(Video courtesy of YouTube/ProElite)

ProElite today named the participants of the second bracket of its planned heavyweight grand prix and there’s a pretty good chance you won’t recognize the names on the list.

Contrary to popular belief and ads that inferred as much, the tournament will not include former UFC heavyweight champions Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia. According to the press release sent out by Stratus Media Group, the tournament will be structured similarly to Strikeforce’s Challenger Series in that the “up-and-coming’ winner will earn a shot at an upper-main card slot on a future event.

(“Your face still has my footprint on it, bro.”)

According to the Brazilian website GLOBO, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva and former number one contender Vitor Belfort will be the coaches on the Brazilian version of The Ultimate Fighter, which begins filming in South American country in March 2012.

UFC officials, however told MMAJunkie this afternoon that the report is erroneous, but take the denial with a grain of salt. Remember the company has been guarded in the past when it comes to revealing TUF coaches prior to approximately the month before shooting begins for logistical reasons. The other reason why they could be denying the report, if it is in fact true, is that Silva is likely to face Chael Sonnen in February and it would come off as though they are expecting “The Spider” to win if they were to announce him as a coach, especially if it’s likely that he will defend his title against Belfort at the conclusion of the season. Smoke and mirrors.

Personally, I’d like them to bring in Uncle Chael to coach opposite Anderson. Hell, I’d watch the whole season without subtitles and on mute just to see Anderson’s facial expressions whenever Chael addresses him. It probably won’t happen since 3/4 of the Brazilian MMA fan base don’t know what playing the heel is, which is probably tied into the absence of the Internet in the country and because they often mistake buses for horses.

(Images via BJJHQ and ZPR on Facebook.)

Between the widely held beliefs that BJ Penn vs. Nick Diaz would end in a stoppage, Matt Mitrione would outstrike Cheick Kongo, and Mirko Cro Cop still had some old Cro Cop left in him, none of you were 100% correct with your UFC 137 predictions in last week’s fight-picking contest. The closest entry belonged to commenter J. Spaceman, who got all three winners right, predicted the scorecard of Diaz/Penn within one point, and also guessed a TKO win for Roy Nelson. For his efforts, he wins this Gameness Premium Cage Rashguard courtesy of our good buddies at BJJHQ.com! (Spaceman, e-mail contest@cagepotato.com with your name, address, and size, and we’ll get it sent out to you. Please wear it responsibility.)

And since he was one of the first ten entries to correctly pick Diaz/Kongo/Nelson, J. Spaceman also wins a copy of Break Media’s new ‘Zombie Parkour Runner’ iPhone game, perfect for sitting on the couch waiting for your girlfriend to finish putting her Halloween costume together. The other winners of Zombie Parkour Runner are: aaron530, Viva Hate, Ani703, TheJedi, FrontKick Dentist, SmellMyTriangle, PERPATRAITOR, jinx5128, and heavy. If your name has been called, please e-mail contest@cagepotato.com with your real name and screen name, with ‘ZPR’ in the subject line, and we’ll shoot you a download code. Thanks to everybody who played!

Semi-related: If you’re particularly proud of your Halloween costume this year, post a photo of yourself on our Facebook wall. We always like seeing what you crazy bastards are up to.

(Maybe now that Bart’s rich, he can stop swagger-jacking KarmaAteMyCat. / Photo via MMAFighting)

The Nevada State Athletic Commission has released the official payroll from Saturday’s UFC 137 event, revealing that the participating fighters earned $1,326,000 in disclosed salaries and performance bonuses. Headliner Nick Diaz went home with the largest check — $275,000, including his Fight of the Night bonus — but the biggest winner had to be featherweight veteran Bart Palaszewski, who made more than ten times his $10,000 show-money, thanks to a win bonus, a Knockout of the Night bonus, and a 25% cut of Tyson Griffin’s purse.

The full UFC 137 payout list is below; keep in mind that the figures don’t include additional revenue from sponsorships and undisclosed “locker room” bonuses, or deductions for taxes, insurance, and license fees.

