Following the post-event press conference at “Fedor vs. Silva” on Saturday night, I was able to get a couple minutes with Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, who ran down his thoughts on the insanity we’d all just witnessed — as well as some other big topics swirling around his promotion. To summarize:

- Coker still feels that Fedor Emelianenko‘s heart is still in competing, mainly because the first round of his fight against Antonio Silva wasn’t a total blowout. (By the way, a draw after two rounds? That second round was a clear 10-8 for Silva in my opinion, and the first round wasn’t a clear-cut win for Fedor either.)

- Whatever Andrei Arlovski does next is up to his camp, but Coker doesn’t sound too enthusiastic about putting him in the cage again.

(Somehow, “Ostentatious Jacket of Crushing Defeat” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. PicProps: Strikeforce)

If Saturday night truly turns out to be Fedor Emelianenko’s swan song in mixed martial arts, the saddest part will be that we had to watch him go out on a live Strikeforce broadcast that can only be described as a terrible abortion. I mean, holy shit that was bad. From Gus Johnson showing up dressed as a beautiful woman to the horribly awkward interviews with Fedor/Gina Carano to the dreadfully anticlimactic end to the main event to the announce team desperately trying to close the show ad-libbing about Sergei Kharitonov – “He looked like a young Fedor!” Johnson said (Editor’s note: No, he didn’t) — it pretty much couldn’t have been any worse. And that doesn’t even begin to consider the fact that Emelianenko lost to a guy who just almost lost to Mike Kyle.

Even still, we’re going to avoid going full-on, tearful retrospective for a bit here. Though the man himself hinted that “maybe it’s time to leave” during his postfight interview it could have just been the initial depression and lingering effects of so many blows to the head talking. Give Fedor some time to get back to the Sport Palace and whip up on some pre-pubescent sambo white belts – and let Vadim Finkelstein start dropping hints about how that mortgage ain’t gonna pay itself – and it’s possible we could see “The Last Emperor” take at least one more bite of the MMA apple. No matter what though, we’ve likely witnessed the last of him as a top heavyweight, maybe even as a relevant one. For a lot of us, that’s a frightening reality, but one we must confront. Here are 10 questions that come immediately to mind about about our Fedor-less future …

‘Nuff said.

Being a judge for Strikeforce events must be the easiest gig in town. You can say what you will about their matchmaking, but—Challengers series aside—their last 13 consecutive televised fights have ended without tallying up the scorecards. Strikeforce has been steadily building its reputation as a promotion that puts on exciting fights, if not always competitive ones. And while the general public will gravitate toward the action, exciting fights are something that any promotion can deliver on any given night. That’s why last night’s event was about so much more to Strikeforce. It was about bringing back the energy and momentum of the tournament format. It was about distancing themselves from the pack and making a name for themselves as the promotion that takes risks and carves their own path. So, did the gamble pay off? Let’s break it down.

(“I never thought I’d say this, but…gimme $500 on the doughy white dude with the perfectly round head.” / Photos courtesy of the Strikeforce Fedor vs. Silva Weigh In Pics gallery on CombatLifestyle.com)

There’s not much in this world that would compel me to rent a car and drive to New Jersey on a Saturday night, but the return of Fedor Emelianenko and the beginning of the greatest heavyweight tournament since the days of PRIDE certainly qualifies. Yes, folks, yer boy BG is at the IZOD Center tonight, and I’ll be providing some play-by-play for the beefy main card. Until then, I’ll simply be chilling in press row, basking in the power of this laminated card hanging off of my neck. Bro, you wish you were me.

The action begins at 10 p.m. ET with the introduction of all eight grand prix fighters, even though only half of them will actually be competing tonight. Live round-by-round results will be piling up after the jump; refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest. And because I don’t say it enough: Thank you for being here.

Sure, I name all my Ferraris. This one? I call this one “Tuesday”.

The latest news surrounding ticket sales for the UFC’s debut in Toronto is staggering, particularly to those Americans under the impression that Canada’s economy still operates on the bartering system. After all 42,000 tickets for the April 30^th card, headlined by the Welterweight championship bout between Georges St. Pierre and Jake Shields, sold out on day one, the layout in the Rogers Center was reconfigured to accommodate additional seating. The results of that prompt adjustment are in, and the figures now being tossed around are better than Dana himself could have expected.

Interview starts @ 8:30, but why hurry past Arianny’s cleavage?

With Anderson’s Seagal-inspired KO of Vitor Belfort last week, we are officially halfway toward the long awaited GSP-Silva super fight. Only Jake Shields stands in the way of this epic battle, and since we don’t even want to think about him fucking this up for us, let’s get ahead of ourselves and listen in on renowned boxing trainer Freddie Roach as he chats with Joe Rogan about GSP’s progression in boxing and his take on the potential match-up between GSP and Silva.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/gregorybayne)

- An open letter to ‘Sons of Anarchy’ creator Kurt Sutter (ScreenJunkies)

- Rampage vs. Matt Hamill in the works for UFC 130 (Heavy)

- Belfort says Anderson got Lucky Saturday night (LowKick)

- Report suggests Anderson Silva used Steven Seagal for publicity (MMA Convert)

-Sonnen says fight would have been stopped if Anderson punished him like he did “The Spider” (PaulLazenby)

-Holy Taco’s guide to improving your online dating profile (HolyTaco)

- Vitor Belfort welcomes rematch against Wanderlei Silva (Tatame)

- Golfball launcher (TheRugged)

- SFHWGP R1 weigh-in results (FightersOnly)

- Brooklyn Decker promotes SI swimsuit edition (TuVez)

- “Fear and Loathing” by Michael The Voice Schiavello (TheGarv)

BJ Penn Brings in Matt Hughes to Train for Jon Fitch – Watch more Funny Videos

It looks like Matt Hughes and BJ Penn have been trolling us all along by making everyone think they can’t stand each other.

“The Prodigy” has brought in “Country Breakfast” to help him train for his upcoming UFC 127 fight with Jon Fitch, and according to Hughes, despite the fact that they have both beaten the shit out of each other and have slung a shit ton of verbal jabs over the years, there’s no hard feelings between them.

“I’ve been in the sport a long time — a lot longer than some other guys in the UFC. We respect each other and we’ve never really not got along and never had a falling out of any type. We’re competitors, so when we had a fight coming up, we always came in with the attitude that we were gonna beat the other one,” Hughes told Hawaii’s KHON2 news. “We fought, I think a week before Thanksgiving or something and he beat me pretty good…pretty quick. That was a match and he’s got his next fight and I’m tryin’ to help him out.”

(Valentijn Overeem vs. Tengiz Tedoradze @ Pancrase Fighting Championship 2, 4/17/10)

You’ll be seeing all these guys on tomorrow night’s Showtime broadcast of “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva” — and maybe subbing in for one of the main competitors later if they should fall victim to broken hands or licensing issues. So give ‘em a look and enjoy…

(Ray Sefo K-1 knockout highlight.)

(Please, Rampage. Your fist-pose means nothing here.)

For those of you who like to plan ahead in your MMA gambling, listen up: Several betting sites are already offering odds on Rashad Evans vs. Rampage Jackson at UFC 130 — a match that is completely unconfirmed at this point — and the purely hypothetical superfight between Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre, which would depend on a GSP victory over Jake Shields. The most favororable odds right now are…

Rashad Evans (-185) vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (+155)
Anderson Silva (-170) vs. Georges St. Pierre (+155)

(“Duck you? No, bro. I joined a monastery in Istanbul.”)

In spite of the fact that he has a May dance date with Brian Stann set for UFC 130, Wanderlei Silva seems more focused on erasing a nearly 12-and-a-half-year-old loss from his record than his upcoming opponent.

Speaking with Tatame yesterday, “the Axe Murderer” called out fellow Brazilian Vitor Belfort — the man who handed him the second loss of his MMA career.

Read what Wand had to say after the jump.

(VidProps: YouTube/OnceIWasAChampion)

If you’re looking for an excuse to get a little bit misty-eyed this morning, you should definitely check out the above trailer for the forthcoming documentary about the late Evan Tanner. Titled “Once I Was a Champion,” the movie – produced at least in part by Tapout Films, according to the trailer – is reportedly being submitted for review by film festivals this month, where hopefully it’ll get some widespread play. If there’s one dude from MMA who deserves to have a film dedicated to his life, it’s probably Tanner. The former UFC middleweight champion certainly had his fair share of adventures (and perhaps personalities) which helped shape a quirky public persona, prior to his untimely death in the fall of 2008.

The trailer is legitimately pretty stirring and it seems like the full documentary itself is going to be pretty awesome. There are a slew of MMA luminaries involved, sharing their mostly positive remembrances of Tanner, while giving a nod to the troubled fighter’s “natural frailty.” Then you get to Chael Sonnen’s brief appearance at about the two minute mark and you think producers must have taken these comments out of context, not even Sonnen is this big of a dick. Then you watch the expanded video of Sonnen’s comments and you realize, nope, he really is a dick. See Sonnen’s performance and a few more fighters talking about Tanner after the jump.

(Would James Toney have bothered to try MMA and would Dana have signed the aging boxer if this happened?)

In an effort to mix things up around here and to give you something more to do on Fridays than hide from your boss and play solitaire, we’re going to start running a weekly “What if…” Photoshop feature series to make you contemplate a bit.  The theme is simple: What could the results have been if facets of the history of the sport happened differently than they did.

If you have an idea or a ‘shop you want to submit to be featured on Friday, send it to contest@cagepotato.com.

Check out more ‘What Ifs” after the jump.

(Props: shosports)

Tomorrow night in New Jersey, Strikeforce will launch a tournament that will either establish the promotion as innovative big-dogs of the MMA industry — and arguably produce the #1 heavyweight fighter in the world when the dust has settled — or invite even more ridicule when the thing goes tits-up. Who knows how it’ll play out? Right now, all we can say is that Fedor Emelianenko is fighting this weekend (and coming back from the first loss of his career), and that’s a pretty major event in itself.

Weigh-ins for ‘Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva‘ go down today at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ, beginning at 5 p.m. ET. The event is open to the public, and will be televised on a live episode of Inside MMA. HD Net will also be broadcasting the preliminary card tomorrow beginning at 8 p.m. ET, featuring TUF 12 vet Marc Stevens against John Cholish, and Igor Gracie vs. John Salgado.

Come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow night for round-by-round results from the Showtime broadcast, beginning at 10 p.m. ET.

(Even the cornermen are considering scalping their passes for this one.)

CP 24 is reporting that just over three hour after tickets went on sale Thursday for UFC 129 – Zuffa’s landmark first show in Ontario, fans snapped up each of the 42,000 tickets, prompting the promotion to open up more seats for the Rogers Centre show to ensure that there are tickets available to the plethora of fans waiting for Friday’s UFC newsletter pre-sale and Saturday’s general sale. Although the UFC’s director of Canadian Operations, Tom Wright selling 50,000 seats for the April 30 event, which will feature a pair of championship bouts, may be “pushing it,” judging by the response, the event could very well exceed the WWE’s record attendance mark for the venue of just south of 68,000.

(“Although he always wondered what it tasted like, Fedor couldn’t bring himself to accept Alistair’s offer to try horse meat.”)

Nothing we can say about this photo from yesterday’s Strikeforce fan and media day is funnier than the photo itself. At any rate, go ahead and give us your best caption and the funniest one will receive one of our imaginary  legendary Cage Potato t-shirts.

(“Look, I respect Michael Bisping. Sort of.”)

When the first video of smack talk dropped, there was general amusement for everyone. Good job promoting the fight, gentlemen, now return to your corners and get ready to rock, right? Well…..no. Jorge Rivera and RangerUp have loosed another volley at Michael “Pillowfists” “The Count” Bisping, and they’ve gone and gotten Bisping himself to appear and share his feelings on the bout.

Yes, after working out a couple bugs, we’re ready to re-drop our first flash game onto your asses. You can find the latest iteration of Cage Potato Power Punch after the jump. The biggest improvement in CPPP2.0? We’ve included the actual voice of ReX13, shouting encouragement — and the occasional insult. So it’s like you’re really at our UFC Fan Expo booth, trying to kill some time until Wanderlei Silva makes his autograph-signing appearance. Play it, share it, brag about your high scores, do what you do.

Massive thanks to Up Up Down Down Games for putting this together for us. For more stupid fun, you may also enjoy Charlie Sheen: Escape From Rehab, Downhill Snowboard, and Kill Them All.

Special thanks to CagePotato reader ‘RwilsonR’ for coming up with the punch-machine game idea in the first place. We owe him, big time.

(My God. I keep expecting Silva to do this to him. / Photo courtesy of MMA.us)

By Anton Gurevich

(Note: As part of a new content partnership, we will occasionally be passing along interesting articles from our friends at LowKick.com. So give ‘em a look…)

Fedor Emelianenko will make his long-anticipated return to Mixed Martial Arts this weekend, facing none other than Brazilian heavy-hitter Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. The fight will open the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, as the winner is expected to advance into the semi-finals against either Alistair Overeem or Fabricio Werdum.

The fight between Emelianenko and Antonio Silva is another classic “Fedor Fight.” Once again, “The Last Emperor” is facing a significantly larger opponent, who looks physically superior to the Russian. Silva will be four inches taller than Fedor, and probably around 45 pounds heavier. On top of that, Bigfoot will enjoy a huge eight-inch reach advantage, which could be a deadly tool during the fight.

Continue reading at Lowkick…

(“What was in that drink your cornerman gave me at the weigh-ins? It made me feel stronger than ever, bro.”)

As reports surfaced yesterday that a planned UFC 130 bout between Quinton Jackson and Thiago Silva was inexplicably scrapped and that Rashad Evans would instead face “Rampage” on the May 28 card, rumors started swirling why the Brazilian had been yanked from the card.

In an interview with TATAME yesterday, Silva attempted to quash speculation that his post-UFC 125 urine sample was the one that Nevada State Athletic Commission Keith Kizer was speaking of when he told MMAJunkie that one fighter’s specimen was being closely examined after an anomaly was detected.

“Injured? Me? I’m very healthy. That’s not true. It looks like [NSAC] did two tests and one was positive and the other was negative,” he explained. “My blood is clean. I’m not worried. I took nothing.”

MMAJunkie went on to report later in the day yesterday that each of the other 11 fighters’s samples that were tested following the January 1 show came back clean, and that Kizer admitted that Silva was the only other fighter tested that night, which is basically admitting that Silva is the alleged wrongdoer.

(Take a good look at this photo lineup, MMA fans. Now, do you recognize the man who killed your dreams? PicProps: Flickr)

It goes without saying that there is a lot riding on Georges St. Pierre’s upcoming welterweight title defense against Jake Shields at UFC 129. More specifically, there is a lot riding on Shields not winning it. If the recently deposed Strikeforce middleweight champ were to actually pull off the upset – he was +400 as of this morning — it might be a huge financial windfall for the good people of NorCal (new tattoos for everybody!) but it would piss off absolutely everyone else in the industry.

Dana White, the Fertittas, Joe Silva, Ed Soares’ creditors, Steven Seagal, Canada and (last but certainly not least) the fans — we all have a significant interest in making sure things play out according to the odds for the next couple of months. So it begs the question: If Shields wins the UFC 170-pound title on April 30, does it make him the most hated man in all of mixed martial arts? We’re going to go out on a limb and say yes.

(“…and there is nothing naked about a rear-naked choke.”)

Having Frank Shamrock represent MMA in trying to convince the New York State Senate to legalize MMA is like having George W. Bush represent the human race in trying to convince aliens that the human race is an intelligent species.

Leave it to the most self-aggrandizing fighter in the sport, though, to jump in where his help isn’t needed. The former fighter, who dubbed himself “The Legend,” is working on a new reality show called “Ungloved,” that follows him as he lobbies for MMA legalization in the hold-out state. While filming in New York during the legalization rally and Strikeforce fan event on Tuesday, Shamrock visited the state legislature to try to convince them to legalize the sport.

Not surprisingly, the cocky Strikeforce commentator who created an anti-bullying organization in response to how he felt when UFC president Dana White publicly criticized him, went into the meetings with lawmakers unprepared, telling reporters that he did no homework or research about the stances of those in opposition like Assemblyman Bob Reilly.

(Carlos Condit — huge John Cleese fan.)

After starching Dan Hardy at UFC 120, welterweight contender Carlos Condit was preparing to build on his momentum with another slugfest against Chris Lytle at UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch (February 26th; Sydney, Australia). Unfortunately, the Natural Born Killer has reportedly withdrawn thanks to a knee injury. Damn, it’s been a bad month for that sort of thing.

Though a replacement has yet to be formally announced, fightnewsaustralia.com is claiming that Brian Ebersole — a 44-15 American journeyman who currently competes and trains in Australia — will face Chris Lytle on the card. Ebersole has won his last seven fights, and holds victories over Matt Horwich, Nick Thompson, and Carlos Newton.

The current UFC 127 lineup is after the jump…

(Antonio Silva is fascinated by Fabricio Werdum’s freakishly normal-sized chin.)

Photos and text by Matthew Kaplowitz

Strikeforce has graced the East Coast with their presence throughout this week, as the hype machine for their massive heavyweight grand prix is in full flux. Starting on Tuesday with a meet-and-greet for fans at the Roseland Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan with all eight of the tournament fighters, and continuing on Wednesday downtown with their press conference, Strikeforce is leaving their imprint on the tri-state area, informing natives of New York and New Jersey that the business of MMA has more than three letters.

This journalist/nerd was in the house for their press conference, which saw not only all members of the tournament, but the reserve fighters as well, packed into the swank Lighthouse 61 at Chelsea Piers, the skyline of New York dramatically posed behind them. Personally, I was excited to see that Strikeforce was feeding the reporters, and quite well at that, but even more exciting was the realization that this epic tournament was happening in my area. With MMA still illegal in New York, and very few big shows coming to neighboring states, having Saturday’s event a thirty-minute drive from The Big Apple was bound to help shed some light on how much of an impact MMA can have on the NY economy.

(If you look at the changes in Thiago Silva’s body shape over the years, you do have to wonder…)

Could Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson settle their continuing feud with a formal rematch when Sugar’s knee is healthy again? Is Thiago Silva about to get busted for steroids? There’s a ton of conflicting information surrounding these related stories, so we’ll just pass along what we’ve heard…

- MMAWeekly was the first to report that UFC light-heavyweight contender Thiago Silva has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled match against Quinton Jackson at UFC 130 (May 28, Las Vegas). “Sources close to the bout” confirmed that Rashad Evans will be stepping in for the Pitbull — meaning that Evans’s first opponent since outpointing Quinton Jackson last May will be…Quinton Jackson, once again.

- However, Thiago Silva himself denied the report to Tatame, saying “I’m very healthy and looking forward to fight Rampage…Nobody called us about anything, the fight is on.” Quinton Jackson’s camp was also surprised by the report, and according to Rashad Evans’s manager, Evans hasn’t been offered the fight either.

(“See my to-do list? It say, ‘translate stupid question from plaid-shirted American.’ Now I have done.”)

Man, Fedor Emelianenko‘s translator Tanya really needs her own CBS sitcom. It would be called $#*! My Russian MMA Legend Says, Which I Am Paid to Summarize in English. Throw in a bearded wacky neighbor, and you’ve got yourself a hit. More Tanyariffic physical comedy from Fedor’s last ‘MMA Hour’ appearance is after the jump, courtesy of Fightlinker.

(“Left kick, Brock Lesnar’s Canadian hospital.”)

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 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 here at CagePotato.com.

Check out Ryan’s latest entry after the jump.

(Plan your work, work your plan. PicProps: ESPN)

You didn’t think Kenny Florian would just drop to 145-pounds without a plan in mind, did you? If you did, you don’t know KenFlo. Nope, the now former perennial lightweight contender’s camp has a pretty detailed blueprint of what they’d like to see Florian do at featherweight. As manager Malki Kawa tells MMA Weekly on Wednesday, they think their guy will be on the fast-track to the top once he returns from a knee injury and gets his weight headed in the right direction. Check it out:

“A top contender,”  Kawa says about Florian’s first 145-pound opponent. “Whoever the No. 1 contender is at that point is the guy I’d like to get. What would be my ideal situation is for him to get a fight in June, whoever the No. 1 contender is, win that fight and then hopefully set something up for Brazil with (Jose) Aldo, if the UFC’s up for it.”

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMADigest)

Dana White was in Toronto yesterday with a handful of the fighters from the UFC 129 card and although he didn’t drop any remarkable news during the press conference, a few interesting tidbits came out during the fan Q&A session they did at Rogers Centre.

(UFC 129: The Battle to Not Screw Up the GSP/Silva Superfight.)

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…

- Fedor Emelianenko Discusses Overeem, Respect, and Role Models (LowKick)

- The Shogun Rua vs. Jon Jones Pic That Will Send Chills Down Your Spine (MMA Convert)

- How MMA Helped Packers’ Clay Matthews Become a Super Bowl XLV Champion (5thRound)

- Forrest Griffin Possibly Sidelined For Six Months With Foot Injury (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Mike Brown on Recent UFC Losses: ‘My Heart Is Broken’ (MMA Fighting)

- Dan Henderson Nearly Accepted a Spot on the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix (MiddleEasy)

- Anthony Pettis ‘Mad’ He Has to Wait for Title Shot (Versus MMA Beat)

- Jon Jones vs. Anderson Silva: How Great Would That Be For UFC? (SBNation.com/MMA)

- UFC Vet Ben Saunders Signs With Bellator (FightMagazine)

- Snapshot of the Day: In Case You Were Wondering, Gina Carano is Still Pretty and Stuff (MMA-Scraps)