(Look, not everybody can pull off the "casual cool" look as well as Dana White. You can’t just put Reed Harris in a Nuggets jersey and expect him to not look like the world’s most uncomfortable pedophile. No offense. / Photo courtesy of the WEC 51: Weigh In Pics gallery on CombatLifestyle.com)

Zuffa may have robbed you of $45 last weekend, but they’re making it up to us with a stacked-to-death WEC card on free TV, on a damn weeknight. Gotta love it. Will Jose Aldo continue his Sherman’s March through the featherweight division, or will Manny Gamburyan let everyone know who he is, bro? Will Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone settle their feud once and for all? Will Miguel Torres and Mike Brown return to old form? Can the Korean Zombie possibly top his last performance against Leonard Garcia? All these questions will be answered after the jump starting at 9 p.m., as we present our liveblog of WEC 51: Aldo vs. Gamburyan. If you love organized violence, give us a "hell yeah" in the comments section…

(Video courtesy YouTube/UFC)

The UFC released the latest episode of its Ultimate Insider series today featuring some behind the scenes footage of UFC 119 and an exclusive interview with light heavyweight champion, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

In addition to the Joe Rogan conducted Q&A session with Rua, in this edition of the series Frank Mir tries to excuse explain his lackluster UFC 119 performance against Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and the rest of the time is filled with clips of the latest UFC gym grand opening that was attended by UFC president Dana White and a few other less famous stars like Chuck Liddell, BJ Penn, Vitor Belfort and UI host, Arianny Celeste.

(Video courtesy Vimeo/SuperiorChallenge)

Former UFC middleweight champion, Murilo Bustamante and former DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix winner, Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen will compete alongside veterans Hector Ramirez, David Baron, Daniel Acacio and David Bielkheden on a pretty decent card in Sweden on October 29.

Superior Challenge 6 will take pace at the Hovet in Stockholm and will feature two title bouts between welterweights Bielkheden and Acacio and lightweights Hansen and Sami Aziz.

(Man, that is some crazy, high-level, top-of-the-food-chain…uh, what exactly am I looking at here? Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

As first reported by MMAFighting, UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar will attempt to make his second belt defense against Gray Maynard at UFC 125, which is slated to go down New Year’s Day 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Both fighters are coming off big decision wins at UFC 118, with Edgar shutting down BJ Penn in a rematch of their first title bout, and Maynard outpointing Kenny Florian. Edgar and Maynard previously met at UFC Fight Night 13 in April 2008, with Maynard scoring a unanimous decision victory and handing Edgar his only career loss to date. Both fighters are tied on the UFC decision-fight leaderboard.

As Chael Sonnen so eloquently put it, "From a business standpoint, acting as though Maynard versus Edgar is going to sell out an arena is about as optimistic as holding onto Jim Morrison’s mail." Which is why the potential loss of Silva vs. Belfort on the card is such a bummer. Plus, Chris Leben is penciled in to fight Brian Stann at the event, not Wanderlei Silva, as we (and Silva himself) had hoped. UFC 125 could really use a solid co-headliner, especially considering it’s a New Year’s card. Any bright ideas?

(Video courtesy MMAWeekly)

When Miguel Torres’ longtime mentor and teacher, Carlson Gracie passed away in 2006, his protegee soon after ventured out on his own to open his own gym where he would train himself and a handful of up-and-coming fighters in Hammond, Indiana.

For a few years, the system seemed to be working as he continued to rack up wins and dominate all comers in the WEC.

Then, it happened on August 9, 2009.

After logging three strong minutes in the first round of his fourth title defense, Torres got floored by the right hand of challenger Brian Bowles and was knocked out by the follow-up barrage of ground-and-pound as he worked to secure an armbar.

Shaking off the loss, Torres figured spending more time training in the gym would get him back on track.

He was wrong.

