—
A thousand blessings to TheGarv (via BloodyElbow) for bringing this to our attention. What you’re looking at is one page from the original fighter application for the UFC, way before Zuffa, when biting and eye-gouging were the only illegal attacks. The other three pages are after the jump. Some highlights:

– Page 3′s inclusion of "Toughman" as a fighting style. (Ed. note: Not only do I train Toughman, I actually earned my 4th-degree black belt in Toughman under Grandmaster Butterbean.)

– The "This is what I will wear in the competition" section. I just like the idea of Art Jimmerson selecting "Boxing Trunks" and "Other," then writing in "boxing glove (1)".

– The best release-from-liability line of all-time, on the last page: "In the true spirit of the warrior, I enter and compete knowing full well the possible consequences."
 

(At ease, boys.)

Though the smack talk between Alistair Overeem and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic has been heating up ever since their testicle-smashing meeting in September, it appears that Dream is not interested in a rematch on New Year’s Eve.  At a press conference an FEG executive said that Overeem is "begging" for the fight, but for reasons all their own Dream has decided to hold off on this one.

Fed up with Overeem’s insinuations that he’s ducking the fight, Cro Cop has gone so far as to invite his Dutch friend down to his basement where they can square off in Cro Cop’s own personal cage with "neutral referees."  As awesome as that sounds, and as perfect a plot for an action movie as it would be, it seems doubtful that Overeem will go for it.  Word is he’ll actually have a paying fight on New Year’s against Sergei Kharitonov.

Amazing find by Fightlinker: Here’s some footage of Sean Gannon and Kimbo Slice following their legendary fiasco of a fight that saw Slice eventually succumb to exhaustion. As you can see, both men are near-death after the brawl’s end, with Slice unable to get to his feet and Gannon too gassed to respond to "all the nuthuggas who didn’t think [he] had a chance." Kimbo would go on to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per fight as EliteXC’s marquee attraction (and the catalyst behind its sad demise), while Sean Gannon would go on to get tooled by Branden Lee Hinkle at UFC 55 and never fight again; which goes to show you never can tell.

Caution: Extreme Boston accents ahead.

(Photo courtesy of daylife.com.)

Well, it looks like the Octagon will be short one dreadlocked Camaroonian. Multiple sources have confirmed that charismatic Team Quest fighter Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou has been released from his fight contract following his TKO loss to light-heavyweight up-and-comer Luis Cane at UFC 89 last month; the defeat dropped Soko’s UFC record down to 1-2, and his overall record to 5-3. Though he entered the UFC on a wave of hype last year with quick knockout victories over PRIDE stars Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona under his belt, Sokodjou’s relative inexperience was exposed in his unsuccessful debut against Lyoto Machida, and now he’s been pink-slipped to sharpen up his game elsewhere.

Speaking of fighters who never lived up to the promise of their pre-UFC performances, Rich Franklin’s BFF Jorge Gurgel has been cut — despite winning a $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus at UFC 91 — and picked up by Strikeforce. Gurgel’s decision loss to Aaron Riley earlier this month was just another frustrating example of Gurgel brawling his way to defeat rather than use the fearsome jiu-jitsu that earned him a 9-1 record (with all wins by submission) before being signed by the UFC. Within the Octagon, Gurgel went 3-4, with all but one fight going to a decision.

Though he told MMA Junkie that the cut was "very humiliating" and "a crushing of my childhood dream," he also sounded hopeful in a press release distributed by Strikeforce, saying "To me, this is like a new start. I’m coming in fresh…I make some bad decisions because I have too much fun. I have never used my Jiu Jitsu in the UFC…[people] ask me why I don’t use my Jiu-Jitsu. I have so much fun standing up and I completely think I’m winning all the time…I will always bring the same intensity and I’m always going to fight 110 percent. I just want to be able to use everything that I know."

UFC 91 PPV numbers and more after the jump…

(Somebody kill that motherfucker.)

