(VidProps: Youtube/superboxmma)

It appears that whatever remained of Kim Couture’s sad little MMA career unraveled this weekend at an XFC show in Tampa, Florida. If you didn’t already know that Couture is nothing more than a marginally talented former casino worker (with arguably the worst website in the sport) who is just trying to trade off the famous last name of her former husband, well, now you do.

Couture stepped in the cage on Friday night with Marianna “The Crushen Russian” Kheyfets – a 25-year-old without a Wikipedia page who was making her pro MMA debut – and for a while it looked like things were going to go “Sugar Free’s” way. Couture got the better of the stand-up exchanges landing, as the HDNet broadcast team pointed out, some pretty decent right hands. But a little more than two minutes in, Kheyfets nailed her with an overhand right of her own that sent Couture sprawling to the mat. In the scramble that followed, Kheyfets expertly locked up – what  else? – a triangle choke and secured the tapout.

(Life ain’t always easy for a “true Alpha male.” The world is so chock-full of motherfuckers just begging you to punch them in the face that sometimes it’s hard to keep a clear head. Pic Props: Sherdog)

If you followed War Machine’s various Twitter ramblings during the last couple of weeks, you had to fear the worst for Our Hero in his fight with John Alessio at Tachi Palace Fights 5 on Friday. There was way too much tweeting about boozing, pill popping and hopes for impending civil war going on for War to be truly focused on training. Not to mention that next week he’s due to report for a one year stay in the San Diego County sneezer for violating his probation in a self-described “lame bar fight.”

("I’m sorry, what was your name again?" PicProps: Sherdog)

Thank God that Josh Barnett only did a couple of the things he threatened to do to Geronimo dos Santos at Impact FC in Brisbane last night.  Despite his threats to the contrary, reports from Sherdog’s Jordan Breen – who was cageside for the event — indicate that Barnett’s short-and-sweet win over dos Santos in the main event of the upstart Australian promotion went strictly according to the unified rules. And no, that is not a euphemism.

The former UFC heavyweight champion took his enormo Brazilian opponent down and achieved full mount twice during the 2 minute, 45 second contest and eventually used a barrage of strikes from behind dos Santos to force John McCarthy to call the fight. Dos Santos attempted to protest the stoppage, but reportedly failed the “What the fuck is your problem?” test with his unsure, rubbery legs.

Fellow UFC castoffs  Karo Parisyan, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou and Jeff Monson also recorded wins, while former champion Carlos Newton lost an ugly fight to Brian Ebersole.

(VidProps: YouTube/evilbyte)

Give the DREAM bosses some credit, these guys sure know how to build suspense into what otherwise might be a fairly straightforward and pleasing night of MMA fights. As it turned out, there was no surprise run-in from Alistair Overeem and the Japanese promotion with the fly-by-the-seat-of-its pants matchmaking style never found a fight for Ricco Rodriguez. We hope it paid for the flight and the sushi, at least.  On the bright side, DREAM finally did manage to convince Gegard Mousasi to put in the 31 seconds of work it took to defeat an overweight Jake O’Brien and Shinya Aoki likewise bounced back from an embarrassing loss in Strikeforce a few months ago to put a quick and typically stoic beating on Tatsuya Kawajiri.

Like “Sweet and Sassy,” Aoki called it an early night, withstanding some heel kicks to the face as he locked up an Achilles lock that secured the tap and appeared to damage his Kawajiri’s leg in just one minute, 53 seconds. A couple of days after possibly declaring his bi-sexuality at the event’s weigh-in (we assume he was being ironical), Aoki ditched his trademark colorful tights for relatively conservative board shorts and rushed from the ring following his win to get some lovin’ from his (possibly female) fiancé.

After the jump, O’Brien vs. Mousasi, where it will take you all of the first 15 seconds to see why the American had a little trouble making weight …

(Video courtesy YouTube/Wandfightteam)

- UFC signs a fighter with the least original nickname in MMA (MMAJunkie)

– Ref Josh Rosenthal explains why he didn’t stop Lesnar-Carwin in the first (MMAFighting)

– Big Nog says fight with Mir will be different this time around (TATAME)

– The best damn Jose Aldo highlight video on YouTube (YouTube)

- Vancouver fires AC head for badmouthing city over sanctioning issues (VancouverSun)

- DREAM 15 weigh-ins (YouTube)

- The Twitter feed every man must follow (Twitter)

- Guy pranks girlfriend with pube moustache (BREAK)

- Create manly invite for your boys to watch UFC 117 at your pad (Manvite)

- Missed connections: It works (HolyTaco)

- Renzo Gracie black belt gives tips on how to bar fight (MadeMan)

- 9 greatest stripper pole fails (Maxim)

- 8-bit Contra-style The Expendables game (ScreenJunkies)

- Hottest girls of Formula 1 (Chickipedia)

- NASCAR summer blockbusters (AllLeftTurns)

- Mel Gibson’s racist hate speech to girlfriend (Ebaumsworld)

- Reaction to "The Decision" (ScoresReport)

(Video courtesy HDNet)

Well, it looks like Strikeforce may finally officially jump the shark if Bobby Lashley gets his way.

The former WWE star will make a guest appearance on Inside MMA as part of Ron Kruck’s "Kruck’s Corner" segment to talk about his desire to fight Fedor Emelianenko in his next bout and explain that he feels that promoters are responsible for his lack of quality opponents he has been matched up with thus far in his young 5-0 MMA career.

(Props: youtube.com/impactfcmma)

It wasn’t until we saw the opening of this bizarre promo — with Ken Shamrock mock-selling his match against Pedro Rizzo at next Sunday’s Impact event — that it finally hit us. Jesus Christ, this dude is headlining another show? If you don’t count fights in which he tested positive for steroids, against opponents who died shortly afterwards due to poor health, you have to go back all the way to June 2004 to find Shamrock’s last victory. After that, he suffered five consecutive first-round TKO losses; to say he phoned in those performances would be an insult to phones. And Ken does sound a little punchy these days, to be honest. He seems to think Pedro Rizzo is 6’4" or 6’5" (even though Rizzo is generally listed at 6’1"), so, you know, he’s "got a lot of heighth to deal with."

At the end, Ken gets a little too honest: "Right now, where we are at this stage of the game, where we started so early, that we kind of play it from here depending on how I feel, if we’re gonna go hard or if we’re just gonna kinda go through some of the motions." Huh? That’s not the sort of thing I’d include in a promo clip, guys. As for Rizzo, the three-time UFC heavyweight title contender has scored wins over Jeff Monson and Gary Goodridge since being laid flat by Gilbert Yvel in June 2009. I’ll go out on a limb and say he takes this one by first-round TKO…

(Damn, as if the constipation wasn’t bad enough…)

Urijah Faber‘s scheduled bantamweight debut against Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 50 (August 18th, Las Vegas) has been canceled, due to a knee injury that Faber suffered in training on Monday. The California Kid confirmed the bad news via Twitter earlier today, and told Heavy: "Somebody was going to take me down during training. They swept me and I heard a loud pop. They said it would be six weeks before I could train again, but it may heal even faster."

According to MMAJunkie, a replacement will not be found for Mizugaki. Tough break, but on the bright side, it’s a miracle that Faber can even walk at all at this point. WEC 50 will be headlined by the bantamweight title (re-)match between Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez.

(GerardM? DREAM may be onto something awesome)

It’s seeming more and more like Ricco Rodriguez’s inclusion on the DREAM 15 card just wasn’t meant to be.

After Twittering early this morning that he may be stepping in for fellow MMA Agents repped fighter Jake O’Brien to face Gegard Mousasi in the opening round of the DREAM four-man light heavyweight grand prix tournament, it appears that the fight has reverted back to its original match-up as Mousasi’s camp has agreed to fight O’Brien in spite of the American reportedly being 21 pounds over the required 205-pound weight limit.

(We’re a little freaked-out too, Mike.)

UFC 120 (October 16th, London) is one of those international events that will be shown for free on Spike, so we didn’t really expect a massive headliner, but still, this is a bit of a slap in the nuts. Fighters Only reports that the card’s main event will be a middleweight contest between soap-opera star Michael Bisping and Yoshihiro Akiyama. Yes, that Yoshihiro Akiyama, the one who was submitted by Chris Leben last weekend. Akiyama deserves a headlining spot about as much as Mark Hunt deserves a UFC contract after going winless for four years.* Of course, the prospect of Bisping beating up a foreign fancy-boy will probably be enough to get the locals to come out. We’re just glad we don’t have to pay for this one. The rumored UFC 120 lineup currently looks like this…

Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Dan Hardy vs. Carlos Condit
Cheick Kongo vs. Travis Browne
John Hathaway vs. Dong Hyun Kim
Spencer Fisher vs. Kurt Warburton
Rob Broughton vs. Vinicius Quieroz
Alexander Gustafsson vs. Cyrille Diabaté
James Te-Huna vs. Tom Blackledge

* Turns out, the UFC contractually owes Mark Hunt fights due to their 2007 purchase of PRIDE.