(VidProps: YouTube/FightersOnlyMagazine)

Good news and bad news for people who were worried about how BJ Penn might react after demoralizing, back-to-back losses to Frankie Edgar this year: On the positive side, Penn’s not hanging it up. In fact, he says in the above vid with Fighters Only Magazine that he’s intent on fighting even more often and actually sounds like a 22-year-old “TUF” rookie just embarking on his UFC career when he starts talking about how he’s still tweaking his training and trying to figure out what works best for him. For a dude who in times past appeared cripplingly preoccupied with his place in the history of the sport, that renewed sense of himself has to be a good thing.

So, the bad news? Well, he and Matt Hughes are cool now, which pretty much takes all the fun out of the pair’s upcoming third meeting at UFC 123. Frankly, if this fight isn’t a grudge match, then it’s not immediately clear why anyone is supposed to care about it, let alone watch.

(Video courtesy YouTube/WorldFightProducts)

UFC lightweight-welterweight, Nate Diaz was in Toronto over the weekend for some guest appearances and I debated whether or not I should make the hour-and-a-half trek to interview him for the site, but ultimately I decided against it knowing that interviewing him is like hunting for truffles. You never know if you’re going to find anything valuable or just come home covered in mud and having wasted your day.

As you can see by the video above, which ranks in my top-ten most awkward fighter interviews of all time, the likelihood that I would have found a "truffle" were slim to none as Nate didn’t seem in the least bit interested in answering any of the interviewer’s mundane questions.

Maybe it had something to do with the guy’s habit of replying to each of Nate’s answers with "Cool!" or "Super!" or "Super Cool!" or maybe its because he and Nick are both sociopaths in the classic sense of the word.

(Brittney Palmer and Chan Sung Jung: No matter who you are, the WEC’s got your eye-candy. Photos courtesy of the WEC 51: Weigh In Pics gallery on CombatLifestyle)

Potato Nation, assemble: Since tonight’s WEC event promises to be a card-of-the-year candidate, we’ll be liveblogging all the action starting at 9 p.m. eastern. So if you don’t have Versus, or you just feel like hanging out, come back to CagePotato.com tonight and join the conversation. After the jump: Results from yesterday’s Aldo vs. Gamburyan weigh-ins, and a must-see video feature on Miguel Torres‘s new day job.

(The beginning of the Johnson/Wilkinson battle from last night. You can watch the rest here. Props: SignofBelief)

Alex "Bruce Leroy" Caceres may have impressed us in last week’s fight, but he’s making no friends in the house by bragging about his victory non-stop. While hanging out with the defeated Jeff Lentz, he says that Jeff may have been "underesterating my talents and skills," and claims that every head kick bounced off his afro. Lentz manages to avoid strangling the bastard, but the other TUF guys are quickly losing patience.

GSP brings in wrestling world champion Guivi "Gia" Sissaouri, to work with his squad. Homeboy is sick on the mat. It’s a great little master-class for the guys, but Georges has another visitor coming in later that will make Gia look like small potatoes. (Hint: Face tattoos, tigers.)

Down 0-1, Koscheck is playing catch-up. His fighters already seem to be breaking down, physically and emotionally, so Kos makes it clear that they need to toughen up and quit ass-dragging in practice. Training seems to improve after that.

It’s fight announcement time, and since Team GSP won last week, they retain control of the picks. St. Pierre selects Michael Johnson (his craftily-obtained #1 draft pick) against Aaron Wilkinson (Koscheck’s #6 pick??). GSP is obviously looking to take Koscheck’s heart with a brutal victory, but is it a wise strategy to waste your ace on the other team’s weakest link? (Keep in mind that Jeff Lentz was Team Koscheck’s #7 pick.) Still, a badass wrestler vs. a British guy. This seems gift-wrapped for the red team.

Just a reminder that we will be streaming the Q&A session featuring former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber at 6:00 pm ET tonight, followed by the WEC: Aldo vs. Gamburyan weigh-ins at 7:00 pm ET.

What prophetic words will Urijah polarize the crowd with?

Is his move to bantamweight a permanent one?

