(Props: TheMMAClinic)

Sheila “The German Tank” Gaff scored her third-straight knockout victory on Friday night, when she dummied up Chute Boxe product Jennifer Maia in just 10 seconds at Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 4 in Dubai. Gaff’s strategy relied on the element of surprise; instead of returning Maia’s offer for a glove-tap at the beginning of the fight, Gaff swung an overhand right with lethal intentions, then fired punches and knees until she found Maia’s off-switch with a short right hook.

Not the worst cheap-shot we’ve seen, but it’s definitely in the mix. Gaff doesn’t seem to be a big fan of the glove-tap in general. For proof, check out her eight-second knockout of Hanna Sillen from last February after the jump, which begins and ends just as furiously…

(I’ll take “Injuries that make me reconsider my line of work” for a thousand, Alex.) 

Good morning, Potato Nation. As we’re all still nursing hangovers from this weekend’s festivities and trying to cope with the fact that there will be no more The Walking Dead until next fall, let’s start the day off with a bit of light reading.

Firstly, a math teacher from Ohio and a movie star from South Vietnam have been booked to throw down at UFC 148, which features the completion of the Dominick Cruz/Urijah Faber trilogy as its headliner, and goes down from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on June 7th.

What’s that, you say? Rich Franklin is also a movie star and Cung Le could probably teach math? Well, there’s no room for that kind of intolerance around here, especially not this early in the morning, so we suggest you pull your heads out of your collective asses. Besides, Rich Franklin is definitely not a movie star.

This will be Franklin’s first fight at middleweight since April of 2008, when he dispatched TUF 4 winner Travis Lutter via second round TKO back at UFC 83. In fact, it’s been a while since we’ve seen “Ace” in the octagon at all. After dropping a unanimous decision to Forrest Griffin at UFC 126, Franklin was expected to face Antonio Rogerio Nogueria at UFC 133. The bout was cancelled, however, after Nogueria suffered a last minute injury, and a subsequent shoulder injury forced Franklin into surgery in October.

Cung Le appeared to be destined for victory in his UFC debut match against Wanderlei Silva at UFC 139 last November, picking apart the former PRIDE middleweight champ with his patented arsenal of San Shou kicks throughout the first round. But as in his fight with Scott Smith at Strikeforce: Evolution, Le would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, eating one knee too many in the second round and dropping his second career loss to “The Axe Murderer” in the second round of their co-headlining scrap. Also similar to the Smith fight would be the horrific nose injury that Le would walk away with.

In other fight booking news…

Hint: This guy does pretty well. Props: The Cornell Sun

Last night concluded the NCAA’s three day tournament for the 2012 D1 National Wrestling Championships in St. Louis, Missouri. Given the success that dominant wrestlers have had in mixed martial arts, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll be seeing a few of these guys in the cage at some point, so you might as well learn who last night’s big winners were. It’s MMA’s version of March Madness, without the annoying Hooter’s commercials (Unrelated, but why are you giving us that dejected look, Bellator?).

Perhaps the biggest winner from last night was Cornell’s Kyle Dake. The 157 pound Ivy League grappler became the first wrestler in NCAA history to win three national titles in three different weight classes, defeating Iowa’s Derek St. John, 4-1. Cornell would wind up finishing fourth in the team standings with 102.5 points, behind Iowa (107.5), Minnesota (117.5) and Penn State (142), who had already clinched the team title before last night’s finals.

