(Video courtesy of YouTube/StocktonHeyBuddy)

Well, it looks like bad luck has struck against Rashad Evans again and the longtime number one UFC light heavyweight contender could once again miss out on another title shot.

Though he hid his injury well during today’s UFC/Fox press conference, Evans told TMZ last night that the cast he was wearing was protecting pins he had surgically inserted to hold his thumb in place while it heals from what UFC officials told the website is just a bad sprain he incurred in his UFC 133 win over Tito Ortiz. Rashad played the injury off as being no big deal and said it shouldn’t take long to heal, but he may be protecting his coveted title shot.

(“Maybe he was born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.”)

One overlooked scenario from today’s blockbuster announcement that Fox Networks has signed a seven year broadcast deal with the UFC is that Gus Johnson may somehow be involved in its UFC coverage.

Fox recently inked the sometimes MMA commentator to a multi-year commentary deal that will see the veteran football and basketball play-by-play man call a variety of Pacific-12 football and basketball games, the Cotton Bowl and football games on the Big Ten Network, which is also partly owned by Fox. He will also call about 30 BTN basketball games as well as some yet-to-be-determined college basketball games on either Fox or FX.

Hopefully for the sake of the majority of MMA fans who came to loathe the much-maligned Renzo Gracie BJJ blue belt’s oblivious Strikeforce commentary, his other duties will keep his made-up mug off of the UFC-related broadcasts, that are said to include pre and post-fight shows and a weekly or daily UFC magazine-type series.

(The only substance K-Sos uses these days is horse blood.)

During an appearance on MMAFighting’s The MMA Hour on Tuesday, Krzysztof Soszynski made a somewhat surprising revelation that at least 85 to as many as 96% percent of MMA athletes use some form of performance enhancing drug. According to the veteran fighter, you can tell by looking at a fighter’s physique who is and who isn’t using and he would know, considering that prior to becoming a fighter he competed in professional bodybuilding and spent a few years as a pro wrestler.

Although he stopped short of actually saying that he had anabolic help building his hulking physique, “The Polish Experiment” said that he has never used illegal substances since he began fighting.

“Back in the days when I was a bodybuilder, obviously it was a little different, but for mixed martial arts, I don’t [use PEDs],” he told host Ariel Helwani. I don’t believe in it.”

The next hungry finalist in our Proving Ground competition is Andrew Carrillo, who sent us a two-part video package containing the closest thing to a celebrity endorsement we’ve seen so far. In part 1 (above), Andrew’s coaches and teammates talk about their experience training with him, and why the featherweight prospect would be a great fit in Shark Fights. Among the well-wishers is UFC veteran and Premier Combat Center co-owner Ryan Jensen, who had this to say:

“Andrew’s one of the hardest-working guys in the gym, he puts in 110% effort every single time, he’s always pushing the guys, and he’s always trying to help the guys that are less-talented than him learn as much as they can. He’s a huge asset to the gym, and I’m just glad he’s part of the team…He is a guy that came in to us with a lot of wrestling, he had a little bit of standup, and now he’s starting to really turn into a true mixed martial artist…Andrew deserves to win this contract because he’s put in the hard work, he’s in every single day, he gives 110, 120% every time he’s in, and he’s not gonna disappoint. He’s gonna bring it in the cage, and he’s gonna throw a good show for you guys and you’ll be impressed.”

After the jump: Part 2 of Carrillo’s finalist video, in which Andrew finally shows his face, and takes us through a rather intense-looking workout. Visit Andrew’s Proving Ground page to watch him kick ass in past fights, and click his Facebook “Like” button if you’d like to see him represent CagePotato.com at Shark Fights 19!

(Pic via MiddleEasy)

Rejoice, fight fans, because the UFC has finally made it to network television. It was announced today in Los Angeles that the world’s premier MMA promotion will begin hosting live events on FOX beginning November 12th. And that’s just the beginning.

While following the live video stream of today’s UFC/FOX press conference, I — like every other MMA writer who wasn’t actually in the building — was intently monitoring people’s reactions on twitter and chipping in my own two cents when it seemed appropriate. So much information was released in the hour-long session that instead of transcribing the whole mess myself, I’ll just cherry-pick the most important bits that were coming through on our Freaks of the Industry feed. (Future of journalism, people.) All the good stuff is contained right here, so read on…

@stevecofield: UFC/FOX makes it official with a 10:02am PT press release. First event airs on Nov. 12 at 9pm ET. Spring 2012 TUF 15 on FX

@jordanbreen: You’ll never see another sport where so many people are excited for the symbolism of a guy from Newsradio wearing a jacket.

