(“We’ll see who is bag of douche.”)

Dream’s sixth event — which goes down September 23rd in Saitama, Japan — may just feature its most compelling card yet. The show’s centerpiece is the semi-finals/finals of the middleweight grand prix, where Melvin Manhoef, Gegard Mousasi, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, and Zelg Galesic will do battle to crown a single champion. A welterweight strap will also be on the line, decided by the long-awaited match between Nick Diaz and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai. And now it looks like two big-name heavyweight bouts will be part of the action as well.

Over the weekend, PRIDE vet and reigning Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem revealed that he would be facing Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic at Dream 6. Overeem and Cro Cop have been getting their trash-talk on lately — who isn’t these days? — with the Demolition Man calling Filipovic a “douche-bag” who ducked him in favor of fighting cans. Cro Cop hasn’t fought since March, when he earned his first post-UFC victory with a 56-second TKO rout of Japanese can Tatsuya Mizuno. Since then, Overeem has competed and won twice, scoring a quick knockout of Tae Hyun Lee at Dream 4 in June, and an almost-as-quick submission of Mark Hunt at Dream 5 in July.

This month’s Dream card will also feature the return of Russian PRIDE standout Sergei Kharitonov, who hasn’t fought since his TKO victory over Alistair Overeem at a K-1 HERO’s event last September. Kharitonov will be facing Siala-Mou “Mighty Mo” Siligia, the Samoan-American K-1 mainstay who defeated Justice Smith last month at the K-1 World GP 2008 in Hawaii. Mo is just 3-0 as a mixed martial artist, and hasn’t done the MMA thing since last June, when he beat down Ruben Villareal at K-1 Dynamite!! USA.

I know, you’re probably still reeling from Mandy Moore‘s astounding fight predictions, but the 9/2 installment of Dana White’s UFC 88 video blog is kind of a must-see. After a brief intro, we get the first footage of Dana and Randy Couture palling around together — or at least sitting on the same couch without lawyers present — since their reconciliation. Dana, who’s pretty touchy-feely with the Natural throughout the video, asks if Randy missed him; Randy refers to Brock Lesnar as “another big monkey.”

Later, we see Randy doing a phone interview, where he delivers the key sentiment in regards to his UFC return: “It just became apparent to me that all this other crap was gonna go on for a long, long time, and…I’m on the clock. I realize that I can’t do this forever. I can’t just sit on the sidelines forever.” Then, we get to watch Dana and Randy working yesterday’s conference call, which includes Brock Lesnar’s incredible “I’m tired of hearing about fucking Fedor” rant (beginning at the 4:27 mark). Dana wonders if Brock Lesnar is his son, which is pretty damn unlikely unless he impregnated this woman when he was seven years old. But hey, crazier things have happened.

(Props: MMA Mania)

They say if you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it will beat up Brock Lesnar. If it doesn’t, it will be tied up in court battles for the rest of its viable career. At least I think that’s what they say. I don’t listen very well. Regardless, today’s announcement that Randy Couture will return to the UFC to defend his heavyweight title in November has us all a little amped. So amped, in fact, that it’s hard to focus on any other MMA-related stories right now. So let’s just enjoy a look at some of Captain America’s greatest moments and consider what the future might hold. After the jump, a nice training montage with a soundtrack that will really get your heart pumping. Turn up the volume now and thank us later.

(“I told you this shit was gonna get crazy!”)

We received word this morning that former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra has been booked to host a UFC 88 viewing party at The 40/40 Club this Saturday night in New York City. The ‘BG’ half of this CagePotato operation will be in attendance, so if you’re a New Yorker/Northern New Jerseyan and you haven’t decided where to watch the event yet, consider swinging by and raising a drink witcha boy. More details to come…

(Guess who’s coming to UFC 91.)