If you want a list of full results, check here, then come back for the videos, courtesy of IronForgesIron.com, after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/limonadoss)

There is no greater crime than to be deprived of sharing your gift with the world. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but to let a god-given talent die on the vine is unforgivable, yet this seems to be the fate of one Aleksander Emelianenko. You see, after fighting in a series of meaningful, competitive battles, Aleks found his true calling as a can-crusher. Each morbid beatdown was a sight to behold, a gift to the masses. Sadly, we are now being robbed of that gift. Sure, he’s still standing across the cage from lesser competition, but they are a dangling carrot that he cannot bite, a mirage in the distance that he’ll never actually reach. Observe:

We first caught a glimpse of this phenomenon when Aleks squared off against Eddy Bengtsson. After a scant forty seconds, Bengtsson succumbed to a phantom punch and deprived Aleks the joy of a brutal finish. Fast-forward to last Friday evening, where Aleks took to punching heavybag journeyman Tadas Rimkevicius. To his credit, Rimkevicius seemed game to trade until Emelianenko really started to swang them thangs, which forced “The Lithuanian Bear” to dig deep into his bag of tricks (check out that rolling kneebar at 5:20 and tell me that Tadas isn’t the bastard child of Oleg Taktarov and Ryo Chonan). Ol’ Rimke actually catches Aleks with a left hand and drops him as the round draws to a close, which was possibly the closest anyone came to being legitimately put away in a bout that ended via TKO.

After the jump, Aleks gets cut off at ‘second base’.

TATAME.com is reporting that UFC lightweight Dennis Hallman has pulled out of his
upcoming bout with TUF 13 winner Tony Ferguson. While the details are still up in the air, it appears that Hallman has suffered an injury while training. Replacing him at UFC on FOX 3 will be Thiago Tavares.

Since winning The Ultimate Fighter 13, Tony Ferguson has gone 2-0 in the UFC. His most recent victory has been a unanimous decision over veteran Yves Edwards at the TUF 14 Finale in December. During the same time period, Thiago Tavares has also gone 2-0, with his victories coming against Spencer Fisher and Sam Stout. This bout will mark the first
time that Tavares has fought on American soil in over a year, as both of his previous fights have taken place in Rio de Janeiro at UFC 134 and UFC 142. His last fight in America saw him lose to Shane Roller by second round knockout at UFC on Versus 3: Sanchez vs. Kampmann last March.

UFC on FOX 3 will go down on May 5 at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The full fight card now looks like this:

By Elias Cepeda

Jon Anik’s silky voice talks us in to episode two of The Ultimate Fighter 15, telling us we’re less than an hour away from tonight’s live fight. We’re about to see what happened this past week in TUFlandia but right now there are two hooded fighters warming up with their backs to the camera in their respective lock rooms.

Could it be? Yes…those two (at present) nameless and faceless fighters will fight each other tonight but we will have to wait and see who they are. Cheesy, but kinda cool. Another new element of this debuting hybrid taped/live TUF format. Also, there’s a fight clock on the bottom right hand of the screen, ticking down.

The 16 winning fighters from last week’s elimination round pull up to the TUF mansion and once again we see a new crop of young fighters enthusiastically explore their new digs with the type of giddiness that can only lead us to believe that they’ve never watched past seasons and thus don’t realize how completely miserable it can be to be locked in that house. Happens every season.

Brian Rogers’ walk-off flying knee KO (Courtesy of YouTube/BellatorMMA)

Bellator kicked off its fourth 185-lb tournament last night and it was a pretty good night of scraps for those in the bludgeoning business. Despite a last minute cancellation of the scheduled Prindle-Santos rematch, the card marched bravely on. Eight middleweights squared off for a chance to advance to the semis and ultimately to challenge reigning champ Hector Lombard. It may not be the most popular tournament at the moment, but it’s ours, dammit, and here’s how it played out.

The opening bout in the eight-man scrum pitted Season 5 runner-up Vitor Vianna against Brian Rogers. Rogers came out as the early aggressor, firing off hard shots at a passive Vianna. Eager to get the fight to the ground, Vianna worked for the takedown, but his back only graced the canvas once for a few seconds following a hip-toss by Rogers. Back on the feet, “The Predator” stunned Vianna with a right hand that wobbled him back on his heels. Smelling blood, Rogers leapt in with flying knee for a textbook falling tree KO. “”That was my third flying knee knockout. Google it,” said Rogers in his post-fight interview. I would, boss, but I’m terrified of the internet. All nine of Rogers’ victories have come by first round stoppage. Not too shabby.

