(The end of Lytle vs. Brown I, 8/11/07. Props: tapskilz)

— You might as well give these guys their Fight of the Night checks right now. MMA Fighting reports that a match between scrappy welterweights Chris "The Bonus Hunter" Lytle and Matt Brown has been added to UFC 116 (July 3rd, Las Vegas). Lytle and Brown have met once before, at a Unified Fight League event in August 2007; "Lights Out" won the fight by second-round guillotine choke. Lytle is now riding back-to-back wins against Kevin Burns and Brian Foster, while Brown is coming off his submission loss to Ricardo Almeida at UFC 111.

— In a matchup of lightweight grappling specialists, George Sotiropoulos and Kurt Pellegrino are also slated to tangle at UFC 116. Since his appearance on TUF 6, Sotriopoulos has built up a perfect 5-0 record in the Octagon, and recently picked up the biggest win of his career by outpointing Joe Stevenson at UFC 110. Pellegrino has also been on a tear lately, taking out four consecutive opponents, including a second-round submission via rear-naked choke over Fabricio Camoes at UFC 111 last month. The winner of this fight becomes a serious player in the 155-pound division. Who ya got?

(And he makes it look so easy…)

Chris Lytle‘s $50,000 Submission of the Night bonus at UFC 110 represented his seventh UFC performance bonus in his last eight fights, which made us wonder: Does that make him the #1 bonus-collector on the UFC’s roster? And who else is in the running? So, with the help of the UG and Wikipedia, we compiled a ranking of the UFC’s top performance bonus leaders, based on available information. When possible, we added up the grand totals of the fighters’ pay-bumps, though the amounts of these bonuses weren’t consistently reported before UFC 70.

Fighters With Twelve Bonuses
Joe Lauzon*: 6 Submission of the Night bonuses, 5 Fight of the Night bonuses, 1 Knockout of the Night bonus
Anderson Silva: 7 KOTN, 3 FOTN, 2 SOTN

Fighters With Ten Bonuses
Chris Lytle: 6 FOTN bonuses, 3 SOTN bonuses, 1 KOTN bonus; $515,000 total (Note: Lytle retired from the UFC after his victory over Dan Hardy at UFC on Versus 5, which scored him a Fight of the Night and a Submission of the Night bonus.)

Fighters With Nine Bonuses:
Nate Diaz: 5 FOTN, 4 SOTN; $445,000 total

(When you know you’ve won a fight, you don’t have to run around with your arms raised, making a big show for the judges. You can just lay on the mat, drooling like a champion. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Following a successful debut in Australia this weekend, the UFC handed out $50,000 performance bonuses to the following lucky bastards:

Fight of the Night: George Sotiropoulos and Joe Stevenson, for their main-card three-rounder. Silva/Bisping might have been a closer battle, but Sotiropoulos gave the Sydney crowd what they paid for — 15 minutes of Aussie domination.

Knockout of the Night: Cain Velasquez, for his first-round smashing of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the headlining bout.

Submission of the Night: Chris Lytle, for scoring UFC 110′s only sub, a kneebar of Brian Foster during the prelims. Amazingly, Lytle has won seven end-of-night bonuses in his last eight UFC appearances.

In other news…

(The Hallman/Hughes story. Could Matt Hughes be getting one more shot at revenge before he retires?)

— Anderson Silva‘s manager Ed Soares has debunked a report by Yahoo! Sports in which he was quoted as saying Silva wanted to give up his middleweight title to compete as a light-heavyweight permanently. As Soares told MMA Weekly: “It’s not true. I never said that to Dana. I have said to Dana that he’d like to fight again at 205 (but not permanently)…he wants the biggest fights possible, whether it’s at 205 or 185.” Silva and Soares still aren’t psyched about an impending rematch with Dan Henderson: "I feel a true number one (middleweight contender) would be if Henderson fought the winner of Nate Marquardt and Damian Maia…we could take another fight at 205 or a catchweight fight (in the meantime).”

— For the fourth time in his career, Dennis "Superman" Hallman has signed a contract to fight in the UFC. He expects to make his next UFC appearance sometime this fall. Hallman is best known for two lightning-quick submission victories over Matt Hughes, the second of which came at Hallman’s Octagon debut at UFC 29 in December 2000. The 33-year-old fighter lost subsequent UFC fights to Jens Pulver, Frank Trigg, and Jorge Rivera, and is currently on a four-fight win streak, with two of those fights taking place in Strikeforce.

