(Bellator VII highlights, courtesy of YouTube.com/BellatorMMA)

Bellator‘s welterweight tournament finals were settled on Friday night in Chicago, as Lyman Good and Omar De La Cruz got their hands raised in the semis after dominant performances. Good increased his record to 9-0 with his whipping of Jorge Ortiz (highlights begin at the above video’s 4:15 mark), as he poured on an overwhelming barrage of strikes over two rounds until Ortiz’s face fell apart and the fight was stopped due to a cut. De La Cruz was just as aggressive in his fight with former UFC middleweight champ Dave Menne (see the vid’s 6:15 mark), throwing down some of hardest punches from the top that you will ever see in your life, before ending the fight with a lights-out right hook. Good and De La Cruz will meet in the welterweight finals on June 12th in Uncasville, Connecticut.

In non-tournament action, Kerry Vera won a thrilling three-rounder over Leslie Smith in her MMA debut (highlights begin at the video’s 1:28 mark), and UFC vet Eddie Sanchez scored the fastest knockout in Bellator history with his 10-second demolition of Jay White (skip to 3:39). Full event results and the complete video of the must-see Vera/Smith fight are after the jump…

90% of my interest in watching NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice was dashed last night, thanks to the conniving, under-the-bus-throwing ways of Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, the most awful person ever featured on network television.

The season premiere involved a hot dog-selling contest, where the celebs (divided by gender) did battle to raise the most money for charity. Manigault-Stallworth quickly established herself as the biggest, dumbest asshole in room, demanding to be team leader and crafting a plan that involved pushing the hot dogs rather than their celebrity star power. Obviously, the guys dominated, and OMS scrambled to find a fall girl.

She found her mark in poor, sweet Tiffany, who was blamed for not fully exploiting her sex appeal or hitting up Hugh Hefner for money. The former Playmate of the Year was given the show’s first pink slip, thus reducing the show’s remaining eye-candy to Carol Alt (too old) and Jennie Finch (too softball player-ish).

Tito Ortiz (who represented the remaining 10% of my interest in this show) got a small amount of screen time in the episode, sparring with Lennox Lewis to draw interest in his team’s hot dog stand, and posing with girlfriend Jenna Jameson as she stopped by to suck down some meat for charity. “Anything for my man,” she said — quite a woman, that Jenna.

Also, Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama won something or other last night, but I wasn’t really paying attention.

(Two prom dates? Oh man, how’s Dominick gonna get himself out of *this* one?!)

According to a new MMAJunkie report, reigning bantamweight kingpin Dominick Cruz will make his fourth title defense at UFC on Versus 6, October 1st at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. His challenger will be Demetrious Johnson, the AMC Pankration product whose current four-fight win streak includes decision victories over MMA legend Norifumi Yamamoto and former 135-pound WEC champ Miguel Torres.

Cruz is coming off his ninth consecutive victory, a unanimous decision against old rival Urijah Faber in a Fight of the Night performance at UFC 132. In the aftermath of that classic bang-up, fans wondered if the UFC would schedule an immediate trilogy match between the two. Instead, Faber’s next opponent will be another contender with vengeance on his mind…

(The truth is, Ronda walked into the gym and Dominick’s knees buckled on their own. / Photo via @RondaRousey)

In light of the sly gamesmanship in that recent Urijah Faber video, UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz went on MMAFighting’s The MMA (After) Hour to explain how his knee injury came about, and that it wasn’t the result of being beat up by a girl. Here’s what he had to say, as transcribed by MMAMania:

“I was in training camp, I had just gotten done with TUF, and I usually get done about 11. I got to practice at 11:30 and I was sparring that day with kickboxing and takedowns and a guy got behind me in a scramble and he went for a trip, the trip, his hips went in on my knee and it just buckled my knee right then and there. I sat out the rest of the round, threw some ice on my knee, it was pretty painful. I was just kind of hoping for the best to be honest. I was hoping and praying that it was nothing crazy because it was a very, very loud pop. I kind of went into denial mode for the rest of that day saying ‘Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine.’ So I took some ibuprofen and that night I went in to get my normal workout in and I go to move around and get my shadowboxing going to warm up and me knee just pops right out. And I just knew right then and there that I needed to go get an MRI and get this checked out because me knee wasn’t stable and it kind of felt like I was walking on ice. I went in and got an MRI that day and got the bad results, the bad news…

