(Video courtesy YouTube/ProMMARadio) 

Apparently Anderson Silva is fed up with Chael Sonnen’s pre-fight posturing and he wants his Team Quest opponent to lay off.

In the above interview with Pro MMA Radio, Sonnen recalls a tense situation that occurred at this weekend’s UFC Fan Expo in which Silva approached him to tell him to "relax."

Sonnen said that he told the UFC middleweight champ, who seemed frustrated by the amount of autographs he had to sign for fans at the event, that "in two months, he wouldn’t have to sign any more because nobody will care about him again." Apparently Sonnen’s remark was lost in translation at the time, but when one of Anderson’s entourage later informed the Brazilian fighter what was actually said, he decided to seek Chael out and tell him to lay off.

It’s starting to seem like Chael is getting inside Anderson’s head, possibly exposing a chink in his seemingly impenetrable armor, which is likely his plan since "The Spider" has never shown any mental weakness in the past.
He’s never faced a master of verbal warfare like Sonnen, either, so it should be interesting to see what happens on August 7 at UFC 117 when the pair finally lock horns.

(Image courtesy of FLOTV.com)

Happy Memorial Day, Potato Nation! As promised, we are proud to present the finalists of our FLO-TV t-shirt design contest, which brought in nearly 100 brilliant entries over the last two weeks. Please study all 16 (!) of the nominated designs after the jump, then vote for your favorite in the poll over on the right. (It’s a little bit down the page, under the "Most Recent Comments" box and the Power Rankings link.) Get your votes in by Thursday night at midnight ET; we’ll announce the winner on Friday, who will score their own FLO TV Personal Television, with access to the pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 115. Überprops to everybody who entered, and to FLO TV for making this happen! 

("So, do you chicks party?")

Here’s one for the Pride nerds out there: A report from MMAFighting.com on Saturday says the UFC may have softened its stance on Ricardo Arona enough to slide a contract his way some time in the near future.  This news comes after a report by Tatame.com last year quoted company president Dana White saying some not-so-complimentary things about the streaky light heavyweight.  Now Arona says he hopes to make his Octagon debut by October or November.

("This is bullshit, I’ll be in my trailer. Somebody come get me when craft services arrives." / Photo courtesy of the ‘UFC 114 Photos’ gallery on MMAFighting.com.)

Before Rashad Evans restored order to the universe by outmaneuvering and out-grappling Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the main event, UFC 114 turned out to be a surprisingly good night for guys sporting what might charitably be described as the “man on the street” build. A dumpy Mike Russow and a doughy Jason Brilz each turned in the evening’s most interesting performances, for different reasons.

Brilz, who stepped in on short notice for an injured Forrest Griffin, got flat-out screwed in dropping a split decision loss to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira after clearly winning at least two rounds of their fight. Russow, on the other hand, spent almost three full periods letting Todd Duffee use his face for target practice before he calmly clicked Duffee’s off switch with a lucky right midway through the final round.

It’s a shame the UFC doesn’t award a bonus for “Most Obvious Post-Fight Comment,” because the winner certainly would’ve been Russow, who (without a hint of irony) told Joe Rogan: “I need to get back in the gym,” during their in-ring interview, after Rogan called his KO of Duffee “the best come-from-behind, one-punch knockout in (MMA) history.”

Uh, dude, you need to get back in the gym?

("I dare you to open your mouth, Rashad. Just give me one reason to tell you yo breff stank." Photo courtesy of the UFC 114: Weigh In Pics gallery on CombatLifestyle.)

It’s been a long time coming. Tonight in Las Vegas, after sixteen-and-a-half years of promoting fights, the UFC is putting on its very first event headlined by two African-American competitors. It’s a historic moment that’s sure be the talk of MMA news and speaks volumes about the development of the sport in this country, as well as the shifting attitudes toward…oh, who the hell am I kidding, THERE’S GONNA BE SOME BLACK ON BLACK CRIME!!!!!

Tonight’s lineup features the grudge-iest of grudge matches between TUF 10 rival coaches Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Rashad Evans, in a fight that will most likely determine the UFC’s next light-heavyweight title contender. Also: Michael Bisping battles Dan Miller in the co-main, Todd Duffee gets his long-awaited second course, Lil’ Nog toys with late-replacement Jason Brilz, and Diego Sanchez returns to familiar welterweight haunts against tough British prospect John Hathaway. But first, Spike TV gives us a couple of guaranteed bangers in their Prelims broadcast. Round-by-round UFC 114 results will be piling up after the jump, beginning at 9 p.m. ET. Hit refresh every few minutes for all the latest, and pass the wings, bitch, because it’s about to pop off…

(They were so much in love. VidProps: YouTube.)

With just a few hours left before they actually climb into the cage, there is not much more to say about the UFC 114 bout between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans that hasn’t already been written and rewritten by MMA scribes, or said by the fighters themselves. Said, and then repeated … then repeated again while standing uncomfortably close to each other. Indeed, after wasting so much of our time with their ridiculous (and repetitive) trash talk during the past few months, these two dudes better fucking bring it tonight.

Instead of adding to the mountainous pile of  terrible clichés already being used to describe this fight – i.e. “it’s time to let their fists do the talking!” as the radio ad airing in my town declares — as a final look at this odd coupling,  I offer just a few numbers that characterize each man’s career up to this point.

They say numbers don’t lie, after all …

(Great, just one more thing for Matt Hughes to lord over his brother when he gets back to the farm. PicProps: The Junkie, obviously.)

Long before he devolved into a fighter only interested in winnable bouts against other aging “legends,” there was a time during the early 2000s when – once every four months or so – you could absolutely count on Matt Hughes to show up in the UFC and beat the ever-loving dogshit out of some hopelessly overmatched opponent. That’s called consistency, people, and it’s the kind of virtue that will one day earn you a giant glass knickknack with your face stenciled on it. For Hughes, that day was Friday, when the 36-year-old former welterweight champion was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

Hughes still has a rumored bout with Ricardo Almeida scheduled for UFC 117 and admittedly, it’s a little weird that the UFC insists on putting guys into its hall of fame while they’re still active competitors with the company. Almost like Dana White is trying to tell them something …

(Diaz vs. Sakurai. The actual fighting begins about the 3:15 mark. VidProps: YouTube.)

His claims of being the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world are a bit of a stretch, but Nick Diaz did what everyone expected him to do last night at Dream.14, handling Hayato “Mach” Sakurai en route to a first-round submission win. The biggest surprise of the fight was Sakurai’s striking, as he came out throwing enough heavy leather to make the Strikeforce welterweight champ decide he didn’t want none on the feet in the early going.

Aside from a couple of stand-up exchanges however,  Diaz smothered Sakurai on the ground, eventually securing an arm bar three minutes, 54 seconds into the first round. For Sakurai, who said earlier this week he wanted to retire as soon as he became an “ordinary” fighter, that time may be now.

Complete Dream.14 results after the jump.

(‘Why you gotta act so black Rampage? You should dress and talk like I do — like a white middle class teenage boy.‘)

Just a reminder that we will be streaming the weigh-ins for UFC 114: Rampage vs. Evans live at 7pm ET. 

There’s a rumor swirling around that Rashad is having trouble cutting the last few pounds and had to pass on a planned interview with the Jim Rome show.

Video player is after the jump.

(Fedor Emelianenko demonstrating the Russian art of ?????????????. Video courtesy of YouTube/Machinemen)

DREAM 14 weigh-ins (YouTube/DREAM)

Michael Bisping kisses his own ass (StarPhoenix)

Further proof that you should bet the bank on Rashad: Rampage started camp at 251 lbs (MMAFighting)

King Mo fires back at Rampage for saying he is gay (FightMag)

Madame Tussauds unveils Chuck Liddell wax sculpture at UFC Fan Expo (MMAJunkie)

Lil’ Nog still wants fight with Forrest (FightersOnly)

10 child stars that grew into hot babes (MadeMan)

Corey Feldman ties on the bandana for ‘Lost Boys: The Thirst’ (ScreenJunkies)

10 things that will definitely happen on Memorial Day Weekend (HolyTaco)

