(‘Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, you pussies.’)

The bad news is, we’ve been duped.  The good news is, we can now resume making insensitive jokes about Kimo Leopoldo.  Yes, it turns out that Kimo isn’t really dead after all, or at the very least has been resurrected to walk the earth as some kind of terrifying zombie.  Despite premature eulogies from the New York Daily News, the Orange County Register, and us, among many others, Leopoldo is said to be alive and reasonably well, though that’s about as much information as anyone seems to have or need about him and his current whereabouts.

(Kimo is upset about your 2.7 GPA, but only because he knows you could do better if you would just apply yourself.)

Kimo Leopoldo’s campaign/publicity stunt to become executive officer of the California State Athletic Commission continues this week, as a press release sent out on his behalf accuses the CSAC of widespread corruption and cover-ups, claiming, "Somebody or some group apparently is trying to hide the degree of corruption in CSAC," in part because former executive director Armando Garcia "was allegedly caught with $350,000 (in cash) in his locker, but he was allowed to resign instead of being prosecuted."

Leopoldo claims that once he’s in charge he’ll allow the staff to stay in their positions if they cooperate with an FBI investigation, and says, “temporary executive officer Dean Lohouis isn’t any different than Armando [Garcia]. The CSAC needs change and I’m willing to provide therapy.”

Get it?  “Kimo” therapy?  Like the excruciating treatment for cancer patients?  It’s a play on words.

The good news is Leopoldo would also like to bring his message of ‘I did steroids so you don’t have to’ to California high schools:

(Our thoughts exactly.)

Well this is odd. After those reports of Kimo Leopoldo’s death were discovered to be an Internet message board-driven hoax, many of us were quick to dump haterade on TMZ, the celebrity gossip outlet that "confirmed" the news after it was first reported, and helped the false report snowball out of control. Though TMZ quickly took the story down when Kimo showed up breathing, we never heard an apology from Harvey Levin and his gang of misfits — and we’re never going to:

This isn’t officially confirmed yet, but we thought we’d pass on the news that multiple sources are reporting this morning claiming that former UFC fighter Kimo Leopoldo has died from complications resulting from a heart attack.  Details at this point are still rather hazy, but if true this marks a sad end for the fighter with an often tumultuous life in and out of the cage.  He was 41 years old.

Leopoldo recently found himself in the news after an arrest for drug possession in southern California.  Before that he made a very public run for the Executive Officer position within the California State Athletic Commission, where he hoped to turn his past record for steroid use into an asset rather than a liability.  There’s no indication yet whether drugs might have played a role in his death.  More on this as it becomes available.

(One more again, just for bizarre times’ sake?)

When would-be California State Athletic Commission director Kimo Leopoldo was arrested for drug possession back in February while wearing a police jumpsuit and sandals and playing with a yo-yo on the streets of southern California, the MMA media, including us, might have jumped to some conclusions about the former steroid-using fighter from the early days of the UFC.  You read certain phrases, such as “police jumpsuit” and “meth” and “yo-yo” and you start adding it up on your own.  But that was all wrong, and we owe it to the guy to make that clear.

(Photo courtesy of Knucklepit.)

2009 is turning out to be a blockbuster year for MMA fighters fooling around and falling in jail. First we had Josh Neer arrested for hit-and-run/DUI. Then Jeff Monson was thrown in the pokey for grandfather clock abuse. Then War Machine got himself placed under citizen’s arrest at the gay club where he works. (Man, that gets funnier every time we write it.) And now it’s Kimo Leopoldo, the UFC old-timer and dark-horse candidate for CSAC executive officer. If you guessed "drug-related," congratulations, you are smarter than a fifth grader. TMZ, as usual, breaks it:

(Nothing says professionalism like hauling a big wooden cross around.)

When I read this press release announcing that former steroid-user and general MMA punchline Kimo Leopoldo was applying to be Executive Officer of the California State Athletic Commission, I assumed that someone was jerking my chain, as the kids say.  But this application letter would have me believe that he is totally cereal:

Please accept this letter as the submission of my written qualifications for the application of the position of Executive Officer for the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC). It is with great pleasure and humility I offer my qualifications as an advanced equivalent for the position of Executive Officer for all of the reasons detailed below. … As a 14 year veteran in the professional kickboxing and MMA industry, I believe I hold a
heightened degree of expertise in understanding and working with fighters, matchmakers, managers, promoters, various professional associations, members of the press, venue operators, attorneys, the general public, and the commission and other governmental regulators on an international and national level.

