(“And you tell Anderson that if he wants the true middleweight belt, he can ask me nicely and I will have it back by lunch!” Photo via Getty Images.)

When asked by MMA Heat’s Karyn Bryant about the likelihood of a potential fight with Wanderlei Silva next, Chael P. Sonnen recently stated the following (emphasis mine):

I’m not looking for it anymore, I don’t like to bully guys. I tried to fight him, he doesn’t want to fight. I’m not gonna stick a finger in a guy’s chest. If a guy says ‘no,’ I’m not gonna be a jerk about it. 

We shit you not, that quote (not the caption one, that’s fake and you damn well know it) came directly from the mouth of Chael P. Sonnen. As in the Chael P. Sonnen who once threatened to smack Anderson Silva’s wife on the ass. As in the Chael P. Sonnen who once declared that Lance Armstrong gave himself cancer through PED use (which to be fair, he got the PED part right). As in the Chael P. Sonnen who called Wanderlei Silva a “dirtbag” some three weeks ago when challenging him to a fight in the first place.

Either Jon Jones succeeded where Anderson Silva failed and managed to actually beat some humility into “The American Gangster” or Wandy’s threat to “suck his blood” was just a little too far outside the comfort zone of his Christian, conservative-Republican background to tolerate. Or Wandy has been offered the fight, turned it down, and is pulling another prank on us. Or Joe Silva dropped his cell phone in the toilet and hasn’t had access to the Internet since April.

Whatever the case may be, we suddenly, like, really need to see this fight. So touche, Chael. Tou-fuckin’-che.

-J. Jones 

(“It’ll never happen, ladies. Now go back to the kitchen and make me an eight-sided sandwich.” / Image via CagePotato’s Facebook page, which you should all follow immediately.)

By the CagePotato.com Staff

They were undeniable truths — until suddenly, they weren’t. Check out our latest list below, and ask yourself: What do I believe now that will turn out to be utter bullshit someday?

1. Alistair Overeem will become the UFC heavyweight champion in less than a year.

(Photo via Esther Lin/MMAFighting.com)

2. There’s no way a boxer could ever beat a mixed martial artist under MMA rules.

3. Rickson’s record is 400-0. No, seriously.
 

Tonight, at 9:30pm EST on Fuel TV, a taped sit-down interview with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva will premiere. As often as we get to see the champ knock heads around inside the cage, we don’t often get longer, in-depth interviews with him, and certainly not in English.

Karyn Bryant‘s interview with Silva tonight looks to be in English and promises to be in-depth — hopefully much more so than the fun stuff shown in the teaser video above. We’re certainly not complaining any time we get to hear Anderson’s high-pitched jokes in English, however.

Silva says, without much explanation, that he’s the “black Dana White,” for one. Silva manages to get his back-handed barbs in, per usual, and it’s a good time.

“Sometimes Dana [is] cranky. ‘Come on man, smile!’” Silva says.

“I have my problems for Dana but I love him.”

Awww.

Anderson has love for his favorite punching bag, Chael Sonnen as well — although he and his family have given up hope that Sonnen will show up to Silva’s house for that barbecue the Spider invited him to.

“No go,” said a disappointed Silva when asked if Chael ever came by to grub up with his clan. “No go. I wait for Chael for long, long time. My wife talk to me, ‘hey, Chael no come?’ [I told her] ‘No baby. Baby, no.’”

See more of Anderson Silva’s sensitive side revealed tonight on Fuel TV.

- Elias Cepeda

(Well, I guess it’s back to the dollar menu for a while.)

Anderson Silva was recently fined $50,000 for missing what the UFC described as a day of media obligations in Los Angeles to promote his July UFC 162 middleweight title defense against Chris Weidman. A pissed-off Dana White said of Silva, “Everybody wants more money, more money, more money, but nobody wants to sell the fight or go out and talk to the media. Talking to the media is part of your job, whether you like it or not.”

Had Silva really turned the corner from giving his usual reluctant, terse (if occasionally clever) answers to press and gone Full Diaz — skipping media events entirely with both middle fingers in the air? According to the champ, no. Although his response to getting punished by the organization was quite Diazian. In short: Bro, Anderson totally didn’t even know about these appointments. And, besides, his job is to train and fight, not talk.

“I’ve never missed any commitment to the UFC. I would never have made the trip to Brazil if I knew I had to be in Los Angeles,” Silva said, according to a translation by Sherdog of an interview given to Brazilian outlet, Veja.

(In addition to the fine, Silva will be forced to do Thomas Gerbasi‘s job for the next month. Brutal.)

Anderson Silva was scheduled to be in Los Angeles this week for a media day promoting UFC 162. Instead, the UFC middleweight champion flew home to Brazil — a decision that landed him a $50,000 fine from the UFC. MMAJunkie broke news of the punishment yesterday evening:

Silva was scheduled to talk with a few of Los Angeles’ largest media outlets on Tuesday but ultimately skipped the session and instead flew home to his native Brazil.

