Horrific penis injuries: They’re the new injured foot of MMA injuries.

UFC veteran Waylon Lowe has made his way back into headlines the hard way today, as he is suing The Mood – a sex shop on South Street, Philadelphia – for selling him a product that has permanently scarred his genitals. Of course this is how the unfortunate bastard manages to finally get MMA fans talking about him again, because why wouldn’t it be.

Assuming you haven’t already skipped to the comments section to unleash your best one-liners, you can read details about the product he used and the injury itself [NSFA] after the jump.

Via Philly.com:

ONLINE ADS SAY the tingling, minty, green gel makes lovemaking last longer. “Prolongs Men’s Pleasure,” the packaging promises, beneath a photo of a handsome man staring seductively at prospective buyers.

But a famous fighter [Author Note: Famous? That's rich.] says the Kama Sutra Pleasure Balm Prolonging Gel was far from pleasurable, and instead burned and scarred his genitals so badly last fall that he remains permanently disfigured and dysfunctional.

Michael Waylon Lowe, 32, of Southwest Center City, a mixed-martial-artist who competes internationally, has sued the South Street sex shop where he says he bought the gel, and the product’s California-based creator [Author Note: Is it based in Los Angeles?], seeking more than $50,000 in damages, according to a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

“This is a very private, but very significant loss for a man who is very vital in so many other aspects,” said Lowe’s attorney, Thomas R. Kline. “This is a man who literally makes his living avoiding injury; he knows how to protect himself. Yet he wasn’t provided with the most basic, simple instructions to protect himself from this product. If it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone.”

“Instructions to protect himself from a lubricant?” you may be wondering. “How exactly did he injure himself?” If you really must know…

In the complaint, filed May 14, Lowe claims he had used the desensitizing gel previously without problem. And when he applied it last Sept. 1, he and his fiancée began lovemaking without incident. But when their 3-year-old daughter awoke, the fiancée interrupted their intercourse to attend to her, according to the lawsuit.

Before she returned, Lowe “began to experience excruciating pain and pressure in his penis,” the lawsuit states. “He removed the condom and his penis swelled significantly. He sought emergency medical treatment and follow-up care thereafter.”

The complaint accuses the defendants of negligence and product liability for failing to provide proper instructions, warn users of risks, and design and test the gel to ensure its safety.

It claims that Lowe suffered “catastrophic and permanent damage,” including penile scarring, loss of sensation and function; nerve and tissue damage; humiliation, embarrassment and mental anguish; lost wages and earning capacity; and loss of life’s pleasures.

Not one part of that description didn’t make me feel absolutely terrible for Lowe. I wish him a speedy recovery; or rather, whatever recovery can be made after losing the enjoyment of sex. Lowe was last seen picking up a victory on the WSoF 2 undercard – his fourth straight victory since being released from the UFC – so at least it doesn’t sound like he’ll have to miss any time from MMA.

Naturally, the creators of the gel maintain that their product is safe, and that this is the first instance they’ve ever even heard of this happening to somebody. Also, for what it’s worth, The Mood is still selling the non-mint versions of the product on their website. Caveat emptor, you guys.

@SethFalvo

MMAJunkie breaks the news that Alistair Overeem will make his Octagon return at UFC on FOX Sports 1 1 — which takes place August 17th in Boston — where he’ll face dangerous heavyweight Travis Browne. (Sorry, Milwaukee-area Reem-fans. You’ve been duped.) According to the Junkie, the Overeem vs. Browne match will not be the show’s main event, which gives some credence to Dana White’s bold claim that UFC on FOX Sports 1 1 will be “the best television card we’ve ever done.”

Overeem and Browne have some shared history, in that they were both flattened in recent fights against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, despite coming in as heavy favorites against the Brazilian future champion. Since then, Browne has rebounded with a quick-knockout of Gabriel Gonzaga at the TUF 17 Finale — aided by some controversial elbows — while Overeem has been inactive due to injury.

A year ago, I would have predicted “Reem by murder.” But now…I’m not so sure. Who would you put your money on for this one?

