(Chuck Liddell poses with ‘Taboo’, co-host of Our Time.)

We have no idea how most of these encounters came about — but we’re sure they were all fairly awkward. Here are 21 of our favorite photos of MMA fighters rubbing shoulders with reality show stars, B-list actors, and aging rock royalty. Ah, the perks of fame…

(Cain Velasquez: The meat in a douche sandwich.)

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MiddleEasyTV)

- Pat Barry blows his top at Brock doubters (FightersOnly)

- The top 29 cities to visit (AskMen)

- The Gina Carano sweepstakes (Fightlinker)

- 10 things that repel women (MadeMan)

- Zuffa’s Twitter policy is a matter of playing with fire (MMAOpinion)

- Win an AOC Aire black LED monitor (GameFront)

- Brock Lesnar says fans can be like pulling a tampon out of a drain (DeathClutch)

- ‘Real Steel’ trailer (TheRugged)

- Anonymous former Pacquiao training partner says he injected Manny with roids (Thisis50)

- 25 story lines to introduce Ashton Kutcher to Two and a Half Men (HolyTaco)

- HDNet and It’s Showtime ink deal; K-1 soon to return (MMAFighting)

- Deniro to play most sinister role yet: Bernie Madoff (ScreenJunkies)

- NFL players seeking $707 million in damages (TheScoresReport)

Props to UG member “pervert” (naturally). Click for full-size version; two more after the jump. Haywire is now slated for an August release.

(Hint: As many as two and as few as none of these women have made it into the finals.)

After five days of voting, the Final Four in our “2011 Hottest Women in MMA Grand Prix” have been reduced to the Terrific Two. Since I’ll be in Toronto tomorrow and Friday, let’s plan on kicking off the finals voting on Monday. Just one more week, and this whole dirty business will be put to bed. But first, see who you’ll be voting for after the jump…

For round-of-16 results, click here.

For quarterfinal results, click here.

(Props: allelbows)

According to MMAWeekly, Strikeforce is working hard to book Sarah D’Alelio as the return opponent for MMA superstar Gina Carano. Though not all parties involved have signed off on the bout at the time of the report, the match would take place on the main card of Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum, June 18th at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas. Fighting out of Olympia, Washington, D’Alelio holds a record of 4-1 (all wins by stoppage), and most recently suffered her first loss in a decision against Julie Kedzie at a Jackson’s MMA Series event in December.

Greg Jackson has been overseeing Carano’s training as she prepares to come back from a 22-month layoff, and so far, he has nothing but nice things to say: “We don’t have any 145ers, and she’s really sweet and really nice. So, those are the things you look for…She’s really talented, she works hard, she does what’s expected, and I’m impressed…As I get to know her more as far as helping her out for the fight, we’ll get to a better sense of it. But, she definitely has all the talent and all the potential in the world.”

Meanwhile, Carano’s old nemesis Cristiane “Cris Cyborg” Santos is still without her next opponent, ten months after her last title defense/squash match against Jan Finney. But as the video after the jump proves, Cris has been keeping herself in ferocious fighting shape…

(To see the original round-of-16 bracket, click here.)

After your 40,000+ votes eliminated all the blondes, foreigners, and blonde foreigners, we’re left with four semi-finalists in our quest to crown this year’s Hottest Woman in MMA — all of them belonging to that sub-species of hot chick known as the American Brunette. But which two will advance to the finals? Starting today, it is your obligation to determine just that.

Once again, the instructions are as follows: Cast a vote for your favorite MMA hottie in each of the two polls, with the help of the photographic evidence we’ve provided. (Hit the “next page” link when you’re done with Arianny vs. Mercedes.) If you don’t see the poll widget under each pairing of girls, please refresh your browser or try a different one. Any questions, let us know in the comments section. We’ll collect the results and announce the winners next week.

Okay? So let’s do the damn thing…

(This bracket ain’t big enough for the both of ‘em. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com)

Ladies and gentlemen — but mostly gentlemen, we’re assuming — your votes have been tabulated, and we’re proud to announce the winners of our “2011 Hottest Women in MMA Grand Prix” quarterfinals. Read on to see who has advanced to the Final Four, and come back tomorrow afternoon to start voting on the semi-finals.

For round-of-16 results, click here.

(To see the original round-of-16 bracket, click here.)