World’s most awkward sports reporter (Break)

Natalie Gulbis photos (HolyTaco)

LOL! race pics…(of the automobile variety) (AllLeftTurns)

Two Russian men jumped in street while attacker’s GF films it all (NothingToxic)

People passed out on public transit (Asylum)

Play 7-Million beta version (FileFront)

Live in a crappy hick town that no MMA events ever come to? Here’s a contest to change that bullshit (Bullz-eye/AmpEnergy)

(There’s only one song that can put Rashad Evans in the proper headspace before a fight: Lee DeWyze‘s cover of "Beautiful Day." Photoprops: allelbows.)

We’re going to try a little something different for this week’s H2H column. Instead of going through all the MMA FightPicker questions for UFC 114, we’re just going to cover a handful of them, and pepper in a few questions that Mike Russell has generously pulled out of his ass. (By the way, have you joined a FightPicker pool yet for this weekend? Because you really should. No, really. No, seriously.) Check out our analysis of Saturday night’s card below, and make sure to come back tomorrow for our always-entertaining liveblog of the fights, starting with the Spike TV prelims broadcast at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT. And let’s begin…

Quinton Jackson vs. Rashad Evans @ UFC 114: Who will win?
MR: I’m picking Evans. I just think that Rashad’s wrestling and conditioning will be too much for Rampage. The fact that we never saw Quinton without a shirt on, that it’s rumored he was smoking like a chimney while on the set of The A-Team and that his face looks like Anthony Anderson’s makes me bet against him.
BG: Yeah, I have Evans by decision for this one. Besides the conditioning disadvantage, Rampage has become such a one-dimensional boxer in his last fights. He could always catch Rashad with a knockout punch, but he’s not going to present anything that will surprise Evans.

Will they quash their beef after the fight?
MR: No. If anything, I can see them having to be restrained by their corners when it’s all over. If Rashad wins, he’ll likely not be respectful on the mic, but if Rampage has his hand raised he’ll go off about how Rashad pissed him off and he had to teach him a lesson.
BG: For the most part, Rashad has that Team Jackson martial-artist-respect thing going on. If he wins, I think he’ll shout out Rampage as a great fighter who he has a ton of admiration for — even if it’s just to make himself look like the bigger man.

(Pretty sure we know who these "unnamed" individuals are)

Loretta Hunt from Sherdog is reporting that the Tennessee State Athletic Commission has recommended that five "unnamed" individuals involved in the April 17 post-fight Strikeforce: Nashville brawl face stiff punishments to the tune of a $20,000 fine and nine-month suspension from competing and cornering fighters at MMA events sanctioned by the Association of Boxing Commission partnering agencies.

According to Hunt, a sixth person was also identified and will also be cited for his part in the brawl, although the party was not licensed by the TAC for the event.

(Props: Johnny B. Submit your MMA fighter t-shirt designs by Sunday night, or regret it forever!)

It’s Friday afternoon, which means it’s time to give away some subscriptions to everybody’s favorite monthly MMA rag, Fight! Magazine. (By the way, the cover interview with Chael Sonnen in the May issue is worth the price of admission, so pick it up.) Three brave members of Potato Nation went above the call of duty this week…

Almost North on "Jake Shields Doesn’t Remember Most of First Round Against Hendo": 
So he missed the good part of the fight?

MoTropolis on "‘UFC Primetime: Rampage vs. Evans’ — Episode 3 Video": 
"I got him a snuggie since after I beat him retarded he is gonna be putting his clothes on backwards anyway."

(Johnny Cash says, ‘Goodnight, sweet prince’)

A middleweight clash between Demian Maia and Alan "The Talent" Belcher has been verbally agreed to for Ultimate Fight Night 22 on September 15 according to a report by MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani.

The bout, which could make or break Belcher’s bid for a title shot, considering Maia just lost to current UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva and has been relegated to the back of the growing queue of contenders, will likely be the main event of the show that will lead in to the premiere episode of The Ultimate Fighter 12 on SPIKE TV. 

(A motivated Sakuraba is a dangerous Sakuraba. That doesn’t apply here, obviously, but I’m just saying. Check out more DREAM.14 weigh-in photos at dreamofficial.com.)