“We had a full media day set up for him in Los Angeles, and he just decided he didn’t want to do it, so he’s being fined $50,000,” UFC President Dana White told USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie.com…

“He doesn’t like talking to the media, but it’s part of his contractual obligation,” White said. “Everybody wants more money, more money, more money, but nobody wants to sell the fight or go out and talk to the media. Talking to the media is part of your job, whether you like it or not.”

(via YouTube.com/CagePotato)

On July 6th, top-ranked UFC middleweight contender Chris Weidman will return from a year-long layoff to challenge Anderson Silva, considered by many to be the greatest mixed martial artist who’s ever lived. It goes without saying that the UFC 162 main event is the greatest test of Weidman’s career — and one that would make most middleweights more than a little nervous — but the Long Island-bred “All-American” isn’t the least bit intimidated. And he knows exactly how he’s going to steal the belt that Anderson’s held for six-and-a-half years.

CagePotato reporter Brian J. D’Souza caught up with Weidman recently at Grants MMA Gym in Toronto, and got his take on a number of interesting subjects, including his gameplan for the Spider, the rib injury that spurred his foray into MMA, his surprising contract status with the UFC, and more. Some highlights:

Why he hasn’t signed a new contract with the UFC yet: “I’m not looking to negotiate an extra couple grand right before a title fight. My goal is to be champion, and I know that’s where you get the real money. That’s where you get the ‘Anderson Silva money,’ so that’s what I’m looking to get.”

How he’ll beat Silva: “I think the biggest thing is once you get him down, to stay relaxed and not to be so tense. I think I have a pretty smooth, aggressive game, and I’m pretty relentless with my cardio, and that’s one of my things that I have most pride in. So, I feel like I’m going to have the cardio to where he’s going to break before I break. I’m going to be all over him.”

Anderson’s mind games: “One of Anderson’s Silva’s best traits in MMA is that he gets inside people’s heads. Before they even step in the cage, he has a certain mystique about him that intimidates people. He earned that over the years. But even when they get in the cage with him, he makes sure to make them feel as if he’s on a whole ‘nother level. And then he waits for them to believe him in that, and he freakin’ mentally and physically breaks them…I’m just going to be confident. I’m not going to be worried about what he’s doing, I’m worried about what I’m doing.”

Please subscribe to CagePotato’s YouTube channel, and visit BrianDSouza.com for more of Brian’s MMA coverage.

Yep. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images.)

It’s almost unfair to write about the light-heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen from last night’s UFC 159 right now, since we won’t know whether or not this fight delivered what it was supposed to for a long time. I’m not writing about the way that Jon Jones effortlessly defeated Chael Sonnen; we knew Sonnen was absolutely no threat to the light-heavyweight kingpin. I’m not writing about how Jones completely ignored his vastly superior striking and ridiculous reach advantage in order defeat “the gangster from West Linn” by impersonating him; we sort-of predicted that Jones would clown his way through this fight. We knew that the main event was going to deliver a lopsided beat-down. It’s yet to be seen how – or even if – the marketability of Jon Jones will benefit as a result.

That being said, it’s hard to expect the superfight we never asked for to have much of an effect on the way that fans perceive Jones. I didn’t think it was possible to feel as apathetic about a first round knockout as I felt after last night’s main event. Judging by the comments I’ve read on our liveblog, I’m hardly alone here. When it was over, the match felt more like a bad professional wrestling storyline than a UFC pay-per-view main event, and the outcome felt just as forced.

(This “20 Staredowns That Got Physical” video conveniently cuts off before Ricardo Mayorga flash-KO’s Din Thomas with a karate chop to the neck. Props: MMADigest)

War Machine on Fallon Fox: ‘Any Show That Signs Her Is a Piece of S*** Show’ (BleacherReport)

Georges St-Pierre Says He Weighed 170.4 Pounds at UFC 158 Weigh-Ins (MMAFighting)

Nick Diaz Weigh-In Video Returns to Youtube After Copyright Claim Is Reversed (BloodyElbow)

Chris Weidman Says Anderson Silva Is the Best Fighter of all Time, But He’s Just a Little Better (MiddleEasy)

TUF 17 Finale: Top 10 Facts You Need to Know (FightDay)

TUF 17 Finale: Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano Video Preview (YouTube.com/UFC)

Jon Jones Looks Really Out of Place Next to Those Two Gangsters (Facebook.com/CagePotato)

World Series of Fighting: Future Champs Series Furthers WSOF and NBC Sports Partnership (MMAWeekly)

Refined Sugar: Paying for Love in 2013 (MadeMan)

10 of the Most Hilarious Conspiracy Theories (Break.com)

Her Most Secret Desires: 15 Things She Wants You to Do for Her in Bed (MensFitness)

The 20 Most Beautiful Female Celebrities Without Makeup (WorldwideInterweb)

Top 3 Weird and Awesome TV Remote Controls for Men (DoubleViking)

How to Avoid Being “That Guy” at the Party (EgoTV)

The Oral History of Freaknik (Complex)

(Photo via MMAMagazine.)  

