(Props: mmadigest)

Proving that you don’t need dramatic music or clever editing to make a killer highlight reel, here’s a must-see compilation of Ronda Rousey judo-tossing the bejeezus out of Miesha Tate, Nick Diaz, Uriah Hall, Aaron Tru, Bas Rutten and a laundry list of opponents and training partners. And now that you’ve seen that, follow us downward for three more of the day’s best sort-of-MMA-related videos…

(Props: AXE)

Chael Sonnen‘s girlfriend is very attractive. Here’s how he landed her, with some sage advice at the end for all you young single fellas out there.

Of course 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu founder and instructor Eddie Bravo couldn’t do an old-fashioned belt ceremony when he awarded his long-time friend and student Joe Rogan his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu earlier this week. As you’ll see in the video above, Bravo plays all coy before making a surprise announcement that our favorite stand-up comic, UFC commentator, and donkey semen drinking cheerleader has been promoted to black belt after class on Tuesday night.

Rogan — rocking a rash-guard and grappling tights because he’s that serious — is moved to tears by the promotion. Rogan has done more for promoting Jiu Jitsu and mixed martial arts than he is usually given credit for, and Bravo speaks to this. But the teacher also says that he waited so long to give him a black belt (Rogan had been a brown belt for eight years) because he wanted to make sure Joe was legit and had gotten his mat time in. Besides, Joe already had another black belt to hold his pants up.

The video is sweet and heartwarming, for those into that kind of thing, but it turns straight poetic and slow-clap-worthy once Rogan is given the floor and addresses his teammates. “This is seriously one of the proudest moments of my life,” Rogan said.

“Out of all the shit I’ve done in my life…becoming really good at jiu jitsu is probably one of the most difficult things a person can do and I think it helps me with everything I do. I think the more I train and the more I meet people who are in jiu jitsu…people who are in jiu jitsu and train on a regular basis, they’re healthier people. Their egos are healthier. Especially men. They’re easier to talk to. They’re easier to hang out with. Because they’re facing reality on a regular basis.

Add this upcoming documentary to the pile of must-see soon-to-be-released MMA movies along with “Once I was a Champion” and “Fightville.”

“Fight Spirit Pride” looks back on former UFC featherweight contender Mark Hominick’s crossover period from Canadian MMA standout to popular Octagon veteran five years ago. Though it should have been one of the most exciting and happy times of his life, it was one of the most stressful and painful for Hominick as his father was also dying from cancer.

Featuring a number of the sport’s most recognizable faces including Dana White, Eddie Bravo, Joe Rogan, Sam Stout, Georges St-Pierre, Bas Rutten and Kevin James, the emotional film also touches on the untimely death of “The Machine’s” longtime mentor, trainer and friend, Shawn Tompkins last year.

Here’s a description from the film’s producers:

“This is a Documentary film about a UFC fighter’s struggle between being there for his dying father, and his career. This documentary is a very raw uncensored microscopic look into the life of a fighter; it has two deaths and two births.”

Check out the trailer after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/RootsofFight)

Someone sent me the video above that chronicles Eddie Bravo’s career defining 2003 win over Royler Gracie at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club tournament. I watched the well done mini-doc a few times before heading over to the Roots of Fight site to learn a bit more about the company, as I haven’t really heard much about them.

Besides the Bravo signature shirt that immortalizes the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu founder’s upset over Gracie, what stood out were the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy, Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute shirts.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/NoGiGrappling)

If you’ve ever wondered how 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu founder Eddie Bravo would do against a UFC fighter on the mats, your wait is over.

The video above should quell a few of the naysayers who hypothesize that Eddie’s guard-centric style is an ineffective one. He makes Takeya Mizugaki look like a blue belt during the six-minute roll and that’s no small feat considering the UFC bantamweight has only been submitted once in 23 fights.

If you’re looking for something to do today besides watching football and pretending to enjoy the company of your annoying family, we got you covered.

The first episode of Eddie Bravo’s “Bravo & Company” web series, “Return of the Death Knuckle,” featuring a who’s who of the 10th Planet family tree including Joey Diaz, Renato Laranja and Scott Epstein is out, and we’ve got it here for your viewing pleasure.

So grab your iPhone and a bottle of bourbon, lock the bathroom door and spend the next 23 minutes watching this masterpiece.

Check it out after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Hollywood2NY)

A would-be thief picked the wrong hotel to rob last week.

