Continuing in its latest trend of breaking news before the media outlets can jump on the story, Zuffa announced last night that it had added a lightweight bout between Gesias ‘JZ’ Cavalcante and Lyle ‘Fancypants’ Beerbohm to its July 30 Fedor vs. Henderson card in Chicago.

Once thought to be one of the world’s best 155-pound fighters, Cavalcante’s stock has dipped the past few years thanks in part to a less than impressive 1-3 (2 NC) record in his past six fights. In his defense, each of those losses was a close-fought decision against top-tier opponents  Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri and Josh Thomson. A win over Beerbohm could put him back on track.

VidProps: Ariel, Esther, E Casey, and MMAFighting

As Chael Sonnen’s utterly superfluous PR agent/hype man (because really, he can do that himself), i had to share this. Ariel Helwani sat Sonnen down last week to talk to him about his suspension and Hormone Replacement, and he wound up with 20 minutes of comedy. If you don’t understand why some people love Sonnen after watching this, i do not know what to tell you.

The interview starts off with a few fairly serious minutes of PED discussion, but as soon as UFC 132 and Wanderlei Silva come up, Sonnen’s voice gets louder and the gold starts pouring out of him. (Maybe the Jack and Coke kicked in.) After that, just hold on and enjoy the ride.

One note to Sonnen though: Batman would absolutely beat Superman. He’s got a Kryptonite ring that Superman gave him just in case Supes went off the deep end and started nuking cats with his heat vision and soccer kicking babies into the Sun. This is elementary stuff, player; it’s the titular example of a popular trope in fiction. How does he not know that?

[RX]

Hailing from West Jordan, Utah, Rad Martinez has compiled a 9-2 record as a professional MMA fighter while caring full-time for his father Richard, who suffered significant brain damage in a car accident twenty years ago. Martinez’s story caught the attention of ESPN, who produced a moving “Outside the Lines” video feature on the fighter, covering the multiple tragedies of his family life as well as his current struggle to balance his profession with his personal obligations. If you haven’t seen it yet, we highly recommend taking 11 minutes of your day and checking it out above.

Thanks in part to the ESPN profile, Martinez has just gotten the first big break in his career, as Bellator announced this morning that they had signed the featherweight prospect to a fight contract. “Rad not only has an incredibly uplifting, powerful story, but he’s also a fierce competitor who will be a great addition to the Bellator family,” said Bellator chairman/CEO Bjorn Rebney in a press release. “We’re proud to have Rad under the Bellator banner, and expect big things from him inside the Bellator cage.”

“…and that’s why I’m the true UFC middleweight champ. Next question.”

Well this is interesting: reports from MMAJunkie and HeavyMMA are indicating that Chael Sonnen will not be getting that bout with Lyoto Machida that he’s been bucking for, and instead will meet middleweight Brian Stann at UFC 136 in October.

Sonnen, who will no doubt make our “P4P Most Entertaining Fighters Outside the Cage” list (if we ever get around to actually compiling it), has been lobbing barbs at anyone with a connection to middleweight king Anderson Silva for about a year now, including the Nogueira brothers and Machida. Rumors over the past week had hinted that Sonnen may be briefly visiting the light heavyweight division for a fight with the Dragon, which would have undoubtedly led to smack talk of a magnitude that the MMA world was unprepared for.

(“Hey Dan Meeller, did you hear we fighting in Hio?” “Really? That’s awesome! Thanks for the heads-up, Paul Harris.”)

The UFC announced today that Dan Miller (13-5 MMA, 5-4 UFC) will be stepping in for Alexandre ‘Cacareco’ Ferreira (18-7 MMA, 0-1 UFC) against Rousimar Palhares (12-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) at UFC 134.

No reason was given for the “change of opponents” (Palhares-Ferreira was never officially announced) six weeks out from the show, but Miller will likely be up for the challenge having stepped into the Octagon on short notice in the past.

The New Jersey middleweight stepped in on four week’s notice for an injured Phil Baroni against John Salter at UFC 118 and on one week’s notice from the prelims to face Nate Marquardt at UFC 128 after Yoshihiro Akiyama was landlocked in Japan due to the recent Tsunami in March. In comparison, six weeks is pretty much a full camp for Miller.

(“A Chippendale is one of them roided-up nude dancers wif the bow ties. Funny, innit?” – Photo courtesy Getty Images)

Add Dan Hardy to the list of Nate Marquardt detractors alongside fighters like BJ Penn and Chael Sonnen (ironic?) who don’t buy the former UFC middleweight’s claims that he needs testosterone replacement therapy to compete. Hardy spoke with ESPN.com recently and touched on Marquardt’s recent firing by the UFC for his HRT debacle, and the former welterweight contender questioned the legitimacy of “The Great’s” affliction.

“What is he, 31 or 32? I don’t want to kick a man when he’s down but what’s he doing needing testosterone therapy anyway at that age? I’m not that far behind him and I certainly don’t need any! The thing that annoyed me is that he has tested positive for nandrolone in the past, people are aware of that, and now he’s saying he needs Hormone Replacement,” Hardy points out. “Maybe he wouldn’t have needed Hormone Replacement if he hadn’t been using something in the first place. On the bright side, he’ll always have a job as a Chippendale.”

The dearth of awesome fan-made promos does not bode well for DREAM. VidProps: DREAM

DREAM returns for the final round of the Japan Bantamweight Grand Prix on July 16, and there are a few interesting matchups on the card (which is apparently *not* DREAM.17 as we’d been thinking). Even if there weren’t, it’s smack in the middle of the summer MMA doldrums, and there’s not much else going on. Even if there were something else going on, jesus, don’t you assholes care about Japan?

Come on in past the jump and we’ll fill you in on the bouts slated for the event, with a few notes for your enlightenment and/or entertainment. Just call us the love child of the Buddha and Louis CK.

(“Can you tell me what the scale says? I can’t see over my cheekbones.” Props: CombatLifestyle)

By Ben Goldstein

Tired of fad diets? As MMA fighters have proven for years, the best way to effectively take off pounds is to dehydrate yourself until you nearly die — a miraculous system known as “brutal weight cutting.” Here are some of the sport’s greatest success stories…

Sean McCorkle
Lost: 55 pounds in three months, before his submission win over Mark Hunt at UFC 119 (9/25/10)

After charming his way into a UFC contract, Indiana-based super-heavyweight Sean McCorkle was faced with a dilemma — making 265 pounds for the first time since middle school. “Big Sexy” had 12 weeks to come down from his walking weight of 320, which forced him to get very familiar with chicken breast, apples, and oatmeal.

By weigh-in day, it seemed like the world was conspiring against him. “The cut was an absolute nightmare, and the commission scales were off the morning of the weigh-in,” McCorkle explained. “I told them that and the commission said they weren’t. I said I couldn’t possibly be three pounds heavier [on the day of weigh-ins] than I was last night when I didn’t eat or drink anything. So I went to cut an extra three pounds that morning. It took me two hours to cut the weight. Then I weighed in at 263 pounds and I wanted to strangle somebody.” Compared to that, making Mark Hunt cry “uncle” with an armlock was the easy part.

Jake Shields
Lost: 20 pounds in one day before his split-decision win over Martin Kampmann at UFC 121 (10/23/10)

(Video courtesy of YouTube/5thRoundVideo)

Don’t expect to see any Strikeforce champions besides Nick Diaz fighting in the UFC anytime soon.

According to Strikeforce president Scott Coker, Diaz’s crossover to the UFC was a one-off exception that was made to prevent the Stockton native from turning his back on MMA in favor of a boxing career.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/JohnJoeOregan)

Note to coke fiends: When you go to an MMA show hopped up to the gills on the white stuff, try to sit still and blend in. Otherwise, expect to see your ridiculous ass on YouTube on Monday morning.

The video above that depicts an unnamed coke monster who thinks he’s taking part in a virtual reality bout, was shot by our friend John Joe O’Regan from Fighters Only at an event over the weekend in the UK. What’s funny is, even after the show’s promoter, UFC welterweight Mark Scanlon tells the guy to sit down and chill out, moments later he’s back on his feet pantomiming punches, chokes and bone snaps.

(Goldie and Rogan get their groove on during the UFC 132 prelims. Props: atran416)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. (Welcome aboard, MMAPayout and FightOpinion!) E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- UFC 132: Payout Perspective (MMAPayout)

- Urijah Faber Considers Adapting His Fight Style Based on How MMA Judges Score Fights (FightOpinion)

- ‘Krazy Horse’ Bennett: “When I Got 22 Losses, I Realized That I Needed to Train” (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- This Guy Learns the ‘Tap or Snap’ Rule the Hard Way (MiddleEasy)

- Why Tito Ortiz Winning Is a Good Thing (MMA Convert)

- UFC 134: Overweight Forrest Griffin Wants to Go Hard for 15 minutes Against ‘Shogun’ Rua (MMA Mania)

- Brian Bowles Hand Not Broken in UFC 132 Win, Wants Dominick Cruz Next (MMA Fighting)

- Fistic Fireworks: Ten Moments in the UFC’s Fourth of July History (Five Ounces of Pain)

- 4th of July Treat: Miesha Tate at UFC 132 (LowKick)

- Melvin Guillard Puts Belt Before Brothers…And Mother (5thRound)

- A Day in the Life of Jeff Monson, Part 8: Jeff Gets a New Tattoo (TheFightNerd)

- UFC 132: Five Lessons Learned (NBC Sports MMA)

“Gone to weigh in with Fedor, BRB. -Danny” PicProps: CombatLifestyle.com

Ladies and gentlemen, it is now an appropriate time to start geeking out about the next Strikeforce card — you know the one. Fedor-Hendo goes down at the end of the month and every MMA diehard will be sitting on the edge of their seats to see two PRIDE legends finally come together. Will The Last Emperor regain his classic form? Will Henderson score a victory that would likely be the highlight of his career? Will Fedor’s hilariously bad website gain something new and terribly translated?

(Seriously; the website is worth a look. Engrish motherfucker, do you speak it? An excerpt: “2003 ?. After competitions with Sam Shilt (Holland) and Hiz Hiring (USA), Fedor had a wrestling with Antonio Rodrigo Nagiera; Fedor gained the champion title. Later he gained the upper hand over Kazyuki Fudgita (Japan) and Gary Gudridg (Canada).”)

When Scott Coker first announced the matchup, he said it would be a catchweight bout at 220 pounds — possibly a gambit to get Fedor moving down in weight. Henderson contradicted Coker, saying that according to his contract the fight was at heavyweight, all the way up to 265, so Fedor can go ahead and eat all the ice cream and pickled elk or whatever it is that those Ruskies eat up there in Antarctica.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/BJPenn.com)

BJ Penn has a simple answer to boring fights and skewed judges’ decisions: Get rid of the belts and get rid of the judges.

“I definitely think the way to make it exciting is get rid of the belts and get rid of the judges first thing, right off the bat. If anything goes to a decision, it should be an automatic draw. The only way you can win a fight is by finishing your guy and the only way you can lose is by getting finished.”

Sure, Beej may be tooting a different horn if he hadn’t lost the majority of his career pinnacle fights against guys like GSP and Frankie Edgar by decision, but he didn’t.

(“I’ll see you in November. Keep my belt warm.”)

Bellator’s first foray into the Canadian MMA market has taken a major hit.

According to the Chicago-based promotion,  highly touted Brazilian featherweight Patricio “Pitbull” Freire has been forced to withdraw from a planned July 23 rematch with champ Joey Warren at Bellator 47 in Rama, Ontario, Canada due to a hand injury, leaving them scrambling to find a main event bout for the show in less than three weeks.

Freire confirmed the news via Twitter today along with a photo”Pitbull” tweeted of his injured paw.

(“The truth is I hurt it slapping my TV when they showed Chael Sonnen during the UFC 132 telecast.”)

(Props: jcdvproductions via oxvaletudo)

This little gem comes to us from an X Series event in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 25th, where bantamweights Dre Milley and Jamie Norton made their pro debuts against each other. After a hard-fought first round — scroll back to 3:46 to see the fight from the beginning, or to 5:36 to see Milley toss Norton on his head in athletic, explosive fashion — Norton opened up the second frame throwing punches to set up a perfectly-timed face-kick. This Milley kid has potential, but for now, he joins Rashad Evans and epically knocked out Asian dude in the ranks of Worst Coma Faces in MMA History. Better luck next time.

If you missed the video this weekend, former UFC welterweight champ Matt Hughes let fly with a bold prediction during the Q&A session he did prior to the UFC 132 weigh-ins Friday. Besides saying that he thinks longtime nemesis Georges St-Pierre will beat Nick Diaz in October, Hughes stated matter-of-factly that he feels that the French Canadian will also take out Anderson Silva if and when the pair eventually meet.

“Against Diaz, I think he’s gonna do real good. This will be the first time that he’s gonna be facing somebody that will be in better shape than he is. Diaz is in great shape and that will be the only thing I think Diaz is gonna have an edge on is the shape. But GSP is not gonna wear out. I think Striking, submissions and ground work, he’s gonna win every one of them,” Hughes said. “I think the only thing, Diaz is so different with his striking. Maybe he’s gonna land something like he did against Robbie Lawler that one time that’s gonna kinda come out of left field, but I see GSP winning. To take that a step further, I think if he fights Anderson Silva, if GSP has his head screwed on straight, I see him winning that fight as well.”

(“What? A businessman is never honest when it comes to money.”)

When Tito Ortiz revealed last week that he was taking “a big, big, big pay cut” to stay in the UFC to get one last kick at the cat against Ryan Bader at UFC 132, we almost felt bad for the former UFC light heavyweight champ, what with his child support payments and the custom made hats he has to have made and whatnot. Being Tito ain’t cheap. Well, it turns out “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” was just playin’ us. He actually made more for the bout than he did his last few fights.

According to the figures released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (courtesy of MMAJunkie), Tito took home a $450,000 flat fee for his first-round submission win over Bader. He made $250,000 in his UFC 121 loss to Matt Hammil as well as his UFC 106 loss to Forrest Griffin.

Math, how does it work?

In his defense, maybe he used to receive a portion of the pay-per-view revenue and opted to forgo the percentage to keep his job. We’ll have to wait a couple years to read the details in his inevitable tell-all book.

Ortiz and Wanderlei Silva ($200,000) were the top earners on the card, accounting for 50.9 percent of the $1, 277,000 disclosed payroll.

Check out the full list after the jump.

This shocking video was pulled directly from the YouTube account of one of the alleged participants.

Good morning, everyone. We’d like to think that all is well in the world, but then we checked our YouTube subscriptions and saw this. MMA superstar Jake Shields is taking time out to sign autographs and greet fans, when an ugly scene of sexual harassment breaks out. Sure, it seems like everyone is just having some fun and it’s no big deal, but this is why we need to educate young athletes on the dangers of being taken advantage of.

If you can stomach it, click on the video and watch as MMA photographer Tracy Lee coerces young Shields into viewing explicit pictures of “planking”, a practice so suggestive and offensive we can’t even find a suitable link that wouldn’t make your computers immediately contract the binary version of the bad AIDS. As you can tell by Shields’ reaction, the pictures are shocking (and possibly illegal in the continental US). After showing Shields these hardcore pictures of other individuals performing this “planking” nonsense, Lee and her friends use applied psychology tricks to gradually erode the moral boundaries that make Jake Shields an upstanding role model for children.

It’s clear in the video that Shields just wants to please, as he reluctantly goes along with the idea to perform this “planking” with Lee, even while he expresses reservations that he could face some sort of trouble if things go awry. It’s possible that Shields naively believes that Lee and her friends will keep the footage to themselves, and his exploitation will go undiscovered. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard similar stories of young actors trying desperately to get ahead and being caught up in similar schemes, doing humiliating things on camera in hopes of being noticed.

(“Ay Handy, what did the five toes say to the face?” Props: MMAWeekly)

UPDATE: The fight looks like it might actually happen; Fighters Only says it’s slated for UFC 136 (October 8th in Houston), while BloodyElbow says it might take place this winter.

“I don’t know what the future holds, there’s plenty of guys out there to fight. There’s a karate guy at 205 pounds, I might stop there on my way back to 185 for a tune-up fight and take out Machida, but we’ll see, we’ll see where it goes.” — Chael Sonnen to MMAFighting at UFC 132

“I think that’s great, I’m excited to do that. He’s coming back now, wants to fight, and I really think it’s a good fight for me. If Sonnen really wants this fight, I’ll sign it immediately, no problem at all.” — Lyoto Machida responding to Tatame

It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Sonnen wants to ease back into the UFC as a light-heavyweight, considering he’s a gigantic son-of-a-bitch these days. Plus, Machida’s persona as a pee-drinking Brazilian Seagal-student has already given Uncle Chael a lot of material to tweet with.

(Arlovski will have a 53″ reach advantage.)

According to a report from KHON2 in Hawaii, back-from-the-dead MMA promotion ProElite has signed former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski to compete at its upcoming August 27th event, which will take place at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu.

“The Pitbull” will be looking to snap a four-fight losing streak that includes first-round knockouts against Fedor Emelianenko, Brett Rogers, and Sergei Kharitonov. Arlovski’s opponent is unknown at this time — but since Tim Sylvia is also being rumored as another ProElite signee, well, are you thinking what we’re thinking?

No caption needed, really.

Well people, hopefully you are enjoying a day off with some barbecued animal carcass and a nice cold beer (or some grilled zucchini and tofu scramble, whatever scratches your itch).  Join us as we look back on the action from UFC 132 and what we can take away from a card as wild and unpredictable as this one.  If a story comes out that some guy hit an eleven fight parley, we’re going to track him down and burn him as a sorcerer.  Seriously, there’s playing a hunch, and then there’s invoking demons to influence the reality on our plane of existence.

First, some things must not be spoken of.

Like Wanderlei Silva losing, or Tito Ortiz winning.  Sometimes, great reflection is required to glean the lessons of life from events that at first seem incomprehensible.  Sometimes, understanding must elude us forever.

Come on in and let’s talk five things.

(We know one thing: some female Japanese reporters are getting dry-humped by Rampage come February 26.)

When Zuffa effectively killed PRIDE soon after purchasing the Japanese promotion back in 2007 for a reported $64-million US, when UFC president Dana White stated it was just impossible to deal with the Yakuza, it seemed unlikely that we would ever see the Octagon in the Land of the Rising Sun again.

Well, it looks like dealing with the Yakuza in 2011 is a lot easier than it was four years ago.

According to MMAWeekly, the UFC is close to finalizing a date and location for its first Japanese show since 2000, and the first under the Zuffa banner since Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta purchased the company from SEG in January 2001. The date for the planned show would be February 26 and the planned venue is the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama — the arena that housed 24 of PRIDE’s 68 events.

(We know, Urijah. Sometimes we spend an entire hour working on a blog post, and our browser decides to crash just as we’re finishing it up, and when we go back into the CMS the post has completely vanished and we’re struck with that feeling of pure disappointment and frustration, knowing that we have to do it all over again. So, yeah, we can totally relate. / Photo courtesy of MMAFighting)

UFC 132 was as bizarre as it was thrilling. Now that we’ve wrapped our heads around it for the most part, it’s time to look ahead and see if we can think up some future matchups for Saturday’s notable winners and losers. Let us know how you feel in the comments section — and hey, happy 4th of July!

Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber: Immediate rubber match. It’s not the most essential of immediate rematches, but the fight was close enough to warrant it, and there’s really no bantamweight contender right now who deserves it more than Faber. Brian Bowles thinks he’s the guy, but I can’t forget that two fights ago he was beaten up by Dominick Cruz worse than anybody’s been beaten up by Dominick Cruz, ever.

The other name being thrown around in the aftermath of UFC 132 is Demetrious Johnson, who’s coming off decision wins over Miguel Torres and Kid Yamamoto. Impressive? Of course. Still, Johnson has never been on the main card of a UFC event, and promoting him as a headliner could be a tough sell. Give Mighty Mouse one more fight to establish himself — or hurry up and create that long-rumored flyweight division so the diminutive Johnson can dominate there.

Chris Leben: There’s no limit to the brawling abilities of a sugar-free Cat Smasher. Leben vs. Wandy was a bit of a stunt-fight, and now that Leben has emerged victorious, he should return to a more conventional contender track. The first name that comes to mind is Mark Munoz, who’s riding a three-fight win streak, most recently outpointing Demian Maia last month at UFC 131 — although Vitor Belfort could also be a great matchup for Leben, as long as the Phenom can get past Yoshihiro Akiyama next month in Philadelphia.

For all the grief we give the guy, we owe him a second photo of this submission. (Pic: UFC.com)

There were a score of unofficial bonuses dealt out last night. Tito got to keep his job and shut up his many, many detractors. Cruz evened the scorecards against Faber and avenged his only loss. Chris Leben bounced back from a crippling Gummi Bear addiction to score a vicious 27 second KO victory over Wanderlei Silva. As if that weren’t enough, the UFC handed out a quartet of its official, more financially lucrative $75k bonuses as well.

When fans booed the first women’s MMA match promoted by Zuffa, most of us assumed we were witnessing the beginning of the end for women’s MMA under the Zuffa banner. Strikeforce allowing their women’s middleweight champion Chris “Cyborg” Santos to become a free agent seemed to confirm that. However, it seems that Strikeforce still intends to keep women’s MMA around for the time being. On Friday, Strikeforce announced that Olympic judoka Ronda Rousey will be making her promotional debut on the prelims of the July 30 Fedor vs. Henderson card against 4-1 Sarah D’Alelio.

At 24 years old, Rousey is a very interesting prospect. She became the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo, winning a Bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. She celebrated this by becoming a vegan. Seriously. She is currently 2-0 as a professional MMA fighter, with both fights ending in under a minute by armbar. For that matter, all of her amateur fights ended that way as well. To say the least, the odds are pretty good that her fight against Sarah D’Alelio won’t last too long.

Video of her June 17 fight against Charmaine Tweet after the jump.

First win since 2006? Yeah, we’d probably savor the moment a little longer than we should as well. (Pic: MMAWeekly.com)

Just a few fights into last night night’s card I was looking at my watch. It wasn’t because the fights were boring, nor because my wings had yet to arrive. It was the pace at which the fights, and fighters, were dropping. For the first time ever, I was concerned that the UFC didn’t have enough lame movie and video game promos to spam throughout the event. In more ways than one, time was the theme of UFC 132. The evening’s bouts marked the end of a long run, good and bad, for many of the fighters on the card.

(4 Years, 3 Months) Tito’s last taste of victory

Have you ever seen anyone so elated to win a fight? Rightfully so, as there was no ambiguity as to “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’s” position in the UFC: win, or get the fuck out. Few gave him a chance against Ryan Bader, a guy who seemed to hold every advantage and who’d amassed an impressive 11-1 record, all during Tito’s infamous slide down the rankings. Ortiz quickly connected with a short right hook, dropping his opponent to the mat, and less than two minutes into the fight Bader was quite literally choking in his second consecutive defeat. As much as we give Tito a hard time—and it is almost always deserved—it was nice to see him finally get a win in the organization that he helped carry for many years. Now, can he do it again?

(After three days of utter confusion, Arianny finally realizes what ‘Chocolate Al’ means. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this album, click here.)

As you make plans for your various drunken 4th of July celebrations, keep in mind that some of the men you see tonight may be too injured to grill burgers on Monday. Appreciate their sacrifice, ladies and gentlemen. Now then, who wants to see some dudes get kicked in the head and choked unconcious?

Manning the liveblog duties for this evening is CagePotato rising star Jason Moles, who will be providing round-by-round updates from the UFC 132 pay-per-view card beginning at 9 p.m. ET. Travel past the jump to join our little liveblog party, and refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest. Thanks for being here, and may God bless this great nation.

This guy’s excited

Okay, so maybe Maximum Fighting Championship may not have the exposure or roster depth of the UFC. You know, just maybe. But unlike its major league counterpart, it does have a sturdy broadcasting deal. According to Sherdog, yesterday MFC and HDNet announced that they inked a new deal, extending their partnership for an additional five years. Their partnership, which began back in 2008, is now expected to carry on into 2016.

The promotion’s next event, MFC 31, will take place on October 14^th. The card will feature newly re-crowned lightweight champion Antonio McKee squaring off against Brian “The Bandit” Cobb, who is a member of Team Pain and Suffering. Go figure. Neither the location of the event or other bouts on the card has been announced yet, but you know where you’ll be able to watch it.

Only days removed from his suspension, MMA’s best trash talker is eager to get his mug back in the spotlight. When asked his thoughts on tonight’s battle between fellow middleweights Chris Leben and Wanderlei Silva, Chael wasted little time in slinging some mud and continuing his verbal tirade on Wanderlei.

Neither Chael’s desire to face the “Axe Murderer” in his return bout nor his delusion that he is the Middleweight Champion have waned. The short video is peppered with gems which prove that Sonnen isn’t suffering from the dreaded mic-rust.

Live Videos by Ustream

Launched by our buds at Heavy.com, Fight Day is the only live UFC pre-show on the Internet, and will be broadcasting from the MGM Grand Garden Arena starting at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT. Today’s “UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber” installment features preview coverage, fight analysis, and interviews from an all-star cast of fighters and reporters, including Brian Stann, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Hottest Women in MMA Grand Prix nominee Megan Olivi, and former CagePotato editor turned shrimp-boat captain Ben “Stumpy” Fowlkes. If you’re around this afternoon, watch the show in the embedded Ustream player above, and keep the dial on CagePotato.com this evening for our UFC 132 liveblog!