After compiling a 3-0-1 record in the UFC, heavyweight contender Travis “Hapa” Browne will welcome Strikeforce standout Chad Griggs into the Octagon at UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans (April 21st, Atlanta). CagePotato video-correspondent Sal Mora caught up to the undefeated slugger at the Jackson’s MMA camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to chat about his upcoming match — which will close out the UFC 145 preliminary card broadcast on FX — as well as Browne’s life outside of the cage. Check out the exclusive video after the jump, and let us know how you think this one will go down. Some highlights from the interview…

- On deserving a “step up” after four fights in the UFC: ”I can’t worry myself with that. Joe Silva lines ‘em up, I knock ‘em down. Whoever he decides to put in front of me, it’s none of my business. I’m just out there to put on a show and keep winning my fights. It doesn’t matter who I fight, or where I stand in the rankings. I’m not somebody who gets caught up in that. I don’t even know where I stand right now, actually.”

- On what his sons think of their dad’s MMA career: “I think right now it’s not something that they have fully grasped. Before I came to camp, my last dinner with my kids…we’re all sitting down to dinner, and the waiter comes over and says, ‘Can I get you guys anything to drink?’ and my son stands up on the bench that he’s sitting on and says, ‘Hey! My dad’s in the video game!’…It was really cool to see my son happy about that. I just want my kids to be proud of me, and I think I’m doing that.”

(“It looks like you’re starting an MMA promotion. May I suggest throwing all your money into a pit and lighting it on fire instead?”)

We haven’t had a good Strikeforce Deathwatch in a while, but this one might be my favorite. A month out from their Barnett vs. Cormier event on May 19th — which also features the lightweight title fight/trilogy match between Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson — several eagle-eyed fight fans have noticed that Strikeforce’s official website has been drastically scaled down.

Gone are all the sub-sections on Strikeforce.com, which directed readers to event calendars and fight rosters. Instead, it looks like some intern just screen-capped the latest press-release on MS Word — without running spelling-and-grammar-check first, mind you — posted it, and called it a day. The only link on the site is contained in the poster image at the top, which directs to a freakin’ GoDaddy page.

(You wouldn’t know it because of the TRT and all, but three years ago, that Jabbawockee looked like this. ) 

Last Friday, mankind’s ongoing war with common sense and decency united in a copulation of takedowns, face masks, and remorse when Ultimate Ball held its first event at UCMMA 27 in London, England. For some twisted, inexplicable reason, an idea that was best left in the dark recesses of the meth-snorting exercise enthusiast who gave birth to this monstrosity was placed on display for the world to see, immediately leapfrogging “public lynchings” as the most disturbing form of human entertainment ever concocted. Seriously, if XARM, San Do Three-Man Fighting, and ShockFights had sex in the remains of the XFL, the resulting bastard child would be Ultimate Ball. 

Check out the “highlights” from the first, and hopefully last, event after the jump. Just make sure your window is closed if you live higher up than the second floor. 

(As with the Mona Lisa’s eyes, Thompson’s ear seems to just follow you around the room, doesn’t it?) 

Indian upstart promotion Super Fight League recently announced the pairing of James Thompson and former WWE star Bobby Lashley as the main event of its third card, which will also feature Trevor Prangley, Doug Marshall, and Zelg Galesic in action.

This is the point where we stop discussing the matchups at hand and get to the news you really need to know: Super Fight League is crashing and burning like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Josh Barnett couldn’t melt a plastic cup with his urine fast enough to destroy SFL, which is beginning to look like it will be but a distant memory by the end of the fiscal year. Despite the fact that viewership is free to anyone with a computer, internet access, and the ability to spell Youtube, SFL already seems to be on wobblier legs than River Phoenix outside The Viper Room (too soon?).

And it’s pretty clear why.

