(Photo courtesy of Rich’s Facebook page.)

In the latest installment of his TUF 11 guest-blog for CagePotato.com, Team Liddell’s Rich Attonito recaps the fights from last night’s episode, reveals Nick Ring’s house nickname, gives his thoughts on Court McGee, and reminds everyone how awful it is to be stuck in the TUF house when you’re out of the competition.

The Wild Card fight is under way and the match-up is Uscola-McCray. Right before their fight Kaycey got the good news that his son was born. Everybody knew how much Kaycey was anticipating the birth of his child since we got into the house. Now the moment had finally arrived, but there wasn’t much time for reflection because his fight with The Savage was looming. It was the first time we were gonna see two guys on the same team go at it and everyone was anticipating how it would play out. I personally felt like Kaycey would take this one. But I wondered if the birth of Kaycey’s child was going to be a distraction for him going in.

In the end, McCray walked away with the victory by submission early in round two. Kaycey hurt Kris’s knee early with some well-timed leg stomps, but he got overzealous and charged in, allowing Kris to lock him up and recover from the pain he was in. McCray’s got a pretty sick body lock and he put it on display in this fight, as he eventually used it to ground Kaycey and finish him off.

("Objection, your honor! There’s no way Mr. Jackson can do justice to the character of B.A. Baracus!")

By CagePotato contributor Jim Genia

Last week, legendary promoter/murderer Don King filed a legal injunction against the Shine Fights organization to put the kibosh on their “Worlds Collide: Mayorga vs. Thomas” main event, a bout that would’ve seen pugilist Ricardo Mayorga — whom King manages in the realm of boxing — take on UFC vet Din Thomas in the pro boxer’s MMA debut. Though the event’s subsequent collapse can’t completely be blamed on King, his legal cock-blocking of the headlining attraction certainly didn’t help.

Of course, this isn’t the first time a handful of legal documents and a judge have affected the MMA world, and though the history of the sport is a relatively short one, it’s a history rife with broken contracts, copyright infringements and countless other court-based fisticuffs. Who’s filed a lawsuit against whom? How many fighters know too well the insides of a courtroom? What happens when you sell the UFC a lemon? The answers to these questions and more can be found when examining the top ten lawsuits in MMA history.

10) Zuffa v. The Ghost of Pride: There’s an old Greek saying that goes, “Buying from the Yakuza is like passing out at Mike Whitehead‘s house — one way or another you’re going to get screwed.” Zuffa learned this the hard way when they purchased the Pride Fighting Championship from Dream Stage Entertainment, for they soon discovered that the whole thing had been held together by organized crime money and Scotch Tape (and not even real Scotch Tape, but that cheap knockoff stuff you buy at the dollar store). Consequently, in February 2008, Zuffa filed suit against DSE alleging that they were sold a clunker. DSE in turn countersued, complaining that Zuffa went back on its promise to keep Pride alive.

(Press conference?…In Canada?…Wait….Canada has press?)

The UFC has announced that Dana White and Lorenzo Fertita will be holding an impromptu press conference at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday in Toronto to make a "major announcement" that will be broadcast via satellite to news outlets across North America.

(Hopefully, for KJ’s sake, that scale is bolted down)

Sherdog is reporting that June’s Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum  event has added double the firepower with the addition of a main card bout featuring former EliteXC lightweight champion KJ Noons and Charles "Krazy Horse" "Kid Kaos" Bennett. The fight will be a heavily anticipated rematch of their February 10, 2007 fight (video after the jump) that saw Bennett knock Noons out in the first round.

(Look on the bright side, Joe — you weren’t going to win that fight anyway.)

Last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter blessed us with two fights — the Wild Card match between previously eliminated Team Ortiz members Kyacey Uscola and Kris McCray, and the first quarterfinal match, which basically turned out to be a Wild Card match in itself. Allow us to explain…

Kyacey’s son, Charles Champ Uscola, is born. Kyacey is elated, and fired up to capitalize on his second chance after losing by DQ to Rich Attonito. McCray previously lost a decision to Josh Bryant, but showed a lot of heart in the process. Kris McCray considers himself the underdog in this fight. He’s less experienced, and Kyacey has the better wrestling pedigree. Tito will be watching from the bleachers, and promises not to say anything during the fight.