We’ve thrown the word “curse” around a lot here at CagePotato in the past year or so (as in “injury curse,” “cursed from birth,” and “curse you Dana for setting this up!”), but featherweight contender Chad Mendes is one of the few fighters who might actually be able to stake a claim to that title. In his past three scheduled fights, all of his original opponents have pulled out due to a last minute injury, leaving Mendes to face off against late replacement opponents on two occasions and cancelling his fight altogether in the third. Then again, any curse that ends in you collecting two quick knockouts and upwards of eighty thousand dollars is a hell of a lot better than the festering boils and dead first born I’ve been stuck with.

Anyway, the last man to pull out of a fight with Mendes was none other than recently-converted featherweight Clay “N-Pray” [*rimshot*] Guida, who was replaced by Darren Elkins just as quickly as Darren Elkins was defeated by Chad Mendes when the two eventually met at UFC on FOX: Henderson vs. Diaz. According to Ariel Helwani, the UFC is considering rebooking Mendes vs. Guida for the August 31st-scheduled UFC 164 card, which will also feature the beginning of Brandon Vera’s second attempt to become the UFC’s first two-division champ when he returns to the heavyweight division to face…Ben Rothwell. Baby steps, folks.

Although the booking “isn’t 100% yet,” it’s hard to deny that this fight makes just as much sense as it did previously, if not more. Mendes wiped the floor with Elkins — who was on an impressive five-fight streak of his own — in his last contest, and Guida is on the heels of a featherweight debut victory over the highly-ranked Hatsu Hioki. An impressive victory for either man could put them in a prime position for a shot at Jose Aldo (or in Mendes’ case, another lesson in humility shot).

Then again, who knows what the fuck the state of the featherweight division will be after Anthony Pettis fights Aldo at UFC 163. We could be left with a new featherweight champion who has no interest remaining at featherweight, the “old” featherweight champion who now has his sights set on fighting the lightweight champion, or a fight that ends in controversy so we can start this whole thing over again. In any case, we’re pretty sure the winner of the Ricardo Lamas/Chan Sung Jung fight will be getting royally screwed over. Again.

-J. Jones

Check out more of our favorite Naomi Das photos in the gallery above, and get to know her better on Facebook and Twitter.

Previously: Hot Potato Gallery: EFC Africa Ring Girl Riana Roberts

Looks like getting picked up right away by the World Series of Fighting after recently being fired by the UFC did not take away any bitterness from our favorite President-threatening lightweight, Jacob Volkmann. This past February, Volkmann lost by submission for the second time in his last three fights and was subsequently released by the UFC.

The elfin warrior tells AboveAndBeyondMMA.com that he didn’t deserve to be cut and is now on a mission to expose what he sees as the UFC’s unfair treatment of fighters.

“Well, I didn’t realize there was that much politics in martial arts, especially in the UFC. That was kind of frustrating. It’s not who is the best; it’s more of a political kind of BS,” he said.

“I was released after a loss against Bobby Green, which I should’ve never lost. It was kind of a fluke loss, going into the fight sick. I lost and then after that, they cut me. I was 6-2 at lightweight and they still cut me.

“You’ve got to know the right person, have the right manager in there. And your style determines if you stay in, too. The guys that stand and bang are the ones who are still fighting for the UFC. The ones that take the fights to the ground and focus more on the technique on the ground, they’re not in there because apparently the fans don’t like that.”

Volkmann is dead-on in saying that the UFC and the sport of MMA as a whole favors striking and strikers, and he goes on to include some interesting details about the UFC’s health coverage, but his whining tone probably distracts from any good points he has. No one begrudges someone for being upset at being fired, but excuse-making isn’t very sympathetic — especially from a boot-straps kind of conservative like Volkmann.

Volkmann has clearly shown that he’s a UFC-caliber fighter over the years, but he’s unfortunately not the first such guy to be cut after he goes on a downturn. First off, as we mentioned, Volkmann has been finished in two out of his last three bouts. Sure, maybe he was sick and injured in the last one but no one really ever cares about that. Also, he is 6-4 in the UFC — impressive for sure, but when half of those losses have come recently, he shouldn’t have been too shocked at being released.

Volkmann admits to being “very bitter,” over the firing but then displays a poor understanding of what poverty is.

