When Tito Ortiz tweeted the message above Wednesday night rumors began swirling that the injury-plagued former UFC light heavyweight champion may be walking away from the sport of MMA in spite of an impending UFC 132 bout with Ryan Bader.

It now looks like “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” was referring to his relationship with former adult film actress Jenna Jameson and not his mixed martial arts career when he said he was out.

When asked last night about what Ortiz meant by his cryptic message, the mother of his twin two-year-old sons, Journey and Jette, played coy.

(Phil Davis’s latest video blog from kimura.se. Check out that river of sweat at 2:20. Nasty.)

Couple things to make y’all aware of. First of all, CagePotato.com will be providing live results from the Spike TV broadcast of UFC Fight Night: Nogueira vs. Davis, this Saturday night beginning at 10 p.m. ET. Please come by and bring snacks.

Also, before the main card kicks off on television, Facebook.com/UFC will be hosting another live streaming broadcast from the prelims. This time, we’re getting a full five fights beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT. They will be:

Though Jeff “Karmaatemycat” Watts‘s TUF 14 tryout journey was cut short due to his record (more on that to come), the scrappy Potato Nation member does make a brief appearance at the 1:40-1:44 mark of the above video from MMAFighting.com. Had Watts been able to show off his skills for Dana & Co., he would have been doing so alongside such well-traveled 135/145-pound vets as Ian McCall, Bryan Caraway, Nick Denis, Matt Jaggers, Jose Vega, Paul McVeigh, and (as we see in this other highlight vid from KahL-One) Din Thomas. He would have also picked up $100 cash for every submission he pulled off. Oh well. Next time, bro…

(Watch your back, Bob Reilly. Your evil empire is crumbling before your eyes.)

It looks like just three of the last four hold-out states reluctant to sanction mixed martial arts are left standing with their arms interlocked in protest against the sport. West Virginia has now given in and agreed that MMA is a legitimate sport if regulated properly by a competent commission under the Unified Rules.

With West Virginia now on board, the only three states dragging their collective heels are Connecticut, Vermont and New York, but progress is being made in at least one of those centers. The New York Senate Standing Committee on Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation  passed New York Senate Bill S01707A on March 15 and its expected that the bill will go directly to full Senate as vote, which could mean that the sport could be greenlit in the Empire State before the end of the year.

(He never would’ve agreed to this if he knew it required putting on a shirt. Pic: Headblitz.com)

Just a programming reminder: New UFC light heavyweight champion and recently appointed king shit of fuck mountain Jon Jones will appear on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno this evening. It should be a good opportunity for the UFC to finally introduce Jones to the coveted grandparents demographic while simultaneously drawing a few eyeballs under the age of 60 to Leno’s show. In other words, a real mutual back-scratching situation if there ever was one. We can’t wait to get a long, rambling voicemail from our grandma on Friday morning explaining that “that black fellow who fights UFC really did seem like a nice young man.” God, our grandma is such a racist.

Not to be outdone – and, ahem, speaking of racists. Ha! Just joking, big fella … – Brock Lesnar will emerge from the sensory deprivation chamber that was filming the new season of “The Ultimate Fighter” to go on “Late Night” with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, according to UFC.com. So that should be awkward. Plucky little Jimmy Fallon wearing one of his “Mad Men” suits and just trying to coast through the interview portion of the show to get to the prerecorded skits, while enormous (and whatever the opposite of “plucky”is) Brock Lesnar sits there in one of his stone-washed “DeathClutch” dress shirts grunting monosyllabic answers. Meanwhile, Dana White huddles at home with his eyes pinched shut mumbling, “Don’t say faggot on national TV, don’t say faggot on national TV” over and over.

Other guests on Fallon’s show that night? The dude who played Ross on “Friends” and funk legends Vanilla Fudge (Carmine Appice FTW!). Some other weird things we noticed after the jump …

By Cage Potato Japanese Correspondent, Stewart Fulton

(“Thunder” is currently in holding pattern awaiting word of his next opponent.)

We visited Yushin Okami at RJW (Real Japan Wrestling, part of the Wajutsu Keishukai network) where he trains several days a week to interview him and watch him take the MMA class with some of the resident professional and amateur fighters.