It’s Thanksgiving today, the most gluttonous of all holidays.  So while we play touch football in the yard and gorge ourselves on turkey and potato-based dishes, you can enjoy a little Ben-on-Ben action, with debates covering everything from the future of the heavyweight top ten, the aftermatch of the Jon Fitch debacle, how we prefer to clog our arteries every year around this time, and more.  Enjoy.

Let’s say Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira beats Frank Mir next month (obviously). But let’s also say Brock Lesnar manages to beat Big Nog in the belt-unification match next year. If this nightmare scenario were to become a reality, would you rank Lesnar as the #1 heavyweight in the world, or is it still Fedor until he dies or gets beat?

Goldstein: Christ — it depresses me that we’re actually discussing Brock Lesnar as the potential #1 heavyweight in the world. Do not let us down, Nog!

Anyway, I’m going to say Lesnar would have to be placed at #2 in that situation, not #1, and it’s really just on general principle. No fighter with a 4-1 record should be ranked #1 — even if they’ve beaten two top-five fighters back-to-back — unless they’ve beaten the previous #1 fighter in the world in their division (Emelianenko, in this case). Of course if Andrei Arlovski beats Fedor in January, things go into flux a bit, but I’d say Arlovski moves into the #1 spot at that point, and keeps it even if Lesnar goes on to beat Nogueira. (Does your brain hurt yet from this hypothetical bullshit, or is it just me?)

But who-beat-who-when stats are just one aspect of creating rankings — the other part is infuriatingly subjective, and has to do with talent, and personal opinions on how a certain top-10 fighter would do against other top-10 fighters. And if you want my opinion, here goes: Fedor Emelianenko is worlds more talented than Brock Lesnar at this point. I wouldn’t necessarily agree with M-1’s bluster that Brock wouldn’t last a round with Fedor, but I strongly doubt he’d get his hand raised at the end of the fight. So how could I in good conscience call Lesnar the best heavyweight in the world, even if he does follow his win over Couture with a win over Nogueira?

Fowlkes: There’s a lot of inherent Lesnar hate in this discussion already, but since I’m willing to believe it has more to do with his record than his persona I’ll go along with it.  But let’s admit our bias here.  We don’t want Lesnar to be #1 because he’s still an MMA rookie who came out of the WWE and we’re afraid that if he climbs to the top so quickly, on sheer size and strength alone, not only will the diatribes that show up on the WWE website really get out of hand, but it will become harder to convince anti-MMA jerks that this is truly a nuanced sport.

(How ’bout a nice Hawaiian Punch? Image courtesy of ko.susumug.com.)

"After holding the welterweight title once, I was like, I need it again, I need that welterweight title one more time, and look, I get to beat one of the best fighters of all time to do it. The opportunity is just trememdous…I’m going to crush him, don’t worry guys." — The ever-confident BJ Penn predicts the outcome of his UFC 94 superfight against Georges St. Pierre during a couple of recent Hawaiian TV appearances.

"Sean Sherk, that’s a fight I would love to take. That fight is one of the ones I really want to show everyone how far I’ve come. My wrestling’s a lot better than that and I’m going to continue to get better at it…[A rematch] would be ten times better and I believe with a different result." — Kenny Florian gives MMA Weekly the old "I’m not the same fighter I was back then" line. Ken-Flo is content to wait for BJ Penn as he chases his welterweight championship dream, but if Penn’s hiatus goes on for too long, Florian would be open to avenging a past defeat.

"A [Rich] Franklin vs. [Michael] Bisping fight would be amazing. I’d love to fight him. But I’d love to fight Henderson too. They’re household names and legends of the sport and it would be an honour and a privilege to fight one of them. I think I stack up well against them…I think I can beat both of them. It wouldn’t be easy, but my confidence is growing with every fight." — Michael Bisping talks to The Sun about who he’s eyeing for his next match. For the record, Bisping thinks Franklin will have the edge on Henderson during their fight in January. 

After the jump: The gloves come off and the talk gets trashy.

CagePotato reader Facey sent us this rather sick-ass highlight video that he made, featuring some of the greatest MMA submissions ever, starring Shinya Aoki, Dustin Hazelett, "Jacare" Souza, Frank Mir, Rumina Sato, Anderson Silva (both giving and receiving), and both Diaz brothers. Easy-breezy soundtrack provided by Donavan. 