WILD CARD MATCH
Round 1: McCray starts out with a leg kick and a couple jabs, then a body kick. Uscola responds with a leg kick, and two inside kicks to McCray’s knee that make him wince. Uscola charges in, but McCray clinches and eventually scores the takedown. Uscola quickly gets up, but McCray is on him against the fence. Uscola fires a knee in the clinch. McCray works some knees to Uscola’s legs. One of them nails Uscola in the nuts and the ref warns McCray and separates them. They trade kicks. Uscola hip-tosses McCray, lands a knee to the body, and they trade punches when McCray fights his way up. McCray picks up and slams Uscola, who turtles on his knees. McCray works to take Uscola’s back, and throws down a couple of short elbows from the top. He tries to set up a rear-naked choke as the round ends.

The latest installment in THQ’s UFC Undisputed franchise hits stores next week, and from all accounts, the 2010 edition beats the crap out of last year’s. Besides the new playable characters and improvements to the gameplay, the create-a-character and career mode functions have been nicely tuned-up. (You now have the ability to disrespect your opponents at weigh ins, for one thing.) And check this out: If you pre-order the game from Walmart Gamecenter, you’ll receive a $10 e-gift card as a token of their appreciation.

But that’s not the only reason to swing by Gamecenter today. While you’re there, take a look at their exclusive video feature with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Forrest Griffin, and Todd Duffee giving their thoughts on the game, and the career mode tutorial with Black House manager Ed Soares. So do yourself (and us) a favor and click here…

(I wonder if Fancy Pants went by the same handle in prison.)

Just a heads up that Strikeforce will be streaming the hotly contested bout between undefeated Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm and Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro from last weekend’s Heavy Artillery event today at 6pm ET/3pm PST.

If you haven’t heard, the fight was a back-and-forth barnburner that many in attendance feel Shaolin won, yet Beerbohm pulled out the decision.

Watch it here today and decide for yourself.

 
(Sonnen vows to "bring taxes down, and lay on top of them until my term ends.")

While some fighters can’t even be bothered to show up for practice more than four times in a given week, Chael Sonnen is trying to secure a spot in the Oregon House of Representatives, in the same year that he’s preparing for the biggest fight of his life. On Tuesday, the UFC’s #1 middleweight contender claimed a "landslide" victory in the Republican Party primaries for Oregon’s 37th District, picking up 99.13% of the vote. We should probably mention that Sonnen ran unopposed, and the remaining 0.87% percent of the vote was made up of write-in ballots, most of which probably went to Anderson Silva. But still, Chael’s got momentum on his side. You can learn more about his platform at VoteSonnen.com, where he’s described as a "successful realtor and vice president of Caged Promotions, a sports and music promotion and production company." Sonnen’s main gig as one of MMA’s most insane heels is mentioned nowhere on the site.

(You can’t mention MMA and black eyes in a story without a "what’s up" to Rich "perma-periorbital hematoma" Franklin)

With the recent rash of unfortunate post-fight antics and TMZ newsworthy stories that seem to have plagued mixed martial arts in recent months, Cage Potato has saved you a whole lot of Googling and have compiled our list of the 13 biggest black eyes the sport has experienced over the years.

*Note: If the first fight you ever watched was Bobby Southworth vs. Lodune Sincaid, chances are you may not recognize the bulk of the fighters named below.

The list (in no particular order) is after the jump.

(Phil Baroni: Here for the orgy. / Props: sports.sho.com)

MMA Junkie confirmed yesterday that veteran slugger Phil Baroni will be competing at UFC 118, August 28th in Boston. No opponent has been named yet, but as the New York Bad Ass told BJPenn.com, his next fight will see him return to middleweight. After compiling a journeyman’s record of 10-10 over the first eight years of his career, Baroni dropped to 170 pounds in 2008 and won his first three fights against Scott Jansen, Ron Verdadero, and Olaf Alfonso. Those wins were followed by unanimous decision losses to Joe Riggs in Strikeforce and Amir Sadollah in Baroni’s Octagon return at UFC 106. Once again, it’s time to regroup:

"I’m going to go back up to 185 for this fight…The cut [to welterweight] was rough; I think I made the cut wrong the last couple times I made the weight (to 170). I lost some strength and I lost some of my speed and explosiveness and I think those are some of my strengths. So I think that in the future if I made the cut again I would do it slower and go about it a different way. But right now I’m more focused on getting my strength and power back and getting my explosiveness back and in order to do that I’m going to have to gain weight. So it’s going to be a cut right now to 185. I wouldn’t be able to make 170 right now and be able to perform at a higher level. But at 185 I think I’ll be able to get my strength and explosiveness back and be able to perform at a higher level. In the future I’m not ruling out 170 but right now I’m going to fight at 185. I’m not sure where the best weight class is for me and I’m not sure where I will be best at but right now it’s not 170, 185 is the place. 179 would probably be the best weight class for me, but I don’t have that luxury."

So who can the UFC give Phil at 185 who will contribute to a good brawl, and who’s also hanging on to his job by his fingernails? Start getting in shape, Tom Lawlor…

(Joe Lauzon, Dan Lauzon, and Narcoleptic Larry pose for a picture before Affliction: Day of Reckoning. Photo courtesy of JoeLauzon.com.)

When Dan Lauzon steps into the Octagon at UFC 114 on May 29th — where he’s scheduled to face TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero — he will do so without three longtime coaches in his corner. Due to a dispute over Dan’s commitment to training, his brother Joe as well as his trainers Joe Pomfret and Steve Maze will not be traveling to the fight in Las Vegas from their home base in Bridgewater. As the story goes, Dan was given an ultimatum a month ago to shape up and start training 10-11 times per week; when he didn’t, his team broke ties with him. Dan first went public with the story earlier this week, telling the Boston Herald:

(Clip courtesy YouTube/Cagewriter/UFC – Let’s hope the fight lasts this long)

If the fight between Rashad Evans and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is half as intense as their pre-fight bickering has been, we’re in for a hell of a fight Saturday night. Let’s just hope both guys save some of their energy for the Octagon.

During today’s conference call ahead of the May 29 event in Las Vegas, the pair who really do seem to hate each other, got into it again and after arguing for more than five minutes had to be cut off by UFC president Dana White. The funny thing was, as incoherent as their argument got at times, it still made more sense than Franklin McNeil (who was the reporter who asked the original question in the clip) makes 99 percent of the time.

(Both Coker and White received news of the ratings at exactly the same time)

According to a report by MMAJunkie.com Saturday night’s Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery event, that featured a main event title fight between champion Alistair Overeem and contender Brett Rogers broadcast on Showtime drew 40.43 percent fewer viewers than the Strikeforce: Miami show that was presented by the network in January. 

To put into perspective how bad the ratings for the show are, last weekend’s broadcast netted 308,000 Showtime subscribers, while the UFC’s Spike TV broadcasted counter-programming initiative, UFC’s Ultimate Fights, was seen by 894,000 viewers.

No matter how you slice it, things aren’t looking good for Strikeforce, especially if they eventually do reach out to CBS to plead their case to have another show broadcast on the cable network.

(Attention, fighters: Don’t let this happen to you.)

By Kelly Crigger

You might know me. I’m a sponsor. I get an email every other day from a manager (usually a fighter’s brother whose only business experience is a checkbook management class) asking me to sponsor someone. Sometimes I get a gem that’s professional and treats the situation exactly as it is — a product pitch. But too many times requests are so poorly written that they’re embarrassing and I don’t give them a second thought. Why? Because MMA is a young sport full of young people who have no business sense, and until that changes, fighters are going to miss out on sponsorship opportunities.

When asking for money, managers must answer one basic question — why should I give you money? It has to be a watertight pitch that describes the product (the fighter) and gives me no reason to say no. Unfortunately this is rare and more than one email has been relegated to my trash file. If you don’t want it to be you, follow a few simple rules:

– First off, a sponsor and a fighter need to be the right fit. A staunchly Catholic fighter who’s offended by pre-marital sex shouldn’t be sponsored by Condom Depot, and Ranger Up only sponsors fighters with a military background. Do your research so you’re not wasting my time and yours.

– Don’t wait until the last minute. Contacting me three days before a fight says you lack the foresight to plan ahead. That doesn’t instill me with the confidence that you’ll take care of my brand. Two weeks before a fight is okay. Three weeks is better.