RJW is located in a very unlikely spot – a residential area of Tokyo on a converted floor of a condominium, rather hard to find for anyone unfamiliar with Tokyo or the Japanese language.

A foam matted area and a marked wrestling-matted area with padded walls is about all there is. No heavy bags; no fancy equipment. Just the smell of old sweat barely masked by disinfectant. The cleaning of the mats is done by all of those who train that day after practice, and this is the norm for all martial arts dojos of any discipline across Japan.

Okami was happy to have the opportunity to speak to the international media. His English is almost non-existent, and he is much less known in his own country than abroad, making it a rare occasion for him to speak publicly to the international audience.

He was very adamant about his position in terms of a title shot against Anderson Silva, confident that he will take the middleweight belt and completely uninterested in the talk of a GSP versus Silva match up. In fact, he expressed his disdain at the notion of anyone switching weight class and getting an automatic title shot.

Check out what the perennial UFC number one middleweight contender had to say after the jump.

(Oh, snap — Rousimar Palhares makes off with Dave Branch’s leg, and UFC contract, at ‘Sanchez vs. Kampmann’. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

It’s been a while since the UFC had themselves a good-ol’-fashioned bloodletting. It was announced this week that four more fighters have been chopped from the roster — three of them middleweights. Let’s run down the firings in order of most-deserving to least-deserving…

Todd Brown: A light-heavyweight standout in the midwestern circuit, Brown made his UFC debut as a late replacement for Thiago Silva at UFC 117, dropping a decision to Tim Boetsch. His follow-up performance at UFC on Versus 3: Sanchez vs. Kampmann earlier this month was even less successful, as he was stopped after one round by Igor Pokrajac. The 5’11″ Indiana native is now fielding offers from regional promotions and is considering a drop to middleweight.

Rob Kimmons: The Missouri-based 185′er has been released after consecutive stoppage losses to Kyle Noke (at UFC 122) and Dong Yi Yang (at Sanchez vs. Kampmann). Prior to his recent defeats, Kimmons had compiled a 3-2 record in the Octagon, with wins over Rob Yundt, Joe Vedepo, and Steve Steinbeiss, and losses to Dan Miller and Jorge Rivera.

By CagePotato contributor Jason Moles

Fans have been clamoring for the UFC to announce the coaches for The Ultimate Fighter 14 since the featherweight/bantamweight season was announced earlier this month. Many would argue that after Urijah Faber’s dominant performance over Eddie Wineland in his UFC debut, it’s a foregone conclusion that he will face off against arch-rival and current UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz. Others have suggested recently that it would be a missed opportunity if Zuffa drafts anyone other than newly crowned UFC light-heavyweight champ Jon “Bones” Jones and “Suga” Rashad Evans. Those are both excellent choices, but that’s not what we really want to see, now is it?

The best matchup is one in which the built-in marketing would compel the most casual of fans to tune in to Spike on Wednesday nights. Ever since Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller uttered the fateful words “Where’s my rematch, buddy?” to Cesar Gracie fighter Jake Shields on live television (as Gus Johnson so infamously reminded us), you can’t mention him and not automatically think of Nick Diaz. The Stockton native repping the 209 essentially jumped the Bully Beatdown host in what many consider the largest black mark on our sport. It didn’t stop there either.

Countless interviews and appearances over the past year have prompted the same question: “When are you two going to settle this in the cage and fight?” Add in a few YouTube videos on top of an epic custom t-shirt and you have yourself a nice little beef. Wait, there’s more! I would be remiss if I forgot to remind you of the time Diaz hurled a water bottle at Miller’s head backstage at a Strikeforce event. The aforementioned is all prelude that demands a culmination in the cage.

(“Admit it, you guys have no idea who I am, do you?” Pic: Heavy)

Still so relatively new to the UFC party, the sub-lightweight divisions are to MMA analysts as the New World must have been to early cartographers. We think we have a rough sketch of what’s out there, but the exact shape of things is a little foggy and once we get past the top two or three, we’re just gonna draw some squiggles and write something like “Here there be sea monsters!”