Just to shut down some rumors that Faber thinks is funny to start and makes jokes about an Olympic bronze medalist and her taking out my knees. To me it’s not really funny, it’s just another way to know, for the world to know why me and Faber don’t get along. I wasn’t training with her at all. I brought her in to help my team on TUF…

(Cruz and Benavidez’s first meeting last August: Dominick may have gotten the nod for Octagon control, but Joe definitely had the mad-dogging advantage. Photo courtesy of SI)

Next Sunday’s WEC 49 might be low on marquee fights, but the organization will be making up for it in a big way at their August 18th show, which is slated to go down in Las Vegas. As reported yesterday, former featherweight champ Urijah Faber will make his bantamweight debut at the event, following a 2-3 stretch in his last five fights — including an agonizing loss to Jose Aldo in his last title challenge. Faber’s opponent is expected to be Takeya Mizugaki (12-4-2, 2-2 WEC), who made his WEC debut in a memorable five-round war against Miguel Torres last year, and has since picked up decision victories against Jeff Curran and Rani Yahya. Faber has stated in the past that he cuts very little weight to make 145 pounds, and a drop to 135 wouldn’t be a problem for him.

Headlining the card will be an even more important bantamweight scrap: Dominick Cruz‘s first title defense against Faber’s teammate Joseph Benavidez, who Cruz previously outpointed at WEC 42. Cruz became champion in March thanks to a brilliant striking performance against then-champion Brian Bowles. Benavidez earned his title shot by choking out Miguel Torres at the same event, and hopes to avenge the only loss on his record. The 8/18 show — which we’ll refer to as WEC 50 until further notice — will be broadcast on Versus.

Semi-related: The day before he handles color-commentary duties for WEC 49, Kenny Florian will be working the booth for the TUF 11 Finale.

(Bowles didn’t just shock the world — he threw a toaster into the tub while the world was trying to relax in it with a glass of red wine and the latest Nora Roberts novel.)

After scoring one of the biggest upsets of the year in August — knocking out the seemingly-indestructible Miguel Torres in the first round of their bantamweight title fight at WEC 42 — Brian Bowles is ready to defend his crown. The WEC announced yesterday that Bowles (8-0) will next compete at WEC 47, which is slated for March 6th at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. His opponent will be 15-1 contender Dominick Cruz, who has won his last four WEC fights by decision, and whose only career loss came in a featherweight bout against Urijah Faber back in March 2007. Cruz most recently won a unanimous decision over much-hyped up-and-comer Joseph Benavidez at WEC 42, earning the event’s Fight of the Night award.

Miguel Torres is also slated to compete on the card against a yet-unnamed opponent. And even though he basically retired in June, Jens Pulver will be fighting at the Columbus event as well. WEC 47 — which will take place during the weekend of the annual Arnold Sports Festival — will mark the organization’s first show in Ohio.

Semi-related: No matter how his fight against Ed Ratcliff turns out this Saturday at WEC 45, Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone plans to drop to featherweight for his next fight.

How appropriate is it that a man nicknamed “The Predator” would referee a match-up of giant, pedophillic mustaches?

“It’s cool, bro. The UFC offers accident insurance now.”

Sometimes, we like to pretend that our articles actually influence the UFC’s decision making. The other day, when we gave the UFC some friendly advice concerning their debut on Fox, we suggested that the UFC should probably schedule more than one fight. Having the support of a network like Fox and only displaying one fight, no matter how epic, is like buying a hooker just to hold hands with during Shark Night 3D. So when the UFC announced the addition of Cub Swanson vs. Ricardo Lamas to this card, our first thought was “The UFC was simply doing what they always do by announcing the main event before they announce supporting fights”. But we still feel pretty good about ourselves.

The fight potentially marks Cub Swanson’s UFC debut. As you may remember, Cub Swanson was set to make his UFC debut against Erik Koch twice, but was injured both times and forced to withdraw. Cub Swanson also holds the distinction of being the first fighter to utilize the UFC’s accident-insurance, after a knee to the face during a sparring session resulted in a broken jaw, as well as orbital, nasal and cheek fractures. Swanson’s last fight was a FOTN winning split decision over Mackens Semerzier at WEC 52. Meanwhile, Lamas is coming off of a TKO victory over Matt Grice at UFC Live on Versus: Kongo vs. Barry. His fight against Grice also marked his featherweight debut.

(Props: MMAFighting.com)

Giving more weight to our theory that Chael Sonnen legitimately suffers from multiple personality disorder, the UFC’s #1 middleweight contender did an interview with Ariel Helwani yesterday in which he denied saying that Lance Armstrong gave himself cancer by taking steroids. Keep in mind that Sonnen made those incendiary comments on a publicly-broadcast radio interview that you can still listen to any time you feel like it. Here’s the exchange with Helwani, which begins at the 4:19 mark: 

AH: A lot of people took offense to what you said about Lance Armstrong recently, to Larry Pepe. Can you elaborate on that?

CS: I never did an interview with Larry Pepe.

AH: The Lance Armstrong stuff, you never said.

CS: I never spoke of Lance Armstrong ever. Never. Not until just now.

In which Santino calls B.S. on Michael Bisping‘s jet-lag excuse, shares some insight on Frank Lester (pictured above, with jacked-up teeth), and hints that we’ll soon be seeing one of the biggest turncoat-acts in TUF history.

***

I am not so sure Captain Britania had suffered the amount of jet lag as he would lead us to believe. I mean, seriously, we had been filming for two to three weeks by that point and all the other coaches of the land of the rising Brit had figured out their sleeping schedules just fine. Booze-lag would be my assumption, as we had heard of him being in bars/clubs quite frequently from reputable sources…our coaches! Not all of them, but a couple. The best part of hearing about the head UK "piss-artist" (look it up as it has a different meaning in the UK as what you are thinking) is all the run-ins he had with our Jiu Jitsu coach, Pancho. Pancho, or Pantcho as he would end up spelling it (he’s right off the boat and doesn’t exactly have the best understanding of our language) got into a verbal joust with "Michael Bitchbing," as Pantcho would say, and almost got into a bit of a fist-a-cuffs exchange one night at a club.

(Props: MMA Madness)

Former WWE star and American Top Team student Bobby Lashley made his pro MMA debut at Mixed Fighting Alliance’s "There Will Be Blood" event in Miami on Saturday night, needing just 41 seconds to open up a cut on opponent Joshua Franklin’s forehead large enough for the fight to be stopped. It was an anti-climactic ending for the audience, but when the gash is shown at the video’s 1:52 mark, you’ll probably agree that it was the right thing to do. Maybe next time Lashley will be able to give fans a better sense of what he’s capable of.

Headlining the MFA event was a fight between former UFC stars Jeff Monson and Ricco Rodriguez, with Monson pulling out a unanimous decision win. The Snowman is reportedly considering a move back to the UFC — and may face Cheick Kongo in his return match — but will first head to Japan for a fight in Sengoku. Rodriguez’s loss to Monson snapped a five-fight winning streak; he has fought nine times in 2008, making this year the most active of his career. Video of the Monson/Rodriguez fight is after the jump.

Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith

Props to MMA Scraps. Diaz vs. Denny is after the jump.

For all the grief we give the guy, we owe him a second photo of this submission. (Pic: UFC.com)

There were a score of unofficial bonuses dealt out last night. Tito got to keep his job and shut up his many, many detractors. Cruz evened the scorecards against Faber and avenged his only loss. Chris Leben bounced back from a crippling Gummi Bear addiction to score a vicious 27 second KO victory over Wanderlei Silva. As if that weren’t enough, the UFC handed out a quartet of its official, more financially lucrative $75k bonuses as well.

(1-0 over constrictive tanktops, 0-1 over actual competition. You will be missed, Gilbert. Photo courtesy of UFC.com) 

The UFC continues to steamroll ahead with its massive roster cuts, Potato Nation. And while we are never one to praise the departure of a Zuffa employee (unless it’s Paul Daley, of course), we should at least be able to take comfort in the fact that there are no Jon Fitch level mind-bogglers for us to mourn this time around. However, the UFC’s most recent list of firings does feature — somewhat unsurprisingly — every TUF 17 alum who came up short in the season’s finale earlier this month, as well as a couple other guys who have had less than successful UFC runs as of late.

Taking out the trash is never fun, so let’s just get this thing over with…

(Yeah, we’re not really stoked for this one either, Mo.)

Not too long ago, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal signed a — I guess you’d call it groundbreaking — deal with both Bellator and TNA Wrestling after being released from Strikeforce following a positive test for steroids and an epic Twitter meltdown, a decision he is probably patting himself on the back for in light of recent events. Ever since, we have been quietly waiting to see which one of Bellator’s remaining light heavyweights Mo would square off against first, whether it was…what’s his face, or, uhh…*snaps fingers*…uh…God, I know this…

…

…Turns out, Bellator is going the Josh Barnett route for King Mo’s big debut, bringing in a complete outsider named *checks glasses* Przemyslaw Mysiala to conveniently get squashed just before confetti falls from the ceiling and Mo is declared the next challenger to whomever emerges victorious from the Christian M’Pumbu/Attila Veigh fight. And you better believe that some form of energy drink will be used to hose bitches down at some point in this ceremony, because it sooo will.

“Where I come from, people who lose close fights retire.” Props: UFC.com

While watching UFC 143 from the comfort of my favorite dive bar last night, I knew that MMA fans would be waging war on the internet over the fights that went the distance. Between the two point deduction that cost “Bruce Leroy” his fight against Edwin Figueroa and Josh Koscheck’s close fight with the “undeserving” Mike Pierce, I knew that I could expect a long-winded, philosophical debate over what constitutes a fight and what doesn’t- whether abstract concepts like “control” and “aggression” mean more than punches thrown, and whether takedowns earned and stuffed negate an inferior striking display. Naturally, this debate would include a lot of ad hominems and off topic ranting, because that’s just par for the course online.

And that was before the main event of the evening, which saw Carlos Condit earn a close decision over Nick Diaz. Carlos Condit used backward and lateral footwork while outstriking Nick Diaz, yet many fans felt that Nick Diaz should have won the fight. Before the fight even ended, the debate already began on whether “Octagon control” necessarily means “the guy moving forward”, and whether counter-punchers should automatically be considered less aggressive than their opponents. Judging from the comments sections of today’s articles, that debate won’t be ending any time soon.

Benjamin Disraeli once said that there are three types of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics. For the time being, let’s move our arguments about last night’s fights past the first two. Let’s now turn our focus towards the statistics from last night’s close decisions. FightMetric’s breakdowns of Riddle vs. Martinez, Figueroa vs. Caceres, Koscheck vs. Pierce and, of course, Diaz vs. Condit have been published, and are available after the jump.

(Well now I want to see Dominick Cruz as Backin’ Up Lady. Props: twitter.com/UrijahFaber)

The UFC announced on Saturday that the bantamweight title fight between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber will go down at UFC 132, July 2nd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Since taping for TUF 14 is expected to take place sometime this summer, it seems unlikely that Cruz and Faber will be tapped as coaches for The Ultimate Fighter‘s first bantamweight/featherweight season.

The two former WEC stars have shared some bad blood since the lead-up to their first fight at WEC 26 in March 2007. Upset that he wasn’t featured on the event poster, Cruz signed his name over Faber’s face — which the California Kid perceived as a sign of disrespect. Faber went on to score a guillotine choke victory in just 98 seconds, retaining his featherweight title.

He made his bones knocking out palookas in the Toughman circuit in the ’90s, before transitioning into an MMA career where he was usually matched up against other oddly-shaped fighters. But now that he’s older and wiser — and still enormous — all Butterbean wants to do is protect and serve. That’s the premise of a new reality series called Big Law: Deputy Butterbean, which premieres August 9th on the Investigation Discovery channel.

The show follows Eric Esch (aka Butterbean, King of the Damn Four-Rounders) and his partner Deputy Adam Hadder as they patrol the streets of Jasper, Alabama, tracking down crystal meth labs and unsanctioned rib-eating contests. Will the 400+ pound ‘Bean be forced to scale a chain-link fence during a pursuit? Will Steven Seagal come in for a guest-spot? These are serious questions that need to be asked now.

When reached for comment, Tim Sylvia cried “What about meeeeeeeeeeee??” Anyway. You guys gonna watch this crap or what?

For a guy nicknamed “The Party”, you’d think that he’d have a hotter chick.

At this time last year, MMA pundits were intrigued by Lance Palmer’s announcement that he intended to move to Sacramento to pursue a career in MMA. Lance Palmer was a four time Ohio High School State Champion, the subject of the documentary Pinned and a four time NCAA All-American at Ohio State, so we all dropped what we were doing to…okay fine. We were all busy covering the freak show that was Sylvia vs. Pudzianowski. It seemed important at the time. Anyway, Palmer moved to Sacramento in August of 2010 to join Team Alpha Male, and made his professional MMA debut last night at Fight for Wrestling 3 in Bakersfield California. By the way, the event was a fundraiser for Cal State Bakersfield’s wrestling program, which no longer receives support from the school.

His opponent, Emelio Gonzales, made his professional debut at the beginning of the month, losing by a first round rear naked choke. Predictably, Lance Palmer wasted little time getting this one to the ground. After securing an earlier takedown, Palmer was careful to avoid submission attempts from Gonzales. After a failed armbar attempt by Gonzales, Palmer took his back and sunk in a rear naked choke.

After the jump, be sure to watch the video of the fight with your sound on. Normally, spectators who yell out instructions at the fighters are extremely annoying. However, there’s something equally tragic and hilarious about assuming the woman yelling instructions at Emelio Gonzales throughout the fight is his mother.

(VidProps: YouTube/ZP420MMA)

With the opening bouts of the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament less than a month away, embattled grand prix participant Josh Barnett turned up on HDNet’s Inside MMA over the weekend, where he and Bas Rutten both just started saying stuff. Protest if you want, but it makes for great TV when nobody is around to check facts or rein in the insanity. Clearly, Barnett and Bas just want to bro down, have a couple of drinks and reminisce about how radical it used to be to be King of Pancrase, leaving poor Kenny Rice to try to bumble his way through some actual journalism.

Things reach a fever pitch of awesomeness at about the 3:40 mark, when Rice asks Barnett a serious question about his efforts (or lack thereof) to get relicensed in California. Barnett dismissively waves his hands and pretty much says he doesn’t give a damn, that he doesn’t need no pencil-pushing lawmakers to tell him when and where he throws down. All the while Bas just chuckles to himself and mumbles stuff like “Right! Yeah!” as if to say “You tell it, brother!” Seriously, these guys are two peas in a pod …

(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.

According to a Sherdog report published yesterday, UFC lightweight contenders George Sotiropoulos (13-2, 6-0 UFC) and Joe Lauzon (19-5, 6-2 UFC) will meet in a pivotal matchup at UFC 123 (November 20th, Auburn Hills). Riding a six-fight win streak including decision victories this year over Kurt Pellegrino and Joe Stevenson, Sotiropoulos would move very close to title contention with an impressive win over Lauzon. The fight would come less than three months after Lauzon’s recent destruction of Gabe Ruediger at UFC 118, which helped him rebound from a lopsided decision loss against Sam Stout at UFC 108.

The Sotiropoulos/Lauzon matchup contradicts an optimistic report in the Sydney Morning Herald that had George taking on BJ Penn or Kenny Florian in his next outing. Though the UFC could have been considering a matchup with Florian, Ken-Flo plans on sharpening his wreslting until the spring.

Related: Tyson Griffin vs. Nik Lentz is also being targeted for UFC 123, and Clay Guida has his next opponent set; he isn’t naming names, but it’s a "big one" against a guy with "ALOT of power in his hands."

(Now that his name was finally cleared, Rampage was looking forward to getting some normalcy back in his and Tiki’s life.)

The wrongful death lawsuit filed against Quinton Jackson by the mother who miscarried her unborn child days after being sideswiped by the former UFC light heavyweight champion’s monster truck in Costa Mesa, California in July 2008 has been dismissed.

TMZ is reporting that the plaintiff, Holli Griggs, has dropped the lawsuit, meaning the two parties likely settled out of court.

(Fight starts at the 2:37 mark. Everything before that is really, really annoying.)

Former Power Ranger Jason David Frank made his MMA debut in Houston, Texas this weekend, where he faced Jonathan Mack in the main event of the Lonestar Beatdown.  Mack seemed to be getting the upper hand early on and even wobbled Frank with a good left hook.  Where he went it wrong, it seems, is in taking the fight to the mat after doing so well on the feet.  It didn’t take long for Frank to lock up an omaplata and wrench it until the ref had to literally shove him off his opponent.  Not terribly sportsmanlike behavior from the guy who’s responsible for the Jesus Didn’t Tap clothing line, but hey, there’s a reason the company isn’t called Jesus Stopped Immediately After You Tapped.

After the jump, Frank breaks down his own performance in a post-fight video interview.  If, like us, you were hoping that everything he says would be as badly dubbed as the Power Ranger TV shows, get ready to be disappointed.

(Props: jay2005us)

Last night at a Gladiator Challenge event at the Shingle Springs Rancheria — near the Red Hawk Casino in Placerville, California — Dan Quinn harnessed the combined power of the White Cure and all his departed angels to knock Bond Lapua‘s teeth down his throat. Lapua, who may have been making his MMA debut, came out like a house on fire, snapping some nasty leg kicks and landing a crushing right hand that almost ended Dan’s night, then beating him up a bit in the clinch. I dare you to guess what happened next, player. After a few well-placed power punches, Lapua Cro-Copped out of the fight, a thoroughly broken man.

The TKO over Lapua was Quinn’s second straight victory. Remember when we used to laugh at this dude for even suggesting that he could take out Kimbo Slice? Quinn vs. Slice, October 2009, no leg kicks, no takedowns, just throwin’ hands: Who takes it?

(Props: MMA Fanhouse)

We’ve touched on the generation gap issue in MMA before, so we weren’t surprised to see Larry King, who is positively ancient, look a little lost when he talks about this "ultimate boxing" stuff.  Fortunately, Renaissance man Jesse Ventura is there to correct him — "’Ultimate fighting,’ you mean," — and even offers what appears to be an informed opinion on UFC 100, saying he loved it right up until Brock Lesnar made him feel "ashamed."  You and me both, Jesse.

(New York Governor David Paterson. You’d think a guy who lost his eye in unregulated vale tudo matches in the late ’80s would have more sympathy to our cause.)

I doubt many of you follow New York politics, but it’s a freakin’ mess out here right now. Virtually nothing constructive has gotten done in the NY senate over the last two weeks, and as an emergency session comes to a close today — ending the legislative body’s 2009 schedule — one bill that will be left out in the cold is our beloved S2165A, intended to regulate mixed martial arts in New York State. Originally, the bill was on the docket for a June 9th vote. Unfortunately, things fell apart on June 8th. MMA Weekly has the story:

Former Playboy model turned fighter LaTasha Marzolla won her MMA debut this weekend in Las Vegas, beating on Christy Tada until Tada’s corner called a stop to it after one round at Saturday night’s Tuff-N-Uff event.  Guess you do learn a thing or two being best buds with Gina Carano.  As you can see, Marzolla isn’t built like the typical female MMA fighter (NSFW photographic evidence here) but she’s still not worried about getting her pretty face smashed in, much to the surprise of Steve Cofield, who had her on his radio show last week.  Marzolla brought along her Xtreme Couture trainer, Shawn Tompkins, and Cofield proved that he really knows women, or at least how to make broad generalizations about what’s important to them with this write-up:

“It takes a unique woman to want to compete in mixed martial arts. So much of a female’s self-esteem is based on looks, to risk having your face disfigured takes some guts.”