It’s true — we lost a lot of good women on Tuesday. But thanks to your votes, eight lovely ladies remain, and they need your help to advance to the semi-finals.

In case you’re new here, the instructions are simple: Cast a vote for your favorite MMA hottie in each of the four polls, with the help of the photographic evidence we’ve provided. Hit the “next page” link when you’re done with each poll. If you don’t see the poll widget under each pairing of girls, please refresh your browser or try a different one. Any questions, let us know in the comments section. We’ll collect the results and announce the winners next Thursday.

You ready? Then let’s get it on…

(ReX13 would like to sincerely apologize for any awkwardness our thoughtless Pool B seeding may have caused.)

After collecting nearly 25,000 (!) votes over the last week, we’re ready to reveal the winners of our “Hottest Women in MMA Grand Prix” round-of-16. Read on to see the results for the four Pool A matchups, then hit the “next page” link to see which four ladies survived Pool B. And please come back on Thursday for the start of the quarterfinal round!

(Sign on the dotted line, or continue to get steamrolled by guys who look like ‘Spitting Image’ puppets. Your choice, pal.)

As first reported by MMAWeekly, Strikeforce is looking to make its pay-per-view debut sometime in July; date and venue are TBA at this point, though July 2nd is already booked for UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber. In an attempt to give the Strikeforce PPV some superfight muscle, the promotion has reached out to Fedor Emelianenko’s camp to offer the Last Emperor a fight against reigning light-heavyweight champ Dan Henderson. The fight wouldn’t necessarily be for Hendo’s belt — it could take place at a catchweight or at heavyweight, depending on how negotiations shake out.

Emelianenko vs. Henderson makes even more sense in light of Saturday’s controversial draw between Gegard Mousasi and Keith Jardine. Mousasi was originally supposed to face Mike Kyle, in a bout that was thought to be a 205-pound title eliminator. Instead, Mousasi faced late-replacement Jardine and was unable to secure a victory, which makes the LHW contender picture a little more complicated. Strikeforce’s July card is also rumored to feature the return of former light-heavyweight champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal taking on 4-0 submission whiz Roger Gracie.

In other news…

Get your voting fingers ready, Potato Nation — the right side of the “2011 Hottest Women in MMA Grand Prix” bracket is live and ready for action. But first, a very important announcement about the wild-card spot: After picking up 61.5% of the popular vote against Chandella Powell and Joanne Spracklen, Juliana Salimeni has advanced to the round-of-16, where she will be taking on #1-seeded Gina Carano. Congrats, Juju, and may your Cinderella story have a happy ending.

Now, the usual instructions. With the help of the photographic aids we’ve provided below, cast your vote for your favorite lady in each of the four polls; hit the “next page” link when you’re done with each one. Any questions, let us know in the comments section. If you don’t see the poll widget under each pairing of girls, please refresh your browser, or try a different one.

We plan to announce the complete list of winners from the Grand Prix’s opening round on Tuesday, so if you haven’t yet cast a vote for Pool A, there’s still time to make a difference. Without further ado, let’s get started…

(“Don’t move, Gina. This is how we’ll get mainstream acceptance.”)

Strikeforce hasn’t announced when  Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos will next defend her belt, and according to the dominant women’s middleweight champion, it’s not because she isn’t ready. It’s because she doesn’t have a contract.

Cyborg told Tatame recently that her contract ran out after her last fight with Jan Finney last June and she hasn’t spoken with Scott Coker and company about re-signing with the recently Zuffa-acquired promotion in the nine months since the bout.

“Currently I don’t have a contract signed, but on my former contract there was something saying that for a year I’m connected to the [promotion] but we might sign a new one.  I believe the fact that the UFC bought Strikeforce is a good thing for women, because we have two years to do a good job and prove them our value —  to prove it to Dana White,” she explains. “I’m not anxious and I’m not worried. I’m happy and I keep on training.”

(Hey, you can’t argue with results.)

The UFC’s ongoing tour of the East Coast includes a public press conference at Radio City Music Hall in New York tomorrow, UFC 128 in Newark on Saturday, and the TUF 14 tryouts next Monday. But there’s one more little surprise in store for fight fans — Gina Carano will be doing an appearance in New York next Wednesday to promote “UFC Personal Trainer,” a fitness game slated for a June release on the Xbox 360 Kinect, PlayStation Move, and Nintendo Wii.

It’s interesting — and by “interesting” I mean “fucked up” — that the UFC is sticking to their “no girls” policy when it comes to fighting, but will happily use Strikeforce’s poster-girl to sell video games. And I hate to be the asshole that has to say what everybody’s thinking, but is Gina the best spokesmodel for a fitness product right now?

Not that I wouldn’t smash that. Because I would. I would totally smash that.

Gina Carano and co-star Ewan McGregor recently filmed a beach fight scene during re-shoots for their upcoming movie Haywire. Zimbio has 55 photos from the make-believe scrap in a gallery called “Ewan McGregor on the Beach.” (Way to miss the point, guys.) We went though and picked our 20 favorites. Enjoy the carnage.

(“I think we women really have to unite, keep coming up with really good fights and also be feminine outside of the ring as well.”)

We had the opportunity this week on The Bum Rush Radio Show to speak with Strikeforce welterweight champion Marloes Coenen who is set to take on Liz Carmouche at  Saturday night’s Feijao vs. Henderson event in Columbus, Ohio. As always, Marloes was an articulate class act, demonstrating why, besides her in-cage prowess, Strikeforce holds her in such high regard as a person, a fighter and a champion.

In the brief conversation we had with the Golden Glory-trained fighter, Coenen touched on a number of topics including original opponent Meisha Tate’s injury and miraculous recovery, representing Women’s MMA with class, finishing fights, her relationship with her Golden Glory trainers and teammates and much more.

Check out what Coenen had to say after the jump.

(Hopefully Amanda doesn’t make Gina reconsider this whole fighting thing like Cyborg did)

If you think Strikeforce is going to give Gina Carano an easy return bout. think again.

According to Tatame, the former Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion will take on Amanda Nunes when the promotion returns to Texas June 18 for an event anchored by a light heavyweight bout between Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and a yet-to-be-named opponent and the two remaining opening-round heavyweight grand prix bouts between Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett versus Brett Rogers. The news was revealed to the Brazilian MMA news website by Nunes’ manager, who said they are currently in talks with Strikeforce for the bout.

The bout will mark the first fight in close to two years for Carano, who took a break from competition to focus on her burgeoning acting career. She stars as the lead in Steven Soderbergh’s “Haywire,” which opens April 22.

Nunes (6-1) is a tough fighter known for her knockout power, having finished each of her last six opponents by TKO or KO.

(Gina Carano announces her return to MMA during last weekend’s ‘Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva‘ broadcast. To be honest, I could have used more energy. Props: shosports)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- Rashad Evans Says Absent Priest Messed Up Fedor’s Mental Preparation Before Silva Bout (MMA Convert)

- Dana White: First International “The Ultimate Fighter” Could be in Philippines by Late 2011 (5thRound)

- ‘Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva’ Breaks Showtime MMA Viewership Records (SBNation.com/MMA)

- Jorge Rivera: I Got Under Michael Bisping’s Skin [Exclusive Interview] (LowKick)

- And Now He’s Fired…Again: Gabe Ruediger (Five Ounces of Pain)

- What Might Have Been: Fedor Emelianenko in the UFC (MMA Fighting)

- Dada 5000′s Second Professional MMA Bout Took Place Last Weekend, and We Have the Video (MiddleEasy)

- Rafael Natal Out, UFC Newcomer Chris Weidman In Against Alessio Sakara at ‘UFC on Versus 3′ (Versus MMA Beat)

- Natasha Wicks Hangs Out Half-Naked with Urijah Faber In FORM Athletics Video (FightMagazine)

- Dana White Meets with New Yorker Who Used MMA to Subdue Serial Stabber (MMA-Scraps)

Following the post-event press conference at “Fedor vs. Silva” on Saturday night, I was able to get a couple minutes with Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, who ran down his thoughts on the insanity we’d all just witnessed — as well as some other big topics swirling around his promotion. To summarize:

- Coker still feels that Fedor Emelianenko‘s heart is still in competing, mainly because the first round of his fight against Antonio Silva wasn’t a total blowout. (By the way, a draw after two rounds? That second round was a clear 10-8 for Silva in my opinion, and the first round wasn’t a clear-cut win for Fedor either.)

- Whatever Andrei Arlovski does next is up to his camp, but Coker doesn’t sound too enthusiastic about putting him in the cage again.

With her long-awaited movie debut slated for an April release (pending re-shoots), could Gina Carano be preparing for a return to MMA competition? (Answer: Probably not.) Still, Xtreme Couture’s official blog posted these photos yesterday, with the following message: "Xtreme Couture would like to welcome back Gina Carano. Gina spent the morning training with Gil Martinez, here are a couple of shots from todays practice. We expect to see a lot more of Gina here training in 2011."

Read into that what you like. Scott Coker is surely psyched to see his old star back in the gym, but Gina could just be blowing off some steam between film gigs. Who knows? Considering that her last update on Facebook or Twitter was this one three months ago, it’s hard to get a sense of where her head’s at, other than the fact that she likes Kabuki makeup and is content to be a mysterious recluse for the time being.

("I’m not sure what this has to do with the movie, Mr. Spielberg, but if you say Kate Capshaw auditioned topless, I’m cool with it, too.")

Well, it looks like Scott Coker is still under the impression that the former face of his promotion, Gina Carano will be back competing for Strikeforce this year. 

While on MMAFighting.com’s The MMA Hour Monday, Coker said that he’s confident that the former Strikeforce female 145-pound standout who hasn’t fought since losing her strap to Cris "Cyborg" Santos 17 months ago in August of 2009 will make her much-anticipated return before the end of 2011 — a lofty claim he made last year as well, that didn’t materialize.

"I believe she’ll be back in the cage this year. From what I know of her, she is a competitor at heart; she’s going to want to fight," Coker told Ariel Helwani. "She’s not going to want to end her career the way it ended. So, I think she’ll be back."

(Dinner better be waiting, or else. Photo via gina-carano.org)

Just a quick update on Haywire, that Steven Soderbergh-directed action flick starring former (?) MMA fighter Gina Carano as a freelance covert operative who has to fight for her life after one of her gigs goes FUBAR. The new release date is April 22nd — for real this time — and the flick will no doubt be blown out of the water by the latest Madea poop-bomb from Tyler Perry. TheFilmStage.com passes along another detail from the shoot:

[Soderbergh] shared the pretty funny note that the film’s star Gina Carano, an MMA fighter herself, scared off some male stars* as they apparently weren’t comfortable with the idea of being beaten up by a woman onscreen…For fans of action set-pieces, they may be interested to know that there’s a “hotel suite sequence”** that the director describes as “fun.”***

* Judging from the cast, we can safely assume that either Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, or Bill Paxton is a giant pussy.

** Whoa. You mean like a sex tape?

*** Dog, you didn’t.

If 2010 was a cold beer, we’d be down to the backwash. December puts all of us MMA-pundit types in a reflective mood, and this year gave us a double-crapload of big stories, insane fights, rising stars, and utter embarrassments to wrap our heads around. And so, we’d like to pay tribute to 2010 in the best way we know how — sarcasm and insults, mostly. Without further ado, here are 15 things we felt were worthy of some end-of-year recognition, Potato-style…

The Giant Silva Freak Show Award, presented each year to the match that’s made strictly for gruesome entertainment value; fighters should ideally exhibit a tremendous difference in either size or experience level.
Winner: Randy Couture vs. James Toney at UFC 118, in which a tubby boxing champ trash-talked his way into a co-headling bout against an MMA legend, and got choked out before he was able to land a single punch. This marks the first time in eleven years that the Giant Silva Award hasn’t been granted to a fight held in Japan.
Also receiving votes this year: Herschel Walker vs. Greg Nagy

The Wanderlei Silva Unintentionally Homoerotic Smack Talk Award, known as "The Wandy" is presented each year to the fighter who, when trying to hype a fight, inadvertently makes reference to having gay sex with his (or her) opponent.
Winner: Josh Koscheck, for the utterly disturbing wild-eyed, tongue-waving description above of what he was planning to do to UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre during this season of The Ultimate Fighter. 
Also receiving votes this year: Matt Horwich, for his cringeworthy rant about how he was going to Mike Tyson 10th Planet protagonist Renato Laranja.