The featherweight class, for example, is still very much in the process finding its legs in the Octagon, with the promotional debut of champion Jose Aldo pushed back to UFC 129 due to the pain in his neck. Already however, there has been a pretty significant influx of talent into the 145-pound ranks since the UFC officially absorbed it at the beginning of this year. Michihiro Omigawa, Kenny Florian and Tyson Griffin have all plunged into the division, with more immigration sure to follow as the 155-pound division gets more and more crowded. We guess what we’re saying is, things can change fast in the land of the little man, so read our inaugural featherweight rankings now before something happens to render them moot.

Michael Bisping, speaking through his fellow countryman and self-designated public defender, UK Telegraph reporter Gareth Davies, offered up a feeble apology today for his in and post-fight antics during and following his UFC 127 bout with Jorge Rivera.

“Leading up to the fight, I wanted to be the bigger man and not rise up to it, but as it gathered more momentum, my blood was boiling more and more inside. The guy [Jorge Rivera] and his team relentlessly mocked me for a couple of months on the internet, and they definitely crossed the line a couple of times… and I was provoked and if anyone says they didn’t see that they are either blind or pig-ignorant. I went into the fight very angry. I let it get the better of me after the fight. I want to make it clear – I never spat on his cornerman. I spat on the floor to let him know what I thought of him…I said some words…I’m not even sure what the words were now, that was immediately after the fight had finished. After that, I instantly apologised. It was out of order. As a father, as a mixed martial artist, or possibly even as a role model, it’s not a way I should be behaving. It’s not how a mixed martial artist should be acting; not how any many should be acting. Of course, I do regret it, and I owe Dana [White, UFC CEO], and the UFC an apology and I won’t be acting like that again.”

Now if he left it at that, the apology may not have been construed as being transparent, but as Bisping explained, he can’t just be content with being the bigger man and taking the high road.

During an online live chat this afternoon for The Seattle Times to promote Saturday’s UFC Fight Night show, Dana White answered a question that’s been on the minds of many fans recently: Who is Shane Carwin fighting next? Wrote DW:

“As for Shane Carwin: Jon Olav Einemo. That’s his next opponent. He’s from Norway. He’s 6 foot 6, and he’s the Abu Dabi submission champion.”

The matchup has not yet been tied to a specific date or event. [Update: MMAJunkie says it's happening at UFC 131, June 11th in Vancouver]. A member of Team Golden Glory, Einemo (6-1) signed with the UFC earlier this month, and last competed in June 2010 when he defeated Kresimir Bogdanovic in Bosnia. (At least according to MMAFighting.com; none of the major MMA databases have a record of that fight actually happening.) Before that, Einemo’s most recent appearance was an armbar victory over James Thompson in November 2006. The only loss on his record came at the hands of Fabricio Werdum, who outpointed him at PRIDE 31 earlier that year.

Propelled by the impressive viewership of his promotion’s first three events of season four on MTV2, Bellator Fighting Championships CEO Bjorn Rebney revealed to CagePotato.com yesterday that plans are currently underway to take his show on the road to Canada some time before the end of 2011.

“Earlier today I had a 45-minute conversation with the group that we work with who distribute Bellator programming up in Canada, The Score, about a collection of different venues, sites and dates that we’re going after to try to bring Bellator Fighting Championships to some time in the near future,” Rebney says.

(“So, we can put you down for two boxes of Thin Mints, one box of Samoas and one box of Thank U Berry Much, then?” Pic: SB Nation)

Have a conversation with any of the top trainers in mixed martial arts – say, a Bob Cook, Trevor Wittman, or even Cesar Gracie – and it’s almost guaranteed that you will walk away struck by their incredible levelheadedness and otherworldly patience. Nowhere is that commitment to sanity and likability more evident than in Greg Jackson who – let’s face it – must be a goddamned saint to put up with everybody else in this sport’s crazy bullshit on day-to-day basis. Seriously, this dude seems far too reasonable to even be involved in MMA.