We haven’t given this event much play because, let’s face it, none of these fights really amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Nick Diaz is probably going to chew up Hayato Sakurai, who has been stopped in his last two outings. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ralek Gracie is a sideshow, even if it’s one with a historic hook. (Minowaman vs. random fat-guy Imani Lee is just a sideshow, period.) Kid Yamamoto is facing a middling prospect, while Joachim Hansen — who’s riding his own two-fight losing streak — will look for his first win at featherweight. The only real questions are: 1) How good will Diaz look? and 2) Will Saku add another beating to his highlight reel? Still, if you happen to have HDNet and DVR service (or insomnia), it’s better than nothing. Weigh-in results are below. Come back tomorrow for complete results and selected fight videos.

8. WW: Nick Diaz 76.0kg vs. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai 76.5kg
7. 88kg Catchweight: Kazushi Sakuraba 86.5kg vs. Ralek Gracie 87.4kg
6. FW: Hiroyuki Takaya 65.0kg vs. Joachim Hansen 65.0kg
5. FW: Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto 59.8kg vs. Federico "Kiko" Lopez 62.0 kg* (Lopez came in way over the fight’s 60kg limit; he will be given time to lose the weight this afternoon.)
4. FW: Hideo Tokoro 63.0kg vs. Akiyo "Wicky" Nishiura 62.8kg
3. FW: Kazuyuki Miyata 64.2kg vs. Takafumi Otsuka 64.4kg
2. FW: Yoshiro Maeda 60.7kg vs. Kenji Osawa 61.0kg
1. Openweight: Minowaman 88kg vs. Imani Lee 150kg

After the jump: Diaz explains why he’s the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

(Uh…what? Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

By DL “Remember the Lackland” Richardson

Bellator’s second season is winding down, as we complete another set of semifinals at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, Texas. Even if you’ve been paying attention, though, you still may find it hard to predict what is going to happen when Bellator is on. BFCXX popped off last night, and if you forgot about it or your cable company is a bunch of greedy bastards, allow me to fill you in. Results and full recap after the jump, as well as my secret to wealth and attracting the most attractive sexual partners…

Heading into his fight this weekend against UFC newcomer Cyrille Diabate, Luis "Banha" Cane tells TATAME that he feels that he is better prepared than ever thanks in large part to his recent move to Elite Mixed Fighters, a team helmed by his fellow former American Top Team mate Marcus "Maximus" Aurelio and coach Andrei Benkei. 

"My life is going well, the new camp is serious and I had no problems training with guys that were my teammates before like former UFC fighter Marcus Aurelio in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Andre Benkei as strength and conditioning coach and wrestler Chris Bohn."

Cane and Aurelio (who switched camps earlier in the year to head up the gym’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu training duties) aren’t the only former ATT fighters who have left the acclaimed Coconut Creek facility in 2010.

In an interview with MMAJunkie this week, UFC president Dana White said that with the way his company has grown in the past nine years since it bought the struggling promotion from SEG, it’s foreseeable that fans could one day be treated to nearly two shows per week broadcast from around the globe.

"This is is a work in progress. We bought this company, and we were doing five fights a year. If you would have told me six or seven years ago that we’d be doing 34 fights a year, I would have said, ‘That’s impossible. It’ll never happen. That’s crazy.’ We’re probably going to end up doing 100 fights a year."

(A face that will haunt your dreams. Props: Rich’s Facebook page.)

In the latest installment of his TUF 11 guest-blog for CagePotato.com, Team Liddell’s Rich Attonito discusses the challenge of fighting teammates, last night’s battles, and the Saul Soliz "fat fuck" incident.

With one quarterfinal fight down, we move right into the next matchup. This time it would be Noke vs. McCray, two guys in the house who were friends and training partners before the show. It was gonna be interesting to see how they would handle the situation. It no easy task to have to fight a friend, but with the stakes at hand the friendship would have to be temporarily put to the side so business could be handled. On top of that, the self-proclaimed gang "The Minority Report" was gonna have to deal with two of their street soldiers doing battle in the Octagon.

