(‘You really picked me to get knocked out in the first round? Aw, who am I kidding? I can’t stay mad at you. Come give poppa some sugar.’)

Here at Cage Potato, we know that much of the pleasure fans like us derive from MMA stems from the often misguided belief that we know more about it than your average jerk on the street.  We even like to think that we know more about it than your average jerk on an internet forum.  The trouble is, how do you prove this beyond all doubt?  How do you rub your superior intellect in other people’s pathetic faces?  After a lot of soul-searching and sleepless nights, we came up with an answer.  Today we unveil that answer to you, our treasured readers.

We’ve been developing a one-of-a-kind MMA prediction game called MMA FightPicker, and we’re almost ready to unleash it on the world. The official launch date is next Monday, and the game is currently in the beta testing phase, which means we need you to play around with it and tell us what works and what doesn’t. Here’s what to do:

- Go to http://fightpicker.cagepotato.com and sign in with your CagePotato user info or your Facebook login. [Note: if you have trouble gaining access at first, you may need to log out and then log back in with your CP user info.  Also try clearing your old cookies.]

- You’ll start with 20 "PotatoChips" (our virtual currency), which you can use to wager on the upcoming weekend’s big fights. Click on one of the open pools to start making your fight predictions. Heads up: Different pools have different buy-in fees and payout amounts for the winners; if not enough players join the pool in time, your chips will be refunded.

- After you join a pool, you’ll see a bunch of questions about the week’s matchups. Make selections on the ones you feel confident about — or just throw down guesses on all of them. The more questions you answer, the better chance you have of winning the pool, but keep in mind that wrong answers will lose you points. A full rundown of the scoring system can be found here. If you decide you’d like to remove a selection from your list of answers, just click the choice again.

- This week’s set of matchups deal with Saturday’s Strikeforce: Miami event. Pick the fight winners, score on prop bets about how certain fights will end, and prove that your MMA knowledge is far girthier than your fellow PotatoHeads. Answers will be tabulated by Monday morning, so please come back and see how you stack up.

- If you like FightPicker (and want to pick up some free PotatoChips), please invite your Facebook friends on this page.

- For now, the only reward will be bragging rights and the thrill of a job well done. But in the near future, we’ll be launching private tournaments for high rollers, with actual prizes at stake.

So please, leave your feedback — including questions about the game — in the comment thread below. We will answer all your queries in a timely fashion. Thanks for helping out.