(He may be a nice guy who doesn’t mean-mug, but Lytle’s no slouch.)

Chris Lytle (30-17-5) could take a dramatic jump up the UFC’s 170-pound ladder if he gets past his next rumored opponent.

According Sportsnet.ca, to the Indianapolis fighter could take on welterweight contender Carlos Condit (26-5) February 5 at UFC 126, which is surprising, considering that the Albuquerque, NM fighter turned down a fight with Jon Fitch on the same card because he felt he didn’t have enough time to prepare for the fight.

Reps from Lytle’s camp informed us this afternoon that they have yet to be contacted by the UFC, but they aren’t completely surprised that the fight is being considered as they requested the bout after Condit mentioned earlier this week that he would love to face "Lights Out."

When you think about it, Carlos has much more to lose by taking a fight with Lytle over one with Fitch, so he may regret the decision after February 5.

(Josh Koscheck and Marc Stevens run down last night’s episode with host Stephan Bonnar in the latest installment of "The Aftermath." Warning: The editor forgot to bleep out Koscheck’s numerous F-bombs. Props: UltimateFighter.com)

The official title of this episode is "KOS in a Commotion." There’s nothing funny about rape-choking a male nurse, but we’ve always appreciated a good pun.

Dane Sayers is bummed that he was robbed of a wild card spot. After all, he lasted two rounds against Sako Chivitchian, and Marc Stevens didn’t even last 20 seconds against Cody McKenzie. As Jonathan Brookins explains, "It’s supposed to be reserved for the guy that put on the best performance…some people like the cucumber better then the pickle, I don’t know." But Stevens is the "obvious pick" according to Dana, I guess because he knocked some dude out in the elimination round. We’ll see how far that gets him. Coach Koscheck thinks Marc has a lot of "po-tential" that he didn’t get to show, because he got submitted "kind of early." Kind of!

Alex Caceres tweaked his back during his round-of-14 fight against Jeff Lentz, and is unable to train as hard as the other guys. Michael Johnson just thinks he’s lazy. They argue about it at the house, and Caceres explains that he needs to save his body for his next fights, and promises that when it’s time for him to fight MJ, he’ll be training, believe that. The gauntlet has been dropped, son.

Getting trapped in a submission is a panic-inducing experience for any fighter. But what happens when you’re put in a position that you’ve never even seen before? In honor of next week’s DVD/Blu-ray release of Locked Down (which co-stars Rashad Evans, Kimbo Slice, and Cheick Kongo), we’re taking a look back at MMA matches where fighters were "locked down" for real — caught in off-the-wall subs that offered no chance of escape. Enjoy the list, and come back next Thursday for a chance to win a Locked Down combo pack in our next caption contest…

#10: Alexander Otsuka’s double-armbar vs. Mike Bourke
PRIDE 11, 10/31/00

Dusting himself off after a pathetically botched dropkick attempt early in the fight (see the video’s 0:38 mark), Otsuka begins working his jiu-jitsu against the tank-topped American brawler. When Bourke starts to hang out with one arm posted and the other throwing down telegraphed punches, the "Diet Butcher" seizes the moment, snapping his legs over Bourke’s head and torquing both of his arms simultaneously. Bourke is so screwed he has to tap with his knee.

#9: Ivan Salaverry’s anaconda body lock vs. Tony Fryklund
UFC 50, 10/22/04

We usually think of the body-triangle as a technique used to soften up an opponent before or during a rear-naked choke. It takes real talent to actually finish somebody with it. After taking Tony Fryklund’s back, Salaverry passes up the neck and instead wrenches his arms around Fryklund’s body, driving his hips forward to exert maximum pressure on the spine and ribs. Fryklund has two options at this point: Allow himself to be cracked like a walnut, or scream for mercy. Fortunately, he makes the right choice.

OK, maybe it isn’t the singer from Gnarls Barkley, but it looks just like him.

In any case, Spike TV teased this clip a few weeks ago and tonight the altercation between Kos and the male nurse, who is presumably the cageside medic will finally be aired.

Josh seemed kind of pissed off and, for once, was at a loss for words when the dude started on him about being a stinking injury faker.

Fess up, which one of you guys is a murse from Las Vegas?

(Video courtesy YouTube/Fight!Magazine)

If you haven’t seen it yet, take a few minutes to watch the short feature Fight! Magazine did on Nick Diaz. You wouldn’t know that Nick had issues with doing interviews or media by watching the smiling and laughing Stockton, California native talk about his life and early days of training.

