("Okay Robbie, I’ll take the fight under two conditions. First, we do it at a catchweight of 195. And no pre-fight drug test. That one’s kind of non-negotiable." Photo courtesy of flickr.com/photos/shosports.)

Though Robbie Lawler was slated to face South African veteran Trevor Prangley at this Saturday’s Strikeforce: Le vs. Smith event, plans changed when Prangley was forced to pull out due to a knee injury suffered in training. Strikeforce scrambled to find another opponent for Ruthless this week, but a suitable replacement didn’t turn up, so Lawler’s fight has been scrapped altogether. Bummer. Lawler hasn’t competed since his first-round submission loss against Jake Shields in June; the organization hopes to place him on their "Miami" show on January 30th.

With Lawler vs. Prangley off the docket, the Strikeforce: Le vs. Smith lineup looks like this…

Showtime televised card (10 p.m. ET/PT)
Cung Le vs. Scott Smith
Josh Thomson vs. Gilbert Melendez (for unified lightweight title)
Matt Lindland vs. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza
Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal vs. Mike Whitehead

Preliminary card
Antwain Britt vs. Scott Lighty
Daisuke Nakamura vs. Justin Wilcox
Juan Nunez vs. Luis Mendoza
Bobby Stack vs. Alex Trevino
Alex Crispim vs. A.J. Fonseca

(Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos vs. Marius Zaromskis)

From last night’s event at the Nokia Theatre. Props: ZP840.

(Tim Kennedy vs. Trevor Prangley)

(The pair will square off on the aptly named "Shark Fights: Pretty Boys" card)

Recently released UFC veteran Keith Jardine didn’t stay long testing the waters of free agency. 

According to a report from Loretta Hunt of Sherdog, "The Dean of Mean" has signed with the fledgling Texas-based Shark Fights organization and will make his debut against the promotion’s light heavyweight champion, Trevor Prangley in a non-title affair September 11 in Lubbock, Texas.

(Wings, lions and heraldry? That combo would make a nice MMA shirt.)

India’s new MMA promotion, Super Fight League announced today the signing of a trio of MMA vets.

According to a release, former UFC heavyweight Todd Duffee, former Bodog middleweight champion Trevor Prangley and M-1 veteran Baga Agaev all agreed to four-fight deals with the fledgling promotion.

(Best finish of the night: Luke Rockhold vs. Paul Bradley)

Takayo Hashi may have been touted as the second-best 135-pound female fighter in the world coming into her title fight against Sarah Kaufman at last night’s Strikeforce Challengers event in San Jose, but for most of the five-round contest she looked woefully outmatched. Kaufman’s superior standup ruled the night, as the undefeated Canadian — and new "welterweight" women’s champion of Strikeforce — dropped Hashi twice in the first round, and spent the rest of the fight chasing the Japanese grappling specialist around the cage, landing punches whenever she was in range.

Kaufman successfully avoided the occasional takedown and submission attempts from her opponent, and outside of a teep kick that found its mark on her face in the final frame, she made it through all 25 minutes relatively untouched. After the fight’s conclusion — a 50-45 decision on all three judges’ scorecards — Kaufman apologized to the fans for her inability to finish Hashi, and generously credited Hashi’s constant movement: "It was really hard to get a lot of clean shots on her consecutively,” Kaufman said. “I would have loved to have finished the fight, but I couldn’t have done any more than I did.”

(Alexander vs. Sokoudjou, where it appears the referee briefly considers letting Soko get beaten to death before finally stepping in to stop the fight. VidProps: ZombieProphetMMA)

Early reviews of last night’s Shark Fights 13 broadcast seem mostly positive, after Trevor Prangley, Houston Alexander and Paul Daley all notched wins. Also, “broadcasters” Don Frye and Bas Rutten said a bunch of crazy stuff live on pay-per-view. Especially Frye, who — after claiming that he threatened Shark Fights promoters with death if they didn’t put him on the show — reportedly dropped at least one F-bomb, made jokes about beating his wife and then compared the whole thing to an extended session of violent and satisfying coitus.

Basically, it was the kind of performance that, in any other sport, would cause a major scandal, Frye’s immediate firing and the issuing of a vague and halfhearted apology on Sunday morning. In independent MMA, it’s just par for the course.

"That was like two hours of hard, rough sex,” Frye reportedly said to close out the PPV. “I need a shot of tequila and a cigarette now."

