(It took her three tries, but she hit 141. That was close, Crush.)

- Gina Carano makes weight…just barely. (MMA Junkie)

- The pros offer their picks for Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock (Sherdog)

- Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar injury reports. (Brawl Sports)

- If you’re a fighter and you need a nickname, look no further. I’m torn between “The Gymnast” and “Hot Garbage.” (Bleeding Media)

- Don’t expect to see Tito Ortiz fighting again until Spring ’09. (MMA Rated)

- Don Frye is sober? So we’re drinking alone tonight, then? (Fightlinker)

- Media coverage ramps up for Elite XC: Heat. (Fight Opinion)

- Alistair Oveerem talks Cro Cop on ‘Inside MMA.’ (MMA Scraps)

- Wall Street starts the bailout celebrations. (Wall Street Fighter)

- Bill Maher’s “Religulous” is preachy, but good. (Screen Junkies)

- Comic book fans: then and now. (Holy Taco)

- Chick fight turns into huge family brawl. (Nothing Toxic)

Elite XC’s Jared Shaw takes a little shot at yours truly in this MMA Rated interview, calling me Ben “UFC” Fowlkes, which I suppose is an implication that I’m pro-UFC and anti-Elite XC, although I like to think that my record as an equal opportunity critic speaks for itself. If an organization does dumb things, it’s my job to point it out. If one organization does more dumb things than others, they’re going to receive more criticism. That’s just how it works. If it makes me a hater, I can live with that. But since when do we all have to like everything?

$kala says he just wants some love for his fighters, not himself. Fair enough, Jared. You do have some good fighters in your organization. Guys like Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Wilson Reis, Nick Diaz, and “Ninja” Rua, just to name a few. These are all fighters that I enjoy watching. But your fighters aren’t what you’ve been criticized for, and I think you know it.

Let’s take the event you’ve got this Saturday, for example. On the undercard you’ve got a few interesting scraps between guys like Paul Daley and Jake Shields, Benji Radach and “Ninja” Rua, and a sweet little co-promotional joint between Affliction fighters Andrei Arlovski and Roy Nelson (nice work scoring that, by the way, whether you had anything to do with it or not).

But your main event features a 3-0 fighter in Kimbo Slice, who has yet to face an opponent coming off a win, taking on a forty-four-year-old legend of the sport who hasn’t won a fight or even made it out of the first round in over four years. And that’s your main event.

(Click the image to watch the video; photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

MMA Payout passes along the bad news that Wednesday’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter drew a 0.8 rating, making it the lowest-rated episode in the show’s history. (“The program drew quarter hours of 0.80, 0.66, 0.79, and 0.90.”) Who knows if Junie Allen Browning’s train-wreck antics will attract more people to the show or repel them, but it’s clear that his little storyline is going to get even more outrageous next week. Check out the TUF preview clip linked above, which shows Junie and his tremendous set of balls dragging Ryan Bader into the pool, kicking Tom Lawlor, and shoving Bas Rutten-lookalike K-Sos. Sure, Tom’s a total pussy, but I wouldn’t fuck with those other two unless I had a death wish. Of course, the reason that his housemates don’t murder the wee bastard is because they don’t want to jeopardize the opportunity they’ve been given to be on the show. What a concept…

Previously: Junie Browning ‘Somewhat Embarassed’ by TUF Behavior

(Tyra Parker and Michelle Watterson, reppin’ hard for the females. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Just two weeks after holding their second show at the Playboy Mansion, Strikeforce is putting on another exciting MMA card, this time at the Broomfield Event Center in Broomfield, Colorado; you can watch the action live tonight on HDNet beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Headlining the festivities is a rematch between UFC/KOTC/Strikeforce vets Duane “Bang” Ludwig (16-8) and Sam “The Squeeze” Morgan (19-11). Morgan, who has lost four out of his last five fights, scored a first-round knockout of Ludwig at a Ring of Fire event in 2005. Ludwig hasn’t competed since losing to Takanori Gomi at Sengoku 1 in March.

The co-main event will be a middleweight brawl between broadcaster/t-shirt designer/fighter Frank Trigg (17-6) and Hawaiian grappler Falaniko Vitale (26-8), who has been inactive since winning a four-man X-1 tournament in January. Also notable is the Strikeforce debut of Denver’s own Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Watterson (3-2), a former castmember of Fight Girls who also spent time as a swimsuit model. She’ll be facing Tyra Parker (0-1), who came in a full four pounds over the 112-pound weight limit during yesterday’s weigh-ins, and will have to pay a portion of her fight salary to Watterson. The full lineup for Strikeforce: Payback is as follows:

MAIN CARD (Professional Bouts)
Duane Ludwig (165) vs. Sam Morgan (164.8)
Frank Trigg (183.8) vs. Falaniko Vitale (185.6)
Donnie Liles (170.8) vs. Pete Spratt (170.8)
Luke Caudillo (155) vs. Billy Evangelista (155)
Michelle Waterson (111.4) vs. Tyra Parker (116)
Andre Walker (202.4) vs. Carlos Zevallos (205.4)
Tyler Toner (146) vs. Ricky Johnson (143.6)

UNDERCARD (Amateur Bouts)
Lumumba Sawyers (171.2) vs. Drew Dober (167.8)
Jordan Goodwin (157.6) vs. Alan Gomez (155.6)
Jeremy Malaterre (159.4) vs. Eric Galvin (160)
Brett Tillis (141.8) vs. Turrell Galloway (139.2)
Aaron Trujillo (122.8) vs. Haven Torres (126.4)

It’s been a Kimbo-tastic week at ESPN, so naturally MMA Live had to get into the act with their own one-on-one interview of Kimbo Slice before Saturday’s big fight. For the most part it’s the usual material, but about two and a half minutes in Brett Rogers becomes a topic of conversation, and that’s where things get interesting.

First, Kimbo says he isn’t going to fight someone just for running his mouth and says he doesn’t “even want to call out his name because he doesn’t deserve respect.” Right, because all Rogers has done is rack up an 8-0 record, finishing all eight fights. We have yet to see him against Afro Puff, for Pete’s sake!

Kimbo then criticizes Rogers for “just fighting to get paid,” and goes on to say that for him it’s personal. He’s fighting for a cause, and that cause is his family. As for what he has to gain from fighting Rogers, Kimbo replies: “Nothing.”

Let me see if I understand this. Kimbo isn’t just fighting for money; he’s fighting for his family. Which means what, exactly? I always thought that when guys say they’re fighting for their families (a noble reason, I might add), what they mean is that they’re fighting to make money so they can provide for their family. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Kimbo has been paid very well for his each of his three pro fights, has he not? And yet Rogers catches heat for calling Kimbo out and trying to get paid? I don’t get it. Just like I don’t get how, if it’s personal for Kimbo, he wouldn’t fight a guy for running his mouth. Isn’t that exactly why you’d fight him if it was all personal?

Look, everyone fights for money. They do it because they love it, sure, but this is their career. It makes perfect sense for Rogers to try and build his name and up his salary by beating Kimbo. And Kimbo does have plenty to gain by fighting Rogers, such as credibility. If he beats Rogers, it will prove that he can do more than pound on tomato cans and over-the-hill fighters who are on long losing streaks, which is more than he’s done so far. Please Kimbo, fight Brett Rogers. You can both get paid. And if you win, we’ll all stop complaining that you haven’t fought anybody.

(Different crumpled body, same end result on Saturday night?)

It’s Friday, there’s an event tomorrow (which we’ll be liveblogging, of course), and questions abound as to Elite XC’s long term viability and Ken Shamrock’s short term punchability, so that means one thing…it’s Ben vs. Ben time. In this edition, we talk Kimbo Slice, underdogs, co-promotions, and other stuff. We argue, we call each other names, we reconcile, we hug (just playin’, we don’t hug…anyone…ever), and in the end we arrive at few, if any, conclusions. But it’s about the journey, man. Not the destination. So without further ado…

Assuming we agree that Kimbo Slice will be victorious over Ken Shamrock, how and when will it happen? What’s next for Ferg?

Fowlkes: If this were five years ago I’d take Shamrock over this strange Kimbo character and I wouldn’t think twice about it. But it’s not five years ago, alas, so Shamrock is in for yet another disappointing performance in a career that has seen too many of them lately.

In his more lucid moments, Shamrock knows he needs to get this to the ground in a hurry. He should also know that his forty-four-year-old legs don’t have too many explosive shots left in them, so he has to be smart and make his takedown attempts count. That’s why he’ll try and trap Kimbo against the cage in a clinch and look for a throw or leg sweep – something that won’t sap too much precious energy. Kimbo will circle away from him and tee off. Shamrock will try again with similar results, but eventually a punch will clip him and he’ll go down. Then the ref will step in and Shamrock will be protesting the stoppage before he’s even back on his feet. It won’t get out of the first round or even past the four-minute mark. Thank you, Florida, and good night.

This fight will prove nothing for Kimbo’s credibility. Even Elite XC has to see that. After this they’ll load up for one big pay-per-view with Kimbo vs. Brett Rogers as the main event, figuring it’s time to go all-in. They have no choice. Antonio Silva is dealing with his steroid charges, Justin Eilers is damaged goods, and Sean Gannon wants too much money. Rogers is the only guy people will pay to see Kimbo fight. If Elite XC is smart they’ll realize they can leverage Kimbo’s stardom into a big push for Rogers, who might actually have the skills to justify the hype in the long run.

Goldstein: Dude, Ken hasn’t made it to the four-minute mark in a fight since 2002, and he’s not about to start now. I’m going to bring your estimate down 90 seconds and say The Miami Pound Machine finishes The World’s Most Glassiest Chin within the first 2:30. It’ll start with Kimbo knocking Shamrock down after about a minute-and-a-half. (No more than one shot will be attempted by Ken during that time.) The ref won’t stop it right away. Kimbo will get on top of Shamrock and punch him out on the ground. People will say “wooooo!” And the broadcast will immediately end because they’ll already be over their timeslot by like a half-hour.

(Eddie Alvarez celebrates after defeating Joachim Hansen at DREAM 3.)

With KJ Noons stripped of his lightweight strap, EliteXC is trying to establish a new ruler of its 160-pound class, and the front-runners should come as no surprise. As rising star Eddie Alvarez recently told MMA Weekly, “We’re about 90-something percent positive I’ll be fighting Nick Diaz for the EliteXC title at 160.” Bout agreements have yet to be signed, but Alvarez has reportedly inked a new six-fight contract with EliteXC, and is ready to return to the U.S. after an outstanding run as a 154-pounder in DREAM’s lightweight grand prix. “I like 160,” the 23-year-old Philadelphia native said. “I feel like at 160 I’m stronger, I’m faster, I’m not as depleted as I am at 155.”

While competing in Japan this year, Alvarez came out on the winning end of two fight-of-the-year candidates, a wild 15-minute battle with Joachim Hansen at DREAM 3 in May, and an absolute slugfest against Tatsuya Kawajiri in the grand prix semi-finals in July. Unfortunately, an eye injury prevented him from advancing to the finals, and Joachim Hansen was able to take his spot as an alternate and defeat Shinya Aoki to win the tournament. Though a second fight against Hellboy would truly determine who deserves to wear DREAM’s lightweight belt, Alvarez now says that DREAM is behind him

If it comes together, the fight between Alvarez and Nick Diaz would most likely go down at EliteXC’s November 8th event (name and location TBA), which will be broadcast on Showtime.

(Props: Sherdog via BloodyElbow)

When Andrei Arlovski steps into the cage with Roy Nelson tomorrow night at EliteXC: Heat, one thing is guaranteed — his hands will be ready. The Pitbull has been training with boxing guru Freddie Roach at Wild Card Boxing Club since before his Affliction: Banned bout against Ben Rothwell. The above video features Roach discussing his star MMA pupil, claiming Arlovski could have a successful boxing career and lauding his willingness to learn: “My best champion Manny Pacquiao has great work ethic and Andrei’s right there with him, and that’s why they’re world-class fighters.” Will Arlovski be able to execute Roach’s “punches in bunches” philosophy en route to a win over Big Country? (Answer: Yes, probably.)

(Don’t go getting soft on us, Babyface.)

For a guy who seems like he’s getting screwed by his employer, Josh Barnett sure is keeping cool about it. First he had his fight with Andrei Arlovski put in jeopardy when Affliction decided they couldn’t pull off their October “Day of Reckoning” event in Las Vegas. Then, a few weeks later, they announce that Arlovski will be fighting on this Saturday’s Elite XC card (and will be paid well to do it), but he’ll face Roy Nelson instead of Barnett. And why? Barnett says he never turned the fight down, but Atencio says he “couldn’t get a hold of him.”

Barnett was cagey while telling his side of the story to MMA Weekly, but it sounds as if there’s something else going on here than just a simple case of miscommunication:

“I was disappointed, yes. That was supposed to be my fight. We talked about it at some point prior to going to Japan, and I found out that I didn’t get the fight while in Japan. I continued to work on some business there, especially after I found out I wasn’t getting the fight.”

Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t sound like a guy who just missed a phone call. It could be that Nelson comes a lot cheaper than “The Baby-Faced Assassin”, who has said repeatedly that he is not interested in fighting at a discounted rate.

In any event, whatever is going on between Barnett and Affliction seems to have implications beyond just this Elite XC co-promotion, as Barnett confirmed in no uncertain terms that he won’t be fighting Fedor in January.

(Man, I just hope Ken’s HMO is going to cover this.)

Yesterday’s press conference for Elite XC: Heat provided all the requisite photo ops and pre-packaged quotes. We get to hear every fighter talk about what a great opportunity this is, how much they love Elite XC, etc. But what every good press conference has to have is a quote that just plain doesn’t make sense. Thankfully, Kimbo Slice obliged:

“Ken’s fighting in Florida, which is no place for an old man. I’m mentally prepared and ready to do it and represent the crib. It’s going to be ‘305’ (his area code) all day.”

Really? Florida’s no place for an old man? Perhaps what he meant to say was, Florida is the place for an old man. Senior citizens make up 16.8% of the population there (don’t say you never learn anything on Cage Potato). If anything, Florida is the perfect place for a fighter of advanced age such as Shamrock. He can catch an early bird dinner before the fight, then maybe enjoy some shuffleboard after the bout is over. When he finally comes to, that is.

Speaking of Shamrock, you didn’t think you were going to have a press conference without him putting his public speaking gifts into action, did you?

(Hey Kunta.)

When I heard Junie Allen Browning was doing a TUF blog for UFC.com, I had to check it out to see how apologetic/ashamed he was going to be after watching last night’s episode, in which he drank eight bottles of vodka, nearly broke his neck falling off a balcony, destroyed some house decor, then cried himself to sleep next to the pool. But judging from this excerpt, I don’t think he’s quite wrapped his head around how unacceptable his belligerent retardedness actually was:

If I had seen the previous season, I don’t think I would have acted that crazy, but the show was being recorded as season seven was being played so I didn’t know anything about Jesse Taylor and all that stuff. And to be honest, I thought Jesse Taylor made the show a little more interesting.

To be honest, I think they underplayed it, I was hoping they’d show a little more. They made me look a little more sane than I really am. Seriously though, it was somewhat embarrassing because I never really see myself acting like that big of an idiot, and now I can see where everyone’s coming from when they watch me and go ‘this guy’s a lunatic.’ Now I see it.

Sure, Jesse Taylor made last season interesting, but everybody watching pitied him. Dude was pathetic. And we’ll pity Junie Browning after he fucks up bad enough to be thrown out of the house. (Next episode, hopefully?) Also, if Junie’s truly embarrassed by what he saw in episode 3, he probably wouldn’t want them to “show a little more.” To borrow a phrase from addiction-recovery, I don’t think Junie’s reached his bottom yet. Who knows, maybe he straightens out after Dana gives him the tongue-lashing next week, and he can afford to have a dismissive attitude about his former drinking problem. I was just hoping for more humility. The guy’s a constant distraction, and his antics put other fighters in danger. Doesn’t he know what a dumb asshole he is?

Hey, at least he looks relaxed. Props to Raw Vegas via Bloody Elbow.

Previously: How Patrick Cote Is Preparing for Anderson Silva

(If you look up “pwned” in the dictionary, you’ll see this picture.)

Dana White has revealed to Yahoo! Sports’s Kevin Iole that in addition to the interim heavyweight title match between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir, UFC 92 will also feature Forrest Griffin defending his light-heavyweight belt against Rashad Evans, and the third battle between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei Silva; the event will go down on December 27th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Other likely fights include…

Yushin Okami vs. Dean Lister
Cheick Kongo vs. Mustafa Al-Turk
C.B. Dollaway vs. Jorge Rivera
Ryo Chonan vs. Brad Blackburn

Not too shabby so far, though we can’t shake the feeling that it’s still a bit too early for Rampage to be stepping into the cage with his arch-nemesis. That being said, Big Nog by submission in the championship rounds, Griffin by decision, and Silva by TKO in round 2. Feel free to throw in your own early predictions in the comments section…

MMA Rated’s Ariel Helwani is live on the scene of Elite XC: Heat and managed to score interviews with some of the principle players in Saturday night’s event. Above, Kimbo Slice explains why he had to turn his phone off so he could fully focus on battering his senior citizen opponent.

Once more Kimbo makes his case as a populist fighter based on shopping at the same stores normal people shop at. Of course, he shops there with the hundreds of thousands of dollars he made for beating up substandard opponents, and he may or may not be wearing shoes with his picture on them. So there is that minor difference.

Ariel also spoke with Kelly Kobald — who very politely explains her desire to make Gina Carano the “broken, bruised, and bloody face of women’s MMA,” — as well as Gina Carano herself, who seems to genuinely like Ariel for some bizarre reason. Just proves she has poor taste in men. First Kit Cope, now Ariel Helwani? Gina, why do you do this to yourself?

Check it out after the jump.

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Life in the Affliction offices must be a little like being married to an alcoholic. They seem to be making progress, taking steps in the right direction, and then you look out the window and see them passed out naked in the neighbor’s yard and realize it was all just a pleasant illusion. Affliction’s latest setback has to do with the main event for their second offering, which is maybe on January 24 or maybe not, depending on who you talk to.

While new acquisition Gegard Mousasi claimed it would be Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett in Affliction II, Barnett’s manager tells USA Today, “It is unlikely that Josh and Fedor will fight within the next few months.”

Affliction VP Tom Atencio also said that no fights have been confirmed for the event. It could be that they’re waiting to see how Andrei Arlovski does against Roy Nelson in his big network TV moment on Saturday night. If Arlovski steals the spotlight on Elite XC: Heat, it would make sense for Affliction to put him in the main event against Fedor right away to try and capitalize on that increased exposure.

They’ve got to figure out some way to make it pay, because according to Dave Meltzer Arlovski is poised to haul in seven figures if he beats Nelson this weekend, and Affliction is footing the bill. It’s great for Affliction to get their stuff on CBS, but Arlovski better be wearing several layers of Affliction t-shirts to make this little venture seem worthwhile.

Every Thursday morning, Team Nogueira member Efrain Escudero will give his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s installment, from the team-picking to the drunken drama.

***

After Dana sent the losing fighters home, we piled into the vans and made our first trip into the house. This was a great moment not only for me but also for the other 15 guys. When we walked into the house we were jacked. This isn’t some ordinary house — this place is LEGIT. We all took a look around and then rushed to pick our beds. I must say we were pretty slick to get a room on the bottom floor so when we’re tired from training or a night of boozing we don’t need to be struggling up a bunch of stairs. At this point I was still very happy, because I was a big fan of The Ultimate Fighter from the beginning and now I’m in the house where it all started. At this point we start bonding with one another — people start talking shit, joking around, just trying to break the ice and get a feel for each other.

After touring the house we go to the training center where Dana kicks Karn and Brian out due to injury. Brian’s injury was unexpected; on the other hand Karn was an idiot because he wanted to go to the doctor after they told him “Hey, your hand is ok!” He asked for a second opinion, and now he gets kicked out. GOOD JOB BUDDY, NEXT TIME THEY SAY IT’S OK THEN THAT MEANS IT’S OK. After that they brought back Kyle Kingsbury, and I was glad because he had a tough fight to get into the house. I really like Kyle — he’s a nice guy who loves to have fun, so why wouldn’t I like him? Now I have to thank Karn because if it wasn’t for him and his second opinion Kyle wouldn’t be with us in the house.

The second time we went to the training center for the team picks, Frank Mir was talking to Bader and I, telling us that he’ll be taking his team out to the river to go shooting and all these cool things, so at that point I wanted to be in his team; it sounded like fun. Ryan and I ended up getting picked by Nogueira, but I really didn’t care because I was ready to get after it.

(G’night, Tom.)

In last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter, teams were picked, hearts were broken, underwear was shrink-wrapped, gallons of alcohol were consumed, and the first light-heavyweight got knocked out of contention. Let’s get to it…

The show starts and Junie is drinking already. We get the first (ever?) glimpse of the TUF liquor closet, where quality is made up for with quantity. K-Sos, despite his intimidating appearance, is presented as one of the good guys of the house — a steak-sharer, not a street-fighter.

Brian McLaughlin and Karn Grigoryan, who sustained nose-fractures in their elimination matches, are slapped with 180-day suspensions from the NSAC and are ordered to go home. They hang around the gym in shock until Dana breaks the silence with “Go ‘head guys, you gotta walk out the door there.” Kyle Kingsbury, who looked sharp in his opening-round loss to Ryan Bader, is brought back to replace Grigoryan. Brian will be replaced by a mystery lightweight who flew home before he could be called back again.

Frank Mir wins the coin toss, and opts for first fighter pick. The picks shake out like this…

Mir: K-Sos, Vinny Magalhaes, Eliot Marshall, Tom Lawlor, Junie Browning, Shane Nelson, Dave Kaplan, George Roop
Nog: Ryan Bader, Shane Primm, Kyle Kingsbury, Jules Bruchez, Phillipe Nover, Efrain Escudero, John “Huggy Bear” Polakowski, Mr. X