(This face describes the situation better than any words truly can.) 

We guess when you are able to knockout a guy in the most devastating fashion possible in front of millions of people, you can pretty much call him whatever you want to afterward. If you don’t believe us, just ask Chuck Liddell, or for that matter, UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva. After front kicking Vitor Belfort into hyper-sleep in the first round of their highly anticipated grudge match at UFC  126 and subsequently trouncing Yushin Okami at UFC 134, “The Spider” spent most of 2011 rehabbing his injured shoulder and judging nude body-painting contests like the boss that he truly is. When word got out that he would in fact be rematching world-renowned shit talker Chael Sonnen at UFC 148, the war of words began once again. And per usual, 99.9% of it came from the challenger.

But don’t let the completely falsified percentages fool you, the champ can talk trash with the best of them. Just check out the clip below, in which Anderson offers Wanderlei Silva a little bit of advice on “The Axe Murderer’s” opposing coach/upcoming opponent, Vitor Belfort, after Wanderlei brings it up. Apparently unaware that he still has a microphone on, Silva makes a mistake of Frank Drebian proportions, calling the Phenom “a coward” before realizing what he has done.

Nathan “The12ozCurls” Smith

With recent events involving a UFC fighter and alcohol grabbing the spotlight, we at CP figured we’d lighten the mood a tad with this new Budweiser commercial. From a stare down between Anderson Silva and Steven Seagal to Lyoto Machida making a cameo as he flees the scene, this commercial has it all. When I say it has it all, I mean they also mixed in a midget little person as well as Bruce Buffer and Dan Miragliotta. Much to the surprise of Chael Sonnen (because, we assume, he was unaware that the country has such technological advances like television), it has been rumored that the commercial will only air in Brazil.

(This tender moment is brought to you by the word: clownshoe.) 

As we mentioned earlier this week, Chael Sonnen is basically the living reincarnation of the legend of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He has the capability to come off as a reasonable individual, but more often than not, he chooses to drink that devilish potion, the proceeding surge of bravado almost always coming at the cost of his sanity. Where as Dr. Jekyll becomes a prostitute murdering madman upon drinking said potion, Sonnen reverts into a compulsive liar on such a ridiculous level — spouting claims of certain cycling legends and PED use — that he all but but erases the belief that he is one of the more intelligent figures in the sport today.

Take his recent interview with Jim Rome, in which he discussed his upcoming title fight with Anderson Silva, set for UFC 148 on July 7th. As he did while on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Sonnen talked about the perceived danger of accepting the rematch in Brazil (as was the original plan) as well as his claims that Silva is a “fake Brazilian.” But you don’t start to smell the fish, so to speak, until his UFC 117 loss to Silva is brought up. After Rome gives the viewers a quick recap of the fight, Sonnen drops this beauty on us:

I am so happy you brought that up for the viewers who may not have seen this…what had happened was an absolute misunderstanding and misapplication of the rules by me. We’re in the fifth and final round, he locks on a submission, and I acknowledge that he has it tight by slapping my hand on his leg.

I tapped. So what I thought is you go to the cards. I win four rounds, he wins that round. Apparently, if you tap, it ends the entire contest, which I was not ever made privy to.

Jesus f’ing Christ. Words cannot even begin to describe the amount of facepalm that is necessary for that aneurysm-inducing bit of drivel. It is as if he is having a four-year old with a inoperable brain tumor scribble out his interview answers in crayon, knowing damn well that the child does not posses the ability to spell “inoperable” or “crayon.” Bill Clinton could not dream up a more ham-fisted response if you were to give him the third runner-up of Miss Plus America, an empty hotel room, and all the time in the world.

Join us after a jump for a play-by-play of the rest of the interview and a full video. 

(How ignorant we were.) 

Chances are, if Chael Sonnen is not training for an upcoming fight or doing battle inside the octagon itself, he is sitting down in front of a camera and ranting about whatever is on his mind, be it Anderson Silva or the irresponsibility of Canadian reporters. As far as he’s concerned, these rants are meant to provide his audience with a higher understanding of the world around them, and are in the general public’s better interest. Thankfully, Sonnen was able to fight off the schizophrenia that will inevitably overtake his brain for long enough to jot down a collection of these rants into a “self help” book subtly titled “The Voice of Reason.” To say that it is the greatest collection of words and sentences ever committed to paper would be an understatement, so Sonnen opts to call it “A V.I.P pass to enlightenment” instead.

But just in case you didn’t pick up “The Voice of Reason” at your nearest bookstore (or in today’s society, on your Kindle), Sonnen recently locked himself in a dark and dreary basement to elaborate on everything from John McCain’s attempt to crush MMA before it got its sea legs to the conspiracies behind Area 51 and professional wrestling. Are these three things somehow related? Is Chael Sonnen some rogue government agent who has access to this kind of information? Is the Oregonian truly the UFC middleweight champion of the world, and we just don’t know it yet? To put it simply; no, maybe, and DUH.

Join us after the jump for the videos. 

UFC President Dana White says that Bellator import, Hector Lombard, might just get a middleweight title shot if he beats Brian Stann in his UFC debut. “When you talk about cleaning out a division, there’s always another guy who comes up, even for a guy like Anderson…We just brought in Lombard. (If) Lombard beats Stann. … that (title) fight makes sense,” Sergio Non reports White as saying, for USA Today.

And, oh yeah, Stann vs. Lombard will headline UFC on Fox 4, according to MMA Fighting ace Mike Chiappetta. When a fan asked Chiappetta, via twitter, if the fight was set to be the main event for Fox’ fourth UFC installment, he replied in the affirmative.

(Photo provided by Corissa Furr/Keith Selle)

By Jason Moles

It’s not every day you get twenty minutes alone with a professional model, so when you get the opportunity, you make damn well sure you spend your time wisely. That’s exactly what I did earlier this week when I interviewed former Strikeforce ring card girl, Corissa Furr. You’ve probably seen her on Entourage, MANswers or gracing the pages of FHM and Maxim. Most recently, she hosted an ‘MTV Cribs’-esque segment on The Ultimate Insider when she took you through the luxurious home of UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck. We discussed her favorite fighter, women’s MMA, and the lamest thing to be shouted at her while cage side. Enjoy the interview and the new pics Corissa sent us.

CagePotato.com: Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk with me. First things first, how in the world does a smart girl from small town Maryland find herself parading around a cage in a bikini while holding up a round card for money?

Corissa Furr: I don’t know. You know, it’s not something I ever thought was going to happen. I was never one of those girls who was like, you know, “I wanna be a model.” I kind of got into it accidentally. My roommate at the time was doing a photo shoot and then the photographer was like, “Let me take some head shots of you.” And that was the beginning of it I guess. I started traveling for different companies, doing tours nationwide and I’ve always been a fan of MMA and boxing and stuff like that so when opportunities came my way, of course I took advantage of them. Who wouldn’t want to be sitting cage side watching the fights and getting paid?

CP: What’s the lamest thing a guy has yelled out at you while you’re up there holding cards?

(He only points at the ones he loves. / Photo via Sherdog)

According to an Oglobo report (translated by FightersOnly), a 75-minute backstage argument between Dana White and Anderson Silva is what led to the hour-long delay of Tuesday’s “Silva vs. Sonnen” press conference in Rio. The short version: Silva initially refused to fight anywhere other than Brazil, owing to his desire to beat Chael Sonnen‘s ass in front of his countrymen. Eventually, dollars spoke louder than words. Now here’s the long version:

Anderson Silva didn’t lash out publicly at Dana White when the UFC president declared he wanted to move the rematch with Chael Sonnen to Las Vegas, USA — but on the quiet he was very upset. It took the UFC president 75 minutes to convince him to fight Chael Sonnen in Las Vegas instead of Rio de Janeiro and this was the reason for the press conference delay yesterday, reports Gustavo Noblat of OGlobo.com.

The talk was heated — initially Anderson refused to change the venue of what could be the rematch of the century…The upcoming confrontation was set to occur at Stadium Engenhao in Rio, and would have been the biggest show of UFC history with 80 thousand tickets to be sold. But the date coincided with international events in the city and White alleged Rio would not have the infrastructure to hold the fighting event.

The champion was frustrated and insisted on fighting in Brazil. Anderson told Dana that Sonnen had been disrespectful with him, his family and all the Brazilian. “He deserves to taught a lesson here, I owe this to my people”, repeated Silva. But Dana was adamant. “If there is no way to make the event in a stadium, it has to be in Las Vegas,” said the company president.

(Click for full-size version.)

“Two grudges will end” at UFC 148, you guys. After the main event, Chael Sonnen is going to pull Anderson Silva aside and personally apologize for that wife-groping steak-cooking stuff, in addition to his general lambasting of the Brazilian people, and Silva will be like, “I understand about the trash-talk, baby bubba, but we’re still friends.” And then Urijah Faber will catch up to Dominick Cruz backstage and explain that when Cruz signed his name over Faber’s face on a poster five years ago, it didn’t really bother him, because really, who would actually hold a grudge over something like that, you know? And then they’ll hug. And hug. And keep hugging. These are things that will happen.

By Elias Cepeda

(The Silva/Sonnen staredown nuzzledown from today’s press-conference, via MMAMania.)

The good news? Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen will indeed rematch one another this summer. The bad news, at least for Brazilian fans, is that the mega bout will not take place in Brazil as originally planned, but rather in Las Vegas.

UFC President Dana White convened a press conference in Rio this morning, breaking the news alongside middleweight champion Silva and #1 contender Sonnen. White said he wanted to secure a soccer stadium in either Sao Paulo or Rio de Janiero for UFC 147, with Silva vs. Sonnen headlining, but that “everything that could go wrong, went wrong.” That included a United Nations conference being scheduled in Rio during the weekend UFC 147 was originally scheduled for, creating an insurmountable logistical nightmare for the promotion.

Silva vs. Sonnen II will now be moved to UFC 148 on July 7th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Vegas. UFC 147 will still take place in Brazil, though White said a venue has yet to be secured. The event is scheduled to feature the rematch between Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva, as well as the middleweight and featherweight finals of TUF Brazil. White said that the UFC is also working on moving Jose Aldo to that card from his UFC 149 engagement, against an opponent to be named later.

(Photo via ESPN)

Update: The press conference has been delayed an hour, and is now scheduled to start at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT.

With the venue for UFC 147 in jeopardy because of some United Nations bullcrap, UFC president Dana White, middleweight champion Anderson Silva, and champion-in-his-own-mind Chael Sonnen will be hosting a press conference in Rio de Janeiro this morning to announce where and when Silva vs. Sonnen 2 will be taking place. Rumor has it the fight will be bumped to UFC 148, July 7th in Las Vegas, but you’ll just have to watch and see. The presser starts at 10 a.m. ET / 7 a.m. PT; check it out after the jump, courtesy of YouTube.com/UFC, and come back to CagePotato later for our recap of the important points.

By Elias Cepeda

(Jon Jones successfully defended his UFC belt against Rashad Evans Saturday night)

For my money, Saturday night’s UFC 145 main event between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans was exactly what I’d want from a high-level grudge match. A quick stoppage could have led of talk of “luck,” or controversy and perhaps an immediate rematch.

Instead, the former training partners got to see each other from many different angles over the course of five long rounds. In so doing, each man passed tests they had yet to before, each got their licks in and we still had a clear winner.

In only his second career loss, Rashad Evans proved that he could get seriously hurt in a fight and keep going. The young champion Jones showed us much as well in going to a decision.

