Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

“Can somebody beat him up for me, please?”

Aside from a genuine, non-ironic “talk to the hand” that I had no idea people still said, that was all that Vitor Belfort had to say to reporters during the post-fight press conference last night about the elephant in the room. And frankly, I’m not going to add much else about it, either. You couldn’t talk to many fans – or even the fighters involved – about this fight without engaging in a lengthy discussion about drug usage. Naturally, Belfort winning the fight only intensified these discussions, as though there should be an asterisk next to the W on his record.

In many ways, the elephant in the room seemed to overshadow the actual fight between Belfort and Rockhold. That’s tragic, considering what we were treated to.

I won’t write that Belfort’s chemical wizardry is completely meaningless in a fight; if it was, he wouldn’t bother with it. But attributing the absolutely brilliant spinning kick that ended this fight – and made a strong case for Knockout of the Year for this year’s Potato Awards – to a loaded syringe is just as laughably misinformed. Belfort was Rockhold’s first true test, and The Phenom simply proved to be too much for him.

(And remember folks, this is a UFC main event, so the fight will be scheduled for five rounds, and both fighters will be allowed to receive injections of synthetic testosterone during training. Wait, what’s that? Only *one* of them can do that? Well how the fuck does that make any sense? / Photo via Getty Images)

Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to go live from Jaraguá do Sul — known to many* as the Kansas City of Brazil — for UFC on FX 8: Belfort vs. Rockhold. Once again, the Phenom has home-country advantage and the Lord’s blessing. Will that be enough to stave off the invasion of a young, hungry, and very amped-up former Strikeforce champ? Plus: Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza makes his UFC debut against Chris Camozzi, and Rafael Dos Anjos clashes with Evan Dunham in the lightweight division.

Taking us through the play-by-play tonight will be Matt Kaplan, who will be stacking live results after the jump beginning at 9 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and toss in your own thoughts in the comments section — or just holler at us on twitter @CagePotatoMMA.

* Or perhaps, nobody?

(I don’t always get so excited about a fight that I quote Tito Ortiz, but when I do, I say July 4th…has come early. Photo courtesy of MMAMania)

GSP. Diaz. The Bell Centre in Montreal. That’s right, Potato Nation, it’s finally time for UFC 158. If I need to say literally anything else to get you excited about this card, there is no hope for you at this point. Please show yourself out quietly, and no, we don’t care how exciting you think spring league baseball nonsense is.

But Georges St. Pierre vs. Nick Diaz isn’t the only great welterweight fight we have to look forward to tonight. Elsewhere on the card, Johny Hendricks battles Carlos Condit, and Jake Ellenberger welcomes Nate Marquardt back to the big leagues. Plus: A middleweight tilt between Nick Ring and Chris Camozzi, as well as a lightweight bout between TUF finalists Mike Ricci and Colin Fletcher, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Handling tonight’s liveblog will be none other than Aaron Mandel, who will diligently record every punch, kick, and Stockton Heybuddy thrown in the cage after the jump, beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and toss your own observations into the comments section. Let’s do it…

(It isn’t often that you can document the exact moment someone’s UFC career went to shit, yet here we are…) 

If you were to ask any knowledgeable fan of the sport circa 2008 what they thought of Luiz Cane, they would likely tell you that he was “one of the most underrated LHW’s in the division.” Following an unsuccessful UFC debut — which was halted when Cane accidentally struck James “Curse Watch” Irvin with an illegal knee — “Banha” absolutely blistered Jason Lambert and Rameau Sokoudjou in back-to-back contests, then scored a solid UD victory over Steve Cantwell to solidify his place as a rising contender. No, not the five fight losing streak Steve Cantwell, we’re talking about the Brian Stann TKOing, Al-Hassan arm-breaking Steve Cantwell. Cane’s chin appeared to be made of iron, platinum, unobtanium, or whatever element you’d prefer to compare it to, and combined with his solid takedown defense and devastating hands, looked to be on the fast track to a title shot.

But then, things fell apart (as they oft do in MMA) and Cane would quickly find himself fighting not just for a win, but to remain employed under the promotion in which he had once thrived.

It all started when Cane squared off against PRIDE veteran Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 106.

(As Mighty Mouse looked into the crowd to see his wife flirting with another man, a deep seated rage began to boil inside him.) 

After a judging error in the UFC’s first ever flyweight match between Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall robbed us of a much needed sudden death fourth round at UFC on FX 2: Kampmann vs. Alves, many of us took it as a sign that the 125 lb. division was ultimately doomed to fail. Perhaps that was a bit of an overreaction, but now we can all rest at ease, because the rematch between these two scrappy contenders has officially been booked for UFC on FX 3, which goes down on June 8th from a location TBD.

Now, we here at CP understand more than anyone that mistakes can happen, but for fuck’s sake, someone please assign a judge who can count to 30 this time around. As we’ve all griped over, the first meeting between McCall and Johnson was originally scored a split decison victory for “Mighty Mouse.” Considering how badly he was dominated by “Uncle Creepy” in the third round, this decision seemed as if it was destined to go down as one of the worst robberies in the history of the sport. Again, maybe we were overreacting, but thankfully, the error was quickly overturned, and the fight was declared a draw. Its good to know that we can now move past this debacle in as timely a manner as possible, lest we end up with a Strikeforce Heavyweight tournament situation again.

Join us after the jump for more fight booking news.

(Oh, snap — Rousimar Palhares makes off with Dave Branch’s leg, and UFC contract, at ‘Sanchez vs. Kampmann’. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

It’s been a while since the UFC had themselves a good-ol’-fashioned bloodletting. It was announced this week that four more fighters have been chopped from the roster — three of them middleweights. Let’s run down the firings in order of most-deserving to least-deserving…

Todd Brown: A light-heavyweight standout in the midwestern circuit, Brown made his UFC debut as a late replacement for Thiago Silva at UFC 117, dropping a decision to Tim Boetsch. His follow-up performance at UFC on Versus 3: Sanchez vs. Kampmann earlier this month was even less successful, as he was stopped after one round by Igor Pokrajac. The 5’11″ Indiana native is now fielding offers from regional promotions and is considering a drop to middleweight.

Rob Kimmons: The Missouri-based 185′er has been released after consecutive stoppage losses to Kyle Noke (at UFC 122) and Dong Yi Yang (at Sanchez vs. Kampmann). Prior to his recent defeats, Kimmons had compiled a 3-2 record in the Octagon, with wins over Rob Yundt, Joe Vedepo, and Steve Steinbeiss, and losses to Dan Miller and Jorge Rivera.

(Yang vs. Nastula @ Sengoku 4, 8/24/08)

By CagePotato contributor Dallas Winston

CagePotato.com has learned that new UFC signee Dongi Yang, a.k.a. “The Ox”, will face Chris Camozzi at UFC 121 on October 23rd in Anaheim, CA. [Ed. note: "Dongi" is not a typo. Despite being previously listed as Dong Yi Yang, we're told that Dongi is the correct spelling of his name.]

Thus far, Yang has been a complete wrecking machine overseas, with an aggressive style eerily reminiscent of his Korean Top Team training partner Chan Sung Jung. He’s finished all nine of the fights on his flawless record by way of the crushing power in his heavy hands save for one submission (a triangle choke in his pro debut against Hyung Kyo Lee) and one TKO-via-exhaustion over former PRIDE fighter and standout judoka Pawel Nastula.

You already know that Court McGee vs. Kris McCray will be the co-headliner at next Saturday’s TUF 11 Finale show (Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET/PT), and we also told you that Rich Attonito won the "who gets to kick Jamie Yager’s ass" sweepstakes. So who else will join them at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas? Spike has confirmed the following bouts for the event…

Josh Bryant vs. Kyle Noke: No, Bryant won’t be facing off with fellow semi-finalist Brad Tavares in a third-place match. Instead, he has drawn Kyle Noke, the Australian veteran who was upset by Kris McCray in the TUF 11 quarterfinals.

Brad Tavares vs. Seth Baczynski: You see what they did there? Tavares and Baczynski get to have a rematch after their quarterfinal match ended abruptly via soccer kick disqualification.

(Props: MMA Scraps)

HDNet brings us an absolute war between Jesse Forbes and Chris Camozzi for the “Fight of the Week.” If you like a bout that gets bloody early and only becomes more so before a surprise finish, then you are going to love this one. If you don’t like that, maybe you should check out a sport more your speed. How about women’s team handball?

In other HDNet news, Strikeforce’s October 3 event in Denver will air live on the cable network, MMA Weekly reported today. This is in addition to their late-night offering on NBC, which means Strikeforce is very quietly becoming one of the most visible MMA organizations on TV. No word yet as to whether their September event from the Playboy Mansion will make it on to TV, but we sure hope so. Purely because of the fights, of course.