Team Liddell fighter Rich Attonito returns again in the newest installment of his Cage Potato guest blog. Read on to find out what it’s like to have John Hackleman and Chuck Liddell whipping you into shape, and how a Jersey boy like Rich would have handled the beef between Jamie Yager and Nick Ring.

We were all called together for a big announcement and we waited patiently in the gym for the arrival of Dana, Chuck, and Tito. When I saw them make their way through the doors and towards us I knew that it was all business just by the way they were walking. I knew that something was up and by the looks of it, it didn’t look good. Tension in the air was thick. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong but I started to rewind my brain to see if I could think of anything I might have done that would get me in trouble. I felt like I was back in high school for a second.

Then Dana asked Chris Camozzi to step forward and delivered the terrible news. Chris had broken his jaw and was no longer able to continue in the competition. He was going home. It was like everyone in the room got kicked in the balls all at once. I felt horrible for him. Chris was one of my favorite guys in the house and I was sad to see him go. He earned his way into the house through a hard fought victory. I couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be to have the opportunity you earned right in front of you, and then see it vanish just like that. Watching Chris leave the gym only reinforced how fragile this opportunity can be and made me feel very fortunate to be in the position I was in. The only question now was who were they going to bring back to replace him?

(Props: Card on the UG)

Potato Nation, we’ve reached the point where those of us who care about Chuck Liddell’s health and well-being simply cannot, in good conscience, allow him to continue watching MMA fights. The strain is clearly too much for him. We’ve seen it in the past when Liddell has been cageside at UFC fights. We saw it again on last night’s episode of “The Ultimate Fighter.” When Liddell gets caught up in the action of a fight, his neurological system momentarily shuts down and he staggers around like an old man who has been jolted from his recliner by a disturbing dream involving gays and the Korean War. I’m not sure what the exact medical term is for this, but it must be something that’s difficult to pronounce and potentially life-threatening.

What’s really alarming is, this latest seizure was brought on by a close, though not all that action-packed exhibition fight. Can you imagine what will happen if Liddell finds himself engrossed in a particularly competitive title fight? Why, there’d be nothing left at the end but a mohawk and a sweat-stained club shirt.

(Rich isn’t looking at you, tough guy. He’s looking through you.)

American Top Team fighter and New Jersey boy Rich Attonito is the latest “Ultimate Fighter” guest blogger for Cage Potato, following in a rich history that features former contestants such as Gerald Harris, Santino Defranco, and season eight winner Efrain Escudero. He’ll be giving us his thoughts and reaction to each episode, so make him feel welcome and remember to check back every Thursday for his inside take on things. To learn more about Rich, and to hear his pretty solid Schwarzenegger/Jersey Shore impressions, watch this short video.  If you missed his elimination fight last night, watch this.

It was 6.00 a.m. when I arrived curbside at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale. The sun was starting to rise and it was the start of another typically beautiful day in South Florida. However, I was about to embark upon an extraordinary journey far from typical. I hugged and kissed my wife goodbye, knowing I was not going to see her for six weeks if everything worked to plan.

Before I knew it the plane had taken off and I was watching the palm trees and beaches shrinking beneath me until they were out of sight. I arrived hours later in Las Vegas, where the sky was covered in dark clouds and rainy weather. I could see snow and cloud cover on the peaks of all the surrounding mountains. The continuous rain seemed to only get worse, creating small floods and soaking everything in sight. This is not the Las Vegas you see on the postcards. It reminded me of the weather I got used to for so many years growing up in New Jersey. I thought to myself that this was great fight weather; it put me in the mood to kick someone’s ass.

(Sometimes the difference between making the cut and staying home is all in how you wear your silly hat.)

The time has come once again for the UFC and Spike TV to scour the land in search of MMA fighters who want to be on a reality show and/or need a place to stay for a few weeks. I refer now, of course, to the open tryouts for season twelve of “The Ultimate Fighter” which, Spike announced today, will be held on April 1 at the Omni Charlotte Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.

This time around the UFC is looking for lightweights and light heavyweights, and since our vast readership encompasses everyone from angry pre-pubescent boys to confused retirees who are still trying to figure out where the internet keeps its porn, we figured that somewhere in there we’ve got to have some readers who are aspiring UFC fighters. To help these special members of the Potato Nation achieve their dreams, we’d like to offer some tips for a successful TUF audition. You can thank us after you win that six-figure contract and weird cut glass trophy.

1. Have an Interesting Personal Story
If you haven’t noticed by now, reality TV producers are lazy. They don’t want to have to work too hard to figure out the angle on anything, so make it easy for them. Tell them all about your life of hardship and tragedy. Explain that you want to become a UFC fighter because you promised your dying mother you would. Mention the interesting/quirky job you have. Unless you work as a bouncer or bartender. Trust us, they’ve heard that one already. If all else fails, tell them that you think you might be gay. Or an alcoholic. Or a gay alcoholic. They won’t be able to resist putting you in that house.

Spike TV has released the full roster of fighters for the eleventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” complete with this handy video to help you match faces to names. At the very least they’ve found some guys who look interesting – some in the sense that they have faces like old catcher’s mitts and so must be pretty tough, others in the sense that they just seem like colossal jerks (looking at you, Nick “The Promise” Ring).  But are any of them good enough to be prematurely declared the next Anderson Silva? Do any of them have the potential for complete psychological breakdown that Junie Browning brought to the show? And who, I ask you, will be their “Linderman”?

We don’t know the answers to any of those questions (despite being an MMA news source), but we did learn some interesting factoids about the guys from a press release sent out by Spike TV earlier today. For instance:

(The over/under on how long it will take Chuck to remind Tito of the two times he mercilesssly kicked his ass? Twelve seconds.)

There are a lot of similarities between how I felt when I heard that Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell would coach the next season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” and how I felt when I found out there was no Santa Claus. In both cases, I was initially flooded with overwhelming grief. How could this be, I wondered. What kind of world are we living in? Just when I thought there was something to believe in – be it the promise that Liddell would bow out gracefully at Dana White’s insistence, or the promise that a fat, seemingly immortal man would invade my home in order to give me a Nintendo for getting good grades – it gets snatched away from me.

Those were dark days. Both times I responded by masking my pain with hard drug use and shoplifting, the latter of which, if you haven’t tried it, is a total rush and much easier to get away with when you’re eight years old. But after I got out of rehab and got my life back together, I came to see the positives in each situation. I started seeing them for what they were, instead of what they weren’t. And you know what I found? There’s ample reason to be grateful for this turn of events.

With the Santa situation, I eventually realized that I didn’t have to be good all the time to get presents from some omniscient being; I just had to not get caught by my parents or other authority figures. That really freed up my social life. With the TUF 11 situation, there are also some silver linings worth taking note of…

(Okay, that’s just mean. Props: MMA TKO)

If you couldn’t tell by his decision to use Weird Al Yankovic’s "Fat" as his entrance music, or by his constant, unpaid endorsements of Burger King, Roy Nelson is trying to use his corpulent physique to his advantage.  In a way, that’s smart.  If people are going to think of him as the UFC’s fat guy, he might as well embrace it the way Tito Ortiz has embraced being the UFC’s guy who just says stuff. 

But at a certain point all the jokes about your own shortcomings cease to be charmingly self-deprecating and begin to be a little annoying.  For example, take "Big Country’s" description of himself as "the official UFC suckmeter."  As he told Steve Cofield, "If you can’t get past me, you’ll get that call from Joe Silva saying you can’t fight no more."

(You don’t dress for the job you have, you dress for the job you want: manager of an inner-city Boot Barn location. Everybody has a dream.)

The final episode of "The Ultimate Fighter" season ten, is just a few hours away, and the boys at Spike TV seem like they may be worried that there isn’t enough at stake to make you tune in for the full two-hour show.  To remedy that, they sent out a teaser email promising that Kimbo Slice‘s future will be "revealed" tonight, prompting us to wonder whether this is finally going to be the TUF episode where the guys encounter a gypsy woman on the road during the drive home from the gym and she tells everyone’s fortune by looking at globules of their spit on the pavement (bad news for Wes Sims, he drowns in the Bering Sea this March). 