 
(Goldstein during his Taxi Driver phase.)

If you’re looking for something to help you cruise into the weekend, we’ve got you covered. Episode 3 of "The Bum Rush" features more of our terribly inaccurate fight predictions, an insider round table featuring the usual suspects: Ben, Mike, Chad and Chad’s hype man, ReX13 discussing current MMA news and last weekend’s UFC card and an interview with UFC 116 slam master, Gerald Harris.

Find a cold, dark corner to hide in and keep your laughter to a minimum and you may be able to avoid your boss long enough to get through this damn thing.

As always, your input is appreciated. Let us know who you want to hear on the show, what we’re doing mediocrely and what areas we need to step up our games in.

We’re working to get the show on iTunes by next episode to make it more easily accessible and to make it at least seem more legit.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EPISODE 3

("No no you backed me in a corner so just shut up and listen / I’ve got a long list of complaints and a shit-ton of suspicions.") 

Y’know, if this fighting thing doesn’t work out, Chael Sonnen could have a future in humiliating his enemies through long-winded online essays. (There’s money in that, right?) The UFC’s #1 middleweight contender used FightMagazine.com as a venue for an "open letter to fans" published yesterday, in which he discussed his infamous interview with hapless journalist Jon Lane, and called out Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who recently claimed that Anderson Silva will beat Sonnen like a child. But Sonnen saved most of his bile for Ed Soares, criticizing the prominent manager for not being able to control his star client. Read on for another unvarnished glimpse into the possibly-deranged mind of the UFC’s greatest anti-hero…

*****

“Hi, everybody! Remember me? Your ol’ buddy Chael? Y’know I spend most of my time fightin’, which doesn’t leave much time for writin’, but things being what they are, I’ve decided to take a moment or two, and fire up the ol’ Olivetti typewriter, put in a fresh ribbon, and share some of my recent thoughts with you….

Firstly, I’ve gotten a significant amount of feedback regarding my “correspondence” with MMA…..”Journalist” Jon Lane…So….To any and all members of the media: I’m always happy to talk and share my time and ideas with you. And I appreciate your efforts in contacting me, and instead of ‘circling the wagons’ around a “fellow journalist”, for applauding my efforts to….FIX things. Do me a favor, guys. Don’t be so hard on JonJon. He’ll get it. Bring him along, help him out here & there. I kinda like him. And Jon…..No hard feelings. Really. If you re-read our correspondence in the cold, hard, light of day, you’ll see I was trying to….HELP you.

I never expected you to be Umberto Eco; but those questions… guy! I mean COME ON. So buck up, little soldier. If you fall off, just get right back on – even if it’s only a keyboard you’re getting on.

And Lil’ Nog…..I read your appraisal of the upcoming fight betwixt your pal Anderson and yours truly and, I’ll be damned, you are one sharp dude…. about as sharp as a bag of wet mice.

(Rosenthal, WTF? You made me dump my adrenaline with your sweet talk.)

When Shane Carwin went from the being on the brink of dominantly beating UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar in the first round of their title tilt last Saturday night to feebly succumbing to an arm triangle choke in the second frame, many people were left wondering,"What the hell happened?"

Carwin, who originally claimed that his body locked up as a result of lactic acidosis, now says that his lack of energy to finish Lesnar was a result of a massive adrenaline dump, caused by the instruction of referee Josh Rosenthal. 

(Now we get why Shogun keeps going under the knife)

According to UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, he could be back competing in the Octagon sooner than the March projection made by UFC president Dana White during last weekend’s UFC 116 post-fight press conference.

Having undergone successful knee surgery last month for an injury he sustained during his trouncing of Lyoto Machida at UFC 113, Rua is rehabbing the knee every day with a physiotherapist and says that he doesn’t expect a long layoff.