The only thing that irks Dana White more than his fighters giving “pointless” interviews is when he misses the opportunity to exploit a grudge match between said fighters. Seriously, it keeps him up most nights and sometimes even causes fits of dizziness in the poor fellow. And unfortunately, now that the UFC has finished cashing in on their latest grudge match, there has been a void left behind in the lives of “true” MMA fans. You know, the ones who need fabricated storylines and endless trash-talk in order to find the sport exciting in the first place. People who think Brock Lesnar has obviously earned a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame, in other words.

Although a “much” “anticipated” “grudge match” between Chael Sonnen and Jon Jones is set to transpire any day now, recent events have pretty much dispelled any idea that those two actually hate each other, so no luck there. Enter Anderson Silva vs. Jose Landi-Jons: a bitter rivalry that dates back to the glory days of the Chute Box gym. Sure, most of these “true” fans have likely never heard of Landi-Jons despite his legendary status and longevity in the sport, but when they get ahold of the positively Diazian story involving “Pele” chasing old Andy through the streets of Brazil, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Twitter rally campaigns will be shortly behind (via Portal do Vale Tudo, translation via Sherdog):

Anderson was jogging in the company of a friend when Pelé, who was driving by the location, saw his enemy and decided to go back and confront him about stuff Anderson wrote about Pelé in his book. According to witnesses, the only reason they didn’t fight was because Anderson’s friend stopped them.

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(Money. Girls. Fame. Private locker rooms that you don’t have to share with old men washing their balls. A win for Ilir on Saturday would be truly life-changing. / Photo via LoveStrandell)

First-time UFC jitters are bad enough when you’re curtain-jerking on the prelims. Can you imagine what it would be like to go from relative obscurity to UFC headliner? Well, Ilir Latifi is about to find out this Saturday, God bless him. Come to think of it, his UFC on FUEL 9 opponent Gegard Mousasi is technically in the same situation, although at least the Dreamcatcher has had the benefit of previously competing in major promotions like Strikeforce, DREAM, and PRIDE.

Latifi is a long shot in every sense of the word, but of course this is a sport where anything can happen. Plenty of fighters have found themselves at the top of the lineup for their first UFC fight and made the most of it. Others have crashed and burned in horrific fashion. So which camps will Latifi and Mousasi fall into? Read on for a brief history lesson, and let us know what you think…

The Good

- Anderson Silva. In one of the most stunning UFC debuts, period, the up-and-coming Brazilian striker stepped into Chris Leben‘s world in the main event of Ultimate Fight Night 5 in June 2006 and scored a flawless victory over the southpaw slugger, dramatically altering the course of history in the UFC middleweight division. Silva was granted an immediate title shot and hasn’t lost a fight since.

- Alistair Overeem. Watching the Reem tear Brock Lesnar apart at UFC 141 validated everyone who ever thought that Lesnar was a pro-wrestling fraud, and that Overeem was the future of the heavyweight division. It hasn’t exactly worked out like that, but at the time, it looked like we were entering a new era.

Perhaps the greatest aspect of being a celebrity — you know, other than the money, women, coke parties, etc. — is the ability to profoundly impact a fan’s life with the simplest of gestures. Take UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, for instance, who recently surprised a twelve year-old Jiu-Jitsu practitioner and Silva megafan suffering from Epiphysiolysis (the loosening or separation, either partial or complete, of an epiphysis from the shaft of a bone) in a Brazilian hospital.

The fan’s name is Joao Pedro; he has been wheelchair bound for 9 months and has already undergone two surgeries in an attempt to combat his condition. Despite this, doctors are still unsure if he will ever walk again. However, after Joao found out that his doctor also catered to the likes of Silva and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (who probably financed the guy’s second and third houses over the years), Pedro requested an autograph from the pound-for-pound great. Being the stand up guy that Anderson is, he decided to step it up a notch and show up in person with an armful of autographed gifts for the little dude.

The heartwarming video and transcription are after the jump. 

(Yup. We’re bringing this wishful thinking image out again. Read on, and you’ll see why)

Remember a few weeks ago when Georges St. Pierre’s former manager, Stephane Patry published the UFC welterweight champ’s supposed “secret plan” to retire after a fight with middleweight G.O.A.T. Anderson Silva and then St. Pierre and his head coach Firas Zahabi did a horrible job of lying and totally denied that GSP had made such a plan while focusing so intensely on his coming fight with Nick Diaz? Yeah, well, the ruse is pretty much over now.

Zahabi was on Sherdog Radio recently and spilled the beans on the record regarding tentative possibilities (I know, be still your hearts!) for St. Pierre’s career. After the champ returns from vacation, Zahabi says that the fighter, coach and management will listen to what the UFC wants and discuss their options.