(Nick Thompson, Rick Hawn, and a bunch of angry fans react to the last-minute cancellation of "Worlds Collide." But hey, they came all that way, so they might as well hit up the concession stands. Props: RealTimeMMA)

After Shine Fights’ "Worlds Collide" event fell apart this weekend, we all assumed it was a direct result of the injunction that wretched, slimy, reptilian motherfucker Don King filed in order to block the participation of headliner Ricardo Mayorga, who King had under a previous fight contract. But it turns out that the cancellation actually had to little to do with King’s interference with the main event, and the general mismanagement of the promotion has led Shine Fights matchmaker Ron Foster to resign. MMA Weekly has the gory details:

(For Busta, it was always about the fight, not all the bullshit like tattoos, shaved chests and  pre-fight smack talk.)

When Murilo Bustamante announced his retirement from mixed martial arts in 2007, it didn’t take long for fans and pundits to start wondering how long before the former UFC middleweight champion returned to the cage. 

As we reported yesterday, a date and an opponent has been set for the head of Brazilian Top Team’s return as he will face Jesse "JT Money" Taylor in Australia at Impact Fighting Championships’ July 18 event.

(Video courtesy MMAFighting.com)

Ariel Helwani was back yesterday with his The MMA Hour, which is arguably the best Internet radio show out there right now. (Sleep with one eye open though, Helwani. We’re coming for you.)

This Friday, the DCU Center in Worcester will host the oddly-named Moosin: God of Martial Arts event, in what is being billed as the first major, sanctioned MMA event in Massachusetts. The show will be available on pay-per-view, and should feature some entertaining matchups, including the headliner between former UFC champ Tim Sylvia and strongman-turned-MMA-fighter Mariusz Pudzianowski, and the female feature between Tara LaRosa and Roxanne Modafferi. Eric "Butterbean" Esch — who is also the event’s promoter — will be taking on radio host Lyndon Byers, though the fight won’t be part of the PPV broadcast.

Also on Friday, the Strikeforce Challengers series returns to Showtime, headlined by the "WTF, Are You Serious?" match between Matt Lindland and Kevin Casey. Tyron Woodley, Roger Bowling, and Tarec Saffiedine will also be on the card.

The full list of this week’s MMA FightPicker questions are after the jump. Give ‘em a look, and go get those PotatoChips. And if you haven’t done so already, please follow MMA FightPicker on Facebook!

(Remember this face — because it might not look the same after next month. Props: MMABigShow.com)

As we mentioned this weekend, Cris Cyborg will be returning to the cage next month against Jan "Cuddles" Finney. You may be asking yourself, "Why is Strikeforce making their 145-pound women’s champ fight some broad named Cuddles who I’ve never heard of?" Fair enough. So let’s run through the checklist…

– Is she a natural 145-pounder? Of course not. Finney has competed around 135 pounds for most of her career, which would make her a more logical opponent for Strikeforce’s 135-pound champ Sarah Kaufman, who could also use a fight.

– Does she have a winning record? Just barely! Finney’s record stands at a shaky 8-7, though she has won her last four fights.

– Has she faced top competition? Definitely. She’s gone toe-to-toe with Miesha Tate, Erin Toughill, Shayna Baszler, and Julie Kedzie (three times), and has lost to all of them. She was scheduled to face Gina Carano at Dynamite!! USA in June 2007, but Carano had to withdraw from the fight due to illness.

– So wait, why is this fight happening? [shrugs]

Videos of Finney in action are after the jump…

(Video courtesy MMAthletics)

If you can get past the first half of this infomercial for Randy Couture and Jay Glazer’s MMAthletics conditioning program, you will be rewarded by footage of host Rachelle Leah doing a photo shoot in Hollywood. 

Now, I get the oil and the underwear and the guns, but whose idea was it to incorporate a bowl of nachos in the shoot? Is that to up the appeal to guys who are otherwise uninterested in a scantily-clad models but who may really like snacks?

Unless they’re shooting an ad for Doritos, it seems pretty bizarre, but whatever.

The Reem Episode One
(Video courtesy YouTube/TheReem)

From Clay Guida’s "Eddie the Head" tribute, to Jens Pulver as Little Mac, to Tri-Coasta’s now-ubiquitous Korean Zombie design, we’re suckers for a good custom fighter t-shirt. And since our recent MMA event poster design contest was a smashing success, we figured we should let our artistically gifted readers battle it out again in a brand-new contest: Can you design America’s Next Top Fighter T-Shirt?

