(“Oh, hello poor people.” — philanthropist Calvin Ayre.)

“The only organization that wasn’t willing to make me an offer was the UFC. They don’t want the best fighters; they want the best fighters that they can control.”
— Matt Lindland on his new deal with Affliction. Lindland also revealed that EliteXC approached him with an offer, but was outbid by the t-shirt company turned MMA-promoter.

“We’re going to make the WEC the smaller weights and the UFC will be the heavier weights. We’ll probably take some of the guys in the higher weights, the champions over there and bring them into UFC. We’re still trying to figure that out.”
— Dana White on further distinguishing Zuffa’s MMA properties. He told the Canadian Press that the UFC has no plans to install a 145-pound division or a women’s division.

“While I know I can win against any lightweight in the world on a given day, I fell twice in a row [to Kenny Florian and Josh Neer]. Therefore, I’m going to bow out. Good luck to those guys. I’m going to drop down to 145 lbs and see if those guys down there will embrace me.”
— Din Thomas on his future plans, which will hopefully include the WEC’s featherweight division.

“You’ve likely heard the rumblings and rumors… and for once…. it’s true… I’m packing it in! Well, who am I kidding? I was really more of a brand ambassador for Bodog the past while anyway – but it was fun while it lasted.”
— Calvin Ayre announcing his retirement from Bodog, which will be restructuring and returning its focus to gaming, and not so much on money-losing fight promotions.

“I was asked by the UFC to help with security when the 2 fighters entered the ring area. They where more worried about Matt than GSP. Next thing I know some wack job is jumping over the barriers and charging the ring. I didn’t want to hurt the guy so I was just going to put him to sleep and then help get him out of there before he hurt someone or himself.”
— UFC ref Dan Miragliotta (who comes in at 6’4”, 296 pounds) on his rear-naked-choke of Joe Asshole at UFC 83.

BodogFight‘s latest Bodog Girls photoset features two lovely models sort-of-but-not-really demonstrating a toe hold. Carlos Gracie is rolling in his grave right now — with an uncomfortable boner. Check out the rest of the set after the jump, and more photos and videos of the Bodog hotties here. Have at ‘em, gents.

Photo by Paul Demko

Nick Thompson was so inexperienced when he first started fighting that he would get knocked out on a regular basis, and fall asleep like a strange breed of goat that faints when it gets scared. When the welterweight found his groove, “The Fainting Goat” started turning the tables on his opponents and his nom de guerre became simply “The Goat.” Now, Thompson is the current Bodog Fight welterweight champion, and is set to do battle against John Troyer on February 1st in Las Vegas.

Those who have followed The Goat’s career know what a unique character he is — and that he has the tools to be one of the top ten welterweights in the world. He’s currently riding a nine-fight win streak and is 17-1 in his last 18 fights. A tireless athlete, Thompson once fought 27 fights in two years. Like many other up-and-coming fighters, Thompson needed to fight monthly in order to pay the bills, but as his profile has risen, he’s been able to take the time to properly train and recover when he fights.

We recently had an e-mail exchange with The Goat, who gave us his thoughts on Bodog Fight, Eddie Alvarez calling him ugly, lighting up before a match, and law school.

CagePotato: You’ve got quite a win streak going right now. Has the UFC or any other organizations made offers to lure you away from Bodog Fight?
Nick Thompson: I’ve spoken to several organizations. February 1st is the last fight on my exclusive contract with Bodog. They’ve made me a nice offer, but the UFC, HCF, and World Victory Road have all made intriguing offers as well.

Do you feel like you’ve accomplished everything there is to accomplish in Bodog?
If they don’t get some more talent, yes.

(I like French films and long walks on the beach.)

“Strikeforce at the Dome” is slated to go down in Tacoma, Washington on February 23rd. Headlining the event is Bob “The Beast” Sapp, but an opponent hadn’t been announced until now. It’s going to be Jan “The Giant” Nortje and his 1-5 record. The Giant is 6’10″ and weighs around 330 pounds. Sapp is 6’6″ and 360 pounds. You do the math.

The super-heavyweight fight will be part of Strikeforce’s first event outside of California. It’ll be a home field advantage of sorts for The Beast, who was a great offensive lineman at the University of Washington. His NFL career wasn’t as memorable. Even though he isn’t opposed to crying during a fight, Sapp is hugely popular in Japan. His last fight was against Bobby Ologun in Osaka on New Year’s Eve, which he won via TKO. And he is already very familiar with Nortje – the two used to be training buds.

Nortje’s MMA career hasn’t gone as well as his boxing career. He’s 10-0 as a professional boxer, but last won an MMA fight back in 2002. The Giant was quoted as saying: “I’ve always seen Bob get big opportunities, so I think it’s my turn to show what I can do against him.” Nothing like a 1-5 record to back that up.

But who does Bob Sapp want to fight next? Wait for it…Fedor Emelianenko.

(Eddie Alvarez)

Today over at CBS Sportsline, there’s an interview with former Bodog welterweight champ Eddie Alverez who got derailed after losing for the first time – via TKO to Nick “The Goat” Thompson last year at “Clash of the Nations”. Alverez (11-1) is now with EliteXC and has dropped down to the 160-lbs club. Probably better suited for him anyway, since he stands at 5’8″. The article reveals that Alvarez’s chick just popped out their second son, but he’s such a decent dude (the article’s tone, not ours) that he still took time to chat about his upcoming EliteXC fight with Ross “Da Boss” Ebanez (16-5) on January 25th.

Some highlights:

Q: You just recently signed a contract with EliteXC. You had been with Bodog but EliteXC live events president Gary Shaw alluded to the fact in the press release that announced your signing that you weren’t happy with Bodog. What were some of the reasons you were unhappy?

EA: I was completely happy with Bodog up until recently. I disagreed with the fact that they fired Miguel, Miguel Iturrate, their matchmaker. I thought he did a great job. He does have his downfalls but I think altogether he’s a guy who knows what he’s doing in the sport. They fired him and I think that was a bad move. That made me think twice about staying with them in the first place.

And then when I trained for a rematch (vs. Nick Thompson) for a couple of months and the rematch fell through — and I understand fights fall through, that happens with promotions — just as it is my obligation to train for fights and be prepared, I feel it’s the promotion’s obligation that if a fighter drops out then find me a backup fight.

There are people out there. There are people out there willing to fight for food; they don’t even give a s— about getting money, they’re willing to fight for exposure. And I was a little upset at the fact that I trained that long and I wasn’t given the proper compensation or even given a secondary fight after Nick dropped out.

Um, willing to fight for food? Perhaps you’d be more comfortable over at Bum Fights.

Fedor Emelianenko’s last fight — which went down April 14th at BodogFight’s “Clash of the Nations” — got off to a rocky start, with Matt Lindland punching open a cut over Emelianenko’s eye in the opening seconds. Fedor’s only career loss came from a first-round stoppage due to a cut, and there was no way he was going to let that happen again. Bleeding onto the mat, Emelianenko worked double-time to find a submission and end the fight. Find it, he did: