(They say that shoe is his, but it barely even resembles him.)

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is one of MMA’s most charismatic stars, but the UFC light heavyweight champ has also become one of the world’s best fighters since moving from Pride to the UFC. In this exclusive interview, “Rampage” discusses his evolution as an athlete, his upcoming title fight against Forrest Griffin, and what he hates most about life as an MMA fighter.

CagePotato.com: Hey, “Rampage.” Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. How is your training camp going? I hear that you really don’t like training.

“Rampage” Jackson: That’s true. I hate training. I don’t know why. I guess because I’m lazy. I do it anyway and I train really hard, but I hate every minute of it.

If you hate it so much, how do you get through weeks of it without losing your mind before every fight?

I joke around and have fun in the gym. I like to have fun people around me. It helps me get through it. I also think about what I’m going to do to my opponent, how I’m going to take it out on him for making me do all this training.

How have you been preparing specifically for Forrest? What are you expecting out of him?

I’ve just been training to whip his ass. Other than that I don’t really know. I think he’s probably going to try and use those leg kicks and keep moving. He’s pretty good with leg kicks. But I’m pretty sure that after I hit him a couple of times he’ll forget about all that.

It seems like you’ve become a much different fighter in the last couple of years, ever since coming to the UFC. You look more polished and more technical. What do you think has made the difference?

As debuted on SpikeTV Friday night, here’s the first gameplay trailer for the UFC’s new PS3/Xbox 360/etc. jammy-jam, featuring Rampage vs. Forrest, and commentary by Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg. According to a preview on IGN:

There’s no HUD or health bar, so fighters don’t get worn down till they’re eventually tapped out or KO’d. A fighter can be finished at any time, depending upon the situation. On the other hand, there are more defensive moves and blocking and countering in the game, with a design more similar to traditional fighting games than old MMA or wrestling games. THQ specifically stated that “…button mashing will make you lose.”

Furthermore, the happenings of the fight actually have an effect on fighters during the fight beyond simply wearing them down. When Rampage used punches to the body to weaken Forrest, purple welts similar to what was seen on Liddell’s body when he fought Keith Jardine appeared near Griffin’s kidney. A small cut had formed over the former Ultimate Fighter’s eye, while Rampage had his left eye nearly swollen shut by a series of excellent Griffin knees. All the injuries looked authentic, but also affected how successful each fighter was at accomplishing what they wanted to as the fight wore on.

Reportedly the game will feature an 80+ fighter roster — which still doesn’t explain how War Machine and Saunders made the cut.

…and Stitch and Juanito look awesome.

(Images courtesy of 1up.com via BloodyElbow)

Tonight at 1 a.m. ET/PT, Spike TV’s GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley will unveil the first gameplay footage trailer from THQ’s UFC 2009 video game; UFC prez Dana White will be on hand to introduce the clip. 1up.com has a gallery of screen-shots for the highly-anticipated game, and a behind-the-scenes featurette with Rampage and Cheick Kongo getting their motion-capture on is after the jump.

(Amir gets all “Rocky” on us.)

I’m assuming that most of you watched last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter — which, hype aside, was easily one of the greatest episodes in the show’s history — so I won’t bore you with extraneous details. But here’s a quick recap:

— CB Dollaway and Amir Sadollah square off in the last semi-final fight. Aside from a couple of hard body kicks and a close armbar attempt from Amir, the first two rounds are all CB, who controls the action from the top, and delivers a Rampage-style body slam as well as some brutal elbows that open up a large gash under Amir’s right eye. CB nearly locks in a rear-naked choke in the third round, but Amir spins out, momentarily tries to figure out a toe-hold, then catches CB in another armbar that immediately causes him to tap. With his professional MMA record still 0-0, Amir Sadollah has battled his way to the TUF 7 finale.

(Afterwards, getting sewn up.)