(Video courtesy of HustleShow)

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(WORST…BIRTHDAY…PARTY…EVER!)

According to a Canadian Press article, the Canadian Opera Company has recruited behemoth American sumo wrestler and UFC 3 veteran Emmanuel Yarborough for it’s upcoming production of “Semele,” — a Greek tragedy.

Yarborough will apparently take part in a three-minute staged sumo bout meant to signify “a love affair between the god Jupiter and the princess Semele that goes horribly awry when Semele sets her mind to become immortal,” says COC spokeswoman Maria Lioutaia.

(Just another day researching hard-hitting stories here at the CP offices.) 

Arianny Celeste is officially a triple threat. Not only can she strike a pose with the best of them, but she can sing the roof off the rafters. And now….this.

Cast as “Japanese schoolgirl” in the latest video by electro pop band Manufactured Superstars, Ms. Celeste turns in a performance that will surely go down as the single greatest piece of acting in a four minute party sequence of all time. Simply put, it brought tears to my penis eyes. As for the music itself, well, it roughly reminds me of something I’d come upon if I happened to be playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, so make what you want of that, and join us after the jump for the video.

Also after the jump: everyone’s favorite HR disaster, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson slaps a willing fan, and Brendan Schuab goes ghost hunting. 

(Two words: Stanky toe.) 

We’re in the midst of the longest MMA drought of the year, Potato Nation. With only one UFC and one Strikeforce event scheduled in the next month, the gambling addicts within the CP staff are damn near starving to death. Seriously, we’ve been forced to start taking bets on things like: how long Karma can grow his fingernails before he scratches someone’s eyes out, the IQ of BG’s child (currently), and which cockroach in Danga’s apartment will finally die of lead poisoning.

Perhaps it’s a sign of how far the sport has come in the past few years that we expect a card every couple weeks; pehaps it is just a sign of our greed. In either case, Bellator has stepped up to fill the void left behind by all the major organizations, and thankfully so. With three events planned in the next two weeks, it presents a perfect opportunity to get some bad picks and ridiculous parlays out of your system before it really costs you.

Despite the main event being cancelled at the last second, tonight’s Bellator 61 card still presents some intriguing match-ups and more than a couple ways to come out with a more padded wallet to spend on tomorrows festivities, ie. green colored beer and an end of the night stomach pumping. But let’s get one thing straight, this is not your mamma’s Gambling Addiction Enabler, this is a sort of similar yet entirely different monster. CagePotato can not be held accountable for the following betting advice, so read at your own risk.

First, let’s take a look at the card…

By Elias Cepeda 

Ok, I can’t possibly be the only one who is reminded of this classic Chappelle’s Show  ’Real World’ sketch whenever I watch Karyn Bryant get accosted by Quinton Jackson while her husband/cameraman/cuckold, Wade Eck silently and passively stands by and films the proceedings.

First there was Rampage’s attempt at motorboating Bryant to celebrate his win over Matt Hamill, and now this week he was back to his old tricks on Bryant’s MMA H.E.A.T. show. We’ve almost become numb to his antics and come to expect molestation from Rampage whenever a woman sticks a microphone in his face since it isn’t the first (or the second) female reporter Rampage “be humping” or otherwise sexually assaulting. Hell, we’ve lost count of the amount of videos out there of Rampage being his classy self.

Anyway, this time around Bryant had a full 45-minute sit down with Quinton, who we now know is all hopped up on testosterone injections, and besides his uncomfortable closeness to and constant leering and grabbing of Bryant, it was actually a pretty solid interview. He touched on a ton of topics including why he wants to leave the UFC, his rap career aspirations and how he helps his family and friends out financially.

(“Taking testosterone is no different than Flintstone vitamins. Ask Cris Santos.”)

Chael Sonnen made a stop by SPIKE TV last night and sort of addressed his TRT use exemption and the suspension he received following his UFC 117 title fight with Anderson Silva for failing to disclose to California State Athletic Commission officials that he took the hormone prior to the bout.

Host Craig Carton segued into the topic while they were discussing Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s recent revelation that he is on the youth tonic as well. Sonnen was quick to point out that there are plenty of other substances that are better performance-enhancing-wise, but then denied that testosterone was a performance enhancer. Classic contradictory and convoluted Chael.

“There’s two things there. Hold on. If you’re gonna associate the guy with TRT, make sure you also associate the fact that it’s legal and it’s not banned. Second thing with TRT is people are really getting confused. They look at TRT and they’re missing the stuff that really is good,” Sonnen explained. “TRT is eight, nine, 10 on the list of things that a person could take to help their careers go along. Secondly, any time a person says ‘performance enhancer,’ stop talking to them, because they don’t have the intellect to debate with you.”

(Anyone got some chalk?) 

We’ve been watching people get knocked out for a long time, Potato Nation. So long, in fact, that it’s gotten to the point where we’ve begun to categorize these knockouts according to the manner in which a fighter’s lifeless body crumbles to the canvas. Is it insensitive, wrong, and perhaps a little too dark? Sure, but if you were worried about sensitivity and other womanly issues, you probably wouldn’t be here. And that’s why we love you as much as two heterosexual sadists can possibly love one another.

But be warned, the knockout that occurred last weekend at Stichting MMA Nederland, in a fight between Wiebe Brouwer and Nick Gorissen, is perhaps the oddest physical reaction to a knockout that we have ever seen, combining the falling tree knockout with Stefan Struve’s Matrix-esque routine against Travis Browne at UFC 130. It will forever change your outlook on the game (?) of limbo, and may cause simultaneous bouts of hysterical laughter and horrified nausea. It did for the CP interns we forced to watch it on a 24 hour loop, anyway.

Join us after the jump if you dare.

(In an unprecedented move, Alistair’s first character witness will be this gigantic K-1 trophy.)

Following his alleged shoving of a woman at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel on January 2nd, UFC heavyweight #1 contender Alistair Overeem is scheduled to appear at a bench trial in Clark County, Nevada, on March 27th, where the verdict will be determined by a judge without a jury. Cross your fingers that the judge isn’t a die-hard Brock Lesnar fan.

Overeem faces one misdemeanor battery charge, which carries a potential $1,000 fine and up to six months in prison. While we expect his high-powered lawyer to smash these charges like an Uberknee to the ribs, it would be a disaster if this affected Overeem’s scheduled heavyweight championship bout against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146 on May 26th. Stay tuned…

(In the heart of the child who made it, the Super HLUK belt is the most prestigious title on the planet.)

CagePotato Roundtable is our new recurring column in which the CP writing staff and some of our friends all get together to debate an MMA-related topic. Joining us this week is MiddleEasy.com founder Zeus Tipado, who was kind enough to smoke an entire bag of PCP and channel the spirit of Wallid Ismail. If you have a suggestion for a future Roundtable column, send it to tips@cagepotato.com. This week’s topic: Who’s your favorite MMA fighter to never win a major title?

Ben Goldstein

We take personality for granted these days. Everywhere you look, the MMA ranks are packed with shameless self-promoters, aspiring comedians, unrepentant assholes, and assorted clown-men. But in the UFC’s infancy, fighters tended to come in two types: Stoic (see Royce Gracie, Dan Severn) and certifiably insane ( see Joe Son, Harold Howard). David “Tank” Abbott changed all that. He entered the UFC with a fully-fledged persona, and managed to stay in character through his entire career. Simply put, he was the UFC’s first villain, and he played that role more effectively than anyone has since.

Heralded as a “pit fighter” — a term invented by UFC promoter Art Davie — Tank’s martial art of choice was hitting guys in the head really hard, which he did while wearing the sort of fingerless gloves that soon become industry standard. It’s difficult to overstate the impact that Tank’s debut at UFC 6 had on a 14-year-old Ben Goldstein as I was watching the pay-per-view at my friend Josh’s house. It wasn’t just that Abbott starched John Matua in a mere 18 seconds, or that Matua’s body seized up when his head hit the canvas. It’s that Tank reacted to the knockout by mimic-ing Matua’s stiffened pose. Tank actually mocked John Matua for having a seizure. Ruthless! And how about his destruction of Steve Nelmark at the Ultimate Ultimate ’96, which had to be the first “oh shit is that guy dead?” moment in UFC history. Tank was a living reminder that the UFC was very real, and very dangerous.

