(Step one of trying to create a strategic partnership with another organization: Publicly claim CEO of other organization is a goddamned liar. That’s some Dale Carnegie shit, right there. PicProps: Connect.in.com)

We’ve got a classic (and totally stupid) media gambit on our hands here between Bellator honcho Bjorn Rebney and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. Ever since Bellator decided that one of its primary corporate strategies would be to continually repeat the dubious claim that Eddie Alvarez is the No.1 lightweight fighter in the world, it’s been publicly pushing for a co-promotional, company vs. company show with Strikeforce. Rebney took the idea to the MMA media, saying he’d “love” for the two promotions to double-up on a pay-per-view effort featuring a bevy of cross-brand championship matches, but that Coker wasn’t calling him back about it. In response, Coker – who’s always down for totally mishandling a public relations opportunity – went on Sherdog Radio this week to say he too was interested, but denied he’d ever heard from Rebney and accused Bellator of pulling a PR stunt. Naturally, Bellator’s next move was to release what it alleges are a bunch of Rebney’s text messages to Coker. Ruh-roh.

It’s pretty easy to imagine someone in the Bellator office pumping their fist and yelling out, “Checkmate, motherfucker!” as they hit “send” on this particular email, which reportedly contained four fairly low-quality snapshots of Rebney’s texts. The images are after the jump, of course. If you squint, you can even kind of read them.

Some highlights from Thursday’s Bellator season finale at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, courtesy of John Sluder.

Part 1, below: Hector Lombard def. Alexander Shlemenko via unanimous decision.
Continue to Bellator 34 photo gallery pt. 2 (Frausto vs. Fujii)
Continue to Bellator 34 photo gallery pt. 3 (The best of the rest)

Frausto def. Fujii via split decision. Photos courtesy of John Sluder
Back to Bellator 34 photo gallery pt. 1 (Lombard vs. Shlemenko)
Continue to Bellator 34 photo gallery pt. 3 (The best of the rest)

Photos courtesy of John Sluder
Back to Bellator 34 photo gallery pt. 1 (Lombard vs. Shlemenko)
Back to Bellator 34 photo gallery pt. 2 (Frausto vs. Fujii)

("I’m sorry, what were you saying?" PicProps: MMAConvert)

Despite some brief reports to the contrary and recent scenes of the two acting a bit too chummy for a couple of guys about to fight in a cage, Jon Jones and Ryan Bader are now a lock to do battle at UFC 126 in February, the company confirmed on Friday during its “Ultimate Insider” web show. And here you thought the internet was just for scumbags and for-profit axe-grinders trying to further their own agendas.

Confirmation of Jones vs. Bader is good news on a lot of fronts, but especially because (even though no one wants to admit it) the once vaunted light heavyweight division needs some serious help right now. The champ continues to be hampered by his own fragility. Chuck is done. Tito is so done he doesn’t even know it yet. Randy is opting for a soft retirement in order to avoid becoming the next Brett Favre. During the last three years the belt has been passed around like HPV at a barbecue at Whitehead’s. Frankly it ain’t pretty down at light heavy right now. This division desperately needs somebody to come along and put the belt on lockdown and the two guys with the best chance to do that just might be Jonny Bones and Bader. It ain’t gonna be Roger Nog, we know that much.

(The whole fight is worth watching, but if you’re in a hurry just go ahead and start at 6:30 for the good stuff. VidProps: MegaVideo)

When you have a name as epic as Maximo Blanco I guess you really have no choice but to be the kind of fighter who throws hands with reckless abandon and racks up highlight reel knockouts like they’re going out of style. If you fight primarily in Japan, it’s also OK to have your nickname be “Maxi” and your fighting exploits described as “Maxi Time!” despite what we in the west might see as the uncomfortably close proximity of that name to a certain brand of feminine hygiene products. Regardless, Blanco’s blockbuster knockout of Kiumu Kunioku from Sengoku 15 over the weekend is definitely a worth a watch.

The fight moves along at a pretty good clip for the first six-and-a-half minutes, until Blanco abruptly decides that it’s fuckin’ MAXI TIME. The current lightweight King of Pancrase drops Kunioku with a punch and follows it with a soccer kick that causes the Japanese veteran to snatch desperately for a single leg. Blanco spins free of it (doing sort of an atomic butt drop on Kunioku in the process) and then absolutely crushes him with an uppercut as he tries to stand. You know the rest: Strikes on the ground until the ref stops it while Michael Schiavello yells, “He almost decapitated him! It’s good night freaking Irene!” For once, the play-by-play shouter’s histrionics seem to fit the situation nicely.

numb from Erwann Marshall on Vimeo.

- UFC 126 likely February 6 in Vegas during SuperBowl weekend (mmajunkie)

- The world’s most thorough building inspector (torontosun)

- Fedor’s management explains why he isn’t in the UFC (middleeasy)


- Victoria’s Secret at your Hallowe’en party (mademan)

- Roy Nelson pulled from UFC 125 card (mmamania)

- 13 shocking revelations from George W. Bush’s autobiography (holytaco)

- 10 hours of MMA action today on HDNet (heavy)

- Lorenzo Fertitta confirms UFC shooting for late April Ontario debut (montrealgazette)

- Johnny Depp offered another storybook movie role (screenjunkies)

- Bellator pushing for Lombard-Jacare, Diaz-Askren (sherdog)

- Trevor Wittman explains why he’s the happiest man on fight night (mmafighting)

- Celeb fans of MMA — the hot ones (cagedoctors)

- People are awesome (scoresreport)

- Canadian martial arts event last weekend featured striking on the ground (nationalpost)

- Hottest hawaiian chicks (chickipedia)

(Belfort has no problem with Brazilian on Brazilian crime.)

During an interview with Tatame earlier this month, number one UFC middleweight contender Vitor Belfort was asked to respond to recent remarks made by Wanderlei Silva that Anderson Silva is going to, "beat the hell out of ‘The Phenom’" and let’s just say he wasn’t overly impressed.

"I don’t think anything, he’s a spectator and he can think whatever he wants to. If you have a mouth, you can say whatever you want and Wanderlei has a big mouth. But it’s about cheering, everyone can cheer for their favorite, and the important is to be respectful and know how to choose the right words," Belfort said. "In February I’ll have my chance for the belt and let’s see how it’ll be."

According to a new report from Ariel Helwani, contracts have been sent out to book Jose Aldo vs. Josh Grispi as the UFC’s first official featherweight title fight at #125 (January 1st, Las Vegas). The bout would serve as the co-main event, supporting the lightweight title fight between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.

Aldo, now 8-0 in the WEC, most recently defended his belt for the second time against Manny Gamburyan at WEC 51 in September. Grispi is also undefeated under the WEC banner, and has slashed through Mark Hominick, Micah Miller, Jens Pulver, and LC Davis, all in under three minutes of the first round. The Massachusetts native was slated to face Eric Koch at next month’s WEC 52 event, but that fight would be canceled if he accepts the Aldo fight. (And why wouldn’t he, really? Besides the obvious.) As we reported previously, Mark Hominick was originally in line to be Aldo’s next opponent; however, his broken hand is preventing him from competing on New Year’s Day.

Helwani also reports that Roy Nelson — left without an opponent after Shane Carwin’s back-related withdrawal — has been officially pulled from the event. 

(Props: YouTube.com/bsnsupplements)

In our continuing efforts to keep you up-to-date on how former UFC ring girls are making a living, here’s a brand-new video of Edith Labelle posing in a pool and discussing her latest gig as a BSN Girl. Damn you, food poisoning, for taking her away from us!

After the jump: A "new" BSN feature on Natasha Wicks, which uses mostly old footage but is still worth a peek…

Following UFC 121 Saturday night, Randy Couture joined the MMA Live Panel to talk about the card and to discuss his fighting future. Part of the segment aired last night on MMA Live’s broadcast in which Randy discussed whether or not we have seen the last of him inside the Octagon.

"No, I don’t think I’m going to make any public announcements [about whether or not I'm retiring] because I don’t think anybody’s going to buy it. I did that once and came back," the 47-year-old said. "I don’t want to be like Brett [Favre], you know, but  I do feel like I’ve had my wars, I’ve had my battles, I’ve been there, I’ve done that."

