I’m not going near this caption. If you want one, you supply it.

It took nearly two years for Ed Herman to bounce back from the knee injury he sustained in his loss to Aaron Simpson, but following his KO win over Tim Credeur last month he’ll return to the cage in short order. The UFC has announced that “Short Fuse” will step up to replace the injured Tom Lawlor at next month’s “UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle”.

Standing across the cage from Herman will be fellow TUF alumnus Kyle Noke. The Australian is on a five-fight tear, stopping all three of his UFC opponents and handing two their walking papers in the process. While Herman was undoubtedly happy with the quick return to the win column against Credeur, we’ll see if 48-seconds was enough to shake off two years of ring rust. This fight will tip Herman toward a winning or losing UFC record; he is currently perched at an uncomfortable 5-5 in his Zuffa career.

(Noke had carefully selected his training partners to mimic how Brenneman would look on fight night. / Photo via neurovisual)

In the space of two fights, UFC welterweight Charlie Brenneman went from co-headliner to curtain-jerker. So where do you go next if you get TKO’d in 45 seconds by a non-contender on the Facebook portion of a card? The unemployment line, son. Don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya.

That’s right, Brenneman has been released by the UFC after taking his second consecutive first-round stoppage loss to Kyle Noke at UFC 152, which followed his submission loss to Erick Silva at UFC on FX: Johnson vs. McCall in June. With his most recent loss, “The Spaniard”‘s overall UFC record dropped to 4-4, including decision wins over Jason High, Amilcar Alves, Rick Story, and Daniel Roberts, and previous TKO losses to Johny Hendricks, and Anthony Johnson. In other words, his victories were mostly forgettable, but his losses were all highlight-reel material. Not a good look.

Brenneman was disppointed but hopeful after getting the news, telling Bloody Elbow’s Steph Daniels:

When we watched this video, we lost The Game. VidProps: PanicPulse/YouTube

Ed “Short Fuse” Herman impressed some of us last night when he went all Paul Harris on poor Kyle Noke, catching Noke with a heel hook and torquing that motherlover until Mario Yamasaki noticed Noke’s “owwie” face and tap simultaneously, stopping it with a minute left in the first round. No official word yet, but expect Noke to be walking gingerly for the next few weeks.

If you’re not familiar with the much-feared heel hook, take a quick peep at this video where the lovely Joanne Spracklen demonstrates the mechanics, and keep in mind that the twisting action at the heel puts a lot of strain on the knee of that leg. And when we say “a lot of strain”, we mean that ligaments pop and tissues tear when you start cranking on this.

Joanne illustrates the standard heel hook, whereas Herman pulled off the inverted variety, moving Noke’s leg to the other side of his hips and twisting the toes out away from the body; the effects are every bit as devastating.

Do NOT try this at home. Seriously, people talk about how kids are resilient and can bounce back from anything, but surgery on knee ligaments will slow even the best of them way down.

Plus, i’m being told that mine is past the manufacturer’s warranty period, and now i have to pay out of pocket to get him fixed. And that’s why we can’t have nice things.

[RX]

(Oh man. That kick was about six inches away from being the greatest DQ of all time.)

In case you missed Saturday night’s action, we’ve compiled 12 of UFC 152‘s best highlights in GIF form, from the gnarly stoppages to the memorable post-fight moments. Follow the “next page” links starting after the jump, or just use the direct links below. Special thanks to BloodyElbow and Cameldog for the hookups.

Jon Jones vs. Vitor Belfort
Cub Swanson vs. Charles Oliveira
Vinny Magalhães vs. Igor Pokrajac
Intermission: Ronda and Royce
Michael Bisping vs. Brian Stann
TJ Grant vs. Evan Dunham
Matt Hamill’s corner mix-up
Kyle Noke vs. Charlie Brenneman
Seth Baczynski vs. Simeon Thoresen

Just a friendly reminder that the UFC on Fox 2: Alves vs. Kampmann press conference will be live at 7:00 pm ET and that we’ll have the live stream right here for you.