Some interesting things he had to say that may surprise some is that he doesn’t overly like fighting, doesn’t care about his Strikeforce title and that if the pay was better he would forgo fighting to focus on being a triathlete.

"Do I love fighting? No, I don’t love fighting it’s a living hell. My first thought when I step in the cage is, ‘In about 20 minutes I’m going to be in a shower rinsing all the blood off of me; hopefully it’s the other guys and not mine,’" Diaz explains. "If they paid me to race triathlons as much as they do to fight, I probably wouldn’t fight any more."

(Props: fromhit)

UFC 122 may not be stacked — it’s Germany, those haters should be glad they’re getting anything — but it’ll be broadcast free on Spike, it’s full of potentially exciting matchups, and it’ll have serious implications for the UFC’s middleweight division. In the main event, Nate Marquardt and Yushin Okami will face off for a title shot against the winner of Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort. Marquardt and Okami are two guys who have spent their UFC careers clawing their way almost to the top, but falling just short of the glory. Earlier in his UFC career, Marquardt was TKO’d by Anderson Silva in the Spider’s first official title defense at UFC 73; this year, Marquardt suffered a decision loss to Chael Sonnen, snapping a fearsome three-knockout run.

As for Okami, the Japanese standout was outpointed in a previous #1-contender match against Rich Franklin at UFC 72, and was also stymied by Chael Sonnen last October. In other words, UFC 122′s headliners have endured the same setbacks — and they both know that the big opportunities don’t last forever. It’s do or die time. At Jackson’s MMA and Grudge Training Center, Marquardt is getting the best preparation that this country has to offer, and he’s a powerful, vicious striker. Okami is a deceptively strong fighter with great conditioning, who might be able to smother Marquardt just like Sonnen did.

("Fitch in February for a shot at St-Pierre? Nah, I think I’ll wait for GSP clear out the division and move up to middleweight.")

Carlos Condit may have cost himself a huge opportunity.

The UFC welterweight reveals that he turned down a Super Bowl weekend fight with perennial number one contender Jon Fitch at UFC 126. Instead, Fitch will face Jake Ellenberger and the winner of the bout will wait patiently until the end of the year to face the winner of the winner of the Josh Koscheck-Georges St-Pierre UFC 124 showdown and a subsequent Jake Shields match-up in the spring.

Simply put, he’s giving up an opportunity to fight teammate Georges St-Pierre for the belt in late 2011.

Condit told MMAJunkie that the timing wasn’t right for the fight.

"It just didn’t work out as far as timing went," he told MMAjunkie. "I didn’t think I was going to be able to get a long enough camp in for Fitch for the time period that they were wanting me to fight."

("My biggest regret? Not springing for caller ID. Next question …" PicProps: GalsGuidetoMMA)

Over the weekend, we brought you news that Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney was pursuing the very questionable strategy of trying to publicly shame Strikeforce into a promotional partnership with his lesser-known MMA company. After Rebney went to the media with his claims that Strikeforce jefe Scott Coker was ignoring his text messages about a potential cross-brand superfight between Gilbert Melendez and Eddie Alvarez (and Coker denied it, also to the press … so, you see where this is headed …) Bellator published some gloomy, Loch Ness Monster-style photographs of four messages Rebney allegedly sent somebody he had saved in his phone as “Scot Coker Mobile.” Yeah, it was all pretty hilarious in a slapstick, will-you-lookit-what-these-idiots-are-up-to-now kind of a way and the lolz just increased exponentially when later that same day Strikeforce confirmed that Rebney had been sending his texts to Coker’s old number.

Once we were all done shouting, “Smooth fuckin’ move, Bjorn!” in unison, we began to wonder aloud: How exactly would the boss of America’s second largest MMA promotion look upon the revelation that his potential new business partners would so readily try to out him as liar to the public … and even fumble around and fuck that up? As it turns out, not favorably. Coker told Bloody Elbow this week in his ever understated way that he has “concerns” about how Bellator handled this. If we had to guess about specifics, we’d wager the major concern is that Bjorn Rebney made himself look like a backbiting no-account who texts like my mom when she’s trying guilt trip me into calling her back about Sunday dinner. But maybe it’s best if we let Coker tell it in his own words.

(At least we can take comfort in the fact that Vader will eventually throw him overboard off the Death Star.)

It looks like MMA legalization in New York is still going to require a fight to make it a reality. Asshole Democrat Bob Reilly retained his New York State Assembly seat last night by defeating Republican opponent Jennifer Whalen 53.56% to 46.39%.

As you can hear in the interview we conducted with the vehement MMA opposer yesterday, he hasn’t got a fucking clue about MMA or even reality for that matter, so getting him to soften his stance on sanctioning will likely be an uphill battle.

Somebody needs to get ahold of some photos of Bob screwing a goat so we can expedite his resignation.

Just a month and a half after Chael Sonnen tested positive for performance enhancing drugs following his middleweight title fight against Anderson Silva, the UFC has more dirty urine on its hands. MMA Junkie broke the news yesterday that Octagon first-timer Vinicius Quieroz — who was submitted by Rob Broughton in his debut at UFC 120 in London — tested positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol after the match and has been fired by the UFC.

As they usually do for overseas events, the UFC conducted its own drug screening at #120, testing main event fighters Michael Bisping and Yoshihiro Akiyama, as well as six other fighters selected at random. Quieroz was the only fighter who tested positive. In addition to his release from the promotion, the 5-2 Chute Boxe product will forfeit an undisclosed discretionary bonus from the UFC; his test results will also be given to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which could affect Quieroz’s ability to get licensed to fight in the U.S.

(Bryan Caraway and Miesha Tate as Dexter and some chick who’s about to get murdered. For more MMA fighter Halloween costume photos, hit up FiveOuncesofPain.)

– The Korean Zombie Vows Never To Fight ‘Zombie Style’ Again (MMA Convert)

– Must-See: Front Kick to the Chin Knockout (MMA Scraps)

– Faber The Key To Bantamweight Success In The UFC (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Manny Gamburyan: ‘WEC Fighters Deserve To Be In The UFC’ (SBNation.com/MMA)

– Scott Coker: Melendez vs. Aoki 2 in Works for New Years Eve in Japan (LowKick)

– The Top Ten Audience Reactions in MMA, Vol. 2 (MiddleEasy)

– Mike Brown Campaigning for WEC 53 Fight (Versus MMA Beat)

– The Method to Our Madness: FIGHT! Rankings Explained (FightMagazine)

– Keith Jardine’s Next Fight Postponed by Tropical Storm Tomas (MMA Fighting)

(There’s an ad for a sports drink if I ever saw one.)

Lyoto Machida isn’t taking anything for granted in preparing for his upcoming bout with Quinton Jackson at UFC 123 November 20.

The former UFC light heavyweight champ says he’s preparing for every scenario that "Rampage" may present him with during the fight — even the unlikelihood that Jackson may demonstrate some newly developed kickboxing skills.

"Well, I always think for a MMA fight, despite the specialties of each fighter, you have to be prepared for anything, because we can never know what the guy is up to. A guy who doesn’t know how to kick may be kicking on the following fight, you can’t tell for sure. The need leads the frog to a jump. We have many examples of people who are good on areas that aren’t theirs specialties: Georges St. Pierre has improved a lot his Wrestling, people that didn’t kick are now kicking and so it goes… I don’t underestimate any fighter," Machida told Tatame.com. "I think that, just as I’m prepared for anything during the fight, so are they: the stand-up game, the takedowns and the ground game. Of course we have our game plan set, our strong point is Karate and the exchanges, but if we need to use the other skills, we will do the takedowns and the ground game that I train here with Valter Broca, who’s a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, graduated by De La Riva, who always help me on this area."

As far as Jackson’s gameplan, Machida doesn’t think Quinton will shy away from standing with him, despite his tough to defend against unorthodox karate striking prowess.

(Props: swift1125 via MiddleEasy. Don’t worry, the camera flips around at the 0:20 mark.)

So, the dude in the black trunks is an 18-year-old kid by the name of Charlie Ontiveros, who picked up East Texas MMA‘s highly-coveted amateur welterweight championship on October 16th by starching his hapless opponent with a single punch. As for the goofball in the camo board-shorts, well, we don’t have a name for him yet. But from the moment the fight starts, you just know something bad’s going to happen. See, it’s not enough to just "keep your hands up." You also have to keep them in the general area of your chin. Poor guy must have been out sick when they taught that lesson at his MMA gym…

(Since Brocktober was a bust, maybe SuperBrock weekend in February will be better.)

Well, Brock Lesnar and Roy Nelson made Joe Silva’s job much easier by all but setting up a bout between each other today. Now all the UFC has to do is squeeze the heavyweights onto a card and we’ll have Lesnar’s first post-title-loss match-up.

Superbowl weekend seems like a likely date, considering Brock is hunting and Nelson is rehabbing his knee, so we’re going to go ahead and pencil it in.