The Natasha Wicks Memorial Best Female Newcomer Award, presented each year to the up-and-coming MMA ring girl — preferably blonde, as per the bylaws — who gets us to forget about Arianny Celeste and Brittney Palmer, if only for a moment.
Winner: Rhian Sugden, the stunning (and frequently-nude) star of the U.K.’s BAMMA promotion.
Also receiving votes this year: Kelli Hutcherson, Stephanie Ann Cook, Brittany Ward, Melissa Jo

(Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante trains like a beast for his fight against Josh Thomson at "Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Noons II" this Saturday. Props: GenghisConFilms)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

– Stefan Struve vs. Sean McCorkle Planned for UFC 124 in Montreal (MMA Fighting)

– Ed Soares’ Dream for Jose Aldo? Super-Fight Against Frankie Edgar (Versus MMA Beat)

– Gina Carano Lands Her Next Major Movie Role, and More Juicy Rumors (MiddleEasy)

– Is Bad Sportsmanship Just Part of the MMA Fight Game? (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Gerald Harris and Phil Davis Get Main Card Slots at UFC 123, Karo Parisyan and Tyson Griffin Stuck in the Prelims (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Nevada State Athletic Commission Makes Half-Baked Changes To Drug Testing Policy (Watch Kalib Run)

– 5 Fights You Shouldn’t Miss This October (LowKick)

– Is Frankie Edgar the #2 P4P Fighter in the World? Dana White Thinks So… (MMA Convert)

– Crazy Slugfest from K-1 MAX Grand Prix (MMA Scraps)

– Jake Shields: The Specialist [VIDEO] (FightMagazine)

(The moral of the story? When Gina Carano does it, it’s awesome. When Paulo Filho does it, it’s terrible. / Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com)

Anybody can be forgiven for missing weight by a half-pound — as long as it doesn’t become a habit. But when an MMA fighter comes in a full four pounds heavy, as Efrain Escudero did this week for his doomed UFC Fight Night 22 bout against Charles Oliveira, it tends to raise some eyebrows. As we’ve done previously with steroid busts, we decided to catalog the worst scale-fails in MMA history, arranged by number of pounds over the limit. When the information was available, we also listed the punishments the fighters were given, along with their excuses for missing weight, which range from injuries to salt water to the dreaded “menstrual period.” This is by no means a definitive list — but we’d like it be, eventually. So if you know of any other occasions where fighters missed weight by four pounds or more, or missed weight for multiple fights, please let us know in the comments section.

* Note: We’ve eliminated the “Repeat Offenders” section. In the instances where fighters has notably missed weight on more than one occasion (see: A. Johnson, P. Daley, T. Alves), we’ve ranked them in the leaderboard by their greatest weigh-in failure.

Karl Knothe @ Shark Fights 17
Weigh-in date: 7/14/11
Weight: 253.75 pounds, 23.75 over the 230-pound catchweight limit
How is that even possible? Due to some miscommunication between Knothe and his management, Knothe was never informed that his scheduled bout against Ricco Rodriguez was supposed to be at a catchweight, instead of at heavyweight.
Result: The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation disallowed Knothe from competing due to the large weight-gap and concerns over excessive weight-cutting. Knothe was paid a portion of his salary anyway, while Ricco Rodriguez instead faced 5-12 replacement Doug Williams. Rodriguez won via rear-naked choke in the first round.

Ricardo Mayorga @ Omega MMA: Battle of the Americas
Weigh-in date: 5/2/13
Weight: 175.9 pounds, 20.9 pounds over the limit for his contracted lightweight match against Wesley Tiffer, who came in at 153. Needlessly to say, shoving ensued.
How was this fight even allowed to happen?: The match took place in Managua, Nicaragua — which is Mayorga’s hometown, by the way — and the Nicaraguan combat sports commission that was overseeing the event didn’t seem to have a problem with the ludicrous weight discrepancy. (I hear they’re much more stringent when it comes to cock-fighting.)
Result: Mayorga by TKO after two rounds, aided by a fairly illegal knee to the spine. Stay classy, Ricardo.

(Above: Eric R.  /  Below: Dwayt W.  /  Click all for larger sizes.)

We’re one week into our CagePotato wallpaper design contest, and the submissions are rolling in nicely; you can check out some of our current favorites above and after the jump. Please keep sending your work to contest@cagepotato.com for the chance to win $250 in gear from the good people at Throwdown. Voting begins next Monday. 

(Don’t worry, Gina. We won’t let Cyborg on the set.)

It appears that Cris Cyborg may have taken more than just Gina Carano’s Strikeforce belt when she beat the woman many consider to be the most popular female mixed martial arts fighter of all time last August.

She may have taken her will to fight as well.