Heading into their first event, the India-based promotion showcased an emphasis on flare, throwing fancy promos and even their own theme song into the mix in an effort to spur interest in a sport that their country had yet to build the smallest of followings for. This was their first problem, a lack of awareness. Where Asian-based promotion OneFC has thrived thanks to both collaborative efforts with local promotions and a strong, preexisting fan base in the area they chose to promote within, Super Fight League’s co-chairmen, Raj Kundra and Sanjay Dutt, opted to rely on a combination of Bollywood celebrities and music industry execs to help promote a new sport that they themselves weren’t truly familiar with. In fact, many of the celebrities in attendance, and most of the 300,000 India-based Youtube viewers who managed to make the first card a slight success, where under the impression that MMA, and specifically SFL, consisted of over-the-top, WWE style antics and entertainment, largely due to how the promotion chose to well…promote themselves.

Last month, we warned you that Chael Sonnen will soon be dominating your local bookstore, having already conquered the worlds of professional fighting, politics, and athletic commission hearings. His new book is called The Voice of Reason: A V.I.P. Pass to Enlightenment, and will be available to the general public on May 15th. Amazon.com describes the content in these humble terms:

Sonnen’s commentary and tales of heroic adventure will initiate you into the world of superhuman greatness. Allow him to carry you like a frail damsel through the world of professional mixed martial arts as he cuts weight, deals with moronic cornermen, expresses his disdain for focus mitts and punching in general, gets his face rearranged, and finds support and encouragement from fans. Permit him to cleanse your mind’s palate and teach you the truth about history, politics, endangered species, cinema, terrorists, music, particle accelerators, and his plans for creating a Chaelocracy, which translates as “a Better Earth.” Shower him with praise as he takes you into his manly mitts like a lump of clay and reshapes you in his own likeness. 

Like all men of myth and legend, Sonnen strives for the betterment of the human race. Prometheus brought us fire; Dana White brought us the modern-day gladiator; and Chael P. Sonnen now brings us the step-by-step guide to being a great human being and patriot…There is no better day to stop being you and start trying to be Chael P. Sonnen.

So…who wants to get a copy a month before it comes out?

(OK Nate, once the ballad starts, you’re gonna grab her hips and just kinda sway like this…)

Perhaps you recall that Jiu-Jitsu superfight Nick Diaz was scheduled to participate in while stepping out for a smoke break from his UFC career. It was to be held at the first annual World Jiu-Jitsu Expo in Long Beach, California on May 12th, against an opponent TBD. Though we had no clue as to who this “TBD” fellow would turn out to be, we already assumed that the match would be rife with Stockton Heybuddies, relentless taunting, and at least one insistence by Diaz that they both “stand up and settle this like men.”

How wrong we were, because it turns out that Diaz will be too busy trying not to get submitted to do much trash talking, as his opponent was announced earlier this morning, and it’s Braulio f*cking Estima. That’s 2009 ADCC double gold medalist, three time European champion, three time CBJJ champion, and five time Pan American champion Braulio Estima. If you consider yourself a fan of the ground game and live withing driving distance of Long Beach, you best be in attendance for this one.

Though Diaz earned his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Cesar Gracie back in 2007, you gotta imagine he’ll be the underdog heading into this one, as Estima’s list of BJJ credentials ranks him among the legends of the sport. The fact that Estima also took home a Superfight Championship at last year’s ADCC trials by defeating former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo Souza only furthers this theory.

Familiarize yourself with Estima’s skills after the jump. 

(Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly)

By Jonathan Shrager

Brian Stann‘s accomplishments in MMA and military heroism are matters of public record. But what about the man himself? As the UFC middleweight contender heads into his pivotal co-main-event against Alessio Sakara at UFC on Fuel TV: Gustafsson vs. Silva this weekend, we spoke to the All-American about everything from his childhood to his intense training to his various pursuits outside of fighting. Enjoy, and follow Brian Stann on twitter @BrianStann.

CAGEPOTATO.COM Hi Brian, many thanks for the opportunity to conduct this interview. I read that you played football as middle linebacker at the Naval Academy. How good were you at football? Do you think you could have made the NFL?
BRIAN STANN: No, not even close. When I played football in college, I was recruited to play quarterback. My style was more to pass than run the option. Quarterback didn’t really work out, so I got moved around to a lot of different positions before finding a home at linebacker. It was a position I had only played sparingly at high school, so I had to learn the position while actually playing at a competitive level. I was always a good athlete, but quarterback was my primary position, and I never really had the stuff to play in the NFL.

