(Video courtesy of YouTube/BellatorMMA)

If you haven’t been following Bellator this season, you’ve been missing out on some great fights, most of which have involved two Brazilian brothers with the same name. The Pitbull brothers, Patricky (9-1) and Patricio(15-1) Freire have proven themselves to be two of the most dynamic fighters Bellator has, serving up heaping helpings of flying-knee and one-punch KOs on MTV2 every time out this year.

In spite of their recent emergence from seeming obscurity, the brothers Freire — who happen to train with MMA’s most famous brothers with the same name, the Nogueiras — didn’t just become badasses; they’ve both been bad motherfuckers for some time.

(Wandy’s been waiting for this moment ever since his son told him he wants to be the Cat Smasher when he grows up.)

UFC.com confirmed last night that middleweight veterans Wanderlei Silva and Chris Leben will be meeting at UFC 132 (July 2nd, Las Vegas). It’s a matchup that’s been a year in the making. Following his upset submission victory over Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 116 last July, Leben called out Akiyama’s original opponent for the fight, Wanderlei Silva. Silva liked the sound of it, and has been mentioning Leben’s name ever since.

Unfortunately, with Silva recuperating from knee surgery, Leben was forced to take another fight in the meantime, and wound up getting KO’d by Brian Stann. But although Silva has been tied to everyone from Stann to Chael Sonnen to Vitor Belfort for his return bout, it seems that the Axe Murderer is getting his wish to fight the Crippler, in a match that’s as close to a guaranteed slugfest as you can get in this kooky sport. Silva expressed his joy via Twitter:

(If featherweight doesn’t work out, Stevenson will likely test the waters of the Strikeforce women’s 135-pound class)

Well, Joe “Daddy” Stevenson will be spared from the UFC’s chopping block for at least one more fight. The Ultimate Fighter 2 winner who dropped to lightweight in 2006 will face Javier Vasquez at UFC on Versus 4 June 26 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The UFC confirmed today that the rumored bout is a go.

It’s been over a year since we last gathered together our favorite MMA ring girls, female fighters, models, and TV hosts for an all-encompassing ranking of hotness. Since then, we’ve been introduced to many more beautiful women — while a few of the ladies we previously featured have slipped off our radars.

This year, we decided to leave the rankings in your hands. We’ve constructed a 16-seed bracket featuring 15 of our favorite MMA girls, and one “Wild Card.” (Think of it as a three-way play-in for the last spot. It’ll all make sense soon.) You can check out the opening bracket after the jump. Despite our great admiration for them, we’ve left out some women who don’t currently have an official connection to MMA — Rachelle Leah, Amber Nichole Miller, and Natasha Wicks, to name a few.

Voting for Pool A begins this Wednesday, and voting for Pool B begins this Friday. We’ll announce the round-of-16 results and kick off the quarterfinals next week. After that…well, we really haven’t thought that far ahead. But keep your eye on the site, and help us crown 2011′s Hottest Woman in MMA. Get excited, Potato Nation!

(The funny thing is, this photo was taken at Chuck’s church.)

If you haven’t been following the custody case between former UFC light heavyweight champ and current Executive Vice President of Business Development, Chuck Liddell and his ex, Lori Geyer, it basically amounts to a bunch of finger pointing and he-said, she-said.

Apparently Chuck’s 12-year-old son Cade called “The Iceman” last week to tell him that he wanted to come live with him in California. Sensing that Cade was being neglected and possibly abused, Liddell paid an impromptu visit to Colorado to take his son, back to San Luis Obispo. After telling Geyer that he wanted to hang out with Cade for a few days in Colorado, Chuck immediately flew back to Cali and had his lawyer petition the courts to award him full custody.

Geyer in turn called police to say Chuck had kidnapped their son and that he was an absent father who took little interest in Cade. She the proceeded to tell TMZ that Liddell is not a capable guardian for Cade since he is a drug user. Instead of using the obvious clip of Chuck tripping balls on the Texas morning talk show, Geyer instead pointed to the viral Reebok commercial Liddell appeared naked in in alongside fiancee Heidi Northcott as demonstrating “clouded judgment” as a result of his addiction.

(All this talk of finances is really harshing Urijah’s mellow. Pic: CageToday)

Props to our BFFs over at Bloody Elbow for pointing out an odd little singularity in the early UFC 132 betting lines this morning. After bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz and challenger Urijah Faber opened at matching -120 odds, early money appeared to push Faber to as much as a -160 favorite before Cruz stormed back to flip-flop the line. As is it stood in the a.m. on Monday, Cruz was now a -160 favorite, while Faber was a +120 dog, exactly the opposite of where they’d been less than 24 hours earlier.

But what does it all mean, you ask? Well, one of two things: Either the knee-jerk, hair-trigger gamblers blew their wad on Faber only to have opportunists go heavy on Cruz as soon as he became an underdog … or the chimpanzees who get paid to do data entry at these gambling sites screwed it up to begin with. Either way, we know you’re dying to hear more …

(This story doesn’t have much to do with Anderson Silva, but holy crap, remember when that happened?)

Sorry gang, but it looks like those rumors about Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping landing coaching spots for TUF 14 were too good to be true. Though the pairing would make for brilliant/insane reality television, Sonnen’s laundry list of personal problems will likely prohibit his participation. From a new MMAJunkie report:

UFC president Dana White today told MMAjunkie.com no decisions have been made about the head-coaching slots for the show, which debuts in September on Spike TV.

But White also said [Chael] Sonnen “has a ton of problems” to deal with, which makes a rumored “TUF 14″ coaching slot against Michael Bisping unlikely…

(Video courtesy of YouTube/WoodysGamerTag)

The Internet would be clogged up with a lot less bullshit if commenters and trolls had to eventually meet the guys they talk trash about, especially if the subject of their vitriol were a professional fighter.

The dude above is lucky that he called out Joe Lauzon and not Josh Koscheck, or he might be in a bit more pain. Koscheck once posted a message on his MS page that if anyone talking smack about his fighting prowess wanted to see how good he was, they could come into his American Kickboxing Academy satellite gym and find out.

Here’s a video of a guy who thought he could take the UFC welterweight.

Josh Koscheck Fights a Fan by BaDaBooM80

Kos and J-Lau aren’t the only guys who have answered an Internet challenge.

(Vid: MMA Weekly)

At his worst, Joe Rogan can come off as an arrogant blowhard with skin like an aging professional wrestler and a voice like a blender left too long on its ‘puree’ setting. At his best, he’s still one of the most articulate and insightful analysts MMA has been able to dredge up after almost 20 years of searching in America. If you really think about it, that’s pretty astounding. In the above video from MMA Weekly, Rogan appears to be in top form during a Q&A session with fans in Seattle just prior to the UFC’s recent “Fight Night” show, especially when the inevitable Fedor questions get tossed up on stage. On the topic of the former consensus No. 1 heavyweight, Rogan says what we’ve all been thinking for the last couple of years, but manages to put it all in the kind of direct (yet somehow elegant) language few other MMA broadcaster have been able to muster.

“I think Fedor is an amazing talent and an incredible athlete,” Rogan says. “I really admire his mind and his mindset when he goes in to compete. It’s really fun to watch that he’s so nonchalant with his big belly and goes in there and fucks people up. But the reality is that’s not going to work at the upper echelon of the sport anymore.”

(Click all images for larger versions.)

Jade Bryce is a 26-year-old model from Austin, Texas, who has been recruited as a ring girl for Bellator’s fourth season. At 5’3″, Jade describes herself as a “travel size model,” but there’s a big heart in that compact frame — she donates part of her modeling income to the socially conscious non-profit organizations CRASH and Invisible Children. You can get to know Jade better on Facebook, her Model Mayhem page, and her modeling blog. Lots more pics of Jade Bryce are after the jump — including a lovely set of NSFW images that we’ve placed on a separate page for your safety.

