(Video courtesy YouTube/ShootMedia)

The only thing that would have made this video better would have been seeing Fedor spar with Cain Velasquez while he was at AKA.

- Interview in the third person with Cristiane Cyborg" Santos (MMAMania)

– As punishment for disparaging comments he made about the way fighters are   portrayed on The Ultimate Fighter, Kendall Grove’s 116 fight with Goran    
  Reljic dropped from SPIKE TV undercard broadcast (FightersOnly)

– Strikeforce Fedor vs. Werdum weigh-in results (MMAJunkie)

– Coming soon to a record store near you: the sweet musical stylings of 
  Genki Sudo (Fightlinker)

– Werdum has one special technique for Fedor (Fight!Magazine)

– Is it worth it [for a fighter] to fight 10 times per year? (TATAME)

– Drake and Jimmy Kimmel’s video for "Tweet, Tweet" (ScreenJunkies)

– Five of the most dirtiest places to land a punch (HolyTaco)

– Seven horror movie hotties (Chickipedia)

– The Motorola Droid-X (MadeMan)

– Earnhardt Jr. diecast contest (AllLeftTurns)

– Rock Band 3 preview (FileFront)

– How do you like it shaved? (Break)

– 51 things that need to be in every office (Asylum)

– Michael Vick a suspect in early morning nightclub shooting (ScoresReport)

– Bandanas: check. Pick-up truck: check. Snarling dog: check. Open-sided tank top: check. This redneck fight club is ready to roll (NothingToxic)

(Does this smell bad to you?)

Embattled former WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho sat down with TATAME’s Guilherme Cruz and the Brazilian says he’s fed up with the amount of disrespect he has been shown by MMA media and fans and that he deserves more reverence for what he has done in his 10-year career.

“I’d like a little more support, because the critics are so numerous that it’s discouragement. An athlete holding a professional record of 20 wins and only one loss can’t be disrespected.”

The 32-year-old has brought the brunt of criticism onto himself.

(Fight!‘s June 2010 issue, on newsstands now.)

Okay, we gotta tell you a couple-three things:

– Come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow night beginning at 10 p.m. ET for our liveblog of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum.

– Hurry up and enter some pools on MMA FightPicker. There will be no prizes for the winners, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.

– How ’bout a round of e-appaluse for the Potato Nation members who made their presence known in the comments section this week, and will be receiving one-year subscriptions to Fight! Magazine…

Disco-Platypus on "Knockout of the Week: Marlon Sandro Flattens Masanori Kanehara in 38 Seconds, Wins Sengoku Featherweight Title": The Sengoku championship may as well be labeled, "The Champion Who Would Crumble Most Quickly When Faced With American-style Wrestling."

DangadaDang on "Report: Batista Signs With Strikeforce; Opponent and Date of Debut Set to Be Announced": He is aware that no one in MMA can be brought out of a sleeper hold on the pure energy of a chanting crowd, correct?

And finally — uh-oh, get comfortable…

(Retirement is for quitters.)

A new report on Sherdog passes along more details on that "War on the Mainland" MMA/boxing hybrid event (August 14th; Irvine, Ca.) that will host Jens Pulver‘s first post-WEC appearance. Following five straight losses in the WEC, Lil’ Evil will try to re-build against Diego Garijo, a 4-1 prospect from The Arena, who hasn’t competed since his insane brawl against Saad Awad at Bellator X last year. So good luck Jens, because this kid can really take a beating. 

Though it originally appeared that Tim Sylvia would miss this event due to a foot injury suffered in the Maruisz Pudzianowski fight, Sherdog reports that Timmy will actually be headlining the card against recent UFC castoff Paul Buentello. Speaking of UFC castoffs, former UFC #1 middleweight contender Thales Leites will do battle with Hawaiian vet Falaniko Vitale at "War on the Mainland," Jason Lambert locks horns with old-schooler Allan Goes, and Terry Martin meets Jorge "The Naked Man" Ortiz.

If you’d like to check out the terrible-looking website for the event, go to www.waronthemainland.com. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

(Healy vs. Ryan Ford @ MFC 17, 7/25/08)

After losing his belt to Gilbert Melendez last December, Josh Thomson returns to the Strikeforce cage tomorrow night at Fedor vs. Werdum, where he will be kicking off the Showtime broadcast against Pat "Bam Bam" Healy. Healy may be an unknown quantity among casual fans, but he’s a tough competitor who’s been fighting professionally since 2001, and could actually give the Punk a run for his money. Here’s what you need to know about him:

– Healy’s record stands at 22-15, with 19 of those wins coming via stoppage. His resume includes notable victories over Dan Hardy, Paul Daley, Carlos Condit, Mike Guymon, Ryan Ford (twice), and most recently, a unanimous decision over Bryan Travers at the Lindland vs. Casey Strikeforce Challengers card last month. He’s had the honor of being beaten up by Denis Kang, Chris Lytle, Brad Blackburn (twice), Jay Hieron, and Rory Markham.