What size chin strap does he wear on his wrestling helmet?

Did his crazy street fight in Bali really happen or did he recycle a scene from Fist of Fury and insert himself in the place of Bruce Lee?

(Video courtesy YouTube/vonguinness)

These questions and more will be answered after the jump.

(Damn. As if the "Having to Fight GSP" curse wasn’t bad enough… / Image courtesy of fightmagazine.com)

By Jim "jimbonics" Isaacs

So there I was, minding my own business, creating a masterpiece through MSPaint in honor of ReX13’s first Bellator article for the ‘Tater. Later that afternoon, after a WILD week in the comments section across all articles, I was honored with a “Comment of the Week” award and subsequently a subscription to FIGHT! Magazine. Sweet! It was the first thing I had won since a pinball contest in Nineteen Dickety-Two.

After a month of salivating and daily mailbox-checking, I had received no magazine. I was convinced I would not actually receive a prize, as hundreds of comments at CP over the past year alluded to. Then it happened. My mailbox was stuffed with bills I would never open, offers I would never respond to, and an extremely thick and glossy FIGHT! Magazine.

There is King Mo, in all his glory bling, staring at me. The first thought in my head was how he got his ass thoroughly beaten by Mousasi yet still won the belt based solely on takedowns. (Though he snared 11 of his 14 takedown attempts, if there was ever a fight to argue against the weight of takedowns in MMA scoring, it was that fight, but I digress). The second thought in my head was that he wouldn’t hold the belt very long, especially with the ultra-quick striker and BJJ black belt Feijão looming. I’m not saying, I’m just saying.

A month later the next magazine had wrestling specialist Kenny Florian on it. He went on to get Gray Maynarded. This got the wheels turning, and I decided to do a little investigating: Does the long-rumored FIGHT! Magazine Cover Curse actually exist?

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Jose Aldo vs. Luis Azevedo Part 1 - Jungle Fight 5 – November 26, 2005

(Video courtesy YouTube/newmexicoone)

Sometimes when you watch dominant fighters like Anderson Silva, Fedor Emelianenko and Georges St-Pierre compete, you forget that they’ve all tasted defeat. Jose Aldo is another MMA wrecking machine who, although maybe isn’t as far along in his career as the former list, falls under the same category.

If you haven’t seen the fight that gave him his lone blemish on his record, check out part one above and part two below. Paralleling Chael Sonnen’s masterful performance against Anderson Silva at UFC 117 (minus the PEDs), Aldo controlled opponent Luis Azevedo for the majority of the Jungle Fight 5 bout, but the Nova Uniao fighter made a rookie mistake on the ground, giving up his back and just like that he was now a loser.

He bounced back from the loss, earned his black belt (although you wouldn’t know it considering he hasn’t won by submission since) and hasn’t lost or looked back at the fight with Azevedo since.

We’ve compiled some of Aldo’s greatest performances for you to watch in anticipation of his fight with Manny "I’m Fedor, bro" Gamburyan tomorrow night at WEC 51.

Check them out after the jump.

(“I refuse to answer on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.” PicProps: Connect.in.com)

The simple fact that MMA Fighting.com got stuck talking to Randy Couture’s attorney/manager this week instead of the man himself is probably very telling about what’s going on in Couture’s world these days. Most fighters can barely scrape it together to hire a halfway-legitimate agent or manger (again, just having your girlfriend do it doesn’t count), while “The Natural” is able to dispatch this guy Sam Spira, who we assume has graduated not only from college but then took the LSAT, then graduated from law school, then passed the bar in Nevada. When you consider the sad truth that a lot of fighters don’t even know a lawyer – and no, War Machine, your public defender doesn’t qualify — that’s pretty pimp.

Especially if you can send him out to handle the media obligations you don’t want to do yourself. Hence, we actually kind of believe Spira when he tells AOL on Wednesday that it’s sort of 50-50 whether the 47-year-old Couture will be too busy and too famous trying to balance his new career as an actor (and entertaining "other opportunities") ever to compete in MMA again.