We know that Jones has the conditioning to go the distance. Perhaps more important than that, we now know that Jones, who recently steamrolled Lyoto Machida, Mauricio Rua and Quinton Jackson, won’t necessarily get frustrated when an opponent doesn’t quickly crumble under his onslaught.

Jones stayed patient, measured and effective throughout the fight with Evans, even when the challenger refused to quit after getting rocked. Jones also has a chin on him.

It would have been easy to miss because of how little he reacted to them, but Jones took some heavy single shots from Evans, right to the chin, temple and neck. And he didn’t even flinch.

(Excellent use of Le Tigre, Mr. Silva.) 

Whether you’re referring to his antics in or out of the cage, to describe UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva as anything less than an enigma would be a massive understatement. Aside from his appearances in some of the most bizarrely entertaining commercials this side of Japan, “The Spider” has willingly spent time around Sensei Seagal, a man so off-the-wall insane that he will literally threaten you with a lawsuit if you attempt to poke fun at his massive ego. 

*looks over shoulder*

Apparently not satisfied with the amount of verbal attacks being lobbed at him by Chael Sonnen recently, Silva sat down with Brazilian news outlet Globo magazine, who referred to an interview the champ did with Istoe Gente in which he described himself as both a metrosexual and a user of Victoria’s secret products. Thank Christ, it wasn’t the lingerie.

Check out an excerpt from the interview after the jump. 

(Anyone else want to negotiate?)

It’s looking like current Bellator middleweight champion and world renowned can-crusher Hector Lombard may finally get his chance to make waves in the UFC. Yes, it seems the man who has vowed to “take Anderson Silva’s head off” was recently offered a contract with the UFC in light of his dispute-ridden contract with Bellator expiring earlier this month. The Cuban-born knockout artist has been out of action since steamrolling Trevor Prangley in the second round of their catchweight non-title affair back in November of 2011, and has still yet to grant season five middleweight tournament winner Alexander Shlemenko his much deserved rematch. We can likely call that one a wash at this point.

And although that sucks for Shlemenko, we’ve got to admit that we’d much rather see “Lightning” in the UFC. If you recall, Lombard was supposed to make his promotional debut way back at UFC 78 in November of 2007 against Karo Parisyan, but Visa issues forced him to withdraw after he was denied entry into the country. He was eventually replaced by Ryo Chonan, who couldn’t handle “The Heat” and was defeated by unanimous decision.

Five years and countless corpses of MMA journeyman later, we may finally see Lombard live up to his potential.

But before we start setting ourselves up for disappointment, we (and the UFC) are awaiting a move from the Bellator brass, who still have an opportunity to match the UFC’s offer. Bellator CEO told Sherdog that a “strategic decision” would determine Lombard’s future with the company, but that they wouldn’t even begin deliberation until after this weekend’s Bellator 66 event:

We’ve received the final proposed UFC agreement from Hector’s attorney, and right now we are in the process of reviewing it to determine whether we’re going to match the agreement. We’ve got the 60 pages of UFC contract that were forwarded to us by Hector’s counsel.

Out of respect for Hector, I think we will turn [the UFC contract] around very quickly. Obviously, we have a huge event coming up Friday. As soon as that is over, we will sit down with our partners and go through the UFC contract line-for-line and make a strategic decision whether we’re going to match it or pass. [If we pass, we will] wish him the best and let him go knock out everybody in the UFC.

Check out more from the interview after the jump.

By Elias Cepeda

(U.N.’s revenge: Anderson Silva knew he shouldn’t have cozied up to John Bolton so publicly back in the late nineties)

Just over two months away from when it was supposed to happen, the year’s most anticipated MMA bout does not yet have a time and place locked in stone, according to UFC President Dana White. Middleweight champion Anderson Silva and #1 contender Chael Sonnen were supposed to square off in a rematch of their 2010 thriller at UFC 147 in Rio de Janiero on June 23rd but at Saturday’s post UFC in Sweden event press conference White revealed that a conference of the United Nations scheduled in Rio the same week may force the fight promotion to move their event.