(How about $1 Million dollars and an autographed 8×10?”)

Manny Paquiao told reporters during a recent media scrum that Floyd Mayweather recently called him up and offered him a guaranteed $40 million purse, but said he wasn’t willing to share a cent of the pay-per-view cut.

“I spoke with Floyd on the phone. He called me on the weekend. I told him, ‘Let’s make the fight happen and I agree for 50/50 [on the pay-per-view] and whatever blood testing you want, as long as you agree for 50/50.’ And he said, ‘Let’s do this. I’ll give you this amount and no more pay-per-view for you,” Pac Man recalled with a chuckle. “After that, I gave it to my people [to handle]. He was very serious. It’s okay with me that he has a bigger guarantee and I have a smaller guarantee, but it’s 50/50 for the distribution of the pay-per-view.”

According to Paquiao’s manager, the final offer given to Mayweather was a $50 million guarantee for Manny and a 45-55 percent split of the pay-per-view revenue, but “Pretty Boy Floyd” just wasn’t having it.

(When you gotta go, you gotta go.) 

An apparent case of influenza has forced Bellator season 5 finalist Eric Prindle out from his rematch with fellow finalist Thiago Santos. After their first contest ended in the most brutal form of No Contest possible back at Bellator 59 in November, the pair was set to give things another go at Bellator 61, which goes down tomorrow from the River Dome in Boisser City, LA.

Prindle’s record stands at 9-1 with the aforementioned 1 no-contest, with three of those wins coming under the Bellator banner. In his promotional debut, Prindle scored a second round TKO due to doctor stoppage victory over Josh Burns at Bellator 40 in April of 2011, then cruised past TUF 10 vet Abe Wagner by UD the following October in their season five heavyweight tournament quarterfinal match. In the semi’s, Prindle demolished fellow power puncher Ron Sparks in just forty seconds at Bellator 56 via one punch knockout, earning his spot in the finals alongside Thiago Santos, who had racked up two straight rear-naked choke finishes in his preliminary matches.

Videos of both the Sparks and Santos fights, along with the full lineup for Bellator 61, are after the jump. 

(“Also? I think my nuts be all hyperextended and shit.”)

In today’s installment of “God damn it, Rampage,” the PRIDE fanboy wet dream rematch between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua has been canned just as quickly as it was announced, due to Jackson needing surgery on both of his knees. As Jackson tweeted (and keep in mind that “2″ = “to”):

“2 keep it real,the Shogun fight will have 2 wait,I just found out that I have 2 get surgery on both knees, but I heal fast don’t trip…John Jones fucked the left knee,n my sparing partner @antiheromma fucked the right 1,thanks guy!! But I’m not worried I got the best docs”

Surgery? Just rub some testosterone on those creaky knees and get back in the game, homey! There’s no current timetable for Jackson’s recovery and return, but it’s certainly bad timing for Rampage to be dealing with such a major procedure before his final fight with the UFC. As Shogun could tell you himself, your first fight back after knee surgery doesn’t always go so well.

(Immediately after the fight, an Amber Alert was issued for two frightened little boys last spotted with a large bald Caucasian man who clearly wasn’t their father.)

Due to the inadequacies of the Australian education system, Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall are slated to meet again in a re-do of their flyweight tournament semifinal fight from UFC on FX: Alves vs. Kampmann earlier this month. According to new reports, Mouse vs. Creepy 2 will go down June 1st at the Ultimate Fighter 15 Finale, which will take place June 1st at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. No other matches have been scheduled for the card yet.

