(Well, it’s safe to assume that Alvarez’s new training camp is off to a rough start.)

Lightweight Eddie Alvarez was a busy man on Twitter yesterday. Last October, Alvarez completed his final contracted fight for the Bellator organization and became a limited free agent. Emphasis on limited.

Almost immediately after said fight, the UFC made Alvarez an offer, one that Bellator had the right to match if they hoped to keep Alvarez. Since that time, Alvarez and Bellator have been locked in a battle over what the term “matched” truly means. While Bellator believes that they matched the UFC’s offer and therefore still have rights to Alvarez, their former lightweight champion disagrees. The two parties soon sued one another. Somehow, I just know that this is all Obama’s fault.

In January, a federal judge denied Alvarez’s petition to be freed from Bellator, but in April, the same judge also denied Bellator’s petition that part of Alvarez’s suit against them be dropped (Ed note: Are we having fun yet?). Though there were rumors that the two parties would eventually reach an agreement, Alvarez’s Twitter account said otherwise yesterday.

“We will be going to Trial And there will be NO settlement I want to see this thing through and Let the truth come out in the End,” the fighter tweeted.

(Red rover, red rover, we call Captain America on over! Pic Props: MMAFighting.com)

By Jason Moles

Between preparing to launch a new mixed martial arts reality television show on Spike TV, to selecting venues for 2014, Bjorn Rebney‘s time for small talk is sparse. But the Bellator MMA CEO always seems to have a moment to discuss his favorite topic — how much he loves running the second-largest MMA promotion in the world, and what the future holds in store.

Early Friday morning, just after the Bellator 87 post-fight press conference concluded at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in frigid Mount Pleasant, Michigan, I had the opportunity to speak with Rebney about some of the important topics that have developed in the past few weeks, and the impact they would have going forward for the ever-expanding fight promotion.

You could tell the man was tired by the look in his sleep-deprived eyes. Sitting on stage, and probably still laughing on the inside after having watched lightweight contender Lloyd “Cupcake” Woodard shave his facial hair after losing a stipulation match to David “Caveman” Rickels not more than five minutes prior to our conversation (the clippings were still on the table next to him), the most powerful man in the building finally had a fleeting moment to collect his thoughts while resting for the first time that day…

On Randy Couture Signing with Spike TV/Bellator:

“Randy’s a great addition to the team and is known to fans everywhere. We’re excited for the role he’ll play in helping Bellator reach the next level. I know you and the other media want more info than that, but wait until Tuesday [February 5th] — that’s when we’re holding the big press conference and that’s when you’ll have all the details of what’s going on. That’s when all the questions will be answered.”

On the Controversial Stoppages Earlier in the Night:

“I have an unfair advantage; we’ve got probably the best sound team in all of MMA production. What I’m able to do is, when there’s any kind of controversial stoppage, I can go back into the truck, super slo-mo things and listen to things. I can hear the things the fighters say because our sound design inside the cage is so spectacular. You can literally hear what the fighter’s saying and what the referee is saying — you can hear everything. I think they were great stoppages. I think Dan [Mirgliotta] did an amazing job and when you see it in slow motion, for example on the knee lock, you hear him scream and then see his head go back and ultimately see one tap. Now it’s a super soft tap, but you see it. Inside the truck, in super slo-mo, you can hear the screaming and see his head go back and that’s a verbal submission. According to the Unified Rules, when your head goes back and you scream out — it’s over whether you tap or you don’t tap. But I thought he did a great job.”

(The Gracie Brothers speak out about the rape case involving Lloyd Irvin students, and explain how an unhealthy training environment could contribute to similar situations. / Props: GracieBreakdown)

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- The 30 Most Awkward Childhood Photos Ever (WorldWideInterweb)

(In the words of my life coach, “If you ask me one more fucking question about that fucking joke Eddie Alvarez, I will fuck you like you’ve never been fucked before.”) 