(Surefire prediction: Nobody is getting submitted in this one.)

According to several reports that we have since been able to substantiate with sources close to the bout, Scott Smith will likely make good on his proclamation that he is dropping down a weight class when he takes on newly-acquired welterweight Paul Daley in a December Strikeforce bout. The fight, which is sure to be a slugfest is said to have been verbally agreed to by both fighters.

Daley (25-9-2) has never been knocked out, but Smith (17-7 1NC), who is known for his somewhat reckless, go-for-broke style of fighting will be looking to change that statistic when the pair meet at the end of 2010. 7-3 in his last 10 outings, Daley’s last loss was the decision to Josh Koscheck that saw him tossed from the UFC for attacking the reviled American Kickboxing Academy fighter after the final bell. Since being released by the organization, he has gone 2-0 against Chute Boxe’s Daniel Acacio (21-10) at Impact FC 2: The Uprising in July and American Top Team’s Jorge Masvidal (20-6) at Shark Fights 13: Jardine vs. Prangley in September.

5-4 (1 NC) in his past 10 fights, Smith announced after his most recent loss to former Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le in June that he would likely be cutting to 170 pounds to compete as a welterweight, despite having beaten Le handily in his previous outing.

When the UFC brought out Brittny Ward as a guest Octagon Girl at last weekend’s UFC 119 event in Indianapolis, the fan reception was uniformly positive. Most of you seem to feel that the leggy 20-year-old model should be hired as a permanent member of the UFC’s ring girl stable, even if one of the current OG’s has to be let go, particularly the one who isn’t Arianny Celeste. We have our fingers crossed that Dana White & Co. will do the right thing and hire Brittny. In the meantime, here’s all the best photos we found of her while scouring her Facebook and ModelMayhem pages, as well as our own exclusive shots from the event. You can follow Brittny at twitter.com/brittwardxoxo. The photo goodness continues after the jump…

(WEC 51 open workout highlights, courtesy of Heavy.com/MMA)

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…

– Helwani VS Dundas: WEC 51 Edition (Versus MMA Beat)

– Matt Mitrione’s Agent Responds to Being Fired on Live TV at UFC 119 (MMA Fighting)

– Photos: Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Bobby Lashley, Bob Sapp & Mark Coleman Pro Wrestling In Japan (MMA Convert)

– This Jose Aldo Highlight Video Will Get You Hyped Up for WEC 51, Guaranteed (MiddleEasy)

– MMA’s Drug Testing System Is a Complete Farce (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Catching Up: 10 Must-See Fights the New Fan Might Have Missed (LowKick)

– K-1 World GP 2010 Final 16 Video Trailer (MMA Scraps)

– Jamie Varner Feels Left Out (Watch Kalib Run)

- M-1 Global Finishes Selection Tournament With Five Championship Fights (FightMagazine)

("I got your conference call for you right here, Coker.")

Apparently Nick Diaz doesn’t like conference calls.

If Strikeforce would have read his "Things I don’t like," rider he sent along to them with his signed contract, they would have realized that "conference calls" were on the list before "Mayhem Miller" and after "children" and they wouldn’t have scheduled him for a media call that he had no intention of participating in. 

So instead of pulling the plug on today’s call completely when they realized Nick wasn’t interested in talking to reporters about his October 9 title defense against KJ Noons, they got the next best guest they could get on short notice for the call: Cesar Gracie. No, seriously, that’s the best they could do.

According to Diaz’s outspoken coach, it "isn’t in Nick’s psyche" to do conference calls with his upcoming opponents, but he didn’t have a problem pretending to know what Nick would say in response to reporters’ questions.

Here’s the transcript of the call, which seemed suspiciously more like a scripted infomercial than a conference call at times. I’m not surprised Nick took one look at his lines and said, "Fuck that; I’m out."

(Don’t you know who my cousin is, bro?)

