(It’s kind of offensive that the UFC promos keep referring to Barao as a “monster.” He’s a human being, okay? An aggressive, scary human being whose mother just happens to be half-cthulhu / Photo via MMAJunkie.)

Today at the Wembley Arena in London, UFC interim bantamweight champ Renan Barao and 22-year-old phenom Michael McDonald will do battle to determine who’s truly the greatest 135-pound fighter in the world, at least until Dominick Cruz finally heals up and puts an end to this ridiculous charade. Alright, so an interim title might not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it’s still a damn good fight, and the rest of the card features a crowd-pleasing assortment of slugfests and future stars.

Leading us through today’s UFC on FUEL 7 liveblog is Alex Giardini, who will be laying down round-by-round results from the main card broadcast after the jump beginning at 3 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and please share your own thoughts in the comments section.

Although Cyrille “Snake” Diabate has yet to truly follow up on the brutal message he sent to the UFC light heavyweight division in his promotional debut victory over Luiz Cane (who was still pretty highly-touted at the time), he has still managed to find himself on a two-fight win streak heading into Saturday night’s UFC on FUEL 7 event. With a 19-8 MMA record including appearances under the PRIDE, Cage Rage, and Deep promotions to his credit, Diabate will need all the help he can get when he takes on Jimi Manuwa, one of the light heavyweight division’s fastest rising prospects who is fresh on the heels of a brilliant UFC debut of his own at UFC on FUEL 5.

While Manuwa may be an absolute terror on the feet, we shouldn’t be quick to forget that Diabate is no slouch in the striking department either. Aside from his background in Muay Thai and shoot boxing, Diabate actually holds seven professional kickboxing matches to his credit as well. Diabate’s final match took place in May of 2005 against fellow UFC staple Michael “The Count” Bisping, who, judging by the Jonathan Goulet-esque hairdo he was sporting at the time, was just beginning to dip his toes into the rave/clubbing/DJ’ing scene that would eventually lead him to compose these kind of symphonies but not even once attempt to play Salieri.

We’ve thrown a full video of the Diabate/Bisping fight above, so check it out and let us know if you think “Snake” stands a snowball’s chance in hell of victory tomorrow night.

-J. Jones

(Chad Griggs is making his 205-pound debut tonight, but his muttonchops will remain at super-heavyweight. / Photo via CombatLifestyle.com. For more photos from this set, click here.)

Before the UFC 154 main card fireworks kick off on pay-per-view, FX is presenting four bouts of preliminary action from Montreal’s Bell Centre, including a battle between fellow Canadian strikers Sam Stout and John Makdessi, and Patrick Cote‘s Octagon return against Alessio Sakara. Your good friend Anthony Gannon will be piling round-by-round results after the jump, starting at 8 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.

(Mutton chops: Giving white people the confidence to shake their rump since the 1800′s.) 

It could just be our queasy stomachs, but we’ve begun to feel more and more trepidation when it comes to announcing a scheduled UFC contest these days, because the likelihood of said contest actually coming to fruition seems borderline impossible.

That being said, it will please all of the lumberjacks who happen to read CagePotato to learn that the man with the coolest facial hair in the biz this side of Casey “fagtastic flameathon of facial distortion” Oxendine, Chad Griggs, will be returning to UFC action on November 17th at UFC 154 in Montreal, Canada to face PRIDE veteran Cyrille Diabate. Griggs, who gained notoriety over the past couple years with his decimations of Bobby Lashley, Valentijn Overeem, and Gian Villante, is coming off a first round submission via arm-triangle loss to Travis “Don’t ask, don’t tell” Browne in his UFC debut at UFC 145. Shortly after the loss, Griggs announced that he would in fact be dropping to 205 lbs to face Phil Davis at UFC on FOX 4, but go figure, suffered an injury and was forced to pull out.

Diabate, on the other hand, is coming off a majority decision victory over late replacement Tom DeBlass at UFC on FUEL 2. “The Snake” has gone win-loss in his five fight UFC career and was originally set to face Fabio Maldonado at UFC 153, but again, an injury blah blah blah things are different now.

Diabate has shown a susceptibility to submissions in the past (as well as an inability to last three rounds), so a matchup with a stand-and-bang aficionado like Griggs should be tailor-made for an exciting, if not winnable opportunity for everyone involved.

Who you got for this one, Potato Nation?

After the jump: A video of Griggs’ slugfest with Villante, because it’s arguably the greatest two and a half minute fight you will ever see.

Hint.

With the UFC returning to Australia with UFC on FX 6 on December 14, the promotion is beginning to announce upcoming bouts. While the organization hasn’t announced a venue for said return yet, the card will be headlined by Hector Lombard attempting to redeem himself after his promotional debut at UFC 149, a completely forgettable three round sleeper against Tim Boetsch. The Cuban-born Australian has been given a second chance against none other than Brazilian leg lock specialist Rousimar Palhares. In other words, he isn’t exactly being given a rebound fight.

We all know about the lofty expectations that Hector Lombard carried into the UFC as a Bellator middleweight champion who hasn’t lost in twenty five fights. While Lombard claims that he was too injured to have been fighting during his UFC 149 clash against Tim Boetsch, many fans were quick to jump off of the Lombard bandwagon after that performance. A loss to perennial almost-contender Rousimar Palhares – especially a boring loss to Paul Harris, if that’s possible – could be enough to send Lombard back to Bellator. Likewise, Palhares has built an impressive 7-3 record in the UFC, yet has choked in the fights that would separate him from the pack and potentially earn him a title shot. If Toquinho can’t secure one of Lombard’s legs, he may be permanently relegated to gatekeeper status. Not exactly a great spot for either guy to be in.

Also, UFC on FX 6 will feature the finals of The Ultimate Fighter: Smashes, including the fight between TUF: Smashes coaches George Sotiropoulos and Ross Pearson. You guys remember Smashes, right? British fighters squaring off against Aussies? The answer to the TUF ratings woes? An opportunity for comments sections across the internet to rant about cockiness and make “That’s not a _____, THIS is a _____!” jokes? Well, you have three months to get familiar with it.

In other booking news…

(Wait…it’s already been FIVE YEARS since these two last fought?!!) 

Trilogy fever has officially struck Zuffa.

Word has it that lightweight scrappers Sam Stout and Spencer Fisher will meet for a third time at UFC on FX 4 this June, in a fight that will be an early front runner for “Fight of the Night” to say the least. Both Fisher and Stout are coming off losses to Thiago Tavares, so it seems a good a time as any to have these two square off once again, because MMA fans eat up rematches like fried Kool-aid nowadays.

Fisher and Stout last met way back at UFN 10 in June of 2007, where Fisher was able to erase the memory of his split decision, “Fight of the Year” earning loss to Stout at UFC 58 by walking away with a close but unanimous decision victory. As of late, however, Fisher has descended further down the lightweight ladder with each performance, to the point that he could be fighting for his job come June 22nd. He has dropped 4 of his last 5, with the lone win coming by way of UD over UFC washout Curt “The War” Warburton at UFC 120. Yes, you read that correctly; Curt Warburton’s nickname is “The War.” What a crafty SOB.

Stout has seen quite a bit more success recently, scoring wins in 4 of his last 6, including a first round starching of Yves Edwards at UFC 131 last year. After his long time trainer and close friend Shawn Tompkins suddenly passed away, however, Stout pulled out of his bout with Dennis Siver to do some “soul searching” along with fellow Team Tompkins members Chris Horodecki and Mark Hominick. Upon returning to the octagon, the aftereffects of such a tragic loss were still noticeable, as both Stout and Hominick suffered defeats to Tavares and Chan Sung Jung, respectively.

In other fight booking news…

(Similar to Georges St.Pierre, MMA pundits, and most fans heading into UFC 129, Dana White was looking right past Jake Shields.)

2011 is approaching it’s final hour, Potato Nation, and when we typically take a look back at the year that was, we often lump things in terms of the very best, and more often than not, the very worst. But even though it has been arguably the biggest year in the sport’s History, it hasn’t gone without it’s fair share of snoozefests, sparring matches, and fights that simply didn’t live up to their own hype. For every Rua/Hendo, there was a Torres/Banuelos, so to speak, that kept us from having a full-on Chuck Liddell style freak out. It’s not that these fights made us angry, it’s just that they failed to make us feel anything.

In a way, they were actually a good thing for the sport, as they raised our appreciation for the epic slugfests, the back and forth brawls, and the technical battles to new heights. So it is for these unsung heroes that we bring you The Ten Most Forgettable Fights of 2011, presented in chronological order.

#10: Jacob Volkmann vs. Antonio Mckee

We know what you’re thinking, Potatoites, you’re thinking, “My God, it’s only been a year since this clown (dis)graced the UFC with that performance?” Well the answer is yes, and almost to the exact date. On January 1st at UFC 125, Anthony Mckee made his long awaited debut in the UFC. And when we say “long awaited,” we mean by none other than Mckee himself. You see, Anthony Mckee followed the James Toney method of trolling his way into the UFC through a shitstorm of self absorbed and ridiculous claims, despite only claiming seven finishes in his previous thirty contests. Well, DW took the bait, and threw Mckee humble wrestler and future threat to Homeland Security, Jacob Volkmann, for his big debut.

(Whether it’s because of horsemeat, hard work or good genetics, these guys don’t get sand kicked in their faces at the beach.)

A few months ago, our friends over at MuscleProdigy.com put together an extensive and widely popular list of The Top 100 Most Jacked NFL Players. Since then, they have been barraged with requests to assemble a similar list with MMA fighters, so to keep the masses happy, they did just that.

The judging criteria they used was similar to the one employed in bodybuilding competition and included points for muscular size, vascularity, leanness, proportionality, aesthetics, and rarity of body type.

All of these factors contributed equally in determining the final order of the list.

For example, a 230 pound heavyweight who has huge arms, but no abs did not score as high as a ripped 155 pound lightweight.

A sliding scale was used to allow for weight variances and the typically increased body fat percentages in fighters at larger weights. For fighters who compete in more than one weight class, they used the weight they typically fight at the most.

If you’re looking for a hard to find workout programs used by your favorite fighter, you can find many of them at Muscle Prodigy.

In the meantime, check out numbers 100 to 91 after the jump.

Who has two thumbs and can’t wait for our liveblog? This guy! Props: MMAJunkie.com

It’s time for UFC 138 on Spike TV, and we’re here because we’re here. Get it, that works because…you know what, just Google it if you don’t get it. We can’t give you all of the answers, after all. Weekend editor Seth Falvo is handling tonight’s liveblog duties, so let’s just get it started. Hit “refresh” early and often.

(At least there will always be this to tide us over.) 

Bad news for any of you Brits out there planning on attending UFC 138 (because, let’s be honest, you will be the only ones doing so.) Word has it that Paul Taylor has suffered minor whiplash as a result of a recent rear-end collision he was involved in and will not be competing in his main card lightweight clash with Anthony Njokuani.

As you may or may not remember, this is not the first time Taylor has been forced to pull out of a fight at the last minute. Back at UFC 112, he was deemed medically unfit to compete just days before his bout with John Gunderson after suffering a severe migraine as a result of his weight cut. This marks the third total fight in Taylor’s UFC career that he has withdrawn from as a result of injury. One more, and he will be entering James Irvin territory, which is second only to Cabrini-Green in terms of places no one ever wants to find themself.

(We ain’t saying no names, but it looks like somebody’s ready for UFC 120. PicProps: SBNation. Vid Interview Props: YouTube/Kimurase. DanaVlog Props: YouTube/UFC)

While some CagePotato editors are lying low until the heat dies down, our trusted Swedish affiliates at Kimura.se were on the scene in London in the days leading up to UFC 120. See, we’ve got people everywhere. Mad props to Kimura for serving up the collection of semi-exclusive prefight interviews that are after the jump, especially since they slapped our logo on them and everything (right there next to OrcBite.com, which feels pretty special). Find out how Mike Pyle has embraced the role of heel against hometown favorite John Hathaway this weekend, how Greg Jackson prepared Yoshihiro Akiyama for Mike Bisping and what Travis Browne plans to do to Cheick Kongo. Also, hear from Cyrille Diabate, Paul Kelly (who fights Godzirra at UFC 123) and Jon Jones, who as of yesterday still sounded pretty sure he was going to fight Ryan Bader next.

For good measure, we even tossed Dana White’s third UFC 120 video blog on the bottom. Even in the worst of times, we still show love. Tune in to see Big DW get exasperated when his own fighters keep predicting a slew of decisions for tonight’s fight card. It ain’t always easy being the most powerful man in MMA, people …

(Honestly, what do you hope to gain making a sign like that? You think Rampage or Rashad is really going to notice your sign and be like "That’s awesome work, man, looks just like me. Would you like to be my guest at the afterparty?" Did you already have those gold-star stickers lying around the house, or did you have to buy them especially for the occasion? You know that Jackson and Evans aren’t twins, right? / Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com.)

The UFC paid out $1,631,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses to the fighters at Saturday’s "Rampage vs. Evans" show, with the victorious Rashad Evans coming out way ahead of the pack with his $435,000 take. Quinton Jackson, Michael Bisping, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira also brought home hefty six-figure salaries. The complete payout list is below; keep in mind that the numbers don’t include additional income from sponsorships, undisclosed "locker room bonuses," and percentages of the pay-per-view revenue, or deductions for taxes, insurance, licensing fees, and underoos. 

Rashad Evans: $435,000 (includes $185,000 win bonus)
def. Quinton Jackson: $250,000

Michael Bisping: $190,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus)
def. Dan Miller: $15,000

Mike Russow: $89,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus, $65,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
def. Todd Duffee: $8,000

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: $185,000 (includes $40,000 win bonus, $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Jason Brilz: $76,000 (includes $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

(Cyrille the Snake’s early kickboxing highlights. Props: Gorgeous PX)

UFC 114: Rampage vs. Evans goes down this coming Saturday in Las Vegas, with two new faces casting their fates to the wind in the prelims, both of whom have peripheral connections to TUF 9. Who will survive and what will be left of them? Get to know the guys below, and swing by MMA Fightpicker to make your UFC 114 predictions…

CYRILLE DIABATE (LHW)
Experience: 16-6-1 record competing around the world for promotions like Cage Rage, 2H2H, PRIDE, and ShoXC. Has won nine of his last ten fights, with eight of those wins coming via stoppage in the first two rounds.
Will be facing: Luis Cane (10-2 w/1 no-contest, 3-2 UFC)
Lowdown: A veteran kickboxer and mixed martial artist, "The Snake" has been putting the hurt on people since the ’90s. Diabate spends part of his time training at Team Quest in Temecula, and appeared on TUF 9 last year as Team USA’s striking coach, but is doing most of the preparation for this fight in his native France. Standing 6’6", he tends to rely on his endless reach and striking prowess, but says he’s been concentrating on wrestling recently to become a more complete fighter. He hasn’t lost an MMA match since September 2006, when he was nearly stomped to death by Mauricio Rua at PRIDE Final Conflict Absolute.

(ShoXC weigh-ins become an impromptu beach party. Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

Last night’s ShoXC card from Fresno, Calif. had its share of interesting bouts, but the big news coming out of the Pro Elite camp is that the company has canceled another show, this time in the form of one its smaller confederates across the pond. Contenders 11, scheduled to take place in the UK today, has been called off. Five Ounces of Pain also reports that Cage Rage — another Pro Elite organization — has suffered a rash of layoffs and is down to only three employees. Somehow during all of this, the Pro Elite stock price jumped from $2.50 to $8.00 a share on Friday, even amid reports that they were canceling their September 20 event. As they say on the internet, WTF!?!

Something is going on with Pro Elite, no doubt, but what? Could it be that Pro Elite executives have discovered oil underneath the grounds where their offices lie, and now they’re going to quit putting on MMA shows altogether and move their families to big mansions in Beverly Hills, complete with indoor plumbing and cement ponds? There is very little evidence for this hypothesis at the moment, but we’re going to go ahead and say yes, this is precisely what is happening. You heard it here first.

As for last night’s show, yeah, well, here you go:

Jared Hamman def. Po’ai Suganuma via TKO (strikes) at 2:34 of round 1
Fabricio Camoes def. Sammy Morgan via submission (rear naked choke) at 0:47 of round 1
Cyrille Dibate def. Jaime Fletcher via unanimous decision
Rosi Sexton def. Debi Purcell via split decision
Ray Lizama def. Keith Berry via TKO (strikes) at 2:15 of round 2
Katrina Alendale def. Melanie La’Croix via unanimous decision
Roberto Vargas def. Ralph Lopez via split decision
Jesse Brock def. Josh Rave via unanimous decision
Lucas Gumaza def. Kenny Johnson via split decision
David “Tarzan” Douglas def. William Jacobson via TKO (corner stoppage) at 1:12 of round 1