Besides the main event between Thiago Alves and Martin Kampmann, perhaps the most interesting bouts of the card are the opening round flyweight tournament match-ups between Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall versus Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benevidez versus Yasuhiro Urushitani.

Since the card is made up of mostly polite fighters, we don’t expect much drama at the weigh-ins, but there’s a pretty good chance someone at the presser will ask someone about Dakota Cochrane, since it’s such a hot-button topic.

Check out the stream after the jump.

(A surprise headshot will kill them. But don’t ever turn your back on a zombie, even if they feel really slippery. Props: UFC)

From today’s weigh-ins in Oberhausen, Germany. No surprises here…

MAIN CARD
Nate Marquardt (186) vs. Yushin Okami (185)
Jorge Rivera (185) vs. Alessio Sakara (186)
Dennis Siver (155) vs. Andre Winner (155)
Amir Sadollah (170) vs. Peter Sobotta (169)
Krzysztof Soszynski (206) vs. Goran Reljic (205)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Alexandre Ferreira (204) vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (205)
Pascal Krauss (170) vs. Mark Scanlon (170)
Duane Ludwig (170) vs. Nick Osipczak (171)
Rob Kimmons (184) vs. Kyle Noke (185)
Seth Petruzelli (205) vs. Karlos Vemola (205)
Kris McCray (171) vs. Carlos Eduardo Rocha (170)

Come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow night as we post live(-ish) play-by-play from the tape-delayed Spike TV broadcast of UFC 122: Marquardt vs. Okami, beginning at 9 p.m. ET.

(Oh, snap — Rousimar Palhares makes off with Dave Branch’s leg, and UFC contract, at ‘Sanchez vs. Kampmann’. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

It’s been a while since the UFC had themselves a good-ol’-fashioned bloodletting. It was announced this week that four more fighters have been chopped from the roster — three of them middleweights. Let’s run down the firings in order of most-deserving to least-deserving…

Todd Brown: A light-heavyweight standout in the midwestern circuit, Brown made his UFC debut as a late replacement for Thiago Silva at UFC 117, dropping a decision to Tim Boetsch. His follow-up performance at UFC on Versus 3: Sanchez vs. Kampmann earlier this month was even less successful, as he was stopped after one round by Igor Pokrajac. The 5’11″ Indiana native is now fielding offers from regional promotions and is considering a drop to middleweight.

Rob Kimmons: The Missouri-based 185′er has been released after consecutive stoppage losses to Kyle Noke (at UFC 122) and Dong Yi Yang (at Sanchez vs. Kampmann). Prior to his recent defeats, Kimmons had compiled a 3-2 record in the Octagon, with wins over Rob Yundt, Joe Vedepo, and Steve Steinbeiss, and losses to Dan Miller and Jorge Rivera.

("FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU-")

After last week’s battle royale, we’re left with 14 middleweight hopefuls, who run up in the TUF house like speed-freaks in a blackout. Is it just me, or is the house nicer than usual this year? It looks like somebody’s actual home, not a reality show barracks. Where are the TapouT bunk beds? Man, is it going to be sweet when they wreck the place.

Not all the fighters survived their qualifying fights completely intact. Chris Camozzi is dealing with a mouth infection from a broken tooth and Clayton McKinney is nursing a jacked shoulder.

It’s time to choose teams, and the coin toss goes Tito Ortiz‘s way. He opts to take the first fighter, which will allow Chuck Liddell to pick the first matchup. The picks go down like this…

Team Punishment: Nick "The Cock" Ring, Kyacey Uscola, Kris McCray, Jamie Yager, James "The Ball Peen" Hammortree, Clayton McKinney, Chris Camozzi
Team Liddell: Kyle Noke, Rich Attonito, Charles Blanchard, Josh Bryant, Brad Tavares, Court McGee, Joe Henle

(Keith Jardine: The love child of Michael Berryman and this thing. Photo courtesy of ESPN)

