- Drew Fickett gets waaaaaay too personal in forum post. (UG)

- Kim Couture calls Jared Shaw a perv, no one is terribly surprised. (Steve Cofield)

- Kenny Florian struggles for answers on “MMA Live”. (ESPN)

- Michael Bisping responds to Chris Leben with dry British sarcasm. (Fighters Only)

- TUF 8 ratings rebound with Junie Browning’s alcohol-fueled antics. (MMA Payout)

- Marcus Aurelio says Hermes Franca is a bad person. (MMA Rated)

- Bobby Lashley goes from WWE to ATT. (AmericanTopTeam.com)

- Brett Rogers to fight TBA for EliteXC in November. (AOL Fanhouse)

- The sad state of product placement. (Wall Street Fighter)

- Tribute to the naughty nurse. (Holy Taco)

- Eric Cartman’s most evil moments. (Screen Junkies)

- Japanese wrestler beaten by coach. (Nothing Toxic)

From Spike.com: Chris Leben says his loopy, wide-open style knocks people out. He also refuses to lose, check the news and read the interviews. Damn…dude is like the white Shonie Carter. Skip to the -5:14 mark for the ridiculous ending to his fight against Terry Martin; there’s your warning to not get cocky, Count. Later in this video, we look at the matchup between the Dean of the Mean and the Truth, also at UFC 89.

From CBS.com, for some reason: A preview of the UFC 90 welterweight feature between Thiago Alves and Diego Sanchez. “You are going to see the strongest Sanchez you have ever seen before,” Sanchez says. “The result is gonna be a dominating submission victory.”

(Props: “Card” on the UG)

(“The Count,” courtesy of Bisping.tv.)

Though he was impressive as a light-heavyweight — winning The Ultimate Fighter 3 after going 10-0 in England, then beating down Eric Schafer and Elvis Sinosic — two rough split-decisions convinced Michael Bisping to drop to a more competitive weight. And since then, he’s looked absolutely scary. Bisping will be looking to continue his success as a 185-pounder at UFC 89 (October 18th; Birmingham, England), where he’ll take on Chris Leben in the main event; a win would officially make the Liverpool-native a title contender. Ben Zeidler caught up with The Count recently to get his take on his next opponent, the UFC’s middleweight title picture, and that rumor about him being a future TUF coach.

***

CAGEPOTATO.COM: What have you done to prepare for Chris Leben?
MICHAEL BISPING: Well, obviously he’s a southpaw so we’ve been bringing in a ton of southpaws to spar with. I see a lot of problems with him, so I’ve been trying to really step up my training. You know, it’s the all-around game, the all-around training. I’m very focused.

Do you prefer to fight in England? What does it mean to be the hometown favorite every time out?
When I go out there, it’s unbelievable. I can’t even put it into words. I have great memories there, for sure, but the UFC fans are always amazing no matter where I go. The sport is so great and so awesome right now that any fans, in any arena in the world, are just great. Fighting in the UFC is very special to me.

There was a lot of controversy surrounding your UFC 75 win against Matt Hamill. Do you believe you won that fight?
You know what, I want to fight Matt again. It was really close and depending on what you’re looking for, you can make an argument either way. People say that it went my way because it was in the UK, but the UK judge is the one who gave it to Hamill. It was the Americans who gave me the decision. Hamill definitely won the first round, and that’s because I wasn’t prepared mentally. I didn’t focus. He caught me off guard and came out guns blazing. I needed to get in gear and I did. I started to take control, he got some takedowns but I got some on my own accord, and I did more damage. I won 2-1 but it was close. I should have given him more props, but we had some history going into the fight, so I wasn’t prepared. But I do think I won.

Chris Leben’s first shot at Michael Bisping didn’t exactly go as planned. Soon after signing to fight “The Count” at UFC 85 in London, Leben was forced to return to Oregon to deal with an outstanding warrant resulting from a DUI arrest before he could leave the country. Though Leben and the UFC were hoping to resolve the matter quickly, the judge had other plans. Leben was sentenced to thirty-five days in jail, prompting the UFC to scratch him from the card.

With his legal troubles now behind him, Leben is getting a second chance at Bisping, this time at UFC 89 in Birmingham, England. In this exclusive CagePotato interview Leben discusses his maturation process as a fighter, his gameplan against Bisping, dealing with hometown judges, and more.

CagePotato.com: Hey Chris. Thanks for talking with me. We’re a few weeks out from the fight. How is your preparation coming?

Really good, really well. It’s been long and intense and I’m kind of just getting to the point now where I’m ready to go fight and get this thing over with.

It seems like things really changed for you when you moved to Hawaii. What has that move done for you?

You know, it’s great. Moving to Hawaii is definitely the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. I had the opportunity to be the head coach at Icon and there are a whole bunch of guys out here training with me who are just great. But besides the gym and the wonderful people out here you have the weather and everything that is Hawaii. It’s been really conducive to my training.

I hear a lot of people say you’re much more mature these days, no longer such a wild guy in and out of the cage. What do you think prompted that transformation?

Losing (laughs). You know, I got away with being a brawler for a long time. And it’s hard to change things when they’re working. But when I fought Anderson I realized, I might be able to beat 95% of the guys out there, but I’ll never be a world champion fighting this way. So I had to go back and change a lot of things. That was one part of it.

And the other part was, you know, coaching. Now that I have a team of amateur guys fighting, it’s hard to tell them to do something if you’re not doing it yourself.

- Michael Bisping has some kind words for Chris Leben in the above ESPN interview, calling the UFC 89 bout his toughest challenge to date.

- Frank Mir astutely summed up what it was like to fight Brock Lesnar, telling Sherdog the experience was “like getting hit by a car that’s moving very slowly and you can’t get out of the way. It bumps and knocks you over and is just overwhelmingly powerful. …I didn’t know where he was half the time. It really felt like I was underwater and somebody was beating the s—-t out of me. I was just drowning under him.” Check out MMA’s undisputed champ of metaphors.

- Sounds like we can forget about seeing Wanderlei Silva-Rampage Jackson tacked on to the UFC 91 card. Yahoo!’s Kevin Iole says it’s more likely that fight will appear on a Super Bowl weekend card, but almost certainly won’t happen in 2008. At least it will give Rampage more time to sort out his legal problems and get comfortable with his new team.

- TUF 6′s Ben Saunders will take on Brandon Wolff at the UFC’s Dec. 10 event for the troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. This is the fight that War Machine turned down, right around the same time he made idiotic comments about Evan Tanner. Saunders kept his mouth shut and agreed to fight whoever the UFC asked him to. Guess who still has a job.

(Click here to go to the video)

The season eight premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter” follows UFC Fight Night this Wednesday, and Spike.com has provided an early look at what’s in store in the first episode. They seem to be doing a good job this season of not only providing backstory on Big Nog and Frank Mir — even if it involves some questionable claims, such as referring to Nogueira as the potential greatest heavyweight ever, conveniently ignoring the existence of Fedor Emelianenko altogether — but also not so subtly making the case for the show itself and its importance in the larger UFC framework.

Of course they don’t hesitate to point out that season one alumni Forrest Griffin is now light heavyweight champ, but did they have to follow the line about “future champions of the UFC” with a shot of Chris Leben?

The first episode also offers more reasons to believe that Jose Aguilar will be this season’s most quotable moron. After comparing himself favorably to Hitler, dog, he comes up with this gem when one of the fighters passes out during Dana White’s big speech:

“That [expletive] was loco, dog. Like I was expecting carbon monoxide, more people to pass out or…I don’t even know. Anthrax, dog. Al-Qaeda. I don’t even know what the hell to tell you, dog.”

Something tells me season eight will be one to remember. As long as Jose Aguilar is around to keep punctuating his free associations with the word “dog,” you’ll always have something to look forward to on Wednesday nights.

(…and the home…of the…brave.)

A few years ago I went to a Sportfight event in Portland, Oregon where Ed Herman beat Glover Texeira via decision to claim the Sportfight middleweight title. Afterwards he came down the aisles shaking hands and he looked more exhausted than any human being I have ever seen, which is also how he looked from about mid-way through the second round on. He still won, though, and it was a great fight.

