(Props: Red-33)

Time flies, brother. It’s already been two years since the MMA world was blindsided by the tragic news that Charles “Mask” Lewis — founder of the ubiquitous TapouT brand, provider of financial support and encouragement to untold numbers of MMA fighters — died in a car wreck. Since then, Lewis has been inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, his beloved company has been sold (not the smoothest transition, apparently), his estate was screwed with by Orange County, and the drunk driver who caused his death was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Of all the Mask tributes floating around the Internet today, we have to give it up to Jonathan Snowden’s BloodyElbow interview with Lewis’s former TapouT business partners, Dan “Punkass” Caldwell and Timothy “SkySkrape” Katz.” Some highlights are after the jump.

(“This motherf*cker is going to buy my kids new Maseratis.”)

Tatame reported yesterday that, despite how screwed up Fight of the Night voting at UFC 124 ended up after Zuffa opened up the polls to the fans to decide who should win the award (prompting Dana White to assert that fans would never decide such things again), the promotion has decided to allow fans to have their say about which 12 Brazilian fighters will fight on the August 27 card in Rio de Janeiro.

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has never been a fighter who holds his tongue when he disagrees with something even if his choice of words might land him in hot water.

The live video chat he did with the Croation sports news website Gol.hr last night was no exception.

During the hour-long segment on the episode of F2F Sport, Mirko touched on a number of topics including his upcoming UFC 128 bout with Brendan Schaub, the possibility of retirement, his thoughts on Dana White and the rampant use of performance enhancing drugs in MMA.

Check out what he had to say after the jump.

(Joanne Spracklen isn’t the only familiar face you’ll be seeing today…)

I think we can all agree that the first round of auditions for our “MMAshed Potato” video series was, in general, an utter disaster. (No offense to Scott Epstein, who took the popular vote in a landslide.) Taking the advice of Potato Nation members like Fried Taco, Morningwood, and Stak40, we decided to do another round of auditions that featured good-lookin’ women who just read a short script we wrote for them, pretty much word-for-word. We also included a pronunciation key, to cut down on name-butchering. Check out the videos after the jump, and please use the poll in the sidebar to tell us how you feel. Thanks, guys.

(Sadly, the Sengoku Girls have already been disassembled and sold for scrap.)

Well, it’s not like we expected something miraculous to happen after Sengoku started granting releases to their biggest stars. The Japanese promotion posted an “urgent report” on its website yesterday, saying that primary sponsor Don Quijote has pulled all of their financial support from the company, and if they can’t find another sponsor to replace DQ, Sengoku’s collapse will be unavoidable. More details via FightOpinion:

The note says that Don Quijote was backing the company fully, including office headquarters. The note says that a lot of money was lost and that rather than stay in the ball game, Don Quijote left and that the ‘heartless mass media’ comments made about them didn’t help matters. Sengoku’s note claims that Don Quijote will continue sponsoring other MMA organizations but that everything is under further review.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UrijahFaber0com)

You can’t say Urijah Faber is a bad host. “The California Kid” took the time recently to help teach Chan Sung Jung about American culture and to show to fit in in California. Faber taught “The Korean Zombie” some common phrases like, “I’m Captain Save-a-ho,” and “Do you have a mirror in your pocket? Because I can see myself in your pants.”

Who knew there was a personality hiding under the surface of the stone-faced Korean fighter? Unfortunately, with the more time he spends with Faber he will be talking like a douchebag like one of the idiots from The Hills.

Gina Carano and co-star Ewan McGregor recently filmed a beach fight scene during re-shoots for their upcoming movie Haywire. Zimbio has 55 photos from the make-believe scrap in a gallery called “Ewan McGregor on the Beach.” (Way to miss the point, guys.) We went though and picked our 20 favorites. Enjoy the carnage.

