Mad props to Kronk on the UG for pointing out these amazing pics of Kyra Gracie from Brazil’s VIP Magazine. More goodness in the thumbnails below…

Previously: Hot Potato: Kyra Gracie

“Shhhh…don’t cry, I’m sorry! I thought you were into that.”

There is news coming out of Brazil that multiple time BJJ & ADCC champion Kyra Gracie is working her way toward the cage. Given the Gracie legacy in MMA, the move is not entirely surprising, but what is nice to hear is that Strikeforce is still trying to build their female ranks.

Kyra gave Tatame the scoop:

“Ive been training boxing and Judo. It’s something that can happen, too. I already received some proposals and I know MMA is becoming bigger. They (Strikeforce) contacted me, invited me. I also received a proposal from Japan. We’re negotiating, setting some things with them (Strikeforce). Let’s say that, if I already had a contract, I’d be ready to fight today.”

For those of you not fully familiar with Kyra, we’ve taken the liberty to include a complete biography shameless pictorial after the jump.

For the past few years, the MMA world has been anxiously awaiting the debut of a certain Brazilian grappling phenom with a list of credentials that reads like “been there, done that” of the BJJ landscape. No, not Braulio Estima, although seeing him pick up his first MMA win was pretty outstanding. We’re talking about none other than Kyra Gracie, who has been honing her boxing skills with Claudio Coelho for the past two years in preparation for her MMA debut, which she promises will happen by the end of 2012.

Recently, Brazilian fight site BJJPix.com did a photoshoot with Kyra during one such training session, so we’ve decided to compile a collection of those photos, along with some generally enticing photos of Kyra, for your enjoyment. Because like we said, you could use a distraction. Check out the gallery after the jump, and make sure to follow Kyra on Twitter. Who knows, if she gets enough followers, maybe they’ll book her against Ronda Rousey just for the hell of it. One can only fap…I mean dream!

-J. Jones

(As if I needed an excuse to use this photo.)

For those of you who were too busy watching Jon Jones outgun Rampage Jackson to retain his light heavyweight title or Ben Rothwell fall to 0-1 at the hands of Mark Hunt this weekend, you may have overlooked the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships, which transpired in Nottingham, England of all places.

Andre Galvao easily had the best night of the bunch, taking gold in both the Under 88kg and Absolute tournaments, defeating Rousimar Palhares and Pablo Papovitch, respectively. Speaking of “Paul Harris”, he continued to prove that his mind is a fragile, ticking time bomb in his submission victory over David Avellan in their quarterfinal match. Things began to go off the rails when Palhares dove for his signature heel-hook-of-death on Avellan, and continued to crank it after the two rolled out of bounds and the referee yelled for a restart. I’ll let David’s brother Marcos, via his Facebook, explain the rest after the jump:

The coroner’s report from GracieMag.com:

A little over two months since the death of Ryan Gracie, on December 15, the first toxicology report on the black belt’s death was released yesterday by the program Fantastico, on Brazilian television. According to the program, the document stated that Ryan’s death was not of natural causes. Listed in the report, therapeutic doses of the medicines midasolan, alprazolan, prometazina, clozapina, haloperidol and the fighter had already used intoxicating substances. Based on analysis of the report, the authorities will determine what caused Ryan Gracie’s death. Cardiorespiratory failure seems to be the most probable cause.

Interpreted: the Gracies’ personal psychiatrist killed Ryan when he visited him in the big house. R.I.P.

And let us take this opportunity to mention Kyra Gracie again.

Kyra_Gracie – see more hot chicks

Yes, the Gracie family does occasionally produce women. (We’re as surprised as you are.) In particular, Kyra Gracie — the 22-year-old granddaughter of Robson and niece of Renzo, Ralph, and the late Ryan — is talented enough to roll with her male relations, and foxy enough to be featured on Hot Potato. The first female Gracie to actively compete in jiu-jitsu, Kyra has won over 20 major grappling titles since 1998, including two Abu Dhabi championships and five wins at the Pan-American Games. Check out more photos of Kyra after the jump, and learn more about her at her official website.

(Shhh, Kyra‘s sleeping.)

OMFGLOL, you guys…

shitwhistle on ‘Gambling Addiction Enabler: UFC 93‘: I saw that pic on hotchickswithdouchebags.com 
[Ed. note: Why don't you have a seat over there...]

Clyde on ‘Kyra Gracie in VIP Magazine‘: Just remember if she’s on top of you, don’t reach for the boobs. You’re just asking to get armbarred.
[Ed. note: See, isn't that better than the endless "triangle choke" gags?]

‘Whistle and Clyde, please send your names, addresses and shirt-sizes to feedback@cagepotato.com, and we’ll mail you a "Hall of Fame" tee at our earliest convenience. Keep rockin’ the comments, everybody — they bring joy to our lives.

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

– Frank Shamrock plans to return to competition in March. (MMA Fighting)

– Alistair Overeem makes too much money in K-1 to fight in Strikeforce. (MMA Weekly)

– Shane Carwin’s manager in hot water over "pump and dump" stock fraud charge. (SI.com)

– Brazilian trainer Marco Jara murdered after carjacking. (Sherdog)

– Will Kyra Gracie give MMA a try? (Fightlinker)

– Josh Barnett: The Biggest Loser of 2009. (Bloody Elbow)

– UFC 107 PPV buys: Not too shabby. (MMA Payout)

– Manny Pacquiao threatens lawsuit against Mayweather’s camp due to steroid accusations. (ESPN)

– Top 10 most controversial decisions in MMA. (Bleacher Report)

– The 10 biggest sports betrayals of the decade. (Scores Report)

– "Golden ratio" for feminine facial beauty discovered. (Asylum)

– Everything you need to become a better man in 2010. (Ask Men)

– 25 awesome winter fails. (Holy Taco)

– Jaden Smith gets his ass kicked in Karate Kid remake trailer. (Screen Junkies)

– Best NASCAR Cup races of the decade. (All Left Turns)

– Eight women who are completely off-limits. (Made Man)

– Redneck Christmas barn party fight. (Nothing Toxic)

– Pope attacked by crazy woman during Vatican mass. (Break)

D’Alelio vs. Rousey by heretherhere

If the best indicator of future performance is past behavior, the outcome of last night’s battle between Ronda Rousey and Sarah D’Alelio was written on the wall. Rousey, an Olympic medalist judoka, entered the cage with two pro and three amateur bouts under her black belt, all having ended via submission in under a minute. Referee Steve Mazzagatti sports a panoply of blown calls and poor decisions that have earned him the dishonor of being labeled one of MMA’s worst referees. When lightening fast submissions meet questionable decision making, get ready for the fireworks.

The trouble started for D’Alelio the moment the bell rang; Rousey switched up her takedown attack feverishly until she succeeded in bringing the fight to the mat just eighteen seconds into the bout. The trouble started for Mazzagatti about eight seconds later, when he stopped the fight based on a rumor he’d heard that D’Alelio had verbally submitted. The truth is that that Rousey was more than capable of making D’Alelio tap and tap quickly, and her odds of escaping that armbar were slim. But it doesn’t look like Mazzagatti stepped in because D’Alelio tapped verbally or otherwise, or because she was in immediate danger. Rousey stops torquing the arm and turns toward Mazzagatti to inform him that D’Alelio had cried out “Tap! Tap!”, and though we haven’t heard his side of the tale it looks like he takes her word for it and ends the fight. D’Alelio claims to have yelled “Wahahaaahaa!” in response to the pain, but that she never wanted out of the fight. D’Alelio could call for a rematch, but the end result would probably be the same. As for Rousey, how about a fight with Kyra Gracie?

Get full results and gifs of Rousey’s near-wardrobe mishap at the weigh-ins and Derek Mehman’s gruesome cut after the jump.

(Highlights from the 2007 ADCC tourney. For part 2, click here.)

