(Image via CombatLifestyle)

Fight bookings continue to dominate the MMA headlines, Potato Nation. Fortunately for us, it looks like 2013 will be a year where at least half of these announced fights actually make it to the cards they were originally intended to be on.

Although the matchup was hinted at a few weeks ago, both Vitor Belfort and Luke Rockhold vehemently denied that a bout between them was anywhere near a done deal. In fact, the final Strikeforce middleweight champ even went as far as to call out Costa Philippou for his promotional debut, a move that seems like a classic bait and switch in hindsight. In either case, it has been announced that Belfort and Rockhold will indeed be facing off next at a yet-to-be-named event in Brazil, go figure.

Belfort is fresh off a second round destruction of Michael Bisping at UFC on FX 7 that was first attributed to an omniscient higher power but later revealed to be at least partially influenced by the highest power of them all (other than bath salts, of course): testosterone. Rockhold, on the other hand, was scheduled to face Lorenz Larkin at Strikeforce’s once-named Champions event last month, but was forced to pull out from the fight with a wrist injury. Or as Lorenz would call it, a “wrist injury.”

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

The 22 fighters competing at tomorrow’s UFC on FX 7: Belfort vs. Bisping event will be hitting the scales shortly at the Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, and if yesterday’s staredown was any indication, we can expect another tense face-off from the headliners, full of shoulder-shuckin’ and chin-checkin’. Plus, the UFC will unveil a new Brazilian ring girl, fulfilling a promise that has eluded us for years.

Watch the UFC on FX 7 weigh-ins live in the above video player starting at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT, and be sure to come back tomorrow night at 9 p.m. ET for our liveblog of the FX main card.

The full weigh-in results are now after the jump.

Sad news out of Brazil today, Potato Nation, as it has been reported that MMA legend Wanderlei Silva’s father, Holando Pinheiro da Silva, was killed in a car accident yesterday. Holando, who makes an appearance around the 1:20 mark of the above video that was shot just a few days ago, fully supported Wanderlei’s career as a mixed martial artist and claimed he was “bringing pride to all of Brazil.”

Badnewsfmcuritaba first broke the news, as translated by Google:

The father of MMA fighter Wanderlei Silva, Holando Pinheiro da Silva, died in a car accident this afternoon. The accident occurred in the region of Castro, where his father lived fighter. The body was taken to the Forensic Institute of Ponta Grossa, in the Campos Gerais region. According to relatives, Wanderlei Silva is in Las Vegas, United States, and was told of the accident by phone. The fighter comes to Paraná tomorrow.

After the jump: A tweet from Wanderlei regarding the news.

(That logo is either a pun on “coke head,” “cock head,” or “head cook.” Whatever the case, he has it tattooed on his arm as well, and if I ever see him in person, I’m not gonna say shit about it. / Props: @NEWBREED04)

As you may recall, this weekend’s UFC 149 event was originally supposed to be headlined by the featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Erik Koch — until Aldo felt the cold hand of The Curse. The UFC has now confirmed that the bout has been re-scheduled for UFC 153, which will go down October 13th at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Aldo will be looking to make his fourth UFC title defense, following his knockout of Chad Mendes at UFC 142 in January.

Though both fighters are now coming off of injury layoffs, Koch’s return to action at UFC 153 will mark the end of a 13-month hiatus — an eternity in fighter-time. And now he’ll be challenging Aldo in the hippo-infested waters of the HSBC, instead of the neutral grounds of Calgary. Yikes. Just do your best, Erik.

At this point, UFC 153 is also expected to feature Glover Teixeira vs. Quinton Jackson, Jussier da Silva vs. Ulysses Gomez, Cristiano Marcello vs. Reza Madadi, and the return of TUF Brazil winners Cezar “Mutante” Ferreira and Rony “Jason” Mariano Bezerra.

(No, you can’t do that… you can’t triple jab a double jab, you can’t triple jab a double jab! Ace!)

Perhaps this news shouldn’t be all that shocking, considering that MMA is as popular in Brazil as, well, pornography is in Brazil. In either case, you might be surprised to learn that the incredibly weak lineup of UFC 147, which faced enough injury withdrawals to give Joe Silva a heart attack twice over, drew in over 20 million viewers, as reported by Tatame.com. That’s only three million less than UFC 142 brought in back in January, which featured Jose Aldo’s destruction of Chad Mendes, Edson Barboza’s destruction of Terry Etim, and Anthony Johnson’s destruction of a nearby Chima Steakhouse.

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

UFC 147′s replacement main event may seem like a re-tread of an old classic, but it’s the little differences, y’know? First off, Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva will be fighting a five-rounder this time, which could affect their pace and game-plans, and allows each man more time to secure a finish.

Second, unlike their first meeting at 195 pounds, this one will happen slightly lower down the catchweight scale at 190. While that won’t matter much to Silva, who’s been competing at middleweight for the last two years, it’ll be the first time Franklin has had to fight below 195 pounds since he beat up Travis Lutter in 2008.

And of course, Silva vs. Franklin 2 will go down in Silva’s home country of Brazil, whereas their first fight at UFC 99 took place in the neutral territory of Cologne, Germany. Add up enough minor differences, and the tenor of the fight could change drastically. Franklin is a slightly heavier favorite over Wandy going into this fight (-155) as he was going into their last one (-140). Should he be?

As for the other fight on this card that you halfway-care about…

(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.

(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.

(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. 

(Skip to the 3:25 mark for the fight. But for the love of God, turn down your speakers first.)

If every fight was contested in Brazil, we wouldn’t have to worry about an officiating blunder ever again…

(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.

(Seriously, if you have any shred of humanity, you’ll “like” Roy’s Facebook page to help convince him to drop to light-heavyweight. Otherwise, be prepared for a lot more of this.)

After dispatching Roy Nelson in straight-sets during his triumphant Octagon return at UFC 143, Fabricio Werdum has his next opponent close to finalized, and once again, it’ll be against a white dude with a deceivingly husky physique. MMAFighting reports that Werdum is slated to be on the UFC’s next card in Brazil, against Mike Russow. Though the event hasn’t been officially announced yet, it is expected to take place on June 16th in Sao Paulo, and will likely be headlined by a pair of long-awaited rematches in Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort vs. Wanderlei Silva.

Carrying a 4-0 UFC record, and producer of one of the greatest comebacks in UFC history, Russow last competed on the UFC on FOX 2 card, taking a rather uninspiring unanimous decision win over John-Olav Einemo. Werdum represents a massive step up in competition for the full-time Chicago police officer, but then again, Russow always seems to find a way to win. His last defeat came five years ago, against Sergei Kharitonov at Pride 33.

(Props: AVieiraSilva via Nick Diaz Fan on the UG. Bones shows up again at the 8:45 mark.)

Alright, just your average fashion runway show in Brazil, nothing too crazy…hey, that one girl’s ass is kinda ni-OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK IS JON JONES DOING THERE, AND DOES RANDY COUTURE KNOW THAT HIS SCARF HIS MISSING? EXPLAIN YOURSELF, BONES.

As if the UFC light-heayweight champion needed another reason to be hated on by keyboard warriors, here he is taking a gig as a South American menswear model over the weekend. Strange? Sure. Could it be worse? Oh, definitely.

Fight journals are an interesting batch of film. More often than not, they are a simple collection of offhand moments in a fighter’s life, usually preempting/hyping an upcoming fight. They are of varying interest levels, but usually reside somewhere between “been there, done that” and “would rather watch new Meisha Tate interview.” However, every now again, we are treated to a stylized, slickly edited piece of film that, regardless of it’s content, is able to pique our interest. We’ve seen it before with the fantastic web series The Reem, and today we’ve managed to stumble over another exceptional fight journal, that of Anthony Johnson, who maybe be looking at a future title shot if he gets past Vitor Belfort at UFC 142, which goes down in less than a week in Rio De Janerio, Brazil.

(Photo courtesy of Combate.TV)

It looks like Gray Maynard will be eating Brazilian kicks and punches for Christmas in the delicacy’s native land.

The former number one UFC lightweight contender will be in Rio de Janeiro for the next few weeks to help UFC featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo prepare for his January 14 UFC 142 bout with Chad Mendes. Aldo invited “The Bully” to Brazil as his style is very similar to Mendes’. Gray arrived on Wednesday and will stick around until after the event in three weeks.

(Hopefully for everybody’s sake the 2002 version of Ricco shows up to fight Texeira)

According to a report from TATAME, Brazilian light heavyweight standout Glover Texeira will take on former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez on November 27 in the main event of a show titled “MMA Against Dengue.”

The event, which is being organized by the municipal government of Rio de Janeiro to educate residents about the deadly Dengue Fever, will take place at Pacificador Square, in Duque de Caxias.

(Aldo will make his third UFC title defense at home in Brazil.)

Jose Aldo will be in for a stiff test when he puts his UFC featherweight crown on the line against undefeated 11-0 wrestling standout Chad Mendes on January 14 at UFC 142 in a yet-to-be-announced locale in Brazil.

“Pound-for-pound superstar Jose Aldo will return home to fight in Brazil for the first time since 2007 when he defends his UFC featherweight title against unbeaten powerhouse Chad Mendes,” UFC president Dana White revealed to FoxSports.com this morning. “Aldo hasn’t lost in over five years, but Mendes has yet to lose in MMA, and after clearing out all the contenders put in his way, he believes he has what it takes to beat the champion.”

(Call it a hunch, but somehow we don’t think ‘The Biebs’ has ever been in a fight.)

Anderson Silva lived out the fantasy of millions of pre-pubescent teen girls around the world last night when he spent some alone time with Justin Bieber before the teen pop star’s concert in Rio de Janeiro.

(Skip to 3:10 for the start of the fight) 

Since stepping in for the injury-prone Vitor Belfort against Cung Le, many of us have been wondering if this could be the last we will see of “The Axe Murderer,” and what a sad sight it would be to see him go. Well aware of the position he is in, Silva is training harder than ever, and in light of that, we figured we could showcase some of the brutal tenacity/soccer kicks that spawned our affection for ol’ Wandy in the first place.

(“Can you believe I used to wear boxers this big?”)

It looks like the UFC’s return to Brazil in August was a fruitful one for Zuffa as Tatame is reporting that reps from the Las Vegas-based promotion are in the South American country working on a deal that could see a season of The Ultimate Fighter filmed in Sao Paulo  as well as up to five events in the region in 2012. The group met with the mayor of the city, Gilberto Kassab, yesterday afternoon and today are meeting with the governor Geraldo Alckmin.

UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told the Brazilian combat sport magazine earlier this summer while in Rio for UFC 134 that he was pleasantly surprised with the amount of support they got in the birthplace of the sport and that they were looking at bringing the Octagon back as many as five times next year.

“We underestimated how popular it was here. If we could do it again, we would do it in a big soccer stadium, you know? But when we put the tickets on sale, we really didn’t know. But it’s been amazing the amount of support, it’s unbelievable,” he explained. “We’re working on [bringing TUF here]; we’re really close to get something done. We think it’s gonna be very successful – a Brazilian Ultimate Fighter, all Brazilian fighters. One thing that is great about this country is that you have so many great fighters, finding talents is easy. There are some many good kids”.

Fresh off his angelic Burger King commercial, UFC Middleweight Champ Anderson Silva recently appeared on Brazilian talk show Agora e’ Tarde to sing a duet with comedian and the show’s co-host Danilo Gentili. Apparently after dominating every possible contender in the middleweight division, “The Spider” must have his eyes set on the Grammy’s. Though the performance was less than stellar, the good news is that Anderson can still consult long time hero Steven Seagal for advice in this department as well.

Join us after the jump for a study in Jon Jones’ superhuman abilities and the most unexpected knockout that you may ever see.

(Video courtesy of AOL Fanhouse)

Always colorful and entertaining UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen appeared on MMAFighting’s The MMA Hour yesterday and among other topics, gave his thoughts on being public enemy number one in Brazil. According to the outspoken self-professed American Gangster, he decided against travelling to Rio de Janeiro to corner his friend and training partner Yushin Okami against Anderson Silva at UFC 134 when he received more than the usual number of death threats, particularly when he felt that shit got real.

(Gross. They’re like a pack of feral cats. Props: FightersOnly via MMAConvert)

Guy-on-the-left clearly comes from the Wanderlei Silva school of intimidation. But seriously, go to a clinic and get yourself tested, buddy. Any Brazilians in the house want to give us a rough translation of “Cagão”?

(Step one of their ferocious secret-handshake.)

So maybe “dick-tucked” was an over-simplification. Yes, Chael Sonnen will be staying home this weekend, despite his original plan to corner Yushin Okami at UFC 134 in Rio. But his reasons for backing out of the trip are a little more complicated than the fear of a Brazilian lynch mob. MMAJunkie has the details:

A source with knowledge of the situation told MMAjunkie.com that Praetorian, a Brazil-based MMA brand, threatened to pull [Okami]‘s sponsorship if Sonnen attended.

“There’s a line of people that want to kick his ass,” the source said.

And that could be the least of problems for the expert trash-talker. Sonnen said friends in the country forwarded him a local-media report in which a police chief threatened to arrest him on sight if he showed. The official cited a law that makes disparaging the national identity a crime.

WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW? VidProps: BlackBeltMagazine/YouTube

Some things you just never expect to see. You never expect to see a picture of Brock Lesnar with spectacles, or BJ Penn and Matt Hughes broing it up. We will probably never see Cheick Kongo hit a flower sweep to triangle choke, or Jared Shaw look like anything but a giant bag o’ douche, or Dana White say anything nice about MMA websites. I have seen some things in my time, Nation, but this … this is a whole ‘nother thing.

What we have here is some truly unexpected video evidence of Chael Sonnen on his back. Doing jiu jitsu. Explaining jiu jitsu. Attempting, if you can believe it, a submission maneuver.

Mind is asplode.

As if that were not enough, after the jump you’ll find more video of this alternate-universe Sonnen being interviewed by a Brazilian reporter for RedeTV and saying nice, respectful things about Brazil and its flag. Lest you start to believe that one of Sonnen’s other personalities has completely taken over, relax — he’s still full of piss and vinegar whenever he talks about Anderson Silva.

With all of the hype that UFC 134 has been riding, one had to assume that tickets would sell pretty quickly. According to MMAjunkie.com, tickets to the event sold out in only 74 minutes yesterday afternoon. The arena where UFC 134 will take place, the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, can accommodate nearly 17,000 fans. In addition to UFC 134, Dana White has announced that the UFC plans on booking multiple events in Brazil next year.

UFC 134 marks the UFC’s first visit to Brazil in over a decade, and first visit to Rio de Janiero. The last event to take place in Brazil, UFC Ultimate Brazil (October 1998 in Sao Paulo), saw Frank Shamrock defend his middleweight title against John Lober and Vitor Belfort punch out Wanderlei Silva. The event also saw Pat Miletich defeat Mikey Burnett to become the organization’s inaugural welterweight champion.

The official fight card for UFC 134 after the jump:

(“This motherf*cker is going to buy my kids new Maseratis.”)

Tatame reported yesterday that, despite how screwed up Fight of the Night voting at UFC 124 ended up after Zuffa opened up the polls to the fans to decide who should win the award (prompting Dana White to assert that fans would never decide such things again), the promotion has decided to allow fans to have their say about which 12 Brazilian fighters will fight on the August 27 card in Rio de Janeiro.

(Filho has recently begun wearing his Jesus teeth wherever he goes. Any time one of his friends or coaches try to tell him to take them out, he pretends he’s deaf.)

Sure Paulo Filho may be batshit crazy, but that doesn’t stop the dude from fighting as much as he can.

“Ely” has signed on to compete for three different organizations in a three-month span in Brazil in March, April and May, and if the beleaguered fighter can put together an impressive win streak, it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility that we might see the former WEC middleweight champ return to the UFC when they bring their travelling circus back to the South American country for the second time in history.

On March 19 he will get his feet wet by taking on  4-7 Peruvian fighter Jackson Mora at the WFC: Pretorian event in Rio de Janeiro. Then on April 29 he will square off with fellow Brazilian and 14-3 UFC vet Ronys Torres at the International Fighter Championship (IFC) event in Recife before strapping on the gloves again one month later to lock horns with Gustavo “Ximu” Machado (16-8-1) on May 14 at Fatality Arena 3 back in Rio (*editor’s note: Seriously, it’s called Fatality Arena 3. We couldn’t make that shit up).

(Nipmoua’s old poster design has become eerily prescient. Except for the ’200′ thing, obviously. I mean, do the math bro.)

In what’s expected to be an official announcement of the UFC’s return to Brazil in 2011, UFC president Dana White and Chairman/CEO Lorenzo Fertitta will be making a special announcement at Rio De Janeiro’s City Hall today at 11 a.m. ET, 2 p.m. local time. White and Fertitta will be joined by UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie, middleweight champion Anderson Silva, light-heavyweight champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, featherweight champion Jose Aldo, #1 middleweight contender Vitor Belfort, and Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio. You can watch the announcement live in the video player after the jump.