*Disclaimer: If you are at all squeamish or faint at the sight of blood, don’t click the video below.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Drfrankstile)

Besides hindering your breathing and making you look like a stereotypical MMA fighter, having your nose broken several times also makes it way more likely that the injury will reoccur. With this in mind, Phil “The New York Badass” Baroni headed to the plastic surgeon responsible for belt-sanding down the sharp brow bones of Marcus Davis and Nick Diaz to see about getting his problematic proboscis taken care of.

(Lightweights, man. Can’t live with them, can’t unnecessarily pad your record without them. Pic: Heavy)

One way or another, the welterweight division will look dramatically different come the end of UFC 129. Either Mike Goldberg will be screaming about how “the Jake Shields era has begun in the UFC” while the Skrap Pack carries him around the cage on their shoulders, or GSP will be standing in line at the all-you-can eat pasta bar wondering how he’s ever going to pack on enough pounds to look like a credible middleweight. No matter what, the landscape will be changed.

Either that, or GSP will just blow through Shields like Tank Abbott through a 4-pack of Budweiser Cheladas and decide he wants to stay at welterweight (and just keep beating up the Thiago Alveses, Jon Fitches and Josh Koschecks of the world) until his RushFit stock options mature enough to put him on Easy Street. To us at least, the first option is starting to sound more and more acceptable each day. In spite of that impending shakeup, we present to you our picks for the top five welterweights in MMA. These lists will only be current for the next 60 days or so, so get them while they’re hot …

(Video courtesy of YouTube/WandFightTeam)

If DoggedTV keep putting out awesome videos like this, there may be a challenger to The Reem’s title of “Cage Potato’s favorite mini-web documentary series.

The latest instalment opens with Wand telling the camera as he walks into the doctor’s office to find out if his knee is healed sufficiently to resume training and competing, about how emotionally taxing being faced with the prospect of not being able to fight again has been since he sustained a potentially career-ending knee injury. After getting the all clear from his surgeon to begin upping his training intensity if he can quell the tendonitis in his leg, “The Axe Murderer” outlines his plans to get back on top as one of the best fighters in the UFC’s 185-pound class.

Sometimes an MMA fight is so close — or controversial — that matching the fighters up again a few months later is the only logical option. In honor of the upcoming immediate rematches between Leonard Garcia and Nam Phan (at UFC Fight Night 24 on March 26th), and Edgar vs. Maynard 3 at UFC 130, we decided to round up our favorite “do-over” fights of all time…

6. STEPHAN BONNAR vs. KRZYSZTOF SOSZYNSKI
UFC 116, 7/3/10

Why it was necessary: A clash of heads during their first fight at UFC 110 opened up a nasty gash on Bonnar’s forehead; the referee didn’t see the illegal impact, and awarded a TKO victory to Soszynski due to cuts. Furious at taking his third-straight loss in such an unjust manner, Bonnar filed a formal appeal with the Combat Sports Authority of New South Wales. Unfortunately, it fell on deaf ears, but the UFC hooked Bonnar up (as they often do) by giving him an immediate rematch with K-Sos on the blockbuster “Lesnar vs. Carwin” card.
What happened: Bonnar/Soszynski 2 turned out to be a meat-and-potatoes brawl reminiscent of Bonnar’s first war with Forrest Griffin. The American Psycho and the Polish Experiment both appeared to gas out by the middle of the second round, but Bonnar was able to keep throwing and landing until he overwhelmed K-Sos with strikes at the 3:08 mark. The fight netted both men $75,000 Fight of the Night bonuses, and produced one of the greatest victory poses in UFC history.

5. FRANKIE EDGAR vs. BJ PENN
UFC 118, 8/28/10

Tommy coulda been an Expendable.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/ManUtheChamps)

If you followed boxing in the 90s or at least watched all of the Rocky movies, you know the name Tommy Morrison. “The Duke” as he was known to fans of The Sweet Science or “Tommy Gunn” as movie buffs remember him as, Morrison has fallen further from grace than Mike Tyson, which is a tough act to follow considering “Iron Mike’s” colorful past.