In fact, if there’s a real tragedy in Jon Jones’ and Rashad Evans’ lightning quick transition from bros to foes these last few weeks, it’s that Jackson is caught in the middle of it. The renowned trainer reiterated his resolve to stay neutral during an interview with MMA Fighting published on Wednesday, in the end essentially saying he feels both Jones and Evans are in the wrong here: Jones for capitulating to public pressure to fight Evans and then Evans for totally freaking the fuck out and decamping for Florida when he found out about it. Jackson’s entirely too sensible take on the situation is after the jump …

(Shaw talking to Helwani prior to Ariel’s plaid phase.)

Although he wouldn’t get into debating Frank Shamrock’s version of events, former EliteXC VP and matchmaker Jared Shaw spoke with CagePotato.com today to clarify comments he made during a recent interview with Sherdog’s Jeff Sherwood about the former UFC light heavyweight and Strikeforce middleweight champion’s offer to fix a fight with Kimbo Slice.

(Well sure, if you need advice on how to beat up an overhyped light-heavyweight, Antonio Silva’s definitely your man. Kidding! Only kidding! / Props: twitter.com/SUGARASHADEVANS via MiddleEasy)

Don’t know about y’all, but I already miss the days when the Rashad Evans/Jon Jones situation was merely awkward, and not openly hostile. The gloves finally came off yesterday when Evans gave an interview to BloodyElbow in which he told everyone what he really thinks about the new UFC light-heavyweight champion, and reveals that he never wanted to train with Jones in the first place. Some highlights…

On Jones’s change of heart before the Shogun fight: “I mean it’s one thing to say something in an interview but the least you could have picked up the phone and been like, ‘man I did an interview today and they kind of put me on the spot with a rough question and I answered it this way.’ At least give me the heads up so that way I know and not look at it if he’s Judas or something. You know who Judas is? That interview was some backstabbing s**t but now it’s like whatever because now I know the game he is playing. Then for Greg to sit back and say he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it….why not? You f**kin’ created the situation. Be his coach and be in his corner. That’s what you want so do it. I don’t care if he coaches against me. It doesn’t even matter.”

[Ed. note: Yeah, I think a guy with a New Testament scripture inked on his chest is pretty familiar with Judas. In all of the verbal-trash that will be slung around in the lead-up to this fight, this is probably the line that will stick with — and motivate — Jones the most.]

(Awwwwww! Props: Chad S., Facebook.com/CagePotato)

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…

- UFC 128: Is Jon Jones a Dream Come True for Dana White and the UFC? (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- ‘UFC Primetime’ Returns for St. Pierre vs. Shields (MMA-Scraps)

- Frank Shamrock: I Did Not Offer to Take a Dive Against Kimbo Slice (MMA Fighting)

- Crazy Talk? Dan Henderson Could Give Jon Jones a Fight (MMA Convert)

- Exclusive Interview: Brian Ebersole Talks About Eating Marijuana Cookies and Being ‘The White Anderson Silva’ (MiddleEasy)

- Kendall Grove Facing Tim Boetsch at UFC 130 (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Anderson Silva Says Jon Jones’ Performance Was “Amazing”; Not Ruling out a Return to 205 (LowKick)

- Dana White “Worried” for UFC Champ Jon Jones (5thRound)

- Five Lessons: UFC 128 (Versus MMA Beat)

- Guida (#6) vs. Pettis (#9) Headlines Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale (Fight Magazine)

(Now smile and pretend you like each other.)

If you didn’t know, Miesha Tate‘s turn ons are long walks on the beach and a good Twitter war.

The problem is that her latest intended target,  Tara LaRosa hates the feeling of sand between her toes and isn’t one to take unwarranted abuse lying down. Consequently, the 11-2 Strikeforce women’s  135-pound contender may have bitten off more than she can chew with the outspoken highly-touted 125-pound 14-2 New Jersey native.

In a nutshell, Tate started the ball rolling by saying she would easily beat LaRosa as she claims that she used to “handle” her when the pair trained together when Meisha first started training in the sport. LaRosa scoffed at the claims, and said that she used to go at about 30% intensity with her much larger former training partner.

Of course Tate took umbrage to the intimation that she was fat, prompting her to say that she saw photos of LaRosa in high school and that she had to be about 180 or so — another claim Tara debunked.