(You know, Cub, in bull riding this would have been considered a victory. Photo courtesy of Newsday.)

— According to an interview on intheguard.tv, WEC featherweight/human highlight-reel Jose Aldo says he’ll be getting a much-deserved shot at Mike Brown‘s belt at WEC 45 (November 11th, location TBA). Aldo has racked up five consecutive TKO/KO victories during his stint in the WEC, most recently slicing Cub Swanson’s head wide open in 8 seconds at WEC 41 last month. Brown made his second successful title-defense at the same event, out-pointing Urijah Faber in a classic five-rounder to pick up his tenth straight win. 

— With Strikeforce middleweight champ Cung Le out of action due to a blossoming acting career, Scott Coker has announced that Jake Shields will fight for the organization’s interim middleweight title in October; the exact date, location, and Shields’s opponent will all be announced later. Shields has long been known as one of the best welterweights in the world, but his first-round choke-out of Robbie Lawler last month proved that he could be very competitive at a higher weight. Plus, his homey’s already got the welterweight division on lock…

(Photos courtesy of UFC.com.)

The UFC paid out $630,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses for Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale, according to figures released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Leading the list are Diego Sanchez — who took home an event-high $115,000 thanks to his Fight of the Night bonus and pack-leading to-show salary — and Joe Stevenson, who came in second place with $95,000. The numbers are below…

– Diego Sanchez: $115,000 (includes $45,000 win bonus and $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
– Joe Stevenson: $95,000 (includes $35,000 win bonus and $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
– Chris Lytle: $61,000 (includes $18,000 win bonus and $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
– Clay Guida: $48,000 (includes $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
– Nate Diaz: $45,000 (includes $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
– Jason Dent: $41,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus and $25,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
– Tomasz Drwal: $40,600 (includes $7,000 win bonus, $25,000 Knockout of the Night bonus, and 20% of Mike Ciesnolevicz’s to-show money [$1,600])
– Kevin Burns: $34,000 (includes $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

(Guida turns taking a shot into an art form. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

After another fun, free MMA weekend we turn once again to the Potato Index to tell us where everyone stands.  Those of you who are confused by what the numbers mean, just think of every fighter starting at his own particular zero coming into the event.  Then we make up a number to reflect how far he’s climbed or fallen after his latest fight.  Kind of like the stock market, but way more fun and only slightly more bullshit.

Diego Sanchez +104
Whatever you think the final scores should have been, Sanchez won that fight.  He was a whirlwind on the feet and even managed to be the aggressor from the bottom when it hit the mat.  But does a decision victory here equal a title shot?  We wouldn’t mind seeing Sanchez vs. Gray Maynard to establish a clear contender.

As fighters go, Chris Lytle is uncommonly honest with himself.  He’s one of the few guys in this sport who, when asked about his goals, doesn’t give you some boiler plate answer about a title shot.  He’s in his mid-thirties, in one of the UFC’s deepest divisions, and he’s coming off a loss.  He knows there probably isn’t much time left, so he wants to make the best of the opportunities he has to put on a show.  

In this candid interview Lytle talks about some hard lessons learned in the fight game, why he’s perfectly content to fight a guy like Kevin Burns on a Spike TV TUF Finale card, and what advice he has for the new crop of fighters who will be just breaking into the UFC on Saturday night.

CagePotato.com: Thanks for talking with me, Chris.  It seems like the past couple of years your focus has really shifted to being in good fights rather than racking up consecutive victories.  Is the quality and entertainment value of your fights more important to you now than wins and losses?

Yeah, I mean, obviously I don’t want to say that I don’t care if I win or lose.  It’s painful to me when I lose a fight.  I go out there to do what I came to do and win, but I don’t want to win at any cost.  I want to put on an exciting fight and win.  When I do that, it’s great.  When I lose, obviously I didn’t do what I wanted to do.  But I’d rather go out there and fight the way I want and lose an exciting fight than win a boring decision.  That’s my mentality.  I want to fight my way.  I want to win, but that’s not the only thing on my mind.

 
(Props: "BuddyRevell" on the UG.)

Marcus Davis works on his 40-yard dash against Chris Lytle on Saturday night. Somewhere, Sensei Kalib Starnes is welling up with pride… 

(Mark "Frankenstein" Coleman staggers into an uppercut.  Photo courtesy of NBC Sports.)

Thanks to our psychic abilities, we know exactly what two questions went running through your precious little head immediately after the curtain dropped on UFC 93: 1) How did I fare in the Cage Potato UFC 93 Pick-em Contest?, and 2) What will the Potato Index’s arbitrary numerical ratings system say about this event?

