(Props: TheUltimateFighterFX)

The UFC was so damn proud of the Edson Barboza-esque knockout that Uriah Hall laid on Adam Cella during last night’s episode of TUF, that they actually made it available on YouTube along with some extended aftermath footage. And come to think of it, I can’t think of a knockout from the show’s history that was more impressive — or more brutal — than this one, especially considering how long Cella was unconscious. Cella did in fact go to the hospital for a CAT scan when he woke up, but it looks like the black dude in the ambulance that they kept showing in promos was footage from a different fight. (Could be the next one, actually.)

Hall’s win makes him an iron-clad front-runner for the $25,000 Knockout of the Season prize, and puts Team Sonnen up 2-0 in the preliminary round. A couple other notable moments from episode 3…

(Photo via MMAFighting.com)

Earlier today, Spike TV and Bellator executives and former two-division UFC world champion Randy Couture hosted a media conference call to give more details about the two television projects “The Natural” will be involved with as part of his multi-year agreement with the cable network and rising fight organization.

The first, titled Fight Master: Bellator MMA will be a reality television fight competition show, reminiscent of the one Spike famously created with the UFC back in 2005, which also featured Couture as a coach on its first season. This time around, Couture will serve as a coach along with Frank Shamrock, Greg Jackson and Bellator fighter Joe Warren. Thirty-two welterweight contestants will vie for a spot in the Fight Master house, and sixteen will make it in to compete for $100,000 and a slot in a future Bellator tournament.

Spike and Bellator say that Fight Master: Bellator MMA will tape in the fall of 2013 and that the show will feature more fighter choice and autonomy than in past shows of this type. The Emmy award-winning Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, who created The Amazing Race will serve as the show’s executive producers.

Spike and Bellator also announced a second reality show that Couture will be a part of. MMA Rescue will feature Couture using “his years of expertise in the business of mixed martial arts to help turn struggling gyms into thriving enterprises.” That’s actually new ground for MMA programming and sounds pretty cool, as far as we’re concerned. Fight fans who have, for years, been subjected to watching restaurants, bars, tattoo shops, and hair salons get turned around will now get their very own version of the business rescue reality-show format.

(“Dwayne, you wouldn’t understand what it’s like to go back to a sport that has been consumed by PED usa…you know what, nevermind.”) 

I was shocked to come to the realization that the first Fast and the Furious movie came out when I was only 11 years old. I vividly recall that a friend of mine started quoting the film like it was scripture in the weeks that followed. “It doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile,” he would say whilst aimlessly staring out the nearest window, presumably dreaming of a life that involved less social studies and more drifting. We stopped speaking shortly thereafter.

All I’m saying is, my former friend must have been onto something, because here we are some 12 years later discussing the upcoming release of the sixth film thus far in the franchise. And while the extended trailer for Fast and the Furious 6 is almost unidentifiable from the trailers for any of the other films, it does contain some footage of Gina Carano that was sadly cut from the trailer during its Super Bowl spot. Mainly, this kind of stuff (gif courtesy of Fightlinker):

Somebody just went from six to midnight.

Trailer after the jump. 

(According to legend, the million-dollar-bill-pitbull is a symbol representing the eternal struggle between Brazil’s elitist class and the unappreciated proletariat. Or it’s just something you get done when you’re really, really, high on shrooms.) 

Paulo Filho is kind of like the Lindsay Lohan of MMA. Sure, there was a time back in the early-to-mid 2000′s when he showed the potential for greatness (or at least mediocrity), but since then, it’s been a steady mixture of cocaine, terrible tattoos, and a series of cancelled fights punctuated by depressing performances in the ones he actually managed to show up for. Substitute “fights” with “films” and you’ve got yourself one surprisingly accurate comparison.

But just as Lohan continues to get acting gigs (this is acting, right?), Filho continues to convince fight promoters that he is a reliable human being in the loosest sense of the word. So despite the many, many warning signs, Filho has recently been booked against UFC veteran Dave Branch on the main card of the second World Series of Fighting event set to transpire March 23rd. As much as we’d like to believe Filho truly does have his shit together this time around, we simply can’t be burned by this flake again. This…this will not end well.

Featuring a headlining heavyweight matchup between Andrei Arlovski and Anthony Johnson, WSOF 2 has also recently booked a pair of familiar faces against a couple unknown, undefeated prospects. Those newly announced matchups are after the jump…

(I had no idea what to use for the featured image on this post, so I Googled “puppy taking a shit,” and found this. It fits surprisingly well, I think.)