Going back even further, you were actually born in Japan, at Yokota Airbase. Were your parents in the armed forces?
Yes that’s true. My father was in the air force, so my family was stationed at the airbase. My mom left with me and my sister when I was two years old, and we moved back to Scranton, Pennsylvania. I pretty much lived there until I left for college.

Obviously you were very young so you might not remember, but being born there, do you feel any affinity with Japan at all?
Yes I do. When I was young, The Karate Kid was big, and I always thought it was really cool that I was born there. My mother and I made this promise that one day in the future we would return to visit Yokota and that she would show me all the different spots, and reminisce, since I don’t remember anything. So there’s certainly an affinity there, and when my fight career is over and I’m not constantly in training, my mom and I will make that trip.

So, you were born in Japan, raised in Pennsylvania, currently live in Georgia, train out in New Mexico, and fight everywhere. Where do you consider home now? You must feel a little displaced at times with all the traveling.

(Sure, he may look strange to us, but that sort of thing is totally normal where he’s from.)

Somebody up there must like Yoshihiro Akiyama. Though the master judoka/crooner has been defeated in his last four outings — most recently dropping a decision to Jake Shields at UFC 144 — he’ll be getting another chance against Thiago Alves at UFC 149 (July 21st, Calgary). Bizarrely, UFC.com describes the welterweight bout as “a matchup between ground specialists who love to stand and trade.” That’s certainly an apt description of Sexyama, but Alves is more of “a standup specialist who should really stop diving into guillotine chokes.”

Alves’s loss to Martin Kampmann last month dropped his record over the last three years to a disappointing 2-4, with his only wins coming against Papy Abedi and John Howard, so he needs this win almost as much as his opponent does. If Akiyama loses, he’ll become just the second fighter in UFC history (after Steve Cantwell) to suffer five consecutive losses within the promotion. Anybody think he has a chance of breaking his streak?

Check out the current lineup of UFC 149 after the jump…

(Overeem likes his pecs like his K-1 trophies: abnormally large.) 

On a recent episode of Inside MMA, commentators Joe Rogan and Michael Schiavello sat down alongside Josh Barnett to discuss the topic that has thrown the MMA world into chaos over the past few days: Alistair Overeem’s positive drug test. Barnett wisely chose to remain silent for the duration of the conversation, likely because his last positive test was responsible for destroying the Afflicition promotion before it could spend itself into its own grave.

But it was Schiavello, a long time friend of Overeem, who took an interesting stance on the issue, basically saying that, if a fighter pisses hot anytime other than fight week, why should they be held accountable? Here’s what he said:

You know, while we’re talking about the subject, Kenny, I just wanna chime in here on a couple things that have been playing on my mind, the last week or so, since the news of Alistair (Overeem) broke. Alistair doesn’t have a license with the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC), so how are they testing him in the first place when he doesn’t have a license with them? By what jurisdiction are they testing him? And ‘B,’ everyone seems to be hanging Alistair out to dry. They’ve been nailing him to the cross and crucifying him, but it’s still two months away from his fight. You know, he hasn’t technically cheated. Because, unless he pisses hot on the fight night, how could he possibly have cheated? There’s still an opportunity he can get from the 14:1 down to the allowed 6:1 level by fight time. But we’re calling him out as a cheat, two months out from a fight?

Yes, Michael, we are calling him a cheat. Probably because he fucking cheated.

Check out the video, along with Mark Hunt’s reaction to the news, after the jump.

(Who knew that this moment would become a metaphor for Eric Prindle’s Bellator career?) 

At this rate, Bellator’s season five heavyweight tournament is going to take longer to come to a close than Strikeforce’s heavyweight tournament, a notion this writer didn’t think was possible until earlier today. Because believe it or not, season five winner Eric Prindle has been forced to withdraw from a scheduled match on less than a week’s notice yet again, this time from his title fight with heavyweight champion Cole Konrad.

