(‘Why won’t you die!?’)

Apparently deciding that if he can’t fight Anthony Johnson he’d rather fight no one at all, Matt Brown has opted to sit out and heal up instead of taking a bout against a replacement opponent at the “Ultimate Fighter 9” Finale on June 20.  Johnson pulled out with an injured knee earlier this week, putting an end to a fight we were really looking forward to on account of the guaranteed aggression that would have resulted from putting those two guys in one cage.  

Brown reportedly decided to nurse some nagging injuries rather than fighting a late replacement, and you really can’t blame him.  Who knows, maybe the bout will still happen a little ways down the road.  It just seems too good not to.

Thompson looks to stay undefeated against Matt Brown at UFC 145

We’re barely one week removed from UFC 143, yet two welterweights who were victorious on the card have been signed to fight at UFC 145. The UFC has announced that TUF 7 veteran Matt Brown has agreed to a bout with Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.

Matt Brown managed to buy himself more time in the UFC with a second round TKO over Chris Cope at UFC 143, improving the UFC record of “The Immortal” to 6-5. On the other end of the spectrum, Stephen Thompson made an impressive first impression on viewers with his first round head kick knockout over Dan Stittgen. The victory improved his record to 6-0, and also earned him Knockout of the Night honors.

Alves looks to prove that he’s still one of the welterweight division’s best fighters by ending Matt Brown’s career resurgence.

When Dana White originally announced that the UFC was returning to Boston to help launch Fox Sports 1, he promised us a great card but didn’t announce any fights. The main event is still anyone’s guess, but according to MMAWeekly.com, a welterweight scrap between the resurgent Matt Brown and Thiago Alves is in the works for the card.

This is a very interesting fight to book. Not only because it features two of the welterweight division’s best strikers, but also because their careers appear to be heading in total opposite directions.

Matt Brown heads into this fight riding one of the most unexpected career comebacks in the sport. Just two years ago, Brown was a 12-11 “Why hasn’t he been fired yet?” gatekeeper who appeared to lack anything resembling submission defense. Five fights later, Brown is now 17-11, with four of those fights ending by knockout. During this stretch he has notably exposed Stephen Thompson’s takedown defense, ended Mike Swick’s bid for 2012′s Comeback of the Year, and most recently deflated the hype of Strikeforce standout Jordan Mein at UFC on Fox 7. While many fans still question Brown’s submission defense, let’s be honest, this fight likely won’t provide any answers as to how far that has progressed.

(Oh no. You used the pillow I farted on, didn’t you. / Photo via CombatLifestyle)

Already packed with a lightweight title fight and a must-see heavyweight feature, UFC on FOX 7 (April 20th, San Jose) has just picked up a welterweight battle between two crowd-pleasing sluggers who are riding career comebacks.

As first reported by ESPN, former welterweight title contender Dan Hardy will face Matt Brown at the April event. Hardy, who was mercifully kept on the UFC roster despite losing four straight matches in 2010-2011, won back-to-back fights against Duane Ludwig and Amir Sadollah last year. But his second-life in the UFC could come to a screeching halt against Matt Brown, who had the best year of his career in 2012, going 4-0 with big wins over Mike Swick and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Like Hardy, Brown bounced back from a demoralizing stretch in 2010-2011 where he dropped four out of five matches.

(Photo courtesy of Getty Images.) 

While we were predicting who the biggest winners of UFC 158 should face in their next fights earlier this week, we unfortunately made one glaring omission: that of 23 year-old Canadian phenom Jordan Mein. If you recall, Mein became the first man ever to finish Dan Miller (via first round TKO) at the event — a feat made all the more impressive when you realize just what kind of killers Miller has faced over his career, along with the fact that he had Mein in a tight armbar just moments before being finished.

And being that Mein was able to come away from the fight practically untouched, it was announced earlier today that “Young Gun” will now being making a quick turnaround against Matt Brown at UFC on FOX 7, as Brown’s original opponent, Dan Hardy, has been forced to withdraw from the fight due to injury. Barns, they will be burned.

After suffering a horrific 1-4 stretch between 2010-2011, Brown was able to completely (and somewhat unexpectedly) turn his career around in 2012, putting together four straight victories including a KO win over Mike Swick at UFC on FOX 5 last December. Mein, on the other hand, has tasted victory in 9 of his last 10 performances, leaving the likes of Josh Burkman, Joe Riggs, and Evangelista Santos in his wake.

So, Potato Nation, do you have Mein by murder or Brown by…murder?

[UPDATE] 

Turns out Hardy wasn’t injured; he was not given medical clearance for the fight due to a pre-existing condition. Hardy gives us the details via his Twitter after the jump.

If nothing else, Matt Brown may have bought himself some more time in the UFC today.

The struggling welterweight who recently rebounded from three straight losses with a hard-fought win over John Howard at UFC Live: Kongo vs. Barry in June has stepped up to replace injured Pascal Krauss against British prospect John Hathaway (12-1) at UFC 138 in November. In spite of the fact that a loss will drop Brown (12-10) to 1-4 in his past five outings, it’s likely that UFC president Dana White may spare him from the chopping block should that happen much like he did Tito Ortiz who lost to Rashad Evans earlier this month at UFC 133 after he replaced an injured Phil Davis.

(Well, maybe 100-1.)

Over the weekend, we announced that TUF 7 alum Matt Brown, who most recently starched Chris Cope at UFC 143, would be squaring off against world renowned kickboxer Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson at UFC 145. Thompson, who is coming off a brilliant head kick KO victory in his octagon debut over Daniel Stittgen, also at UFC 143, amassed an incredible 57 victories as a kickboxer without a defeat before transitioning into MMA, where he has gone 6-0 thus far in his career. Well it seems that Brown isn’t too impressed with “Wonderboy’s” list of credentials, mainly due to a lack of name power in Thompson’s past opponents. Here’s what he told MMAWeekly in a recent interview:

I don’t know what he’s about in MMA. It looked to me he was doing the same old karate, and the karate’s the same thing, like who did he fight in karate? I don’t know. Name me one guy, name me one guy that he fought. I can tell you the guys I train with [have fought] Saenchai [and] Joe Schilling, guys that are well known in the kickboxing/Muay Thai world, on a world level…I’m not too concerned with this guy’s kickboxing. I can go 100-0 beating a bunch of idiots, but that’s not my style. 

(Who did this to my brother? I WANT HIS NAME!!) 

Another pair of interesting matches at 170 lbs. have recently been added to UFC 143′s already welterweight-stacked card. If you are anything like us, then you likely expected Matt Brown would receive his walking papers after dropping his fourth loss via submission (and second via guillotine) in his past five fights to Seth Baczynski at UFC 139. Well, it turns out Brown will be given another shot at UFC glory, and will be fighting for not only his Zuffa contract, but the chance to keep his record above .500 when he takes on TUF 13 cast member Chris Cope.

Cope will be looking to rebound from the devastating 40 second TKO loss he suffered at the hands (and more specifically, knees) of Che Mills in Mills’ UFC debut back at UFC 138.

(Oh. Snap. Image courtesy of twitter.com/johnhowardufc)

— As first mentioned on John "Doomsday" Howard‘s Twitter page, a scrap between Howard and frequent eye-poke recipient Anthony "Rumble" Johnson is nearly set for UFC Fight Night 21 (March 21st, Denver), which will be the UFC’s first broadcast on the Versus network. According to an MMA Junkie report, the matchup was originally planned for last June at the TUF 9 finale, but Howard’s management reportedly turned it down because they didn’t want Doomsday facing such a tough test so early in his career; Johnson has since publicly criticized Howard for the ducking. Howard (13-4) is currently 3-0 in the UFC, and most recently scored a last-second knockout over Dennis Hallman at the TUF 10 finale in December. Johnson (8-3, 5-3 UFC) had a three-fight win streak snapped in November when he was submitted by Josh Koscheck at UFC 106.