The answer to the first question is coming soon.  There are, after all, a lot of entries to sort through, and for that we thank you.  The answer to the second question begins…now!  Potato Index!!!!

Dan Henderson +23

He won the fight.  That’s the good news.  He didn’t look spectacular doing it, and we aren’t dying to see more of that particular style in the future, but a win is a win.  Now we have Hendo-Bisping to look forward to.  And that’s, you know, okay…

Rich Franklin -8

Honestly, this decision easily could have gone the other way (just ask the judge who scored it 30-27 Franklin), but it didn’t.  This loss isn’t a sign that Ace is washed up and he didn’t want to coach TUF anyway, so it’s not the end of the world.  It is, however, an indicator that he’s just treading water in the UFC for now, going neither up nor down.  There are worse fates.  At least this one pays.

Mark Coleman -54

Poor, poor Coleman.  Literally.  He says he didn’t have the money for a proper training camp, hence the non-existent cardio and an enthusiastic but misinformed Phil Baroni in his corner.  But what did we expect?  The man was great once, but nothing lasts forever, even cold November rain and explosive wrestling ability.  Please, either fight someone else in your age bracket, or call it quits.  We say this because we care.

(Weigh-in video courtesy of the UFC via The MMA Post. Looks like Octagon Girl Edith will be making her return, joined of course by Arianny and Logan.)

All fighters hit their mark comfortably today at the UFC 93 weigh-ins in Dublin — quite comfortably, in fact. Dan Henderson came in a full three pounds under the 205-pound limit for his main event bout, while Rich Franklin weighed in at 203. More surprising was former middleweight Martin Kampmann, who weighed in at trim 168 for his first fight at welterweight. Mark Coleman was able to land within the one-pound allowance for his debut match at light-heavyweight, though if you check out the video above starting at around the 17:47 mark, you’ll see that the Hammer looks way thinner now that he’s a LHW, and might be a little jet-lagged. Check out the full results below, and don’t forget to come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow at 3 p.m. ET/noon PT for our thrilling liveblog of the fights. 

MAIN CARD
Rich Franklin (203) vs Dan Henderson (202)
Mark Coleman (206) vs Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (205)
Jeremy Horn (185) vs Rousimar Palhares (184)
Alan Belcher (186) vs Denis Kang (184)
Marcus Davis (169) vs Chris Lytle (171)

UNDERCARD
Alexandre Barros (170) vs Martin Kampmann (168)
Antonio Mendes (204) vs Eric Schafer (205)
Ivan Serati (204) vs Tomasz Drwal (203)
John Hathaway (171) vs Tom Egan (169)
Dennis Siver (155) vs Nate Mohr (156)

(Hold up, Chris.  You wore a t-shirt that says "Ireland" to the UFC 93 press conference in Ireland?  That’s cheap heat, bro.)

We know you’re excited about UFC 94 after the premiere of “Primetime” this week, and you’re also pretty pumped about the new season of “Rock of Love Bus” (it’s the same show, but on a bus!), though that’s no excuse for losing sight of more pressing matters, like UFC 93.  We haven’t.  We even have some questions swirling around in our heads, and our couples therapist keeps telling us we shouldn’t keep that stuff bottled up, so here we go…

Who wins the Dan Henderson-Rich Franklin bout and how?  Will the UFC make a big deal out of the victor being the TUF 9 coach, and will whoever it happens to be even pretend to be excited about the job?

BF: The more I think about it, the more I can’t see this fight ending in anything other than a decision.  Both these guys are tough to finish (unless you’re Anderson Silva, in which case, all the middleweight division is your playground), and neither of them is likely to be fighting with the kind of reckless desperation that would lead to a quick ending.

That said, I think Franklin is the better all-around fighter.  All he has to do is keep Henderson from taking him down and holding him there while peppering him with elbows, which is undoubtedly Hendo’s game plan.  “Ace” is going to end up on his back once or twice, but he’ll take over in the second and third rounds and start picking Henderson apart.  Franklin by unanimous decision, 29-28 on all three scorecards.

Afterwards, Rogan will make cursory mention of Franklin being the next TUF coach, and Rich will be unable to completely hide his total lack of enthusiasm, despite his best efforts to be polite.  The UFC will be anticipating this, so instead they’ll focus their attention on Michael Bisping’s grinning reaction to the proceedings.

