(In an alternate universe, Lashley gets the TKO against Chad Griggs, enters the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament, and defeats Fedor Emelianenko by flying armbar in the quarterfinals. Shane Del Rosario still goes on to win the whole thing. / Photo courtesy of Showtime)

We haven’t heard much from Bobby Lashley since he quit on the stool against Chad Griggs at Strikeforce: Houston last August. But a press release sent out this morning by Kansas City-based promotion Titan Fighting Championships has answered an important question — Bobby’s days of real fighting aren’t quite over yet.

Now 5-1 in MMA, Lashley will return to action in the headlining bout of Titan FC 17, which will go down March 25th at the Historic Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. His opponent will be James Jack, a heavyweight out of Missouri who’s either 6-2-1 or 5-4-1, depending on who you ask. In the press release, Titan Fighting CEO Joe Kelly did his best to explain why you should care:

(Not a good day for the brothers Lauzon.)

UFC vet Dany Lauzon was stabbed outside a Bridgewater, Mass. pub early this morning during a fight involving a group in the parking lot of the establishment they had been drinking in. EnterpriseNews.com is reporting that Lauzon was stabbed in the shoulder and sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Dany’s brother, Joe was also indirectly injured as a result of the incident.

(A representative sample of CP’s commenters. You know, besides the women and that one ethnic-looking guy.)

Just a quick site update for the long-suffering members of the Potato Nation: After an aggravating week in which our comments section was overrun by Russian spam and trouble-makers posing as famous trolls that we banned a long time ago*, we’re happy to announce that the login function will be restored by this evening. We will update this post when everything is up and operational. In the meantime, please use these last hours of comment-section anarchy to post under whatever name you want, while including as many links to handbag websites as you possibly can. Thank you.

* I knew CAPS LOCK HAL. CAPS LOCK HAL was a friend of mine. Bro, you are no CAPS LOCK HAL.

(FYI: If you shine this signal into the sky, Bruce Buffer shows up at your door with a carload of chicks and some party favors.)

It looks like the UFC may be saving Toronto for big money superfights in the future based on the record sellout of April’s upcoming UFC 129 event — the promotion’s first in the Canadian province of Ontario.

With a pre-estimated 55,000+ attendance and more than $11-million live gate that blows away the previous record of $8-million set by a 2008 regular season Buffalo Bills game, it’s no surprise that Dana White and co. would want to bring their marquee fights back to the city’s Rogers Centre in the future.

White told Yahoo’s Dave Meltzer that “Hogtown” has hopped to the front of the line of go-to stadium venue locations ahead of Dallas, Texas where Zuffa will likely host superfights like the proposed Georges St-Pierre-Anderson Silva bout that the promotion is hoping to make before the end of 2011.

(Bob, could you use this staircase to show us where boxing is today compared to, say, thirty years ago? PicProps: Pacquiao-Margarito.com)

The last time we heard from boxing promoter and cantankerous old white dude Bob Arum he essentially dismissed MMA types as “a bunch of skinheads who like to roll around like homosexuals.” In other words, Dale Carnegie this guy is not. Good news is, Arum managed to keep the homophobia under wraps this week when he and prized possession Manny Pacquiao sat down with USA Today writers Sergio Non and Scott Zucker. Unfortunately, when the topic of MMA came up, Arum continued to weirdly define his objections to our sport on the basis of race. It’s almost as if he’s trying to distract us from something else … something like realizing his words are just the impotent flailing of an old man who realizes his place in the world grows smaller each day …

“I don’t want to demean UFC, because they’ve done a marvelous job of marketing,” Arum said, in response to a question from Non about the record-breaking ticket sales in Toronto for UFC 129. “But it’s the same audience over and over. It’s white males, and they have never been able to expand their demographic … Hey, this country is becoming more and more Hispanic, and it’s growing (more) African-American (in the) audience. So the future success of UFC is limited. The success of boxing is not, because boxing reaches those groups. The only demographic that boxing has lost is the white, young males, period.”

(Siver demonstrating his ground prowess against CP’s homeboy, Jess “The Joker” Liaudin.)

Often when hyping an upcoming bout or angling for a title shot, fighters will oversell their skill sets and inflate their accomplishments, so it’s no surprise that a middle of the pack UFC lightweight like Dennis Siver would follow suit, especially when his next bout is against a guy like George Sotiropoulos, who is likely one or two wins away from a title shot.

Siver did an interview recently with Tapology and said that he is planning on choking out the decorated Aussie BJJ black belt if their UFC 127 bout hits the mat — a lofty endeavor, considering G-Sots has never been finished in his MMA career and has notched eight of his 14 wins via submission. Siver, on the other hand is 7-4 when his fights finish on the mat and has never faced a grappler of Sotiropoulos’ caliber.

(Props: MMAPromo)

When fight promoters are willing to jeopardize their health by stiffing one of the baddest heavyweights in the world, you know they really don’t have the money. That’s the situation with Alistair Overeem, who revealed on last week’s edition of MMA Live that he still hasn’t been paid for his K-1 World Grand Prix win in December.

Of course, Overeem is far from the first fighter to be shortchanged while competing in Japan — but as their grand prix champ and one of their biggest stars, you’d think K-1 would do everything in their power to keep him happy. The news gives even more support to rumors that K-1 is heading for bankruptcy, as Dutch kickboxing promoter Simon Rutz claimed in an interview earlier this week.

As for the Japanese MMA scene, keep in mind that neither DREAM nor Sengoku have scheduled their first event in 2011 yet, and Sengoku has been mysteriously shedding talent. Between poor management and local fans simply moving on from MMA and kickboxing, are we witnessing the death knell of combat sports in Japan?

(Fedor and Vadim, in simpler times…)

By Anton Gurevich
Reminder: As part of a new content partnership, we will occasionally be passing along interesting articles from our friends at LowKick.com/MMA. So give ‘em a look…

Fedor Emelianenko’s dramatic defeat against Antonio Silva last weekend at the IZOD Center in New Jersey sparked a very heated, and I must admit quite one-sided, debate in the Mixed Martial Arts community. Who’s to blame for Fedor Emelianenko’s two consecutive defeats? It looks like everyone has an automatic answer to this question — Fedor’s management, M-1 Global.

People seem to forget that outside of being Fedor’s management, M-1 Global is a fighting promotion which organizes events all around the world. And just like any promotion, they have to protect their interests, and to defend their main asset, which in this case is “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko…

But blaming M-1 for Fedor’s lackluster performances makes no sense at all. Just like bringing up the “psychic” comments made by Fedor’s coaches. Yes, you can question M-1′s negotiation tactics, but this has nothing to do with Fedor’s performance inside the cage.

Continue reading at Lowkick

(Jimmo is a full-time fighter and part-time Matthew McConaughey stunt double.)

Undefeated in the past four years, at 13-1 Ryan Jimmo is one of Canada’s most promising MMA prospects. The Big Deal is in the thick of training camp for a championship bout with fellow Canadian Dwayne Lewis at MFC 28 — a fight Sherdog.com has deservingly named one of this month’s 10 Tussles Worth Watching — on February 25 in Edmonton Alberta and has graciously offered to write about his preparations for the biggest fight of his career, via a weekly training blog published every week leading up to the fight right here at CagePotato.com.

Check out Ryan’s latest entry after the jump.

(How did nobody notice this guy in the stands?)

When a story came out today by a Russian news site quoting Fedor Emelianenko’s coach Vladimir Voronov blaming “The Last Emperor’s” loss to Antonio Silva on illegal psychological control maneuvers employed by “Bigfoot’s” camp, most of us shrugged it off as bullshit, however there might be some truth to the story.

(Damn, Arianny. Him too?)

After out-pointing Michael Johnson last December to win the TUF 12 lightweight trophy, Jonathan Brookins is gearing up for his first post-TUF opponent in the UFC. MMA Junkie reports that the super-chill bro-dog with the funky hair will take on Jeremy Stephens at the TUF 13 Finale (June 4th, Las Vegas). Stephens is 6-5 in the Octagon (19-6 overall), and most recently knocked Marcus Davis out of a job at UFC 125. Despite Stephens’s spotty record, he’ll be a tough challenge for Brookins, whose biggest weakness seems to be his standup defense; against an explosive power-puncher like Stephens, that could be a problem.

In other UFC booking news…

(In hindsight, this probably wasn’t the smartest name for Hesdy’s supplement brand.)

It might be a while before Hesdy Gerges is able to rematch Badr Hari, unless “The Golden Boy” breaches probation on his 2010 assault charge and ends up back in jail with “Fightersheart.”

According Parool.nl, Dutch SWAT team members kicked in the door of the It’s Showtime heavyweight champ’s apartment in Amsterdam today and arrested Gerges, who was sleeping at the time, as part of a cocaine trafficking ring in Belgium. Besides the K-1 standout, four other suspects were also detained as authorities searched 10 properties belonging to Gerges, confiscating several weapons, ammunition and computers.

(That’s a lot of suitcases for a dude who clearly only owns one set of clothing. PicProps: LifeSports.ru)

Oh, boy. We really only see three options here: Either a report out on Wednesday from the Russian language website LifeSports.ru lost something during its conversion to English, the following interview is a complete hoax or the people responsible for training the greatest heavyweight MMA fighter of all time are way, way, way, way, way crazier than we even thought. According to a translation provided by the good people at Fighters Only, Fedor Emelianenko coach Vladimir Voronov told LifeSports this week he thinks Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva used psychic mind control to claim victory last Saturday night in the opening round of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix. No, we are not fucking kidding you. Check it out:

“We believe that forbidden psychological technology was used …,” Voronov told the website. “It seems to us that not everything was right, and that certain technologies were used. Not ones that could be seen by the naked eye but psychological technologies that worked on both fighters at a distance … That is why during the fight Fedor was just not like himself. It seemed very strange behavior from Fedor. He stepped into the ring and did everything exactly the opposite of what we practiced before the fight. We were all shocked! Fedor had never previously done such a thing.”

You think that sounds insane? Brother, you haven’t even read the weirdest part yet …

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Kimura.se)

Our friends at Kimura.se caught up with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira recently and among other things, asked the former PRIDE and UFC interim heavyweight champion his thoughts on the potential superfight between his student, friend and training partner, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. Not surprisingly, Big Nog’ picked his homeboy to win the fight, but he was very complimentary of GSP, calling the French-Canadian the best wrestler in the sport.

(“I don’t like ‘queer street’. Write that down in your little notebook.”)

In the aftermath of Fedor Emelianenko‘s upset loss to Antonio Silva last weekend — four months after Brock Lesnar was roughly stripped of his UFC title by Cain Velasquez — MMA’s global heavyweight picture is in a state of flux. So, we figured it was a good time to launch a new rankings feature on CagePotato. Every week, Ben, Mike and Chad will try to justify their top five rankings for each weight division, and we’re kicking things off with the big boys. Check out our thoughts below, and let us know how you see MMA’s current heavyweight top five…

Ben Goldstein
1. Cain Velasquez: I think we can all agree he’s the top dog right now. In one fight, Brock Lesnar’s reputation went from “toughest S.O.B. on the planet” to “man-baby who goes fetal at the first sign of pressure.” You can blame/thank Cain for that. Aside from getting wobbled a couple times by Cheick Kongo, he’s cruised through all nine of his career fights with no difficulty whatsoever.

2. Junior Dos Santos: A future champion who has put together one of the most impressive contendership runs in UFC history. I think he’ll be able to add Lesnar to his list of scalps in June. And then…?

3. Brock Lesnar: With such a massive psychological hole in his game and just a 5-2 overall record, it’s weird calling Brock the third greatest heavyweight in the world. I’m not sure I agree with myself here. But until Werdum and Overeem face off in April, neither of those guys deserves to be called top three either.

(Gina Carano announces her return to MMA during last weekend’s ‘Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva‘ broadcast. To be honest, I could have used more energy. Props: shosports)

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…

- Rashad Evans Says Absent Priest Messed Up Fedor’s Mental Preparation Before Silva Bout (MMA Convert)

- Dana White: First International “The Ultimate Fighter” Could be in Philippines by Late 2011 (5thRound)

- ‘Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva’ Breaks Showtime MMA Viewership Records (SBNation.com/MMA)

- Jorge Rivera: I Got Under Michael Bisping’s Skin [Exclusive Interview] (LowKick)

- And Now He’s Fired…Again: Gabe Ruediger (Five Ounces of Pain)

- What Might Have Been: Fedor Emelianenko in the UFC (MMA Fighting)

- Dada 5000′s Second Professional MMA Bout Took Place Last Weekend, and We Have the Video (MiddleEasy)

- Rafael Natal Out, UFC Newcomer Chris Weidman In Against Alessio Sakara at ‘UFC on Versus 3′ (Versus MMA Beat)

- Natasha Wicks Hangs Out Half-Naked with Urijah Faber In FORM Athletics Video (FightMagazine)

- Dana White Meets with New Yorker Who Used MMA to Subdue Serial Stabber (MMA-Scraps)

(Damn, Lorenzo Fertitta has really let himself go.)

Dana White made a somewhat surprising announcement during today’s UFC 127 conference call regarding the 170-pound title picture of his promotion.

According to the UFC president, the winner of the UFC 127 welterweight showdown between Jon Fitch and BJ Penn will likely be next in line for a shot at the winner of the UFC 129 championship bout between champ Georges St-Pierre and Jake Shields.

“They’re definitely in the title picture. Let’s face it; the reality is BJ Penn has held titles in both weight classes. Fitch has fought for the title and has literally dominated that division for a long time; [he] just didn’t win the title. Either one of these guys that wins this fight is in the mix — the number one guy.”

Both fighters gave the obligatory, “I’m not looking past my opponent,”  speech when asked if they were giddy about the news.

“I don’t want to waste any time thinking about anything other than fighting B.J. right now,” Fitch said.

“As of now I’m not even thinking about [the title shot],” Penn said. “I’m not thinking about titles, I’m just happy to fight an opponent of Jon Fitch’s level and Jon Fitch’s stature.”

What makes the announcement somewhat of a head-scratcher is the fact that Penn has only fought four times in the past five years at welterweight, racking up a less than stellar 1-3 record, having lost twice to St-Pierre and splitting fights with aging former champ Matt Hughes. His last shot at the welterweight title came out of the blue as well after he decided on a whim to move up to challenge St-Pierre at UFC 94 following a debatable loss to him three years earlier.

(In hindsight, perhaps we shouldn’t have thought this guy was invincible. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

By Cage Potato Contributor Seth “Too Cool for Graduate School” Falvo

My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of tournaments. Ruined lipstick. This wasted cage. But most of all, I remember The Last Emperor. The man we called “Fedor“. Yes, it’s a clichéd way to start off an article in this Post-Fedor Apocalyptic Wasteland where betting on a doughy Russian guy to do something athletic all of a sudden seems illogical, but it’s too appropriate to pass up. After all, this is clearly the beginning of the end for Strikeforce. When you spend so much time and effort hyping a guy who loses in the first round of your tournament, you might as well quit while you still have something resembling your dignity. Didn’t you learn anything when the UFC hyped up Brock Lesnar as MMA’s next big thing, only to watch him get submitted by Frank Mir in his first fight with the organization? The UFC went bankrupt and Dana White was too embarrassed to ever leave his house again.

Oh wait…that didn’t happen.

Yes, everyone following an MMA pundit on Twitter knows how incredibly awesome Fedor has been. Yes, most of you who’ve followed Fedor’s career are probably done caring about the tournament now that Fedor vs. Overeem won’t happen any time soon. There’s only one problem: The fact that you’re even reading this means that you’re a member of a very small minority.

(“Hi. My name’s Pee-Wee. I’m here for the orgy.”)

It looks like the UFC scooped up its second Sengoku Raiden Championship fighter in a week.

As we reported last week, the promotion’s middleweight champion Jorge Santiago walked away from the promotion in the hopes of signing with either the UFC or Strikeforce. Although the Amercian Top Team fighter says he has not inked a deal with either promotion, several sources have confirmed that he has signed with the UFC and will face Brian Stann in his first outing at UFC 130 May 28 in Las Vegas.

Now reports have surfaced that Dave Herman has also received a requested release by the struggling Japanese organization. Although his manager, Shu Hirata confirmed today that his client had parted ways with the promotion, he would not commit to substantiating a handful of anonymously sourced reports that “Pee-Wee” has signed with the UFC.

(Video of you purchasing the weapon? Check. Tape of you admitting to the crime? Check. Incriminating text messages sent to the victim? Check. Women on the jury still think you’re innocent? You must be a professional fighter. PicProps: VCStar.com)

Two months after he stunned his attorney midway through trial by pleading guilty to raping his former girlfriend in 2008, UFC washout Jeremy Jackson was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Monday in California. A Ventura County Superior Court judge said she had “little or no discretion” in deciding Jackson’s sentence after the plea, according to a newspaper report.

The Ventura County Star – whose reference to Jackson as an “Ultimate Fighter” in its headline is only excusable because of his stint on the UFC’s reality show of the same name – had the details of Monday’s proceeding, which we have to say are kind of bizarre. Even though he admitted last December that he raped his ex-girlfriend while burglarizing her home on June 28, 2008, the Star reports that a female juror in the trial asked the court if she could “make a statement on Jackson’s behalf” during sentencing. The same juror later told the paper she thought Jackson was innocent and that he “only pleaded guilty because he was depressed and wanted the trial to end.”

We’re sure there’s a terrible joke to be made here about the women who fall in love with prison inmates – especially since the sentencing came down on Valentine’s Day, which probably felt like the worst possible timing for everyone involved – but we’re not going to do that. That’s what user comments are for, right?

(“Retire? No, I said I was going to ‘relax.’ That crazy translator lady always misquotes me.”)

Returning to his Russian homeland following his disappointing defeat at the hands of Antonio Bigfoot Silva on Saturday night, Fedor Emelianenko told reporters at the airport that he will likely fight again and that the pseudo-reitrement announcement he made following the fight was a knee-jerk reaction to racking up the second legitimate loss of his MMA career.

“I rushed to declare my retirement out of frustration. I will fight more. Possibly, I will return to the [Strikeforce] Heavyweight Grand-Prix,” Fedor told LifeSports.ru. “I am confident that I am capable of having a few more fights. I didn’t make any analysis yet on why I lost. I need to recover. I can’t see very well yet.”

(Photos via twitter.com/natashawicks. Click all for larger versions.)

Former UFC Octagon Girl Natasha Wicks had herself a little spill last week while longboarding in California. As she explained via Twitter: “Wiped out on my Sector Nine… f-ing hurt 7 flips downhill.. booth cheeks gashed, shoulder gash, hand destroyed … I can honestly say this is one of the worst pains I’ve experienced…crying helps sometimes.. and in this case it def does.. ill b fine ”

As they say, she who does not fall does not stand up. And she who posts photos of her scraped-up ass on twitter runs the risk of having them re-posted by weirdos like us. But hey, if you’re not into open sores, there’s some recent swimsuit photos of a perfectly intact Natasha after the jump. (Props: MMA Roundup)

(Props: RangerUpVideo)

First, Jorge Rivera mocked Michael Bisping’s pillow-fists. Then, he brought in a dude with a terrible British accent so he could slam the Count as a “professional decision-winner” who lies about where he’s from and gives koala bears chlamydia. And now there’s this. Fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail are going to love it (or at the very least, begrudgingly respect it). Everyone else will wonder, “on what kind of hallucinogens were the Ranger Up guys on when they came up with this concept, and was this really just an excuse to show off Rivera’s bounce-pass?” At this point, Bisping will have to respond with a video of his own. All he needs is somebody who can do an exaggerated New England accent, and he’ll be set…

(After drowning his sorrows until closing at a New Jersey Dairy Queen, Emelianenko was overheard telling his priest, “Dah. I may fight again.”)

Scott Coker stopped AOL’s studio today to talk with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani about the successful first show of the opening round of his promotion’s heavyweight grand prix that took place Saturday night at the IZOD Center in New Jersey. Talk quickly turned to former top pound-for-pound king Fedor Emelianenko and whether or not Coker felt that “The Last Emperor” will indeed walk away from the sport forever as he intimated following his loss to Antonio Silva this past weekend.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/gregorybayne)

If you haven’t seen Gregory Bayne’s masterful documentary about former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver’s personal and professional triumphs, trials and tribulations, you really should be ashamed of yourself.

We get it; money’s tight and the economy isn’t great, so we’ll let it slide this time, but when we ask tomorrow, no one in the Potato Nation will have an excuse why they haven’t watched this movie.

Just wanted to pass along a few interesting moments from Fedor vs. Silva‘s post-fight presser, which featured all of the night’s winning fighters, plus the other four heavyweight grand prix competitors who will be squaring off on April 9th (venue TBA). Josh Barnett was the first to be introduced, and he gave the media his usual mix of insightful analysis and comic-book-like hyperbole. “Getting an easy win doesn’t do anything for you,” he said. “I’d rather stare death in the face.”

Scott Coker confirmed that Fedor Emelianenko could theoretically return to the grand prix as an alternate, jumping ahead of Shane Del Rosario, who was supposed to have earned the first replacement spot with his impressive win over Lavar Johnson. Nope. The tournament committee will decide that. And Coker’s not even on the committee. It is only now, two days later, that it’s occurred to me to wonder, “Wait a minute, so who is on the committee?” Vadim Finkelchtein and Gus Johnson? God help us.

After the jump: Alistair Overeem is bummed that Fedor got knocked out of the tournament because of the “glow” he brings to the proceedings, but after being ducked by Fedor twice, he already gave up on the idea of fighting him. Plus, Alistair and his brother Valentijn say that they’d have no problem fighting each other in the context of a tournament. I’m sure Dana White would respect that, but Coker is less than thrilled by the idea.

(If Roop can kill a zombie, he has the potential to do the same to a grappler from Plympton, Mass. Still, this is Grispi’s fight to lose.)

According to a report by The Boston Herald, Josh Grispi’s booby prize for losing to Jose Aldo’s UFC 125 replacement, Dustin Poirier, will be the fighter current number one contender Mark Hominick recently beat to leapfrog “The Fluke” to a title shot.

(We just can’t stay mad at this guy. PicProps: MMA Space)
Not to distract you from your busy morning of eulogizing Fedor Emelianenko, but we feel compelled to remind everyone that Scott Coker isn’t the only MMA impresario who woke up Monday with a pounding headache. Remember that when we left the UFC last Friday, the butterfly effect from Rashad Evans’ knee injury was causing near-seismic shifts in the vaunted light heavyweight division? Yeah, we don’t think that got solved over the weekend.

Let’s see if we can get this goddamned soap opera straight: Evans tweaked his knee a couple weeks ago and instead of pushing his scheduled title bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua back a few months to give Rashad time to rehab, Dana White took a flamethrower to the entire 205-pound title picture. In one fell swoop he gave Evans’ title shot to Jon Jones, pulled Quinton “Rampage” Jackson out of a scheduled fight with Thiago Silva at UFC 130 and quashed entirely the idea of having Matt Hamill fight Phil Davis at UFC 129. Smooth move, guy. Now the matchup merry-go-round is whirling out of control and everybody is pissed.

(Who says takedowns and stalling don’t win fights?)

Maybe now New York Assemblyman Bob Reilly will change his tune about MMA being detrimental to society.

According to a story in yesterday’s New York Times, a 40-year-old mixed martial arts practitioner on his way to work on Saturday morning ended a crazy knife-wielding murderer’s  rampage in New York City with the help of a single-leg takedown. The story is a chilling and tragic one, but the fact that someone trained in MMA stopped this nutjob from killing anyone else using an MMA technique is a feather in the cap for the sport that Reilly and his supporters were trying to ban people from training in the state of New York less than two years ago.

Read what went down after the jump.

(Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Silva)

(Sergei Kharitonov vs. Andrei Arlovski)