The drama continues to unfold in the Eddie Alvarez/UFC/Bellator love triangle that last saw Bjorn Rebney and Co. break go Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer on their former lightweight champion’s ass. And as Bill Shakespeare would tell you himself, no love triangle would be complete without a little dash of comedy. Enter Rebney, who recently attempted to shed some light on the convoluted goatscrew that (Bellator) negotiations oft become in a recent interview with BloodyElbow radio. When Rebney previously told reporters that he had matched the UFC’s offer on Alvarez “word for word,” the general consensus seemed to be that Rebney was simply speaking in hyperbole, for how could Bellator match the pay-per-view stipulations of the UFC’s contract when they don’t in fact broadcast pay-per-view events to begin with?

Well, it turns out that — at least according to the man himself — Rebney was not tugging our respective dicks when he said “word for word”:

I didn’t anticipate that the UFC would come in where they came in. They came in at a dollar figure in terms of the $250,000 signing bonus and the $70,000 plus $70,000 and some of the terms that we felt very comfortable matching. To avoid any questioning, to avoid any conflict, we literally took the UFC contract, took it out of a PDF format and we changed the UFC name to Bellator and we signed it and we sent it back to Ed. 

Call me unrealistic, but I’d like to believe that Rebney signed his name in poo, or at least wiped his ass with the reprinted contract before sending it back to Eddie. And then when Alvarez flipped to the last page of this foul smelling document, there was a photo of Rebney, performing said act of asswhipery. Because those are the kinds of shenanigans that people who don’t give a fuck are wont to do.

Much more from this interview after the jump.

(“Keep laughing, Eddie, because as soon as you lose that belt, your ass is mine.”) 

Former President Clinton once made infamous the phrase, “It depends on what your definition of the word ’is’ is,” while answering questions from the Independent Counsel’s office on the all-important subject of Monica Lewinsky. With former Bellator lightweight champion/UFC hopeful Eddie Alvarez and his boss, Bjorn Rebney, the discrepancy appears to depend on what one’s definition of the word “matched” is.

It has been no secret that the UFC wants Alvarez under their banner. The top lightweight fought the last fight under his Bellator contract last October but the promotion has the right to match any contract offered to Alvarez and thus keep him with them.

The UFC did indeed recently make an offer to Alvarez, but it is here where the stories from the former champ and the Bellator CEO begin to differ.

First, Alvarez sat down with The MMA Hour and claimed that Bellator had not matched the UFC’s proposed terms. Rebney then went on MMA Weekly Radio and said that his organization had, in fact, matched the UFC’s contract offer to Alvarez, point for point.

And then things got really awkward.

(We highly recommend Margold’s dystopian sci-fi novel, “A Future Without Kleenex.” Check out 29 more amazing real-life job titles at WorldWideInterweb.)

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In case you haven’t been following the career of CagePotato’s own “Proving Grounds” Winner Nick Newell lately, all you have to know is that he is still an undefeated ass-kicking machine. On the heels of his most impressive victory to date over Adam Mays (see above), Newell will be looking to improve to a perfect 9-0 when he takes on the toughest test of his career, Bellator veteran Eric Reynolds, in the main event of XFC 21, which goes down tomorrow night from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Tennessee.

Sporting a 16-5 record, Reynolds is no slouch to say the least. Although they were ultimately losing efforts, Reynolds made it three rounds with former Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez and former Strikeforce lightweight title challenger Jorge Masvidal in back-to-back efforts during his stint with Bellator in 2009. Now riding a three fight win streak, Reynolds will surely have his hands full with Newell, who proved in his victory over Denis Hernandez at XFC 15 (an event headlined by Reynolds) that he is just as deadly on the ground as he is on the feet.

You can catch the fight live on AXS TV, which is available for free as an app on your iPhone or iPad.

(If this man does not strike you as the kind of person who spends most of his free time getting stoned, playing Xbox, and waxing poetic about the flaws of Jiu-Jitsu, then we don’t know who does.) 

When we first heard word that Stephan Bonnar and Dave Herman failed their UFC 153 drug tests — for Drostanolone and Marijuana respectively — we couldn’t help but reflect on the timeless words of George W. Bush when he stated, “Fool me once…..shame on………..shame on you. Fool me, I can’t get fooled again.” Unfortunately for Bonnar and Herman, they failed to fool the piss test even once while in the UFC (at least to our knowledge) and have felt the unforgiving wrath of the Interwebs as a result of their insolence. Hearts were broken. Tears were shed. Butts were hurt.