Nick Diaz: $275,000 (includes $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus; no win bonus)
def. B.J. Penn: $225,000 (includes $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Cheick Kongo: $140,000 (includes $70,000 win bonus)
def. Matt Mitrione: $10,000

Primetime by JMMANow
(Video courtesy of DailyMotion/JMMANow)

If your wife had you finishing up some shit on your honey-do list you had better things to do yesterday afternoon than sit inside and watch the UFC on Fox 1 Primetime show, don’t worry, homies. We got you covered.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ProMMANow)

You would think that Nick Diaz’s camp would cool it with all of the accusations about Georges St-Pierre being scared or faking an injury to get out of fighting their boy now that they got the desired result, but that’s not how they do things in Stockton, evidently.

Dring a media scrum after the UFC 137 presser, Cesar Gracie was asked, in a somewhat baited way if he thought GSP’s injury was legit and he didn’t hold back, although he made about as much sense as his protegee.

“He ran past me earlier. I mean, he literally RAN past me, so… Look, he’s a great guy. He’s a black belt under [my cousin] Renzo Gracie. I don’t know the guy that well, personally, but I’m gonna tell you guys something right now… Nick Diaz missed a press conference and he’s here and [he] fought,” Gracie sort of explained. “The guy that went to the press conference didn’t fight. That’s all I gotta say about it. Nick…Yeah, he got kicked out, he’s this…he’s the bad guy… We didn’t go to what Nick called, ‘the beauty pageant,’ but come fight night you guys saw what he’s made of and he showed up and he did everything he had to and the guys that made the press conference, they weren’t here tonight, so you be the judge. You know what I mean?”

No, we don’t know what you mean since it makes no sense. So let us get this straight, somehow GSP faked an injury to get out of fighting Nick, even though he was scheduled to face Carlos Condit when the injury occurred. Wait, what?!

(Allow us to introduce you to Nelson Roy III, the brilliant hedge fund manager who has absolutely no relation to that fighting hillbilly you saw on Saturday. / Photo via MMAJunkie.)

By Jason Moles

If you decided to play the new CagePotato drinking game this weekend, you’re probably way too hung over to think about your financial future right now. But now that the dust has settled from UFC 137, you owe it to yourself to study our insightful and highly opinionated rundown of where to direct your hypothetical MMA investments. It’s “Buy, Sell, Hold” time once again, Potato Nation…

“The Prodigy” BJ Penn – Sell

Even if Baby Jay is pulling a Jamie Varner (man I hope that’s not a euphemism) as Mr. Falvo so eloquently put it, the writing on the wall has been there for a while now even if the majority of fans didn’t bother to read it. BJ announcing his retirement Saturday night may have been a moment of weakness when his emotions got the best of him which led to a rash decision, but let me remind you (just like every other single story you read today about “The Prodigy”) that Penn has went 1-3-1 in his last five fights. The Hawaiian may fight again to collect another paycheck but there is no more money to be made as a shareholder.

(Unless you have your last name and a dog’s face tattooed on your back, you really can’t call yourself “alpha.” / Photo courtesy of Heavy.com/MMA)

Following his UFC 137 Submission of the Night victory over Dennis Siver, Donald Cerrone — one of the gamest sons-of-bitches in MMA — made it known that he’d like another fight before the year is out. As confirmed by MMA Junkie, the UFC has granted his wish, sticking Cowboy on the UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem card (December 30th, Las Vegas) against lightweight mainstay Nate Diaz. You dodged a bullet, Nam Phan.

Cerrone is currently on a six-fight win streak, including a 4-0 stretch in the Octagon since debuting for the promotion in February. Picking up a fifth UFC victory inside a calendar year would be nearly unprecedented. (I know Roger Huerta did it in 2007; if there any MMA stats masters in the house who can provide other examples, please do so in the comments section.)

(Props: MMA Scraps)

A superstar on the rise, fist-posing next to a possibly-retired legend who barely has the strength to shaka — you can put this photo in the MMA dictionary next to “changing of the guard.”

UFC 137 provided another example of the unique emotional arc that this sport sometimes gives us. Headliners Nick Diaz and BJ Penn got into a near-tussle at the weigh-ins, spent three rounds trying to knock each other out, and after the fight they were chillin’ like two old bros. Never mind the fact that Penn’s left eye was leaking blood from all the blows he ate from Diaz, who happened to break the record for significant strikes landed in a UFC fight, by the way.