Details of the contest are after the jump, but we thought it would be important to let you know what you stand to win. Short answer: Everything. You stand to win everything. Longer answer: A personal television from FLO TV, with access to the pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 115. In case you’re unaware of this lovely little device, here’s a quick rundown: The FLO TV Personal Television is a mobile handheld viewer that allows you to watch TV wherever you go, on its subscription-based network of channels. (12 months of their standard service comes included with every FLO TV.) Beginning with UFC 113, FLO TV is now a distributor of UFC PPV events, and they want one lucky member of the Potato Nation to watch Liddell vs. Franklin on his/her very own mobile television. Total street value of this prize package: About $425. Kenny Florian can vouch for this product personally, but if you need more info, go here and here. Information on FLO TV coverage areas can be found at flotv.com. 

You want it. Here’s how to get it.

(These cards could be explosive, or they could crash and burn the IFC)

According to a report from MMAFighting.com, Impact Fighting Championships has potentially bolstered its formerly sideshow-esque July fight cards with the signing of a number of former UFC and PRIDE standouts including Murilo Bustamante, Denis Kang, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Paulo Filho, Jeff Monson, Carlos Newton and Karo Parisyan.

As little as five years ago, the above list of names would have outmatched any combination on a Zuffa or SEG-helmed fight card, but for the most part, each one of these fighter brings with them a large question mark to go along with their undoubtedly large asking prices.

Some of them have been inactive, others have struggled with demons — both chemical and psychological and the remainder simply failed to live up to their potential. If by some divine intervention, all of these guys get their collective shit together and train and fight like…I don’t know…it’s their jobs again, we could see three decent shows with decent fights. Or, we could see a flop as a result of the IFC putting too many eggs in one basket and not looking at the card objectively for what it is, rather than what it could potentially be.

(Video courtesy YouTube/Fighters Only)

Quinton Jackson recently spoke to Fighters Only’s John O’Regan, and as usual, Rampage had a lot of interesting, although grammatically questionable things to say about everything from possible future opponents and his phony fans to his icy relationship with the UFC.

(Props: kevinjd)

So let’s run this thing down, from the beginning.

During the first round of Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley‘s fight last Saturday at UFC 113, Paul Daley fires a knee to Josh Koscheck’s dome while Kos’s knees were clearly in the "down" position. Kos does his best to call attention to the foul before slumping over on the mat. He covers his face in apparent pain. When he removes his glove, there’s blood on the bridge of his nose that didn’t seem to be there before. The crowd boos Daley’s dirtiness…until they see the replay, which shows (from multiple angles) that at worst, Daley’s knee grazed Koscheck’s hair. Sure, the knee shouldn’t have been thrown in the first place, but Josh had just been exposed as a faker. Now the crowd was booing him. After the controversial fouls in his ugly match against Anthony Johnson, Koscheck’s credibility was officially shot.

Following the Daley fight, he stood by his claim that he’d been kneed illegally — or at least hit in the face by something. It could have been a fist, actually. At the time, this seemed like a pathetic explanation, because if it was a punch, why would Kos try so hard to draw the foul, and besides, hadn’t we just seen the replay of this mysterious illegal blow like 20 times? Forget it. Josh Koscheck was a liar and our minds were made up.

Okay. Are you ready to have your minds blown?

(Sorry, buddy — "chill dawg" is not in Alistair’s vocabulary. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

On May 17, 2010, the Potato Index becomes self-aware. Human decisions are removed from post-fight analysis. In a panic, CagePotato’s editors try to pull the plug. The Potato Index fights back. It launches its arbitrary numerical ranking system against the fighters of this weekend’s Strikeforce show. There are no survivors.

Alistair Overeem +265, pending result of drug test
The Demolition Man said he had nothing to prove in his fight against Brett Rogers, but he proved a hell of a lot: First, that he can compete in the U.S. against opponents who aren’t hand-picked victims. Second, that he’s absolutely one of the best heavyweights in the world. The way he tossed the Grim to the mat like a child and didn’t waver in his assault until the job was finished suggested that a fight between him and Fedor could actually be…competitive? Unfortunately, his criticism of Emelianenko’s management following the event has some validity. Just because the fight should happen doesn’t necessarily mean it will.

Brett Rogers -210
Apparently you need more than just heavy hands to hang with the division’s elite. Rogers offered nothing in this fight other than a large surface for punching; he never had a chance to enact any sort of gameplan, and his attempts to kick Overeem off of him and create an escape route were completely swallowed up. He’ll need a tune-up match against a lower-level prospect if Strikeforce hopes to restore some value to his name. Lavar Johnson sounds about right.

("I don’t need a passport, bro. I’ve got something even better.")

The artist formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver was inexplicably allowed to leave the country this weekend and on Saturday celebrated by defeating Zach Light via first-round rear naked choke at BAMMA 3 in Birmingham, England. Now it seems like he’s having some trouble getting back, according to his Twitter. (Editor’s Note: You go ahead and keep him, England. Seriously.)

Fellow UFC washout (and the first fighter to snatch away the veil to reveal Kimbo Slice’s canliness) Seth Petruzelli also got a win, locking on an arm bar just a minute, seven seconds into his fight against Ryan White. Petruzelli billed himself as "The Kimbo Conqueror" for this engagement, apparently hoping ships bearing news that Slice is now officially washed up had not yet arrived from The New World.

(Props: MMA Fighting)

Alistair Overeem successfully avoided the perils of getting too high over his dominant beatdown of Brett Rogers at Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery on Saturday night, as the heavyweight champion compared the thrill of victory to … coming in third in the 2005 Pride Grand Prix? Yeah, when asked by seemingly omnipresent reporter Ariel Helwani (video above) at the post-fight media conference if he considered the defeat of Rogers among the best moments of his career, Overeem responded by rattling off pretty much his whole resume of combat sport accomplishments.

"I would say I’ve had several really high points," Overeem said. "This definitely is one of them. I defeated the K-1 champion Badr (Hari), that was a really nice accomplishment. Once I beat (Sergei) Kharitonov, he was the second (ranked fighter) of Pride back in early 2006, that was a really good accomplishment. I became third of the Pride Grand Prix, that was a very good accomplishment. In 2007, I also became the Strikeforce champion, that was a good accomplishment."

As if Brett Rogers didn’t have enough depressing shit to deal with today, now he has to face the reality that beating him feels similar to tying with Wanderlei Silva as second runners-up in a tournament held five years ago. With no time for losers however, the MMA media is rapidly moving on to speculating about a future matchup between Overeem and Fedor Emelianenko. Overeem said he thinks it will happen, if those meddling gangsters in M-1 Global don’t sabotage the negotiations.

("I know people been saying Alistair looks like a completely different fighter these days, but damn …")

Though it sounds like a crazy dream, it’s very close to becoming reality: Alistair Overeem, here in America, poised to actually defend the Strikeforce heavyweight title he won more than two years ago. Would it be wrong to admit – given the company’s recent track record – that leading up to this show we halfway expected Overeem to pop positive for PEDs, get pulled from tonight’s main event and send Strikeforce skidding into an Affliction-style tailspin of death and despair? Luckily, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Thanks, Missouri Office of Athletics.

Instead, the bell may have unexpectedly tolled for another fledgling MMA promotion today. With that little debacle now in the books, we shift our focus to St. Louis, where "Heavy Artillery" kicks off at 7 p.m. PST. We’ll be live shortly thereafter. Remember to hit refresh early and often to keep the page current.

(Honestly, is this the face of a man who wouldn’t carefully read his contract before signing it?)

Final Final Update: Now the entire Shine Fights event has been canceled. Jesus.

Final Update: Mayorga is officially out and Ninja Rua vs. David Heath has been promoted to the main event, MMA reporter Karyn Bryant says. So that’s that.

This Shine Fights story looks like it’s going to drag out all day and the updates are flying fast and furious. As of this afternoon, the company is still adamant that embattled boxer Ricardo Mayorga will make his MMA debut against Din Thomas at tonight’s "Worlds Collide" pay-per-view event, despite a judge’s orders that he not.

For what it’s worth, Thomas is reportedly telling MMA scribes he’s been informed that he’s still fighting Mayorga and will continue preparing accordingly.

Further developments allege that Don King Productions may take its fight straight to PPV providers and basically dare them to air the program in the face of the legal order.