 
(Props: Bloody Elbow)

In this promo clip for UFC 92, light-heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin discusses his opponent Rashad Evans and what challenges he might present. It’s clear that Griff isn’t underestimating Sugar whatsoever. As he says, "He’s got more knockouts than I do. And his knockouts have been impressive. Like, people-don’t-get-up-right-away knockouts." Speaking of Forrest Griffin, his September 2003 IFC fight with Chael Sonnen is after the jump, courtesy of MMA Scraps.

(Couture gets some Brock Lesnar mitts of his own.)

The UFC’s twenty-four-hour tantrum over Jon Fitch’s refusal to sign away lifetime rights to his video game image has now subsided, but that doesn’t mean all such licensing issues are so easily resolved.  According to a new article on CBS Sportsline, Round 5 says they’ve already locked up the exclusive rights to some of the action figures that the UFC was hoping to roll out under their deal with JAKKS Pacific.  I smell trouble a-brewin’.  

As you may recall, Round 5 announced their first line of fighter figures with the signature oversized head and hands well before Dana White went on CNBC to announce his deal with JAKKS.  Now Round 5 creator Damon Lau tells CBS that some of the prototypes the UFC has been showing off won’t be hitting stores:

"All I can say is that there’s a likelihood — well not a likelihood, but there’s a fact — that some of those figurines can not actually go into production," Lau said. "I’ve seen the prototypes as well, but the rights to those guys have been already signed over to our company."

(When in Zagreb…)

Maybe now we know why Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has been reluctant to accept a rematch with Alistair Oveerem.  Sure, he’s got that knee injury, and Overeem is the man who made it his personal mission to destroy Cro Cop’s testicles in their last meeting, but to add to his troubles Cro Cop recently lost his favorite cocaine-addicted sparring partner to an armed robbery arrest.  That always happens at the worst times, doesn’t it?

According to a translation done by Robert at betwxx (via Brawl Sports), Mirko Borkovic (aw, cute, same first name!) was arrested in Zagreb as a “serial armed robber.”  He’s charged with robbing twenty-five “betting agencies,” making off with over 250,000 Croation Kuna, a little over $45,000 in U.S. dollars. 

Don’t worry though, it was just to finance his cocaine addiction, so it’s not like he’s a scumbag or anything.  Apparently he did some time for possession in 2003, and said he used the drug as a performance-enhancer to aid his kickboxing training.  My ex-girlfriend tried that same story.  Six months into the relationship I realized she didn’t even have a gym membership.  Or a job.  And then I noticed my wallet was missing.  But I digress.

Also snuck into the report is this little nugget about Cro Cop’s other associations these days:

Only a month earlier Cro Cop was forced to deny having sparred with Robert Matanic a local crime figure and suspect in the murder of Ivo Pukanica. In a interview with Nova TV, Cro Cop disassociated himself from Matanic claiming not to ever have met or sparred with Matanic.

In Cro Cop’s defense, roughly 80% of Croatians are involved in organized crime.  You spar with enough people, eventually one of them is going to be a suspected murderer.  Just kidding, Croatian readers.  Please don’t murder me.

In other news…

(The Gracie/Tadeu fiasco.)

— Renzo Gracie vs. Eugenio Tadeu ruled a No Contest (Fans Rioted)

— Frank Trigg def. Dennis Hallman via TKO (Abandonment)

— Marcelo Goncalves def. Cristian Quezada via Submission (No Apparent Reason) [See also: Firmino/Santana, Neto/Goodridge]

(James Irvin vs. Bobby Southworth)

— James Irvin vs. Bobby Southworth ruled a No Contest (Both fighters fell from the cage)

— Matt Makowski def. Nick Serra via DQ (Wouldn’t Get Up From Butt Scoot) [Ed. note: And I was there! See also: Daniel Moraes]
 

As part of the UFC’s effort to help the Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund, they’re holding an auction to complement the "Fight for the Troops" event on Dec. 10.  Among the items you can bid on is what’s being billed in the video above as a "UFC VIP Experience." 

