(Who said “Huuuge bitch!” behind my back?! Who said it?!) 

As anyone who has married friends will tell you, no matter how funny it is to let said friend complain about how terrible/annoying/insufferable their wife is, you are never to make fun of said wife unless given a direct order to do so. Apparently something of this nature went down between Kevin Randleman and Matt Riddle recently, as Randleman recently unleashed nothing short of a deluge of threats aimed at Riddle over Twitter, citing alleged comments Riddle had made to his wife as his reasoning for wanting to “rip a piece off” the TUF 7 alum.

Just check out the anger in the tweets that await you after the jump. A line has clearly been crossed.

(If you must ask, Dana, I believe my hype train was headed in that general direction. Then again, it’s been so long since I’ve seen it…) 

If you’re anything like us, you’ve more than likely spent your weekend drinking either Budweiser or Miller High Life cans in front of your television whilst watching various Olympic events and screaming “America!” on loop until your Canadian or Russian neighbors got jealous and called the police, who in turn tried to claim that you are somehow at fault if you like to watch TV in the nude and can’t afford curtains. And indeed, the Olympics have successfully managed to captivate and connect its viewing audience as it always does, uniting entire communities over a common passion. Except, oddly enough, in the case of this year’s host country, wherein failure apparently opens you up to disturbingly hateful critiques from your own countrymen.

Switching gears, it seems that one thing we can all agree on, regardless of our cultural divisions, is the inherent ridiculousness in the possibility that Brandon Vera could somehow receive a title shot if he is able to defeat Mauricio Rua in impressive fashion, or vice versa. We know we’ve been a little hard on him today – it’s not like it was his decision to overhype a fight by implying title implications only to be reamed out by fans for doing so shortly thereafter, that was Dana White — but on the short list of contenders currently in the Light Heavyweight Division, Vera is just a step above Mostapha al-Turk, whom you may recall is a retired heavyweight who was released from the UFC over two years ago. And he’s fighting Shogun f*cking Rua, aka the man who ended The Machida Era. Arguably twice. 

Spoiler: There is no way in hell that Vera is beating Shogun this Saturday, and we’d be willing to wager a bottle of ipecac on it, if you know what we mean. So in honor of what has been a highly competitive Olympic games thus far, and what will surely be a one sided ass whooping at UFC on FOX 4, here are 10 things, ranked in no particular order, we will more than likely see happen at this year’s Olympics than “The Truth” beating “Shogun” on Saturday.

And yet he STILL hasn’t learned that only tools wear Affliction…

We’re just a few days away from UFC on FOX 4, which will be headlined by arguably the most confusing contender fight in modern UFC history. While most fans can kind of justify Shogun earning a title shot with a victory given his track record (especially if Hendo manages to put away Jones at UFC 151), Brandon Vera remains a gigantic question mark. With his most notable victory being a TKO over heavyweight Frank Mir back in 2006, it’s hardly a surprise that most fans and pundits are completely unable to make sense of this bout even headlining the card, yet alone being for a title shot.

If Brandon Vera attempted to justify all of this through his appearance on “Inside MMA,” he ended up just raising even more questions. Case in point: Vera talked about his training camp leading up to his bout with “Shogun” Rua. Aside from bringing back his Muay Thai coaches and sparring with Alexander Gustafsson, Vera commented that he was ”doing the things he should have been doing since day one.” Specifically, he’s actually caring now about his career. As he told the “Inside MMA” crew:

By Elias Cepeda

UFC featherweight Cole Miller (18-6) doesn’t mince words and isn’t initially open to reflection today. He’s on his way from Miami’s international airport to Los Angeles, where he will fight Nam Pham this Saturday, August 4th, on the preliminary card of UFC on Fox: Shogun vs. Vera.

Traveling is hardly ever any fun, and it must be less so for someone cutting weight, as Miller is. And when he’s asked what he may have learned from his last fight, a loss to Steven Siler in March, Miller is hard on himself.

“I wouldn’t say I learned anything from that fight. I just looked like shit,” he deadpans. “I moved backwards too much, I tried to counter too much, which is not really my game. I don’t know why I did that.”

