(Video courtesy YouTube/TheNewYorkBadAss)

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…

- If Stann can’t get Wand, he’ll settle for Bisping or Belfort  (LowKick)

– Five lessons we learned for UFC Fight for the Troops II (Versus MMA Beat)

Herschel Walker: ’This is not a gimmick for me. This is life.’  (FiveOuncesofPain)

– Ricco Rodriguez to begin his road back to the UFC against James McSweeney at BAMMA 5 (MiddleEasy)

- A tribute to Chuck Liddell (WMMMALC newcomers ProFighting-Fans)

– Watch Hatsu Hioki choke Mark Hominick unconscious (MMAScraps)

– Tito Ortiz prepared to resume career outside UFC when if he loses to Lil’ Nog’ (5thRound)

– Both UFC and Strikeforce planning 2011 events in Japan (MMAConvert)

– In poll of favorite sports, MMA is overlooked (MMAFighting)

– M-1 Global signs UFC vet Vinny Magalhaes (FightMagazine)

– Elimination round for TUF 13 nixed by UFC and Spike (SBNation/MMA)

(Video courtesy YouTube MovieMaker76)

When most people think of The Skrap Pack this is the image that comes to mind:

Well, most of us didn’t live in Gilbert Melendez’s California gym for two months to film a documentary on El Nino; otherwise we would know that The Skrap Pack is now actually the name of the Strikeforce lightweight champion’s up-and-coming fight team, not the coalition of pain of the same name he started with his Team Cesar Gracie blood brothers Jake Shields and Nick and Nate Diaz. 

The resulting short web doc above, titled "The Fighter," gives a glimpse into what goes on in Melendez’s gym on a daily basis and the relationship he has with his fighters. If anything, it will leave you wanting more.

So you’re planning on watching the Strikeforce fights• this weekend, despite the fact that we here at CagePotato refuse to say anything nice about them, ever, upon pain of death? Well, there’s some decent fights on the lineup, and a double handful of undercard fighters that are hoping to make the broadcast. Among them, you’ll find middleweight Eric Lawson, a six-foot-something Californian who you may have seen on one of his six previous Strikeforce appearancesº. You may look at his 9-3 record and quickly dismiss him as small potatoes.

 But … maybe you run into the guy while you’re laid over in an airport somewhere in Middle America, because it’s snowing every damn place in the country that it’s not supposed to snow, and you learn a few things about a guy who may or may not have an adrenaline addiction, a guy who went in to MMA with relatively little training just to see what it was like.  Either that, or E Lawdog‡ heard about my nineteenth degree black belt in MMA and general ninjaness and called me up to shoot the breeze.
 

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMACanada)

MMACanada caught up with Clay Guida in Edmonton over the weekend where they asked him about his upcoming bout with former WEC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis at the TUF 13 finale June 4. According to "The Carpenter" Pettis is a solid prospect, but he’s in for a rude awakening when he makes his UFC debut.

"It’s a very exciting fight. Anthony Pettis has a lot of hype around him right now. He’s a very advertised fighter. The kick heard around the world. ‘Showtime’ is gonna be ‘No Time’ once I get in there. I’m really excited about it. [He's a] very tough kid, but the WEC and the UFC merger is gonna show you what the UFC’s all about."

("Blog about *this*, motherfucker." PicProps: Us?)

We’re already on record with our belief that Twitter is great for us media types and not so great for the MMA fighters who think they are using it to establish a personal “brand” but are really just broadcasting the worst parts of themselves to the public on a regular basis. We also already told you that Jon Jones is not only obsessively following upcoming opponent Ryan Bader on Twitter, but he’s also shadowing many of his friends, training partners and followers. You know what we love? We love when two seeminlgy unrelated stories from the past come together to make a new story in the present, like this …

UFC middleweight Aaron Simpson – who is currently training with Bader – sent a fairly innocuous tweet earlier this week essentially saying he thought Bader was ready to go against Jones at UFC 126. Naturally, Jones saw it and he did not appreciate it.

