Gina "Conviction" Carano — a.k.a. the "Beautiful Disaster," a.k.a. the face of women's MMA — increased her record to 5-0 in her last fight at EliteXC: Uprising (9/15/07), where she reversed Tonya Evinger's ground control and scored a submission victory by rear naked choke in the first round. Watch her work...

By the way — the "25 centimeter pole" remark? Brilliant, sir. You're a credit to your gender. Would have loved to hear the punchline to that Lindsay Lohan bit at the end...

As you may have heard, the UFC is releasing a 392-page coffee-table book called Octagon. Limited to a run of just 600 copies, weighing over 50 pounds, and coming with a price tag of $2,500 (or $3,500 for the Deluxe Collector's Edition), the book collects five years worth of portrait and action photography of UFC fighters shot by Kevin Lynch. In this video, Lynch gives some insight on the project's creation and his attention-getting "Before and After" pictures:

To check out photos from the book — and you might as well, considering you'll never, ever own this thing — go to Octagon-Book.com.

To clarify the miscommunication and conflicting rumors generated by M-1 Global and its maverick Russian arm Mix Fight M-1, Sam Caplan tracked down Fedor Emelianenko's manager Vadim Finkelchtein for an e-mail interview on his ProElite blog. (By the way, I'm spelling Vadim's last name as it has appeared in M-1 Global's press releases and on their website, not as every MMA journalist in the United States insists on spelling it.) But between Vadim's shaky written English and his inherent caginess, not much was accomplished. Witness the first question:

Sam Caplan: There has been a great deal of mis-communication in regard to Fedor's involvement with a card to be held in Japan on Dec. 31. M-1 Global president Monte Cox has said it will not be an M-1 Global event yet a statement made on Mixfight.ru, which I believe is affiliated with M-1 Global, claims that it will be an Mixfight M-1 event. I realize there's a difference in the phrase "M-1 Global" and "Mixfight M-1" but both are using the M-1 name. Can you clear up any confusion by stating who will be promoting the Dec. 31 card in Japan that Fedor will be fighting on?

Vadim Finkelstein: An event scheduled for December, 31 in conjunction with M-1 Global and ex-Pride staff. We plan a long-term collaboration with them. Mixfight M-1 is a Russian MMA organization which makes part of M-1 Global. M-1 Global intends to hold events worldwide.

Great. Thanks for clearing that up. There are lots more non-statements like this one in the interview, but I'll leave you with this excerpt, which may give hope to the easily encouraged:

— Audio from yesterday's UFC conference call with Matt Hughes, Georges St. Pierre and Dana White is at the OC Register. Hughes said he would have much rather faced Serra "because of all the built up anger." Dana White still hasn't met with Randy Couture to discuss Couture's future with the UFC.

— According to MMA Payout, the S&P downgraded Zuffa's credit rating from BB to BB- today, due to a "weaker than expected performance in the third quarter, marking the second consecutive disappointing quarter." BB ratings indicate "Bonds with speculative fundamentals. The security of future payments is only moderate."

— Newly formed Japanese MMA promotional outfit World Victory Road, Inc. announced its first event, "Sengoku," which will take place in Tokyo on March 5th, 2008, and will feature Hidehiko Yoshida, Sanae Kikuta, Makoto Takimoto, and Ryo Kawamura. More info can be found at Suki MMA.

— UFC 81 has been named "Breaking Point."

— Chuck Liddell wants you to join his cute little social networking site.