– A current member of Team Quest’s Gresham camp and former collegiate wrestler, Healy was previously Maximum Fighting Championship’s welterweight champ, until he relinquished the belt to compete at lightweight. He has also competed for the IFL and WEC, and had one fight in the UFC — a first-round submission loss to Anthony Torres at UFC Fight Night 6.

– Healy is coming into this fight as a replacement for Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm, who suffered an elbow injury in his last fight against Vitor Ribeiro at Heavy Artillery. He’s a sizable betting underdog in the +300 to +380 range.

– He has a twin brother, Ryan, who also fights.

After the jump: More videos of Pat in action.

 
(Bet you didn’t know we’re all fighters, too.)

Well, since it’s almost the weekend and we know on Fridays how the second hand seems to move one tick forward and two ticks back, we figured we’d help you waste an hour of your day with another podcast.

Episode two features an interview with our The Ultimate Fighter 11 guest blogger and hero among men Rich Attonito, our take on this week’s big stories and a round table discussion panel with Ben, Mike, weekend CP editor Chad Dundas and our resident jack of all trades, master of none, DL "ReX13" Richardson, AKA "The Skirt Smasher."

We’re working on ironing out the bugs and are looking into other Voip options as Skype is hit or miss quality-wise.

Let us know in the comment section (like you needed to be told) what you think, what and who you want to hear on future episodes and any questions you may have for the panel or our future guests.

DOWNLOAD

(Zoila Frausto vs. Rosi Sexton. Props: YouTube.com/BellatorMMA)

By DL “All’s Well That Enswell” Richardson

Like summer vacations, dorm parties, and that time you dated the sex-crazed stripper, all good things must come to an end. It was the final show for Bellator’s second season last night, and if you weren’t watching, it was your own damn fault. Louisville, Kentucky plays host for the finals in two weight classes, a women’s division superfight, and a bantamweight tourney qualifier, plus some regional action and (I assume) some horse races and bourbon tastings out of sheer habit. What surprises are in store? Who will turn in a stellar performance and make a name for themselves, as Ben Askren did just last week? Who will claim the poster-sized check and grin goofily as they hold it aloft for all to see, as Ben Askren also did last week? Will Alexander “The Dreidel” Shlemenko manage to keep his fight on the feet? Will we finally make up our minds about whether Joe Warren is a pretty cool guy who isn’t afraid of anything, or is he, after all, just a turbo douche? That’s a lot of questions — what are you, a preschooler? Seriously, if you start just asking “why?” every time I say something, I’ll turn this car around, and we won’t even go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory Tour. Follow me past the jump, and all will be revealed. If you’re good, maybe I’ll talk your mother into seeing the zoo. If not, I’m taking us to see the World’s Largest Bottle of Booze.

(No wonder Chuck doesn’t want to retire. I’d fight Fedor, Velasquez, Lesnar and Dos Santos in a four-man tag-team match for $500,000)

The Vancouver Athletic Commission released the fighters’ salaries, medical suspensions and revenue figures from UFC 115. According to the report, Chuck Liddell was the highest paid fighter on the card that took in a $4.2 million live gate with a "show" pay of $500,000 USD. Not a bad gold watch for his UFC retirement fight.

Fighters salaries totalled $1.85 million, which accounted for 31% of the live gate of the event. 17,669 attended the second Canadian show put on by the UFC in 2010;  1,296 of whom were comped tickets by the promotion and 1,752 watched the action from private suites. According to the release, only 138 tickets went unsold for the show.

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic was the second highest paid fighter with $150,000 which included a $75,000 win bonus for his rear naked choke submission over Pat Barry. Cro Cop also took home an additional $85,000 for submission of the night, but bonus awards and undisclosed back room bonuses paid out by the UFC are not included in the commission’s salary summary.

12 fighters, including Rich Franklin, Chuck Liddell, Pat Barry, Mirko Filipovic and Rory MacDonald were handed 180 day suspensions while the remainder of the fighters were given from 45-14 days off from training and fighting for lesser injuries or precautionary reasons.

The full list is after the jump:

(Too weird to live. Too rare to die. Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)

We crossed our fingers and held our breath, but we were not able to stave off the inevitable. As first reported by MMAFighting, longtime UFC veteran Keith Jardine has been cut by the UFC following his fourth consecutive loss, a majority decision against Matt Hamill at the TUF 11 Finale.

Jardine has competed exclusively for the UFC since entering the organization through The Ultimate Fighter 2 in 2005. Since his stint on the reality show, Jardine has gone 6-7 in professional competition, scoring notable victories over Forrest Griffin, Chuck Liddell, and Brandon Vera. But in recent years, the Dean of Mean repeatedly fell short against the elite of the light-heavyweight division, suffering defeats at the hands of Quinton Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, and Thiago Silva, among others. Said Dana White of Jardine’s release: "It sucks. I have nothing but respect for him and I hope to see him back soon."

(David Loiseau waits for the merciful hand of the referee against Mario Miranda at UFC 115. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

After taking a rather ugly TKO loss against Mario Miranda during the UFC 115 preliminary card earlier this month, Canadian veteran David Loiseau has been officially released by the UFC. The firing represents the fourth time that Loiseau has parted ways with the UFC since 2003, as well as his fourth-straight defeat in the Octagon — a losing skid that began with his unsuccessful shot at Rich Franklin’s middleweight title at UFC 58.

Following UFC 115, Dana White was openly disappointed with the way Loiseau performed: "David’s been in this sport a long time, and again tonight he got dominated on the ground. That’s his problem…I’m sure (UFC matchmaker) Joe (Silva) is probably going to cut him after this fight, and David will probably have to work his way back up again…He’s been around the game a long time, like I said, but he keeps getting dominated on the ground." 

(Even the awesome WWE-like flamethrowers couldn’t elicit a smile from Fedor "The Stonefaced Killer" Emelianenko)

Your perpetually absent "real dad" Ben Fowlkes spoke on the phone with Fedor
Emelianenko through his interpreter yesterday and covered a lot of topics of interest including the rumors of his foray into Russian politics, his recent comments about the UFC and where he sees himself after he finishes his Strikeforce contract.

("The fine print specifically says no opponents with the word "cat" in their nicknames.")

Yoshihiro Akiyama’s proclamation that he may not agree to face Chris Leben at UFC 116 made me think that maybe Japanese MMA fans are right about him when they say he has no Budo.

Now before you put on your mean mug and warm up your angry typing fingers to tell me I’m an idiot, hear me out.

(Akiyama’s next fight just went from "Beauty and the Beast" to "Beauty and the Average-Looking Guy." *You* try to sell that. / Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

If you’re heartbroken that Wanderlei Silva won’t be competing at UFC 116 next Saturday due to injury, well, Yoshihiro Akiyama feels your pain. In fact, he’s so unimpressed by the idea of Chris Leben coming in as a replacement that he doesn’t even want to fight anymore. From daum.net via BloodyElbow:

"I am not pleased with the change. There are just ten days left until the contest for me to determine [Chris Leben’s] threats and the time is insufficient to establish a tailored gameplan. Leben is also not as high-profile as [Wanderlei] Silva and that does not help me."

"If there is to be a replacement I was hoping for a big name. I spent one year preparing hard for this fight and this news has come as a big disappointment, my motivation has waned. I do not know yet what will happen…In the worst case, I will not take part in the [UFC 116] event. We are working hard to resolve this issue."

(Jan’s hair was done by her mortician. He figured, "hey, why not get a head-start." / Props: Esther Lin for Strikeforce)


Journeywoman Jan "Cuddles" Finney (8-7) throws the dice on a real long-shot this Saturday as she steps up to take on 145-pound queen Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos (9-1) at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum. Finney describes MMA as a "hobby" that compliments her day-job as a personal trainer, but warns fans not to sleep on her: "I’m going to come right back at her. I’m not going to cower away. I’m probably going to be one of the strongest opponents she’s faced. I’m not saying I’m as strong as her, but you never know — I might be…I have a few tricks up my sleeve. I would also say I’ve got a pretty nice right hand."

After the jump: Fabricio Werdum shows off his size advantage against Fedor Emelianenko.

(Video courtesy YouTube/TheShoot)

The majority of MMA fans and media feel that Fabricio Werdum will likely lose his fight against Fedor Emelianenko on Saturday night. Apparently nobody gave Werdum the memo.

"I know it’s going to be hard but I know that I can [beat Fedor]," he explains.