BG: Tough, tough fight to call, but I agree with your assessment of the matchup. Dan Henderson is a little further past his prime than Rich Franklin is, and Ace’s striking is a little sharper. In fact, I say Franklin gives Henderson the first TKO loss of his career around the 3:30 mark of round three, after controlling the standup and stuffing a few takedowns in the first two rounds. Between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Wanderlei Silva, and Takanori Gomi, former PRIDE legends seem to be cursed lately, and Hendo will be the next to go down.

(‘Stand and bang, you say?  Why not.’)

With all the talk from Marcus Davis about gentleman’s agreements and stand-up battles, the guy we haven’t heard weigh in on the subject as often is Chris Lytle.  Don’t let that fool you, though.  He may not have Davis’ natural inclination towards hype, but he seems just as eager as “The Irish Hand Grenade” is to trade bombs on the feet this Saturday night.

CagePotato.com: Marcus Davis has been pumping up this fight lately, but we haven’t heard you doing the same.  Is this standing and trading idea all him, or do you feel the same way about it?

I feel like it’s an equal thing and that’s kind of the reason we both wanted to fight each other.  It’s not like we ever sat down and said, ‘Let’s do the fight like this.’  It was more like we saw each other at autograph signings and we would talk about how we thought the UFC would eventually have us fight.  It just never happened, but we still thought we’d like to fight each other and that it would be a great one.  

We both have a boxing background, and we both like to stand up and bang.  If you’ve seen any of my last few fights, you know that’s what I’m all about.  So anyone else out there who’s like that, I want to fight them.  He’s the perfect candidate.  He likes to bang, and you haven’t seen me looking to do too much besides that in my last few fights.  I would be very surprised if there’s any groundwork in this fight.

You mention that this has been your goal in your last few fights.  Are you talking specifically about the fight with Matt Serra at the TUF 4 Finale?

Definitely.  One of my least favorite memories in my career was when I fought Matt Serra and my whole mindset was on not getting taken down and just winning at all costs.  Not only did I end up losing a decision that way, people didn’t like the fight and neither did I.  That was a bad feeling.  

(Demonstrating one half of his stand-and-bang plan.)

If you’re an MMA fan with access to the internet (and the fact that you’re reading this means you’re at least one of those things), chances are you’ve heard about Marcus Davis’ big plans for his fight with Chris Lytle at UFC 93 this Saturday.  Davis, or as he’s known around here, Mr. Hand Grenade, has made no secret of the fact that he’d like this bout to be contested on the feet.  He also thinks it has the potential to be one of the all-time great battles of MMA, which is why he’s been trying to make it happen for months now.

At long last, he got his wish, and in this candid talk he tells us all about how this situation came about and why he thinks you’re going to like what you see when he steps into the Octagon with Chris Lytle this Saturday.

CagePotato.com: Okay, Marcus. I think a lot of people are wondering about some of the stuff you’ve said about this “gentlemen’s agreement” between you and Chris to stand and fight on the feet.  Where did that come from, and do you really think you’ll both stick to it?

I think everybody is a little confused on this.  There wasn’t any real agreement.  It’s just that we’ve both talked about wanting to have exciting fights and bang it out.  I think people are assuming it’s an agreement.  Basically, Chris Lytle and I started talking, I think after he fought Thiago Alves, about how if we ever fought each other it would be a great fight.  When the time came that he was going to fight Paul Taylor and I was going to fight Paul Kelly, we were talking about calling each other out in order to make it happen.  I was going to call him out because I thought I was fighting after him.  Then they switched it so I was fighting before him, so it wouldn’t have made much sense for me to call him out, in case he lost.  

But what made it all snowball was that I said, jokingly, in a couple of interviews, ‘the first guy to take it to the ground is a pussy.’  It was supposed to be a joke, but I think a lot of people took it seriously.  The way I’m looking at it, though, it’s an MMA fight.  It takes place wherever it takes place.  I’m sure we’re going to hit the ground at some point.  But the big thing is we’re planning on putting on our best performance and bringing out the best in the other guy.  

It’s like a dance.  If one person is a great dancer and the other person isn’t, it’s going to look like crap.  But if you have two people who know what they’re doing, that can be a beautiful thing to watch.  That’s what I’m hoping for.

Building it up in this way, don’t you think that puts added pressure on you guys to fight a specific type of fight, trying for this legendary outcome?

(Anyone else feeling suddenly very uncomfortable?)