360 days have passed since her last bout and while the MMA community holds its collective breath waiting for an update on when (or if) Carano will fight again, her former trainer, coach and cornerman Randy Couture isn’t convinced she’ll ever compete again.

(Carano and Cyborg: Godmothers of the game. / Photo courtesy of SI.com)

By CagePotato.com contributor Jim Genia

First there was the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which empowered the women of the United States with the right to vote. The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s followed, providing them with birth control and shifting values, and liberating them from the social constraints of a rigid society. Then came Gina Carano vs. Cris “Cyborg” Santos, which showed that when you put two well-trained ladies in a cage and pay them to fight, they can really beat the crap out of each other (or at least one can thoroughly whoop the other).

Yes, great strides have been made in equality for the fairer sex, and thanks to the likes of Carano and Cyborg, this equality has stretched into the realm of mixed martial arts. Now, there are impending all-female tournaments scheduled for Strikeforce and Bellator, and Sarah Kaufman’s recent violent KO over Roxanne Modafferi made ESPN’s “SportCenter”. Whether you love it or hate it, the female version of limited-rules combat is here to stay. So here’s a look back at some of the greatest moments in MMA herstory. (Get it? “His-story”, “her-story”? Yuk-yuk.)

Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young, EliteXC: “Primetime”

On May 31, 2008, EliteXC broke the live network-television seal with “Primetime”, a CBS-broadcast event that saw Kimbo Slice smash James Thompson’s ear, Robbie Lawler poke Scott Smith in the eye, and an overweight Carano batter a smaller Kaitlin Young. Overweight? That’s right, for the first-ever female bout on free TV, ultra-popular fighter and former American Gladiator Carano failed to make the contracted 140-pound weight limit, coming in instead at 144.5 pounds. This wasn’t the first time the “Face of Women’s MMA” had failed to make weight. In fact, EliteXC had tailor-made the 140-pound division for her because making the standard 135-pound limit would’ve required too much cardio and crystal meth. To ensure that she didn’t miss weight at her next fight, which was a pairing in Miami against Kelly Kobold, Carano stepped on the scale buck naked. Thankfully, the towel held up by her father to conceal her nude form from the crowd only slipped once.

 
(Seriously, any excuse to run this photo…)

Gina Carano‘s upcoming star turn in Steven Soderbergh’s next action flick will reportedly hit theaters in January, and early impressions are very positive. The movie, now titled Haywire instead of Knockout, had its first test screening earlier this week, and Hollywood Elsewhere passed along a rundown of the plot and Carano’s surprisingly compelling performance:

Mallory Kane (Carano) is young, tough, beautiful, determined, and a freelance covert operative. She is hired out by her handler, Kenneth (Ewan McGregor), to various global entities, to perform jobs which governments can’t authorize and heads of state would rather not know about.

For all her looks and youth, Mallory is still the best in her field, and her skills are in constant demand. But when one of her operations goes awry, Mallory needs to use all her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her.

(Video courtesy YouTube/FightHubTV.com)

Just when we thought we’d heard the last of his creepy lecherous sweatpant-wearing ass when it came to MMA, Gary Shaw has wriggled his way into a new interview with Fight Hub TV and shared his thoughts on the return of EliteXC, Gina, Jake Shields, Kimbo and whether or not he sees himself back in the MMA business in the future.

Between the ring girls, apparel models, television hosts, and the lady-fighters themselves, MMA is a damn fine sport to follow if you appreciate beautiful women. (And my God, do we ever.) So we figured, why not throw together our favorite females from all corners of the fight game and see how they stack up against each other? Enjoy the pics, and let us know how you’d rank ‘em in the comments section. And if you like this list, Digg it!

#12) MIESHA TATE

Hot Contender: Spending her high school years on the boys’ wrestling team gave Miesha Tate the grit she needed to fight in cages for a living. These days, "Takedown Tate" is one of the top-ten 135-pound female fighters in the world, and the combination of her nasty ground-and-pound and natural sex appeal has made her a rising star. You can see Miesha in action next month at Strikeforce Challengers 7 as she takes on Zoila Frausto. 

#11) LAURA CELESTE

Hot East Coast Girl: A native of Staten Island, Laura is a local legend among MMA fans in New York and New Jersey thanks to her ring-girl appearances for fight clubs like Ring of Combat and Asylum Fight League. As a professional hot chick, she has tremendous upside; let’s hope this exciting prospect gets her shot at the majors sooner rather than later.