There’s a very good chance that Tony Ferguson will be the next winner of The Ultimate Fighter. So it’s a shame that his primary legacy from the show — at least for the people who actually watched it — is the moment from this week’s episode when he attacked his own teammate Charlie Rader then needled Rader about having his son taken from him. It was particularly shocking because Ferguson hadn’t previously shown any signs of being a mean-spirited drunk. Now, he has to expect a small chorus of boos when he enters the Octagon at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas next Saturday. In his guest blog for SBNation.com, Ferguson tried to explain the circumstances that transformed him from humble front-runner to TUF 13‘s biggest heel:

You first have to understand we started drinking not long after we had just got done fighting. We had also done the semi-final picks. I think part of me brought the fight home since my real fight with Ryan ended so fast. When you bring alcohol into the mix, it was just bad from there.

We all drank a lot. It started out with shots of Patron and moved to Jim Beam. Miller Lites were mixed in the entire time. We weren’t just drinking to relax. We were going hard core. Everyone was drinking, too, although maybe not as much as some of us.

Sure, we know that Wanderlei Silva is a high level BJJ black belt, but his last submission win was a decade ago. When Wandy tapped out Bob Schrijber in the opening round of the 2000 Pride Grand Prix with an RNC, Jon Jones was snitching on playground kids for doling out Pixy Stix, and Rory MacDonald was still watching SpongeBob.

Actually, some of us are still watching SpongeBob, so perhaps that wasn’t a great illustration. Whatever.

Point is, Wanderlei’s submission game is talked about, but you never expect to see him wrap someone up in his guard. It’s sort of like being told that Paris Hilton has a sister who is both intelligent and uninterested in chasing fame. You could believe it, but you really want to see some proof to make sure.

Anywho, check out this video of everyone’s favorite fighter and some other dude practicing some arcane martial art known as “Brazilian Jui Jitsu” in what appear to be pajamas.

[RX]

(“I’m fighting Jason who??”)

The UFC announced today that UFC middleweight contender Alan Belcher’s first fight back from a career-threatening eye injury will be against New Glasgow, Nova Scotia native Jason MacDonald in the Biloxi, Mississippi native’s backyard of New Orleans, Louisiana on September 17. The event is aptly named UFC Fight Night 25: Battle on the Bayou.

4-1 in his last 5 outings including wins over Wilson Gouveia, Patrick Cote, Denis Kang and Ed Herman and a questionable split decision loss to Yoshihiro Akiyama, Belcher (16-6) was mentioned as a potential championship contender before a detached retina sidelined him for almost a year. Although MacDonald (25-15) is by no means a cake walk fight for Belcher, it’s likely that the bout with the recently re-signed Canadian is thought of by the UFC brass as more of a tune-up fight for “The Talent.”

(Video courtesy of YouTube/FightGameTV)

Just a friendly reminder that Golden Glory is hosting the last round of its 2010/2011 United Glory tournament Saturday afternoon in Moscow, so if you’re looking for something to do to kill some time before UFC 130, you can check out the pay-per-view on YouTube for $7.95 USD.

(Click for larger versions. And take some time to consider what this says about your personalities, you sadistic sons-of-bitches.)

After two days of voting for our Trash Talkin’ Kids t-shirt design finalists, the Potato Nation has made it clear that their two favorites are Chris C.’s “Lost Kos” shirt — which ended up way ahead of the pack with 23.4% of the vote — and Michael P’s “Wake Up Chuck!”, which collected 16.5% of the vote. Grease St. Pierre (15.7%) and Hematoma Hominick (15.2%) were close behind, if that makes you feel any better. The full results can be seen in handy bar graph form here.

So, Chris and Michael, you lucky, lucky boys, please e-mail contest@cagepotato.com with your address, shirt size, and choice of real Trash Talkin’ Kids t-shirts from the designs below. Thanks to TTK for making this happen, and for everybody who designed, voted, and commented. We’ve got more free swag to give away next week, so stay tuned…

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s nine-fight UFC career has been one of can-crushing highs and head-rattling lows. After suffering consecutive knockout loses against Frank Mir and Brendan Schaub, Dana White claimed that we’d seen the last of Cro Cop in the UFC. But DW had a change of heart yesterday, telling reporters that he owes Filipovic another fight, and the 36-year-old Croatian veteran will be returning to the Octagon. As he explained:

(Video courtesy of VideoObb/IronForgesIron)

If you missed the Countdown to UFC 130 show this week, not to worry, we have you covered. During the show both Matt Hammil and Quinton Jackson’s camps give some interesting insight into their fighter’s respective opponents and we learn a bit more about some of the lesser-known fighters on the card like Rick Story and Jorge Santiago.

By Jason Moles

Last night Spike aired a thirty-minute ‘In the Moment’ mini-documentary on Quinton “Rampage” Jackson‘s training camp leading up to his UFC 130 main event tilt against Matt “The Hammer” Hamill this Saturday.  While some of you may have watched it because you watch everything Zuffa puts on TV, others may have been more intrigued by the NBA finals or American Idol (you know who you are). So in case you missed it and want to know what Mr. T has been up to the past few weeks, follow us after the jump.

This guy knows what we’re talking about.

The nature of mixed martial arts competition means that you never know what you’re going to get when you tune in. Maybe a stand-up war, maybe a kinetic chess match. For some fans, there is nothing so thrilling as a technical back-and-forth mat battle.

Hell, some people even enjoy watching Ben Askren catch a firm grip on his opponent and breakdance all over him for fifteen minutes, and they get all hot and bothered seeing a good hip heist or X-guard sweep. We enjoy all that stuff. Then there are a double handful of techniques that bridge the gap — that excite every single person in the arena, every fight fan at the bar, and every keyboard warrior watching at home.

In the interest of finding common ground with all fans of this crazy fad that is ultimate fighting, we present to you this not-at-all exhaustive list of moves that seem more likely to be pulled off with an XBoX controller, rather than by a human being who is bound by the laws of physics.

Come one in past the jump, and let’s talk about the kinds of moves that make everyone jump up and spill their beer.

Special thanks to MMA-Core, IronForgesIron, mmaGIF, UpstandingCitizens.com, Tapology, Large Midget and The Forum Assholes, and GIF ninjas everywhere.

[RX]

For part one of our conversation with Brock Lesnar, click here.

BRIAN D’SOUZA: There’s your stage persona, and there’s your own job and family. I understand you didn’t want the media to cut into time when you’re having dinner with your family.
BROCK LESNAR: I really don’t know anybody that does. My time with family is very important to me and in today’s age with the cell phone and the internet, there’s not a lot of privacy left in this world and everybody knows what everyone is doing at any given time and I don’t really care if anyone knows what I’m doing at any given time.

Moving on to your wrestling career, you talk about not having watched — what is it — five minutes of wrestling before you came to professional wrestling. Is that true?
That is true.

So what sports were you drawn to view, to watch, growing up?
Well growing up, we had 2 ½ TV channels that sometimes worked, and sometimes didn’t. And in the summertime, I very rarely watched any television because we were working. I was outside. To me, if I’m inside, I don’t feel natural. My sons are the same way — they’d rather be outside doing something and I think that that’s a big problem in today’s society where kids are in front of the computer, the television and the [video] game boxes; they don’t get to go outside and experience communication, and nature, and get out and be creative and entertain yourself, and not having to be entertained by technology.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMA Live/CagePotato)

The production company that filmed and produced the videos for last week’s MMA Live 1 event in London, Ontario, Canada are Cage Potato fans, and as such, they sent along the full video above of Thursday’s main event between Karo “The Heat” Parisyan and Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford for us to post exclusively on the site.

(Props: MMAFighting.com)

In an unofficial sequel to “People Like That Get Slapped,” Ariel Helwani attempted to interview Quinton “Rampage” Jackson yesterday, and barely escaped with his life. After some warm-up insults about Helwani’s tie and shoes, Jackson realized who he was talking to, and the vibe immediately became hostile. Apparently Jackson didn’t appreciate that Helwani asked him about “Queen Mo” during a recent MMA Hour appearance — while Rampage was eating, no less — when ‘Page just wanted to discuss his UFC 130 fight against Matt Hamill. Plus, his peoples told him that Ariel had been hatin’.

Ariel offers to squash the beef at the 2:52 mark. Unfortunately, that phrase means the exact opposite in Memphis than it does everywhere else, and Jackson raises up on Ariel, who does his best to change the subject. Rampage gets upset again later when Helwani brings up nutritionist Mike Dolce, who wasn’t with Rampage for this training camp. (“I’m fighting Matt Hamill, I’m not fighting Mike Dolce. What’s Mike Dolce got to do with me winning or losing a fight?”)

The interview ends in a more cordial fashion, but Jackson clarifies that if it wasn’t for his friend Anthony Evans, who’s a friend of Ariel’s, “I probably would have smacked the shit out of you.”

(Exhibit A. Props: IronForgesIron.com)

One positive thing you can say about the 13th season of TUF? It was mercifully brief. We’re already winding down to the end here, with just two more episodes to go until next Saturday’s finale show. Last night gave us two more quarterfinal fights, the selection of the semi-final matches (which go down next week), and a standout contestant making one of the most dramatic and unexpected heel-turns in TUF history.

Zach Davis feels confident in his quarterfinal rematch with Chuck O’Neil considering he’s already beaten him once. He knows it’s a dangerous matchup, but he wants to keep the fight standing this time to show the diversity of his skills. Because when you’ve got a good thing going, change it up I guess. Bad sign. Junior Dos Santos wants Zach to “do what he do well” — put Chuck on the mat and use his jiu-jitsu.

Chuck offers to give his teammate Charlie Rader his win bonus because Charlie recently had his son taken away from him and is being charged an arm and a leg for child support. The situation draws the sympathy of his teammates (“It’s not right…He deserves to have his kid, plain and simple”), but Charlie says he can’t accept the money. And of course, Chuck doesn’t even have it yet, so there’s that too.

“Chuck’s like a bad penny, he keeps showing up,” Zach says. And it’s already time for fight #1…

(Stann’s weekend just got a whole lot more interesting.)

According to a report by Dave Meltzer from his F4WOnline.com insider newsletter, there’s more than just a win bonus at stake for former WEC light heavyweight champion Brian Stann when he squares off against former Sengoku middleweight champion Jorge Santiago. He’ll earn a TUF coaching gig opposite Michael Bisping if he has his hand raised Saturday night.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Dana White’s fight week video blogs are back for UFC 130 this weekend, but the most interesting part of this edition is something that happened at UFC 129 last month in Toronto.

At around the 1:00 mark, White has a brief interaction in the locker room with Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz and to say it was awkward would be a major understatement. Dana tries to make smalltalk with Nick and it seems like he’s trying to talk to a child.

(“Okay everybody, act like your medical benefits were just revoked.”)

Just a friendly reminder that we will be streaming the UFC 130 press conference from Las Vegas today starting at 4:00 m ET.

Will Rampage tell Hammill he has a soft head? Will Hammil try to get Rampage to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Will Nelson bring Mir a Whopper? Will Mir rub Nelson’t belly for good luck?

These questions and more will be answered after the jump.

“The bottom line: I don’t talk about my personal life with strangers. This one time, and this one time only. You are invited to join me in my private world for a few hours. Just don’t ever expect another invitation.” – back cover of Death Clutch: My Story of Determination, Domination, and Survival, Brock Lesnar’s autobiography

By Brian J. D’Souza

Harper Collins provided me with an opportunity that comes too infrequently in MMA — a chance to talk to Brock Lesnar one-on-one, to discuss his new book, while he’s in a good mood. The truth about Lesnar? He came from a small town, worked extremely hard, and utilized a wrestling persona to become the number one MMA draw. Does he hate the media? How much money does he make? And what does he think of promoters like Vince McMahon who pull all the strings? Read our three-part interview series with the controversial UFC heavyweight contender and find out…

BRIAN D’SOUZA: Death Clutch is your story, it’s your autobiography, it’s written in conjunction with Paul Heyman. First of all, tell us a little bit about your relationship with Paul, when you first met him?
BROCK LESNAR: I met Paul back in 2001, working for the WWE, and Paul was working as a writer for Vince McMahon, and I met Paul one day, he came up, and introduced himself. The next thing I knew, we were working together, and he was my onscreen manager and we became friends throughout the process, and stayed in contact over the years, and it was a delightful process for him and I to get together and reminisce and put this book together.

So of course, he had a lot of writing experience. I noticed the book is well-written.
Yeah, the main reason I decided to do this with Paul is because I felt comfortable having a conversation with him about all the subjects. Between him, the publisher, and my attorneys, I believe it’s a well-written book.

Can you tell me a little about your relationship with Erik Paulson, one of your trainers?
Erik is a Minnesota guy, and I met Erik through Greg Nelson. Greg was one of the first guys that started training me for Mixed Martial Arts and throughout the process, I was able to meet Erik Paulson; being fellow Minnesotans and Erik having a plethora of knowledge in the sport he’s been a mentor of mine throughout the full process.

I heard a rumor — maybe true, maybe not — that before the Shane Carwin fight you stopped working with him and concentrated on other trainers. Is that true?