According to the LA Times, 31-year-old Luis Rosales walked into a hotel in Los Angeles’ Koreatown around midnight on Wednesday and pointed a gun at the night manager, telling him to fill his duffle bag with cash. When the suspect attempted to flee the scene, the manager grabbed him in a bear hug and managed to keep him from reaching the gun which he had put back into the bag, and called for help from a pair of guests who had exited the elevator in the hotel lobby.

The men, who happened to be competitors in last weekend’s World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championship in Long Beach, quickly sprang into action.

You know, if everyone stopped hating on Eddie Bravo and Joe Hogan for their personal beliefs related to “the heefer,” they might be able to learn a thing or two when it comes to Jiu-Jistu. But here at Cagepotato, we are all about putting judgments aside for the sake of the sport. In the above video, Bravo demonstrates a beautiful bait-and-switch submission on Joanne of MMAGirls.net, and though he may not be up to par on his English (it’s sunk, Eddie) there is no denying the man’s abilities to pull off some brilliant transitions on the ground.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/TwisterEddie)

Renato Laranja doesn’t take kindly to people dissing his beloved Brazilian homeland, and why should he? The dude is a 27-time Mundials champ.

It doesn’t matter if the guy talking smack about his country is a UFC commentator and the host of Fear Factor. Renato gives Joe Rogan no pass, even if he wants to avoid a face-to-face conflict with the dangerous BJJ black belt, because he “talks a lot of stuffs.”

Laranja has issue with Rogan’s penchant for smoking “the heefer,” because he feels like kids who are fans of his work in the UFC and on TV will start smoking it to emulate Joe.

(Video via MMANuts.com)

A few short days ago Dave Herman was yanked from his upcoming bout against Mike Russow following a failed drug test, and before the smoke had cleared a lively debate had sparked between our readers about marijuana’s place in the sport. We thought we’d hashed it all out and come to an understanding, but now Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros has weighed in on the matter with a very special PSA. According to the heavily decorated BJJ champion, those of you who lobbied in favor of mixing grass and grappling are stupid and suffer from low self-esteem. To be fair, Comprido, pretty much everyone here at the Potato Nation is stupid and suffers from low self-esteem; it’s kind of our “thing”.

“[I] just want to make this very clear: Eddie Bravo is an idiot. Ok? Using drugs don’t improve the performance of a fighter. If you want to build your self-confidence, you’re going to do sports, do martial arts, but never use drugs.”

There’s more buzz-kill after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/TwisterEddie)

If  your jiu-jitsu association advocated the use of marijuana and its membership included video and movie producers, actors and musicians, wouldn’t you spend a Sunday hitting the bong and making an awesome movie trailer?

There’s no confirmation whether or not this movie, which features 10th Planet founder Eddie Bravo, his nemesis Renato Laranja and the voice of Scott Epstein, even exists or if the preview is just a clever ruse by the 10th PJJ faithful, but fingers crossed that it’s legit. According to Bravo, it’s an independent film called “Return of the Death Knuckle,” and it is indeed real.

Yesterday when we posted video of that double armbar submission, Potato Nation loyalist ihateemo pointed out that it looked a bit like Eddie Bravo’s Sorcerer submission, and he even linked to the video. Thanks, ihateemo, now we can’t post that as the technique video of the day and write about how they looked similar. We would have looked very perceptive and educated, and everyone would have been impressed, but ihateemo had to go and screw it up for us. Thanks a lot, jerkface.

Good thing is, Bravo has plenty of videos out there of the strange and wonderful world of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, and finding footage of him weeded and talking his way through an exotic submission requires about two minutes and a yellow belt in Google Fu. With just a little bit of time and effort, we found this little gem covering the Vaporizer leg lock (which has NOTHING TO DO WITH WEED, YOU GUYS), plus a bonus: the vid features Joanne Spracklen, whom we’re sort of fond of around here.

Ok, Nation: go put on your gi pants, do some stretching, and try this out on a white belt today. With any luck, you can make them tap and/or cry and be back on XBoX before cocktail hour.

[RX]

(Video courtesy of YouTube/TwisterEddie)

If you’ve ever met, or know anyone who knows Eddie Bravo, you know that he’s big on practical jokes.

My instructor and a fellow student from our gym were in L.A. recently and while they were out eating lunch with Eddie, a girl came up to let the 10th Planet founder know how much of a fan she was. Eddie took her number and proceeded to make out with her at the table. The problem was, both of the other guys knew that Eddie recently got engaged and felt kind of uncomfortable with the situation. It turned out that the “random fan” was actually Eddie’s fiancee and she was in on the joke.