To further pique our interest on the matter, Ferg himself had this to say:

"Now it’s time for the next step in my career. Everyone will see what that is tonight on Spike. …It’s gonna be good.  Watch the show tonight. You’ll see what’s next for me. All I can say is that somebody’s getting knocked out. …Everybody knows what my stronghold is.  People will be able to see me and judge for themselves."

The weird part is, we pretty much already know what Kimbo’s immediate future holds; he’s fighting Houston Alexander.  So what’s all this next step stuff?  Unless something else happens in tonight’s episode to guide Slice’s life down a dramatically different path.  Something totally insane… 

(‘Look dog, I spent five hours baking this loaf of bread. Now you eatin’ it one way or another.’)

Spike TV and the UFC are still trying to play it close to the vest when it comes to who Kimbo Slice will be facing in his official Octagon debut at next weekend’s “Ultimate Fighter” finale. Too bad they’re the only ones concerned with keeping it under wraps. Slice already removed the element of surprise somewhat with a recent Twitter posting, but in an appearance on the “Todd N Tyler” radio show (via Bloody Elbow), Houston Alexander said several times that he’ll be taking on someone named Kevin Ferguson at the event. The hosts of the show naturally follow this statement up with a bunch of lame puns about Kimbo’s name, because they’re radio hosts and a certain number of lame puns per hour is required by their contracts.

In addition to telling us that he is the undisclosed first UFC opponent for Ferg, Alexander also insists that he’s “practicing boxing, takedown defense, it’s just crazy.” Man, that is crazy. It’s almost like he’s preparing for a fight with both stand-up and ground aspects. Though, Mr. Alexander, allow us to make a suggestion: kick him in the leg. Over and over again. The TUF editors have basically begged you to.

He may not look like much.  He may have terrible takedown defense and he may speak in a monotone voice that makes him sound like a robot that is slowly running out of power.  But “Ultimate Fighter” season ten heavyweight Abe Wagner is one perceptive son of a bitch.  While everyone else in the house traded unfounded speculation about whether Matt Mitrione was faking the whole ‘hurt brain’ thing, Wagner did some sleuthing that turned up incontrovertible evidence, and he shares it with us in his Fight Magazine blog:

“I wasn’t personally very convinced of his head injury and thought he was continuing to play the game the way he had been up to this point. A prime reason why I felt that way was he came up to me eating peanut butter M&M’s and asked me if it was normal for them to be delicious or if his brain was really that messed up. This was obviously a joke because everyone knows that peanut butter M&M’s are delicious. In my experience people with real brain trauma have no humor; it just doesn’t occur to them. So that he was able to make jokes with me made me think that his head injury wasn’t in fact that bad.”

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the prosecution rests. 

Okay, so maybe it’s not exactly scientific, but it’s still very difficult to argue with.  Who makes it all the way to adulthood without finding out that peanut butter M&M’s are delicious?  Some people learn it on the streets, some in an uncomfortable talk with their father, but by a certain age, everyone knows it.  Oddly though, his take on Mitrione and peanut butter M&M’s was somehow not the strangest moment in his post-episode blog.  No, that happened when he got around to discussing the chicken prank and its aftermath:

(‘Anybody want to go throw some furniture off the overpass?’)

You might think that you know what Matt Mitrione is doing when you watch him on “The Ultimate Fighter,” but the truth is he is straight playin’ ya’ll.  That’s the message in his Fight Magazine blog, where he once again insists that nothing is as it seems in his world, and everything is done for a reason that only makes sense to him.  In the case of last night’s episode, the reason is purely for his own amusement, because his mind is too damn active to allow him to just sit around and act like a normal human being.  It’s a blessing and a curse, people:

As far as talking about voices in my head it was kind of a joke. Nobody here likes me so let’s see what I can do to freak out the camera people. I was going stir crazy. I had no other friends in the house at the time except for Darrill and I couldn’t really tell Darrill what I was doing at the time. It was my own personal joke. It was a way to keep myself entertained. I have a really active mind and I can’t sit around and stare at the other people in a house. I gotta stimulate myself. When I was in the cage and I told T and Rashad that I had a conversation with my wife in my head I was trying so hard not to laugh as I said it.