C’mon Don, like you weren’t doing shots of tequila the whole time.

(Props: picturelab1)

Whether or not Shark Fights 13 is worth $29.99 of your pay-per-view budget is up to you to decide. But you have to admit, the prospect of Keith Jardine, Sokoudjou, Houston Alexander, and Paul Daley on the same card is pretty damn compelling, especially on a weekend when nothing else is going on. After four straight losses in the UFC, Jardine calls his fight with Trevor Prangley this Saturday the beginning of his comeback. A strong performance from Paul Daley against veteran Jorge Masvidal might help Semtex get back in the UFC’s good graces as well. (Yeah, we know he was banned from the Octagon for life, but so was Karo Parisyan, and all Karo had to do was agree not to screw Dana White any more.) And sure, the Assassin vs. the African Assassin? Should be a classic banger, unless Houston decides to dance around in circles again.

Check out the extended video trailer for "Shark Fights 13: Jardine vs. Prangley" above, in which a cast of fighters and analysts (and Don Frye) break down the event. And if you’re an MMA FightPicker supporter, please head on over to fightpicker.cagepotato.com or apps.facebook.com/fightpicker to make your picks for the ten-fight card. The pool questions are after the jump. Note: Due to injuries, Drew McFedries and Marcus Hicks have dropped off the card and have been replaced by Danillo Villefort and Daniel Straus. The event’s preliminary card will be streamed on Sherdog.

(Let’s all have a moment of silence for the career of Trevor Prangley. / Props: King of the Cage via MiddleEasy)

Before Tank Abbott re-enters the UFC and takes the heavyweight strap back from these pussy-ass point-fighters, his latest comeback will begin with a tune-up fight against guyliner-clad palooka Ruben “Warpath” Villareal, who has lost eight of his last ten fights. The match will go down April 13th at King of the Cage: Fighting Legends, at Gold Country Casino in Oroville, California.

According to a KOTC press release published last week, Tank Abbott is “the world’s most famous cage fighter” (!!!), and his fight against Warpath will be for the King of the Cage Superfight title, whatever the hell that means. And of course, Abbott’s second-career as a novelist also gets a plug:

“[Abbott] recently took a few years off to write a 300,000 word trilogy about the origins of cage fighting entitled “Befor There Were Rules” with the first novel, “Bar Brawler”, now available for purchase as a paperback or digital download from Amazon.com.”

I think it’s really cool of KOTC to keep the misspelling of “Befor,” so as not to embarrass or confuse Tank. Anyway, there’s a little video profile on Tank after the jump hyping the 4/13 fight. Check it out if you want, but just keep in mind that his fascinating toupee is still in hiding.

File this one under “least surprising info of the day.” Following back-to-back losses to Brian Stann and Demian Maia at UFC 130 and 136, repectively, word has it that Jorge Santiago has been released by the UFC for the second time. The American Top Team standout’s original run took place back in 2006, where he scored a quick knockout over the now deceased Justin Levens before ending up on the highlight reels of Chris Leben and Alan Belcher for all eternity.

(Video courtesy YouTube)

To say Jeremy Horn is "just a fighter" would be a major understatement.

The man is the epitome of what a fighter should be: A no-excuses guy who fights whomever, whenever.

We’ve all heard the stories about Horn driving from a fight in Illinois on to one in Indiana the next night, not for the money, but because he loved to fight and that’s where he had to go to do it.

Chael Sonnen vs. Forrest Griffin – Watch more Funny Videos

Long before either man ever competed in the UFC’s Octagon, Chael Sonnen and Forrest Griffin fought each other in the opening round of the IFC: Global Domination light heavyweight tournament.

Fighting a class above his usual middleweight division, Chael who competed in the tourney at his walking around weight of 197 lbs, was unable to contend with the strength advantage and the ground game of Griffin, succumbing to a triangle in the opening frame.

(By the way, KJ Noons isn’t on this card either. But at least we still have "an MMA superstar" [not really] against "a legend at his craft" [of choking people for too long].)
 
Just when they convinced Bobby Lashley to face an opponent who wasn’t a total joke or a champion, the unthinkable has happened — the former pro-wrestling star has been forced to pull out of his scheduled match against Ron Sparks due to a knee injury. The fight was to take place at Strikeforce’s increasingly bare-looking Los Angeles show (Wednesday, June 16th, Nokia Theatre), which is headlined by Robbie Lawler vs. Renato Sobral in a 195-pound catchweight bout, and will also feature Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos vs. Marius Zaromskis, Tim Kennedy vs. Trevor Prangley, and (possibly) Shane Del Rosario vs. Lolohea Mahe.

In other words, the card is just slightly more impressive than Strikeforce’s "Challengers" series offerings, and won’t do much to improve their plummeting ratings on Showtime. Luckily, Strikeforce has its next show ten days later with Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum in the headlining spot and Cris Cyborg in the co-main; a relatively needless rematch between Cung Le and Scott Smith is also likely.

(These two guys could be brothers. Brothers with very different attitudes toward tanning.)

What do you do if you’re Strikeforce and you’ve just signed one of the most terrifyingly aggressive strikers of the modern era?  If you’re smart, you toss him against another heavy-hitter right off the bat and see whose head is still on their shoulders afterwards.  That seems to be the plan with new Strikeforce signee Melvin Manhoef, who will reportedly be taking on Robbie Lawler at Strikeforce’s Miami event on January 30.  There’s no official confirmation from Strikeforce on this just yet, but we know that they do owe Lawler a fight after he got shafted out of his chance to beat up Trevor Prangley in December, and Manhoef barely had a chance to break a sweat when he popped Kazuo Misaki at Dynamite!! on New Year’s Eve.

In fact, Manhoef was asked about the possibility of facing Lawler at his post-fight press conference in Tokyo, and he seemed game even if he didn’t appear to know too much about Lawler.  Said the Dutch striker:

(Okay, but just so you know, shooting out jets of sparks from your arms is currently prohibited under the unified rules. Photo courtesy of faniq.com.)

I guess Bobby Lashley is serious about this cage-fighting stuff after all. MMA Mania reports that the former WWE star has signed with Canada’s Maximum Fighting Championship promotion, and will appear at their "Hard Knocks" event (May 15th, Edmonton) a month before he collides with Bob Sapp in Biloxi. Lash will be taking on Mike Cook, a Frank Shamrock-trained heavyweight who’s either 6-3 or 5-5, depending on who you ask. Will Cook further expose Lashley as a work-in-progress, or will Lashley redeem himself after his unsatisfying performance against Jason Guida? "Hard Knocks" will be broadcast live in North America on HDNet, and will feature UFC vets Marvin Eastman, David Heath, and Trevor Prangley.

MMA Mania also reveals that the June 27th Lashley vs. Sapp pay-per-view event has been given the official name of "Unarmed Combat." Din Thomas is expected to be on the card (along with Tom Atencio), and Lashley’s fight nickname is now "The Dominator." Yawn. Come on guys, I think we can do better than that…

(Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Justin Wilcox; props to MMA Root)

Last night’s Strikeforce card at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills featured two Japanese stars making successful debuts for the organization, lightweight champ Josh Thomson easily winning his squash match, and impressive performances by Terry Martin, Trevor Prangley, and Luke Stewart. In the night’s main event, #9-ranked middleweight Kazuo Misaki went toe-to-toe with Joe Riggs, with both fighters hesitant to engage in the first round. Riggs dropped Misaki with a straight left in the second, but Misaki hopped back up and connected with a straight right that sent Riggs to the mat. Misaki threw down blows from above until referee Josh Rosenthal declared it a TKO; Riggs immediately complained about the stoppage, despite Rosenthal’s repeated (and unanswered) warnings for Riggs to improve his position.

In a relatively pointless non-title fight, Josh Thomson disposed of Lion’s Den product Ashe Bowman in just over a minute. Aside from a stiff overhand right from Bowman that landed flush on Thomson’s chin, the match belonged to The Punk, who swarmed his opponent with punches to end the match. His victory sets up a future match with Shooto/PRIDE/Dream vet Mitsuhiro Ishida, who won his Strikeforce debut last night with a submission over the far-outmatched Justin Wilcox. See the above video for Ishida’s unbelievable transition from kimura to armbar (2:36-2:42), which apparently didn’t feel very pleasant for Wilcox.

Full results and video of the Thomson/Bowman fight after the jump.

(Photo courtesy of Tim’s official Facebook fan page.)

by CagePotato contributor Matt Kaplan

Tim Kennedy is a family man, a rising MMA star, and a war hero. He is guided by a strong moral compass and upholds what he thinks is right. As a result, he will no doubt rub some of you the wrong way.

He is unapologetically pro-military. He thinks that too many high-profile fighters are irresponsible, and that your favorite scary MMA t-shirt is lame. His shorts will never promote alcohol, tobacco, gambling, or pornography, and he snickers at nicknames that have “Killer” or “Assassin” in them. He takes seriously his role as a professional athlete and would like to see more of the MMA community follow his lead.

For some of you, Tim’s patriotism and wholesome principles are breaths of fresh air. Others, however, might be wondering if his high horse actually has a name. Either way, there’s no denying that Tim is one of MMA’s most quintessential warriors (for real).

A U.S. Army Staff Sergeant with the 19th Special Forces Group, Tim is a trained sniper and combatives instructor whose combat heroism has earned him the Bronze Star. Now, with an already impressive military record to his credit, Tim is preparing for just his second fight as a full-time fighter and has already lined up in his crosshairs the Strikeforce middleweight championship belt.

On June 16 at Strikeforce: Los Angeles, Tim Kennedy (11-2) will climb into the cage with rugged South African veteran Trevor Prangley (22-5-1), his biggest test to date. Tim has yet to fight someone with the combination of size, strength, toughness, and experience that is Prangley, so he’s keeping to a basic plan of attack: dominate the fight in every possible way. Why get fancy, right?

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Your last fight was against Zak Cummings back in September. Why the long lay-off?

(Video: Youtube/BellatorMMA)

The UFC may be the brand name of MMA, but it doesn’t have exclusive rights to action packed bouts. While the UFC 139 pay-per-view was just getting warmed up, the evening’s “other” war and ‘fight of the year’ candidate was breaking out on MTV 2. If you didn’t catch it, I suggest you watch it in full up above.

Season 4 Lightweight Tournament winner Michael Chandler was all over Eddie Alvarez from the opening bell, driving forward and swinging for the fences. Within the first fifteen seconds he had dropped the champion twice and was only moments away from snatching the belt, but once again Alvarez proved difficult to put away. Chandler’s pressure wilted halfway through the second frame, allowing Alvarez to steal the round with a series of effective combinations. By round three Chandler’s fatigue was visible and the champ pounced, battering him across the cage. Though tired and hurt, Chandler continued to look for the big shot that would take Alvarez out. Answering the bell in the fourth, Chandler looked renewed and eager to throw. His hands found their mark, wobbling Alvarez before a big right hand dropped him. Chandler followed him down and mounted him, locking in the rear naked choke as Alvarez turned his back.

The dearth of awesome fan-made promos does not bode well for DREAM. VidProps: DREAM

DREAM returns for the final round of the Japan Bantamweight Grand Prix on July 16, and there are a few interesting matchups on the card (which is apparently *not* DREAM.17 as we’d been thinking). Even if there weren’t, it’s smack in the middle of the summer MMA doldrums, and there’s not much else going on. Even if there were something else going on, jesus, don’t you assholes care about Japan?

Come on in past the jump and we’ll fill you in on the bouts slated for the event, with a few notes for your enlightenment and/or entertainment. Just call us the love child of the Buddha and Louis CK.

(Sarah Kaufman gives us the score on her MMA career and what she expects in her title bout with Takayo Hashi on Friday night.)

Yesterday on Twitter our pals over at Fight Magazine suggested that you’d have to be a “a real degenerate” to bet on Strikeforce: Challengers fights. We see where they’re coming from. Betting on fights, sometimes between relative unknowns, could be construed as a sign that you’re the kind of maniac who will bet on anything, whether it’s a fight between two stray cats or a UFC main event. That might be true…if you lose those bets. My friends, the Enabler does not plan on losing this weekend. Not if he wants to keep his legs in good working order, and he really, really wants that.

The best lines on the internet come to us courtesy of BestFightOdds.com:

Sarah Kaufman (-575) vs. Takayo Hashi (+500)
Trevor Prangley (-350) vs. Karl Amoussou (+330)
Luke Rockhold (-185) vs. Paul Bradley (+180)
James Terry (-130) vs. Tarec Saffiedine (+130)
Raul Castillo (+101) vs. Yancy Medeiros (-111)

The breakdown…

(Murilo Rua and a devoted fan. Picture courtesy of Sherdog.)

— Murilo “Ninja” Rua, brother of UFC light-heavyweight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and the former EliteXC middleweight champion, will face IFL standout Benji Radach at EliteXC’s October 4th card on CBS. Radach hasn’t fought since his loss to Matt Horwich at the IFL World Grand Prix Finals last December, while Rua is coming off a first-round TKO victory over Tony Bonello at EliteXC: The Return of the King in June. It will be the first in a three-fight EliteXC contract for the American Top Team trained Radach.

— Speaking of Shogun, the older Rua brother’s rumored match with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is looking more likely.

— And speaking of the EliteXC middleweight title, a rematch between belt-holder Robbie Lawler and Joey Villasenor is nearly a done deal for EliteXC’s November 8th card on Showtime. Lawler and Villasenor previously met at PRIDE 32 in October ’06, where Lawler won via flying knee KO in just 22 seconds.

— Matt Lindland’s next Affliction fight will be against UFC/BodogFight/Strikeforce vet Trevor Prangley, at “Day of Reckoning” on October 11th in Las Vegas. It’s been a long layoff for Prangley, who hasn’t competed since Strikeforce’s “Four Men Enter, One Man Survives” middleweight tournament last November, where he defeated Falaniko Vitale then lost to Jorge Santiago.

— Former IFL middleweight champ Dan Miller will make his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 15 (September 17th, Omaha) against Rob Kimmons, who most recently choked out Rob Yundt at the TUF 7 finale in June.

(It’s the kind of moment that makes you wish competitive judo used the same commentator as NBA Jam. Photoprops: AlumniRoundup.com)

Rhadi Ferguson — four-time Judo national champion, 2004 Olympic Judo competitor, BJJ black belt, American Top Team strength-and-conditioning coach, Doctor of education, and cousin of Kimbo Slice — is about to make his televised MMA debut. After picking up two first-round TKO victories this year in southern regional leagues, Ferguson has been signed to the Strikeforce light-heavyweight roster, and will make his first appearance on the main card of Strikeforce Challengers: Woodley vs. Saffiedine, January 7th in Nashville. His opponent will be 1-0 Canadian rookie Ion Cherdivara, whose list of credentials isn’t nearly as long as Dr. Rhadi’s.

("Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? To me, that’s the definition of ‘warrior‘." / Photo courtesy of allelbows.)

When you’re on a five-fight losing streak like former UFC light-heavyweight contender Keith Jardine, there’s two ways you can approach your situation. 1) You can take a few months off to completely re-assess your skills, weaknesses, and motivation. Or, 2) You can get back in the cage as soon as possible in a desperate attempt to wash off the stink of failure. The Dean of Mean, God help him, is going for option two.

Just two months after his demoralizing loss to Trevor Prangley at Shark Fights 13, Keith Jardine will take on Francisco "Kiko" France in the main event of "MMA Global Invasion," which will be held November 13 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. (Props to MMAFighting for the heads-up.) France is a 6-1 light-heavyweight who has claimed all of his victories by submission, including four by arm-triangle choke. He’s competed for various organizations in Missouri and Mississippi; most notably, he appeared on the undercard of Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery, where he finished Lee Brousseau by first-round rear-naked choke.

(If you ask me to do the Techno Viking dance one more time, I’m shoving that glove up your ass.)

When Keith Jardine lost his Shark Fights debut against Trevor Prangley last weekend, effectively racking up his fifth straight loss, it didn’t seem like things could get much worse for the struggling former UFC light heavyweight.

It appears it did.

Jardine has been suspended indefinitely pending a disciplinary hearing for allegedly shoving a Texas Combative Sports Program official prior to his main event fight Saturday night.

(Alistair engages in a moment of reflection with his life-partner, Hilda. That’s the name of his sledgehammer. What, you didn’t think I was talking about the dumpy broad on the right, did you?)

Contradicting earlier reports, Alistair Overeem will probably not face Ricco Rodriguez at DREAM.15 next Saturday. Said Overeem’s trainer Martin De Jong: "If he’s going to fight, he’s probably not going to fight Ricco Rodriguez…We didn’t receive any contract. [DREAM] proposed Ricco Rodroguez, but they didn’t send a contract, and definitely we did not sign it." De Jong added that Overeem has no problem fighting Rodriguez, but they may skip DREAM.15 due to other issues with the promotion that he wouldn’t discuss.

Nevertheless, three additional fights were announced for the card today, bringing the current total to seven. They are…

("Yep. Definitely sharted." Photo courtesy of MMA Junkie)

Strikeforce’s six-bout just-for-the-hell-of-it middle-of-the-damn-week event goes down tonight at the Nokia Theater in L.A., and will be broadcast on Showtime beginning at 11 p.m. ET/PT. If you’re still awake, come back to CagePotato.com at 11 p.m. ET for round-by-round updates from the main card. Will Renato Sobral earn a title shot against the light-heavyweight champ who won’t fight him? Will Robbie Lawler earn a title shot against the middleweight champ who won’t even be around after next month? There’s just so much at stake! Yesterday’s weigh-in results were…

Main Card
195 lbs. Catchweight: Robbie Lawler (195) vs. Renato Sobral (193.5)
Welterweight: Evangelista Santos (171) vs. Marius Zaromskis (169.5)
Middleweight: Tim Kennedy (185.5) vs. Trevor Prangley (185.6)
160 lbs.: Conor Heun (159.5) vs. K.J. Noons (159.5)

Preliminary Card
160 lbs.: R.J. Clifford (159.6) vs. Jeremy Umphries (159.5)
Bantamweight: Marcus Kowal (134.8) vs. Hugo Sandoval (135.6)

(Takayo Hashi vs. Chisa Yonezawa @ GCM Valkyrie 2, 4/25/09)

After putting on the biggest women’s fight in history last year, Strikeforce is preparing to build women’s MMA even larger. According to a recent press release, Sarah Kaufman and Takayo Hashi will battle for the promotion’s first women’s 135-pound title at a Strikeforce Challengers event scheduled for February 26th at the Civic Auditorium in San Jose; tickets are on sale right now.

With a perfect record of 10-0 (eight via TKO), the hard-hitting Kaufman is one of the world’s best female fighters, and has been gaining recognition in Strikeforce thanks to the dominant decision victories she scored over Miesha Tate and Shayna Baszler in 2009. Takayo Hashi (12-1; 4 wins by submission, 8 by unanimous decision) has competed primarily in Japan, where she was one of the standouts of the SmackGirl promotion. Hashi most recently choked out Chisa Yonezawa at a GCM Valkyrie event last April, and avenged her only loss to Hitomi Akano in 2007. She’s known primarily as a grappler, while Kaufman is known primarily for beating the crap out of grapplers.

(I’m only posting this picture because my Google image search for “moth flying out of wallet” was a total bust.)

Since the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board isn’t releasing fighter salaries for UFC 78 in order to maintain the fighters’ privacy, you’ll have to make do with the numbers from Friday’s Strikeforce event:

MIDDLEWEIGHT TOURNAMENT
Jorge Santiago [winner] ($15,000)
Trevor Prangley [finalist] ($30,000)
Falaniko Vitale ($20,000), Sean Salmon ($5,000)

MAIN CARD
Cung Le ($50,000) def. Sam Morgan ($10,000)
Alistair Overeem ($30,000) def. Paul Buentello ($20,000)
Lemont Davis ($3,000) def. Brian Schwartz ($30,000)
Anthony Ruiz ($3,500) def. Bobby Southworth ($10,000)
Luke Stewart ($10,000) def. Bryson Kamaka ($1,500)

UNDERCARD
Eric Lawson ($5,000) def. Josh Neal ($1,500)
Anthony Figueroa ($4,000) def. Pete Sabala ($1,000)
Alex Crispin ($4,500) def. Clint Coronel ($3,000)
Chris Drumm ($1,000) def. Evan Esguerra ($1,000)
Dennis Hallman ($10,000) def. Jeremiah Metcalf ($5,000)

These figures include win bonuses that ranged from $500 to $5,000, though the participants in the middleweight tournament all received a flat fee regardless of their performance. Man, that’s called “doing it for the love,” people…

Though the Potato was a pathetic 1-out-of-5 in his predictions for the night’s action, at least the sure thing came through, as rising superstar Cung Le ended Sam Morgan’s night with a vicious body kick at 1:58 into the third round. To watch the fight (with aggravatingly un-synced audio), click here, and to see a post-fight interview with Le, click here.

(Anyone else want to negotiate?)

It’s looking like current Bellator middleweight champion and world renowned can-crusher Hector Lombard may finally get his chance to make waves in the UFC. Yes, it seems the man who has vowed to “take Anderson Silva’s head off” was recently offered a contract with the UFC in light of his dispute-ridden contract with Bellator expiring earlier this month. The Cuban-born knockout artist has been out of action since steamrolling Trevor Prangley in the second round of their catchweight non-title affair back in November of 2011, and has still yet to grant season five middleweight tournament winner Alexander Shlemenko his much deserved rematch. We can likely call that one a wash at this point.

And although that sucks for Shlemenko, we’ve got to admit that we’d much rather see “Lightning” in the UFC. If you recall, Lombard was supposed to make his promotional debut way back at UFC 78 in November of 2007 against Karo Parisyan, but Visa issues forced him to withdraw after he was denied entry into the country. He was eventually replaced by Ryo Chonan, who couldn’t handle “The Heat” and was defeated by unanimous decision.

Five years and countless corpses of MMA journeyman later, we may finally see Lombard live up to his potential.

But before we start setting ourselves up for disappointment, we (and the UFC) are awaiting a move from the Bellator brass, who still have an opportunity to match the UFC’s offer. Bellator CEO told Sherdog that a “strategic decision” would determine Lombard’s future with the company, but that they wouldn’t even begin deliberation until after this weekend’s Bellator 66 event:

We’ve received the final proposed UFC agreement from Hector’s attorney, and right now we are in the process of reviewing it to determine whether we’re going to match the agreement. We’ve got the 60 pages of UFC contract that were forwarded to us by Hector’s counsel.

Out of respect for Hector, I think we will turn [the UFC contract] around very quickly. Obviously, we have a huge event coming up Friday. As soon as that is over, we will sit down with our partners and go through the UFC contract line-for-line and make a strategic decision whether we’re going to match it or pass. [If we pass, we will] wish him the best and let him go knock out everybody in the UFC.

Check out more from the interview after the jump.

(Contrary to what this painting implies, Minowa will not be taking on Gabe “Godzilla” Rudiger. Seems like a wasted opportunity to us.) 

India-based promotion Super Fight League is quickly making waves in the MMA landscape. Aside from being the first promotion to sign an exclusive broadcast deal with Youtube, they’ve managed to sign UFC veterans Todd Duffee and Trevor Prangley and held a mildly successful first event earlier this month. Sure, Bob Sapp was there, a sentiment we are getting sicker and sicker of typing, but just listen to SFL’s theme song and tell us that these gentlemen are not on the short path to success. Go ahead. We’ll be right here. Haaaaangin out.

But if you weren’t convinced by Super Fight League’s first event, then you will be more than happy to learn that they’ve decided to move on from the undisputed queen of freak show fights in Sapp to the undisputed king of freak show fights in Ikuhisa Minowa for their next event. Oh yes, one of the greatest fighters to never hold a major title will be taking on two time Bellator middleweight tournament winner Alexander Shlemenko at SFL 2, which goes down on April 7th from Chandigarh, India.

We last saw Minowaman in action at the “meh” ProElite 3 event, where he was outpointed by TUF 3 winner Kendall Grove. True to form, Minowa rebounded from the loss by picking up a first round submission over a 1-6 fighter that I am not going to bother looking up again because I already closed the tab. The Super Hulk Champion could be in for a long night against Shlemenko, a 44-7 kickboxing expert who showcased an improved submission game in his Bellator 50 guillotine joke victory over Zelg Galesic. If this fight features anything less than ten spinning backfists and a dropkick we will eat our hats.

Also set for SFL 2…

(“NOW, MIKE! GO FOR THE HEEL-HOOK!”)

We’re just nine days away from the greatest inter-continental Villain vs. Villain match in UFC history, as Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping square off for a shot at the middleweight title at UFC on FOX 2. The short-notice nature of the bout means that we won’t be getting as much memorable-trash talk as we could have. But Bisping is doing his best to build some heat, telling FightersOnly:

“Chael’s biggest weapon is his mouth – but this ain’t no kissing contest and he isn’t going to talk me to death. Unlucky for him he can’t hurt me with his mouth in the Octagon and I am going to crush him. I’m in my prime and this is my time…

[H]is wrestling skills will be on point, I’m going to get the best Chael Sonnen possible, I know that. But his jiu-jitsu wont be too slick. Chael Sonnen can take me down if he likes, because I know I can submit him off my back. I know I can. That’s his big weakness. I may not have a black belt, but I consider myself a black belt. I’ve been rolling with Jake Shields, Dean Lister and a wash of other world champions. Believe me, if Chael Sonnen takes me down he better be prepared to get submitted.