In: “I WANT MY BELT BACK!” Out: “There’s gone be some black on black crime.” VidProps: UFC/YouTube

Check this out: official UFC propaganda would have us believe that Rampage Jackson is actually out there somewhere working. They even have the nerve to pause on a calendar square labeled “JIU JITSU”, when we all know damn well that ‘Page would pull guard right after he lets someone hold an umbrella for him.

On the other hand, we’re pretty sure we’ve found the guy shooting footage of Jackson and passing it on to Jones.

Bones v Rampage goes down in just 22 days, and there’s plenty of action to keep you occupied until then.

The full UFC 135 card is after the jump.

Veteran MMA reporter Loretta Hunt joins the show this week to talk about her latest book, “Let’s Get It On! The Making of MMA and Its Ultimate Referee,” which she co-wrote with “Big” John McCarthy and is available in bookstores and on Amazon now.

Hunt touched on the process of crafting the story as well as some of the things she learned while interviewing the revered referee for the book among other topics.

By Jason Moles

Somewhere in the back your mind is a Mt. Rushmore of MMA, one for fighter and one for non-fighters. On the latter, you’d undoubtedly have Dana White in addition to your pick of Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr., Bruce Buffer, or Joe Rogan. However, you only get to pick two of the guys I’ve listed because the second spot on the mountain is reserved for the most recognized referee in all of MMA, “Big” John McCarthy.

No one has had a bigger impact on the sport of mixed martial arts without having actually fought someone or having the last name of Fertita or White. Few have stepped inside the Octagon more times than McCarthy and almost no one has helped grow the sport from birth to the dark ages and into the mainstream arena that it is in today. And you thought he just asked the fighters if they were ready and raised the winner’s hand?

“Big” John McCarthy was kind enough to sit down with CagePotato recently to discuss his new book ‘Let’s Get It On!‘ which can be purchased on Amazon. The book is 50% MMA history lesson, 50% autobiography, and 100% worth every penny spent to own a copy and every minute spent reading. So, without further adieu, let’s get it on!

VidProps: OneFCMMA/YouTube

Above is the commercial being aired in on ESPN Star Sports in about half a billion homes across Asia for ONE Fighting Championship. The new promotion is bursting out of Singapore, backed with some serious cash and helmed by an experienced promoter in Victor Cui. ONE is looking to fill the void in Asian MMA left after the loss of PRIDE, DREAM, and Sengoku, and thus far, they’ve been doing it right.

In case you missed it the first time we mentioned it, there’s a good bit of buzz surrounding the ONE FC rules set, which allows for soccer kicks, knees, and elbows. Unlike most Japanese MMA shows, however, the promotion will use a cage. “The rules are taking the best of Pride FC and the best of UFC,” Cui says.

ONE FC’s first show Champion vs Champion goes live tomorrow morning at 8AM ET, and you can get it free via a Sherdog stream… unless you live in Singapore. Then you’ll probably just go. Either way, you need to plan on being awake in about twenty four hours.

Come on inside for a couple more videos and the full card.

The UFC announced today that it will be holding an impromptu media conference call tomorrow at 1:00 pm ET, during which Dana White is expected to make a “major announcement.” It didn’t take long for the UFC president to reveal via his favorite communication channel, Twitter, that the announcement will be the two main event combatants in the promotion’s inaugural show on Fox which will also feature a featherweight scrap between Dustin Poirier and Pablo Garza.

Some are hypothesizing that former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem, who was dropped by the promotion last month for what Zuffa termed as “an issue with his management team” Golden Glory, will make up half of the bout and that his opponent will either be Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin or Frank Mir.

(When you wake up with a bad hangover and the front page of The NY Times is emblazoned with photos like these of you, you know it’s about time for you to hit the Betty Ford Clinic.)

Fresh off of a recent stint in rehab, Oscar De La Hoya sat down for a cathartic interview on Univision’s “Aqui y Ahora” show this week in which the former boxing champ came clean on a number of things, including his alcohol and drug abuse, infidelity and the fact that the infamous photos of him in lingerie, fishnet stockings and high heels  were real.

The New York Times now reports today that the boxer and Siberian model, Milana Dravnel who took the cross-dressing photos and later sued De La Hoya for $100 million for making her out to be a liar and accusing her of digitally adding his face to the images reached an out of court settlement for $20 million. Court documents obtained by the newspaper show that one of the stipulations of the settlement, that bound both sides to a confidentiality agreement, was that the outfit De La Hoya wore in the photos be returned to “The Golden Boy.”

(Sometimes these things happen in MMA. RouseyGifProps: Fightlinker)

Ronda Rousey (3-0) — the badass Cali chick and Judo champ who has submitted her three professional opponents in a combined 99 seconds — will make her next appearance at a November Strikeforce event, likely a Challengers card in Las Vegas. Rousey last competed three weeks ago, earning a somewhat controversial technical submission win over Sarah D’Alelio. During the fight, Rousey shouted at referee Steve Mazzagatti that D’Alelio had verbally tapped from an armbar, while D’Alelio claims that she was only screaming in agony.

Rousey will be facing Canadian striker Julia Budd (2-1), who most recently outpointed Germaine de Randamie at Strikeforce Challengers 16, but is perhaps more famous for getting dummied by Amanda Nunes. No other bouts for Strikeforce’s November card have been announced yet.

(Gross. They’re like a pack of feral cats. Props: FightersOnly via MMAConvert)

Guy-on-the-left clearly comes from the Wanderlei Silva school of intimidation. But seriously, go to a clinic and get yourself tested, buddy. Any Brazilians in the house want to give us a rough translation of “Cagão”?

(Apparently, you don’t f*ck with a union spurned.)

Culinary Workers Union Local 226 — the group that is battling Station Casinos to unionize its hotel and casino workers — launched a new salvo against the casino’s owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who also own a majority stake in the UFC and Strikeforce yesterday by firing off a letter of complaint to Federal Trade Commission Director Richard Feinstein in which they request that the FTC launch an investigation against Zuffa for what they deem as “a violation of anti-trust laws.”

According to the complaint, sent to CagePotato.com today by the union, Zuffa’s practices of buying out the competition like they did with PRIDE, the WEC, WFA and Strikeforce, their institution of champion’s clauses, automatic contract renewal clauses and guaranteed first negotiation periods in fighters’ contracts, their control of fighter image and likeness rights in perpetuity and their refusal to co-promote all put artificial restraints on athlete movement, depress pay and stifle competition.

(Video courtesy of Warrior/Yahoo)

Lionsgate released another clip from “Warrior” this week and the MMA-themed film still looks awesome.

In the latest preview, Tommy, played by Inception’s Tom Hardy, who will also be playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, steps in to work with the big dog at the gym who has knocked out all of his apt training partners. Hilarity ensues.

Above is the decidedly high-def looking promo for Bellator’s fifth season, kicking off on September 10th in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I mention the spiffyness of the visuals because one of the few complaints that I’ve ever leveled at BFC is the standard definition broadcasting. When the trailer was released a few weeks ago, I honestly thought it was just a little accidental irony.

Nope. A couple of days ago, it was announced that Bellator season five tournaments will be broadcast in HD baby! Now go dig out your cable programming guide and try to determine if you have EPIX. I’ve never heard of it, but apparently it’s an actual channel somewhere, so I’m going to call DISH Network and start offering them money until they can confirm that I’ll see Bellator in 1080p.

If you’re not excited about the upcoming season, watch that video again. You may not realize it, but that’s Bruce Lee talking about being like water. It’s some deep philosophical type shit, and it’s pretty much him guaranteeing that he’s going to join a tournament and wreck shop. Seeing the founder of Jeet Kun Do step away from his acting career and FINALLY step into the cage is going to be sick, and I’m looking forward to putting an end to all that speculation about how good he’d be.

(For an actual preview of two of the four planned tournaments this season, come on in past the jump.)

(Tito Ortiz tells The Voice where to stick it.)

I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stuff go down at my local dive bar, and yet I’ve never had a beautiful woman proposition me by giving me the finger. (Oh, but what a magical world that would be.) In honor of Wild Turkey‘s “Give ‘em the Bird” campaign — which is definitely intended for people who live dangerously — we decided to round up the greatest obscene gestures in MMA history. Enjoy these unquestionably rude photos, which continue after the jump, and shoot us some links in the comments section if we’ve left out any good ones.

(Felice Herrig puts it all out there.)

(Cuddly New York Jets coach Rex Ryan shares his opinion on Strikeforce matchmaking.)

(Come on bro, I’m trying to eat breakfast over here.)

By Nick Newell

Unfortunately due to some circumstances that are out of my control I will not be able to make my Shark Fights debut on September 10th. I have a staph infection on my face that will not heal in time to be cleared for combat. This is my first experience with staph and it couldn’t have come at any worse of a time.

Having wrestled in high school and college I am no stranger to the existence and possibility of skin infections, but I have never experienced anything like this. I always make sure to shower immediately after practice and regularly clean my gear. None of my training partners have staph so it truly is a mystery as to how I got it. I used a complementary pillow on a recent airline fight and I believe that may have been the culprit.

It all started on Saturday, August 20th. I was experiencing ear pains, my skin itched and my head was sensitive to the touch. I decide to take action and get it checked out as soon as possible. My regular doctor was away on vacation so I went to the walk-in clinic (big mistake). The doctor gave me a pill to fight infection and a cream to fight fungus. The head and ear pains went away and my skin stopped itching so bad, I was under the impression that I would be all cured in about a week. I was wrong. The entire week I avoided any contact to my face. I focused solely on cardio exercises, strength training and hitting pads. I avoided all wrestling, grappling and sparring as to not spread my infection on myself, to my partners and to allow it to properly heal.

Have you ever been watching an MMA fight and found yourself thinking, “Yeah, this is cool and all, but I wonder what it would be like if these dudes were strapped to a cocktail table and had zero training”? Well, today is your lucky day. Freshly resurrected from the MMA graveyard is “XARM”.

XARM is the brainchild of Art Davie, one of the the UFC’s original co-founders. In its first incarnation, XARM nearly usurped MMA as the next “evolotion of combat sports” before abruptly calling it quits, but now the ‘extreme arm wrestling’ league has returned and is poised to take over once again.

Amazingly, they’ve found backing by experienced television producers.