@benfowlkes: Fox cameramen apparently confused about the difference between GSP and Frankie Edgar. Rough start, but okay…

@mikechiappetta: FOX exec says TUF will move to Fridays. “We’ll literally own Friday nights,” he says.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/federalpremiumammo)

Well, it looks like Brock Lesnar has recovered from his latest diverticulitis flare-up. The former WWE and UFC heavyweight champion’s sponsor Federal Premium Ammo released the video above of Lesnar out killing vicious prairie dogs with high-powered rifles while laughing like a maniac and chewing on Jack’s Links jerky. So much for his illness making him a kinder, gentler Brock who eats healthier.

(But they both look like such gentlemen.)

This isn’t a good week to be a former UFC fighter charged with rape.

By Friday the trials of Joe Son and Mike Whitehead will both be underway.

You know how sometimes you work on something for a long time, but toward the end you’re just making it worse, but you’ve already put time and energy into it so you don’t want to trash it? Yeah, that’s never happened to me before.

From Wikipedia: The Casino of the Sky has a functional planetarium utilizing fiber optics to display the sun, moon, and stars accompanying the lighting effects of the Wombi Rock, which is a three-story high crystal mountain crafted of alabaster and more than 12,000 individual plates of hand-selected onyx from quarries in Iran, Pakistan, and Mexico; which were transported to Carrara, Italy and fused into glass.

Now look, we may not be able to fully comprehend the functional value of this “Wombi Rock” but that sounds fucking BALLER. Turns out the Mohegan Sun Casino outside Uncasville, Connecticut is the second largest casino in the United States, and we have some extravagant casinos.

So when Bellator pops off for the third and last time of the summer this Saturday, don’t talk to me about “minor league” and “small potatoes”. With a talent pool that is constantly getting deeper with the excellent scouting from the BFC office, a tournament format that keeps fans coming back, and a spot waiting for them on SpikeTV (*fingers crossed*) Bellator is big time, baby.

Come on in and let’s run down the show, starting off with that Featherweight Tournament Final…

This seems like the only appropriate reaction.

This leggy beauty won the Hooter’s 2011 Swimsuit Pageant (where a young lady named Arianny Celeste was a judge) and went on the be a Guest Octagon Girl at UFC 132.

Can you name her?

Slow-motion destruction — always a good time. Here’s UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva doing what he does best in a pair of new ads for Budweiser Brasil. Please, keep your can-crushing jokes to yourself.

The Bud campaign is just one of several high-profile sponsorships that Andy has landed recently, including deals with Burger King and Nike. After the jump, Anderson Silva’s first “viral video” for Nike. Man, are Brazilian copy-writers lazy or what?

(Also, Glenn Beck’s old spot will be permanently replaced by BJ Penn tackling people.)

As reported earlier this week, the UFC and FOX have been finalizing a new broadcast deal that will place up to four annual fight events on the network and move weekly programming (like The Ultimate Fighter) to cable subsidiary FX. The partnership will be made public today at a press conference in Los Angeles, scheduled for 10 a.m. local time. (Or at least that’s what we think will happen. I mean, what else would they announce? Their mutual love of It’s Always Sunny?)

Expected for the press conference are Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, Georges St. Pierre, Frankie Edgar, Rashad Evans, as well as FOX Sports Media Group Chairman and CEO David Hill, Co-Presidents and COO’s Randy Freer and Eric Shanks, and FX President John Landgraf.

fxnetworks.com will host a live stream of the press conference at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m ET. Keep your eye on it, and we’ll talk later.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/GregInsco)

We’re not sure what he’s been blowing his exotic dancing and mascot pay checks on, but apparently Shark Fights mascot Greg Insco needs some fast cash bad.

I had Hardcore Pawn on in the background on my office TV earlier today when I thought I heard someone tell Les, the shop owner, that he had “two choices: left fist hospital or right fist cemetery.” I rewound the PVR to make sure I wasn’t hearing things and sure enough I wasn’t. You know MMA is reaching the mainstream when you see stuff like this on shows not at all related to the sport.

(Sometimes winning and heart aren’t enough. Just ask Vince McMahon.)

During an appearance on Steve Cofield and Kevin Iole’s ESPNRadio1100/98.9 FM’s “The MMA Insiders” show on Friday, UFC president Dana White made it clear that in spite of the fact that Jon Fitch has not lost since dropping a decision to Georges St-Pierre three years ago, the American Kickboxing Academy captain won’t likely get a title shot anytime soon because the fight is a tough one to sell.

“Everybody is saying ‘Jon Fitch is one of the best in the world, when is he fighting GSP?’ The problem is he went in and fought GSP and got destroyed,” White explained like it happened a month ago. “I mean GSP completely dominated him from the first round to the fifth round and beat him up and dropped him and everything else…”

It’s funny, Kenny Florian keeps getting title shots and the UFC has been trying to put together a rematch between Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans despite how the last ones went.

But we digress.

Instead of scratching our heads over the UFC’s double standards when it comes to earning a title shot, we’ve come up with five suggestions for Fitch to get what he has coming to him since winning doesn’t seem to be enough.

Check out the gallery after the jump.

(“Sorry, God. I didn’t ask to be this awesome.” Props: UFC.com)

The UFC paid out $838,000 in disclosed payouts and bonuses to the fighters at Sunday’s UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle event, according to figures released by Wisconsin’s Department of Safety and Professional Services. Chris “The Bonus Snatcher” Lytle and Donald Cerrone were the only competitors who broke the six-figure mark, with Dan Hardy’s haul landing just short.

The numbers are below; keep in mind that they don’t include additional income from sponsorships and undisclosed “locker room” bonuses, or deductions for taxes, insurance, and licensing fees.

Chris Lytle: $200,000 (includes $35,000 win bonus, $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $65,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
def. Dan Hardy: $90,000 (includes $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Ben Henderson: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Jim Miller: $35,000

Donald Cerrone: $109,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus, $65,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
def. Charles Oliveira: $12,000

After being selected as one of the four finalists for our Proving Ground competition with Shark Fights, featherweight prospect Jacob Austin decided to film a video shouting out the Potato Nation and giving us a glimpse into his life. So what do we learn about Jacob? Well…

- He comes from a wrestling background and has been competing in MMA professionally since 2008.

- You know his gym is legit because it has an ice bath.

- Tim Kennedy beats him up on a regular basis.

- His dog Lucy seems way healthier than my dog.

Visit Jacob’s Proving Ground page to watch some of his past fights, and click his Facebook “Like” button if you dig what you see.

(The UFC is calling this ‘a potential Fight of the Night’)

A welterweight scrap between Martin Kampmann and Rick Story has been added to UFC 139, which is scheduled for November 19 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

The UFC announced the bout Wednesday.

WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW? VidProps: BlackBeltMagazine/YouTube

Some things you just never expect to see. You never expect to see a picture of Brock Lesnar with spectacles, or BJ Penn and Matt Hughes broing it up. We will probably never see Cheick Kongo hit a flower sweep to triangle choke, or Jared Shaw look like anything but a giant bag o’ douche, or Dana White say anything nice about MMA websites. I have seen some things in my time, Nation, but this … this is a whole ‘nother thing.

What we have here is some truly unexpected video evidence of Chael Sonnen on his back. Doing jiu jitsu. Explaining jiu jitsu. Attempting, if you can believe it, a submission maneuver.

Mind is asplode.

As if that were not enough, after the jump you’ll find more video of this alternate-universe Sonnen being interviewed by a Brazilian reporter for RedeTV and saying nice, respectful things about Brazil and its flag. Lest you start to believe that one of Sonnen’s other personalities has completely taken over, relax — he’s still full of piss and vinegar whenever he talks about Anderson Silva.

(“Yeah baby, I’d go three rounds with you. Wait a minute. Why are you glueing shards of broken glass to your hand-wraps? No. NO! FUUUUUUUUU-” / And then the caption-narrator died. The end.)

Known as “Beautiful Fighter” to her fans, South Korean kickboxing star Lim Su-Jeong has become something of a martyr in her home country after an appearance on the Japanese TV show “Flames Sports Competition” turned ugly last month. As NewAmericaMedia reports:

Soo-young Lim, 27, was seriously injured during what was supposed to be a mock match with three Japanese comedians on the show…All three of the men were wearing protective gear. Lim, a mixed martial artist, wore only gloves.

[T]he three comedians — Toshiaki Kasuga, 31, Hiroshi Shinagawa, 39, and Koji Imada, 45 — are known to have backgrounds in martial arts. During the fight, Lim was several times knocked down by kicks from the men that were executed “as skillfully as pros.” Lim and her management team have reportedly demanded an apology from the show’s producers.

Video of the incident is after the jump, via patrice on the UG; notice that Lim is the only one not wearing headgear. With tensions between Korea and Japan as uncomfortable as ever, some viewers interpreted the segment as an intentional act of humiliation. Your thoughts?

(Deja vu all over again all over again: Frankie and Gray strike a familiar pose at the UFC 136 press conference. Photo via MMAMania)

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…

- Nate Marquardt Calls BJ Penn a Cry Baby Idiot Pothead (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- ‘UFC 136: Edgar vs Maynard 3′ Conference Call Highlights (MMA Mania)

- Shawn Tompkins’ Sudden Death Leaves ‘Huge Void’ in Las Vegas Fight Scene (MMA Fighting)

- ‘UFC Undisputed 3′ Gameplay Trailer (LowKick)

- Fight Nerd Cinema: South Korea’s ‘Champion’ Movie Review (TheFightNerd)

- Underrated Joseph Benavidez Awaits Another Shot (NBC Sports MMA)

- Dana White: Yushin Okami is Best Fighter to Ever Come From Japan (5thRound)

- Start This Morning Off by Watching Skinny Kids Get Beat up by Alistair Overeem (MiddleEasy)

- Jon Fitch Cleared for Competition, UFC 139 Match Against Hendricks Rumored (Five Ounces of Pain)

- David Williams: A Statistical Look at Fedor Emelianenko’s Place in MMA History (FightOpinion)

- Brazilian Reporter Gifts Chael Sonnen a Brazilian Flag (MMA Convert)

- CNN to Air Replays of ‘Mayweather-Ortiz 24/7′ (MMA Payout)

(Surprised they didn’t call this one “Beauty and the Beast.”)

On this day in MMA history two years ago Strikeforce held it’s first event headlined by a women’s championship fight. Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg, which featured a bout between Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos for the inaugural Strikeforce Women’s middleweight (145 pound) championship, took place on Saturday, August 15, 2009 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/FightHype.)

Jeff Mayweather, the uncle of IBO, WBC, IBA, IBF and IBO Welterweight World champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. says that he’s confident that his nephew will finally face longtime nemesis and WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao some time in 2013.

“I think [Floyd] will be fighting another couple of years,” he told Fighthype.com. “I think that’s being realistic because I think the [best] fight that’s out there will take that long to materialize.”

After sifting through the first batch of entries for our Proving Ground competition, CagePotato.com and Shark Fights have selected four finalists to advance to Round 2. They are:

Jacob Austin: The 5-1 featherweight from Texas whose elbows make news anchors very uncomfortable.

Andrew Carrillo: The other 5-1 featherweight (and father-to-be) whose body of work includes a Shogun/Coleman-esque arm-snap.

Nick Newell: The 5-0 lightweight from Massachusetts who was into Bieber before any of you.

Andy Uhrich: The 7-3 welterweight/middleweight from Memphis who once TKO’d the dude who played Crockett on Miami Vice. Okay, not really.

So who will get a chance to score a multi-fight MMA contract and represent us at Shark Fights 19, September 10th in Independence, Missouri? Stay tuned and find out. (By the way, BG and possibly even ReX will be attending the event, so start making your travel plans now if you want to hang out with some of the CagePotato brain-trust in person. Tickets can be purchased here.)

We’ll be putting up more videos through the week and alerting you guys when there are updates. For now, check out the Final Four on the Proving Ground page, watch their fights and interviews, and use those Facebook “Like” buttons to show support for the fighters you like best. Thanks so much, and please follow Shark Fights on Facebook and Twitter!

(Sorry, Marge. Your kind has no place here. Props: Fox)

Although reports like this are usually followed by UFC president Dana White calling “bullshit,” SportsBusinessDaily is breaking a very interesting bit of news:

In what would represent a major push into the mainstream for the UFC, Fox has agreed to a deal that will see the broadcast channel air as many as four MMA events per year, according to several sources. The multiyear deal would mark the first time the UFC will have consistent airtime on a broadcast network.

Fox execs refused to comment on the deal, but sources with knowledge of the negotiations said bidding had gone as high as $90M per year. The Fox deal is believed to be for seven or eight years. As part of the deal, most of the weekly programming that UFC has on Versus and Spike TV will move to FX starting in January. That includes several fight cards, plus shows like the reality series “The Ultimate Fighter.”

Fox-owned Fuel also will wind up with some UFC content. But rumors that Fox will rebrand Fuel as a UFC channel are not true, sources said. Fox was attracted to UFC programming, which has produced some of the highest viewership figures ­— and most attractive demos —­ on Versus and Spike TV…Both the Versus and Spike TV deals with UFC expire at the end of the year.

According to Shawn Tompkins’ brother-in-law and longtime friend and fighter Sam Stout, the revered Ingersoll, Ontario-born trainer died from a heart attack.

Stout revealed the tragic news to the London Free Press on Tuesday.

“I don’t know what to say,” Stout said. “It’s not supposed to be happen to a healthy 37-year-old person. Who would think he had to get checked out for that?”

Mumbles getting his party on, after getting his swole on.  PicProps: 8CountNews

Remember when James Toney trolled his way into a main event matchup against Randy Couture? And remember when he lost about thirty pounds on the fight poster thanks to a grueling Shoop diet? And then he came into UFC 118 weighing 237, was sluggish, and looked kinda lost for pretty much the entire goddamn fight?

Well according to 8CountNews.com, after all that stuff happened, Toney sat down, evaluated his life choices, took stock of his skills, knowledge and abilities, and resolved to rededicate himself to training in combat sports.

Or, as Toney explains: “My wife and pops sat down with me and they told me to take my career serious.”

By Mike Russell

(Parisyan says he’s motivated to beat Smith and get back on the winning track.)
Karo “The Heat” Parisyan (19-7) will take on Jordan “Mata Ele” Smith (15-2-1) September 14 at the upstart Amazon Forest Combat promotion’s first event in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil.

Parisyan informed CagePotato.com last night that the bout agreements for the fight have been signed and said that he’s excited to get back out and put on an even better performance than he did in his last outing in May at MMA Live 1 against Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford in London, Ontario, Canada. He was winning the fight heading into the third round, having controlled the action using takedowns and his trademark judo throws, but was caught with a well-timed knee by the Canadian welterweight standout who recently signed with Bellator and the bout was stopped due to a cut. The heartbreaking loss left a bad taste in Parisyan’s mouth and motivated him to up his training intensity while awaiting word of his next bout.

(Props: NaturalBornKillerMMA)

On August 27th, the UFC returns to Brazil for the first time since 1998, featuring a middleweight title fight — Anderson Silva gunning for his ninth belt-defense against Yushin Okami — and a collection of native fighters representing the sport’s past, present, and future. Watching the UFC 134 trailer, it’s clear that there are a lot of storylines swirling around the event that will add even more drama to the already-stacked lineup. So let’s run ‘em down, shall we?

Everybody loves a good rematch: Anderson Silva’s last official loss was due to a subtle rule in MMA that states you can’t kick a downed fighter in the head — even if that fighter is on top of you. Silva has always felt that Okami took the easy way out during their first meeting in January 2006, and UFC 134′s main event is his chance to set the record straight. If not for that oddball disqualification, Silva’s undefeated streak would extend all the way back to his freakish PRIDE loss to Ryo Chonan, six and a half years ago.

Meanwhile, Mauricio Rua will have a chance to even the score against Forrest Griffin, who choked him out in shocking fashion during Shogun’s UFC debut in 2007. Since that night, both men have won the light-heavyweight title and lost it. With consecutive wins over Tito Ortiz and Rich Franklin, Forrest Griffin is still very much a player at 205 — and Rua is coming off of the most lopsided beating he’s ever suffered in his entire career. Does Shogun deserve to be the favorite again? Will the story have a different ending on his home turf?

Brazil vs. The World: Good Lord, look at all those green flags…

By Mike Russell

I spoke with Shawn on the phone about a week and a half prior to his tragic and sudden passing this past weekend at age 37. During our conversation we spoke about the brotherhood he shares with Mark Hominick, Chris Horodecki and Sam Stout and the past present and future of Team Tompkins among other topics.

We’re just going to leave this photo of Matt Hughes and BJ Penn going on a little lunch date today right here.

By Jared “DangadaDang” Jones

When asked to describe his career in his final post-fight interview following his submission victory over Dan Hardy, Chris Lytle summed up more than a decade’s worth of sport-defining battles with one word — “exciting.” And how appropriate a sign-off it was for the soft spoken, hard swinging Indiana born fighter. Over the course of 54 fights, 20 of which took place under the bright lights of the UFC, Lytle never once let a loss, an opponent, or a chance at title contention stop him from entertaining his audience.

In the fight game, both fighters and fans often look at success with tunnel vision, believing that the belt around one’s waist alone defines it. But even with the greatest champions, we sometimes find ourselves questioning their willingness to take big risks for the relatively small reward of the fans’ respect. And though he never donned UFC gold, it goes without saying that “Lights Out” was never one to take the easy road to victory. From his legendary slugfests with Paul Kelly, Thiago Alves, and Marcus Davis to his impressive and creative submission victories over Matt Brown, Brian Foster, and Jason Gilliam, Lytle always put the fans’ delight before his own, throwing caution, his health, and perhaps his better judgment to the wind in order to ensure that we all got our money’s worth. And his final battle was no exception; though he had a clear grappling advantage over Hardy, Lytle opted to slug it out with the dangerous striker, choosing to end the fight by submission only when prompted to by Hardy himself.