(Props: btillustration.blogspot.com)

Like a pack of vultures circling around a limping wildebeest, we’ve all been keeping a close eye lately on Jon Jones and Rashad Evans, and the circumstances that may or may not be driving a wedge through their formerly rock-solid friendship. During a conference call earlier today for UFC 128, Jones’s amiable personality hardened up for a moment when a reporter asked him — for the last time — about he and Evans potentially fighting each other in the future. Here’s what Bones had to say:

“With all due respect to you as a reporter — and I want to make it clear to all the other reporters — but I absolutely hate when people mention Rashad Evans, especially throughout this training camp. He’s a friend of mine, but I’m fighting Mauricio “Shogun”, one of the best fighters that’s been around for a long time, and for people to even be mentioning Rashad Evans right now, I think it’s ludicrous.

(Props: EckoMMA)

The Shake Weight thing? Nah, not humiliating enough. In an effort to turn himself into MMA’s version of Ryan Dunn, UFC lightweight contender Kurt Pellegrino follows up his last video effort with this little nugget, in which he eats 17 Activia yogurts to achieve regular poops/laughs. Bro, Jamie Lee Curtis is so disappointed in you right now.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/JustinThoj)

If you’re part of the growing contingent of MMA fans who aren’t convinced that UFC light heavyweight champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is resilient enough to gut out a win against a tough raw talent like Jon Jones, the video above of the then-22-year-old former Chuteboxe fighter taking on future teammate Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos might change your mind.

(No ice cream and vodka makes Fedor an angry stone-faced killer. Poor Hendo.)

For years MMA fans and analysts have hypothesized about what would happen if Fedor Emelianenko moved down a weight class to light heavyweight. Most salivated at the proposition of how much more dominant the once thought invincible Russian would be if he laid off the ice cream and vodka and moved down to fight at his more natural weight. Although the six-foot-tall, 230-pound fighter did quite well against much bigger opponents, he really wasn’t doing himself any favors by fighting giants with considerable height and weight advantages.

(The sad part is, they both think they’re the cute one.)

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 129 Moved Up One Hour to 9 p.m. ET; Change to All PPV Start Times Being Considered (MMA Fighting)

- Exclusive Interview With UFC Fight Night 24′s Phil ‘Mr. Wonderful’ Davis (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Chad Ochocinco Continues to Call Out Anderson Silva (Versus MMA Beat)

- Strikeforce ‘Feijao vs. Henderson’ Ratings Down 44% From ‘Fedor vs. Silva’, Bellator Delivers Target Demos In MTV2 Debut (MMA Convert)

- A Memo to Strikeforce: Fighters Need To Fight (Five Ounces of Pain)

- UFC Inks Four-Year Broadcast Deal with Rogers Sportsnet in Canada (5thRound)

- Brendan Schaub: I’m Two Fights Away From a Title Shot (LowKick)

- Don Frye and Shark Fights Have Parted Ways (MiddleEasy)

- Watch the Wrestling Chops of this 8-Year-Old and Hope the Parents are Enrolling Him in MMA in the Near Future (MMA-Scraps)

- FIGHT! Ranking: Hendo Is #2, M-1 Global Champs Hold Ground, Bellator Welterweights Pick Each Other Off (FightMagazine)

(Matt will fight the law, but will “The Law” win?)

Matt Lindland was slapped with his second court case against him in the past month last week when plaintiff Gonzalo Aldana Gamboa filed suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon Thursday, claiming that the former UFC fighter stole six mature marijuana plants from him. According to the report from wweek.com, The suit alleges that Lindland agreed last year to allow Gamboa – a prescribed medical marijuana user — grow a small registered crop of plants on a section of his Eagle Creek property.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/TopMMANews)

Call Nick Ring whatever you want; just don’t call him a loser when he won a fight.

In an interview conducted with the UFC middleweight this weekend, TopMMANews.com reporter Dean Panas asked Ring about his UFC 127 fight, insinuating that the unanimous decision victory over Riki Fukuda was an unjust one.

Ring didn’t take to kindly to the theory that he didn’t deserve to beat fellow UFC newcomer, Fukuda.

