 hours.) Four months later, he was arrested for possession of a controlled substance, but got off with a fine and two years probation — which he has now violated.

If you’ve been keeping score, that’s three strikes. Unfortunately, Guillard’s not nearly valuable enough to the UFC for them to keep giving him chances; we’d expect a semi-official announcement of his dismissal sometime this week. Guillard is still an exciting-enough fighter to continue to get work in smaller shows, but we’re more concerned about his health and well-being at this point. Let’s hope his latest incident compels him to clean up for good…

(Click here to go to the video)

The season eight premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter” follows UFC Fight Night this Wednesday, and Spike.com has provided an early look at what’s in store in the first episode. They seem to be doing a good job this season of not only providing backstory on Big Nog and Frank Mir — even if it involves some questionable claims, such as referring to Nogueira as the potential greatest heavyweight ever, conveniently ignoring the existence of Fedor Emelianenko altogether — but also not so subtly making the case for the show itself and its importance in the larger UFC framework.

Of course they don’t hesitate to point out that season one alumni Forrest Griffin is now light heavyweight champ, but did they have to follow the line about “future champions of the UFC” with a shot of Chris Leben?

The first episode also offers more reasons to believe that Jose Aguilar will be this season’s most quotable moron. After comparing himself favorably to Hitler, dog, he comes up with this gem when one of the fighters passes out during Dana White’s big speech:

“That [expletive] was loco, dog. Like I was expecting carbon monoxide, more people to pass out or…I don’t even know. Anthrax, dog. Al-Qaeda. I don’t even know what the hell to tell you, dog.”

Something tells me season eight will be one to remember. As long as Jose Aguilar is around to keep punctuating his free associations with the word “dog,” you’ll always have something to look forward to on Wednesday nights.

(‘How’s taste my co-promotion clusterfuck?’)

The more we hear about the Affliction/Golden Boy partnership, the stranger it begins to sound. First there was the official press release, which seemed to put more emphasis on “signature shirts” and apparel than on fights. It’s almost as if Affliction is looking for a way to retreat with dignity from the money-sucking void of fight promotion and get back to what they do best: selling overpriced, hyper-stylized clothing.

But aside from their own line of skull-themed t-shirts, what does Golden Boy get out of it? According to CEO Richard Schaefer, they hope to siphon off some of MMA’s young fan base and bring them back into the boxing fold:

“We believe Affliction and the relationships they have with that demographic, the identification they have within that demographic group I think will help bring boxing to these people,” said the Golden Boy CEO. “We think as well, many of the mixed martial arts fans are fans of combat sports, and what they’ve seen of boxing is a very exciting sport as well that maybe they will discover their love for the sport of boxing.”

Naturally, Affliction VP Tom Atencio hopes for the same thing in the other direction, which should tell Golden Boy something (as should those Vegas ticket sales) about just how much of an MMA fan base they may have to draw from. But in theory, at least, it sounds like an idea that can work. That is, if you get the right fights in front of the right audiences. Already things are off to a slow start.

ESPN.com reports that Golden Boy tried to sell HBO on the idea of adding the original “Day of Reckoning” main event — Andrei Arlovski vs. Josh Barnett — to the Oct. 18 pay-per-view boxing bout between Kelly Pavlik and Bernard Hopkins. HBO “respectfully declined.”

(Photo courtesy of MySpace.com/MinotauroBJJ)

This Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Spike TV, Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira begins his duel with Frank Mir on the season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter 8. The two heavyweight jiu-jitsu masters will each lead a team of eight UFC hopefuls (four lightweights and four light-heavyweights), while sizing each other up for their own fight in December; the winner will take on the winner of UFC 91′s Randy Couture/Brock Lesnar match sometime next year. Luiz De Souza chatted with Big Nog on Friday to get his thoughts on his TUF experience and the UFC’s upcoming “heavyweight tournament.”

***

CAGEPOTATO.COM: In some of the past seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, the coaches built up great rivalries. Was there ever any hostility between you and Frank Mir? Did he get on your nerves in any way?
ANTONIO RODRIGO NOGUEIRA: No, there wasn’t much of that; we have a lot of respect for each other. If there were arguments they were between the fighters themselves. I went there to do my job. I went to teach the guys, with the goal of not getting involved in fights with the guys inside the house or from the show, but to train them instead. That was my idea. I did my part and Frank did his. At times I was pissed at some of them because some of the guys were picking fights inside the house, and they would lose their control. There was one who wouldn’t quit picking fights, but overall nothing too major.

What do you think of Frank, as a person and as a fighter?
He is a good fighter, very strong, and he has great jiu-jitsu skills. He is also a very cool and nice guy, but he is my opponent, so I am training to fight him.

What’s your strategy going to be when you fight him in December? Would you rather fight him on the ground or standing?
There isn’t really a strategy; my strategy is to finish him. We don’t really choose if the fight will be standing up or on the ground. Whatever happens I will be ready for it.

After he lost to Forrest Griffin, Quinton Jackson partially blamed his performance on the fact that, because of The Ultimate Fighter, he’d gone 10 months between fights. Are you concerned that your own long layoff will affect your performance?
Well, the last time Frank Mir fought was the last time I fought, so the truth is that we both have the same disadvantage. I really don’t like to go such a long time without fighting; never in my life have I gone without fighting for this long. This does make a difference, but this is my job and I will fight when the day comes.

(Kevin Burns shows off his flawless gouging technique. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

It’s probably not the way he wanted to make UFC history, but Anthony Johnson has officially become the first fighter to lose a fight in the Octagon via eye-pokes. After being handed an idiotic TKO loss at July’s “Silva vs. Irvin” card against Kevin Burns — who poked Johnson in the eyes multiple times throughout their fight until Rumble collapsed to the mat in agony during the third round — Johnson filed an appeal with the Nevada State Athletic Commission to have the result overturned to a DQ victory, or at least a no-contest. Unfortunately, it was rejected:

“Based on advice from the Nevada Attorney General’s office, the appeal was rejected due to lack of remedy,” Kizer revealed to MMAFrenzy.com.

Horseshit. Are they saying they have no way of changing results after the fact? That Steve Mazzagatti‘s decisions can never be overruled by a higher authority? Johnson had to undergo laser surgery to repair a detached retina and needed stitches in his eye — it would have been nice for the NSAC to acknowledge that they don’t condone what he had to go through. Still, Johnson has managed to keep a positive attitude through the entire experience. As he told TAGG Radio, “They can keep the loss on my record if they want to because I know I will come back better and stronger next time.”

(No homo. Photo courtesy of MLive.com.)

From a press release distributed late yesterday:

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (September 13, 2008) – Golden Boy Promotions and Affliction Clothing today announced a strategic, multi-level partnership between the two companies that will bring the popular Affliction-brand to the world of boxing and entertainment.

“We have been talking to Affliction over the past several months to figure out a partnership that will take advantage of the expertise of both of our companies,” said Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer. “We have found the solution and are extremely excited about starting this partnership immediately.”

“Golden Boy Promotions is the top boxing promoter in the world and we look forward to working with them on future projects,” said Tom Atencio, Vice President, Affliction. “With our companies working together, it gives Affliction another vehicle to deliver our products to our core customers, as well as utilizing Golden Boy’s promotional expertise to further our efforts in Mixed Martial Arts.”

The partnership includes:

Here’s a preview of the welterweight title fight at EliteXC: Heat (October 4th; Sunrise, Florida). It doesn’t fire me up like “Hits and Chicks,” but hey, they can’t all be homeruns.

Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar face off on Sportscenter. Props to BloodyElbow.

A half-hour preview of Dream’s middleweight grand prix finals (September 23rd; Saitama, Japan), from HDNet Fights via Nightmare of Battle.

(Golden Boy. Yippee.)

Seems like some of our half-baked speculatin’ was right for a change. MMA Weekly is reporting that Affliction’s partnership with Golden Boy is all but official and this is the huge announcement that we were promised would change the world forever.

Maybe it’s just the way I’m feeling on this sleepy Saturday morning, but it seems like maybe someone exaggerated a little in order to draw attention away from the “Day of Reckoning” cancellation, er, rescheduling.