"It’s everything fine now," Rua told TATAME’s Guillherme Cruz. "I had the surgery a month ago, and I’m cool. I can walk already. I’m doing a fitness work and physiotherapy and next month I’ll be back to my training and I’ll strengthen my leg so I can come back next year — probably in January —  if everything works out fine."

(Always be specific when you order "Brazilian twins" from the local escort service. You could get badly burned. Trust me guys, *badly* burned…)

Sherk vs. Dunham? Who cares! Lots more UFC 119-related news just came over the wires, and it looks like the people of Indianapolis are going to be in for a wild night, even if the main event is somewhat lacking in importance. Here’s what we’re dealing with…

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir: This will reportedly be the evening’s headliner. Hmm. If you’ll recall, the two former champions coached against each other on TUF 8, then Mir shocked our asses by TKO’ing Nogueira at UFC 92. Nogueira blamed his weak performance on a staph infection, so maybe this fight will turn out differently, but basically we’re being given another UFC main event where both guys are coming off losses, and the winner doesn’t even become the division’s #1 contender. Personally, I was more interested in a Big Nog vs. Cro Cop rematch. 

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Ryan Bader: Now we’re talking. Lil’ Nog needs to redeem himself after nearly getting beat by late replacement Jason Brilz at UFC 114, while Ryan Bader is looking sharper every time out, most recently knocking out Keith Jardine at UFC 110. If Bader can out-hustle the Brazilian vet, he’ll land directly in the light-heavyweight title mix.

(No, Overeem will not be fighting…but enough about that. Have have you all seen our new hex-shaped cage. I call it the Sexagon.)

In a bizarre move, DREAM Executive Producer Keiichi Sasahara addressed the media today in an attempt to quell the rumors regarding Alistair Overeem dropping out of the event, but refused to discuss the reason for the Dutch fighter’s withdrawal, effectively doing little more than fuelling further speculation.

MMAFighting has the transcription of Sasahara’s prepared statement.

"Towards the end of the negotiations, because of reasons that I am not able to tell you, although the two fighters agreed to fight, it happened that these fighters could not fight. It’s not because of money, but if the reasons are something that I cannot tell you then you might be able to guess what they would be. Because of that, we are not able to have these two fighters fight.
We really wanted Alistair [Overeem] to fight. Today, unfortunately it is not happening so we will only have seven fights. I have to apologize to the fans who have been looking forward to seeing Alistair fight in Japan. I’m sorry."

(This girl is on the podcast too. They kicked me off before I got a chance to talk to her. It’s probably for the best.)

Our new friends at HammerFisted.com were kind enough to invite me onto their podcast last night, where we ran down UFC 116‘s highlights and lowlights — including referee Josh Rosenthal’s performance in the Lesnar/Carwin match, Stephan Bonnar’s weird celebratory pose, and Chris Lytle getting screwed out of bonus money. Plus, I reveal whose life I would save if I found Mike Russell and Ben Fowlkes hanging off a cliff. The answer may surprise you! After my segment, foxy writer Hunter Jones comes on to talk dating advice, douchebags, and MMA. You can listen to the whole shebang right here. Don’t forget to come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow to listen to episode three of The Bum Rush, in which Mike and I cover many of the same topics, in a nearly identical format.

(BG)

(Dunham and Escudero at UFC Fight Night 20. Tickets to the gun show are free, but nobody leaves without paying. Photo courtesy of washingtonpost.com)

Returning from a decision loss to Frank Edgar at UFC 98 and a year of injuries, Sean Sherk will attempt to return to the Octagon (fingers crossed) at UFC 119 (September 25th, Indianapolis), where he’ll face undefeated rising star Evan Dunham. With a 4-0 record in the Octagon and big wins this year over Tyson Griffin and Efrain Escudero, Dunham may finally experience what it’s like to be a favorite against the former UFC lightweight champ. To be honest, Sherk isn’t much of a step up for Dunham, who soundly defeated Griffin last month, but it’s another solid opportunity for the 28-year-old Xtreme Couture product to build his name.

Sherk was supposed to return to action last October at UFC 104 against Gleison Tibau, but had to pull out due to a shoulder injury. He was rescheduled for a UFC 108 meeting against Jim Miller, but again withdrew after suffering a cut over his eye in training. In March, Sherk was slated to face Clay Guida at UFC on Versus 1. You can probably guess how that turned out.