The fight, which was supposed to go down at this weekend’s Bellator 65 card, has now been pushed back to May 25th as a result of a hand injury Prindle suffered in training, an injury that he described as “all my own fault.”

(Hiroko’s ‘long-game’ plan is all coming together now | Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle)

Cris “Cyborg” Santos tested positive for banned substances after her December 17th fight last year in California and was subsequently suspended for one year by the state’s athletic commission. Yesterday an appeal from the former 145 pound champion to reduce her suspension to six months was rejected by the California commission.

MMA Weekly reports that Santos’ team was trying to get clearance to fight on a coming StrikeForce card. ”Santos’ appeal was asking for the commission to reduce her sentence from one year down to six months. According to her lawyer, Santos was up for a potential fight on an upcoming Strikeforce show in “late June/early July’ in San Diego,” they wrote.

Ultimately, the CSAC voted unanimously to uphold “Cyborg’s” one year suspension. If things stay that way, she will only be able to re-apply for for a license until December 17th, 2012. It’s been a rough year for MMA’s top female fighter. First she was popped for steroids after her 16 second execution of Hiroko Yamanaka (a win that was then turned to a “No Contest”), and then she announced that her and her husband, the other “Cyborg,” were getting divorced.

Since it might be a long time till you Chute Boxe fans get to see her in action again, we’re putting some highlights of her beating up hapless women (and Tito Ortiz) below for you to enjoy:

(Props: BikiniModelFitness via BabesofMMA)

I gotta be honest — I’ve been watching these videos all morning, and the only part of my body that’s gotten a workout is my hand. (You know, from clicking “Replay” over and over again. Wait, you didn’t think I meant…come on, guys. Gross.)

After the jump: Superstar ring girl Jade Bryce moves from the glutes and legs to the abs and core. Check it out, and follow Jade on twitter for her latest photo and video updates.

(Could I get JUST ONE of those exemptions, por favor?) 

Some big news out of California today, as it appears that the California State Athletic Commission has taken a huge step towards legalizing the therapeutic use of testosterone and marijuana in mixed martial arts competition. SI.com was the first to break the news:

The California State Athletic Commission voted on Monday to approve an amendment that allows therapeutic use exemptions (TUE) for combat sports’ athletes who use drugs currently banned by the state agency for medical purposes, including testosterone and marijuana.

To be adopted into state law, the amendment’s verbiage must now be reviewed and approved by the Department of Consumer Affairs and then the state’s Office of Administrative Law, a process that could take months or even years, if it passes at all.

OK, so it’s not as big of news as one could have hoped, but it’s something, right? Then again, depending on your stance on testosterone replacement therapy (or marijuana for that matter), this could be a step in the wrong direction for the sport of MMA.

(If Kimbo couldn’t convince you to watch the show, there’s really no hope for any of us.)

According to a new report on MMAJunkie, the ratings for Friday’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter on FX were low enough to make it the lowest-rated episode in the entire 15-season run of the series, and represented a 27% drop from the season premiere last month. (Damn, and we were sure that the Chris Tickle gout-subplot would be a ratings juggernaut.) Here’s how the ratings have shaken out so far this season:

The Ultimate Fighter: Live episode 1: 1.3 million viewers
The Ultimate Fighter: Live episode 2: 1.1 million viewers
The Ultimate Fighter: Live episode 3: 1.2 million viewers
The Ultimate Fighter: Live episode 4: 1.1 million viewers
The Ultimate Fighter: Live episode 5: 947,000 viewers

Grain of salt time…

(From last night’s edition of WWE Raw. / Props: ReyWWETVWeekly via MMAMania)

Brock Lesnar‘s beef with John Cena continues in the land of make-believe, and well, sometimes these things happen in professional wrestling. I promise we won’t force you to watch this stuff each week, but it’s interesting how Brock’s UFC fighting style is now influencing his performances in the wrestling ring. Previously in the clip (around the 1:42 mark), Lesnar thanks John Laurinaitis “for having the wisdom to bring legitimacy back to the WWE.” Any wrestling fans out there care to agree or disagree with that statement?

By Jason Moles

After the most difficult two-and-a half minutes of his professional MMA career, it was all over for Brock Lesnar. Not just the savage abuse he was taking from Strikeforce/K-1 champion Alistair Overeem, not just his attempted comeback in the sport he took by storm, but his time in MMA altogether. ”I’ve had a really difficult couple of years with my disease, and I’m going to officially say tonight was the last time you’ll see me in the Octagon,” Lesnar said during his post-fight retirement speech at UFC 141.

It’s only fitting that Lesnar’s run in the UFC end as quickly and unexpectedly as it began. The former NCAA Division I wrestling champion was never really ours when you think about it — MMA merely borrowed Lesnar, and we should consider ourselves fortunate that he briefly lent his personality and ferocious physicality to our sport. As he said his final good-byes to the Las Vegas crowd, the beardless viking looked relieved to see the Octagon in his rear-view mirror.

Shortly after waiving off the fight, Mario Yamasaki raised the arm of the new #1 contender, Alistair Overeem. The former PRIDE fighter had everything going for him. He dodged a fatal bullet from the NSAC, was making bank in the UFC, and had just defeated a man most people considered a Top 5 contender in the heavyweight division – finally proving to the world that he can indeed hang with the best. On top of all that, he had just been announced as the next challenger for Junior Dos Santos’ championship title. The only way it could have been better is if the mayor had given him a key to the city and held a parade in his honor. If Overeem only knew the fate that would befall him over the course of the next three months, his smile might not have been as big that December night inside the MGM Grand.

(Pictured from left to right: Jason Miller’s mother, Chael Sonnen, and Jason Miller’s girlfriend.) 

There is no truly no place on the Internet more hate stricken than that of the Twittersphere, other than Sputnikmusic or well…here, of course. I’ll be honest, I’ve had a Twitter account for a few months now and I’m still not truly sure as to what its purpose on this world is. Do I care if Kourtney Kardashian is currently releasing the contents of her latest trip to Moe’s in the second floor bathroom of a Versace outlet? Not really, but apparently there are nearly six million people on this planet that need to be made aware of this disturbing fact, right down to how many pieces of corn managed to find their way into the bowl. But I digress.

Perhaps the most ironic aspect of Twitter, at least in my mind, is its ability to make celebrities willingly trade away the last bit of privacy they so desperately ask for when bombarded by the media. In less than 150 characters, these public figures can run their names into the ground, yet even the UFC encourages it, handing out monetary awards for “creativity” and “growth percentage” for this “social” media network. Where, in times past, people wrote down their thoughts in journals, diaries, or simply let a thought go, nowadays everyone from Miguel Torres to King Mo have significantly screwed themselves by using this device as a platform to express their innermost feelings for the world to see, somehow unaware that it would bite them in the ass almost immediately. Such is the case for Jason “Mayhem” Miller.

Always the funnyman, Miller took to his Twitter yesterday and jotted down quite a zinger in light of Chael Sonnen’s recent Twitter remarks concerning Alistair Overeem:

@mayhemmiller
Chael berating someone on their test level is like me making fun of someone’s bad haircut.

Check out Sonnen’s end all response after the jump. 

(“Look Nik, if your eyeball keeps popping out, we’ll have to dock you a point for stalling.”)

Thanks to Submission of the Night awards in all three of his UFC victories — on top of the 50 G’s he earned in his Fight of the Night/no-contest against Nik Lentz last June — Charles Oliveira has pocketed $195,000 in total bonus money during his two-year stint in the UFC, allowing him to buy his girlfriend cheeseburgers and salad pretty much whenever she asks for it. Not a bad life for a prospect who’s still just 22 years old.

Now coming off his victorious featherweight debut against Eric Wisely, which resulted in another SOTN bonus via calf-slicer, Oliveira has been booked to return against TUF 12 winner Jonathan Brookins at the TUF 15 Finale (June 1st, Las Vegas). Brookins has gone 1-1 in the UFC as a 145′er since winning his TUF trophy, and most recently scored a quick and brutal first-round knockout of Vagner Rocha at UFC on FUEL 1. Brookins has never been submitted in his career, but there’s a first time for everything, especially when you’re facing a ground-maniac like Oliveira.

