Alistair Overeem should be sitting on a big pile of cash this morning, but moments after handing Brock Lesnar a crushing first round defeat, “The Demolition Man” learned that he won’t be seeing a dime of his $385,000-plus purse, at least not for awhile. A Nevada State Court has issued a freeze on Alistair’s UFC 141 earnings pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by his former management team, Golden Glory (aka Knock Out Investments).

The lawsuit is the latest shot fired in the battle over fighter purses between Overeem, Golden Glory, and the UFC. Overeem was cut from Strikeforce after his representatives and Zuffa failed to see eye to eye on the post-fight payment process. Golden Glory wanted to be paid the full purse directly so that they could distribute the funds to their fighters in a timely fashion without the worry that they wouldn’t see their portion of the proceeds. According to the lawsuit filed yesterday, those concerns were not unfounded.

Spoilers after the jump, along with the Fedor/Ishii fight, the Sylvia/Le Banner “fight,” and the bantamweight tournament final match between Bibiano Fernandes and Antonio Banuelos.

So it’s official: horse meat > beef jerky. (Photo: UFC.com)

There was a time when the UFC had trouble drumming up any interest at all in their heavyweight division—can you say ‘Arlovski vs. Buentello for the title!!!’?—but those days are long gone. One could point to the growth of the sport attracting big men from other sports, or credit training camps for churning out well-rounded fighters, but much of the interest in the revitalized division has been carried by the broad, skull-tatted shoulders of one man.

Brock Lesnar’s 2008 debut in the Octagon brought interest, intrigue, and—most importantly—eyeballs. Lots of them. Speculation over whether the big man could survive against a real fighter was rampant, but before long we were asking if anyone could survive in a real fight against him. He quickly smashed his way to the top of the 265 lb. heap, but his skid down that mountain was just as fast. Following two brutal, first-round losses to Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem, Brock is ready to hang up the gloves. Looking back at his brief career, if it is truly over, one thing becomes painfully clear: Brock Lesnar doesn’t love fighting; Brock Lesnar loves beating people up. While those two interests often intertwine, they quickly diverge when you start getting tagged. For all of the debates over Brock’s questionable chin and concerns for vegetable-rejecting body, the real downfall of his MMA career was his heart. He doesn’t love this fighting game, and MMA is a cruel mistress. If you can’t fully commit to her, you can expect to find a pile of shredded “Clutch Gear” shirts on the doorstep when you get home from the bar. Brock seems to have gotten that message and is packing his things and moving on with his life.

(Upon encountering the crazed polar bear, Alistair stretches his arms out, hoping to make himself appear larger. / Photos courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com. For more from this set, click here.)

529 pounds of mean son-of-a-bitch will be colliding tonight in Las Vegas as former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar takes on Strikeforce/DREAM/K-1 champion Alistair Overeem in the main event of UFC 141. Plus, Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone settle their beef in the lightweight division, and Jon Fitch goes for his tenth-straight decision against Johny Hendricks. But first, the final Spike TV prelims broadcast ever, featuring a TUF winner and a pair of WEC standouts. Not a bad way to kick off New Year’s weekend.

Round-by-round results from UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem will be piling up after the jump beginning at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT; refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest. And while you’re waiting, feel free to share your New Year’s resolutions in the comments section.

(The Interweb never lies.)

Ariel Helwani caught up with Dana White ahead of tonight’s UFC 141 event and he asked the UFC president where about the growing opinion that Jon Fitch is being overlooked in the UFC welterweight title picture. According to White, who says he’s in the mix, regardless of Fitch’s current streak and the fact that he only has one loss and one draw in his past 20 fights, unless he makes some drastic changes to his game, he likely won’t main event on a pay-per-view let alone fight for the welterweight strap any time soon.

“You hear the same thing from everybody about Jon Fitch: ‘If I want to get to sleep and I can’t get to sleep at night, I’ll put in a Jon Fitch fight.’ Whatever you think, Jon Fitch is one of the best 170-pounders in the world. And yes, he’s in the hunt for a title again, but everybody… find one person that will tell you they love a Jon Fitch fight, it’s the most exciting thing they’ve ever seen and they just get so excited for it. So when you say that you have a fight like Cerrone and Diaz on the card and a guy with a record like his is on and people aren’t jumping out of their seats for that fight, I think Jon needs to have a little bit of a… he’s got to be a little honest with himself and have a little bit of a reality check when he talks about stuff like [fighters talking their way into title fights.”

(Similar to Georges St.Pierre, MMA pundits, and most fans heading into UFC 129, Dana White was looking right past Jake Shields.)

2011 is approaching it’s final hour, Potato Nation, and when we typically take a look back at the year that was, we often lump things in terms of the very best, and more often than not, the very worst. But even though it has been arguably the biggest year in the sport’s History, it hasn’t gone without it’s fair share of snoozefests, sparring matches, and fights that simply didn’t live up to their own hype. For every Rua/Hendo, there was a Torres/Banuelos, so to speak, that kept us from having a full-on Chuck Liddell style freak out. It’s not that these fights made us angry, it’s just that they failed to make us feel anything.

In a way, they were actually a good thing for the sport, as they raised our appreciation for the epic slugfests, the back and forth brawls, and the technical battles to new heights. So it is for these unsung heroes that we bring you The Ten Most Forgettable Fights of 2011, presented in chronological order.

#10: Jacob Volkmann vs. Antonio Mckee

We know what you’re thinking, Potatoites, you’re thinking, “My God, it’s only been a year since this clown (dis)graced the UFC with that performance?” Well the answer is yes, and almost to the exact date. On January 1st at UFC 125, Anthony Mckee made his long awaited debut in the UFC. And when we say “long awaited,” we mean by none other than Mckee himself. You see, Anthony Mckee followed the James Toney method of trolling his way into the UFC through a shitstorm of self absorbed and ridiculous claims, despite only claiming seven finishes in his previous thirty contests. Well, DW took the bait, and threw Mckee humble wrestler and future threat to Homeland Security, Jacob Volkmann, for his big debut.

(See? Healthy as an ox. A big, crazy, racist ox. )

Thanks to CP reader David T. for passing along the good news via ShockMansion.com:

“A few reports coming out of Russia claimed Viacheslav Datsik had been killed in a prison fight. Alexander Zubov, Head of Press Service of the Federal Penitentiary Service management for St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, said ‘This is fictional. Who profits, I cannot say. Datsik is healthy, eating, has recently been out for a walk’.”

The original report quoted St. Petersburg human-rights attorney Joseph Gabunia, who claimed that Datsik was stabbed to death in a brawl — but if a Russian prison publicist says that Red Tarzan recently went for a walk, then that’s good enough for us. Although if Datsik was killed, I guess that wouldn’t be the end of the world either.

Previously:
- Batshit Crazy Neo-Nazi MMA Fighter Vyacheslav Datsik Arrested in Norway
- Vyacheslav Datsik Granted Temporary Asylum in Norway While Officials Investigate Claims that He Isn’t Crazy
- The 16 Most Notorious Arrests in MMA History
- Exclusive: Identity of Joe Son’s Alleged Prison Murder Victim Revealed

(UFC 141 weigh-in highlight video via MMAFighting.com)

Come back to CagePotato.com tonight for our liveblog of “Overeem vs. Lesnar,” beginning with the Spike TV prelims at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT; the pay-per-view card kicks off an hour later at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. UFC 141 weigh-in results are below. After the jump: GIFs of Brock Lesnar’s post-weigh-in rage-pose and Joe Rogan‘s search for meaning in the eyes of the main eventers.

MAIN CARD
Brock Lesnar (266) vs. Alistair Overeem (263)
Donald Cerrone (156) vs. Nate Diaz (156*)
Johny Hendricks (170) vs. Jon Fitch (171)
Alexander Gustafsson (203) vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (205)
Jim Hettes (145) vs. Nam Phan (146)

SPIKE TV PRELIMS
Junior Assuncao (145) vs. Ross Pearson (145)
Anthony Njokuani (154) vs. Danny Castillo (156)

FACEBOOK PRELIMS
Sean Pierson (171) vs. Dong Hyun Kim (171)
Efrain Escudero (155) vs. Jacob Volkmann (155)
Luis Ramos (171) vs. Matt Riddle (170)
Diego Nunes (145) vs. Manny Gamburyan (146)

* Diaz originally weighed in at 157. From Cagewriter: “Diaz missed the lightweight limit at 155 pounds and then cut to within one-quarter pound. Instead of taking 20 percent of Diaz’s purse, as is normally mandated by state commissions, Cerrone agreed to re-work the contract. He also said Diaz didn’t have to cut any more weight. Cerrone’s camp told its fighter to pipe down and asked Diaz to go lose the weight. After two tries Diaz got it done and the most heated fight at UFC 141 is a go.”