Captain America is back in the UFC, and he and Dana White are best buds once again. At least, that was the story from White’s end on today’s UFC conference call. You could practically hear the smile on his face as the UFC president announced that his heavyweight champ was back and would face Brock Lesnar in a five-round title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on November 15. While White said the organization still plans to go to Portland, Oregon eventually — the rumored site of UFC 91 — he played down any notion that the event was ever really headed there. As for the intense legal battle with Couture, that’s all water under the bridge now, as far as White’s concerned, and there is no bad blood between them.

“Through this whole thing I never said anything really bad about Randy,” White said. “I think the worst thing I said about him was that he was confused. I like Randy. I always have.”

While both White and Couture repeatedly said they were thankful to have the legal dispute over, Couture sounded a slightly different note, suggesting at times that he’d simply been worn down by the lengthy process.

He described himself as “frustrated by our legal system” and said he was “tired of throwing money around with no end in sight.” He also seemed to have been persuaded by the fact of his own age and the prospect that he might not get to fight any time in the near future if not in the UFC.

“I’m forty-five, and I can’t sit around in courtrooms much longer,” said Couture.

(Props to jamesmmafisher via parklife.)

As Gay Robot might say, “pass the tissues, we all got issues.” For Frank Shamrock, working out personal demons is a primary motivation for being a professional fighter. Sure, the lifestyle of an MMA star can be attractive, with the arenas full of screaming fans, and the money, and the groupies, and the ability to punch people without legal repercussions. But that’s still not enough to convince the average person to “make the worst bet in the world with their body,” as Shamrock says. Does the sport particularly attract men and women who have overwhelming needs to prove themselves? Can old emotional hurts be resolved through new physical ones? If you happen to fight professionally, drop some wisdom on us in the comments section. What drives you to do what you do?

An animated gif from the future. Props to “Juggo” via the UG. And props to Shammy for hanging in that long.

(Toymakers are hard at work trying to capture the essence of Urijah’s chin.)

Not content just to offer UFC action figures — such as the Brock Lesnar figurine complete with phallic chest tattoo — toymaker JAKKS Pacific sent out a press release today announcing that they have signed agreements to produce WEC and Pride dolls as well:

“We are thrilled to extend our relationship with UFC by adding WEC and PRIDE to our action figure roster,” said Stephen Berman, President and COO, JAKKS Pacific. “As the world leader in fighting action figure toys, we plan on dominating the Mixed Martial Arts collector action figure arena. The addition of WEC and PRIDE gives JAKKS a substantial base of fighters with which to work and develop into a broad and exciting line of collectable products for fans.”

“This agreement with JAKKS gives fight fans a premier line of authentic collector action figures,” said Dana White, UFC President. “This is a great partnership that benefits the sport, our athletes and our fans.”

We know what you’re thinking. WEC action figures make some sense, even though they are undoubtedly lesser known than the UFC, but Pride? Aren’t they a little late to the party? That’s like putting out Guns N’ Roses action figures.

To that, we can only say: 1) you would totally buy Guns N’ Roses action figures and you know it, and 2) better late than never.

You’re telling us you don’t want an Igor Vovchanchyn figure, complete with pot belly and extremely tight shorts? Don’t kid yourself. There are tons of great options out there, and hopefully Zuffa has rights to them, since otherwise it doesn’t make much sense what with many of the major Pride stars now in the UFC. We’re just hoping that the Gilbert Yvel figurine comes complete with extended thumbs that fit nicely into the eye sockets of the Don Frye doll. In a perfect world, the Don Frye doll would also have a string that you can pull to make him say, “Gilbert! We can do it again, brother!”

Damn this imperfect world!

Dana White’s UFC 88 Video Blog, part 1 – Watch more free videos

Well, it’s back. You knew it would be. Fresh off the relative success of his first video blog series (why isn’t the term ‘vlog’ catching on?) at UFC 87, Dana White is once more giving us glimpses of his world as we head into UFC 88. The latest edition is all about the celebrities. Oh, and David Spade is there too. Zing!

