(If triathlons allowed you to punch other racers, and the participants got paid millions of dollars to do it, well, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Props: CombatLifestyle.com)

Despite that totally official press release claiming that Jeff Lacy had already signed for the fight, Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz will not be facing Lacy in a boxing match. In fact, Diaz will be sticking to the sport that he seemingly can’t stand — and it’s becoming very obvious what’s convincing him to stay.

According to a new press release, Diaz will continue pursuing his MMA career instead of professional boxing, “as it has been deemed that it be in Nick’s best interest to focus on his primary combat sport and profession…an opportunity arose for Nick to make a different sort of history in his primary field of fighting.”

(One of the instances when we’d overlook the flagrant violation of Zuffa’s “business as usual” policy)

Montreal is being targeted as the site of UFC 140 on December 10 according to the UFC’s director of Canadian operations Tom Wright who revealed the news on Ringside Report Radio Wednesday night.

“We’ll do Vancouver on June 11 and then most likely we’ll be back in Montreal on December 10,” Wright said.“We know how important this market is to us and putting on great fights. [Bell Centre's]  a great venue, it’s a great fan-base, it’s a great environment. The energy in that building is as good as any building in North America. We’ll always have a soft spot for Montreal.”

(Having proven his colorful past is behind him, Ford wants the opportunity to prove he’s a future UFC welterweight contender – PicProps GUHDAR photography)

Heading into the stiffest test of his young MMA career – a main event tilt with embattled former UFC welterweight contender Karo Parisyan Thursday night at MMA Live 1 in London, Ontario, Canada, Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford is remarkably calm and focused at the challenging task that lies ahead.

In spite of the fact that he has another bout booked a few weeks after his fight with Parisyan, Ford says it isn’t because he’s taking “The Heat” lightly, it’s because he wants to keep putting in work until certain promoters can’t ignore him any longer.

“It just came up the way it did. I haven’t even been thinking about my other fight, the only fight that I’ve been thinking about for the last eight weeks is Karo Parisyan, and I could care less about the next fight I have coming up right now. Karo Parisyan’s been on my mind when I go to bed, when I wake up, and even when I’m sleeping. I never take any of my opponents lightly, especially Karo Parisyan. I’ve seen what he’s done in the sport, so obviously I’m not coming in thinking I’m just going to walk through him,” Ford explains. “I’ve been training my ass off, every day. What I’m looking to do is run through him, so it is what it is. My overall goal is for Mr. Dana White to give me a call, and give me my shot. I’m going to keep putting the work in and do what I can for him to realize that I’m ready for the UFC. And you know, he’s the boss, so it’s up to him and the Fertitta brothers, so it’s up to them to want me to be a part of their organization.”

(Rashad had the last laugh that night when he gave Jones the stink-palm.)

It looks like there’s no love lost between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans.

A pirate at the Las Vegas Review Journal is reporting that the former Team Jackson training partners came close to getting in a bar fight this week while in town for the Fighter Summit.

(“Come on, Georges. If you keep this up I’m going to rescind my offer to join me for a country breakfast.”)

Matt Hughes is not impressed by GSP’s performance in his last fight.

Now, before you jump to conclusions and say that Matt is only saying that Georges stunk the joint up in his UFC 129 fight against Jake Shields at Rogers Centre because he’s still sore that “Rush” laid a beating on him in their last two bouts, Hughes did say that he likes St-Pierre just fine.

Check out what the former UFC welterweight champ had to say in a recent blog post he wrote about the Shields-St-Pierre bout after the jump.

(Lea and MacDonald rolling at Toshido MMA prior to Rory’s UFC 115 bout with Carlos Condit.)

One of the most unfortunate occurrences to transpire in the wake of Saturday night’s UFC 129 show in Toronto (besides the publicized brawl that took place in the stands and was posted on YouTube) was the accusations of steroid use directed at one of the stars of the event.

Anonymous fans and keyboard warriors alike have taken to Internet forums and message boards to voice their opinion that because 21-year-old Canadian wunderkind Rory MacDonald put on some extra muscle since his last Octagon appearance more than ten months ago, because he demonstrated such explosive strength by executing a trio of third-round suplexes on opponent Nate Diaz, and because “The Waterboy” had an apparent increase in his amount of body and facial acne, it must have been a pharmaceutical grade testosterone advantage that helped him cruise to victory in the fight.

(Where are the igloos and Mounties? This pic must be shopped.)

The Ontario Athletic Commission released a list today of fighters who were medically suspended due to injuries sustained during UFC 129 on Saturday night.