(Three seasons later, the ‘Innerme‘ still looms large…)

With a big-name crossover star like Brock Lesnar as one of the coaches for this season of The Ultimate Fighter, we wondered if TUF 13‘s viewership ratings would land anywhere near TUF 10‘s — the heavyweight season featuring Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans as coaches and Kimbo Slice as one of the heavyweight hopefuls. According to the numbers released by Spike, TUF 13‘s premiere ratings couldn’t hold a candle to Kimbo.

Wednesday’s show attracted an average of 1.5 million viewers and a 1.0 household rating, and earned the highest viewership numbers for men 18-34 and 18-49 in its new 9 p.m. time slot, with ratings of 1.93 and 1.51, respectively. Still, that’s a far cry from the 4.1 million average viewers that TUF 10 earned in its premiere. It’s also a slight decline from last season’s Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck premiere, which attracted 1.6 million viewers — which was itself a decline from the 1.9 million viewers brought in by the TUF 11: Liddell vs. Ortiz premiere. In fact, the TUF 13 premiere was the least successful debut episode in series history, in terms of household rating.

Responding to the news, UFC president Dana White was in full-on hater-hurtin’ mode, posting the following on the UG: “SINCE WHEN IS 1.5 MILLIONS VIEWERS BAD? People have been saying it is dead since season 4. Sit back and watch bitches or don’t. TUF isnt going anywhere!!!! deal with it.“ Fair enough. But the downward trend can’t be ignored. So what went wrong?

If you watch carefully, you can see his Soul flashing a peace sign when it flies out.  (VidProps: Bellator)

If you listened to this week’s edition of the Bum Rush (you did, right?), you know that some of us were really looking forward to Bellator action this weekend, and some of us were unconvinced.  But when guys are pulling off stupid-rare submissions and handing out beatdowns on the weekly, we say those naysayers are just stupid neenerfaces.  You go ahead and contemplate how much time we’re spending with preschool kids while you click the “Read More” link below, then share your comments about just how awesome Bellator is.  Hyperbole and ridiculous analogies will win you style points, and haterific comments will probably inspire ReX13 to bestow an insulting website upon your login.  That asshole is just way too sensitive sometimes.

“I believe in Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Shit Talking”

We’re only one episode into TUF Season 13, and some are already disappointed by the kinder, gentler Brock Lesnar. Sure, we say we want the series to focus more on the fights and less on the drama, but a little tension always makes things more fun. Though it’s far too early to call this season a hit or a flop, the latest TUF rumors already have us eagerly anticipating next season.

According to reports from Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, noted MMA heels Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping are on deck to tackle coaching duties for season 14 and potentially redefine everything we thought we knew about coaching beef. The likelihood of this pairing hinges largely on the CSAC Ruling and the outcome of Chael’s legal woes.

“30-27, Leonard Garcia”

The latest political maneuverings straight from the Bob Reilly MMA Cock-Blocking For Dummies handbook are coming courtesy of the sleepy town of Watertown, South Dakota. Once again, a knee jerk reaction to emotional appeal has triumphed over common sense to help ban our sport from another city’s stage. While a serious, tragic event has shaped the decision in this case, the actions of Mayor Gary Williams and Watertown City Council are not just an affront to MMA, but to logic itself.

What we know is this: Late in the evening on March 13^th, local MMA trainer Jerrin Stulken was involved in a street fight with Justin Jaton. Both men had been drinking in “uptown” Waterford. Jalton was severely injured in the fight, and this past Thursday he died as a result of those injuries. Stulken now faces charges of either second-degree murder or first-degree manslaughter. What we also know, but can’t at all understand, is that entire sport of Mixed Martial Arts has now been put on trial and found guilty by the city’s local government, which has banned promotions from staging events at the city’s event centers while it pursues full-scale prohibition. As you can imagine, we respectfully disagree with their decision.

“Found it!” Fighting was quickly resumed after Damm recovered his lost contact lens. (Pic Props: Strikeforce.com)

Strikeforce Challengers 15 marked the promotion’s first event since Zuffa seized control, but with the exception of the addition of elbows on the ground, there were no noticeable changes to the event which took place in homey Stockton, CA. Mauro, Quadros, and Miletich made themselves at home in the commentary booth and the broadcast had the same production feel we’re accustomed to. The only thing unfamiliar about the event may have been some of the fighters themselves, but that’s par for the course for the Challengers series. Strikeforce’s endeavor to showcase the up-and-comers in the sport may not always result in overly competitive fights, but the event did put several fresh faces on the map for those unwilling or unable to follow the sport to its lower levels.

TROLL POWER!

While we were busy thinking of Strikeforce related April Fool’s Day pranks, it turns out that Strikeforce was busy finding a replacement for Mike Kyle. Due to the timing of the announcement, I’ve been skeptical to report it as real news. However, it appears that Keith Jardine will be stepping in for Mike Kyle on April 9^th to fight Gegard Mousasi.

Go figure.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MrTitoSilva)

- 15 sexy movie characters in pigtails (ScreenJunkies)

- Chuck Liddell goes to court to fight for sole custody of 12-year-old son (TMZ)

- AskMen launches a better smelling site (AskMen)

- Favorite women of March (Guyism)

- WrestleMania 27 preview (TheRugged)

- MLB baseball preview (Bullz-Eye)

- Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez say they’d never fight a teammate (MMAJunkie)

- What beats a machete and a crossbow? A machete-firing crossbow (DoubleViking)

- Pat Curran ready to unleash a surprise on Eddie Alvarez (MMAFighting)

- Lyrical poet Vanilla Ice cast in ‘I Hate You Dad’ (ScreenJunkies)

- Apple, RIM and 30 other cell phone manufacturers sued for copyright infringement (CNet)

- Police brutality at Mexico-Venuzuela friendly game (TuVez)

For a man who tries to promote such a chaste image, Matt Hughes sure does find himself at Hooters a hell of a lot. Maybe it’s the famous wings that bring him in night after night. Or maybe it’s all the young chicks with big titties. Hard to say for sure. For more photographic proof, start after the jump and follow the “next page” links.

Well, apparently our Free CagePotato campaign finally broke through the seemingly impenetrable armor around Dana White’s heart that only a handful of people including Stephan Bonnar, Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell have been able to breach.

(“That whole Zuffa thing was just a gag too, right? No? That one was for real? Rats.” Pic: Prommanow)

From a Strikeforce press release …

STOCKTON, Calf. — Strikeforce CEO Scot Coker held a press conference here on Friday to announce that tonight’s scheduled Challengers event at the Stockton Arena was just an elaborate April Fool’s Day joke, one that he admitted had gone too far.

Saying the whole idea was “just a goof,” Coker said he was surprised more people didn’t catch on sooner. “Come on, like we’re going to host an event in the most miserable city in the country, headlined by Rodrigo Damm?” Coker said. “Not even Showtime would go for that crap.”

(Pic: Flickr)

By 420fighteXXXpert69, Freelance Contributor

As the world’s foremost authority on mixed martial arts, 420fighteXXXpert69 has been trolling comment sections and lurking chat rooms since dropping out of high school back in 2005. After earning his GED, he’s now pretty sure he owns the most impressive collection of MMA T-shirts at his online community college. Seriously, ask him fucking anything, you fucking noobs …

What’s up, fags?!?! Welcome to another cacophony of fistic entertainment known to you fuckin’ cock gobblers as “Ask the Internet Comment Section Fight Expert.” Once again I’d like to thank CagePotato.com for letting me write this shit (Except for the edits! Fuck those!) and for paying me only in free MMA schwag. Except last week when they mailed me a fucking book! I did not read that shit … because I don’t suddenly want to start feeling hungry for dicks!!!

All eight of my Twitter followers have been straight BLOWIN ME UP this week with questions about everything UFC, so I better drop a knowledge bomb on your fucking lardasses before you get your panties in a wad and start a flame war YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO FINISH! Remember, if you have a question for future articles hit me up on Twitter, cuz my cell phone is shut off right now (Fuck you, Verizon!). Or you can call the house, but you have to speak slow cuz my grandmother is part Korean. OK, let’s see what you morons want to know this week …

(Sub Scott Coker in for Mase and Dana White in for Diddy and you’ll have a winning formula, guaranteed.)

If there’s anything MMA history has shown, it’s that to be a successful promotion, you need to have a hype man. That’s why some promotions never make it past the plateau of mediocrity they are stuck on.

Don’t believe me? Check out the evidence.

Before Zuffa purchased the UFC back in 2001, the company really didn’t have a face like professional wrestling and boxing did with Vince McMahon and Don King, which is what was holding the promotion back from mainstream success.

Reinventing himself with a Headblade, a vintage t-shirt and a “Do you want to be a fucking fighter?” speech, a bell boy-turned-boxercise instructor from Boston  cracked the code giving MMA promoters the formula for how to be successful: reinvent yourself and become a bigger enigma than your fighters or your promotion.

The break down of how The Baldfather became THE quintessential MMA promoter in the game is after the jump.

By BG

It’s funny how things we casually write on this site can grow to have a life of their own. From “The Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory” to the “Stockton Heybuddy,” tossed-off gags turn into running gags, which turn into official t-shirt names and UrbanDictionary pages. But there’s one that needs to come to an end right now. I think you guys know what I’m talking about.

“You Guys” first appeared in a CagePotato headline back in September 2009, as part of this classic Dan Quinn video post. At that time, it was already an existing meme that I basically stole from Videogum.com. Initially, I thought it would be a one-and-done sort of thing. Then I used it again. And again. Then, Old Dad* began to use it himself. “You Guys” was spiralling out of control.

(Not actually a) Guest post by GalsGuidetoMMA.com

JEREMY JACKSON

Beth’s View

Doability – I’ve never gone for the “Would have probably been a Nazi if he grew up in 1930s Germany” look, but there’s something about Jeremy that gets my tangas in a twist. I know, I know, the barbed wire bicep tat should be a deal-breaker. Still, those piercing blue eyes. The look on his face that says, “I would throw away every good opportunity, and even my freedom, just for a chance to ravage your body.” Wow. Feel my goosebumps.
Perceived Skills – BB gun shooting, jealous rages
Pet Name – Aryan Da’Hendersons
Imagined Dream Date – I have this fantasy where I’m a lifeguard at a local pool in Nevada. Jeremy comes in with his pack of bros. We lock eyes. He does a few long, slow laps. The butterfly stroke — my favorite. We exchange numbers during adult swim. He doesn’t call. Instead, he just shows up at my bedroom window that night. He’s shirtless and out of breath. I let him in the front door, and he collapses into my arms. He’s vulnerable, like a child, in the body of a man. “It’s okay, honey,” I say. “You’re home now.”
Long Term Relationship Potential – High, but I know it would end badly. It always does with the passionate ones.
Panty Dropper Rating – 4 – Worth the Wax.

Guest post by Zeus, MiddleEasy.com

Whenever me and my college buddy Derek get together, we refer to ourselves as the “P.O.P. Squad.” P.O.P stands for “poop our pants.” We gave ourselves this name because both of us, at one point in our young adult lives, accidentally defecated ourselves in public.

For me, it was simply a matter of a taco-truck-hopping excursion gone horribly wrong. This was about seven years ago in Austin. For Derek…well, I’m not going to dishonor him by re-telling the whole thing myself, but the short version is this: Derek was on Spring Break in Cancun, and after a night of ferocious drinking at Carlos ‘n Charlie’s, he woke up on a bench wearing a fecally blown-out pair of khakis, with no money in his wallet and no way to get back to his hotel, which turned out to be 18 miles away. The story of how he eventually did get back to his hotel is an epic, at times heartbreaking tale, that really needs to be turned into a movie someday. (We hear that Fox Searchlight is interested, and James Marsden is already attached as the lead.)

That random anecdote may or may not have to do with this video we found of Pat Barry, which you can watch after the jump. But there’s one thing we can tell you for sure — it is by far the most epic, rawesome, unbelievably incredible video you’ve ever seen in your life. That’s a guarantee. If you don’t think so, you have full permission to slap me in the face the next time you see me.