I knew when the show started that the possibility of fighting one or more of my teammates existed. I thought it would be an awkward situation since each of us would already know what our strengths and weaknesses were. After we got into the house it was only Charlie Blanchard and I left. When we both got picked by Chuck I knew the probability of fighting each other was greatly reduced, but still a possibility. I figured if we had ended up having to fight each other it would be no different then what we do in training every day, except a little more violent and it would count for a lot more then just macho points.

I always felt it’s necessary to have some degree of separation between myself and an opponent, and this wouldn’t change even if I did have to fight one of my teammates I was living with. For me it’s necessary to have some level of detachment from the guy I’m fighting so that I can get in the cage and do what’s needed to win, which could inevitably mean hurting the guy.

(Props: AmazingSerega via MMA Scraps)

It’s fight week for Rampage and Rashad, which means it’s time to make final preparations in body and mind, and get those last insults in. The third episode of their UFC Primetime mini-series aired yesterday after TUF, and you can watch the first half above, in case you missed it. Some highlights:

– The notorious media call where Rashad accuses Rampage of putting on a "minstrel show" and acting dumb for the amusement of the fans.

– Rashad gets in some Olympic-caliber workouts with Jonathan Chaimberg, and does a very unflattering impression of Rampage shouting "HE’S DEAD."

– Rampage spends some daddy-time with his two youngest kids.

– Trevor Wittman puts together a dinner for some of the Grudge Sports guys, and presents Rashad with a pencil drawing he made of him. Pretty impressive for a guy who’s self-taught. (I’m assuming those skills didn’t come from any sort of accredited art school.)

The show continues after the jump…

*Disclaimer: This video is somewhat disgusting and features footage of  surgery being performed.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/PunishmentFilms)

Well, if Tito really is faking his neck injury, he went to a lot of trouble to make it seem believable. In the video above, Ortiz explains that the surgery was necessary and that even though he lost his coaching gig to Rich Franklin with only two weeks remaining in filming of The Ultimate Fighter, he says he would take the same road if he had to do it all over again.

If you have a weak stomach or are reading this as you eat your lunch at work, you may not want to watch this video. I know I’m no doctor, but I don’t think a surgeon should work on a spine with a hammer, pliers, a screwdriver and a chisel. Just sayin’.

(Video courtesy YouTube/ATT)

Thiago Alves received news this week that he has been waiting on for two months.

The UFC welterweight traveled from his home in Coconut Creek, Florida to New York City where he underwent his second angiogram in as many months to ensure that the medical procedure he had done on March 31 to correct a brain abnormality had healed enough for him to get back to heavy training, contact sparring, and ultimately, competing.

Doctors gave him 100 percent medical clearance,  green lighting "Pitbull" to train and compete without stipulation, and in effect, made the rematch between Alves and Jon Fitch official for UFC 117 on August 7. 

(Video courtesy YouTube/ATT) Thiago Alves received news this week that he has been waiting on for two months. The UFC welterweight traveled from his home in Coconut Creek, Florida to New York City where he underwent his second angiogram in as many months to ensure that the medical procedure he had done on March 31 [...]

(By the way, KJ Noons isn’t on this card either. But at least we still have "an MMA superstar" [not really] against "a legend at his craft" [of choking people for too long].)
 
Just when they convinced Bobby Lashley to face an opponent who wasn’t a total joke or a champion, the unthinkable has happened — the former pro-wrestling star has been forced to pull out of his scheduled match against Ron Sparks due to a knee injury. The fight was to take place at Strikeforce’s increasingly bare-looking Los Angeles show (Wednesday, June 16th, Nokia Theatre), which is headlined by Robbie Lawler vs. Renato Sobral in a 195-pound catchweight bout, and will also feature Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos vs. Marius Zaromskis, Tim Kennedy vs. Trevor Prangley, and (possibly) Shane Del Rosario vs. Lolohea Mahe.

In other words, the card is just slightly more impressive than Strikeforce’s "Challengers" series offerings, and won’t do much to improve their plummeting ratings on Showtime. Luckily, Strikeforce has its next show ten days later with Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum in the headlining spot and Cris Cyborg in the co-main; a relatively needless rematch between Cung Le and Scott Smith is also likely.

(Gif of Tavares getting kicked in the "chest," courtesy of smoogy.)

Kris McCray vs. Kyle Noke. Brad Tavares vs. Seth Baczynski. Tito Ortiz vs. Everyone’s Patience. Last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter was a wall-to-wall struggle. Here’s what happened.

After Team Liddell’s Court McGee became the first TUF 11 semi-finalist, following his submission of James Hammortree, it’s time for two more quarterfinal matches. First up is Kris McCray vs. Kyle Noke, two guys who used to be training partners. Dana White cares not for your personal relationships: "One of the things I want these guys to learn early? There are no friends in the UFC."

Tito Ortiz might be looking at neck surgery. There’s a disc pressing on his spinal cord, which is causing numbness in his legs and daily headaches, among other symptoms. He’s not going to let Chuck beat him because he wasn’t 100%. Instead of fighting injured and jeopardizing his health, he wants to get this taken care of. It’s basically the same story we heard last week from Nick Ring, who by the way, is out of the competition for one day and already has a full-on Freddie Mercury ‘stache.

Noke has two inches in height, 4.5 inches in reach, and a hell of a lot more fights under his belt than McCray. It’s time to bang.

Video courtesy ShootMedia)

It’s amazing how perception works.

Nick Diaz is convinced that he and his Team Cesar Gracie teammates were attacked by Jason "Mayhem" Miller and his Team Quest teammates following Jake Shields’ win over Dan Henderson at Strikeforce’s Nashville show in April and he says that by "fighting back" they were merely defending themselves.

"I’m the last person who wants to take a punch from somebody and I don’t know who out there wants to hit me. All I know is this guy…Gilbert pushes him back and he runs at us and we’re fighting now. You want me to be the victim here and just let my boy get punched, or me? We’re on one team." 

(Props: snakerattle79)

As you might have heard, MMA fighter/frequent assault suspect War Machine (11-3) was back in action a couple weekends ago at BAMMA 3 in England, where he finished Zach Light (6-10) by first-round rear-naked choke; the video is above. Yes, Light has a losing record, so maybe it’s not the most impressive victory for War. Still, Light is a former two-time All American wrestler and works as a coach at Wolfslair — where he assists in the training of fighters like Quinton Jackson, Michael Bisping, and Cheick Kongo — so at least he’s a well-qualified pushover.

The match was particularly special for War Machine because it marked his first fight after giving up the porn biz and becoming a Christian. As he tweeted: "I had planned on doing what I ALWAYS use to make fun of…thank God after the fight on the mic but in the excitement of things I forgot! Makes me feel bad. So I’m gonna thank him now for protecting me both physically and mentally while both preparing and fighting." To which God tweeted back. "I had nothing to do with that, now leave me alone you psycho."

("Your mama’s so big, I had to walk three blocks and turn left to get on her good side")

Just a friendly reminder that we will be streaming the UFC 114 presser here today at 4:00 ET. Should be more of the same Rampage and Rashad bickering like an old married couple, insulting each other’s mamas and chins.

Video player after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

So, I attended the UFC press conference in Toronto yesterday and I had a brief chance to interview UFC president Dana White and his company’s new director of Canadian operations, Tom Wright.

During my interview with White, I had him cracking up with a few Photoshops I brought along and asked him to identify the names of ten famous Ontarians depicted in a photo collage. He got all but one correct: Neil Young, but in his defense, it was a trick question as Young was born in Manitoba and grew up in Ontario.

Imagine wrapping up a dedicated career serving your country in the military and not being able to find a job.

That’s the reality of life for a growing number of former servicemen, which is why Hire Heroes USA was created.

Championed by Executive Director Brian Stann, a decorated former Marine and standout fighter with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Hire Heroes USA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide career placement assistance to America’s returning service men and women. The HHUSA program focuses on providing transitional assistance to Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans, specializing in the career placement of soldiers who were injured or disabled in action. The program serves veterans from all branches of the military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, Reservists and Coast Guard.