(Look Dana, if his knee was really still injured, would he be playing in a professional baseball winter league?)

By Elias Cepeda

After earning a shot at the UFC light heavyweight title, Alexander Gustafsson said Saturday night that he won’t wait around for the winner of champion Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen to fight again. Jones and Sonnen are currently slated to face one another for Jones’ belt after the season of The Ultimate Fighter that they are currently coaching on finishes.

The Swedish contender put himself in line for a shot with a dominant unanimous decision win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at Saturday’s UFC on Fox card but at the post event press conference said that he would be happy to risk his title shot by fighting again in the interim. “I want to fight for the belt, and if they give me one before that, it doesn’t matter. I’ll fight whoever the UFC gives me,” he said.

“I want to stay active, and I want to fight.” The young kickboxer has no interest in waiting another half year or more to fight.

“I’ll fight whenever. I was away for a long time. The last time I fought was in April, and that was too long. To wait till summer again, that would be too long.”

UFC President Dana White seems to be in accordance with that thought. “If I was [Gustafsson], I’d want to get another fight in before taking on Jon Jones,” he said.

“He could fight again. I’m hearing Dan Henderson’s knee isn’t better, so maybe Gustafsson should fight Machida next,” White continued.

Henderson’s poor health status is evidentally news to the fighter himself. The former Pride champion was scheduled to fight Jon Jones earlier this year but pulled out after he injured his knee in training camp. He is now scheduled to take on former UFC champion Lyoto Machida in February at UFC 157: These Chicks Can Fight.

On his twitter account, Dan reacted incredulously to White’s supposed inside information on his knee. “Not sure where @danawhite thinks he’s hearing that my knee isn’t doing ok. It’s doing great. Slowly picking training up just like I do for every training camp,” he tweeted.

It seems like it’s been forever since we passed along a Danavlog to you Taters, but today’s entry was simply too amazing to pass up. Perhaps to keep in accordance with the epic lineup that is UFC on FOX 5, Dana White has apparently turned up his pre-fight hype vlogs to 11.

Part 1 is above (featuring behind-the-scenes footage from UFC 154) but the real gem is part 2, which lies after the jump. Here’s a rundown of what you’re in store for:

- Dana White catching reality show producer Craig Piligian rummaging through The Ultimate Fighter wardrobe and nearly calling the police.

- Chael Sonnen discussing a recent near-fatal run-in his mother had with Yushin ”Yes, No, Thank You” Okami.

- Jon Jones and Sonnen engaging in a discussion about verbal tapping and whether Jones did it against Vitor Belfort, because Sonnen TOTALLY did against Paulo Filho.

- Mike Tyson briefly getting into the time he almost murdered Brad Pitt.

- Anderson Silva channeling DW and dropping an f-bomb, the scamp.

Enjoy this, Potato Nation. Enjoy every last second of it.

(Click for full-size image. Props: Triumph United)

We shared this on our Facebook page on Thursday, but it’s worth a re-post for those of you who weren’t glued to your computers and mobile devices during the holiday. The photo above shows Chael Sonnen predictably going for a leg while Jon Jones — a menacing figure even without a sharp object — puts on his best bad-guy face and straight up dwarfs the gangster from West Linn. We’d like to congratulate the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board for their bravery in sanctioning this one.

In the pro wrestling world, this sort of thing is called “breaking kayfabe,” a moment where the fictional storylines and personas are temporarily discarded, revealing that the whole thing is fake. Yeah, I know Jones has been warming up to Sonnen, who is “pretty decent and pretty classy” all of a sudden. But damn, it sure didn’t take long to go from calling each other cowards, cheaters, mental midgets, and selfish, entitled brats, to “bro, are you bringing the cranberries or do I have to run out to Whole Foods again?”

So how do these two really feel about each other — and how much of their interaction on the next season of TUF will be staged for our amusement?

By Nathan Smith

At the conclusion of the UFC 154 main event, I fully anticipate Bruce Buffer to get on the microphone and begin his enthusiastic spiel:

“At the end of five rounds we have a unanimous decision. All three judges score the bout 50-45 for your winner and the undisputed UFC welterweight champion of the woooooorld – Georges “RUSH” St. Pieeeeeeeerre!”

The Canadian crowd will erupt; Molson will be sprayed about and empty Poutine containers will be trampled as the joyous celebration begins. Dana White will put the championship belt around GSP’s waist and then Joe Rogan will approach for the post fight interview. It is at this point that Bizzaro Georges will snatch the microphone out of Rogan’s hand and jump into a tirade while speaking in his native French language. The only two words we will understand during his entire outburst will be “Anderson” and “Silva” as he walks to the edge of the octagon and points directly at The Spider, who will be mocking him all the while from cageside.

(Hey, that reminds me…please remember to vote today!)

The hilariously nonsensical light-heavyweight title match between Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen just got a venue. UFC officials confirmed yesterday that Sonnen’s public execution will take place at UFC 159, April 27th at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.

It’ll be the UFC’s fourth appearance at the Prudential Center, where Jones first became light-heavyweight champion by tearing apart Mauricio Rua in March 2011. If Jones defeats Sonnen in April — which he absolutely, positively will, and I’m willing to bet my whole blogger purse on it — he will tie Tito Ortiz’s UFC record for consecutive light-heavyweight title defenses (5).

Jones vs. Sonnen will follow the fighters’ coaching stints on TUF 17, which will surely put the sport in a good light and won’t at all be an embarrassment to all humanity. So start saving that cash, Tri-State Area residents. You don’t want to miss history.

(Let’s just say that their Chat Roulette session with fans quickly took a turn for the worse.)

When it was first announced that Jon Jones would be coaching the next season of The Ultimate Fighter opposite Chael Sonnen, then beating him into dust defending his light heavyweight strap against him at the season’s end, the general public reaction seemed to be that of bewilderment. Even those who were quick to defend the pairing didn’t have the cojones to claim that Sonnen had earned a title shot (because how could you), but rather that he stepped up when no one else would and it would make for great television so we should just all STFU. We have officially entered the Rollerball phase of the UFC, people. And although Sonnen made sure to break out the WWE trash-talk in the days following the announcement, if you are expecting all-out verbal warfare on next season’s TUF, you might want to start preparing yourself for disappointment.

Last night, Dana White, Jones, and Sonnen sat down for a 40 minute video chat with fans to answer questions about ranging from the upcoming season of the reality show to what Dana White thinks of Fedor, which was apparently asked by a fan who had been living underground for the past 3 years. After Dana was done berating anyone who had the gall to ask him anything other than how he would describe his perfect Sunday, he called in an uncharacteristically laid back and terrorist beard-free Jones, who was immediately asked how he viewed Sonnen now that the show had begun shooting. His response was surprising to say the least.

Full story and video after the jump. 

UFC Hall of famer and rock hipster Randy Couture stopped by Spike’s MMA Uncensored television program recently and discussed a wide range of topics. Our favorites were when he talked about his former teammate Chael Sonnen fighting Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title, Alistair Overeem getting a title shot when he returns from his failed drug test suspension and the future of Strikeforce and, specifically, one of their lightweight prospects Ryan Couture.

Randy said that he was “not terribly surprised,” that Chael got the TUF coaching gig opposite Jones and a promised title shot. “This is a business and Chael Sonnen is going to bring it and hype up any single fight that he’s in.”

Couture also believes that Chael has a fighting chance against Jones, if he can employ the right game plan.

(Whenever Rampage grabs his nuts in public, there will always be at least one man in the background, staring at his ass with an intense mixture of sadness and longing.)

Not that he ever had real evidence of the UFC trying to sabotage him as he’s implied many times — in between saying that the organization and Dana White saved his life, of course — but it is now official that the UFC does just about all it can to promote and give Quinton “Rampage” Jackson opportunities.

Jackson has publicly maintained that he wants to fight just one more time for the UFC because he hasn’t received enough respect from them or gotten match-ups that he likes. Even as he apparently readies to leave the organization he was light heavyweight champion of, it turns out that the UFC offered Jackson a role as team coach on TUF 17, opposite of Chael Sonnen, before they offered current champ Jon Jones the job, which he accepted. Jackson, of course, turned down the chance to coach TUF for a second time and to fight Sonnen at the end of the season.

“Forget TUF,” Jackson told MMAFighting.com yesterday. “I’m not interested in that.”

What, exactly, is Jackson interested in these days? Evidently not money, big fights or increased exposure? Oh yeah, Jackson has continually said that he wants “exciting” fighters.

“I don’t want to fight Chael. He’s the kind of fighter that I don’t want to fight. He’s a boring fighter that just wants to hump people.”

(Props: Aaron Tru)

UFC light heavyweight Vinny Magalhaes, his spiritual leader Eddie Bravo and middleweight light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen should just go ahead and form a trolling-themed old-school pro wrestling stable with one another already. Chael’s verbal and written nonsense are well documented, as is Bravo’s weed-induced outlandish comedy/self-promotion.

For his part, Vinny has shown every indication that he’s learned a lot from both of them after studying Jiu Jitsu with Bravo and being in camp with Chael. The Brazilian is no stranger to going on The Underground and writing attention-grabbing posts that are often tongue in cheek.

Ahead of helping Sonnen prepare for his recently announced April title fight against Jon Jones, however, Vinny has turned up the troll volume. In a recent interview with Aaron Tru, Vinny managed to insult Jones and Vitor Belfort, as well as back down from a recent twitter request of his to fight Phil Davis. Check out Tru’s video interview for the Davis back-tracking and more. Here’s a choice nugget where Magalhaes professes his undying faith in Chael Sonnen’s submission abilities (?):

Believe it or not, Potato Nation, but there was a brief moment in time when Chael Sonnen was supposed to rematch Forrest Griffin in his return to the light heavyweight division at UFC 155. You might not remember it due to the fact that upon announcing his change in weight class, Sonnen almost immediately skipped over Griffin to set his sights on Jon Jones, a decision that proved ultimately fruitful. Surprisingly, FoGriff seemed at least partially relieved not to be fighting that “boring” Sonnen fellow, but when he is made aware that he’s now been called out by Antonio “Lil’ Nog” Nogueira because of it, we imagine he’s going to wish he could still fight the middleweight wrestler with no KO power and poor submission defense who he has already beaten.

One thing you might recall is that Griffin and Nog were set to meet way back at UFC 114 before a shoulder injury forced the TUF 1 winner out of the contest. Griffin was replaced by Jason Brilz, who turned in one of the most respectable losses in UFC, nay, MMA history that night, coming up just short by way of split decision. Since then, Lil’ Nog has gone 1-2, dropping a pair of UD’s to wrestlers Ryan Bader and Phil Davis before beating the poop out of Tito Ortiz at UFC 140. Griffin is also coming off a win over “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” (I refuse to acknowledge this “People’s Champ” nonsense), albeit by another close decision in their trilogy-completing/Ortiz-retiring match at UFC 148.