Odds for the five televised bouts at UFC 93 are out on all the big betting sites.  Since the undercard (with the possible exception of the Martin Kampmann-Alexandre Barros bout) is made up mostly of guys you don’t know well or at all, it’s probably best that the off-shore experts don’t entice you to guess your money away.  Then again, maybe you have a hot tip on Tom Egan that you’re just dying to act on.

The most favorable odds on the ‘net are compiled, as usual, from our friends at BestFightOdds.com.  

Rich Franklin (+115) vs. Dan Henderson (-125)
Mark Coleman (+320) vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (-336)
Alan Belcher (+275) vs. Denis Kang (-271)
Jeremy Horn (+275) vs. Rousimar Palhares (-455)
Marcus Davis (-131) vs. Chris Lytle (+121)

Thoughts…

(‘Sup. You chicks party?’)

Marcus Davis just won’t quit with this master plan he and Chris Lytle have concocted.  While it seems to be Davis who’s always talking about it, the agreement is that they will both stand and bang it out at UFC 93, and Davis is confident that this will result in a fight of epic proportions:

"Chris and I have spoken a number of times about this fight and we know the opportunity that it gives us," Davis told Eurosport-Yahoo! "That’s why we were so desperate to get it organised."

"We’re aiming for more than just Fight of the Night," Davis went on. "We think our styles and the way we fight match up really, really well and that this fight could potentially project us into a sort of legendary status. …I want to be remembered in this sport, and this fight is my chance to make sure that happens."

 
(Props: MMA Mania)

Nine bouts have been officially confirmed for UFC 93 (January 17th; Dublin, Ireland) — though there are some surprises in the card’s arrangement. Here’s what we have so far:

MAIN CARD
Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson
Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio Rua  
Alan Belcher  vs. Denis Kang 
Antonio Mendes vs. Andre Gusmao
Dennis Siver vs. Nate Mohr 

UNDERCARD
Marcus Davis vs. Chris Lytle
Jeremy Horn vs. Rousimar Palhares 
Tomasz Drwal vs. Ivan Serati  
Thomas Egan vs. John Hathaway

How you gonna leave the Irish Hand Grenade off the main card in Dublin? It’s blasphemy, especially when he’s already promised the fans a pussy-free slugfest with Chris Lytle. It’s also strange to see Horn/Palhares on the untelevised card, when you consider who actually did make the cut.

First off, Antonio Mendes vs. Andre Gusmao. Both of these guys got owned in their UFC debuts; Mendes was steamrolled by Thiago Silva at UFC 84, and Gusmao was overwhelmed by Jon Jones’s explosive athleticism at UFC 87 and lost a unanimous decision. So we’re letting them fight each other on the main card? No, this has to be some kind of mistake.

(‘Whaddaya say we also agree on no kicks to the legs. I just find those really annoying. Oh, and clinches, too. I hate getting someone else’s sweat on me.’)

The rumored bout between Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis and Chris Lytle is on for UFC 93 in Dublin, just as we all thought it would be. As part of his continuing campaign to form some sort of gentleman’s agreement with Lytle, Davis is suggesting that both men agree to stand and bang it out:

“We’ve both been like, ‘I respect you, respect what you do, but a fight between each other is money in the bank,’” said Davis about a fight with Lytle. “I basically said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it and the first guy to take the other guy down is a pussy.’”

Davis has been saying this since the summer, and he’s not the first to try and get his opponent to commit to some kind of unofficial rule alteration, but it’s starting to get a little weird. It’s cool that he wants to stand and strike. That will probably make for a very exciting fight. But since when did taking people down make you a pussy? Does that mean Randy Couture is the biggest pussy to ever set foot in the Octagon?

Davis should also consider that even if he can get Lytle to go along with this understanding that takedowns=pussy, that’s not exactly a binding agreement. In fact, you know when the best time is to shoot for a takedown? Right after you’ve said that you won’t. Call me a pussy, but I’ll be the pussy getting my hand raised at the end.

(Carwin looked impressive, but how about a tough opponent next?)

You’re wondering who’s up and who’s down after UFC 89. The Potato Index’s system of arbitrary numbers devoid of any unit of measurement will tell you. It’s kind of like the stock market, only less depressing. We spent all weekend doing the math and here’s what we came up with. You’re welcome.

Michael Bisping +16

“The Count” won a fight he was supposed to win. Via decision. He never took any chances, didn’t show anything extra special, but he fought smart and he got the win. As a reward, he gets the TUF coaching job and the fight with the Hendo/Ace winner that was already his anyway. At least he didn’t screw it up.

Brandon Vera -132

Once upon a time Vera was the heir apparent in the heavyweight division. Now he’s a mediocre light heavyweight who doesn’t even put on much of a show anymore. What happened? He’s no longer exciting or effective, and he’s far too conservative. He’s making too much money to be doing so little.

Chris Leben -8 1/2

Leben chased Michael Bisping for three rounds and only got a little frustrated and reckless toward the end. A sign of his maturity? Sure, but also a sign that middleweight gatekeeper is about as high as he can hope to climb. He’s still exciting, so he’s not going anywhere. He also won’t be back in the main event any time soon.

Joe Rogan’s tribute beard +18

Sounded a little hokey at first, but it turns out that facial hair can be an effective homage to a fallen champion.

Luis Cane +284

The biggest win of Cane’s career, by far, and one that should get him noticed by the UFC brass. We called his record padded before, but he added some meat to it on Saturday night.

Props to TheSun, Sherdog, MMAWeekly, and UFC.com. If you missed Saturday’s liveblog, click here.

(Lytle vs. Taylor)

The UFC released its customary end-of-night bonuses for yesterday’s event in Birmingham. $40,000 bumps went to the following fighters:

Fight of the Night: Chris Lytle and Paul Taylor for their three-round throwdown, which was even brawlier than the main event.

Knockout of the Night: Luis Cane for his TKO-via-punches victory over Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou.

Submission of the Night: As Fowlkes predicted, Jim Miller gets it for tapping David Baron via Millerplata — which is just a fancy name for a rear-naked-choke.

More vids after the jump…

10. Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
(UFC 74, 8/25/07)

At 44 years of age, Randy Couture was the one who was supposed to look busted up after his heavyweight championship match with 29-year-old Brazilian wrecking ball Gabriel Gonzaga. But in one of the greatest triumphs of his career, Couture broke down the bigger, younger fighter with his wrestling and dirty boxing. About three minutes into the first round, blood began to pour out of Gonzaga’s shattered nose, giving Randy’s back a nice, red coat. The steady flow interrupts the challenger’s breathing and vision, leading to a brutal ground-and-pound finish in the third.

9. Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith
(EliteXC: Unfinished Business, 7/26/08)

In the second round of their EliteXC middleweight championship do-over, Scott Smith nailed Robbie Lawler with a series of standing elbows that opened up an ugly gash on the top of Lawler’s head. With blood pouring out of the wound, Lawler turned up the intensity, doing his best to finish Smith before a doctor could stop the fight. About 90 seconds later, he succeeded — but not before a spray of “plasma” fell into commentator Mauro Ranallo’s lap. The video doesn’t really do it justice; you should also check out this photo from the fight, and this photo of the aftermath.

8. Chase Beebe vs. Eddie Wineland
(WEC 26, 3/24/07)

It may have been the most grisly demolition of a cauliflower ear in MMA history. Midway through a five-round bantamweight title match, challenger Chase Beebe dropped an elbow from the top that burst Eddie Wineland’s overripe right ear, causing it to spray blood several feet across the mat. Wineland, who had already suffered multiple cuts near his eyes from Beebe’s precision striking, soldiered on to the fifth-round bell with what appeared to be a gaping hole in the side of his head. Beebe took home the belt and Wineland hasn’t fought in the WEC since.

After the jump: Things really start to get disgusting.

(Silva and Machida: Someone’s “0″ has gotta go.)

The UFC has just announced that light-heavyweight technician Lyoto Machida (13-0) will face another undefeated Brazilian — Thiago Silva (13-0) — in a bout at UFC 89 (October 18th; Birmingham, England). Well known as a patient counter-striker, Machida will have his hands full with one of the most aggressive fighters in the league. Silva, who’s coming off a first-round TKO victory over Antonio Mendes at UFC 84 in May, owns nine wins by first-round stoppage and has only been to a decision once in his life — a marked contrast to Machida, who just picked up the eighth decision win of his career with his handling of Tito Ortiz, also at UFC 84.

Last month, we speculated that “the UFC will eventually have to throw one of the Silvas at Machida, because it seems that only a hyper-aggro fighter who’d be willing to literally chase Machida around the cage (and absorb some damage in the process) would stand a chance of beating him.” The Machida/Silva matchup represents the pairing of two men whose styles are complete opposites, and it’ll be interesting to see who can better execute their gameplan. No matter what the outcome, the winner will unquestionably prove that he’s ready for a title shot. Any early predictions?

In other UFC 89-related news, the UFC has re-signed Chris Lytle (25-16-5, 4-8 UFC) to a four-fight contract extension, with his first match being in Birmingham against Brit Paul Taylor (9-3-1, 2-2 UFC). I’d think that a four-fight extension is a little generous for someone who already has twice as many losses in the Octagon than wins. But hey, the fans want blood, and Lytle gives it to ‘em in pints…

Yahoo! Sports has an article claiming that Josh Koscheck “wouldn’t mind” dropping to lightweight to take on B.J. Penn at some point in the future. This, apparently, because there is a perceived lack of credible challengers in the UFC’s lightweight division, which is already a questionable thesis to begin with.

But assuming you go along with it, then you’re expected to make the leap to believing that Josh Koscheck is the savior the division needs. Koscheck himself sounds only lukewarm about the idea:

“You never know,” he said, beaming, when confronted about his ability to make the lightweight limit of 155 pounds. “If people would want to see me fight B.J. Penn at 155 for the title, because there is really nobody there for him to fight, I’d do it.”

[...]

“I know B.J. very well, but business is business,” Koscheck said. “We’re friends, but at the end of the day, it’s about making money together. If the fans would want to see it, I’d suck it up and I’d live that life to where I’d do whatever I have to do to make 155.”

These statements make Koscheck seem far from eager to go down in weight and face Penn, but what’s interesting is the assertion that there is “really nobody there for him to fight.”

On the surface this seems kind of true, but only because Penn is so dominant right now that we assume whoever claims the number one contender spot will inevitably be destroyed by him. The reality is that the 155-pound division is one of the deepest weight classes in the UFC and the sport as a whole. Maybe Penn will beat every credible challenger in the division, but shouldn’t he do that before we just assume that he will?

(Can I get a USA chant?)

With Independence Day upon us and UFC 86 just one day away, what better way to celebrate both occasions than by arguing over every insignificant detail of the weekend to come. That’s what we do best, after all, which may mean only that we do everything else exceptionally poorly.

Don’t forget to check out our UFC 86 Liveblog tomorrow night where you can get in on the heated bickering — and in real time!

Who’s next in line for a shot at the UFC light heavyweight title after Jackson-Griffin?

Fowlkes: As always in the UFC, who’s next depends on who wins. If Jackson wins, which is the more likely outcome, then the UFC is faced with two distinct possibilities, both of them involving rematches.

Chuck Liddell probably only needs to beat Rashad Evans to be back at the top of the list. That’s not necessarily because a win over “Sugar” Rashad is so impressive, but because the UFC knows they could get big money for Jackson-Liddell III.

The same is true regarding Wanderlei Silva. He needs at least one more win and even then it would be just barely credible to put him in a title fight with “Rampage”, but barely credible is more than enough for the UFC.

If Griffin wins, however, all bets are off. Anyone with anything resembling a winning streak is a candidate, except maybe Lyoto Machida. An immediate rematch with Jackson wouldn’t be out of the question, nor would a Griffin-Liddell scenario. Either way, Liddell should be the odds-on favorite to get the next shot, provided he doesn’t get lay-and-prayed to death by Evans.

Goldstein: Dude? Silva destroyed Rampage twice in PRIDE, which makes him a whole lot more than “barely credible,” no matter what he’s accomplished in the UFC so far. Sure, Wandy would probably need another win just to keep up appearances, but Jackson vs. Silva is the match that needs to happen for Rampage’s title reign to have true legitimacy. And if the UFC felt like playing up their history, they could surely convince the casual Chuck-hugging fans that Silva deserves it more.

(Kos, rockin’ the “Skullburst Burnout.”)

Josh Koscheck has been one of the UFC’s most prominent figures since the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, where he beat Chris Leben but was defeated by the show’s eventual middleweight winner, Diego Sanchez. After leaving the show, he became a mainstay in the UFC’s welterweight division, using his background as a Division I college wrestling champion to knock off guys like Dave Menne, Jonathan Goulet, and Sanchez in a hotly anticipated rematch. Though he seemed like an imminent contender for the 170-pound belt, a frustrating decision loss against Georges St. Pierre at UFC 74 sent him to the back of the line. On Saturday he continues his quest for re-ascension, taking on TUF 4 finalist Chris Lytle. We caught up to Josh after one of his final training sessions in preparation for UFC 86, and shot the shit about fighter pay, “The Nightmare,” and his secret life as a t-shirt mogul.