(Faces will be punched tomorrow night.)

Just a friendly reminder that we’ll have the video feed for tonight’s UFC 141 weigh-ins starting at 7:00 pm ET.

It’s worth tuning in to just to see what shenanigans the Diaz brothers get into.

In the meantime, make your predictions for tomorrow night in the comment section and we’ll revisit them next week and check out the video feed after the jump.

(Will Lesnar vs. Overeem bash out a place on the list, or will it inevitably fall short of the hype?)

Between Junior Dos Santos’s knee injury, Strikeforce phasing out their heavyweight division in 2012, and the general lack of UFC heavyweight fights lately (just three in their last five events, to be exact), it seems like MMA’s big-man scene is in hibernation mode.

But starting with Friday night’s UFC 141 main event of Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem — promoted as the “biggest” fight of the year — and continuing on to Josh Barnett vs. Daniel Cormier in March, the action among 265′ers is about to start heating up. With that mind, we decided to pay tribute to the greatest and most important heavyweight MMA fights from this past year. Enjoy, and let us know if we left out any of your favorites…

#6. DANIEL CORMIER vs. ANTONIO SILVA
Strikeforce World Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov, 9/10/11

What happened: The smaller man fought like a giant. Cormier landed his punches at will and easily shrugged off Silva’s attempts to take the fight to the ground. Entering the tournament as an alternate, Cormier punched his ticket to the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix finals with a hook/uppercut combo that stiffened the Brazilian Frankenstein.
What we learned: Undersized doesn’t always mean outgunned — and a big chin doesn’t always mean a strong chin.

(“Get that trip takedown shit outta here, homie.”)

MMA H.E.A.T. provided us with the footage of Ronda Rousey training with Nick Diaz for today’s GIF goodness.

As Manny Gamburyan and Nate Diaz explain, Ronda’s judo — which earned the 24-year-old a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing — is on a whole other level than other women they’ve trained with. Here is the proof.

Also of note is Nate’s revelation that he would don a gi and pretend he was Karo Parisyan when he helped Nick train for his UFC 49 fight with “The Heat.” back in 2004. It’s safe to say he definitely knew who Karo was when they butted heads on the set of TUF.

Check out the full video spot after the jump.

(Photo via Scott Hirano for Lowkick)

This Friday, MMA veteran Vladimir Matyushenko will step inside the Octagon for the 11th time in his career, facing Alexander Gustafsson on the main card of UFC 141 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Currently enjoying a two-fight winning streak in the UFC, Matyushenko will look to solidify his place as a Top 10 UFC light-heavyweight against the 16-years-younger Gustafsson.

Matyushenko is 26-5 in his MMA career, with the UFC’s reigning 205-pound champ Jon Jones being the only man to beat the Belarusian since 2009. We had an opportunity to speak to “The Janitor” who shared thoughts about the future of his Mixed Martial Arts career, his experience advantage over Alexander Gustafsson, and the rematch with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira he has been chasing for years.

Visit Lowkick.blitzcorner.com to read the interview and see exclusive photos from Matyushenko’s training camp.

(He took a shot every time Xenophon mentioned a conspiracy theory.)

Just a friendly reminder that we’ll be heading over to the Cage Potato Radio Network Studios to tape our last episode of our widely popular “The Bum Rush Radio Show” podcast of 2011 and we’d love you to join us.

Ok, we lied. There is no studio and we probably should have replaced the word “widely” with “moderately,” but we have fun taping the show and that’s all that matters, right? It’s not about winning or losing, unless you’re the winner.

Anyway, we’ll be breaking down this Friday night’s UFC 141 card, going through some of the year’s biggest stories and taking calls from some of you hooligans.

Grab a bottle of bourbon and a shot glass and get in here. It should be fun, or at least more fun than work.

(Within 24 hours of touching that thing at a UFC Expo, Overeem will punch you in the face.)

Typically, UFC champions fight at least two to three times per year. This year, each strap was defended an average of 1.86 times because of a rash of injuries we chalk up to the UFC title curse.

13 title defenses for seven belts is a problem for any organization, especially one as big as the UFC. It’s tough to garner interest for your promotion’s champions when only a few are defending their titles more than once or twice a year.

(Days after Arianny presented Ali with theOctagon Girl
Championship belt, she was let go by the UFC. Coincidence?)

The question is, should there be a limit to the amount of time a champion can go without defending his or her leather and gold before an interim champ is declared?

Check out the breakdown of the 2011 UFC champion injury plague in order of lightest to heaviest weight class after the jump and judge for yourself if title fights are less interesting as a result of how infrequently they occur.

Tisk, tisk, tisk. Apparently word travels fast, because it seems we cannot go more then a couple days here at CagePotato without hearing another tale of some Charles Bronson-esque vigilante justice. Today’s story takes us to Hendersonville, North Carolina, where avid MMA fan and pawn shop clerk Darren “Rocky” Mothershead (?) found himself on the wrong end of a Friday night robbery attempt and decided to solve things the good old fashioned way, with his fists.

And we mean “attempt” in the lightest sense of the word, because as “Rocky” was handing over the day’s take to the gun-toting thief (a gun which later turned out to be of the pellet variety), he went all Jason Statham on the SOB and delivered a BRUTAL left hand that KO’d the dirty rapscallion instantly.

If the fact that this was all caught on tape wasn’t awesome enough, Mothershead then forced the burglar to CLEAN UP HIS OWN BLOOD off the carpet as they waited for the police to arrive. These are the actions of a boss, ladies and gentlemen. The thief was later identified as Mostafa Kamel Hendi, so if anyone out there knows this guy, send us his address so we can in turn send him a crushed ice pack and our condolences for failing at every turn in his life thus far.

(Shane Del Rosario gives Lolohea Mahe one of the grossest kick-faces since Lytle/Taylor. Photo via Strikeforce)

It was announced yesterday that Shane Del Rosario — an 11-0 heavyweight whose record includes 10 first-round stoppages — has been signed to the UFC in their ongoing carcass-picking of Strikeforce’s heavyweight division. The Team Oyama product has gone 3-0 under the Strikeforce banner, most recently scoring an armbar-submission over Lavar Johnson at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva in February.

Del Rosario was scheduled to face Daniel Cormier in a Heavyweight Grand Prix reserve bout at the Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum show in June. Unfortunately, he was forced to pull out of the bout after a drunk driver struck his car in May, which left him with a back injury. Now he’s healed up and heading for bigger challenges in the Octagon. Shane’s UFC debut date and opponent are still TBA. (My prediction/suggestion: The winner of Pat Barry vs. Christian Morecraft on January 20th.)

After the jump: Videos of Del Rosario’s three Strikeforce ass-kickings.

(Props: UFC.com via MiddleEasy)

Following yesterday’s face-off dust-up with Donald Cerrone, Nate Diaz explained why he was forced to knock off Cowboy’s hat and shove him. In short, Cerrone got too close: “He was just trying to walk forward on me and, y’know, trying to get the jump on me, so whatever. He shouldn’t have walked that close, put his stupid-ass cowboy hat all up on me. I wasn’t trying to be a bully or anything, but he shouldn’t have done that.”

Meanwhile, brother Nick eggs him on as much as possible. Like Cerrone put it before, these two just wake up pissed off all the time for no reason. And remember, Nate and Cowboy still have one more face-off to get through at today’s UFC 141 weigh-ins — and then, y’know, an actual fight. Brace yourselves.

After the jump, a video of the Cerrone vs. Diaz and Lesnar vs. Overeem face-offs from yesterday’s press conference, via Karyn Bryant.

(“Only bad guys wear black hats, homie.”)

If you didn’t happen to catch the UFC 141 pre-fight press conference today, we’re going to show you what you missed in under 10 seconds after the jump.

Via ArielHelwani:

“Dana says Torres is back. Torres has donated money to local rape centers, visited them. Dana says Torres was very remorseful…Dana says Torres handled his business like a man and no one told him to do it. Torres very emotional.”

In the latest example of Dana White releasing fighters in a fit of anger before changing his mind (see also: Jon Fitch, Karo Parisyan), the UFC president confirmed at today’s “Lesnar vs. Overeem” press conference that Miguel Torres‘s tweet-related firing was more like a three-week suspension. Torres apparently did enough to get back in White’s good graces after his rape-joke-gone-awry, and can now return to his rightful place in the UFC bantamweight division.

We’re glad this story got a happy ending. Now can Gerald Harris and Natasha Wicks get some love or what?

(If I’ve told one reporter, I’ve told them all. No Nick Ring questions. At all.)

The UFC has recently announced a middleweight clash between TUF 11 winner Court McGee and up and comer Constantinos Philippou for the promotion’s second installation on FX, which goes down March 3rd at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Coming off a unanimous decision victory over Korean slugger Dongi Yang, McGee is a perfect 3-0 in his octagon career, submitting Kris McCray back in June of 2010 to win the glass plaque and doing the same to Ryan Jensen in his post-TUF debut the following October. After dropping a decision to Nick Catone in his own debut, Philippou has notched two straight, scoring a split decision over Jorge Rivera at UFC 133 before absolutely blistering Jared Hamman at UFC 140. This one’s gonna be a brawl, ladies and gents.

(Dana’s just excited about the matchup, that’s all.)

Dana White, Brock Lesnar, Alistair Overeem, Donald Cerrone and Nate Diaz are scheduled to appear at a UFC 141 press conference today at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. You can watch the proceedings live in the video player after the jump, beginning at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT. Will Alistair insist on wearing a suit, even when everybody else will surely be wearing t-shirts? Will Cowboy and Nate make eye contact when they smush their foreheads together? Will the UFC continue to let the morons in the audience beg Dana for handouts? Answers inside!

(Why does Keith have to be such a mean old Grinch? Pic props Getty Images)

Dana White put out a short and sweet edition of his UFC 141 video blogs today so he could explain the UFC’s decision to award Duane Ludwig with the fastest KO in UFC history.

Previously, Todd Duffee held the distinction for his :07 routing of Tim Hague at UFC 102 back in 2009 and it was believed that Chan-Sung Jung mirrored The Duffman’s time earlier this month when he knocked out Mark Hominick at UFC 140.

On closer inspection it seems that neither fighter really holds the record as it really belongs to Ludwig, whose 2006 knockout over Jonathan Goulet at UFN 3 was previously in the books at :11.

(Who’s going to design a ‘Bum Rush’ drinking game for tomorrow?)

It’s been a while since we’ve opened up the phone lines to the Potato Nation, so we figured we were about due for another call-in edition of The Bum Rush Radio Show before we close out the year.

Mark your day planners (or write a reminder on your fridge) that the show will go live tomorrow at 3:00 pm ET and we will be taking calls from our faithful readers and seasoned trolls to get their thoughts on the year in MMA and our performance in 2011.

(Two words: Cultivating mass.)

Oh my God, you guys. We are just two days away from a match so epic that it threatens to implode our entire universe and send it spiraling down a black hole quicker than a Duane Ludwig knockout. And since most of us are still trying to financially recover from Christmas (only to spend nearly as much on New Year’s Eve, ironically), why not place some bets with us and end this sumbitch on a bang instead of a whimper? Check out the betting lines, courtesy of BestFightOdds, along with our Negrodamus-esque advice below.

Main Card
Brock Lesnar (+110) vs. Alistair Overeem (-130)
Nate Diaz (+240) vs. Donald Cerrone (-280)
Jon Fitch (-230) vs. Johny Hendricks (+190)
Vladimir Matyushenko (+285) vs. Alexander Gustafsson (-345)
Nam Phan (-230) vs. Jimy Hettes (+190)

Preliminary card (televised on Spike)
Ross Pearson (-300) vs. Junior Assunçao (+250)
Anthony Njokuani (+155) vs. Danny Castillo (-175)

Preliminary card (Facebook)
Dong Hyun Kim (-360) vs. Sean Pierson (+300)
Jacob Volkmann (-260) vs. Efrain Escudero (+220)
Matt Riddle (-115) vs. Luis Ramos (-105)
Manvel Gamburyan (+200) vs. Diego Nunes (-240)

Thoughts…

(“Take that, logic!”)

With a pair of decisive losses in his last two Octagon appearances, Jake Shields‘s career is at a crossroads. He could try to scrape his way back up the welterweight ladder — starting with his fight against Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 144 — or he could try to re-invent himself completely. Since his homey Nick Diaz is now competing for interim titles in the same weight class, it’s clear which way he’s leaning:

“I would have no problem fighting there,” Shields told MMAWeekly.com in regards to returning to 185 pounds. “It’s something I’ve thought about before and I was thinking about it (before) this fight, but they offered me this fight (and) I took it. Especially with my teammate, Nick Diaz, challenging for the welterweight title, it’s definitely in the back of my mind going up to 185 (pounds)…I’d fight sparring partners, but (Nick and I) are different. We trained together for, like, 11 years; so it’s a little different.”

So who does Shields have his eye on, hypothetically, at 185? Hint: It’s the same guy he’s always wanted — Anderson Silva. Oh Jake, you crazy dreamer. Here’s what he told MMAFightCorner:

(And now, two useless MMA commentators miss a fantastic standing heel-hook finish while trying to figure out how to pronounce “Vovchanchyn.” Props: EliteMMA)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere…

- UFC 145: Brendan Schaub vs. Ben Rothwell Booked for March 24 in Montreal (MMA Mania)

- Frank Mir Says Alistair Overeem’s Cardio Will “Suck” Against Brock Lesnar (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Top 10 Worst New Year’s Eve MMA Fights in Japan (The Fight Nerd)

- Nate Diaz Denies October Run-In With Donald Cerrone (5th Round)

- The $8.18 UFC 141 Parlay That Will Literally Make You a Millionaire (MiddleEasy)

- As He Reflects on Loss to Michael Bisping, ‘Mayhem’ Miller Focuses on Uncertain Future (MMA Fighting)

- NYE Storylines: Who Retires First After a Loss, Fedor or Lesnar? (Fight Opinion)

- Moving Past ‘Worst Time Ever,’ Karo Parisyan Rediscovering Fire To Compete (FightLine)

- Gabriel Gonzaga: ‘The UFC Is My Home’ (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Countdown to UFC 141 Attracts Just 15,000 Viewers on FUEL (MMA Payout)

- Inside MMA: The 2011 Bazzie Awards (MMA Convert)

- Jon Fitch Says He Should Fight the Winner of Condit-Diaz if Victorious Against Johny Hendricks (Lowkick.Blitzcorner.com)

(“Josh, quit squeezing. I’m gonna shit my pants.”)

On the bright side, DREAM promoters have managed to secure a replacement opponent for Tim Sylvia following the visa denial of Brett Rogers. Unfortunately, “The Maineac” will now appear on the fake fighting portion of the card when he takes on kickboxing legend Jerome LeBanner in a pro wrestling match.

Sylvia will join fellow former UFC heavyweight champion and avid wrestling fan Josh Barnett, who will take on Suzuki Hideki in DREAM’s version of the squared circle.

(Video courtesy of Vimeo/THE REEM)

Our favorite web documentary series is back with another episode just intime for its protagonist’s biggest fight of his career.

In this episode of The Reem, Alistair Overeem does some PR work in L.A. ahead of his UFC 141 bout with Brock Lesnar this Friday and spends some time training with Mark Munoz and company at Reign Training Center.

Shame on HDNet and the Octagon Nation Tour for jacking our swagger (6:08 mark) and props to Overeem for punking the last fan in line at the signing. The dude looked like he was going to cry.

It’s official: Satoshi Ishii is a dead man walking. Don’t call it a comeback, but Fedor Emelianenko was spotted on his return flight home from Holland donning none other than the Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory, or as MMA Mania calls it, The Ultimate Sweater of Destruction. I’m not going to lie to you, Potato Nation, I had to paste that name directly from their article, because as I tried to type it, it was as if some otherworldly force took over my body, choked me within an inch of my life, and then forced me to smash the ice cream cone I was eating into my face. Weird.

The sweater, which was retired amidst an undercover attempt by the Russian government to assassinate “The Last Emperor” and use its powers to bring on a new Ice Age, has been the sole factor in Emelianenko’s recent three fight skid, which saw him submitted by Fabricio Werdum before being TKO’ed by Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson. After a recent, secret shift in the Russian power paradigm, Emelianenko told CagePotato in an exclusive and possibly fake interview that he feels safe to wear the sweater again, and looks forward to going on another 30 fight win streak that will culminate in a “two man enter, one man leaves” match against Dan Severn.

(Full gallery is after the jump.)

Fist-bump to Bleacher Report MMA for turning us on to Abby Poblador, a distractingly beautiful Filipina model who’s one of the ring girls for Guam’s Pacific Xtreme Combat MMA promotion. The 24-year-old has appeared in FHM, Maxim, and Playboy, and is a veteran of the car-show circuit. For more of Abby, swing by her Facebook fan page, and take a look at our favorite Abby Poblador photos below…