(Fight night Danavlog reveals that someone is a little self-conscious about his weight.)

The UFC paid out $762,000 in base fighter payroll for UFC 96 in Columbus, Ohio, and they dispersed this money according to their usual principles: from each according to his ability, to each according to his marketability.  Full disclosed payout figures are below.  For a more accurate accounting, imagine Rampage Jackson, Keith Jardine, and Matt Hamill all pocketing an extra $60,000 for their end of the night bonuses:

Quinton Jackson — $325,000 (includes $100,000 win bonus)
Keith Jardine — $55,000
Shane Carwin — $32,000 (includes $16,000 win bonus)
Gabriel Gonzaga: $60,000
Matt Brown — $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
Pete Sell — $12,000
Matt Hamill — $40,000 ($20,000 win bonus)
Mark Munoz — $12,000
Gray Maynard — $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
Jim Miller — $9,000
Tamdan McCrory — $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
Ryan Madigan — $3,000
Kendall Grove — $44,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus)
Jason Day — $5,000
Jason Brilz — $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
Tim Boetsch — $12,000
Brandon Vera — $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
Michael Patt — $5,000
Shane Nelson — $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus
Aaron Riley — $6,000

Above: MMA/video-game mashup artist lookoutawhale created this Dana White/Super Mario Bros tribute for a UG contest to win tickets to DW’s St. Patrick’s Day party in Boston, and it’s pretty Fuk’n amazing. If only dealing with your rivals was as simple as jumping on their heads.

Below: The more I watch Dan Quinn‘s videos, the more I’m convinced that he’s not a real person, but a highly trained actor playing a character named "Dan Quinn," and the whole YouTube video thing is just a brilliant guerilla marketing campaign for Starwest Botanicals. Because honestly, how can this person not be in on the joke? Yes, that’s his mom who comes by to bust Dan’s weed party at the 4:44 mark, and remind him that "that thing is still simmering." So yes, he lives with his mother. He also alludes to a knowledge about methamphetamine that rivals his knowledge about marijuana and stevia. Why are we not surprised?

After the jump: Some lucky dickhead teaches you how to reverse guard, with the help of two very sexy girls. The last shot = possibly NSFW, totally OMFG.

(Mir talks with the Jiminy Glick of sports interviewers at the Arnold Classic.  Props: MMA Fanhouse.)

Reports are coming in from all sides regarding Frank Mir’s readiness to fight Brock Lesnar at UFC 98.  Dana White says he still doesn’t think the fight is off, while Mir is saying otherwise.  

Sources tell us that Mir’s camp asked the UFC not to announce the fight earlier this week since the champ had just had knee surgery that would prevent him from training other than on a treadmill or in a pool for 4-6 weeks.  The UFC apparently ignored these wishes and announced the fight anyway, which they’ll probably have to scrap if they can’t convince Mir that it’s no biggie for him to be unable to train before the biggest fight of his life.

So what will the UFC do for a main event in May?  The rumor is they may try and replace the heavyweight bout with Rashad Evans making his first title defense against either “Rampage” Jackson or Lyoto Machida.  If true, it would salvage the May event, while also finally indicating that the UFC is no longer in denial about the Mir-Lesnar fight is off.  As any therapist will tell you, acceptance is a painful but necessary first step.

("Ladies, do you mind? Evans-Machida is about to start.")

Great news for cheese-steak gobbling Ryan Howard fans — last Friday, Pennsylvania officially approved the regulation of mixed martial arts, allowing for MMA events to take place there this year. And you know what that means:

Added MMA Weekly:

2009 has already seen the UFC make its first appearance in Ireland, and the organization is preparing for its upcoming debuts in Tennessee (Condit vs. Kampmann on April 1st) and Oregon (UFC 101 in August). New York is far from a done deal, but Philadelphian UFC fans may want to keep their schedules clear this fall.

(Well, at least you and Rude Boy will finally be able to open that taco stand you’ve been talking about for the last five years. Again, props to CombatLifestyle.)

Though he was successful in his last performance — a split-decision victory over Evan Tanner at the TUF 7 finale last June — Kendall Grove‘s previous back-to-back losses still seem to be fresh in Dana White’s mind. As the UFC prez told USA Today, in regards to Grove’s UFC 96 matchup with Jason Day:

It’s cool, Dana — we forget about Travis Lutter sometimes, too. Anyway, that’s what we call "tough love." Is it possible that DW is suggesting that Da Spyder’s job is on the line just to add another hook to Saturday’s show, which has very little heat behind it right now? Grove had better win, just in case his boss backs up his words.

Also in the USA Today article, Dana expressed frustration at Keith Jardine’s recent comments that he wouldn’t fight his friend and teammate Rashad Evans for the UFC’s light-heavyweight title if he was given the opportunity:

It is aggravating when team alliances get in the way of compelling matchups (see also: Anderson Silva staying out of the light-heavyweight division because "this belt belongs to Lyoto"), but you can’t force people to fight each other. Danny Trejo tried that once, and wound up getting shot in the gut by Ken Shamrock’s wife. You just never know how people will react when their backs are against the wall…

Dana White’s UFC 96 video blog, ep. 2 – Watch more free videos

In this edition of the UFC 96 video blog, Dana White and the rest of the traveling circus dazzle Deutschland in their promo tour for UFC 99 this summer.  ‘But wait a minute,’ you’re saying to yourself, ‘isn’t this video blog supposed to be about hyping this weekend’s event on an entirely different continent?’  To which Dana White would respond: “Fuck yourself, it’s only Wednesday you pussy.”

Highlights of this episode include a touching conversation between White and Wanderlei Silva, who displays the ability to laugh at himself and his Borat-like grasp of the English language, as well as a trip to a weirdo German talk show with a moving stage, and of course an obligatory shot at Tito Ortiz.  In other words, a good time is had by all.

After the jump, a strange, quick knockout from an amateur MMA bout in Scotland.  Dude’s going to need an ice pack when he wakes up.

"Here we go. Bloggin’ again." So says Dana White after he and Lorenzo sell some snake oil to a group of Stanford Business students, telling them that their friendship is what has kept the UFC successful. Plus, it’s all about the ride. You can pretty much skip past 2:19-4:44, in which Lorenzo tells a convoluted shaggy dog story (literally/figuratively) which doesn’t really go anywhere. You can also skip through 4:45-6:00 in which Dana plays Pac-Man in his garage. Man, I can’t imagine what landed on the cutting-room floor this time around. Then, Dana’s daughter shows up in an Ed Hardy shirt (LOL, what a douchebag) and his son disses his baldness. A lot of family time, basically, ending with Dana and Lorenzo reunited and heading to Germany. In a way, this vlog entry is much like UFC 96 itself — only interesting if you’re a hardcore fan.

Below: Rejoice! Genghis Con has created a sequel to his groovy Fedor Emelianenko-based film The Last Russian Emperor. Chapter 2 focuses on Fedor’s last five victories (Hunt, Lindland, Choi, Sylvia, Arlovski), with some great behind-the-scenes footage peppered in. The exchange between Aleks and Andrei at the 6:13 mark FTW.

(Dee-Dubs hangs out at Wasted Space with House of Pain’s DJ Lethal [top] and Everlast [in hat]. And some tool named Jason Giambi. Photo courtesy of VegasNews.)

From a press release posted this weekend on MixedMartialArts.com:

(Courtesy of youtube.com/UFC)

If you felt a little down in the dumps last week, it’s probably because Dana White hasn’t been brightening your life with his UFC video blogs. As he explains, you only get those for pay-per-view shows. But because you’ve been so good, he’ll make an exception. In this installment, Dan Henderson sexually harasses the boss ("you got man boobs"), we get a look at one of Zuffa’s tape vaults, Dana spends a little time with his kids — LOL @ Frac‘s Spanish skills — crazy Diego Sanchez drops some rays of positivity, DW presses flesh in the pre-weigh-in receiving line, and tells his fighters to shake off the Internet haters. I gotta get me some of that instant snow.

(Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas.)
 
For nearly two years, UFC 66 — which featured the light-heavyweight title bout between the organization’s two biggest stars, Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz — was the UFC’s best-selling pay-per-view card of all time, with an estimated 1,050,000 buys. Few UFC events even came close to the lofty record, until UFC 91 in November almost surpassed it on the strength of the Couture/Lesnar superfight, bringing in a reported 1,010,000 buys. A month later, the stacked-to-death "Ultimate 2008" card smashed the old record with 1,200,000 buys. And now, if Dana White is to be believed, last Saturday’s UFC 94 show has broken the record again, with an estimated 1,300,000+ pay-per-view buys. That figure even beats the 1,250,000 buys that the Oscar De La Hoya/Manny Pacquiao boxing match pulled down in December. 

Could the UFC be a recession-proof business, with a steadily growing base of consumers? Or are the killer numbers for St. Pierre vs. Penn 2 a direct result of the event’s marketing blitz, which included the flashy new documentary series UFC Primetime? And how long will this new record last? Though there are no bonafide superfights on the schedule right now, DW reminds us that we have Mir/Lesnar, Penn/Florian, Rashad Evans’s first title defense, and Randy Couture’s next fight coming up, so there’s no shortage of great matchups to be had. Meanwhile, the UFC’s competition is thrilled to get 150,000-200,000 buys, which just illustrates the gulf in success between the top MMA outfit in the world and everybody else.

Unfortunately, not all is rosy in the financial realm of Zuffa. Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta’s Station Casinos empire announced that it would be going through a "prepackaged bankruptcy" to avoid being crushed by the $2 billion in debts it accrued when the company went private in 2007. Station has been one of the hardest-hit casino groups during the current economic downturn, which has greatly affected Las Vegas’s tourism and real estate markets.

(Here comes the pain…)

Cain Velasquez is a former All-American wrestler and undefeated MMA fighter who has yet to see what the second round looks like in his pro career.  This Saturday at UFC Fight Night 17 he faces Octagon newbie Denis Stojnic, and all indications are that Velasquez’s undefeated streak will still be intact on Sunday morning.  

In this exclusive interview, Velasquez talks with us about the choice of opponents, his transition from wrestling to MMA, and his thoughts on AKA’s recent dust-up with the UFC over the video game licensing deal.

CagePotato.com: You’re facing a guy who’s making his UFC debut in Denis Stojnic.  What do you know about him and how have you been preparing for him?

The only thing I know about him is from watching YouTube videos of him.  He’s an aggressive fighter, he throws some wild punches, and he’s an extremely tough dude.  I’m working on turning the corner, not really standing there and banging with him, but looking for shots from there for the takedown.

You’re 4-0 and beat a fairly established UFC fighter in Jake O’Brien your last time out.  Why do you think the UFC decided to put you up against a guy stepping into the Octagon for the first time?

I’m not really sure, but they did.  I’m glad they did because that’s just more ring time for me.  When I get up to the big guys, the big names, I’ll be more ready.

(With tailored suits like that he’s just as slick outside the Octagon.)

After an exhausting and entertaining UFC 94, we sat down with our Cage Potato Super Computer and churned out the arbitrary numerical data for the relevant parties.  It wasn’t easy, but dammit, it was necessary.

Georges St. Pierre +361

Whether you think he was greased up or not, he put a beating on B.J. Penn that can’t be explained away (Vaseline didn’t help him dodge jabs or score takedowns, after all).  He showed up in great shape, with a great game plan, and proceeded to do exactly what he said he would.  GSP is an absolute monster, and at just 27 years old he’ll dominate the division for the foreseeable future.  Good luck, Thiago Alves.  You’ll need it.

B.J. Penn -86

He’s still the best lightweight in the world.  Let’s hope this beating convinced him to stay in the division where he truly belongs.  If you’re going to be the smaller man in the fight, you’d better be more active and in better shape.  He was neither, and he paid the price.  Now give KenFlo his shot.

Vaseline + 590

To hear Penn’s trainers talk, you’d think it was a magical substance.  Just a dash and you become a guard-passing, ground-and-pounding machine.  We may find out how responsible it is for GSP’s success, because after this incident the athletic commissions will be watching closely, as will the UFC.

The most interesting part of this UFC 94 video blog comes at around the 9:50 mark, when Dana White becomes clearly upset over the Georges St. Pierre greasing incident and remarks, “Georges is in trouble.”  Well, maybe not Georges so much as the cornerman who rubbed him down, though I’m inclined to believe Greg Jackson’s explanation, and also inclined to agree with Dana’s assertion that a little Vaseline did not change the outcome of this fight, one way or another.  Still doesn’t make it a good idea, though.