And in an effort to gauge their fellow fighters feelings on the issue, FightHubTv recently interviewed such fighters as Travis Browne, Eddie Alvarez, and Tyrone Spong to get some perspective on the issue. Also, Rampage Jackson threw in his two cents and actually managed to do so without turning the interview into another “Dear Diary” entry aimed at the UFC. Good for him.

Video after the jump. 

(Last warning, Hector. If you grunt like that one more time we’re going to revoke your membership.)

In a new report about Eddie Alvarez’s impending free-agency, MMAFighting.com got Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney to share details of a similar situation in which his promotion got into a bidding war with the UFC. It happened six months ago with their former middleweight champ Hector Lombard, and in that case, it didn’t exactly work out for either party:

Lombard hit the open market, where he was immediately offered a lucrative deal with the UFC. Rebney said that contract, which according to him paid Lombard a $400,000 signing bonus, a $300,000 starting purse per fight and pay-per-view participation points, was cost-prohibitive from Bellator’s standpoint.

If the UFC came in with a similar offer for Alvarez, who is considered by most observers to be right around the top five lightweights in the world, it is believed that would make him the highest-paid 155-pounder in the UFC. On the other hand, Lombard’s debut in the UFC was considered a disappointment, as he lost a lackluster split-decision to Tim Boetsch. That development could cause the UFC to reconsider a big-money offer for another free agent.

Last night Eddie Alvarez scored a dramatic first round KO win (video above) over Patricky “Pitbull” Freire at Bellator 76 and potentially earned a UFC contract. The fight was the last on Alvarez’ contract with Bellator.

After Alvarez won, UFC President Dana White reportedly tweeted him saying, “congrats Bro!!! Let’s talk ”

Alvarez isn’t the top lightweight in Bellator after losing to Michael Chandler, but he has rebounded nicely from that loss with the win over Patricky and Shinya Aoki. Alvarez has long been regarded as one of the best fighters in the world not signed to the UFC.

We’ll keep you posted on developments with this story as they emerge. For now, enjoy Alvarez’ nasty KO.

- Elias Cepeda

(Suck it, Javier Sotomayor.) 

In what will either make for a triumphant or disastrous turning point in Eddie Alvarez’s career (specifically, his marketability), the former Bellator lightweight champion has been booked to take on Brazilian knockout artist Patricky “Pitbull” Freire at Bellator 75, which goes down on October 12th at Caesar’s Windsor in Canada.

After collecting seven straight wins under the Bellator banner (6 by way of stoppage), Alvarez lost his lightweight strap in dramatic fashion, falling prey to a fourth round submission in a battle for the ages at Bellator 58 to Michael Chandler. Most recently, Alvarez earned some much sought after revenge when he battered and dispatched Shinya Aoki in the first round of their Bellator 66 throwdown, and immediately began  making his case for a potential spot amongst the UFC’s ever growing lightweight roster thereafter. It just goes to show what beating up a man in multi-colored pastel tights can do for one’s confidence.

(“You’ll never get me Lucky Charms!”)

For nearly four years, the Japanese MMA promotion DREAM did its best to carry the mantle of PRIDE, presenting the same mix of top international talent and freak-show comic relief, all inside of a traditional ring, rather than a filthy American cage. But we were hit with some sad news this weekend as multiple sources reported that DREAM has ceased day-to-day operations, and will no longer be producing events. So as we like to do when great MMA traditions die, let’s take a look back at some of the fights that made this promotion so unique, so entertaining, and so balls-out insane…

#8: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Melvin Manhoef
DREAM.4, 6/15/08 

Though Kazushi Sakuraba’s fame was partly based on his willingness to absorb damage from larger fighters, the level of savagery that Melvin Manhoef inflicted on him during their meeting at the Yokohama Arena probably should have convinced Saku to walk away from the sport. The moment when Manhoef drags Saku away from the ropes by his leg so he can dive in to continue the assault (see the 2:43 mark above) remains one of DREAM’s most indelible and brutal moments.