Seven fighters received 60-day suspensions, two received 45-day suspension, two received 30-day suspensions and the remaining 13 received the OAC’s traditional 14-day precautionary suspensions.

The complete list released by the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services this morning is after the jump.

(UFC middleweight Jason MacDonald and a Potato Nation All-Star. Props: Brian J. D’Souza)

Thanks again to all the beautiful people who swung through Shoeless Joe’s in Toronto on Thursday night for our UFC 129 ‘Banned’ Meetup. We had an amazing time, and it was cool to put some faces to screennames. (If you think we should do it again in Houston, say ‘aye’.) We have one request, though. We saw a lot of you snapping photos all night of you and your friends rocking the Free CagePotato t-shirts. Well, we want those photos. Me and Mike would have taken some pictures ourselves, but we were too busy shaking hands and kissing babies.

So, if you have any photos of yourself or your crew rocking our shirts at the pre-party, or at the Fan Expo, or at UFC 129, please post them on our Facebook wall or e-mail them to contest@cagepotato.com. We’ll post our favorites later in the week, and the best one will receive a souvenir GSP headband personally signed by Arianny Celeste and Brittney Palmer. (You can gaze upon its glory right here.) Thanks for the help guys.

After the jump: A video highlight-reel from the party, edited by our pal Brian J. D’Souza, which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that nobody should try to interview Ben Goldstein while he’s been drinking. Seriously.

(YouTube/TheChosen1)

There is so much to simultaneously love and despise about the above video of an epic brawl in the semi-cheap seats at Rogers Centre on Saturday night during UFC 129 that we felt compelled to share it with you. Normally, we wouldn’t give these a-holes the time of day – why give any more fodder to MMA’s adversaries? Why continue to disprove the myth that the UFC has “the best fans in the world”? – but this thing is so over-the-top that it’s simply begging for some brief play-by-play and analysis. Props to the homies at Middle Easy for the find.

First off, you know you’ve stumbled on some sweet shit when the opening scene is a bunch of guys in fashion Tees involved in a totally indecipherable melee with a dude in a GSP headband. Note to all MMA fans over the age of 10: That GSP headband doesn’t look as cool as you think it does. Second of all, where you at Rogers Centre security guards? Round one of this scrap goes on for more than a full minute – complete with guys flipping over rows of seats, some protracted shit-talking and dudes sporting pro-wrestling-style “crimson masks” of blood – and we’re not sure anybody in an official capacity ever shows up to do anything about it. By the time some totally different guy in a GSP headband asks the cameraman, “Is this gonna be on YouTube? What’s your YouTube channel? I gotta look this shit up!” we’re sold. We’re sure there’s a commentary somewhere in that statement about the ease of technology and the immediacy of postmodern life, but fuck it. Dudes start fighting again too soon for us to figure it out.

(Props: elytko via BloodyElbow)

Not sure if was intentional, but Jake Shields‘s fingers introduced themselves to Georges St. Pierre‘s left eyeball on Saturday night, causing an injury that’s still bugging the UFC welterweight champ. Greg Jackson spoke to Sherdog after UFC 129, and let it be known that GSP’s performance might have been more impressive if not for that poke:

“Georges’s eye was pretty badly injured — he told me that in between rounds — and Georges is a very timing-based fighter, and so when one of your eyes is injured your depth-perception gets off pretty significantly and it’s very hard for you to time the shots because it’s hard to see where they are coming. I felt he did really, really well considering he fought with one eye, I’m really proud of him for fighting through that. We’ll try to get better and do better the next time, but I really feel the injury played a significant role…he was just missing a little bit, he was just off a little bit on some of those big shots, and I feel like if he would have had both eyes he could have landed those shots and could have done a lot more damage.”

Responding to the argument that GSP should have finished Jake anyway, you know, because he’s so awesome and Jake Shields sucks, Jackson didn’t mince words:

(Props: MMAWeeklyVideos)

…and here’s why. More proof that Dana White at UFC Fan Expo Q+As — much like a mafioso on the day of his daughter’s wedding — is highly receptive to outlandish requests.

Speaking of Fan Expos, the UFC has officially announced that their next one will take place October 7th and 8th at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. The two-day event will coincide with a yet-to-be-announced UFC pay-per-view card on 10/8, which will likely be hosted at the Toyota Center.

