Fresh off his angelic Burger King commercial, UFC Middleweight Champ Anderson Silva recently appeared on Brazilian talk show Agora e’ Tarde to sing a duet with comedian and the show’s co-host Danilo Gentili. Apparently after dominating every possible contender in the middleweight division, “The Spider” must have his eyes set on the Grammy’s. Though the performance was less than stellar, the good news is that Anderson can still consult long time hero Steven Seagal for advice in this department as well.

Join us after the jump for a study in Jon Jones’ superhuman abilities and the most unexpected knockout that you may ever see.

As expected, only a small handful of you were insane enough to suggest that Jake Ellenberger would smoke Jake Shields in 53 seconds. I still can’t believe it myself. (Neither could Shields, for that matter.) But in the end, only two CagePotato fight-pickers predicted the quick TKO stoppage in Shields vs. Ellenberger and Court McGee’s unanimous decision over Dongi Yang, scoring themselves Warrior movie passes and other goodies in the process. They were…

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ScottEpstein)

Back by popular demand…

It’s Monday and most of our brains haven’t kicked into third gear yet, so we’ll make today’s technique a simple, yet effective one.

If you ever find yourself in side control during a roll, match or fight and are looking for a finishing move that doesn’t require a ton of energy or strenght to pull off, give this nifty little move demonstrated by 10th Planet black belt instructor Scott “Einstein” Epstein a try.

With all the buzz surrounding UFC 135, you might have forgotten that DREAM 17 transpires Saturday, and features a pretty stacked card to boot. Japanese legend Kasushi Sakuraba returns to action for the first time since nearly having his ear torn off by Marius Zaromskis, taking on undefeated submission specialist Yan Cabral. Sakuraba is currently riding a three-fight losing streak including the aforementioned loss to Zaromskis as well as a submission loss to Jason “Mayhem” Miller at Dream 16 and a unanimous decision loss to Ralek Gracie back at Dream 14. “The Gracie Hunter” is in desperate need of a win here to avoid falling into Ken Shamrock territory, though some critics out there feel he already has.

Also on the card, Shinya Aoki takes on Rob McCullough in a lightweight bout. Aoki has technically gone 5-0 fight win streak since his loss to Gilbert Melendez at Strikeforce: Nashville; this is of course excluding his embarrassing knockout loss to Yuichiro “Jienotsu” Nagashima in a mixed rules match at Dynamite!! 2010. But hey, if Sherdog doesn’t count it, then it never happened. McCullough on the other hand recently had a two fight win streak snapped by the heavy hands of Patricky Friere back at Bellator 36.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/FightHype)

If you happened to catch the Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz post-fight press conference Saturday night, you may have done a double take when you heard Tito Ortiz take the mic and ask the challenger a question. Not sure if Tito pretended to be a journalist so he could score ringside seats to the fight or maybe he was forced to get a part-time job after taking a substantial pay cut for his last two fights, but judging by his work, maybe he shouldn’t quit his day job.

We all know that Tito is a linguistics expert and an expert on the anatomy of deaf people, but let’s just say that he makes us *other* reporters look good when he tries his hand at journalism. His was longer and more incoherent than the answer given by the guy who just got knocked out.

Check out the transcription of the awkward exchange after the jump.

I did it at least nine times. How else would I inherit his empire?

By Jason Moles

Last week MMA Fighting reported that Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, real life son-in-law of WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, said he thought the UFC should evolve like the pro wrestling juggernaut has, “because quite frankly sometimes the fights are long and boring, guys lying around and sometimes the fights are fast and over in five seconds.”

Is “The Game” right? Does it matter? Before we pass judgment on his comments, let’s take a quick look at a few specific examples he gave for his opinion, then weigh the pros and cons of leaning too far towards Entertainment or Winning.

(LOL @ Toney trying to form a sentence at the 0:41 mark. I mean, dementia pugilistica is a tragedy and all, but come on, that’s hilarious. Props: ESNEWS)

I guess it was too good to be true. According to a recent press release from the James Toney camp, the highly(-ish?) anticipated MMA superfight between Toney and UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock has been delayed until early next year, which is probably just a nice way of telling us that it’s been canceled altogether. Instead, Lights Out will be focusing his efforts on boxing cruiserweight contender Denis Ledbedev, November 5th in Russia. If that fight comes together, it’ll be the first time since 2003 that Toney will compete at 200 pounds. Believe it, son.

BoxingInsider claims the Toney vs. Shamrock MMA match has “fallen apart over money issues.” Wait a minute, does that mean Chael Sonnen was right the whole time? As he so eloquently put it last month…

For Jake Ellenberger, the best part about his victory last night has to be his arrival in the UFC’s welterweight division. With a quick, convincing victory over Jake Shields, Ellenberger has set himself up for better opponents, more attention from the fans and the media and the better paydays that accompany those things. The second best part? The 55k Knockout of the Night bonus he picked up in the process, of course.

Submission of the Night honors went to T.J. Waldburger for his first round triangle choke against Mike Stumpf. Initially, Waldburger appeared to have Stumpf caught in an armbar. When Stumpf managed to escape, Waldburger pulled off a textbook transition to a triangle choke. The win gives T.J. Waldburger his 11^th victory by submission.

Our thoughts exactly. Props: MMAMania

Coming into last night’s UFC Fight Night 25, Jake Shields was in a lose-lose situation. He was presented with an opponent, Jake Ellenberger, who was facing his first real step up in competition. A victory over him wouldn’t necessarily propel Shields back to the top of the welterweight division. If Jake Shields lost, well, Jake Shields isn’t going to lose this one so let’s not worry about it. Last night was going to be Jake Shield’s first step towards living up to the hype that surrounded him when he entered the UFC and getting back in the mix for a shot at the welterweight title. There was only one problem: That didn’t happen. In just under one minute, Jake Ellenberger practically ended the Jake Shields era.

This isn’t to say that it’s over for Jake Shields, or that he still can’t work his way back to relevance in the welterweight division. But it’s certainly over for the myth that Jake Shields is still one of the top fighters out there. Last night, Jake Shields couldn’t implement his game plan because Jake Ellenberger was able to stuff his takedown attempts. It wasn’t “What did Shields do wrong”; it was what Ellenberger did right. He was the better fighter, plain and simple. And let’s not entertain the thought of “early stoppage” any more than we had to after hearing Jake Shields imply it last night. When you take a knee directly to the chin, immediately turtle up, and then try to grapple with the referee who pulls your opponent off of you, you have no business saying that the fight was stopped early. If you didn’t think Shields was out when you first watched that fight, watch it again while you still can.

(Props: gsemajt)

Floyd Mayweather upped his perfect boxing record to 42-0 last night with a fourth-round knockout of Victor Ortiz, a win that earned him the WBC Welterweight World Title — but it wouldn’t be Money May without a little controversy.

Mayweather controlled the majority of the first three rounds with his trademark speed, outlanding his younger opponent. The fourth frame was a back-and-forth slugfest, opening with a furious assault by Floyd. But Ortiz turned the tables and battered Mayweather against the ropes in the final minute. Unfortunately, the 24-year-old let his emotions get the better of him.

As you can see in the video above, Ortiz blatantly head-butts Mayweather with 14 seconds left in the round. The referee spots the foul and immediately separates the fighters. By way of apology, Ortiz walks over to Mayweather to give him a hug and kiss. That’s strike one.

“Man, I just can’t tell you how much stronger I feel since I got my leukocyte count under control, you know?  I feel like I could do this all day!”  PicProps:  Keith Mills for Sherdog

Since we all know that you didn’t watch Bellator last night, how about a recap?  Come on inside for accounts of the event, plus videos of the middleweight tournament bouts, courtesy of Zee2TehPee and ArnForgesArn.com – massive props to those guys.  Boo boo on the crowd in Hollywood, Florida, which seemed just a little too quick to rain down boos on a good night of fights.  Come on inside and I’ll tell you all about it.

All 53 seconds of Jake Shields vs. Jake Ellenberger, from last night’s UFC Fight Night 25/Battle on the Bayou event. Check it out while it lasts.

(Man, you know Dana’s heart isn’t in this one when he can’t even be bothered to put on a funky t-shirt. / Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this album, click here.)

We told you why you should watch, and we told you how we think it’ll go down. At this point, it’s in God’s hands.

Tonight in New Orleans, Jake Shields and Jake Ellenberger will lock horns in a pivotal welterweight contest. Will Shields shows flashes of his old submission-machine self, or will Ellenberger spoil the party in the Big Easy?

Plus: Middleweights Alan Belcher and Jason MacDonald kick off the main card, and Court McGee and Jonathan Brookins take the next steps in their post-TUF careers. Meanwhile on pay-per-view, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is boxing Victor Ortiz, and hell, maybe we’ll give you updates on that one as well.

Live round-by-round updates from the Spike TV broadcast of “UFC Fight Night: Shields vs. Ellenberger” will be piling up after the jump starting at 9 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest. Here, we, go.

Click on the image for full sized picture

I’ll be honest: I don’t know the complete back-story to this photograph that was posted on Luke Rockhold’s Facebook page. I’m assuming it is from one of the AKA weddings that took place earlier this year (Both Cain Velasquez and Josh Thomson got married this summer), but I may be wrong. It’s really not that important.

What is important is that, from this picture, I can gather two things. Number one, Jon Fitch is clearly the life of the party. Why fans consider the man boring I’ll never fully understand. And number two, Chuck Liddell is just high on life. It’s nice to see that despite retiring from MMA, Chuck Liddell still has that look in his eyes that made him a legend in the sport. If this man weren’t still getting tested by someone, I’d probably draw slightly different conclusions about the whole “high on _____” thing. But when you’re as rich and successful as Chuck Liddell, life can be one helluva drug.

“Cut to 170? In how long? Like we don’t already know how this will end.”

When former UFC middleweight Nate Marquardt initially signed with BAMMA, most of us wondered who, aside from Paul Daley, Marquardt could fight in the organization. Nate Marquardt is currently set to make his BAMMA debut at BAMMA 8 on December 10 in Nottingham, England. While Nate has been busy vying for a fight with Paul Daley, it is starting to look like this fight may not happen. At least not any time this year.

Earlier this week, Paul Daley took to his website, stating, “I’m sorry to announce that I will not be fighting on the BAMMA 8 card in Nottingham on 10th December. Details as to why I will not be appearing on this card will remain undisclosed. I was most definitely looking forward to competing in front of my home town crowd, and was positive the event would have gone down in, not only Nottingham’s prestigious fighting history, but in UK MMA history as well… The rumours of a possible matchup between myself and Nate are now extremely unlikely to happen.”

Pictured: Seth giving Jared a tour of Louisiana.

Ultimate Fight Night 25 goes down tonight in New Orleans, and all that hot sauce and bourbon has whipped us into a fight picking frenzy. Representing the home team will be Louisiana’s own Seth Falvo, who will be doing battle against Head to Head newbie (read: loser) Jared “DangadaDang” Jones. Which Jake will reign supreme? Will it be a good night for The Ultimate Fighter, or a complete disaster? Will the stars of Swamp People get roped into a video interview with Joe Rogan? Find out all this and more, and then tell us what we forgot in the comments section.

Let’s skip the foreplay: Shields or Ellenberger, who ya got?

JJ: As unimpressed as I’ve been with Jake Shields’ UFC career thus far, I just can’t see how Ellenberger wins this one. Though his submission defense looked great, his takedown defense looked pretty exploitable against Carlos Eduardo Rocha, and if Dan Henderson can’t knock out Shields, then it ain’t happening, homie. I got Shields by UD in a match that I forget about quicker than every Saturday Night Live sketch of the past 10 years. The real question is, will the recent loss of Shields’ father have an effect on his game plan?

SF: In any other city, I’d be inclined to agree with you, Jared. But this is New Orleans. A city where the underdog has recently been able to thrive. A city renowned for its Voodoo culture. And, as anyone who has had one too many hand grenades and went home with a dress wearing local they found on Bourbon Street can tell you, a city where not everything is what it seems. Not that that’s ever happened to me or anything.

You’re only as good as your last fight. When we last saw Jake Shields, he was completely unable to take Georges St. Pierre to the ground and didn’t fare better trading punches with the champion until he managed to steal the fifth round. Jake Ellenberger, meanwhile, dominated Sean Pierson in a fight he took on only seventeen days notice. When you add on not only the death of Jake Shield’s father, but also that other distraction Team Cesar Gracie has been dealing with, it’s possible that Jake Shields isn’t as focused as he needs to be. This one has the potential to get interesting. Maybe not “Ellenberger pulls off the upset” interesting, but at least “watchable while sober” interesting.

Best Eyewitness You’ve Ever Seen – Watch MoreFunny Videos

- ProElite returns to Hawaii on Pro Bowl weekend in January (MMAFighting)

- 9 Emmy Awards that should exist (ScreenJunkies)

- Mayweather vs. Ortiz and the 10 biggest upsets in boxing history (MadeMan)

- Mike Tyson finally comments on the Sarah Palin-Glen Rice affair story (Guyism)

- Hero prevents morons from performing moronic coning prank (HolyTaco)

- Anderson Silva denies being offered $600,000 by swingers site for sponsorship (FightersOnly)

- Denver men pull off real life “Weekend at Bernie’s” (FilmDrunk)

- ‘Rampage’ says he’s in the best shape of his career for Jones fight (Yahoo!Sports)

- Cable guy charged with jerking off while doing install (WWSB)

- Get ready for Bellator 50: Battle of the cauliflower ears (Clutch.MTV)

- Dana White’s most philosophical question on The Ultimate Fighter (Fight Opinion)

- O-face now a penal violation (WithLeather)

- MMA Cult documentarist Genghis Con: “Jorge Masvidal is quite the ladies man” (BleacherReport)

- World’s greatest street luge course (MooneyStunts)

- The 25 most controversial Star Wars photos (SuperBooyah)

(Now if SF could just convince Batista to sign on the dotted line, the circle would be complete.)

It looks like Shark Fights has a new big draw.

According to a Fox Sports report, the Amarillo, Texas- based organization has signed former WWE champion Bobby Lashley to a three-year deal and he will likely make his promotional debut in November. The event, which will be aired on Fuel TV, will likely take place in Missouri where Lashley attended college.

(Fedor poses with his new protege, Kiril Biebernov. Photo via MiddleEasy)

M-1 Global officials have confirmed that Fedor Emelianenko will return to action against Jeff Monson, November 20th at an M-1 Global event in Moscow. Both fighters have signed contracts for the match, which is expected to take place at Moscow’s Olympic Stadium.

It will be Fedor’s first fight in his home country since his first-round submission of Matt Lindland at BodogFIGHT: Clash of the Nations in April 2007. Fedor entered that fight on a streak of 23 fights without a loss. Now he finds himself trying to pull the emergency brake on a three-fight losing skid. As for Monson, he most recently lost a decision to Daniel Cormier in June.

M-1 Global has reportedly been in negotiations with Showtime Sports to broadcast the event on Showtime.

(Going sleeveless next to Alistair must be a humbling experience, huh Fez?)

First of all, no, we aren’t big LMFAO fans and that’s not how we discovered this little gem. It was brought to our attention by a Danish reader named Jacob Hansen who sent us a link to the video.

Now that we have that out of the way, we want answers how this strange pairing came to be. Did LMFAO put out a call for the scariest dude on the beach in L.A. that day and Alistair just happened to be chillin’ there with Handy Manny? There’s got to be an explanation. Until then, just take in the bizarre clip and wonder what they told “The Demolition Man” to act like for the shoot. Points for noticing Wilmer’s finger-snapping nod to MJ’s “Beat It” vid at the end.

If you can stomach listening to the song that accompanies this thing, check out the video after the jump.

Jason Mayhem Miller Appears on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon – Watch MoreFunny Videos

Jason Miller made a stop on “The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon” last night ahead of Wednesday’s The Ultimate Fighter 14 premiere and among other things “Mayhem” shared his thoughts on how he would fare against Jason Statham and Jason Bourne.

Bellator’s “Like Water” promo has been updated. Can you spot the difference?* VidProps: BellatorMMA/YouTube

Bellator’s fifth season middleweight tournament gets underway tomorrow night, with live broadcasts on MTV2 and EPIX covering all the main card action. With some stiff competition from the UFC and the WBC, there may be considerably fewer eyeballs on the bouts in Hollywood, Florida, but don’t tell these guys. There’s going to be some action. Go back and read the preview if you’ve forgotten anyone, and let’s run down the CagePotato picks for the evening.

(The BJ Penn air freshener — perfect for whenever something smells fishy.)

BJ Penn, God bless him, has never been afraid to bump heads with his UFC bosses — and now a new feud is brewing between the Prodigy and the UFC’s hype-show producers. It all started earlier this week when Penn released a video blog discussing an experience he had shooting the Countdown special for UFC 137. Said Penn:

“I got a lot of respect for Diaz, I’ve trained with him. They forced me to say… ‘You gotta say Nick Diaz‘s name now, you gotta say his name.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ They were like, ‘Say you’re going to beat Nick Diaz.’ And I said, ‘I’m going to beat Nick Diaz.’ I wish…I would have said ‘at UFC 137 my hand is going to be raised.’ I don’t know if they’re going to come back and try to show Nick Diaz that, I don’t know what’s going on with that.”

Seems innocent enough — it’s not like the UFC coached Penn to attack Diaz personally, and declarative statements like these are a standard element of fight promotion. But it was still enough to rub Penn the wrong way. So you can imagine how he felt when Dana White himself released footage showing that Penn wasn’t really “forced” to say anything at that Countdown shoot. Check this out…

If you still haven’t made it out out to the multiplex to see The Greatest MMA Movie Ever Filmed™, today might be your lucky day. Lionsgate just hooked us up with a box of Warrior-related goodies — free movie passes, Warrior t-shirts, and a copy of The Men of Warrior photo-book — and we’re going to unload it all in a Fight-Picking Fire Sale.

This Saturday, UFC Fight Night 25: Shields vs. Ellemberger goes down in New Orleans, featuring Jake Shields‘s battle against surging contender Jake Ellenberger, and Court McGee‘s return against South Korean middleweight prospect Dongi Yang. Submit your predictions for these two fights in the comments section below, including the winner’s name, the method of victory, and the time/round of stoppage, if any. Your entry should be in this format:

(Brett “Crisco” Rogers. Ain’t nothin’ sticks to him.)

Well, as expected, Brett Rogers isn’t going to have to answer for the crimes he committed against his wife back in July.

The former Strikeforce heavyweight today reached a plea deal in his domestic assault case stemming from an incident that occurred in the summer in which neighbors and Rogers’ nine and 10-year-old daughters witnessed the hulking former Sam’s Club employee ground and pounding his wife in the backyard of their Apple Valley home. During the attack, his wife, Tiuana was momentarily rendered unconscious, had one of her teeth knocked out and was left bloodied and battered and with cauliflower ear as she fled the scene. Following the incident, Rogers was charged with felony third-degree assault, felony domestic assault by strangulation, and felony stalking as well as one gross misdemeanor count of endangerment of a child.

According to the Apple Valley Patch, as a result of the plea deal his attourney was able to strike with prosecutors, Rogers pled guilty today to a simple charge of third-degree assault — which is not a felony — and the rest of the charges were dropped.

We can’t embed the stream since we don’t have the flash plug-in installed to our site, but you can check out the last half of the card HERE.

Make sure you click the “Full Screen” button.

(Props: KnuckleGame via Fightlinker)

Ultimate Fighter 14 coaches Michael Bisping and Jason Miller took shots at each other for over 30 minutes at a media call held yesterday to pump up the show. Here’s how the conversation ended (skip to the 35:28 mark to hear it):

Miller: [Bisping's] coaching staff are a lot of guys that I trained with back in the day and [I] moved on because they weren’t up to par for what I needed. So that just goes to show you Mike’s level of coaching staff.

Bisping: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’d just like to elaborate that Jason brought a chiropractor as one of his staff. He refers to himself as a doctor, but we all know a chiropractor isn’t a doctor, and certainly isn’t an MMA coach. But good for crackin’ your back.

(If you didn’t hit her, explain what happened to her eyebrows then, smart guy.)

Brett Rogers will appear in Dakota County District court today in Minnesota where he will attempt to explain to the jury in the case that everyone who saw him drunkenly beating the shit out of his wife is full of BS.

You may recall that “The Grim” was picked up at his Apple Valley home and charged with multiple domestic assault-related  felonies back in July after a neighbor called police after witnessing the heavy-handed former Strikeforce heavyweight using his wife’s face as a focus mitt.

According to the police report, the witness stated that he looked out his window and saw Rogers standing over top of his wife in their backyard punching her in the head repeatedly. After the attack, the neighbor says he saw the victim get up and that she was bleeding and missing a tooth. Rogers nine and 10-year-old daughters told another neightbor and officers who attended the scene that they witnessed the assault, which they said wasn’t a one-time occurrence, and their account of the attack matched the other witness’. When officers located Mrs. Rogers a short time later she denied the attack at first, but soon admitted what had happened.

(McGee vs. Yang, the middleweight showdown that UFC fans have been…wait a minute, remind me again who Yang is?)

Unless you’re one of those Bud Light ‘Battle on the Bayou’ contest winners, you’re probably not overly excited about Saturday’s “Shields vs. Ellenberger” UFC event on Spike. Boxing already has Saturday night locked up, with Floyd Mayweather‘s ring-return against 24-year-old WBC Welterweight champ Victor Ortiz, and it feels like UFC Fight Night 25 will be an overlooked prelude to next week’s Jones vs. Rampage card.

But let’s not admit defeat so soon. We’ll be liveblogging the Shields vs. Ellenberger main card on CagePotato.com starting at 9 p.m. ET, and it would be nice if a few of you showed up to keep us company. Could it be one of those “crap on paper, bonkers in reality” events? Who knows, but consider the following…

All Eyes on Jake: So far, Jake Shields‘s UFC career has consisted of an underwhelming (and razor-thin) split-decision victory over Martin Kampmann, and a rout at the hands of Georges St. Pierre. His dominant stretch of eight-straight stoppage victories in 2006-2009 are a distant memory in the minds of MMA fans, and he needs a dramatic win here, badly. Shields’s dance partner, Jake Ellenberger, has been spent years fighting for recognition, and with four straight Octagon wins over serious competition, he’s starting to get it. Stylistically, the fight might not be a barn-burner, but it could have career-altering implications for the headliners.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/LastAppleProductions)

Unless you happened to be at Rage in the Ring 15 last weekend in Lethbridge, Alberta, chances are you haven’t seen this clip. But luckily for you we have a lot of readers around the world who send us highlights from obscure promotions such as this one for the Potato Nation’s viewing pleasure, so you get to watch this little gem while sipping your morning coffee.