With the rematch scheduled three months after the original fight, the UFC’s hope of producing a new flyweight champion in short order has hit a speed bump. Most likely, the tourney’s other flyweight semifinal winner — Joseph Benavidez, who knocked out newcomer Yasuhiro Urushitani at the Alves vs. Kampmann show — will have to be on ice until early fall, or even later if the Johnson/McCall winner suffers an injury during their June scrap.

See, guys? It’s easy to make fun of chaotic tournament brackets until you try to host one yourself…

UPDATE: The Spreecast room is live!  Get in here!

One thing that sets us apart from most other MMA sites (besides the hatred flung around the comment section like a beach ball at a Metallica concert) is the sense of community you’ve all shown. We’ve met a bunch of you handsome devils at the MMA Expo in Boston and our “Banned” party in Toronto and have always enjoyed conversing with you guys — except for ThisRedEngine. That guy was a douche.

(Heil SpongeBob!)

The next likely Soviet serial killer, Vyacheslav Datsik won’t be getting out of jail for at least six months, thanks to the foresight of a St. Petersburg appeals court who rejected the batshit crazy former fighter’s request for early release and house arrest.

According to a report from RapsiNews.com, officials believe that the Neo-Nazi Russian, who was the first of many fighters to knock out Andrei Arlovski, poses a major flight risk and that he will almost certainly resume his criminal activities if he is released. Datsik escaped incarceration from a St. Petersburg mental institution in 2010 and fled to Norway where he was arrested carrying a loaded handgun. Prior to his arrest, members of the white extremist group he belongs to told reporters that he told them he would never be taken alive, but later relented and turned himself into Oslo police, asking them for asylum. He was extradited back to his home country where he has been detained ever since.

(It was at that moment Ryan Hall knew he would have to defend the integrity of both his hoagie and the Denny’s establishment he had chosen to accomodate.) 

William Shakespeare once said, “Justice oft comes on swift legs, and if thou happen to bear witness, make surest thou placeth thine proof on thine Internet for all to see.” Luckily, we managed to stumble across this video of BJJ savant and 2009 ADCC Bronze medalist Ryan Hall choking out a drunken, self proclaimed “psychopath” at a restaurant, and in William’s honor, have placed it below for you all to see.

Join us as we dissect a classic case of “When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong.” 

(Full gallery is after the jump.)

When Natasha Wicks was released from the UFC in December 2009, she took a little part of our hearts with her. But in the greatest MMA comeback since Boetsch vs. Okami, our favorite curly-haired blonde is returning to ring girl duty for Invicta Fighting Championships’ all-female debut show, April 28th in Kansas City. In honor of this fantastic news, we’ve decided to pull together our 25 all-time favorite Natasha Wicks photos in the gallery below. Enjoy, and show Natasha some love on her Facebook fan page and @NatashaWicks!

If you’re like most people, you neglect your legs when you go to the gym, preferring to focus on your GMs. Edson Barboza is not most people. The undefeated UFC lightweight — who returns at UFC 146 against Evan Dunham on May 26th — understands that it requires intense cultivation to turn your legs into tools of destruction. Fortunately, JiuJitsuMania.com has just released a video with Barboza’s strength and conditioning coach Joe Mullings that runs down his 45-minute leg routine. Follow these seven steps, and soon you’ll achieve the “suddenness” required to do this to somebody’s face. Here we go…

1. Deep squats with IronMind belt (5 sets of 12 reps), which looks uncomfortably similar to this.

2. Single-legged step-ups (5 sets of 12 reps)

3. 30-pound medicine ball 21′s (5 sets); a “21″ set consists of seven reps in the bottom half of the range of motion, seven reps in the top half of the range of motion, then seven reps of the full exercise.

(“No rematch for you, Punk”)

According to Gilbert Melendez’s trainer, Cesar Gracie, the UFC are in talks to have either former UFC lightweight champ BJ Penn or former WEC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis challenge his charge for his Strikeforce strap next.

Gracie informed TATAME of the development today.

“Melendez’s situation is complex right now. We still don’t have an opponent, date or place set. They said he could fight in San Jose but it’ll probably change. They mentioned Josh Thomson but then said it was not going to happen”, Gracie explained.“I spoke to [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva and he told me maybe some UFC fighters will go to Strikeforce. We would really like to see him fighting Pettis or BJ, but we are still not sure about what’s going to happen.”

Given that “Showtime” mentioned yesterday that he is considering dropping down to featherweight to challenge Jose Aldo in the near future, it would seem that the UFC brass are leaning towards “The Prodigy” for the bout. It would make sense since Penn has been uncharacteristically mum about his fighting future since his last fight and likely would have been mulling over the offer to swing over to the UFC’s sister promotion, considering how much less promotion and exposure it gets.

(Well, at least the guy knows how to go out in style.) 

After a year long prison sentence training camp helped propel John Koppenhaver War Machine to a brilliant third round TKO over Roger Huerta last November, it saddened the world to find out that the former UFC fighter, TUF 6 star, and short lived pornstar would headed back to jail for another year, despite already being released some 8 months ago.

The unfortunate announcement came shortly after War Machine snagged a place in Bellator’s season 6 welterweight tournament, and appeared to be at least attempting to turn his life around. Needless to say, War Machine was pissed.

And now that War Machine’s days are truly numbered, he decided to sit down with MMA Uncensored Live for a lengthy interview, which will air this Thursday at 11 p.m. on Spike TV.

Check out a video preview of the interview after the jump.

(Props: Peter S. / Click above for larger version, brah!)

Just a reminder to all you aspiring t-shirt designers who might want a pair of free tickets to UFC 148: Cruz vs. Faber 3 — the submission period for our design contest with Punch Buddies ends a week from today, March 21st! So if you have an idea for a clever Urijah Faber t-shirt, and you have a dash of artistic talent, get your head out of your ass and send it to contest@cagepotato.com. For inspiration, we’ve posted our three favorite entries so far, which continue after the jump. Let us know what you think, and be sure to follow Punch Buddies on Facebook and Twitter!

(Struve channels his inner Keanu Reeves during his UFC 130 bout against Travis Browne.) 

In a fight that is all but guaranteed to end in a decisive, if not brutally violent fashion, it appears that heavyweight contenders Stefan “Skyscraper” Struve and Mark “Mark” Hunt are set to collide at UFC 146, which now features an all heavyweight lineup as its main card for the first time in UFC history. Thank God it’s not being held at a high altitude.

We know what you’re thinking: WHY IS TIM SYLVIA NOT ON THIS CARD?!!!

Hunt has had perhaps the most startling career resurgence in recent memory, scoring three straight octagon victories over Chris Tuchscherer, Ben Rothwell, and most recently Cheick Kongo, with two of those victories coming by way of destructive KO. This was made even more shocking due to the fact that Hunt was only picked up by the UFC in order to fulfill a contract he had signed back in his PRIDE days before the organization was absorbed by Zuffa.

Struve, on the other hand, will be looking to add another three fight win streak to his current 7-3 octagon record come May 26th. We last saw him at UFC on FUEL: Sanchez vs. Ellenberger, when he dispatched Manbearpig Dave Herman via second round TKO. Prior to that, Struve choked out our boy Pat Barry in the first round of their UFC Live 6 co-headliner bout.

UFC 146 transpires at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and features a main event title clash between Junior Dos Santos and Alistair Overeem.

In other fight booking news…

(“When I find the fool that stole my chain, I’m gonna whoop his ass.”)

Dana White’s latest video blog is chocked full of cool behind-the-scenes moments from UFC 144 in Japan, UFC on FX 2 in Australia and last week’s TUF Live premiere from Las Vegas.

Dana starts out by explaining why they went with single round eliminator bouts at to decide which fighters made it into the house on TUF and breaking down the format the show will follow from here on out. It will be interesting to see what shenanigans make it on the show and what will happen during the weekly live fight segments.

Rampage makes a brief appearance to explain that he was hurt training and that’s why he didn’t beat that “boring-ass wrestler” Ryan Bader.