Well, it’s Tuesday, which means you’ve probably been biting your nails all day wondering when Dana White is going to drop his huge, mind-blowing announcement that may or may not define the future of the sport. Dave Meltzer, who broke some news earlier about EliteXC’s next CBS show — which has the working title of “Unfinished Business,” by the way — now has this to say via f4wonline.com:

Dana White has moved the meeting for UFC employees to Noon tomorrow (Wednesday) for the big announcement. So word should break shortly after that time.

MMA Mania points out that the New York Tourism, Arts and Sports Development Committee is slated to vote again tomorrow on legislation to legalize MMA in NY. That could just be a coincidence — White previously denied that his announcement was related to New York MMA regulation — but we’ll update you when we know more.

And hey, just so this post isn’t a total waste of your time, here’s a rather-awesome UFC 86 hype video, running down the matchups between Forrest Griffin and Quinton Jackson, as well as Cote vs. Almeida. By the way, if you tell Rampage he’s not going to win this fight, you can kiss his natural black ass.

UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin Preview

(Props: MMAMania)

Above is the first video promo for UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin (July 5th, Las Vegas). The main event should be fantastic, but it doesn’t bode well that Cote vs. Almeida is the only other match that warrants a mention in the clip. And even if the winner will technically be “moving up the ranks toward a middleweight title shot,” it’s not like they won’t have to beat 2-4 more guys to get there. The current lineup is below; is it better or worse than UFC 85′s?

MAIN CARD
Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin
Patrick Cote vs. Ricardo Almeida
Joe Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau
Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Lytle
Tyson Griffin vs. Marcus Aurelio

UNDERCARD
Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Justin McCully
Jorge Gurgel vs. Cole Miller
Melvin Guillard vs. Dennis Siver
Corey Hill vs. Justin Buchholz

Unrelated, but important: The earth-shattering news that Dana White was promising to deliver tomorrow has been pushed back to this coming Tuesday. My guess? The UFC needs a little more time to obtain rights to “The Hex”…

Whoa…Rampage has the ability to grow hair? And he’s doing it because he has an audition to play B.A. Baracus in a John Singleton re-make of The A-Team? Consider our minds blown. Big ups to Jimmy for continuing to bring MMA fighters to his couch.

(Props: Bloody Elbow)

(Jesse Taylor pisses his shorts on national television.)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris blogs his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which retard-strong (and retard-smart) Jesse Taylor pounded his way to victory, and Amir Sadollah and Matt Brown put on the best fight of the season.

***

By now everyone should know that Jesse Taylor is for real. He’s not the most exciting fighter in the world, but he’s solid and gets the job done. I can’t hate, because I respect winners and he’s also a Team Quest fighter so I was rooting for him. Dante just laid there and took a beating. He’s a veteran in the game and also a brown belt under Ricardo Almeida, so I assumed that he would catch Jesse, but Jesse just punched the [blank] out of him for two full rounds.

Now, let me get to the action! Matt Brown vs. Amir Sadollah was crazy. That’s a fight that people would pay money to watch. I think the first round could be given to Brown for the aggression and last second takedown. Amir seemed to pick up steam in the second round, took Matt down, punished him from the top, and eventually sunk in a triangle choke. I liked the fight because it wasn’t a sloppy slugfest. Brown has a great boxing background and Amir showed his Muay Thai and ground game with the strikes and sub finish. It’s crazy that the more you pressure him, he gets stronger and doesn’t fold — that’s the quality of a good fighter. I can say the same about Brown plus he was very humble in his loss and showed respect for his opponent.

Our friend and content partner Ariel Helwani at MMARated just put up a great interview with Forrest Griffin, where the Ultimate Fighter coach and light heavyweight contender reveals that he’s been eating a lot of french toast lately, popping tons of valium, he really doesn’t care about TUF, and he digs Nick Cave, but not enough to actually pay for his music.