The game point of the match went to LaRosa who revealed that a source in the know had tipped her off today to the fact that Tate allegedly employs the use of clenbuterol, a bronchodilator  typically used by asthma sufferers that also doubles as a weight-cutting aid. Tate uncharacteristically ignored the claim by LaRosa and pretended like she didn’t read the tweet (or subsequent tweets).

For those of you who speak Twitter,  the nuts and bolts of their back-and forth are after the jump.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, as they say — and every legendary MMA career begins with a single fight. In collaboration with Huck Blade at NeonBarFights.com, CagePotato is proud to present “Before They Were Stars,” an MMA highlight reel that pays tribute to the pro debuts of fighters who went on to become heros of the sport, including Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones, Jose Aldo, and Alistair Overeem. Check it out, share it with your friends, and let us know what you think.

(“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? And if you wrong us, shall we not spit on you and then strut around like the cock of the walk afterward?” Pic: Zimbio)

UK Telegraph boxing and MMA correspondent Gareth A. Davies is tired of all these yanks talking rubbish about Michael Bisping! Davies over the weekend authored a strange and sweeping indictment of how American MMA writers have responded to Bisping cheating to win against Jorge Rivera last month at UFC 127 before spitting in the direction of Rivera’s credentialed cornermen. At the risk of sounding like an unbelievable homer, Davies describes the media reaction from our side of the pond as “near-hysterical” and even busts out the term “witchhunt” to propose that Bisping has somehow been unfairly persecuted for his actions.

Pretty weird, right? Ever weirder, Davies specifically goes after Yahoo’s Steve Cofield (an unassuming dude if there ever was one) for daring to quote Nate Marquardt calling out Bisping after his own win last weekend at UFC 128 without – and this is where the logic gets really shaky – providing “balance” by somehow working in Marquardt’s positive steroid test from 2005 and also mentioning the allegations that he turned down a fight with Bisping at UFC 114 (because his wife was set to have a baby three days before the event). Davies rhetorically shouts: “Can there be any doubt at all there is a (sic) acutely American media bias towards Bisping?”

Actually no, there’s no denying it. Better question: Can there be any doubt that he deserves it?

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMAScrapsRadio)

What a difference a year makes.

Less than 365 days ago, newly-crowned UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones appeared on MMAScraps Radio and told  Pat Barry, who was then the co-host of the show, that there was no way, no how he would ever fight a teammate, especially not “his brother Rashad Evans.”

Jones’ change of heart has caused a rift in Albuquerque which caused Evans to move his camp from Team Jackson to Imperial Athletics in Boca Raton Florida, where he will train with displaced former members of American Top Team who have set up shop there including Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante, Jorge Santiago and the Villefort brothers.

In the interview, Jones backed Evans recent revelation that he had to agree to never fight any of his Jackson teammates as a condition of joining the revered fight team — a clause he later publicly reneged on prompting the former champ to accept the offer to face his heir apparent and former training partner. Interestingly, even when Barry tried at length to convince Jones that fighting a teammate wasn’t a big deal, “Bones” didn’t waver in his stance that it simply wouldn’t happen. He even went so far as to say that if pressed by the UFC to fight Evans or Keith Jardine, he would find a way out of the bout even if it meant faking an injury.

Check out the transcript of the interview after the jump.

Just one week after the UFC blew through Newark, the big show lands at the Key Arena in Seattle for UFC Fight Night: Nogueira vs. Davis. Besides the four-fight main card, which kicks off at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Spike TV, UFC Fight Night 24 boasts a compelling undercard that features heavyweight contenders, exciting young prospects, TUF vets, and at least one Internet forum superstar. I’m not saying this is a better event than UFC 128 — but if you ask me, there are more reasons to be genuinely curious. For example…

Will Phil Davis break out? “Mr. Wonderful” is a perfect 4-0 in the Octagon, and is coming off a wicked Submission of the Night performance over Tim Boetsch at UFC 123. But let’s be honest — Lil’ Nog is a huge step up in competition, especially on relatively short notice. Nogueira was most recently outpointed by Ryan Bader, another young fighter with a strong wrestling base, which has to be encouraging for Davis coming into this fight. If Davis can avoid getting torn up by Nogueira’s superior striking and leave with a victory, it launches him into title-contender territory. Not bad for a guy who made his pro debut two-and-a-half years ago.

Will Anthony Johnson make weight? Both Johnson and Dan Hardy are promising a stand-up bash fest with none of that lovey-dovey stuff on the ground. Yawn. I’m more interested in the recent rumors that the notoriously oversized Rumble was walking around at 235 pounds before his training camp for this fight. Will he be drained by yet another brutal cut to 170? Following a botched weigh-in against Yoshiyuki Yoshida and an ugly loss to Josh Koscheck, Johnson needs to avoid repeating either of those scenarios if he wants to keep his job. Or, you know, just move up to middleweight so we don’t have to keep bringing this up.

(I guess that would make Anderson Silva the other joker, and Randy Couture the “Rules of Poker” instructional card that always gets lost.)

By Anton Gurevich

After just three years of MMA competition, Jon “Bones” Jones became the youngest champion in the UFC’s history. Jones defeated the PRIDE legend Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in an impressive fashion to become the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, proving to everyone once again that “the hype is real.”

The Greg Jackson product is currently 7-1 in his Ultimate Fighting Championship campaign, defeating Andre Gusmao, Stephan Bonnar, Jake O’Brien, Brandon Vera, Vladimir Matyushenko and Ryan Bader on his way to the triumph against Shogun Rua at UFC 128. His only defeat came via DQ (“12-6 elbows”) against Matt Hamill at the TUF 10 Finale event on Dec. 5th, 2009.

And since the majority of Jacks, Queens and Kings of the UFC Light Heavyweight division are behind him, here’s the list of four aces who may be on their way to challenging “The Joker” Jon Jones for his belt…

Continue reading on Lowkick.com

(Bones, Chubs and Harmony.)

Newly-crowned UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones will take his belt and his amazing story of catching a thief hours before his UFC 128 bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to the NBC studios Thursday night when he appears on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.

Jones will be the second guest of the evening after Kirstie Alley if he makes it out of the green room alive without being eaten by the failed Jenny Craig spokesperson and chronic yo-yo dieter. If he does, he will become the first MMA fighter to “officially” appear on the late night talk show. An interview Jacob Volkmann did with Ariel Helwani in which the UFC lightweight criticized President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform policy was spoofed by The Tonight Show in January.

(Vid: HDNet)

To hear Scott Coker tell it, the story of Strikeforce is one of a plucky little regional promotion battling its way out of the shadows into the national spotlight, then cashing in its chips at the height of its popularity. At least that seems to be the rhetorical strategy Coker employs in the above video on HDNet, as he makes his first significant public appearance since Zuffa, LLC. bought his company 10 days ago. Coker allows Bas Rutten to fire cartoonish questions at him for more than 15 minutes, all the while appearing dutifully optimistic about what his new employers plan to do with the MMA organization he built almost singlehandedly.

(The champ and Belty.)

Well, after all the hard work the strap is finally mine. It’s been a long time coming and I’m rather happy to have that belt. It’s almost like the ring from Lord of the Rings; it’s my precious. No, really. If it’s in the other room I have to get up and touch it. Sometimes when I’m talking to someone I’ll get distracted by it and have to pick it up. I had someone say, “Put that stupid belt down and talk to me,” and I whispered, “Shhhh. He’ll hear you.” I haven’t officially named him, but for now I’ve been calling him “Belty.” I think we should have a little contest. Feel free to leave a suggestion in the comment section for Belty’s new name.

Now down to the serious stuff… The head-butt. There was no head-butt. It was an overhand right with 3:58 remaining in the third round (you have to pause it because of the camera angle) Dwayne throws an inside leg kick then he comes forward with a left hook and I counter with a short overhand right. If you did somehow see a head-butt, then you are delusional and very open to suggestive hypnosis. I’ve watched the fight over 100 times and there is no head-butt. Now where this rumor started was Frank Trigg casually mentioned after the fight was stopped that “it might have been a head-butt,” and the rumor grew until people swore they could see it. It’s almost laughable. MUAHAHAHAHA!

(Props: pedrommabjj via Fightlinker)

If you have a morbid interest in seeing how James Irvin’s last fight against Mamed Khalidov went, well, here you go. I’m not going to throw around the word “work,” but check out how wide and telegraphed Irvin’s punches are, starting at the 0:21 mark — it’s the universal non-verbal sign for “please armbar me so I can collect my paycheck and head to the airport.” And that’s pretty much what happens. Happy now?

After the jump: The brutal finish of Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Georgi Karakhanyan from Saturday’s Bellator show, Junior Dos Santos pulls off a pretty damn respectable “Showtime Kick,” and the gif of Shogun tapping against Jon Jones at the end of their fight at UFC 128, in case you haven’t seen it yet.

It looks like Ryan Bader will getting the fight he wants for his next bout.

Bader mentioned last month in an interview with ESPN on the heels of his UFC 126 loss to Jon Jones that before he retires, he would like to square off with Tito Ortiz and according to MMAWeekly he will get his wish.

“I would want to fight Tito Ortiz,” Bader told ESPN.com. “Just because I grew up watching him. I want to have one of those guys on my résumé like a Randy Couture or Chuck Liddell. Purely out of respect, he’s one I’d like to fight before my career is over.”

Both fighters confirmed the bout was a go on Twitter today, but did not name a date or venue. The MMAWeekly report states that the pair will square off at UFC 132 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, NV.

Even if you can’t make your way out to Toronto for the UFC Fan Expo, you can still be part of the “Free CagePotato” movement. For the next month or so, we’re going to be giving away a bunch of the brand-new tees you see above. If you want one, there are a couple of ways to do it…

1. The Twitter Way: Send a tweet of support to @danawhite that includes the hashtag #freecagepotato. (The message must be a positive one. No verbal abuse, please.) Every weekday, we’ll pick our favorite one and hook that person up with a shirt.

2. The Facebook Way: Take a picture of yourself posing with “Free CagePotato” written on a hand-made sign (kind of like the one after the jump) or on your own body (keep it clean, people). Then, upload it to our Facebook wall. We’ll collect our favorites at some point in the future, post them on the site, and award them all t-shirts.

(Vid: MMA Fighting)

For being one of MMA’s more tried-and-true institutions, there is always something a little awkward about those postfight confrontations in the cage between champion and challenger. Emotions are running high and the heat of the moment has a way of testing fighters’ grasp of the English language, spawning hilarious internet memes and sometimes even sparking enormous, embarrassing brawls. Still, we’re not sure our sport has ever seen an in-ring altercation as hard-to-watch as Jon Jones and Rashad Evans at UFC 128. Both dudes looked more like they were entering into a suicide pact than agreeing to face-off in a professional sporting contest as they mumbled halfhearted “trash” talk into Joe Rogan’s microphone and then sealed their impending friend-vs.-friend fight with the world’s least enthusiastic handshake.

We’re talking second-season-of-the-British-“Office” levels of discomfort here, like The Situation bombing at Donald Trump’s roast or Carl Lewis singing the anthem at that Bulls game. Everybody involved (including us) couldn’t wait for it to be over. Immediately afterward, when Evans cut the above interview with Ariel Helwani where he declares he’s “done” working with Greg Jackson’s camp and then Jackson himself had to think of five or six different ways to explain how badly this situation sucks for him, we realized: We’re just getting started here. In Jones vs. Rashad, we may be poised on the brink of the most uncomfortable feud in UFC history.

($kala got yo’ eyeballs all up on EliteXC. Mission accomplished.)

With the recent news that ProElite has risen from its the ashes to make an offer on Strikeforce before Zuffa quashed them like the insignificant mosquito that they’ve always been known as, inquiring minds have begun asking who will be at the helm of the company’s latest incarnation.

One name you won’t see on any of  ProElite’s offices is Jared Shaw.

The former EliteXC matchmaker who used to prefer to be known as his hip hop name $kala says he is done in the MMA business.

In a recent interview he did with Sherdog’s Jeff Sherwood, Shaw says he is concentrating on boxing and rapping and shed some light on the reasons he says ProElite and EliteXC collapsed.

Check out  what Shaw had to say after the jump.