Afterwards, Chris Leben told me that Herman’s philosophy on cardio at the time was something along the lines of ‘I get tired when I do a lot of cardio and don’t party, and I get tired when I don’t do a lot of cardio and do party. I’m just going to have to get used to getting tired.’

I only bring it up now because Herman is one of those fighters who is really awesome when viewed through the correct lens. That lens? A tough bastard who sometimes does things that aren’t so smart, for reasons that aren’t so smart, but he knows it and has a ‘what can you do?’ type of attitude about it. I realize that sounds a little weird, but I think these quotes from a recent article on UFC.com sum it up nicely.

On fighting Alan Belcher:

“I think I’m better in the clinch.” Herman says. “I think my Greco style and dirty boxing is going to beat his little fancy pants Muay Thai stuff. …I think he’s a purple belt in Jiu-Jitsu, but all that changes with a couple of elbows.”

On what went wrong against Demian Maia:

“Basically, my game plan in that Maia fight was to try to keep it standing and box him or beat him up in the clinch. I knew he was going to try to take it to the ground, it was no secret. My game plan was to break off when he pulled guard and haul him back up. We practiced that for months. But for some reason when I got into the fight, I kind of went on auto-pilot and I didn’t use my brain and I sat down there in his guard.

In this interview done after Rashad Evans’s knockout of Chuck Liddell at UFC 88, trainer/strategist Greg Jackson discusses what he told Evans between rounds 1 and 2, Mike Winklejohn and Kieth Jardine’s contributions to the gameplan, and Nate Marquardt’s victory over Martin Kampmann. Props to Sherdog via Fans of Team Jackson’s.

Courtesy of MMAMania and MAR Clothing, here’s a video of Josh Koscheck interviewing Diego Sanchez and Chris Leben in a car while in Las Vegas for the taping of the Ultimate Fighter 1 reunion — which will air in segments during Saturday’s TUF 1 marathon on SpikeTV, beginning at 9 a.m. ET. The guys discuss their upcoming fights, a possible rubber match between Diego and Josh, Thiago Alves’s mysterious growth spurt, and how Chris Leben wants a rematch with Anderson Silva more than anything.

After the jump: Must-see interview footage of Evan Tanner explaining why he fights and his humanist worldview, from Potent: The Movie, via Bloody Elbow.

Chris Leben: Evolution of an Icon (Episode 5) – Watch more free videos

When Chris Leben first showed up to a fight with a tattoo of a samurai holding a severed head sprawling across his back, it seemed like he had finally found something to believe in. In this edition of “Chris Leben: Evolution of an Icon” he adds a different belief system to a different part of his body. Now, you’re probably thinking, ‘What could possibly make Chris Leben want a tattoo of the Buddha when nothing about his life or personal ethos seems to be in keeping with Buddhism?’

Fair question, but what you probably don’t know is that traditional Buddhism actually puts a lot of emphasis on coming in smelling like booze and dirty strippers and still putting the stamp on kids. Plus it looks cool, and nothing’s more American than co-opting the religious symbols of other cultures as ornamentation.

Bisping better be worried now. If he gets hit with Leben’s Buddha arm, it’s lights out.

Chris Leben: Evolution of an Icon – Watch more free videos

Here’s the third installment of the Icon Sport series “Chris Leben: Evolution of an Icon.” When this started, we were among those impressed by the production value (for the internet, anyway) and pleased by the general concept of this web series. But now that we’ve hit episode three, it’s starting to feel a little too much like a Chris Leben infomercial. Maybe it’s the strength coach going starry-eyed over him or his girlfriend talking up his dedication, but when everyone is so unrelentingly positive it becomes hard to digest.

I guess I just thought/hoped this would be more of an inside look and less of an extended hypefest. Now that I’ve typed that sentence, I realize how stupid it sounds.

As an added bonus, check out the trailer for the straight-to-DVD Randy Couture joint, “Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior” after the jump. Is there really a point in the film where some weirdo magic blood is dripped onto Couture’s head, presumably granting him special powers? Really? Then consider it Netflix’d.

Never one to miss an opportunity, Dana White announced during last night’s re-broadcast of UFC 84 that UFC 89 will be broadcast for free on Spike TV. The announcement coincided with Elite XC’s Saturday Night Fights presentation on CBS, but we assume that was just a coincidence.