Other moments worth seeing here: Dana consoles a distraught Stephan Bonnar, Joe Rogan and Eddie Bravo gush over Jon Jones, and Dana watches Akihiro Gono and his camp rehearse their elaborate Octagon entrance, which was truly a thing to behold.  When Gono and his boys walked out in those matching evening gowns, pausing every few steps to get their dance on, you could feel the crowd going through a range of emotions.  First came shock, then slight amusement, then genuine appreciation.  Honestly, it was the best entrance in the history of MMA.

In the post-fight press conference a reporter asked Dana what he thought of a guy who came out in drag and got his ass kicked.  Dana pointed out that a) a lot of people are going to get their ass kicked against Jon Fitch, and b) he loves Gono and what he brings to a UFC event.  Then he conceded: “But if you’re going to wear a dress you probably better win.”

I know some people will make the argument that Gono would have been better served focusing more time and energy on his preparation for the fight than on his entrance, but let’s be real.  Gono was going to get beat up with or without the awesome, cross-dressing entrance.  Might as well have some fun before the pain begins.

(Props: UFC‘s e-mail newsletter)

If you’ll be in Las Vegas for tomorrow night’s fights, don’t forget to stop by LAX afterwards to party with Our Great Lord Satan. Special appearance by Heidi and Spencer!

You know, it’s nice that even as hard as Dana White works he still finds time for a little fun, mainly by busting the balls of subordinates and playing office pranks on co-workers.  Whatever gets you through the day, right?  Although you can’t help but feel that Dana might not be as fun-loving were he on the business end of these pranks (remember the shock pen?).  But I guess that’s one advantage of being the boss.  The video blog cameraman aptly sums up his situation at the end of this installment, saying: “It’s like National Geographic.  They don’t stop the lions from eating the gazelles; they just film it.”

In other UFC 94 news, many of you have noticed that there’s no official Cage Potato Pick-em Contest for this event, mainly because we’ve been giving away so much stuff we’re pretty tapped at the moment.  That doesn’t mean you can’t still play for pride though, as the more enterprising among you have discovered.  

Head on over to our forums right now and enter your picks for a chance to win…a swift kick in the balls?  Dammit, you guys aren’t using our forums to try and turn this into one of your weirdo fetish sites again, are you?  Either way, best of luck to you all in the informal UFC 94 Pick-em Contest.

Dana White’s UFC 94 video blog, episode 3 – Watch more free videos

Dana White handles some media obligations, gets covered in make-up, and divides his time between his “Irish mob TV show” and the build-up to UFC 94.  Just in case he didn’t have enough to worry about, his driver gets pulled over in NYC for talking on his cell phone.  Dana attempts to smooth things over with some fun little jokes about the guy’s national heritage.  Maybe not the best time for that.

Oh, Jerry Millen.  Is it not enough that you ripped off Dana White’s video blog?  Now you have to try and propel yourself into the limelight using some ill-advised, sorority girl-style text message campaign?  Who does that?

After the jump, B.J. Penn gets himself DQ’d at a grappling tournament.

Dana White’s UFC 94 video blog, episode 2 – Watch more Free Videos

In the second episode of Dana White’s UFC 94 video blog we get a look inside the taping of “The Ultimate Fighter,” and encounter a man identified as Dana White Sr.  Could this really be the father of the UFC prez?  The brief look we get at their relationship seems contentious yet oddly loving enough.  After that it’s off to NYC for more Pinkberry (so no more Men’s Health cover shoots any time soon, then?) and another race through the city streets.  Oh, to be rich and loaded on sugar.  Nothing at all about GSP-Penn in this episode, by the way.

Andrei Arlovski comes home to Chicago and thanks his fans for their support after his loss, which he attributes to a stupid mistake.  His cameraman, playing the role of the enabling sycophant, insists it was just necessary risk-taking, but Andrei knows better.  He also tosses another jab at “pee-pee-pee taster” Tim Sylvia, because that always makes a man feel better when he’s down in the dumps.

Dana White’s first video blogging effort for UFC 94 seems intent on answering the question: who do pro fighters favor in this weekend’s B.J. Penn-Georges St. Pierre clash?  Fairly consistently, it seems like they think Penn has it wrapped up.  Some of that might be because Penn has kicked their ass or GSP has kicked the ass of their teammate, depending on who you’re asking.  

The other highlight near the end of the video is the appearance of Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, who is asked by Dana, “You ready to come fight here?”  By here, he means the WEC, where this bad boy is being filmed.  Yamamoto is hindered slightly by a language barrier, but he replies clearly, “Yeah, I want.”  Hey, sounds like a binding verbal contract to us.

(Andrei looks ripped.  Fedor looks chubby.  Yep, everything went as expected at the Affliction weigh-ins.)

– Oh yeah, Fedor knows how to fight a good striker.  (USA Today)

– Donald Trump Jr. talks Dana White, UFC.  (MMA Payout)

– Mike Chiappetta tells MMA fans, ‘Yes, we can.’  (NBC Sports)

– One last look at Arlovski’s boxing skillz.  (MMA Fanhouse)

– Brit boxers don’t sweat the UFC, or so they say.  (The Sun)

– The New York Times goes from covering to lambasting MMA.  (NYT)

– Foot injury sidelines Mike Swick for at least three months.  (Five Ounces)

– "Fighting Chance" promises to be the oddest MMA movie yet.  (Al.com)

– Top 5 MMA spectator brawls.  (MMA Journalist)

– Who’s afraid of Mark Cuban?  Major League Baseball.  (Scores Report)

– "Notorious" is just aiiiight.  (Bullz-Eye.com)

– Inside the Taco: New Employees.  (Holy Taco)

– 13 insanely horrible local TV ads.  (Screen Junkies)

– Cop knocks protester out cold.  (Nothing Toxic)

Fight-day installments of the Danavlog tend to be a lot more interesting than other episodes from the previous week, and the 1/17 video was no exception. It opens with DW chatting with Michael Bisping before they do a demonstration of UFC Undisputed in Dublin. Bisping reminisces about the days when he was unbeatable at Street Fighter II. He’s also pleased with the U.K. team that he’ll be coaching on TUF, and very psyched to be a part of it. During the video game demo, Dana White plays as Quinton Jackson, while the Count plays as himself. The simulated fight goes pretty much how it would if Bisping were to actually fight Rampage.

At the fights, Alistair Overeem stops by to to say hello to the UFC prez; giddy as a schoolgirl, Dana starts squeezing his muscles. Overeem points out that he’s not as big as Brock Lesnar. Dana asks him if he’s ready to fight in the UFC, and Overeem says he is if management can work it out. K-1 super-heavyweight champ Semmy Schilt is also in attendance, and Dana makes it clear that he’d be welcome in the Octagon too. Later, Joe Rogan brutally mocks a Dana White superfan directly behind her back, Mauricio Rua is offered the Chuck Liddell fight, and Dana calls Dublin "pound-for-pound the best fuckin’ place we’ve ever been."

After the jump: The trailer for Ultimate Champion, another underground cage-fighting flick starring master thespian Stephan Bonnar. One day, the Wayans Brothers are going to make a parody of these movies and call it Never Submit, Surrender, or Back Down While Fighting Your Redbelt in the Confessions of a Pit Fighter. Hey, if Paul Blart can be the #1 movie in America…

(‘This guy…..appears to be wearing some kind of weird robe.’)

Dana White and Alistair Oveerem are living it up at UFC 93 in this picture from our friends at Free Fight Videos.  Semmy Schilt also made it out to the event, but man does Dana ever look chummy with "The Demolition Man."  Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but does the look on Overeem’s face say, ‘I’m putting my arm around this man because he is my new boss,’ to you?

Dana White’s UFC 93 video blog, episode 5 – Watch more free videos

Former American League Rookie of the Year Marty Cordova has been a consistent fixture in Dana White’s UFC 93 video blogs this week, and we have no idea why.  At first it was just him hanging around in the background, playing with his hair and trying to appear unbothered by Dana’s harassment.  Now he takes center stage to determine who can run a faster mile.  When video blog historians look back on this decades from now, they will probably pinpoint this as the exact moment that Dana White’s video blog jumped the shark.  No MMA at all in this one.  Just Dana berating an ex-pro baseball player as they both run on treadmills.