“People always tell me, ‘You’re rich — you’re on TV!’ Are you kidding me? I made $54,000 two years ago, paid $9,000 in taxes, so that leaves me with $45,000. This last year, I made $50,000 and paid $8,000 in taxes. That leaves me with $42,000 — that’s barely above poverty. I have three kids and a wife I’m supporting.”

We’ve never gotten a crystal clear look at the UFC’s health care plans ever since they implemented one a few years ago, so tidbits of information are always great to get from fighters. Volkmann, now a lover scorned, claims that the coverage is too costly for fighters to do much good.

“They always claim that they treat the fighters so well. Yeah, they treat the top five per cent of the fighters well — the ones that are on the main card all the time. They don’t treat the rest of them very well. The healthcare plan is horrible, with a $1,500 deductible per injury — the catastrophic-injury insurance is not even really good insurance. There’s no retirement fund, there’s no signing bonus. You start off at six-and-six, you’re really not making too much money because you’re self-employed, so you’re paying the self-employment tax and you’re paying the regular tax and income tax. So you’re paying twice as much in tax. They claim they’re treating the fighters well, but they’re not, realistically.”

Rough sauce indeed. Many fighters get paid less than six and six to start, however, and lots of those are presumably in the World Series of Fighting.

What do you say, nation? Is Volkmann just mad because a black man is President and a white bald dude fired him? Or should his voice be heard on the matters of fighter compensation and job security?

- Elias Cepeda

Although we might have jumped the gun when we noticed that Josh Barnett’s profile had been added to UFC.com some weeks back — which honestly, can you blame us? – it finally appears that the perennial top heavyweight IS in fact headed back to the UFC despite rejecting his initial contract. For serious this time (via MMAJunkie/USA Today):

USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com today confirmed with promotion officials that former UFC heavyweight champion Barnett has signed a new multi-fight deal with the promotion and is expected to make his return to the octagon later this year. An official announcement is expected soon. 

“The Warmaster” has not competed since effortlessly strangling out some dude at the final Strikeforce event, but his addition to the UFC’s apparently shallow heavyweight division will undoubtedly make for some fireworks. Who would you like to see Barnett face first, Potato Nation? Personally, I’d like to see him rematch Nandor Guelmino, the scary-looking sumbitch who if I recall correctly gave Barnett one hell of a fight at…what’s that? You say Nandor *is* the guy Barnett effortlessly tapped at the final Strikeforce event? Joe Silva, I don’t know how you pull it off, you magnificent “mean little f*cker.”

To celebrate Barnett’s sure-to-be-triumphant return, we’ve compiled the definitive collection of Warbringer songs (and the Bolt Thrower song after which Barnett is nicknamed) after the jump. If you don’t understand why, well then you just don’t know Josh Barnett.

-J.Jones

Bryan “Back of the Head” Caraway may have just been replaced as the world’s biggest villain to female MMA fighters. After Invicta FC CEO Shannon Knapp posted a Facebook message on Sunday warning the public about a predatory MMA manager who was using lies and intimidation to influence female fighters into signing with him, veteran fighter (and rumored TUF 18 castmember) Tara LaRosa outed him by name — Brett Atchley, president of Addison Sports Management and Media, who manages Zoila Gurgel and Fallon Fox among other clients.

The accusation inspired BloodyElbow’s Brett Brookhouse to do some deep digging about Atchley’s behavior, and if you have the time, you should read his first two reports here and here. In short, Atchley is accused of being a despicable scumbag by a wide range of female MMA fighters who have had the great displeasure of encountering him. Here are the highlights…

- According to LaRosa, Atchley stole sponsorship money from Maurice Smith, and was once caught on tape at a casino stealing money out of the purse of a woman he was dating, who happened to be the mother of one of Ivan Salaverry’s students. These incidents led to a falling out between Atchley and Salaverry. Atchley responded by sending Salaverry some rather impolite text messages, in which he promises to blackball all of the female fighters that train at Salaverry’s gym from competing for Invicta or Strikeforce.

- After LaRosa turned down Atchley’s offer to manage her, due to the fact that she was already managed by Monte Cox, Atchley physically accosted LaRosa twice during the weekend of Invicta 3:

“At Invicta, I was coming down the elevator and into the lobby to go out and cut weight. Everybody was standing around in a group just chatting in the lobby, and I stopped by to say ‘hi’ to everyone. And he grabbed me by the sweater and said ‘What’s this? Where are all your sponsors? How’s that management working out for you?’ and all this rude stuff. And, before I could do anything, Ivan [Salaverry] pulled me away from him. He just looked like an ass, I’m not sure what his intentions were there.”

“Later, when I was flying home, I was flying back to Seattle. I guess Brett was on the same flight as me, I didn’t even realize it. I was walking to my truck and he comes up behind me and beside me, and he grabs my bags, and he tries to carry them or tries to help or whatever. I told him to get away from me and stay away from me, and I pulled my stuff away from him, and he got all belligerent and stupid. I’m sure there’s tape on the Seattle airport security cameras.”

- Jessamyn Duke, a former client of Atchley’s, claims that Atchley was constantly drunk, and once shoved her mother. HER MOTHER, YOU GUYS:

“He actually physically shoved my mom once when they were having an argument. For some reason, he approached my mom when they were in the lobby of the hotel and they started having this argument, and he started telling her that he made me, and I’ve changed and all this stuff. And my mom being…well, my mom, she didn’t take too kindly to that. And she was trying to leave and get out of the way, and he actually shoved her trying to talk to my sister. It was insane and HIGHLY unacceptable to put your hands on a woman like that and move her physically. That was one of my first serious red flags where it was like ‘this is not okay.’”

- Duke also says that Atchley once pulled a Caraway (allegedly) and assaulted one of her opponents before a fight, grabbing and shoving her.

- Duke says that Atchley sexually harassed a close friend of hers.

- According to Duke, Atchley illegally sent Alexis Davis’s confidential UFC contract to Duke, in an effort to dissuade her from trying out for The Ultimate Fighter.

- When Duke tried to cut ties with Atchley, Atchley started sending her bills for “stupid stuff” like the printing costs of her sponsorship banners, and threatened her with a lawsuit after she asked that her name be removed from his website.

- According to two different sources, Atchley once ran up a bar tab for a couple hundred dollars at a hotel bar, ran out without paying, and left a relative of Alexis Davis’s to pick up the tab.

- According to an Invicta and Strikeforce fighter who chose to remain anonymous, Atchley was constantly drunk, shared other fighters’ confidential contract details with her, and lied about how much money other fighters were making.

- According to Sarah Maloy, Atchley made physical advances on her and “implied that he would get me [an Invicta] contract without hiring him as a manager under inappropriate circumstances.”

- Amateur fighter Alyssa Vasquez claims Atchley sent her sexually aggressive text messages, and forced a kiss on her during a creepy encounter at a bar.

Brett Brookhouse promises lots more updates to come, as female fighters continue to speak out against Atchley, who should probably be banned from the sport, if even half of this stuff is true. (It should come as no surprise that Atchley has offered a general denial of all this stuff.) In the meantime, enjoy this incredible quote from Tara LaRosa:

“I’m not afraid of this guy. He’s an idiot…Yeah, he threatens to sue you for slander, defamation of character, libel, whatever. He can go fuck himself. He is not gonna sue shit. I’ve been around for a long ass time. This guy is nobody. He’s not going to ruin my career, and I’m not going to let this guy do the same shit to other people…I’m sorry I didn’t say anything earlier. It’s weird. It’s like some Harry Potter situation. Like everybody’s afraid to say Voldemort’s name. What the hell? He’s Brett Atchley! He’s fuckin’ nobody! What’s he gonna do to you? Cast a spell?“

In an effort to beef up a card that recently lost a title fight due to injury, the UFC has just added a heavyweight bout between Roy Nelson and Stipe Miocic to the main card of UFC 161 (June 15th, Winnipeg). It’s an unexpected booking, to say the least — and not just because it gives Nelson a speedy seven-week turnaround between fights.

“Big Country” is currently on the hottest streak of his UFC career, picking up his third-straight first-round knockout against Cheick Kongo at UFC 159 last month. Meanwhile, Miocic is a much lower-profile prospect, whose hype as an undefeated wrecking machine fell apart when he was TKO’d by Stefan Struve last September. In other words, the matchup is a bit of a step down for Nelson, who doesn’t have much to gain here other than the possibility of earning his fifth UFC Knockout of the Night bonus.

In addition, Miocic was already booked on the card against returning Australian banger Soa Palelei, who has knocked out his last eight opponents while competing in Australia. (See, now that matchup made sense.) But with UFC 161 in need of extra star power, Roy Nelson replaces Palelei, who will be sitting this event out unless he’s needed as an injury replacement. But don’t cry for Soa — he once stood up Danga for an interview, so he’s pretty much dead to us. What, you thought Dana White was only guy who could hold grudges?

In a related story, MMAJunkie reports that UFC officials are currently seeking a replacement opponent for Eddie Wineland, and if they can lock one down, UFC 161 will feature six fights on the pay-per-view card instead of the usual five. The current lineup is after the jump…

PPV MAIN CARD (10 p.m. ET)
Dan Henderson vs. Rashad Evans (LHW)
Mauricio Rua vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (LHW)
Roy Nelson vs. Stipe Miocic (HW)
Pat Barry vs. Shawn Jordan (HW)
Alexis Davis vs. Rosi Sexton (women’s BW)

FX PRELIMS (8 p.m. ET)
Jake Shields vs. Tyron Woodley (WW)
Sam Stout vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg (LW)
Ryan Jimmo vs. Igor Pokrajac (LHW)

FACEBOOK PRELIMS (6 p.m. ET)
Yves Jabouin vs. Dustin Pague (BW)
Sean Pierson vs. Kenny Robertson (WW)
Mitch Clarke vs. John Maguire (LW)
Roland Delorme vs. Edwin Figueroa (BW)

It has recently been announced that, following Renan Barao’s withdrawal from his scheduled interim title fight with Eddie Wineland — the battle between light heavyweight wrestlers Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson will now serve as the headliner for UFC 161. While this change would at first seem like a huge downgrade (hence the kneejerk reaction title) given both fighter’s underwhelming performances against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Lyoto Machida, respectively, it actually has all the makings for one hell of a fight. Perhaps even because of that fact.

The news was passed along by the UFC’s official twitter account earlier today. The fight is still scheduled for three rounds.

Evans has dropped two of his past three fights and is in need of a big win if he is to ever delay any more discussion of a potential (and likely dreadful) drop to middleweight. Henderson also finds his back somewhat against a wall, as the 42-year old’s stock has been decreasing ever since he was forced to pull out from his UFC 151 title fight with Jon Jones. Again, these may sound like criticisms, but in all reality, they only heighten the chance that these two veterans put on a show for the ages come June 15th.

As for the Jake Shields/Tyron Woodley fight that will likely be bumped up to the main card in light of this…

-J. Jones

No, really. She said that.

I won’t go into more than has been written on this site on the subject of Fallon Fox, the first openly transgender MMA fighter, who was born a man and then underwent (and continues to undergo) hormone treatments and surgery to change her sex, but you definitely need to watch the video above.

AXS TV Fights recently interviewed Fox. During that conversation, Fox was asked if she felt she had an advantage over her opponents in Women’s MMA who were, you know, born women. Fallon went further than saying that she and her opponents were equally matched — she assured that she was, in fact, at a disadvantage.

If I know anything about the CagePotato audience, you probably stopped reading right there, so I will see you and your outrage in the comments section.

Should you decide to keep reading, however, you should know that that claim wasn’t specifically followed up on or supported, per se, but AXS did bring a medical doctor on the show to discuss Fox and others that undergo similar treatments and surgeries. It is fascinating to learn that at least some medical minds maintain with absolute certainty that someone like Fox not only will have about the same or less amount of testosterone in her system than the women she fights, but also that her very bone structure and muscle mass should also be about the same as theirs.

Things like bone density and muscle mass have been some of the main criticisms of Fox being allowed to compete against fighters born as women so it is noteworthy that critics’ taken-for-granted “facts” are at least quite open to debate.

What do you think, Nation? Is Fox pushing it a bit saying that she’s at a disadvantage? OR HAS THE WHOLE WORLD GONE CRAZY?!

- Elias Cepeda