Miller has never lost two fights in a row in his MMA career — and admits to a certain pride in that — but says that these days, losing at all is not acceptable. “When I was younger [losing two in a row] really meant that you didn’t learn from your previous mistake or didn’t work hard enough. Now its more of a, ‘losing sucks, period,’ feeling,” he says.

It’s good to know that we weren’t alone in our confusion when it was announced that the winner of either the Mauricio Rua/Brandon Vera or Lyoto Machida/Ryan Bader bouts, specifically the former, would be in line for the next title shot at 205 lbs. Given that current champion Jon Jones has walked through all four of those gentlemen before, we struggled to find the reasoning behind the alleged title shot that supposedly awaited the most impressive winner from this weekend’s UFC on FOX 4 event. Then again, Rich Franklin has decided to chase after middleweight gold and revenge for a third time (which totally wont end in his untimely death), so maybe we were too quick to write off these former champions, TUF winners, and hype machines. In either case, Bones took to his Twitter account to voice his frustration, sending out the above tweet yesterday which simply states “Scratching my head.”

But perhaps even more confounding than the UFC’s apparent apathy in regards to JBJ was the realization that the light heavyweight division, one of the most stacked and competitive divisions in the UFC for some time, has nearly been cleared out in a little over a year. If Jones gets past Dan Henderson at UFC 151, something he obviously feels he is going to do as evidenced by the above tweet, there will arguably be only two viable candidates left for him to face: Alexander Gustafsson and Glover Teixeira.

Dana White has teased that the man known by the Potato Nation as “Bjones” is “ready for a big fight now”, leading us to believe that a meeting with Rashad Evans could be on the horizon. A victory over the former champ would all but cement the Swede’s position atop the division. As for Teixeira, it’s simply too early to tell. He looked great in his debut victory over Kyle Kingsbury, but needs to face at least one of the upper echelon fighters before we are convinced he is ready for a title shot. But for the moment, it appears that the LHW division needs an H-bomb like Nick Diaz needs a clue.

In other, alcohol-related Jon Jones news…

(Props: YouTube.com/RoseNamajunas via MiddleEasy. Pat Barry appearance begins at 0:24, and the fight starts at 1:23.)

Yes, there is a woman in the world who could love this man. Her name is Rose Namajunas, and she’s a straw-weight MMA fighter who upped her record to 4-0 on June 30th with a 33-second domination of Jen Aniano Rose at a King of the Cage event in Wisconsin. Check out the beatdown above, and get to know Rose a little better in the videos after the jump…

(“Come on! Stop *trying* to tickle me, and tickle me!“)

Jon Fitch‘s first fight of 2012 will come against one of the most dangerous up-and-comers in the welterweight division. As first reported by Ariel Helwani, Fitch will meet Brazilian prospect Erick Silva at UFC 153: Aldo vs. Koch (October 13th, Rio de Janeiro).

Previously one of the most dependable fighters in the UFC, Fitch hasn’t won a fight since he outpointed Thiago Alves two years ago. Since then, he’s suffered through a draw against BJ Penn, a shoulder injury, and a 12-second knockout loss against Johny Hendricks. Fitch was originally slated to return against Aaron Simpson at UFC on Fuel TV 4 earlier this month, but was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury.

(Suck it, Javier Sotomayor.) 

In what will either make for a triumphant or disastrous turning point in Eddie Alvarez’s career (specifically, his marketability), the former Bellator lightweight champion has been booked to take on Brazilian knockout artist Patricky “Pitbull” Freire at Bellator 75, which goes down on October 12th at Caesar’s Windsor in Canada.

After collecting seven straight wins under the Bellator banner (6 by way of stoppage), Alvarez lost his lightweight strap in dramatic fashion, falling prey to a fourth round submission in a battle for the ages at Bellator 58 to Michael Chandler. Most recently, Alvarez earned some much sought after revenge when he battered and dispatched Shinya Aoki in the first round of their Bellator 66 throwdown, and immediately began  making his case for a potential spot amongst the UFC’s ever growing lightweight roster thereafter. It just goes to show what beating up a man in multi-colored pastel tights can do for one’s confidence.

Over the last ten years, we’ve watched Mauricio “Shogun” Rua go from young phenom to living legend. Though injuries and and controversial judging have occasionally slowed his momentum during the second half of his career, Shogun enters next weekend’s UFC on FOX 4 matchup with Brandon Vera as a standard-bearer for his generation of fighters, and is still considered among the elite of the light-heavyweight division.

In honor of Rua’s continuing legacy, we’ve picked out the 16 videos that best summarize his journey as a fighter — from the past to the present, from his most unforgettable triumphs to his most crushing defeats. Enjoy, and pay your respects in the comments section.

Mauricio Rua vs. Rodrigo Malheiros de Andrade. Shot in 1998 when Rua was just 16 years old, this footage shows the future PRIDE/UFC star competing in a Muay Thai smoker in somebody’s house in Curitiba, Brazil. Though Shogun shows flashes of his trademark aggression, his technique hasn’t quite blossomed yet, and he winds up getting head-kick KO’d at the video’s 7:15 mark.

Mauricio Rua vs. Rafael Freitas, Meca World Vale Tudo 7, 11/8/02. Rua was 20 years old when he made his official MMA debut against Rafael “Capoeira” Freitas, who was tenacious in his attempts to put Shogun on his back. But Freitas couldn’t keep him there, and the standup exchanges were lopsided in Rua’s favor. After a few minutes of abusing his opponent with knees, punches, and stomps, Shogun finally puts Freitas out cold with a head-kick.

(Step 1: Combine equal parts Rage virus and Mr. Clean’s DNA. Step 2. ????????? Step 3. Profit.) 

We don’t mean to sound harsh, but come October 13th, the UFC will more than likely be severing its ties with 9-1 prospect Joey Gambino. As was the case with guys like Antonio Silva and the poor saps who made it onto our “Cursed From Birth” list, it seems that the UFC  doesn’t want to give “The Raging Warrior” a rebound match or a chance to develop in the organization, and will sit idly by as he is pummeled into mincemeat on two separate occasions.

We don’t want to write the guy off (but are doing exactly that), but to put it simply, Gambino was basically filleted then submitted by TUF 14 veteran Steve Siler in his UFC debut at UFC on FX 4. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, now he’s been booked to face not only the winner of that season in his sophomore appearance, but the man who absolutely annihilated Siler (among others) in Diego Brandao. The world is truly an unjust place.

Then again, it’s not like Brandao has looked bulletproof since entering the UFC. He will also be looking to bounce back from a loss, which came at the hands of Darren Elkins at UFC 146. Despite stomping Elkins in the first round, Brandao looked visibly sluggish in the second and third, allowing Elkins to use his superior grappling to keep Brandao on the bottom en route to a unanimous decision loss. So maybe, just maybe, Gambino stands a chance here.

But probably not.

Check out a shoddily filmed video of Gambino’s UFC 146 bout with Siler after the jump and let us know if you agree or disagree. 

(Eventually, they had to hold a piece of roast beef above the camera just so Anthony would sit still. Props: @Anthony_Rumble)

Booking more than one fight in advance is usually the M.O. of check-collectors like Bob Sapp, who don’t really care about winning, and don’t plan on taking much damage anyway. It could also be the mark of excessive optimism — a clear sign that you’re looking past your next opponent. It’s safe to say that Anthony Johnson falls into that second category. As MMA Fighting reports, Johnson has been booked to face former UFC prospect Jake Rosholt in a light-heavyweight bout at Xtreme Fight Night 8 on September 21st — just four weeks after Rumble’s official light-heavyweight debut against Esteves “Quiet Riot” Jones at Titan Fighting Championships 24.

Rosholt, a former middleweight who was cut from the UFC following a first-round submission loss to Kendall Grove at UFC 106 in November 2009, has gone 6-2 with one no-contest since his stint in the Octagon, with five of those wins coming via first-round stoppage. Rosholt made the jump to 205 pounds in his last fight in June, but wound up losing to Matt Thompson via kneebar — a result that doesn’t bode well for his chances against Anthony Johnson. Then again, if Rumble gets injured or badly K.O.’d during his fight against Esteves Jones, Johnson vs. Rosholt might not even happen. Don’t order tickets quite yet, is what we’re saying.

XFN 8 goes down at the Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma; no other matchups for the event have been reported yet.

(Props: SUPAFIGHTLEAGUE)

“They brought me into this fight as a fish for Shogun to eat.”

So said Brandon Vera during yesterday’s hour-long “UFC’s Road to the Octagon” special on FOX, which previewed next weekend’s UFC on FOX: Shogun vs. Vera card in Los Angeles. Vera is well aware that few people are giving him a chance in the night’s headliner — especially considering that he hasn’t had an impressive victory in over three years — but the opportunity to fight Shogun and return to elite-fighter status has given him new motivation for training.

As you can imagine, Shogun has no interest in becoming the co-star in Vera’s Cinderella story. “I’m not going to be the one to bring Brandon Vera back,” he says. And if Rua wins, he’ll likely get another shot at the light-heavyweight belt, where he’d either fight a guy who already crushed him, or a guy who beat him up for the majority of a five-round war. I know, don’t get us started.

2004 Olympic wrestling silver medalist Sara McMann won a hard-fought unanimous decision over Shayna Baszler after three rounds at last night’s all-women Invicta FC 2 event. Baszler rocked McMann with a left hook late in the fight but McMann had evidently gotten far enough ahead on the judges’ scorecards to get the win. Check out the full fight video above.

Scores were 29-28 (twice) and 30-27 for McMann. “That was by far the toughest and most skilled fighter I have ever fought,” McMann said post-fight of Baszler.

With the win, McMann improves her MMA record to 6-0. Baszler dipped to 14-7.

Full results via MMAFighting, as well as video of Liz Carmouche‘s submission win over Kaitlin Young, are after the jump.

Maybe there will come a day when MMA fighters appearing and being mentioned by name in ad campaigns for major brands is so common that we won’t feel compelled to mention it but we aren’t there yet. MMA is still so young, so close to the days where it was banned in most states and kept off cable, that, gosh darn it, we get a lil teary eyed anytime we see a fighter like Anderson Silva (Burger King) or Georges St. Pierre (Gatorade) get picked to be a spokesman for for a major brand. That’s good money in their pockets and an indication of MMA knocking on the door to mainstream acceptance each time out.

The latest fighter getting such an opportunity is Mr. Wonderful himself, UFC light heavyweight Phil Davis. Davis, who fights August 4th on the UFC on Fox card in Los Angeles, appears in a new Sprite television commercial, twisting an actor into knots.

(I’m just playing, MMA. You know I love you)

We never expected Nick Diaz to stay “retired,” after he lost a close decision to Carlos Condit and got popped and suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for marijuana metabolites early in the year. So when Diaz manager/coach Cesar Gracie released a written statement on GracieFighter.com Friday that Diaz will, in fact, return to fighting it just confirmed the obvious.

However, Gracie had another timely bombshell to announce – Diaz would totally fight Anderson Silva, and Diaz’ camp will make the request of the UFC.

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

Frankie Edgar is the UFC’s official king of fighting the same guy back-to-back. He did it in 2010 with BJ Penn, in 2011 with Gray Maynard, and now he’s heading into fight #2 against Ben Henderson, the Philippians-quoting WEC standout who bullrushed the UFC and out-pointed four consecutive opponents to win the lightweight belt. (In case anybody cares, Randy Couture is at #2 on the immediate rematch leaderboard thanks to his rivalries with Pedro Rizzo and Vitor Belfort; then there’s a handful of guys who have had one immediate rematch, and that’s it. It’s a pretty short list.)

What makes the rematch at UFC 150 different for Edgar, of course, is that he won’t be a defending champion this time. Though he fought his ass off against Bendo at UFC 144, the numbers simply weren’t on his side. (Plus, he ate that face-shattering upkick at a moment when he really needed to maintain his momentum.) Ben Henderson is just as iron-chinned, aggressive, and hard-working as Edgar, so maybe the biggest advantage in the matchup is the fact that Henderson is a large lightweight, and Edgar isn’t. Will this be the fight that finally convinces Frankie to seek his fortune at featherweight? Or will he reclaim his belt with another unbelievable display of heart?

Anderson Silva, shown modeling for Rolling Stone while showing us his war face.

It’s no secret that the UFC middleweight division is a bit of a mess right now. With Michael Bisping set to fight Brian Stann, Alan Belcher squaring off against Vitor Belfort, Cung Le fighting Rich Franklin and Chris Weidman and Tim Boetsch sitting on the sidelines, it’s no wonder we’re possibly looking at a middleweight tournament to sort this mess out. In theory, the tournament would give Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva plenty of time to go to barbecues and fight Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones while the division sorts itself out. In reality, that will never happen.

With the middleweight division being such a gigantic question mark, it may make sense to just ask someone in Anderson Silva’s camp who they’d like to see him fight next. There’s just one small problem: Anderson Silva’s camp are, how should I say this, pricks. Case in point, here’s what Silva’s manager Jorge Guimaraes said about the possibility of Anderson fighting Chris Weidman, Tim Boetsch and Alan Belcher, who have all recently called out “The Spider” (via Tatame):

“You think that’s funny? This motherfucker on my left THINKS HE’S A WELTERWEIGHT!”

Finding someone who still gets excited about The Ultimate Fighter is a lot like watching a guy wearing a gi or a Luchador mask in a cage fight: It’s a throwback to the days when our sport was arguably more pure and definitely more innocent. It’s oddly refreshing, incredibly confusing and somewhat disturbing, all at the same time. It’s the type of encounter that you’ll look back on a few months from now and say something like “Remember when we went to that event in the middle of nowhere and they let a guy compete wearing a Psicosis mask?” (Come on, stranger things have happened) or “Remember that night at The Korova when we met that guy who was all about TUF Live?”

That being said, TUF 16 actually looks like it has some promise. At the very least, head coaches Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin should provide some entertaining antics and some original trash talk. The fact that the two were originally set to fight each other at UFC 125 is a nice touch, too. And earlier today, Shane Carwin told MMAJunkie.com that UFC Heavyweight and one of MMA’s most recognizable personalities Pat Barry will be a part of his TUF 16 coaching staff.

If anything else, Carwin and company should be able to revolutionize the TUF coaches ribbing, which, let’s face it, has become pretty stale, predictable and disturbing throughout the history of the show. Looking over the rest of his coaching staff, his fighters will have one hell of a coaching staff to learn from. They’re listed for you after the jump.

(Props: TOFantasySports via TitoCouture.com. Dang, that song is so hot right now.)

Judging from this video, the consensus Hottest Woman in MMA has some amazing new photos in store for us, and though it’s kind of optimistic for anybody to be shooting a 2013 calendar, we respect Brittney Palmer for giving it a shot. You’ll be able to purchase the calendar on BrittneyPalmer.com, where she’s currently selling prints of her paintings of Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, and…Dana White? Good times.

Get psyched for Brittney Palmer’s new calendar by checking out a few of the 2012 edition’s highlights after the jump.

(“NOOOOOOOOOO! What part of ‘rebound opponent’ do you morons not understand?”)

After having his fight against Ben Rothwell yanked out from underneath him, undefeated heavyweight Travis Browne has found himself in an even better situation. The UFC has confirmed that Browne will now be headlining UFC on FX 5 (October 5th; Target Center, Minneapolis) against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. Browne is coming off his destruction of Chad Griggs at UFC 145, and is currently nursing an ice-cream hangover.

Silva was absolutely dominated in his last two cage appearances, suffering a first-round TKO against Daniel Cormier in Strikeforce before being torn to shreds by Cain Velasquez in his Octagon debut at UFC 146. The Brazilian will certainly be a sizable underdog coming into the bout, but anything could happen right? (Answer: LOL, no.)

Not trying to bust balls here, but if the main event of this card features a guy on a two-fight losing streak, we’re probably not going to be looking at a massively stacked card; at least Struve and Miocic have both won their last three fights in the UFC. Currently, the only other fight booked for UFC on FX 5 is a featherweight tilt between Bart Palaszewski and Diego Nunes.

(If you were a guest on that gay Indian party bus and want to share your story, please e-mail tips@cagepotato.com.)

Thanks to everyone who submitted stories for today’s crowd-sourced edition of the CagePotato Roundtable. We’ve selected 12 tales from the pile — ranging from drama to comedy to horror — and we’ll begin with a story that comes to us from an actual pro fighter, involving one of MMA’s greatest out-of-the-cage rivalries…

Sal Woods
A few years ago I fought on the Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Shields card. While at weigh-ins I was obviously star-struck from being at Al Hrabosky’s with a room full of legends and badasses. The only guy I had the balls to say what’s up to was Nick Diaz. He was completely cool and super polite, he said hi and introduced himself to the entire table (my cornermen, shaking each one’s hand). We were just shooting the shit about how it was my first time on a big card and that I was fighting T-Wood. I was thinking this dude is nothing like the interviews I have watched.

All of a sudden he looks over and sees Joe Riggs and almost flips shit, starts telling his corner guys “there’s that little bitch right there!” Looks over a crowd of people and called Riggs a punk bitch. Then Gil and someone else walked him away/cooled him down. Proved that if Nick doesn’t like you and fights you he may fight you again in the hospital and almost again at completely different fight’s weigh-in!

Noah “Jewjifshoe” Ferreira

You guys all remember Dan Barrera from TUF 6, right? Well I met him during a math class in the Fall of 2011 and it was one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had.

(In order to cut company expenditures, the UFC recently fired Joe Silva in favor of the new, cost-efficient method of matchmaking seen above.) 

If you are the type of person who is quick to pick up on patterns, you may have noticed that more than a couple of our articles today have featured a headline ending in either the cynical question mark or even the full-on flabbergasted question mark followed by an exclamation point. And indeed, everything from Frank Mir’s temporary descent into the Strikeforce ranks to the idea that a Los Angeles hockey team did something worth writing about has left us nearly speechless. But this one tops them all, Potato Nation.

According to a recent interview that FOX Sports conducted with Dana White, if Mauricio “Shogun” Rua manages to defeat Brandon Vera impressively at UFC on FOX 4, he will have earned a title shot against the very same man that took his title, Jon Jones.

Wait, WHAT?!

Besides the fact that Shogun was, at the risk of receiving even more hate mail than usual, owned by Jones at UFC 128, the man has gone win-loss in his past six fights for Christ’s sake. Can we at least let him collect two wins in a row before we declare him the top contender in the division? And the last we checked, it isn’t 2006 anymore, so how a win over Vera justifies a title shot is simply beyond any measure of sound reasoning that we could possibly offer you. Is this just a ploy by The Baldfather to try and hype the hype-less card that is UFC on FOX 4, or is the UFC’s matchmaking department on a permanent lunch break? As if the Mendes/McKenzie pairing wasn’t odd enough, now this nonsense happens.

And if you think that was the only baffling decision made by the UFC that we’re going to cover in this article, join us after the jump for an equally ridiculous potential matchup at 205 lbs.

(Why yes, Bas, I *will* have another bear claw.) 

Fresh off a unanimous decision victory over a Carl’s Jr., wait, I meant Dave Branch at Titan Fighting Championship 22, it looks like an opponent, date, and location has been set for Anthony Johnson’s light heavyweight debut. Johnson will be squaring off against 8-3 KOTC veteran Esteves Jones on August 24th at the Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas, at Titan Fighting Championships 24. The chance to finally see Johnson fighting somewhere around his actual weight has to inspire confidence that he will actually make weight this time, a feat in and of itself that “Rumble” has failed to do in his past two fights, and about every other fight before that.

When asked to comment on his newfound diet, Johnson could only mumble “It’s great” through a mouthful of Steak-umms.

Regardless of his training/diet regimen, Johnson should have little trouble putting away Jones, who holds a notable win over Darrill “Titties” Schoonover and no one else. Then again, his nickname is “Quiet Riot”, who were arguably one of the better mainstream metal bands of the 80′s, so…honestly, I don’t really know where I was going with that. Jones is a dead man.

But even better than the news that Johnson may actually defeat an opponent without having to hand over 20% of his purse afterward is the fact that also on the card, a certain BJJ legend will be making his MMA debut.

Details are after the jump. 

(Props: YouTube.com/fueltv)

Dominick Cruz has that same condition Chuck Liddell has, where part of his brain automatically switches into “I’M FIGHTING” mode when he’s watching other people fight, and he begins to lose control of his body. Fuel TV has released a revealing pair of behind-the-scenes clips shot backstage during last Saturday’s Faber vs. Barao fight. In the first one, Cruz is pacing back and forth like Burt Watson just told him it’s time to roll. The sound of the interim bantamweight title fight being introduced is enough to give Dominick some painful flashbacks.

As you’ll see in the next clip (after the jump), Jon Anik and Brian Stann were at the other end of that hall the whole time, and God knows what they must have made of the pacing thing. Cruz and Stann break down the action, and unsurprisingly, Dominick is unable to stand still. You get the sense that Cruz was pulling for Urijah to win. Did he see something in Barao that spooked him, or did he just want another opportunity to beat up his old rival?

*Someone* who runs the Los Angeles Kings’ Twitter account is jealous that our Guida vs. Danzig was better than theirs.

Judging from a quick glance at our Twitter followers, I’m guessing at least thirty percent of our readers are either Canadian or Eastern European. I’m guessing at least twenty percent of our American readers are hipsters who “ironically” “like” things that most of their peers don’t care about. I’m also guessing at least ten percent of the remaining American readers are from Pennsylvania, New York, New England, Minnesota or Detroit. Basically, if my assumptions are accurate, I’m guessing we have a lot of hockey fans here.

Those of you who follow hockey may already know that whoever runs the Los Angeles Kings Twitter account doesn’t exactly shy away from a good ole fashioned Twitter beef. That account is ready to deliver a knockout punch to anyone who takes a jab at their players, fans or the awful ratings that the Los Angeles Kings brought in on their way to their first Stanley Cup in team history. Oh, and apparently anyone who invites their players to an event for free publicity, because that’s clearly an insult to the organization somehow.

With the UFC heading to the Kings’ stomping grounds, the Staples Center, for August 4th’s UFC on FOX 4, the company offered the Stanley Cup champions an invitation to the event. Much like Lebron James at UFC 148, the invitation is a good way to build momentum for the Kings – not to mention the NHL as a whole – leading up to the 2012-2013 season. For whatever reason, however, the Kings decided to respond to this by tweeting “Sorry, the Cup is only for those who play a real sport.”

(Drunk foul shots are always the toughest foul shots.) 

Well…this is interesting. According to a report by USA Today and in accordance with both Strikeforce and UFC officials, it appears that Daniel Cormier’s first and last Strikeforce title defense against none other than former UFC Heavyweight champion Frank Mir. The fight will go down as the co-main event of the Gilbert Melendez vs. Pat Healy headlined Strikeforce event on September 29th, a decision that will in no way come back and bite them in the ass. Seriously, the co-main event? WHO IS MAKING THESE DECISIONS?! The guy who invented the Candwich?!

[UPDATE] It appears that the fight is now being looked at for an October or November Strikeforce card, likely as the main event. 

Minor rant aside, Dana White informed USA Today that Mir would make for a perfect test for Cormier:

There has been a lot of speculation as to who Cormier would fight next, and this is the fight that makes the most sense. 

The reality is, Cormier is one of the best heavyweights in the world. He just won the grand prix and beat Josh Barnett. He needs to fight opponents of that caliber, and Frank Mir is that guy.

A surprise considering Mir is on the heels of a second round (T)KO loss to Junior Dos Santos? Further proof that the remaining Strikeforce belts aren’t worth the pleather and scrap metal they’re made of? A little bit of both?

Help us decide.

More on this story after the jump.

(Ben Rothwell: One of the few men on Earth who can mess with the Zohan.)

Aw hell, this never gets easier. We regret to inform you that Ben Rothwell — who most recently made Brendan Schaub see God at UFC 145 — has been forced to withdraw from his main card fight against undefeated heavyweight rising star Travis Browne at UFC on FOX 4: Shogun vs. Vera; an ankle injury was the culprit. Though there were early reports that Strikeforce veteran Devin Cole would come in on short notice to get demolished by Browne, it now appears that Browne is being moved off the August 4th event altogether, and the prelim match between Mike Swick and DaMarques Johnson will be promoted to the main card.

Matt Mitrione was also offered the chance to fight Browne at UFC on FOX 4, but he wisely turned it down. As MMAFighting reports:

(And to think, if I hadn’t accidentally called Dana “Baldfather” during that interview, I’d be fighting Ben Henderson right about now.) 

When we first heard word that Strikeforce was considering booking a completely unnecessary fourth match between lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thompson, we more or less saw it as a sign that Strikeforce’s lightweight division, not unlike their heavyweight, welterweight, and pretty much every other division, was simply biding its time until the UFC inevitably absorbed it. We were elated to find out shortly thereafter that Thompson was making the whole thing up, possibly under the belief that if the rumor gained enough steam, Scott Coker would sit idly by and let the match happen again and again until Thompson finally emerged victorious.

Fortunately, someone had good enough sense to book Melendez a fight against top contender Pat Healy on September 29th instead, which will make for Melendez’s fifth title defense should he be successful. Although Healy can’t hold a candle to Thompson as far as turning in exciting performances goes (Thompson’s snoozer against K.J. Noons outstanding), it will be nice to see Melendez finally face off against the only other lightweight in the division who stands at least a snowball’s chance in Hell of beating him.

More details after the jump. 

(I suppose I could write something funny here, but I’d rather ask you to look at the honest to God fear present in Kevin Mulhall’s face as he essentially sticks his hands in a bear trap. Truly chilling stuff.) 

Here are a few news items that you’ll probably find even less surprising than the fact that the Summer 2012 injury curse has claimed yet another victim:

1. Another Floridian came down with a bad case of bath salt-related cannibalism.

2. A Greek triple-jumper was expelled from the Olympics for saying something racist over Twitter. (You may, however, be surprised to learn that it was a pretty hot woman who said it.) 

3. Rotten Tomatoes recently had to shut down its comments section because a couple critics who gave The Dark Knight Rises a bad review were receiving so many death threats that it nearly crashed the server. Yes, death threats.

4. A Georgia man recently set his head on fire as part of a bet he made while hammered at a bar and was hospitalized shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, he survived his injuries.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s something you might find a little more surprising: The latest victim of the injury curse is none other than Rousimar Palhares, who threatened to rip a hole in between earthly dimensions by injuring his own knee during training, subsequently forcing himself to bow out from his scheduled fight with Yushin Okami at UFC 150. You might recall that Palhares was only facing Okami in the first place because Luis Cane injured himself in training as well, but trying to remember who is filling in for who due to injury these days is as impossible as reciting Pi in its entirety. In short, everyone whose name doesn’t rhyme with Schrim Goatsch or Schmanderson Schilva is clearly ducking Yushin Okami.

Join us after the jump to find out which poor bastard will be stepping in to get slaughtered. 

(Props: TitoCouture.com / Click for larger version.)

Let’s get one thing straight — Carmen Electra has been an MMA fan longer than you have. So I guess these photos of Ronda Rousey giving Dennis Rodman’s ex-wife a striking lesson shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise; Carmen has always like to stay in shape, after all. But still…whose idea was this? What did these two have to talk about, outside of perhaps a mutual distaste for Kim Kardashian? And what does it feel like to be hit by Carmen Electra, anyway? Does she put her legs into those punches, or is she as noodle-armed as Paris Hilton? Where’s the goddamned video?

Check out two more photos after the jump, and see a few more right here.