#7: Shinya Aoki vs. dumb-ass gaijin
DREAM.7, 3/8/09

Another tradition that DREAM inherited from PRIDE? Absurd mismatches. At the time of this fight, Aoki was widely considered to be a top-3 lightweight, while Gardner was an obscure 13-7 journeyman who was coming off a loss to Brian Cobb. Aoki’s domination on the mat was no surprise, but the fight became legendary for how it ended. Stuck with Aoki on his back, Gardner took advantage of a brief pause in the action — and the near-silence in the Saitama Super Arena — to wave to the crowd and shout “Hello Japan!” Aoki immediately wrapped up Gardner’s neck and choked him out, causing the crowd to break out in laughter and Bas Rutten to cry “Oh my God it is so dumb! So dumb! Why?!” Some things just can’t be explained, Bas.

Even if you weren’t glued to your Twitter account last night, you still had plenty of MMA news to keep yourself entertained. From a middleweight and lightweight tournament to a post-fight brawl to a referee ignoring a fighter’s cornermen throwing in the towel, there were plenty of things to talk about. All of these story lines came from Bellator 66 last night in Cleveland, Ohio.

While this season hasn’t been a stranger to dangerously late stoppages, last night’s main event, a rematch between former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki, provided one worthy of mention in our worst referee blunders roundtable. Alvarez dropped Aoki early, and although he initially seemed hesitant to jump into Aoki’s guard, Alvarez unloaded some heavy punches that almost immediately put Aoki out cold. When the referee in charge, Jerry Krzys, didn’t stop the fight Aoki’s cornermen threw their towel into the cage. Of course, everyone knows that “throwing in the towel” is just an expression for giving up, and not a sign that the fighter’s cornermen actually believe that the fight should be stopped, right? No? Well then someone should have explained that to Jerry Krzys, who allowed the fight to continue for a few more seconds before stopping the action.

After the fight, Alvarez had a very simple question for Bellator, and an equally simple follow up request: “Bjorn Rebney where you at? Show me the money.” Of course, if Bellator can’t- or isn’t willing to- comply with that request, something tells us that the UFC will.

(Aoki vs. Alvarez 1, 12/31/08)

Cripes, is it April 19th already? We didn’t burn a lot of calories discussing this fight, but the long-awaited rematch between former Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez and DREAM lightweight champ Shinya Aoki is happening tomorrow night at the I-X Center in Cleveland, as the main event of Bellator 66.

Aoki and Alvarez originally met at Dynamite!! 2008, with Aoki wrenching out a heel-hook victory in just 92 seconds. Now he’s agreed to meet his old foe on American soil, which is very sportsmanlike of him — but keep in mind that the last time he gave an American a rematch on their own turf he got dominated by Gilbert Melendez. Aoki has won all seven of his fights since that loss to El Niño, while Alvarez is coming off his submission loss to Michael Chandler in their Fight of the Year candidate at Bellator 58.

Bellator 66 will also feature the semi-finals of their season 6 lightweight and middleweight tournaments, and get this: We’ll be streaming the Bellator 66 prelims on CagePotato.com tomorrow starting at 7 p.m. ET. So be sure to come back for that, and check out the full event lineup after the jump…

By Elias Cepeda

We may be in a golden age, or at least an incredibly good season for new fight docs, taters.

There’s “Like Water,” on Anderson Silva, “I am Bruce Lee,”  and soon, an interesting-looking doc on lightweight Eddie Alvarez (22-3).

In addition to being a GOP policy stance, “No Plan B,” is a new film by David Klayman that chronicles Alvarez in the lead-up to what may still be his most high profile to date: his bout with former Sports Illustrated cover boy Roger Huerta back in 2010.

The trailer for the movie shows Alvarez at home with family, as well as training and consulting with champion/east coast colleagues Bernard Hopkins and Frankie Edgar. The title of the film is derived from a quote and apparent philosophy of Alvarez’. “…I’m not much of a planner,” he says. “I set a goal and there really is nothing else. So, there is no ‘plan b.’”