You know what time it is, Potato Nation — it’s time to steal some money from your girlfriend’s purse and wire it to a shady off-shore gambling site in the faint hope that A) You’ll win your bets, and B) They’ll eventually send you your profits. Lots of luck, suckers! As tradition dictates, here are the betting lines for Saturday’s TUF 11 Finale, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com 

Court McGee (-180) vs. Kris McCray (+175)
Matt Hamill (-138) vs. Keith Jardine (+125)
Aaron Simpson (-334) vs. Chris Leben (+292)
Spencer Fisher (-175) vs. Dennis Siver (+163)
Jamie Yager (-105) vs. Rich Attonito (+105)

John Gunderson (-245) vs. Mark Holst (+285)
Brad Tavares (-205) vs. Seth Baczynski (+200)
Kyle Noke (-185) vs. Josh Bryant (+170)
Chris Camozzi (-125) vs. James Hammortree (even)
Travis Browne (-185) vs. James McSweeney (+155)

So how can we beat the bookmakers on Saturday? Pull up a chair and I’ll lay it all out for you…

(“Sorry, God. I didn’t ask to be this awesome.” Props: UFC.com)

The UFC paid out $838,000 in disclosed payouts and bonuses to the fighters at Sunday’s UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle event, according to figures released by Wisconsin’s Department of Safety and Professional Services. Chris “The Bonus Snatcher” Lytle and Donald Cerrone were the only competitors who broke the six-figure mark, with Dan Hardy’s haul landing just short.

The numbers are below; keep in mind that they don’t include additional income from sponsorships and undisclosed “locker room” bonuses, or deductions for taxes, insurance, and licensing fees.

Chris Lytle: $200,000 (includes $35,000 win bonus, $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $65,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
def. Dan Hardy: $90,000 (includes $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Ben Henderson: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Jim Miller: $35,000

Donald Cerrone: $109,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus, $65,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
def. Charles Oliveira: $12,000

Rather than sit out for seven months waiting for his May 14 non-title bout against Falaniko Vitale, Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard will look to defend his other strap later this month in Australia. The highly-touted 27-2 middleweight fighter, will defend his Cage Fighting Championship 185-pound title against UFC and WEC veteran Joe Doerksen Down Under at CFC 16 at Big Top Luna Park in Sydney March 25.

Born in Cuba, Lombard resided in Australia for several years after defecting from the communist country following the 2000 Sydney Olympics. 20 of his 27 wins have come by finish including his record-setting six-second knockout of Jay Silva that earned him the fastest KO in Bellator history. The ATT-trained fighter has not lost since 2006 when he dropped a unanimous decision to Gegard Mousasi at PRIDE Bushido 13 and has never lost a fight in Australia. The closest he came was a draw to Kyle Noke in the inaugural CFC show in 2007. Soon after the fight with Noke, Lombard, who was then a welterweight, was signed by the UFC and was slated to take on Karo Parisyan at UFC 78. Visa issues forced Lombard off the card and prompted the UFC to tear up his contract.

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

The 24 fighters on tomorrow night’s UFC 152: Jones vs. Belfort card will be hitting the scales today at the Mattamy Athletic Centre at the Gardens in Toronto, and if you want to see what they look like surly and dehydrated, you’ve come to the right place. Watch all the face-offs, forehead-smushing, and possible weight-botches live in the player above, beginning at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT. And come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow night at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT for our liveblog of the pay-per-view main card!

Update: The UFC 152 weigh-in results are now after the jump.

(“Now, Demian! Use the muscle-spasm death touch that I taught you!”)

Demian Maia‘s welterweight debut at UFC 148 was over before it really began, thanks to a poorly timed muscle spasm suffered by Dong Hyun Kim. But the former middleweight title contender will be getting another chance to make an impression against Rick Story. Their bout is scheduled to take place at UFC 153 (October 13th, Rio de Janeiro), a card that is quickly stacking up with top Brazilian talent. Story recently outpointed newcomer Brock Jardine at UFC on FX: Maynard vs. Guida, which snapped a two-fight losing streak against Charlie Brenneman and Martin Kampmann.

Speaking of Brenneman, “The Spaniard” has booked his return fight after being choked out by Erick Silva in June. He’ll be appearing at UFC 151: Jones vs. Henderson (September 1st, Las Vegas) against TUF 11 competitor — and former Crocodile Hunter bodyguard — Kyle Noke, who is coming off of two losses at middleweight and will be making his welterweight debut.

In other booking news…

Two dudes known for throwing bombs, and the only guy trying to look tough is the promoter in the background. (Pic: @danawhite)

Tomorrow night Dan Hardy could be fighting for his spot in the UFC, but he came up just a little short in his battle with the scales. Ditching the shorts brought him within a half pound of the 171lb Welterweight limit, but additional time will be needed to shed the excess weight. A quick rinse should take at least a few ounces of mousse out of his mohawk. (Update- the rinse worked! Hardy made weight).

Ben Henderson was the only other fighter to make use of the towel, though he made weight without the need for additional time. The only real heat from the event surfaced when Cole Miller and T.J. O’brien got to jawing during their tense staredown. Based solely on the weigh-ins, I’m going to make a bold prediction for the Jason Reinhardt-Edwin Figueroa bout: Reinhardt will piss hot for crystal meth.

Gifs of those two staredowns and full weigh-in results are after the jump.

(When Donald was finished with his country-glam-rock version of “Home Sweet Home,” there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Mostly because the audience had all left by then. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

It’s kind of a long story, but due to a series of injuries and replacements, a lightweight prelim between John Makdessi and Paul Taylor slated for UFC on Versus 5 (August 14th, Milwaukee) eventually morphed into an even more compelling matchup between lanky cowboy-hatted veteran Donald Cerrone and young submission ace Charles Oliveira. That’s the good news. The even-better news is that Cerrone vs. Oliveira has been bumped to the event’s main card due to its awesomeness.

Cerrone is on a four-fight win streak, which includes submission victories over Chris Horodecki and Paul Kelly, but caught some criticism in his last outing — a lopsided decision victory over Vagner Rocha at UFC 131 — for arguably playing it safe rather than going for a finish. Meanwhile, Oliveira’s last victory was recently overturned to a no-contest due to the fact that he set up his rear-naked choke submission against Nik Lentz with a very blatant illegal knee, which everybody in the building spotted except for the referee.

After the jump, the full lineup for UFC on Versus 5, which looks pretty damn entertaining for a free card.

(Carlos Condit — huge John Cleese fan.)

After starching Dan Hardy at UFC 120, welterweight contender Carlos Condit was preparing to build on his momentum with another slugfest against Chris Lytle at UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch (February 26th; Sydney, Australia). Unfortunately, the Natural Born Killer has reportedly withdrawn thanks to a knee injury. Damn, it’s been a bad month for that sort of thing.

Though a replacement has yet to be formally announced, fightnewsaustralia.com is claiming that Brian Ebersole — a 44-15 American journeyman who currently competes and trains in Australia — will face Chris Lytle on the card. Ebersole has won his last seven fights, and holds victories over Matt Horwich, Nick Thompson, and Carlos Newton.

The current UFC 127 lineup is after the jump…

MMA fans have their work cut out for them this week, with three notable events featured on cable TV. Tomorrow night, Strikeforce: Los Angeles airs on Showtime (11 p.m. ET/PT), headlined by Robbie Lawler vs. Renato Sobral. On Saturday, the TUF 11 Finale goes down in Las Vegas (Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET/PT), with Court McGee and Kris McCray battling for the weird glass trophy, and Matt Hamill and Keith Jardine meeting in a light-heavyweight scrap. And on Sunday, Jamie Varner and Kamal Shalorus face off in a potential #1 lightweight contender’s match at WEC 49 in Edmonton (Versus, 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT). 