Cagepotato.com Interviews Dana White – Watch more Funny Videos

The last time Cage Potato sent one of our wily female correspondents to interview a UFC star, it very nearly ended in a sexual assault.  But undaunted, we decided to try again when we heard Dana White would be at the recent “Ultimate Fighter” tryouts, and fortunately for our enthusiastic young interviewer DW is no “Rampage” Jackson.  In this exclusive video interview the UFC prez calls accusations that the UFC gave Kimbo Slice preferential treatment a “crock of shit,” saying that Kimbo had his manager present at his TUF fight, which he claims isn’t necessarily all that special, but no entourage and certainly no phone calls home.  White blames it all on Roy Nelson, but “Big Country isn’t the only one singing that song.  As for his remarks about TUF not being over till it’s over, well, I think we all know what that means: Poppa Slice is going to get to bang again, eventually.

All this, plus commentary on UFC 104, Junie Browning’s departure from the UFC, and what prompted Jackson’s supposed retirement from the UFC in this exclusive video interview.  Enjoy.

If you were hoping that Dan Henderson‘s contract negotiation breakdown with the UFC would lead him to abandon his patented understated, laconic style in favor of calling Dana White a stingy bastard and accusing Anderson Silva of shucking and ducking, you’re about to be disappointed.  In his latest interview, Hendo confirms DW’s characterization of the talks as having reached a stalemate, but says he still thinks he’s worth more and can get more than what the UFC is offering him, and dammit, come February he’s fighting somebody, somewhere.  Dan has a good point when he says he’s not too keen on seeing a guy who he beat, and who has never even fought as a middleweight in the UFC, jump ahead of everybody else for the title shot.  But hey, like Vitor Belfort already said, he’s just working from the neck down like everybody else in the UFC.

After the jump, Natasha Wicks tries on the five best/sluttiest Halloween costumes she can find, and "Rampage" Jackson puts in overtime busting Rashad Evans‘ balls on tonight’s episode of "The Ultimate Fighter."

(Tiki vs. Robbie Lawler @ UFC 40, 11/22/02. What? He just got cut. And Rasputin just got a little wet.)

If you were listening closely during last night’s episode of "The Ultimate Fighter," you might have heard Team Rampage assistant coach Tiki Ghosn commiserating in the locker room with a frustrated "Rampage" Jackson after yet another loss.  Tiki doesn’t exactly seem like he’s in the kind of friendship with Jackson that would allow him to question the coaching strategies that led them to this point, so instead he joined in on the bitch session by throwing his hands up and saying, "We can’t fight for them." 

That’s true.  The only problem is, Tiki has never won a fight in the UFC.  Not once in his eleven-year, 11-7 career.  He’s had four fights in the Octagon and lost them all.  He’s never even made it into the third round of a UFC fight, if we want to get technical.  That’s not to say that he necessarily sucks.  He did beat pop sensation Genki Sudo in his pro debut, and he’s currently riding a two-fight win streak.  But lest Tiki be allowed to go around disparaging the abilities of the Team Rampage UFC hopefuls as if he’s some kind of future hall of famer, we thought a little Tiki Ghosn career primer was in order.  Enjoy.

("What the hell he need the stool for?")

By now, anyone watching this season of “The Ultimate Fighter” has been forced to confront two questions: ‘Is “Rampage” Jackson the worst coach in the history of the show?’ and ‘Doesn’t that bother him?’  The former light heavyweight champ has been pretty mum about the show’s portrayal of him so far.  Instead he’s been busy feuding with Dana White and retiring from fighting in order to focus on his acting career, so it makes sense that he might not be sitting down with Tiki Ghosn and a bowl of popcorn every Wednesday to see how the show has turned out. 

But after last night’s episode again showed a disinterested ‘Page who can’t even be bothered to check on his unconscious fighter after the team’s fifth straight loss, Jackson took to his blog to issue a response:

(‘Oh, that? It’s an allegory for how we train around here. Or, wait, when it involves an animal does that make it a fable? Hold on, let’s ask Tuchscherer.’)

Sometimes I get the feeling that Brock Lesnar is actually a really smart, articulate guy, but he has a vicious sense of humor that makes him want to say the most ridiculous things he can think of just to see if anyone has the balls to call him out on it.  Chances are, no, they don’t.  So he just keeps talking and things keep getting weirder.  The latest such example comes from a Yahoo! Sports article that attempts to get inside Lesnar’s head by eating lunch with him at Subway.  Naturally, there’s all the usual smack talk about Shane Carwin’s lack of difficult opponents and that adorable little Division II national wrestling championship that he won.  But there’s also this bizarre quote when Lesnar gives his take on TUF 10′s recent Kimbo Slice-Roy Nelson fight:

"It looked like a couple of high school kids, a barroom brawl.  The fat biker dude took his vest off and put ranch dressing on his (chest)."

In a perfect world, the interviewer would have countered that statement by asking, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’  But sadly, ours is an aggressively imperfect world, so that probably didn’t happen.  Instead, we’ll go ahead and ask.  WTF, Brock?  What is that even supposed to mean?  Ranch dressing on his chest?  What kind of bars are you hanging out in, anyway?

(Props: MMA TKO)

As expected, last night’s Kimbo Slice/Roy Nelson fight drew a record-breaking audience to Spike TV’s “Ultimate Fighter.”  While the entire hour averaged 5.3 million viewers, the actual fight portion of the show pulled in, according to the press release sent out by Spike, “a staggering 6.1 million viewers” for what was a predictable and not terribly exciting one-sided victory for “Big Country.”  That pummeling now holds the distinction of being the most watched UFC fight ever on Spike TV, so it sounds like somebody really does owe Nelson a Double Whopper with cheese.  And God help you if he finds a pickle on there.

Judging by his Twitter updates, Roy Nelson is really looking forward to tonight’s episode of "The Ultimate Fighter," perhaps so much so that he’s willing to spoil it for all 180 of his followers (and oh yeah, CagePotatoMMA is among that lucky few).  So what exactly should we take from this cryptic missive?  Let’s see if we can deconstruct these three sentences and find out what it is "Big Country" is really trying to say:

- Roy’s reference to Babe Ruth — not the candy bar — is clearly an attempt to distract fans from his own physique by reminding them of a great athlete with an even less impressive body than his own.  It’s kind of the same trick that girls use when they surround themselves with hideously-dressed bridesmaids on their wedding day.

(In the sculpted chest hair battle, it’s already Kimbo: 1, Roy Nelson: 0)

If you were surprised how quickly Dana White changed his attitude about Kimbo Slice once the opportunity for the UFC to make money off the internet-brawler-turned-bread-getter presented itself, then congratulations, you have only just now discovered the sport of MMA, the UFC, and the business of fight promotion.  Welcome, we’re glad to have you.  Those of us who have been following this stuff in general, and Dana White specifically, saw this change of heart coming.

But over at Yahoo! Sports, Kevin Iole seems blown away by what he refers to as a “double standard” in the way the UFC is hyping Kimbo Slice.  Iole criticizes the UFC’s use of Slice for “exhibiting much the same behavior that Elite XC and promoter Gary Shaw were so roundly criticized for,” and also calls out White for giving Kimbo at least one more fight in the UFC after the show concludes, “regardless of the outcome of the show.”

On the surface, this seems like a valid criticism.  White used to say that the only way Kimbo would get in the UFC was to win a season of TUF.  Now it seems like it was enough just to show up.  But there’s still no comparison between how EliteXC pushed Slice and how the UFC is doing it.

What you see here is a video from the Grappler’s Quest IV 8-man absolute division tournament finals.  Roy Nelson got there by beating Frank Mir via points in the first round, then Brandon Vera via kneebar in the semis.  In the finals he met a very pumped up Diego Sanchez, and although Nelson’s cardio begins failing him about halfway through the match, his size and strength advantage helps him toss "The Nightmare" all over the mat, effectively negating Sanchez’s positive mental attitude with sheer burlyness. 

Remember, this was back in 2003.  That’s the same year Kimbo Slice began to get his internet brawl on.  Does it put things in perspective to remember that back when Kimbo was throwing haymakers against nightclub bouncers in somebody’s backyard, "Big Country" was running through a grappling tournament full of UFC fighters, despite getting so exhausted that the expression on his face alone made onlookers want to vomit?  Yeah, probably.  Kimbo may have gotten the equivalent of an online associates degree in grappling via his recent crash courses, but Roy has a goddamn doctorate in this stuff.

Just for the sake of contrast, check out the video after the jump.  If Nelson doesn’t get tomorrow night’s "Ultimate Fighter" match-up to the ground right away, Greg Jackson is going to end up wondering why he even bothers to come up with gameplans for these jokers.

(War Machine, Unidentified Mayhem Monkey, and Frank Lester: Worst game of FMK ever.)

It seems that an insane amount of heart doesn’t necessarily guarantee job security if you can’t win fights. After being choked out by Nick Osipczak at the Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale — which followed a TUF 9 run where he beat Kiel Reid and Dave Faulkner and lost twice to James Wilks — Frank Lester has been cut by the UFC. The Team Quest fighter’s pro record dropped to 3-3 after his most recent loss. Godspeed, young shadow-boxer.

Joe Stevenson began his UFC career on the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter.”  On Saturday night he returns to fight another TUF alum, Nate Diaz, on the season nine finale in what might prove to be a make-or-break outing for him.  In our exclusive talk with him, Joe “Daddy” tells us why he changed training camps after his decision loss to Diego Sanchez, whether he’s worried about being cut, and why he might be hesitant to appear on a new season of TUF if he were coming up through the ranks today.

CagePotato.com: So you’ve been in New Mexico with Greg Jackson’s team preparing for this fight.  What made you decide that it was time for a change of training camps?

JS: Honestly, I’ve been here for going on seven weeks now and it’s been great.  I was feeling a little stagnant and I knew that if I didn’t try something different I would regret it.  If you don’t try all your avenues you’re going to end up when your fifty wishing you’d done something different and I don’t want to be that person.  On top of that, there’s great coaching here, great strategy, and they’ve given me a different outlook on the way I fight.  I’m just excited to let people see it now.

You mentioned strategy and that’s something a lot of people talk about when it comes to Greg Jackson.  How is his way of strategizing for a fight different from what you’ve been exposed to in the past?

(Props: "ZzFDKzZ" on the UG)

Holy crap, you guys…this is really happening.

TUF 10 is scheduled to premiere September 16th, directly following UFC Fight Night 19.

(‘Why won’t you die!?’)

Apparently deciding that if he can’t fight Anthony Johnson he’d rather fight no one at all, Matt Brown has opted to sit out and heal up instead of taking a bout against a replacement opponent at the “Ultimate Fighter 9” Finale on June 20.  Johnson pulled out with an injured knee earlier this week, putting an end to a fight we were really looking forward to on account of the guaranteed aggression that would have resulted from putting those two guys in one cage.  

Brown reportedly decided to nurse some nagging injuries rather than fighting a late replacement, and you really can’t blame him.  Who knows, maybe the bout will still happen a little ways down the road.  It just seems too good not to.

(Look at it this way, at least there won’t be a big traffic jam trying to get out of here.)

What you see here is Jose Canseco’s attempt at a press conference to discuss the L.A. Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez and his recent suspension for popping positive on a MLB-mandated drug test.  Judging by the number of chairs they put out, it did not get the kind of attendance they hoped for.  But hey, that just means more finger sandwiches for Jose to take home with him.  So why did Canseco, a retired baseball player, call a press conference to talk about a current baseball player’s drug use?  Because he’s a goddamned media whore.  And why are we telling you about it?  Because a) his participation in the upcoming Dream “Super Hulk” tournament has reminded us that he’ll do anything for money and attention, and b) it’s hilarious. 

And that “Super Hulk” tournament, it’s airing live on HDNet.  Thank God for small miracles, am I right?

In other, actual MMA news…

(And still…the undisputed king…of the pre-fight mean-mug!)

Here’s some good news for those of you who can’t get enough of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s antics: Spike TV may very well agree with you.  Fighters Only is passing along a rumor that Rampage is being seriously considered as a coach for season 10 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” mainly because he was “a big hit with Spike TV executives thanks to his charismatic and extrovert nature.”  Obviously, this is still in the early planning stages, but it does present a couple logistical challenges for season ten, which is set to begin filming around a month or so from now.