After the jump: More UFC 137 post-fight press conference highlights, in which Diaz talks about why he didn’t want to fight Penn, and explains that he didn’t go to school for buying a house. (That’ll make a little more sense when you watch it.)

Askren vs. Hieron, part one. All videos in this post via IronForgesIron.com

Bellator returned to action last night in Kansas City with action from the heavyweight tournament and a welterweight title fight between current champion Ben Askren and Season Four tournament winner Jay Hieron. Earlier this week, Ben Askren promised to “maul Jay Hieron”, as our more astute readers may remember. Well, that didn’t exactly happen. We’ll discuss that more in a minute.

The night kicked off with heavyweight tournament semifinals action. To say these fights delivered quick, exciting finishes puts it mildly- It’ll take some of you longer to read this sentence than it’ll take you to actually watch the fights. In the first matchup, Eric Prindle countered a leg kick from Ron Sparks with a brutal straight right forty seconds into their fight. Not to be outdone, Thiago Santos quickly dropped Bellator Season Three heavyweight tournament finalist Neil Grove and sunk in a rear naked choke. The total amount of time it took Santos to do this? Thirty eight seconds. Don’t blink when Eric Prindle meets Thiago Santos at Bellator 59.

(Video: Youtube/UFC)

Just a quick programming note to everyone sitting on the couch this afternoon- the UFC’s first major appearance on the FOX network goes down shortly (exact time depends on your broadcast area, so check local listings). The Sunday afternoon timeslot may counter some NFL action, but it’s an incredible opportunity to capture viewers in MMA’s key demographic.

As readers of this site you obviously possess discerning taste and an appreciation for excellence, so check out the show and let us know your first impression of the UFC powered by the FOX production team.

Check out “Dapper” Roy Nelson in the three piece! (Video: Youtube/UFC)

“He’s the most disrespectful human being I’ve ever met, and I’m going to put the worst beating you’ve ever seen on him in the UFC.”

With those uncharacteristically aggressive words, Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre verbally accepted the bout against Nick Diaz in a backstage conversation with Dana White.

And just like that, Carlos Condit’s “guaranteed” title shot went up in smoke faster than a fatty in the 209. All of the events surrounding GSP’s next challenge have been bizarre, but that’s what happens anytime you’re dealing with the “Pride of Stockton”. Just last weekend, MMA’s least credible source, Chael Sonnen, predicted that Condit would get bumped back in line should Diaz get past Penn, and he was right on the money.

Business as usual. Props: MMAFighting.com

Let’s get the obvious out of the way as soon as possible: Last night’s UFC 137 was nothing that it was supposed to be. The odds of things playing out as they were supposed to with this card were slim from the beginning, with Nick Diaz compromising the initial main event with his decision to no-show press week and GSP having to withdraw from his match with Carlos Condit. But at least we could rest assured that BJ Penn would deliver some karma to Nick Diaz in the form of a quick beating, right?

Throughout the first round of last night’s main event, it looked that way. BJ Penn’s counter striking proved too much for Diaz early on, as Penn outworked the Strikeforce champion, managing a takedown as well. But by the second round, Nick Diaz came back to take complete control of the fight. His better conditioning allowed him to keep Penn against the cage and unleash strikes at will. By the third round, BJ Penn’s defense was completely ineffective, as Nick Diaz continued to batter Penn. With his eleventh straight victory, Nick Diaz looks as ready for Georges St. Pierre as anyone has in a while. The bout also earned both men the 75k Fight of the Night honors.

Perhaps BJ Penn was just pulling a Jamie Varner last night, and announcing his retirement out of frustration. But if he wasn’t, it’s hard to argue against his decision. BJ Penn is 1-3-1 in his last five fights, with his sole victory coming over the recently retired Matt Hughes. If it wasn’t clear from his draw against Jon Fitch that he would never be a champion in the UFC again, it became pretty obvious after watching him gas out and get picked apart last night. Penn’s legacy can’t improve at this point, but it can certainly diminish with more losses to contenders in the UFC. He’s making the right move by retiring; let’s just see if he actually sticks to it.

(It’s confusing, because in Strikeforce, standing elbow strikes during weigh-ins are totally legal. / Photo via CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this set, click here.)

After five years in the wilderness, Nick Diaz is finally returning to the Octagon tonight, at UFC 137 in Las Vegas. (As expected, Diaz is much, much less excited about this than we are.) His opponent is BJ Penn, a living legend and former two-division UFC champion whose future in the sport very much depends on his performance tonight.

Also on the card: Matt Mitrione and Cheick Kongo fight for a spot in the heavyweight title mix, Mirko Cro Cop and Some Fat Guy fight to save their jobs, and top ten featherweight Hatsu Hioki puts the reputation of Japan on his back.

Round-by-round results from the “Penn vs. Diaz” pay-per-view card will be piling up after the jump starting at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT, courtesy of CagePotato liveblog assassin Matt Kaplan. Refresh the page every few minutes for the latest updates; as with our last UFC PPV liveblog, we’ll be including “next page” links to reduce spoilage, so click ‘em as the night goes on. Thanks for being here, and let us know how you feel in the comments section.

Arianny, you have no soul, we have no soul, can’t we patch things up?

Halloween may be a couple of days away but the weekend is already upon us, so you may very well be donning a costume during your post-fight festivities. In the spirit of the holiday, we thought we’d hit you up with a gallery of female fighters, ring-card girls, and personalities in various stages of festive undress.

Before you go dropping corrections and complaints about some of these not technically being “Halloween” costumes, might we advise you to keep it to yourself? The sport may be evolving, but evolution doesn’t happen overnight, so just enjoy the pictures for what they are and don’t make yourself an easy target in the comments section.

Even a broken potato is right twice a day.

Admit it: You thought the return of Ask the Potato would be one and done. You thought there’d be no way we could stick to a feature for two Saturdays in a row. Shame on you for having such little faith in us. Not only have we actually put together a new edition of Ask the Potato, but we’ve even reached out to our Twitter account for a question this week. It’s called “progress”, people. So let’s get to it, shall we?

Questions and answers are after the jump.

(Highlight video courtesy of MMAFighting.com)

 
It’s been a while since we brought you kids a good weigh-in video, and we’re truly sorry for that. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s just getting pretty rare that someone wears an elaborate costume to the scale, misses weight by an incredible margin, or a high-profile staredown gets personal. And if those are the criteria for a great weigh-ins, last night we hit the mother lode!

Roy Nelson’s been toying with us all about his new, streamlined look, and last night he dangled that carrot in front of us just a bit longer. “Big Country” stepped onto the stage concealing his new figure like the boys at Mercedes test driving a prototype in public. Even with the excess padding (and to be fair, we are just assuming that wasn’t his real physique), Nelson weighed only 252 lbs.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MadeMan)

- MMAFighting.com’s future uncertain (FightOpinion)

- Suddenly Battlefield 3 doesn’t look as good as we thought (Complex)

- Oh jeez..MMA JayT fancies himself an MMA manager now (WarshFighterManagement)

- Viewer’s Guide to UFC 137 (Sports Illustrated)

- 8 slutty Halloween costumes and what they say about the girl (Guyism)

- 50 most beautiful women in sports (DoubleViking)

- Hatsu Hioki ready to wow American fans (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Nick Diaz: ‘Fight with BJ Penn could be my last (LowKick)

- Reporter with the worst timing ever (BREAK)

- Bill Murray to be the Yin to Charlie Sheen’s fucked up yang in ‘Charles Swan’ (Screen Junkies)

- Dana White: Carlos Condit Guaranteed Next Shot at Georges St-Pierre (5thRound)

- Career-defining moment for every UFC 137 fighter (Bleacher Report)

- Rejected Peanuts specials (HolyTaco)

- The not so unreasonable $25 UFC 137 bet that will put $12,631.70 in your pocket (MiddleEasy)

- This kid is going to be a beast (YouTube)

- Roy Nelson talks about his belly, beard and secret ninja training (Clutch.MTV)

(Video courtesy of YouTube/0fficialbjpenn)

(Video courtesy of YouTube/LayzietheSavage)

Just a friendly reminder that the weigh-ins for UFC 137 will be live from the Mandalay Casino and Events Center at 7:00 pm ET tonight and you can watch the stream live right here.