[…]

And since it is going to eventually come up in the process, I will address my use of Steroids in this application letter. Yes, I used Steroids in my past to help support my efforts as a professional athlete/fighter. However, my experiences whether negative or positive have given me greater insight into the crutches of life’s downfalls and my decisions today come from experiences. I will say that my choices and decision making ability are educated decisions and made from a position of informed consent, as opposed to blind guidance . I can be honest about my past and can look a fighter in the eye and tell him/her with great confidence that use of illicit substances is not worth the future health issues it creates nor is it worth the risk they are taking against their license.

Way to turn your past steroid use into an asset rather than a liability, Kimo.  Looks like someone has been reading those MSN articles about how to ace a job interview.

(Props: THEkimoleopoldo via HammerFisted)

Kimo Leopoldo — everybody’s favorite officer-impersonating, meth-possessing death-hoax victim — may be long out of the MMA game, but he hasn’t stopped living, you dig? HammerFisted.com dug up the above video, taken this summer, which shows Kimo ascending a staircase at some sort of motel or apartment complex or assisted living facility, then diving into a pool from three stories up. Well, "diving" might be an overstatement. He basically falls into the water in the most painful-looking way possible.

But as we’ve learned in the past, Kimo Leopoldo is indestructible. He will remain above-ground even after War Machine dies of syphilis, even after Dan Quinn drives into an oncoming semi while shouting down Fred Reeva in his final video blog. Kimo gets out of the water, shouts "Awright," demands to know how the splash was, and explains "I hadda like, not let my second-guess guess me on that one." We’d say that’s good advice for anybody…

(When people start comparing your mugshots, rarely do they reach a conclusion that says anything positive about you.)

After first reporting that former UFC fighter Kimo Leopoldo was arrested for meth and maybe attempting to impersonate a police officer, TMZ.com has provided pretty conclusive photographic evidence that the would-be CSAC Executive Officer has a little bit of a problem.  As is often the case with meth, the mug shot tells the whole story.  He doesn’t even look like the same guy anymore, and Sherdog adds this detail about the Long Beach Police Department jumper he was sporting when cops spotted him: “It had a badge in the front and the word ‘Police’ across the back, except he was wearing flip-flops and playing with a yo-yo.”  Dude.  Just…wow.

- Another recently arrested substance-abuser is in the news for good reasons today.  Josh Neer has signed a new four-fight contract with the UFC following his submission victory over Mac Danzig at Fight Night 17.  That’s a relief for the guy who was looking at potentially being dropped from the organization following his arrest for DUI, hit-and-run, and evading police on New Year’s Eve.  But he won his fight, so it’s okay now!  Looks like beating up a vegan is still worth something in this country.  Thank God.

- Lyoto Machida is hoping Keith Jardine will beat Quinton Jackson at UFC 96 in March and grant him a title shot, but he’s not kidding himself.  Talking to Tatame, Machida said, “I’m cheering for Jardine, but I think that Quinton is stronger, hits harder… I think Quinton is the favorite. I think I’ll have to wait a bit more.”  The undefeated Brazilian said he’d consider another fight before challenging for the belt, since he’s always done what the UFC asked, but added, “now is time for me to start to ask a bit too.”  Twenty bucks says he asks for the UFC to get him one of those TapouT caged beds.  If not, he’s missing a golden fucking opportunity.

(Props: MMA Scraps)

The year was 2004. Britney Spears was still skinny and childless. “Deadwood” had just premiered on HBO. Janet Jackson sparked controversy by showing the world her wonderful, glorious nipple during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. It was a different time, a simpler time.

It was also the last time Ken Shamrock’s hand was raised in MMA victory, after a TKO via knee 1:26 into round one against Kimo Leopoldo at UFC 48: Payback. On the same fight card, Frank Mir broke Tim Sylvia’s arm, and a little-known fighter by the name of Georges St. Pierre knocked out Jay Hieron on the undercard.

Now here we are, four years (and, for Shamrock, five straight losses) later, and “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” is preparing to headline a fight on CBS against Kimbo Slice, a former backyard brawler now trained by Bas Rutten. If that’s possible, just imagine where we’ll be four years from now. The world is indeed a strange and inscrutable place.