(The universal sign for: ‘I’m weighin’ in ova here!’)

I’ll admit that when Matt Serra told his then-protégé, Joe Scarola, that he’d basically disown him if he walked away from “The Ultimate Fighter” after losing to Mac Danzig early on in season six, I suspected it might be an empty threat.  But judging from Serra’s comments in an interview with MMA Fanhouse, “The Terra” don’t make empty threats.  When he tells you that you’re about to ruin the beautiful friendship the two of you share, he’s being totally cereal.

There was also a little bit of an issue with your friend Joe Scarola. You brought him on the show and then he quit during it. Are you still friends with him?

Apparently Cole Miller’s mother never told him that if you don’t have something nice to say about someone, you shouldn’t say anything at all.  Talking to Steve Cofield (it doesn’t get remotely interesting until a little after the six-minute mark), Miller responds to a question about what he thinks of Junie Browning on a technical level by saying: “Nothing.  I don’t think he’s technical at all.”

Miller then goes on to point out that Browning has never tapped out or knocked out anyone who matters, before then comparing him to past opponents like Andy Wang and concluding that Browning is the worst fighter he’s faced in the UFC, next to Allen Berube (ouch!).  

So is Miller right about Browning?  Maybe.  We don’t really know for sure, since all we’ve really seen of him comes from his “Ultimate Fighter” antics and his submission victory over Dave Kaplan, who’s not exactly top-level competition.  But even if he is right, I’m not sure it’s such a great idea to go around talking about how almost-comically bad your next opponent is.  If you manage to get people to believe that he’s one of the worst fighters ever to step into the Octagon, then it’s not enough to just beat him.  You have to beat him quickly and effortlessly, otherwise you look like a punk.

(Your daughter’s prom date is here…)

When I called Junie Browning to see how he was feeling a week before his first UFC fight since “The Ultimate Fighter” finale, he was out shopping for video games.  It might not seem like it at first, but this is apparently a sign of how much his life has changed since moving to Las Vegas to train at Xtreme Couture and getting serious about his fighting career.  Now he trains full-time.  Despite living in Sin City, he doesn’t go out much.  Instead he stays home and plays Killzone or Resident Evil 5 in between training sessions.  It occupies his time.  And it keeps him out of trouble.

“All I do is train now,” he said.  “I’m in awesome shape right now.  Better than I’ve ever been, training harder than I ever have.  I’ve done more for this than I have for any other fight.”

At next week’s Ultimate Fight Night in Nashville Browning takes on former TUF contestant Cole Miller, who has vowed to “expose” and “smash” him.  You’d think that kind of language would get a reaction out of the volatile kid from Kentucky we saw on TUF, but oddly, you’d be wrong.

On April 1 Ryan Bader makes his first UFC appearance since knocking out Vinny Magalhaes to win the last season of “The Ultimate Fighter.”  The former Arizona State wrestling standout now has to live up to his billing with a victory in his first post-TUF bout against experienced vet Carmelo Marrero.  But as Bader told us in our exclusive talk with him, he’s aware that winning is necessary, though it isn’t enough by itself.  He also has to entertain, and therein lies a difficult conflict for a wrestler trying to dazzle knockout-happy crowds.

CagePotato.com: Thanks for talking with us, Ryan.  Now that you’re the TUF winner and getting ready to start your UFC career, is it how you though it would be when you first started on the show?

I went into the show and set high goals for myself.  My goal was to make it to the finale.  That was as far as I thought.  Then I did that and there was six months until the finale, and obviously my goal was to win the whole show.  But I set little goals for myself and accomplished them one at a time, and then set bigger goals.  After I won the show, my goal became to keep winning the fights in front of me, and that’s where I am now.  Eventually my goal is to have the belt.  I don’t want to be just another fighter.  I want that belt.  I know it’s going to take a long time.  I need to grow as a fighter and that’s all a long way off, so my immediate goal is to win each fight and chip away at the division.

I read recently where you said you thought too many wrestlers were taking unnecessary risks to win fights in exciting fashion.  When you fight, do you struggle with trying to be exciting and also not taking too many chances?