Although Alvarez suffered a rare loss in his last fight to Michael Chandler, he will have a chance to avenge a prior defeat when he takes on Shinya Aoki (30-5) at the Bellator card on April 20 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Check out the trailer for “No Plan B” after the jump, and stay tuned for reviews of this and other docs coming soon to CagePotato.

(Conveniently, Bellator failed to mention whether or not this is a title fight.)

Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that a main event match-up between Bellator lightweight champ Michael Chandler and PRIDE and UFC vet Akihiro Gono will close out its planned Bellator 67  card  May 4  at Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario Canada.

A crafty veteran, Gono (32-17-7) should provide a challenge for the undefeated newly crowned 155-pound BFC champ.

“I’m just excited to get back into the cage,” Chandler said of the planned bout. “I fought four times in 2011 and I’m ready to get back to work. Gono has beaten some of the best fighters in the sport and this should be a good test for me.”

(Dumbass paediatric cancer patients are the new rape.)

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(How can you say no to that face?) 

Aside from its placement atop nearly every MMA fan’s “Favorite Fights” list, Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin‘s war at the first TUF Finale is widely considered to be the fight responsible for popularizing MMA into the near mainstream sport it is today. Well, believe it or not, that fight almost didn’t happen on account of Bonnar’s uncontrollable desire for bottom shelf alcohol, specifically, Mad Dog. Although Bonnar has told this story with a slightly different spin before, Dana White recently discussed the craziness that was the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, and how Bonnar almost got himself kicked off the show:

The first season of the ‘Ultimate Fighter’ was the longest season we’ve ever done. It was something like 8 weeks and those guys were losing their (expletive) minds. I almost kicked (Stephan) Bonnar off the show. 

Bonnar turned the shower on, climbed out the window and went to find a liquor store. Remember we took all the liquor out after that big fight? These idiots…we had been driving these guys around for six or seven weeks and the house is in the middle of nowhere. There was no liquor store near there. The guy was walking around for an hour and thirty minutes. So much crazy (expletive) happened that first season. Imagine if I had kicked off him off the show for going to a liquor store? Forrest (Griffin) and Stephan would have never happened. 

No Dana, we would not like to imagine a world in which Griffin/Bonnar never existed. We’d rather imagine one in which Motley Crue serenades our lovemaking sessions with Adriana Lima, thank you very much.

(Aoki/Alvarez 1, from K1 Dynamite 2008. THIS is how men fight.) 

A lot has happened in the four years since Eddie Alvarez was heel-hooked by Shinya Aoki in the first round of their inaugural lightweight championship match back in December of 2008. Aoki has fought a remarkable 13 times since then, picking up notable wins over Marcus Aurelio and Rich Clementi as well as evening the score with DREAM rival Joachim Hansen. He has only gone 1-1 in the States, however, dropping a humiliating unanimous decision to current Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez and notching a quick neck crank submission over Lyle Beerbohm.

Alvarez, on the other hand, went on to become the Bellator lightweight champion after defeating Toby Imada at Bellator 12 in June of ’09, but defended the belt only once in the five fights that succeeded it. We last saw the Philadelphia Fight Factory standout lose said title via fourth round submission in an absolute war with Michael Chandler at Bellator 58 that was my personal pick for 2011′s Fight of the Year.

Well now it seems that these two are destined to collide ONCE AGAIN, in what will surely be…an absolute war (isn’t it funny how you can impersonate Mike Goldberg without even talking?).

(Video: Youtube/BellatorMMA)

The UFC may be the brand name of MMA, but it doesn’t have exclusive rights to action packed bouts. While the UFC 139 pay-per-view was just getting warmed up, the evening’s “other” war and ‘fight of the year’ candidate was breaking out on MTV 2. If you didn’t catch it, I suggest you watch it in full up above.

Season 4 Lightweight Tournament winner Michael Chandler was all over Eddie Alvarez from the opening bell, driving forward and swinging for the fences. Within the first fifteen seconds he had dropped the champion twice and was only moments away from snatching the belt, but once again Alvarez proved difficult to put away. Chandler’s pressure wilted halfway through the second frame, allowing Alvarez to steal the round with a series of effective combinations. By round three Chandler’s fatigue was visible and the champ pounced, battering him across the cage. Though tired and hurt, Chandler continued to look for the big shot that would take Alvarez out. Answering the bell in the fourth, Chandler looked renewed and eager to throw. His hands found their mark, wobbling Alvarez before a big right hand dropped him. Chandler followed him down and mounted him, locking in the rear naked choke as Alvarez turned his back.

(Two words: Ipecac bitches! Video courtesy of Vimeo/Fightlinker)

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- Dana White talks UFC 139, promises four exciting main card fights for UFC on Fox 2 (LowKick)

(Well, well, well…)

Spike TV will become the new home for Bellator starting in 2013. According to a new USA Today report, Viacom — the parent company of MTV Networks — has purchased a majority stake in Bellator Fighting Championships, signaling the official end to their six-year relationship with the UFC.

CEO Bjorn Rebney will remain in charge of Bellator. Speaking about the Viacom deal with USA Today, he said: “It puts all of those cornerstones of ownership in place for us, which is something that’s been so seriously lacking in the MMA space with so many different companies, including Strikeforce and the IFL and Affliction and all the different failures that have occurred…It alleviates those issues…It’s a very, very good day for mixed martial arts as a whole, because now you have two groups in the space that have a very substantial presence that obviously isn’t going to go anywhere for a very, very long time.”

Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez (22-2) has suffered an undisclosed injury and has been forced to pull out of an October 15 title bout with undefeated Season 4 lightweight tournament winner Michael Chandler (8-0) that was slated for Bellator 54 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

In spite of the setback, Bellator chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney is optimistic that Alvarez will defend his belt in the fall, but wouldn’t say whether or not Chandler will wait for the champ to heal.

Bad news for Aoki: he may not be able to use those magic tights.

According to a report by Sherdog, Bellator is trying to wrangle a actual, no-shit SuperFight for Eddie Alvarez — a rematch against the Japanese submission wizard Shinya Aoki. The two met previously at Dynamite!!! 2008 for the DREAM lightweight championship, which Aoki won in just 92 seconds via heel hook.

The loss was Alvarez’s first (and only) loss at 155; he’s since reeled off seven straight wins in Bellator and DREAM, winning the Bellator lightweight strap along the way. Alvarez has seen his stock rise in the intervening years, while Aoki has suffered some humiliating losses, including an epic beatdown from Gilbert Melendez for Strikeforce and a hilarious KO loss to Yuichiro Nagashima at DREAM’s 2010 New Year’s Eve show.

If you watch carefully, you can see his Soul flashing a peace sign when it flies out.  (VidProps: Bellator)

If you listened to this week’s edition of the Bum Rush (you did, right?), you know that some of us were really looking forward to Bellator action this weekend, and some of us were unconvinced.  But when guys are pulling off stupid-rare submissions and handing out beatdowns on the weekly, we say those naysayers are just stupid neenerfaces.  You go ahead and contemplate how much time we’re spending with preschool kids while you click the “Read More” link below, then share your comments about just how awesome Bellator is.  Hyperbole and ridiculous analogies will win you style points, and haterific comments will probably inspire ReX13 to bestow an insulting website upon your login.  That asshole is just way too sensitive sometimes.

(“Next!” Pic: Bellator)

And then there was one. It’s been almost three weeks since the news broke that Zuffa, LLC. had purchased Strikeforce – this week Our Octagon Overlords allegedly began signing SF fighters to their own airtight contractual arrangements – and it just now dawns on us what this means for Eddie Alvarez. Put simply, the continued Dana-fication of the MMA landscape means Alvarez is the only US-based 155-pound fighter anywhere near the Top 10 (or, hell, Top 20) not currently owned in a roundabout way by Big DW and the Fertitta Bros. God, that must be lonely.