Over at Xtreme Couture Jay Hieron and Chris Horodecki are getting set for their Affliction bouts next weekend.  Watch as Horodecki auditions for a job in the organization’s front office by calling this “the biggest show ever” in his interview with Raw Vegas.  Riiight.  And tickets are selling like hot cakes.  Delicious, fluffy, motherfucking hot cakes.

After the jump, a prediction for UFC 93’s main event, as told by "Undisputed."

(‘To the death, Georges.  To the death.  Right after I get back from vacation.’)

As if you couldn’t tell from the high production values in last night’s debut episode of “UFC Primetime” on Spike TV, that thing didn’t come cheap.  The pricetag for the entire series is $1.7 million, which is a lot when you consider that your run-of-the-mill “Countdown” show only costs about $200,000.  But judging by the ratings numbers from last night’s premiere episode, it may prove to be worth it.

MMA Payout reports that the show drew nearly 1.5 million viewers (1,494,000 to be exact), according to ratings estimates.  In case you’re curious how that compares to the “Countdown” ratings, the best that show ever managed to draw in its first airing was 782,000 viewers.  That means “UFC Primetime” drew nearly twice as well as the best “Countdown” ever, and it has the added benefit of being a recurring series, so we can see how many of those people come back for more next week.

But here’s the real question: will the high ratings translate into big pay-per-view buys?  Probably.  “Countdown” ratings have proven to be a fairly decent barometer for how a given PPV event will sell, and these kinds of numbers should give the UFC reason to be very optimistic about the potential for UFC 94.  Then again, Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn II was bound to be a huge event anyway, so it will be difficult to say how much “Primetime” helped.

Either way, as long as the UFC is putting out something this good, and as long as they keep employing our boy Ariel Helwani (who is hopefully seeing a big chunk of that $1.7 million, because we need to borrow some cash to cover our gambling losses after UFC 92), we aren’t complaining.  Let’s just hope this success means more “Primetimes” in the future.

Dana White’s UFC 93 video blog, episode 4 – Watch more free videos

We finally get a look at Dana White’s video blogger at the start of episode four in the UFC 93 series, and while the task of following the UFC prez around with a video camera may not sound so difficult, it seems like where you really earn your money is when it comes time to absorb some verbal abuse.  Other highlights include a lengthy conversation with Irish boxer Barry McGuigan, and then we end with a rant as Dana realizes he was swindled by 82-year-old PR Director Jim Burn during their bet to see who could navigate the streets of NYC faster.  Riveting stuff, in other words.

In a preview of the upcoming episode of "Inside MMA" we’re talking drummer greats with Josh Barnett, Gilbert Yvel, and author of Blood in the Cage, L. Jon Wertheim, who also happens to be a friend of the Potato.  Everybody seems willing to have a good time and mention their favorite rock drummer, except that Gilbert.  Does anything interest that dude besides weird tattoos and poking people in the eyes?

Dana White’s UFC 93 video blog, episode 3 – Watch more free videos

Dana White’s latest video-blogging effort is very long but not very interesting.  He pumps a little iron, tries to convert kilograms to pounds, wanders around Dublin, and strikes up conversations with a few fighters.  Yawn.  Just goes to show that the tedium of anyone’s daily life is still boring, even if they’re the head of the UFC.

Alan Belcher seems to think he’s gotten a good deal for himself in securing a bout with Denis Kang, who’s making his UFC debut this Saturday.  Oddsmakers certainly don’t agree, but as Belcher points out, the vibe from the crowd in the UFC is very different from Japan.  Just how much that will affect Kang, who’s been around in this sport for a while now, that remains to be seen.

After the jump, Affliction hypes Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral with some help from Loretta Hunt and Josh Gross.

UFC Primetime on Spike

If you’re watching this preview of "UFC Primetime" — the 24/7 type show that the UFC has put together to hype the Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn fight — and thinking that it looks like the best piece of MMA promo you’ve ever seen, you’re probably right.  Our good buddy Ariel Helwani has been working on it and he swears we’ll like what we see when the first episode premieres this Wednesday night, so don’t miss it.

UFC 93 video blog, episode 2 – Watch more free videos

Here’s the next installment in Dana White’s UFC 93 video blog, where the UFC prez and Rich Franklin commiserate over England’s shitty food, Dana confronts Dan Henderson on his perceived shit-talking, and more fun with the British TUF 9 tryouts.  Man, that Dana White sure loves his Guitar Hero, doesn’t he?  Guess you need something to do when you spend so much time traveling, and it’s either that or read fucking books.

(Props: BloodyElbow)

Though it won’t be televised in the U.S. for some inexplicable reason, the UFC taped a "Countdown" special for #93 that is airing in the U.K. on Setanta Sports and on UFC.com. Here’s part one, which covers the long-awaited meeting of Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson. 8:56-9:33 is pretty priceless; Ace seems to be taking interview cues from the Forrest Griffin school of deadpan humor. You can check out parts 2-5 on the UFC Direct Videos YouTube channel for more pre-fight trash-talk, as well as the origin story of Mauricio Rua and the improbable comeback story of Mark Coleman.   

(Props: TheGARV)

Even though TUF 9 still hasn’t locked down their Team U.S. coach, Dana White reveals in his new video blog that taping of the first two episodes is already kicking off at Wolfslair Academy. Also, this Wednesday will see the premiere of UFC Primetime, the hype-show for St. Pierre vs. Penn 2. (Also known as "The Baddest Motherfucking Countdown Show You Will Ever See.") Now that that’s out of the way, we can focus on the action — a wild, driving vs. walking race through the streets of Manhattan, Dana making an appearance at a SpikeTV conference (notice how unamused he looks when he’s introduced to the crowd with a highlight reel of him dropping F-bombs), editing of the aforementioned Primetime special, a visit to Pinkberry, and a glimpse inside Wolfslair before the elimination fights.

Bonus, after the jump: Mike Tyson’s ill-fated appearance as an MMA ref at a World Cage Fighting Championships event in March 2006. I have to say, that first stand-up due to inactivity on the ground might have been a little premature… 

 
(Let’s remember the good times. Props: Old, Bald, & Irish.)

First EliteXC tanked, leaving Gina Carano without an organization to call home.  But if that wasn’t enough of a kick in the ovaries, American Gladiators has also been cancelled.  We can’t say we didn’t see it coming, but it’s sad nonetheless.  If only the new American Gladiators could have captured some this kind of magic from the old AG, maybe they’d still be around.  Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  Not only does this mean we may never again see “Crush” tossing old ladies around in a unitard, it also means Hulk Hogan is being released back into the wild, so look out.  

But just when all Carano’s revenue streams look to be drying up, it sounds as if Dana White may actually be serious about getting her signed.  The UFC prez told Five Ounces of Pain’s Gary Herman that Carano, Robbie Lawler, and Jake Shields are all former EliteXC fighters he’d like to sign.  He also chastised fighters for signing with “fly by night companies,” saying they were “wasting their time.”

There you have it, young fighters not in the UFC.  Don’t sign with organizations other than the UFC or you’ll be wasting your time.  Just keep fighting one-offs in tiny regional shows for almost no money.  Then, after the UFC signs you and later cuts you, it won’t be so hard to re-adjust to your life of poverty and despair.  See?  Circle of freaking life.

UFC 92 Video Blog – Watch more free videos

Even though Dana White is a millionaire with fancy cars and a private jet to fly around in, no material object seems to bring him as much pleasure as that shock pen.  He’s still pulling the prank at UFC 92, even on “Rampage” Jackson, who just wants to relax at Octagonside after knocking Wanderlei Silva senseless.  Come on, Dana.  Time and a place, man.

Skip to the 5:37 mark and you can actually see Dana White beginning to realize that Steve Mazzagatti is not a good ref.  He’s less adamant about it than those around him, but that is not the way a man who’s happy about what he’s seeing chews gum.

After the jump, episode two of "Arlovski 360," in which boxing trainer Freddie Roach lays out the game plan that  he thinks will beat Fedor Emelianenko.  It seems…optimistic.

Spend some quality family time with Dana White over the holidays.  Long story short, Dana White loves a good prank.  Even the same prank.  Over and over again.  Also, Dana White is riiiiiiiich.  So who’s going to get pissed?  Not Rashad Evans, apparently.

Weigh-in video is after the jump.