By Mike Russell

(It looks like we may be able to add “murderer” to Joe Son’s resume below “kidnapper” and above “rapist.”)

A poster on mixedmartialarts.com’s Underground Forum revealed today that former UFC fighter and incarcerated kidnapper and rapist Joseph Hyungmin Son may have been involved in the murder of his cellmate in the California prison he currently is housed in and it appears that the story has some truth to it.

Here’s what the poster, SoCal PriznGard posted today:

“I am the first to break this news! Ex UFC fighter, Joe Son has murdered his cellmate. While serving a life sentence for gang rape, Joe Son has been attacked several times by other inmates who do not tolerate rapists in prison. It has not yet been determined why he killed his cellmate or how.

No troll. Fact: celly found dead. Joe and dead guy only ones in cell together. Guard doing count, sees celly is unresponsive, medical arrives. CPR performed. Celly has trauma to chest area. Pronounced dead. Innocent until proven guilty but looks like he did it. These are the only facts that I have right now. Investigation still in progress since it just happened on Monday around 5:00 pm.”

CagePotato.com spoke with a representative from the prison’s litigation department, after being passed on by Wasco’s public information officer this morning, and when asked whether or not Son was involved in said incident, we were told that a press release on the situation is forthcoming, likely later today — meaning that there is at least some truth to the rumor.

(Props to MMAWeekly.) 

You can say what you want about Dana White when it comes to title fights, but the man never beats around the bush when it comes to his fighters. In a recent interview, “The Baldfather” spoke in typically frank fashion when asked about former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s claims to pursue boxing at the end of his UFC contract on the heels of his fourth round submission loss to current champ Jon Jones at UFC 135. A few highlights from the interview:

On boxing promoter Bob Arum’s claims that the UFC underpays their fighters: “You hear [boxing promoter] Bob [Arum] out there: ‘Yeah, they don’t pay their guys anything.’ Rampage got paid for his last fight, trust me. A lot of money. Bob Arum pays guys $600 on his cards. We’ve never paid a guy that, ever. We’ve only been around ten years, Bob’s been promoting fights for 120 years”

Former undefeated World Combat League fighter and K1 standout Raymond Daniels, who lost his one and only MMA bout under the Strikeforce banner back in 2008 was back in action this weekend at K1: Pain and Glory in Dublin and luckily for us the dramatic finish to his brief bout was caught on tape by our friends at FightIreland.com.

As you can see in the GIF above, Daniels nearly took his unnamed opponent’s head off with a vicious well-timed spinning wheel kick that prompted immediate referee intervention.

Check out the video of the KO and Daniel’s highlight reel after the jump.

(Props to http://www.youtube.com/BFCLUV for the vids.) 

While we were all watching Frankie Edgar score possibly the biggest win of his career this past weekend, a few of you might have missed some great fights over at Bellator 53, which saw “The Arm Collector” collect yet another arm and Douglas Lima pick up a B-E-A-utiful knockout over Chris Lozano. But just in case your appetite for fights remains insatiable, we’ve searched the internet to find the welterweight semi-final match between UFC veteran Ben Saunders and Luis Santos and the featherweight tournament qualifier bout between Ronnie Mann and Kenny Foster to hold you over for a while. The sound is a little off for the later of the two, so if you’ve got a problem with it, take it up with our HR department.

-Danga 

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

Latest odds for UFC 137‘s headliner and co-main event:

Georges St. Pierre (-365) vs. Carlos Condit (+370)
BJ Penn (-113) vs. Nick Diaz (+108)

On October 29th in Las Vegas, Georges St. Pierre will attempt to make his seventh-consecutive welterweight title defense against a challenger who’s far more multi-dimensional that the grapplers and strikers GSP has run through recently. Can the dangerous-in-all-positions Carlos Condit turn this into a battle, or is he going to get blown out like the others who came before him? And should BJ Penn be considered the slight favorite over Nick Diaz, or should it be the other way around? Let us know who you’re pulling for in the comments section…

(Props: Muggzie76 via Deadspin)

See, this is why we can’t have nice things. On Saturday night, Flint Fight Fest hosted an unscheduled battle royale, when spectators began pouring over the top of the cage to join a brawl that was already in progress. The Flint Police Department was forced to step in and restore order. If you happened to be there and could provide us some insight on what led to the little in-cage disagreement in the first place, please let us know in the comments section.

Related:
- The Top 10 Pre- and Post-Fight Brawls in MMA History
- The Dayton Family, “Flint Town”

(“How’s taste my pee pee?”)

It looks like Anderson Silva has had just about enough of Chael Sonnen’s pro-wrestling schtick.

UFC president Dana White mentioned during the post-fight presser that the UFC middleweight champ took umbrage with Sonnen’s recent comments about kicking in Silva’s back door, slapping his wife on the ass and telling her to go cook him a steak.

“Those guys really don’t like each other,” White said. “I don’t know if Chael really hates Anderson, but Anderson – I don’t know if any of you saw his face when [Chael beat Brian Stann], but he wasn’t doing the whole joking around thing. He was pissed. He’s really upset bout the smack-his-wife-on-the-butt thing.”

(Kenny chose brown and blue to match his face at the presser.)

When Kenny Florian fell short in his third UFC title bid Saturday night against featherweight champion Jose Aldo at UFC 136, fans and the media immediately began inexplicably asking “The Ultimate Fighter 1″ finalist if perhaps it would be a good time for him to call it a career. Seems a bit harsh, but everyone loves  winner.

Even UFC president Dana White seemed to hint at the post-fight press conference that Florian’s future with the promotion might be behind the microphone as opposed to in the Octagon.

“I’ve got nothing but respect for him, and Kenny Florian will be with us no matter what.
“Kenny Florian’s awesome. He commentated our last show. I think he’s great on camera. I think he’s great on the mic,” White gushed. “He’s a talented guy with a lot of options, and he’s always been a solid guy with us and always been a team player. I love Kenny Florian. There’s a lot of things that could happen with Kenny Florian.”The thing about Kenny is he’s smart. He’s talented. He’s got other options. He’s got things going on outside of fighting, too. It’s just one of those things he needs to sit down and really figure out on his own.”

First, it was “Young Gun.” Then, it was “The Boss.” And now, its Adam “Adam” Lynn. It’s safe to say at this point that the elbow is having a better year than Justin Bieber, and it ain’t easy to top the Biebs. If you weren’t already convinced, the latest testament to the power of the elbow was demonstrated at Maximum Fighting Championships 31 this past weekend, at the same event that saw the birth of the half-point system and the triumph of our boy Ryan Jimmo.

(Two fighters, two very different interpretations of “business casual.” Photo courtesy of mixfight.ru)

On November 20th in Moscow, Jeff Monson will attempt to become the fourth-straight fighter to defeat Fedor Emelianenko. If Fedor has any scrap of motivation left, he should be able to return to the ‘W’ column in his home country — but who even knows at this point? You have to wonder if the Snowman wants this one more.

It’s been nearly two years since Fedor has tasted victory in MMA. Monson’s last fight snapped an eight-fight win streak, and he hasn’t beaten anybody of note since 2009, when he won a decision against Roy Nelson and submitted Sergei Kharitonov.

The above photo came from a recent M-1 Global press-conference in Moscow. Here are some notable quotes, via Lowkick:

(Rashad gets booed. Forrest gets giddy.GIF courtesy of ZombieProphet)

We figured you could all use a little entertainment to help you through another case of the Mondays, so we’ve compiled a few of the weekend’s GIF-worthy moments for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy more animated goodness after the jump.

United Glory announced today that it will be postponing its planned October “World Series” event until December and that the first show of the 2011-2012 kickboxing and MMA tournament, which will happen in Moscow, will feature Golden Glory standouts Semmy Schilt, Sergei Kharitonov, Siyar Bahadurzada and Errol Zimmerman.

(If Jesse Ventura ever sees this, someone out there is going to get sued. / Props to MMAFighting.)  

As a long time UFC fan, I’ve recently noticed that their marketing team has seemingly taken a break from using corny phrases to label their events. In fact, the last UFC pay-per-view to not be named after the fighters in the main event was back at UFC 125: Resolution, which featured the eventual draw between, you guessed it, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. You just don’t see that kind of irony everyday.

UFC 136 was actually able to provide us with closure, however — more closure in fact than any card in quite a while. Not only did Edgar vindicate himself in triumphant fashion, but Jose Aldo proved to many of his critics that his gas tank is not an issue, Kenny Florian proved that he will never, ever, win a title fight, and Chael Sonnen proved that ring rust is for the weak. But now, we look to the future, and more importantly, try to predict it for the weekend’s big winners. So if you think our future match-ups are garbage, be sure to let us know in the comments section below.

