(No word yet on whether Penn plans to file a formal complaint against the bacterium that screwed him out of the title at UFC 112. PicProps: ESPN)

After the jump you’ll find a slickly produced video blog from the folks at ShootMedia – which we’re led to believe is just part one of an on-going series — that chronicles BJ Penn taking his training camp for UFC 118 from his beloved Hilo, Hawaii to California, where he spent the final four weeks before his 155-pound title rematch with Frankie Edgar. “BJ’s a fighter and he always wants to be on top,” says Penn boxing coach Jason Parillo at the tail end of the vid. “When you take him off the peg of being on top, we get an animal.”

While for the most part, this piece comes off as a fairly standard training blog – BJ doesn’t do anything particularly animalistic, though there is one scene of him getting after it on the rowing machine – it’s clear that Penn’s training partners appear here for one reason and one reason only: So they can say all the stuff the former lightweight champ wants us to know, but doesn’t want to actually say himself. Case in point: Taking on the topic of the sinus infection said to hamper his performance at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi.

(Video courtesy YouTube/UFC.com)

I’m not sure what the betting odds are set at but I’m thinking that its pretty much a lock that James Toney’s interview segments from the UFC 118 countdown show that premiers tonight will include closed captioning. Apparently even Chael Sonnen can’t understand anything that comes out of Toney’s mouth and he figured out Portugese from an iPhone application in an afternoon.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that his trash talk on the show will include a bunch of insults towards Randy about how "he’s no legend" and he’ll fill in the remainder of his segment by talking about how great he is, how he’s going to "turn Randy’s lights out" and by referring to Couture at every turn as "princess."

(Stay still and let me hit you, you Kalib Starnes wannabe fight avoiding wuss.)

We haven’t seen or heard much from BJ Penn leading up to his UFC 118 rematch with Frankie Edgar, which either means he’s been humbled a bit from the loss or he’s too busy training to talk to the media.

Well, the former UFC lightweight champion jumped back into the limelight with a bang this week, quashing the notion that losing to Edgar knocked him down a peg or two.

In a promo video for the August 28 show, Penn said that Edgar’s corner helped persuade the judges that the New Jersey native won the fight and that Frankie did nothing but run from him for 25 minutes during their fight in Abu Dhabi at UFC 112 back in April.

"He’s running around. Just step up and fight. And then I see his whole team run and pick him up. All your boys put you on their shoulders and dance you around in front of the judges and try to steal the victory. I’m not gonna be a part of that," Penn said. Whatever, man. That’s the man you are. You’re the "ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPION?" Okay. I got you. It’s a joke."

(Video courtesy BJPenn.com)

Continuing his tradition of hosting a variety of top-tier fighters to help him prepare for his upcoming fights, BJ Penn has brought in a secret weapon to bolster his training camp for his August 28 rematch with Frankie Edgar: DREAM featherweight champion Bibiano Fernandes.

Although he fights a weight class below Penn, Fernandes is the perfect fighter to mimic Edgar and is very similar in stature and style to "The Answer," with the only real difference being Bibiano’s superior jiu-jitsu base. 8-2 with losses to Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto and Urijah Faber, "The Flash" has not lost since 2007. His most recent win came in his first title defense via split decision over Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen at DREAM 13 in March.

(Fight!‘s June 2010 issue, on newsstands now.)

Okay, we gotta tell you a couple-three things:

– Come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow night beginning at 10 p.m. ET for our liveblog of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum.

– Hurry up and enter some pools on MMA FightPicker. There will be no prizes for the winners, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.

– How ’bout a round of e-appaluse for the Potato Nation members who made their presence known in the comments section this week, and will be receiving one-year subscriptions to Fight! Magazine…

Disco-Platypus on "Knockout of the Week: Marlon Sandro Flattens Masanori Kanehara in 38 Seconds, Wins Sengoku Featherweight Title": The Sengoku championship may as well be labeled, "The Champion Who Would Crumble Most Quickly When Faced With American-style Wrestling."

DangadaDang on "Report: Batista Signs With Strikeforce; Opponent and Date of Debut Set to Be Announced": He is aware that no one in MMA can be brought out of a sleeper hold on the pure energy of a chanting crowd, correct?

And finally — uh-oh, get comfortable…

(Have a nice trip, see you this summer. Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)

Props to BloodyElbow for tipping us off on the early betting lines for UFC 118 (August 29th, Boston), in which former champ BJ Penn has been pegged as a minus-365 favorite over new champ Frankie Edgar, while "The Answer" is still a sizable underdog at plus-285. Going into their first fight at UFC 112, the line was -675/+552 in Penn’s favor, meaning that Edgar’s chances have been upgraded from "snowball’s chance in hell" to "snowball’s chance in Phoenix."

We haven’t seen a champion come in as such a significant underdog since Serra vs. St. Pierre II. The question is: Is it justified? Oddsmakers are masters of tapping into public sentiment about a matchup, and preying on bettors’ emotions. Basically, they want you to put your money on Edgar with the hopes that you’ll triple your investment, so that they can collect it all when the Old BJ shows up and cleans house. But when the betting line starts to drift too far away from reality, they run the risk of getting burned.

("All summer, they begged us to take them to Ferrari World. And now that we’re here? Forget it, they just want to stay in the hotel room all day. I’m telling you, Helen, don’t have boys. They will drain years off your life.")

Fighters Only breaks it:

Former UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn will get his rematch with Frankie Edgar on August 28th, Fighters Only can reveal after speaking with several key sources. The fight will headline UFC 118, the UFC’s first card in Boston, Massachusetts.

When this rumor first emerged, we weren’t sure if Penn should get an immediate rematch with Edgar simply by virtue of being BJ Penn. But the more we think about it, the more it makes sense. Penn may still be the #1-ranked lightweight in world at this point — judging from the poll on our homepage, 65% of you agree with that assessment — and making him whoop another contender to "earn" his shot is kind of a waste of everybody’s time. Besides, Penn vs. Edgar II is the only logical fight from a promotional standpoint. When you’re headlining a card with a title fight, at least one of the participants should be a star. Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard II doesn’t really fit that criteria.

As for Maynard, the Boston Globe published a report that he’ll be facing Kenny Florian at the same event, but they quickly retracted it, possibly after getting smacked down by the UFC. It would be a great matchup, though we’d hate to see Maynard lose his top-contender spot to a guy who’s already had two shots at the belt. Still, it’s Boston, and Ken-Flo is going to have to beat up somebody in his hometown…

(Take it easy, Gray. The bag didn’t know she was your girlfriend.)

by Cage Potato contributor Elias Cepeda

Despite being undefeated, Gray Maynard (10-0) was overlooked earlier this year for a title shot in favor of a man who he had recently beat handily, Frankie Edgar. Now that Edgar has made good and won the UFC lightweight title from BJ Penn, Maynard discusses still wanting a title shot and the possibility that he may get passed over again.

Gray, there was a great case for you deserving the next title shot against BJ Penn, being undefeated and having dominated Frankie Edgar when you fought him in April of 2008. Yet, Edgar got the shot and ended up beating Penn to win the title. How closely were you watching the fight Saturday?

I was kind of checking it out of course. It didn’t really hit me until the calls were coming in and I got a ton of texts that I did really have a chance to go for the belt. Then, of course I got pumped up.

(Props: BJPenn.com)

While on a media tour promoting his new book Why I Fight, former (!) UFC lightweight champ BJ Penn took 18 seconds out of his day to announce that an immediate rematch with Frankie Edgar is in the works. Nothing is set in stone yet, but the UFC wants the fight, and BJ wants the fight, and all of BJ’s fans want the fight, so there you go.

Of course, this opens up a debate about whether BJ Penn deserves a chance to reclaim his belt right away. Immediate title rematches are a tricky thing. When Machida vs. Rua II was set up directly after their first meeting, it made sense because there was a general uproar about the decision unfairly going to Lyoto, who seemingly only won because leg kicks don’t count. But what can you really say about Penn vs. Edgar at UFC 112, other than it was a close fight that was difficult to score (particularly for the judges)? Edgar was never put in serious danger, and he would actually be the clear winner under the Unified Rules of Stockton, in which the loser is the guy who looks more fucked up afterwards, and the winner is the guy who was kicking more ass at the end.

BJ Penn is a more popular star than Frankie Edgar, so the UFC is using the "close fight" angle to try and get one of their golden boys back on his throne, rather than sending in Gray Maynard as Edgar’s first belt defense. (Admittedly, Edgar vs. Maynard sounds like pay-per-view poison.) Do you accept this as just part of the fight business, or should BJ have to knock off another contender first to prove that he’s still the same old killer, and his passionless performance last Saturday really was due to illness?