Until then, enjoy some BJ Penn and Nick Diaz highlight reels to get you pumped for tomorrow night. Is anyone actually not excited for this fight?

Tonight we will get to see which BJ Penn showed up in training camp — the one with abs or the one who doesn’t give a shit. We’ll also get to see how effective Roy Nelson’s diet of toilet paper and castor oil was this camp.

It will be a telling if Nick looks Penn in the eyes during the staredown. Hearing him talk all week about how BJ is one of his idols and that he really looks up to him reminded me of when GSP said the same thing about Matt Hughes right before losing by an armbar to “Country Breakfast.” He said similar things about fighting Karo before they squared off, about how he didn’t want the fight. Look what happened in that one.

Check out the stream at 7 after the jump.

(Full gallery is after the jump.)

As Babes of MMA informs us, Ashley Ferrara is an Oklahoma-based model and MMA/boxing ring girl who has held round cards for King of the Cage, Xtreme Fight Nights, HD Boxing, and Freestyle Cage Fighting, and was a finalist in that Hooters UFC ring card girl contest earlier this year. When she’s not doing gigs as a professional hot chick, Ashley studies law at the University of Oklahoma. She was once touched by Kimbo Slice. Get to know her better on Facebook and Twitter, and check out 16 of our favorite Ashley Ferrara photos in the gallery below. Careful: Things get slightly NSFW near the end…

UFC 137 goes down tomorrow night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, and one fight that we feel is being criminally overlooked (televised on Spike or not) is the lightweight match-up between Dennis Siver and Donald Cerrone. Now, where both men are known for their elite striking game, its is Siver who has made his name off of the spinning back kick/turning side kick, picking up victories over Nate Mohr and Paul Kelly at UFC 93 and 105, respectively. Cerrone has stated that he feels the spinning back kick is Siver’s only weapon, and whether or not you agree with him (I don’t), you have to admit that it is one awesome weapon.

(“…and one more for that dude who plays Spock.” Photo via Zimbio)

During yesterday’s UFC 137 press conference, UFC president Dana White made his stance known on a controversial subject in pro sports (via MMA Mania):

“I’ll tell you right now, if there was a gay fighter in UFC, I wish he would come out. I could care less if there’s a gay fighter in the UFC. There probably is and there’s probably more than one. I mean, it’s 2012. Give me a break. But you’re going to have guys like Nogueira who come from Brazil, who’s got that macho, Latino — doesn’t want to roll with a gay guy. People are going to say stuff like this. But that’s the best answer I can give you is, give me a (freaking) break and be honest. Come on. We’re all human beings. We all make mistakes sometimes. It doesn’t mean that the UFC is bad and we’re unfit for children and all this other stuff. Tell you what: Out of the 375 guys, we’ve got a few lunatics, some guys that are nutty, and then we’ve got 300 and something that are incredible, awesome human beings who are inspirational to kids and adults and whoever else is a human being.”

(Video courtesy of YouTube/HeavyMMA)

How could he do this to that poor girl?

It looks like Jon Anik’s role with the UFC won’t be limited to just play-by-play broadcasting. The former ESPN host and broadcasting veteran told Heavy.com’s Megan Olivi yesterday following the UFC 137 press conference that he will also be taking the reins from Arianny Celeste as the host of the Ultimate Insider show and will also possibly be hosting a UFC radio program.

(“Viacom paid WHAT for Bellator?” I got PRIDE, WEC, Strikeforce and Chandella for less than that.”)

Dana White put out an unprecedented second video blog today for the first time in a long time. In this instalment of his UFC 137 video diary, White admires the venue for the pre-fight press conference, pokes fun at Nick Diaz for being Nick Diaz and gives out a bunch of free tickets to whoever asks.

A word of advice: If you’re ever needing tickets to a certain event, stand in line at the weigh-ins or press conference and have a friend point a camera at Dana while you shamelessly beg the UFC president for some freebies. Works every time.

Of note is Diaz’s revelation that they brought him to the presser an hour early to make sure he was there. He missed his flight from Stockton this week and the UFC had to rebook, so it looks like they aren’t taking any chances. Reed Harris has been appointed as Nick’s official babysitter so there’s little or no chance that he’s going to sleep through his fight Saturday night.

