(Props: twitter.com/kidmcgillivray)

There is nothing wrong with your monitor. TUF 13 castmember Ryan McGillivray tweeted out this horrifying photo of his destroyed nose on Tuesday, after eating a knee in sparring (“Bobbed when I should have weaved haha”). McGillivray, who was released by the UFC after losing a decision to Shamar Bailey at the TUF 13 Finale, will need to get surgery to have that thing taken care of.

After the jump: A few more candidates in the “Worst Broken Noses in MMA” hall of fame…

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!

(Video: Zombie Prophet)

Though both events took place under the purview of the California State Athletic Commission, the no-nonsense, military precision of last week’s UFC on FOX weigh-ins was nowhere to be seen last night’s event. That’s not necessarily a good thing for the fighters , but it’s certainly more entertaining for the rest of us.

Things kicked off with a healthy dose of confusion. Several prelim fighters tipped the scales well over the allotted limit, which Joe Rogan attributed to a discrepancy between the scales backstage and the official one upfront. While there may be some truth to that, other fighters managed to hit the target on the dot. It was painfully clear that the chick running the show for the CSAC had no clue what she was doing. You know you’re in for a wild ride when someone seeks mathematical and scientific guidance from this guy.

(In Brazil, it’s customary to destroy your own cornermen with flying knees after an impressive victory.)

With a flawless 10-0 record, three Fight of the Night awards, and a legendary spinning wheel-kick knockout of Terry Etim in his last performance, Brazilian lightweight Edson Barboza is arguably the greatest undefeated prospect on the UFC’s roster. And he’ll be going for his fifth win in the Octagon on May 26th, when he faces Evan Dunham at UFC 146 in Las Vegas. UFC president Dana White confirmed the pairing yesterday via Twitter.

Dunham, who was a much-hyped undefeated prospect himself at one time, is back on the upswing after compiling back-to-back victories against Shamar Bailey and Nik Lentz, which snapped a two-fight losing streak. Dunham’s biggest advantage against Barboza should be on the mat, but if he can’t get the fight there, he’ll be in for a long, painful night, full of feet flying at his face and shins slamming into his thighs. Anybody think Evan can derail the Edson Barboza hype-train?

Related: Mayhem to Be Given Another Shot Against C.B. Dollaway at UFC 146

(Ryan Bader has so much power in his hands, he only has to punch in the general vicinity of your head to knock you out. / GIFS via IronForgesIron)

All the knockouts and submissions from UFC 139: Shogun vs. Henderson, in animated GIF form. Lots more after the jump.

Just a quick follow-up to yesterday’s news of Jack Shields’s passing: MMAFighting has confirmed that Jake Shields will still face Jake Ellenberger in the main event of UFC Fight Night 25 (aka “Battle on the Bayou”), which takes place September 17th in New Orleans.

However, the event’s preliminary card has suffered a setback, as DaMarques Johnson and Mackens Semerzier have both withdrawn due to injuries. Johnson has already been replaced by returning TUF 11 vet Seth Baczynski. UFC Fight Night 25′s current lineup is after the jump…

(And you thought the tats on the *front* of Mahe were insane? Photo courtesy of Esther Lin/Strikeforce.)

…are after the jump, for the benefit of all you crybabies.

(Update: The video was stuck on auto-play, so we moved it after the jump…)

Courtesy of Spike TV, here’s the cast unveiling video for TUF 13, which premieres on March 30th. Among the 14 welterweight hopefuls, there are fewer well-known names compared to recent seasons. I know who Shamar Bailey is because of his stint with Strikeforce, while undefeated KOTC standout Myles Jury — 9-0, all wins by stoppage, eight in the first round — has also been on my radar. But other than that, the cast is mostly made up of unknowns, with no obvious ringer in the mix. On the other hand, there also isn’t a lot of crazy hair in this video, which suggests that maybe these guys are more serious about fighting than camera time. That’s a good sign. A complete cast-list is after the jump…

(Believe me when I tell you that I take each and every fight with 100% seriousness.)

On the heels of his second round Fight of the Night earning performance over John Olav Einemo at UFC 131, Dave Herman had a bit of momentum going for him. The Team Quest boldly claimed that “Jiu Jitsu doesn’t work” and then proceeded to handily defeat an ADCC champion in his UFC debut. But Herman’s hype train was nearly derailed in September, when he tested positive for marijuana and steroids in the aftermath of his aforementioned win over Einemo. The details surrounding his testing were sketchy to say the least, but in light of the circumstances he was pulled out of his UFC 136 bout with Mike Russow nonetheless. Well it seems “Peewee’s” pee is now clean, as he has been booked for a fight with Dutch submission specialist Stefan Struve for the UFC’s debut on FuelTV this February.

How he hangs a hammer from those things we’ll never know.

It’s fair to say that this season of The Ultimate Fighter didn’t live up to expectations. Despite the inclusion of pay-per-view juggernaut Brock Lesnar, this season posted some of the lowest ratings in the franchise’s history. And yet again, the show’s momentum was halted by the revelation that the coaches would not be facing off at the end of the season. But tonight the UFC has a golden opportunity to make chicken salad out of chicken shit with a night of free fights on Spike TV. The UFC announced last night via Twitter that six prelim fights will be aired on Facebook at 6:30pm (Eastern). Tell us who you got in the comments, and if you’re up early enough there still may be time to enter our MMAOutlet.com UFC Fight-Picking Contest.

Results from last night’s weigh-ins are after the jump.

Dammit, who are all you guys again?

Say what you will about The Ultimate Fighter (not like you need an invitation), but the finale shows tend to be pretty damn fun. This season, we actually have two fairly solid finalists, a dynamite co-main in Pettis-Guida, plus a handful of other matchups calibrated for striking showdowns and crowd amazement.

Here’s a quick and dirty rundown of the fights scheduled for this weekend, with a few of those fancy moving pictures that you like so much. Who ya got?

Ramsey Nijem

VS

Tony Ferguson

Well, either this fight is the one you’ve been waiting for, or you’re just wondering what these two nobodies are doing on your UFC card. Tune in to find out which guy gets a contract with the UFC. (Spoiler Alert: It’ll be both of them.)

(Are you there God? It’s me, Cowboy…)

A lot of fight booking action today, Potato Nation.

Before dropping a unanimous decision to Nate Diaz at UFC 141, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone had arguably the best 2011 of any fighter out there, scoring victories over Paul Kelly, Vagner Rocha, Charles Oliveira, and Dennis Siver, three of which came by way of stoppage. And although he ended the year on a loss, Cerrone will be looking to start off 2012 with a big win when he takes on 60 fight veteran Yves Edwards at UFC on FX 3, which goes down at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia on May 15th.

After suffering one of the most brutal knockout losses of 2011 at the hands of Sam Stout, Edwards has gone 1-1 in the UFC, picking up a second round TKO over Rafaello Oliveira at UFC Live 6 before being outpointed by TUF 13 winner Tony Ferguson at the TUF 14 Finale in December. Edwards will likely be a considerable underdog going into this one, so Yves, for the sake of the Thugjitsu nation, lay off the KC Masterpiece.

And in other UFC on FX news…

(Lolohea Mahe’s body is eerily similar to what my legal pad looks like during boring conference calls. Photo courtesy of Esther Lin/Strikeforce.)

As a light appetizer to tomorrow’s big show, Strikeforce is having its latest Challengers event tonight at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. The main card will be broadcast on Showtime starting at 11:45 p.m. ET/PT. If you don’t subscribe to Showtime, you’re in luck — the network will be available for free this weekend in 54.4 million households as part of their All Access Free Preview Weekend.

So why is tonight’s event worth DVR’ing? Well, you’ve got Hottest Women in MMA honoree Miesha Tate (8-2) taking on undefeated prospect (and former Fresno City College soccer player) Zoila Frausto (5-0) in a 135-pound contest. Jiu-jitsu phenom Andre Galvao (3-1) will try to rebound from his first MMA loss — a split-decision against Jason High at the DREAM Welterweight Grand Prix semi-finals — against Strikeforce veteran Luke Stweart (6-2). And in the main event, Fresno native Lavar Johnson (11-3) will take on Hawaiian heavyweight Lolohea Mahe (3-0-1). It will be Johnson’s first cage-appearance since his 18-second knockout of Carl Seumanutafa last May. In July, Johnson was shot in the abdomen by an unidentified gunman while attending a family barbecue. Four other people were shot during the incident, with one of them dying at the scene. Expect a hero’s welcome from the hometown crowd tonight.