Last week, we learned that the UFC and FightMetric were organizing a new set of official fighter-rankings, which would be updated often and made available to the public. It was a good idea in theory — for one thing, the rankings would be a helpful reference tool for casual fans trying to keep the rosters straight — but it suffered from two fatal flaws: 1) The rankings would have zero impact on which fights actually get booked, as we were once again reminded today, and 2) If the ranking body is only made up of media members who are on good terms with the UFC, as well as reporters who don’t automatically recognize this exercise as a conflict of interest, the results will inevitably be biased.

The debut rankings list came out today, featuring the opinions of 28 media members, including longtime shills (Franklin McNeil), obscure non-entities (“Burbank Leader”?), and left-field surprises. (Andreas Hale, good to see you my man!) Yeah, I know this sounds like sour grapes from a blacklisted media refugee, but after scanning through the new rankings lists, it’s clear that this thing is as useless as you probably imagined. Here are some notable lowlights…

1. Despite his 0-0 record in the UFC, Gilbert Melendez is listed as the #1 lightweight contender. You know, because he’ll be fighting for the title soon.

2. Other 0-0 fighters on the rankings list: Tarec Saffiedine (#10 welterweight), Luke Rockhold (#7 middleweight), and Gegard Mousasi (#10 light-heavyweight).

3. After losing his featherweight debut against Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar is now the 4th-ranked featherweight contender in the UFC.

As one could tell from the opening moments of The Ultimate Fighter 17 premiere a couple weeks back, some drastic improvements have been made to the long neglected reality show. The sleek production, the lack of fabricated drama, the fight quality — nearly everything audiences were demanding over the past few seasons seems to have improved for the time being and has been reflected in the show’s much improved ratings.

And tonight’s episode, featuring a showdown between the highly touted Uriah Hall (Team Sonnen) and the all but completely overlooked Adam Cella (Team Jones), promises to deliver not only one of the most violent KO’s in the show’s history, but in the history of the sport. That is according to noted TUF hypeman and occasional UFC president Dana White, of course.

So in order to do a little TUF-hyping of our own (I know right? WHAT YEAR IS THIS?!), we’ve thrown a preview of tonight’s episode above for you all to check out. And indeed, if the audience’s reaction is any indication, then someone is going down in a big way during the night’s main event. Unfortunately for you spoilerphobes, if you freeze frame the video around the 45 second mark, you can see that the fighter strapped to the stretcher appears to be of the African American persuasion. A bit of intentional misleading by the TUF production team, or a massive upset in the making? And more importantly, how many of you Taters will be tuning in to find out?

After the jump: A little more video hype, featuring a sneak peak of Ronda Rousey’s special on Real Sports, which airs February 19th on HBO. Liz Carmouche’s special, on the other hand, will be airing tonight on Lifetime After Dark in the form of a 30-second trailer during the network’s coveted 3 a.m. spot. We kid, we kid; Liz didn’t get a special.

(“And he’s nothing without his ground-and-pound. And he’s nothing without his groin strikes, which still haunt my nightmares.”)

After Alistair Overeem‘s upset knockout loss to Antonio Silva at UFC 156, it seemed like every MMA fan on Twitter wanted to be the first to say “Called it!” Overeem, as the narrative goes, has a cat-heart, folds under pressure, doesn’t have the cardio to go three 5-minute rounds, his monstrous physique came from unnatural means, it was just a matter of time before he was exposed as a fraud, and everybody knew it all along. Well, you can add Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic to the list of notable Reem-haters. As the legendary striker explained in a recent interview with fightsite.hr, he predicted Bigfoot would beat Overeem, partly because Overeem wasn’t fighting with his usual chemical enhancements. Here’s what Mirko had to say (translation via BloodyElbow):

“I wasn’t surprised by Silva’s victory at all and I had believed he would win. I don’t want to come off as a smart-ass or say I knew it all along, so I’ll explain why I’d believed so. First, Silva is a big tough guy with a huge heart who had demolished Fedor and he needs no better reference than that, and Alistair hugely underestimated him and belittled him with his arrogant statements, so this mobilized Silva in the best possible way. Second, Silva is a natural heavyweight, and Alistair — for the first time since way back in 2007, when he began to gain huge weight — fought without the drugs he had used constantly for years, including testosterone and all the other shit that goes with it.

“Watching the weigh-in, I saw that his muscles mass was nowhere near his usual, he had the weight, but he wasn’t nearly as carved out and defined, since he couldn’t take anything because he was watched by the Athletic Commission. This also reflects on the psyche of a man who’s been using stuff to increase his strength, endurance, pain tolerance and aggressiveness for years, and now there was none of that. Alistair is an excellent fighter, but he still owes that excellence to something that’s dirty and unpermitted, and, in the end, very dangerous to health.

(An off-the-cage superman punch? Huh. I wonder how he came up with that one… / Photo via Esther Lin @ MMAFighting.com)

Following Jose Aldo‘s unanimous decision victory over Frankie Edgar at UFC 156, top lightweight contender Anthony Pettis reportedly sent a text message to UFC president Dana White saying that he’d like to drop to 145 and challenge for Aldo’s belt — and that was all it took to set up the UFC’s next featherweight title fight. White confirmed to USA Today Sports/MMAJunkie that Aldo will indeed make his next title defense against Pettis at an event on August 3rd.

“Aldo is a tremendous fighter,” said the stunt-kicking Roufusport product. “I have all the respect in the world for his skills. I just want to be one of the best in the world, and the only way to do that is to beat the best…I wouldn’t call him out if I didn’t really feel confident I could beat him…It’s a superfight, and I want to be a part of these fights.”

Of course, timing was clearly another consideration in requesting the matchup. Though Pettis’s recent destruction of Donald Cerrone at UFC on FOX 6 arguably made him the rightful #1 contender in the lightweight division, Gilbert Melendez already has dibs on the next shot at Benson Henderson’s 155-pound belt. And given how prone the lightweight division is to immediate rematches, Pettis could be waiting a long time for his opportunity. One title fight is just as good as another, right?

(“Lyoto, we’re friends and all, but if I catch you crouched beside the urinals with a chalice one more time, there are going to be some serious problems.” Photo courtesy of Machida’s Twitter.)  

Well, we can pretty much put any doubt to rest in regards to Lyoto Machida’s strategy for his upcoming UFC 157 fight with Dan Henderson. The former champion recently Tweeted the above photo of himself training alongside Melvin Manhoef, the world renowned Muay Thai kickboxer who possesses legs so destructive that they are capable of implosion, so expect a Machida gameplan of “Leg kick, evade, repeat” heading into this one. This is not good news for Hendo, who will be stepping back into the ring for the first time since blowing out his knee and setting into motion a series of events that would culminate in the cancellation of UFC 151 and an absolutely brutal public backlash aimed at champion Jon Jones. So yeah, it wasn’t all bad.

Since going winless during his Strikeforce and DREAM runs in 2010-2011, Manhoef has put together three wins and a no-contest in MMA competition, including a first round destruction of Denis Kang on New Year’s Eve at DREAM 18. Machida, on the other hand, recently rebounded from a failed title bid against Jones at UFC 140 with a second round KO of Ryan Bader at UFC on Fox 4 last August.

After the jump: A video testament to Manhoef’s otherworldly striking power. Seriously, he and Rousimar Palhares must be like the Freddy and Jason of the ACL dimension.

(Anthony Johnson, back in his “How in the actual f*ck does that guy make 170??” days.)

After going 3-0 as light-heavyweight last year — with no weigh-in mishaps whatsoever — ever-expanding slugger Anthony Johnson is making his next jump up the scale. As first reported by MMA Junkie, the former UFC welterweight contender is slated to face former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski at heavyweight in the main event of World Series of Fighting 2, which goes down Saturday, March 23rd, at Revel Resorts & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Both men scored easy first-round knockouts at WSOF’s debut event in November, so hell, why not make ‘em fight each other? Though “Rumble” won’t have a size-advantage to rely on this time, his powerful fists could spell doom for Arlovski’s fuzzy chin.

But that’s not even the biggest WSOF-related news we have to share. According to a press release distributed today, WSOF 2 will mark the first live event in a new three-year broadcast partnership with NBC Sports Network, which previously aired the promotion’s first card. Here’s the important stuff:

The agreement calls for a minimum of six live events annually on the national television platform that reaches over 80 million homes. Additionally, later this year, NBCSports.com will live stream World Series of Fighting events via TV Everywhere.

(Rashad’s best days as a fighter may be behind him, but the man has mastered the art of walking away from fictional explosions.)

Despite what the title implies (or outright states, whatever), I don’t honestly think that Rashad Evans is making more than he is worth at this point in his UFC career. The man is a TUF winner, a former champion, and a relatively marketable draw who consistently resides in the upper-echelon of the division. That being said, when I came across the salary figures for UFC 156 and noticed that Evans had walked away from his unanimous decision loss to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira with an event high 300K, that was the first thought that entered my mind. I apologize for deceiving you and will see myself out.

But before I go, I’ll say this: The figures for UFC 156 were pretty standard, with everyone not named Chico Camus and oddly enough Ian McCall clearing five figures. I guess it’s hard to consider “Uncle Creepy” a UFC bust when the poor bastard’s making less than the average TUF alum to fight.