(UFC 3′s Emmanuel Yarborough and Miley Cyrus: They may seem like a strange pairing at first, but then you spend some time with them together and you’re like “okay, I totally get it now.”)

By Matthew “The Fight Nerd” Kaplowitz

Japan has brought us so many great imports, be it giant robots, cartoons about ninja children dressed in bright colors (which sort of defeats the purpose of being a stealthy ninja), tentacle rape, and Pocky. Truly, their greatest offering to America has been the freak show fight. As we discussed last time, Japan was the country that legitimized the art of pitting two mismatched opponents in a ring and convincing us that this was the greatest thing since Steven Seagal invented the front kick.

If there’s one thing we Americans don’t like, it’s being shown up by a foreign land. So it was just a matter of time before an American promoter stood up and said, “You know what? I want to see a man that weighs a quarter of a ton fight a dwarf!” And that was how our first freak show fight was born. Well, not really, since we have better athletic commissions in America, but after reading this list of the “Top Ten American Freak Show Fights That Were Actually Good,” you might think otherwise. Let’s get it on!

10. Tim Sylvia vs. Wes Sims
Superbrawl 38, 12/12/04


In a rare battle between two giants, 6’ 8” Tim Sylvia stood almost eye to eye with Wes Sims, who had a two-inch height advantage over “The Maine-iac”.  Sylvia had fought another tall man, Gan McGee, the previous year at UFC 44, but this fight is far more entertaining. You would probably expect an evenly contested bout between these two, due to the height and their similarly aggressive tactics (both guys even used the same song for their entrance, go figure). For some reason that will never be known, Sims decided that he was the smaller man in this fight and would fight accordingly.

Rather than sit out for seven months waiting for his May 14 non-title bout against Falaniko Vitale, Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard will look to defend his other strap later this month in Australia. The highly-touted 27-2 middleweight fighter, will defend his Cage Fighting Championship 185-pound title against UFC and WEC veteran Joe Doerksen Down Under at CFC 16 at Big Top Luna Park in Sydney March 25.

Born in Cuba, Lombard resided in Australia for several years after defecting from the communist country following the 2000 Sydney Olympics. 20 of his 27 wins have come by finish including his record-setting six-second knockout of Jay Silva that earned him the fastest KO in Bellator history. The ATT-trained fighter has not lost since 2006 when he dropped a unanimous decision to Gegard Mousasi at PRIDE Bushido 13 and has never lost a fight in Australia. The closest he came was a draw to Kyle Noke in the inaugural CFC show in 2007. Soon after the fight with Noke, Lombard, who was then a welterweight, was signed by the UFC and was slated to take on Karo Parisyan at UFC 78. Visa issues forced Lombard off the card and prompted the UFC to tear up his contract.

(Vid: YouTube/8countnews)

Can you even imagine being the poor, unsuspecting 0-2 light heavyweight who showed up at a small-time independent MMA show in Foxborough, Mass., back in April of 2008 to fight an unheralded rookie named Jon Jones? Well – good news — now you don’t have to imagine. Thanks to a vid dredged up by the homies at Middle Easy, we have the moving pictures right there at top. I mean, my God, it’s highly possible this poor sap Brad Bernard (who fights out of something called “The Bucket Brigade” and is identified by the announcers here early on as a *shudder* “barroom brawler” ) actually thought he was going to win this fight against a green 21-year-old nobody had ever heard of before. Spoiler alert: Bernard does not win this fight.

Some background on the vid itself: It originates from 8 Count News’ Peter Czymbor, who confesses to being the play-by-play announcer on the event broadcast. He apparently just recently saved this fight from obscurity by pulling it off the original DVD and posting it to the interwebs for all to see. That was mighty nice of him, if we do say so ourselves. We should also point out that Czymbor is apparently not the announcer on this video who pours a whole cooler full of Haterade on Jones for being “kind of a sore-sport” after some “cocky behavior” during the fight and for an “illegal” kick which later turned out to be totally legal. That would be somebody named Mark Chaupetta and in his defense, the broadcasters didn’t have the luxury of live instant replay during the event, which makes his gripes over Jones’ kick a bit more excusable.

After the jump, some words from Czymbor about this fight …

(Video courtesy of YouTube/NewzFirst)

Former WWE wrestler Shad Gaspard is claiming racial profiling in an incident that occurred just hours prior to Saturday night’s Strikeforce show in Columbus, Ohio. Gaspard was crossing the street with Strikeforce heavyweight Josh Barnett and another friend when an altercation with a motorist prompted police on foot patrol to swoop in to  tackle and handcuff the 6’8″ 300-pound Brooklyn, New York native who now lives in Houston, Texas.

(Definitely an upgrade for Jorge. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com)

Zoila Gurgel (formerly Frausto)’s first Bellator appearance since winning the promotion’s 115-pound title last October may also be her last of the season. According to a CSAC medical report, Gurgel broke her hand during her unanimous decision victory over Karina Hallinan this weekend, and may be out of action for six months. Since Bellator’s current fourth season is only scheduled to run through May 21st, it’s almost certain that she won’t be back until season five, which kicks off in the fall.

(Props: 2112neto)

UFC 128: Shogun vs. Jones goes down March 19th at the Prudential Center in Newark, and we’ve got the extended trailer for your viewing pleasure. Personally, I’m already a little burned out on watching the main eventers’ fight highlights and hearing the crusty old “youth vs. experience” debate. If you are too, just skip to the 4:51 mark to hear more about two other fights that aren’t getting nearly enough attention.

(Does this look like the face of a retiree?)

Former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver squeaked out his second win in the past three years over the weekend, beating 13-13 Central Illinois Combat Club fighter Wade Choate by split decision at Chicago Cagefighting Championship III Saturday night. Before the comments start pouring in about how, “Lil’ Evil should retire after narrowly beating a Choate with a record like that,” FYI, Pulver fought the majority of the bout on a broken foot he sustained in the opening frame of the fight, and according to several sources the one judge who gave the nod to his opponent defied the popular opinion of the majority in attendance that Jens clearly won the bout.

Pulver, who is 2-0 since he began training at Curran Martial Arts in Chicago, tweeted the pics after the jump of his foot during, immediately following and one day after the bout, explaining that the injury occurred when he connected with Choate’s elbow.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/EckoMMA)

If you were wondering how fighters got into shape before GSP’s RushFit DVDs were around, UFC lightweight Kurt Pellegrino has the answer you’ve been waiting for. In the video above, Pellegrino reveals the little-known secret to helping you look like a mixed martial artist.

Winning — it feels good, man. Lots more fighters enjoying the moment, after the jump.

(Video courtesy of  YouTube/MrKidKhaos)

Charles Bennett emerged last week from wherever he’s been hiding since being choked out by Drew Fickett during the Shine Fights lightweight tournament just long enough to film himself sipping on a Mountain Dew and puffing on a Black & Mild while calling out a handful of fighters he has beefs with.

(This man could well be a millionaire by now. How does that make you feel? Pic: Combat Lifestyle)

For anyone still holding onto lingering questions about why Dan Henderson opted to sign with Strikeforce over the UFC in late 2009 or why the company fast-forwarded him into a second title shot on Saturday with a promotional record of just 1-1, here’s pretty much everything you need to know: According to numbers released on Monday by the Ohio State Athletic Commission, Henderson earned a $250,000 flat fee (read: no win bonus needed) for knocking out Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante to claim the Strikeforce light heavyweight title.

Those of you scoring at home will note that’s a full $60,500 more than all 19 other fighters on the card COMBINED. It also equals each of the official salaries he earned for knocking out Michael Bisping (minus his “KO of the Night” bonus) at the gala UFC 100 and for a decision over Rousimar Palhares at UFC 88, though both those totals included $150,000 win bonuses. Once you consider that he’s making the same money just for showing up in Strikeforce as he was to show up and win in the UFC, that much publicized contract decision must have been kind of a no-brainer for Henderson.