The official UFC 85: Bedlam trailer clip, featuring Matt Hughes, Thiago Alves, Michael Bisping, Jason Day, Brandon Vera, Fabricio Werdum, Nate Marquardt, Thales Leites, Marcus Davis, and Mike Swick.

HDNet Fights’ 86-minute “Best of 2008″ video; props to MMAScraps.

And also? You’re going to want to click that “More” link…

(“The foulest stench is in the air / the funk of 40,000 years / And grisly ghouls from every tomb / are closing in to seal your doom.”)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris blogs his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which CB Dollaway got his first inevitable win and the quarterfinal matchups were announced.

***

Let me start by apologizing for not speaking on the Yarbrough-Schultz fight in last week’s blog. I was really going through some things — it’s hard to walk around knowing the outcome of the show and holding it from your friends and family. You’re drowned with questions and angry people wanting to know what happened, and also claiming to know the outcome. Last week was a shock to a lot of people close to me but not to many outside of that circle. I learned a lot from the experience and took the loss as motivation. I was also mistaken on my words threatening to hurt Amir after the bout. I was being very sarcastic and I’m very humble about the incident.

Now, it was no surprise that CB was fighting Nick Klein this week. The only surprise was “who the hell is Nick Klein?” Well, let me fill you in. Klein is a tough dude — we were actually respecting him a lot, because he was very quiet in the house. Quiet people are unpredictable and are usually hiding something…like talent. Klein had a lot of it and even earned the name “Killa Klein” for his random funny outbursts. I hate to use the word “underdog” on this show because we’re all at the bottom of the mountain trying to become UFC fighters. In this case even Klein felt like an underdog because of CB’s high profile and #1 pick status from Rampage.

Most of you already know about CB. I didn’t know much about him other than his great wrestling before the show, but I would soon find out about his grappling and Muay Thai skills. I thought that he was just another wrestler, but after training with him I noticed that he was well rounded. He hits hard as hell, has great subs, and he’s meaner than a muthaf*$#a when it’s time to fight. He has this alter ego called the “DOBERMAN” and I saw that as he entered the cage.

Forrest Griffin really wants that animal, damn it. Props to Bloody Elbow. The full episode is after the jump, courtesy of MMAScraps.

(“Sic semper tyrannis, bitch!”)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris will be blogging his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which Jeremy May got his comeuppance and Team Rampage finally pulled out a win.

***

I don’t think too many people were surprised by the punishment dished out by Matt Brown. People ask me about him all the time — they think he’s a serial killer and mean as hell. To tell you the truth, I thought the same thing, but he’s actually one of the coolest dudes in the house. He opened up a lot about how fighting kept him alive and changed him in a positive way. He earned a lot of respect by doing that and whoopin’ ass in practice.

May definitely asked for it, but I gotta give it too him for coming out strong. The only thing that pissed me off is that the admitted to faking the knee injury. Now, if you don’t already know, I’m probably Jeremy’s only friend and I didn’t even know that. A lot of people were cautious of overtraining, but to sandbag is another story. The fight went well — it was all emotion, so they got tired pretty quick. But Brown had the better cardio and weathered the storm, then finished May with a kick to the nose. As bad as some people wanted to see Jeremy lose, I hated to see Team Forrest in control again.

(“Oh, my daughter’s going to be so excited that I met Jay-Z!”)

Via Fightline.com — Kimbo Slice responds to the rumors that he was knocked out by Forrest Griffin in a recent sparring match at Xtreme Couture:

“No, there is no truth to that at all. It’s bullshit and Forrest Griffin will tell you that it’s bullshit too. The fact is it was a good sparring session and I was training with Forrest and he was talking to me about defending yourself at all times and then he threw a big kick and I was like, ‘WOAH I never even seen that coming’. But no, I never got knocked out. Even if I did get knocked out, saying that and putting that rumor out there just makes you a pussy.”

Wait a minute, so did you or did you not get knocked out? And why are you choking that old lady? Is she your accountant’s wife or something? Did she tap or nap?