Now, I know fighters sometimes say ludicrous things in the heat of the moment when hyping upcoming fights, like Mir saying he wanted Brock to suffer the first Octagon-related death and Mike Tyson saying he wanted to eat Lennox Lewis’ children, but for some reason none of those remarks seem as asinine to me as something Manny Gamburyan said during an interview with MMAWeekly radio yesterday.

When asked about his upcoming WEC 51 fight Thursday night with featherweight champion Jose Aldo, who has drawn comparisons to Anderson Silva for his dangerous and flashy muay thai skills, Gamburyan had the following to say:

“If they’re comparing him to Anderson Silva, they should compare me with Fedor," Gamburyan said without cracking up. "If he’s Anderson Silva, most definitely, I’m Fedor.”

Sure you’re Fedor, Manny — if Fedor wasn’t as good as he is, if he dropped a decision to Thiago Tavares and if he got KTFO by Rob Emerson.

(He’s just a dude, holding a belt, asking it to love him.)

On Thursday, Zhang Tie Quan will become the first fighter from mainland China to compete in the WEC. The China Top Team featherweight product will close out the preliminary portion of WEC 51 against Pablo Garza — who just made a brief appearance on TUF 12 as a lightweight hopeful — after being originally scheduled to face Alex Karalexis (out, injury) and then Jason Reinhardt (out, bad vision). It’s a big moment for Chinese MMA, as well as for Zuffa, which has been angling toward expansion in Asia, but is generally short on Asian rising stars in its promotions. With "The Mongolian Wolf," they couldn’t have picked up a better prospect.

Competing primarily in China’s Art of War promotion and the Philippines’ URCC outfit, Quan has racked up an 11-0 record, all wins by stoppage, with at least 10 of those victories coming in the first round. (The stoppage time of Quan’s pro debut isn’t listed on any MMA databases, or even AOW’s official site.) Quan’s last six wins have come via six different submissions, most recently a 30-second neck crank win against Daniel Digby, at a June event in Hong Kong. Quan holds a knockout victory over a guy named, I shit you not, De Gi Ji Ri Hu. For the last week, he’s been acclimating to Colorado time (and American training partners) at the red-hot Grudge Training Center.

Notable quote, from this WEC profile: "I always admired the wolf because he was so ferocious and majestic. We saw a lot of wild wolves where I grew up and we all heard stories that if a wolf bites you on the arm for example, even if you kill it, its jaw will remain closed…I look at a fight with that same ferociousness…If there is any opportunity to finish, I finish. I won’t quit, I do my best and try to end things as quickly as possible."

After the jump: The Wolf in action.

(Props: THEkimoleopoldo via HammerFisted)

Kimo Leopoldo — everybody’s favorite officer-impersonating, meth-possessing death-hoax victim — may be long out of the MMA game, but he hasn’t stopped living, you dig? HammerFisted.com dug up the above video, taken this summer, which shows Kimo ascending a staircase at some sort of motel or apartment complex or assisted living facility, then diving into a pool from three stories up. Well, "diving" might be an overstatement. He basically falls into the water in the most painful-looking way possible.

But as we’ve learned in the past, Kimo Leopoldo is indestructible. He will remain above-ground even after War Machine dies of syphilis, even after Dan Quinn drives into an oncoming semi while shouting down Fred Reeva in his final video blog. Kimo gets out of the water, shouts "Awright," demands to know how the splash was, and explains "I hadda like, not let my second-guess guess me on that one." We’d say that’s good advice for anybody…

 
(Serra needs a better hypeman.)

Jason "J-Dog" Wright worked his ass off getting us dozens of photos from Saturday night’s UFC 119 event, and we’re hell bent on getting them all uploaded onto the site for you to marvel at.

Here’s the latest batch of Jason’t shots of the guys and girls at the show in Indianapolis, Indiana last weekend.

Enjoy!

Pics are after the jump.

(Two entirely appropriate responses to the judges’ verdict. PicProps: Our Man J-Dawg)

Besides an affinity for horrifying Oregon Ducks gear, there isn’t much to dislike about Evan Dunham. In fact, in the wake of UFC 119 you could say Dunham has positioned himself as sort of an “Anti-Frank Mir” in MMA circles, emerging from his split decision loss to Sean Sherk looking like a winner, while the former UFC heavyweight champion emerged from his KO win looking like a loser. Given the near-unanimous public sentiment that Dunham got the “No Vaseline” treatment at 119, it will be interesting to see if the UFC simply ignores the amazing incompetence of the ringside officials on Saturday night and keeps the kid full-speed-ahead on his rise to a title shot.

Signs point to yes, as the always subtle UFC President took to his Twitter immediately after the official verdict to announce Dunham had been “robbed!” Meanwhile, Dunham himself — if his recent postfight with MMA Junkie is any indication — seems to be taking a far pluckier approach to his first professional loss.

(When War gets his photos done at Sears, he always turns to the side out of habit.)

Apparently most MMA outlets were like us in thinking that since War Machine got sat down by the District Attorney in his case who used his tweets about drugs and booze against him, that the fighter formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver was done with Twitter since nobody has written anything about him in a while.

I hadn’t checked out Machine’s page in a while, but it came up as a friend suggestion on my personal account the other day, so I clicked it and was pleasantly surprised that he is back blogging about his exploits in jail.

I’ve got to admit, I was kind of disappointed with the latest edition. I clicked on it expecting to read about how to make a shank out of a toothbrush and instead, I get War talking about how often he masturbates and how he’s thinking of fucking a bologna sandwich. Remind me never so eat lunch with him if I interview him in person after his release (no pun intended).

Maybe it’s because his lawyer is censoring his posts, but last week’s entry seems somewhat subdued.

Here’s what’s going on with War Machine who has only been behind bars one month, which means we only have 48 more of these recaps.

("I took many lessons from this fight. For example, not all Americans are as affectionate as Pat Barry.")

If you were one of the poor bastards who suffered through UFC 119‘s woeful main event, you may have noticed Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and Frank Mir having a little chat in the third round. Mid-fight trash talk, perhaps? A friendly "is that all you got, bitch?" maybe, or the ever-reliable "you ain’t shit"? Not exactly. As Cro Cop explained to Index.hr (translated by Fighters Only), he was asking if Mir would be kind enough to let go of their clinch so they could stand and bang. The exchange basically went like this:

Cro Cop: Let me go, let’s go to the center and fight.
Mir: Let’s go to the mat.
Cro Cop: OK — if I’m on top.
Mir: We’ll stay in the clinch.

Eventually the ref broke them up and Cro Cop got his wish, even though he was knocked out by a knee to the jaw shortly after. Filipovic now joins the super-exclusive club of whacked-out MMA fighters who try to negotiate better positions during a fight, only to be refused by their opponents and then lose in humiliating fashion. At this point, the only other member of that club is Paulo Filho.

After returning to Croatia, Filipovic did another interview in which he flagrantly violated a recent CagePotato Ban — bad Mirko! — and assured everyone that he’ll be returning to the UFC. Twice, in fact…

This Thursday night in Broomfield, Colorado, the WEC will be hosting its most star-studded event since Aldo vs. Faber — with many of the same faces squaring off in the cage. In addition to Jose Aldo‘s featherweight title defense against Manvel the Anvil, WEC 51 boasts the bad blood rematch between Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone, Miguel Torres trying to snap a two-fight losing streak against Charlie Valencia, Mike Brown bouncing back against Cole Province, and Leonard Garcia and his Fight of the Year partner Chan Sung Jung returning against new opponents. Set your DVRs now (Versus, 9 p.m. ET) so you don’t have to come crying to us later. And if you’re a FightPicker player, please swing by fightpicker.cagepotato.com or apps.facebook.com/fightpicker to battle your fellow ‘pickers for bragging rights. The complete list of this week’s WEC 51 pool questions can be found after the jump…

(If a fighter’s going to strut like that, Dana wants them to at least have something to strut about.)

To say Dana White is a bit upset with the two fighters from Saturday night’s UFC 119 main event would be a major understatement. A more appropriate statement would be that the UFC president is pissed right off with the lethargic performances put in by Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic and Frank Mir at the Conseco Field House in Indianapolis last weekend.

White spoke to ESPN today and took aim at one half of the duo that made up 119′s final fight — former heavyweight champion, Mir who he hinted that he hasn’t decided whether or not fans will see fight again in the Octagon.

 
(If only…)

Our talented UFC 119 photographer and comment section regular Jason "J-Dog" Wright was back at the Conseco Field House in Indianapolis Saturday night to snap some exclusive photos for us.

Except for one scary incident prior to the Mitrione-Beltran fight (which Ariel Helwani touched on in this interview with Meathead) that nearly cost us some danger pay, J-Dog made it home in one piece with some wicked shots and some great stories to tell the grandkids some day.

Jason was situated by one of the Octagon doors and as such was able to get some candid shots before, during and after each of the fights.

Check out part one of our exclusive UFC 119 photo gallery after the jump.

(VidProps: YouTube/ArielHelwani)

After two surgeries to repair a detached retina in his right eye, Alan Belcher says his vision is still blurry and dark and he told Ariel Helwani backstage during UFC 119 on Saturday that he is “less than 50 percent” recovered. Nonetheless, if Belcher can avoid another surgery it is possible he could return to MMA action sometime next summer, he says.

“My doctor is optimistic and all the other doctors I’ve talked to are optimistic about it,” Belcher says. “It’s just, if I have more surgeries and other things go wrong, it could be a possibility that I can’t fight again. I just have to get all healed up and I have to pass the ophthalmology exam and I have to get my vision better. Right now it’s still blurry and I can’t really take the chance of hurting my other eye. (But) I’ll take the chance myself if the doctors will let me, I’ll get back in there no matter what.” 

(Nobody puts "Big Daddy" in a corner)

When news first broke that UFC veteran Gary Goodridge stood up former The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 contestant Tom Murphy for their MFL fight this weekend in Montreal, rumors started circulating about why "Big Daddy" walked out of the arena minutes before the main event bout.

CagePotato.com spoke with Goodridge last night and the MMA veteran explained why he went AWOL Saturday night.

According to 44-year-old Barie, Ontario, Canada resident, the event’s promoter, Dirk Waardenburg promised to pay him double what the commission was to be told he made for the fight, with 50 percent to be paid in cash prior to the bout and the remainder to be paid via check after the event.

(W-1 continues to add top-tier talent to its already impressive roster of fighters)

Former PRIDE light heavyweight luminary Murilo "Ninja" Rua’s next fight will not be in the UFC Octagon, contrary to rumors pointing otherwise.

The older brother of UFC 205-pound champion, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua has signed with the burgeoning Canada-based Warrior One (W-1) MMA organization and will compete on the promotion’s October 23 show in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

W-1 president, Jack Bateman informed CagePotato.com of the signing Sunday night.

"We’re very excited to add a fighter of Murilo’s caliber to our first show in Nova Scotia. I’m really proud of how this card is shaping up," Bateman says. "Our fans in are in for a treat. Ninja is one of the fighters I’ve always enjoyed watching as a fan and we couldn’t be more excited to have him fight for W-1."

Ninja’s opponent on the October 23 card will be underrated Team Cesar Gracie protegee Roy Boughton who sent shockwaves through the Canadian MMA scene in June when he submitted highly-touted Toronto-based grappling phenom Misha Cirkunov at W-1: Judgement Day. 

Although terms of the 30-year-old Brazilian’s contract were not disclosed, sources close to Rua revealed that the former Chuteboxe fighter is one win away from signing with the UFC, so his stay with W-1 could be short-lived if he can get past Boughton.