(Props: YouTube.com/MMAVids10)

Hey guys, who wants to see a classic striker vs. grappler battle? The extended preview for UFC 112 (April 10th, Abu Dhabi) tries to sell us on the idea that Demian Maia‘s nasty jits poses an undeniable threat to Anderson Silva. Not that Maia’s grappling ability is exaggerated, but if Nate Marquardt can send Maia into orbit before the fight gets to the ground, Anderson certainly can as well. Speaking of outmatched challengers, UFC 112 also features Frankie Edgar‘s first title fight against lightweight living legend BJ Penn. Joe Rogan shouts out Edgar’s speed, intelligence and wrestling ability and says he presents "a very unique challenge to BJ Penn." But does he have any real advantages? Keep in mind that Penn hasn’t been taken down by a lightweight since Takanori Gomi, six and a half years ago. At least the third fight on the card isn’t a squash match: Renzo Gracie vows to do to Matt Hughes what Matt did to his cousin Royce in 2006. Which old master still has what it takes to compete in the year 2010?

After the jump: Dana and Joe put in some overtime to hype the lightweight title rematch between Benson Henderson and Donald Cerrone, which goes down April 24th at WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber.

(This is why B.J Penn still wakes up some nights in a terror, convinced that he’s covered in Vaseline and his own blood.)

Whether we want to admit it or not, excuses are as much a part of mixed martial arts as Tapout tees and fist-pose photographs. They have to be. In a world where you must talk yourself into believing that you’re either the baddest man in your weight class or else on your way to becoming it, a loss is something you have to find some way to reconcile, or else have your identity destroyed. That other dude couldn’t have won just because he was the better fighter. No, surely there’s a reason for this temporary setback, and chances are it’s very detailed and probably a little bit ridiculous.

In honor of the post-defeat excuse in MMA, we give you ten of the worst and weirdest attempts to explain away an ass-kicking. They aren’t necessarily untrue (though some are demonstrably untrue), but neither can they turn that L into a W. The best you can hope for is that they make sleeping at night just a little easier for the people who uttered them.

10. Mark Coleman couldn’t afford a proper training camp

(Don’t forget those elbows to the back of the head, either.)

By Cage Potato contributor Matt Kaplan

Like fellow New Jersey native Frank Sinatra, UFC lightweight Jim Miller has been doing things his way. A former Cage Fury Fighting Championship and Reality Fighting title holder, Miller has used his ferocious style to catapult himself to the bright lights of the UFC Octagon, but the fire in Miller’s belly is not lit by the prospect of championship gold or the adulation of the masses. Instead, he maintains a deep commitment to his own personal standard of excellence and is poised to fulfill his own destiny, win or lose.

With a dominating win over the heavy-handed Duane “Bang” Ludwig at UFC 108 just two months ago, the New Jersey native is set to take on submission maven Mark Bocek at UFC 111 on March 27. I caught up and talked with Miller about his upcoming match, personifying a Creedence Clearwater Revival song, and a few of New Jersey’s finest exports.

So have you let the excitement of fighting Mark Bocek at UFC 111 in front of your hometown New Jersey crowd get to you, or have you been keeping it business as usual?

For me it really is business as usual. You know, it really doesn’t matter where I’m fighting. It’s cool that I’m going to have a lot more fans there, and that I don’t have to fly, but other than that, I’m stepping into the Octagon against a tough opponent, and that’s really what I’m focused on. Fortunately, the UFC fans have been great wherever I’ve been.

(1:44 — "You ever been involved in anything like this before, BJ, besides the havoc that you wreak?")

If you’ve been near a TV or radio anytime today, you probably heard about the massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile early this morning, which triggered tsunami warnings in Hawaii. Thankfully, Hawaii seems to have dodged a bullet, wave-wise, but CNN was following the situation closely this afternoon, aided by local correspondent (and UFC lightweight champion) BJ Penn, who provided the cable news channel with a live video feed from his website and helped describe the scene on the ground; video of his segment is above. For more updates on the tsunami-watch in Hawaii, hit up BJPenn.com.

