(Oh man. That kick was about six inches away from being the greatest DQ of all time.)

In case you missed Saturday night’s action, we’ve compiled 12 of UFC 152‘s best highlights in GIF form, from the gnarly stoppages to the memorable post-fight moments. Follow the “next page” links starting after the jump, or just use the direct links below. Special thanks to BloodyElbow and Cameldog for the hookups.

Jon Jones vs. Vitor Belfort
Cub Swanson vs. Charles Oliveira
Vinny Magalhães vs. Igor Pokrajac
Intermission: Ronda and Royce
Michael Bisping vs. Brian Stann
TJ Grant vs. Evan Dunham
Matt Hamill’s corner mix-up
Kyle Noke vs. Charlie Brenneman
Seth Baczynski vs. Simeon Thoresen

(Beltran, as re-imagined by Sega.)

Last weekend’s Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman card was easily one of the most entertaining top-to-bottom cards in recent memory, providing us with a lightning quick (also, completely predictable) finish in the main event and an even quicker knockout in the co-main. But as is typical for a Strikeforce event, the night was not without controversy and a few judgmental errors. Herb Dean went completely against character when he botched the call in the Adlan Amagov/Keith Barry fight, and the decision to place former title challenger Meisha Tate’s comeback bout against Julie Kedzie on the prelims was nothing short of baffling.

But greater than witnessing Ronda Rousey‘s sixth straight first round armbar, greater even than OSP’s one-punch knockout of T.J. Cook, was that of referee Mike Beltran’s epic mustache. An “epistache” if you will. Why Beltran decided to become a referee instead of claiming his place atop the Whisker Wars podium is beyond us, but his hard work and dedication can not and will not be overlooked by us here at CagePotato. So join us after the jump for a brief GIF tribute to Beltran’s glorious stache, along with several gifs from the night’s fights, courtesy of the UG.

In his prime, Wanderlei Silva was the scariest man in MMA — the kind of fighter you’d cross the cage just to avoid. As he heads into his main event fight against Rich Franklin at UFC 147 this Saturday, let’s take a moment to remember the Axe Murderer the way he should be remembered. Our favorite GIFs of Wandy tearing people apart and acting like a psycho begin after the jump…

(Upkick me once, shame on you. Upkick me twice, shame on me. Upkick me six times…seriously, bro?)

From Nate Diaz‘s hilarious taunts to Lavar Johnson‘s brutalization of Pat Barry, here are the best moments from Saturday night’s UFC card in animated GIF form. Props to IronForgesIron, the UG, and TheBigLead. More good stuff after the jump.

It’s the Ultimate Fighting Championship, not the Ultimate Friendship Championship. Nobody understands that better than UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck. In the Octagon, he’s an aggressive beast whose heavy hands and wrestling prowess have made him a perennial top-5 contender. In daily life, he’s kind of a dick. (Those are Dana White, Brian Ebersole, and Paul Daley‘s words, not ours.) In honor of Koscheck’s co-headlining fight against Johny Hendricks at this Saturday’s UFC on FOX 3: Diaz vs. Miller event, we’ve collected 12 of the most Kostastic gifs we could find on the Internet. Enjoy…

(Above: Rashad Evans licks his hand and wipes his butt…
Below: …and pays dearly for it. / Props: )

We bid a final farewell to Saturday’s UFC event with a roundup of the 11 best GIFs from UFC 145, courtesy of The UG and IronForgesIron. Enjoy, and click here for previous MMA GIF coverage.

(Wandy may not know English that well, but in his native tongue the guy is a regular George Carlin.) 

There probably weren’t many of us who managed to catch the 11:30 p.m. stream of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil‘s premiere episode last night, but needless to say, it was chock-full of exciting finishes and memorable one-liners from coaches Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort, the best of which we’ve managed to snag a screenshot of above. Featuring a mix of 32 middleweights and featherweights vying for a spot in the illustrious, adobe constructed house, TUF: Brazil is looking like it could possibly surpass TUF 15 in terms of pure excitement, even without the help of widow’s peak and butt chin jokes. Follow us after the jump for a GIF break down of all the finishes from last night, courtesy of IronForgesIron.

SPOILER ALERT

(Rony Mariano def. Dileno Lopez via TKO) 

Swanson vs. Roop provided an early candidate for Side-Punchface of the Year. Props: UFC.com

Remember how last night, you invited your non-MMA fan friends over to introduce them to our sport? You spent the past week talking about how Chael Sonnen is one of the best trash talkers in professional sports, and how technical and talented these fighters were. You figured that after three fights that were guaranteed to be exceptional, your friends would be won over to MMA fandom. Then you’d continue to drink and be merry all night, and we’d all meet up here today for our traditional post-UFC event GIF party where we all high five over how awesome the fights were.

Well, it didn’t quite work out that way. Instead, you found yourself doing damage control as you watched three fights worth of sloppy brawling, wall and stall and Chael Sonnen’s blatant swaggerjacking of homage to “Superstar” Billy Graham. You tried to convince them that the fights are usually nothing like this, and that these guys gassing out and the end of the first round are world class athletes. Eventually, one of your friends said “I bet Pacquiao would destroy ANY of these guys” as the rest of your friends grabbed their coats and said they’d call you next time they wanted to watch the fights.

Okay, so last night sucked. But we’ve been planning this party all week, and we’ll be damned if we cancel it at this point. So grab an alcoholic beverage, put on your gaudiest Affliction shirt and join us for our traditional post-UFC event GIF Party.

As always, praise be to Zombie Prophet at IronForgesIron.com for the GIFS.

Guillard choking, in every sense of the word. (Photo: UFC.com)

While the ‘UFC on FX’ debut may have lacked the big names of UFC 142, the fights themselves packed just as much fire-power. For the second straight week, six fighters were able to put away their opponent and double their earnings in less than a round. Punches, chokes, and a torrent of brutal hellbows were all used to send grown men into la-la land, and we’ve got the GIF’s to prove it.

(Thanks to Zombie Prophet for the GIFs)

He has a black belt in intensity, a complete disregard for his opponents’ ankle-bones, more muscles than a seafood platter, and an unpredictable streak that borders on the insane. He is middleweight contender Rousimar Palhares, and he’ll be fighting Mike Massenzio on the main card of UFC 142 in Rio this Saturday night. Re-discover Toquinho’s body of work with some hand-picked animated GIFs, which continue after the jump…

(Anthony Johnson vs. Charlie Brenneman)

With knockout power in all four limbs, Anthony Johnson is one of the most athletic and explosive fighters in the UFC. (He said it, so it’s okay for us to say it too.) Now testing his fate at middleweight — arguably a much more natural weight class for him — Rumble will face Vitor Belfort in the co-main event of UFC 142 this Saturday. Will his power be even scarier at 185? Check out some animated highlights from his UFC career, which continue after the jump, and let us know what you think.

In honor of this Saturday’s Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine event, here are 10 of our favorite GIFs of co-headliner Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal kickin’ ass and struttin’ like royalty. Lawal will face undefeated prospect Lorenz “The Monsoon” Larkin in his first match since knocking out Roger Gracie in September. More amazing King Mo GIFs await you after the jump…

(Thank you, Internet. You never fail us. Dancing Gina Carano GIF via MMAConvert)

UFC 141‘s best moments, boiled down to 12 animated gifs. Check out the rest after the jump. Special thanks to IronForgesIron, Chas, and Unfilter on the UG.

All nine stoppages from Saturday’s action-packed “Jones vs. Machida” card, in convenient animated gif form. Props to IronForgesIron and the UG; lots more after the jump.

(Once again, “elusive” trumps “explosive.” Lots more giffy goodness after the jump.)

Unlike our previous GIF galleries, this one will not feature any shuffling or bumping bitches out of the way. Instead, we’ve got 14 examples of Lyoto Machida in the cage doing what he does best — beating his opponents to the punch and foot-sweeping them into a living death. The question is: Will any of it work against Jon Jones at UFC 140 this Saturday?

By the end of this gallery, you’ll remember why you either love or hate this guy. Lots more Mayhem after the jump.

(Ryan Bader has so much power in his hands, he only has to punch in the general vicinity of your head to knock you out. / GIFS via IronForgesIron)

All the knockouts and submissions from UFC 139: Shogun vs. Henderson, in animated GIF form. Lots more after the jump.

Knock it off, you two. We said “Gif Party”, not “Punch Face Party“! (Props: Cagewriter/Tracy Lee)

It’s not everyday that we’re treated to “the biggest fight in the history of the sport”, and even rarer that a single gif covers the pre-fight warm up, the bout, the post-fight celebration, and the after party at Ghost Bar. That calls for a GIF party. Though the sole focus of last night’s UFC on FOX event yielded precious little in terms of motion-picture awesomeness, the fighters relegated to the dark corners of social media came through in spades.

Join us after the jump for an incredible collection of throws, slams, submissions, knock outs, spinning everythings, and even some good old fashioned mid-fight showboating.