“The problem down in Rio right now is they’re having a big United Nations convention down there, so there’s some stuff going on. We’re working through it trying to figure this whole thing out,” White said to the assembled media.

The U.N. conference was announced after the UFC first announced their intentions to hold an event in Rio on June 23rd, and will draw tens of thousands of visitors to the city, in addition to heads of state. White says that he’s essentially being told that Rio ain’t big enough for the both of the UFC and U.N.

(Could I get JUST ONE of those exemptions, por favor?) 

Some big news out of California today, as it appears that the California State Athletic Commission has taken a huge step towards legalizing the therapeutic use of testosterone and marijuana in mixed martial arts competition. SI.com was the first to break the news:

The California State Athletic Commission voted on Monday to approve an amendment that allows therapeutic use exemptions (TUE) for combat sports’ athletes who use drugs currently banned by the state agency for medical purposes, including testosterone and marijuana.

To be adopted into state law, the amendment’s verbiage must now be reviewed and approved by the Department of Consumer Affairs and then the state’s Office of Administrative Law, a process that could take months or even years, if it passes at all.

OK, so it’s not as big of news as one could have hoped, but it’s something, right? Then again, depending on your stance on testosterone replacement therapy (or marijuana for that matter), this could be a step in the wrong direction for the sport of MMA.

By Elias Cepeda

(Come on NSAC, can’t we talk this out?)

Alistair Overeem may have failed his recent surprise drug test, but it appears that he isn’t giving up on challenging heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146 on May 26th. He has requested a hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) and has been given a hearing date of April 24th, little more than a month before he hopes to still vie for the UFC belt.

After testing positive for elevated testosterone levels in late March in Nevada, Overeem had the option of asking the state’s athletic commission to test the second sample they took from him during their test, as well as the option of deciding to apply for a license in the state at a hearing.

More on Overeem’s options and the UFC’s plans after the jump.

(Props: youtube.com/fueltv)

Chael Sonnen is back with more surreal statements in his latest Chael’s Corner segment for Fuel’s UFC Tonight. Here a sampling of Sonnen’s sincere and deep thoughts:

“Fighters have recently seen it as their quasi-job to continually put out misinformation.”

Recently? Naw that’s nothing new, Chael. Fighters have never had a problem, say, screaming in pain and tapping out to a submission, and then claiming that they did not. Heck, some guys have even gone on pr campaigns questioning the professionalism of refs who save fighters who ask for fights to be stopped. Maybe it doesn’t count as misinformation if the obvious truth is caught on live national television.

“[Some fighters] just refuse to answer a question, head on.”

True. Like, for example, answering questions with non-sequitor quotes ripped off from western movies and pro wrestling promos.

“There’s a tremendous difference between what fighters say vs. what fighters mean.”

(What has two thumbs, false teeth and a guaranteed title shot? This guy!)

After months of contradictory and unclear statements from Dan Henderson and UFC President Dana White, fans are now being told with certainty that Hendo’s next fight will be for a belt. Being the stone-cold pimp that he is, Henderson can fight in multiple divisions, and his next fight will take place at either middleweight or light-heavyweight. In a new interview with Heavy.com’s Megan Olivi, White had the following to say regarding the future of the winner of da greatest MMA fight ever:

“Dan Henderson will get the winner of that fight or the winner of the Anderson Silva [vs. Chael Sonnen] fight. Dan Henderson just wants a title shot. There’s been a lot of talk about the stuff that I said. Here’s the thing: I offered Dan Henderson two fights. Dan Henderson wants this fight. Normally I don’t do that. Guys don’t sit around and pick their fights. There’s been very specific cases where that’s happened and it’s guys who have earned it or deserve it, and Dan Henderson is one of those guys. Listen, if Dan Henderson, Henderson has been around forever. He’s forty-something years old, he’s been knocking guys out left and right. If he wants to sit around and wait for this title shot, he can do it.”

(Chael Sonnen posing with his favorite fake belt in front of his favorite fake backdrop.)

The UFC announced this week that middleweight champion Anderson Silva‘s highly anticipated rematch with #1 contender/doper/inspirational author/felon/snitch Chael Sonnen is to take place June 23rd in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But when our friends at MMA Fighting asked Mr. Sonnen for comment on the announcement, he claimed to have not signed a bout agreement.

“My demand has not been met…I’ve signed nothing,” he told them.

It seems likely that while his actual signing is a formality at this point, the media-savvy Sonnen is trying to add some drama and comedy to the situation. Through his twitter account, Sonnen reiterated that he had one demand that needed to be met before he signed on to fight Silva, and that he would only “declare” it to television talk show host Jim Rome.

(That moment when you get hit so hard you shit your pants in front of the whole gym.) 

Having worked with everyone from Manny Pacquiao to Andrei Arlovksi, it’s fair to say that Freddie Roach knows damn near all there is to know about the stand up game.

So when he sat down alongside current WBA (super), WBC, and The Ring super middleweight champion Andre Ward on last night’s edition of Inside MMA, the inevitable question came up: who does he think are the top five best boxers in MMA?

Check out Freddie’s top five, along with his thoughts on GSP vs. A. Silva, after the jump.

(You best believe that if Anderson’s wife isn’t making someone a sandwich, she’s doing their laundry.) 

Keeping with the theme of previous UFC on Fox promos, the latest ad features none other than UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva trying to convince us that he’s just a normal guy whilst performing tasks that only The Fonz could get away with. No, he isn’t lip singing Minnie Riperton or seducing Brazilian pop stars, but “The Spider” manages to be entertaining nonetheless.

But your probably asking yourself, how could someone who all but refuses to speak English appear in an American television commercial? Surely they didn’t subtitle him, because our forefathers didn’t die face down in the mud so that we’d be forced to listen to some cockamamie, Godless language in our own homes and read on top of it. But it turns out that there would be no need for subtitles, because wouldn’t you know, Chael Sonnen wasn’t lying to us; Anderson Silva speaks better English than Jackie Chan has managed to learn in twenty-some years of acting.

This more or less confirms that Big Nog did in fact try to feed a bus a carrot. It’s only a matter of time until the truth is revealed.

Join us after the jump for the video. 

(Fans outside the Engenhão await their national hero.)

The UFC has confirmed the date and venue for UFC 147: Silva vs. Sonnen 2, slating it for June 23rd at Estádio Olímpico João Havelange in Rio de Janeiro. Known to the locals as “Engenhão,” the multi-use stadium seats nearly 47,000 people, and is the home field for the Botafogo soccer team. Engenhão will host the athletics competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

With the main-event building steam, Chael Sonnen has gotten a head-start on his trash talk, responding to Anderson Silva‘s recent claim that Chael should quit talking and start training. His latest promo clip is vintage Sonnen. Here’s a taste:

“I’m not fighting you in Brazil, I’m not fighting you in Chicago, I’m not fighting you in Florida. I’m fighting you in the Octagon. And when you get in there and I get in there, I’m gonna stomp you this time the same as I did last time. You can complain about your rib. I’m sure your rib *did* hurt. Your rib is inside of a coward. That’s the problem your rib’s got. It’s got the same problem your hands and feet have — they’re attached to *you*, dummy! I’m gonna be attached to you too, for 25 minutes or until you give up.”

Check out the video after the jump..

(Thankfully, Silva’s wife was too busy making steak sandwiches for a certain someone, and could not be in attendance.) 

HOW CAN CHAEL SONNEN HATE THIS COUNTRY?!

If I knew that this was how fighters undergoing injury rehabilitation were treated in Brazil, I would have thrown myself in front of that horse truck that ran over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria years ago. We have no clue what the name of this show is (Melhor do Brasil maybe?), but we feel that depriving you of that piece of information won’t really irk you when you take a look at the drop dead gorgeous women that the current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva got to judge as part of a body painting contest.

Join us after the jump for the video. You’ll be glad you did.

(*mind explodes*)

A fight MMA fans have been clamoring for the past few years is a super fight between two of the sport’s most dominant champions: Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre.

The stumbling block, besides the queue of challengers lining up to face both men is the fact that they compete in different weight classes — St-Pierre at 170 and Silva at 185. It would almost make more sense to have “The Spider” face 205-pound champ Jon Jones since they walk around at a closer weight and Silva has fought and won at light heavyweight, but “Bones” has stated that he has no interest in the fight.

One of the biggest proponents of a GSP-Silva pairing (which St-Pierre says he’s all for in the next 12 months) is UFC president Dana White, who stated this week that he would love to do the fight in St-Pierre’s home country,which would guarantee a sellout even if it was the only bout on the card.

“I want to put on big fights. I want to put on fights the fans want to see. I know how big that fight is. Imagine if we did Anderson Silva versus Georges St-Pierre anywhere in Canada, how big that fight would be. Believe me, I’d love to do it. We’ll see what happens,” he told MMAWeekly. “Obviously it’s a fight that people have been talking about for a long time. So like Georges said, first of all, he has to get healthy. Then he’s got to fight [Carlos] Condit. Anderson is fighting Chael [Sonnen], and then we’ll see where we go from there. I know that Anderson couldn’t make 170 [pounds], so it would depend on Georges moving up or those guys meet at a catchweight or something like that.”

(That moment you realize you are a fraction of the man Dan Henderson is.) 

Few, if any, will ever be able to forget Dan Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s epic battle at UFC 139. It was like that time you watched your dad and your friend’s dad argue over a garden hose at your local pub when you were 12, an argument that quickly devolved into chair throwing, bottle smashing, and frequent use of the “n-word” despite the fact that both participants were white. You and your friend would never be the same again, but to be fair, his dad did say he would return the hose over a week ago, so fuck him.

Now swap your friend’s dad/Shogun with Dana White, and your dad with Dan Henderson, and you’ve pretty much got the gist of these two’s ongoing series of misunderstandings. They’ve butted heads over money before, but now it seems they’ve moved into the territory of straight up verbal warfare. At yesterday’s Calgary press conference, White informed Mauro Ranallo that he had attempted to secure a rematch between Henderson and Rua, but was met with firm opposition by the inventor of the H-bomb:

Yeah, I was trying to put together Dan Henderson vs. Shogun II and Henderson doesn’t want to do the fight. Henderson wants to wait for the winner of either Jonny “Bones” Jones or Anderson Silva. He wants Anderson Silva, if Silva wins, he will make that cut. Otherwise, he wants to fight the winner of Rashad and Jones.

After hearing the above snippet, Henderson took to his Twitter account to respond, where he promptly slayed DW in less than ten words.

Join us after the jump for those ten words.

(Full press conference video, via YouTube.com/UFC. Man, Nick Ring is like a *god* in that town.)

Today’s UFC press conference in Calgary resulted in a tidal wave of major announcements, highlighted by two title-fight bookings and confirmations of three Canadian events in 2012. Here’s what we’re looking at…

- The middleweight championship rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen will take place at an 80,000-seat soccer stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, not Sao Paulo as originally reported. [Ed. note: R.I.P., Chael.] The exact venue hasn’t been confirmed yet, and the event is expected to take place at UFC 147 on either June 16th or June 23rd. It will be the third time in 10 months that Rio will host a UFC event. We’ll be keeping our eyes out for this guy.

- For the third year in a row, the UFC will hold three events in Canada this year: UFC 149 in Calgary (7/21), UFC 152 in Toronto (9/22), and UFC 154 in Montreal (11/17). No matchups have been scheduled for the Toronto and Montreal shows, although welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre said he’d like to compete at UFC 154 if his knee-surgery recovery allows it.

(Tom couldn’t handle constantly being asked if the guy he was with was the dude that f*cked Kimbo)

As fans and pundits of the sport, sometimes we forget that the fighters we love and hate to watch in the ring and cage are normal human beings like we are. They have bills to pay, mouths to feed and wives and girlfriends that *most* of them go home to every night.

We’ve been introduced to many of the W.A.Gs of fighters by UFC countdown shows, porno movies, arrest reports and through their own contributions to the sport as managers and fighters in their own right. Regardless of what they do, they support their men through the good and the bad and keep the home front running smoothly while their husbands and boyfriends are away for training camps or competing.

They don’t get a lot of mention by us media types, so we figured we would pay them tribute by posting a gallery of some of the lesser-known ladies behind the well-known fighters in the sport.

CagePotato Roundtable is a new recurring column in which the CagePotato writing staff (and some of our friends) share their opinions on an MMA-related topic, and hopefully inspire some discussion among our readers as well. For the inaugural installment, we took inspiration from Joe Rogan’s enthusiastic crowning of last weekend’s Tim Boetch vs. Yushin Okami fight as “the greatest comeback in the history of the UFC.” That’s debatable, to say the least — but isn’t everything? So what *was* the greatest comeback fight in MMA history?

Seth Falvo
When Joe Rogan first called The Barbarian’s victory the greatest comeback in UFC history, my first thought was “Come on, Joe, are you seriously the only MMA fan who hasn’t seen Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Bob Sapp?” That comeback exposed Sapp for the overhyped freak that he was while establishing the legend of Big Nog and his ability to come from behind to win fights. Hell, we at Cagepotato consider it to be the best freak show fight to ever come out of Japan. But in fairness to Joe Rogan, that fight didn’t take place in the UFC. So my second thought was “Come on, Joe, are you seriously the only UFC fan who hasn’t seen Mike Russow vs. Todd Duffee?”

What makes this comeback so great was the fact that Todd Duffee and Mike Russow were essentially photo negatives of each other. Before this fight, Duffee was destined to be the next big thing in the UFC’s heavyweight division, having just tied the record for the fastest knockout in UFC history in his promotional debut against Tim Hague. Duffee was on the cover of Muscle & Fitness, the poster boy for Muscletech and seemingly in every men’s magazine on the planet — no matter how loosely the content was related to sports. Meanwhile, Russow was quietly coming off of a unanimous decision victory over Justin McCully in his UFC debut and had more fat in his left bicep than Todd Duffee had in his entire body. Everything about this fight seemed like it was a squash match.

(“Train? I didn’t have time to train with all of the commercial shoots the last six months.”)

King of all Brazilian Media Anderson Silva makes a brief appearance Nike’s new “Brasil vs. Brasil” commercial. Nike is one of the marquee companies on Silva’s bluechip sponsor roster alongside Burger King, Ford and the Corinthians soccer team.

The message of the ad, which also features members of the Brasilian national soccer team, former Brasil player Ronaldo and singer Thiaguinho, is “Triumph Over Your Shadow.” In one-minute spot, Brasil players  Neymar, Ganso, Pato, Thiago Silva, and Mascherano play against themselves in their away jerseys.

Check out the video after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/NicktheFace2)

If you’ve never heard of NicktheFace, first of all, what’s wrong with you, and second of all, do yourself a favor right now and check out some of his body of work and then ask yourself how you enjoyed MMA without him.

Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch, but why the hell isn’t this dude working for the UFC.

The impassioned fan/highlight video master craftsman is at it again and this time the results might just be the best Anderson Silva-Chael Sonnen promo video we’ll see before they square off at UFC 147 this summer and that’s including the inevitable “fan-made” clip of Chael inserted into a clip of “American Gangster.” We’re on to you and you’re grassroots guerilla campaigns, UFC marketing department.

Anyway, there’s not a hell of a lot more we can say about this masterpiece, other than we dare you to watch it and say you aren’t looking forward to this fight. We double-dog dare you, even.

After the jump:

NTF’s Shogun vs. Hendo highlight and his Diaz-GSP promo.