According to the coach, Anderson Silva and number one welterweight contender Johny Hendricks are both possible. “I think Georges would do either fight, to be honest with you,” Zahabi told Sherdog.

We all knew that number one middleweight contender Chris Weidman, like, really wanted to fight champion Anderson Silva. Alot.

Now that he’s got his wish, he’s also apparently not interested in the potential security of a new contract until after he fights Silva, either. The young challenger recently told MMA Junkie Radio that he may not sign a new contract with the UFC before fighting Silva.

“I think we’re just going to keep the contract,” he told Junkie.

“I’m definitely OK with making what I was making. I think I was making $24,000 (to show) and $24,000 (as a win bonus). I want to do that because then after I beat Anderson like I plan on doing, then obviously the contract will jump up more than if I was to rip up the contract now. I’m ready to put all my eggs in one basket and put my money where my mouth is.”

There’s a chance Weidman might have a shot at getting a raise if he were to sign a new contract with the UFC before fighting the champion but it appears as if he wants the jackpot or nothing at all. Weidman seems so confident that he’ll be the new 185 pound champion after his next fight that he’d like to delay negotiating with the UFC until after he’s wearing the gold.

Ballsy move, Chris.

Or, an impossible move. That will likely depend on how many fights he’s got on his contract and what the UFC’s current policy about these types of things currently are.

(“I swear to God, you guys, I had an injury THIS BIG.” Photo courtesy of Getty Images.) 

It’s weird to think about, but the fallout from Stephan Bonnar’s second post-fight steroid bust at UFC 153 has almost been completely washed over by the MMA community. Although his one-year suspension was obviously negated by the fact that he retired from the sport shortly thereafter, even UFC President Dana White — who has been in Bonnar’s corner ever since his legendary fight with Forrest Griffin at the TUF 1 Finale – has all but refused to comment on the situation.

And as for Bonnar? Well, the normally outspoken light heavyweight has been similarly silent — likely due in part to the birth of his son — since exiting the UFC on such terrible terms. Until now, that is.

For the first time since the fight itself, Bonnar addressed the factors that led him to get popped for Drostanolone following UFC 153 during an interview on The MMA Hour (Author’s note: WHAT ABOUT US, STEPHAN?). Although Stephan took full responsibility for his actions, his reasoning for why he fell back on the juice yet again didn’t exactly absolve him of all guilt (via MMAFighting):

…after being shelved for months and being advised to retire by UFC president Dana White, he had given up hope of closing out his career with a major fight…But then, out of the blue, the semi-retired fighter got the phone call he never thought was coming. After about 10 months without a fight, he was being asked to compete against the the sport’s pound-for-pound king, Anderson Silva.

Believe it or not, there are some therapeutic uses to some of the banned substances,” he said. “Bottom line, I wanted to get my strength back. I was very weak. My body didn’t feel good, my joints didn’t feel good. That was my goal.

Poor Stephan; the dude spent upwards of seven years fighting for the UFC and never realized that there was a completely legal way to deal with the aging process.

More from the interview after the jump. 

(Video by Sports Net Canada)

During a recent interview with Sports Net Canada, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre took a moment to shit on UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. St. Pierre was called out publicly for months by Silva, who wanted the welterweight champion to come up in weight and fight him in a super fight.

St. Pierre will instead fight Nick Diaz Saturday at UFC 158. Silva will finally fight Chris Weidman later this year. St. Pierre trains regularly in New York City with Phil Nurse and Renzo Gracie boys. Weidman’s Jiu Jitsu lineage goes back to Renzo and GSP calls the #1 middleweight challenger his friend.

And he thinks his relatively unknown friend will smack around Silva with ease.

“I believe he’s going to beat Anderson Silva. I believe it’s a bad match-up for Anderson Silva. Very bad,” he said with a smile. “Not only he’s going to beat, I believe he’s going to beat Anderson Silva. I believe it’s not going to be too long, that fight.”

GSP does leave himself one out, though. He implies that Silva intentionally signed to fight Weidman only now because the challenger will be coming off of major surgery and a long layoff. “Anderson Silva is smart,” Georges says.

“The time to fight [Weidman] is now.”

What do you think, ‘taters? Will GSP be as giddy as Floyd Mayweather was after Manny Pacquiao got knocked out in his last fight if Weidman manages to dethrone Silva? Do you agree that Weidman has a good chance at not just beating Anderson but doing so quickly and with ease?

- Elias Cepeda

(If 10 cc’s of Desflurane can’t keep this kid down, NOTHING CAN.) 

I was there. I was there the last time Anderson Silva was listed as anything less than a 3-to-1 favorite over his opponent. It was called 2011. Barack Obama was President, George W. Bush was in the White House, and Bill Clinton was running this country into the ground. The event was UFC 126, which was being held in a little hole in the wall town in what is now Nevada. Some fella by the name of Vitor shows up, starts picking off so-called “former middleweight champions.” Before we knew what hit us, he was trying to dethrone old Andy in our own backyard. So Vitor had to go.

Now this fella by the name of Weidman storms into town, flashing them dimes like a big shot and making noise, and wouldn’t you know it, he’s currently listed as one of the smallest underdogs (+165) Anderson has faced in his entire UFC career. It’s a load of claptrap if you ask me; this Weidman feller hasn’t fought in almost a year and is coming off shoulder surgery to boot. But if history is any indication, a moderately-favored Anderson Silva is the most dangerous Anderson Silva. Be careful what you wish for, Weidman. Be careful. What. You. Wish. For.

[UPDATED] – 4 p.m.

Well, that was a lot of buildup for nothing. In the hours since this was originally written, Anderson has already improved to just under a 3-to-1 favorite. Still, it seems that the bookies are giving Weidman’s grappling prowess a lot of respect all things considered.

I apologize for wasting your time.

-J. Jones

(“I…[*punch*]…HATE…[*punch*]…FRIGGIN’…[*punch*]…CLOWNS!!!” Photo via MMAWeekly)

From threatening a year-long vacation to suggesting far-less-worthy challengers, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and his management team did their best to avoid fighting undefeated contender Chris Weidman. But according to a new report from Mark La Monica at Newsday, the match is going to happen, whether they like it or not. Here’s the scoop:

ALBANY — Chris Weidman will finally get the title shot against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva on July 4th weekend at UFC 161 in Las Vegas, Newsday has learned. [Update: The fight will actually headline UFC 162, on July 6th. UFC 161 is the Winnipeg event that will be headlined by Barao vs. Wineland.]

UFC chief executive Lorenzo Fertitta on Wednesday told Weidman, a Baldwin native, in the Capitol building that he spoke to Silva and that he agreed to the fight.

“Dream come true,” Weidman said. “Ever since I’ve been fighting, Anderson Silva has been the champion and I’ve been visualizing beating him. Now I have the opportunity. I have to make the most of it.”

(Click chart for full-size version. For previous Databombs, click here.)

By Reed Kuhn, @Fightnomics

The UFC Middleweight division has long been ruled by the most feared and successful striker in MMA history, champion Anderson Silva. And perhaps more so than in smaller divisions, striking has been a good predictor of success at Middleweight. So examining this division in core striking performance metrics should provide good insight to how fighters will fare against each other in standup. A full explanation of the chart and variables is included at the end of this post.

But first, let’s see how the whole division stacks up against each other, and look at the winners and losers.

The Winners

Sniper Award: Two fights into his UFC career, cross-trained Dutchman Michael Kuiper has landed 49% of his power head strikes. We’ll see if he can maintain this in his upcoming matchup with veteran brawler Tom Lawlor in Sweden. Honorable mention must be given to Anderson Silva who has maintained 40% accuracy over his lengthy and dominant career. And also noteworthy is Italian boxer, Alessio Sakara, currently on the bench for health reasons.

Energizer Bunny Award: Strikeforce veteran Roger Gracie has been almost doubling the striking output of opponents on his way to a string of submission wins in typical Gracie fashion. Some grapplers use strikes to set up their mat-work, others don’t. Honorable mentions go to former champ Rich Franklin, and Strikeforce champ and crossover contender Luke Rockhold, who each tend to outpace their opponents by over 80%.

Biggest Ball(s) Award: The UFC record holder for knockdowns is Anderson Silva. He is literally the best in the business at dropping dudes. Statistically, when Silva lands a power head strike, there’s a 27% chance it will result in a knockdown, which is just ridiculous. These skills have won him Knockout of the Night honors seven times in the UFC.

(“Then it’s settled: I’ll win the first fight, you’ll win the rematch, and Chael will win the rubber-match via surprise run-in after blinding the referee.”)

During our typical mid-afternoon routine of checking out Brazilian porn sites sport sites and using Google translate to help us out with comprehension — some Brazilian things don’t need translation, but some do — we stumbled across the latest vague and too-good-to-be-true Anderson Silva fight news. Recently, we had a tease about Silva finally fighting the rightful number one contender to his belt, and yesterday we read that, according to “The Spider,” he wants to face UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones this year.

SportTV says that last Wednesday Anderson told a bunch of Brazilian cats that he expects to fight Jones this year in New York City but that the bout would need to be a non-title, catch-weight affair. Apparently, fighting James Irvin, Stephan Bonnar, and former champ Forrest Griffin at light-heavyweight is one thing, but fighting the biggest and best talent we’ve ever seen in the division at 205 is another.

Given that nothing appears to be signed and that Jones has the small matter of defending his belt first against wronged pizza baron Chael Sonnen this spring, we can’t get too excited about this development. Still, Anderson’s reported comments paint him as perhaps more amenable to a fight against Jones than he has ever been before.

(Anderson Silva and Dana White via Mommy, What Will I Look Like?)

Whether he has truly “earned it” or not yet (which is a debate that we should just stop having from here on out, because honestly), Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva is a fight that MMA fans have been clamoring for ever since Weidman beat Mark Munoz into a living death at UFC on FUEL 4 last July. At first, Silva simply ignored our advice outright. Then, in one of the most brilliantly executed circle jerks in MMA history, Silva used the media-thwarting vessel known as Ed Soares to call out Michael Bisping, then Luke Rockhold (who was still a Strikeforce fighter at the time), and finally Cung Le.

Silva’s media roundabout, budding movie career, and occasional trips to the light heavyweight division had fans questioning whether or not we’d ever see the middleweight champion return to the division he has dominated since 2006. So if you’re one for optimism, you’ll find comfort in the fact that multiple sources including Brazil’s Tatame are reporting that Silva vs. Weidman is “in the works” for a July event. Finally. However, if you’re like the rest of us, you’ll realize the futility of phrases like “in the works” or “probably coming back to the UFC” or “will get the next title shot” in regards to the UFC and just move along. Nothing to see here.

(Props: ESPN Sportsnation)

Ready to get your hearts broken again, MMA fans? ESPN’s SportsCenter and Sport Science programs are collaborating on a new Greatest Athlete of All Time bracket, in which legendary athletes from 16 different sports go head-to-head based on a “unique metric that factors in attributes such as speed, power, reaction time and more.” Naturally, the MMA representative is UFC middleweight deity Anderson Silva, whose astounding 16-0 record in the UFC includes 10 consecutive title defenses.

Let’s get one thing straight: Anderson Silva is not going to win this little competition. To advance out of the first round, he’ll have to beat Olympic swimming golden boy Michael Phelps, and if by some miracle he pulls that off, he’ll face the winner of Michael Jordan vs. Tiger Woods in the quarterfinals. Silva is just a patsy here. Roadkill. A half-assed nod to fans of a fringe sport. To demonstrate how little ESPN cares about us, here’s how Sport Science host John Brenkus sums up Silva’s career:

(It’s good to be king)

Here at CagePotato, if we’re going to take the time to put together a rankings or list, it’s probably going to be one like this one. That doesn’t mean, however, that we’re opposed to taking part in others’ rankings. Take, for example, the Yahoo! Sports Top 10 MMA Pound for Pound Rankings, the voting for which is done by a panel that includes many luminaries of the MMA journalism community and also, for some unknown reason, me.

The latest Yahoo! Sports Top 10 list was released this week (panel voting and publication of the rankings are done monthly) and there are some familiar faces as well as some changes. Anderson Silva maintained his long-time top spot, followed by Jon Jones and then Georges St. Pierre in the number three spot.

Cain Velasquez made it back on to the list after beating Junior Dos Santos in their recent return bout. A number of notable fighters were not eligible for the list because of inactivity (Dominick Cruz, Alistair Overeem) and suspension (Nick Diaz, Overeem again).

Jose Aldo was eligible because he is fighting so close to the end of voting, and he took the number four spot. The rankings may soon get shaken up again after tonight’s UFC 156.

Frankie Edgar drops down to featherweight to try and take out Aldo. Would Aldo get a bump in the rankings by beating a former lightweight champ? Would Edgar skyrocket in the rankings if were to win a championship in a second weight class?

Also, will Overeem justify the media’s crush on him with an impressive fight against BigFoot that will propel him into the Top 10? Check out the full rankings Top 10 after the jump and then let us know your Top 10 in the comments section.

(Dear God, can you imagine how funny this is going to look when Silva puts his creative spin on it?) 

Before we begin, I’d like to take a quick poll: What is getting more annoying, the fact that Rampage Jackson continues to air out his dirty laundry with the UFC ad nauseam, or that everyone involved in deciding Anderson Silva’s next opponent continue to talk circles around us?

First it was Luke Rockhold. Then it was Michael Bisping. Then it was a film career. It was never Chris Weidman, until recently when it was Chris Weidman. And then, likely because Ed Soares is secretly suffering from Symphorophilia, it was Cung Le. And now, according to a recent interview with Dana White, it’s Rashad Evans, because he’s a thing:

A lot of people think Chris Weidman is the #1 contender right now. If Rashad made a move from 205 down to 185, it’d be safe to say he’s now #1. If Rashad won on Saturday night and wanted to go to 185, we would consider that. 

As much as I’d like to use this opportunity to get on my soapbox about the UFC’s recent insistence on matching up their champions with challengers from entirely different weight classes based solely on name value, I’d rather like to applaud Dana for actually considering Evans here. For starters, he would at least be theoretically coming off a win in this scenario, and that in and of itself is more than the UFC has been capable of delivering in recent times.

On the other hand, can you imagine how humiliating this must be to the fighters of the middleweight division? These poor bastards just don’t seem to have it in them to string together enough wins/talk enough trash to get their own champion on board for a title fight, to the point that the president of the promotion has been forced to find guys who would damn near kill themselves making weight just to fill in the void.

The last time we saw Anderson Silva’s manager Ed Soares, he was telling Inside MMA — with a straight face! — that Michael Bisping would be a good option for Silva’s next middleweight title defense. After all, it’s Soares’s job to help his client get big fights that the fans want to see. (His response when Bas Rutten suggested that Anderson fight UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones: “AhhhhhhIdunno.”)

So now that Bisping has fallen short in yet another “win this one and you get a title shot” match, Soares finally has to accept the reality that Chris Weidman is the most worthy contender to Silva’s crown, right? Right? RIGHT? Well, if you believe that, then you simply don’t know the enigma that is Ed Soares. He’s got another Plan B in mind, and it’s about as left-field as matchmaking gets. Here’s what he told CageFanatic in an interview last week, as transcribed by MMAMania:

“(Silva’s next fight) is still up in the air man, we don’t know who that is. Unfortunately Bisping lost which was a big thing but I’m not too sure. I’m not too sure who could be next…we want to fight someone who has a little bit of a name, someone that has as big of a name as possible and that’s on a winning record or a winning run right now. Right now it seems like most of the guys with names have had losses very recently. So, when I think about it, like the only thing that comes to mind and I don’t even know if that would be a possible fight is, you know, like Cung Le is coming off of three wins or something like that [Ed. note: Yeah, or something like that.] where he’s got a little bit of a name, but I mean it’s really hard in that division because it’s so evenly matched all the opponents on any given day one of those guys can beat each other, so you know, once again whoever the UFC decided we’re in…

(Everything you ever wanted to know about James Thompson‘s failed gong-and-dash against Aleksander Emelianenko. Mega-props to ColossalCollective)

- Lawrence Epstein Explains the UFC’s New Code of Conduct, Punishments for Fighters (BleacherReport)

- UFC On Fox 6: What Do MMA Fans Have Against The Little Guys? (Deadspin)

- Interview: In the Ring With Rampage Jackson (MensFitness)

- UFC Won’t Schedule More Women’s Fights Until After Rousey’s Debut at UFC 157 (BloodyElbow)

- Fightweets: Matt Hughes’ Most Memorable Moments (MMAFighting)

- Video: Anderson Silva Talks Contract, Next Fight (FightDay)

- Donald Cerrone, Anthony Pettis and the Best of the WEC in the Octagon (Fightline)

- White: ‘Rampage’ Made $15.2M Over 11 Fights, But ‘Shoots Himself in the Foot’ (MMAJunkie)

- Gallery: A History of Athletes Catching Murder Charges (Complex)

- Be Glad They’re Extinct: 3 Bizarre Dinosaurs You Never Learned About (DoubleViking)

- Girls With Absolutely Gorgeous Faces (WorldWideInterweb)

- Jesse Pinkman Saying ‘Bitch’: The DEFINITIVE Supercut (ScreenJunkies)

(Let’s just say that one of these men doesn’t start each morning with six ounces of lean protein. / Photo via AllElbows)

Following Vitor Belfort‘s stunning head-kick finish of Michael Bisping last weekend, UFC president Dana White threw out an interesting suggestion for the Brazilian’s next opponent: “[Luke] Rockhold. That’s what we’re talking about.”

Rockhold, who is now officially a UFC middleweight following a flawless nine-fight run in Strikeforce, hasn’t competed since his decision win over Tim Kennedy last July, and recently called out Costa Philippou for his UFC debut — a move that now seems pretty damn humble. By comparison, a match against Belfort would give the AKA product a much higher profile for his Octagon debut, and could help break him as a new UFC star if he’s victorious.

In a related story, Anderson Silva‘s manager Jorge Guimaraes told SporTV that they’d like to face Rockhold next: ”It would be champion against champion. It’s a good fight to promote.” And it would, in the same way that Benson Henderson vs. Gilbert Melendez is a good fight to promote. We just can’t shake the feeling that there’s at least one other guy in the UFC middleweight division who’s a little more deserving.

So here’s my idea — a single-night four-man tournament to determine the next middleweight title contender, featuring Belfort, Rockhold, Chris Weidman, and Hector Lombard, in which all fighters would be required to be on TRT. (An alternate bout between Jacare Souza and Minowaman would be slated on the prelims.) I know, I know, I should have Joe Silva’s job. It’s all politics, bro.

(Now that we’ve settled our differences, Michael, I’d like to tell you about a friend of mine)

By Elias Cepeda

If Michael Bisping’s trash-talking mouth didn’t write checks that his fists couldn’t cash so often it’s very likely he’d be known as a British MMA pioneer with incredible work ethic and who improved greatly over the course of his career. Instead, Bisping has done his darndest to mask his real accomplishments by playing up imagined ones.

He’s campaigned, with his mouth, for a title shot for years despite losing to every top-tier fighter he’s faced and being gifted wins over less than top-tier ones. Coming into Saturday’s fight against Vitor Belfort in Sao Paulo Brazil, UFC President Dana White said that Bisping would earn a title shot against Anderson Silva with a win.

At that point, Bisping had a one fight win “streak.” Before that win, a decision against Brian Stann last September that could have easily been scored instead for Stann, Bisping lost to Chael Sonnen – who’s twice been beaten by Silva. Not long before that, Bisping walked away with a win against Jorge Rivera in a fight that he should have, in fact, lost by disqualification for his blatant and repeated fouls. His break-out UFC fight was a ludicrously bad decision win over Matt Hamill.

Every time the UFC has pushed Bisping into a fight with a fighter he’d given no indication he should be in the ring with, he’s lost. He’s said it is his destiny to be a world champion and insulted almost everyone else in his division, yet Bisping has lost to every fighter that had been or would go on to be a world champion that he’s faced.

Rashad Evans, Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson and now, Vitor Belfort. Bisping’s win streak is back down to zero after getting TKO’d by Belfort in the second round of their main event Saturday.

Hopefully the talk of him getting a title shot any time soon has also been knocked out.

As MMA gamely stumbles into 2013, we’ve once again decided to bestow meaningless awards to the fighters and moments that caught our attention this year. CagePotato’s crack team of writers spent all month nominating winners in 27 different categories, which we’ve loosely arranged in chronological order. Use the “next page” links to scroll through this monster, or click on the following page links at your leisure. And as always, thanks for putting up with us for another year. Here’s to bigger and better things in 2013, which shouldn’t be a tough goal to hit, considering.

Page 1: Knockout of the Year, Comeback Fight of the Year, Worst Performance in a Drug Test, ‘WTF?’ Moment of the Year

Page 2: The Krazy Horse Bennett Arrest of the Year Award, Worst Event of the Year, Worst Fight of the Year, Best Fight of the Year

Page 3: The Cecil Peoples Shittiest Decision of the Year Award, Most Bizarre MMA News Story of the Year, The Dana White Crazy Freakout of the Year Award, MMA Twitter Photo of the Year

Page 4: Greatest Fight Canceled Due to Injury, The Minowaman Freak Show Hall of Fame Award, Most Satisfying Beatdown, Comeback Fighter of the Year

Page 5: MMA Fail of the Year, Catchphrase of the Year, The Steve Nelmark Memorial “Is He Dead?” Award, Best Female Newcomer

Page 6: The “Really? You’re Just Gonna Keep Doing that Shit that Gets You in All That Trouble?” Award (a.k.a. “The Koppenhaver”), Gnarliest Injury of the Year, Best Event of the Year, Submission of the Year

Page 7: The Inaugural “Okay, It’s FINALLY Safe to Call This Guy Wasted Potential” Award (a.k.a. “The Filho”), Greatest Hype Deflation, Greatest MMA GIFs of the Year

(We’re not trying to say that Bisping is looking past Vitor Belfort, but…yes, Bisping is literally looking past Vitor Belfort. / Photo via @vitorbelfort)

The UFC has always seemed to favor British star Michael Bisping, so it came as a surprise when Dana White announced to media on Saturday that “The Count” would “probably” receive a middleweight title shot should he beat Vitor Belfort next month in Brazil. I mean, why would Dana give the poor, defenseless Brit a virtual death sentence in a fight with Anderson Silva?

Oh, that’s right — Bisping has, in the verbiage of much of the media, “been campaigning for years” for a shot at the middleweight title. Of course, Bisping’s arguments have been more verbal than physical lately, as his current win streak stands at 1. (Still, that’s one more than Nick Diaz and Chael Sonnen can boast; if anything, Bisping is over-qualified to fight for the belt.) In related news, it was announced that Chris Weidman will now have to begin fighting and beating two opponents at once from now on to earn consideration for a shot at the middleweight title.

Anyway, this is just one of those “news” items that exists primarily to anger us, more than anything else. Bisping could very likely be creamed by Belfort at UFC on FX 7. Or, maybe Dana’s vague promise of a resulting title shot is just something he likes to say to make a fight seem more important.

After the jump: A video highlight of Michael Bisping getting knocked out by Dan Henderson. Yes, it really is a highlight video of that one punch over and over, along with arrogant promises from Bisping that belied his lack of self-awareness, and brief moments of him having difficulty opening a door. And before you accuse us of posting this just to bash the Count, well, we are, but only because he’s a bullying, cheating, race-baiting dick who is prejudiced against the short. That’s all.

When the UFC makes budget cuts to put a fight together, the marketing department is the first place to feel the impact. Props: jinxonhog.

According to the welterweight champion, the answer is “no.” Or rather, not nearly as much as has been rumored.

On yesterday’s edition of The MMA Beat, Mike Straka of Fight Now TV reported that a source close to the welterweight champion told him that GSP was asking the UFC for $50 million to fight Anderson Silva.

Despite the fact that St-Pierre is currently on vacation in France, he dismissed the rumor during a recent conversation with 985Sports.ca. In his own words: