(Let’s try this again, “Ace”, this time with a little enthusiasm.)

Despite the fact that UFC 93 and 95 are taking place in Dublin and London respectively, they will not air for free on Spike TV, reports MMA Rated. Does that mean you’re going to have to pay more of your rapidly dwindling cash to see an event that goes live in the middle of the afternoon? Either that or wait until the videos hit the internet, and for some reason it’s considered “troubling behavior” for me to drink in front of my computer at ten o’clock on a Sunday morning, even though it’s perfectly acceptable to do it in front of the TV on a Saturday. I blame this Puritanical society.

The explanation for why this is happening centers around Spike TV’s production budget. Broadcasting these overseas events is costly, and since both UFC 93 and 95 take place within the first two months of 2009, that would mean blowing a big portion of their budget in the first quarter. This, my friends, is a side effect of the UFC going global.

So now we’re looking at three pay-per-views in the first sixty days of the new year from the UFC, plus another one on January 24 from Affliction. I don’t know what your disposable income looks like these days, but it sure seems like someone’s got to lose in this scenario. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you could only afford two of these events without being forced to make extra money by letting your creepy neighbor install that webcam he keeps talking about. What’s it gonna be: Fedor-Arlovski (Affliction), Franklin-Henderson (UFC 93, with a side order of Coleman-Rua), Penn-St. Pierre (UFC 94), or Liddell-Silva (UFC 95, hopefully)? As a bonus question, how important will the undercards of said events be in your decision-making?

(Photo courtesy of NBC Sports)

Britain’s The Sun confirmed that the UFC is headed back to London for UFC 95 in February, and they’re adding weight to the rumor that it might have Anderson Silva vs. Chuck Liddell as its main event.

SunSport understands Middleweight champion Anderson Silva, 33, has been asked to appear on the card, with a potential bout with light heavyweight star Chuck Liddell already being mooted.

Dana White said Silva was “flipping out” about the negative response from fans and media types to his performance against Patrick Cote at UFC 90. Going up a weight class to pummel a former champ might be enough to silence those critics for good. The bout also has enough star power and intersecting story lines to make it a huge draw.

If it does happen, it’s a tough fight for Liddell. Even if he beats Silva, his detractors will just say it was due to the size advantage. If he loses — a real possibility against the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter — it becomes harder to ignore the call of retirement. Then again, after the loss to Rashad Evans you have to wonder how many interesting fights are left for him at 205. This could easily be his last moment in the spotlight. At least it’s a big one.

(After a dramatic victory, the Jets returned to the locker room to find nothing but energy drinks and DVD’s of “The Secret.”)

If you watched the New York Jets beat the New England Patriots in overtime last night, you may have thought to yourself, ‘Damn, the Jets look good, almost as though they’ve been motivated by watching an MMA bout.’ You have no idea how right you were.

The NY Daily News reports that Jets coach Eric Mangini was looking to send a motivational message to his team the night before the game, and he turned to some UFC footage to do it:

ULTIMATE MOTIVATION: On Wedneday night at the team hotel, Mangini showed a tape of the 2007 Ultimate Fighting light-heavyweight title bout between Quinton (Rampage) Jackson and defending champ Chuck Liddell. The upstart Jackson stunned Liddell with a first-round TKO.

Mangini’s message to the team: Young and hungry defeats the established champ.

“A lot of his motivational stuff ends up coming true,” LB David Bowens said.

Will I point out that Jackson was not so much of an upstart, but rather an established fighter who had already beaten Liddell in their previous meeting? I will not. Because that would be nitpicking. Just like it would be nitpicking to point out that the Daily News misspelled Wednesday. So instead I’ll just say, Good work, Mangini. That motivational meeting must have been not only effective, but also brief.

Maybe you don’t know this because you spend all day on the internet reading about pro fighting and watching old Pride highlight videos, but today is election day in America. It’s kind of a big deal. So much so that it even reaches over into the insular world of mixed martial arts, at least for a few hours.

Today Sherdog has an article that asks some notable fighters and trainers who they’re voting for. The answers are as varied as you’d expect from a group of MMA types. Chuck Liddell is voting for McCain because he’s rich and doesn’t want his taxes raised. His trainer, John Hackleman, is undecided, but he’s definitely voting against California’s Proposition 8 (a ban on gay marriage), because he’s got two fighters who are “half-gay.” Eddie Bravo isn’t voting at all because voting is an illusion and both candidates are working for the Illuminati. Thanks, Eddie. Things were getting a little too sane around here.

Just to prove how big time he is, yesterday Steve Cofield interviewed Barack Obama and asked him about, among other things, Matt Hughes’ criticisms of him. Obama responded that Hughes obviously hasn’t actually read his tax plan (no, Matt, watching Fox News doesn’t count as reading).

Fortunately, Matt Hughes has posted another screed, this time an editorial for a local newspaper written by friends of his. The newspaper did not publish it in their print edition, but Hughes is kind of enough to re-post it on his website, a portion of which appears after the jump.

(Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

After a bizarre UFC 90 main event that saw middleweight champ Anderson Silva try to help Patrick Cote off the ground mid-fight, circle the cage with his arms down, and whip his hands around in a kung fu-esque display, there were many fans who thought Silva was, oh, I don’t know, not taking Cote seriously? But despite our attempts to guess his motivation, Silva says his only concern was winning the fight. As he told Sherdog:

“There are many people saying I was disrespecting Cote, but this is absolutely not true. My game plan since the beginning was fight five rounds, inducing him to commit mistakes and capitalize on that during the first three rounds and look for the knockout during the fourth and fifth rounds. It was working, and the biggest proof of that is that I almost didn’t waste any blows. I connected with a couple of good punches and knees, but unfortunately he got hurt and the fight was over. This is not my fault.”

Taking Silva at his word, maybe he’s only guilty of showing Cote far more respect than fans thought the challenger deserved, which is sort of ironic in light of their subsequent criticisms. Still, it wasn’t the kind of fight that people paid to see. And Silva’s striking maybe wasn’t as effective as he thought it was; by Compustrike’s count, he only landed 39% of his arm strikes — decent, but well below his average.

In a related story, Fighters Only is passing along the rumor that Silva could meet Chuck Liddell in a headlining bout at the UFC’s February 21st card, which will be held in London. When asked about the rumor, Silva told Sherdog “Thank you for the information, I didn’t know about that. Let’s see what [Dana White] will say.”

(Jenna, you shouldn’t have. You really, really shouldn’t have.)

Holy crap! CagePotato.com turns one year old today, y’all! Many thanks to those of you who have stuck with us since the beginning — or the close-to-beginning, at least — and helped build this little site into what I believe is the most entertaining and energetic MMA community on the Internet. Lots of bigger and badder things to come, so stay tuned and tell your friends. To honor this day, let’s take a trip in the way-back machine, and revisit 25 of CagePotato’s all-time greatest moments. Enjoy…
(BG)

Sylvia’s ego, Franklin’s face get battered at UFC 77 (First-ever post on CagePotato)

The Top 10 Worst MMA Nicknames Ever

Urijah Faber: Hard Out Here for a Pimp (CP’s first original interview)

Gone, Baby, Gone: Hard Luck and Fast Money at the IFl World Grand Prix

The Top 10 Gracies of All Time

Kimbo Slice Loves CagePotato!

Blogger Power! UFC Fight Night 13 Stretched to Three Hours (possibly my favorite photo caption, though this one‘s pretty dear to me as well)

“Tappin’ Out’s for *Whores*”: Matt Serra at the 7/11

The Eight Most Insane Victory Celebrations of All Time

The 10 Most Despicable People in MMA

The 10 Hottest Ring Girls in MMA

Nogueira, Mir to Coach Next Season of TUF (Fowlkes scoops the Internet by a full month)

Dear Guy Attending This Live MMA Event: An Open Letter

(Mo’ money, mo’ unfulfilled expectations.)

You can’t say Dana White didn’t warn Brandon Vera. His comments before UFC 89 suggested that it was time for “The Truth” to justify his high price tag. He didn’t, and so White is turning up the heat on him with remarks like these:

“I’m not seeing what I expected from Brandon Vera. It’s like he’s lost something. He doesn’t have that killer instinct since he took that year off. He doesn’t go after people. He used to be so cocky. He wanted to fight everybody.

“We tried to get him on one of the seasons of The Ultimate Fighter and he turned that down and said he wanted to fight Chuck Liddell and that he would knock him out. I hear that seven days a week so I told him to go on TUF and we’d find out how good he was.

“He was good. He used to walk through heavyweights earlier in his career. But he took a year off and we had all the issues with his contract and he hasn’t been the same since. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”

It’s not exactly shocking to hear Dana White go after a guy who held him over the coals in contract negotiations and has since failed to live up to expectations. In a way, it seems justified. The UFC agreed to his six-figure demands based on his past performances and what they saw as his future potential. Lately he’s looked like a bad investment.

But being badmouthed in public by your boss, both before and after the fight, that’s got to sting. Especially when he goes on to compare you unfavorably to other guys who lost on the same night:

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.

(Oh, Chuck! Not in the cake, man!)

Over at the UG some users have straight-up crazy Photoshop skillz, kid. Fortunately, they’ve put them to good use in light of the Rashad Evans-Chuck Liddell fight at UFC 88. Some of them are sloppy, some are downright offensive, and others are surprisingly well-done and imaginative. The one you see above, done by SkeetersMMA, is really on a whole other level. Work like this deserves recognition. Consider this a tip of the old CP cap, Skeeters.

A few honorable mentions are after the jump.

(Props to “Justinmacd” on the UG.)

When Rashad Evans was shown twisting his nipples directly before his UFC 88 fight with Chuck Liddell, we wondered if the Greg Jackson camp knew something we didn’t; after all, Evans’s teammate Georges St. Pierre did the same thing before his title defense against Jon Fitch last month. Turns out it was just a simple goof on GSP. As Evans explained to TAGG Radio:

“Georges St. Pierre was the first do it, and it’s just sort of an inside joke…Georges said it was supposed to be good luck or something, so I said, ‘Cool, alright,’” Evans said, laughing.

Good luck, huh? Never heard that one before. Can’t wait to try it out at the roulette table.

Evans also talked about the Bill Gates mugshot t-shirt that he wore during his cage-entrance, which bore no apparent sponsors, and which some assumed was viral marketing on the part of Microsoft. If Gates paid Evans to wear it, Sugar wasn’t letting on:

“[Gates] was arrested in Albuquerque, N.M. He started off Microsoft in the basement of the Bank One Building. That’s right next to the (Team Jackson) gym.”

That’s the only association right now, but the team is hopeful Gates could become more involved with Team Jackson someday.

“Maybe one day he’ll be part of my crew,” Evans joked.

Meanwhile, in an interview with MMA Weekly, Evans credited another Jackson teammate, Keith Jardine, for helping him with his strategy for the Chuck fight:

“Keith said ‘you’re gonna get his timing, and there’s a point when you’re going to see em’ coming,’” Evans said. “‘When you see it coming, get off first — don’t sit there and wait.’ And that’s what I did. As soon as he had me against the fence, you can always tell when he’s coming, so as soon as I see him make that face, I just tried to bust off first.”

(Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Saturday’s UFC 88 card took in $2.6 million in ticket revenue, making it the second-highest-grossing event ever held at Atlanta’s Philips Arena, next to a Barbara Streisand concert in 2006. The fighters at “Breakthrough” pulled in $1,510,000 in disclosed payouts, with a third of that going to knockout recipient Chuck Liddell. The numbers are below. Unless otherwise noted, each winning fighter’s salary represents a doubling of his base pay.

Chuck Liddell: $500,000
Dan Henderson: $250,000 (win bonus was $150,000)
Rashad Evans: $180,000 (including $60,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
Jason MacDonald: $104,000 (including $60,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
Rich Franklin: $100,000
Kurt Pellegrino: $84,000 (including $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Thiago Tavares: $73,000 (including $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Nate Marquardt: $56,000
Dong Hyun Kim: $46,000
Ryo Chonan: $30,000
Jason Lambert: $17,000
Tim Boetsch: $16,000
Martin Kampmann: $15,000
Matt Hamill: $10,000
Roan Carneiro: $9,000
Matt Brown: $8,000
Rousimar Palhares: $7,000
Michael Patt: $5,000

Underpaid: Not that the dude’s going broke, but it’s surprising that Rich Franklin’s base salary is only $50,000; Rashad Evans makes more than he does (which makes sense now, I suppose). It’s also too bad that someone as talented as Rousimar Palhares couldn’t negotiate better terms when he joined the UFC.

Overpaid: I’d let Evans knock me the eff out for half of what Chuck got for his little two-round appearance. Seriously. Get in touch with my people, Rashad.

(‘Heyyyyyy.’)

Now that he’s finally injury-free and ready to fight, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is setting his sights high for his return to the Octagon. Rua told Fighters Only that he’d like to be the first to beat Rashad Evans following his impressive knockout of Chuck Liddell over the weekend:

“Rashad fought the perfect fight, he obviously studied Chuck and worked hard on his game plan,” he said. “He may be undefeated but everyone is there to be beaten and I would like to be the first one to do it.”

Of course if he can’t get that fight, he’ll take Rich Franklin, who’s also coming off a win. Apparently “Shogun” is not deterred by the fact that he’s coming back from a long injury layoff, or that his last time out didn’t go so well. Maybe it might be a better idea to ease back into it. I hear Matt Hamill’s schedule is pretty open.

- In other Brazilian fighter news, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva told Tatame that there is absolutely no chance of him facing WEC middleweight champ Paulo Filho even after the heavier weight classes are absorbed into the UFC. Silva called Filho “the best middleweight,” saying “there’s nobody to beat him.”

It probably helps that they’re buds:

“I would never fight with Paulão. We almost train together, we’re always helping each other and (Josuel) Distak is our coach. There’s no chance to happen. People can complain, scream, whatever, but it won’t happen.”

You heard the man. You might as well stop your constant complaining and screaming for Silva-Filho, because it ain’t happening. Just let it go and move on with your life. Somehow.

(Update: the embed code turns out to be an empty promise, but here’s the link to the reunion show clip.)

This Saturday, September 13 Spike TV is airing a TUF 1 marathon and special reunion show. As you can see from the clip, some of those old rivalries haven’t been forgotten. Give Joe Rogan some credit, he doesn’t shy away from asking Bobby Southworth whether he felt bad about the whole ‘fatherless bastard’ remark. We don’t get to see his answer in this clip, but let’s hope it’s yes.

Check out Dana White’s closing video blog entry for UFC 88 after the jump. They’ve apparently decided to go with quantity over quality, as this is the longest one yet. For some real fun, skip to the 9:00 mark to see Chuck Liddell‘s pre-fight preparations, which tells you a lot about what kind of fight he was expecting. Afterwards Dana has to corral Rashad Evans‘ wife while simultaneously stopping Chuck Liddell and John Hackleman from jetting out of the Octagon. That’s a hard-working man, right there.

(Props: MMA-Core.)

If you thought there was something familiar about the way Chuck Liddell got himself knocked out against Rashad Evans, you’re right. It’s almost the exact same scenario that precipitated his loss to Rampage Jackson: Liddell throws an uppercut while not troubling himself to defend his chin, Liddell eats a hard right counter, Liddell goes down and Dana White gets sad. It’s almost enough to make you wonder if fighting with your hands nowhere near your face isn’t such a good idea. You know, because there’s always that slim possibility that your opponent might also decide to throw some punches.

Fortunately, Liddell is starting to ask himself the hard questions:

“I guess that’s a bad habit,” Liddell said. “I see that shot and I land it a lot, but I guess I leave myself open when I throw it. I need to get back in there and stop doing it. It’s something to work on.”

Well, that only took two knockout losses for him to realize. At this rate he’ll be able to figure out where he went wrong against Keith Jardine and avenge that loss some time in early 2010. Will he still be in the game by then? Hard to say. Liddell said he would “take a little time” after this loss, but added, “I’ve always said that when I retire, I’ll decide in the training room and not after a fight.”

Maybe that’s why he intends to stay out of the training room for a while.

(Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans)

(Nate Marquardt vs. Martin Kampmann)

(Dan Henderson vs. Rousimar Palhares)

In a press conference held after UFC 88, Dana White announced that Rashad Evans would next be facing Forrest Griffin for the light-heavyweight title:

“(UFC CEO) Lorenzo (Fertitta), (UFC matchmaker) Joe (Silva) and I got together and thought yeah, he deserves the title shot,” White said. “How could you say, ‘No, he doesn’t deserve the shot’ after [the Liddell fight]?”

White said he had a date in mind but wouldn’t share it until the organization has the opportunity to announce some other upcoming cards.

Sugar Rashad‘s stunning upset increased his overall record to 12-0-1 (7-0-1 in the UFC). I wouldn’t argue that Evans deserves a shot at the belt more than the winner of the (postponed? nixed completely?) fight between Lyoto Machida and Thiago Silva, but timing is certainly working in his favor; Griffin needs a title defense, and Evans is available. Unfortunately, the UFC’s hope of a big money fight between Chuck and Forrest is now up in smoke, and they’ll have to put in major effort to convince fans that a title scrap between two TUF winners is equally worth buying. After his nipple-tweaking, pop-n-locking, Fred Sanford-imitating ring antics last night, Evans’s likeability is still a big question mark.

(‘What if we got, like, a studio apartment together somewhere. We’d have so much fun! No? Nah, you’re right. I was just goofing.’ Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

Atlanta, Georgia, are you ready to have your world rocked? Are you ready to have Mike Goldberg refer to you as ‘Hot-lanta’ at least three times, while Joe Rogan seizes any and every opportunity to point out the rubber guard? Well, you better be, because that’s what’s happening. I can hardly freaking wait.

We’ll be documenting all the zany action and half-cocked commentary as the night unfolds, cracking wise and making fairly obvious but mildly humorous observations all night long, so buckle in and get your commenting hat on. We’re dying to hear all your LOL’s and OMG’s. Maybe even the occasional WTF, although don’t get carried away. We’ve got a long night ahead of us. Hit refresh every so often, or get left behind.

(Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated.)

Chuck Liddell isn’t the easiest man to get on the phone. But our buddy Ben Zeidler pinned him down yesterday for a wide-ranging discussion on his impending title shot, Dana White’s trustworthiness, money, and tonight’s UFC 88 fight against Rashad Evans. (Quick prediction: “I’m gonna knock him out.”) So without further ado…

***

CAGEPOTATO: What’s the plan for Rashad Evans?
CHUCK LIDDELL: I’m gonna punch him until he falls down and then I’m gonna punch him a few more times until they stop me. Can’t give you more of a gameplan than that. Simple.

Can you handle Rashad’s wrestling? You wrestled at San Luis Obispo, but Evans is one of the top wrestlers in the sport.
I mean, that’s definitely one of his strengths and you have to worry about it, but you know, I was a Division I wrestler myself so I can handle him.

What do you see happening if the fight goes to the ground? Will you stay there or try to stand back up?
I’ll try to stand back up. The plan is to get back to the feet and make him work to keep me down. No matter where the fight is, he’ll have to work.

What from your strategy will you bring in from the Wanderlei fight and what will you leave out?
I’ll probably use just about everything.

Yeah, we saw the spinning backfist in the Wanderlei fight. Where did that come from?
I hadn’t used that in a while, but I had been practicing it in the gym. I got in the fight and I got loose and a little more focused, but I was still having fun with it. So I tried it and it worked. If you can go out and have fun with the fight, it’s easier to use those moves.

Is it easier to train when you’re not the champion? Do you have more distractions when you have the belt?
For me, I don’t think it makes a difference. Anyway you look at it, if you have the belt or not, there are a bunch of distractions.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I can tell you that I’m hoping to fight for another 2-4 years. Hopefully, in two years, I’ll be saying I have another 2-4 in me. It all depends on my body. But if I’m not fighting, I’ll definitely be coaching, so either way, I’ll be in the fight game.

Do you trust Dana White?

(Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

- Do some UFC 88 pre-partying with Randy Couture. (Xtreme Couture)

- Mario Sperry betting on a Palhares victory, literally. (Tatame)

- Stone Cold Steve Austin breaks down Kimbo Slice-Ken Shamrock. (YouTube)

- Arguing over UFC 88, Randy’s return, and more. (MMA Rated)

- Martin Kampmann is ready to “kick ass.” (MMA Mania)

- Brock Lesnar got jokes. (Steve Cofield)

- One punch KO’s bully. (Nothing Toxic)

- Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates team up to produce something…strange. (Wall Street Fighter)

- Sarah Palin steps up to the mic. (Holy Taco)

- 11 craziest Ann Coulter moments. (Screen Junkies)

Dana White’s UFC 88 Video Blog, part 4 – Watch more free videos

Just some wacky guys having fun, flying on airplanes, screwing around in hotel rooms. Now that’s entertainment! The best segment this time around is the brief look at some of the UFC brass sitting around listening to potential walk-out music. I especially like the idea that Dana White has to honor whatever terrible music fighters ask for, even though I realize that’s probably not how it works.

Anyway, this video blog series appears to have flatlined. Maybe that’s because you can’t really screw with Randy Couture on camera the way you can with “Rampage” Jackson. He just smiles and says nothing while secretly resenting you. By you, I mean Dana White.

(Totes BFFs 4-evs.)

Weigh-ins for “Breakthrough” just went down at the Philips Arena in Atlanta. The numbers are below; props to MMA Mania.

Chuck Liddell (204) vs. Rashad Evans (205)
Rich Franklin (204.5) vs. Matt Hamill (205)
Dan Henderson (185) vs. Rousimar Palhares (184.5)
Nate Marquardt (185) vs. Martin Kampmann (184.5)
Thiago Tavares (155) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (156)
Tim Boetsch (205.25) vs. Mike Patt (205.25)
Matt Brown (170) vs. Dong Hyun “Stun Gun” Kim (170)
Jason Lambert (185) vs. Jason MacDonald (185)
Roan Carneiro (170) vs. Ryo Chonan (170)

IMPORTANT: CagePotato.com will be liveblogging tomorrow night’s pay-per-view broadcast beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Come early, come often.

Courtesy of BestFightOdds, here are the juiciest lines for UFC 88, reflecting the lowest numbers for the favorites (i.e., the dollar amounts you’d have to put up to win $100), and the highest numbers for the underdogs (i.e., the dollar amounts you’d win if you put up $100). If you’re confused, go here first. Click on each line to go to the wagering site that’s offering it. And now the numbers…

MAIN CARD
Chuck Liddell (-241) vs. Rashad Evans (+230)
Rich Franklin (-221) vs. Matt Hamill (+210)
Dan Henderson (-200) vs. Rousimar Palhares (+190)
Karo Parisyan (-210) vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida (+203)
Nate Marquardt (-130) vs. Martin Kampmann (+140)

UNDERCARD
Thiago Tavares (-252) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (+250)
Tim Boetsch (-375) vs. Michael Patt (+326)
Dong Hyun Kim (-350) vs. Matt Brown (+300)
Jason MacDonald (-157) vs. Jason Lambert (+160)
Ryo Chonan (-113) vs. Roan Carneiro (+103)

Notes…

— UFC 88′s “I Can’t Believe the Odds Are That Close” match is MacDonald/Lambert. When a fighter drops a weight class, it usually means he’ll have a size advantage against his opponent. In Jason Lambert’s case, he’s just cutting some topmeat. The Punisher might look a little faster in the cage, but MacDonald is still the far more talented fighter here, and you won’t regret putting some money down on the favorite.

(‘Sup, pussies.)

It’s that time again, Potato Nation. Cage Potato’s two Bens square off on a host of issues swirling around UFC 88, including what’s to become of Rich Franklin as a light heavyweight, who has the best chances to score an upset on Saturday night, and more. Let’s get it, as they say, on.

Does Chuck Liddell really deserve a title shot if he beats Rashad Evans?

Goldstein: A two-fight win streak isn’t much, but it’ll be more than any other top-tier UFC light-heavyweight contender can boast on Sunday morning, with the exception of Lyoto Machida and Thiago Silva — and one of those guys is going to take his first loss next month. The question really is: Who deserves it more, Chuck or the winner of that all-Brazilian eliminator match?

In terms of creating a title fight that fans want to see, Liddell has to be at the front of the line. Chuck vs. Forrest will get fans insanely fired up. The alternative is watching Forrest and (probably) Machida dance around each other for five rounds — I have my doubts about the entertainment value of that matchup. And not to play the race card, but I understand why an American MMA organization is hesitant to create a situation where three of its five champions, as Mike Goldberg would say, “speak the Portuguesa.” (I’m counting Big Nog as one of them, of course; he’s my pick to come out on top of the imminent four-man heavyweight “tournament,” but that’s another debate.)

Chuck’s been unwaveringly loyal to the UFC during his career, and he deserves to be treated well in his final years with the company. If that means jumping ahead of someone who may deserve it more in terms of merit, so be it. Though if they want to put Liddell against Anderson Silva in December before he gets a shot at the belt, well, that’s cool too.

Fowlkes: When it comes to the UFC and title shots, I like to remind myself of a line from the movie Unforgiven: deserve’s got nothing to do with it. In a perfect fighting world, the fight would be set up so that the winner gets a title shot, regardless of who that is. But we both know that even if “Sugar” wins he’s not shooting to the top of the list. So the question is, would beating Evans be enough to reasonably justify putting Liddell up against Forrest Griffin next, which is the fight the UFC really wants to make?

Crush and Sugar Free getting down at Xtreme Couture. Props to BloodyElbow.

A promo for SpikeTV’s upcoming preview show on “Breakthrough,” which features actual footage of Chuck Liddell’s hamstring injury in April, and Matt Hamill wreckin’ dudes as a kid. Props to FiveOuncesofPain.

(Nick’s just going to proofread this sucker before sending it out.)

Did Elite XC hold some kind of writing workshop for their fighters’ and their fighters’ camps recently? Maybe one with a special seminar on “Shit-talking statements and rebuttals”? Because suddenly it seems like everyone under the Elite XC banner is putting pen to paper to bash someone else. Not that we’re complaining.

The Gracie camp — home to Nick Diaz — is the latest to get in on the act. KJ Noons’ statement listing his grievances with Elite XC made mention of Diaz several times, and you didn’t think he was going to be able to do that without waking the beast, did you? We’re a little disappointed that this is coming from Diaz’s camp and not Nick himself, who has been known to do some really great work in the ‘stream of consciousness’ field of shit-talking, but we’ll take what we can get.

On Noons’ claim that Elite XC failed to promote his boxing career, as promised:

1) Earth to KJ; you don’t have a boxing career. No one in the boxing world knows who you are. 2) Another MMA company would have paid you less and not given you a title shot, especially when you were 1-1. 3) If you will not fight Diaz due to a breach of contract by EliteXC then why would you fight Alvarez for the same terms?

On Noons’ insistence that Elite XC isn’t promoting him, instead asking Diaz to sign baseball cards for the DVD of their fight:

1) Nick Diaz, Jake Shields and Frank Shamrock were flown in to shoot an instructional trailer on grappling for the CBS show. The signings were an after thought. You weren’t flown in because you aren’t a grappler. We are sure they will fly you in if they need an instructional on whining. 2) Your contract was for Showtime. Diaz and Shields both signed longer deals for CBS. Nathan Diaz signed a special long term contract for Spike TV etc…This is a business not Burger King, you can’t have it ‘your way’.

(Rashad Evans looks very happy about clocking Steve Cofield one.)

- Rashad Evans can’t even escape Chuck Liddell at the movies. (Yahoo! Sports)

- Talking Shamrock, Kimbo, Noons and more on the radio. (MMA Rated)

- “The Secret” explained, in a manner of speaking. (Fightlinker)

- Ryan Schultz to get another shot at Sengoku 5. (MMA Mania)

- Thiago Alves has a lesson he wants to teach Diego Sanchez. (Tatame)

- Dana White promises UFC will be bigger than NFL and World Cup, then discusses a near-death experience. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

- “Day of Reckoning” official website. (Affliction)

- UFC in talks with CBS to supplant Elite XC? (Fightline)

- Sammy Hagar rocks great moments in history. (Holy Taco)

- Tough beer choices this Labor Day weekend. (Wall Street Fighter)

- Eight awesome movie prisoners. (Screen Junkies)

- Because he loves him some publicity, Dana White will appear on A&E’s “Mindfreak” with magician Criss Angel tonight. You say you’re not going to watch, but let’s not kid ourselves. You’re going to pretend to watch the Democratic National Convention, then get bored when there are no crazy MMA riots breaking out, and suddenly you’re thinking, ‘Man, my mind could really use a good freaking right about now.’ Boom! A&E’s got you covered. If you want a taste of Criss Angel’s particularly cloying brand of magic, I recommend this little gem.

- The ever-elusive Lyoto Machida says his fight against Thiago Silva at UFC 89 isn’t going to be another snoozefest. As he told Tatame: “I believe this fight won’t go to decision… Thiago likes to fight aggressively, me too, he has good MMA techniques, so I believe this fight might finish before the third round.” Seems like he stops just short of actually committing to finishing, or saying that he’ll be the one to finish it. Even this guy’s interviews are, um, tactical.

- Chuck Liddell’s nutritional supplement company, Iceman Rx, is anticipating a Liddell victory over Rashad Evans at UFC 88. They’re even running a sweepstakes to coincide with UFC 92, where Liddell might conceivably challenge Forrest Griffin for the UFC light heavyweight title if he is victorious next weekend. And what does the winner of that sweepstakes get? An Iceman Rx Hummer H2. Even has a picture of Liddell on the side. Rumor has it he only decided to give it away after seeing what happened to Rampage. I started that rumor.

- You thought our jokes about the Tito Ortiz/Jenna Jameson baby news were in poor taste? Just check out The Sun. They pull no punches over in the UK press, and their photoshops are meaner. Kudos to them for referring to Jenna’s porn flicks as “blue movies.” That mixture of cruelty and decorum is why I love the Brits.

(‘You dance very good, little woman. You are negative for the STD’s, yes?’)

Poor Anderson Silva. The UFC middleweight champ just can’t find enough playmates in the UFC middleweight neighborhood. Yes, there’s that nice Patrick Cote boy, but then what? Silva is basically being forced to go door to door and ask, in broken English, if there are any middleweights or light heavyweights who can come out and play. Next up could very well be Chuck Liddell, according to Silva’s manager, Ed Soares:

“I think he wants to fight those big mega fights because that’s the kind of fight we want to be involved with right now,” he said about Silva’s future fights. “I think it’s a combination of seeing what the potential opponent is and also seeing what the UFC wants to do. At the end of the day, this is a business, and they need to sell fights. They need to sell a lot of pay-per-views, and they need to sell tickets. So, we want to be involved with those types of fights.”

“We’re not looking past Patrick Cote, but I think we’ll take one step at a time and see what happens. But yeah, if a Chuck Liddell fight came up, we’d take it,” stated Soares. “Whoever the UFC wants to put in front of us, he wants to fight the best, and whoever that may be at the time, that’s who he wants to fight.”

The very idea of a Silva-Liddell superfight is probably enough to give Dana White an erection, and for good reason. The pay-per-view numbers on this would likely be record-breaking, and no matter how it goes someone gets a big boost. Liddell, however, is probably a little less enthusiastic.

For one, he recently made known his belief that a victory over Rashad Evans should be enough to net him a title shot. Chances are he didn’t mean the middleweight title. For another, beating the champ from a lower weight class is sort of like being the toughest kid in eighth grade after being held back a year. There’s always a ‘but’ attached to that victory.

Silva has more to gain from this fight than Liddell does, but if there’s one thing we know about “The Iceman” it’s that he’ll do the UFC’s bidding, whatever it happens to be. He’ll also probably make a ton of money to do it, and everyone can go home fat and happy if this fight materializes on a pay-per-view at year’s end.

(Just one girl? Must have been a slow week for Chuck.)

- Chuck Liddell makes his case for a title shot after UFC 88. (MMA Weekly)

- Trying to make sense out of Elite XC’s crazy week. (MMA Rated Radio)

- Chris Horodecki-Dan Lauzon officially on for Affliction: Day of Reckoning (Sherdog)

- Evan Tanner is not a big fan of MMA, as this half-assed UFC 87 breakdown reveals. (Spike.com)

- Dana White and Anderson Silva nominated for “Top 49 Men of 2008″ (AskMen.com)

- How MMA saved JoJo Thompson’s life. (AZCentral.com)

- False blood work prompts fighter and trainer suspensions. (MMA Opinion)

- The most marketable names in sports. (Wall Street Fighter)

- Frat boy movie review of “Death Race.” (Screen Junkies)

- A harrowing tale of the days before internet porn, and how Kate Moss almost ruined everything. (Holy Taco)

From ESPN: The Iceman discusses the hamstring injury that has sidelined him since April, and shares his thoughts on Rashad Evans, who he’ll face at UFC 88 (September 6th, Atlanta). He also says he expects to get the next light-heavyweight title shot after the fight. Sorry, buddy — Thiago’s already called dibs.