— Speaking of welterweights, Ricardo Almeida and Matt Brown are set to get it on at UFC 111 (March 27th, Newark). Following back-to-back decision victories over Matt Horwich and Kendall Grove, Almeida was slated to take on Jon Fitch at 106, but had to withdraw due to a knee injury. He’ll now face off against "The Immortal," who has stopped his last three opponents, most recently TUF 9 winner James Wilks at UFC 105.

Apparently Cole Miller’s mother never told him that if you don’t have something nice to say about someone, you shouldn’t say anything at all.  Talking to Steve Cofield (it doesn’t get remotely interesting until a little after the six-minute mark), Miller responds to a question about what he thinks of Junie Browning on a technical level by saying: “Nothing.  I don’t think he’s technical at all.”

Miller then goes on to point out that Browning has never tapped out or knocked out anyone who matters, before then comparing him to past opponents like Andy Wang and concluding that Browning is the worst fighter he’s faced in the UFC, next to Allen Berube (ouch!).  

So is Miller right about Browning?  Maybe.  We don’t really know for sure, since all we’ve really seen of him comes from his “Ultimate Fighter” antics and his submission victory over Dave Kaplan, who’s not exactly top-level competition.  But even if he is right, I’m not sure it’s such a great idea to go around talking about how almost-comically bad your next opponent is.  If you manage to get people to believe that he’s one of the worst fighters ever to step into the Octagon, then it’s not enough to just beat him.  You have to beat him quickly and effortlessly, otherwise you look like a punk.

(The Waterboy will look to exploit "The Immortal" Matt Brown’s mortal ground game.)

UFC matchmaker Joe Silva has been busy the past week securing fights for some of the promotion’s upcoming cards.

According to German MMA website groundandpound.de, Polish-German welterweight fighter Peter Sobotta will take on The Ultimate Fighter Season 7 winner Amir Sadollah at UFC 122 when the UFC travels to Germany in November.

0-2 in two Octagon appearances, having dropped unanimous decisions to Paul Taylor and James Wilks at UFC 99 and 115, respectively, Sobotta may find him self unemployed if he loses another bout.

Sadollah, who isn’t quite on the chopping block yet, will be looking to rebound from a lackluster performance against Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 114. Prior to that, the Brooklyn-born, Richmond, Virginia-raised fighter won two in a row against Brad Blackburn and Phil Baroni — both via unanimous decision.

(The end of Lytle vs. Brown I, 8/11/07. Props: tapskilz)

— You might as well give these guys their Fight of the Night checks right now. MMA Fighting reports that a match between scrappy welterweights Chris "The Bonus Hunter" Lytle and Matt Brown has been added to UFC 116 (July 3rd, Las Vegas). Lytle and Brown have met once before, at a Unified Fight League event in August 2007; "Lights Out" won the fight by second-round guillotine choke. Lytle is now riding back-to-back wins against Kevin Burns and Brian Foster, while Brown is coming off his submission loss to Ricardo Almeida at UFC 111.

— In a matchup of lightweight grappling specialists, George Sotiropoulos and Kurt Pellegrino are also slated to tangle at UFC 116. Since his appearance on TUF 6, Sotriopoulos has built up a perfect 5-0 record in the Octagon, and recently picked up the biggest win of his career by outpointing Joe Stevenson at UFC 110. Pellegrino has also been on a tear lately, taking out four consecutive opponents, including a second-round submission via rear-naked choke over Fabricio Camoes at UFC 111 last month. The winner of this fight becomes a serious player in the 155-pound division. Who ya got?

A number bookings for upcoming UFC events have being reported by various sources in the past 24 hours.

Heavy.com broke the news yesterday afternoon that former CagePotato.com The Ultimate Fighter 11 blogger Rich Attonito will try to prove the theory that Matt Brown has incriminating blackmail-worthy photos of UFC matchmaker Joe Silva when he attempts to hand the Seattle, Washington fighter his fourth straight UFC loss at the TUF 13 finale on June 4 in Las Vegas. Attonito will be hungry to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to David Branch he incurred at the TUF 12 finale in December.

(You know, Cub, in bull riding this would have been considered a victory. Photo courtesy of Newsday.)

— According to an interview on intheguard.tv, WEC featherweight/human highlight-reel Jose Aldo says he’ll be getting a much-deserved shot at Mike Brown‘s belt at WEC 45 (November 11th, location TBA). Aldo has racked up five consecutive TKO/KO victories during his stint in the WEC, most recently slicing Cub Swanson’s head wide open in 8 seconds at WEC 41 last month. Brown made his second successful title-defense at the same event, out-pointing Urijah Faber in a classic five-rounder to pick up his tenth straight win. 

— With Strikeforce middleweight champ Cung Le out of action due to a blossoming acting career, Scott Coker has announced that Jake Shields will fight for the organization’s interim middleweight title in October; the exact date, location, and Shields’s opponent will all be announced later. Shields has long been known as one of the best welterweights in the world, but his first-round choke-out of Robbie Lawler last month proved that he could be very competitive at a higher weight. Plus, his homey’s already got the welterweight division on lock…

(You don’t mess with a Southern man’s tobacco.)

It’s pretty customary for the UFC to send out an email on Wednesday reminding people that The Ultimate Fighter is on that night. What’s not at all customary is for them to hype that episode’s fight or even tell you what it is. The show diverged from its typically wooden format to make this week’s fight announcement at the end of the last episode, and now they seem hell bent on getting their money’s worth out of the grudge match between Matt Brown and Jeremy May.

This begs the question: is the fight really that good, or is the budding rivalry the only interesting thing that happens this season?

Hard to tell. The email claims that “everyone is shocked when two nice guys become fierce combatants in the Octagon.” That’s strange, because it seems pretty clear that Jeremy May is not a nice guy and everyone hates him, except for perhaps Cage Potato guest blogger Gerald Harris, who is just so damn nice.

In Matt Brown’s Inside Fighting blog this week, he revisited the old lime-juice-in-the-tobacco prank that first set things off:

I was actually using it all day. I was chewing all day and just thought that maybe it was a little bit wet and that maybe I had dropped it in water but it didn’t bother me at all.

If my friend does that to me, it’s a funny joke. Just last night we were at a bar and one of my friends emptied it out and put lime in it. I laughed about it because my friend did it.

But when you are my enemy, when we might be fighting one another soon, it‘s different. Me and Forrest had already discussed my possibly fighting Jeremy next if we kept control, in fact I’m pretty sure we had set that fight in the line up so I was already thinking about fighting Jeremy and that’s why I told him after that now I had a real reason to fight him.

Two points worth making here: 1) That’s a fair way to look at things. What’s a funny prank when a friend does it is downright assault-worthy when some jerk you don’t really know does it. Matt Brown makes a compelling case as this season’s blue-collar everyman. 2) Is this really what it’s come to? The show is so boring outside of the fights that this lime juice prank, which didn’t even really work, is a legitimate source of entertainment? The things we’ll sit through just to see a fight at the end.

Lastly, Matt Brown’s hanging out in bars, huh? That doesn’t sound like what you’d be doing if you had fought your way into the finals and were preparing for the championship bout. Things that make you go ‘hmmmm.’

Many of you disagreed with our description of yesterday’s cartwheel kick knockout as “the greatest KO ever.”  Yeah, we weren’t totally serious about that (ever heard of hyberbole?), but our good friend Matt Brown, editor of Fight! Magazine, took issue with it and sent us the above video to demonstrate what a truly amazing knockout looks like.

These two midgets pull out all the stops in this kickboxing bout, and as you can tell the announcer (is that you, Frank Trigg?) is loving it. So is this yet another sign of the impending apocalypse?  Maybe.  But we prefer to think of it as a sign that Matt Brown is a weirdo.  Don’t worry though, he insists that he only stumbled across the video by accident while searching for midget porn.