The ultra-prestigious invitation-only Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Fighting World Championships — which takes place every two years — kicks off September 26th in Barcelona, with a host of familiar names in the brackets. Read on to see who will be battling for the biggest bragging rights in the grappling world during the upcoming 2009 edition. Props to Fightlinker and Japan MMA for the tips…

Female -60kg:
Kyra Gracie, Brazil (2007 women’s -59kg winner)
Sayaka Shioda, Japan (2007 women’s -55kg winner)
Megumi Fujii, Japan
Michelle Tavares, Brazil
Laurence Cousin, France
Ina Steffensen, Denmark
Hillary Williams, USA
Luanna Alzuguir, Brazil

Female 60kg+:
Hannette Staack, USA (2007 women’s Absolute and -67kg winner)
Penny Thomas, USA (2007 women’s 67kg+ winner)
Hitomi Hiraiwa, Japan
Rosângela Conceição, Brazil
Ida Hansson, Sweden
Shanti Abelha, Denmark
Lana Stephanac, USA
Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos, Brazil

(“I’m back, Bitches!”)

The IFL sent out a press release today detailing their second event in 2008. And true to the organization’s word, multiple titles will be on the line. Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko, Jay “The Thorobred” Hieron, and Wagnney Fabiano will all be defending their belts at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. during a nine-bout event on Friday, April 4th. The three championship bouts will be accompanied by match-ups between camps including Renzo Gracie Academy, Midwest Combat, Miletich Fighting Systems, and American Top Team. No word if Kyra Gracie will be among the RG Academy’s fighters.

What did Bas Rutten, IFL Vice President of Fighter Operations, have to say about the event, you might ask?

“I like the local feel of this card,” said Bas Rutten, IFL Vice President, Fighter Operations. “In addition to three outstanding championship matchups, featuring fighters from New York and New Jersey, you have Renzo Gracie’s camp, which was the champion last year, Midwest Combat, which features our top fighters from the Chicago area, and great battles with the Miletich camp and American Top Team, which we are very excited to have on board.”

American Top Team – based out of Florida – is considered outside of the core IFL camps and is one of the first to compete under the new IFL format.

“The Janitor” defected to the U.S. when he was a member of the Belarus wrestling team in the 90′s and became the IFL’s first individual champion when he won the light heavyweight title against Alex Schoenauer in November. He will face Jamal “The Suit” Patterson (God, these fucking nicknames), a sales manager for an orthodontics company. That’s even worse than being a real estate agent – not that we’re judging.

Between the ring girls, apparel models, television hosts, and the lady-fighters themselves, MMA is a damn fine sport to follow if you appreciate beautiful women. (And my God, do we ever.) So we figured, why not throw together our favorite females from all corners of the fight game and see how they stack up against each other? Enjoy the pics, and let us know how you’d rank ‘em in the comments section. And if you like this list, Digg it!

#12) MIESHA TATE

Hot Contender: Spending her high school years on the boys’ wrestling team gave Miesha Tate the grit she needed to fight in cages for a living. These days, "Takedown Tate" is one of the top-ten 135-pound female fighters in the world, and the combination of her nasty ground-and-pound and natural sex appeal has made her a rising star. You can see Miesha in action next month at Strikeforce Challengers 7 as she takes on Zoila Frausto. 

#11) LAURA CELESTE

Hot East Coast Girl: A native of Staten Island, Laura is a local legend among MMA fans in New York and New Jersey thanks to her ring-girl appearances for fight clubs like Ring of Combat and Asylum Fight League. As a professional hot chick, she has tremendous upside; let’s hope this exciting prospect gets her shot at the majors sooner rather than later.

10. Roger Gracie In 2005, 23-year-old Roger Gracie won the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling World Championship by submitting all eight opponents, something that had never been done before. The son of Reyla Gracie, Roger has racked up numerous first place finishes in jiu-jitsu tournaments around the world, and won his first MMA match in December [...]

8. Ivan Salaverry’s Anaconda Body Lock

Unfortunately, we could only find evidence of Salaverry’s UFC 50 match against Tony Fryklund in a poorly-soundtracked highlight video, but skip to the 1:51 mark and watch as Salaverry takes Fryklund’s back and squeezes until “The Freak” taps out in agony.