Affliction VP Tom Atencio and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer are expected to announce the deal at the Ricky Hatton-Pauly Malignaggi press conference in Vegas, which, if true, completely contradicts what Affliction COO Michael Cohen said about announcing the deal at a big-shot press conference in Trump Towers. This causes me to wonder, do these guys ever talk to each other? Do they even read what the other is telling the press, or are they like independently operating terrorist cells at this point?

If you’re wondering what exactly Affliction and Golden Boy will be doing once they become partners, it’s sounding more and more like the big plan is to put on events that feature both boxing matches and MMA bouts. This, apparently, is expected to rock our world. Maybe if they also added guys on motorcycles jumping through flaming hoops, maybe someone fighting a bear, then, perhaps then, all this hype about the spectacular announcement would seem justified. As of right now, it seems interesting, though hardly earth-shattering.

(Check the expensive logo on Hendo’s right shoulder.)

- Dan Henderson lawyering up on MMA apparel company. (Sherdog)

- Ariel Helwani is baffled over War Machine’s firing. (MMA Rated)

- The first ten years of Pride. (Pancrase.org)

- A look at the UFC’s youthful fanbase. (MMA Payout)

- Save the date, Muay Thai/MMA Smoker. (Xtreme Couture)

- Dream.6 lineup finalized, Akiyama in the house. (Nightmare of Battle)

- WEC postponement a break for Chael Sonnen? (Tatame)

- 10 real life Mortal Kombat characters. (Holy Taco)

- Jason Bateman’s new show sucks. (Screen Junkies)

- Chick sells her virginity for grad school tuition. (Wall Street Fighter)

- Bench-clearing brawl in high school baseball. (Nothing Toxic)

(Thanks for bringing us this photo, Chickipedia. We mean that.)

Former UFC Octagon girl and current UFC TV personality Rachelle Leah has agreed to get naked for the nation’s most respected pornographers: Playboy. Official word came from UFC.com, which dropped this marvel of concise innuendo on the subject:

Rachelle Leah, the host of UFC® All Access™ has a secret and UFC.com readers will read it here first. The woman who many fans consider to be the Ultimate Female is confirming rumors she will appear on the cover of the November issue of Playboy! Inside you’ll be treated to a 10-page pictorial of UFC’s favorite girl who’s now all grown up! The former Octagon Girl™ turned show host looks fierce in what can only be described as…well, we guess you’re going to have to see for youself. On newsstands in just 30 days!

Ultimate Female? Does that mean she is officially betrothed to Thunderlips, the Ultimate Male? I hear he’s single now.

Seriously, we couldn’t be happier for Rachelle. Her improbable success story is an inspiration to incredibly attractive young women everywhere, proving that no matter what those other girls at your high school who are totally just jealous say, you can make something of yourself. However, a visit to her website reveals that she’ll have to update her “About” section soon:

She has also been featured inside and on the covers of many magazines, some of which include Maxim, Men’s Fitness, 944, Playboy (clothed), Steppin’ Out, Muscle & Fitness, AXL, Vegas Magazine, and Stuff.

What a proud day it will be when she asks her webmaster to remove that parenthetical qualifier. Lest you think we’re just bandwagon jumpers, allow us to point out that we’ve been ogling Rachelle since waaaaaay back in 2007, son.

(Click image to go to the video.)

Spike.com has released a teaser clip from The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir (which premieres next Wednesday), introducing two lightweights, Junie Brown and Jose Aguilar. Assuming he doesn’t get bounced out of the opening round, Aguilar may be setting himself up as the asshole of the house, greeting viewers with these soon-to-be-immortal words:

“To be honest, dude? I belong with Napoleon, dog. Alexander, dude. Hitler. That’s what I belong with, dog. I be conquering motherfuckers, dude, period. You know what I mean? Pillaging, shit like that, that’s where I belong, bro. Criminal, dog, straight-up criminal.”

It’s strange — if you were to put Junie and Jose next to each other and ask me which fighter is more likely to have respect for the Third Reich, I might have gone with the other guy. Personally, I can’t wait for the interviews Aguilar does when he leaves the show, with his inevitable complaints that the editors portrayed him differently than he actually was: “Nah, dude, I didn’t mean the shit Hitler did during World War II, dog. I meant when he was younger, dog, how he used to beat down punk bitches outside of his gym, bro, and jump motherfuckers outside of gas stations with his homeys, dude. That, specifically, is what I was trying to say I belonged with, dog. Public nuisance type shit, bro. I got mad respect for it, dog. But they want to hate on Freddie, dude, know what I mean dude buddy homey bro dog?”

