(Oh, come on, Vinny. You know that a belt is worthless once it has been in the bathroom! Photo courtesy of @VinnyMMA) 

Although we feel like we didn’t really get to know Vinny Magalhaes that well during his run on TUF 8 that took him all the way to the show’s finals, watching how he’s responded to his whole M-1 contract debacle has only endeared us to the guy all the more.

If you’re not familiar with the story, we’ll give you the gist: After winning the M-1 Light Heavyweight title back in October of 2011, Magalhaes got fed up with the promotion after they failed to offer him a single title defense under his contract, opting to attempt and resign him under a new one instead. M-1 Global Director of Operations Evgeni Kogan began a “he said/she said” contract dispute with Magalhaes that left the ADCC champion on the shelf for the rest of 2011 and all of 2012 to this point. After finally being told that he has been released from his contract, Vinny decided to put his belt up for sale on Ebay, figuring that it would at least sell for the 20 dollars worth of scrap metal it was composed of.

The bidding officially began on May 13th, and at a steal of just nine cents. It now stands at 14,600 dollars. 

What. The. Shit.

(Props: eBay via CP reader Simon S.)

As you might recall, Wes Sims was living under a bridge before he was selected for TUF 10, and the show represented his best chance to turn his life and career around. Sadly, Justin Wren had other plans for him. Cut to present-day, where an eBay seller named "iwawrestling" from Lancaster, OH — who claims to be Wes Sims — is selling a skull cap that he either stole from Kimbo Slice, or accepted as a gift, or bought at a dollar store and is now trying to pass off as Kimbo’s. Either way, it’s on the auction block for the super-low price of $28:

Our first reaction is to thank Wes for not turning to porn in order to make ends meet. But for some reason this feels even less respectable. Without an autograph on the hat, or a certificate of authenticity signed by Kimbo himself, it’s basically just a skull cap that Sims is trying to get a few bucks for. Maybe Sam’s Club still needs a tire technician, Wes. Please look into it.

(Awww, that’s disturbing.)

Are you a huge Gina Carano fan looking for the perfect piece of memorabilia to let everyone know that your fascination with her has gone from strange to unsettling?  Then this is your lucky day.  Out friends at Fightlinker found someone on Ebay who is selling an autographed Gina Carano sports bra.  We don’t know what search the Fightlinker boys were doing when they stumbled upon this, but we can probably go ahead and assume it was weird.

This guy, however, takes weird to a whole new level.  He claims he got Gina to sign this at Xtreme Couture, and then he went and had it framed.  Which is, you know, what you do with ladies undergarments that have become collector’s items.  Now he’s giving you the chance to bid on it, starting at just $99.99 (plus shipping and handling).

Think of all the things you could do with it.  You could put it on your wall to scare off dates that you bring home.  You could lay it out on your bed and lie down next to it at night.  You could even give it as an entirely inappropriate gift to your girlfriend!  The possibilities are endless…

Sort of Related: Pieces of Rampage’s Tire For Sale

(Kimbo posing with Tappy McTapsalot.)

Alright, so that may be a bit of a stretch. But Variety reports that Showtime subscriptions jumped 11% in the fourth quarter of 2007; parent company CBS Corp.’s profit fell 19% in the same period. We’d imagine that many of those new subscribers were people who signed up just to see Kimbo Slice destroy Bo Cantrell at EliteXC: Renegade. It sure as hell wasn’t for The Tudors.

In other dollar-related news…

— “Strikeforce at the Dome” took in more money than any other combat-sport event ever held in Washington state. 7,089 disappointed fans packed the Tacoma Dome and gave up $300,000 of their money, which they immediately regretted.

— Rich Franklin has put the Hummer H2 he was given for being a coach on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter up for auction on eBay. The starting bid is 80 grand, and you can “Buy It Now” for $125,000. The auction ends on March 2nd, and 10% of the proceeds will go to the Keep it in the Ring Foundation, which channels youthful aggression through after-school sports and martial arts programs. We hope Franklin is more successful at this eBay thing than Ricco Rodriguez, who eventually settled for $250, a dozen Krispy Kremes, and a pack of smokes.

(“The first rule of Fight Club is to screw over as many fans as possible.”)

The UFC had originally planned to offer tickets to UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre 2″ in three installments — UFC Fight Club members would get the first crack at ‘em on 2/3, newsletter subscribers would get their opportunity today, and the rest would be released to Ticketmaster and the Bell Centre box office this Friday. Well, change of plans. Due to Fight Club members pouncing on the tix like a pack of sex-crazed wolverines, there are only a small amount tickets to the Montreal event remaining, and newsletter subscribers were informed this morning — via newsletter, ironically — that their newsletter-subscriber status don’t mean shit:

Due to incredible demand, nearly all of the tickets to UFC® 83: SERRA vs. ST-PIERRE 2 have been purchased by members of UFC® Fight Club in its exclusive presale which started on Sunday. Over 21,000 people will rock the Bell Centre on Saturday, April 19th, and the vast majority of them will be UFC® Fight Club members. The UFC® organization is honored to welcome so many of its most devoted fans to the event that night.