The full list of salaries is after the jump, along with our whimsical analysis, so check them out and let us know what you think in the comments section. Per usual, these numbers are void of any locker room bonuses, PPV cuts, training expenses, licensing fees, etc.

(Because of its needlessly tall dimensions — you’ll see — we’ve placed the video after the jump.)

Because it has been over three years since Gina Carano has fought, we don’t hear from the former “Face of Women’s MMA” as often as we’d like to, but the fighter-turned-actress was in New Orleans for the Super Bowl over the weekend, and filmed a rare interview with SB Nation in which she tried to clear up whether or not she is actually retired from MMA and what she thinks about the elusive Ronda Rousey vs. “Cyborg” Santos mega-bout.

On being called a current fighter, Carano drew an important distinction. “I haven’t fought in three years and right now I’m focusing on films…that’s what my focus is,” she explained. “I think that if your focus is fighting, then you’re a fighter and that’s not my focus right now.”

“Conviction” wouldn’t close the door on her ever fighting again, however. “You can’t say that.”

“I wake up every morning and I surprise myself. I wake up to a new me. I still train.”

She last sparred about two weeks ago, in fact, and “felt really good.”

Carano went on to say that Rousey deserves the hype and attention, and also called shenanigans on Santos claim that she’d be facing certain death if she were to cut down to 135 pounds — the prerequisite for her fighting Rousey, according to UFC President Dana White. Carano doesn’t believe that Uncle Dana is being unfair to “Cyborg” by making the former 145 pound champ drop down to 135 in order to fight in the UFC and, potentially, against Rousey.

“I don’t think so…she made it down there a lot easier than I made it down there. That’s for Cyborg to figure out,” Gina said.

Wow. We all knew that the fallout from Randy Couture’s deal with Bellator would be swift and harsh, but if Dana White’s words during the UFC 156 post-fight media scrum were any indication, the UFC HOFer might find himself SOL (Author’s note: I get paid by the acrostic) when his son makes his promotional debut as well.

But before we get into that, lets talk about what went down during the UFC 156 post-fight press conference first (video above). Following his parlay-destroying victory over Alistair Overeem earlier in the evening, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva was not afraid to add insult to injury when questioned on his strategy heading into the third round, stating almost matter-of-factly that Overeem lacked heart:

I work a lot in the gym and I had a good strategy, because we know Overeem [doesn't] have good cardio and no heart. When he punches, he’s a lion, but when [you] punch him, he’s a cat, you know? 

That’s right, Antonio freaking Silva just used the power of metaphor in English to call Ubereem a pussy. Might I direct you to this Scanners gif?

For obvious reasons, Dana White remained noncommittal to the idea of a Silva/Velasquez rematch, but simply stated that he “wouldn’t be opposed to that.” While it’s a decent idea in theory considering Silva’s most recent win, putting a guy who got taken down by Overeem on multiple occasions against the best wrestler in the division — one who practically killed Silva when they first fought, by the way — does not exactly scream “necessary matchup.” Then again, crazier things have happened in heavyweight rematches.

Now, let’s move on to Dana White pretty much banishing Randy Couture from all future UFC events…

(Props: mmagenius2 via MiddleEasy)

Okay, this is funny. You know how Chuck Liddell‘s body involuntarily convulses whenever he’s watching a fight that’s important to him? Well, it happened again during the UFC on FOX 6 match between his longtime rival Quinton Jackson and his longtime training partner Glover Teixeira. But don’t watch Chuck — watch his fiance Heidi Northcott, who spazzes out right along with him. At 0:35-0:37, it’s almost like she’s doing an impression of Chuck Liddell’s trademark spectator-stroke. In fact, the sheer over-the-top-ness of it makes me wonder if Heidi is actually in on the joke, and this whole thing is just a performance for our amusement. Hell, it wouldn’t be the first time that these two have tried to pull a fast one on us.

(“HEY BRO I’M GONNA PLACE A SHIRT-ORDER ON MANTOUSA.COM WHAT ARE YOU ABOUT AN XXL YOU CAN GIVE ME CASH NEXT TIME I SEE YOU.” / Photo via Esther Lin @ MMAFighting.com)

Yes, there were indeed some brave souls who took the underdog in last week’s Overeem vs. Bigfoot fight-picking contest. Though nobody called the fight perfectly — i.e., Antonio Silva via KO early in the third round — jinx5128 and El Famous Burrito came closest, predicting a TKO win for Silva late in the second. Congrats guys, you’re both getting “Freak Fight” t-shirts from Manto! Please shoot your name, size, and mailing address to contest@cagepotato.com and we’ll get you hooked up ASAP. Thanks to everybody who played, and check out MantoUSA.com for the freakiest in MMA-related apparel.