Bravo has been punking his students with gags like these for years.

(Video courtesy of Youtube/twistereddie)

It was inevitable that a Brazilian with the credentials to back up his threats would give Chael Sonnen a piece of his mind for the Xenophobic remarks “The American Gangster” has been spouting off about the South American country. 27-time Mundials champ Renato Laranja released the video above calling out Sonnen for disrespecting him and his homeland, and let’s just say he pulled no punches.

“Ashely Sonnen. I’m see you. I can see you right now. You’ve been talking your big mouths. You been talking a lot of stuffs.You talk a lot of respect for Brazil. You stay a lot of stuff like, ‘They pet the bus and they feed the carrot to the bus.’ That’s a very funny stuffs. But you say we don’t have a the Internet in Brazil. I think you’re wrong. I know I have Internet in Brazil. We have everything. I have a MySpace. I’m a new with the thing. Every kids have the MySpace. I have my job friends. I have Marco Ruas. I have Pedro. I have the Pedro. I have a de Pedro Rizzo. Those guys who clean the streets, he told me to put MySpace I don’t know how long ago it was. Maybe even three months ago he told me to put it. I download the music I call in Napster. You can’t tell me about the Internet.”

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Submissions101)

Royler Gracie failed to respond to Eddie Bravo’s challenge to compete at the 2011 Abu Dhabi Combat Club submission grappling competition by the July 10 deadline set by the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu founder and has now tried to save face by challenging Bravo, who has never competed in mixed martial arts in his life, to a one-off MMA bout in Brazil.

“I have no problems with ADCC, but the fact is that we didn’t get to an agreement on our negotiation and unfortunately the organizers of the event haven’t got in touch with me again. I can’t keep waiting, I have other plans for myself. I’m assuming this bout won’t happen”, Royler told TATAME. “I’m dealing with this MMA event, which might happen in Brazil. I haven’t sign anything yet, but the negotiations are going well and it’s likely it happens. The organizer of the event even called Eddie Bravo to fight me, but he declined it, he didn’t want to fight me… And I said I was only punch him with my hands opened, man (laughs).”

(How the hell could a Michael Jai White joint go straight to DVD?)

The world will have to wait a little longer for the big screen debuts of Todd Duffee, Lyoto Machida, Eddie Bravo and Scott Epstein.

Apparently the production company for Never Back Down 2, Baumgarten Management and Productions were unable to secure the backing of a major studio and as a result the sequel to the 2008 MMA-themed movie that grossed just south of $24,000,000 will be released straight to DVD September 13.

(Video courtesy of ESPN)

There’s a long running argument that there are different levels of Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, which is often backed by how competitors do against others of the same rank.

According to Rafael Dos Anjos, he feels that he is on another level than fellow BJJ black belt George Sotiropoulos, whom he faces Saturday at UFC 132.

“His style is dangerous; it has some techniques and positions that are dangerous, but not too much. It’s ABC jiu-jitsu,” he told ESPN, describing his own style as “traditional” jiu-jitsu. “Eddie Bravo’s style uses half guard,” dos Anjos said. “[My BJJ coach, Roberto] “Gordo” [Correa de Lima] made the half guard!”

Just a friendly reminder that we will have the stream of the UFC 134 press conference for your viewing pleasure starting at 2:00 pm ET.

Here are a few of the faces you can expect to see at the event:

I may be way off, but why would the UFC fly in a bunch of fighters for a press conference for an event that will likely be a guaranteed sellout unless it was to announce an exciting ‘special’ addition to the card, like say Royce Gracie vs. Cris Cyborg or Eddie Bravo vs. Royler Gracie.

Let the baseless speculation begin. Best answer gets to slap ReX next time you see him.

Check out the presser stream after the jump.

(Bravo says, “Don’t be scared, romie.”)

When a relatively unknown brown belt named Eddie Bravo defeated a revered member of the fabled Gracie clan eight years ago at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling Championships, many people, including the man he beat, Royler Gracie wrote off the win as a fluke. Since then, Bravo has been painted as a rebellious martyr by the Gracie loyal and has worked tirelessly to prove that there’s more than the Gracie way of competing in submission grappling and MMA.

Recently it was announced that a rematch between Gracie and Bravo would be taking place at this year’s ADCC tournament and after agreeing to the bout and speaking about it in the press, Royler made some high monetary demands to the event organizers that may very well leave the match in jeopardy.

We spoke to Bravo over the weekend and touched on a number of topics, perhaps most importantly the status of his match with Royler that was to provide him an opportunity to once and for all silence his detractors.

Check out what he had to say after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Submissions101.com)

A long-awaited rematch of the 2003 Abu Dhabi Combat Club tournament bout between Eddie Bravo, 40, and Royler Gracie, 45, has been confirmed for September 25. The match will be contested at a 165-pound catchweight under ADCC tournament rules.

The first time the pair met in São Paulo, Brazil, Bravo, who was then a brown belt under Jean-Jacques Machado at the time, shocked everyone, (including Gracie) by locking in a triangle and eliciting a tapout from the decorated black belt. The win earned Bravo, who has not competed since the tournament, the respect of the BJJ community as well as his black belt from Machado. He would go on to start his own style of no-gi jiu-jitsu known as the 10th Planet system, which is centered around the Rubber Guard.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/EddieBravo)

Now, we aren’t sure if it’s because he paid a visit to his buddy Matt Lindland’s shed before shooting this impromptu “interview” or because he was playing a few rounds of  ”puff, puff, give” with Eddie Bravo, but Chael Sonnen seems a lot more relaxed and squinty-eyed in the latest edition of Mastering the System.

Remember, kids: drugs are evil, and will only hold you back in life. (VidProps: TwisterEddie)

Ok, since you bitches obviously wanted to hear from Eddie B himself, he’s obliged you with this fifteen-minute analysis of the Twister from Saturday night. Some of you my find it of interest, since Eddie shouts out Rener and Ryron like everything is all Kool & the Gang, and he addresses that rumor that some of you have mentioned about this being a move from amateur wrestling, of all places. Honestly, now, submission wrestling? That’s just crazy talk.

If you think Twister is just a fun game to play drunk and naked, then #YouDontRoll.

In the interests of edifying our readers, we’d like to present you with the latest edition of the Gracie Breakdown.   We can’t have our readers being “that guy” that boos when fighters stop hitting each other and start rolling around on top of one another all gay and stuff.

True story: we overheard a guy at a bar explaining that the Gracie family is famous for their groundbreaking style of “Mexican wrestling.”  If you overhear someone drop a nugget of wisdom like that inside an establishment that shows UFC events *and* they serve alcohol, we recommend the following course of action:  buy that asshole a beer, buy one for yourself, and try to write down everything he says for the rest of the night.   Sure, you can teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime, but sometimes you owe it to yourself to sit on the beach and watch that moron pull up license plates and stingrays.
Anyways, watch Rener and Ryron analyze the historic Twister from UFN 24, then leave your newly-enlightened comments below.

(There’s this weird bald due who follows me everywhere including the dressing room of the gym. He’s behind me, isn’t he?)

We had the opportunity to speak with George Sotiropoulos back in December about his upcoming UFC 127 bout with Dennis Siver for an episode of The Bum Rush Radio Show and we touched on a number of topics, from his place in the UFC’s lightweight title picture to 10th Planet detractors and everything in between.

Check out what the fast-rising Australian lightweight contender had to say after the jump.

(Shinya Aoki tries to hide his disgust next to kickboxer/cosplayer Yuichiro Nagashima, who he’ll be facing in a strange mixed-rules bout at Dynamite!! 2010. Though we suppose any match against Nagashima could be described as "strange, mixed-rules.")

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- Tito Ortiz vs. Lil’ Nog Will Now Headline UFC Fight Night 24 in Seattle (MMA Convert)

– ‘UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch’ in Sydney Ties Sellout Record (Versus MMA Beat)

– WEC 53: Five Fights To Make (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Clay Guida: Livin’ in an RV Down by the River [VIDEO] (FightMagazine)

– While His Management Negotiates, Fedor Emelianenko’s Legacy Suffers (MMA Fighting)

– Keith Jardine Gets the Help of the US Secret Service to Prosecute Nemesis Fighting (MiddleEasy)

– Five Reasons Why Jake Shields Will Beat Georges St. Pierre (Or Not) (LowKick)

– Roxanne Modafferi Discusses Fight With Hitomi Akano at Sengoku’s New Year’s Event (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Eddie Bravo Breaks Down What Went Wrong in Dustin Hazelett’s Loss to Mark Bocek (MMA Scraps)

– The MMA Year In Review Part 1: Randy Couture, Herschel Waker, James Toney and More (SBNation.com/MMA)

(Video courtesy YouTube/twistereddie)

If you’ve never watched any of the 10th Planet Mastering the System videos, you’re likely not familiar with Renato Laranja, who may or may not be a 27-time BJJ Mundials and capoeira champion and may possibly be made-up character who appears in the series. In a nutshell, Laranja is a BJJ black belt who has a cameo in nearly every episode in which he argues with Eddie Bravo about his no-gi system and seems to scrap with the Bravo faithful including Joe Rogan and Scott Epstein on a somewhat regular basis.

During a recent episode, Laranja "choked out" Bravo in an altercation that happened during one of Eddie’s classes at 10th Planet headquarters in L.A. The "incident" prompted Crispin Glover doppelganger and 10th Planet purple belt Matt Horwich to challenge the Brazilian to a fight in the episode above using way too many homosexual rape references for audience comfort.

As an added bonus, besides weekly marijuana tips courtesy of Bravo, Rogan appears on the show regularly in a Tae Kwon Do Joe segment in which he breaks down kicks used by fighters in recent fights.

Check out the Renato backstory after the jump:

(Shit just got real…at least more real than the first movie.)

I know what you’re thinking, "They’re making another Never Back Down movie?"

The answer is "yes," only this time around the studio is gearing the film towards MMA fans and not the popped collar American Eagle pink polo shirt sporting crowd of its predecessor, which earned $41-million at the box office.

They’ve made some steps in the right direction by hiring longtime martial arts practitioner Michael Jai White to direct this darker installment and to give it what he calls "more of a ‘The Dark Knight’ feel" and less of a "Melrose Place vibe." White knows first hand what that entails, considering he starred as mob boss Gambol in the acclaimed second film of the Chris Nolan helmed Batman franchise.

Also adding some credibility and substance to the film will be 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu founder Eddie Bravo, who will write part of the score for, star in and help choreograph fight scenes for the movie, UFC heavyweight Todd Duffee, who will play one of the fighters in the film and 10th Planet black belt instructor Scott Epstein, who will do double-duty as the movie’s lead as well as a fight coordinator. 

("I’m a Jiu Jitsu guy; I don’t want to get hit. I like ice cream. I like girls with big asses. I like dogs. Getting hit is not on that list of things that I like."
- Einstein-)

If you don’t know who Scott Epstein is, chances are you’re a shitty fan of the sport, just like him.

4-0 as a professional MMA fighter, Einstein appeared on season one, episode nine of the TapouT series. He’s been referred to as one of Eddie Bravo’s right hand men, having trained with the creator of the 10th Planet system before the system had a name.

Most recently, he was hand picked by Chuck Liddell to not only help him prepare for his UFC 115 comeback bout with Rich Franklin, but was also chosen by "The Iceman" to be one of his grappling coaches on Season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter.

(You ever get the feeling that Eddie developed his style of jiu-jitsu specifically to put hot chicks in uncomfortable positions?)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

– Vadim Finkelstein: Fedor Emelianenko’s agreement with the UFC is still possible (LowKick)

– Falling Action: Winners and Losers in the Aftermath of UFC 116 (MMA Fighting)

– UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin Exclusive Photos (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Maybe the next time you see Ubereem, you should just move out of his way lady [GIF] (MiddleEasy)

– FIGHT! Life: José Aldo – The Beautiful Game [VIDEO] (Fight! Magazine)

– WEC 50 ‘Benavidez vs Cruz’ Trailer (MMA Scraps)

– Your UFC 116 MVP and Maybe MVP of 2010… (Watch Kalib Run)

– Spencer Fisher vs. Kurt Warburton booked for UFC 120 (Five Ounces of Pain)

("I recommended Gus Johnson as my replacement. I heard he trains twice a week.")

Eddie Bravo contacted Cage Potato last night to expound on the news reported by Gareth Davies Wednesday that he had resigned from his post as an analyst with the UFC.

Although he confirmed he has indeed left the organization, he says his departure was an amicable one and that the move was necessary to allow him to focus more on his growing number of schools and students and will not restrict him from cornering his fighters in the Octagon.

"Yes, I quit to focus on cornering George [Sotiropoulos] and [Dan] Hardy. It was an amazing seven years with Zuffa," Bravo explained via text message. "I owe Dana, Lorenzo and Frank to the death."