(We know, Joe, this fight would blow our minds too.) 

Now that Alistair Overeem’s botched drug test has officially thrown UFC 146 and the heavyweight division into a state of anarchy, everyone from Frank Mir to, believe it or not, Fedor Emelianenko, have been rumored as The Reem’s potential replacements for the May 26th showdown with current champion Junior Dos Santos. But one campaign that would have made 90 percent of the MMA world piss their pants with laughter as little as a year ago is really starting to gain some steam. We’re talking, of course, about #RallyforMarkHunt.

Yes, it seems the iron jawed, soft spoken “Super Samoan” has captured the hearts of MMA fans around the world, who have in turn organized a Twitter campaign to have Hunt fill in for Overeem despite already being booked to take on Stefan Struve at the same event. Perhaps it is our love for a good old fashioned Cinderella story that has been the driving force behind a movement rivaling Occupy Wall Street in terms of actual demands met, or perhaps it is simply Hunt’s legendary status with the hardcore (re: true) fans of combat sports. In either case, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan has officially drank the Kool-Aid, posting the following message on The UG:

There are some wise people on this board, and I support this movement.

Style wise that might be the most exciting match up. Either way, even if Hunt doesn’t replace the reem I would still love to see this matchup down the road, especially considering how good Hunt looked against Kongo.

Has anyone started a twitter bomb campaign for this?

(Magnus Cedenblad highlight reel via zaihtaMHS. Head bussin’, head bussin’.)

After a six-week spring break, the UFC returns from hibernation this Saturday with their first-ever event in Sweden. UFC on Fuel TV: Gustafsson vs. Silva goes down at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, and will feature five local scrappers — red-hot light-heavyweight contender Alexander Gustafsson, the returning Papy Abedi (who lost his UFC debut to Thiago Alves), as well as three Sweden-based newcomers to help fill out the Facebook prelims. Meet the new guys below, and keep in mind that the six-fight Fuel TV main card will air live at 3 p.m. ET / noon PT.

MAGNUS “Jycken” CEDENBLAD (MW)
Experience: 10-6 record (9 wins by stoppage) with multiple appearances in the Superior Challenge and Vision Fighting Championship promotions. Last fight was an 88-second kimura victory over Dan Edwards in October 2011.
Will be facing: Francis Carmont (17-7, 1-0 UFC)
Lowdown: First of all, “Jycken” means “The Pooch.” A product of Stockholm’s Pancrase Gym, Cedenblad has recently been working out of AKA in San Jose. He started training six years ago because he wanted to learn how to kick like Cro Cop, but has become better known as a ground-and-pounder. As he told MMABay, ”My long term goal is to be ranked as a top five guy. I know that will happen. Just give me four years and then you will see me there.”

(This is approximately how you will feel after watching the video.) 

You know, for all the bizarre shenanigans Rampage Jackson seems to be getting himself into these days, he will never hold a candle to Bob Sapp. At this point in “The Beast’s” career, he has pretty much become a walking punchline in every sense of the word; a parody of a parody, if you will. And though it is easy to take shots at perhaps the lowest hanging fruit in the MMA landscape, we’re going to do it anyway. Let’s be honest, we follow Bob Sapp for the same reason that people watch reality television — to feel better about themselves afterward. He is the Troll 2 of mixed martial arts, a fighter so terrible that one only watches him participate out of a need to feel ironic. Why can’t we look away, you ask? Because white america has never felt less threatened by a 300 pound muscular black man in the history of its existence, and we like the feeling.

Clearly Sapp has begun to embrace this image to its fullest extent, for what else can one do when in the midst of what will likely become a record setting losing streak? If you don’t believe us, just check out the promo he made for his upcoming May 12th KSW 19 clash with Mariusz Pudzianowski, courtesy of IronForgesIron. In a word, it is a revelation.