UFC 89 features Michael Bisping and Chris Leben from Birmingham, England on October 18. It also features Thiago Silva and Lyoto Machida. And not a whole lot else at this point. A pay-per-view from England is already a dicey prospect because of the time difference, and the lack of overall star power on the card makes free TV a much better choice.

Keep an eye out during UFC 87 in August, as we expect Elite XC’s Doug DeLuca to get on TV and announce that he is going out for ice cream, and you’re welcome to come along.

From BJPenn.com via 5oz.: BJ Penn wakes up Heath Herring at home before flying to Santa Barbara with Sean Sherk for the taping of a reality show on NBC Sports. Who knows what it all means, but it looks like Penn and Sherk have buried the hatchet — assuming their beef was legitimate in the first place.

Here’s the second episode of “Chris Leben: Evolution of an Icon,” which features the Crippler working with his suspiciously attractive students and attempting to install a heavy bag at the top of a mountain.

After the jump, Joanne of the MMA Girls spends a lovely day with Jon Fitch that includes shopping at the Ecko store and lunch at what appears to be Panda Express.

(Props: Bloody Elbow)

Not long ago we wrote about the surprisingly well-done Chris Leben video from Icon Sport. Now the first episode is out, and while Leben himself is no Aristotle he does seem to be more mature than the Leben who KO’d doors on “The Ultimate Fighter”. Around the 4:00 mark talk turns to Michael Bisping, and then Leben describes it as “the fight that needs to happen”. That might be overstating it a bit, but at the very least it’s a fight that would be cool if it really happened this time.

In this clip from Fighters Club TV, BJ Penn announces his intention to move back to 170 to fight the winner of Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch, possibly around New Year’s Eve. The Prodigy says he’d love to reclaim the welterweight title, will take future matches at lightweight “if it makes sense,” and moving to middleweight is a future aspiration. Hopefully, a title defense against Roger Huerta or Kenny Florian still makes sense to Penn, but the lure of eating more cheeseburgers building a legacy can be strong sometimes. (Props to Steve Cofield for the find.)

Another notable bit of UFC news emerging this morning is that UFC 89 (October 18th; Birmingham, England) will be televised for free on Spike TV, and another pay-per-view event will likely be held one week later. UFC 89 will be headlined by Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben, and will reportedly feature a bout between Thiago Alves and Diego Sanchez.

Chris Leben: The Evolution of an Icon – Watch more free videos

Somebody over at Icon knows what they’re doing. This mini-documentary on Chris Leben promises to be not only entertaining, but also very well done and effective at driving up interest in his bout with Michael Bisping at UFC 89.

On a related note, am I the only one who thinks that body surfing next to cliffs with sharks in the water is a bad idea for a pro athlete? Imagine Leben getting hurt and then trying to explain that one to Dana White.

Clear your schedules for August 9th, people. Like UFC 84, the three headlining bouts at “Seek and Destroy” are worth the cost of admission and the rest is just gravy. So, GSP/Fitch, Lesnar/Herring, and Florian/Huerta…who ya got?

Sort of related: The UFC has confirmed what most of us already knew — Michael Bisping and Chris Leben will meet at UFC 89, which will be held at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England, on October 9th.

Drop whatever it is you’re pretending to do and watch this highlight reel (props: KingAtRock), which covers the year’s best knockouts from the UFC and EliteXC, starring Kala Kolohe Hose, Wilson Gouveia, Tim Boetsch, Chris Leben, Brett Rogers, Yves Edwards, and Kimbo Slice.

Also: If you need proof of Dana White’s rumored iron-pumping prowess, check out the wacky video after the jump.

(‘These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em…’)

Chris Leben’s time in jail may have cost him a big time bout with Michael Bisping, but it does seem to have forced him to reflect on the state of his life. It also gave him the opportunity to choke out a convicted felon. Which is, you know, good to have on your resume.

He tells the story to MMA Weekly, describing what happened when his attempts to train in jail drew the curiosity of fellow inmates, who asked Leben to teach them a choke.

“I told the guys it’s a blood choke, so you don’t have to squeeze hard,” he said. “So I was just kind of choking him with one arm while he’s standing up. And I told him just tap when you start to feel like you’re going to pass out. Well, he didn’t tap, and at the time I’m going wow, this guy’s pretty tough, I’m surprised he hasn’t tapped yet. He just drops to the floor in the cell.

“Now I’m standing there with 20 prisoners around and they’re freaking out. This guy’s laying there, snoring like crazy. I’m like ‘it’s all right, it’s all right,’ then I realize they have cameras in here. I’ve just choked this guy out in jail – I could get in trouble for this. I kept telling them, ‘he’s fine, he’s fine,’ and it took this guy a minute to wake up. Finally he woke up and we had a laugh, and luckily I didn’t get in any trouble for it. That was beginning and the ending of my inmate coaching career.”

Two things here: 1) That’s awesome, and 2) The moment where Chris chokes out an inmate and then thinks it through long enough to realize that it was probably a bad idea is, I’m going to say, emblematic of the kind of approach to life that landed him there in the first place.

To his credit, Leben seems to have enough self-awareness to admit that:

(Decisions, decisions…)

Though the UFC has confirmed none of this yet, some strong UFC 85-related rumors are circulating that we wanted to pass along. The word is…

— James Irvin will indeed fight Rashad Evans, replacing an injured Chuck Liddell.

— The main event will feature Michael Bisping taking on Chris Leben. (Thanks for listening, guys!)

— UFC 85 will possibly be broadcast on SpikeTV. That would be enough to appease American fans — with four solid matchups on the main card (including Vera/Werdum and Davis/Swick), it’ll be at least as entertaining as an “Ultimate Fight Night” — but a show without a true big-name headliner could potentially slow the UFC’s momentum in the U.K.

We’ll let you know when any of that is formally announced.

Somewhat related: You think seven weeks is a short layover for Michael Bisping? Well, Rich Clementi is only getting five before his next fight. “No Love,” who just scored a hard-fought split-decision victory over Sam Stout on the undercard of UFC 83, has been booked to replace an injured Rob Emerson in a lightweight match against Terry Etim at UFC 84 (May 24th, Las Vegas). Clementi has won his last three UFC bouts, including submission victories over Melvin Guillard and Anthony Johnson, while Etim took his first career loss via unanimous decision against Gleison Tibau at UFC 75.

(Comes complete with cauliflower ear and courtroom-ready business suit.)

— Randy Couture has weighed in with his thoughts about the not-yet-official fight between Fedor Emlianenko and Tim Sylvia:

“…we’ll see what happens. I think it’s going to be an interesting fight. Fedor just fought a pretty tall opponent in Hong Man Choi, so obviously he’s been in that mode of dealing with a guy that size, but I think Tim is a little more seasoned fighter than Hong Man has proved to be. But Hong Man wasn’t easy so it will be interesting to see how Emelianenko deals with him and a pretty good indicator for me, having just fought Tim this last year, as to where I stand and how things might go if I finally get the chance to fight Fedor.”

How hard was it for Randy to swallow this one down? He’s spent the past few months in a battle of words and lawsuits after leaving the UFC mainly so he could be the one to fight Fedor. Now Big Tim is allowed to leave the UFC and almost immediately starts negotiations to fight the Russian heavyweight. Dana White gets to sport his devilish grin for another day…

— The Natural’s wife — fresh off her first MMA win — chatted with FightHype about her win, her future in MMA, and her husband’s future in MMA. But she also attempts to make us feel sorry for her because she has to shoulder the cross of the Couture name.

“I think it would probably be cool to go through this experience without the last name Couture.”

We look forward to the comments from Potato reader, Kim Couture is a c***.

— Chris Leben visited “The Lights Out Show” recently and mentioned a couple of dudes he wants to step into the cage with:

“We’re talking to Joe (Silva – UFC Match Maker), and we’re starting to look for a fight. If you win 4 or 5 fights in a row, you’re pretty much guaranteed a title shot, so I figured maybe Okami or Bisping would be a fun fight for me.”

Would another fight with Anderson Silva turn out any differently than his last meeting with the middleweight god? Of course not. But we’d be into both Okami and Bisping — and wins over both wouldn’t be something the UFC could ignore. Leben is 18-4 overall, but is 3-3 since he met Anderson Silva in the summer of ’06. He’s got two wins in a row and if he needs 4 or 5 W’s in a row, that’d probably put him in line for a title shot sometime next year. Provided he doesn’t get KTFO by his drunken friends first.

Man, that joint could use a serious maid service.

Check out this news segment about ICON Sport’s “To Hell and Back” event tomorrow, where Phil Baroni will take on Kala Kolohe Hose for the vacant middleweight title. To summarize…

Baroni: “Ain’t no Hawaiian guy that’s gonna beat me. Dudes wish they were me, chicks wish they were with me.”
Hose: “[unintelligible]”

By the way, is this what anchormen in Hawaii really look like? Did we just catch this guy on casual Friday? Our ears are still ringing from that shirt.

Also, here’s Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin chatting about their July title fight on Inside MMA. Quinton passes out from boredom at 2:40.

I think I know what this show needs: a live studio audience. Applause for new guests and scattered chuckles at the weak jokes would really fill those dead spaces.

Oh, and if you’re interested, here’s Chris Leben biting through a two-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi and then barfing. Good times.

Josh Koscheck vs. Dustin Hazelett, the best fight of the undercard. Awesome exchanges in the beginning, explosive finish at the end.

Andrei Arlovski vs. Jake O’Brien. Feel free to skip past the entire first round.

More fights after the jump…

Anderson Silva left the Nationwide Arena on Saturday night with the bank account of a champion, pulling in $120,000 in bonuses on top of his usual salary and win bonus (which were $60,000 each for his previous title defense at UFC 77). As announced in a press conference following the event, the UFC distributed its customary end-of-night bonuses like this:

Fight of the Night: $60,000 each for Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson.

Submission of the Night: $60,000 for Anderson Silva. It was the night’s only submission, unless you count the tapout-by-strikes that Diego Sanchez scored at the expense of David Bielkheden.

Knockout of the Night: $60,000 for Chris Leben.

So, another 1-for-3 performance on our bonus predictions, though we did call Arlovski for a KO/TKO in the second round. And Diego did technically win by submission. You know, I think we’ll just start predicting the outcomes from now on; we’d sound a lot smarter that way.

(Chris Leben, not on his best day.)

Andrei Arlovski? Undercard!

Josh Koscheck? Undercard!

Diego Sanchez? Undercard!

Chris Leben and Alessio Sakara? MAIN CARD!

That’s right! The UFC has officially added a middleweight bout between Chris Leben and Alessio Sakara to next month’s “Pride of a Champion” event — which is all good, but due to a lapse in judgement, it has been slated for the main card, and the scheduled fight between Diego Sanchez and David Bielkheden has been dropped to the prelims. (The full UFC 82 card, as it stands now, can be seen here).

We already know why Arlovski is being given a potentially untelevised undercard match, and we’d love to know what Diego Sanchez and Josh Koscheck did to deserve their dark-card status. We can’t help but see the main-card placement of Leben/Sakara — both of whom are 2-2 in their last four UFC fights and not particularly popular among fans — as a clear message that Sanchez and Koscheck are no longer in favor. Have they been bitching about money lately too? Does Dana White blame Sanchez for driving away Ali Sonoma? Did the UFC realize that Josh Koscheck’s hair gives people nightmares? Maybe if Leben and Sakara were hometown boys it would make more sense, but Hawaii and Italy are a long way off from Columbus.

To be honest, we get why any fighter who drops two in a row (a la Sanchez) might need to do a little penance, but Koscheck is coming off his first loss in six fights — against GSP, no less — and that doesn’t make him less of a draw than Chris freakin’ Leben. So yeah, mighty suspicious. We’ll do some digging and let you know what we come up with.

Before he was the scariest man in the UFC, Anderson Silva had to make a name for himself at a lowly Ultimate Fight Night against Chris “Bed Pisser” Leben. Leben had put together five straight UFC wins by the time he stepped into the Octagon against the Spider at UFN 5 (6/28/06), but he was woefully outgunned by Silva’s laser-guided striking, and the match was called in less than a minute. Silva got a title shot against Rich Franklin for his very next fight.