Announcement - Page 4

(Hint: Incorporate gigantic women whenever possible.)

Great news, everybody: Our friends at Punch Buddies — who have produced such classics as the Chael Sonnen “I Want YOU Anderson Silva” shirt and Melvin Guillard’s historical revenge-fantasy tee — have just signed Urijah Faber to their roster. With the California Kid making his coaching debut on The Ultimate Fighter Live this Friday on FX, we thought it would be a perfect time to launch another t-shirt design contest on CagePotato.com. And the stakes have never been higher.

Your assignment is to design a new Punch Buddies-style t-shirt for Urijah Faber. (Check out some of PB’s past designs here for inspiration; they usually include a pun or phrase based on the fighter’s name/nickname/persona, and an insane, cartoonish illustration. Easy as pie.) E-mail your work to contest@cagepotato.com by Wednesday, March 21st. We’ll announce our favorite design by the end of that week.

The winner will get two tickets to watch Faber complete his trilogy against rival TUF coach Dominick Cruz at UFC 148, July 7th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. But wait, it (potentially) gets even better…

(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.

(Buy it at Amazon right here.)

Another weekend of frantic MMA action is in the books, which means it’s time to give out our two signed copies of Gary Goodridge’s autobiography, Gatekeeper. In retrospect, all of you should have predicted that Ronda Rousey would beat Miesha Tate by first-round armbar. But the only person who guessed that Ronda would sink the Rondabar in round 1 and that Martin Kampmann would take out Thiago Alves in the third round was Fried Taco. Nobody else picked the fights close to perfect, so we’ll give the other book to metalmeshuggah, who predicted the Rousey armbar relatively close to the actual time of stoppage, and picked a respectable decision win for Kampmann.

If you’re a winner, please e-mail contest@cagepotato.com with your name and address, and we’ll send you your copy of Gatekeeper ASAP. Thanks so much to Gary Goodridge for making this possible! Be sure to follow him on Facebook at bigdaddyfightteam.

(HAVE I EVER TOLD YOU ABOUT THE TIME I ACCIDENTALLY DRANK TOM ERIKSON’S SWEAT? I HAVE? WELL F*CK YOU THEN!!)

In December, our dear friend Gary Goodridge released an autobiography called Gatekeeper. Co-written by CagePotato contributor Mark Dorsey, the book is an honest and eye-opening account of Goodridge’s hard-knock upbringing, his early career triumphs in arm-wrestling and MMA, his career decline, and everything in between. It’s a must-read for any hardcore fight fan, and we’ve got two copies to give away, signed by Big Daddy himself.

To earn one, you’ll have to dominate our latest test of fight-picking skill. This weekend gives us two notable MMA events: UFC on FX 2: Alves vs. Kampmann on Friday and Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey on Saturday. Submit your predictions for both main events in the comments section below, including the winner’s name, the method of victory, and the time/round of stoppage, if any. Your entry should be in this format:

It’s that time again! Our friends at Break Media need a few good guinea pigs for their online research panel, and we figured, you know, if you’re not doing anything, you could help out by registering and filling out a survey or two? Yeah, I know that sounds terrible, but keep in mind the following…

- If you register by March 31st, you’ll automatically be entered in a drawing for an iPad 2.

- Every time you fill out a survey, you’ll earn points towards prizes like CagePotato t-shirts, music downloads, and occasionally more valuable items like streaming TV players (Apple TV, Roku).

- The info you provide can actually help us improve this site, giving you more of what you want, how you want it.

Please register for the research panel at breakmediapanel.com. Registration takes less than five minutes and you’ll be asked for some personal information, which is used to ensure that you are who you say you are, and for the purpose of incentive fulfillment. Once you’re registered, you’ll periodically receive e-mails with links to surveys that you can take if you feel like it. Make sense? If you have any questions, leave ‘em in the comments section. Thanks for your continued support…

(“There was the time… No. Wait, I remember once in second grade… No.  I guess I have always been sexy.”)

Our friends at TrauMMA Combat Apparel have generously provided us with three autographed Yoshihiro Akiyama UFC 144 walkout shirts so we could award them to three lucky winners using whatever criteria we saw fit to use to decide.

Since we’re all fans of Photoshop goodness, we figured why not do a Sexyama-themed PS contest?

Men who duckface get what’s coming to them. Props: @MayhemMiller

Following his embarrassing loss to Michael Bisping at The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale, no one was sure what would become of Jason “Mayhem” Miller. There was speculation that his performance during his first appearance with the promotion since 2005, when he dropped a lopsided decision to Georges St. Pierre, was poor enough to get him fired. Immediately after the event, Dana White was hesitant to comment on Mayhem’s future with the UFC.

However, it appears that Dana has decided to give Mayhem Miller one more chance. Last night, the UFC confirmed that the charismatic middleweight has been booked to fight against C.B. Dollaway at UFC 146, which takes place on May 26 in Las Vegas.

We didn’t have C.B. Dollaway in mind when we wrote that Mayhem deserved a fight against a middleweight gatekeeper, but “The Doberman” certainly fits the description. After losing to Amir Sadollah during The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale, Dollaway has gone 5-3 in the UFC. He is currently riding a two fight losing streak after being knocked out by Mark Munoz and Jared Hamman.

Photo Props: UFC.com

Even though FUEL TV is still unavailable to most Americans, the UFC been a consistent draw for the channel. When FUEL TV aired the preliminary fights from UFC on FX 1, it set a company ratings record with an average of 148,000 viewers. This number was almost matched by the prelims for UFC on FOX 2, which averaged 144,000.

With the ratings now in for the UFC’s first live card, Wednesday’s UFC on FUEL: Sanchez vs. Ellenberger, FUEL TV executives have to be impressed. The three hour broadcast averaged 217,000 viewers, with ratings peaking at 315,000 viewers during the evening’s main event. Also of note, the event landed FUEL TV’s ratings in the Top 10 for ad-supported cable networks among the 18-49 year old men demographic.

Not bad for a channel that most of the people reading this don’t get.

“Honesly, Dennis, it’s going to take more than few circumvallate papillae to frighten moi!” (Original images: MMADiehards.com & RazziMe/JohnPorter)

We’re just a few of months away from the UFC’s return to broadcast tv, but the ‘UFC on FOX 3′ card is still filling out.

When we last (and first) saw Nick Denis, he was caving in the skull of Joseph Sandoval via standing hellbows on the ‘UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller‘ card. That impressive 22-second debut has earned him a return bout against TUF alum Johnny Bedford. “Brutal” fell to season 14 champion John Dodson in the show’s semi-finals, but returned at the TUF 14 Finale to absolutely bulldoze future-flyweight Louis Gaudinot.

Two other TUF vets, Dennis Bermudez and Pablo Garza, will square off on the May 5^th card. Bermudez looked to be seconds away from finishing off Diego Brandao when the crafty Brazilian latched on an armbar and snagged the first ever TUF featherweight plaque. Garza lost his elimination bout to enter the season 12 Ultimate Fighter house as well as his WEC debut, but was brought to the UFC where he picked up consecutive first round stoppages over Fredson Paixao (via “Lawn Chair KO“) and Yves Jabouin. “The Scarecrow” is looking to bounce back from his second round submission loss to the streaking Dustin Poirier.

The rest of the card is after the jump.

Thompson looks to stay undefeated against Matt Brown at UFC 145

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

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