This week’s MMA FightPicker pools focus on the TUF 11 Finale, but we’ve also thrown in three matchups from the WEC card just to keep you on your toes. Feeling lucky? Then join some pools and show everybody how smart you really are. The current questions are after the jump…

Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson is an intimidating son-of-a-bitch. Still, there’s no excuse for what happened Saturday night at EliteXC: Renegade. Kimbo’s “opponent,” Bo Cantrell — a late replacement for the injured Mike Bourke — came into the fight completely psyched out, and after a couple of glancing shots from Kimbo, he dropped to the mat and started tapping for mercy. You have to watch the video to see just how pussified it was:

When there’s an MMA event, medical suspensions are sure to follow. The Florida State Boxing Commission has dropped their list of suspended fighters from the EliteXC: Street Certified joint that happened in Miami last Saturday. (Props MMA on Tap)

Tank Abbott got a 60 day medical suspension because he got KTFO by Kimbo. Joining Tank on the 60-day list were James Thompson, Kyle Noke, John Doyle, and Edson Berto. Mario Rinaldi wasn’t KO’d but got the shit kicked out of him by Dave Herman, so he also earned 60 days on hold. On that note, Dave Herman and Jirka Hivati – who made $500 for the night – were told they must be cleared by a doctor before being allowed back in the cage. Herman due to a knee injury and Hivati because of a laceration on his face.

Let’s talk more suspensions, shall we? The California State Athletic Commission has fined and suspended two fighters for dancing with mary jane. The fighters – Mike Moreno and Jermaine Wilson – both fought last Saturday at the Total Combat 26 show that went down in San Diego. Mike Moreno will be out of action until May 16th and was fined $500 (maybe he can get Jirka Hivati to cover his fine). Jermaine Wilson is out until August 14th and was fined $1,000. Wilson’s penalty was a bit stiffer because it was his second marijuana offense in three months – his pro record is two fights, two lossess, and two suspensions due to drug use. That’s rollin’ Kendall Grove style.

Only four out of the fourteen fighters at the event were tested and half tested positive for drugs. And both fighters lost via submissions, so what does that tell you, Kids? If you’re going to toke it up, improve your takedown defense.

On a side note, Total Combat’s ring girls are called the Combat Dolls. They deserve close inspection…trust me.

(NOW we get why Kyle’s friends often refer to him as “The Poke” Noke.) 

After collecting three straight stoppage victories in as many UFC contests, EliteXC and TUF 11 veteran Kyle Noke was quickly building up a reputation as one of the top up-and-comers in the middleweight division. Being one of the few successful Australian fighters to grace the UFC (sorry, Elvis), Noke carried a bit more pressure on his shoulders than the average TUF alum, especially when heading into his UFC Live 5 match against resurgent TUF 3 veteran Ed Herman. Unfortunately Noke (and therefore the Australian MMA community), would fall to a first round heel hook in that fight, placing all Aussie UFC hopes in the hands of a man nicknamed after an animal relative to Africa.

But fret not, ye Fosters enthusiasts, for Noke’s path to redemption will begin in the land from which he was birthed. Yes, “KO” recently announced that he will be taking on Jared Hamman at UFC on FX 2, which goes down at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia. Hamman, whom we will forever be in debt to for knocking CB Dolloway out of the UFC, will also be looking to build up a win streak; he was most recently flattened in the first round by Constantinos Philippou at UFC 140. This match has yet to be confirmed by the UFC.

Join us after the jump for some juicy featherweight and bantamweight gossip…

(Look out Kimbo, he’s got an air-shotgun!)