7. Frank Mir’s Kneebar

Frank Mir took a beating from Brock Lesnar during the ex-WWE star’s UFC debut at “Rapid Fire.” But Mir patiently waited for an opening and capitalized against a technique-deficient Lesnar.

6. Nick Diaz’s Gogoplata

Nick Diaz and Takanori Gomi were in a fucking war at PRIDE 33. When it went to the ground in round two, Diaz unleashed his BJJ to wrap up a perfect G.

("Don’t worry about it, Rolles. Listen, why don’t you stick around Vegas for a while and learn the casino trade?" Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Following his ugly loss to Joey "The Mexecutioner" Beltran last Saturday at UFC 109, Rolles Gracie has reportedly been cut from the UFC, joining Mark Coleman, Phillipe Nover, Tim Hague, and Frank Trigg in the list of fighters who didn’t make it out of that show with their jobs intact.

It’s not a common occurrence for a new UFC fighter to immediately get cut if they lose their debut, but Rolles wasn’t just any prospect — his last name gave him a lot to live up to. Whether the pressure came from Dana White or the fighter’s humiliated uncle, there may have been concern about Rolles tarnishing the Gracies’ UFC legacy with any more godawful performances. As a 3-1 fighter, his story is by no means over. But he’ll need a little more seasoning before he makes a return to the bright lights and high pressure of MMA’s biggest stage.

(If you’ve somehow forgotten how awesome Renzo is, watch 0:16-0:22 of the above clip. Props to Kostakio.)

Though he hasn’t competed since his DQ win over Frank Shamrock at EliteXC: Destiny in February 2007, don’t assume that Renzo Gracie is retired from the ring. The 42-year-old MMA pioneer, who is currently helping train Matt Serra and Andre Gusmao for their fights at UFC 98, says that he plans to start preparing for his next fight at the end of this year, right after he opens two new Renzo Gracie Academies in Connecticut and New Jersey. As he told TriStateFighter, he would happily fight for "anyplace that [would] take me…they’re willing to take an old man in, I will be there." Go here to listen to TSF’s full interview with Renzo, in which he discusses Serra’s preparation for Matt Hughes.

Bonus, after the jump: The trailer for Renzo Gracie Legacy, in which Renzo remembers Johnny Cash lyrics a little differently than we do.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/RootsofFight)

If you were to ask 100 MMA fans to define mixed martial arts in a word, their responses would differ greatly. If you asked the same census group to define the sport in a name, nearly all would give you the same answer: Gracie.

While some would likely say that Rorian and Royce — having respectively founded the Ultimate Fighting Championship and won three of its first four tournaments in decisive fashion — were the impetus behind their answer, most would likely point to Gracie jiu-jitsu originators Helio and Carlos Gracie as the reason for their response.

Carlos and Helio were innovators, who, although they didn’t invent the art of jujitsu, or it’s “successor,” judo,  they did arguably revolutionize the hybrid fighting art, making it more effective than both, especially when used by smaller combatants against larger opponents.

To the brothers, their variation of the centuries old  Japanese martial art form, now known universally as “Brazilian” or “Gracie” jiu-jitsu, was not just simply efficacious in competition; it was equally as useful in self-defense and street fighting scenarios — a point they have stressed since introducing it to the masses more than 80 years ago.

Decades before Rorian and Royce made history with the UFC, their father Helio represented the Gracie name and defended its honor in scores of challenge matches designed to prove that GJJ — an offshoot of Kodokan judo, which was taught to them by Japanese immigrant and judo master Mitsuyo Maeda, was more effective than any other form of martial art.

(Rolker and Royce Gracie pay their last respects to their father. Photos courtesy of Sherdog.)

Less than 10 hours after he passed away at the Beficência Portuguesa Hospital after contracting pneumonia, Helio Gracie was laid to rest in a modest ceremony in Petropolis, Brazil, witnessed by about 70 relatives, close friends and students. As Sherdog writes:

Speaking on behalf of Helio’s son Rickson Gracie, who was unable to reach Brazil in time for the funeral, Mario Aielo said:

Renzo Gracie Legacy Trailer – Watch more free videos

This is a preview of an upcoming documentary about Renzo Gracie, which I admit I am very eager to see. MMA Payout has an interesting interview with the director of “Renzo Gracie: Legacy” and in it you can hear how Gracie’s charisma and magnetism convinced him that a film needed to be made about this man.

Having been around Gracie a good deal during my IFL days, I can certainly relate. And because some of you have claimed an interest in wanting to read some of these IFL tales, I figured Gracie was as good a place as any to start.

(‘Screw this, baby. Let’s go to IHOP.’)

You’d think Cesar Gracie – head trainer/enabler to Nick and Nate Diaz – would have enough head cases in his life to keep himself busy. Either that’s not true, or else perhaps he’s developed a taste for difficult students, because now he is actively courting Jose Canseco. Silly us, we hoped it was just an empty, impulsive gesture when team members put out a video of them in a diner inviting Canseco to come on down and learn how to fight. But now the Gracie squad says it has reached an agreement to train Canseco for a fight with Herschel Walker “should that matchup happen.”

Hopefully that matchup won’t happen, and as a result Nick Diaz will not have to face a crisis of conscience for helping Canseco in his efforts to demean MMA for his own financial gain.  Why the Gracie team wants anything to do with him is a mystery in itself.  Unless they’re not getting a big enough piece of Diaz’s six-figure payday and are dealing with a dire financial situation, you’d think they’d want to stay away from a guy who has proved so toxic to everything he touches.

Our bro-4-life Ariel Helwani ran down to Renzo Gracie‘s NYC gym to ask the most affable member of Brazil’s first family of fighting why he feels the need to come back at 43 years old to fight in the UFC.  A smiling Gracie attributes it to his irrepressible love of combat, proving yet again that some guys are just born for this stuff and there’s nothing they can do about it.  Gracie refers to the chance to fight Matt Hughes at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi as "an honor," and says he’s already dropped twenty-five pounds, so now you can kind of see his abs.  Now if only he could get his wife to stop complaining about all the time he spends at the gym, he’d be golden.

If you watch this to the end, you’ll see Helwani asking Gracie to repeat one of his favorite Renzo-isms of all time.  He complies but, much like the "Planet of the Apes" remake, it lacks the fire of the original.  See what we mean after the jump.

Just two weeks after the first death of a mixed martial artist resulting from injuries sustained in sanctioned competition, the MMA world was struck with another tragedy this weekend, as 33-year-old Ryan Gracie — the so-called “bad boy” of the Gracie clan — was found dead in a Sao Paulo jail cell Saturday morning; he had been arrested Friday night for stealing a car from a 76-year-old man at knifepoint, crashing it, then attempting to steal a motorcycle to flee from police. According to this article, Gracie did not respond to a morning roll call: “When I went to his cell, I saw him lying on his mattress,” [police inspector Paulo] Bittencourt said. “He had no pulse and a reddish liquid was coming out of his mouth. It seems to me he died of a heart attack.”

Following the arrest, Gracie’s urine showed traces of cocaine and marijuana, but the Bleacher Report (props: BloodyElbow) suggests that the illegal drugs were just the beginning:

Psychiatrist Dr. Sabino Ferreira de Faria was called by Gracie’s wife after his arrest and attended to him at the jail. The doctor has allegedly stated that he administered the following drugs to Gracie to calm him down: Haldol (a powerful antipsychotic), Fenergan (which has a side effect of sleepiness), Topamax (for Migraines), Dienpax (tranquilizers), and OmniPlex (relaxant). The doctor remained with Gracie most of the night, and was notified of Gracie’s death as he was returning home. The cause of death has not yet been released by the medical examiner.

So yeah, drug interactions were probably at play here — and if there’s any justice, Dr. “Feelgood” Ferreira will be spending some time in a Brazilian jail cell himself.

Ryan was the son of Robson Gracie (cousin of Royce Gracie), brother of Renzo Gracie, and grandson of Carlos Gracie. He held a record of 5-2 as a middleweight in the PRIDE organization; his last match was a submission victory over Yoji Anjo at PRIDE Shockwave 2004 (12/31/04). Ryan Gracie’s arrest for car-jacking wasn’t his first brush with violence. In 2000, he was arrested for stabbing someone at a Rio de Janeiro nightclub, and in 2005 he accidentally shot himself in the femur, nearly costing him the use of his leg.