(Props: YouTube.com/TrashTalkinKids)

At this point, I’m willing to admit that our t-shirt design contest with Punch Buddies and Urijah Faber has gone completely off the rails. In case you were wondering why the quarterfinal round didn’t happen last week, it’s because Faber and Stephan Bonnar were working on a unique method of separating the winners from the losers, and it involved firing assault rifles in the desert with UFC Octagon Girl hall-of-famer Rachelle Leah. See, isn’t this better than just having you dummies pick the winner?

P.S.: We also have a really cool surprise for everybody whose design was featured in the contest. Stay tuned for details, and please follow Punch Buddies on Facebook and Twitter!

By Elias Cepeda

(Come on NSAC, can’t we talk this out?)

Alistair Overeem may have failed his recent surprise drug test, but it appears that he isn’t giving up on challenging heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146 on May 26th. He has requested a hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) and has been given a hearing date of April 24th, little more than a month before he hopes to still vie for the UFC belt.

After testing positive for elevated testosterone levels in late March in Nevada, Overeem had the option of asking the state’s athletic commission to test the second sample they took from him during their test, as well as the option of deciding to apply for a license in the state at a hearing.

More on Overeem’s options and the UFC’s plans after the jump.

Primetime Part I (Video via: YouTube/WeedIsJustAPlanttt)

Despite the brooding drama built into the upcoming Jon Jones-Rashad Evans title fight at UFC 145, the latest installment of the UFC Primetime franchise has a decidedly more mature aura about it. No more fire-alarm monologues, no more interviews with grade school teachers. We’re dealing with big people problems. Rashad Evans has lost just about everything in his life over the past year, and he places a lot of that blame on the shoulders of his former teammates. While other matchups may have produced more vitriol for the cameras, few have the depth behind them as this rivalry.

Come on in for a breakdown of the highlights and Part II of the video.

By Elias Cepeda

After the normal celebrating and gloating from last week’s winning Faber team, attention is turned to this week’s matchup of Team Cruz’ Jeremy Larsen and Team Faber’s Mike Chiesa. Remember when a few weeks back Mike’s father died just after seeing him fight and win on national television, and we learned that Mike and Sam Sicilia are best friends and training partners back home.

Well, on this year’s TUF, the two lightweights have found themselves on opposing teams, but are trying to find a balance between not betraying their team and not betraying one another. They call themselves “Team purple,” as in a combination of Faber’s blue team and Cruz’ red team. That’s adorable. Really.

(Minowaman vs. Shlemenko. Sorry Seth, this is what you get for taking the weekend off.) 

At the minimum, last night’s Super Fight League 2 card was a small, albeit significant, improvement over the upstart promotion’s first card. The fact that Bob Sapp was not participating already ensured this. Yes, it was still riddled with the goofy, often laughably bad commentary of Phil Baroni and some other guy who I don’t really care to look up at the moment, but overall, it was able to deliver more action and dramatic finishes than this weekend’s Bellator card could account for, and considering it was free, who are we to complain? If only they could get rid of those awkward crowd shots.

But before we get to the most exciting finish, perhaps we could focus on the oddest one– Alexander Shlemenko’s first round TKO of Ikuhisa Minowa. Minowa continued his rough streak against recognizable-named opponents this morning, and it looks like he could be on the shelve for a little longer than usual this time around. For the first couple of minutes, the fight was vintage Shlemenko, featuring more spinning death attacks than a tornado in an axe factory. Minowa simply had no answer for “The Storm” on the feet, and was stalked around the cage until around the two minute mark, when Shlemenko was able to land a well timed knee to Minowa’s skull that sent him reeling backward.

Minowa seemed to be alright, reaching for a leg log in the moments afterward, but when Shlemenko was able to pull out from danger, Minowa suddenly curled up in the fetal position with an apparent rib injury. No word yet on exactly how bad he is hurt, but we’re going to guess that the injury was more, you know, real, than the quad injury that felled Sapp in his main event clash against James Thompson at SFL 1. The announcer not named Phil Baroni was kind enough to inform us that Shlemenko has now fought 13 times in the past two years. That is fucking insane. And speaking of insane, Shlemenko’s thirst for his well deserved rematch against Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard might just be driving him a bit loony. After defeating Minowa, Shlemenko gave what was perhaps the greatest post fighting interview of all time, calmly stating, ”Hey India. Hector, I kill you.” If only Lombard could come to an agreement with the Bellator brass, perhaps we could watch these two throw down again.