Sorry the quality is so weak, but this seems to be the only existing video of Friday night’s epic brawl between Ken Shamrock and Ross Clifton, which earned Shammy his first win since he knocked out Kimo Leopoldo at UFC 48 in 2004. We haven’t found video of the Tank Abbott/Mike Bourke brawl yet, so if you come across a link, please hook us up in the comments section. Shamrock and Tank will meet at a future Wargods card, sometime in April — which means that one of them will soon be on a two-fight win streak. Try to wrap your head around that one.

Many of you disagreed with our description of yesterday’s cartwheel kick knockout as “the greatest KO ever.”  Yeah, we weren’t totally serious about that (ever heard of hyberbole?), but our good friend Matt Brown, editor of Fight! Magazine, took issue with it and sent us the above video to demonstrate what a truly amazing knockout looks like.

These two midgets pull out all the stops in this kickboxing bout, and as you can tell the announcer (is that you, Frank Trigg?) is loving it. So is this yet another sign of the impending apocalypse?  Maybe.  But we prefer to think of it as a sign that Matt Brown is a weirdo.  Don’t worry though, he insists that he only stumbled across the video by accident while searching for midget porn.

After the jump, Kimo Leopoldo is out of jail and breaking bricks with his head.  Is that more or less bizarre than the midgets?  You decide.

Five years before Frank Mir disposed of Brock Lesnar via kneebar, he put away Tank Abbott with an ankle-lock at UFC 41: Onslaught (2/28/03). The fight marked Tank’s first professional match since 1998, and Mir’s sixth overall. Though Tank showed some nimble movement on the ground, Mir displayed his ability to keep calm against an aggressive opponent while expertly working toward a submission. Following this fight, Mir won two victories over Wes Sims (the first by illegal-stomp DQ, the second by KO) then faced Tim Sylvia for the title. Abbott would close out 2003 by losing to Kimo Leopoldo and Wesley Correira, then leaving the UFC.

(And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why history must be re-written.)

By Matt Saccaro

Tournaments seem like a great way to determine the best competitor from a group of athletes. You have 8 (or 16 or 32 or whatever the number) fighters, put them in a bracket, and then let them fight it out. The last dude standing clearly must be the best because he survived the tournament, right?

At first, that logic seems OK. But upon closer scrutiny, it starts to sound like something Master Shake would try to argue.

Tournaments — like the ones the UFC used to run — are heavily dependent on how the bracket is organized. Some fighters get an easy run, others get a gauntlet.

This got us at Cage Potato thinking: What if some of the early UFC tournament brackets were re-organized or even shuffled just a little bit? Who would end up becoming the “Ultimate Fighters” of the 1990s? Let’s find out!

UFC 2

UFC 2 was the first and only 16-man tournament run by the UFC. The first round of the tournament — save for Royce Gracie’s fight (of course)—didn’t air on the PPV and aren’t on the DVD either.  These “lost fights” from UFC 2 have quite a few interesting characters such as the enigmatic Pencak Silat master Alberto Cerro Leon and the chubby, sweatpants-clad Robert Lucarelli.

Look at the complete bracket and see how many names you recognize. Most of these guys from the UFC 2 dark matches had no chance in the tournament, save for a man named Freek (or Frank) Hamaker.  We’re going to stick with Freek because it rhymes with Reek. A fighter like Hamaker was a rarity in the early days. He wasn’t a hapless striker fated to be embarrassed.  He was a sambo practitioner who trained under legendary European grappler Chris Dolman.

Hamaker’s first (and only) fight was at UFC 2 against the mysterious San Soo Kung Fu man Thaddeus Luster. The fight went like the typical early UFC fight. The guy with grappling immediately took down the guy without grappling and won shortly afterwards. Hamaker withdrew from the tournament after defeating Luster and disappeared to the pornography theater from whence he came.

(We’re just glad that our t-shirt isn’t to blame for Kimbo’s death. We will take credit for this one cursing Gus Johnson’s Strikeforce commentating gig.)

If a mediocre backyard brawler-turned mixed martial artist dies, does anyone in the MMA media notice?

Apparently not.

It seemed that only the mainstream media outlets yesterday picked up on a story of the demise of Miami, Florida resident Kevin Ferguson — which is the legal name of Kimbo Slice. Maybe it was because it wasn’t Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson who had passed away, unless of course he had wifi access in the morgue.