He makes some good points abut knowing when to call it quits, but what may be the most surprising to fans is that Couture only seems interested in taking novelty bouts. We made mention of this trend by Randy during the last episode of The Bum Rush, but the point was likely overshadowed by the news that Dana White is going to fuck Ben over. It was a prediction we made that we secretly hoped wouldn’t come true, but sadly, it looks like it’s coming to fruition.

“I am competing and training and feel better than I ever felt physically, but, you know I don’t see myself making another run at the title — at heavyweight or light-heavyweight, being honest. I think at some point, I’ve got to call enough, enough. You know, I’ve had an amazing year. My last two fights, in honesty were more novelty fights," Couture explained. "Not to take anything away from my opponents, but that’s the truth of the matter. They didn’t really matter in the division, they didn’t  put me closer to a title and, you know I have to make a decision at some point. So I think I would entertain another novelty-type fight. I can still compete, but I don’t see myself making a run at the title any time soon."

(Take a good look, people. It’s the last time you’ll be seeing stuff like this for free. PicProps: InsideHoops.com)

OK, wait just a goddamned minute. There’s some sleight of hand going on here, isn’t there? Ever since Dana White organized another of his can’t-miss, super-special, earth-shattering, blow-your-fuckin’-mind announcement conference calls yesterday to let us know that the insatiable goatsucker that is the UFC will soon devour the scared gazelle of the WEC, people have been blowing nonstop smoke up our asses about how great this is going to be. And yeah, in a lot of ways it will be great. Specifically, it’ll be great for the fighters – except most WEC lightweights, who’ll certainly be fired as soon as they lose their first UFC fights — since the little guys finally get the long overdue opportunity to be UFC fighters, get UFC groupies and bank UFC paychecks. That’s all fine and good. Seriously, those guys deserve it.

But what about us? What about the hardcore fans who have been religiously tuning in to the WEC over the last couple of years to see what have consistently been the best shows in the industry? I mean, we’re kinda getting screwed on this deal, right? Granted, we’re no mathematicians, but it’s unclear how Zuffa reducing its programming on Versus from nine shows during 2010 to four shows during 2011 means anything other than fewer free fights for the fans. And let’s be honest, the UFC is absorbing the WEC for one reason only: So it can charge us for something we used to get for free.

(Hector Lombard takes Alexander Shlemenko way out of his game, and Zoila Frausto doesn’t look like a woman who just won a fight. Photos courtesy of our own John Sluder. Full gallery coming soon!)

By ReX “Unnecessary Literary Reference” Richardson

Bellator Fighting Championships slouched toward Bethlehem last night, returning to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida for the last show of the third season. Anticipation for this last show has been running high, and Bellator held back some exciting fighters for the finale, trying to put some asses in the seats. The women’s featherweight tournament concluded with monster featherweight Zoila Frausto versus undefeated phenom Megumi Fujii, and middleweight champ Hector Lombard putting his title on the line against eternal scrapper Alexander Shlemenko. Also on the broadcast was Serbian next big thing Dragan Tesanovic — who brought an undefeated record from the European circuit for his first fight in the US — as well as King of the Cage moneyweight Tony Lopez arriving in Bellator, presumably hoping they’ll establish a light heavyweight title for him to collect.

I’m not gonna lie to you: I wish the season had ended last week. Only three fights made the broadcast because decisions were the order of the night. Make that controversial decisions, since fans were already debating what kind of drugs the judges were on before the televised event was finished. Come on in past the jump, and I’ll recap the action for you and possibly bitch about judging a bit. I’m not even going to tease you with anything this time, because that’s just the kind of guy I am.

("Trust me, everything at Strikeforce is just fine. Say, anybody else hear those violins?") 

In the wake of yesterday’s merger between the UFC and the WEC, Strikeforce’s quest to carve out an equal space in the MMA world just got even more unlikely. But if you’re Scott Coker, this is no time to despair. It’s time to fight harder — and finally fix the slew of problems that have been dragging you down. So here’s what you do…

No more "Challengers" cards until further notice
The bottom line is, your roster isn’t deep enough to pull it off, and nobody gives a fuck. We just came off of a Challengers event that was headlined — I said headlined — by Roger Bowling vs. Bobby Voelker. For God’s sake, the next Raging Wolf card is more stacked. Strikeforce should abandon their minor-league series, and stick all those prospects onto the prelims of their larger Showtime cards (more on that next). If that means fewer events, so be it. Sure, you want to develop your brand by holding regular shows around the country, but just as importantly, you want to associate your brand with excellence and excitement. And let’s be honest, Strikeforce can’t be turning a profit on those Challengers cards anyway.

