(Sable is furiously taking notes. Props: ESPN the Magazinee)

In a related story, Cain Velasquez had shoulder surgery yesterday to repair the torn rotator cuff that he sustained in his fight against Brock Lesnar at UFC 121 in October. (Junior Dos Santos remains skeptical.) The surgery was a success, and Velasquez will be ready to return to action in 6-8 months.

Champion kickboxer turned MMA fighter Felice Herrig will be facing Barb Honchak in the co-main event of Hoosier Fight Night 6, tonight at the Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso, Indiana; it will be the first women’s bout in HFN history. So we figured it was an ideal moment to post a bunch of hot photos of her. Follow Felice on Twitter, and join her Facebook fan group right here. Kick her ass, Lil’ Bulldog!

More photos after the jump…

Apparently lot can change in a few years.

Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich had a change of heart and has re-signed lightweight Drew Fickett to a multi-fight deal with the Edmonton, Alberta promotion. The news wouldn’t be as interesting if Pavelich hadn’t proclaimed in 2008 that "Knight Rider" would never fight in the MFC.

To recap what led up to Pavelich’s assertion that Fickett’s days as an MFC fighter were numbered before he ever cashed a paycheck from the promotion, it all started when "The Master" breached a clause in his 2008 contract by taking a fight within two months of a scheduled MFC bout.

But that’s not the reason he was banned by Pavelich.

When the promoter read online that Fickett had agreed to fill in for an injured Joe Riggs on a Strikeforce challengers card last-minute participation, he attempted to contact the fighter’s camp to tell them that he would be breaching his contract if he took the fight as he had an MFC bout less than a month later. When his calls and messages went unanswered, he contacted Scott Coker to tell him that Drew couldn’t fight on the card and the Strikeforce promptly rescinded the offer to Fickett.

As we recently learned, the next season of The Ultimate Fighter will be coached by a grumpy mountain man who probably won’t spend any more time on set than he absolutely needs to, and a Brazilian dynamo whose grasp on the English language is limited to simple phrases like "I believe too much in my boxing" and "tub you are a cold — so we’re not expecting a verbal rivalry on par with Tito/Ken or Rampage/Rashad. Still, it’s TUF, so somebody’s gonna get told at some point. Can this season’s insults possibly stack up to some of our past favorites?

#5: "You’re like an expert swimmer who’s never been in a pool."

Matt Serra’s epic dress-down of Marc Laimon was his star-making moment — and a firm bitch-smack to every sideline-hater who talks tough without any intention of actually backing up his words. A year later, Serra was coaching that damn show.

#4: "Bro, you’re a male nurse."

Like a Katy Perry song, it’s annoying as hell, and yet you can’t get it out of your head. "Bro, you’re a male nurse" — I say that to all my friends now, no matter what their professions actually are. And it aggravates them too.

(Video courtesy YouTube/MegaDkstyle)

Okay, we admit we were just grasping for some way to make this hilarious suburb-dwelling gangster scrap video seem somewhat MMA-related so we could rationalize posting it on the site. If you’re reading this Josh and Brett, we didn’t mean anything by it, we swear.

Anyway, it’s obvious that these two tough guys train UFC, although the ginger-haired kid seems to prefer PRIDE rules.

Nothing we can say can come close to the hilarity of the actual video, so we won’t bother, but we will leave you with some sage advice.

Let this be a warning to you that you should never steal your buddy’s bong and take pictures of it and post them on your Facebook page. In the mean streets of Burbank, that kind of bullshit will earn you a beatdown in front of your parent’s house while they’re at work, son.

(The government later debunked Jon Jones’ claims of seeing a UFO, saying the object in the upper left was just a weather balloon doing routine analysis. PicProps: Heavy)

We already know that Jon Jones is a compulsive game planner. We also know that his methods are sometimes unorthodox, trending toward crazy. Remember that one time he taped off Stephan Bonnar’s physical dimensions on his wall at home in preparation for their bout at UFC 94? Yeah, that seemed to work. Well, as he gets ready for his UFC 126 clash with Ryan Bader, it appears that Jonny Bones’ OCD is reaching new heights. Jones tells Old Dad this week that he’s not only studying tape of Bader’s fights, he’s also watching and re-watching his interviews, shadowing him on Twitter and reading the tweets of his friends, coaches and followers.

(The winner of the tournament will take home a case of Rockstar Energy Drink and one of each item from the summer collection of Gus Johnson’s new clothing line.)

Scott Coker made a somewhat surprising announcement today during the promotion’s conference call ahead of its heavyweight grand prix that left a few on the call scratching their heads.

According to the Strikeforce president, the first round bouts of the tournament will consist of three rounds, meaning that the Overeem-Werdum bout will not be a title fight. In fact, Coker went on to explain that only the tournament final will be five rounds, but even if Alistair is one of the contestants of that match, it will be a non-title affair.

Coker, who didn’t say what the prize for winning the tournament would be, blamed the change in the planned format on the various host city commissions who he says refused to sanction five-round non-title bouts. According to Coker, "It wouldn’t have been fair to make some of the guys fight five rounds and the others only fight three," which is why they decided to put the belt on the shelf until the tournament is over.

("Here Brandon, I’ll play you out of the UFC with a drum solo.")

When Thiago Silva decided to showboat a little by playing the bongos on Brandon Vera’s back during their UFC 125 bout, UFC light heavyweight contender Jon Jones took to Twitter to voice his disapproval.

"Wow that slapping was so disrespectful.. id love to give him a slap in the face," Jones wrote.

During an interview with MMAFighting.com, "Bones" explained his reaction to Silva’s grandstanding.

"It kind of bugged me, only because we all fight, and just losing alone is humiliating enough. It’s embarrassing. … Think about all the people who watched those fights. All [the Brandon Vera] fans, all the members at his school, all the kids that look up to him. Man, it just kind of rubbed me the wrong way," he explained. "It’s not something I would ever want done to me and it’s not something I would ever do to someone else. … There’s ways of looking for an opening besides playing pattycake on a guy’s back."

In a recent Q&A with Tatame, Silva attempted to explain why he pulled the seemingly disrespectful stunt.

("Well…I’m not much of a foot guy, but I guess they’re alright, Mrs. Ryan." / Photo via MMAWeekly)

At 2 p.m. ET today, the UFC will hold a press conference at New York’s Madison Square Garden to formally announce their intent to bring MMA to the Big Apple as soon as possible. In attendance will be UFC president Dana White, Zuffa co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, light-heavyweight contender Rashad Evans, and Madison Square Garden Sports president Scott O’Neill.

A new economic impact study is scheduled to be released in the hopes that New York will join the 44 other U.S. states that currently regulate the sport — even though cash doesn’t seem to be a big motivator among MMA’s stubborn critics.

Despite our long history of promoting the "MMA in NY" cause, CagePotato has unfortunately been barred from attending the event due to the whole Arianny Celeste Playboy leak fiasco. Their loss. When the first media question is from some spaz asking if he can sit in Dana’s lap, they’re gonna wish they had some real freakin’ journalists in the building…

The video player is after the jump.

("Is your person Russian, or commonly mistaken for Russian?" Image courtesy of MMAMania)

MiddleEasy passes along the helpful info that at least one online sportsbook, 2betdsi.com, is offering a prop bet on who will win the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, even though only two quarterfinal matches are actually scheduled at this point. Interestingly, some of the numbers have wildly inflated since they were first posted at the beginning of the week. Check out the latest figures below. If you’re an MMA betting noob, the ‘+’ figure means that you would make that many dollars in profit for a $100 wager.

FEDOR EMELIANENKO +160 [opened at +125]
ALISTAIR OVEREEM +200
JOSH BARNETT +400
ANDREI ARLOVSKI +900
FABRICIO WERDUM +1400 [opened at +700]
ANTONIO SILVA +1800 [opened at +900]
SERGEI KHARITONOV +2000 [opened at +1400]
BRETT ROGERS +2200 [opened at +1900]
SHANE DEL ROSARIO +3000 [opened at +2400]
VALENTIJN OVEREEM +3500 [opened at +2600]
LAVAR JOHNSON +4000 [opened at +3200]
RAY SEFO +4500 [opened at +3600]
FIELD (any fighter not listed, which would include Chad Griggs and Gian Villante) +5000

Some thoughts…

(Volkmann got Obama’ed on The Tonight Show)

Jacob Volkmann will likely think twice next time about cracking a joke about wanting to ground and pound the Commander in Chief of the United States.