The Duffee/Grove video, along with the full results are after the jump. 

Crazy enough to come true? (Photoshop via @ItsChrisRees)

In the wake of the Alistair Overeem testosterone scandal, we’re left with a steaming pile of science to sort through. We’ve learned that the half-life of injectable testosterone is eight days, and that grown men don’t naturally double in size in five year’s time. But as usual, science doesn’t have all of the answers, and with less than two months to go before UFC 146, we’re left with one important question: Who will be challenging Junior Dos Santos for his belt?

According to his twitter account, Dana White won’t be waiving in former champions Frank Mir or Cain Velasquez to save the day, choosing to face the pair off as previously planned. If we take the UFC Prez at his word–and really, why wouldn’t we?–we’re left with very few options for healthy, deserving fighters available on short notice. One potential, albeit unlikely name being bandied about online is Mark Hunt. The #RallyForMarkHunt campaign has garnered some attention for the Super Samoan, but time will tell who actually gets the shot at gold.

All things considered, who do you want to see standing across the Octagon from ‘Cigano’ on May 26^th?

An artist’s rendering of what Askren’s ground and pound might look like (Photo: Sherdog.com)

I’m not going to say that this was the most boring Bellator card in recent memory, but I will tell you that my DVR got tired of recording it and gave up before the Welterweight title fight had even begun. One of the risks of live televised fights is that they’ll go over the allotted time frame, particularly during a decision-laden event like Bellator 64. For those fans who don’t appreciate the nuances of champion Ben Askren’s suffocating ground game, having the evening’s finale blotted from your television may have been a blessing in disguise.

This season’s Bantamweight tournament kicked off with a quarterfinal pairing of undefeated twenty year old Rodrigo Lima and the seasoned Hiroshi Nakamura. Lima found himself on his back throughout the fight, but took no rest on the canvas as he tirelessly worked for every submission in the book. Nakamura—whose 87% win-by-decision record could compete with any of the UFC’s top grinders—kept all four limbs out of serious danger and stifled Lima’s ground game long enough to launch some ground and pound in the third frame. His takedowns and top control, coupled with a point awarded for absorbing a pair of unintentional knees to the nuts, were enough to bring home the unanimous 29-27 decision.

(God damn. These rugby guys are ruining the sport. Props: IronForgesIron)

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- Georges St-Pierre To Compete In 2012 World Series Of Poker (Fightline)

- Marius Zaromskis vs. Waachiim Spiritwolf Rematch Added to Bellator 68 (MMAJunkie)

- The Ultimate Kung Fu Fails Compilation (WorldWideInternet)

- India’s Super Fight League: So Bad It Is Damaging the Image of MMA (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Battle Bang: ‘Real-Life Cage Fighting for Poontang!’ (FilmDrunk)

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- How Kickstarter Made the Video Games Industry Greedy (Gamefront)

- 4 Types Of Bars You Shouldn’t Waste Your Time In (MadeMan)

- Hospital Refuses to Hire Very Obese People (MensFitness)

(Taking a page out of Aleksander Emelianenko’s book, Cremeans opted for the pre-fight nose pick to ensure a quick and brutal finish.) 

Meet Kyle “Big Nasty” Cremeans, a 2-1 heavyweight out of Ohio who looks about as intimidating as your average sack of laundry, with a physique that is equally as impressive. He fights out of “Team Destruction,” which should tell you right away that he is not to be taken lightly (as if it were even possible, amirite?!). At first glance, you would expect Cremeans to be the kind of fighter that employs a Greg Stott, R.I.P style of fighting, or maybe the Larry Watts “just throw heat until I am completely unconscious” stratagem. Surely this fat sack of lard would not be able to lift his hands above his waist, let alone deliver a devastating, first punch, walk-off knockout over his slightly less obese opponent, right?

Mike Russow laughs at your ignorant assumptions.

Check out the brilliant one-punch KO, courtesy of IronForgesIron, after the jump.