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CagePotato.com: Not to take anything away from Chris Lytle, but he has a losing record in the UFC. Do you feel like you should be fighting a higher-ranked welterweight at this point?
Josh Koscheck: No. After my loss to Georges St. Pierre I have to work my way back up through the ranks. In order to be the #1 contender you have to beat whoever they put in front of you, and that’s my plan.

What part of Lytle’s game are you most concerned about?
I don’t really know too much about him, I just know he’s pretty good on his feet and he’s got pretty good jiu-jitsu. My concerns are myself — coming in prepared, which I definitely am, and taking the opportunity to get the job done.

This is the first fight on your new UFC contract extension. Would you say you’re getting paid what you deserve now?
I don’t know that answer; that’s up to my managers. My job is to train and fight. My managers got me the contract so I guess that’s what I deserve right now. Obviously, it’s human nature to want more money. You probably want more money to interview me today. But it’s just a matter of time. Yeah, UFC fighters deserve a lot more money, and it’s coming. The sport’s growing, and as the UFC brand grows, the fighters will make more money.

Do you have any interest in fighting Diego Sanchez again? Your last fight with him was called into question because he was supposedly suffering from a staph infection at the time. Do you feel the need to prove it was a legitimate win?

A funny thing happened while Ariel Helwani and I were interviewing Chris Lytle about his upcoming bout with Josh Koscheck at UFC 86. Lytle was at the firehouse, where he works as — surprise — a fireman, and in the middle of the interview he calmly explained that he had to go because there was a fire that needed fighting. As interviews go, that was a first. He came back later and explained what had happened, and also explained what it’s like to be fighting fires just a few days before fighting for the UFC. If that kind of thing interests you, head over to MMA Rated to listen to the radio show. The Lytle interview starts at around the thirty-five minute mark. Yeah, it’s basically a half-hour of us arguing over stuff up until then. That’s what happens when you don’t have a real job.

If that kind of thing doesn’t interest you, then maybe this will. Bas Rutten appeared on ESPN’s “MMA Live” to demonstrate the aptly-named “Exorcist” neck crank. It looks…unpleasant.

Here’s a fun fact: Matt Serra’s Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale match against Chris Lytle (11/11/06) was his sixth-consecutive pro fight to end in a decision. “The Terror” went 3-3 during that stretch, suffering notable losses to B.J. Penn and Karo Parisyan, but turned his career around by edging out Lytle in a split decision — in which two of the judges scored it 30-27 for Serra and the other scored it an equally plausible 30-27 for Lytle — and earning his title shot.

(Frank Mir poses in front of the world’s ugliest ring girls.)

Some UFC-related notes as we build up to tonight’s four-hour block of awesomeness…

— Josh Koscheck, who recently signed a new multi-fight contract with the UFC, confirmed yesterday that he will be facing Chris Lytle at UFC 86 (July 5th, Las Vegas). “Lights Out” Lytle (25-15-5, 4-7 UFC) has lost to a who’s who of welterweight stars during his time in the Octagon — Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, Robbie Lawler, and Karo Parisyan among them — but may be on the comeback trail after beating the dogshit out of Kyle Bradley at UFC 81.

— Frank Mir and Justin McCully have also been booked for a bout at UFC 86. With the heavyweight class as thin as it is right now, we wouldn’t put it past the UFC to offer Mir an immediate title shot depending on his performance in July; his disposal of Brock Lesnar at “Breaking Point” proved that he could still be a viable contender. McCully won a decision against Antoni Hardonk during his UFC debut last April, and has won his last four fights overall, but the matchup still feels like it’s intended to be a tuneup for the former champion.

— Xyience Inc. was sold yesterday to Manchester Consolidated Corp. for $15 million. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal:

The sale price will cover only part of the secured debt at Xyience, debtor attorney Laurel Davis said after the hearing. As a result, unsecured creditors and stockholders in Xyience will recover none of their money, she said…

Manchester, which submitted the only approved bid, will pay $200,000 in cash and will assume $14.8 million in debt…

Separately, unsecured creditors on Monday filed a lawsuit in federal court, saying the judge should take $14.8 million in assets from the Fertittas for the benefit of Xyience creditors.

In related news, that hot brunette from the Xyience commercials has been spotted wearing a barrel held up by suspenders. Okay, not really, but it’s an amusing image!

If you missed our UFC 81 liveblog, click here. Check out the videos below for Chris Lytle’s nitro-burnin’ bash-fest against Kyle Bradley, and Ricardo Almeida choking out Rob Yundt despite being dropped directly on his head.

Chris Lytle vs. Kyle Bradley:

Ricardo Almeida vs. Rob Yundt: