("This one. Right up your ass.")

Despite a high-profile appearance at Madison Square Garden last month in which the UFC announced its intentions to bring MMA to New York State — as well as a reported $75,000 in palm-grease to Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign — MMA Payout broke the news last night that Governor Cuomo neglected to include a provision in the state’s 2011-2012 budget that would sanction MMA in New York. In fact, Cuomo’s Executive Budget actually proposes eliminating the chairperson of the state athletic commission altogether. So not only is the Governor not backing MMA as Zuffa had hoped, he doesn’t seem to have a high opinion of combat sports in general. 

At this point, the MMA ban in New York can still be lifted through the more traditional route of a legislative bill — of which there are currently two in the assembly and one in the senate, all awaiting review — but we saw how well that worked last time. Making MMA part of the state budget was supposed to be the easy way in, and it just ain’t happening. If I were Dana White, I’d be furious right now. Money has been donated. Big press conferences have been held. And now, the current timetable of MMA regulation in New York is: Who freakin’ knows?

(Props: Co0lie5terFunKzit. Wow, seriously? That’s your YouTube user name?)

CagePotato reader ‘destinationblood’ sent us this footage of last weekend’s James Irvin vs. Mike Crisman fight at Gladiator Challenge so that we could see for ourselves what all the fuss was about. And despite the shaky, long-distance quality of the video, two things are clear:

1) Crisman knocks Irvin onto his ass with a left hook, right off the bell. (So yes, "The Fresh One," you were right.)

2) That controversial knee that came in the finishing sequence (skip to about 2:03) was freakin’ brutal, and it did look rather questionable. Did celebrity referee Ken Shamrock actually make the right call?

Irvin and Crisman are slated to have their rematch in May. Fun fact: This is Irvin’s ninth-consecutive fight that has ended in the first round.

UFC Ultimate Insider 125 – Watch more Funny Videos

Well, it’s official. Brian Stann will look to pull the rug out from under Wanderlei Silva’s UFC career by attempting to hand the former dangerous PRIDE champ his fourth UFC loss and preventing him from picking up his third win in the past five years when he steps into the Octagon with "The Axe Murderer" May 28 at UFC 130 in Las Vegas. The news was confirmed at the tail end of the latest episode of the UFC’s Ultimate Insider show released this morning.

It’s interesting to note that the majority of UFC middleweights on the cusp of becoming contenders  –  from Michael Bisping to Alan Belcher – ask specifically to face Wand despite the fact that he hasn’t been a contender for quite some time. It’s like he’s the guy guarding the gate to the title shot queue and they have to go through him to get there. 

Both fighters are likeable and it’s unlikely that there will be much (if any) pre-fight smack talk. This one is about the fight, and it’s pretty much a given that’s what we’re going to get on May 28. The tough part will be trying to decide who to root against.

(“Give it up for Detlef Schrempf, everbody.” PicProps: The MMA Space)

You get the impression that Dana White still wakes up screaming about Abu Dhabi. Clearly, though White is holding white-knuckle tight to his belief that Anderson Silva is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, “The Spider” hasn’t totally worked his way out of the boss’ doghouse after that debacle against Demian Maia … and Thales Leites before that … and Patrick Cote before that. For that reason, White tells USA Today’s Sergio Non this week that he’s taking an “expect the best, prepare for the worst” approach to Silva’s middleweight title defense against Vitor Belfort this Saturday at UFC 126.

Check it out after the jump, where we’ve taken the liberty of changing all of White’s swears back to the words he intended since – you know – this isn’t an edited-for-television movie and none of us are six years old. And dear God, if you are six years old, log off at once. Where are your parents?

(So if Vitor is Tyson and Anderson is Ali, who’s Don King?)

Yeah, we know "Iron" Mike and the boxing legend formerly known as Cassius Clay never fought, and we aren’t saying that Vitor and Anderson are anywhere near their level as boxers, but when you break down the pugilistic styles and look at some of the past fights of Belfort and Silva, it’s remarkable how similar they look to their boxing counterparts.

Whenever fans and pundits talk of the imminent match-up between Belfort and Silva, most give the boxing edge to Vitor based on the fact that he has professional boxing experience. The truth is, he really only fought once as a professional, but his win was so impressive it makes people forget that.

(Video courtesy YouTube NightcrawlerMMA)

Contrary to popular belief though, Belfort isn’t the only one of the two who has boxed professionally.

Silva, who like Andrei Arlovski and Georges St-Pierre, has spent some time with Freddie Roach honing his boxing chops, holds a 1-1 professional boxing record, meaning he actually has twice the experience of "The Phenom," yet he’s still rarely given the edge in the boxing department by analysts.

("When the first thing a doctor says to you is ‘Can I get an autograph?’ it’s pretty easy to get any drugs you want." Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

By CagePotato contributor Jason Moles

Coming off a loss to Jorge Oliveira in December, James Irvin returned to action last weekend at Gladiator Challenge: Young Guns 4 — and he would have gotten his much-needed rebound victory, if it wasn’t for the meddling of celebrity referee Ken Shamrock. (Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up.) Freak occurrences have plagued Irvin’s career from the beginning, and that night was no different. "The Sandman" recently gave us on opportunity to chat with him about his anti-climactic match against Mike Crisman, his battle with painkiller addiction, and his plan to make another run in the UFC. 

CAGEPOTATO.COM: First and foremost, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to talk with us at CagePotato. Tell me a little about the physical toll your body has taken after fighting three times in the past four months.
JAMES IRVIN: It’s been good for me. It’s tough, but I’ve been doing this for ten years. In shape, out of shape, and back into shape again. Kinda like what Chris Leben said — it keeps me sharp. I fight again on February 20th and have two fights in March, one in May. I train best when it’s intense and there’s nothing more intense than training for a fight.

Speaking of fights, your last one ended after an inadvertent illegal knee to the head of your opponent. As a result, Ken Shamrock ruled the fight a No Contest. What really went down in the cage?
Honestly, three weeks ago Ken turned down a fight with me, so as soon as I saw that he was going to be the ref I had a bad feeling. He kept coming back to the locker room to give us his version of the rules like this was my first rodeo. As for Crisman, I beat the brakes off this fool. I KO’d the guy and walked away before Shamrock even got there, and two minutes later, he says I illegally kneed him and it’s a no contest. It’s cool. I don’t have a scratch on me, and [Gladiator Challenge promoter] Tedd Williams says I can rematch Crisman in May.

With her long-awaited movie debut slated for an April release (pending re-shoots), could Gina Carano be preparing for a return to MMA competition? (Answer: Probably not.) Still, Xtreme Couture’s official blog posted these photos yesterday, with the following message: "Xtreme Couture would like to welcome back Gina Carano. Gina spent the morning training with Gil Martinez, here are a couple of shots from todays practice. We expect to see a lot more of Gina here training in 2011."

Read into that what you like. Scott Coker is surely psyched to see his old star back in the gym, but Gina could just be blowing off some steam between film gigs. Who knows? Considering that her last update on Facebook or Twitter was this one three months ago, it’s hard to get a sense of where her head’s at, other than the fact that she likes Kabuki makeup and is content to be a mysterious recluse for the time being.

(Click the image above to watch some Yamamoto vs. Johnson video hype courtesy of the UFC’s Facebook page. Kid describes his UFC debut as both "cool" and "fun." What can we say, the dude knows how to cut a promo.)

Just like they did with the ‘Fight for the Troops 2′ prelims, the UFC has responded to popular demand by hooking fans up with an additional UFC 126 preliminary bout on their Facebook page this Saturday. The bantamweight scrap between Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto and Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson will air live at 8:25 p.m. ET / 5:25 p.m. PT at Facebook.com/UFC. (Just click on the "Live Video" tab.) UFC prez Dana White will also be hosting a chat on the page starting at 8 p.m.

After the Kid vs. Mouse appetizer, Spike TV will air two more crowd-pleasing preliminary matches (Michihiro Omigawa vs. Chad Mendes, Donald Cerrone vs. Paul Kelly) at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT, leading into the ‘Silva vs. Belfort’ pay-per-view broadcast. Be sure to come back to CagePotato.com for live results all night. S’gonna be a good one…

 ("It’s not pink, it’s blood-stained.")

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 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.

(Special thanks to GirlsofMMA.net and MMACandy.com)

If you have a strange fetish for fingerless gloves, then buddy, today is your lucky day. After the jump, you’ll find 17 more photos of hot girls wearing four-ouncers. Enjoy…

("Come at me, bro.")

Will Anderson try to answer questions in English?

Will Vitor talk about how training with Jesus has helped him prepare for this fight?

Will "Bones" Jones talk about how awesome he is?

Will Rich Franklin reveal the tattoo he has chosen for Forrest to get if he beats him?

All of these questions and more will be answered at the UFC 126 press conference at 4:00 pm ET.

As always, the UFC video player is after the jump.

(Video courtesy YouTube/UFC)

Watching the most recent edition of Dana White’s video blog series, one thing becomes abundantly clear: the dude is fucking rich.

When he isn’t sitting courtside in L.A. at the end of the Celtics bench with his kids during an NBA game, The Baldfather is throwing around cash like it’s confetti on things like souping up his SUVs with Corvette engines.

Ah, to be a multi-millionaire…

I still pick up change when I find it on the street.

Super Bowl weekend. For America’s degenerate gamblers it’s like Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day and the Day of Eternal Judgment all rolled into one. The so-called experts estimate that over $100 million wordwide could change hands in bets on the Super Bowl this year. Slightly less than that will probably be wagered on Saturday night’s UFC 126, but as long as some of it winds up in your pocket, who’s complaining? To help you in that quest for the rich stuff, the Gambling Addiction Enabler is back.

See below for fight odds as of this writing (they appear to be changing pretty fast, more evidence that there are lot of bored gamblers playing out the string until Sunday’s kickoff). An explanation of what it all means is right here, though if you need that right now might not be the best time to jump into this thing with both feet. For the rest of you, let’s start earning, shall we?

(Video courtesy DailyMotion/Spike/UFC)

If you don’t have the time or couldn’t be bothered to watch the show, we got you covered.

Here are the CP Notes of this edition:

- Anderson doesn’t like Vitor and says whoever God wants to win will win Saturday.

- Vitor believes Jesus loves him more and will help him beat Anderson.

- Ed Soares respects Vitor  and seems somewhat nervous about this fight.

- Vitor  respects Anderson, but says he isn’t afraid of him.

- Vitor says he’s not there to dance around (like Anderson), he’s there to fight.

- Rich seems to be training seriously ahead of this fight, both in the gym and the tanning beds.

- Forrest seems to be doing lots of book promo ahead of this fight.

- Forrest might rely on his new BJJ black belt for this fight.

- Both Franklin and Griffin say they are pretty much the same fighter, only Rich says Forrest is much bigger.

- Forrest doesn’t like being asked questions about Anderson.

-  Jones has a lot of hype to live up to and seems to be buying into it himself.

- Jones wasn’t impressed by Bader’s win over Lil’ Nog, even though Nogueira is widely considered a better calibre fighter than any "Bones" has beaten.

- Jones doesn’t think Bader is very good because he "doesn’t knee, spin or jump."

- Jones doesn’t plan on toning down his cockiness flashiness for the fight.

- CB Dollaway is a weird looking dude.

Parts two and three are after the jump.

Jake Shields talks UFC 129 vs Georges St. Pierre – Watch more Funny Videos

By CagePotato contributor Brian J. D’Souza

The April 30th UFC event at the Rogers Centre in Toronto will play host to pound-for-pound king Georges St. Pierre, a French-Canadian superstar who helps move everything from action figures to videogames for his UFC bosses. Jake Shields hasn’t quite reached that level of mainstream acclaim, but when he faces off with GSP at UFC 129, he’ll be carrying a 15-fight win streak thanks to an arsenal of tools that could be the wildcard against an experienced champion who has yet to show any stylistic weaknesses nor signs of decline.

Catching up with Shields during a tour of Ontario, the friendly Cesar Gracie team member seems to effortlessly surmount a packed schedule of seminars, media appearances, interviews, photo shoots and autograph requests with a smile and his positive attitude. A former welterweight champion in Elite XC and middleweight champion in Strikeforce, Jake wants to add the most important belt to his collection — the UFC 170-pound title.

Shields won’t play into a war of words with St. Pierre in the grand tradition of B.J. Penn, Dan Hardy and Josh Koscheck. “He’s a great guy. I don’t know him that well, so I’d have no reason to suspect him as being fake,” Shields says.

As he once told FIGHT! magazine’s Danny Acosta, “When you’ve been in fights, fighting 10 people at once, people with knives and bats and guns and whatnot, it definitely takes fear away in the cage,” however, on this day, Shields shied away from elaborating too much on his tumultuous youth.

(Midwest snow storm, you just got served. Props: twitter.com/hypeordie)

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…

– Unorthodox Ways Front and Center for Jon Jones (Versus MMA Beat)

- After Losing $3.2 Million Lawsuit, Another Former Employee Sues TapouT (MMA Convert)

– Why Vitor Belfort is Fighting Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight Title this Weekend (LowKick)

– Four Fight Main Card Official for Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Hendo (FightMagazine)

– The Japanese Comic Book Version of Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez Is Far Cooler Than the Real Thing (MiddleEasy)

– Bellator Finalizes Featherweight Tournament Field With Addition of 19-0 Newcomer Malegariet (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Sengoku 17 Postponed in Response to Media Negativity (MMA Fighting)

– Outside the Ring: Fedor Emelianenko (MMA-Scraps)

– Boredom Overcomes American Kickboxing Academy (5thRound)

– Strikeforce Champion Nick Diaz Talks Contenders Daley, Woodley (SBNation.com/MMA)

 
(Someone’s gonna need some Dr. Scholl’s gel insoles. PicProps Brawlin’ Fight Fotos.)

You would assume that in the year 2011, with all of the slip-related injuries that have occured over the years that were attributed to the silk screened graphics on the mat, that athletic commissions would address the issue and come up with alternative means of printing ads on the canvas.

If you don’t think that the issue needs to be discussed, ask Nate Marquardt and Shane Carwin‘s training partner Justin Salas (10-3), who fought UFC veteran Rob Emerson for the lightweight title at Full Force Fight’s event in Colorado Saturday night if it’s a problem.

(VidProps: YouTube/UFC)

A week or so ago, when we noted that nearly every claim made in the official UFC 126 trailer was at least debatable (if not an out-and-out lie), the one fight saved from our incredulity was Forrest Griffin vs. Rich Franklin. Maybe that’s because the best hype the UFC could drum up for this bout was to have its voiceover guy dramatically bellow, “Former champions Forrest Griffin and Rich Franklin will battle it out!” Yep, that feels … accurate. But if, like us, you think this meeting between two old warhorses lacks a certain sizzle, you’re not alone. Even the fighters themselves appear to understand this fight needs a little something extra to get people really emotionally invested.

And so Griffin, that mischievous little imp, would like to propose a gentleman’s wager on the outcome of this scrap: Loser gets tattooed.  A bemused Franklin – who from the looks of this vid has spent the last seven months since his victory over Chuck Liddell making sure that lifetime membership at the tanning salon pays for itself – seems oddly cool with the idea. He suggests the loser must get inked-up with a picture of the winner, which to us is a truly inspired idea. Unless you guys have any other suggestions.

("Lucky punch is lucky.")

Instead of just accepting the fact that Georges St-Pierre used his mug as a focus mitt at UFC 124 in December, Josh Koscheck has decided to take the well-travelled path of excuse making over the high road of admitting he got his ass handed to him that night.

In a recent interview with MMAJunkie, Koscheck said that the first punch he took in the bout was the one that basically won St-Pierre the fight.

"Georges beat me fair and square that night. He was the better fighter, but I think that the first punch of the fight was when I broke my eye. So I thought that it was definitely bad luck on my behalf. That’s life. He threw the punch, and it was a good punch. I definitely think the fight would have been a lot different if that wasn’t the case."

(This mean machine needs to be covered with a protective layer of blubber. Otherwise it’s just too dangerous. PicProps: Tapped Out)

Just in case you were actually starting to feel kind of bad for Tim Sylvia, there are some marvelous comments from him out on Tuesday which should remind you why you never liked the guy in the first place. Of course, by “marvelous” we mean “the sadly typical ramblings of an obese man who refuses to take responsibility for his own fuck-ups.” Turn out, Sylvia came into his fight with Abe Wagner with a hurt knee, you guys. Now it might need surgery. Nonetheless, the former UFC champ says if referee Jason Herzog hadn’t prematurely stepped in to call the fight just 32-seconds into the first round he was about to jump up and whip Wagner’s ass, bum wheel and all. 

“It was stopped way too early…It was bullshit,” Sylvia tells Five Ounces of Pain about his loss at Titan Fighting Championships last weekend. “The sad part is the ref told the promoter and my corner he was sorry because he knew he made a mistake and stopped it a little early.”

We’ll get to Herzog in a minute. First, some Breaking News: In addition to making the above obligatory excuses for his defeat, Sylvia has decided he fights better when he doesn’t show up for bouts weighing 311-pounds and looking like his body might split open like a Johnsonville brat on a hot grill.  Damn it, if only he’d known that before the fight!

 
("Has anyone ever told you that you look like a skinny Brock Lesnar?")

Either his Viking beard made him seem a bit bigger than he was or former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar has lost a few pounds since losing his belt to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121 in October. Keep in mind that Brock weighed in at 264 pounds for that fight and Belfort has to make 185 by Saturday for his middleweight championship bout with Anderson Silva. There doesn’t seem to be a 79-pound difference between them.

Let’s hope it’s because Brock is skinny and not because Vitor is still well above his normal pre-cut weight. The photo was taken on Friday, meaning "The Phenom" *should* have been somewhere between 205-215 pounds.

Having had weight issues on more than one occasion in the past, forcing promotions to allow his fights to be contested at catch weights, it would be a shame to see Belfort pull a Paulo Filho and make the bout a non-title affair, especially if he were to beat Silva.

("You are in luck. There’s a town about three miles that way, I’m sure you’ll find a couple guys there.")

 …at least according to AskMen.com’s just-released Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2011 list, their annual ranking of attractive famous chicks. It’s good news for the UFC’s alpha ring-girl, who creeps up three spots from her position last year. At this rate, she’ll officially be hotter than Kristen Stewart in 2013.

AskMen collected more than 5 million reader votes for the latest edition of the list, and as is usually the case when you leave it up to the public, the results are all over the map. Blake Lively is #1 for some reason — way ahead of Christina Hendricks (#21), Brooklyn Decker (#36), and Arianny’s TV doppelganger Olivia Munn (#47) — which suggests that AskMen’s masculine readership contains a whole lot of closeted Gossip Girl fans.

One notable omission: Gina Carano didn’t make the cut at all, despite landing at the #68 spot in 2010. Out of sight, out of mind, huh guys? We’ll see if her budding action movie career puts her back in the spotlight next year. You can check out the entire Top 99 list right here. As always, feel free to post your own top ten lists in the comments section…

(Yamamoto def. Federico ‘Kiko’ Lopez via KO, 1:41 of round 1, 5/29/10)

It’s a sad state of affairs when one of the greatest featherweight fighters of all time can arrive in the UFC with virtually zero fanfare, buried on a preliminary card dark-match against a young contender. Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto enters the Octagon for the first time this Saturday at UFC 126, and while that would have been a major story three years ago, times have changed. 

Yamamoto made his name in K-1′s MMA shows as a lightning-fast knockout artist, but his reputation took a major hit in 2008-2009, when he followed-up a long knee-injury layoff with two decision losses against Joe Warren and Masanori Kanehara. (He also divorced his hot wife in 2009. So, bad times all around.) Last year, Yamamoto dropped to bantamweight for the first time in his career to face journeyman Federico Lopez at Dream.14. Showing flashes of his old self, he finished the fight in less than two minutes, crumpling Lopez with a right hook and smashing him with shots on the ground until the ref intervened.

Of course, it’s too early to say that the Kid is "back" — his opponent, Demetrious Johnson, is a tough customer who’s looked impressive in his last two wins in the WEC, and having a successful Octagon debut is easier said than done. Can Yamamoto jump-start his career in the U.S., or is it too late for him to make an impact? Check out some of his greatest victories after the jump, and remember the good times…