Although he is confident about his chances this weekend, Werdum has no illusions of grandeur.

"If I beat Fedor on that night,  I’m better than him that night. I don’t consider myself better than anybody else," he says. "I just know that I have a place on the top. I think to beat Fedor is like having 10 belts in the house."

("Man…I just had deja vu.")

According to Scott Smith’s manager Mike Roberts in an interview he did with his fighter for Sherdog.com, if Cung Le wins their second showdown on Saturday night, "Hands of Steel" will get a guaranteed rematch.

"I told Strikeforce when we accepted this fight that if Scott were to lose, there was going to be a third fight," said Roberts. "I don’t think Scott’s going to lose this fight, but if it were to happen, there’d have to be a rubber match."

(Jason "Mayhem" Miller, shown here with two of the countless enemies he’s made over the years.)

Losing your middleweight champ to the UFC after his contract runs out? Disaster. But Strikeforce plans to turn their lemons into lemonade with an upcoming eight-man tournament that will crown a new champion in their deepest division. Here’s what King Coker had to say about the MWGP he’ll put together if Jake Shields splits the scene:

A two-event tournament means that the semi-finals and finals could potentially be held on the same night, Japan-style. And looking at that lineup, we see a lot of potential for sick matchups and serious grudge-settling. Think about it…

(Anyone who isn’t a fan of Wand, isn’t a fan of MMA.)

Fighters Only spoke to Wanderlei Silva last night about his painful decision to pull out of his UFC 116 bout with Yoshihiro Akiyama. "The Axe Murderer" revealed that he  had torn ligaments in his knee a few weeks ago, but said he was planning to fight with the injured joint anyway. He says that the combination of his knee injury and a trio of broken ribs he sustained while training on Friday made it impossible to continue his camp, let alone fight in a week and a half.

“I tried training more upper body and boxing; I kept losing weight and I was gonna fight no matter what. Last Friday, during sparring, I injured my rib. It was very painful and the next day I had an x-ray and an MRI. I discovered I had three broken ribs.

(Props: neerbnadroj)

While American MMA fans were focused on the TUF 11 Finale and WEC 49 last weekend, Sengoku Raiden Championships 13 went down Sunday in Tokyo, featuring Masanori Kanehara‘s first featherweight title defense against Marlon Sandro. Or should we say attempted title defense — Sandro needed just 38 seconds to blast Kanehara with a right uppercut and send him down to the canvas face-first, stiff as a board. Already the reigning featherweight King of Pancrase, Sandro now adds the Sengoku featherweight belt to his trophy case.

After an early career that was marked by more decisions than stoppages, Sandro (17-1) has scored three straight first-round knockouts since his controversial split-decision loss to Michihiro Omigawa last August; Sandro’s win over Kanehara follows his nine-second KO of Tomonari Kanomata at Sengoku 12. Sengoku 13 will be broadcast on HDNet this Friday at 10 p.m. ET. Full results from the event are after the jump…

(Rule #17 of the Fighter Fist Pose: Never rest your head on the shoulder of a chubby man in a floral-print shirt, as it will completely negate the fist-pose’s power. / Photo courtesy of the TUF 11 Finale: Afterparty pics gallery on CombatLifestyle.com.)

Want your highly entertaining and incredibly popular MMA site to be part of the Wednesday morning link club? E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details…

– Fabricio Werdum: ‘I will choke Fedor in the first round’ (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Jan Finney Isn’t Going to “Cuddle” Cris Cyborg (FightMagazine)

– Ten Things We Learned From WEC 49 (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Biggest Story Heading Into UFC 116 Is Not Brock Lesnar, It’s Shane Carwin (WatchKalibRun)

– ‘Strikeforce: Los Angeles’ Fighter Salaries (MMA Fighting)

– Kendall Grove Says Spike TV Controls ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, Not the UFC (MiddleEasy)

– MMAScraps Radio: Cain Velasquez, Ben Rothwell and Chris Barnett (MMA Scraps)

(Old Brock: I hope you choke on that you @$$hole. New Brock:  You have some blood on your face, Frank. Let me get you a wet nap.)

The UFC held a conference call today that featured the promotion’s heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar and interim title-holder Shane Carwin in advance of the pair’s UFC 116 clash July 3.

The most notable quotes, as usual, came from Lesnar, who spoke at length about his battle with diverticulitis and how the near death experience changed him as a person.

From his opening remarks, it was immediately clear that something was different, perhaps even likeable about this version of Brock.