(Buy one here for $24.50.)

(Belfort is not a “TRT abuser,” okay? He has always treated TRT with the utmost respect and tenderness. / Photo via RyanLoco.com)

On Friday morning, rumors began to spread that Vitor Belfort had failed a drug test for his UFC on FX 7 headlining fight against Michael Bisping last month. Between Belfort’s stammering recent response about TRT and his previous PED-bust in 2006, it was one of those rumors that immediately gained traction because it seemed perfectly believable. But was there any actual truth to it? Well, we have some good news and some bad news. Here’s what UFC president Dana White had to say when asked about the Belfort rumor following the UFC 156 press-conference on Saturday night (transcribed by MMAWeekly and BloodyElbow):

“There was an irregular test. Something was wrong. Whenever something wrong happens, or weird, (the samples) get retested and, usually, it’s not a good thing. It (expletive) was not Vitor Belfort. Yet, right now I bet if you talked to 100 people, 100 people will tell you that Vitor Belfort failed his drug test in Brazil. That’s (expletive)…I do know the results. They’ll be out Monday… [Ed. note: *checks calendar* Sweet!]

Photo via Getty Images

“I don’t think that was supposed to happen.”

That was the text I received this morning from a friend who is very much a casual MMA fan regarding last night’s UFC 156. Even though I assumed that my friend was talking about the end result of Bigfoot vs. Overeem, that statement could just as easily apply to almost any other fight on the card. We’re all familiar with the cliché that any fighter can beat anyone else on any night at this level, but we rarely see the underdogs win as frequently – and as convincingly – as they did last night. Simply put, it was an awful night for the guys who were supposed to win.

So let’s start off with the fight that went exactly as we all assumed it would: Jose Aldo defeated Frankie Edgar by a close, yet unanimous decision. Naturally, Edgar grew stronger as the fight went on. And naturally, the fight was close enough to justify an immediate rematch if one were to be booked (it probably won’t but who knows), because that’s just how Frankie Edgar fights work.

It’s impossible to be disappointed with Frankie Edgar’s effort in any given fight, and last night was no exception. Edgar provided Aldo with his stiffest challenge to date – after the champion returned from the longest layoff in his career, mind you – but Aldo was simply the better fighter.

(“The name’s Frankie. I fight dudes twice.” Photo via MMAFighting)

Tonight at UFC 156 in Las Vegas, Jose Aldo goes for his fourth-consecutive UFC featherweight title defense, while former lightweight champ Frankie Edgar attempts to become the third fighter in UFC history to pick up a belt in two different weight classes. And that’s just the cherry on top of a stacked Super Bowl Eve card, which is loaded with big names and high stakes from start to finish.

Also on the menu: Alistair Overeem returns from suspension to clinch his heavyweight title shot with a win over Antonio Silva, while a victory for Rashad Evans over Lil’ Nog could set him up for a middleweight title fight against Anderson Silva for some reason. Plus, Jon Fitch and Demian Maia look to continue their recent surges in the welterweight division, while Joseph Benavidez and Ian McCall square off at flyweight because honestly, who else are those guys going to fight?

Round-by-round results from the Aldo vs. Edgar pay-per-view card will be stacking up after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT, courtesy of George “Bigfoot” Shunick. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and please toss your own thoughts into the comments section.

(It’s good to be king)

Here at CagePotato, if we’re going to take the time to put together a rankings or list, it’s probably going to be one like this one. That doesn’t mean, however, that we’re opposed to taking part in others’ rankings. Take, for example, the Yahoo! Sports Top 10 MMA Pound for Pound Rankings, the voting for which is done by a panel that includes many luminaries of the MMA journalism community and also, for some unknown reason, me.

The latest Yahoo! Sports Top 10 list was released this week (panel voting and publication of the rankings are done monthly) and there are some familiar faces as well as some changes. Anderson Silva maintained his long-time top spot, followed by Jon Jones and then Georges St. Pierre in the number three spot.

Cain Velasquez made it back on to the list after beating Junior Dos Santos in their recent return bout. A number of notable fighters were not eligible for the list because of inactivity (Dominick Cruz, Alistair Overeem) and suspension (Nick Diaz, Overeem again).

Jose Aldo was eligible because he is fighting so close to the end of voting, and he took the number four spot. The rankings may soon get shaken up again after tonight’s UFC 156.

Frankie Edgar drops down to featherweight to try and take out Aldo. Would Aldo get a bump in the rankings by beating a former lightweight champ? Would Edgar skyrocket in the rankings if were to win a championship in a second weight class?

Also, will Overeem justify the media’s crush on him with an impressive fight against BigFoot that will propel him into the Top 10? Check out the full rankings Top 10 after the jump and then let us know your Top 10 in the comments section.

Highlights of Jacoby’s run through the tournament via Chris Gregory

To say that UFC veteran Dustin Jacoby was a gigantic underdog heading into last night’s Road for Glory USA tournament overstates the obvious. A victim of the UFC’s “0-2, sucks to be you” policy, Jacoby was stepping in for injured heavyweight boxer Manuel Quezada with less than two days to prepare for what would be his professional kickboxing debut. Combined with the fact that Jacoby’s first matchup was against ISKA Heavyweight Champion Randy “Boom Boom” Blake (who you may remember as the guy who cheap-shotted Cro Cop last October), the expectations for Jacoby were pretty damn low.

For the majority of Jacoby’s fight against Randy Blake, Jacoby performed exactly as expected. Blake outworked him throughout the fight, effectively chopping away at Jacoby with leg kicks. But in the third round, Dustin Jacoby let his hands go, realizing that he needed a knockout to advance in the tournament. After stunning Blake with a left hook, Jacoby tagged him with a right cross that caused the referee to stop the fight.

(While Arianny was surely impressed by Ubereem’s physique, Chandella quickly remarked that she had seen greater stallions than Alistair when put out to pasture earlier that afternoon.) 

Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar, Alistair Overeem, and the rest of the 22 fighters set to compete on tomorrow night’s UFC 156: Aldo vs. Edgar card are scheduled to hit the scales LIVE from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas starting at 7 p.m. EST. You know what that means, so join us after the jump to catch all of the weigh-in action. My predictions: Volkmann gets booed, Arianny gets wooed, and Yves Edwards deviates from his usual bag of KC Masterpiece for a tube of Pringles that shoots out a fake snake when he offers a chip to opponent Isaac Vallie-Flagg. Then he turns to his crew of frat bros and yells “Freshman!” before proceeding to paddle the ever-loving shit of the UFC newbie, because it is NOT OK to be a UFC newbie.

(Now it can be told: Vitor Belfort caught this gash in sparring ten days before his fight against Michael Bisping. It needed 20 stitches. Props to reddit_mma for the tip.)

UFC 156 Preview: 25 Fast Facts for ‘Aldo vs. Edgar’ on Feb. 2 in Las Vegas (MMAMania)

With Title Shot Dangling for Overeem, Tension Builds Between Dutch Star and ‘Bigfoot’ (MMAFighting)

Cris Cyborg to Ronda Rousey: ‘Step Up, Bitch’ (BloodyElbow)

TUF 17: UFC Contracts Offered to Every Fighter on Team Jones, Team Sonnen (BleacherReport)

Video: UFC’s Brittney Palmer Talks Art, Fighting & More (TheFightNetwork)

UFC’s Media Battles With Spike/Bellator, Photographers, and Rankings (FightOpinion)

Wrestling Gold Medalist Henry Cejudo Will Make His MMA Debut at Bantamweight (Fightline)

The Biggest Celebration Fails in Sports History (Complex)

4 Extremely Weird World Records You’ll Never Beat (DoubleViking)

Pulp Fiction Almost Starred Daniel Day-Lewis as Vincent Vega (FilmDrunk)

A Gallery of Super ‘Bowl’ Haircuts (WorldWideInterweb)

An Oral History of ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle’ (Grantland)

(Dear God, can you imagine how funny this is going to look when Silva puts his creative spin on it?) 

Before we begin, I’d like to take a quick poll: What is getting more annoying, the fact that Rampage Jackson continues to air out his dirty laundry with the UFC ad nauseam, or that everyone involved in deciding Anderson Silva’s next opponent continue to talk circles around us?

First it was Luke Rockhold. Then it was Michael Bisping. Then it was a film career. It was never Chris Weidman, until recently when it was Chris Weidman. And then, likely because Ed Soares is secretly suffering from Symphorophilia, it was Cung Le. And now, according to a recent interview with Dana White, it’s Rashad Evans, because he’s a thing:

A lot of people think Chris Weidman is the #1 contender right now. If Rashad made a move from 205 down to 185, it’d be safe to say he’s now #1. If Rashad won on Saturday night and wanted to go to 185, we would consider that. 