The full lineup and weigh-in results are after the jump. No, not all fighters made their contracted weights, but they all tried, which I think is totally admirable.

(McGee vs. Yang, the middleweight showdown that UFC fans have been…wait a minute, remind me again who Yang is?)

Unless you’re one of those Bud Light ‘Battle on the Bayou’ contest winners, you’re probably not overly excited about Saturday’s “Shields vs. Ellenberger” UFC event on Spike. Boxing already has Saturday night locked up, with Floyd Mayweather‘s ring-return against 24-year-old WBC Welterweight champ Victor Ortiz, and it feels like UFC Fight Night 25 will be an overlooked prelude to next week’s Jones vs. Rampage card.

But let’s not admit defeat so soon. We’ll be liveblogging the Shields vs. Ellenberger main card on CagePotato.com starting at 9 p.m. ET, and it would be nice if a few of you showed up to keep us company. Could it be one of those “crap on paper, bonkers in reality” events? Who knows, but consider the following…

All Eyes on Jake: So far, Jake Shields‘s UFC career has consisted of an underwhelming (and razor-thin) split-decision victory over Martin Kampmann, and a rout at the hands of Georges St. Pierre. His dominant stretch of eight-straight stoppage victories in 2006-2009 are a distant memory in the minds of MMA fans, and he needs a dramatic win here, badly. Shields’s dance partner, Jake Ellenberger, has been spent years fighting for recognition, and with four straight Octagon wins over serious competition, he’s starting to get it. Stylistically, the fight might not be a barn-burner, but it could have career-altering implications for the headliners.

Say what you want about how bitter SPIKE is acting towards the UFC ever since acquiring rights to Bellator. But after watching Bellator 60 last night in Hammond, Indiana on MTV2, it’s not hard to understand what SPIKE sees in the promotion. Season Six kicked off with a bang, with a new featherweight champion and four men advancing in the season’s featherweight tournament.

Even without considering Joe Warren’s Greco-Roman background, it’s no surprise that Warren’s gameplan would consist of attempting takedowns early and often after the brutal knockout loss to Alexis Vila he suffered in his last fight at Bellator 51. And while Warren found success with his takedowns, he was completely unable to keep Pat Curran on the mat. Curran landed some hard shots throughout the fight, but a hard right knee in the third round put Warren out on his feet. But since the referee didn’t stop the fight, Curran then landed a flurry of punches and knees that caused Joe Warren to turn his back to the challenger. And when the referee still didn’t stop the fight, Pat Curran landed two huge uppercuts that floored Warren, finally ending the fight one minute and twenty five seconds into the third round. With the victory, Curran improves to 17-4 in his MMA career, including a 7-1 run in Bellator.

Video After the jump.

(Warren vs. Curran promo, via BellatorMMA)

Bellator’s sixth season kicks off tonight at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, featuring the featherweight championship bout between Joe Warren and Pat Curran, and the season 6 featherweight tournament quarterfinals — you can catch the action on MTV2 starting at 8 p.m./7 p.m. Central. But the season has already gotten off to a shaky start, as yesterday’s weigh-ins resulted in one embarrassing scale-failure, and a crime-related no-show.

Tournament participant Genair da Silva crushed the scales at 149 pounds for his bout against Alexandre “Popo” Bezerra. Silva was given two hours to cut down to the 146-pound limit, but was unable to make it happen, and Bellator replaced him on the spot with season 4 featherweight tournament semi-finalist Kenny Foster, who was slated to meet Bobby Reardanz on tonight’s preliminary card.

Sean McCorkle and Josh Shockley also initially missed weight, but nailed it on their second attempts; keep in mind that McCorkle will be fighting in the talent-rich 280-pound catchweight division.

But at least all those guys showed up, unlike some people we know. As CageWriter reports:

(Two words: Cultivating mass.)

Oh my God, you guys. We are just two days away from a match so epic that it threatens to implode our entire universe and send it spiraling down a black hole quicker than a Duane Ludwig knockout. And since most of us are still trying to financially recover from Christmas (only to spend nearly as much on New Year’s Eve, ironically), why not place some bets with us and end this sumbitch on a bang instead of a whimper? Check out the betting lines, courtesy of BestFightOdds, along with our Negrodamus-esque advice below.

Main Card
Brock Lesnar (+110) vs. Alistair Overeem (-130)
Nate Diaz (+240) vs. Donald Cerrone (-280)
Jon Fitch (-230) vs. Johny Hendricks (+190)
Vladimir Matyushenko (+285) vs. Alexander Gustafsson (-345)
Nam Phan (-230) vs. Jimy Hettes (+190)

Preliminary card (televised on Spike)
Ross Pearson (-300) vs. Junior Assunçao (+250)
Anthony Njokuani (+155) vs. Danny Castillo (-175)

Preliminary card (Facebook)
Dong Hyun Kim (-360) vs. Sean Pierson (+300)
Jacob Volkmann (-260) vs. Efrain Escudero (+220)
Matt Riddle (-115) vs. Luis Ramos (-105)
Manvel Gamburyan (+200) vs. Diego Nunes (-240)

Thoughts…

(Dear fist-posing douchebag: You were not supposed to be part of this picture.)

The UFC paid out nearly $2 million in disclosed salaries and bonuses to the fighters who competed at UFC 139: Shogun vs. Henderson, according to figures released yesterday by the California State Athletic Commission.

Though we don’t know what kind of undisclosed “locker room bonuses” were thrown around after the fights, Cung Le was officially the biggest earner of the night, making over $400,000 for his second-round TKO loss to Wanderlei Silva. Seriously. On paper, that’s almost twice what Shogun took home. Then again, Le’s a local hero in San Jose (which made him particularly valuable for this event) with a movie career to attend to (which puts his time at a premium these days). For the record, Dana White isn’t sure if he’ll be back.

The full list of disclosed UFC 139 payouts is below…

Dan Henderson: $320,000 (includes $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus; no win bonus)
def. Mauricio Rua: $235,000 (includes $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

There’s a very good chance that Tony Ferguson will be the next winner of The Ultimate Fighter. So it’s a shame that his primary legacy from the show — at least for the people who actually watched it — is the moment from this week’s episode when he attacked his own teammate Charlie Rader then needled Rader about having his son taken from him. It was particularly shocking because Ferguson hadn’t previously shown any signs of being a mean-spirited drunk. Now, he has to expect a small chorus of boos when he enters the Octagon at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas next Saturday. In his guest blog for SBNation.com, Ferguson tried to explain the circumstances that transformed him from humble front-runner to TUF 13‘s biggest heel:

You first have to understand we started drinking not long after we had just got done fighting. We had also done the semi-final picks. I think part of me brought the fight home since my real fight with Ryan ended so fast. When you bring alcohol into the mix, it was just bad from there.

We all drank a lot. It started out with shots of Patron and moved to Jim Beam. Miller Lites were mixed in the entire time. We weren’t just drinking to relax. We were going hard core. Everyone was drinking, too, although maybe not as much as some of us.

(If you ever find yourself in a bad mood today, just put on ‘Cool It Now’ and stare at this gif for at least 45 seconds. Trust me. Props: IronForgesIron.com)

Len Bentley can’t wrap his head around the fact that he was passed over for the wild card spot in favor of Chuck O’Neil and Javier Torres. “At no point in the wild card were any names called that were superior to mine,” he says, humbly. He tracks down Dana White in the gym, grips his hand in a bro-shake, and will not let that sucker go.

“If Ryan [McGillivray] doesn’t make it to the finals, I would do anything to fight him in the finale,” Len tells Dana, squeezing the boss’s hand desperately. Len figured his performance would be enough, and that he didn’t need to beg for it during the wild card meeting with the coaches last week. Well, it wasn’t, and he did. Dana is a little taken aback, and doesn’t appreciate guys trying to do matchmaking for the finale. Also, we can probably assume that he went back to his office and went through an entire bottle of hand sanitizer.

Back in the Team Lesnar locker room, Brock tries to put the whole wild card thing in perspective: “Don’t hang your head, you’re a part of something great…everybody got their chance to fight.” Or, as he tells the camera later: “Tough shit, that’s life.”

(“New episode of ‘Coal’? YEAH, BABY! GET SOME!” / Gif via IronForgesIron.com)

The quarterfinal round kicked off in last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Bellyache vs. Team Stare Directly at the Camera While Being Interviewed by Megan Olivi, and Shamar Bailey’s not feeling a personal best. The gray-team standout tweaked his back, and direct pressure ain’t comfortable. As he discusses it with Justin Edwards, Chris Cope lurks by, as if on cue, and screams “Woo!”

“I’mma choke that voice box out,” Shamar says.

But before he gets a chance to do that, Ramsey Nijem and Clay Harvison will square off. Dos Santos feels Ramsey is the best wrestler on his team. Ramsey says that his Palestinian heritage helps him be the fighter he is. He’s seen the road-stops, the walls, the guns; he feels grateful to be fighting in a controlled environment, and not for his life.

Dana White brings UFC middleweight contender and war hero Brian Stann to the gym. Stann tells the guys about being a Marine Corps captain, the lifestyle of discipline, how success breeds success…wait a minute. Is this just an ad for the Marines? This is like those segments on The Biggest Loser where they teach the contestants how to cook with Jennie-O-brand turkey. Come on, you know what I’m talking about. I can’t stand that crap. Anyway, Brock tells some of these long-haired punks to fill out an application.

Party Like a Rockstar also came out in 2007. Your mind = Blown. Props: Fox Sports

I’m willing to bet that more than a few sports writers have pointed out that four years ago, Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua would have been just as worthy of main event status as it was last night at UFC 139. That four years later, we’re still willing to pay to watch guys like Wanderlei Silva, Cung Le, Urijah Faber, Stephan Bonnar and Miguel Torres. That last night’s event appropriately enough took place in Strikeforce’s old stomping grounds in San Jose. For that matter, I’m pretty sure you heard all of that stuff at some point from Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan last night.

I tried to avoid those clichéd observations, but they’re too appropriate to ignore. As fans of mixed martial arts, we’ve been waiting at least four years for a fight between Pride legends Dan Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to come together. Yet for as long as we’ve wanted to see this fight, what we were given last night was worth every second of the wait.

Pictured: Seth giving Jared a tour of Louisiana.

Ultimate Fight Night 25 goes down tonight in New Orleans, and all that hot sauce and bourbon has whipped us into a fight picking frenzy. Representing the home team will be Louisiana’s own Seth Falvo, who will be doing battle against Head to Head newbie (read: loser) Jared “DangadaDang” Jones. Which Jake will reign supreme? Will it be a good night for The Ultimate Fighter, or a complete disaster? Will the stars of Swamp People get roped into a video interview with Joe Rogan? Find out all this and more, and then tell us what we forgot in the comments section.

Let’s skip the foreplay: Shields or Ellenberger, who ya got?

JJ: As unimpressed as I’ve been with Jake Shields’ UFC career thus far, I just can’t see how Ellenberger wins this one. Though his submission defense looked great, his takedown defense looked pretty exploitable against Carlos Eduardo Rocha, and if Dan Henderson can’t knock out Shields, then it ain’t happening, homie. I got Shields by UD in a match that I forget about quicker than every Saturday Night Live sketch of the past 10 years. The real question is, will the recent loss of Shields’ father have an effect on his game plan?

SF: In any other city, I’d be inclined to agree with you, Jared. But this is New Orleans. A city where the underdog has recently been able to thrive. A city renowned for its Voodoo culture. And, as anyone who has had one too many hand grenades and went home with a dress wearing local they found on Bourbon Street can tell you, a city where not everything is what it seems. Not that that’s ever happened to me or anything.

You’re only as good as your last fight. When we last saw Jake Shields, he was completely unable to take Georges St. Pierre to the ground and didn’t fare better trading punches with the champion until he managed to steal the fifth round. Jake Ellenberger, meanwhile, dominated Sean Pierson in a fight he took on only seventeen days notice. When you add on not only the death of Jake Shield’s father, but also that other distraction Team Cesar Gracie has been dealing with, it’s possible that Jake Shields isn’t as focused as he needs to be. This one has the potential to get interesting. Maybe not “Ellenberger pulls off the upset” interesting, but at least “watchable while sober” interesting.