But seriously, Spade earns some points here for referring to Chuck Liddell as a little bit of a “Boozy Suzy,” which is the kind of thing you can do when you’re David Spade and nobody can beat you up without looking like a big meanie.

Where things take an interesting turn is when Mandy Moore shows up. She and Dana look giddy as Alaskan teenagers together, thus lending more credibility to rumors that Moore comes to the shows not for GSP, but for White (shhhh! let’s keep that between us). She has a little trouble coming up with predictions, even when White encourages her to talk about it like it’s just the two of them…at breakfast. Honestly, he could have said any other meal there. He chose the one that is normally shared by people who wake up together. Draw your own conclusions.

(Props: Steve Cofield, at Yahoo! Sports)

(Amir Sadollah could be part of Couture/Lesnar’s supporting cast.)

— UFC lightweight Gleison Tibau has been forced to pull out of his UFC 90 match against Hermes Franca due to a shoulder injury; replacing him will be Franca’s longtime friend Marcus Aurelio. Franca and Aurelio trained together at American Top Team before Franca left the camp, which led to a feud between Franca and ATT.

— During an appearance at Combat Sports Challenge 26 in Colonial Heights, Virginia, TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah revealed that he expects his next fight to be at UFC 91 in November. His opponent should be announced in the near future.

— UFC 91 will also reportedly feature a heavyweight bout between Gabriel Gonzaga and UFC newcomer Josh Hendricks. Gonzaga is coming off a first-round submission win over Justin McCully at UFC 86 in July, which snapped a two-fight losing streak. Hendricks is a vet of various regional promotions who’s 9-0 with one no-contest in his last ten fights.

— Michael Bisping thinks that Quinton Jackson’s next fight will be in December, against either Wanderlei Silva or Mauricio Rua: “[E]ither way, revenge is the dish that’ll be served up on the night! I’m sure whoever he gets in December, everyone at the Wolfslair will be behind him 100 per cent and fingers crossed he’ll get his revenge.”

— The UFC recently reunited eight castmembers from The Ultimate Fighter‘s first season to film an upcoming TV special. MMA Junkie provides some advance highlights, like when Joe Rogan asked the cast how much better they did with the women after being part of the show:

“If you’re in a relationship you want out of, now is the time to speak up,” Stephan Bonnar shouted, laughing.

When no one was willing to talk, Rogan called them “a bunch of (expletives).”

Forrest Griffin, now the UFC’s light heavyweight champion, broke the tension by shouting, “Hey, I don’t know about you guys, but I was doing pretty good with the women before.”

Posted on UFC.com this morning:

Major UFC Announcement Today at 3pm ET
UFC President Dana White will hold a media conference call later today to make a major UFC announcement. The call will take place at 3pm ET/12Noon PT. Check back with UFC.com for the full report.

Yahoo!’s Steve Cofield is fairly certain that the UFC will be formally announcing Randy Couture‘s return to the organization, and that he’ll be facing Brock Lesnar at UFC 91 (November 15th, Portland).

Of course, the last time the UFC made a “major announcement,” it turned out to be Lorenzo Fertitta changing his job title, so who knows. But I trust Cofield, and more importantly, I want to believe. Couture still has a few good fights left in him, and the sooner his lawsuit-induced layoff ends, the better — even if it means his battle to free himself from the UFC was ultimately unsuccessful. And as you might have heard, this doesn’t rule out a fight with Fedor down the road.

Still, it’s too bad Couture’s not facing Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira first. On paper, Brock Lesnar isn’t ready for a fight with the resilient six-time heavyweight champion, and he’ll be in over his head; a tune-up match against a decent wrestler before facing The Natural would have been helpful. Then again, Lesnar could certainly win by smothering Couture for three rounds, in which case Randy’s return fight will be disappointingly dull. And would that make Brock Lesnar the UFC’s official heavyweight champ? Weird, wild stuff.

We’ll update you after the announcement. Keep your fingers crossed.