(Phil Baroni works to take down Kimbo Slice at Xtreme Couture.)

Dana White on a match between Kimbo Slice and Chuck Liddell:

“If he [Kimbo] fought anybody that mattered, I would book that tomorrow…The fact is, Kimbo’s not there yet. He would get destroyed. I heard he just got knocked out by Forrest Griffin last week in a sparring match after a kick to the head…I’d take him [Kimbo] absolutely seriously — but, again, he hasn’t beat anybody. In this sport, it’s all about ‘Who have you beat right now?” And he hasn’t beat anbody.” — Deadspin via FiveOunces

Quite a tune-change for White, who was previously dismissive of Kimbo’s potential. But with the Iceman’s last fight only 2-4 years away, the UFC prez may already be looking ahead to a final glorious cash-in for the Octagon’s most loyal star. If things continue to go well for Kimbo, he’ll have earned his respect among MMA purists by the time Liddell is ready to retire. Could Slice vs. Liddell headline UFC 127: The Clone Wars on New Year’s Eve 2011? We’ll go ahead and clear our schedule…

(“Maximus” could be battling T-Griffin at UFC 86.)

We mentioned yesterday that lightweight Tyson Griffin would likely be fighting at UFC 86 — the event featuring a headlining battle between Rampage and Forrest Griffin on July 5th. An opponent had not been named, although we suggested it could be Nate Diaz due to Nick’s bro recently calling Tyson out. It now looks like Griffin’s opponent will be Marcus “Maximus” Aurelio.

Griffin is 11-1 and is riding a three-fight win streak. His only loss was to Frankie Edgar 14 months ago. He last fought at UFC 81 when he beat Gleison Tibau via decision — on a side note, Tibau will take on Joe “Daddy” at the same event. Griffin has spent about half his career in the UFC, while Aurelio has three UFC fights under his belt to go with his years in PRIDE. The 16-5 “Maximus” hails from American Top Team and has won his last two — the most recent being an armbar victory over Ryan Roberts at UFC Fight Night 13. Previously, he fell three times in a row, although all was to top talent: Clay Guida, Takanori Gomi, and Mitsuhiro Ishida. The Brazilian is — what else? — a BJJ specialist and more often than not, finishes fights. He has 10 subs among his 16 wins, compared to three decisions. All of his losses were via decision.

This could be one of the best match-ups on the card, which currently looks like this (although not all are confirmed):

– Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin
– Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Lytle
– Joe “Daddy” Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau
– Frank Mir vs. Justin McCully
– Tyson Griffin vs. Marcus Aurelio
– Justin Buchholz vs. Corey Hill
– Melvin Guillard vs. Dennis Siver
– Ben Saunders vs. Jared Rollins
– Cole Miller vs. ???
– Steve Bruno vs. ???

And speaking of Joe “Daddy” and “Maximus”, Joe’s newborn son has been named Maximus. For what it’s worth, my aunt had a cat also named Maximus. It had chronic diarrhea and was blind in one eye.

(Roger Huerta could be ending his fight-hiatus in August.)

Brief (but important) developments in the world of organized violence…

— MMAMadness has learned from a “very reliable source” that UFC lightweight Roger Huerta will return to the Octagon at UFC 87 (August 9th, Minneapolis), against a yet-unnamed opponent. Could this be related to Kenny Florian’s recent call-out of “El Matador”? If it’s not, Joe Silva can basically go eff himself.

— In his first TUF7 column for Fox Sports, Forrest Griffin reveals that all the fighters were instructed to show up at no heavier than 190 pounds; so that one dude who had to drop 17 in one day only has himself to blame. Also: “I noticed that for the first couple of days ‘Rampage’ was much more funny than me and I was upset by that.”

— Perhaps due to the controversy spurring from last week’s news coverage of kiddie MMA, legislators are seeking to ban children’s MMA competitions in Missouri, the only state where youth matches are allowed. The MO-based youth-MMA organization Freestyle Combat League already requires its fighters to wear head gear and shin guards, and prohibits strikes to the head of a grounded opponent. The head of the FCL, Nathan Orand, says he’ll also be adding chest and stomach protectors for fighters younger than 14, allowing referees to stop a match if they see the danger of a joint injury, and switching from a cage to a ring. Sounds safe enough for our daughter!

— This Portfolio article on Chuck Liddell-as-accountant is notable for the following metaphor: “When I’m watching pre-fight tapes, I’m collecting all my receipts on my opponents, accumulating data,” [Liddell] says. “Once I step into the cage, it’s April 15. Everything is due.”

— MMAJunkie just put up an article evaluating the UFC performance of the 100 fighters featured on the first six seasons of The Ultimate Fighter. Junkie’s rather downbeat assessment: “[O]nly about 20 percent could be generously credited as UFC stars, or even serious contenders in their weight classes…more than half of the “TUF” contestants were unequivocal flops in that they failed to last more than two or three fights with the organization, if even that long.”

— Our buddy Ariel at JarryPark was recently named Editor-in-Chief of MMARated.com (mazel tov, brotha), and just put up a great audio interview with Cung Le, in which the new Strikeforce middleweight champ discusses Frank Shamrock’s trash-talk and his current contract situation with Strikeforce.

— Have a friend you don’t mind getting uncomfortably close with? Then these 10 “Ultimate Fighting” Exercises might be for you…

(The coaches, sans shirts, for “TUF 7″.)

The season premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter 7″ kicked off after UFC Fight Night 13 rocked the shit. If you’re not drunk enough yet, hold on for a full rundown of what happened in the opening show of Team Forrest versus Team Jackson…

After a recap of the past seasons — peppered with Dana’s “you’re gone” speeches — we get underway.

Segment One
It took a few moments, but the 16 fighters standing around in the gym who think they are the official 16, were soon shown additional fighters. They all soon realized there were a bit more than 16 of them. Turns out, one or two of them can count and there are 32 fighters. Dana comes in and explains that he is tired of the “pussies and the posers” — hence the solution of having 32 fighters. “This season, you’re gonna’ fight your way onto the show,” says Baldy.

Rampage claims to have smelled the shit in the fighters’ pants after Dana’s speech. Meanwhile, Dana was being bleeped more than Ozzy Osbourne.

After some brief “confessional” interviews with some of the cast, the guys weigh-in after only 48 hours to make weight. I think I just saw my brother on the show, but he ran away years ago. Maybe I should call my Mom about that one…

For those keeping track, here are the fighters fighting to get on the show: Paul Bradley, Steve Byrnes, Mike Dolce, Gerald Harris, Dante Rivera, David Baggett, Matt Brown, Erik Charles, John Clarke, Daniel Cramer, Tim Credeur, Clarence Dollaway, John Hall, Nick Klein, David Mewborn, Mike Marrello, Jeremy May, Prince LaDonas Mclean, Aaron Meisner, Reggie Orr, Matthew Riddle, Jeremiah Riggs, David Roberts, Nick Rossborough, Amir Sadollah, Patrick Schultz, Brandon Sene, Dan Simmler, Jesse Taylor, Cale Yarbrough, John Wood, and Luke Zachrich.

Burger King has it their way and sponsors the first elimination fight. It pits Prince McLean (4-5) against Mike Dolce (4-4). Just a couple of sweet kids trying to make their way.

Segment Two
The fight kicks off and Prince — after having earlier mentioned he has been on a losing streak — takes a shot and they hit the ground. Rampage mumbles something about liking Prince, just before he gets taken out via TKO by Dolce. He seems to be okay until the fucking waterworks start. We’re not even officially on the show yet and we have crybaby tears. The sad music tugs at my hearts strings. Not really.

Fight Two is Cal Yarbrough (0-0) against John Clarke (6-2). Seems Cal is kinda’ pals with Forrest Griffin — although Forrest isn’t bettin’ on him. However, his opponent had to drop 17 big L.B.s to make weight. He also says he’s getting too old to keep doing this — fighting in Boston pubs and stuff like that at his age. Um…no comment about the town that lives for St. Patty’s and knocking out teeth for fun.

Segment Three
The fight is on and Clarke scores, prompting Forrest to say it’s “garbage.” Some punishment by Clarke has Yarbrough rolling around and almost getting nailed by a kimura. Some back-of-the-head warnings are given to Clarke — thanks to an audience of back seat refs. They go to their feet for a bit, but it hits the mat again almost as quickly. Clarke almost pulls an armbar, but Cal slips it and almost gets caught in a g’tine. Somehow, the thing gets upright again but it looks like Clarke is whipped — funny how dropping 17 pounds in 48 hours will do that to you. Cal tosses some shitty throws and it’s called due to Clarke being gassed. Clarke really could have won the thing had he been in the shape he needed to be in. Now we should cue the sad music.

No “seeya” for Clarke, but he was probably too tired to do that, too. The next elimination fight sees Steve Byrnes (6-1) against Amir Sadollah (0-0).

Photo by Roger Williams

If you’ve watched an MMA event in the last decade, chances are you’ve seen Jacob “Stitch” Duran doing his thing — patching up fighters’ faces to give them one more round. The legendary cutman — who has worked thousands of fights in boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts — recently took some time to chat with us about blood, living the cutman life, the worst gash he’s seen, and stitching Dana White’s mouth shut.

CagePotato: When did you decide you wanted to rub vaseline on guys’ faces and fix gashes for a living?
Jacob “Stitch” Duran: Well, it was actually when I saw my first pint of blood coming off of one of my kickboxers. I kinda’ smiled and said, “You know what, man, this is kinda’ freaky, not everybody does this.” I got hooked on it right from the get-go and that was about 1988.

Who taught you the trade?
I studied some of the legendary cutmen that were in the game — in boxing at that point — and tried to emulate some of the techniques they did. Really, I had no pattern. I didn’t know whether what they were doing was right or was wrong. I tried to ask some of the cutmen as I was up-and-coming and for the most part they kinda’ blew me off, “Hey, fuck you. You’ve got to learn just like me. I learned off my master. I’m taking this to my grave.” So I kind of studied on my own, I started asking a lot of questions to the ringside doctors, I read manuals on blood and arteries. For the most part it was on-the-job training.

Because of those things that happened to me, it’s important for those things not to happen to other people. I’m in the process right now of producing a DVD called “Cuts, Cornermen, and Confidence: Giving the Fighter One More Round”. It’s real important. I was going to do it when I was in boxing years ago and when I got mixed up with the UFC, I realized their are so many trainers that want to learn how to properly take care of the fighters. Wrapping their hands, working corners. And I think, as an instructor, I’m qualified to do it. I figured I might as well pass on some of the ideas and work experiences that I’ve gone through, so that these guys don’t have to go through what I went through. For the game to get better, we have to teach the trainers how to take care of the fighters — and give them that one more round.

An instructional DVD is great, because no one can just go to school and get a cutman degree, right?
Exactly. It’s going to be for the layman. It’s designed for the trainers, the fighter, the armchair quarterback — or the weekend warrior, we call them in this sport. Even if you train yourself, at least you can learn how to properly wrap your hands for training. My wife’s birthday is July 7th and I’m committed for it to come out before that, if not on that date.

Who gave you your nickname?
That came from my early years in kickboxing. I worked with this one fighter that got cut. I knew nothing. Really, that was my first experience working on a cut — I had no medications, so I just applied direct pressure on him and covered it up with vaseline. After the fight, I did what every other cutman would do: I put a butterfly on the guy to close up the cut. And he goes, “Hey, you saved me some stitches. Stitch.” So that’s where the name came from. You know what? That’s a pretty nice name. I was coming home from San Jose today and I was at the San Jose Airport, and this young kid was coming by in a TapouT shirt and he said, “Hey, Stitch!” So the name has penetrated to the fans. A lot of people don’t even know my real name!

“The Ultimate Fighter 7″ is just around the corner and Spike TV has some new vids of the coaches hyping the April 2nd premiere. You can go here for more “TUF 7″ videos and if you’re feelin’ badass, you can use the same link to apply for season 8 of the show.

Rampage waxes eloquent about Forrest Griffin’s lack of ass-wiping ability:

Forrest Griffin doesn’t know his assistant coach’s name and is all about the new car:

Props: BloodyElbow

Check out this news segment about ICON Sport’s “To Hell and Back” event tomorrow, where Phil Baroni will take on Kala Kolohe Hose for the vacant middleweight title. To summarize…

Baroni: “Ain’t no Hawaiian guy that’s gonna beat me. Dudes wish they were me, chicks wish they were with me.”
Hose: “[unintelligible]”

By the way, is this what anchormen in Hawaii really look like? Did we just catch this guy on casual Friday? Our ears are still ringing from that shirt.

Also, here’s Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin chatting about their July title fight on Inside MMA. Quinton passes out from boredom at 2:40.

I think I know what this show needs: a live studio audience. Applause for new guests and scattered chuckles at the weak jokes would really fill those dead spaces.

Oh, and if you’re interested, here’s Chris Leben biting through a two-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi and then barfing. Good times.

(“Yeah, scratch that shit. Lower. Still lower!”)

Spike TV has started hyping “TUF 7″ which debuts on April 2nd, with the second episode rolling out a week later. As we’ve mentioned, the show will start with 32 fighters instead of the usual 16. The fighters will first be battling for a spot on the show, which means they’ll be fighting on the pre-show show, or something like that. Either way, it’s an MMA version of March Madness with 16 fighters advancing to compete for UFC contracts. In the first two episodes, we’ll be treated to 16 fights. I just got an erection. Because I’m excited about watching the fights not because of the dudes, pervs. Seriously, grow up! CP loves chicks!

Via MMAWeekly:

“The new format will give us two incredibly intense episodes to launch the season and will weed out some of the guys who might not have the heart and desire that it takes to become a UFC fighter,” said UFC president Dana White about the new season.

While this is certainly just a ploy to squeeze two more episodes worth of ad revenue from the show, it is a ploy I’m loving. I say, let’s expand this bitch to 64 and make a month of it.

The fighters competing – per Dave Meltzer – are: Paul Bradley, Steve Byrnes, Mike Dolce, Gerald Harris, Dante Rivera, David Baggett, Matt Brown, Erik Charles, John Clarke, Daniel Cramer, Tim Credeur, Clarence Dollaway, John Hall, Nick Klein, David Mewborn, Mike Marrello, Jeremy May, Prince LaDonas Mclean, Aaron Meisner, Reggie Orr, Matthew Riddle, Jeremiah Riggs, David Roberts, Nick Rossborough, Amir Sadollah, Patrick Schultz, Brandon Sene, Dan Simmler, Jesse Taylor, Cale Yarbrough, John Wood, and Luke Zachrich.

The group will be coached/laughed at/yelled at by Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin.

So UFC 82 has rightfully dominated not only CagePotato the past 50-odd hours, but much of the MMA world as well. With Anderson Silva’s continued dominance in the bag, the UFC is already looking ahead. Way ahead. Although the date has not been confirmed by the NSAC, Dave Meltzer is reporting in his Wrestling Observer Newsletter that UFC 86 will go down on July 5th in Vegas. The event will be headlined by “TUF 7″ coaches, Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin. The two light heavies were named coaches for the seventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series back in December, setting them up for a battle at the next UFC event following the end of TUF’s finale.