(Surely Kimbo’s brilliant legal council will find a way out of this mess.)

Remember when Pro Elite ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy? Well, turns out they didn’t. At least that’s their story now. As fighters still under contract with them have been filing notices to get free, Pro Elite has responded by informing those fighters that the company has not declared bankruptcy and that it intends to stage an event in 2009.

A notice sent out to several managers representing Pro Elite fighters states:

“Elite XC and ProElite are currently downsizing its staff in an effort to improve its business moving forward. As this process is implemented, Elite XC cancelled the event previously scheduled for Nov. 8 in attempt to re-schedule another event in early 2009.”

That’s funny, because if I was running an MMA company that was merely downsizing but which intended to continue promoting events, and suddenly there were widespread reports that my company was filing for bankruptcy, I think I might say something to contradict that right away. I might, for example, immediately issue a statement declaring my intention not to just roll over and die. I might even call the people who had circulated those reports a bunch of lying sons of bitches. What I would not do is say nothing at all until fighters started trying to get free of their contracts, and only then come up with an obviously bullshit reason for not releasing them.

As you might expect, no one is buying this explanation.

(Oh yeah, this guy is headed over as well. Thank God for that.)

As we reported yesterday, Jorge Gurgel’s claim that the fighters who came up short at Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine would find themselves out of a UFC contract was not exactly truthful. KJ Noons, Kurt Holobaugh, and Anthony Smith, for example, all suffered defeats at the event and were ironically the first names to be mentioned in the Strikeforce/UFC…migration, I guess?

On last night’s edition of UFC Tonight, the full list of Strikeforce fighters who would be making the transition to the big leagues was announced, and suffice it to say, there were a couple rather puzzling omissions and inclusions. After the jump is that full list, along with our thoughts on who some of these gentlemen should face in their UFC debuts.

HEAVYWEIGHT 
-Daniel Cormier (11-0 MMA, 8-0 SF)

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT 
-Gegard Mousasi (33-3-2 MMA, 4-1-1 SF)
-Gian Villante (10-3 MMA, 3-2 SF)

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Vale Tudo legend Rickson Gracie is partnering with a new MMA organization in Brazil, y’all, and he’s putting his own unique stamp on the format and rules. Some are new ideas, many are ones tried before and at least one is just kinda weird.

Our friends over at GracieMag have the full story on the new Mestre do Combate, debuting November 22nd. Below we have some of the highlights.

Teams - Rickson’s organization will use a team format of some sort, akin to what the now defunct IFL used.

Rounds - There will just be two, like in the old Pride non title bouts. The first round will be ten minutes and the second will be five.

Cannot be saved by the bell - So this is interesting. “Fighters will not have the luxury of being saved by the bell: if a submission hold is in place when the bell sounds, they will have to defend or tap out first for the fight to end,” GracieMag reports. What do you think of this rule, nation? I think its a compelling idea, even if it could lead to some messy and uneven arbitrary implementation.

At what point in a fighter’s career is it considered cruel and unusual punishment to allow them to compete? Sure, Randy Couture fought until he was 47, and Dan Severn is still beating up any homeless person that accidentally stumbled into the cage for a pint of Guinness and a pat on the back, but those gents are simply the exceptions that prove the rule. Guys like Ken Shamrock, on the other hand, are doing nothing more than shortening their lifespan each time they step into the ring, and for what? An attempt to recapture some former glory, or a feeling of youth? We know it damn sure isn’t in the hopes of recapturing a title, but then again, a passion is a passion, and if an obviously past their prime athlete wants to continue fighting at the detriment of their own health, who are we to say otherwise? It’s up to the promoters to cut them loose, not the fighters, and as we’ve seen in the story of Scott Hall, sometimes it is these very promoters who seem unable to make that distinction.

We’re rambling, of course, about the reports that BJJ/coaching legend Renzo Gracie is preparing for a second run in the UFC. At age 45.