(Props: MMAFighting)

No, it wasn’t a bit of pre-fight crime-fighting in the style of Jon Jones. At yesterday’s UFC 129 media workout, Georges St. Pierre paid tribute to his karate roots by doing a kata for onlookers, and then proving the effectiveness of the art by disarming a bad guy with a knife. Either that or he’s just screwing with all of us. Is GSP growing a sense of humor? And how many blocks of ice did Lyoto Machida break afterwards?

(Video courtesy of DailyMotion/129PT3)

If you missed the final episode of UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Shields last night, here’s your hook-up.

In this instalment we get to see Jake Shields juggling being father and a fighter.

Of perhaps more interest is that, while training with UFC light heavyweight prospect and former Division I wrestler Phil Davis, Shields did pretty well controlling Mr. Wonderful on the ground. Davis remarked that although he had no problem getting Shields to the ground, he couldn’t hold him there or retain control over the Cesar Gracie black belt — which is something he says he’s never had a problem with before. Sure GSP will probably get Shields down, but the question Saturday night will be what he is able to do when he does.

(Eat your heart out, fatty.)

If you’ve never heard the story of how Georges St-Pierre began taking karate to help him defend himself against the incessant bullying he endured as a child growing up in St. Isadore, Quebec, Yahoo!Sports has the backstory:

“I had a rough childhood, big problems. I didn’t have many friends growing up. I’m from a small town. I was an intellectual person. People who were friends with me were intellectuals, they were not popular either. They weren’t the hockey player that everyone wanted to be like,” he recalls. “I had an acne problem. I was just not dressing very well. I was not very popular with girls. I just wasn’t a popular guy. [Being bullied every day creates] a very hostile environment. You’re not going to school to learn, you’re going to school to survive. You’re really scared. You hate school because [afterward] you’re getting beat up. You don’t think about what the teacher is telling you, you’re thinking about running away when you hear the ringing of the bell. You need to get your books and get out of class and get to the bus before the kids catch you.”

(Video courtesy of Videobb/FightVideosMMA)

If you can’t wait until tonight to watch the Countdown to UFC 129, we got you covered.

The Cliff’s Notes on the show are after the jump.

(Menjivar facing Matt Serra in his UFC debut two weight classes higher than his natural 135-pound bracket.)

Ivan Menjivar is not new to the sport, but to many post-TUF fans the Canadian MMA pioneer whose resume includes bouts with Georges St-Pierre, Matt Serra, Caol Uno, Joe Lauzon and Urijah Faber is an unfamiliar face in the Octagon.

After spending the better part of four years away from the sport rehabbing injuries and raising a family, “The Pride of El Salvador” is back and will get the opportunity to compete in front of his legion of fans in his adopted Canadian homeland when he takes on Charlie Valencia Saturday night in Toronto.

We recently spoke with the 21-7 bantamweight and touched on a number of topics including his long-awaited return, his career as a moneyweight fighter and his early days in the sport.

Check out what Ivan had to say after the jump.

(Video courtesy YouTube/TruPlya777)

- Top 25 moments in MMA history (BleacherReport/MMA)

- 25 ridiculous Jesus tattoos (HolyTaco)

- Rich Franklin vs. Lil’ Nog slated for UFC 133 in Philly (Twitter)

- Jim Carrey to guest star on “The Office” (ScreenJunkies)

- The 10 Most Fearsome Sets Of Quads In MMA (Clutch.MTV)

- Who’s the NBA’s greatest road warrior? (ScoresReport)

- Lightweight Jim Miller Wants to fight UFC welterweight champ GSP (LowKick)

- 5 Secrets Women Keep From Men (TheRugged)

- How to build a survival kit (MadeMan)

- Ken Shamrock sidelined with staph infection (MMAFighting)

- Elmo is a pervert (TuVez)

- Brittney Palmer is so nice to us, we really should get her flowers (MMAFix)

(The fight that opened the doors for Jabouin. PicProps: Sherdog)

If you haven’t yet watched an Yves Jabouin fight and you aren’t going to UFC 129, we suggest you sign up for a Facebook account to catch the Montreal-based Haitian take on Pablo Garza in the event’s prelims next Saturday.

A training partner of several past and present UFC standouts including David Loiseau, Miguel Torres and Georges St-Pierre, Jabouin has continually impressed his teammates with his highlight-reel finishes, his shocking speed and explosiveness.

We had a chance recently to speak with the 10-year MMA veteran and we discussed a number of topics including his childhood, his long road to the Octagon, and losing out on a title shot to Mark Hominick.

Check out what “Tiger” had to say after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ZPsBackUp)

If you missed it, UFC Primetime was back last night with another episode featuring UFC 129 main event fighters Georges St-Pierre and Jake Shields.

The show focused more closely on the training regimens of both fighters and included snippets of GSP’s new gymnastics workout. I was hoping to there would be more of Shields sparring with Nick Diaz as he was in the gym helping the welterweight challenger prepare when they shot the footage of him training  with Gilbert Melendez featured on the show last night, but the Strikeforce welterweight champ has an aversion  to being on camera. There’s a rumor going around that he blasted “The Most Excited Interviewer in the World” for putting up training footage with the interviews he did with Shields a few weeks back and forced him to take the videos down.

All in all it was another decent episode, but the series would be much better without the tired cliches. It’s getting a little bit nauseating hearing how, “Shields will get the best Georges St-Pierre on April 30,” “GSP has never faced a grappler like Jake,” or “This is the toughest opponent of my career.” It seems that we hear the same thing from both camps before every fight.

It would be more entertaining to hear one of them say, “He sucks. Fighting him is almost a waste of my time. I’ve hardly trained because it’s going to be so easy. I’m going to beat him quickly so I can get a head start at pulling tail at the after party.”

Check out part two after the jump.

(Makdessi showing Anderson how it’s done. PicProps: MMAWeekly)

After carving out an impressive 22-0 kickboxing career and winning a USKBA gold medal in 2006, John Makdessi turned his focus to MMA where he has since rattled off eight straight victories, including a unanimous decision win over Pat Audinwood in his Octagon debut at UFC 124 in December.

A training partner of UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, Makdessi is a driven fighter who says he isn’t satisfied with a win unless the fans are entertained — a rarity in the sport today that seems filled with fighters who are content with doing “just enough to win.”

The 25-year-old Halifax, Nova Scotia-born Lebanese fighter will put his undefeated record on the line against Kyle Watson next week at UFC 129 in Toronto and says he is planning on making a lot of jaws hit the floor during the bout. We caught up with Makdessi recently to talk about the fight, how he got his start in MMA, his thoughts on the current landscape of the sport and much more.

Check out what “The Bull” had to say after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Dave2662)

If you missed the premiere episode of UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Shields last night, don’t be scared, homies, we got you.

The show was as good as it predecessors, giving us a glimpse inside the camps of the main event fighters from UFC 129 April 30.

Not surprisingly, the the producers played up the respectful sportsmanship of St-Pierre who gave props to Shields’ ground game and politely pointed out that he chooses to test himself against opponents by beating them at their own games.

“Ee ‘as one area that ee is vary, vary good at and it’s ‘is grapping. All da guy dat he has fought in da past were afraid to go on the floor wit ‘im and dat is something dat I am not afraid to do. I always wanted to test myself wit the best fighter at ‘der best game. I like Jake Shield. He’s just at da wrong place at da wrong time. I train harder den I ever train,” GSP asserted throwing in a tired cliche for good measure. “I’m de best Georges St-Pierre dat I ever been. The fight dat I been waiting for for four years is gonna happen in front of fifty thousand people. It’s gonna be incredible.”

Check out part two of the episode after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/CNM)

Either this guy drank WAY too many Red Bulls before this interview or he just REALLY likes talking to Jake Shields. Whatever the case may be, he caught up with Jakes at Cesar Gracie’s gym and got his thoughts on a few topic, including his upcoming UFC 129 bout on April 30 against UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre and the prospect of the former Strikeforce middleweight champ possibly fighting Anderson Silva somewhere down the road.

“Do you think you can beat GSP?” probably wasn’t the best question to start the interview with, but Jake took it in stride, laughing off the strange query from his alleged fan.

Judging by his outfit and how giddy he seems to be around his favorite fighters, it’s safe to say he won’t be awarded Strikeforce or UFC credentials under the current regime.

Check out video of Mr. Perky interviewing Josh Thomson, Matt Lindland and Josh Koscheck about the fight as well as footage of Jake training with some old dude after the jump.

(“Business as usual,” should include putting on the best fights Zuffa can.)

Since Zuffa announced two weeks ago that it had purchased its closest competitor, Strikeforce, MMA fans and analysts have been clamoring for dream bouts that seemed impossible when the organizations were owned by two different companies.

Although UFC president Dana White has repeated the same three words since the news broke, “Business as usual,” and reports have emerged stating that there won’t likely be any cross-over bouts until Strikeforce’s current fighter contracts run out and they can be locked into new deals with the UFC, that doesn’t stop the inner fanboys in us from licking our chops over some of the fights we want to see happen in the Octagon (or Hexagon).