("Tell me again what it was like hanging out on the set with Hocky Balboa.")

When a story emerged last week that less than a month prior to the bout Vitor Belfort had jumped ship from training with Shawn Tompkins at TapouT Training Centre in Las Vegas in favor of holding his camp for his February 5 UFC 126 showdown with UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva at Xtreme Couture, the Internet exploded with theories about the obvious fragile mental state of "The Phenom" and fans and pundits quickly began writing off the former UFC heavyweight champ’s chances in the fight.

According to Belfort, the truth is, although he returned to working under the tutelage of Tompkins for this camp, he never really actually stopped training at the Randy Couture-helmed gym.

In a recent Twitter post Vitor (who incidentally trained almost exclusively with the Xtreme Couture coaches he’s working with now like Gil Martinez and Ray Sefo for his planned UFC 122 fight with Yushin Okami that was scrapped in favor of the Belfort-Silva bout next month) wrote that Tompkins was way off in his assessment of the situation.

"I dont think I have anything nice to say other than just ignoring it all. I have the right to choose who to train with. I have loyalty and respect and that is why I didn’t hide[the fact that I was also training at Xtreme Couture] from him," Belfort tweeted. "He tooks this more personally. I made my choice and this is just his opinion of it and nothing more."

("Tell me the truth, does this haircut make me look washed-up?" PicProps: MMA Convert)

It was just a matter of time before some intrepid MMA journalist got to Kenny Florian to get his response to all that shit Melvin Guillard was talking before Fight for the Troops 2. During his appearance on our own Bum Rush podcast (and a bunch of other shows) Guillard quipped that he no longer considers Florian a top contender for the UFC title and said he thinks KenFlo should get out of the way and let some new blood have a chance. “I’ll fight Kenny Florian,” Guillard told us, “but to be honest with you, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say he’d be a pretty easy fight for me." Damn, playa. Really?

On Monday, Al Pepe of ProMMA Radio invited Florian on the air to play him some clips of Guillard talking crazy. As always, Florian was gracious and well-spoken, but when the topic of “The Young(ish) Assassin” came up, you could hear a hint of irritation creeping into his normally composed broadcast voice. Dig it, after the jump …

(Video courtesy YouTube/JacksonsMMAMedia)

When he’s not employing his other favorite alternative training method, Rashad Evans is Jedi mind tricks to manipulate matter, proving that there’s something to the rumor that Greg Jackson really is Yoda-like.

Rashad took time out from training for his upcoming UFC 128 showdown with UFC light heavyweight champ Mauricio "Shogun" Rua to work on improving his brain activity using the Star Wars "Force Trainer."

According to the manufacturer, "the toy uses EEG technology to transmit your alpha and beta brainwaves from a head set to wirelessly drive a motor which powers a fan that sends a sphere up a tower." Hopefully for Rashad’s sake it will help protect his brain from a head kick KO or maybe he will be able to do what Lyoto Machida did at UFC 104 and convince the judges that Shogun is not the fighter who they thought won the fight. 

Remember last year when a pirate hacked the San Francisco Chronicle’s website and got a link to his illegal UFC 121 stream stickied on the top of the main page for the newspaper’s website?

Well it looks like a fellow stream hawker one-upped his SFC advertising cohort.

According to a cease and desist letter sent to Google on December 10, 2010 by MiMTiD Corporation acting on behalf of Zuffa, the owner of WatchUFCVideos.com was a bit more industrious.

According to the document, he employed the services of the pay-per-click advertising services Google Syndication, Google Doubleclick, ?atdmt.com, doubleclick.net, fastclick.net, linksynergy.com and overture.com to promote his non-licensed paid stream for UFC 124 on various websites Google paired his site with using its "super secret algorithm." He would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for the UFC’s pesky broadcast partner Spike TV whose site was the most prominent one watchufcvideos.com’s ad appeared on.

("Take a deep breath, Joey. This will all be over soon.")

When Pat Barry left Joey Beltran laying in a heap barely able to get up at the end of their heavyweight scrap on Saturday night, choosing Beltran as the winner of the bout seemed like an unlikelihood unless you were Cecil Peoples. 

It depends on who you ask, I guess.

According to Fight Metric, "The Mexecutioner" landed more punches in the bout even if they were ineffective for the most part. Beltran is of the opinion that he did enough to win and that besides the unintentional eye poke he took in the third round which led to a just stoppage, referee Mario Yamasaki all but cost him the fight by calling for breaks and restarts when the two fighters seemed to be stalling on the cage and by stopping the fight when Beltran had an advantageous position when Pat claimed to be kicked in the berries.

(VidProps: You Tube/UFC)

If you’re anything like us, you got your first good look at the official trailer for UFC 126 on Saturday night during the Fight for the Troops show on SpikeTV and thought, “Wow, almost everything said during that 31 seconds is extremely debatable.” Granted, the UFC is known for its revisionist history and these promotional spots are typically designed to bend the truth however much is necessary to get dudes who don’t really know that much about MMA interested in dropping 50 bones on the per-per-view. Even considering that, this particular commercial seems pretty, uh, erroneous. Anyway, watch it, then follow the jump for our picks of the five most questionable assertions made here …  

("I trust this dude so much, I’d let him be my chauffeur if he needed a job. We could make it into a reality show and call it ‘Driving Mr. Dana.’")

Dana White helmed a Q&A session at Fort Hood last week ahead of the Fight for the Troops II show Saturday night and the UFC president dropped a handful of interesting tidbits during the hour-long forum.

Perhaps most noteworthy was White’s proclamation that former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will likely get the next crack at the winner of the UFC 128 championship bout between current champ Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Rashad Evans. White pointed to Jackson’s win over Lyoto Machida at UFC 123 — a fight many thought should have gone to "The Dragon" — as being the main factor in his title consideration. He also hinted that the winner of next month’s UFC 127 tilt between Ryan Bader and Jon Jones will likely get dibs on the winner of Jackson versus Evans or Rua.

"There are so many guys at 205. Rampage is probably next in line. Rampage is still in the mix. We’ve got Jon Jones and Ryan Bader fighting on the fifth [of February], which is going to be a great fight and catapults one of those guys to the top five.There’s so many great guys in the 205-pound division," White said. "The big problem has been ‘Shogun’s’ injury has been clogging up the division. Now he’s healthy and going to fight, and we’ll get everything rolling. [Shogun's] recovered now and back in training."

Surprisingly, White said that Machida, who just as easily could be sitting in Rampage’s place in line had the judges given him the split decision nod over Jackson, needs to win his upcoming UFC 129 bout in Toronto with Randy Couture, stopping short of saying that he could be on the chopping block if he loses.

"I didn’t think [Lyoto] was ever going to lose," White admitted. "Shogun beat him, and then he just lost to Rampage, too," he explained. "Now he’s fighting Randy Couture. It’s a must-win for him."

White also touched on several other topics, rumors and bout signings. Check the most pertinent ones out after the jump.

(VidProps: YouTube/ZP420MMA)

With the opening bouts of the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament less than a month away, embattled grand prix participant Josh Barnett turned up on HDNet’s Inside MMA over the weekend, where he and Bas Rutten both just started saying stuff. Protest if you want, but it makes for great TV when nobody is around to check facts or rein in the insanity. Clearly, Barnett and Bas just want to bro down, have a couple of drinks and reminisce about how radical it used to be to be King of Pancrase, leaving poor Kenny Rice to try to bumble his way through some actual journalism.

Things reach a fever pitch of awesomeness at about the 3:40 mark, when Rice asks Barnett a serious question about his efforts (or lack thereof) to get relicensed in California. Barnett dismissively waves his hands and pretty much says he doesn’t give a damn, that he doesn’t need no pencil-pushing lawmakers to tell him when and where he throws down. All the while Bas just chuckles to himself and mumbles stuff like “Right! Yeah!” as if to say “You tell it, brother!” Seriously, these guys are two peas in a pod …

We had Melvin on last week’s episode of The Bum Rush Radio Show and he had some interesting things to say about the affect of his move to Team Jackson, his plans for 2011, his desire to be on TUF again and how overrated he thinks Kenny Florian is.

Check out what the self-dubbed "More Mature Assassin" had to say after the jump.

Despite all the talk of Jens Pulver hanging up his four ounce gloves for good after failing to put up a win in his past six fights, it looks like Lil’ Evil ain’t goin’ out like that.

The former UFC lightweight champ was back in action this weekend, picking up his first win in over three years and improving his record to 23-14-1. Although his opponent, Mike "The Assassin" Lindquist at 6-19 was a far cry from the killers he used to face in the UFC and WEC, it’s good to see Jens get a win under his belt to boost his confidence. In Pulver’s defense, he was originally slated to take on 12-10 fighter Tom Ahrens, but his opponent bowed out of the bout in the weeks leading up to the event. For his part, Lindquist didn’t look too bad in the video above. Let’s just hope that training with Jeff Curran in Chicago has helped Pulver get his groove back and he doesn’t just become a regional can crusher.

(We don’t really have to crack a joke about this position, do we? PicProps: Yahoo Sports)

Credit where credit is due: Melvin Guillard absolutely steamrolled Evan Dunham last night. He came out and simply blitzed the former lightweight golden boy with his speed, clipping him with an early right hand that Dunham never appeared to recover from. By the time Guillard put a fork in him a couple minutes later with a trio of knees along the fence – the last, clearly illegal one “just a technicality” the broadcast team immediately assured us – he’d managed to further scramble the already muddy lightweight ranks. Now watch Anthony Pettis lose to Clay Guida at the “TUF 13” finale and George Sotiropoulos lose to Dennis Siver at UFC 127 and we’ll really be in trouble.

However — (*clears throat*) – let’s not get carried away here. Let’s not get too crazy. Let’s not do the thing we seem to always do when a guy wins a big fight and start to completely overvalue Guillard based on this one performance. What he proved with his beating of Dunham on Saturday night was either one of two things. One, it could be that Greg Jackson is helping him to finally harness the physical tools he’s possessed from the beginning and has Guillard on the verge of becoming something special in the lightweight division. Or two, he was just a terrible match-up of styles for Dunham.

(Creepiest job shadow ever. PicProps: UFC.com)

The fighters are locked and loaded. We can only assume that by now Evan Dunham has eased off the bender he no doubt went on after his beloved Ducks shit the bed in the BCS championship. Obviously, Melvin Guillard has found a suitably enormous wristwatch to complement his main event status. The troops have surely been drinking all day and we the audience have once again collectively decided to ignore the obvious irony of benefitting the survivors of traumatic brain injury with a show where the desired outcome often includes closed head trauma. In other words, as Bruce Buffer might say, it’s time.

We’ll be live starting at 9 p.m. EST. Be sure to hit refresh early and often for the latest updates.

(“What can I say? My life is an embarrassment of riches.” PicProps: Las Vegas Sun)

UFC President Dana White said on Friday that the time might finally be right to promote the much-talked-about, long-debated superfight between middleweight champion Anderson Silva and welterweight titlist Georges St. Pierre, provided both guys take care of business in their upcoming fights. White reportedly made the admission as part of a private Q&A session with small group of soldiers at Fort Hood in Tex., the site of tonight’s Fight For the Troops show. The rap sesh was not open to the public, but MMA Fighting got one of its guys in. 

"If (Silva) wins that fight (against Vitor Belfort at UFC 126), then Georges St-Pierre needs to beat Jake Shields in Toronto (at UFC 129)," White told the guys in uniform. "If that happens, then we’re probably going to do that fight (between St-Pierre and Silva). If they both win, that fight makes all the sense in the world."

(Video courtesy YouTube/ValeTudo.ru)

- Pettis vs. Guida booked for TUF 13 finale (MMAMania)

- Zuffa sues Justin.TV (MMAFighting)

- Best beer pong distraction shots (TheRugged)

- 127 arrests in biggest mob bust in U.S. history (NYPost)

- Volkmann’s reinstated as HS wrestling coach (BJPenn) 

- Daley slated to headline BAMMA 5 (Sherdog)

- Forrest Griffin: My clinch game is underrated (TheGarv)

- New info in doping case against Lance Armstrong (SI)

- Why hangovers hurt (MadeMan)

- This is going to end in death (ScreenJunkies)

- Fart, fart, stab (HolyTaco)

- Creepiest appearance ever aired on a TV talent show (TuVez)

(Finally, some competition. PicProps: MMA Core)

From yesterday’s conference call where Nick Diaz accused Josh Koscheck and Georges St. Pierre of fighting lesser competition as Diaz himself prepares to defend his Strikeforce title against, uh, Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos to Cesar Gracie telling Ariel Helwani that he doesn’t think Greg Jackson is actually that good of a coach, things are just getting bizarre with the Scrap Pack these days. Whatever planet these dudes are living on, it’s clear that they own the place, while the rest of us are just visiting.

Enter Gilbert Melendez, who tells RingsideReport.com this week that he’s the man to beat at 155-pounds right now. All this noise about Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard? Melendez ain’t trying to hear that, see. But just in case you’re wondering if Melendez might be interested in proving his point, of signing with the UFC so he can actually fight the other top contenders in his weight class: Forget it. It’s those guys who should be coming to him.

(The last time Big Daddy got paid on time and in full.)

By Cage Potato contributor Chris Colemon

Only 17 years removed from its inaugural bout, the UFC is just now exiting its awkward teen years and developing into a suave, sophisticated adult. After an extended bout of growing pains that at times threatened the sport’s very existence, MMA is finally coming into its own. Today’s fans witness seemingly daily achievements and milestones that speak to the sport’s rapid expansion. In 2010 alone, the UFC held its first events in Abu Dhabi and Australia, opened offices in China, set a new North American attendance record for an MMA event, crowned its first Mexican heavyweight champion, and launched their first attack in the Battle for New York.

But the UFC’s epic tale is not unlike any other in that each chapter begins where another one ends. For every historic first, there is an all but forgotten last.

Here is a short list of some of the UFC’s important lasts – the rules and regulations sacrificed in the fight for our sport’s survival.

Check them out after the jump.

(If only either of these guys brought this much energy to their actual jobs. PicProps: MMA.pl)

The ongoing war of words between recently-retired MMA punchline Bob Sapp and FEG President (and self-proclaimed soon-to-be failed businessman) Sadaharu Tanikawa has frankly gotten too awesome to ignore any longer. Believe us, if we possibly could ignore it, we totally, totally would, but these guys are just saying too much hilarious stuff about each other not to at least get a mention. Seriously, it’s like watching the two nerdiest kids in the fourth grade slap fight in a sand box. Except, you know, with words.

You may remember that Sapp pulled out of a scheduled “modified rules” fight with Shinichi Suzukawa at K-1’s gala New Year’s Eve show last month, claiming that FEG first promised him 30 Gs for it, only to tell him he was only getting half that once he’d already made the trip to Japan. The promotion responded by saying Sapp “had lost his fighting spirit” during its broadcast and the giant former football player later indicated he was finished with MMA, but alleged it had nothing to do with his spirit. “The No. 1 problem is that K-1 is extremely broke. So is Dream …,” Sapp said. “I’m just like, ‘You know what? I’m done with all the talk about me. I’m done with them stiffing the fighters. I’m just done with it. I’ve seen too much. Start paying people to show up.’ ” Tanikawa didn’t take kindly to that, and he’s been ripping Sapp on Twitter and in interviews ever since.

With Ben on vacation this week, Mike takes the wheel of the show with Chad riding shotgun. Besides running through some of the week’s top news, the guys run down Saturday night’s UFC Fight for the Troops card which will feature our three guests on the show, Cody McKenzie, Melvin Guillard and Pat Barry.

As always,  The Bum Rush is available on iTunes or via direct download by right-clicking HERE.

If you like the show, all that we ask is that you continue to listen, tell a friend or 500 and give us some positive feedback in iTunes. And if you can’t stand listening to the three of us pretend to know what we’re talking about, then leave some comments below so we can work to make the show better for you.

(Another case of life imitating art.)

Our friends at MiddleEasy.com scored a pretty awesome exclusive interview with someone claiming to be Lee Murray who says he was texting them answers to their questions via a cell phone he smuggled into the Moroccan prison he’ll call home for the next 25 years.

According to the story, someone close to the former UFC fighter got wind of ME’s "Free Lee Murray" shirts and offered to facilitate the Q&A, which seems pretty legit.

It looks like "Lightning" might be planning an appeal and hasn’t given up hope that his fate is sealed as he told MiddleEasy that he couldn’t talk about his part in the Securitas heist, which he is purported to have put together.

We won’t steal their well-earned traffic by copy and pasting the interview, but we will post an incredible quote from Murray in which he takes a shot at Tito Ortiz, who Lee is said to have knocked out during a street fight in London.

"…i pass some time by reading some books or mags, watch some DVDs, UFC, movies. I see a great porno of Tito’s wife getting the life fucked out of her by a bunch of dudes. That was pretty fun…not for him i bet …It’s not too bad. Not the first three years four months I done by myself in solitary confinement. I didn’t see no one. It was a fucking hole with rats & shit coming out the hole u piss in It’s not a prob when you piss, it’s a prob when you have to squat over it to take a s***, praying a rat don’t jump out and grab your balls "

(Piven following the chance meeting with St. Pierre in L.A.)

By Cage Potato contributor S.C. Michaelson

MONTREAL – UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre recently terminated his manager Shari Spencer after giving her the “it’s not you, it’s me” speech. Many speculated as to whom he would choose to represent him. Names like Drew Rosenhaus, Aaron Goodman, Mark Steinberg and other super-agents were thrown about. Since GSP is one of the biggest faces in the fast-rising sport of MMA, it would be a major coup. But who would GSP choose?

“I was sitting in my living room,” recalled St. Pierre. “I was watching my television and I saw this documentary about this amazing guy. He was an agent in Hollywood. He was a little guy, but he was a big shot. He could make things happen.”

The “documentary” St. Pierre is referring to is the HBO show “Entourage” which stars Jeremy Piven as super-agent Ari Gold. Gold is a brash, often crude man whose hard work and inability to accept no for an answer made him one of the biggest agents on the fictitious show.

"Look at the guy," continued GSP. “He spends all his time with the client. We barely see him at home. He’s always working hard for the client making sure the client is satisfied. That’s the kind of dedication I want. I said to myself, ‘I am going to hire that guy.’"

(A milion bucks would buy a wicked PC, a shit ton of weed and a pretty wicked bulletin board.)

Strikeforce held a conference call today ahead of its January 29 Diaz vs. Cyborg event in San Jose, and as expected Diaz proved to be the main of interest.

Overshadowing his upcoming fight with Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos were Nick Diaz’s incendiary replies to the media’s questions about him turning down a fight with longtime nemesis Jason "Mayhem" Miller and his thoughts on the UFC’s welterweight class.

According to the Strikeforce welterweight champ, he feels that for the fight with Miller to happen, he would have to be offered at least seven figures and that highly-touted UFC fighters like Georges St-Pierre (who he thinks will be destroyed by his training partner Jake Shields at UFC 129) and Josh Koscheck are over-hyped and protected by the promotion.

Surprisingly, not one reporter thought to ask Diaz if he was high during the call.

Check out some of the highlights of Diaz’s diatribes after the jump.

(Video courtesy BJPenn.com)

Former UFC welterweight and lightweight champ BJ Penn suffered a bizarre injury recently.

Apparently "The Prodigy" was bitten by a spider on the back of the head while doing some promo in Australia and the sore became so infected that it caused some of his hair around the affected area to fall out. Hopefully for his sake, Jon Fitch doesn’t take him down and mop the canvas with his dome at UFC 127 like he usually does with opponents or else we may see BJ featured on popthatzit.com.

On a side note, what the hell is up with BJ’s coke nails?  Does he practice the ukelele in his spare time?

Maybe this explains why GSP’s eyes looked like they’d gone through a cheese grater the first time they fought.

("That’s the great thing about a Health Savings Account, James. The funds you put in there aren’t subject to federal income tax. It’s a no-brainer … no pun intended." PicProps: WorldStarHipHop.com)

File this under “Stuff We All Know, But Feel Uncomfortable Saying Out Loud.”

Serious, thought-provoking journalist Ben Fowlkes has a new piece out on Thursday in his continuing “The Truth About …” series over at MMA Fighting.com. This time Old Dad turns his steely, deadpan gaze on the long-term physical cost professional fighters must pay in order to live their dreams. The consensus from the athletes interviewed here seems to be, “Yeah, we know we’ll all be crippled or crazy someday, but it’s worth it. Sort of.” While many of the lasting effects of MMA competition may not yet even fully be known (since it’s such a comparatively young sport), credit Fowlkes for also getting comment from high-profile fight doc Johnny Benjamin, who says some interesting things about the risks involved in fighting, the need for comprehensive health coverage and – gasp! – maybe even a fighter’s union.

First though, who better to ask about his own mortality than a fighter you know is going to give it to you straight, or at least pop-off in a fairly entertaining way? So, what do you think about your future, Jason “Mayhem” Miller? 

("I don’t care if it tastes good. I distinctly told you Blueberry Freeze. Danaher told me Rasberry Rush will make me go bald." Photo credit Brian D’Souza.)

UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre today made the second major change to his professional entourage in the past few months.

After amicably splitting from longtime strength and conditioning coach Jonathan Chaimberg prior to his UFC 124 bout with Josh Koscheck in December, St-Pierre announced today that he is moving on from his relationship with manager Shari Spencer and will be announcing new representation soon.

In a joint press release issued today by the French Canadian fighter and his now former manager, the pair explained that they "had a different vision for the future of Georges’ career and it was best to remain close personally but dissolve their business relationship." Spencer, who also manages UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar has represented St-Pierre since 2007.

Sources tell Cage Potato that St-Pierre’s split with Chaimberg, although an amicable one, was allegedly due to similar differences of opinion the two shared regarding the unorganized direction St-Pierre’s training was taking.

(Couple hours later, the owner of an Albuquerque body shop tweeted: “Affluent fighter dude needs complete rebuild on front driver’s side of Chrysler 300. GOD IS GOOD!” PicProps: @JonnyBones)

What is with these young people today and crashing their cars just before big fights? UFC light heavyweight prospect Jon Jones smashed up his Chrysler 300 on Wednesday afternoon while he and a carload of teammates were on their way to a dog park in between training sessions, according to the fighter’s own Twitter account. Jones was uninjured and his upcoming fight with Ryan Bader will reportedly not be effected. One partly hilarious, partly dreadful but altogether telling side note to this is that Jones immediately jumped on his Twitter after the wreck to declare “GOD IS GOOD” … even though he later admitted a woman in the other car left the scene on a stretcher.