A rumor that beleaguered Dutch-born Morroccan K-1 star Badr Hari had died today in an accident that took place in his African homeland has been laid to rest by reps from It’s Showtime – the promotion he is currently contracted to.

The story began on a thread on a Dutch forum (which has now been taken down) where a disturbing headshot photo reportedly of Badr dead and covered with blood was also posted and the story quickly grew legs and spread amongst the MMA community. Much like a similar rumor that made the rounds about Kimo Leopoldo last July and was picked up by several mainstream sites including CNN and TMZ,  the Hari story was given credence by the fact that nobody could locate the kickboxer.

The rumor was eventually refuted by the tweet above posted on It’s Showtime’s Twitter page.

You can check out the photo that helped propel the story after the jump, but we’ll warn you that it isn’t pretty and it’s obviously someone dead or severely injured. We’ve included a pic of Hari for comparison.

Aaron Brink Intervention Preview – Watch more Funny Videos

From aetv.com/intervention:

For the unfamiliar, Aaron Brink was a very promising heavyweight striker who fought at UFC 28 against Andrei Arlovski (who was also making his UFC debut that night) and was once paid $250,000 for beating Mike Bourke. For some reason he started doing porn just as he was finally getting his first decent win streak together, and unfortunately got into drugs. A contract with New Era Fighting that would have potentially paid him a cool million to beat Kimo Leopoldo never panned out, and he hasn’t fought since March 2007. His episode of Intervention (which you should be watching anyway) airs on A&E this coming Monday at 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT. Video of the Brink/Arlovski fight is after the jump.

(And here we have some lovely fan art of Minowaman doing battle with Godzilla and Ghidorah, while a rocket blasts out of his crotch. / Props: mma-core)

So this is weird: Coming off his submission loss to Chael Sonnen last month, Brian Stann was briefly under the impression that he’d be getting a rebound fight against a mulleted giant-killer in the Land of the Rising Sun. As Stann told MMA Sucka (tip via MiddleEasy):

“I thought I was fighting on the UFC card in Tokyo. I thought I was going to fight a gentleman by the name of Ikuhisa Minowa or ‘Minowaman’ and unfortunately, you know, the fight didn’t happen. He actually asked to fight me. I agreed and then for some reason it just didn’t materialize…From what I was told by the UFC, I think they already filled the main card for that one, so there’s not really any room for me anymore.”

This Octagon Girl debuted at UFC 48 on June 19, 2004.

Ken Shamrock vs Kimo Leopoldo was the main event, and Frank Mir snapped Tim Sylvia’s arm to take away Tim’s beloved Heavyweight Championship.

The big fella reportedly bawled for two full hours after the fight, until Matt Hughes (fresh off a decision win over Renato Verissimo) finally stopped laughing and told Tim that the UFC would, in fact, allow him to keep his belt to sleep with at night.

Frank Trigg scored a quick win over Dennis Hallman, and Evan Tanner notched a decision win over Phil Baroni. Meanwhile, a twenty-three year old Georges St Pierre battled a twenty-eight year old Jay Hieron on the preliminary card.

Ok, so it’s not exactly “On This Day in MMA History“, but whatever, we tried.

Come on in for more pics.

How ’bout we keep this fight-picking train rolling, eh? I’ve just come into the possession of a Blu-ray copy of UFC Ultimate Royce Gracie — which hit stores last month — and I figured one of you jokers might wants it. Hit us with the synopsis, Amazon:

This comprehensive Blu-ray collection captures the jiu-jitsu master at his best with nearly six hours of content, including interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and of course, his classic fights against Ken Shamrock, Kimo Leopoldo, and Kazushi Sakuraba.

But you can’t win if you don’t play. This Sunday night, UFC Live: Marquardt vs. Story goes down at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, featuring Marquardt’s debut at 170 and a heavyweight clash between Pat Barry and Cheick Kongo. Submit your predictions for these two fights 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 went completely under our radar, but former WEC Light-Heavyweight Doug Marshall made his Bellator debut at last night’s Bellator 82. There are three things you need to know about this fight:

1.) His opponent, Kala Hose, is apparently a big fan of the Big Buford and/or Kimo Leopoldo, if his tattoos are any indication.
2.) He entered the fight with a 7-5 record (including a loss to Mayhem Miller and a win over Phil Baroni), hadn’t fought in two years and was riding a three fight losing streak.
3.) Things went exactly as you’d assume they would.

By the way, Ben and Jason were at Bellator 82 last night, so expect some updates from them as soon as they’re back. Video and results after the jump.

("I’m sorry, Jenny, but my heart belongs to another.")

Great work in the comments section this week, you guys. There were a few lines in particular that we felt were worthy of recognition — and CagePotato t-shirts — but we have to warn you, some of this stuff gets a little blue. So tell your kids to leave the room, and read on…

(We’re assuming he couldn’t find a big enough cross to do Kimo Leopoldo. Top pic courtesy of seandiesel.)

The rumors are true, folks. Not only will the winner of tomorrow night’s welterweight co-headliner between Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley earn a shot at Georges St. Pierre’s belt, but that fighter will also get to do a tour of duty opposite GSP on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. Dana White confirmed the news today before the UFC 113 weigh-ins at the Bell Centre in Montreal. TUF 12 will begin filming in a few weeks, and is slated to premiere on September 15th. 

As for the results of today’s weigh-ins, the numbers are after the jump. No real surprises, although the weight differences in both heavyweight bouts were close to 30 pounds. Plus, Tom Lawlor showed up to the weigh-ins as Dan Severn, following previous weigh-in tributes to Just Bleed Guy and Harold Howard.

(“My advice would be to find a nice cave somewhere and go into hiding for three days. When you come out, they’ll worship you.”)

According to our latest homepage poll, a full 49% of you believe that Jon Jones deserves most of the blame for UFC 151′s abrupt cancellation, compared to just 27% for UFC president Dana White, the guy who actually canceled the event. Public opinion of Jones has gone from bad to irredeemably awful in the last week, and the apology he posted on twitter this weekend probably won’t help much:

“Carrying the cross for my company’s decision. If someone has to take the blame, I will accept full responsibility for the way UFC 151 was canceled. I want to sincerely apologize to all the other athletes/fans who’s time and money was waisted. [sic] I feel terrible about the way that was handled.”

Okay, so we’re just assuming that Jones is comparing himself to Jesus in that first sentence; he could also be comparing himself to Kimo Leopoldo. But considering that there’s already a conception of Jones as a person whose holier-than-thou attitude doesn’t match his behavior, all Jesus-based self-references should probably be avoided for the time being. It’s the kind of thing a publicist would tell Jones, if he still had one.

(Wait, so you mean to tell me that we have to fight indoors? In a ring? Like a bunch of pampered women? Props to MiddleEasy for the find. ) 

Fresh off his decision victory over Scott Ferrozzo at ProElite: Birmingham, Tank Abbott was at it again last night, this time taking on fellow UFC pioneer Kimo Leopold in a match that made the ill-fated special rules bout between Ken Shamrock and James Toney seem like a walk in the park. Fortunately taking place inside an actual building this time — the Avalon in Hollywood, California — the bout featured three, one minute rounds, in which the competitors wore both headgear and some cartoon sized boxing gloves.

Just a month and a half after Chael Sonnen tested positive for performance enhancing drugs following his middleweight title fight against Anderson Silva, the UFC has more dirty urine on its hands. MMA Junkie broke the news yesterday that Octagon first-timer Vinicius Quieroz — who was submitted by Rob Broughton in his debut at UFC 120 in London — tested positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol after the match and has been fired by the UFC.

As they usually do for overseas events, the UFC conducted its own drug screening at #120, testing main event fighters Michael Bisping and Yoshihiro Akiyama, as well as six other fighters selected at random. Quieroz was the only fighter who tested positive. In addition to his release from the promotion, the 5-2 Chute Boxe product will forfeit an undisclosed discretionary bonus from the UFC; his test results will also be given to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which could affect Quieroz’s ability to get licensed to fight in the U.S.

Before we get started, let me just point out that MMABay.co.uk has an accuracy rate of about .500 when it comes to breaking news — which is great if you’re batting cleanup, and not so great if you’re an MMA news site. So take the validity of this rumor as somewhere between "Kimo Leopoldo is dead" and "Josh Barnett is innocent." Anyway:

(Sure, “Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Champion” is a respectable title in its own right, but it just doesn’t carry as much weight at the Playboy Mansion, you know?) 

If there’s one thing you can say about former UFC heavyweight champion and Depends spokesperson Tim Sylvia, it’s that the SOB is persistent. Although his once successful MMA career has become little more than a series of punctuated jokes nowadays — most of which revolve around his fat, fatty, “Fatty Boom-Boom” fatness – “The Maine-iac” will simply not be denied his rightful place back in the UFC’s heavyweight division no matter how many times Dana White pisses in his cornflakes.

But the main issue preventing Sylvia’s UFC aspirations from coming to fruition is one that he doesn’t seem to realize: relevant wins. In the past few years, Sylvia has crushed a few cans (and a professional bodybuilder) in unimpressive fashion, been decapitated in 9 seconds by an aging boxer, dropped a decision to Satoshi Ishii, and been spared a loss on a loosely-defined technicality in his completely unnecessary fourth fight with Andrei Arlovski at OneFC 5. Yet despite all this, Sylvia is still holding onto the hopes that he will end his mixed martial arts career “where it started,” which for all intents and purposes is the UFC. He spoke with MMAWeekly:

I don’t know what is going to happen in the future of the UFC heavyweight division. Ideally I would like to finish out my career where it started and that is in the UFC. There’s great fights out there for me and I’d like to put on a great show for the fans on the biggest stage there is, and that’s obviously the UFC.

And who would Boom-Boom like to face in his glorious return, you ask? For starters, Frank Mir, who infamously snatched Sylvia’s title (and his arm) at UFC 48: Payback, otherwise known as the event wherein Ken Shamrock scored his last relevant win…over Kimo. But the second name on Sylvia’s hit list (just beating out Jared from the Subway commercials because “I ate a thousand of those subs and didn’t lose a fucking pound.”), might surprise you:

(James Toney, shown above with one boxing glove, one MMA glove, and an artist’s depiction of what he might look like if he lost 85 pounds.)

By Jared “DangadaDang” Jones

During its rise to popularity, Mixed Martial Arts has become known for the incredible physical conditioning, talent, and (depending whose side you’re on) heart of its athletes. It is a sport built on dedication; simply put, no amount of pink gloves and flirting with overweight TUF alums will make you an MMA fighter.

But as with any sport’s increase in mass appeal, MMA has seen its share of hacks, wannabes, scallywags and jabronis attempting to grab 15 more minutes of fame through a career in “that Ultimate Fighting stuff.” In light of James Toney’s continuing efforts to shake the MMA world with the use of side check kicks, I give you the five worst instances of C-to-D-list celebrities giving MMA the old community-college try.

5. Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson

The phrase “meteoric rise” comes to mind — one minute you were watching Kimbo smoke blunts in the background of semi-public orgies and the next he was being touted as the most formidable opponent to take Brock Lesnar’s crown. Mr. Ferguson landed on our radars through a series of brutal street fight videos in which he fought guys named “Afro Puff,” “Byrd,” “Chico,” and “Mayor McCheese.” These internet videos went viral so ferociously that the now-defunct EliteXC built him up to be their marquee star by feeding him other hopeless big lugs like “Bo” and “Tank.”

Kimbo was given his first “legitimate” opponent in James Thompson as the headlining bout of EliteXC: Primetime in May 2008. Despite possibly tapping to a guillotine in the first round and being on the receiving end of over 1,000 elbows in the second, Kimbo was able to pull off a rare standing-TKO of Thompson late in the third. (Good lookin’ out, Dan.)

(‘So how about if, like, at first I’ll let you beat me up some, then I start to come back, but I go for an elbow off the top rope and miss, right?  And then at the end, well, I haven’t decided who should win yet, but we’ll figure it out. Just saying though, it’d be more of a shock if it was me.’)

Affliction COO Michael Cohen contacted Fanhouse’s Ariel Helwani (and you know the situation is dire when people are actually calling Ariel rather than the other way around) to let us all know that there is absolutely no truth to the persistent rumor that Affliction III will be the organization’s last MMA event.  The fact that they’ve named it “Trilogy”?  Nah son, you shouldn’t read too much into that, says Cohen: “Trilogy just means that this is the third. This is the third of the series.”

Yeah, that’s the standard use of the word ‘trilogy.’  It refers to the third installment in a long and profitable series that continues to pump out new editions several times a year.  Like the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Godfather” trilogy.  Oh, wait.