From the sound of it, you get to choose a fighter you want to hang with (don’t say Tito Ortiz) and the UFC will fly you to an event where he’s fighting, put you up in a hotel, and make you feel like you matter during a dinner with Dana White, Rachelle Leah, and some "UFC greats."  You also get to be part of your fighter’s entourage, which means walking out to the Octagon with him and shouting ‘represent!’ while the camera man motions frantically for you to get out of the shot.

The high bid at the moment is $5,000.  The cause is about as worthy as they come, so if any of you have that kind of coin, we encourage you to go for it.  We also encourage you to go to the strip club and make it rain, because that always sounded like a cool thing to do and we know it, much like this VIP experience, will forever be beyond our grasp.

If the VIP stuff sounds a little out of your league, you can also bid on a copy of the book "Octagon," a limited edition Alligator duffle bag (just cause), or one of the thirty tickets to "Fight for the Troops" that’s being made available to the public.  Or you can just sit at home and do nothing while your life slowly slips away.  Whatever seems more fulfilling.

(Kenny Florian makes the mistake of asking Sherk to help him move.)

Regardless of what you think about Sean Sherk, you have to admit that he’s right on in his description of the UFC’s 155-pound division in a new interview with Sam Caplan.  The last time the lightweight title went up for grabs was in May, when Sherk decided to throw his wrestling out the window and try to kickbox his way to a victory over B.J. Penn.  Turned out to be a bad idea.  

Now here we are, six months later, with new contenders clawing their way up the ladder and the division’s champ focusing on a fight in an entirely different weight class.  That’s fine for Penn, and for the suddenly superfight-happy UFC, but what about the rest of the 155’ers, asks Sherk:

With 155, it’s one of the most stacked weight classes right now and the unfortunate thing is that there is no one at the top of it defending the belt right now. There are a lot of guys fighting their way up to the top trying to get title shots and then once you get up to the top, you’re like, “Okay, so where’s the champion?”

(What the hell, let’s do it again.)

Urijah Faber may have to wait a while for Mike Brown to heal up before he can get a crack at reclaiming his featherweight title, but in the meantime he can keep himself sharp with another go at former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver.  MMA Weekly says the two will meet again at WEC 38 in San Diego on January 25, though it’s not yet officially signed.  

You might recall that both men fought on the last WEC card, and both lost via TKO.  The difference is that Faber’s loss was a major shock, and most people were generous enough to attribute it to him simply “getting caught” as we say in the business when we want to be nice.  Pulver, on the other hand, got beat down by Leonard Garcia in a fight that seemed to signal that he might be approaching the twilight of his fine career.

It’s not surprising that the WEC would want to run Faber-Pulver II, given the success of the first fight, but there’s also not much reason to think this one will turn out any differently.  Pulver hung in there for five rounds and took a unanimous decision loss in what turned out to be one hell of a fight the first time.  Now Faber has a little more to prove, and Pulver looks even further from his prime.  If he drops his third straight in the 145-pound division, you have to wonder what’s left.

At least the WEC can probably squeeze one more sell-out from this matchup, and hopefully we’ll be treated to another solid fight.

The Xtreme Couture blog posted this video of Kim Couture training (and looking surprisingly sharp) along with an interview in which they discuss her kind of sad fight against Lina Kvokov.  Sounds like Kim was as weirded out by the whole thing as we were:

K. Couture: "I trained hard and really wanted to show the MMA fans a good show and let them know I was a 100% and ready to fight, I have the utmost respect for anyone who steps into the cage but felt disappointed that she just wouldn’t engage with me and turned her back on me. I was just dumbfounded.”

XC: “Do you think she shouldn’t of been matched up with you?”

K. Couture: “On paper it looked like a good match-up. We both had 1 professional fight with a loss. She was training with Matt Lindlands Team Quest so I expected she would be ready and I was ready for a stand-up brawl.”

XC: “Did you have a chance to watch the fight yet?”