Because of the unprecedented size of this presale, the normal UFC® Newsletter Presale will not take place. The scheduled public onsale date for this event is this Friday, February 8 at 12pm ET. On that date and time, a very limited number of tickets will be released for sale via Ticketmaster and at the Bell Centre Box Office.

If you’re an average Joe Fanboy with no connections, good luck — eBay scalpers are currently listing the tickets for as much as $2,000 each. May they all get cancer of the A.I.D.S. of the leukemia of the eyes.

You know how bands on tour will sometimes add a concert date if demand in a particular city is especially high? I’m thinking that’s what the UFC should do — a three-night run at the Bell Centre. The entire card would be fought each night, with the fighters who win two out of three in their matchups getting the official “W” on their record. Fans would be treated to standards like “Mac Danzig’s rear-naked-choke” and “Rich Clementi’s nuts on opponent’s neck,” but occasionally the fighters would pull out an old, unexpected gem like “Matt Serra beats GSP by TKO.” I’m just spitballing, here — if you have a better idea, do share it.

Well, we might as well follow this story to the bitter end.

Last week, we discussed Ricco Rodriguez’s auction of his championship belt, and his possibly-related problems with substance abuse. The eBay auction was scheduled to close tonight at 11 p.m. ET; checking in with the auction page this morning, we got the following message:

This Listing Is Unavailable
This listing (140194796581) has been removed or is no longer available. Please make sure you entered the right item number.
If the listing was removed by eBay, consider it canceled.

Did Rodriguez get cold feet about selling his most prized possession, or was he just frustrated by the lack of bids? We’ll do our best to get to the bottom of this mystery. In the meantime, enjoy this clip of Bas Rutten knocking Rodriguez out to punish him for hurting Mark Kerr’s feelings.

Okay, so it’s not as sad as when Corey Haim tried to auction off his rotted-out teeth. But whenever a fighter tries to sell a championship belt, there’s an inescapable air of desperation. So it goes with Ricco Rodriguez, the veteran fighter who briefly became the UFC’s heavyweight champ in September 2002, after a fifth-round TKO of Randy Couture — an incredible achievement that you can relive by buying his championship belt on eBay. Though Rodriguez lost his title to Tim Sylvia in his next fight, the belt would still be a prized collector’s item for any affluent UFC fan (hear that, guys who bought Octagon?) and is on the block with a starting bid of $29,999. From the ad:

THE ULTIMATE COLLECTABLE FOR THE UFC FAN!! THIS IS THE TIME TO BUY, AS THE SPORT GROWS IT WILL ONLY GO UP IN VALUE!! THIS IS THE BELT PUT ON RICCO RODRIGUEZ AFTER DEFEATING RANDY COUTURE IN UFC 39!!. HE’S SELLING IT TO HELP RAISE MONEY FOR A SCHOOL WE ARE OPENING IN THE SOUTH.

THE WINNING BIDDER WILL ALSO BE GIVEN AN AUTOGRAPHED PICTURE OF THE BELT ON RICCO, AND WELL AS A PICTURE HANDING THE BELT TO THE NEW OWNER.

DON’T BE THE GUY KICKING YOURSELF 20 YEARS FROM NOW WISHING YOU BOUGHT THIS WHEN YOU HAD THE CHANCE. THEY DON’T COME ON THE MARKET VERY OFTEN. RICCO ISN’T EXCITED TO PART WITH IT, BUT HAS A FAMILY NOW AND IS LOOKING AT THE FUTURE. HE WANT TO TEACH PEOPLE WHAT HE’S LEARNED IN THE OCTAGON , RING, AND MATS, AND NEEDS AS MUCH CAPITAL AS POSSIBLE TO GET IT DONE RIGHT. AND HE WOULD RATHER JUST WIN ANOTHER DOWN THE ROAD!!

Well sure, we’d all love to “win another down the road,” but lightning only strikes once for some people, and Ricco is probably one of them. Surely there are other things he can do to raise 30 grand besides sell off the physical representation of his greatest accomplishment. It would break my heart if nobody bid on the belt — there are no bids yet, with five days left in the auction — and then Ricco was forced to reduce his starting bid to $25,000, then $20,000, and then eventually this is happening.

Still, if each of you wanted to send me $10, I could buy the belt, take a picture of myself wearing it, and then post that picture on CagePotato.com — that way, the belt could belong to all of us.

(Props: MMA Fever)