Check out the video after the jump.

(I can already hear her voice, caressing me like a newborn and telling me that everything will be OK.) 

When Dana White first announced that the UFC planned to hold both a live event in Japan and Las Vegas on the same night, many of us sat back and scratched our heads, wondering what in the hell “The Baldfather” was hoping to achieve with such a maneuver and more importantly, how he would pull it off. When we found out we would be treated to a free Japan card followed by a Vegas PPV card, most of us rejoiced, but still found ourselves doubting the likelihood of such a exorbitant event actually coming to fruition. Well, we hate to say we told you so, but as it turns out, you won’t have to roll out of bed at 10 a.m. to catch the free Japan card. Matter of fact, you won’t be getting a free card at all.

(Props: NBC.com via BloodyElbow)

MMA’s awkward march into the mainstream continues! Last night on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, lovable meathead Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) co-hosted a Halloween party, and showed off his Chuck Liddell costume. It isn’t clear if the pitcher of beer was meant to be part of it. A scene from the episode is above; a photo of Andy doing the classic Iceman pose is after the jump.

Please share your own ridiculous Halloween costume plans in the comments section.

(“Don’t call me homey, brah.” “Don’t call me brah, homey.” / For more photos from the presser, visit Lowkick.Blitzcorner.com)

A lot of interesting developments coming out of yesterday’s “UFC 137: Penn vs. Diaz” press conference…

— UFC President Dana White confirmed that the first international edition of The Ultimate Fighter will be in Brazil, not the Philippines as previously reported. White described TUF Brazil as “a done deal,” though other details, including its host and where it will take place, haven’t been locked down yet. The series will air in Brazil, and possibly on FUEL TV in North America. White also said that the UFC will be actively working on booking “as many [events] as we possibly can” in Brazil.

— Meanwhile, the UFC is also working on putting together their first event in Hawaii, which is slated for 2012, and could be held at an outdoor venue. In the past, the UFC had been hesitant to promote a show in Hawaii due to an exorbitant promoters’ tax the state required, but that situation was later “fixed”, and rumors of a UFC show at the Aloha Bowl have circulated for the past two years.

— While only the main event is guaranteed airtime during the one-hour UFC on FOX 1: Velasquez vs. Santos broadcast on November 12th, Dana White confirmed that the entire supporting card will be viewable on Facebook and FOX.com. Notably, that includes the possible #1 lightweight contender match between Clay Guida and Ben Henderson.

Cagewriter’s Steve Cofield hosted Team Tompkins founding members Mark Hominick and Sam Stout on his ESPN radio show this week to talk about tomorrow night’s Shawn Tompkins memorial fundraiser.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ncaasteve)

UFC on Fox Primetime: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos is an upcoming special to be aired on October 30th, and features an in-depth look at the Nov. 12 showdown between UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and challenger Junior Dos Santos. And to get you hyped for that, here is a brief preview of the special, which includes some press conference snipets ala Creed vs. Drago, some behind-the-scenes training footage ala Marciano vs. Lewis, and even squeezes in some of the lovable, rags-to-riches story of Junior Dos Santos in just over 3 minutes. Enjoy.

-Danga 

(Photo courtesy of Ed Mulholland/ESPN)

In an effort to take some of the growing workload off of the backs of color analyst Joe Rogan and play-by-play man Mike Goldberg, the UFC announced today that it has added veteran sportscaster Jon Anik to its broadcast team.

Anik, who has anchored MMA Live since 2008 and hosted several ESPN pre-UFC shows, will be involved with the November 12 Fox broadcast in some capacity and will likely take the reins of commentating duties for the next season’s weekly live broadcast of The Ultimate Fighter on FX among other events.

“We’re very happy to have Jon as part of the team,” UFC president Dana White said after making the announcement at today’s UFC 137 press conference.

“It’s a dream come true. I believe the UFC’s a strong a brand as there is in professional sports, but what really drew me to this organization was the people behind it. I think as strong as this organization is, it’s the people behind it,” the 33-year-old Boston native said Thursday. “It’s a well-oiled machine, I just hope I don’t get in the way. I’m very excited to get started.