Despite earlier reports, Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez are not slated to meet at UFC 119. A headliner for the event is yet to be determined, though a Quinton Jackson/Antonio Rogerio Nogueira match is still possible for the main card. Other reported fights include CB Dollaway vs. Joe Doerksen, Melvin Guillard vs. Jeremy Stephens, and Chris Lytle vs. TBA. 

(Video courtesy Sherdog)

I always had a sneaking suspicion that Lyoto Machida’s dad, Yoshizo was a cross between Mr. Myagi from the Karate Kid and Dwight Hansen from This Boy’s Life. Judging by the latest interview he did with Sherdog’s Marcelo Alonso, I’m beginning to think I was right.

In the video, Yoshizo makes a few eyebrow raising comments about things like his son’s mental and spiritual fortitude, but the most surprising statement that escapes his lips is that he felt that Lyoto should have abandoned his MMA career after his UFC 113 knockout loss to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

"As a parent, I think he just realized his dream, that was to be the world champion and it would be good for him to stop. On the other hand, after being defeated it became more challenging and therefore he wants to prove even more. There is a spiritual strengthening of the man. I think technique of the top fighters is close. Today what makes the difference is the spirit. Mostly, for those who were defeated as he was it is recovering quickly, and that is what I worry about most. My biggest concern is that injuries and losses occur, but you can recover from them. But in the spiritual matter, it may take up to five or 10 years. This is what can bring bad things and what really worries me."

Seriously? It was one loss. He thinks he should quit because of one loss? I’m guessing Yoshizo is a bit of a dictator in the Machida house. Lyoto was the golden child until he lost and ever since then he likely doesn’t even drink his piss right in his dad’s eyes. Tough dad to please. Just ask Lyoto’s brothers. I’m sure they’ve gotten used to the chill of living in his shadow.

(Warning: Audio is very NSFW. And absolutely hilarious.)

Oh my God, you guys. MiddleEasy has confirmed that Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney is actually the son of Jack "Winnebago Man" Rebney, star of one of the first (and most beloved) viral videos of all time. In case you’ve never been introduced to the wonders of Winnebago Man, watch the above video and allow BusinessInsider to explain:

In August 1988, Winnebago Industries hired a video crew to shoot two 10-minute long sales videos. They tapped salesman Jack Rebney, a former broadcast news producer, to star in these commercials. They shot the videos in Forest City, Iowa – the headquarters of Winnebago Industries. Just like any other video shoot, outtakes and mistakes were to be expected, but no one could have anticipated Jack Rebney’s melt down. The RV salesman would constantly yell and curse at himself, his crew, and at the flies that were swarming him.

After the grueling two week shoot, Winnebago Industries got their commercial, but the video crew got so much more. They spliced together the outtakes of the shoot and circulated the video amongst themselves and their friends. Basically, the "Winnebago Man" was passed around on VHS tapes for around 15 years before being posted on YouTube for the world to see.

Jack Rebney currently lives in a cabin in a Northern California forest, and he’s now the subject of a new documentary about the Winnebago Man phenomenon. Until recently, he was completely unaware of his Internet notoriety. Anyway, we just wanted to share our surprise and excitement that Winnebago Man has a connection to the world of MMA. That’s your dad, Bjorn. That’s your dad.

(That little son-of-a-bitch is at it again… / ‘Shop courtesy of urdirt)

Alistair Overeem won’t be beating anybody up, but this Saturday’s DREAM event — which will be broadcast live on HDNet at 3 a.m. ET / midnight PT — will still be good for some late-night thrills, so set those DVRs, kiddies. In the main event, Shinya Aoki defends his DREAM lightweight belt (and attempts to bounce back from his humiliation in Strikeforce) against fellow Japanese mainstay Tatsuya "Crusher" Kawajiri, who’s on a four-fight win streak and hasn’t been submitted in five years. Also on the card, Gegard Mousasi and Melvin Manhoef headline that kinda-pointless mini-LHWGP, Mitushiro Ishida makes his featherweight debut against Daiki Hata, Michihiro Omigawa gets fed a can, and Gesias Cavalcante looks for his first win in three years against Katsunori Kikuno. If you’d like to make it interesting, head over to fightpicker.cagepotato.com (or apps.facebook.com/fightpicker) to make your predictions. This week’s pool-questions are…

(Ironically, this is the most non-crazy tattoo Paulo has.)

Realizing that chronically unreliable personal demon chaser Paulo Filho will do well to make it to one of his scheduled July Impact Fighting Championship bouts, the Australia Athletic Commission has disallowed the Brazilian from competing on both the July 10 and July 18 cards as planned.

Graciemag announced the news we have all been predicting today.

Filho (20-1), who was originally also slated to fight at Impact FC’s scrapped July 3 event in Perth, takes on K-1 Heroes, PRIDE and UFC veteran Denis Kang (32-12-1, 2 NC) on July 18 in Sydney if he makes it to the show. 

(Shields was pleasantly surprised to find his locker at the UFC training centre stuffed with the "respect" Strikeforce failed to show him.)

When Jake Shields announced that he would be testing the free agent waters when his Strikeforce contract ended this summer, every MMA fan and journalist collectively thought, "He’s going to the UFC." Strikeforce must have been thinking the same thing, considering they let Shields, who is their middleweight champ, go without a fight by releasing him without tendering a final offer before he began the open negotiation period with other promotions.

Even if a company like the UFC made an offer, Strikeforce, by rights could have matched any offer on the table, but by releasing him from his contract, the only thing they did was possibly prevent a bidding war resulting salary increase for Shields.

He told BJPenn.com that the release was totally unexpected.

“It came as kind of a surprise. I hadn’t really been talking to Strikeforce and pretty much everyone knows that I want to go to the UFC. We got our negotiations going with the UFC and they (Strikeforce) dropped me without any warning and it came out of nowhere. It is what it is and I’m moving ahead with the UFC contract and hopefully that will be worked out soon.”

(Props: fighthub)

Heads-up: Impact FC’s first heel-tastic fight card goes down this Saturday at the Brisbane Entertainment Center, headlined by Josh Barnett (25-5) vs. Geronimo "Mondragon" Dos Santos (18-9). In the above video interview, Barnett predicts that Dos Santos will make a big thud when he hits the mat, and says he’ll "anally rape [Dos Santos] if possible." Would you expect anything less from The Greatest Sportsman in MMA?

Barnett is on a five-fight win streak, and most recently submitted Mighty Mo at DREAM.13. Dos Santos snapped a two-fight losing skid in May when he knocked out Fabio Jamantha at a Combat Fight event in Brazil. This weekend’s Impact event marks the first time that Mondragon will compete outside of his home country. The current lineup of "Impact FC: The Uprising – Brisbane" is below:

Josh Barnett vs. Geronimo Dos Santos
Karo Parisyan vs. Luis "Besouro" Dutra Jr
Carlos Newton vs. Brian Ebersole
Joaquim Ferreira vs. Sokoudjou
Jeff Monson vs. Brad Morris
Bira Lima vs. Felise Leniu
Jai Bradney vs. Thiago "Minu" Meller

After the jump: Three videos of Geronimo Dos Santos in action, including his beat-down of Zuluzinho…

(You ever get the feeling that Eddie developed his style of jiu-jitsu specifically to put hot chicks in uncomfortable positions?)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

– Vadim Finkelstein: Fedor Emelianenko’s agreement with the UFC is still possible (LowKick)

– Falling Action: Winners and Losers in the Aftermath of UFC 116 (MMA Fighting)

– UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin Exclusive Photos (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Maybe the next time you see Ubereem, you should just move out of his way lady [GIF] (MiddleEasy)

– FIGHT! Life: José Aldo – The Beautiful Game [VIDEO] (Fight! Magazine)

– WEC 50 ‘Benavidez vs Cruz’ Trailer (MMA Scraps)

– Your UFC 116 MVP and Maybe MVP of 2010… (Watch Kalib Run)

– Spencer Fisher vs. Kurt Warburton booked for UFC 120 (Five Ounces of Pain)

(Whatever happened to working your way back up the ladder after a loss?)

Apparently Lyoto Machida is trying to jump to the front of the line of fighters in the queue to face Mauricio Rua when the UFC light heavyweight champ returns from rehabbing from knee surgery he underwent a few weeks ago.