(Video courtesy of YouTube/CagePotato)

We know everyone is getting sick of the back-and-forth between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans, but we figured this was an interesting tidbit worth mentioning from an interview “Bones” did with TopMMANews while he was in London, Ontario, Canada last week for MMA Live 1.

While talking about Evans’ upcoming match-up with Phil Davis at UFC 133 Jones said, although he thinks Rashad will win the bout decisively, he likely won’t get the next shot at his strap as was previously promised. What made the off-the-cuff comment interesting is that Jones said the decision to push “Suga” back a position in line wasn’t his; it was UFC president Dana White’s.

Rocky Performance Night – Watch more Funny Videos

Not showing the climactic fight scene with Apollo Creed is what we in the biz would call “an interesting choice.” But hey, anything to stave off dementia, right? Do us a favor and check out yearofamillionmoments.com, and click here for more eldery remakes of classic flicks.

(Props: Heavy.com)

Despite recent rumors that Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz are slated to face off at UFC 140 — and were the most likely candidates to coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter — UFC president Dana White wants to make it clear that it ain’t happening. As he tells travel-size interviewer Megan Olivi in a new interview (quotes via FightOpinion):

“That fight is not a done deal and I guarantee you that those two will not be coaches, not even close. All this stuff that’s out there about that fight and the meeting that we had here is all bullshit.”

Asked if GSP vs. Diaz would be happening at the UFC’s return to Montreal in December, DW responded with a simple “no.” Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time that the UFC has denied a report just so they could announce it themselves later — but at the very least, relying on Nick Diaz to coach TUF for an entire season seems like way too much to ask, when he can’t even get through an eight-minute interview without threatening to slap somebody.

Horse Takes MMA Kick To The Nuts – Watch more Funny Videos
(Testicle-torture fetishist Nasty the Horse has a painful — or totally satisfying? — encounter with Fabricio Werdum.)

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…

- ‘Rampage’ Jackson’s Toughest Role? Convincing Us He Still Wants to Fight (MMA Fighting)

- Five Fights You Shouldn’t Miss at UFC 130 (LowKick)

- MTV Is Planning a New MMA Reality Show in the Vein of a ‘Redneck Jersey Shore’ (MiddleEasy)

- Eddie Wineland vs. Joseph Benavidez Booked for ‘UFC Live 5′ in August (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Antonio McKee Thinks He May Have Been Cut by UFC Because He ‘Rubbed Joe Silva the Wrong Way’ (MMA Mania)

- UFC 129 ‘St. Pierre vs. Shields’ Did Really Big Business (MMA Convert)

- Zoila & Jorge Gurgel talk MMA & Marriage (TheFightNerd)

- ‘Strikeforce Challengers’ Headed to Las Vegas (NBC Sports MMA)

- Video: Shane Carwin Releases “Here We Go: Camp Carwin” Episode 1 (5thRound)

- The Top 5 MMA Fighters Not Currently Fighting Under the ZUFFA Banner (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

“I believe you yanks call this a mean mug?” PicProps: Bellator.com

Since we mentioned it yesterday in that blatant vanity post, we’ll go ahead and fill you in with some of the details about Bellator’s plans for the summer. As you may remember, a BFC press release announcing the deal with MTV2 made a vague mention of “a collection of special feature events” on top of two full seasons a year. Details at the time were sketchy, and we weren’t really sure what those special feature events would entail. As the season four tournaments unfolded, we heard more and more about tournament action between seasons, initially referred to as a “mini-tournament”. We’d been thinking that this meant perhaps a couple of four-man brackets, maybe some of those Super Fights that Bellator digs so much.

Man, we were way off. Bjorn Rebney, head honcho of the BFC, has put together another intriguing tournament at 145, and that, ladies and germs, will be your main course for the summer series. If you are interested in that kind of thing, we’ve prepared a short primer on the featherweight tourney, plus a preview of Bellator 46, where the four quarterfinals will kick off in that other Hollywood.

Although we suppose you could come in and just throw poop at the new guy. Whatever.

1 by Zuffaforce

Dana White was interviewed by Forbes $ports Money while he was in Toronto for UFC 129 last month and as always the UFC president had a lot to say.

Among other items, The Baldfather touched on some hot button topics like the UFC’s plans for Strikeforce, whether or not women’s MMA will survive the merger and what prompted the minority stake sale of 10 percent of the company to Flash Entertainment.

Check out the transcription of some of the key quotes from the show after the jump.

(“Get a load of this guy. He calls himself ‘Money.’”)

The UFC moved swiftly to find a replacement opponent for number one UFC featherweight contender Chad Mendes when 145-pound champ Jose Aldo bowed out of a planned late summer match-up with the 26-year-old Hanford, California native earlier in the week. According to MMAJunkie, the promotion has inked Rani Yahya to face Mendes at UFC 133 August 6 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(The “Ace”: Coming soon from Trash Talkin’ Kids.)

Thanks so much to everybody who sent in submissions for last week’s Trash Talkin’ Kids t-shirt design contest. We were overwhelmed by the number — and sheer stupidity! — of your designs, and we honestly had a blast going through them. With the help of our friends at Trash Talkin’ Kids, we picked out eight finalists based on humor, creativity, and effort. To see all of the submissions, head over to facebook.com/trashtalkinkids, where they’ve uploaded the finalists plus a bunch more entries that didn’t quite make the cut.

And now we need your votes to make this thing official. Please check out the Elite 8 after the jump, and vote for your favorite in the poll at the bottom of the page. The two highest-voted designs will both be receiving actual TTK shirts. Winners will be announced Thursday. Aaaaaand go!

(Video courtesy of YouTube/CagePotato)

MMA promoter and renowned hypnotist Tony Lee attempted to put Jonny “Bones” Jones under his spell after the MMA Live 1 weigh-ins last week in London, Ontario Canada, but the UFC light heavyweight champ was having none of his mind games.

Jones pulled out of the trance before he got too deep and said he was very close to losing control of his subconscious to Lee’s suggestions.

By Anton Gurevich

Before his fight against Nate Marquardt at UFC 109, Chael Sonnen was just another UFC middleweight — far, far away from challenging Anderson Silva for his belt. But the charismatic Oregonian had plans of his own; Sonnen used his second-to-none trash-talking skills and the interest in Nate Marquardt’s campaign for a rematch against Anderson Silva to call out the Champ, eventually forcing himself into the mix for a shot at the title. Of course, Chael Sonnen backed up his talk by bulldozing Marquardt during all three rounds, to earn a spot in line against the winner of UFC 112′s Silva vs. Maia match-up.

Whether you like him or not, it’s hard to deny that Chael Sonnen has an exciting personality. But Sonnen has suffered his share of setbacks, and now finds himself in an ongoing battle against his toughest opponent to date – the Nevada and California athletic commissions. When looking for another UFC middleweight even remotely as controversial and charismatic as Chael Sonnen, the only name that comes to mind is Michael “The Count” Bisping. It’s no surprise that the pair were originally set to resurrect The Ultimate Fighter series, something that even Brock Lesnar has struggled to do this season…

Continue reading on Lowkick.com

111111111 00_00_07-00_09_50_1 by Zuffaforce

Quinton Jackson made another appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson last night and after watching the episode, it’s clear why “Rampage” gets more invites to appear on late night talk shows than pretty much any other fighter: he’s actually entertaining.

Sure, Chuck Liddell’s guest spot on Good Morning Texas a few years back had its moments and watching Kirstie Alley imagining Jon Jones as a pork chop during The Tonight Show a few months back was funny, if not somewhat cringeworthy, but Jackson always seems to bring his ‘A’ game when the cameras are rolling.

(The UFC legend known as ‘Rising Douchebag’.)

(Mickey Rourke shares an awkward moment with a lady-friend.)

Arranged on two pages to prevent browser-meltdown; hit the “next page” link at the bottom for the rest. For even more giffy goodness, click here.

Mark Hominick MMA Live interview – Watch more Funny Videos

Three weeks after his unsuccessful bid for the UFC featherweight title at UFC 129, Mark Hominick was in London, Ontario, supporting his Adrenaline Training Center teammate James Haourt at MMA Live 1. Our own Brian J. D’Souza caught up with the local hero to get his thoughts on his last fight and his immediate future. Some highlights…

On his performance against Jose Aldo: “[He's] one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and I wasn’t supposed to get out of the first round, and if there were 30 more seconds, I’d be wearing the belt right now. It was one of those fights that like, you go back to the drawing board and there’s a few things that could have changed, but I laid my heart out on the line, I laid it in the ring, I put everything into that fight and everybody who was there knows that, and everyone who watched the fight knows that…I almost had him finished in the fifth, and it’s just that the knockdown in the third kind of took the momentum I felt I was building, and kind of took the sail out until I had to come back in the fifth.”