The light heavyweight fight – which will have Rampage’s title on the line – is so far the only fight “scheduled” for the UFC 86 card. As has been the case lately, once a date drops – be it official or rumored – scheduled fights start falling into place at a frequent pace. The event is four months away and with the recent UFC event cards, the show already has a lot to live up to. And let’s hope they told the 4-year-old who designed the UFC 84: ill will poster what he can do with his crayons and will get a real designer for the UFC 86 poster…like at least an eight-year-old who understands the upper-case/lower-case rule.

When reached for comments, Rampage just said something about “ass” and “whuppin”, while Forrest Griffin would only take questions on what his years were like playing Opie. Apparently Andy Griffith was a prick. Who knew.

(Props BloodyElbow)

The UFC recently allowed Las Vegas’s ABC affiliate to poke around the set of The Ultimate Fighter 7. Though an unusually reserved Rampage questioned the mental capacity of himself and his rival coach, Forrest Griffin was able to correctly use the word “curmudgeon.” You be the judge:

Update: The video embed went fubar. Watch it here. (Windows Media Player required)

Answering yesterday’s call for first-hand stories about the UFC 79 viewing party at Madison Square Garden, a CagePotato reader named Serafin wrote in with the following:

“I was at the MSG show for UFC 79. I gotta say that although the place was empty as sh*t, the crowd that was there (guessing about 700 at most and that can be a bit generous as I don’t know for sure what the numbers were) was hyped up at seeing Matt Serra and Forrest Griffin. Everybody seemed to have enjoyed themselves and were badgering all the fighters with questions about when the UFC is going to do a show at The Garden. A lot of people just dont seem to understand the politics and craptastic attempts of the NY State Athletic Comission to keep MMA out of this part of the northeast. Funny, cause when you really look at things….Jersey has been having shows for quite a while and it’s where we got a chance to see Frankie Ed…..ok I take that back. Not a great point but a point nonetheless.”

So to summarize: Good times, but even less-attended than earlier reports suggesting that 1,000 people would show up. Damn, with those numbers they should have just reserved a block of tables at ESPN Zone and held the party there. Anyway, big ups to Serafin. If you have any follow-up questions, leave ‘em in the comments section and we’ll try to squeeze more info out of the dude.

#10. Keith “Satan” Jardine assaults Chuck Liddell

#9. Gina Carano weighs in

Dana White blew his load a little early over the weekend. Before his “big announcement” today, he let it slip at the end of The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale that Forrest Griffin will be one of the coaches on The Ultimate Fighter 7. He also teased that he had “big plans” for UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the new year, leaving us to conclude that he’d be the other coach.

White also noted that the two coaches will fight each another when the TUF 7 series is completed. Shooting begins in January and will likely debut on SpikeTV in April 08. It will feature 16 up-and-coming Middleweight (185 pounds) fighters.

Although Rampage and Griffin are 205 pounds, they should have any problem coaching the middleweight contenders. At the very least, The Ultimate Fighter will get a shot of personality that it so desperately needs, and hopefully another chance to fill the void in the Middleweight division.

Be advised! Forrest Griffin and Ice-T’s wife Coco guest star on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — tonight at 10/9c — as a possibly homicidal “ultimate fighter” and the woman who loves him. Detective Stabler better bring his A-game; you don’t just slap cuffs onto the man who tore apart “Shogun” Rua…

See what I mean about the bruises?

Set the DVRs, folks: On Thursday, November 20, UFC light-heavyweight Forrest Griffin will make his acting debut on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as a fighter who becomes a suspect in the death of a teenage girl. Playing the role of his fiancee is none other than Coco, the heavily ass-implanted real-life wife of SVU castmember Ice-T. A preview clip has made it online, and we’ve posted it below. If Griffin’s entire performance is as thrilling as that “I LOVE YOU BABY, WOOOOOO!” line, we’d say Randy Couture better watch his back…

By the way, is Coco wearing an Octagon-shaped necklace? Man, these writers don’t miss a single detail!