(Martin Kampmann: He’s nice, until it’s time to *not* be nice. / Photo via fighthubtv.com)

By Elias Cepeda

Leading up to this Saturday’s UFC 154, it has, at times, seemed as if co-main event opponents Martin Kampmann and Johny Hendricks have had to field more questions about past and possible future opponents than one another. The two welterweights square off in what should be a #1 contender’s fight in Montreal for the right to face the winner of the headliner between champion Georges St. Pierre and interim champ Carlos Condit.

There’s good reason that the Dane is getting lots of questions about his past and future even though he’s got Hendricks in front of him. Kampmann, like Hendricks, is on a tear in the welterweight division and also owns a win over Condit.

“It doesn’t matter what fight it is,” Kampmann tells CagePotato. “Everybody tries to be like, ‘you beat this guy,’ ‘what are you going to do after this fight?’ My main thing right now is Johny Hendricks. That’s what I’m training hard for.”

And it’s the training that keeps Martin focused throughout all the potentially distracting media attention and questions he’s fielded over the past few months.

“This started as a hobby for me so I like the grind,” Kampmann explains. “I like to get in the gym. When you have a fight you have to get in the gym a lot but I still enjoy it. Of course some days you want to be in the gym more than others, but overall my motivation is really good. Even when I don’t have a fight I’m in the gym training because I love to train. I enjoy training and I have fun doing it.”

By George Shunick

On December 7^th, 2011, a date which will live in infamy a date upon which some lame stuff happened but probably didn’t quite compare to the violent inception of the United States’ involvement in the deadliest war in recorded history, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre blew out his ACL while training for a bout with Nick Diaz. Fast-forward almost a year and GSP is set to make his return in his hometown of Montreal, this time against interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit. But much like a year ago, the focus is on GSP’s knee. Has it healed completely and will it hold up against Condit’s leg kicks? Will GSP possess the same degree of athleticism that he’s been able to rely on in the past? Will GSP lose because of it?

In short, probably not. This isn’t to say Condit has no chance to win. To the contrary, he’s the most formidable challenger GSP has faced since Jon Fitch, and he’s got a better chance to win. He can match St. Pierre in striking, and if he’s taken down he possesses an active guard. His jiu-jitsu probably isn’t capable of submitting St. Pierre, unless the latter is already stunned with strikes, but it may be enough to get up off his back should he be taken down. Best of all, Condit has a clear target to go for: GSP’s knee. St. Pierre can claim his knee is fine all he wants, but it’s unquestionably a weakness that Condit will seek to exploit for the entire fight.

Furthermore, it’s hard to tell what St. Pierre will step into the ring. Will he be hesitant to engage and overly tentative? (GSP’s critics just jumped up and shouted “But he already is!”) If he gets backed up consistently he’ll get tagged, and there’s no telling how he’ll react to that. GSP isn’t all athleticism and explosiveness, but these traits undoubtedly give him a decided edge over virtually all of his opponents — and after 19 months out of the Octagon, he may not look like the same fighter. There are a large number of legitimate questions that surround St. Pierre’s return, and there’s no real way to answer them until we see him in action Saturday night.

That said, I don’t think they all need to be answered to favor St. Pierre…

(Conference starts at the 4:15 mark.) 

Here are the three most noteworthy pieces of information I learned at the UFC 154 pre-fight press conference:

1. Carlos Condit is very handsy when answering questions.

2. Whoever was in charge of controlling the levels on Jon Anik’s microphone needs to be fired ASAP, then shot, then dragged to a park to make it look like a suicide. Either that or Anik is suffering from the worst case of voice immodulation I have ever heard.

3. People are still up in arms about the Condit/Diaz decision, and based on the CagePotato “I Miss Old Dad” scale of emotional hoarding, they will continue to do so for…*enters figures into calculator*…ever. I guess the fact that Diaz’s win/title shot would’ve been revoked anyway makes little difference in this meaningless debate. I say this as a Diaz fan: Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.

No, I do not know if this information will heighten your viewing experience or not, but what I do know is that the flu medication I’ve been on for the past few days causes more violent hallucinations than that cup of punch I drank at a Phish concert last summer, so just applaud the fact that I was even able to bring you this video today. I SAID APPLAUD DAMMIT!

Now if you will excuse me, I have a date with the insides of my stomach, which should be arriving any moment now.

-J. Jones

(So there we were, about to face off at the UFC 154 press conference when Georges finally decided to POP THE QUESTION!! ERMAGERD!!)

A fortune cookie wise man once told me that the frustrating thing about questions is that they do not always have answers. This Saturday night, Zuffa’s globetrotting MMA organization returns to the province of Quebec — the birthplace of the UFC in Canada — to answer the burning question: Who is the undisputed king of the 170 lbs division? GSP may be the PPV king of the UFC, but during his 20 month layoff due to reconstructive knee surgery, Carlos Condit has quietly and somewhat controversially asserted himself as the welterweight division’s top dog.

With a current record of 3-2 over the past 5 UFC PPV’s, the GAE’s back is against the wall and in need of another profitable evening if it is to be still considered as the champion of the odds breakers, bloggers and “professional gamblers” of the mixed martial arts world (which it totally is). So follow us after the jump as we highlight select bouts from the undercard and all contests on the main card in an attempt to save those who laid 1600 bucks on a Franklin to beat Le ticket from the man in the black trench coat. All odds courtesy of BestFightOdds.com.

By Nathan Smith

At the conclusion of the UFC 154 main event, I fully anticipate Bruce Buffer to get on the microphone and begin his enthusiastic spiel:

“At the end of five rounds we have a unanimous decision. All three judges score the bout 50-45 for your winner and the undisputed UFC welterweight champion of the woooooorld – Georges “RUSH” St. Pieeeeeeeerre!”

The Canadian crowd will erupt; Molson will be sprayed about and empty Poutine containers will be trampled as the joyous celebration begins. Dana White will put the championship belt around GSP’s waist and then Joe Rogan will approach for the post fight interview. It is at this point that Bizzaro Georges will snatch the microphone out of Rogan’s hand and jump into a tirade while speaking in his native French language. The only two words we will understand during his entire outburst will be “Anderson” and “Silva” as he walks to the edge of the octagon and points directly at The Spider, who will be mocking him all the while from cageside.

(“Oooh! Carlos learned how to punch. Uh-oh.”)

Although most Nick Diaz fans would be quick to dispute it (or simply just forget about it in the first place), welterweight interim champion Carlos “Natural Born Killer” Condit didn’t just get lucky when The Baldfather was assigning nicknames, he earned his by collecting 26 stoppages in 28 victories. It’s hard to believe that Condit has collected a higher finishing ratio (92.9%) than the likes of Junior Dos Santos (86.7%)or Anderson Silva (78.8%), but the fact remains that when you get in the cage with the former WEC welterweight champ, there’s usually only one way out: via your consciousness.

So in order to refresh our collective memories of just what kind of beast will be challenging Georges St. Pierre at UFC 154, we’ve compiled our favorite GIF’s of Carlos going for the kill after the jump. Enjoy.

(Why must you torture us, fan-made poster?? Image via MMehFighter)

Man, this week is just full of disappointments. First, we learn that Ronda Rousey‘s historic migration to the UFC isn’t quite official yet. And now we learn that this Saturday’s UFC 154 event in Montreal won’t include a WWE-style post-fight run-in from middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

As the story went, Silva would be in attendance at the Bell Centre to challenge Georges St. Pierre to a superfight, if GSP was victorious in his welterweight title defense against Carlos Condit. Though Silva does plan on attending the fight, he has no interest in getting up in St. Pierre’s grill afterwards:

“I’m going to Los Angeles and then going to Canada for the fight of St. Pierre,” Silva told Tatame. “I’m already going to be there to shoot a movie, a feature film that I’ll participate in with Lyoto (Machida). It’s not my character to up and challenge anyone. I think it will not happen. I think not, I’m sure (laughs).”

Furthermore, Silva doesn’t plan on fighting anybody until the end of next year:

“I’m on vacation from fighting. I think I will return only in the end of the next year. I have personal projects ongoing. Tomorrow I’m embarking to Los Angeles to attend the arrangements of the academy we’re setting up there…If the UFC wants to make an interim bout while I’m gone, it’s up to them. I don’t know if it will have any meaning but they can do whatever they want. I’m in a comfort zone, so I’m not worried about it.”

I’m sure Chris Weidman is just thrilled to hear about Anderson Silva and his “comfort zone.” But at least one fighter sees this “interim bout” business as a great opportunity…

There’s just certain things you have to do if you’re a fight fan. Watching UFC Primetime episodes is one of them. It has been a couple years since the crew of boxing’s amazing 24/7 series first turned their talents and attention to doing MMA documentary in the form of Primetime but we still remember how excited we were when they did.

As we head into next Saturday’s UFC 154, Primetime continues to bring us inside the lives and camps of welterweight champions Georges St. Pierre and Carlos Condit. The pair will face off in a title unification bout in the main event of the Quebec card.

Episode two of this Primetime mini-season shows both men doing their final preparations to fight one another. Something extra cool about Primetime and 24/7 episodes are how, because the makers turn around content so quickly after filming, the stuff we’re watching literally happened a day or few ago in many instances. Other than training with Georges St. Pierre or Carlos Condit personally, watching Primetime is about as close to seeing what they are doing days out from their fight and what is going through their minds.

(Quick poll – Which is funnier: Miller’s hair or Shields’ attempt at a mean mug?) 

You can hate on the over-the-top theatrics of professional wrestling all you want, but there’s no denying the sport’s influence on the world of MMA. Do you think we would have ever seen Jonathan Ivey break out “The People’s Elbow” in a fight if The Rock hadn’t done it first? And how about that Chael Sonnen character, who we would all just write off as another boring wrestler if not for his Billy Graham-esque heel routine? The list goes on and on, but greater than the signature moves, greater even than the whimsical trash-talking pro wrasslin’ has inspired in our great sport, is the post-fight cage confrontation.

It has been responsible for some of the most unintentionally hilarious highs and Gus Johnsony lows that MMA has ever seen, yet we can’t seem to look away when such an inherently silly situation is presented in the aftermath of a fight. The UFC clearly understands this, and in an effort to set up everyone’s dream match of Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones Georges. St. Pierre, both the UFC and Silva’s manager have hinted that not only is the middleweight champ going to be in attendance at UFC 154, but should St. Pierre emerge victorious, the two will face off in the cage and lay the foundation for the next great MMA superfight. So with that in mind, we’ve compiled a brief, albeit memorable, video tribute to the post-fight confrontation. Enjoy.

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

In advance of Georges St. Pierre‘s long-awaited return at UFC 154 on November 17th, the UFC has made four of the welterweight champ’s greatest performances available on YouTube, along with the last four fights from the interim champ, Carlos Condit. Unfortunately the videos aren’t embeddable, but you can use the handy player above to give yourself a refresher course on the following…

- GSP’s blitzkrieg of Jay Hieron in his Octagon debut at UFC 48.
- GSP’s rear-naked choke of Frank Trigg at UFC 54.
- GSP’s revenge-TKO of Matt Hughes to win his first title at UFC 65.
- GSP’s revenge-TKO of Matt Serra to reclaim the unified belt at UFC 83.
- Carlos Condit snatching a knockout victory from the jaws of defeat against Rory MacDonald at UFC 115.
- Condit’s highlight-reel knockout of Dan Hardy at UFC 120.
- Condit’s demolition of Dong-Hyun Kim at UFC 132.
- Condit’s controversial decision win over Nick Diaz at UFC 143.

And for a different take on GSP’s historic reign in the sport, check out lookoutawhale‘s classic “Bloodsport Karma” film after the jump. We know it’s a lot to watch, so feel free to take the rest of the day off.

(Video via the UFC Youtube page)

Not going to beat around the bush here and make you read more than you’d like to before getting to the goods, ‘taters. Above a we’ve got Episode 1 of UFC Primetime: Georges St. Pierre vs. Carlos Condit for you and its definitely worth a watch. You know the drill by this point – behind the scenes access to the fighters’ training, personal lives and thoughts.

November 17th UFC welterweight king St. Pierre fights again for the first time in over a year and a half, and since tearing his ACL. Interim titlist Condit is intent on being more than a one-man welcoming parade.

Episode 1 offers a glimpse at the new and improved life Condit has been able to make for himself as champion. He’s got a new fancy home he and his young family now inhabit, no doubt made more possible by champion’s fees. For his part, St. Pierre talks more in depth about his long recovery than we’ve heard before.

Turns out that, at first, St. Pierre’s return to training was going so poorly that he and his teammates wondered if he’d ever be able to fight effectively again. The idea depressed him at first, but then drove him to excel. Episode 1 also shines the spotlight at the vaunted head coaches for both fighters, Firas Zihabi for GSP and Mike Winkeljohn for Condit. Nice to see ‘Wink’ finally get some credit for a change.

- Elias Cepeda

(Click for full-size image.)

Like and Share this post on our Facebook page for a chance to win the killer Optical Panacea poster shown above, signed by Urijah Faber himself. Five winners will be selected at random by Monday. Thanks to Torque Sports and Performance for the hookup, and stay tuned for more Torque gear giveaways coming soon! Now, onto today’s links…

- Must-See Infographic: UFC History, Facts, and Figures (Havocstore.co.uk)

- Vitor Belfort: Forrest Griffin Declined A Fight With Me (Fightline)

- Bellator Debuts in Michigan on Nov 30, Good-Koreshkov Tournament Final Headlines (BleacherReport)

- UFC 154 Judo Chop: GSP and Smashing Past the Guard (BloodyElbow)

- Dan Henderson Says He’ll Help Chael Sonnen on TUF and Corner Him Against Jones if His Schedule Allows (MMAFighting)

- Kyung Ho Kang out, Motonobu Tezuka meets Alex Caceres at UFC on FUEL TV 6 (MMAJunkie)

- UFC Confirms “Minotauro” Nogueira-Fabricio Werdum as ‘TUF Brazil 2′ Coaches (MMAScraps)

- Top 5 MMA Fights Remaining in 2012 (HeavyMMA)

- 10 Moustache Styles for Movember (MensFitness)

- Honest Trailers: The Amazing Spider-Man (ScreenJunkies)

- Is Jeremy Lin Overrated? The 2012-13 NBA Point Guard Rankings (Complex)

- Hey Nostalgia Buffs – The 1990s Really Weren’t Very Good [20 PICS] (EgoTV)

- The Funniest Signs From ‘The Simpsons’ [PHOTOS] (WorldWideInterweb)

- Razor Tales #1: The Barber Shop Club (MadeMan)

(Props: UFC)

Carlos Condit‘s platform of “Knockouts…Knockouts…Shorts” may sound nice, but his last fight proved that he’s beholden to the same special interests that Georges St. Pierre is. For real change in the welterweight division, you should go with the third-party candidate.

Actually, the first thing this video makes me think about is all the Americans who will buy the UFC 154 pay-per-view next month but won’t bother to vote in the presidential election next week. Get it together, people. If you don’t vote, you don’t get to bitch and moan for the next four years when your guy loses.

(The third annual Halloween episode from our bros at MMAInsidetheCageTV, featuring the 100 greatest knockouts from their last 12 episodes. Skip to the 2:47 mark and enjoy the violence.)

- Cain Velasquez: Daniel Cormier Wants to Drop Down to 205 to Fight Jon Jones, And He’d Beat Him (MMAFighting)

- 7 MMA Fighters Who Need to Call It Quits (BleacherReport)

- Georges St-Pierre Admits His Fights Lack Entertainment (Fightline)

- Ugliest. Face-swap. Ever. (Facebook.com/CagePotato)

- Fitness on the Fly: Powerful Knee Strikes (MensFitness)

- What the UFC Didn’t Tell the Public About Jeremy Stephens’s Arrest (FightOpinion)

- Dana White: Brock Lesnar Is Never Coming Back, Fedor Either (HeavyMMA)

- Who Doesn’t Like the Roy Nelson Action Figure? (TitoCouture)

- Nick Offerman Explains How to Grow a Mo’ (MadeMan)

- Gallery: Pro Athletes in Ridiculous Halloween Costumes (Complex)

- Meatloaf and Friends Serenade Mitt Romney With Extremely Awkward Singing (EgoTV)

- Celebrities Dressed as Wonder Woman (WorldWideInterweb)

- Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Going to Play Conan the Barbarian Again (FilmDrunk)

- Top 10 Babes I’d Watch Play Sports (Repo’sDelight)

- Spike TV Offering $10MM To Anyone Who Can Prove The Existence Of Bigfoot (ScreenJunkies)

On November 17th in Montreal, Georges St. Pierre returns to the Octagon from his year-and-a-half layoff, and honestly, it couldn’t come soon enough. When St. Pierre and Carlos Condit meet for the UFC welterweight belt at UFC 154, it will have been a full three months since the last time the UFC put on a title fight that wasn’t a total mismatch. That drought of superfights has been one of the reasons why MMA has simply felt less exciting lately, but finally, things are picking up again, and I can’t freakin’ wait.

We’ve been thinking about GSP vs. Condit for a hell of a long time, and the anticipation has reached that saturation point where we just want this damn thing to be over by now. St. Pierre says his knee isn’t a weak link anymore, he’s 100%, he’s “back better than ever.” And it’s never a good idea to doubt such a fantastic and disciplined athlete. But still…a hungry and motivated Carlos Condit is the last guy you want to face when you’ve been out of the game so long.

Speaking of welterweights, Johny Hendricks and Martin Kampmann will be squaring off in the co-main event. (Kampmann scores the best point in the promo interview by promising to kick Hendricks in the beard.) Could an impressive performance put one of these guys next in line? And who will come out on top? Check out the extended trailer above and let us know what you think.

On the off chance you weren’t convinced by welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre‘s “come at me bro” challenge to Carlos Condit in regard to his previously obliterated knee, then perhaps this segment that Ultimate Insider recently ran documenting GSP’s lengthy recovery from surgery will finally put your worries to rest. Unless you’re a Condit fan of course, in which case you might piss yourself when you see GSP drag one of his training partners behind him like a World’s Strongest Man in a bus-pulling competition.

In the video, St. Pierre discusses how his injury actually helped reignite a long quelled flame within him, as well as how his training partners, coaches, and team of doctors all but completely removed the mere memory of the surgery he underwent some months ago. But according to “Rush,” the biggest lesson he took away from the recovery process was that “elth is the most important thing in the world. You can ave welt, evryting, money, but you don’t ave elth, it’s useless.”

Spoken like a true champion.

-J. Jones

(Props: AXS TV Fights)

It’s time to admit to ourselves, once and for all, that Anderson Silva isn’t the kind of champion we’d like him to be. After thoroughly conquering the middleweight division, fans assumed that the logical next step for the Greatest UFC Fighter of All Time would be to take more competitive matches against the elite in the light-heavyweight division. Of course, that’s not happening. Silva clearly has an agenda in the final stage of his career, and it doesn’t involve fighting non-superstars, or 205-pound phenoms who actually have a chance of beating him.

As Silva’s manager Ed Soares reiterates in this clip from Inside MMA, Anderson wants to fight UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre next, at a suggested catchweight of 177.5. And after that…well…Michael Bisping, maybe? The idea that Anderson Silva would fight Jon Jones is immediately dismissed by Soares, and the name Chris Weidman — remember him? the UFC’s actual #1 middleweight contender? — isn’t even mentioned.

Some of you may have heard of a lil’ MMA fight that’s set to take place next month between the UFC’s interim welterweight champion and some French joker named Georges St. Pierre. GSP has been out of action since successfully defending his belt against Jake Shields in April of 2011 due to multiple knee injuries. Finally, on November 17th, the longtime champ is scheduled to make his return at UFC 154 after undergoing ACL reconstruction surgery and taking the necessary months to recover. In case Carlos Condit is thinking about going after St. Pierre’s newly-recuperated knee, “Rush” has a simple message for his opponent.

“I hope that Condit focuses on targeting my knee. Its not a weak link anymore,” he says in the above UFC video.

“There’s nothing that I can’t do now that I wasn’t able to do. I will leave with the belt.”

(Coors Light?! And here we thought Canadians were passionate about the quality of beer they drink.) 

A little over a year ago, Georges St. Pierre was riding high. He had defended his belt for the sixth straight time against Jake Shields at an event that both obliterated North American attendance records and satisfied his home country’s need for bloodshed without having to sacrifice his first born child, as is tradition. Although he was being bashed by some critics for his apparent lack of finishing power, “Rush” would quickly meet a challenger that would bring out the inner killer his fans had been waiting for since UFC 83. Needless to say, things were going well for old GSP.

And then he took an arrow to the knee.

Yes, after blowing out his ACL, the welterweight kingpin was forced out of action for so long that even his stand-in champion went missing in an apparent attempt to find him. In the time since we last saw St. Pierre, his beloved homeland of Canada eeked out a respectable 36th place in the Summer Olympics, celebrated the 60th anniversary of one of their biggest television programs, and even closed the book on one of the most bizarre crimes in the country’s history. So overall, it was a decent year for any Canadian not named Georges St. Pierre.

But come November 17th, all that will change for at least one man, as GSP is set to finally make his triumphant return to the cage at UFC 154. And to celebrate his return, we’ve decided to dig up the fight that started it all. It took place in January of 2002 in Montreal and pitted the future champ against future UFC/WEC bantamweight (sheesh) Ivan Menjivar in his professional debut.

Video after the jump. 

(“OK guys, the winner gets an interim belt, the loser has to purchase a replica from Wal-Mart. I assure you that they both carry the exact same value.”) 

In a recent interview with Latin American online news network, UOL, bantamweight interim champion Renan Barao‘s coach, Andre Pederneiras, declared that Barao would not be defending his interim strap and instead would wait for Dominick Cruz to recover from the ACL injury that set up Barao vs. Urijah Faber at UFC 149. And before the MMA media could even begin to make the comparison to Carlos Condit, Pederneiras did it for us, stating:

[Barao] just won the title, he just fought. We will wait. Look how long the wait was for Condit and GSP to unify the belt?

Where Pederneiras was attempting to use the Condit comparison as a justification for Barao’s decision to essentially put the bantamweight division on hold for the time being, he unknowingly summed up the inherent pointlessness of the interim title in the first place.

As you are all aware, the interim title essentially serves as a placeholder for the division’s number one contender (at the time) in the absence of a champion. The problem being that, by declaring the number one contender to be “a champion” when they are anything but — and I mean this with all due respect to Condit and Barao — you are basically giving a contender a power that they have not rightfully earned: the power to pick and choose who they fight.

(As you can clearly see, there’s no way I could have smoked any weed before UFC 143 because I had not picked even a single nugget yet. I rest my case.)

Since he tested positive for marijuana metabolites after his UFC 143 loss to Carlos Condit and was suspended for a year and fined nearly $80,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC), Nick Diaz has fought the punishment in just about every place he could, and continued Wednesday by filing a Memorandum of Points and Authorities to support his petition for judicial review. So far, Diaz and his high-profile legal defense team have struck out in appealing to the Nevada State Attorney General and the NSAC itself in a hearing.

The NSAC has thirty days to respond and after that a judge will hear Diaz’ petition. Luke Thomas and MMA Fighting spoke with a member of Diaz’ legal team:

The Commission needs to understand that it cannot act with impunity in the exercise of its authority…In Diaz’s opinion, while fighters must respect the lawful authority of state athletic commissions, they should not accept unjust and unlawful disciplinary action. Further, Diaz finds it bizarre that the Commission is vigorously policing legal marijuana use outside competition while at the same time endorsing and sanctioning the use of steroids and testosterone — which has a direct effect on fighters and their opponents in competition. The Commission needs to refocus itself on protecting fighters and the fairness of the combat sports they regulate. Diaz believes this legal proceeding may provide the Commission a helpful push in the right direction, for the benefit of all fighters and the reputation of the sport itself.

Diaz’s petition has some interesting and seemingly compelling parts to it, including his lawyers’ contention that marijuana metabolites are not, in fact, banned substances. But they also continue to stretch out some arguments.

(“Don’t worry, Carlos, I’ll let you hold a real belt for a minute after this photo op is over.”)

Earlier today, the UFC held its official press conference to announce the long awaited showdown between welterweight “champion” Georges St. Pierre and “interim champion” Carlos Condit at UFC 154. And we may have had to do some regrettable things for this guy in a parking lot to get it, but we’ve managed to snag the full video of the press conference for your viewing entertainment.

Join us after the jump to hear Condit and GSP engage in a good old fashioned battle of politeness. Seriously, GSP is so nice that he even declares Condit to be the true champion at one point. Condit tries to fire back by stating that St. Pierre is ”the best in the world,” but one does not simply ”out-nice” a Canadian.

(Think that’s risky? Try downing three cans of NOS in a row.)

When an athlete like Georges St. Pierre signs with a major product like the Coca Cola-owned NOS Energy Drink, there’s a couple directions we can go in bringing you the news. The most obvious angle is that the news of GSP signing with a prominent brand like NOS is yet another coup for him personally, and possibly for mixed martial arts on the whole, because it signifies another step towards mainstream acceptance and will expose the sports to scores of new potential fans, blah blah blah, etc.

All that is nice, but what sticks in my craw is that I can’t imagine St. Pierre actually choking down that toxic go-go juice in real life. We hope that the deal nets GSP loads of cash and we’re truly happy for him; he seems like a nice dude and is the epitome of what a top-notch professional MMA fighter should be. That said, what are the chances that the health-conscious welterweight champion gets his energy edge from the same caffeinated sugar-water that your 15 year-old cousin uses to stay awake during all-night Halo marathons?

When Anderson Silva called out George St. Pierre a little over a week ago, the MMA blogosphere’s reactions ranged from overwhelming enthusiasm to bitter resentment. Being that this is the Internet, the majority of those who voiced their opinions apparently sided in the latter category, dubbing Silva –whom you may recall is a UFC champion — a “lazy coward,” a “bitch,” and a “pussy” whose “bitchassness” would hopefully lead to GSP “smashing his skull through the canvas.” The main issue seemed to be that Silva was calling out someone below him in weight, which therefore made him a bitch considering that Jon Jones would be totally willing to fight him if he were to move up to 205. In your humble opinions, Silva was basically being an O’Doyle and picking on the smallest kid in gym class, which is totally not cool behavior for a supposed pound-for-pound great.

That being the case, we’d just love to hear what you think of this. Last week, former MMA fighter Kit Cope declared that “MMA dudes are vaginas” compared to kickboxers in the above video, successfully drawing the attention and ire of any MMA fighter or fan dimwitted enough to take anything that Kit Cope says seriously. One of those people was CagePotato aficionado Sean McCorkle, a can crushing super heavyweight who spends more time arguing on the UG than any grown ass man ever should. McCorkle took it upon himself to defend the honor of the hundreds of thousands of tens of fighters who found themselves reeled in by the whimsical musings of Kit fucking Cope and posted a lengthy diatribe on his old stomping grounds while “bored on a Friday night.” As is often the case in Internet warfare (and therefore Sean McCorkle), the rant was little more than a series of personal attacks and gay jokes culminating in a futile challenge that has zero chance of coming to fruition in any country other than Japan.

Here’s just a little taste:

Hey, here’s a fun fact for you. You lost to Tiki Goshen. Let me repeat that. You lost to Tiki Goshen. In a fight. That means that if Tiki Goshen broke into your house, and you did not have a gun or other significant weapon readily available, Tiki Goshen would have little trouble subduing you, and rendering you completely helpless in a short amount of time. Then he would he proceed to take your belongings, and/or harm your family in any way he chooses.

This of course begs one to ask what would happen to McCorkle’s family if Brian Heden were to break into his house. You see, Sean? We can pick the low-hanging fruit too!

We still don’t know if we’ll get a super fight between welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and middleweight champion Anderson Silva one day, but at least it seems that UFC President Dana White is on our side with this thing. “I think we’re pretty close,” White told Ariel Helwani on Fuel TV’s UFC Tonight. “I mean if Georges St. Pierre beats [Carlos] Condit, that could be the next fight.”

In other words, St. Pierre vs. Condit isn’t “meaningless” after all. And if GSP vs. Anderson does happen, White told Helwani that it would likely be held at a 180-pound catch weight.

“At one point it sounded like Anderson wanted to go to 170 and take Georges’ welterweight title,” White said. “That was what he was talking at one point. Then it was 180 as a catchweight, because Georges doesn’t want to go to 185, he’s going to stay at ’70. He said if ‘I had to make the move to go to ’85, I’d have to stay at ’85.’ We figured that a 180-pound catchweight makes sense.”

Sounds good to us, and Silva has seemed to do everything he could to signal that he wants that fight (from insulting the entire middleweight division to expressing a willingness to drop down in weight) but there’s a lot standing in the way of that dream match-up from happening. First of all, Condit could beat St. Pierre in November.

(A glimpse into a dystopian future, via ScienceofViolence)

Judging from this new article on SporTV, Anderson Silva‘s current hiatus from fighting is exactly what we thought it was — a way to avoid title defenses against low-profile contenders and hold out for something big. Namely, a superfight against UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. Here’s what the Spider had to say about the fight he wants more than anything (translation via BloodyElbow):

“Regardless of who wins, even if St. Pierre loses, a fight with me can happen. A fight like this is above anything else. St. Pierre is one of the greatest of the UFC. Right now, a fight with Condit is meaningless.”

“Meaningless”! That’s heel-talk, brother! GSP was recently medically cleared to take on interim champ Carlos Condit at UFC 154 (November 17th, Montreal), and even if the Canadian legend loses that fight, it’s safe to assume that fans would still turn out in droves to see St. Pierre fight Anderson Silva sometime next year.

Here’s my only problem: If Silva is putting off middleweight title defenses against deserving contenders in order to wait for a potential match against GSP — which could be held at a catchweight below 185 pounds — shouldn’t Silva relinquish his middleweight title to do so? I’m not going to hate on Andy for making the last fights of his career count, but his pursuit of big paydays shouldn’t put an entire division on hold, right? Dana White might need to step in and regulate, or else we could eventually be looking at another ridiculous interim champion situation, and nobody wants that.

(Is there anything that Nick Newell can’t do? NO EYE CONTACT! Props: TheRealClayHenry via Karmaatemycat)

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(Oh, you said you have a *flaggy* tattoo? I must have misheard you.) 

By Nathan Smith

During a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Dana White said, “Globally, we’re already bigger than the NFL.” From a global stand point that may be true, but in the Pulp Fiction-esque United States, the NFL is still Marsellus Wallace. The UFC may never gain the notoriety that the NFL has in America but stand-out fighters continue to ink major product endorsement deals. Anderson Silva (Burger King, Budweiser), Georges St. Pierre (Gatorade, UnderArmor) and Jon Jones (Nike) are paving the way to success for future mixed martial artists. Although big-time corporate sponsorship for fighters is in its infancy, the other major professional sports leagues have seen their athletes gain almost as much notoriety outside the lines as within.

The UFC was purchased by Zuffa just over a decade ago and has been charging towards global domination ever since. Sure, the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL (well, maybe not the NHL) playoffs and championship contests annihilate the UFC ratings-wise but the premier MMA organization is gaining at a rapid pace. Take into account the combined several hundred years of history the 4 “major” professional leagues hold and it is glaringly apparent that the UFC and its stars are closing the gap like a fat dude towards a parked Roach Coach.

Comparing the UFC’s ratings and popularity with the aforementioned leagues is somewhat asinine and it would not be fair or rational to compare athletes from other sports with UFC fighters – but you have visited Cagepotato.com. We have never been accused of being fair or rational and matching fighters with their counterparts from around the world of other sporting organizations seemed as logical as a booze-filled headset.

Anderson Silva and Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan has become the benchmark to which all athletes are measured, although the comparisons have transcended far beyond the realm of athletics. Any activity or event draws comparisons to #23 (or #45 whatever). From Ken Jennings being the Michael Jordan of Jeopardy, to Joey Chestnut being the Michael Jordan of gluttony or Peter North being the Michael Jordan of male climax volume, Jordan is synonymous with superiority. In every single poll taken in the last decade regarding the “Top 100 NBA players in History” the battle is for #2 through #100. Michael Jordan is considered the greatest of all time in his medium (and I am not talking about minor league baseball).  Anderson Silva, with his perfect 15-0 record and 10 consecutive title defenses in the UFC, has done things that may never be accomplished again in the history of mixed martial arts. Some day a fighter may come along (if he hasn’t already *foreshadowing*) and surpass Silva’s records but until his numbers fall, Anderson Silva is the Michael Jordan of MMA – period.

Perhaps I am just ignorant to a lot of the subtleties of Aikido, but when I watched Steven Seagal “spar” with former Strikeforce champion Rafael Cavalcante in the moments leading up to UFC 148, I was less than impressed. Though there is little doubt in my mind (none, in fact) that Sensei Seagal would absolutely destroy me in a fight, even after consuming his daily pallet of chocolate covered pretzels, when given the choice between Seagal’s deadly patty-cake shenanigans and say, the leaping, spinning roundhouse kicks of Jean-Claude Van Damme, I will choose the latter 11 times out of 10. I mean, we’re talking about the living embodiment of Colonel William F. Guile here, people. I could also get into the whole debate about how it was actually JCVD that invented the front kick, as well as the Showtime kick, only to have the techniques Milli-Vanilli’d from him by Seagal and Anthony Pettis, but I’d prefer not to filibuster my own article for the sake of argument.

But you can understand my excitement when I heard that none other than the roundhouse-kicking thespian himself recently stopped by Tristar Gym to pay Georges St. Pierre and the gang a visit and partake in some light sparring. This video was tweeted by St. Pierre yesterday, and although it is extremely light on both the sparring and actual content, it’s still the coolest twenty five seconds you’ll see all day, so just enjoy it.

As you can see, Van Damme can still wing those kicks up there and stop them on a dime, whereas I would be shocked to learn that Seagal could even lift his legs off of the ground without assistance. This of course leads to the question: If JCVD and Sensei Seagal were to throw down nowadays, who would take it and how?

-J. Jones

They see me trollinnnnnn’. They hatinnnnnn’. Props: Sherdog.

Those of you who have been clinging to the notion that Anderson Silva’s manager Jorge Guimaraes would change his mind about Chris Weidman being an “amateur kid” can officially let that ship sail. Ariel Helwani caught up with Guimaraes yesterday, and even though he clarified that the “amateur kids” comment was a translation error, he still does not see any value in an Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman fight for the time being. Via MMAFighting:

When specifically asked about the “amateur kids” comment:

JG: Well, there was a little lack of communication. I spoke to Tatame Magazine in Brazil and it got lost in translation. I have a lot of respect for Weidman. He’s a great fighter, but what I meant is that the fight doesn’t make sense. He has nine fights – impressive fights – but it’s half of the number of fights that Anderson has in the UFC. I think he’s just a little not ripe enough, but it’s up to the organization to tell [us] who is a good opponent for Anderson.

Check after the jump for the full quote and interview