Gina Carano

(Props: ESPN The Magazine via MMA Fight Girls)

We showed you the cover, and we showed you the smoky black-and-white shot from inside — but if you're a Gina Carano completist, you'll want to add these last two images from her ESPN: The Mazazine "Body Issue" shoot to the "STRONG, INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN" folder on your hard drive. The second image is after the jump...

(Props: MMA Fanhouse)

"Can [Kimbo Slice] be a successful heavyweight? I don't think so. I think 100% he's in the wrong weight class, that's to begin with...But I don't necessarily think Kimbo can get to 205, at 35 years of age, with the wear and tear. It's tough to learn this sport, this sport is a lot different than boxing because with boxing you only have to use your hands. In mixed martial arts, you use your hands, your feet, you grapple on the ground, you use submissions. That is a lot of knowledge to retain, and at some point your body starts to shuts down on you in life...Kimbo's in the wrong sport, there's no doubt about that. Kimbo should be in boxing...If you want to be the best of the best, if you want to make the most money possible for your family like you say, then you probably should have went to the square-circle."

So says former EliteXC VP Jared "$kala" Shaw, who has now been out of the MMA game for over a year, and recently checked in for an interview with Fanhouse. Despite the criticism of Kimbo's career choices, Shaw harbors no ill will towards the TUF 10 star, and is proud of the time he spent promoting fighters like Slice, Gina Carano, and Brett Rogers — and if the UFC or Strikeforce wants to give him a job, he's totally down. It's a more reflective, slightly-less-cocky version of $kala than we're used to seeing, even when he's indirectly taking credit for Gina's budding movie career. Later in the interview, Shaw tells us that his music is coming along, and he hopes to drop it on us next year. Also, Herschel Walker is a joke, and Bob Arum is an embarassment to the Jewish race. Pot, meet thrifty, lactose-intolerant kettle...

(Props: ESPN the Magazine via MMA Fanhouse)

Now that we've seen Gina Carano's semi-nudity on the cover of ESPN The Magazine's inaugural "Body Issue" (which hits newsstands on Friday, btw), it's time to take a look at the photos inside. Two more shots have leaked — this sultry photo of Gina posing in her normal workout attire of sports bra, heavy eye-makeup, and hot-shorts, and the picture after the jump of Randy Couture's beloved cauliflower ear. (Warning: It's not quite as sexy.) More naked athletes can be seen here.

Speaking of Gina, director Steven Soderbergh — who cast Carano in the lead role of his next flick, Knockout — had this to say in a recent interview with Empire:

(Big props: SportsbyBrooks)

When it comes to shooting a magazine cover, it's all about timing and opportunity.  The photographers for ESPN the Magazine know this, and that's why they sent their crew to capture a shot of Gina Carano during one of her infamous topless kickboxing sessions (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10-11:30 am. And no, Phil Baroni, for the last time you can't "sit in").  This photo appears on one of the covers of their forthcoming "Body Issue," and we're going to go ahead and say that it will definitely outsell the topless Matt Lindland edition at newsstands everywhere. 

Now, if you show this picture to your wife and/or girlfriend, she'll probably waste no time in telling you that there's been some airbrushing done here.  While that may be the case, we hope you're smart enough not to respond with what you're really thinking, which is probably something along the lines of, 'still...just, wow.'  You said it anyway, didn't you?  We knew it.  She hit you?  In the throat?  Yeah, well, you had that one coming.     

(You know, without his beard, Kimbo kind of looks like Reginald VelJohnson. Props to CagePotato reader 'DopenesS'.)

It's weeks like these that prove how unbelievably smart, funny, and cultured CagePotato's readers are, in comparison to the slack-jawed readers of other MMA websites. Seriously, we love you guys (no homo). Here are three highlights from a wild week in the trenches of the CP comments sections...

whitey on "Strikeforce News Roundup: Cris Cyborg Injured, Bobby Lashley Negotiating + More":
if only Da Vinci was alive to see his vision of the perfect man in flesh and bone

K.E.G. on "Gina Carano Semi-Nudity to Hit Newsstands on 10/9":
Hopefully they will leave out the obvious pages on...
-Tra telligman's weird chest.
-Josh Haynes's extra skin
-Jacare's vagina head
-Kimbo's beard/manscaped chest hair
-Cyborg's penis
-Tito's massively swollen head
-Kaleb Starnes's vagina

After the jump: A strong front-runner for comment of the year...