It was an Ultimate Fighter first when the cast members exchanged various bodily fluids via warring food pranks on last night’s show. Eliminated lightweight Dave Kaplan talks us through it in this exclusive Cage Potato interview, and claims all was not as it seemed. We also discuss Junie Browning’s betrayal and what went wrong in the loss to Phillipe Nover, among other things. Enjoy.

CagePotato.com: Now that we’ve all seen last night’s crazy and often gross show, what are your thoughts overall?

I liked the show a lot. That might seem counter-intuitive. Obviously, the end of the show wasn’t the best for me, but I’ve had three months to deal with that. I liked the stuff that they showed. I thought I came off as funny, the type of person that I wanted people to see. I didn’t talk shit about anyone, and I feel good about that. All in all, I thought it was a good show. I might be biased, but I thought it was the most exciting and interesting of the episodes thus far.

It seemed like we spent a lot of time watching these food/bodily fluid pranks unfold.

You know what the funny part about it is? I had nothing to do with any of the pranks that happened. Any of the stuff that Krysztof did with people’s underwear or any of that stuff. I had fish put under my bed, which I thought was a lame prank anyway. But I can’t even tell you where I was when they peed in the fruit. I wasn’t part of any of that. I guess it makes for good television if you like the gross-out factor there.

The semen on the sushi, did you feel that was going too far?

I would say so. Here’s my take on that, and I have to be perfectly honest. I did not eat the sushi. I said that I did, because at that point in the show Kyle Kingsbury was getting on my nerves and I wanted a reason to retaliate, plus Tom Lawlor had actually eaten a piece and I wanted to have his back. So I said that I did it so I could retaliate, which Tom and I did.

(Props to Ausgepicht)

You can’t do it without looking like the creepiest fucking pedophile on Earth. Yet somehow the Jackson camp‘s patented nipple-tweak warmup has become a guarantee of success in big-time fights. Just ask Georges St. Pierre, Rashad Evans, Keith Jardine, and now Leonard Garcia (above), who are all coming off recent triumphs. (Apparently, fellow Jackson fighter Donald Cerrone also tweaked before his win last night against Rob McCullough.) Here’s the list of fighters you may see doing it next. Michelle Watterson, if you’re reading this, do consider it.

(Mug shot courtesy of MMA Junkie.)

An unfortunate side-note to last night’s WEC 36 card (which happened to be full of unfortunate side-notes): UFC lightweight Hermes Franca, who attended the event and was shown during the broadcast, was arrested in Jupiter, Florida, at 2:38 a.m. last night for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He was transferred to the Palm Beach County jail after the arrest, and released later this morning. This was Franca’s first DUI offense, though not his first brush with controlled substances; he was suspended from MMA competition for a year following his UFC 73 match against Sean Sherk in July ’07, after testing positive for the steroid Drostanolone. It should be mentioned that Franca’s manager Reed Wallace claims the fighter was simply very tired last night and was falling asleep behind the wheel.

Franca is a former WEC lightweight champion who holds career wins over the current lightweight champ Jamie Varner as well as the WEC’s new featherweight champ Mike Brown, and recently won a decision over Marcus Aurelio at UFC 90 last month. Paulo Filho, who is suspected of fighting under the influence of alcohol or drugs, is apparently still at large. If more important details emerge, we’ll let you know.

And even more not-awesome news from WEC’s aftermath: Mike Brown did indeed screw up his ribs during the Urijah Faber fight. FiveOuncesofPain reports that Brown suffered torn cartilage in his ribs and had to be taken to a local hospital via ambulance immediately after leaving the cage. The injury is expected to sideline Brown for four-to-six weeks.

Urijah Faber wasn’t kidding when he said he was a happy person who loved life. Even as he admits that he doesn’t really remember what happened in his loss to Mike Brown on account of all the punches to his head, he still seems to be in a pretty pleasant mood in the post-fight press conference, captured here by ESPN.

Chael Sonnen, however, describes his fight with Paulo Filho as “like being in a dance with a partner who doesn’t know how to dance.” He also says he hasn’t received Filho’s belt, as promised, and he’s absolutely not above accepting it should they offer it, despite the weird circumstances.

After the jump, a couple special treats.

(Paulo Filho hears the ghost voice from Field of Dreams at the worst possible time.)

Paulo Filho’s performance at last night’s WEC was, in a word, bizarre. Not even the interesting kind of bizarre, either. He managed to be both incredibly tedious to watch as well as completely inscrutable, particularly toward the end of the fight when his attention seemed to wander. What is Paulo looking at here? Was he as bored with the fight as we were? Was he having hallucinatory visions of a half-naked Indian spirit guide?

After what we’ve seen of Filho in the last couple of days, you have to think he hasn’t truly recovered from the multitude of “personal problems” that kept him out of action for most of 2008. It’s one thing to show up overweight. It’s another thing to show up overweight and then fight like you’re on mescaline. After all the talk about pride and how personal this was for him, Filho embarrassed himself last night. Coming into a fight that unprepared and uninterested is insulting to your opponent, your employer, and the fans.

The loss brings up another question: where is Filho’s mostly-meaningless WEC middleweight title belt? His corner told Matt Lindland they’d give it to Sonnen if he won the fight, and Lindland’s not the type of guy to forget about something like that. Filho might as well give it up, because he proved last night that he’s not deserving of any title other than ‘fighter most likely to slip into a spontaneous trance at any moment.’

Give up the belt, Paulo. That is, if you haven’t pawned it already. Then go back to rehab and get your head together.

(Kind of a strange thing to ask someone on the way to the grocery store.)

Last night’s episode of the Ultimate Fighter was one of the more foul shows airing on this week’s television lineup. By this time in the house everyone was getting tired of each other and going a bit insane, so of course since there is nothing better to do, the pranksters in us start to come out. For a few days now Lawlor had been getting these fruit platters delivered to him. So we decided it would be a good idea to eat it all before he got a chance to have any. Everyday we would get back from practice, rush to the fridge, and grab Lawlor’s fruit, and I must say it was delicious. This was no ordinary fruit platter…this was Tom Lawlor’s fruit haha.

This was going on a for a few days and Lawlor wasn’t too happy. So while we were at practice Lawlor decided it was time for a little revenge. We all had come to an understanding while in the house and agreed to not mess with each other’s food. Lawlor was thinking like a lawyer on this kind of revenge, finding a work around. Nowhere did we say you couldn’t mess with your own food, so that’s what he did. The blue team went a few rounds pissing in the fruit tray. So after our practice we got back to the house and opened the fridge and there it was, so Bader got the tray, took it up to the room and a few of the guys went to town on it. They were eating piss fruit.

I would like to set the record straight I DID NOT EAT ANY OF THE FRUIT WITH PISS IN IT!!!! Let me repeat: I DID NOT EAT ANY OF THE FRUIT WITH THE PISS IN IT!! The editors did a hell of a job making it look that way, but if you notice the fruit I was eating was not in the same room. I guess that’s why SPIKE pays those guys well, but one more time I did not eat piss fruit haha. Philippe was pretty disgusted by it. Kingsbury wasn’t bothered by it — he was cracking jokes. It was pretty funny since it didn’t happen to me.

(Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown; props to MMA Scraps.)

Last night’s WEC show drew 5,227 fans for a live gate of $563,578, according to MMA Weekly. $7,500 bonuses were awarded to the following fighters:

Fight of the Night: Donald Cerrone and Rob McCullough for their three-round undercard war that some are calling a fight-of-the-year candidate; too bad we had to see the Filho/Sonnen debacle instead. Cerrone took home the unanimous decision win.

Knockout of the Night: Mike Brown for his beating of Urijah Faber. Which was nice and all, though Aaron Simpson kinda got robbed.

Submission of the Night: Rani Yahya for his first-round guillotine choke of Yoshiro Maeda, also from the undercard.

TKO of the Night?: Leonard Garcia reportedly got an extra $7,500 for steamrolling Jens Pulver.

Full results can be found here. More videos after the jump…

(“Boys, please, can’t you settle your differences with words?” Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

The California Kid invades Hollywood (Florida), Chael “RE/MAX” Sonnen aims to do a bit of closing on Paulo Filho’s middleweight title reign, and Leonard Garcia will be smuggling nothing but his fists and feet across the border that is Jens Pulver’s face. I’m coked-out Mauro Ranallo and I’ll be your liveblogger tonight — the specials are honor, glory, pumpkin crème brûlée, and maybe some championship gold?

Just kidding, it’s only me, BG. Hit that “More” link and refresh the page every few minutes to get all the latest from tonight’s live event on Versus. Should be a monster.

Watching this NBC Sports video preview of tonight’s Jens Pulver-Leonard Garcia bout, I am officially psyched. You have to love Pulver’s ‘I’m getting too old for this shit’ attitude when it comes to fighting these young whipper-snappers, just as you also have to love that he arrives at the event looking like he stopped to fight in several bar parking lots on the way. I’ve never seen a guy so content in the role of gatekeeper or so compelling in it.

With Urijah Faber facing another tough, though probably doomed opponent, and with Paulo Filho showing up too fat to put his title on the line, Pulver-Garcia is looking like it could easily turn out to be the fight of the night. In fact, I’m so confident this bout will deliver, if it turns out to be anything other than a thriller I’ll eat my hat.*

* my hat is a meatball sub.

(Anyone want to buy a Kimbo?)

The date is set for the auction of Pro Elite’s assets. On November 17, everything that isn’t nailed down, and probably a bunch of stuff that is, will all be sold to the highest bidder. According to the notice of sale, fighter contracts are just part of what’s on the auction block:

The Collateral includes all contracts between any Debtor and mixed martial arts fighters (including, but not limited to, Kevin Ferguson a.k.a. “Kimbo Slice”, Gina Carano, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Frank Shamrock, Antonio Silva, Brett Rogers, Dave Herman, Scott Smith, Nick Diaz, Cristiane Venancio Justino a.k.a. “Chris Cyborg”, Eddie Alvarez, Yves Edwards and Wilson Reis) and all of each Debtor’s video library, still photographs and home videos (e.g., DVDs and VHS tapes).

VHS tapes?! Say no more.

Is it me, or is there something creepy about the idea of selling fighters at auction? I can’t help but picture poor “Cyborg” Santos standing up there while sweaty-palmed promoters and fetish pornographers bid for her services, all while she struggles to understand what’s going on. You add Frank Shamrock and Kimbo Slice into that scenario and it begins to feel like a nightmare you have after overdosing on cold medicine.

(The Pulv. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Faber/Brown, Filho/Sonnen, Pulver/Garcia and more. Tune in to Versus, and be here.

MMA Scraps dug up the above video of Randy Couture‘s first-ever UFC fight, which took place at UFC 13 (5/30/97; Augusta, Georgia) against Tony “The Viking” Halme, a former pro-wrestler who made a completely unsuccessful run at being a mixed martial artist. This was Halme’s fourth and final pro MMA fight after three losing appearances in Rings. After Couture made short work of Halme, he went on to score a TKO over Steven Graham the same night, winning the event’s heavyweight bracket.

Below: I don’t want to call BJ Penn a bitch, because clearly he isn’t — I mean, his record speaks for itself. I’m just saying that the sounds he makes while putting up 150 pounds in the gym are somewhat bitch-like. He’s like the Maria Sharapova of free-weights. But I do like the GSP-directed dig his wrestling coach gets in at the end: “You don’t have Hollywood agents reprensentin’ ya, man. We’re just normal guys that like to beat somebody up.” Bonus: Our pal Dewey at Yardbarker filmed a ten-part MMA tutorial video series with cage-legend Frank Shamrock. Part 8 (“Leg Locks 101″) is after the jump; the rest can be seen here.

(“Braaaiiins!” Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Michael Bisping, quoted in Setanta Sports:

“I have to admit I was disappointed when I heard. You know, when all’s said and done, I like Chris Leben. He conducted himself well before and after the fight and, as I say, I like the guy. I’m a little disappointed that he’s done what he’s done, bringing the sport into disrepute, but it’s not really my place to have an opinion on it.

The UFC, as they always do, have set the example with the punishment — and they’re right to do that. Should he banned for life? I don’t think so, people make mistakes, people learn from mistakes. Plenty of fighters have recovered after testing positive, the standard is set at nine months and it would be unfair to go any harsher on Chris…

I don’t know if it makes my win any better, you can make a case for it because — without wanting to start slinging mud — he did cheat and I didn’t. I don’t know why he did it or if he knew he was doing it, but I know my performance was purely down to blood, sweat and tears — and that’s all the satisfaction I need.”

If nothing else, this has to be good for Bisping’s confidence; even a juiced Chris Leben could barely put a mark on the Count’s face. If his next opponent does turn out to be Dan Henderson, he’ll need that confidence and then some. Meanwhile, Leben will have to find an even higher power to trust in if he plans on rescuing his career after his nine-month time-out comes to an end.

(Filho declares: “The Americans’ method of cutting weight is much better than ours.” No shit. Video courtesy of Sherdog.)

Paulo Filho apparently takes some of Chael Sonnen’s post-fight and pre-rematch remarks very personally. What’s ironic is that he talks in this video about what a difficult time he had cutting weight for their first fight, which resulted in him being somewhat off his game, but says he is in much better shape this time around. That’s an unfortunate choice of words, considering the way things worked out.

It’s also ironic that while Filho criticizes Sonnen for not acting like a professional after their first bout, he shows up seven pounds overweight for a title defense. As talented as Filho is, how does he expect to be taken seriously if he can’t make weight to defend his own belt? It’s piss-poor timing, considering the WEC middleweight division is set to be absorbed into the UFC soon. And what’s Dana White’s stated position on guys who can’t make weight, especially for title fights? He’s against it. Really against it.

Besides the embarrassment of the whole charade, there’s also the financial cost to Filho, who’ll be giving up 25% of his purse to Sonnen. He isn’t happy about that either, telling Tatame:

“That guy (Sonnen) will pay dearly my 25% (purse) inside that octagon on those three rounds: 10% on the first, 10% on the second and the rest at the third.”

Sounds like Filho’s got it all figured out, mathematically speaking. But what if the fight ends in the first? Then Sonnen gets away with that last 15% for nothing. Didn’t think of that, did you Paulo?

(September 10? Middleweight championship? Oh, the best laid plans.)

Despite Paulo Filho’s inability to even pretend like he was trying to make weight yesterday, the bout with Chael Sonnen is still on and Filho (hereafter referred to as ‘Fatty Filho’) is still the favorite with oddsmakers. Fatty Filho might want to think about trying to profit with a little side action, because he had to give up 25% of his purse to Sonnen as a penalty for loving food too much. His corner also said, according to Matt Lindland, that despite the bout’s non-title status they would physically give Sonnen the belt if he wins tonight.

Said the gruff-but-lovable Lindland: “When Chael whoops his ass, I expect them to live up to their word.” See what kind of straight-talking awesomeness you’re going to be missing out on, Oregon voters?

The betting odds for tonight’s WEC event come from our friends at BestFightOdds.com. As always, you should read this if you’re too “special” to understand what these numbers mean.

Chael Sonnen (+155) vs. Paulo Filho (-130)
Mike Brown (+400) vs. Urijah Faber (-416)
Rob McCullough (+136) vs. Donald Cerrone (-145)
Leonard Garcia (+170) vs. Jens Pulver (-170)
Jonathan Brookins (+350) vs. Jose Aldo (-430)
Rani Yahya (-104) vs. Yoshiro Maeda (-106)
Nissen Osterneck (+260) vs. Jake Rosholt (-256)
David Avellan (+135) vs. Aaron Simpson (-165)
Steve Steinbeiss (+265) vs. Carmelo Marrero (-320)
Danny Castillo (+170) vs. Rafael Dias (-210)

Thoughts…

(Photo courtesy of The Fight Network.)

Strikeforce‘s upcoming “Destruction” card will feature such well-known fighters as Josh Thomson, Yves Edwards, Renato Sobral, Joe Riggs, and Kim Couture, but the biggest star will surely be the third man in the cage. Sherdog reports that beloved MMA referee “Big” John McCarthy is returning to what he does best after a year-long hiatus that saw him retire from the UFC, take an analyst spot at The Fight Network, then leave it when things went FUBAR — and his first stop will be San Jose’s HP Pavilion on November 21st. The last match McCarthy reffed was the main event bout between Roger Huerta and Clay Guida at the TUF 6 finale last December; it was his 535th since his debut at UFC 2 in March 1994. As he told Sherdog:

“I missed doing it. Sometimes when you walk away from something and you think it’s time, once you’re away you realize what you’re missing — it’s kind of like why guys come back to fighting. It’s what I like doing. It’s what I was meant to do.”

Though he didn’t rule out an eventual return to the Octagon, it’s clear that his days as the UFC’s mascot are pretty much over. On where he might be reffing after “Destruction,” he said:

(Props: DasGamer)

I’m not a “gamer,” let alone a Gears of War fanatic, so it took me a few viewings to understand what in the hell was happening in this video. But here’s what I’ve gathered: Tomorrow night on Spike, there will be a half-hour special where a quintet of hardcore video game nerds do a little competitive cosplay, with the winner getting a chance to play Gears of War 2 before it’s released in stores. And this is being presented as something that you might want to spend your time watching. Oh, and, UFC heavyweight/TUF 8 coach Frank Mir shows up as a celebrity trainer, though he uses his role mainly to shoot his team in the head and laugh at them.

You know, if Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was brought in as a trainer, he’d probably invite some guest coaches who actually knew a few things about combat strategy, do his best to help his team achieve their goals, then organize a family-style dinner. But hey, different people have different coaching styles. Anyway, the concept’s pretty ‘tarded. Maybe not ‘tarded on the level of what movies would be like if the characters had cell phones, but ‘tarded nonetheless.

(Photo courtesy of LOL @ McCain via CP reader Steven B.)

Obama def. McCain via Split Decision. Get out all your analysis, gloating, and whining in the comments section below so this country can finally move forward.

Related: Matt Lindland got blown out in his Oregon State Representative contest with Suzanne VanOrman. So, not a good night for Republicans overall.

(In Brock’s defense, he is really, really white.)

We all know why Brock Lesnar deals with accusations and insinuations about steroid use. It’s because he’s a white dude. Right? Simply couldn’t be any other explanation. At least that’s what he told Pro MMA Radio:

“I’ve been accused of using steroids my entire life, probably since the tenth grade in high school… I’ve never failed a drug test. Now if I was a black guy and I looked the way I do would I get asked this question a 100 times? I just happen to be a white guy that has some great genetics, so I guess that puts a bullseye on me… I’m a white dude that’s shredded and you don’t see a lot of it — a guy that’s walking around that looks like me.”

I feel silly even typing this, but I think Brock Lesnar is oversimplifying this issue. I kind of see his point. Almost. But in answer to his question, if he was a 280-pound black man who was a former pro wrestler and who looked like an action figure, I tend to think that he would still get roughly the same amount of steroid questions. Does the name Bob Sapp sound familiar?

If Brock is tired of being asked about steroids, I have bad news for him. Unless he suddenly starts to resemble a normal human being it isn’t likely to stop. Perhaps his piles of money will console him.

(Props: MMA Mania)

(Chubby Paulo. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

If missing weight was the cool thing to do at today’s WEC weigh-ins, you can just call Paulo Filho the Brazilian Fonzie. Filho was a full seven pounds over the limit for tomorrow night’s event, coming in at 192 pounds. This is his first fight back after a nearly ten-month layoff due to problems with depression and drugs, and coming in ridiculously overweight is not typically how you want to return to action. He needs to drop the seven pounds within the two-hour limit given by the Florida Commission, otherwise there will be no title on the line and maybe no fight at all.

Update: On his second attempt, Filho weighed in at 189 pounds, still four pounds over. The fight will go forward as a non-title affair.

Just for kicks, Mike Brown also weighed in over the limit, but thankfully he only missed his mark by a half-pound. Brown weighed in at 145.5, which would have been fine for a non-title affair, but what with Urijah Faber‘s WEC featherweight title on the line he had to go spit in a cup for an hour or so. On his second attempt, Brown hit the 145 pound mark.

Rani Yahya also missed weight for his bout with Yoshiro Maeda. Maeda did him a solid and let him have the extra pound rather than force him to cut it and weigh in again. What a guy, that Maeda.

Full WEC weigh-in results are after the jump.

(Name your price, gentleman.)

Maybe now we know why Pro Elite is trying to hold on to existing fighter contracts, and it isn’t because they intend to hold an event in early 2009. It’s because Showtime and CBS are auctioning off all their assets. This, according to an SEC filing this week:

“Showtime gave the Issuer a notice pursuant to the Security Agreement, as amended, that it intends to sell all of the Issuer’s personal property, whether tangible or intangible, to the highest bidder at a public sale,” the filing states. “Showtime reserves its rights under the Security Agreement, as amended, and applicable law to adjourn or cancel the sale and thereafter dispose of such property in a public or private sale or in any other manner provided by applicable law.”

Awesome, everybody loves an auction!

The way I see it, there’s never been a better time to scoop up some fighter contracts and start an impromptu MMA organization in your backyard. You get all your buddies together, everybody throws in a few bucks, and the next thing you know you have Nick Diaz and Robbie Lawler ready to throw down at your next party. If you move fast you might even get them to throw in some of the EliteXC hip-hop dancers.

That’s it, let’s take up a collection right now. Think of the possibilities…

(Props: MMA Rated)

In this video Carlos Arias of the OC Register manages to get former EliteXC VP Gary Shaw talking about the company’s collapse. Shaw says he is “not ashamed” of what he did in his time with EliteXC, and bemoans the “haters” who have been taking shots at he and his son. Speaking of his son, now that EliteXC is done and $kala has lost whatever vague job he held with them, this means he’s out of the MMA biz for good, right? Oh, if only it were that easy.

Says Gary:

“We really truly haven’t spoken about what career path he wants to do. I know he truly loves MMA, so there’s a chance that he’ll want to stay in it. …If it wasn’t for Jared I wouldn’t have gotten into MMA.”

Is that statement supposed to somehow make us hate him less?

After the jump, a special message from Randy Couture.

(You call it: happy or sad?)

According to a new article translated into English for us by Robert from betwwx.com, Judo olympic gold medalist Satoshi Ishii says he is definitely getting into MMA, and he wants to fight Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and…Hong Man Choi?

Japan’s Olympic gold medallist Satoshi Ishii has quit judo to enter mixed martials arts. His ultimate goal is to fight the likes of Mirko Cro Cop and Hong Man Choi also known as the “Techno Goliath”.

The Reuters articles mistakenly nicknames Mirko Filipovic as the ‘Terminator’, although the Croatian fighter has not fought under that name but is widely known among fans as ‘Cro Cop’.

‘This is a new chapter in my life and I’ll have to now start from scratch or with a white belt. Mixed Martials Arts has the words best fighters and I wanted to face many of them even before I won my Judo gold medal . I want to get myself in good shape and want to face the best as soon as possible. There’s no need to hide. That’s is my goal.” Said the 21 year old Ishii.

Let’s say you’re Cro Cop and you hear this. Are you psyched for a potential big money fight with Japan’s most recent judo hero? Or are you blinded with rage at being mentioned alongside Hong Man Choi, as if the two of you are interchangeable? I have to think it’s the second one, but Cro Cop has baffled me before.

In the latest episode of Inside MMA, the gang discusses UFC 91 with Randy Couture. Based on his comments here, as well as the video of his training, Couture seems to think all there is to beating Lesnar is getting used to dealing with a big, heavy guy. Maybe he’s right. Then again, maybe the reason there’s only one Brock Lesnar is because few human beings are that big and also that athletic. I suppose we’ll find out.

Couture (along with TapouT’s Mask and the UFC’s Mike Swick) also discuss the Fedor Emelianenko-Andrei Arlovski bout, as well as the prospects of Couture-Fedor. They aren’t good, in case you’re wondering.

(‘Whaddaya say we also agree on no kicks to the legs. I just find those really annoying. Oh, and clinches, too. I hate getting someone else’s sweat on me.’)

The rumored bout between Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis and Chris Lytle is on for UFC 93 in Dublin, just as we all thought it would be. As part of his continuing campaign to form some sort of gentleman’s agreement with Lytle, Davis is suggesting that both men agree to stand and bang it out:

“We’ve both been like, ‘I respect you, respect what you do, but a fight between each other is money in the bank,’” said Davis about a fight with Lytle. “I basically said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it and the first guy to take the other guy down is a pussy.’”

Davis has been saying this since the summer, and he’s not the first to try and get his opponent to commit to some kind of unofficial rule alteration, but it’s starting to get a little weird. It’s cool that he wants to stand and strike. That will probably make for a very exciting fight. But since when did taking people down make you a pussy? Does that mean Randy Couture is the biggest pussy to ever set foot in the Octagon?

Davis should also consider that even if he can get Lytle to go along with this understanding that takedowns=pussy, that’s not exactly a binding agreement. In fact, you know when the best time is to shoot for a takedown? Right after you’ve said that you won’t. Call me a pussy, but I’ll be the pussy getting my hand raised at the end.

Maybe you don’t know this because you spend all day on the internet reading about pro fighting and watching old Pride highlight videos, but today is election day in America. It’s kind of a big deal. So much so that it even reaches over into the insular world of mixed martial arts, at least for a few hours.

Today Sherdog has an article that asks some notable fighters and trainers who they’re voting for. The answers are as varied as you’d expect from a group of MMA types. Chuck Liddell is voting for McCain because he’s rich and doesn’t want his taxes raised. His trainer, John Hackleman, is undecided, but he’s definitely voting against California’s Proposition 8 (a ban on gay marriage), because he’s got two fighters who are “half-gay.” Eddie Bravo isn’t voting at all because voting is an illusion and both candidates are working for the Illuminati. Thanks, Eddie. Things were getting a little too sane around here.

Just to prove how big time he is, yesterday Steve Cofield interviewed Barack Obama and asked him about, among other things, Matt Hughes’ criticisms of him. Obama responded that Hughes obviously hasn’t actually read his tax plan (no, Matt, watching Fox News doesn’t count as reading).

Fortunately, Matt Hughes has posted another screed, this time an editorial for a local newspaper written by friends of his. The newspaper did not publish it in their print edition, but Hughes is kind of enough to re-post it on his website, a portion of which appears after the jump.

Randy Couture Trains for Brock Lesnar – Watch more free videos

In preparation for his bout with Brock Lesnar at UFC 91 on Nov. 15, Randy Couture is doing just about the only thing you can: tussling with big wrestler-types. He looks to be handling them pretty well in this video. Then again, none of these dudes is Brock Lesnar. Just saying.

Below, Chael Sonnen absolutely refuses to complain about his somewhat controversial loss to Paulo Filho and talks about his plan for this Wednesday’s WEC rematch.

Chael Sonnen Talks Paulo Filho Rematch – Watch more free videos

(A man who knows the value of the right to remain silent.)

Perhaps you’ve noticed that ever since he opened his yap to complain about the UFC and money to Fight! Magazine, Roger Huerta has practically disappeared. He lost his faux-number one contender bout to Kenny Florian at UFC 87, and subsequent rebroadcasts of that event on Spike TV have had that bout removed altogether. It’s enough to make you wonder, did Roger Huerta really exist, or did we all just imagine him?

Okay, I checked on the internet and he really does exist, he’s just vanished from the UFC’s PR radar after taking his gripes public. Former foe and current WEC fighter Leonard Garcia tells MMA Rated that Huerta has no one but himself to blame:

“I think everybody writes their own ticket,” Garcia said. “The only thing I can say is don’t ever start to believe what people say about you. That’s the number one thing for me. The simple fact of the matter is that we are getting paid to do what we love. Don’t go out there and try to reach for the stars too soon.

(Epic fail, this time of the drug test variety.)

Remember the story heading into UFC 89 about how Chris Leben had matured and kicked the booze and turned his life around? Forget that, because his life has just turned back around with the word today that Leben tested positive for steroids after his bout with Michael Bisping in England last month.

Leben popped positive for Stanozolol and has been suspended for nine months by the UFC and fined one-third of his fight purse. To make things worse, there’s not even any athletic commission-mandated testing in England, so it was the UFC’s own internal testing system that caught him. At least Leben isn’t playing innocent. He apparently admitted using the drug, but told Dana White he thought it would be out of his system in time for the test. So, you know, that makes it okay, right?

Leben’s official mea culpa:

“I’ve really done everything I can to turn my life around,” said Leben.

“And this is a huge setback for me. But it’s something I will have to deal with. During my time off from fighting, I want to speak to kids about the dangers of using performance enhancing agents and let them know it just doesn’t get you ahead in life. Of course, this is a hard hit for me monetarily, but more so this is embarrassing for me and for all my fans.”

Jesus, he’s already doing the ‘I want to talk to kids’ thing? The fight was just a few weeks ago. What idiot publicist fed him that painfully transparent line? Just for perspective on this, let’s recap Leben’s recent career decisions:

(‘That was…fun?’)

Kim Couture is set to get back in MMA action for the first time since having her jaw jacked in her pro debut against Kim Rose back in June, only this time she’ll be fighting in a real organization. Strikeforce sent out a press release to announce that “Sugar Free” would be competing on their Nov. 21 “Destruction” card in San Jose, Calif.

The wife of UFC heavyweight champ Randy Couture has tried her hand at just about every aspect of MMA except ring girl at this point, even messing around with management and promoting, with mixed results. Now she takes on Lina Kvokov, and she’s hoping for a better, or at least less grisly outcome this time around:

“Losing that fight was the best thing that ever happened to me,” said Couture who, despite sustaining considerable punishment, went the three round distance with Rose before losing a unanimous judges’ decision. “It’s completely changed me as a fighter. I’ve started doing things a lot different. It made me realize that I have to be the aggressor or I’m going to get hurt.”

Hurt, indeed. The more interesting (or perhaps only interesting) aspect of this news is it signals Strikeforce’s willingness to wade deeper into the waters of women’s MMA. With Gina Carano destined to eventually hit the free agent market and the UFC ruling out the idea of a women’s division at the moment, the opportunity exists for someone to step in and fill that void. Strikeforce could well be that someone.

Slightly related: Kim Couture and Gina Carano Grappling (video), Kim Couture surprised at UFC’s disregard for Brock Lesnar’s safety