(Full gallery is after the jump.)

The unfamiliar face you may have seen doing laps around the Octagon on Saturday night was Vanessa Hanson, a 20-year-old model from Orange, California, who earned a guest ring girl spot at UFC 136 by winning Transworld Surf‘s 2011 US Open/UFC Model Search. Check out more Vanessa Hanson photos in the gallery below, and watch the photo-shoot video at the end to see her in action.

Last week’s fight-picking contest took in over 120 entries — or about six, when you filter out all the entries that predicted Edgar vs. Maynard and Sonnen vs. Stann would both go to decision, and that Jose Aldo would knock out Kenny Florian. Since none of that happened, it kind of made our jobs easier.

Of the commenters who picked all three winners correctly, first-place accolades go to commenter smackemyakem, who predicted that Edgar would finish Maynard by fourth-round TKO. Well done, buddy. Second place goes to Yuri4980 who also called a TKO win for Edgar, plus a decision victory for Aldo. Sabourcc and Cro Cop Glory Days round out the winners’ circle by being at least somewhat correct on the victory-method for one of their picks. Congrats guys, you’re all getting copies of UFC Encyclopedia by Thomas Gerbasi. E-mail contest@cagepotato.com with your name and mailing address to claim your prize. Thanks to everybody who played!

(Punch-face: Where ‘herp’ meets ‘derp’. Photo via Cagewriter.)

Of the 11 bouts hosted at UFC 136, eight went to the judges — which made the other three seem even more special by comparison. In case you missed ‘em on Saturday, take a look back at the two dramatic submissions and one classic knockout from “Edgar vs. Maynard III.”

GIFs are after the jump, via IronForgesIron.

(Videos via IronForgesIron)

When you’re fighting a guy nicknamed “The Arm Collector”, who has won twelve of his sixteen victories by armbar, you might spend extra time working on your takedown defense. And maybe resist the urge to stick your arms out during the fight. I emphasize “you”, because Darryl Cobb, the middleweight who fought Giva “The Arm Collector” Santana on the undercard of Bellator 53 last night in Miami, Oklahoma, did not have the same gameplan. Giva Santana is now 17-1 in his MMA career, his only loss a split-decision at the hands of Bellator veteran Jaime Jara.

In main card action, Ben Saunders picked up his fourth straight victory since being bounced from the UFC by submitting Luis Santos in the third round. Killa B showed off a much more well-rounded attack than what we’re accustomed to seeing from him, thoroughly out-grappling Santos for the entire fight. In other welterweight tournament action, Douglas Lima picked up a brutal second round knockout against Cleveland native Chris Lozano. Lima has now won eight straight fights, and will meet Ben Saunders at Bellator 56 on November 12 to determine the winner of the welterweight tournament.

Dana White post-event interview with Ariel Helwani. Props: MMAFighting.com

It’s no stretch to say that UFC 136 was, on paper, the most stacked UFC card since UFC 100. It featured two title fights, the return of the only middleweight to make Anderson Silva look human, a rematch from one of the most controversial decisions of 2010 and a lightweight contender looking to keep his winning streak alive. Add on the UFC Fan Expo being held on the same weekend, and it would seem impossible for UFC 136 to live up to the hype. Yet, impressively enough, it did.

If you’re a fan of “zombie style” fighting, then Frankie Edgar absolutely has to be one of your favorite fighters after last night. In a performance that caused more than a few of us to experience déjà vu, Edgar seemed like he was one punch away from being knocked out throughout Gray Maynard’s early onslaught. But Edgar hung on and managed to take the next two rounds en route to a fourth round TKO. It’s an impressive accomplishment, especially considering that Frankie Edgar is a natural featherweight while Gray Maynard is pretty big for a lightweight, if Mike Goldberg is to be trusted. Any questions about Frankie Edgar’s ability to finish seem to have been answered last night. Especially in the eyes of Dana White, who awarded Frankie Edgar the 75k Knockout of the Night honors.

(Props: carloscub104)

Chael Sonnen might be the greatest pro-wrestler in MMA history. After his thrilling arm-triangle submission of Brian Stann at UFC 136 last night, Sonnen got on the mic, channeled his inner Ric Flair, and cut a promo directed at a single person — his arch-rival, Anderson Silva:

“Anderson Silva, you absolutely suck. Super Bowl weekend, the biggest rematch in the history of the business, I’m calling you out Silva, but we’re upping the stakes. I beat you, you leave the division. You beat me, I will leave the UFC forever.”

Gotta love the Charles Barkley cameo at the end. So will the Spider take the bait? And how did you feel about Sonnen’s WWE-style hype-routine?

(“I’m so sick of your friggin’ face.” “No, I’m so sick of *your* friggin’ face.”)

Well, we’re finally going to sort out this lightweight championship mess. Thanks for joining us for the ride. Bear with us as we try a slightly different format to appease the complaints we’ve had about spoilers and such. If you want to read about certain fight, click  ”next page.”

Preliminary results after the jump.

Video courtest of allthebestfights.com.

Last night’s MFC 31 wasn’t the only MMA card our friends north of the border were treated to. Astute readers may have also remembered that Instinct MMA made its promotional debut in Quebec, Canada last night as well. The night’s main event pitted ex-hockey enforcer Steve Bosse against UFC veteran Houston Alexander. With a combined fourteen knockouts in twenty victories for the pair, you probably guessed that someone was going to get knocked out. And my God did these two deliver.

GIFs are after the jump.

Jimmo dominates the pre-fight staredown. We’re talking 10-7.5 dominance.

Sometimes an idea comes along that’s so stupid that society adopts it just out of curiosity. YAMMA Pit Fighting, Canned bacon, XARM- things that supposedly solve a problem that someone is having somewhere, but are essentially useless to everyone else. So when Doc Hamilton introduced his half-point scoring system after Machida’s controversial decision over Shogun Rua at UFC 104, which essentially said that judges should score close rounds 10-9.5 instead of 10-9, it was just a matter of time before someone said “Hey, maybe he’s right about this whole judges not working with fractions thing”. If last night’s MFC 31 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada , which utilized the half-point scoring system that Doc Hamilton proposed would improve MMA judging, taught us anything it was that half-point scoring is just as flawed as whole point scoring.

Case in point: Last night’s main event saw a controversial unanimous decision victory awarded to former Cage Potato guest blogger/current Maximum Fighting Championship light heavyweight champion Ryan Jimmo over Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. Overall, the fight barely had more action than the weigh-in, as neither fighter seemed eager to engage with- yet alone finish- his opponent. However, Jimmo was clearly the aggressor in the championship rounds, and ended up taking the fight by scores of 49-48.5 (x2) and 49-48. The fight marks Jimmo’s sixteenth straight victory.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

- Does Frankie Edgar have any ‘Answer’ for the raging “Bully’? (Complex)

- Kate Upton in bikinis at the circus (WithLeather)

- Christian talk show rant about Pokemon and Minecraft (DoubleViking)

- Chael Sonnen is the new Ultimate Warrior (Clutch.MTV)

- 7 movie preachers worse than Fred Phelps (ScreenJunkies)

- ‘King Mo’ asks for ‘Rampage’ via Twitter (CageWriter)

Machida on Jones: “Nobody is invincible” (Tatame)

- 25 fighters who need to call it quits (BleacherReport)

- How to catch a cougar (MadeMan)

- UFC calendar to grow to 34 events in 2012 (MMAFighting)

- Homemade bomb or ugly phallic art project? (HolyTaco)

- Bizarre video: Rangers fan celebrates win by sexily popping balloons (Guyism)

- the five biggest surprises through the NFL’s first quarter (TheScoresReport)

- Worst…UFC…cake…EVER! (TheFightNerd)

- Travolta-produced Gotti movie put on hold (FilmDrunk)

(Props to IronForgesIron.) 

For those of you who heard about Bas Rutten’s new series launching on FUELTV and thought it was some sort of Bully Beatdown rip off, then this new teaser trailer should ease you worries. Described as a “comedic, street fight survival series,” Punk Payback premiers Nov 2nd and from what I gathered is entirely devoted to continuing the awesomeness that we have been devoid of since “El Guapo” released his series of self defense videos. It’s safe to say that nothing has made me want a 3D television more than the possibility of seeing Mr. Rutten kick some 17 year old kid in the balls.

Check out an extended preview of the show after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Just a friendly reminder that we will have the live stream of today’s UFC 136 weigh-ins from Houston, Texas starting at 5:00 pm ET.

There’s a pretty good chance that at least one fighter is getting shoved during the festivities. Unfortunately we likely won’t hear from Stann or Sonnen since Joe Rogan typically only interviews the main event participants, so we’l have to settle for listening to Maynard say that Frankie has his belt and to Edgar say he’s sick of fighting Gray.

Time for a few friendly wagers in the comment section.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MrUFCTrailers)

Just a couple of videos to make your Friday fly by a bit more quickly.

Between “The Most Interesting Man in the World” and “The Fly Trap,” we could have tomorrow night’s “Fight of the Night.”

Remember to get your picks in for our “UFC 136 Fight-Picking Contest” and to check back in with us at 5:00 pm ET today for the weigh ins and tomorrow night at 9:00 pm ET for our liveblog of the pay-per-view.

Have a great weekend, Potato Nation.

Check out “The Fly Trap” after the jump.

(Full gallery is after the jump.)

Amy Markham is a 20-year-old model originally from Killeen, Texas, who recently dipped her toes in the MMA scene with a pictorial in MMA Unleashed magazine. (Thanks to BabesofMMA for the tip; that should go without saying by now.) Couple things about Amy: She’s half Korean, and grew up as an Army brat. She’s also into cars. Like, really into cars. When asked by AutoMotoFoto to describe her dream car, she replied:

“Just because I’m learning Autocross, E46 M3 with the HPF boost kit, upgraded HPF clutch, upgraded injectors – all the internal mods necessary for the boost (too lazy to list all engine mods…HPF sums it up), short throw shifter, Tein Flex Coilovers (body roll SUCKS in Autocross), Borla Cat Back Exhaust, Carbon Fiber hood and trunk for weight reduction, Brembo brake kit, Nittos, Ace Custom Steering Wheel, Strip the car out and add a roll cage, and I would need LOTS of tape for the front bumper because they don’t call me ‘Cone Killa’ for no reason! LOL”

Holy crap, I understood none of that. For more of Amy, visit her official website and her Facebook fan page — or, just check out our favorite Amy Markham photos in the gallery below…

Sexyamas new single is hot. – Watch MoreFunny Videos

Yoshihiro Akiyama has done it again. The Japanese sex symbol known to most as simply “Sexyama,” appeared on a Japanese talk show this week to reveal his new single and let’s just say there likely wasn’t a dry seat in the house.

We’ve done you a solid by providing the translation of the UFC middleweight-turned-welterweight‘s silky smooth lyrics, and without ruining it for you we’ll just say that Beyonce and Jay-Z have both been simultaneously put on notice.

Check out another scintillating song from the sexy one himself after the jump.

(Look into my crystal ball Kenny, and ye shall see thine future.) 

There is a lot on the line at UFC 136. Not just the two titles and the future title match implications, but a chance for two men to finally capture the gold that has long eluded them. I’m speaking of Kenny Florian and Gray Maynard of course, who’ve both been chasing UFC gold for the better part of their careers, only to fall inches short of the finish line. For Gray, who many people felt deserved a title shot over current champion Frankie Edgar in the first place, it was the resilience of the champ that proved to be his undoing. And for Florian, it was just a terribly unlucky spell when it came to title fights. But come Saturday, both men will have a chance to erase our doubts and finally move up to that deluxe apartment in the sky.

Unfortunately, Florian and Maynard are not the only men who have felt the repercussions of looking directly into the belt. There are a few guys out there who just seem destined to be number 2 in a company that loves to fuck with the number 2. Anyway, we thought we would awkwardly point out six of them, excluding “Kenflo” and “The Bully,” from across the room for your reading pleasure. And we’re going by Brock Lesnar rules here, so interim belts don’t count. Enjoy.

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

Jose Aldo grew up playing soccer, but transitioned to MMA when his love of brawling with rival teams began to overcome his love of scoring goals. His UFC 136 opponent Kenny Florian took his passion for soccer all the way to a position on the Boston College varsity team. Tomorrow night, they’ll be trying to kick each other, in a real sport. As this is a championship fight, their soccer-juggling showdown should have really gone five rounds. But I have a feeling it would have been an even bigger blowout if Aldo didn’t grab the fence in the third. A sign of things to come? [Ed. note: No.]