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

by Cage Potato contributor Elias Cepeda

After losing the lightweight title to Frankie Edgar Saturday night at UFC 112, it has been a long couple of connecting flights from the United Arab Emirates back home to Hawaii for Team BJ Penn. Fresh off the plane, Penn’s coach Rudy Valentino spoke with Cage Potato about what went wrong in the fight and what is next for Penn.

All three judges scored the fight for Frankie Edgar – for what it’s worth I scored the fight for Edgar as well – but every single round was close and was difficult to score. How did you view the outcome?

One judge scored every round for Edgar but what I saw in the fight when I was watching it, and I haven’t watched it again on tape, but watching it as it happened, I felt that BJ won the first three rounds. The fourth round was even and I think he lost the last round. So I feel BJ won the fight. He was also battling a sinus infection and was on antibiotics, so he was not one hundred percent. I’m not making any excuses, that is just what happened. I didn’t see him lose that fight but I did see him lose the last round. As for effectiveness of punches, I thought BJ had it. Frankie got two takedowns but BJ got up real fast and nothing happened on the ground there, so I don’t know if they could score the fight based on those two takedowns.

("Let’s have a good, clean fight, protect yourself at all times, and don’t leave it in the hands of the judges. Trust me on that one." Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com.)

Yes, the lightweight title fight between BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar at UFC 112 was close through all five rounds, and we’re not going to launch into the corny argument that a challenger should have to definitively "beat the champ" to earn a decision victory. But when the judges’ scores came back for that fight, we were a little shocked by the 50-45 tally that Douglas Crosby turned in for Frankie, especially since Penn pretty clearly took the first round, probably deserved rounds two and three, and the only round that was obviously Edgar’s was the fifth.

Responding to the uproar from Penn fans, Crosby created a thread on the UG — humbly titled "The JUDGING GENIUS returns from the Middle East" — to explain his interpretation of the fight. Well, not so much explain as rant incoherently and endlessly, making the forum posters increasingly furious. Crosby’s manifesto, compiled by FightOpinion, is after the jump; please note that these words were produced by an actual professional MMA judge chosen by the UFC. Read on if you dare…

(Props: MMAFighting.com)

Weigh-ins for tomorrow’s UFC 112: Invincible event went down earlier today at Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi, with all 22 fighters successfully hitting their marks. Though there were no big surprises in the results, there were a few memorable moments in the face-offs, including Nick Osipczak going nose-to-nose with Rick Story, BJ Penn‘s death-glare on Frankie Edgar, Matt Hughes getting unanimously booed by the Abu Dhabi crowd during a brief interview, and Anderson Silva‘s confident dismissal of Demian Maia: "This is my time, this is my belt, the UFC is my house. No problem." The numbers are after the jump…

(‘Okay boys, let’s step back and put our shirts on before we send the wrong message to the local authorities.’ Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

As you may have heard, UFC 112 is popping off in Abu Dhabi on Saturday morning/early afternoon. In addition to providing you with a liveblog that you absolutely don’t want to miss, we’re also going to go ahead and argue about what this series of long-odds title fights really means, and what the UFC should do next once the dust settles. Won’t you join us?

Who would you less want to be right now: Frankie Edgar or Demian Maia?

(The affable Gracie uses one of his patented knock-knock jokes to disarm Hughes just long enough to set up a collar choke. Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestlye.)

Your old pal the Enabler tried as hard as he could, but damned if he could locate any online bookmaker that was giving odds on whether or not the UFC’s hastily thrown together stadium in Abu Dhabi would collapse under the strain of a sandstorm and trap everyone inside its terrifying skeleton of twisted metal and promotional posters. I refuse to believe I’m the only person who thinks that the chances of that happening are at least as good as Demian Maia’s odds.

We might as well take a look at stuff we can bet on, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com.

Anderson Silva (-650) vs. Demian Maia (+600)
BJ Penn (-675) vs. Frankie Edgar (+552)
Matt Hughes (-360) vs. Renzo Gracie (+361)
Mark Munoz (-150) vs. Kendall Grove (+155)
Terry Etim (-138) vs. Rafael Dos Anjos (+135)
Phil Davis (-435) vs. Alexander Gustafsson (+420)

The breakdown…

(Renzo Gracie vs. Frank Shamrock, 2/10/07)

Matt Hughes is, according to some oddsmakers, about a 5-1 favorite to beat Renzo Gracie at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Maybe that’s because of how easily Hughes smoked Royce Gracie at UFC 60, or how he managed to survive an early scare and ride out a decision win over Gracie student Matt Serra at UFC 98. Or, then again, maybe it’s just because Renzo hasn’t fought in over three years (what you see in the video above is the unsatisfying result of that outing) and is bound to have a little bit of ring rust at 43 years old. Regardless, Gracie told MMAFighting.com in a recent live chat that he thinks he’ll beat Hughes with his superior jiu-jitsu (what, you thought he was going to say punching power?), but his fight isn’t the only one on the card where he’s predicting an upset:

"I don’t want to fight at 155 just because I don’t want to fight the new champion, Frank Edgar. I believe Edgar is going to beat B.J. Penn. He has all the tools to do it."

Just in case you were wondering, Edgar is an even bigger underdog than Gracie. But hey, this is the same guy who predicted Serra’s upset win over Georges St. Pierre. That’s got to count for something, right?  Or absolutely nothing at all?

After a short week of pickin’ for UFC Fight Night 21: Florian vs. Gomi, it’s time to stretch out a bit. The pools for next Saturday’s UFC 112 card are now open on MMA FightPicker and two things are worth noting: 1) You have a full nine days to enter pools and make your selections, and 2) Up for grabs in the prize pool this time around is a 32-inch television. Seriously. And it’s a nice one, too. A 3,800-chip buy-in gains you access to the 25-person-limit prize pool, in which the first-place winner will score a Sony BRAVIA 32" 1080p LCD HDTV, valued at $549.99.

Yes, 3,800 Potato Chips is about 3,750 more than you have at this point; we realize that. So why not buy some chips? Put it this way: If you need a 32" flat-screen and you think you have a good handle on how UFC 112 will play out, you could pick up a brand-new television at a very deep discount. The prize pool requires a minimum of 16 players, and it includes a tie-breaker question that you’ll need to answer. Any of you sissies have the guts to play? Anybody feel like taking a look at the questions before making such a rash decision?

UPDATE: Okay, listen up crybabies. We realize it’s not fair to con you into buying chips when the prize pool could shut down for not hitting the minimum number of players. So we’re going to lift the minimum player requirement for this one. Thanks for all your feedback, and please check back later…

By Cage Potato contributor Matt Kaplan

Like fellow New Jersey native Frank Sinatra, UFC lightweight Jim Miller has been doing things his way. A former Cage Fury Fighting Championship and Reality Fighting title holder, Miller has used his ferocious style to catapult himself to the bright lights of the UFC Octagon, but the fire in Miller’s belly is not lit by the prospect of championship gold or the adulation of the masses. Instead, he maintains a deep commitment to his own personal standard of excellence and is poised to fulfill his own destiny, win or lose.

With a dominating win over the heavy-handed Duane “Bang” Ludwig at UFC 108 just two months ago, the New Jersey native is set to take on submission maven Mark Bocek at UFC 111 on March 27. I caught up and talked with Miller about his upcoming match, personifying a Creedence Clearwater Revival song, and a few of New Jersey’s finest exports.

So have you let the excitement of fighting Mark Bocek at UFC 111 in front of your hometown New Jersey crowd get to you, or have you been keeping it business as usual?

For me it really is business as usual. You know, it really doesn’t matter where I’m fighting. It’s cool that I’m going to have a lot more fans there, and that I don’t have to fly, but other than that, I’m stepping into the Octagon against a tough opponent, and that’s really what I’m focused on. Fortunately, the UFC fans have been great wherever I’ve been.

Vitor Belfort, Renzo Gracie, BJ Penn, Frankie Edgar, and Anderson Silva pose for pictures in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, while Ferrari World looms in the background. Photos courtesy of the UFC 112 Facebook page. More shots after the jump…

We were waiting for B.J. Penn to film a video blog in a parking garage at the Las Vegas airport to let us know how he feels about defending his title against Frankie Edgar at UFC 112, and lo and behold, here it is.  Penn says he thinks Edgar is "a very good opponent" with "a lot of big wins," and he’s generally pretty pleased with the bout.  He doesn’t exhibit the kind of fire that he might if he were getting Georges St. Pierre or Matt Hughes again, but what do you expect? 

Still, the muted though positive reaction from Penn forces us to consider the gradual decline in pre-fight heat from "The Prodigy" as his fights have gotten less personal and less challenging all at the same time.  Remember when he fought Sean Sherk in May of 2008?  Penn couldn’t get through an interview without painting him as an immoral cheater who deserved Wild West-style justice.  Then it was GSP, who he was ready to fight to the death, followed by Greasegate text message denier Kenny Florian, who he says he punished a little more than necessary, and lastly it was Diego Sanchez, who he really had nothing against. 

Now, it’s Edgar.  A good opponent with some good wins.  Okay, fine.  Why not?  He isn’t getting any younger, and it’s already been more than a month since he’s licked anyone else’s blood off his gloves.

Bonus: After the jump, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta explain to street hustler Mike Straka why Gray Maynard isn’t getting a shot at the title.

(Frankie Edgar is looking into your soul, and he is not impressed.)

We can’t say we didn’t see this coming.  After Gray Maynard‘s lackluster win over Nate Diaz on last night’s UFC Fight Night 20, Dana White tells MMAFighting.com that Frankie Edgar will get the next shot at lightweight champ B.J. Penn, tentatively scheduled for UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi this April.  Edgar last fought at the TUF 10 Finale on December 10, where he submitted Matt Veach with a rear naked choke in the second round.  Funny, we don’t recall a chorus of voices rising up in the wake of that victory to declare Edgar the consensus number one contender, but maybe that’s just because we didn’t watch the fight in New Jersey.

But seriously, you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that Edgar earned this shot primarily by process of elimination.  After Penn smoked Diego Sanchez, it came down to Edgar or Maynard.  Fortunately for Edgar, "The Bully" managed to win in the least impressive fashion possible, so he gets the shot by default, even though Maynard ran through him with relative ease at UFC Fight Night 13. 

Is it kind of unfair that a guy Maynard beat, who’s coming off a win over a relative UFC novice, is getting the shot just because his own win wasn’t quite exciting enough?  No, it’s not kind of unfair.  It’s totally unfair.  But that’s life in the fight game.  Video of Dana White explaining the thin rationale behind the fight, as well as why he decided to sell 10% of his company essentially to the government of Abu Dhabi, is after the jump.

(Photo courtesy of TheSun)

From a recent post on Brock Lesnar‘s official Facebook page:

NEW UPDATE!! Brock has had more problems (we can’t say what they are) and he could be out all of this year if things don’t get better. Brock wants to thank all of his fans for their support and for the nice messages so thanks guys.

Though we’ve yet to see the official update that we were promised this week, let this be your advance warning that Lesnar won’t be returning this summer. In other unconfirmed news…

— SI’s Josh Gross hears that Frankie Edgar will get the next shot at BJ Penn’s lightweight belt in April, regardless of Gray Maynard‘s performance against Nate Diaz at UFC Fight Night 20 on Monday. Edgar (11-1, 6-1 UFC), most recently submitted Matt Veach at the TUF 10 finale, holds wins over Sean Sherk, Hermes Franca, and Tyson Griffin, and previously lost a decision to Maynard in April 2008.

— According to MMA Live host Jon Anik, a match between knockout artist Paul Daley and perennial top contender Josh Koscheck is being discussed for May or June. Between Daley’s recent destructions of Martin Kampmann and Dustin Hazelett, and Koscheck’s wins over Frank Trigg and Anthony Johnson, both guys have a lot of heat behind them right now. Feels like a #1 welterweight contender fight to us…

(Brendan Schaub does his best impression of Darrill Schoonover’s stomach. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Not to stereotype dudes from New Jersey, but Frankie Edgar is probably pumpin’ his fist like a champ right about now. The UFC lightweight contender came out of the TUF 10 Finale as the card’s highest-paid scrapper, thanks in part to his well-deserved Fight of the Night bonus. Meanwhile, reality struck Kimbo Slice, who’s now earning 1/20th of what he used to make in EliteXC. Of course, he could have gotten paid more behind the scenes, but we only have the official figures in front of us, and you know how we hate to speculate without hard evidence. [*cough*] The full salary list is below…

Roy Nelson: $41,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus, $25,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
Brendan Schaub: $8,000

Matt Hamill: $46,000 (includes $23,000 win bonus)
Jon Jones: $20,000

Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson: $25,000 (no win bonus)
Houston Alexander: $13,000

Frankie Edgar: $71,000 (includes $23,000 win bonus, $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Matt Veach: $30,000 (includes $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Sean Sherk’s last two fights against B.J. Penn and Tyson Griffin respectively have seen him trying to reinvent himself as more of a boxer than the one-dimensional wrestler we’ve come to know and tolerate.  But will he really stick with that approach against Frankie Edgar who, as you can see, has some decent hands of his own?  Current Vegas odds have Sherk as slightly better than a 2-1 favorite, which makes sense if you think about the way he’s outwrestled opponents like Hermes Franca and Kenny Florian, and then compare it to the way Edgar was flat out dominated on the mat by Gray Maynard.  

But if Sherk gets caught up trying to please the fans and placate the people who say he can’t finish fights and isn’t entertaining to watch, he’s rolling the dice.  So which Sherk will we see on Saturday — the boxer or the wrestler?  And will it matter?

(‘You may now resume bartering!’)

Fedor Emelianenko and the rest of the Affliction/M-1 traveling circus showed up to ring the Nasdaq opening bell this morning, thus signaling that everything is going to be a-okay in the financial world.  Just to make sure everything went smoothly, Fedor again wore his special sweater.  Either that’s the only article of clothing he brought to America, or Fedor didn’t go back to his hotel room last night because he wandered around the city looking for scary rollercoasters until morning.

- Sean Sherk will not be wrestling Roger Huerta out of the UFC, as was initially rumored, but will instead be taking on Frankie Edgar at UFC 98.  Edgar, who’s coming off a win over Hermes Franca at UFC Fight Night 14, was held down for three rounds by Gray Maynard for his first UFC loss back in April, so at least he knows the drill by now.

- A bout between Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Mark Coleman is rumored to be a possibility for UFC 99 in Germany this summer.  Dana White said he wouldn’t offer Cro Cop a one fight deal to accommodate his retirement plans, but says he’s open to bringing him back if they can come to terms.  The other opponent the UFC may be offering him?  Tito freaking Ortiz, seen above bro-ing down with Affliction.  

“UFC sources” say that they’d like to get Ortiz back for the Germany show to cash in on his popularity over there.  Apparently he’s a sort of MMA David Hasselhoff, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it.  The biggest obstacle between a Cro Cop vs. Ortiz or Coleman bout right now (aside from the fact that only one of those three men is under contract with the UFC) is the difference in weight classes.  Cro Cop doesn’t want to cut to 205, it seems.  Someone should remind him that Alistair Overeem is considering signing on as a heavyweight.  See if that doesn’t change his mind while also creating an ache in his loins.

(Props: MMA Fanhouse)

In this UFC 90 hype video Rich “No Love” Clementi claims that he was the only lightweight willing to step up and fight Gray Maynard, and he did so because he’s the type who “looks for challenges and adversity.” No disrespect to Maynard here, but since when did he become the guy who makes all other UFC lightweights run and hide? What, he holds Frankie Edgar down for three rounds and now we’re supposed to believe that the UFC has trouble finding an opponent for him?

This is the kind of thing that makes you wonder if matchmaker Joe Silva isn’t feeding all the fighters the same lines, like an unimaginative pick-up artist. Either he tells you that they’re offering you this fight because you’re the only one with the balls to take it, or else he says the winner gets a title shot. What’s weird is that those are the same pick-up lines I use. The results so far have been…mixed.

Check out the heavily edited and still kind of lame highlight clips of both Clementi and Maynard during this video. Notice how they include Maynard’s submission-inducing slam of Rob Emerson, but cut it before you have a chance to realize that he knocked himself out in the process. Clever. Also, is it just me, or are most of Clementi’s highlights not really so highlight-y?

(Looks like Jesse Taylor picked the wrong week to quit drinking. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

The UFC’s always fluctuating end-of-night bonuses totaled $25,000 apiece for Saturday’s “Silva vs. Irvin” event. The four lucky men who left the Palms one-fortieth of a million dollars richer are…

Knockout of the Night: Rory Markham for his skull-crushing head-kick KO of Brodie Farber.
Submission of the Night: CB Dollaway for his “Peruvian Necktie” choke of fellow TUF 7 castmember Jesse Taylor.
Fight of the Night: Frankie Edgar and Hermes Franca for their three-round tussle that Edgar took unanimously thanks to his takedowns and GnP.

The must-see Markham/Farber knockout is below, and the Dollaway/Taylor scrap is after the jump — and we threw in Cain Velasquez’s beatdown of Jake O’Brien for good measure. (If you find a working link for Edgar/Franca, please post it in the comments section.) Serious props to MMA TKO.

Videos removed by request…

(No ice cream makes Brandon Vera sad.)

Yesterday, we reported on the July 19th event that the UFC was throwing together — definitely not in an effort to siphon off interest from Affliction: Banned, by the way — which will be headlined by Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin (ha!). Though the event isn’t listed on UFC.com yet, it’s being widely referred to as “UFC Fight Night 14,” and some notable matchups are coming together:

Brandon Vera will reportedly be making his light heavyweight debut against Reese Andy, a 7-1 Octagon newcomer and IFL vet who holds notable wins over Kala Kolohe Hose, Jamal Patterson, and Krzysztof Soszynski. Vera makes the move to 205 just six weeks after his UFC 85 loss to Fabricio Werdum.

UFN 14 will also see the return of Jake O’Brien — who was dropped from the UFC after losing to Andrei Arlovski in March — as he’s been re-acquired to take on AKA heavyweight prospect Cain Velasquez.

In the welterweight division, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson (who most recently beat the freckles off of Tommy Speer at UFN 13), will reportedly return to the cage to do battle with Kevin “The Fire” Burns, who’s coming off a shocking choke-out of BJJ black belt Roan Carneiro during his Octagon debut at UFC 85.

And finally, the source is unclear but MMA Weekly and MMA Junkie are listing Frankie Edgar vs. Hermes Franca on the UFN 14 card; the lightweight bout had originally been announced for UFC 87: Seek and Destroy on August 9th.

More to come…

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

From a recent blog post on MacDanzig.net:

Forget what you heard! Mac is NOT fighting at UFC 87, or in August at all! Mac will most likely fight in September, and the fight has not yet been signed.

It’s possible that Danzig’s reported matchup with Clay Guida at “Seek and Destroy” (August 9th, Minneapolis, MN) will simply be moved to a later event. We’ll update you when we know more. In the meantime, another compelling lightweight matchup may be added to the card that would take a bit of the sting off the Danzig/Guida loss.

NBC Sports is reporting that exiled former #1 contender Hermes Franca will return to the Octagon at UFC 87 against Frankie Edgar. Due to a positive steroid test, Franca was given a one-year suspension after his lightweight title fight against Sean Sherk at UFC 73; the suspension ends on July 5th. Franca resigned from the UFC in order to make money fighting outside of the U.S. — though decided against competing when he learned that doing so could jeopardize his chances of getting licensed here again — so it’s interesting that the UFC is welcoming him back with open arms. Could Dana White be planning a steroid-free rematch between Franca and Sean Sherk sometime in the future?

In other UFC 87 news, Karo Parisyan says he’s been booked to fight at the event. He was expected to face George Sotiropoulos, but the TUF 6 semi-finalist was forced to pull out of the match due to injury, and a replacement hasn’t been found yet. Parisyan was most recently defeated by Thiago Alves at UFC Fight Night 13 in April.

(Props: BloodyElbow)

(Carneiro and Chonan during a DEEP match in 2005, which ended in a controversial TKO loss for Carneiro due to a cut.)

Joe Silva’s hands have been full this week piling on fighters for UFC 87, and scrambling to replace them for UFC 85. First, the word on “Bedlam” (London, England; June 7th):

— Ryo Chonan has pulled out of his rematch with Roan Carneiro for unknown reasons. Replacing him will be Kevin “The Fire” Burns, a 4-1 UFC newcomer with possibly the cheesiest nickname we’ve ever heard. The UFC is doing Fire no favors by putting him against “Jucao,” who already boasts wins over Rich Clementi and Matt Horwich.

— Speaking of undercard bouts few people will care about, British fighter Neil Wain has broken his nose and won’t be able to face Antoni Hardonk. Filling in for him will be Eddie Sanchez, who has won his last two UFC matches against Soa Palelei and Colin Robinson, and will do his best to deal with fighting across the Atlantic Ocean on two weeks notice.

As for “Seek and Destroy” (August 9th; Minneapolis, MN):

— Frankie Edgar, who took his first career loss against Gray Maynard at UFC Fight Night 13, will be returning at UFC 87 against an opponent to be named later. With Sean Sherk indicating that he wants to be part of the first UFC card in his home state of Minnesota, an Edgar/Sherk bout isn’t out of the realm of possibility.