(Fail Machine. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

Bad news for the fighter whose momma named him Jon Koppenhaver: The UFC has decided to fire “War Machine” due to an insensitive blog post he made in the wake of Evan Tanner’s death, as well as his refusal to take a fight with an Octagon newbie. Machine confirmed his cut with MMA Junkie.

Following the tragic news of Evan Tanner’s death, Machine posted the following on his infamous MySpace blog:

No one is sure yet but it sounds like it was a suicide. Sad thing is that it makes sense. What else is an UNDERPAID fighter supposed to do at the end of his career?
Cash in his 401K? Collect social security? Start to work some shitty job for 10 bucks an hour?
Shit ain’t boxing and if you’re not Chuck Liddell or Tito Ortiz you don’t get paid dick.
Wasn’t like he made MILLIONS and blew it all like Mike Tyson, this guy fought his entire life and didn’t have shit.
No wonder why he took off to the woods.
Prolly reminisced on the days when he was champ, the days when growing old didn’t matter and took his life.
Severe depression plagues MANY fighters at the end of their careers. Mark my words when I say that “HE MAY BE THE FIRST, BUT HE ISN’T THE LAST.”

Machine removed the posting when it was reported that Tanner’s death didn’t appear to be a suicide, but he told MMA Junkie that he still kinda believes that it was:

“I still believe in my heart it was a suicide…maybe he didn’t shoot himself in the head, but I think he went up there maybe with plans not to come back…He was depressed, guaranteed. He had just lost to Kendall [Grove]. He was getting older. He knows he has no retirement plan. He had nothing, dude. That could be the outcome for a lot of fighters, myself included. I for damn sure guarantee you that if I’m in my 40s and I didn’t make enough money and I don’t have my own gym to support myself or whatever, I’ll probably kill myself too.”

Of course, his firing appears to be equally motivated by an ill-advised clash with UFC matchmaker Joe Silva.

Hits – Watch more free videos

This, believe it or not, is an actual ad for Elite XC and Showtime boxing put together by the clever jerks over at Showtime Sports. I like to think that the moment the song “Hits & Chicks” was written, somewhere Glenn Danzig suddenly felt like killing himself, even more than usual, and he didn’t know why. I also like to think that after the song was set to this video montage of both hits and chicks, one of the advertising executives at Showtime watched it and said, “I don’t know, you think it’s too subtle?”

That’s when they added the phrase “Jugs and Pugs.” Just because they wanted to make sure that they were reaching the all-important ‘morons aged 14-54′ demographic. And here we were thinking that Elite XC wasn’t doing enough to promote this event.

Is it too much to hope that “Busted Ears, Bodacious Boobs” will become Elite XC’s new tagline?

(Props: Bloody Elbow)

(‘Step forward if you’re getting paid for this fight. Not so fast, Mayhem.’)

We all know Dream is having some financial trouble, which is a shame since they put on a quality show and we’d like to see them stick around. But it seems they’ve developed this nasty habit of not paying their fighters. Nick Diaz piped up about it first, and according to Fight Opinion (who did some digging in the Korean media) it’s starting to sound like he’s not the only one who’s fighting for free over in Japan:

“Fighter A” claimed in the article that he didn’t receive money for his last two fights, and “Fighter B” who is preparing for an upcoming fight also is claiming they didn’t get some fight money. “Fighter C” claims that he had to wait three months to get his fight salary.

The article quotes a source as saying, “There’s many fighters who don’t get paid. Especially DREAM fighters, foreigners mostly.” The article claims that the reason in the alleged delaying of payments is due to DREAM’s financial situation and the situation regarding Kazuyoshi Ishii.

You know what’s a good way to make your financial situation worse? Get a reputation as the organization that doesn’t pay their fighters, which will soon become the organization without any fighters. Can’t they just do it the American way and pay all but their top fighters a pathetically low amount? Is that so hard?