After the jump, Kimo Leopoldo is out of jail and breaking bricks with his head.  Is that more or less bizarre than the midgets?  You decide.

(Props: MMA-Core)

Depending on your interpretation of what you see here, either Chris Leben couldn’t decide whether he wanted to tap out to Jake Rosholt’s arm-triangle choke, or else he passed out mid-tap.  Either way, Yves Lavigne came very close to committing the same sin that he did in the Matt Brown/Pete Sell fight.  Watch as he almost jumps in and then backs off when Leben’s legs buck up.  First you think that leg movement is some kind of half-assed attempt at an escape.  Then you watch Leben involuntarily flopping around during his post-fight nap, and it seems like maybe he was already out at that point. 

Tough night for the fighters from Portland.  Maybe the big question is, will Leben and Ed Herman still have jobs after the UFC’s trip into their hometown?

- MMA’s most stereotypical fan located? (MySpace)

- Great Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira mini-documentary (MMA Scraps)

- Anderson Silva is a hungry ninja (Sherdog forums)

- Tito Ortiz takes the phrase ‘playing grab-ass’ literally (Combat Lifestyle)

- Affliction ticket sales not too far behind UFC 86 (MMA Payout)

- No more dancing girls for Elite XC on CBS? (Fight Ticker)

- Matt Brown to fight Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 88 (MMA Mania)

- Man with no nose kidnaps insane woman, local news reporter baffled/amused. (Holy Taco)

- The world’s most expensive six-pack of beer. (Wall Street Fighter)

(Another otherwise-lovely photo ruined by red-eye. Props to JunieBrowning.com.)

TUF 8‘s man-you-love-to-hate is close to finalizing his next Octagon appearance. Junie Browning and TUF 5 castmember Cole Miller have reportedly agreed to face each other at UFC Fight Night 18 (April 1st, Nashville). Still a perfect 3-0 as a professional, Browning most recently submitted Dave Kaplan via armbar at last month’s TUF 8 finale, and has been trying to get his game tightened up at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. Miller (14-3) is an American Top Team member who last fought at UFC 86 in July, where he choked out Jorge Gurgel. Sounds like a solid step up in competition for "The Lunatik" — will he rise to the challenge?

In other fight-bookin’ news…

— UFC Fight Night 18 will also host a middleweight bout between Ricardo Almeida and Matt Horwich, who are both coming off losses. Almeida dropped a split decision to Patrick Cote at UFC 86, while former IFL champion Horwich lost a decision to Dan Miller in his Octagon debut at UFC 90. As accomplished and talented as both fighters are, the loser might find himself without a contract.

— Junie Browning’s Team Mir drinking buddy Shane Nelson, who clawed out a split decision victory over George Roop at the TUF 8 finale, is being brought back to take on Aaron Riley at UFC 96 (March 7th, Columbus). Just like Cole Miller, Riley’s last appearance was also a win over Jorge Gurgel, at UFC 91 in November. Poor Jorge Gurgel.

(Having recently established himself as the alpha male, the Bigfoot eagerly races off into the jungles of Brazil to copulate with the herd’s last remaining female.)

We may be a few days removed from UFC on FX 5, but that doesn’t mean that the future has already been determined for the night’s biggest winners. Joe Silva and Sean Shelby may be the best in the biz, but even they could probably use a bit of matchmaking advice — or at least a backup plan– considering that half of the fights they book in the aftermath of this event will be cancelled due to injury, arrest, or a classic case of bitch wife. This is where the Armchair Matchmaker comes in, for what are sports without over analysis, needless speculation, and a headscratching appearance from Liam Neeson? By the end of this article, you will have witnessed at least one of these.

Here we go.

Antonio Silva: You might chalk this up to laziness, but pairing the rebounding “Bigfoot” against Stefan Struve seems like an awesome idea to us. We know Stefan called out Fabricio Werdum following his big win over Stipe Miocic at UFC on FUEL 5, but we think this matchup makes just as much sense, if not more. Both men have recently reestablished themselves at legitimate threats and Werdum 2.0 (you know, the one that can do this to people on the feet) seems like he would put on a clinic against either man. It would be a stretch to declare that either Struve or Silva are exactly title-worthy material yet, so let these two big men slug it out and give the winner a top contender. It’s a classic battle of Chin vs. Lankiness – Jay Leno vs. Conan O’Brien in an MMA ring, if you will — and would surely deliver an exciting finish inside the distance.

(Your daughter’s prom date is here…)

When I called Junie Browning to see how he was feeling a week before his first UFC fight since “The Ultimate Fighter” finale, he was out shopping for video games.  It might not seem like it at first, but this is apparently a sign of how much his life has changed since moving to Las Vegas to train at Xtreme Couture and getting serious about his fighting career.  Now he trains full-time.  Despite living in Sin City, he doesn’t go out much.  Instead he stays home and plays Killzone or Resident Evil 5 in between training sessions.  It occupies his time.  And it keeps him out of trouble.

“All I do is train now,” he said.  “I’m in awesome shape right now.  Better than I’ve ever been, training harder than I ever have.  I’ve done more for this than I have for any other fight.”

At next week’s Ultimate Fight Night in Nashville Browning takes on former TUF contestant Cole Miller, who has vowed to “expose” and “smash” him.  You’d think that kind of language would get a reaction out of the volatile kid from Kentucky we saw on TUF, but oddly, you’d be wrong.

(Mike Brown — toughest ginger alive. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

I know we say this almost every time there’s a WEC show — but how insane was that card last night? The main event rematch between featherweight champ Mike Brown and Urijah Faber became the latest Legendary WEC Title Fight, with the two best 145-pounders in the world slugging it out for all 25 minutes. Though every round was close, Brown got the edge from the judges thanks to his consistent takedowns and submission attempts. But who knows what would have happened if Faber didn’t break his right hand in the first round? The California Kid showed a tremendous display of guts in pushing through the pain; instead of punching with the busted paw, Faber switched to standing elbows, which turned out to be surprisingly effective. Still, the champ took everything Faber dished out, and aside from a couple of close guillotine attempts from the hometown hero, Brown steadily pushed the pace, ground down the challenger, and stayed out of trouble.

Faber’s loss may not be enough to drop him from the #2-spot in the featherweight rankings, especially when you take his injury into account. Brown and Faber have become the Federer and Nadal of the WEC — they should just keep fighting every year, no matter what the score is.

(Props to Sportsnet for the vid.)

And now kids, it’s time for some completely necessary last-minute hype for tomorrow’s UFC on FX 7 event, featuring such pros as Matt Brown, Alexander Gustafsson, and flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson making their picks for the main event middleweight showdown between Michael Bisping and Vitor Belfort. The matchup has started to gain a lot steam — thanks in no small part to a particularly intense staredown at the pre-fight press conference yesterday — resulting in the event nearly reaching a sellout despite slow ticket sales in the early going.

The video doesn’t feature too many stars, but the general consensus among them seems to be that if Bisping can survive the early onslaught, he should be able to take a decision over Belfort. Truly a shocking revelation when you realize that half of Belfort’s losses have come via decision and that Bisping has never defeated an upper-echelon opponent by anything else.

But enough small talk. Who do you like for this one and how?

-J. Jones

(And just like that, the dreaded "May not be broadcast" label is wiped clean.)

UFC.com has reacted quickly to the news of Thiago Alves’s removal from the UFC 111 card, and the way things look now it appears as they’ve decided to bump the fight between Kurt Pellegrino and Fabricio Camoes up from the prelims to fill the hole in the pay-per-view broadcast. If you ask us, Ricardo Almeida/Matt Brown might have been a better choice, or even Nate Diaz/Rory Markham, but once again, no one in the UFC front office asked us. That never fails to sting the old pride, either.

The change means that all you FightPicker players are going to want to update your answers to reflect your feelings on who will win the suddenly more important Pellegrino/Camoes showdown. If you don’t it might just cost you that Apple iPad, and wouldn’t that be a shame?

(A week later, that thing hatched and about 30 baby spiders came pouring out. True story.)

When it comes to getting fired by the UFC, three is a magic number — as in, that’s usually the number of consecutive losses you’re allowed before they tell you to hit the bricks. Case in point, welterweight contender John “Doomsday” Howard, who was just released from his contract after seven fights in the promotion.

Howard began his UFC campaign in promising fashion, picking up split-decision wins over Chris Wilson and Tamdan McCrory, followed by knockouts of Dennis Hallman and Daniel Roberts. Then, shit fell apart. Howard got dominated by Jake Ellenberger en route to a doctor’s stoppage TKO (due to the gnarly swelling of his left eye), then caught decision losses against Thiago Alves and Matt Brown. The loss to Brown was unforgivable, considering Brown was on a three-fight skid himself.

(Photo courtesy of about.com.)

Bummer of the day, you guys: The welterweight scrap between Anthony Johnson and Matt Brown — which was scheduled to lead off the televised card of the TUF 9 finale (June 20th, Las Vegas) — won’t be happening. The following message was recently posted on Rumble’s Myspace Page: 

(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:

("That’s it. Diet starts tomorrow.")

After getting put to sleep by Nate Diaz at UFC 118 — his third loss in four attempts — Marcus Davis announced his intention to drop to lightweight. According to MMA Junkie, the Irish Hand Grenade’s 155-pound debut will take place at the UFC’s stacked New Year’s Day card in Las Vegas against Jeremy Stephens, who publicly requested to be Davis’s first lightweight opponent. Stephens most recently lost a split decision to Melvin Guillard at UFC 119.

Another likely matchup for UFC 125: Resolution will be former WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown making his promotional return against Diego Nunes. Brown made a single UFC appearance as a lightweight back at UFC 47 in 2004, losing by first-round submission to Genki Sudo. He most recently scored a quick TKO over Cole Province at WEC 51 in September. Representing Nova Uniao, Nunes has put together a 4-1 record in the WEC, and is coming off of consecutive decision wins against Raphael Assuncao and Tyler Toner.

The tentative lineup for UFC 125 is after the jump…

(The key to defeating Marcus Jones? A few drops of barbecue sauce on your glove, believe it or not.) 

Ever since dropping a unanimous decision in a snorefest to Cheick Kongo at UFC 137, a loss that snapped a five fight win streak that included vicious (T)KO victories over Christian Morecraft, Tim Hague, and Kimbo Slice, TUF 10 veteran Matt Mitrione has been M.I.A. He hasn’t returned any of our phone calls, and he damn sure hasn’t left us any messages, so we just assumed he was taking a really long vacation on a mysterious, remote island that had yet to develop cell phone technology…like Australia. Because surely no one would willingly ignore us, right? RIGHT?!

…

Ahem. Well, most of you will be happy to know that “Meathead” will be returning to action at UFC on FOX 4 against Rob Broughton. Who is Rob Broughton, you ask? He would be the British gentlemen with the, let’s call it “Fedorian” physique, who is currently 1-2 in the octagon. After scoring a debut victory (via third round rear-naked choke) over a juiced up Vinicius Quieroz, “The Bear” has dropped a pair of unanimous decision victories to Travis Browne and Philip De Fries at UFC 135 and UFC 138, respectively. He also holds notable victories over Neil Grove (via decision), Robert Berry (via TKO), and James Thompson (via WTFdoyouthink).

Contain your excitement. CONTAIN IT.

UFC on FOX 4 goes down from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on August 4th.

Since we kind of have to ask this, who you got?

-J. Jones

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

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

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