According to an interview he did with MMAJunkie, Machida’s manager Ed Soares says that his charge’s first choice of fights would be a rubbermatch with Rua, but since according to UFC president Dana White, Shogun will likely be sidelined until March, they would instead like to battle for an interim belt with the man who is said to be next in line for a shot at the real belt.

"Honestly, we’d like to fight ‘Shogun,’" Machida’s manager, Ed Soares, today told MMAjunkie.com Radio. "Now it’s 1-1. It’s even. Let’s do this rubber match. Let’s figure this out. Granted, he won by decision and Lyoto won decisively, but anyone can get caught in this sport. He went in for the kill, and unfortunately, he got caught." 

"Since ‘Shogun’ is out – they’re saying until March – personally, when there’s an injured champion, I would love to see maybe a Rashad-Lyoto match for the interim title. I think that would be something that would be cool, and the winner of that would get to fight ‘Shogun’ when he’s all healed up in the spring of next year."

("Trust me. Everything is fine at M-1 Global. We are actually looking at buying the UFC.")

Speaking with Sherdog.com’s Loretta Hunt today about a report by MMAFighting.com’s lead blogger, Michael David Smith, that stated that M-1 Global had closed down its Holland office as a result of the projected financial impact the recent loss by its marquee fighter, Fedor Emelianenko will have on the company, the organization’s director of operations, Evgeni Kogan downplayed the situation.

Calling the firing of four of the office’s 11 employees, whose positions he explained had simply become redundant, a “restructuring,” Kogan, who had been brought in to assess and consult on the company’s structure and operations in January told Hunt that the MMAFighting report was misleading.

("So long, losers!" / Photo courtesy of sports.sho.com)

By CagePotato Comment-Section "Godfatehre" [sic] Old, Bald and Irish

I was recently greeted with the news that Strikeforce would not only be releasing current Middleweight Champion Jake Shields (25-4-1), but they are not even going to bother negotiating with him or making counter-offers.

W.T.F.?

This latest thumb-in-the-eye just adds to the disrespectful treatment that Shields has received at the hands of Coker and Company. Since when does a committed professional fighter who is a former Rumble on the Rock champ, SHOOTO Middleweight champ, EliteXC’s first and only welterweight champ, who just happens to be on a 14 fight win streak, become an unwanted commodity?

We all saw the CBS ads for Strikeforce: Nashville. You know, the flashy ones showing DAN HENDERSON punching! DAN HENDERSON kicking a bag! DAN HENDERSON standing there, making no expression, yet at the same time, being a living legend! And he’s gonna fight outside of the UFC! And it’s for the CHAMPIONSHIP BELT! Yeah, bitch…that’s right! And he’s gonna fight some guy! Some "Shileds" fella….but we don’t have time to talk about him because we just spent all the time in this commercial talking about how wickedly awesome DAN HENDERSON is!

If you were Jake Shields, how could you not feel insulted?

(Gerald Harris: One finger for each of ‘em. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com)

The UFC paid out $1,373,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses to the fighters at UFC 116, with Brock Lesnar taking home over a third of the total payroll with his $400,000 salary and $75,000 Submission of the Night bump. Chris Leben, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Stephan Bonnar also cracked the six-figure mark after their Fight of the Night bonuses were factored in. The full payout list is below. Keep in mind that these numbers don’t include additional income from sponsorships, undisclosed "locker room" bonuses, or percentages of the pay-per-view gross that some of the UFC’s stars (i.e., Brock Lesnar) are entitled to.

Brock Lesnar: $475,000 (no win bonus; includes $75,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
def. Shane Carwin: $40,000

Chris Leben: $161,000 (includes $43,000 win bonus, $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Yoshihiro Akiyama: $120,000 (includes $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Chris Lytle: $52,000 (includes $26,000 win bonus)
def. Matt Brown: $10,000

(SURPRISE! Just shittin’ you, Ricco. The fight’s still on.")

In spite of Alistair Overeem’s public statement to MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani today that he never agreed to face Ricco Rodriguez at DREAM 15 this weekend, executives from the Japanese MMA organization are denying that the Strikeforce heavyweight champion has declined a slot on the card.

According to sources close to the fighter, who is currently aboard a plane to Japan under the assumption that the fight is still a go, DREAM officials have denied the reports that have surfaced about Alistair bowing out of the event and they have held steadfast to their claim that Rodriguez will indeed face Overeem.