Brass tacks — EliteXC: “Street Certified” goes down tomorrow night at Miami’s Bank United Center; Showtime will broadcast the main card starting at 10 p.m., and we’ll be doing a liveblog, so swing by for live round-by-round results. And now, our predictions:

Tank vs. Kimbo (heavyweights): We all know how this is going to end. A month ago, we offered a “fantastic” prize to the CagePotato reader who could call the result the closest. Well, the prediction lines will be open until the end of the day, so throw a guess on the comments section of that page for your chance to win (what else) a signed copy of Iceman: My Fighting Life by Chuck Liddell. We’re sticking with our prediction of Kimbo winning by TKO (punches) in 59 seconds. MMABettingBlog says that since the betting odds on this match are so heavily stacked in Kimbo’s favor — he’s a -450 favorite, meaning you’d have to bet $450 on him to get $100 back if he wins — Tank is actually the smart money bet. Especially if you think losing money is smart.

Antonio Silva vs. Ricco Rodriguez (heavyweights): Speaking of sports betting, this fight reminds me of my personal rule — never bet against the streak. And as we discussed yesterday, Bigfoot Silva’s got a crazy one going: 10 fights, all of them lasting less than four minutes. Outside of the Ben Rothwell spit-debacle decision loss, Ricco “Suave” has been looking great lately, with six stoppage wins in his last seven fights. We just don’t think he’ll be able to deal with Silva’s size and power — Bigfoot by first-round GnP TKO. By the way, Rodriguez said this at yesterday’s press conference: “Win or lose, six months from now Antonio and I will be fighting again, probably for a title. We are the two best fighters in this organization right now. Tank and Kimbo are just tomato cans. We are the two real fighters.” We have a feeling Ricco might live to regret that quote…

(Gif of Tavares getting kicked in the "chest," courtesy of smoogy.)

Kris McCray vs. Kyle Noke. Brad Tavares vs. Seth Baczynski. Tito Ortiz vs. Everyone’s Patience. Last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter was a wall-to-wall struggle. Here’s what happened.

After Team Liddell’s Court McGee became the first TUF 11 semi-finalist, following his submission of James Hammortree, it’s time for two more quarterfinal matches. First up is Kris McCray vs. Kyle Noke, two guys who used to be training partners. Dana White cares not for your personal relationships: "One of the things I want these guys to learn early? There are no friends in the UFC."

Tito Ortiz might be looking at neck surgery. There’s a disc pressing on his spinal cord, which is causing numbness in his legs and daily headaches, among other symptoms. He’s not going to let Chuck beat him because he wasn’t 100%. Instead of fighting injured and jeopardizing his health, he wants to get this taken care of. It’s basically the same story we heard last week from Nick Ring, who by the way, is out of the competition for one day and already has a full-on Freddie Mercury ‘stache.

Noke has two inches in height, 4.5 inches in reach, and a hell of a lot more fights under his belt than McCray. It’s time to bang.

("The best part is, stick this baby in the freezer and it’ll keep your drinks cold on a hot summer day." PicProps: UFC.com)

Matt Hamill fought and defeated Keith Jardine on Saturday night with a staph infection he didn’t know he had as well as a broken hand suffered early in the fight round and blurred vision from getting poked in the eye during the second, according to statements made at the "TUF 11" Finale post-fight press conference. That makes it a bit more noteworthy that their three-round battle rightfully claimed “Fight of the Night” honors.

“I thought I was going to be blind and deaf. Enough handicaps,” Hamill joked at the press conference about getting a thumb in the eye that caused Jardine to lose a point in the second stanza. Any laughter caused by that comment could probably best be described as “uneasy.”

Other post-fight bonuses – each amounting to $25,000 – went to Chris Leben for his come-from-behind knockout of Aaron Simpson and Court McGee for choking out Kris McCray in the “TUF” championship.  As for the infection – which caused the nasty-looking  lesion on his back you may have noticed during the broadcast – Hamill said he planned to get started with some antibiotics ASAP. Yeah, you might want to get on that. After the jump, a picture of Hamill’s foulness.

(The punch may have missed, but Dillishaw’s stank bref definitely found its mark.) 

It is not a good time of year to be a struggling UFC fighter, Potato Nation.

Just a day after it was made public that Charlie “Big Hair” Brenneman (nickname pending) had been released from the UFC following a pair of losses to Kyle Noke and Erick Silva, the UFC has announced that four more UFC fighters will have to significantly cut back on their children’s wish lists this Christmas. Spoiler alert: Most of the names will not surprise you, unless you were unaware that some of them were fighting in the UFC in the first place, or even a person at all, which is likely the case with a couple of these guys.

And the nominees for saddest fighter of the day are…

-Michihiro Omigawa: Following an 0-2 stint in the octagon between 2007-2008, the DREAM and DEEP veteran reentered the UFC in February of 2011. Unfortunately for him, his second run didn’t go much better than the first. He would drop his first fight to future title challenger Chad Mendes by way of unanimous decision at UFC 126 and get absolutely screwjobbed out of a victory in his second fight against Darren Elkins at UFC 131. A UD victory of his own over Jason Young at UFC 138 would be his first and his last under the Zuffa banner, as he would suffer back-to-back unanimous decision losses to Iuri Alcantara and former WEC featherweight title challenger Manny Gamburyen at UFC 142 and UFC on FOX 4, respectively. Omigawa’s record currently stands at 13-12.

(That’ll teach Antonio Banuelos to try and fingerbang Ronda Rousey.) 

After compiling a 2-2 octagon record at welterweight (well, 1-3 depending on how you personally scored the Martin Kampmann fight), it looks like former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields will be returning to 185 this summer, and will be taking on the resurgent Ed Herman at UFC 150, which goes down on August 11th from the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. UFC President Dana White was the first to break the news, via his Twitter:

UFC 150 Sat Aug 11 Denver, CO Middleweight Bout Ed Herman VS Jake Shields. I like that fight!

Shields is coming off a unanimous decision victory over the struggling Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 144 in February. Although he was able to walk away with the victory and snap a two-fight losing streak in the process, he did find himself on the wrong end of more than one fantastic Judo throw. So you tell us who the real winner was…

…still Shields? Fine, let’s move on.

TUF 3 runner-up Ed Herman, on the other hand, has looked pretty spectacular as of late, and will be looking to build upon a current three-fight win streak that includes wins over scrappy TUF 7 veteran Tim Credeur and TUF 11 alum Kyle Noke. Is it just us, or does it seem like nearly everyone in the UFC can be tied back to The Ultimate Fighter at some point in their career? It’s like the Kevin Bacon of MMA these days. Anyway, Shields should be a considerable favorite coming into this one, but given Herman’s growing trajectory, as well as Shields’ rather mediocre performances in the octagon thus far, “Short Fuse” could be a solid pick for you gamblers, who should already be rolling in the green if you followed our advice.

And in other fight booking, or rather, fight shuffling news…

You tell us who looks more “All American”, Mr. Weidman. (Pics: JustinTrapp.com, SBRForum.com)

There may not be an event this weekend, but that doesn’t mean the boys behind the scenes at Zuffa aren’t working hard. Fights have been announced this weekend at a furious pace, and there seems to be no end in sight. Let’s hope Joe Silva’s getting some of that “Anderson Silva money”. Without further ado:

The UFC Fight Night 25 card is starting to flesh out. Lightweight Evan Dunham will take on recent TUF graduate Shamar Bailey. Dunham was last seen being picked up off the canvas following a brutal TKO loss to Melvin Guillard at Fight for the Troops 2. His prior controversial split decision loss to Sean Sherk was tallied as a victory by the only person that really matters, so his back isn’t exactly against the wall here. As for Bailey, he failed to make it to the finals of The Ultimate Fighter 13 despite being a hands on favorite to take the trophy, but he did win a plodding, uninspiring decision over Ryan McGillivray at the finale. Bailey needs to show that he’s got more in his arsenal than world-class smothering.

Still here? More announcements are after the jump!

(Hold on to your asses: Jason “Coked Out Steve Carell” Reinhardt vows to make it chaotic for Tiequan Zhang. Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

Directly before this Saturday’s pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch, you’ll be able to watch five of the event’s seven prelim fights absolutely free of charge — assuming you use Facebook and your cable package includes the ION network. The action begins at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET on Facebook.com/UFC, which will feature a live stream of Anthony Perosh vs. Tom Blackledge and Jason Reinhardt vs. Tiequan Zhang.

Then at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET, the fights move to Ion Television for a live broadcast of Nick Ring vs. Riki Fukuda, James Te-Huna vs. Alexander Gustafsson, and Ross Pearson vs. Spencer Fisher.

At this point, the only bouts that won’t be guaranteed TV time are Mark Hunt vs. Chris Tuchscherer and Maciej Jewtuszko vs. Curt Warburton — and since either of those fights could end in a short, violent stoppage, you may see them pop up in the pay-per-view broadcast. The complete lineup of UFC 127 is after the jump.

(Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)

The UFC paid out $506,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses for Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale event, with longtime Octagon veterans Chris Leben and Keith Jardine taking home the biggest checks. The complete payout list is below; keep in mind that the numbers don’t include additional income from sponsorships and undisclosed "locker room bonuses," or deductions for taxes, insurance, licensing fees, and antibiotics.

Court McGee: $41,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus, $25,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
def. Kris McCray: $8,000

Matt Hamill: $77,000 (includes $26,000 win bonus, $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Keith Jardine: $80,000 (includes $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Chris Leben: $95,000 (includes $35,000 win bonus, $25,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
def. Aaron Simpson: $13,000

(He can now afford to buy ten more of these hats.)

Hey, remember that EliteXC event last Saturday known as “Street Certified”? Well, dudes got paid for that – especially the main eventers. Kimbo earned $4,069 and change for every second of his fight, while Tank Abbott took home almost $3,000 for every second he was making like Kimbo’s punching bag. Not sure how he wrangled that sort of payday for going 1-8 since 1998, but guys like Jimmy Ambriz should be calling Tank’s manager. Also, being a getting KTFO specialist paid off for James Thompson — he grabbed $25,000 for going to sleep, while Brett Rogers earned just $4,000 for making that happen.

Antonio Silva did okay for himself, but had to go the distance to earn his $80k. However, if you’re not in the top 2-3 fights for an EliteXC show, it gets kinda shitty. Just ask Jirka Hlavaty. He got a sweet $500 for his losing effort. Don’t think that even covered his hotel room. (UPDATE: And Moyses Gabin earned just $1, not $1,000 as we reported earlier. We don’t know if that’s because Gary Shaw found out Gabin was banging Shaw’s wife or his daughter, but we’ll update you when we know for sure.)

The payday rundown:

Kimbo Slice – $175,000 ($125,000 to show, $50,000 to win)
Tank Abbott – $126,000

Antonio Silva – $80,000
Ricco Rodriguez – $20,000

(Pierce celebrates after successfully thwarting Mario’s plans with a well-timed barrel.) 

We here at CagePotato have literally taken every possible step in order to rid the MMA world of the great injury curse of 2012: we’ve prayed (lol!), we’ve had our cleaning lady Concepcion rid the office of evil spirits, we’ve resorted to Pagan rituals involving pentagrams, we’ve even had Rex track down “thisredengine” and sacrifice his virginal body to the Gods. And after all that fell flat, we tried to go Freddy Kruger on the curse and simply stop talking about it in the hopes that it would eventually just leave us be and move on to some other, less important sport. Like women’s ______.

But alas, our efforts were a complete failure. In the past few days, at least four fighters have come down with a case of the injury bug, leading to some small yet noticeable changes in several of the UFC’s upcoming cards. And we wonder why even Canadian fans are cautious to buy a ticket these days. (Author’s note: You see, Dana? THIS is what happens when you read from the Necronomicon. Side effects include nausea, meniere’s disease, Saturday night palsy, and possessed hand.) 

We shall begin today’s trip down injury lane with Kyle Noke…