K. Couture: “Yes, Lina just looked nervous from the moment she tripped coming out to the cage, she just looked like she didn’t want to fight that night.”

Ouch.  Kim goes on to say she’d like to fight three or four times a year.  Hopefully better opponents lay ahead, since Couture is bound to attract more attention than more experienced/talented female fighters simply because of who her husband is.  That fight did nothing good for the credibility of women’s MMA.  Probably didn’t help Kvokov’s reputation around Team Quest either.  

(He told you he was innocent, but you couldn’t see past his enormous head.)

Under the reign of the now deposed and disgraced former California State Athletic Commission Executive Director Armando Garcia, the state’s drug-testing and appeals process ranged from suspect to entirely screwed up and disorganized.  But the new sheriff in town, Bill Douglas, plans to put an end to those days of comical incompetence.  He started things off with last weekend’s Strikeforce: Destruction event.  By conducting absolutely no testing at all.  

Oh, I get it.  Because that will really throw steroid-users off, right? They’ll think they got away with it, but the guilt will eventually overpower them, forcing them to confess their transgressions to the commission and thus circumventing the need for the costly testing process altogether.  Genius!  Except it turns out that’s not really the plan at all, and it’s more of a brief moratorium while they get their act together:

"I’ve cancelled all drug testing across the board while I revamp the entire process from start to finish," Mr. Douglas wrote in an email. "I expect the new and improved program to roll out next week."

So Lina Kvokov gets away with showing up to fight Kim Couture while obviously high on mushrooms, all because the CSAC finally realized what a mess their system is?  Oh, that’s going to burn Sean Sherk’s ass something fierce.

(Photo courtesy of Arianny’s official website.  The rest of her Hawaii photos are, shall we say, bikini-tastic.)

While we wait patiently to hear just how many pay-per-views UFC 91 sold and whether it lived up to Dana White’s optimistic prediction of 1.2 million, White is already off and running with his next oversized claim.  This one,  not surprisingly, revolves around UFC 94’s B.J. Penn-Georges St. Pierre superfight:

"I’m just coming off a promotion where I got done saying it’s the biggest fight in UFC history in terms of most pay-per-view buys," White said. "I truly believe this fight has the potential to break that. BJ and Georges are heavyweights when it comes to star power."

Is this what we’re going to do every time now?  Has Dana White become a boxing promoter, calling every fight the biggest fight ever, until the next fight?  I realize he’s talking to a Honolulu paper so he has to say some of this stuff, but words mean things.

MMA Payout sees this as an opportunity for us to find out whether the sport of MMA (two established champions, both pound-for-pound greats, neither of whom have been in the WWE) sells as well as the “spectacle” of MMA (Brock Lesnar against that other guy).  You’d like to say that it does, but then again you’d also like to believe that the cute waitress is being so nice because she actually likes you and not just because she works in the service industry and her kids need new shoes.

(Wanderlei Silva makes the most of his recess time.  Check out the full gallery from "The Axe Murderer’s" training session at Combat Lifestyle.)

Ricky Hatton’s conditioning coach says "Rampage" Jackson will be in the best shape of his life for UFC 92, but get a look at Wanderlei Silva, who also seems to have upped his game since relocating to Las Vegas.  Could the third meeting between these two old foes be the best one yet?

Well, some of that will depend on whether Rampage decides to fast before the fight or not (personally, I recommend eating food), and whether Silva still has his number in the Thai clinch.  But seeing both these guys revolutionize their training and diet before their third fight just goes to show how far the sport has come in the last few years: from guys known only to hardcore fans, training at obscure gyms, to TMZ-caliber celebrities and world class athletes with the best coaches and playground equipment money can buy.

Rampage had better be training just as hard as Silva is.  Beyond just showing up in good shape, he’ll need some extra help to get over the psychological hurdles if he’s going to beat the man who put him face-first through the ropes four years ago.  Something tells me "The Secret" just ain’t gonna do it.

I can’t help but wonder whose idea it was to have new WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown on Inside MMA and then ask the panel — which consisted of Brown, Dave "Pee Wee" Herman, and oddsmaker Nick Kalikas — who the best fighter in the WEC is.  You know Brown’s going to say it’s him, and you also know the other two guys are going to want to say it’s Urijah Faber, thus implying that Brown got lucky when he beat Faber for the belt at WEC 36.  And you know that when this happens it will create a palpably uncomfortable situation for everyone.  And yet they do it anyway.

Say what you will, I have no choice but to admire that move.  It’s kind of a mini ethics test, because we’d know if one of them said Brown it would only be because he was sitting a few feet away and not because they really believed it.  But honesty ruled the day, and as usually happens in real life, awkwardness followed with it. 

Security Body Slams Jerk at UFC 91 – Watch more free videos

It just wouldn’t be a night at the fights if someone didn’t get all riled up and start their own action outside the Octagon.  What this guy doesn’t take into account, however, is that the cops at UFC 91 have been watching the same ass-kicking action all night long, and are now just as eager as he is to bash some skulls.  Maybe even a little too eager. 

The slam that comes at around the 0:27 mark may not be a model of technical execution, but it ends with our bewildered troublemaker on his back soaking up spilled beer and wondering how the cops at the MGM Grand got to be so agro, brah.  At least he waited until after the main event to get himself brutalized.

(Props: MMA Mania)

As Georges St. Pierre explains in his latest blog post for Yardbarker:

Thursday a.m. I went to a radio show with BJ and they gave me a taste of Hawaiian cuisine. In the beginning when I took my bite — before I swallowed it they told me it was cat. So I right away spit it out because I thought it was true. And then after they told me it was a joke. It was pork — a piece of pork in pasta — it was pretty good.

Quite a good sport, that GSP. Some other highlights from his blog…

— "I was sitting right next to Brock Lesnar’s parents [at UFC 91]. They are very nice guys — I was expecting his parents to be very tall and very big, you know? But they’re normal size — I mean they’re tall, but not as tall as Brock. We had a good talk, and I really had a good time with them."

— "At night we went to the Maple Leafs game. It was very funny because they made me do an announcement on the screen in front of everybody in the Air Canada Center with a Maple Leafs jersey. I said ‘To the Count of Three, I want everybody to get very noisy’. Then the crowd went nuts, they applaud me. When the camera went off me, I sat down and took my jersey off. And when I was taking my jersey off, the camera came back on me and the crowd started booing me because they know I’m from Montreal and I’m a Montreal Canadiens fan. I thought it was very funny."

To read the rest, click here.

(Not sure if those high-heel Chuck Taylors are proper footwear for a jobsite, but she does own her own hard-hat.)

Due to some necessary site maintenance, there will be no more updates on CagePotato until about 5 p.m. ET. Thanks for your patience; we’ll let you know when we’re rollin’ again. In the meantime, why not kill some time in our forums?

Gina Carano Interview – Watch more free videos

Our good friend Ariel Helwani of MMA Rated was kind enough to supply us with these exclusive video interviews that he conducted over the weekend. Above the lovely Gina Carano discusses her future, why she can’t run off to the WEC just yet even if Dana White decides he’d like her to, and what exactly was going on between her and Tonya Evinger in those infamous photographs we all enjoyed so much.

Randy Couture Interview – Watch more free videos

Randy Couture talks about his loss to Brock Lesnar, whether he’d consider heading back down to light heavyweight to get away from such beasts, and what’s next for “The Natural.”

After the jump, movie star Cung Le…

(‘A contract with the UFC? I’m set for life! What could possibly go wrong now?’)

Former UFC heavyweight Fabricio Werdum didn’t appear to realize he’d been fired from the organization even after several media outlets reported the news. At first we thought maybe his manager (also known as his sister) hadn’t told him for fear that he’d finally realize what a mistake it had been to hire her. Or perhaps he was just in denial. But now Werdum is facing the difficult realities of the situation, and judging by what he told Tatame, the UFC didn’t make much of an effort to come to terms with him:

“When I first heard the rumours, I didn’t know anything. I had four more fights left with them on my contract, which ran to 2010. But they demanded to renegotiate my existing contract by cutting my pay in half” revealed the heavyweight. Adding also that his departure had nothing to do with the video game licensing dispute. “No that wasn’t an issue but its not something that benefit’s the fighters”

“I‘m a free agent now. One of the advantages of leaving the UFC is the freedom of contract, which allows fighters to work with more than one event without any problems. That’s very beneficial. There are several possibilities now including fighting in multiple organizations. Affliction, Sengoku and Dream are big events, but I think the possibility of fighting for Affliction in particular will give me the best chance to fight the best in the world, Fedor, in addition to (Andrei) Arlovski, Josh Barnett and several other big names …That would be a great opportunity for me.”

Above is the trailer for Fighting Politics, a new documentary about Matt Lindland‘s path from collegiate wrestler to mixed martial artist, his questionable dismissal from the UFC over an unapproved sponsor, and his life’s second act as a politician in his home state of Oregon. Notable MMA journalists Loretta Hunt and Josh Gross appear in interviews, suggesting that Lindland was actually fired to make room for poster-boy Rich Franklin as middleweight champion, while Keith Evans (formerly of the UFC and IFL) says “Dana White is not the same guy that I knew back then.” The release date is still TBA, but I think it’s safe to say that Dana won’t be there on opening night.

Speaking of the Baldfather, Dana White was recently shot for ESPN: The Magazine, along with everyone’s favorite Octagon Girl Arianny Celeste and fighters Randy Couture, Forrest Griffin, and Stephan Bonnar. Watch as the ESPN photo editor becomes visibly freaked out by Randy’s ear, Stephan is brought in just so Arianny can have something to sit on, and Dana has to keep his t-shirt on while entering the pool. After the jump: A fairly sick highlight video of PRIDE’s 2006 Open-Weight GP; props to CREzja1.

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Coming off a disappointing decision loss to Clay Guida at UFC Fight Night 15 in September, TUF 6 winner Mac Danzig will reportedly face Josh Neer at UFC Fight Night 17, which will likely go down February 7th in Las Vegas. Josh Neer is himself coming off a loss at Fight Night 15 (to Nate Diaz), which tipped his UFC record to 3-4. MMA Weekly also reports that TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah will face Nick Catone on the UFC Fight Night 17 card; Sadollah was supposed to face Catone at UFC 91, but had to pull out of the match due to a leg infection.

Both of these matches are expected to be featured on the televised portion of the broadcast, which will air for free on Spike TV. The event will come just one week after UFC 94 (St. Pierre vs. Penn), and two weeks before UFC 95 (Anderson Silva vs. TBA).

(One of MMA’s greatest rivalries is about to get a completely unnecessary epilogue. Photo courtesy of ko.susumug.com.)

Bloody Elbow and The Sun are both reporting that the UFC is currently in negotiations to have dethroned heavyweight champion Randy Couture and former light-heavyweight champ Chuck Liddell face each other for a fourth time in Cologne, Germany, on June 13th. As BE’s Michael Rome writes:

The UFC wants to have Randy on their [first-ever] Germany show because he speaks the language and can do all the promotion. The winner of the fight would face the heavyweight champion in a big fight at the end of the year.

Couture is uninterested in moving down to 205 where Forrest Griffin is champion and Wanderlei Silva is also a contender. Both are close to him and in his camp, and weight cutting takes a toll at his age…

For Liddell, the thought is that…whereas he would have to win a bunch of fights to get back at contention at 205, the heavyweight division is thin enough where he could jump in and be an immediate contender with a win.

It is believed internally that Couture/Liddell will draw better than Silva/Liddell, and they know that a potential Liddell/Lesnar match would probably be the biggest PPV in the history of MMA.

You can’t really argue with the business logic of angling for a Liddell/Lesnar superfight, what with Anderson Silva’s disappointing PPV numbers. And if Couture vs. Liddell IV goes like the previous two installments in 2005 and 2006 (which Chuck won via knockouts), the UFC will get their wish. But where does this leave the Spider?

The possibly hepatitis-infected Aleksander Emelianenko made short work of Sang Soo Lee at this weekend’s M-1 Challenge. Aleks’ typically nonchalant style comes off here like he’s treating Lee more like a little brother than a serious opponent, but he got the job done in the end.

From last night’s Strikeforce, Kim Couture feeds some leather to Lina Kvokov, who seems absolutely stunned that she somehow got lost on the way to pick her kids up from a slumber party and found herself in a fight. Good thing that kind man in the black shirt showed up to stop it.

The full Strikeforce: Destruction event is after the jump.

(That’s got to sting a bit. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

What’s the most anti-climactic way for a title fight to end? Okay, the second-most anti-climactic, right behind double KO via simultaneous cardiac arrest? You guessed it: stoppage due to a cut. That’s what did Bobby Southworth in at last night’s Strikeforce. As you can see, it was a nasty one brought on by one of “Babalu” Sobral‘s elbows in the first round. Before the second could start doctors waved it off, and just that easy “Babalu” is now the Strikeforce champ.

In other action, Kim Couture put her increased aggression to good use, while her opponent fought very much like we expected given her scared-soccer-mom appearance at the weigh-in. Duane “Bang” Ludwig earned a decision victory over Yves Edwards. And Scott Smith knocked Terry Martin out cold in just twenty-four seconds. Looks like there’ll be a Christmas at the “Hands of Steel” household, after all.

Full results after the jump.

(Someone’s nervous. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

- Kim Couture’s opponent misses weight, looks scared. (Xtreme Couture)

- That UFC ad campaign trashing other sports? Yeah, it was bullshit. (Fightlinker)

- “Ninja” Rua says his bro is fixing to mess Mark Coleman up. (Tatame)

- “Human Weapon” arrested for rape, but D.A. won’t file charges. (TMZ)

- “Babalu” Sobral will break his hand on Southworth’s face if need be. (NBC Sports)

- Strikeforce betting odds. Feel like putting a fin on “Bang” Ludwig? (BestFightOdds)

- Joe Riggs only regrets that he didn’t get to smash Kimbo first. (MMA Rated)

- Men 18-34 are stupid, apparently. Bummer. (Holy Taco)

- Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler.” Count me in. (Screen Junkies)

- Wal-Mart’s new CEO shakes things up. (Wall Street Fighter)

- The rare ‘party girl parking garage beatdown’ caught on tape. (Nothing Toxic)

(Does Aquaman get laid? You better believe it.)

Yesterday MMA Fanhouse located a story from a Croatian newspaper that detailed undefeated UFC middleweight Goran Reljic‘s heroic rescue of two men who had accidentally driven their car into the Adriatic Sea (it happens, okay?). Apparently Reljic had been asleep when he heard the crash, then jumped in the ocean, smashed the car window with his fist, and pulled the two men out. Oh yeah, and he did it despite the back injury that caused him to pull out of a bout with Thales Leites at UFC 90. Just to make things more interesting.

This, it seemed, was an uncommonly brave act. Except that it wasn’t so uncommon. At least not for Reljic. According to a story on UFC.com today, it wasn’t the first time he had saved someone from the death trap that is the Adriatic:

“Actually this is second time that I know Goran saved a life in the water,” [Reljic’s manager, Zoran Saric] recalled. “Two years ago, he jumped into a wild storm near the cliffs in the Adriatic Sea, where a person was swimming and trying to get out the water, but the waves and current were so strong that they were pulling the person back in. I have no idea how Goran managed to pull that person out of the sea, but he did it.”

The section of that quote I’d like to highlight is “this is the second time that I know.” That’s fairly open-ended. For all we know, Reljic does this all the time.

In fact, I did a little research, and on nights when Reljic has a fight, statistics show that drowning deaths in the Adriatic Sea increase by 175%. Okay, that’s not true at all. Like I’m about to do any research. Come on. But the point is, if you’re planning on dicking around anywhere in or around the Adriatic Sea, it’s best to check the UFC schedule to see if Goran Reljic will be free that day, just as a precaution.