Real nice, Cofield.  Everybody remember to tune in to next week’s show to find out what is universally important to your demographic.  After the jump, video of Marzolla from the bizarrely cheesy movie “Ring Girls” for you to watch while you contemplate whether Marzolla’s entrance into MMA means she’s a threat to steal Carano’s unofficial title of ‘hottest female fighter.’

(Props: "Card" on the UG)

Now that we know who’s going to be in the upcoming UFC game, it’s time to look at how those fighters will throw down within the "virtual Octagon." In the above video, 2009 Undisputed producer Neven Dravinski takes us through weak and strong strikes, and the various ranges they can be delivered. The GSP Superman-punch KO of BJ Penn at 0:09-0:12 makes us smile every time we see it.

Below: One day left until Jason Guida gets a giant reality check — but for the time being, he gets to be talk about how he’s "all over [Lashley's] mind" and how he actually feels bad for him, because the former WWE star has to jump in the deep end right away without being built up first. (*Cough*) Skip to the 2:18 mark and smell the magic.

After the jump: King Mo‘s pimp-ass post-Sengoku press conference.

(Is “Semtex” done?)

— Cage Rage vet and current EliteXC fighter Paul “Semtex” Daley has posted on-line that he is calling it quits when his EliteXC contract is over on March 29th.

This is for the fighters, fans, promoters and trolls alike.

As of now i will be stepping down as Cage Rage Champion (British and world), FX-3 Champion and KOTR champion. I vacate all these titles. Futher more i consider my self retired (from all MMA/Thai boxing) as of March 29th. March 29th i will fullfill my contracted commitment for Pro Elite, against a yet un named opponent.

No speculation, No futher annonucments, once i’ve found the path i originally set out on in the Martial Arts, i may return to this SPORT, Maybe 6months-Maybe 6 years, who knows.

Who will be the next welterweight CRC champ. FX-3 champ????…

Thanks

Although this message is put together with a wordsmith’s touch, it’s hard to believe “Semtex” would be bowing out of the sport at this time in his career. 5oz of Pain seconds that backed by personal interaction with the fighter. The guy is 17-6-2 and can command a solid payday in several organizations. Maybe that’s what this is about…drawing a big payday from the dudes willing to “pull him out of retirement”.

— The IFL is adding to its exposure by partnering with the social media network imeem. The organization already has agreements with other media and networking sites such as Break.com, YouTube and PalTalk. The IFL’s press release says that imeem’s 23 million users will be able to view and interact with media from the IFL at www.ifl.imeem.com.

The partnership will create an IFL TV channel on imeem where fans can find engaging and fresh media content from the professional mixed martial arts sports league, ranging from match highlights to athlete and coach interviews and instructional segments. The imeem community can also express themselves with their favorite IFL content by creating and sharing custom video playlists with friends on imeem and through embeddable widgets on third party sites across the Web.

So more chances to see our boys Roy “Big Country” Nelson and Matt “Sauve” Horwich in action.

— An update on the state of MMA in the, um, state of Maryland. Today the Maryland Senate went to committee over Senate Bill 649. You’ll recall that the bill proposes the legalization of MMA in the state – amateur and professional. If you want to put in your two cents, go here. Delegate Kirill Reznik (District 39, Montgomery County) has been pushing to make MMA legal in the state and Luke Thomas over at BloodyElbow was even asked to speak to the Senate committee today about the matter. That’s the proactive action MMA needs. Keeping our fingers crossed for you guys.