For some reason, “IT’S CHARLIE TIME!” just didn’t have the same ring to it. Care to guess who deserves credit for this image?

The main card of the UFC’s third card on FX is almost upon us, and we’re sure that you’re almost just as interested as we are. But don’t let the lack of big men and big names get you down- we still have some interesting fights on our hands. Eddie Wineland battles Scott Jorgensen for bantamweight relevance, Josh Neer looks to maintain his momentum in the welterweight division against Mike Pyle, Erick Silva looks to establish himself as The Next Next Big Thing against Charlie Brenneman and Ian McCall meets Demetrious Johnson in The Most Anticipated Rematch of the Night to determine who advances in the UFC’s Flyweight tournament.

Okay, so on paper it’s nothing to write home about. But it’s free fights on a Friday night, okay? Look, we know you don’t have plans or anything, so stop pretending to be Mr. Popular and join us after the jump for round-by-round results and commentary. Handling tonight’s action will be Seth Falvo, who promises that there will be no more obscure professional wrestling references this evening. Please stand by.

(Ann is lucky Bas didn’t have a salt shaker or a bar stool handy, or this would’ve gone down WAY differently.) 

If you are one of those conspiracy theorists out there who believe that Ronda Rousey sold her soul to the devil for the Ultimate Armbar of Absolute Victory (perhaps we’re naming that a little soon), then it’s time for a wake up call. Aside from Ronda’s extensive judo background, her ability to maim and disfigure her female counterparts is equal parts experience and genetics. Because believe it or not, her mother, Dr. Ann Maria Rousey DeMars, was the first American woman to ever win a World Judo Championship. How’d she do it, you ask? Mainly through the help of her friends; Harai Goshi, Uchi Mata, and Mr. Armbar.

Well Taters, it seems that Ronda’s mom has taken some time out of her busy schedule to bestow some knowledge upon us all, via her personal blog. Today’s lesson is titled “How to do a Perfect Armbar.” Enjoy:

Join us after the jump to get your knowledge on. 

(Props: fueltv)

…and I’m not talking about that lame-ass Christian Bale movie. Ian McCall‘s greatest victory has come against a drug addiction that previously resulted in arrests, motorcycle accidents, and a near-death experience during a fateful tattooing session. Now, he has more to fight for than a UFC flyweight title shot. “I’ve now become a husband and a father,” he says. “That stuff has just added to the fire where now I can’t screw up.” And so, we have one more reason to be sort-of interested in tonight’s UFC on FX 3 card. Any of y’all plan on watching?

After the jump: Ariel Helwani interviews McCall and Demetrious Johnson following yesterday’s weigh-ins. To be honest, the most interesting part of the video is Ariel’s jacket. Lookin’ slick, my dude.

(Is HBO really counting Bradley’s head-butting ability as one of his advantages against Pacquiao? Good grief. / Props: HBOsports)

By Steve Silverman

Timothy Bradley will get the chance of a lifetime on Saturday night when he faces Manny Pacquiao for the WBO welterweight title at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.. Which begs the obvious question…who the hell is Timothy Bradley?

To casual boxing fans, it may seem like the 28-year-old California native came out of nowhere. But Bradley — the reigning WBO and WBC light-welterweight champ — has been competing professionally since 2004, racking up an unblemished 28-0 record (with one no-contest) along the way. While that may be impressive enough on paper to make Bradley worthy of a title shot in the next weight class, a look at his boxing resume reveals that he has only knocked out 12 of his opponents. You can’t say Bradley doesn’t hit hard, but he hasn’t shown the ability to string punches together that lead to impressive KO performances.

Four years ago, Bradley was nearly out of the boxing business altogether. He and his then-girlfriend Monica were down to their last $11 when he flew to England in May 2008 for his first light-welterweight world title fight against Junior Witter — a situation made more desperate by the fact that he and Monica were caring for her two children. Things got pretty grim during those lean years:

(Criminals beware: This man will eff you up.) 

Here at CP, we really hate to keep reiterating the same point over and over again, but in this case, we feel the need to make an exception. As you should all know by now, Nick Ring is pretty much the epitome of masculinity. When he’s not making sweet love to a woman bald eagle style, he is more than likely patrolling the Canadian countryside on a horse made of crystal, handing out life lessons to those he happens to pass by. Though they won’t admit it, it is a common understanding that the sons of Ring’s opponents wish that he was their dad. A fun fact about Ring: he once held an opponent’s wife’s hand in a jar of acid at a birthday party. So basically, if you ever find yourself within Ring’s crosshairs, it is already too late.