As if on cue, and just a few days before he’s set to put his Bellator title on the line against tournament winner Pat Curran at an event we all keep forgetting about, Alvarez made some fairly stock claims this week to SI.com’s Jeff Waggenheim about how a lot of UFC lightweights would be “nobodies” without the promotion’s PR muscle behind them. Boy, we’ve heard this one before, right?

(Damn you, Tom Petty. The waiting *is* the hardest part. Pic: Rotoexperts.com)

Crazy times at lightweight right now, no? With Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard drawing even at UFC 125, top contenders Evan Dunham and George Sotiropoulos soiling their drawers in recent intended tune-up fights and the UFC playing a carnival shell game with Anthony Pettis’ future, the whole division looks like the end of a bad episode of Monday Night Raw – 20 guys brawling senselessly in the ring while the announcers yell unintelligible shit into their microphones and the screen fades to black. Not to mention, as soon as Zuffa, LLC realizes that Strikeforce has become nothing more than a vestigial organ and folds it into the UFC, Gilbert Melendez will likely show up claiming instant No. 1 contender status. Probably just a day or two after Dana White promises a title shot to somebody else.

God willing and the creek don’t rise, we’ll get some answers over the next couple of months. Edgar and Maynard will (fingers crossed) settle their differences for good at UFC 130, the Pettis Hypothesis will be proved or disproved against Clay Guida in June and either Dunham or Sotiropoulos will get back on track after their newly-announced bout at UFC 132. Until then though, it’s just a goddamn schmazz. When you read our latest rankings after the jump, you’ll see that the top three spots in the lightweight division are pretty self-explanatory. After that, we’re really just picking names out of a hat.

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("CBS? They suck. I’m not sure I want to work with them anymore.")

During today’s Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu conference call, the promotion’s CEO Scott Coker touched on some pressing questions, but was noticeably mum on others.

"You’re going to see big things," Coker teased when speaking of the California-based promotion’s plans for next year, but he didn’t say whether or not a return to CBS is in Strikeforce’s stacked deck of cards. In an interview he did earlier this month with Sherdog, Coker said that a reputable TV deal would have to be in place for him to entertain a co-promotion deal with the promotions, which could be a telling sign that CBS has taken his number off of speed dial.

He did mentione Showtime when discussing the ongoing, yet unfruitful negotiations with Fedor Emelianenko’s M-1 Global management team, but didn’t give a clue about the status of Strikeforce’s relationship with CBS, which many assume is dead in the water thanks to the Team Cesar Gracie-Jason Miller brawl that took place during their last telecast in April.

"It’s been quite a long road here with the M-1 camp trying to get this done. I agree with [M-1 director of operations] Evgeni [Kogan] that there’s some light at the end of the tunnel," Coker explained. "We would welcome Fedor to have a long term deal with Strikeforce fighting on Showtime and we’re trying to get this done. It’s not done yet, there’s nothing signed. So really there’s nothing to announce."

(Skip to 1:19 for the money shot.)

By ReX “Keep Fear Alive” Richardson

Let’s say that you were in Philadelphia last night, perhaps wandering around looking for the Philadelphia Doll Museum. Maybe you heard that Pagano’s had better cheesesteak than any of those South Philly stands, or you wanted to check out the (allegedly) wild party scene at Temple University. Well, while you were standing there shoving a pound of cheap steak, fried onions, and Cheez Whiz in your face, you might have heard a dull roaring noise coming from the Liacouras Center. That was the sound of Bellator XXXIII. Maybe you forgot with all the excitement around UFC 121 this weekend, but Bellator’s third entertaining season is ending, and they are going out shooting, son.

Erstwhile welterweight champ Lyman Good returned after a sixteen month injury layoff to defend the strap against Ben Askren, rising star Rick Hawn made his debut, and local boy Eddie Alvarez took on a legitimate super fight against Roger “The White Knight” Huerta. If you just facepalmed because you forgot to set your DVR, relax; I got this. Follow me in after the jump, and I’ll recap the televised fights and possibly crack some jokes. Keep in mind that I make no guarantees of quality, but if you don’t read on, you’ll probably hate yourself when the cool kids in the cafeteria start talking about it. Keep it in mind.