As much as I’d like to use this opportunity to get on my soapbox about the UFC’s recent insistence on matching up their champions with challengers from entirely different weight classes based solely on name value, I’d rather like to applaud Dana for actually considering Evans here. For starters, he would at least be theoretically coming off a win in this scenario, and that in and of itself is more than the UFC has been capable of delivering in recent times.

On the other hand, can you imagine how humiliating this must be to the fighters of the middleweight division? These poor bastards just don’t seem to have it in them to string together enough wins/talk enough trash to get their own champion on board for a title fight, to the point that the president of the promotion has been forced to find guys who would damn near kill themselves making weight just to fill in the void.

(Red rover, red rover, we call Captain America on over! Pic Props: MMAFighting.com)

By Jason Moles

Between preparing to launch a new mixed martial arts reality television show on Spike TV, to selecting venues for 2014, Bjorn Rebney‘s time for small talk is sparse. But the Bellator MMA CEO always seems to have a moment to discuss his favorite topic — how much he loves running the second-largest MMA promotion in the world, and what the future holds in store.

Early Friday morning, just after the Bellator 87 post-fight press conference concluded at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in frigid Mount Pleasant, Michigan, I had the opportunity to speak with Rebney about some of the important topics that have developed in the past few weeks, and the impact they would have going forward for the ever-expanding fight promotion.

You could tell the man was tired by the look in his sleep-deprived eyes. Sitting on stage, and probably still laughing on the inside after having watched lightweight contender Lloyd “Cupcake” Woodard shave his facial hair after losing a stipulation match to David “Caveman” Rickels not more than five minutes prior to our conversation (the clippings were still on the table next to him), the most powerful man in the building finally had a fleeting moment to collect his thoughts while resting for the first time that day…

On Randy Couture Signing with Spike TV/Bellator:

“Randy’s a great addition to the team and is known to fans everywhere. We’re excited for the role he’ll play in helping Bellator reach the next level. I know you and the other media want more info than that, but wait until Tuesday [February 5th] — that’s when we’re holding the big press conference and that’s when you’ll have all the details of what’s going on. That’s when all the questions will be answered.”

On the Controversial Stoppages Earlier in the Night:

“I have an unfair advantage; we’ve got probably the best sound team in all of MMA production. What I’m able to do is, when there’s any kind of controversial stoppage, I can go back into the truck, super slo-mo things and listen to things. I can hear the things the fighters say because our sound design inside the cage is so spectacular. You can literally hear what the fighter’s saying and what the referee is saying — you can hear everything. I think they were great stoppages. I think Dan [Mirgliotta] did an amazing job and when you see it in slow motion, for example on the knee lock, you hear him scream and then see his head go back and ultimately see one tap. Now it’s a super soft tap, but you see it. Inside the truck, in super slo-mo, you can hear the screaming and see his head go back and that’s a verbal submission. According to the Unified Rules, when your head goes back and you scream out — it’s over whether you tap or you don’t tap. But I thought he did a great job.”

Via Sobriety Fighter

For those uninitiated, Sobriety Fighter is my own side-project. I’ve dedicated 2013 to being a year-long experiment where I spend one year as a full-time fighter while also attempting to stay clean and sober. I can’t promise that I’ll be the next Elias Cepeda or that I’ll never relapse, but I can promise that I’ll do my absolute best for everyone. Most of the stuff I post isn’t particularly MMA-related, but this is. Enjoy. - [SethFalvo]

“Pride!…Heart!…Poise!…And toughness,” the stereotypically fat high school football coach barks at his disturbingly old squad [Author Note: How is it even possible to coach athletes so dumb that they’re all blatantly in their twenties, yet still in high school?] in one especially cringe-worthy Under Armor commercial. “Are these just words *dramatic pause* or is that who you are?” I had a pretty decent GPA in graduate school, yet I still have no idea what the tap-dancing Christ that’s supposed to mean.

Sports commentary can be such a prepackaged mess of machismo clichés and feel-good stories that it’s easy to become detached from it. It’s bad enough when the rhetoric is generic enough to immediately trigger an eye-roll, and it’s amplified when the tough-talk makes absolutely no sense once you actually examine what’s being said – like in the above Under Armor commercial.

With only two days separating us from Super Bowl XLVII, the media has been using Ray Lewis as a one-stop shop for all of the tough talk and feel-good bullshit you’re completely numb to. Ray Lewis! He has such passion for the game! Ray Lewis! He’s a God-fearing Hall of Fame caliber linebacker! Ray Lewis! He’s in-your-face, never-say-die, gritty, click-clack, shows a lot of heart, gives it his all and literally any other cliché you can cram into this sentence!  Ray Lewis! He just loves football so much that when he retires after this game, sons and fathers will stand united while he does so…as a Super Bowl Champion!

The fact that the “Ray Lewis retired on top” story has already been written, even though the game has yet to be played, is gag-worthy by itself. But don’t worry, it gets worse: In terms of pure bullshit, masquerading Ray Lewis as feel-good drivel is right up there with the most recent feel-good story surrounding a famous, talented linebacker. Ray Lewis is a guy who either got away with murder or snitched on his friends (depending on what you believe the real story is), used a banned substance that the NFL doesn’t test for during his career, and did it all while maintaining the shit-eating piousness he’s known for. The legacies of star athletes are built around feel-good folk tales, regardless of how far the truth has to be stretched in order to fit the mold.

Keep all that in mind while watching “the passion Lewis has for the game of football” escape him in this interview:

(Knockout of the Night: Saad Awad’s surgical strike on Guillaum DeLorenzi)

Bellator held their Season 8 lightweight tournament quarterfinals last night at the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, featuring a wild-and-wooly three-rounder between David “Caveman” Rickels and Lloyd Woodard, and a dominant promotional debut by hot 155-pound prospect Will Brooks. Our own Jason Moles was in attendance, and will be bringing us an interview with Bjorn Rebney later today. In the meantime, here are the videos of all six stoppages on the Bellator 87 card (courtesy of Troll Smasher), with complete results at the end of this post. Enjoy.

(Alexander Sarnavskiy’s rear-naked choke of Thiago Michel)

(Bobby Green vs. Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennet at KOTC – Fight 4 Hope.)

For obvious reasons, the main focus of Saturday night’s UFC 156: Aldo vs. Edgar card is on both the headlining title fight and the title implications of an Alistair Overeem win, but that is not to say that there aren’t plenty of intriguing matchups to be had on the undercard as well. Featuring the UFC debuts of a couple Strikeforce veterans and an undefeated Hawaiian prospect, UFC 156 promises to deliver from top to bottom, so join us after the jump to get the inside scoop on all of the unfamiliar faces that will be stepping into the octagon Saturday night.

(Green vs. Dan Lauzon at Affliction: Day of Reckoning.) 

Bobby “King” Green (LW)

(Go on. Ask him if he gives a f*ck.)

The odds of Randy Couture getting a cushy no-show desk job with the UFC have officially dropped to zero. In the wake of Couture accepting a position to be the new superstar face of Spike TV and Bellator, UFC president Dana White tore into the Natural, blasting his lack of loyalty and even questioning his character as a human being. Here’s what DW had to say about it yesterday:

“I’ll say my peace on Randy Couture, and after today, I’ll never mention him again. The bottom-line is this: When that whole thing went down with Randy years ago, we weren’t on the best of terms. Now, before that happened, Randy Couture was on the Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell deal. He was getting a salary, he was in with the company, he was one of those guys. Then he tries to do all this stuff, pull all this bullshit with Affliction, loses and comes back. So, it took me a long time to warm up to him. His lawyer, who I can’t stand, calling our lawyer every day, saying, ‘We want to come back, we want that job again, we want to work for the UFC,’ and all this stuff. Finally, I just say, ‘yes,’ and give him the FOX [commentary] deal…

(“In my unbiased opinion as an MMA journalist, Chael Sonnen is the #1-ranked fighter at *all* weight classes. In addition, he has the biggest arm and does the most harm.” Photo via Fuel TV.)

For the first time ever, the UFC will publish fighter ranking lists in each of their weight divisions. The new rankings will be generated by FightMetric, in collaboration with a wide range of media members. Here’s the scoop, via a press release on UFC.com:

FightMetric®, the official statistics provider of the Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®), will continue to enhance fans experience by providing UFC Fighter Rankings. UFC Fighter Rankings by FightMetric will poll opinions from sports media worldwide and will be recognized by the UFC and integrated into its broadcast and featured on UFC.com. Voting will be open to media immediately after each live event with results made available to UFC.com within 24 hours.

“We are thrilled to have UFC recognize our fighter rankings and to have them hosted on UFC.com, as well as incorporated into event broadcasts. FightMetric has worked closely with the UFC for several years as an industry-leader in MMA statistics. Sports fans are accustomed to seeing performance data and rankings on their favorite baseball, football and soccer players, and now we can engage UFC fans on a similar level,” said FightMetric creator Rami Genauer.

“UFC Fighter Rankings are a great tool for new and existing fans alike to learn and better keep up with the fast pace of the UFC,” said UFC President Dana White. “We always look for opportunities to engage fans and media, allowing them to connect and voice their opinions, and this just one more way of doing that.”