Unfortunately, a group of ten or so rambunctious Canadian teenagers had never read Lord of the (Promise) Rings before they decided to attack a couple in front of the Calgary native, and boy did they pay for it.

The Calgary Herald has the story:

Calgary’s own UFC fighter, Nick Ring, who had just finished a yoga session and went to Starbucks to get a coffee (Ed note: Like we said, dude’s a BAMF), saw an assault across the street and he wasn’t about to let it go.

Ring – a 33-year-old mixed martial arts fighter who is gearing up for UFC 149 in Calgary next month – was leaving the coffee shop at Mac leod Trail and 94th Avenue when he thought he saw a group of about 10 people beating up a couple to steal the girl’s backpack.

“I did not like what I saw and I wasn’t going to stand around and watch that happen. It was a crime and it was completely wrong,” said Ring.

“I’m not going to let anything like that happen if I’ve got anything to say about it. Not a chance.”

More from this story after the jump.

(Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson ‘Inspiration’ trailer via djil93100)

- THQ Sold UFC Video Game License After Failing to Break Even on It (Gamasutra)

- The Bizarre Connection Between the Miami Face-Eating Bath Salts Zombie and the UFC (MiddleEasy)

- Wikipedia Continues Its Absurd War on the UFC (BleacherReport/MMA)

- 14 Awesome UFC Head Kick Photos (Heavy.com/MMA)

- BJ Penn Talks Reason For Taking Rory MacDonald Fight (Fightline)

- Video: Anderson Silva Budweiser Commercial Behind-the-Scenes Outtakes Featuring Steven Seagal (MMAMania)

- How to Live to Be 100 (MensFitness)

- Pacquiao Will Receive $26M for Saturday’s Fight (MMA Payout)

- The Women Available to Alpha, Beta & Omega Males: Where Do You Fit In? (DoubleViking)

- A Gallery Of Hot Girls With Puppies, Babies, And Kittens (WorldWideInterweb)

- Gina Carano Is Looking Thick ‘n’ Tasty. Do You Approve? (Facebook.com/CagePotato)

- Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’ Official Trailer (Break)

- The 6 Best Stripper Portrayals In All Of Modern Cinema (ScreenJunkies)

(The “Hipster Assassin” has shattered bones that you probably haven’t heard of yet. / Photo via @rondarousey)

Five months after snatching Strikeforce’s 135-pound women’s title with her gruesome/awesome arm-bending win over Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey will attempt to make her first belt-defense against Sarah Kaufman on August 18th in San Diego. MMAFighting.com confirmed the news, which should be officially announced by the promotion in the coming weeks.

No other fights for the 8/18 card have been reported yet, and the venue hasn’t been announced, although Strikeforce’s last two stops in San Diego — for Melendez vs. Masvidal and Diaz vs. Daley — went down at the Valley View Casino.

If Rousey can armbar her way through Kaufman, she may earn the dubious honor of facing Cris Cyborg in her next defense. As Scott Coker recently explained: ”I think (a fight between Rousey and Cyborg) is going to be inevitable. I think that fight will happen at some point. We’re just waiting for Cyborg to get off her suspension but that conversation will happen once she’s back ready to fight because her and Ronda at 135-pounds? That might be the highest rated show on Showtime for the year or for the past fights we’ve done. Women’s fights always rate well on Showtime and Ronda’s always delivered.”

So, two questions…

(Seen here: How Aleksander Emelianenko won his last fight.) 

To get you in the mood for the brief, albeit saddening story we are about to tell you, you should first watch this. Now then…

Perhaps you are familiar with the tale of Henry Bemis, a lowly, nearly blind bank teller oft ridiculed for his near crippling obsession with the written word. Specifically, doggerel. Henry was a simple man, one who found more excitement in the whimsical tales of Charles Dickens than he did through actual interactions with his fellow man, a conundrum that had adverse effects on his occupation in more than a few instances. But what could he do? A passion is a passion, so in order to satisfy both his personal needs and his work requirements, Henry would often sneak into the bank’s vault during his lunch break and escape into whatever world his book of choice would provide for him.