(Thanks to Zombie Prophet, as usual, for the gifs)

(Punch-face: Where ‘herp’ meets ‘derp’. Photo via Cagewriter.)

Of the 11 bouts hosted at UFC 136, eight went to the judges — which made the other three seem even more special by comparison. In case you missed ‘em on Saturday, take a look back at the two dramatic submissions and one classic knockout from “Edgar vs. Maynard III.”

GIFs are after the jump, via IronForgesIron.

A moving-picture tribute to the UFC’s deep-thinking, pot-smoking, foul-mouthed color-man. More great Joe Rogan gifs after the jump…

Travis Fulton vs. Jeremy Bullock: just what the hell did they expect to happen?

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” -Samuel Beckett

Keeping those words from the first collection in our hearts, we’ve assembled the second installment of moments in MMA that some of us (mostly the athletes involved) would like to forget. The rest of us, we want to see those moments saved forever, preferably in a graphic format that loops endlessly.

First, get your mind right with a fight video from the dark ages of MMA, when any human with a pair of pajamas and some Tae Kwon Do could try that crazy ultimate fightin’ stuff. It was 1998, and Travis Fulton had already had over sixty fights. His opponent was Jeremy Bullock, a skinny guy that probably really liked Bruce Lee movies. Make sure to watch Bullock’s interview, where he shares his keys to victory with everyone, including Fulton. Also watch the fight, where Fulton shares his love for a good pro wrestling-style chokeslam with everyone, including Bullock. (Reportedly, Bullock thinks Bruce Lee is a fucking asshole these days.)

Once you’re done with that piece of history, come on in and we’ll share more moments of infamy, awkwardness, stupidity, and shame. It’s Fail GIF time, kids; let’s party.

As always, big ups, props, and mad respec’ to the GIF masters and the websites that host them: Chris Bunch o’ Numbers, Uncle Justice, Damn Severn, Zombie Prophet, Caposa, UpstandingCitizens, MMA-Core, IronForgesIron, and MMATKO. If we forgot you, it’s not on purpose.

ATTENTION PAUL BUENTELLO: Please do this at Bellator 48.  PLEASE.

“The only great failure in life is the failure to try.” -Some old wise man, probably with a large beard

Fail is sort of like porn. You can’t really define it properly, but you know it when you see it. And brother, we’ve seen some fail watching our favorite sport. It can happen anytime, from walking out to the ring, to celebrating your victory (see above), and anytime between. We here at CagePotato hold MMA and fighters in our highest regard … but we still like to point and laugh every once in a while. Allow us to present to you our first (in what we assume will be many) installment of MMA Fails.

Special thanks go out to anyone and everyone who ever GIF’d a video, including the fine people at UpstandingCitizens, MMA-Core, IronForgesIron, and MMATKO.  Props.

Now let’s get it on!

(Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com. “Roy Nelson is exhausted” gif placed after the jump by popular demand. But if you move your head from side to side while looking at this picture, it’s basically the same thing.)

Yeah, we know what we said we said about last night’s show, but despite the underwhelming co-main events there was a fair amount of action on the card (yes, even from those two fights). Join us after the jump then get something to eat while the page loads.

(All props go to the legendary Zombie Prophet)

This guy knows what we’re talking about.

The nature of mixed martial arts competition means that you never know what you’re going to get when you tune in. Maybe a stand-up war, maybe a kinetic chess match. For some fans, there is nothing so thrilling as a technical back-and-forth mat battle.

Hell, some people even enjoy watching Ben Askren catch a firm grip on his opponent and breakdance all over him for fifteen minutes, and they get all hot and bothered seeing a good hip heist or X-guard sweep. We enjoy all that stuff. Then there are a double handful of techniques that bridge the gap — that excite every single person in the arena, every fight fan at the bar, and every keyboard warrior watching at home.

In the interest of finding common ground with all fans of this crazy fad that is ultimate fighting, we present to you this not-at-all exhaustive list of moves that seem more likely to be pulled off with an XBoX controller, rather than by a human being who is bound by the laws of physics.

Come one in past the jump, and let’s talk about the kinds of moves that make everyone jump up and spill their beer.

Special thanks to MMA-Core, IronForgesIron, mmaGIF, UpstandingCitizens.com, Tapology, Large Midget and The Forum Assholes, and GIF ninjas everywhere.

[RX]

(Rampage really needs to get some sun.)

Fair warning: If you’re epileptic, you may not want to make the jump to check out the gifs of the best of action of Saturday’s UFC 123 show.