Some of you have been asking us why we don’t give CagePotato t-shirts away anymore. Others have been asking us why our store site has completely shit the bed. The answers to those questions are 1) Because we’re lazy, and 2) Don’t ask us, we just work here. But it’s been too long since we’ve shouted out our best commenters, and that insult ends…right now. Picking up "Devil Horns" tees this week are…

skeletor on "Get Your Sleeveless T-Shirt Out: The UFC Now Has a Gym": I think you get to train at the gym for something like $20 for the first month, but you have to come in early when no important people are around to see you. If you do well enough they will do like a multi-month contract for about $45 dollars. The more buff you get the more you have to pay, and it can get pretty out of hand. The biggest problem is if you ever leave for another gym or they kick you out for not being able to squat as much as some of the new guys, Dana will publicly berate you. He will then begin to question the the validity of you’re max on the bench, and say you only went to the friendlier less dictator like gym down the street because he didn’t want you at his gym anymore.

If you’re not ready for the UFC gym I would suggest trying out a smaller gym like Strikeforce. They have some good equipment just not nearly as much, but the fees are less, and the owner isn’t such a dick. Also they let you work out at other gyms for as long as you want, even if they take the time to build a whole workout room around your specific needs.

I hope this clears up some of the questions you had. So to sum it all up, it looks like Chuck could use some fiber in his diet.

landOencagement on "Renzo Gracie’s Only Problem Is His Wife Complaining": BJ Penn looks like the baby from Dinosaurs in that clip.
[Ed. note: OMFG.]

If your name has been called, please e-mail feedback@cagepotato.com with your address and shirt size, and we’ll get a shirt out to you pronto.

Vitor Belfort, Renzo Gracie, BJ Penn, Frankie Edgar, and Anderson Silva pose for pictures in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, while Ferrari World looms in the background. Photos courtesy of the UFC 112 Facebook page. More shots after the jump…

(Ferrari World artist’s rendering courtesy of skyscrapercity.com)

After weeks of private negotiations and public vagueness, the UFC has finally confirmed that their April 10th show will indeed take place in Abu Dhabi, home of their new partners at Flash Entertainment. Though concerns about the venue delayed the event’s official announcement, an existing outdoor stadium was eventually selected over the gravel-pit setup that Marshall Zelaznik had been touting. From the press release on UFC.com:

We were waiting for B.J. Penn to film a video blog in a parking garage at the Las Vegas airport to let us know how he feels about defending his title against Frankie Edgar at UFC 112, and lo and behold, here it is.  Penn says he thinks Edgar is "a very good opponent" with "a lot of big wins," and he’s generally pretty pleased with the bout.  He doesn’t exhibit the kind of fire that he might if he were getting Georges St. Pierre or Matt Hughes again, but what do you expect? 

Still, the muted though positive reaction from Penn forces us to consider the gradual decline in pre-fight heat from "The Prodigy" as his fights have gotten less personal and less challenging all at the same time.  Remember when he fought Sean Sherk in May of 2008?  Penn couldn’t get through an interview without painting him as an immoral cheater who deserved Wild West-style justice.  Then it was GSP, who he was ready to fight to the death, followed by Greasegate text message denier Kenny Florian, who he says he punished a little more than necessary, and lastly it was Diego Sanchez, who he really had nothing against. 

Now, it’s Edgar.  A good opponent with some good wins.  Okay, fine.  Why not?  He isn’t getting any younger, and it’s already been more than a month since he’s licked anyone else’s blood off his gloves.

Bonus: After the jump, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta explain to street hustler Mike Straka why Gray Maynard isn’t getting a shot at the title.

(Frankie Edgar is looking into your soul, and he is not impressed.)

We can’t say we didn’t see this coming.  After Gray Maynard‘s lackluster win over Nate Diaz on last night’s UFC Fight Night 20, Dana White tells MMAFighting.com that Frankie Edgar will get the next shot at lightweight champ B.J. Penn, tentatively scheduled for UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi this April.  Edgar last fought at the TUF 10 Finale on December 10, where he submitted Matt Veach with a rear naked choke in the second round.  Funny, we don’t recall a chorus of voices rising up in the wake of that victory to declare Edgar the consensus number one contender, but maybe that’s just because we didn’t watch the fight in New Jersey.

But seriously, you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that Edgar earned this shot primarily by process of elimination.  After Penn smoked Diego Sanchez, it came down to Edgar or Maynard.  Fortunately for Edgar, "The Bully" managed to win in the least impressive fashion possible, so he gets the shot by default, even though Maynard ran through him with relative ease at UFC Fight Night 13. 

Is it kind of unfair that a guy Maynard beat, who’s coming off a win over a relative UFC novice, is getting the shot just because his own win wasn’t quite exciting enough?  No, it’s not kind of unfair.  It’s totally unfair.  But that’s life in the fight game.  Video of Dana White explaining the thin rationale behind the fight, as well as why he decided to sell 10% of his company essentially to the government of Abu Dhabi, is after the jump.

(Photo courtesy of TheSun)

From a recent post on Brock Lesnar‘s official Facebook page:

NEW UPDATE!! Brock has had more problems (we can’t say what they are) and he could be out all of this year if things don’t get better. Brock wants to thank all of his fans for their support and for the nice messages so thanks guys.

Though we’ve yet to see the official update that we were promised this week, let this be your advance warning that Lesnar won’t be returning this summer. In other unconfirmed news…

— SI’s Josh Gross hears that Frankie Edgar will get the next shot at BJ Penn’s lightweight belt in April, regardless of Gray Maynard‘s performance against Nate Diaz at UFC Fight Night 20 on Monday. Edgar (11-1, 6-1 UFC), most recently submitted Matt Veach at the TUF 10 finale, holds wins over Sean Sherk, Hermes Franca, and Tyson Griffin, and previously lost a decision to Maynard in April 2008.

— According to MMA Live host Jon Anik, a match between knockout artist Paul Daley and perennial top contender Josh Koscheck is being discussed for May or June. Between Daley’s recent destructions of Martin Kampmann and Dustin Hazelett, and Koscheck’s wins over Frank Trigg and Anthony Johnson, both guys have a lot of heat behind them right now. Feels like a #1 welterweight contender fight to us…

It looks like the UFC isn’t going to be depending solely on the drawing power of Renzo Gracie vs. Matt Hughes and the allure of free air conditioning to make their first Abu Dhabi event a success.  In a video posted to his website today lightweight champ B.J. Penn says he expects to make his next title defense on the April fight card.  He doesn’t mention who his opponent might be, but I think we can assume that if Gray Maynard feeds Nathan Diaz a steady diet of takedowns and noogies like we all expect him to in the main event this Monday’s UFC Fight Night, he has a pretty good shot at getting the call.

If Diaz manages to pull out the win however, it would put his current win streak at a meager two, and then we’d like Frankie Edgar‘s chances to get utterly destroyed by a semi-interested Penn. 

So okay, one title fight for Abu Dhabi and a couple old-timers going at it.  That ought to be good enough, right?  Only maybe not.  In an interview with Tatame, Carlos Santos of Team Emirates says that both Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort have contacted him through their representatives to train at his Abu Dhabi gym in the days leading up to the fight.  Does this mean Silva-Belfort will also go down at UFC 112?  Either that, or these guys both just really want to see the Al Hosn Palace without interrupting their regular training schedules.

At the beginning of every year there are always nuggets of conventional wisdom that seem absolutely unassailable in January and are laughable by December. This has always been the case, and not just in the world of MMA. For instance, in January of 1941 Pearl Harbor was a nice, calm, wonderfully exotic place for U.S. servicemen to be stationed. By December it was fodder for a horrible Michael Bay movie. Just goes to show that we never know as much as we think we do, though it doesn’t stop us from making definitive statements that will later seem totally ridiculous. Here now are some of the MMA truths that became lies in 2009…

Lyoto Machida is the most boring fighter in the UFC

At the start of 2009 Machida had finished just two of his last seven fights (one of them a TKO due to exhaustion), and had cemented his reputation as the fighter who was too "elusive" to be interesting. The UFC seemed intent on keeping him away from a title shot, but inked him for a showdown of undefeated Brazilians against Thiago Silva at UFC 94. That’s when "The Dragon" showed his fangs or claws or whatever it is that dragons have, and after knocking out Rashad Evans to claim the light heavyweight title in similarly ferocious fashion a few months later, we were forced to abandon our belief that Machida would forever be MMA’s version of Ambien. Too bad that our revised position didn’t fare much better…

Lyoto Machida is damn near unbeatable

The “Machida Era” was supposed to be a reign as dominant and prolific as that of middleweight champ Anderson Silva, which left many of us scratching our heads when “Shogun” Rua got the nod as his first challenger. Rua was 2-1 in the UFC at that point and he hadn’t beaten anyone even near their prime since leaving Pride. Despite coming in as a heavy underdog, Rua gave Machida all he could handle for five rounds and seemed to be on his way to a decision victory before the judges decided to discount leg kicks altogether. Machida survived with the belt, but not with his aura of invincibility.

(Props: YouTube.com/K1 via MMA Fighting)

K-1 recently uploaded some choice highlights from their MMA library onto their YouTube page, featuring early fights from current superstars like Brock Lesnar, BJ Penn, and Lyoto Machida. Above is Lesnar’s pro MMA debut against Min Soo Kim, which went down at Dynamite!! USA in June ’07. Odds are, you’ve watched this fight before — though it’s still worth a look if you’ve never seen the head-clashing faceoff and the fight’s aftermath, in which Lesnar triumphantly stalked around the cage while Kim was slowly brought back to life.

After the jump: Kazushi Sakuraba‘s rematch with Royce Gracie at Dynamite!! USA, BJ Penn’s grudge match with Renzo Gracie at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 in Hawaii, and Lyoto Machida’s fourth pro fight against Michael McDonald at K-1 Beast 2004.

Let’s just hope nothing amazing happens in the next two weeks. Major props to AllElbows, Sherdog, and The Las Vegas Sun.

#14. Frank Shamrock and Nick Diaz display their vastly different personal styles at a Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz press conference.

#13: The final resting place of BJJ godfather Helio Gracie.

#12: "Stop trying to hit me and hit me!" Anderson Silva stays juuuuust out of reach against Forrest Griffin at UFC 101.

(Diego, we don’t want to embarrass you or anything, but, well, your brain is showing. Photo courtesy of Fight Magazine’s UFC 107 gallery.)

The results from UFC 107 are in and the numbers have all been tallied up. And don’t worry, after concerns arose that some of our stats had been poorly calculated, we hired some real experts: the dudes who counted all the votes in the most recent election in Afghanistan. See, they’ve got real world experience!

Join us to see who’s up, who’s down, and who made little progress in either direction after UFC 107, all according to the arbitrary numerical rankings system of the Potato Index.

B.J. Penn +193
What kind of champion goes five rounds with the number one contender to his title and only gets hit eight times? The thoroughly dominant kind. Penn is without question the world’s best lightweight right now, but that doesn’t mean he has to jump divisions right away. Stick around, beat up Gray Maynard, issue a few futile challenges to Shinya Aoki, then go. You’ll have our blessing.

Diego Sanchez -12
On Saturday night we learned that Sanchez isn’t really in Penn’s league (which we already knew, or at least suspected), but he is one of the toughest SOB’s in MMA at any weight class. One gets the sense that if the doctor hadn’t stopped it, he would have kept going all night. Fortunately for his face, it doesn’t work like that.

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Following his four-round drubbing at the hands of Georges St. Pierre at UFC 94, the general consensus was that BJ Penn should return to the 155-pound division for good, and give up his pipe-dream of becoming the UFC’s welterweight champion. Penn did return to lightweight competition, and went on to completely demolish the division’s two top contenders, Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez. He now finds himself in same position as his nemesis GSP, where no challenger to his title seems quite worthy enough. So will we be seeing the Prodigy make another run at welterweight next year? Dana White lays it out:

Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar are among the names of lightweight fighters who have enjoyed great success recently, and could be tapped as Penn’s next opponent. But good luck selling them as actual threats to the belt. If the UFC’s main-event-drought continues, they might be better off using Penn for exhibitions against tough welterweights like Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, or Thiago Alves — at least until an undisputed #1 lightweight contender emerges. Few people are clamoring for Penn/GSP III at this point, but I think we all want to see Penn get an even greater challenge his next time out, even if it takes him out of his most effective weight class.

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

If you watched last night’s UFC event, you already know that BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez was one of the most lopsided five-round fights in UFC history. But exactly how bad did things get for the hapless challenger? According to FightMetric, Sanchez threw 108 strikes at Penn, and only landed eight of them. Seriously. Eight, the whole fight. That’s a 7% success rate. By comparison, Penn was able to touch Sanchez 150 times out of 214 tries, for a remarkable 70% success rate. Compounding his failure, Sanchez also went 0/24 on his takedown attempts. (Fun fact: Penn hasn’t been successfully taken down by a lightweight since Takanori Gomi, six years ago. But hey, kudos to Sanchez for trying anyway.)

Of course, you could also just look at the above photo to understand what a bad situation the Nightmare found himself in at the FedExForum. Allow Dana White to explain what you’re looking at:

After the jump: A completely unmarked BJ Penn discusses his victory.

(‘Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world.  Took the midnight train going n-e-where…’)

Diego Sanchez knows how to work a crowd into a frenzy using Journey lyrics, but does he have what it takes to win a UFC championship?  We’ll know soon enough, just like we’ll figure out whether Frank Mir’s swollen physique translates into victory or just large-scale embarrassment.  Either way, should be a good time.  We’ll be liveblogging all the action from start to finish, complete with misspellings, snap judgments, and fairly obvious comedic remarks.  Won’t you join us?

The action kicks off after the jump.  Remember to hit refresh often to stay current.

You know how you can tell that Diego Sanchez‘s eccentricity is not an act?  Skip to the 3:10 mark of Dana White’s weigh-in video blog and watch him psyching himself up before he gets on the scales.  Dude is still more than twenty-four hours away from the fight itself at this point, but there he is, gently swaying back and forth while shouting ‘Yes!’ to himself, oblivious to the presence of any other human beings.  Normal people — even normal people who get really into the vague platitudes of Tony Robbins — would probably choose to play it a little closer to the vest.  Maybe they’d just think ‘Yes!’ over and over to themselves, or perhaps mutter it very softly.  Not Diego.  Probably because being embarrassed of his own actions has never even occurred to him.

Also worth noting here is one of B.J. Penn‘s cornermen, who stands just behind Sanchez as he works himself into a frenzy, and at one point glances back at Penn as if to say, ‘You seeing this?’  And yeah, Penn sees it and seems thoroughly unimpressed.  I can’t wait to see who wins the race to the center of the Octagon. 

(‘Kongo, I don’t respect your ground game and don’t particularly like you as a person, so you know I have no reason to lie to you when I say this, but your ass is the most magnificent thing I’ve ever encountered.’ Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle’s UFC 107 weigh-in set.)

Who knows what kind of wacky scales they use in Memphis, but Natasha Wicks isn’t complaining because the end result was six different fighters stripping down to their birthday suits just to make weight.  Diego Sanchez initially weighed in at 156, which would have been just fine if he weren’t fighting for the 155-pound title.  So he did what several others who came before him did and took off his skivvies to make weight.  When he did, he clocked in at 154.5 pounds.  As Tennessee State Athletic Commission executive director/master of basic reasoning skills Tim Mullen explained: "Every fighter that was taking his shorts off was losing about 1.5 pounds, that must be what those things weigh."

With the help of a little nudity every fighter made the agreed upon weight, although the Alan Belcher-Wilson Gouveia bout was changed to a catchweight of 195 pounds before the weigh-in.  Full results are after the jump.

(Slightly bored versus uncomfortably intense. Who ya got? Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle’s UFC 107 press conference set.)

With UFC 107 (which we’ll be liveblogging) set to rock Memphis, Tennessee’s precious little world on Saturday night, we take a moment to argue over who’s going to be wearing gold when the night is over, who’s got a championship in their future, and what the UFC should do about future events that get crappier with every news cycle.

Is Diego Sanchez going be the toughest challenger BJ Penn has ever faced as UFC lightweight champ? How do you see that fight going?

BF: I definitely think Sanchez is the toughest lightweight challenger Penn has faced, but that’s not saying all that much. Much of his career has been spent fighting bigger guys like Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. The two times he has defended his title since beating Joe Stevenson for it, he fought Sean Sherk and Kenny Florian. Sherk basically took himself out of the fight by trying to outbox Penn, despite his T-Rex arms, and Florian just didn’t have anything with which to threaten him. Sanchez is better on the feet than both those guys, and he’s also more aggressive and harder to hurt.

(Photo courtesy of myspace.com/rudyvhawaii)

By CagePotato.com contributor Elias Cepeda

The feelings behind BJ Penn’s notorious “gameface,” used to run deep. In the days and hours leading up to his fights he could be as dour and tense as his expression, and the anxiousness continued even as he ran to the Octagon to fight, a bundle of nervous energy.

But just before his UFC lightweight title defense last August in Philadelphia against top contender Kenny Florian, Penn’s head trainer Rudy Valentino saw a change in his fighter. “Just before we got out of the arena he was laughing and talking about, ‘I’m going to enjoy this fight, I’m going to go out and enjoy every fight from now on,’” the coach told CagePotato from Memphis, where Penn (14-5-1) will face Diego Sanchez (23-2) on Saturday night at UFC 107.

“That night BJ was just fighting to fight. It was the Florian fight where he began to turn it on.”

The idea that Penn may just now beginning to find his groove, mentally, is a scary one. Especially if his violent dismantling of Florian that night is any indication of what a more relaxed “Prodigy” can do.

(Props: BuySilverStar.com)

Following the Hoelzer Reich fiasco, it’s refreshing to see an MMA t-shirt sponsor that actually gets it right. Sure, there’s a skull in Clay Guida‘s new "Run to the Hills" tee ($40) from Silver Star — which the Carpenter will be wearing during his cage-entrance at UFC 107 — and yes, the skull thing has already been beaten into the ground. But as any metal fan could tell you, that skull belongs to Iron Maiden mascot Eddie the Head. Maybe you would appreciate this more if you had just been listening to "The Trooper" before you saw this. Or maybe you’d be more interested in some of the other signature tees that will be on display this Saturday…

That’s B.J. Penn hitting some mitts at the UFC 107 open workout, and all we can say is, daaaaamn!  We all know that Penn’s boxing skills have come a long way in the last few years, but this gives you a good idea of just how fast his hands are these days.  And yeah, we realize that it’s one thing to look great hitting pads and quite another to do it with a real live crazy person trying to hit you back, but this is still an impressive display from the lightweight champ.  If Diego Sanchez is going to threaten him on the feet, it seems like he’ll have to do it with the variety and unpredictability of his attack, rather than the sheer speed and power.  Good luck with that.

P.S. If you’re wondering how Penn is relaxing in his down time, check out this video where he sits down to watch the 1986 sci-fi action flick "Eliminators," which he describes as "the best movie ever."  We scoffed at that claim initially.  I mean, has Penn somehow not seen "Conan the Barbarian"?  But then we found something that made us rethink that position…

(Props: Wotan420 via CageWriter)

Thanks to the Internet, MMA fighters have the ability to see what part of their persona is being obsessed over by their fans, and tweak it to draw a reaction. We saw this previously with Fedor Emelianenko, who found out that his sweater had become mythical, so he did a TV interview wearing a Daffy Duck pullover in order to test our loyalty. In the same way, Diego Sanchez‘s infamous "Yes!" cage-entrance has become such a "thing" now that he’s performing variations of it for our amusement. The above footage came from last night’s Countdown to UFC 107 special on Spike, and it kind of makes you wonder how much of the Nightmare’s craziness is intentionally calculated. Is he making fun of his own quirkiness by Yes!ing in cartwheel form, or is he completely oblivious to how weird this looks?

And by the way, can a person really invent something like the Yes Cartwheel? It’s like, hey, I’m doing pushups while shouting "yes!" so I invented the Yes Pushup. Or, I’m riding the subway with my pants around my ankles, so I invented the Yes Subway Ride. I could do this all day. And I would, but I have a train to catch.

After the jump: Sanchez’s sane-by-comparison opponent BJ Penn cuts a promo for his favorite sponsor RVCA, which he might be illegally wearing on Saturday night.

Jon Fitch spoke to Fight Magazine in advance of his bout with Mike Pierce at UFC 107 this weekend, and he’s got news for all you haters out there: Fitch doesn’t like it when fights go to a decision, either.  That might seem counterintuitive, since his last five fights have ended in decisions.  In fact, you have to go all the way back to his 2007 fight against Roan Carneiro to see Fitch finish a fight.  But as he points out in his own defense, finishing dudes in the UFC isn’t easy.  Being a wrestler without KO power or a high-level submissions game probably doesn’t help any, but still. 

After the jump, Diego Sanchez is as pumped as ever in his latest video blog, while B.J. Penn is already in Memphis and sounding like he might be coming down with something.  Quick B.J., do one of Diego’s foot detox baths!  It’s your only hope!!!!

We told you Diego Sanchez was a little bit weird, but you just wouldn’t believe us.  Maybe you’ll change your mind once you see his pre-UFC 107 video blog, in which he plays with an iguana to help his reflexes.  Not that we don’t respect his positive attitude.  I mean, the guy’s car breaks down on the side of the road and he breaks into song.  Although it’s still unclear how he turned that particular negative into a positive.  From what we can tell, it was pretty much all negative.  Sure, he got a ride in someone else’s Toyota Yaris, but those of us who have driven a Yaris know damn well that it’s basically one step up from those Flintstones cars, if that.  At least those things looked heavy enough that you didn’t have to worry about a strong wind sweeping you off the road.

After the jump, we give equal time to some of B.J. Penn‘s annoying thirty second videos.   Because editing stuff together is for haoles, bra.

In his recent fights UFC lightweight champ B.J. Penn has fallen into a pattern of making it personal with his opponents before the bout, then embracing them like old friends once he’s beaten them up.  In this video he says he wanted to feed Kenny Florian some extra elbow strikes for making him look like a fool and a liar in the media, because "that’s what I felt he deserved."  This assertion casts Penn as not only the dominant lightweight champ, but also as a sort of avenging angel of justice in his fights.  He’s not just thinking about winning in there; that’s a foregone conclusion.  He’s taking into account your past deeds and considering how much punishment you deserve, which is kind of disturbing and also kind of awesome.

As for Diego Sanchez, Penn may let him off with just a loss.  He can’t think of anything bad to say about the guy, except that he’s a little strange, which Diego will tell you himself.  The real question here is whether Penn will be in the kind of shape to go five rounds with a human perpetual motion machine like "The Nightmare."  He says it won’t be a problem.  He also says his work ethic has never been an issue.  There’s reason to doubt at least one of those claims.

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

The UFC hits Memphis for the first time on December 12th, and even though the card is short an Alves and a Duffee, it’s still going to be an enjoyable night of fights. Headlining the card is BJ Penn’s latest lightweight title defense against Diego Sanchez, who Joe Rogan describes as "crazy in the best way possible." Sanchez already believes that he’s the best 155-pounder in the world, and looks forward to proving it to the rest of us. Penn is only looking to have some fun out there, and live his dream for one more night. "I’m going to race you to the center of that ring, player," Sanchez says. "Feel your legs burning in the third round. Feel your lungs gasping for air, but you don’t get no oxygen. That’s what BJ Penn’s gonna feel come 12/12."

But wait, there’s more. Frank Mir wants Cheick Kongo to know that "he’ll never be the same human being when I get out of that cage with him…when I get a hold of him, it could be the last time he ever gets to compete as an athlete. You’re going to see the difference between a well-rounded martial artist versus a guy who never expanded upon his abilities." Kongo, whose feelings are clearly hurt, warns Mir about his big mouth. And finally, Kenny Florian and Clay Guida look to get back to lightweight contendership following recent high-profile losses. The complete UFC 107 lineup is after the jump; your predictions are appreciated.

(Props: UFC)

Though he jacks up his shoulder on tomorrow night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter, Matt "The Rat" Mitrione is still very much DTF (down to fight). In fact, he tries to convince Coach Rashad that he should be picked to fight next, despite his arm being in a Saran-Wrap cast. Rashad openly calls him "Meathead" now, and casts doubt on his injury. Meanwhile on Team Bumpage, Marcus "Big Baby" Jones is also impatiently awaiting his first match, and becomes convinced that he’ll be picked next. And look, we get a rare glimpse of Wes Sims trying to shake water out of his ear (I think?) as Jones walks past him at the 2:15 mark. The end of the promo still promises a Kimbo return, and vows that fight #5 ends in a "shock result no one saw coming." Rashad is shown crouching over one of his guys in the Octagon while others shout "wake up!" First double-knockout in TUF history?

After the jump: UFC old-schooler Oleg Taktarov stops by BJ Penn’s gym in Hilo to plug his role in Predators, and Brock Lesnar destroys a few more training partners in preparation for his UFC 106 title defense against Shane Carwin.