The UFC lightweight, who made headlines when the Secret Service paid him a visit to question him about post-UFC 125 comments he made about wanting to go a few rounds with President Barack Obama so he could show him what he thought of his healthcare policy.

It now appears that the tongue-in-cheek soundbite he fed Ariel Helwani got him more than just a spot on The Tonight Show and Fox Business News. 

Volkmann was informed this week that he has been temporarily suspended with pay from his assistant wrestling coach position he has held for the past several years at White Bear Lake Area High School, pending an investigation of his remarks about Obama by the school administrators.

The 30-year-old Minnesota chiropractor who owns his own practice also serves as the volunteer head coach of the town’s elementary school wrestling team, but was told that his non-paid coaching position was not at risk.

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMA30tv)

When the UFC announced a few weeks ago that Lyoto Machida will be facing Randy Couture at UFC 129 in Toronto on April 30, an intriguing hypothetical situation arose, prompting the obvious question: What happens if "The Natural" beats "The Dragon?"

On paper, Machida, who was robbed of a decision over Quinton Rampage Jackson at UFC 123 in November after losing the light heavyweight belt to Mauricio Shogun Rua in May at UFC 113, is probably the UFC’s number two light heavyweight contender at the moment behind Rashad Evans, making  the announcement that he will be facing an odds defying game plan master like Couture in his next bout somewhat of a head scratcher.

The cost vs. reward ratio is skewed in Randy’s favor.

If he beats the 47-year-old nearly-retired former champion, he beat a 47-year-old former champion, which shouldn’t raise his stock much in the UFC’s light heavyweight class. If he loses to Couture, he’ll have lost three fights in a row and will likely be relegated to fighting mid-card against Krzysztof Soszynski in his next bout, while Couture will likely get a crack at winning the UFC 205-pound belt for a record fourth time in his career by facing Shogun.

Although he says that he isn’t specifically fighting to win a title shot, Couture is cognizant that a win over Machida would put him in line to face Rua (the other fighter besides Lyoto that he named as being the two opponents he would take a break from acting to face) for the title.

In the interview above with MMA30′s Dave Farra, Couture talks about how he plans to bring the fight to Machida and also touches on some topics near and dear to him, including why his protegee Gray Maynard was somewhat sluggish in his UFC 125 fight with Frankie Edgar and his former Team Quest stablemate Chael Sonnen’s recent rash of bad decisions.

(Props: foxsports)

And here we have the 10-minute hype-reel for UFC 126, which goes down February 5th in Las Vegas. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but has anybody else noticed that the interpreter-voice they give to Anderson Silva these days sounds like a really smug asshole? I don’t know. Back in the day, they’d just use Ed Soares to dub his voice. Now he sounds like more of a heel character. Intentional? 

Anyway, what else. Forrest Griffin and Rich Franklin see themselves as very similar competitors. "You have a fairly well-rounded fighter that has some knockout power on his feet, and is a very tenacious fighter, and as the fight goes on he fights harder," Rich says. "Did I just describe me or did I describe Forrest?" (Don’t answer, it’s a trick question.) Griffin says he’ll beat Franklin "no problem," though it’s possible that he’s just trying to be funny like usual.

The full lineup for UFC 126: Silva vs. Belfort is after the jump…

("I’m not sure what this has to do with the movie, Mr. Spielberg, but if you say Kate Capshaw auditioned topless, I’m cool with it, too.")

Well, it looks like Scott Coker is still under the impression that the former face of his promotion, Gina Carano will be back competing for Strikeforce this year. 

While on MMAFighting.com’s The MMA Hour Monday, Coker said that he’s confident that the former Strikeforce female 145-pound standout who hasn’t fought since losing her strap to Cris "Cyborg" Santos 17 months ago in August of 2009 will make her much-anticipated return before the end of 2011 — a lofty claim he made last year as well, that didn’t materialize.

"I believe she’ll be back in the cage this year. From what I know of her, she is a competitor at heart; she’s going to want to fight," Coker told Ariel Helwani. "She’s not going to want to end her career the way it ended. So, I think she’ll be back."

("You think it’s easy being the only reasonable person on Earth? I got news for you, it is *not* easy." PicProps: MMAFrenzy)

MMA’s most infamous steroid cheat says he hasn’t quite decided if he’ll be present next month when the California State Athletic Commission rules on his application to be relicensed to fight in that state. Nonetheless, Josh Barnett still plans on competing in this year’s Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix, though the date and location of his first round bout against Brett Rogers is yet to be determined. With or without Barnett in attendance the CSAC will rule on his license come Feb. 4, according to executive director George Dodd, and that ruling will likely effect where the California-based promotion can hold events on which Barnett is scheduled to appear.

As of right now, we’d guess that we shouldn’t plan on seeing “The Baby Faced Assassin” compete in any of the “major” combat sports states like Cali, Nevada or New Jersey anytime soon, especially if he ghosts the CSAC next month. Naturally, Barnett is taking a typically nonchalant, borderline combative stance on the whole thing. Dig it: "There are still some things I have to figure out … with (legal) counsel and Strikeforce and also to hear something from the commission (about) what exactly they intend to do or want," he told MMAjunkie.com this week. "I definitely don’t want to spend my time and fly up there to be ambushed."

His decision was met with an even split of support and opposition, but the St. John, New Brunswick native stood by his convictions and was eventually offered another shot at the title vacated by Trevor Prangley against MFC veteran, Dwayne Lewis at MFC 28 on February 25.

If you’re unfamiliar with Jimmo, you likely won’t be for long as 2011 promises to be a breakout year for the two-time Pan-Am medalist and four-time Canadian national karate champion who is riding a 13-fight win streak into his bout with Lewis – a fighter he defeated by decision three years ago.

In 2008 he appeared on the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter 8, but lost a very close majority decision to Antwain Britt and was sent home.

Since then he switched camps and moved from Nova Scotia to Edmonton where he joined the Hayabusa Fight Team, becoming a more well rounded fighter as a result of his hard work, diverse training partners and methods.

Ryan has offered to give the Potato Nation and inside look at his training and thoughts heading into his fight in February and as such he will be doing an exclusive training camp blog for us every week for the next eight weeks leading up to MFC 28.

Check out his third entry after the jump.

Chicks dig fighters — even the ones who talk funny. But even with the natural advantages that come with muscles, scars, and fame, we’re still occasionally surprised by the lady-killing ability of some mixed martial artists. Of all the MMA PUA‘s, these six are the most accomplished…

DEAN LISTER

  
Notable conquests: WWE star Milena Roucka (aka ‘Rosa Mendes’), model Flavia Mazoni
Notes: ‘The Boogeyman’ is semi-retired from the sport these days, choosing instead to spend his time training hopeless cases. But in his prime, Dean Lister was just as notable for his ability to attract exotic beauties as he was for his in-cage exploits. Grappling ability plus a cartoonishly strong-looking jawline is a combination that women can’t resist, apparently.

MATT HAMILL

  
Notable conquests: Bikini model Wendy Foster, a super-hot former fiance named Brittany, an old girlfriend that was apparently down for whatever.
Notes: Snagging a Hooters Girl of the Year would be an accomplishment for any man. But to do it without the use of one of your five senses? Bro, that’s legendary. (Then again, deafness is probably an asset when you’re pretending to be interested in your girlfriend’s stories.) Matt Hamill’s ex-fiance, a bartender from upstate New York, was just as hot, and of course there were those rumors of Hamill’s partner-swappin’ lifestyle with a freaky old flame. Respect the Hammer.

(Oh man. 1:00-1:10 is just too much. Props: ix3623vault)

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…

– Manager: “Chael Sonnen’s Career is Far From Over” (5thRound. Welcome to the club, guys!)

– UFC to Announce Formal Intent to Bring Event to New York (MMA Fighting)

– MMA Hot List: Fights Booked, Careers Put on Hold (Versus MMA Beat)

– Watch Nam Phan’s Guide to Judging in MMA (MiddleEasy)

– Jacob Volkmann on Fox News. You Figure Out the Rest. (the all-new MMA-Scraps.com)

– Bellator Signs Top 50 Middleweight Joe Riggs (FightMagazine)

– Dan Henderson In Talks For Title Shot Against Rafael Feijao On March 5 (MMA Convert)

– Jon Jones: I Would Definitely Take a "Right Fight" at Heavyweight (LowKick)

– Chad Griggs Taking on Regional Prospect in Final Strikeforce Grand Prix Reserve Bout (Five Ounces of Pain)

– UFC And Strikeforce Situations Make Heavyweight The Division To Watch In 2011 (SBNation.com/MMA)

("Puleeaaze…You mean the dweeb in the alligator shirt? Yeah, I’ll fight him next.")

UFC.com inadvertently stole Dana White’s thunder this afternoon by announcing that Junior Dos Santos and Brock Lesnar will be the coaches on next season of The Ultimate Fighter before the UFC president could make the announcement during Tuesday’s conference call for the January 22 Fight for the Troops event.

White shot down media members during the Q&A who asked if he would name the TUF 13 team heads, explaining more than once that he would be announcing who the coaches would be at the end of the call, but was upstaged by his company’s website who posted the press release 15 minutes before he could break the news.

According to the release, the pair of heavyweights will meet at the end of the season and the winner will face champion Cain Velasquez when he returns from a shoulder injury in an estimated six months.

White, who admitted during the call that he had lied to reporters when he told them that he had not spoken to Lesnar since his loss to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121 in October also quashed rumors that the bout will be for the interim heavyweight title.

The full release is after the jump.

(Props: Cyberplex)

"Ryan’s mentioning that he thinks that I’ll cut down on my flashiness? That’s what he’s afraid of. So that’s exactly what I’ll probably give him the most, is a lot of weird, unorthodox techniques that he’s never seen, even in wrestling."

So says light-heavyweight contender Jon Jones, who’s set to face off against Ryan Bader in a high-profile matchup at UFC 126: Silva vs. Belfort on Super Bowl weekend. In his most recent fights against Vladimir Matyushenko, Brandon Vera, and Matt Hamill, Jones simplified his gameplan so that he was pretty much just taking guys down with his Greco throws then smashing them with elbows and punches until the ref pulled him off. Bader will be expecting that, which may be why Jones is promising brand-new techniques. But what can he throw that he hasn’t shown us already? Is there such a thing as a spinning-flying-knee?  

After the jump: Chuck Liddell‘s guest-spot on Blue Mountain State (damn right it’s horrible!), Michael Schiavello repeats his catch-phrase over and over again, and MMA makes it onto Comedy Central’s brand-new Sportsdome series. Sort of.

(Video courtesy Sportsnet)

During last night’s episode of Sportsnet’s MMA Connected, the show’s host "Showdown" Joe Ferraro revealed that if Mark Hominick handily beats George Roop at UFN 23 and comes out of the fight without injury, he will fight Jose Aldo at UFC 129 in Toronto on April 30.

"If London, Ontario’s Mark Hominick can defeat George Roop and come out unscathed at UFC Fight Night 23, look for "The Machine" to earn a title shot versus featherweight champion Jose Aldo," Ferraro stated.

Hominick was supposed to fight Aldo for the newly-minted UFC featherweight strap at UFC 125, but he was forced to pull out of the bout when the broken hand he went into his WEC 51 fight with Leonard Garcia with didn’t heal in time for him to resume training. He was replaced by Josh Grispi on the card, but after Aldo bowed out of the fight with a neck injury, the 22-year-old lost his place in line for the title shot when he dropped a unanimous decision to the champ’s replacement, relatively unknown fighter Dustin Poirier.

A veteran of 27 MMA bouts, Hominick’s only losses in the past six years have come at the hands of three highly-touted fighters: Grispi, Rani Yahya and Hatsu Hioki. His second bout with Hioki, which he lost by a razor-thin majority decision and was contested under the TKO banner is widely regarded as one of the greatest featherweight fights in Canadian MMA history.

For an idea what Aldo-Hominick might look like, check out that fight after the jump.

(According to a clause in his new contract, Fedor gets to play with half the Batman Legos set now and the other half when he shows up for the semis. PicProps: Showtime)

There’s just something about brackets, man. The human male would probably tune in to a tiddlywinks tournament if it could be neatly arranged in the elegant efficiency of a single elimination bracket. Nothing else allows us to channel our inner fanboy or bring out the modern jackass in our personalities quite like it. Once a year, the mythical lure of the bracket even makes college basketball seem interesting; it’s that powerful. Now, draw up a bracket populated by 265-pound behemoths who are charged with beating the dogshit out of each other until only one is left standing? Well, let’s just say you’ve got our attention.

Suffice it to say that upon poring over the proposed pairings for the 2011 Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix this week, it didn’t take long for the keen bracketologists in the MMA community to notice that the left-hand side of that badboy seemed a bit, um, stacked, while the right side appeared to be Josh Barnett and three other dudes. With Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem all on the same side of the tournament draw, eyebrows were raised in a collective: WTF? Werdum said he thought it was meant to sell pay-per-views. Overeem said he thought it was weird, but wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it. Barnett hasn’t said shit yet, but we assume he’ll take it. Now, the speculation can (sort of) end as company CEO Scott Coker explains to MMA Fighting.com exactly why Strikeforce overstocked one side of the bracket with all its top talent. It turns out not even the promotion itself believed it could engineer the desired Overeem vs. Fedor final, so it fudged things a little bit.

("Blackhouse Brazilian Iced Tea? Those foolish MMA fans will buy anything.")

While on Larry Pepe’s Pro MMA Radio show yesterday, Yahoo! Sports MMA writer Kevin Iole threw out a crumb likely fed to him by Dana White that Junior Dos Santos will not sit around waiting for UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez to heal from his torn rotator cuff, but will instead face a yet-to-be-named opponent for the UFC’s popular interim heavyweight strap.

"[Dos Santos] is going to fight for an interim title. They just have to find a contender to fight him. So for that one, I don’t think he should have to wait because he was going to fight for a championship. The UFC will declare the winner of Dos Santos versus "X" the interim champion, so it is his championship fight. He will go down in history if he wins that fight; even if he loses subsequently to Cain on the way back, he’ll be known as a former UFC heavyweight champion, just like Frank Mir’s second reign," Iole explained. "When Shane Carwin beat Mir he became the interim champion, so there were guys that even though the belt was out, they were still recognized as a champion. I think that situation is very simple. Dos Santos should fight, he will fight, they’ll find a heavyweight contender he’ll fight for the interim championship while Cain heals and that will be that. Just like [the runner up in the] Miss America [pageant], he’ll assume the duties [of the champion] while the champion is healing."

("What has two thumbs and is creeped-out by Pat Barry’s shorts?" Photo courtesy of Tracy Lee/Cagewriter)

With Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard III tentatively scheduled for UFC 130 (May 28th, Las Vegas), Anthony Pettis has decided to fight again rather than wait all year for the title shot he’d been promised — a risky proposition considering how stacked the lightweight division is at the top. According to Heavy.com, Pettis will likely take on Clay Guida at either UFC 130 or UFC 131, which goes down two weeks later in Vancouver. It’s a kick in the nuts for perennial contender Kenny Florian, who was angling for the Pettis fight himself.

You’d sort of hope that Pettis/Guida happens at #130, so that if Pettis wins, he can enter the cage following the main event and face off with the lightweight champion in a "you have my belt, homey" moment. Of course if Edgar vs. Maynard results in another tie, we’re all screwed. Not out of the realm of possibility, considering how evenly matched those guys are.

Pettis is on a four-fight win streak, and is coming off his WEC lightweight title-winning performance against Ben Henderson, aided by The Greatest Kick the World Has Ever Seen. (By the way, Pettis’s trainer Duke Roufus told Sherdog that Pettis has "10 other [highlight-reel] kicks and moves for the UFC and he’s going to prove it." Be very afraid.) Guida has won his last three fights by submission, most recently choking out Takanori Gomi at UFC 125. After the jump: An incredible photo of Clay Guida doing a Richard Nixon impression at some kind of topless pool party.

(Dinner better be waiting, or else. Photo via gina-carano.org)

Just a quick update on Haywire, that Steven Soderbergh-directed action flick starring former (?) MMA fighter Gina Carano as a freelance covert operative who has to fight for her life after one of her gigs goes FUBAR. The new release date is April 22nd — for real this time — and the flick will no doubt be blown out of the water by the latest Madea poop-bomb from Tyler Perry. TheFilmStage.com passes along another detail from the shoot:

[Soderbergh] shared the pretty funny note that the film’s star Gina Carano, an MMA fighter herself, scared off some male stars* as they apparently weren’t comfortable with the idea of being beaten up by a woman onscreen…For fans of action set-pieces, they may be interested to know that there’s a “hotel suite sequence”** that the director describes as “fun.”***

* Judging from the cast, we can safely assume that either Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, or Bill Paxton is a giant pussy.

** Whoa. You mean like a sex tape?

*** Dog, you didn’t.

(The losers get a bonus check from the judges’ bookie.)

The UFC will attempt to get some resolution between some of its disgruntled employees in the coming months by setting up two rematches between a quartet of fighters involved in controversial decisions in their last bouts.

According to MMAWeekly, Nam Phan will look to avenge his BS loss to Leonard Garcia at the TUF 12 finale when he locks horns with the Team Jackson fighter at UFC Fight Night 24 in Seattle on March 26 and lightweight kingpin Frankie Edgar will attempt to successfully defend his title against Gray Maynard for the first time after their New Year’s Day UFC 125 title fight ended in a somewhat controversial majority draw when the pair get a do-over  at UFC 130 in Las Vegas.

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMAPromo)

When Chuck Liddell isn’t looped on Nyquil and ether, or teary-eyed from announcing his retirement, he’s actually pretty well spoken and has incomparable knowledge about the sport of MMA.

In this interview with HDNet’s Mike Straka, The Iceman talked about his recently announced retirement, reflected on his career and talked about about how he can’t stand when non-fighters and reporters criticize the men who put it on the line in the ring or cage.

Well, that explains why he refused to do an interview with us last summer…that or he’s read the site.

Hopefully Chuck’s fancy new position with the UFC doesn’t entail him "having a word with" bloggers who aren’t a friend of theirs.

Part two is after the jump.

(Props: Fightlinker)

WTF? I don’t mean to alarm you, Snoop, but there appears to be a bald, middle-aged white man directly behind you. The source of this ridiculous gif is after the jump. Warning: Turn down your speakers.

(Remember when Sergei Kharitonov sent Alistair Overeem‘s lifeless body through the ropes at K-1 Hero’s 10? No? Then you really need to watch these videos…)

In our excitement for Strikeforce’s potentially insane heavyweight tournament, one point seems to be getting lost in the narrative — namely, that these guys have already fought each other many, many times before. Five of the eight competitors (Werdum, Arlovski, Overeem, Emelianenko, Rogers) have previously faced at least three other fighters in the tournament field. Fabricio Werdum has actually fought everyone except Brett Rogers and Josh Barnett, and only Barnett himself has managed to go his entire career without bumping up against anybody else in this year’s bracket.

All told, there’s eleven twelve fights worth of shared history among the Strikeforce HWGP competitors, dating back over five years. To help you study for the quarterfinals next month, we’ve posted them all below in chronological order…

UPDATE: We originally forgot to include Fabricio Werdum’s decision win over Antonio Silva. So actually, there have been 12 previous meetings, not 11. The video has now been added. 

(Sergei Kharitonov def. Fabricio Werdum via split decision; PRIDE 30, 10/23/05)

(Alistair Overeem def. Sergei Kharitonov via TKO, 5:13 of round 1; PRIDE 31, 2/26/06)

(Now that MMA is legal in Ontario, the bandwagon will undoubtedly carry in a glut of Dana White wannabes. Let’s hope the OAC knows how to weed out the legit promoters from the scumbags.)

It looks like the UFC might get beaten to the proverbial punch when it comes to holding the inaugural sanctioned MMA event in Ontario.

CagePotato.com has learned from a source close to the situation that several promotions, including San Jose-based Strikeforce and Edmonton’s Maximum Fighting Championship have applied for promoter’s licenses in Ontario and pending approval by the Ontario Athletic Commission, at least three shows have been penciled in ahead of the UFC’s April 29 show in Toronto.

Although none of the shows have been given the go-ahead by the province as of time of writing, a number of venues have been tentatively reserved — some by first-time promoters — across the province in such locales as Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and Orillia.