On one such occasion, Henry happened to be reading the daily newspaper, which claimed that a new H-Bomb was “Capable of Total Destruction.” Before he could even grovel over such a morbid discovery, said bomb went off, killing not only everyone in the bank, but utterly destroying the entire planet. Left alone with only his thoughts, Henry decided to commit suicide via revolver to end his misery. But before he could do so, he found that the town’s library was amazingly still intact. Left with the quiet he so desperately craved, not to mention all the books he could read, Henry had basically found his utopia. That is, until he tripped and broke his glasses, rendering himself incapable of reading the very texts that he had found solitude in for as long as he could remember. Dooming him to a life of (literary) blue balls, if you will, and eventual suicide.

If recent history has indicated anything, it is that Aleksander Emelianenko is the living incarnation of the character portrayed by Burgess Meredith in that November 1959 episode of The Twilight Zone, and his most recent fight against Ibragim Magomedov at M-1 Challenge 33, which went down last night in Dzheirakh, Russia wrote this notion home with a resounding “Uuuuuuuuuggggggghhhhh….”

Join us after the jump for the video. 

(You see this, right here? It’s like pedophilia gold, son.) 

The weigh-ins for tomorrow night’s UFC on FX 3 card kick off in just a few minutes, so join us after the jump for live results, won’t you? Featuring a rematch of the bodged flyweight tournament semifinal between Ian McCall and Demetrious Johnson, as well as a sure to be slugfest between Josh Neer and Mike Pyle, the UFC’s return to FX can only exceed our expectations, and might just become one of the sleeper cards of the year.

Bullshit hype aside, come check out the weigh-ins and see what happens.

(Props: ThePeoplesCecil via MMAFanMade. Click for full-size version.)

The UFC makes a stop in Sunrise, Florida, tomorrow night for their latest UFC on FX event, featuring a flyweight rerun, a handful of veterans on the main card, and a murderer’s row of nobodies on the prelims. But is it skippable? Maybe not. After studying the card, we’ve found a few somewhat credible reasons to watch this thing. Read on, and if you’re around tomorrow night, be sure to come back to CagePotato.com for our liveblog of the “Johnson vs. McCall” main card, which kicks off at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.

#1: It’s make-or-break time for Leonard Garcia.
The last time that “Bad Boy” beat anybody decisively was his first-round TKO of Jens Pulver at WEC 36, back in November 2008. That was ten fights ago. Since then, Garcia has gone 3-5-1, with all three of those wins coming by split-decision. Two of those wins are widely considered to be bullshit robberies, and were later avenged in rematches with the “losing” fighters, Chan Sung Jung and Nam Phan. Basically, Garcia’s record since 2009 should really be 1-7-1, and even that lone legit victory (against Jameel Massouh at WEC 42) could have easily gone the other way.

Now, Garcia finds himself on the preliminary card of an FX show, against Matt Grice, whose overall UFC record stands at 1-4, including the first-round TKO loss that Grice suffered against Ricardo Lamas in his last fight. Garcia vs. Grice has all the markings of a “win or go home” match. It doesn’t matter if Leonard turns it into an exciting brawl — if he loses, he’s on extremely thin ice, and we may not see him back again.

(Props: YouTube.com/RootsofFight. For further viewing, check out Bas Rutten’s ground-fighting epiphany, inspirational words from Mike Tyson, and George Chuvalo’s Muhammad Ali memories.)

Our good friends at Roots of Fight have previously hooked us up with their Gracie-themed apparel, and now they’re releasing a limited-edition collection that pays tribute to the shadowy MMA brotherhood known as Black House. Check out the video above to learn about the origins and guiding principles of the Black House gym, which has hosted such MMA stars as Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, the Nogueira brothers, Rafael Cavalcante, Mark Munoz, Roger Gracie, and Glover Teixeira.

The new Black House X Roots of Fight series includes a t-shirt and sweatshirt that showcase Black House’s unique logo, which was created by legendary illustrator/designer Shepard Fairey. (Check out images of the gear after the jump.) And it just so happens that we have three prize packages to give away, which include both items. If you want them, they’re yours for the taking — all you have to do is create a piece of art paying tribute to any of the fighters in the Black House stable, or the camp itself. And it has to be really freakin’ cool…

(Khalidov’s most recent bit of UFC-washout dispatching handiwork at KSW 19.) 

If you’ve even been a semi-regular reader of this site over the past few months, then you are probably familiar with our nuthuggery when it comes to Polish powerhouse Mamed Khalidov. With a record that currently stands at 25-4, Khalidov has made a name for himself as of late by quickly and violently decimating any challenge placed before him under the KSW banner. His diet has consisted mainly of ex-UFC talent including James Irvin, Jesse Taylor, Jorge Santiago, and Matt Lindland, and he has not lost a fight since March of 2010 (in a rematch with Santiago). In those fights, Khalidov has proven to be as dynamic and powerful a striker as he is a lethal submission savant, and with the Biblical-scale plague of injuries currently sweeping through the UFC’s roster, now seems like a better time than any for Khalidov to test himself in the sport’s highest promotion, don’t you think?

Well, even though it is being reported that Khalidov has in fact been offered a contract by Dana & Co, the jury is still out on whether or not we’ll actually be seeing him stateside anytime soon. The reason, as it always is, boils down to simple dollars and cents. Or lack thereof.

Man, this ain’t even funny anymore. After a brutal two-week period that saw the injury withdrawals of Vitor Belfort, Chad Griggs, Thiago Silva, Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, and Brian Stann (as well as supporting players like Pablo Garza and Edwin Figueroa), news broke late last night that UFC middleweight star Michael Bisping is out of his meeting with Tim Boetsch at UFC 149 (July 21st, Calgary) due to an undisclosed injury.

Boetsch will remain on the “Aldo vs. Koch” main card against Hector Lombard, who was scheduled to make his Octagon debut at UFC on FOX 4 two weeks later until Brian Stann pulled out with a dinged shoulder. Lombard vs. Boetsch should be a hell of a brawl — unless losing two weeks of preparation throws the former Bellator champ off his game. Who ya got on that one?

With Lombard off of the UFC on FOX 4 lineup, the August 4th event has picked up a brand new main event…

(Titty Relaxation Therapy > Testosterone Replacement Therapy any day of the week.) 

Randy Couture has made some pretty bold claims ever since retiring (again) from the sport, a few of which have left more than a few fans scratching their heads, and others writing it off as pure senility. It’s comforting, however, to see that a guy who fought in the sport’s highest promotion until he was 47 years old take a stance on the TRT issue that has seemingly plagued the UFC’s finest as of late. With everyone from Frank Mir to Dan Henderson seeking and/or receiving therapeutic use exemptions for TRT, as well as guys like Nate Marquardt suddenly claiming that they no longer need it, most people can’t make heads or tails of the legitimacy of the increasingly popular issue.

Luckily “Captain America” is here to put things in perspective:

You know, I understand it. There’s this whole movement out there for anti-aging. It started out with guys in their 50′s who, naturally as you get older, your testosterone levels deplete. Your body quits producing more, and they want to feel and recover and do the things they did when they were younger. I understand that.

But I think there are natural ways to jumpstart your body’s own production rather than put an external source of testosterone in your body. And I think putting the external in only compounds the issues that your already having. I think the problem…obviously Chael, Marquardt, there’s been several athletes that have been using TRT.

I think for them, it’s not a function of having depleted levels of testosterone, it’s wanting to have testosterone levels of a 21 year old again, because when you were 21, let’s face it, you recovered better, you’re probably gonna compete better, especially if you’re 32 and have that experience going into a fight. 

Couture goes on to mention several of the methods he used to stay young at heart, which included marrying, then divorcing lunatics at least ten years his junior on the regular. True dat, brother.

Join us after the jump for the full interview. 

(I know, dude. I know.)

I think we can officially call it a “wave” of injuries now: The latest UFC fighter to withdraw from an upcoming marquee matchup is middleweight Brian Stann, who will not be making his UFC on FOX 4 main event date with former Bellator champ Hector Lombard due to a shoulder injury. According to MMA Fighting, Stann will not require surgery, but will be sidelined for six-to-eight weeks.

No word yet on who will come in to replace Stann against Lombard, if anybody — but theoretically, that person will need a strong chin if he hopes to last past the first round. The co-main event for UFC on FOX 4 (August 4th, Los Angeles) is a just-as-marketable light-heavyweight feature between Lyoto Machida and Ryan Bader, which could be bumped to the top as a last resort. We’ll keep you posted when we know more.

(Inferior heavyweight contender, or marketing genius?!) 

Perhaps we’re in the minority here, but we’re getting pretty God damn sick of mixed martial artists throwing around the word “retirement” like Kim Kardashian throws around the word “marriage.” Because retirement, like marriage, is a sacred institution, and nowadays it seems as if every other fighter is taking a big, steaming turd on what was once holy ground. In the past year alone, both Jamie Varner and more recently B.J. Penn have retired, only to come out of said retirement before anyone could even assess their retirement in the first place. Though the jury is still out on how long Nick Diaz and Jason Miller will be out of action, it’s looking like you can add none other than former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar to the former list, as it has been reported by co-Host of Tough Talk on wrestlingobserver.com, Mike Sawyer, that Lesnar will return to the UFC within the year. He broke the news over his Twitter:

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
Had an interesting conversation with someone VERY close to all the Brock Lesnar stuff. He is fighting THIS YEAR in UFC & not Frank Mir…

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
plans change all the time, but the name I was told isn’t Roy.