According to Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online, Lesnar has asked the UFC if he can fight Nelson next, but the promotion for some reason is stuck on a rubber match with Frank Mir, so it’s not guaranteed to happen.

"I could tell you this for pretty much 100 percent certainty Brock Lesnar wants that fight. I mean, he has asked for that fight and I would presume at some point  that fight is probably going to happen. I think the idea…Dana — as of a couple of days ago at least — had not talked to Lesnar yet, but he was planning on doing it," Alvarez revealed. "I think the first fight they’re probably going to offer [Brock] is a third fight with Frank Mir."

(Jimmerson’s Plan B was to close his eyes and count to 50, but when he opened them the bad man was still there. PicProps: MMA and Me)

In the nearly 20 years after Art Jimmerson spent all of two minutes, 18 seconds as a UFC fighter, he’s kind of become the gold standard for bad decision-making in our sport. Jimmerson’s choice to wear just one boxing glove during his fight against Royce Gracie at UFC 1 is now the stuff of legend in the same way Harold Howard’s mullet, Scott Morris’ ninjitsu and Teila Tuli’s flying tooth have become synonymous with epic failure during the early days of “no holds barred” combat. Heck, Jimmerson’s folly even inspired Tom Lawlor’s most recent wacky (and kind of uncomfortable) entrance to the UFC 121 weigh-ins. If getting spoofed by Lawlor doesn’t mean you’ve etched your name into the history books, I don’t know what does. For Jimmerson however — a former Golden Gloves champ who put together a mostly successful 17-year career as a professional boxer — being remembered primarily as “the idiot who wore one boxing glove to an MMA fight” has to be a little infuriating.

That’s why it makes for such a syrupy, schmaltzy happy ending to his roundabout history in MMA that Jimmerson is now once again gainfully employed with the UFC: Teaching boxing at the newly opened UFC Gym in Rosemead, Calif. Scumbag blogger turned respected reporter Ben Fowlkes has the scoop, sitting down with the boxer to get a full report on Jimmerson’s fight with Gracie (“I was like, I’m going to kill this man. I never heard of no Royce Gracie … ”) and his fateful decision to strap that glove onto his left fist before heading out to the cage. As it turns out, Jimmerson says there was actually some strategery involved.

("I think I’ll go to Hollywood where the competition is easier.")

It’s been over two years since Heath Herring last walked into a cage or a ring to compete, which left many wondering if he would ever fight again.

Now "The Texas Crazy Horse," who walked away from the sport to pursue an acting career is going stir crazy to get back to fighting, but because of a contract dispute with the UFC is unsure of when he will be able to compete again.

After a shaky 2-3 UFC run which included a drubbing by Brock Lesnar at UFC 87 in his last fight in August of 2008, Herring’s future with the company looked bleak, especially since a losing record didn’t give him the upper hand in negotiating better paydays or a more lucrative contract.

Most assumed that he had left or been dropped by the UFC for disparaging remarks he made about the company (*see Todd Duffee), but Herring says he was offered fights by the promotion over the past two years, but because of terms of the fights and their locations, he turned them down.

(Swick is back, and he’s got a new nutritionist.)

Reeling from back-to-back losses against Dan Hardy and Paulo Thiago — which he partly attributed to a medical misdiagnosis that screwed with his health for years — UFC welterweight contender Mike Swick has a lot to prove in his next fight. According to MMA Weekly, Swick will compete at Fight for the Troops 2 on January 22nd, meeting up with David Mitchell (10-1, 0-1 UFC). Mitchell suffered the first loss of his career in his Octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 22, dropping a decision to fellow first-timer TJ Waldburger — making Swick vs. Mitchell a true must-win for both fighters.

In 2006, Swick was incorrectly diagnosed with dyspepsia, and was put on a restrictive diet that made it impossible for him to keep weight on, which directly resulted in Swick’s drop from middleweight to welterweight. This year, Swick learned that he actually had "esophageal spasm with acid reflux," a condition that you don’t need to treat by starving yourself. At this very moment, Swick is taking the first step towards fixing his health problems once and for all, undergoing an "experimental medical procedure" that involves getting his esophagus injected with a neurotoxin. Sounds painful, but the ability to eat Thai food again should more than make up for it. Here’s to a "Quick" (yeah, yeah) recovery.

According to Heavy.com, Fight for the Troops 2 will be headlined by Kenny Florian vs. Evan Dunham, a matchup that was originally thought to take place at UFC 126.

(Vitor Belfort vs. Wanderlei Silva at UFC Brazil. Jesus, they’ve been talking about "the old Vitor" since 1998??)

According to a new report, the UFC will make a long-overdue return to Brazil in November 2011. GracieMag.com sources claim that the event will be held at the HSBC Arena in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, a 15,000-seat venue that will host the basketball and gymnastics events at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The rumored event would mark the first time the UFC has held a card in Brazil since "Ultimate Brazil" in October 1998, which featured Frank Shamrock defending his middleweight belt against John Lober, Pat Miletich becoming the UFC’s first welterweight champion after outpointing Mikey Burnett, Pedro Rizzo’s UFC debut against Tank Abbott, and Vitor Belfort‘s legendary knockout of Wanderlei Silva. With a renewed rivalry brewing between Belfort and Silva, we can’t think of a better occasion for a rematch.

Semi-related: Speaking of Pedro Rizzo…the three-time UFC heavyweight title challenger is currently preparing for a fight against former champ Tim Sylvia, which will take place in the War on the Mainland promotion sometime early next year. According to Rizzo, "Dana White mentioned that the winner should get another chance in the Ultimate Fighting Championship." Both fighters are currently riding three-fight win streaks.

 
(Okay, Nate Diaz is somewhat recognizable other than the fact that he’s as big as Carwin, but the others aren’t even close.)

If your only job was to create plastic facsimiles of MMA fighters for the action figure company you worked for, you’d think you might want to do it with at least *some* accuracy.

I’m guilty of owning a vintage Ken Shamrock WWF and a handful of Zakks Pacific figures that I bought spruce up my office a bit, but I’ve never seen a Round 5 model that I’ve had the desire to purchase.

They just seem like the design team is just phoning them in. The fact that they advertise them with a photo of the real fighter in the background which doesn’t even look a little bit like the toy version is somewhat odd.

(In case you’ve completely forgotten what he looks like, this is Jake Ellenberger.)

Immediately after Jake Shields notched an ugly decision win over Martin Kampmann at UFC 121, welterweight vet Jake Ellenberger logged onto Twitter and started posting short-message bombs directed at the former Strikeforce champ. Highlights included, "Jake Shields, you’re as exciting as watching a bowl of mash potatoes get cold…Your days are numbered" and "Jake Shields’ cardio won’t be a factor if he fights me next. I won’t keep him around long enough to get tired."

(As cheap as it is for Ellenberger to talk smack over Twitter — without even including ‘@jakeshieldsajj‘ in his posts so that Jake will actually see them — we have to commend him for being the first MMA fighter in Twitter history to understand the difference between "you’re" and "your." Okay, nerdy grammar rant over.)

Since Ellenberger is just 2-1 in the UFC with wins over fellow mid-packers Mike Pyle and John Howard, we didn’t think for a second that he’d get Jake Shields pulled from his impending title fight just on the strength of his eDisses. And he didn’t. Instead, Ellenberger got a fight against Jon Fitch.

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMAInterviews)

Forrest Griffin interviews make me feel good. Not because Forrest is a funny dude, but rather because they make me realize that not only was he a dick to me when I interviewed him for the first time last summer; he’s a dick to every reporter that interviews him.

Don’t believe me? 

Check out the recent clip above of Forrest telling an interviewer that his hair is terrible and calling him racist for assuming Griffin was referring to Alistair Overeem when he referenced Cro Cop giving up during a fight in which he got kneed in the groin repeatedly. The reporter was right. Overeem did foul Mirko during a DREAM bout, but Forrest assumed he thought our boy Cheick Kongo looked like "The Demolition Man" and he called him on it.

When I interviewed him after he spent four hours signing autographs at the Toronto MMA Expo, I assumed he was simply being ornery because of the long day he had.

Just before we began the interview, which I waited to conduct after a one-hour delay in which Griffin signed a few extra autographs, he tossed aside the Cage Potato t-shirt I gave him to a girl working the booth, told me he had no idea what CP was and then proceeded to "X" out the devil horns symbol on my shirt, informing me that I now had his autograph. Needless to say, I wasn’t overly keen on doing the interview after the way things got started. 

That seems to be Forrest’s MO: insult the reporter at the beginning of the Q&A session and make him feel uncomfortable for the whole interview. The end result is usually an awkward and strange exchange that ends with Griffin smirking and the reporter red-faced and wishing they hadn’t wasted their time talking to him.

(Only the immortal can truly become "best friends forever." Photo courtesy of facebook.com/cowboycerrone)

This is not the best way to make an impression with your new employer. As first reported by the Na Koa MMA Show, WEC lightweight contender Donald Cerrone was involved in a backstage brawl with a heavyweight headliner at the first event put on by Evolution Combat Sports Championship, this Saturday in Clovis, New Mexico. According to Na Koa…

The brawl was apparently about a young lady now dating Donald Cerrone who used to date the main event fighter of the evening Marcus Sursa. [Ed. note: Not Brittney Palmer. Possibly this chick.] Comments were exchanged after Sursa returned from a trip to the rest room and Cerrone was overseeing the warm-ups of several Jackson MMA fighters on the card…some words were exchanged by the two and then a shove followed by Cerrone throwing a punch causing a laceration on the eye of Sursa, who responded with a punch cutting the lip of Cerrone.

("Thank you for your opening statement, Mr. Miller. Mr. Diaz and Mr. Shields now have 30 seconds to present their rebuttal." PicProps: BuzzHollywood.com)

Even after a panel of world renowned experts weighed in last week to unanimously declare that Jake Shields still needs to prove himself worthy in the UFC’s 170-pound division, the company is not wavering in its plans to shoehorn him into a title shot against the winner of next month’s Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck scrap. Shields now even says he’ll be cageside at UFC 124 in Montreal, pretty much ensuring that the UFC will tempt fate by having the Cesar Gracie jiu jitsu fighter enter the Octagon to confront the victor.

We all know what happened the last time the former Strikeforce middleweight champ was involved in a postfight altercation inside a cage. Bad things, man. Fortunately, if Shields decides to engage in a company-sponsored mean-mug competition after UFC 124 it will at least be at an event run by professionals, so the possibility of an encore performance of “Strikeforce: Nashville” is pretty slim. Especially since all parties involved will no doubt get a stern “Be cool, motherfuckers,” speech from Dana White prior to the show. Still, Shields was already teasing a heel turn during his recent interview with MMA Weekly …

("What do you think about Syntha-6, Nate? I’ve been showing impressive gains while taking it.")

During an appearance on The Bum Rush Radio Show last week, UFC middleweight contender Nate Marquardt spoke about Chael Sonnen’s recent alleged positive test for elevated levels of testosterone.

Having been accused of PED use himself in 2005 after a positive test result for Nandralone netted him a six-month suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission following his decision win over Ivan Salaverry in his UFC debut, Marquardt is keeping an open mind when it comes to Sonnen’s situation.

Nate has always maintained that he never knowingly took the banned substance he tested positive for and that he believes the steroid was introduced to his system by dirty supplements he was taking prior to the bout. There have been several cases of PED-tainted supplements being sold in the U.S. and Canada over the years, so his story had merit, which is likely what led to NSAC lowering his suspension by one month.

He warns against MMA fans and members of the media persecuting Sonnen before he has his day in court December 2 when he meets with the California State Athletic Commission to appeal the one-year suspension and $2,500 fine he was handed down in September as a result of his alleged infraction.

"Until they’ve seen the test results and have researched it and know what they’re talking about, they should probably just [wait and] listen to what [Chael has to say]," he suggests.

(What Leonard lacks in striking technique and conditioning, he more than makes up for with his unshakable sense of humor.)

Despite coming off a disappointing performance at WEC 51 in which he was outstruck to a split decision loss against Mark Hominick, former featherweight title contender Leonard Garcia will be one of the first 145-pounders to debut in the Octagon, when he meets Tyler Toner at the TUF 12 Finale (December 4, Las Vegas). The match will be Garcia’s first in the UFC since his 1-2 stint as a lightweight in 2007. Garcia is 1-2-1 in his last four fights in the WEC, with his only victory coming in a very questionable decision against Chan Sung Jung. Tyler Toner most recently dropped a decision against Diego Nunes at WEC 51. The TUF 12 finale takes place four weeks before the "official" debut of WEC talent at UFC 125, and 12 days before the WEC’s last event.

Speaking of the TUF 12 Finale, our guest-blogging friend Rich Attonito will reportedly take on Renzo Gracie product Dave Branch in a middleweight contest on the card. After being forced out of the competition on TUF 11 due to a broken hand, Attonito came back to shut Jamie Yager’s big mouth at the TUF 11 finale, then outscored Rafael Natal at UFC Fight Night 22. Branch was the victim of a Gerald Harris body-slam KO in his Octagon debut at UFC 116, but rallied back to win a decision over Tomasz Drwal, also at UFC Fight Night 22.

In other booking news…