Our first interactive edition of The Bum Rush Radio Show went really well yesterday thanks to our loyal readers and listeners who really made the episode.

We’re thinking about doing a live segment for every episode moving forward, so let us know what you think about the idea and whether or not you’d all be interested in participating in future shows.

If you didn’t catch Episode 9 live yesterday, we spoke a bit about UFC 121 and the UFC-WEC merger as well as a glut of other topics including how CP came to be. Some of our loyal readers got in on the action sharing their favorite Cage Potato moments and how they stumbled across our little site.

Rounding out the show, we spoke to UFC middleweight contender Nate Marquardt about his UFC 122 opponent Yushin Okami, PEDs, the opinion of some that Team Jackson fighters play it safe and taking Internet trolls to task for real.

Have a listen, give us your suggestions for future episodes and tell us what you like and what you hate about the show.

If you don’t have iTunes (which you really should) and you can’t listen to the live player at the top of the page, you can download the show HERE.

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMA30)

For all of you worrywarts who upon hearing about the pending UFC-WEC merger immediately became concerned about the future of WEC Octagon Girl^tm Brittney Palmer, you can sleep well tonight knowing that she too will become a UFC employee as of January 2011.

Fighters Only confirmed the news today with UFC president Dana White that Palmer will join the UFC’s current duo, UFC  Playboy Playmate Arianny Celeste and Roger Murtaugh Chandella Powell as the promotion’s female presence at events.

White stated during today’s press conference that the outside apron of the Octagon will be as close as any females will get to being inside the UFC cage as there aren’t enough good female fighters to make any decent division for them in his organization.

For those of you who don’t know who Palmer is, what the hell is wrong with you?

For everyone else, here are some photos and a video to remind you after the jump.

(We have cake. And t-shirts…Come on, don’t make us be the only guys listening.)

Well, we’re pretty sure that we’ve got all of the bugs ironed out from yesterday’s show that never happened and we’re going to try to do this thing again today.

We apologize for any inconvenience the show’s cancellation may have caused the three or four listeners who were planning on tuning in.

Since we had a lot of suggestions asking that we move the show back a few hours to accommodate all of our readers/listeners with "real jobs," we’re aiming for a 5:00 pm ET start today forthe latest intimate and interactive edition of The Bum Rush Radio Show.

Call in and tell us about your fondest or funniest CagePotato moment or ask one of us some intimate or thoughtful questions and you could score yourself the official uniform of the Potato Nation: The coveted devil horns CP t-shirt made popular by the cool kids on the site who actually received their near-mythical prizes in the mail.

Log in a few minutes early and we’ll know if we’re having any issues with TalkShoe.

Judging by the test-run we did today, though, everything should be good to go. 

If you want to call in and listen to the show, follow these instructions:

Dial (724) 444-7444
Enter: 89629 # (Call ID)
Enter: 1 # or your PIN if you have a Talkshoe account.
We will be notified that you are in the queue to talk with us.

(Don’t worry Gabe, the world will always need drinking instructors… / Props: gonzagabjj)

Following two consecutive losses to Junior Dos Santos and Brendan Schaub (at UFC 121), former heavyweight title contender Gabriel Gonzaga has been released by the UFC. "Napao" confirmed the news via Twitter today, writing: "Official now – Out of UFC – Thanks for all your support – back to normal life and BJJ forever." Could Gonzaga really be retiring from MMA altogether? Come on bro, all you need is a new camp and a strategy that doesn’t focus on the absolute weakest part of your game…

(Props: MMAFighting)

The cat’s out of the bag, and the "major announcement" turned out to be pretty damn major after all. Dana White announced during a media call today that the UFC is absorbing the WEC beginning in January 2011; the UFC will now feature seven championship weight classes. Here’s how it’ll work…

– Jose Aldo is automatically the UFC Featherweight Champion; he’ll defend his UFC featherweight title at UFC 125 on January 1st against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.