Brian ?@FrontRowBrian
If it’s not Mir fighting Lesnar in UFC later this year as @TOUGHTALKMMA reports, who is it? @roynelsonmma? @stefanstruve? @ShaneCarwin II?

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
one of the above.

For those of you with the memory capacity of Sammy Jankis, Lesnar announced his retirement from the sport following his first round TKO loss to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141. UFC 141 was a mere six months ago.

(“Good job, good effort.” — James Irvin)

Jeff Curran is living proof that dropping a weight class in MMA often has a negligible effect on your level of success. After kicking off his career as a lightweight — and losing a decision to Matt Serra in his Octagon debut way back at UFC 46 in 2004 — the BJJ black belt eventually transitioned to featherweight to pursue a championship belt in the WEC. Unfortunately, Curran took back-to-back losses against Urijah Faber and Mike Brown, which inspired him to drop another ten pounds. He didn’t fare any better at 135 either, losing decisions to Joseph Benavidez and Takeya Mizugaki in 2009 before exiting the promotion.

After two years of purgatory — in which he went 4-1 competing for the XFO and on Strikeforce and Bellator preliminary cards — the UFC brought Curran back for another run at bantamweight. And after two more losses to Scott Jorgensen and Johnny Eduardo, Big Frog was back at square one. And now there’s this:

Veteran fighter Jeff Curran (33-15-1 MMA, 0-3 UFC), whom the UFC released following back-to-back losses to bantamweights Johnny Eduardo and Scott Jorgensen, is headed to the flyweight division. That’s according to his cousin and training partner, Bellator featherweight champion Pat Curran.

“I don’t know how he’s going to make it, but he’s going to find a way,” Pat recently told MMAjunkie.com…Pat, who defeated Joe Warren for the Bellator belt earlier this year, took up the sport at his cousin’s urging. He said his mentor figure now is planning to regroup on the regional scene in the new weight class.

(Whether you’re a Muay Thai fan or a foot-fetishist, that is one sexy kick.)

When BJ Penn turned down fights against Gilbert Melendez and Josh Koscheck, we figured it was because he was holding out for…well, a fourth fight against Matt Hughes, if you want to get specific. You know how it is with these old legends. They take a couple losses to younger contenders, and all of a sudden they’ll only consider fights that “make sense,” which usually means big-name opponents who are also on the downside of their careers.

In other words, we just assumed that Penn felt Melendez and Koscheck were too dangerous, and that facing either of them could be harmful to his legacy. So it comes as a bit of a surprise that Penn has now accepted a fight against young welterweight killer Rory MacDonald, who is not a superstar, but is one of the most dangerous sons-of-bitches in the UFC.

(The fact that Aldama’s feet look something like this surely didn’t help matters.) 

My God. As if it wasn’t crazy enough that CP reader Jason Jenkins was able to pull off that insane tilt-a-whirl KO just last week, now this shit happens. Matter of fact, while we’re naming knockouts after carnival rides, we’d like to be the first to officially dub this baby, which took place at Total Gym Peleas Amateur Chapo Challenger 1 in Mexico last weekend, “The Scrambler.” Not only because it certainly scrambled the brains of it’s recipient, Esteban Santillanez, for quite some time, but also because the kick looked like it was thrown by a man who forgot to buckle his safety harness on the aforementioned ride.

Christian Aldama is the man behind the incredible kick, which awaits you after the jump.

(A “Greatest Spinning Backfist of 2011″ candidate is getting a second chance at UFC glory.)

Sources close to Kenny Robertson (11-1, 0-1 UFC) have informed CagePotato.com that the Illinois-based welterweight has been offered a fight against Aaron Simpson, in the wake of Jon Fitch’s knee-injury withdrawal. The meeting will take place at UFC on FUEL TV 4, July 11th in San Jose.

Robertson kicked off his MMA career on a 10-0 tear, with nine wins by stoppage. After his Octagon debut at UFC 126 in February 2011 resulted in a TKO loss to Mike Pierce, Robertson was released from the promotion in order to alleviate crowding in the UFC’s roster, and had a difficult time finding opponents. He eventually traveled to Finland for his next (and most recent) fight, where he knocked out Lucio Linhares with a rather amazing spinning backfist at Fight Festival 31 last October.

Robertson didn’t deserve to be cut by the UFC in the first place, and it would be great to see this talented fight-finisher get another shot. We’ll update this post if/when the Simpson vs. Robertson bout is confirmed.

UPDATE: It’s on.

(It’s as if the province of Ontario is giving us the middle finger at every waking moment.) 

When you report on all things MMA for a living (or at least claim to) like we here at CP do, it becomes a rarer and rarer occurrence that something truly blows our collective minds. A botched drug test here, a DWI/Domestic Assault arrest here — none of these things really surprise us in the sense that they are completely unheard news stories. Rather, it is often the whos and whats of a given case that give us food for thought. In other words, it is not everyday that we are treated to a rampage across Southern California that really makes us sit back and ponder the peculiarity of a given situation.

Today is one of those days, Potato Nation.

For you see, our buddies at Fightlinker managed to come across a story originally reported by Sportsnet’s Joe Ferraro that involved Canada’s ever-budding amatuer mixed martial arts scene, and we felt the need to pass it along.

But first, a little backstory. For those of you keeping track, Ontario did not legalize mixed martial arts until the beginning of 2011, but the Ontarian (yes, that’s what they call themselves) response was overwhelmingly positive. UFC 129 became the fastest selling card in UFC History, selling over 55,000 tickets in just over two days. We’re talking about a card that had Jake f’ing Shieldzzzzz in the main event, people. The UFC returned to Ontario at UFC 140, and in both occasions, saw the usual mix of enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans in attendance, something that cannot be said for many other venues.

So one would think that when it came to determining a set of rules for which amateur MMA would be governed by, Ontario would have more than an infinitesimal inkling as to how the sport they loved so much was run. You would be wrong. So, very, very wrong.

(Man, 2009, right? Crazy times. / Image via City Pages)

Bellator sent out a press release this morning announcing that they’ve signed struggling slugger Brett Rogers, who will make his promotional debut at Bellator 71, June 22nd in Chester, West Virginia. “I am incredibly thankful to Bjorn Rebney and Bellator for giving me and my family this opportunity,” Rogers said. “I feel that I am still one of the top heavyweights in the sport and now I have the opportunity to prove it with Bellator. I love the tournament format as it will give me the chance to regain my top position, of course with a lot hard work.”

Rogers’s opponent for the June 22nd card hasn’t been announced yet, but his tournament ambitions will have until this fall; Bellator 71 is slated to host the quarterfinals of their 2012 Summer Series Light-Heavyweight tournament, featuring Travis Wiuff, Zelg Galesic, and Richard Hale.

After starting his career with ten consecutive wins — all by strikes within the first two rounds — Rogers hit a dramatic rough patch in which he lost three straight fights under the Strikeforce banner, got arrested and convicted for beating up his wife, then dropped a split-decision to Eddie Sanchez at Titan FC 20. Most recently, Rogers fought a 2-1 gym-owner named Todd Allee to a no-contest at Donofrio Entertainment’s “My Bloody Valentine” show; in his attempt to finish Allee on the ground, Rogers landed an illegal blow to the back his opponent’s head that Allee wasn’t able to recover from.

As Rogers explains in the press release:

(We know, Carlos, we didn’t believe it was Arianny in that mugshot either.) 

We haven’t heard much from Carlos Condit since his controversial, interim title-earning decision over Nick Diaz at UFC 143, even though the man he beat out for said title has given him plenty to talk about. No, all we’ve heard from “The Natural Born Killer” is that he plans to spend the rest of 2012 on the shelf in order to finally get his much deserved shot against Georges St. Pierre, who is no stranger to life on the sidelines.

Well now it seems that the fighting bug is starting to get to Condit, who recently told HDNet’s Inside MMA that he would be open to the idea of defending his interim title, were GSP’s absence to be prolonged, that is. How you can defend a title that isn’t, you know, an actual title, is beyond us, but regardless of what we think, Condit said that he’d like to face none other than the man responsible for his sole loss in the UFC given the opportunity:

If it turns out Georges can’t fight in November, most likely, I will fight somebody else. I really wanna fight Georges. I really wanna unify the belts, but there’s also some other guys that I would like to fight as well. You know, Martin Kampmann‘s the only guy that I’ve lost to in the UFC, the only guy I’ve lost to in about the last six years, so I would definitely like to avenge that loss.

Few can forget the pair’s initial meeting, which took place back in April of 2009 at Fight Night 18 and saw Kampmann emerge victorious by way of split decision in what was a hell of a three round affair.

And while we agree that it would be nice to see any fight in the welterweight division that has some kind of title implications behind it, it appears that the chances of Condit/Kampmann II going down anytime soon are somehow less likely than that of Condit/GSP. Here’s why.

(“Como um CHEFE!”)

On the last episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil, Vitor Belfort out-scored Wanderlei Silva in a soccer-themed coaches’ challenge, and Gasparzinho celebrated by picking up ring girl Britney Palmer and carrying her away, kicking and screaming. Team Vitor set upon Britney like a pack of wild dogs. When the UFC’s local security crew finally dragged them off, nothing remained of Palmer but a tattered red bikini top — her shorts were devoured completely — and a pair of silicone breast-implants, picked clean of all flesh. Each member of Team Vitor received R$2,000 (approximately $980) for the win. See, this is the kind of shit you miss when you don’t watch.

Two versions of the GIF are after the jump, courtesy of The UG. In the smaller/longer one, you can catch a glimpse of Britney fleeing for her life after the abduction.

(Props: MMAFightingonSBN)

In a new interview on MMA Fighting’s “The MMA Hour,” Nate Marquardt revealed that he has discontinued the testosterone replacement therapy that led to his dismissal from the UFC last June. Marquardt started TRT in 2010 to treat low testosterone-production which left him feeling sluggish, irritable, and forgetful, but recently decided that the hassle ain’t worth it. As Marquardt explained to Ariel Helwani:

“I didn’t know if I was going to be able to fulfill my dreams going that route. I just feel it was so much of a hassle and stress with the commissions and all that, I guess, that the right thing for me to do right now is to choose not to do it. And you know, definitely I’ve pursued a lot of other stuff to try to help my health and a lot of it’s helping. I feel great right now. I’m in really good shape, and that’s not something I’m worried about right now.”

As Mike Chiappetta points out, “Marquardt leaving the treatment behind is no small story, as there is much literature that suggests that TRT, once taken, is to be used for a lifetime.” Meaning that Nate’s decision to discontinue treatment could actually be detrimental to his health — assuming he ever needed it in the first place. (The way that MMA fighters have been casually jumping on and off hormone therapy certainly doesn’t improve TRT’s reputation as a cheap route to a competitive advantage.) Still, Marquardt says he’s in great shape without the extra testosterone boost, and will prove it as he drops to welterweight for the first time to battle Tyron Woodley for Strikeforce’s vacant welterweight title on July 14th in Portland, Oregon:

(R.I.P Geico Gecko. May your free soul never again be confused with a half-rate car insurance plan.) 

You gotta love being a world famous sports figure, amirite? Every move examined under a magnifying glass, a legion of people claiming to hate you despite having never come within 100 miles of you before — it sounds fucking wonderful. Just ask Jon Jones. After he got a little tipsy behind the wheel with a couple of friends and wrecked his Bentley in the process, he no more than could check his pants for a bowl of chocolate pudding before said legions of the blind were ready and waiting to bash him anonymously or throw him their undying support.

Don’t be mistaken, Jones had some of the hate coming. The fact that he stated just one month before his brush up with the law that he would never, you know, have a brush up with the law or anything, made his fall from that high horse all the more painful. But so heavy lies the crown, in fact, that the guys over at Sportsnet called upon such UFC stars as Dominick Cruz, Junior dos Santos, and Frank Mir among other to help us cope with this devastating situation.

If you can’t tell by the sarcasm plastered across the last sentence, we are more willing to forgive Jones for his actions than most. The case seems to be the same with Mir, who was content to give the “we all make mistakes” response when questioned on the issue:

I get mad at people that are quick to judge him, you know, ‘How could you ever drink and drive?!’ And I’m not ever going to say it’s right; it’s wrong to drink and drive. But if you’re a person who drinks, and you’re going to tell me that you’ve never gotten behind the wheel when you’ve had more than one beer an hour, or one shot, or one glass of wine; you’ve drove when you shouldn’t have, and you made a mistake.

The difference is, is that he got bit on his bad mistake. The good thing that now, maybe he can learn from it now, and not continue to do that on, but we all fall down. The point is that you get back up and march forward, you acknowledge what you did…I want to meet the person that’s never screwed up.

Oh, Frank. Only you can have us questioning the legitimacy of your claims one day and in your corner the next.

Check out the video after the jump. 

(We’ll give “The Robot” this, he never left a *victory* in the hands of the judges.) 

Of all the fighters to be kept around by the UFC for longer than they should have, the story of Steve Cantwell‘s inexplicably long run with the promotion is perhaps the most confounding. That is not a knock on Mr. Cantwell, but more of a general observation. After defeating Brian Stann at WEC 35 to win the WEC’s last Light Heavyweight championship (not to mention a bit of redemption), Cantwell kicked off his UFC career in memorable fashion, snapping Razak Al-Hassan’s arm and then gloating over it like a serial killer at UFC: Fight for the Troops back in December of 2008. Unfortunately for “The Robot,” the win would be both his first and last while under the UFC banner.

Cantwell’s next fight would be an entertaining three round kickboxing match with Luiz Cane, a fellow light heavyweight prospect who has fallen on hard times as of late, at UFC 97. It was shortly thereafter where those following Cantwell (including Joe Rogan) began to notice a change in Cantwell’s character, at least when he stepped into the ring. His next four losses, which came to Brian Stann, Cyrille Diabate, Mike Massenzio, and Riki Fukuda, respectively, were marked by an all but total lack of striking defense on Cantwell’s part, who seemed as if he was literally trying to absorb as much damage as possible en route to defeat. All four of those losses came by way of unanimous decision, and all four would see Cantwell fail to engage with any sense of urgency on the feet while having his face put through a meat grinder in the process. None of his fights were incredibly memorable, and most of them took place on the undercard, yet Cantwell stuck around for as long as he possibly could.

Like we said, we’re not here to kick a man while he’s down, but rather to wish him the best at wherever he may land in the future. We just wish we could have seen a little more of that sociopathic fire in his eyes over the last couple years.

News of Cantwell’s release comes amidst a plethora of UFC firings, the complete list of which awaits you after the jump.

(Well if you’re trying to give yourself a hernia and a dislocated jaw, then by all means, keep doing what you’re doing.)

As if the loss of one high-profile Thiago wasn’t bad enough, UFC 149 (July 21st; Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is now short two Thiagos, with welterweight Thiago Alves having to withdraw due to an undisclosed injury.

Replacing him in his scheduled match against Afghan knockout-machine Siyar Bahadurzada will be Canadian striker Chris Clements, the MMA record-holder who out-pointed Keith Wisniewski in his Octagon debut at UFC 145. (Fun fact: Bahadurzada was himself a replacement for Yoshihiro Akiyama against Alves. And round and round it goes.)

Based on the way that Bahadurzada smoked Paulo Thiago in his own UFC debut back in April, we have a feeling that Clements could be in deep do-doo here. And speaking of potential mismatches…

(Click image for full-size version.)

MMA model/amateur fighter Ashley Salazar was named COED Magazine’s Miss COED of the Year 2011, and the lazy-bros over there have finally gotten around to putting up her celebration shoot, which is truly amazing. Check out 12 highlights from the shoot in our gallery below, and go here for the full set. Ashley is currently hustling to become Playboy’s Miss Social, so vote for her if you can and follow her on Twitter @ashleycmsalazar.

Props to BabesofMMA for the tip!

It is a pretty well known fact that we here at CP base our love of female MMA fighters on three things; how they look at the weigh-ins, their willingness to talk trash on the level of their male counterparts, and lastly (and perhaps most importantly), their ability to pull off a beautiful armbar when called upon. Is that shallow, trivial, and more than a bit chauvinistic? Of course it is, but when have we ever been anything but? It’s also no coincidence that Ronda Rousey can do all of those things in her sleep (seriously, we’ve seen her do all three from our window-side perch), hence our absolute devotion to her brand of sexy, arm-destroying justice.

Well, it appears that the gauntlet has been thrown down (at least in the latter category), as Danielle West managed to pull off a beautiful step over/modified flying armbar on Irina Mollukwu in the absolute finals of the Grapplers Showdown No Gi London Open last weekend. The end came just over a minute into their scrap, and was so impressive that even Ms. Rousey would agree with us if she hadn’t filed that restraining order.

Currently 4-3 in her professional MMA career, it appears as if “The Curse” has a bright road ahead of her if she can manage to pull off these kinds of shenanigans inside the cage. Anyone agree?

Check out a full video of the match after the jump.