Check out our list of 20 intriguing post-Zuffa Strikeforce purchase fights we’d get behind.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, as they say — and every legendary MMA career begins with a single fight. In collaboration with Huck Blade at NeonBarFights.com, CagePotato is proud to present “Before They Were Stars,” an MMA highlight reel that pays tribute to the pro debuts of fighters who went on to become heros of the sport, including Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones, Jose Aldo, and Alistair Overeem. Check it out, share it with your friends, and let us know what you think.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Damn, New Yorkers are crazy for the UFC — that and free shit. I can’t imagine begging Dana and the fighters for their clothes, tickets or autographs. Maybe it’s just me.

The Cliffs Notes of this episode are after the jump.

You know MMA has gone mainstream when fighters like Georges St-Pierre appearing on the cover of magazines like Men’s Health have become common occurrences.

The UFC welterweight champ is on the cover of the April issue and is interviewed for a feature spread in the Men’s fitness and lifestyle magazine.

Check out the highlights of the article and a behind the scenes video of the photo shoot after the jump.

Aside from being the decisionest decisioner who ever decisioned, UFC welterweight contender Jon Fitch also holds the record for the most total strikes landed in the Octagon — a staggering 1973, according to the new UFC Official Records page on FightMetric.com. Georges St. Pierre is a close second to Fitch with 1924 total strikes, but comes in first on the “Significant Strikes Landed” leaderboard with 892; Jon Fitch isn’t even in the top ten on that one.

Also surprising: Because of their multiple title fights and frequent decisions, Frank Edgar and Sean Sherk have average fight times of over 15 minutes. Plus, Anderson Silva is just one knockdown away from catching Chuck Liddell’s record of 14 KDs, Cheick Kongo has the fifth-best takedown accuracy in the UFC, and the hardest-to-hit fighter in UFC history isn’t Lyoto Machida or Georges St. Pierre — it’s TUF 4 vet Pete Spratt, who only ate 0.89 shots per minute during his 3-4 stint in the Octagon. (Yes, GSP is currently in second place on that list too.) Check out a few more notable FightMetric charts after the jump, and see the rest right here.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Kimura.se)

Our friends at Kimura.se caught up with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira recently and among other things, asked the former PRIDE and UFC interim heavyweight champion his thoughts on the potential superfight between his student, friend and training partner, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. Not surprisingly, Big Nog’ picked his homeboy to win the fight, but he was very complimentary of GSP, calling the French-Canadian the best wrestler in the sport.

(Please, Rampage. Your fist-pose means nothing here.)

For those of you who like to plan ahead in your MMA gambling, listen up: Several betting sites are already offering odds on Rashad Evans vs. Rampage Jackson at UFC 130 — a match that is completely unconfirmed at this point — and the purely hypothetical superfight between Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre, which would depend on a GSP victory over Jake Shields. The most favororable odds right now are…

Rashad Evans (-185) vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (+155)
Anderson Silva (-170) vs. Georges St. Pierre (+155)

Jake Shields talks UFC 129 vs Georges St. Pierre – Watch more Funny Videos

By CagePotato contributor Brian J. D’Souza

The April 30th UFC event at the Rogers Centre in Toronto will play host to pound-for-pound king Georges St. Pierre, a French-Canadian superstar who helps move everything from action figures to videogames for his UFC bosses. Jake Shields hasn’t quite reached that level of mainstream acclaim, but when he faces off with GSP at UFC 129, he’ll be carrying a 15-fight win streak thanks to an arsenal of tools that could be the wildcard against an experienced champion who has yet to show any stylistic weaknesses nor signs of decline.

Catching up with Shields during a tour of Ontario, the friendly Cesar Gracie team member seems to effortlessly surmount a packed schedule of seminars, media appearances, interviews, photo shoots and autograph requests with a smile and his positive attitude. A former welterweight champion in Elite XC and middleweight champion in Strikeforce, Jake wants to add the most important belt to his collection — the UFC 170-pound title.

Shields won’t play into a war of words with St. Pierre in the grand tradition of B.J. Penn, Dan Hardy and Josh Koscheck. “He’s a great guy. I don’t know him that well, so I’d have no reason to suspect him as being fake,” Shields says.

As he once told FIGHT! magazine’s Danny Acosta, “When you’ve been in fights, fighting 10 people at once, people with knives and bats and guns and whatnot, it definitely takes fear away in the cage,” however, on this day, Shields shied away from elaborating too much on his tumultuous youth.