– WEC 53 (December 16th; Glendale, Arizona) will be the final WEC event. The winner of the bantamweight title fight between Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen will become the UFC Bantamweight Champion. The winner of the lightweight title fight between Ben Henderson and Anthony Pettis will automatically face the winner of Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard at UFC 125.

(“Here we are, protected, free to make our profits without Kefauver, the goddamn Justice Department and the F.B.I. ninety miles away, in partnership with a friendly government. Michael, we’re bigger than U.S. Steel.” PicProps: Sho.com)

As the great poet Everlast once wrote, when it comes publicly remarking on the misfortunes of others you should always “clean up your own backyard, before you go knocking on your neighbor’s door.” Unfortunately, it appears the executives at M-1 Global were not heavy enough into the Caucasian hip-hop scene of the early 1990s to heed that warning. Or perhaps our fanciful western notions about stones and glass houses just don’t translate well into Russian. Whatever the reason, the CEO of the world’s most popular Rent-a-Fedor service cut an interview with a website in the Motherland this week during which he said he knew all along that Brock Lesnar would lose to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121.

“Brock Lesnar’s defeat did not surprise me,” Vadim Finkelstein told Championat.ru, with props to LowKick.com for the translation. “I expected him to lose, so it was (not surprising) … I always knew that Brock Lesnar will not have a long run as a champion. Brock was supposed to lose in his previous fight, but he was lucky when he managed to miraculously bounce back against Shane Carwin.”

Finkelstein further suggested that a fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Lesnar would look much the same as the Velasquez bout and that he doubted Lesnar’s ability to ever reclaim the UFC gold. We assume he made these comments calmly and without a hint of irony, as flames engulfed the room where he sat and the walls of his own castle crumbled around his shoulders.

It may have been a speculative remark fueled by an interview Dana White did with Broadcasting Cable this week in which the UFC president intimated that his promotion was considering starting its own television network, but to many MMA news sites, an eight-second conversation the hosts of ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption show had on the subject yesterday was enough to prompt speculation that this is the major announcement that will be made during today’s media conference call.

Here’s what White told BC’s Ben Grossman:

"A lot of people don’t realize we are in a half a billion homes around the world. You know all the things we’ve been through in the United States, but this sport travels well. Cricket will never be big here and the NFL will never be big around the world. But we are all human beings and fighting is in our DNA. We get it and we like it. So we are working on a couple moves now and should be in a billion homes around the world in the next couple months. Sports Business Journal just came out with a survey asking big names in the industry which sport could start its own network and 4 out of 5 said us. They are right. I agree. That will happen within the next couple years.You are starting to see now ESPN is starting to cover us more. I think this is one of those things ESPN will probably kick themselves in 10 years saying, ‘We could have fucking had that.’"

It is possible that if it is true that ESPN got wind of the news, considering they have a deal to broadcast UFC events and to produce satellite pre and post-event MMA Live programs, but it’s more likely that PTI is just throwing the scenario out there to create dialogue on the possibility.

K-Sos Talks UFC 122 – Watch more Funny Videos

Coming off his Fight of the Night-winning TKO loss to Stephan Bonnar at UFC 116, Krzysztof Soszynski — better known around here as "K-Sos" — is hungry to get back to the win column. He returns at UFC 122 (November 13; Oberhausen, Germany) against Goran Reljic, who has dropped his last two bouts against CB Dollaway and Kendall Grove, and needs a victory to save his job. According to K-Sos, that’ll just make for a more exciting fight. As he tells our interviewer Ruben Vera:

"I think it’s another one of those fun fights. He’s gonna leave everything on the line. He’s 0-2 in his last two fights, he’s gonna be desperate; he doesn’t want to go 0-3. So he’s gonna put everything out there, he’s gonna put everything on the line to get this win, and I’m going to have to be ready for it. I feel like with the way I fought against Stephan Bonnar — a lot of punches, a lot kicks, a lot of pressure — I think it’s gonna be one of those barnburners, and one of those fights where the fans are gonna get a really good look at what we can do…
It’s gonna be a brawl…it’s gonna be a battle of wills, a battle of conditioning, and whoever’s fresher in the third round is gonna win that fight. I’m expecting a three-round war, and I’m pretty sure he’s expecting the same from me. We’re just gonna put on a great show for the fans and the UFC."

Later in the interview, K-Sos talks about why he left Team Quest for Reign Training Center, how studying under Bad News Brown inspired him to leave pro wrestling for MMA, what he thinks about the current season of TUF, and what his favorite Van Damme movie is. Shockingly, it’s not Bloodsport.

(If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t trying…)

The problem with GSP picking favorable matchups all season is that he’s eventually going to be stuck with one that isn’t so favorable. For the last match in the round-of-14, his #7 draft Dane Sayers will automatically be fed to Sako "Psycho" Chivitchian, a crazy Armenian with world-class judo skills. St. Pierre says he wanted Dane to fight last so they’d have more time to work with him. A few weeks might not be enough; Sayers snuck through the elimination round thanks to his heart, but didn’t show a whole lot of skills.

Two lucky losers will soon be getting picked for the wild card fight, and everybody’s jockeying for it, except for Spencer Paige, who’s out of action for three months with a broken hand. Bummer, brah. Aaron Wilkinson is all banged up from his war with Michael Johnson, but he still wants it, and he’s clearly the most deserving. Wilkinson doesn’t think Jeff "Waster" Lentz should get a second chance, since he’s just been sitting around drinking and chewing tobacco. Jeff vows to piss on Aaron’s bed.

Our hero J.C. Skarbowsky returns to advise Dane, "Good is not enough, you have to be perfect." Everybody is calling Dane "Red Horse" this episode. Red Horse is his Indian name; he’s part Blackfoot and Chippewa. (On his mother’s side, we would assume.) Says Skarbowsky: "Koscheck’s not from the States, [Dane's] from the States. Koscheck needs your permission to come here."

 
("My war against MMA is more important than the war on drugs and the war on illegal guns.")

New York Assemblyman Bob Reilly once again proved that he is an idiot with a personal agenda against MMA during a debate this week with opposing candidate Jennifer Whalen he participated in yesterday.

While Whalen outlined her priorities for her potential term as assemblywoman which included overhauling the legislature’s ethics policies, reducing unemployment and constructing a small business relief program, Reilly pointed out that his main priority is cock-blocking MMA in the state, explaining that it has become his personal crusade and that he has spent the most time and effort on — even more so than much needed tax relief for the state that his opponent says he has ignored in favor of the axe he is grinding against MMA.

"On a personal level, because what happens in the legislature — you have to shepherd certain bills through, I will be working, as I’ve said, twice already — my forfeeiture of pension bill. I will also be working on the bill — although it is not a bill — I will be working against the bill that would put Ultimate Fighting into this state," Reilly explained, hardly unable to contain his excitement. "Those are a personal effort where I am the lead legislator on those two efforts."

A personal effort, huh? No kidding?

(Wanderlei vs. Alan will likely happen in April in Toronto since Leben likely won’t be getting across the Canadian border any time soon.)

Alan Belcher got some good news this week regarding the future of his up-in-the-air MMA career.

The UFC 26-year-old middleweight contender was informed by his ophthalmologist during a check-up yesterday that he can resume physical training and that he may get the go-ahead to start light sparring in the coming weeks.

The news came as a welcome surprise for the Biloxi, Mississippi native who suffered a potential career-ending eye injury earlier this year.

"There’s no doubt I miss [training and fighting]; I miss it bad," Belcher told MMAFighting’s Mike Chiappetta today. "I was the kind of guy I’d be training almost every day. You’d have to make me stop because I love it so much. But I did it because it was fun and it makes me feel good about myself. This has been the longest break I’ve taken from training in my entire sports life. I’ve trained every week, almost every day since I was a kid. I started martial arts at eight years old and haven’t missed more than a week, so it was really weird doing nothing for months."

(The beginning of the end for the Predator…)

From #1 contender to castoff in three fights — such is the fate of Patrick Cote, who confirmed today that he has been cut by the UFC following his decision loss to Tom Lawlor at UFC 121. As Cote wrote, "I had a little hope but finally got the release word from the UFC. Its been a awesome experience! Ill be back!!"

The TUF 4 middleweight finalist lost his first four official matches in the Octagon (including his TUF 4 finale fight against Travis Lutter), but then went on a monster run in 2007-2008 that saw him score five consecutive victories over Scott Smith, Jason Day, Kendall Grove, Drew McFedries, and Ricardo Almeida.

Ruben Vera catches up with Jason Mayhem Miller – Watch more Funny Videos

CagePotato’s West Coast Correspondent Ruben Vera recently got some time with Strikeforce/DREAM star Jason Miller, and if there’s one thing you should take away from this interview, it’s that BULLY BEATDOWN RETURNS NOVEMBER 4TH!!! Okay, now that the shameless plug is out of the way, we can get down to business. Mayhem is rather upset that Nick Diaz has the gall to talk shit and throw water bottles at him backstage after Strikeforce events, but won’t step up to fight him in front of a paying audience. He also runs down his DREAM.16 fight against Kazushi Sakuraba, his recent trip to Brazil, bringing MMA to a new audience with Bully Beatdown, and UFC 121‘s marquee matchups. Some highlights…

On Nick Diaz: "Man, this guy’s a paper champion, get out of here with this. What the hell? So he beat up a 155-pound KJ Noons, and ‘ohhh, you gotta come down to 170, bro.’ Get out of here! Like, okay, what exactly does that mean? The only fight anyone wants to see is me and Nick Diaz. Outside of the UFC, that’s the only fight that people are talking about, here in America. I’m sorry, that’s how it is. You broke it off, you jumped me. You did it, you asked for it, you talked about, for years, guys with painted hair who bark at themselves. Who are you talking about? You didn’t call out names. I’m calling out names! Nick Diaz is a bitch…he wants it, but he doesn’t. ‘Oh, come to my gym and fight me.’ Come to your gym and fight you? Really? That’s what you’re saying now? Get out of here, man. Step in the cage and fight me, you know? It’s ridiculous."

(“They said this *was* the biggest hat they had.” PicProps: Sherdog)

Man, Jake Shields either possesses an unbelievable knack for stating the obvious or he just has an incredibly dry sense of humor. Either way, we dare you to read the following quote without having some variation of the expression “No shit, Sherlock,” flash through your mind. On the topic of his underwhelming performance against Martin Kampmann at UFC 121, Shields tells MMA Weekly: “If I was fighting GSP that night I don’t think I would have won, to be honest. I just don’t see myself beating GSP being the way I felt that night, but I also don’t feel that’s me. I feel like I can go out there and beat him still.”

Actually, there are a lot of people who don’t even think Shields beat Kampmann. The former Strikeforce middleweight champ showed up in the Octagon with a boatload of hype and – as is the fashion for big-name signees these days – came within an iffy split decision of fumbling his UFC debut. Then he went to the post-fight presser and said some shit about how he had cut 20 pounds in one day in order to make the 170-pound limit for the first time since 2008. UFC President Dana White called that “ridiculous” and “stupid,” but for some reason appears firm in his plans to have Shields next challenge for the welterweight title. Just goes to show, you never can tell what’s going to make the big man fly into one of his rages these days and what he’s just going to shrug off …

Just a friendly reminder that we are recording our first interactive version of The Bum Rush Radio Show podcast today to commemorate Cage Potato’s third anniversary this October at 2:00 pm ET.

You can listen live here at 2:00 and call in to join the show using the following instructions:

Dial (724) 444-7444
Enter: 89629 # (Call ID)
Enter: 1 # or your PIN if you have a Talkshoe account.
We will be notified that you are in the queue to talk with us.

Call in on your bosses dime to shoot the shit with Ben, Mike and Chad about all things MMA and to share your fondest Cage Potato memory and you could win one of our CP devil horn shirts.

If we continue to get blacklisted by MMA organizations at the rate we’re going, we may have to switch up our marketing campaign a bit, which means these babies could become collectors items some day.

Props to our friends at MMAFightGirls for discovering Logan Stanton‘s latest modeling gig — the unjustly fired former UFC Octagon Girl is now the face (and body) of Roxy swimwear. Some choice bikini pics from their website are above; you can see a lot more here.

Bonus, after the jump: A couple highlights from Logan’s other gig with Guess and a recent Alex MacPherson shoot. Implied nudity FTW!