Now, we’re not here to bash a freakin’ Gracie of all people for wanting to give the UFC another go, but this just seems like a terrible idea in every sense of the word.

Strikforce’s paper-thin light-heavyweight division just lost another one.

As GRACIEMAG first reported yesterday, Strikeforce light-heavyweight Roger Gracie has been called up to the UFC. While a date and an opponent have yet to be named for his UFC debut, Roger Gracie has hinted that he may enlist Anderson Silva to help him train for the bout. Roger Gracie is currently 4-1 in his career, with his last fight being a first round knockout loss to King Mo at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov.

On paper, it’s pretty strange to call up a guy with five professional fights who just lost to the big leagues. But it makes a little more sense when you actually look over Strikeforce’s light-heavyweight division. With King Mo on the shelves for a while, there really isn’t much to offer Gracie in Strikeforce. As the age old saying goes: If Gracie fights Ovince St. Preux or Gegard Mousasi in Strikeforce and no one watches, does the fight even matter? At least I think that’s how that one went.

(“No rematch for you, Punk”)

According to Gilbert Melendez’s trainer, Cesar Gracie, the UFC are in talks to have either former UFC lightweight champ BJ Penn or former WEC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis challenge his charge for his Strikeforce strap next.

Gracie informed TATAME of the development today.

“Melendez’s situation is complex right now. We still don’t have an opponent, date or place set. They said he could fight in San Jose but it’ll probably change. They mentioned Josh Thomson but then said it was not going to happen”, Gracie explained.“I spoke to [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva and he told me maybe some UFC fighters will go to Strikeforce. We would really like to see him fighting Pettis or BJ, but we are still not sure about what’s going to happen.”

Given that “Showtime” mentioned yesterday that he is considering dropping down to featherweight to challenge Jose Aldo in the near future, it would seem that the UFC brass are leaning towards “The Prodigy” for the bout. It would make sense since Penn has been uncharacteristically mum about his fighting future since his last fight and likely would have been mulling over the offer to swing over to the UFC’s sister promotion, considering how much less promotion and exposure it gets.

(Funny, I don’t remember this position being taught in those Gracie Jiu-Jitsu instructional videos. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Being a Gracie in MMA is a little like being a Kennedy in American politics – for better or worse, there are certain expectations. We realize Rolles Gracie had only his fourth professional fight at UFC 109 on Saturday night, so we didn’t expect him to burst on the scene like the second coming of Rickson. We did, however, expect him to beat a guy who took the bout on a few days’ notice, and whose most significant career win thus far was a knockout of Houston Alexander in January.

For the first few minutes things seemed to be going as planned. Then Rolles turned into an exhausted zombie, plodding flat-footed and open-mouthed around the Octagon before eventually giving up altogether and lying flat on his stomach as he waited for the referee to get bored enough to stop the bout.

A lot of trainers might try and soft-pedal their disappointment out of regard for the guy’s feelings after a fight like that. Renzo Gracie is not one of those trainers. Talking to GracieFighter.com, he called the performance “embarrassing,” adding:

Preparing for today’s technique video entry, we thought we’d struck gold when we ran across a video from GracieAcademy titled “143 Armlocks in 10 Minutes“. Wow, we thought to ourselves, we didn’t even realize there were that many variations. Clicking on the video to watch, we were even more impressed to find that the video in question wasn’t even a full ten minutes long! Not only are these guys knowledgeable, they’re effing fast.

Well, cue the Price is Right “aw shucks” sound effect, because we got trolled pretty hard. Turns out the video is an armbar drill — watch Ryron Gracie go from side to side, working on his form, and not a single fun variation to speak of. Well played, Gracie Academy. You may have won this time, but we’ll be back.

Luckily, right next to that video we found the customary Gracie Breakdown for UFC 133, so you can watch Ryron and Rener work through the (submissionless) UFC card, including that Costantinos Philippou attempt at an omaplata that Rogan was yelling about.

Enjoy! (Seriously, enjoy this. Don’t go through another joyless day; talk to your doctor to find out if BJJ is right for you.)

[RX]