(Brock Lesnar: Just chewing some cud. No biggie. / Props: IronForgesIron.com)

Like many of us, Team Lesnar newbie Chuck O’Neil is weirded out by the “chicken shit into chicken salad” thing. “Is that [*expletive, meaning Brock*] calling me chicken shit?” he asks. “What the hell?” He’s not the only one. Len Bentley has also been carrying around an attitude lately, and Tony Ferguson makes it very clear that he ain’t no chicken shit. Dudes, it’s just a redneck figure of speech, okay? Brock calls for a team meeting. “I need to clarify this ‘chicken shit to chicken salad’ issue…” he says. Of course, it sounds less graceful when you have to explain it, but the sentiment is a positive one — you were nothing when you came here, and you have an opportunity to be something. So seize the damn moment.

Justin Edwards comes in as a replacement for the departed Keon Caldwell. He gets mistaken for Randy Couture a lot. “Small Randy!” Junior Dos Santos agrees.

(Without televisions in the house, Ramsey and Junior had to imagine what happened on the ‘Jersey Shore’ finale. / Props: IronForgesIron)

Lew Polley thinks Team Dos Santos is outworking Team Lesnar, and believes Brock Lesnar has already lost interest. “Junior legitimately cares about how these kids are doing,” he says, totally contradicting the trash he’ll talk after the show wraps.

Lesnar, who missed last week’s fight due to a family obligation, returns to a very luke-warm welcome. “Len, I heard you fought hard buddy,” he says. Len Bentley isn’t interested in such pleasantries. After going 1-2 in the first three fights, Team Lesnar is down to “The Four Horsemen”: Tony Ferguson, Clay Harvison, Chuck O’Neil, and Charlie Rader.

But in practice, the Horsemen are performing like a bunch of damn fillies. Clay is sleepwalking through practice, and Charlie is lollygagging too. (Brock’s word, not mine.)

(You see, Shamar, MMA is a lot like dodgeball – the fat guys always get knocked out first.) 

By Jared Jones

After the WEC merged with the UFC in early 2011, most MMA fans were quick to write off the competitors in its lightweight division, claiming that they would simply be outmatched by their UFC counterparts. The success of current lightweight champ Ben Henderson, along with that of guys like Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis quickly disproved this notion, but one fighter who has gone almost completely unnoticed at 155 has been that of Danny Castillo. The Team Alpha Male standout’s record currently stands at 3-1 in the UFC, including a win over former number one contender Joe Stevenson in his promotional debut. On the heels of a split decision victory over noted striker Anthony Njokuani at UFC 141 in December, Castillo will be looking to build on his current two-fight win streak against Strikeforce veteran and submission savant John Cholish on the preliminary card of next weekend’s UFC on FOX 3 event. We were recently able to snag an interview with “Last Call,” who dished on everything from TRT to his stance on teammates fighting teammates. Enjoy, and make sure to follow Danny and all his Alpha Male cohorts on Twitter.

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Thanks for interview opportunity, Danny. I was wondering if we could first talk about your UFC 141 victory over Anthony Njokuani. How would you assess your performance in that fight?

Danny Castillo: “I would rate my performance about a D+. It wasn’t the best fight of my career. I was able to get a victory on four weeks of training, and I had just fought prior to that in November against Shamar Bailey. I pretty much went in there with the gameplan to wrestle the whole time; I knew that that was one of the flaws in [Njokuani's] game. He’s a dangerous fighter. He was one of the most exciting fighters in the WEC, and he’s probably one of the top five strikers inside the UFC. On four weeks notice, I wasn’t prepared to necessarily stand with him or to sit in the pocket against his strengths. His ground game was greatly improved, and now that I’ve done some training with him I understand why; he’s got a phenomenal Jiu-Jitsu coach in Sergio Penha. As far as I’m concerned, I think I won the first and the third round. I probably had about six takedowns throughout the fight, and I think I did enough to win the fight.”

Follow us after the jump for Castillo’s thoughts on the TRT debate, the possibility of fighting a teammate, and more. 

(Ramsey jacks Chris’s swagger before their semi-final match. Props: IronForgesIron.com)

Following last week’s “Where’s your kid?” fiasco, Tony Ferguson is persona non grata in the TUF house. He tries to strike up a conversation with Chuck O’Neil in the kitchen and gets brutally cold-shouldered. “He’s burnt every last bridge in this house,” Chuck explains. “He’s burnt a bridge with everybody.”

Tony finally gets a clue and apologizes to everybody — or at least tries to — claiming that he drank too much, blacked out, and doesn’t really remember what he said. Chuck ain’t having it: “I was disgusted by what you said last night. For you to put Charlie’s kid’s name in your mouth, and for him not to hit you in the face, that shows what kind of person he is, because all of us wanted to fucking kill you.” The other guys aren’t interested in making up with Tony either, and he eventually gives up. On the bright side, he didn’t come here to make friends, so at least he succeeded on that level.

Both semi-finals are slated to go down on this episode, starting with Chris Cope (Team Lesnar) vs. Ramsey Nijem (Team Dos Santos). They “woo!” at each other during the weigh-in. And it’s already time for somebody’s dreams to be crushed…

(Man, you know Dana’s heart isn’t in this one when he can’t even be bothered to put on a funky t-shirt. / Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this album, click here.)

We told you why you should watch, and we told you how we think it’ll go down. At this point, it’s in God’s hands.

Tonight in New Orleans, Jake Shields and Jake Ellenberger will lock horns in a pivotal welterweight contest. Will Shields shows flashes of his old submission-machine self, or will Ellenberger spoil the party in the Big Easy?

Plus: Middleweights Alan Belcher and Jason MacDonald kick off the main card, and Court McGee and Jonathan Brookins take the next steps in their post-TUF careers. Meanwhile on pay-per-view, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is boxing Victor Ortiz, and hell, maybe we’ll give you updates on that one as well.

Live round-by-round updates from the Spike TV broadcast of “UFC Fight Night: Shields vs. Ellenberger” will be piling up after the jump starting at 9 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest. Here, we, go.

(The two pictures above contain 246 differences. Can you find them all? Photo courtesy of Esther Lin / Strikeforce)

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Fedor night in America. The Last Emperor show has come to the Chicagoland Area, and his dance partner for this evening will be lead-fisted work-doer Brett "The Grim" Rogers, who’s just itching for a chance to snatch that king spot. Also: MTV personality Jason "Mayhem" Miller fights Jake Shields for Strikeforce’s first middleweight title, large-skulled bruiser Antonio Silva squares off with grappling ace Fabricio Werdum, and Gegard Mousasi will toy with Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou for a while before damn near ending his life.

My name is BG, and I’ll be your guide for the evening. I’m currently chillin’ in the press pen at the Sears Centre, and I can already tell you that Fedor’s entrance music will be unbelievably Russian. Live results from the CBS broadcast can be found after the jump, beginning at 8 p.m. CT. Refresh the page every few minutes to get all the latest. Warning: The show may not be broadcast live in your area, so check your local listings before you go running headlong into spoilers.

(Kyle Kingsbury is wearing that rainbow fanny-pack in honor of all the brave men and women who gave their lives defending our freedom in the Candyland-Disco War of Sissystan. / Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this album, click here.)

TUF 13 reaches its conclusion tonight, with “Stripper” Ramsey Nijem facing off against “Jerkwad” Tony Ferguson for the mythical six-figure contract and glass trophy. Plus: Anthony Pettis makes his official UFC debut against Clay Guida in a guaranteed thriller with lightweight title implications, the suddenly-badass Kyle Kingsbury looks to put Fabio Maldonado’s 11-fight win streak to an end, and much more.

If you’ve got nothing better to do, it’s not a bad way to spend a Saturday night. (If you do have something better to do, count yourself lucky, and come back later to let us know what the outside world is like.) The action is already underway at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas — and streaming live on Facebook — but we’ll save the spoilers until the end of the night, because some of you crybabies get sooooo sensitive. Round-by-round results from the Spike TV broadcast will begin to pile up after the jump starting at 9 p.m. ET; refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.