(A milion bucks would buy a wicked PC, a shit ton of weed and a pretty wicked bulletin board.)

Strikeforce held a conference call today ahead of its January 29 Diaz vs. Cyborg event in San Jose, and as expected Diaz proved to be the main of interest.

Overshadowing his upcoming fight with Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos were Nick Diaz’s incendiary replies to the media’s questions about him turning down a fight with longtime nemesis Jason "Mayhem" Miller and his thoughts on the UFC’s welterweight class.

According to the Strikeforce welterweight champ, he feels that for the fight with Miller to happen, he would have to be offered at least seven figures and that highly-touted UFC fighters like Georges St-Pierre (who he thinks will be destroyed by his training partner Jake Shields at UFC 129) and Josh Koscheck are over-hyped and protected by the promotion.

Surprisingly, not one reporter thought to ask Diaz if he was high during the call.

Check out some of the highlights of Diaz’s diatribes after the jump.

(Video courtesy BJPenn.com)

Former UFC welterweight and lightweight champ BJ Penn suffered a bizarre injury recently.

Apparently "The Prodigy" was bitten by a spider on the back of the head while doing some promo in Australia and the sore became so infected that it caused some of his hair around the affected area to fall out. Hopefully for his sake, Jon Fitch doesn’t take him down and mop the canvas with his dome at UFC 127 like he usually does with opponents or else we may see BJ featured on popthatzit.com.

On a side note, what the hell is up with BJ’s coke nails?  Does he practice the ukelele in his spare time?

Maybe this explains why GSP’s eyes looked like they’d gone through a cheese grater the first time they fought.

("I don’t care if it tastes good. I distinctly told you Blueberry Freeze. Danaher told me Rasberry Rush will make me go bald." Photo credit Brian D’Souza.)

UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre today made the second major change to his professional entourage in the past few months.

After amicably splitting from longtime strength and conditioning coach Jonathan Chaimberg prior to his UFC 124 bout with Josh Koscheck in December, St-Pierre announced today that he is moving on from his relationship with manager Shari Spencer and will be announcing new representation soon.

In a joint press release issued today by the French Canadian fighter and his now former manager, the pair explained that they "had a different vision for the future of Georges’ career and it was best to remain close personally but dissolve their business relationship." Spencer, who also manages UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar has represented St-Pierre since 2007.

Sources tell Cage Potato that St-Pierre’s split with Chaimberg, although an amicable one, was allegedly due to similar differences of opinion the two shared regarding the unorganized direction St-Pierre’s training was taking.

("…three…two…one…Happy New Year! Damn, take it again, Brock had another stroke.")

By CagePotato.com contributor Jason Moles

2010 is in the books, and MMA fans and fighters alike have endured tremendous highs and lows. Who would have guessed that The Last Emperor, Brock Lesnar, BJ Penn and the WEC would all collapse this year? Who could imagine that Chael Sonnen would accuse Lance Armstrong of giving himself cancer, then test positive for a banned substance? Ironic? You bet. But enough about last year — a new decade is upon us. Here are ten predicitions that will sound ridiculous until they actually happen in 2011…

1. MMA will be sanctioned in New York.
While watching WEC bid adieu, I couldn’t help but notice the commercials for the PBR (Professional Bull Riding) at MSG (Madison Square Garden). Pro bull riding averages 1 to 2 deaths per year — that’s not including amateurs, sometimes children, participating at the county fair. Regardless of what Bob Reilly has to say, this is a no-brainer that only the likes of the M-1 management team could foul up. MMA will be sanctioned in New York in ’11, even if we have to blackmail a senator to make it happen.

2. GSP will relinquish his Welterweight title to change weight classes.
Jake Shields blah, blah, blah — Georges St. Pierre is indestructible and will wipe the floor with him, or at least dry hump him to death. With his ‘le-gacy’ secured, he can bump weight classes and test the waters in the process in becoming the best mixed martial artist from Canada with an extra ‘s’ in his name OF ALL TIME.

3. Dana White will coin a new phrase. 
"You want to be a %^&@$#! fighter?" and "Never leave it in the hands of the judges." will be replaced by something catchy like "Don’t cross the boss." Oh, wait, that one’s already taken. How about "Go big or go home," or "Suns out, guns out"? I never said it would be original — just catchy.

Anderson Silva at X-Gym – Watch more Funny Videos

I know. At first, you’re like "Whoa, CagePotato scored an interview with Anderson Silva in English? This is historic!" And then you’re like, "oh." CP’s Brazilian correspondent Brian D’Souza does his best, but it’s hard not to be disappointed when Anderson is fed a question about a potential superfight with Georges St. Pierre, and responds by saying that while GSP is the best welterweight in the world, BJ Penn is the best fighter in the world. (Does that mean he’d rather fight Penn? Aloha, brother.) Also: His training for Vitor Belfort is going well, moving back to light-heavyweight is not his decision, and Team Nogueira is more like Family Nogueira. Now let’s never speak of this again…

("Christ, I look like Gus Johnson.") 

In case you missed the prognosis, Josh Gross from ESPN.com reported yesterday that Josh Koscheck had to be driven to Boston by his trainer "Crazy" Bob Cook sunday evening where he is scheduled today to have surgery today for a broken orbital bone he suffered during his five-round routing by welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre Saturday night in Montreal at UFC 124.


(At least Kos’ eye doesn’t look like the business end of a Fleshlight anymore.)

Just a reminder that we will have the stream of the UFC 124 post-fight presser here after tonight’s event. It should be live around 1:00 am ET, but check in after the broadcast ends as it may start a few minutes early.

Will Koscheck get Tito next?

Will GSP fight Jake Shields in Toronto in March?

Will the UFC finally match up Thiago Alves with Dan Hardy?

Did Dana try poutine?

All of these questions and more will be answered after the jump.

(Koscheck showing the Canadian customs agent his passport.)

Well, tonight’s the night we get to see if Josh Koscheck is full of shit or if he really has improved exponentially more than UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre has since the last time they met three years ago.

I find it interesting that in the UFC 124 previews the UFC is touting Kos as some kind of pugilistic wrecking machine when he has only won one fight by KO and two by TKO since 2006 and the guys he beat (Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Frank Trigg and Dustin Hazelett) aren’t exactly known for their durable chins.

If I had to make a surefire prediction for the main event bout, I’d say that Koscheck’s ego has not gotten over the fact that GSP, who didn’t even wrestle in high school, outwrestled a division one champion like him, and he will likely try to prove himself on the mat and not on the feet. 

It may have been a coincidence, but Kos’ American Kickboxing Academy teammate, Phil Baroni backed my inclination when he told us this week that the peroxided prick is a way better wrestler and that he will control the fight with his wrestling. I’m guessing that Baroni was around when the AKA coaches worked on implementing Kocheck’s game plan for the fight during training and may have included portions of it in his own prediction, kind of like his plethora of "borrowed" daily Twitter quotes he intertwines with his own personal NYBA witticisms.

Whatever the case may be, it should be interesting to see if GSP lets him execute anything before he puts his own strategy into motion.

Let’s get this thing going.

**SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP**

(Good ol’ Sean McCorkle. Trolling to the bitter end. / Photo courtesy of the UFC 124: Weigh In pics gallery on CombatLifestyle.com)

UFC 124: St. Pierre vs. Koscheck II goes down tonight at the Bell Centre in Montreal, and CagePotato will be liveblogging the pay-per-view broadcast beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.  To help get you in the proper spirit, Ben Goldstein and Doug "ReX13" Richardson have returned to squabble over all the important storylines. Does Josh Koscheck have any chance at an upset? Are UFC fighters becoming boring overall? Which of UFC 124′s lightweights are dead weight? Who gives worse gambling advice, Ben or Doug? Do us a favor and slog through this painfully long column, then let us know your own thoughts in the comments section.

Assuming we both think GSP is going to rout Josh Koscheck on Saturday, what does Koscheck need to do to earn your respect in this fight?

BG: Well, he’ll have to avoid getting finished, first of all–

RX: Word.

BG: –and he’ll have to win at least one of the five rounds. That doesn’t seem like a lot to ask–

RX: HA!

BG: –but nobody’s been able to take a round from GSP since — wait for it — Josh Koscheck kind-of won the opening frame of their first meeting at UFC 74, over three years ago. Seriously. If Kos can avoid a 50-45 shutout on all three judges’ cards or an ugly TKO loss, he will have done better than Matt Hughes, Matt Serra (in their rematch), Jon Fitch, BJ Penn, Thiago Alves, and Dan Hardy. That would be a hell of an accomplishment.

So how can he pull it off? Koscheck only holds one real advantage over the champ: Punching power, which he’s used to flatten guys like Yoshiyuki Yoshida and Frank Trigg. Kos just needs to stuff St. Pierre’s takedown once in a while, and then put his fist on Georges’s chin, as he so confidently promised on TUF. A hard shot, well-placed, will wobble GSP — maybe enough to allow Josh to score a takedown of his own. Obviously, I don’t see that happening consistently in the fight, but if it even happens once, I will lose my shit.

Just a reminder that we will have the live stream of the weigh-ins for tomorrow night’s UFC 124 event in Montreal today at 4:00 pm ET.

Tune in and see if Josh Koscheck tries to goad GSP into slapping him in the face with a glove or, if Stefan Shruve presents Sean McCorkle with a copy of the winning Photoshop contest entry or if Edith Labelle is being brought in from the stable for one last trot around the Octagon..

Whatever happens, the Canadian fans should make it very hard to hear what the hell Joe Rogan is screaming.

As always, the UFC media player is after the jump.

("Come on Josh, don’t be pissed at me. I said you’re ‘HALF A DICK,’ not a full on dick.")

Veteran UFC welterweight Phil Baroni stopped by The Bum Rush Radio Show this week and while he was here he gave his thoughts on this weekend’s heavily-anticipated welterweight title bout between his American Kickboxing Academy teammate Josh Koscheck and dominant champion Georges St-Pierre.

Baroni took issue with Ben’s assessment that St-Pierre will be able to take Koscheck down at will en-route to a late submission victory.

"I disagree — not just because we’re friends. Koscheck’s the better wrestler. It’s not gonna come down to striking at all. I don’t think Koscheck needs to land a big shot to win the fight. Koscheck’s a better wrestler. He has a much better pedigree. GSP has a double-leg tackle — that’s about it," Baroni explained. "He’s more of a jiu-jitsu guy and I don’t see him getting on top. Koscheck’s gonna have to control where the fight goes and beat him in a wrestling match. If he does that, he’s gonna win the fight. GSP is mentally weak. He’s a great athlete, he’s got a huge gas tank, he’s strong, he’s fast, but between his ears, there’s a little bit of softness. I think if comes down to a gut-check, Koscheck will take care of him."

(Video courtesy YouTube/Bosh4ffl)

Just a friendly reminder that we will have the feed of today’s UFC 124: St-Pierre vs. Koscheck press conference from Montreal which will go live starting at 1:00 pm ET.

Will Josh Koscheck stop being a dick long enough to show an ounce of due respect to his opponent prior to their fight?

Will GSP let his guard down and tell Josh to go f*ck himself with a bottle of maple syrup?

Will Sean McCorkle attain Chael Sonnen’s title of best smack talker in the UFC?

All of these question and more will be answered this afternoon.

As always, the UFC media player is after the jump.

This Saturday, after a season of TUF that saw Georges St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck grow to like each other even less than they already did, the two welterweight stars will square off in the main event of UFC 124. St. Pierre will be attempting to make his fifth-consecutive title defense; GSP has been involved in 10 title fights in his UFC career, but this is just the first for Koscheck.

As you’re probably aware, St. Pierre and Koscheck squared off once before, in the co-headlining match of UFC 74 back in August 2007. St. Pierre had just lost his belt to Matt Serra in a monumental upset. Koscheck was riding a five-fight win streak, and had out-pointed Diego Sanchez four months prior.

Since that night, George St. Pierre has been undefeated and untouchable in six contests, flawlessly sweeping out the 170-pound division. Koscheck has gone 6-2, taking out some tough opponents in impressive fashion, but getting smacked down by a couple of Brazilians. And now, St. Pierre and Koscheck are going at it again. Which means it’s time to re-watch their first fight and see if we can get any perspective on this thing. Let’s begin…

(The Octagon will touch down for the first time in Toronto in April.)

During a press conference in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre today, UFC president Dana White announced that the promotion will make it’s first foray into Ontario when it hosts UFC 131 in the city on April 30 at the Rogers Centre.

Although no match-ups were revealed for the spring card, but White may have thrown out a clue about one possible participant of the event during the presser when he reiterated his statement that UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre is the most popular athlete to come out of Canada.

White also announced that the city will also be treated to a UFC Fan Expo that weekend and that the event will be held at the Direct Energy Centre. CagePotato.com is in the process of planning a booth for the show to try to eclipse the popularity our extremely popular Boston UFC Fan Expo spot.

(Props: GollyIE)

…and just to get the taste of vomit out of your mouths, here’s the extended trailer for UFC 124: St. Pierre vs. Koscheck II (December 11th, Montreal). The supporting card looks very promising, but it’s sort of unfortunate that the other two fights being featured here are Thiago Alves vs. John Howard and Mac Danzig vs. Joe Stevenson — considering all four fighters are coming off losses. Meanwhile, UFC 124 will also host two fights featuring guys on the upswing: Jim Miller (five-fight win streak) vs. Charles Oliveira (undefeated wunderkind) and Sean McCorkle (mouthy Internet celebrity) vs. young veteran Stefan Struve, who he’s been beefing with for months.

Still, Thiago Alves gets the best line of the video: "When you’re fighting the Pitbull, it’s over. No afterparty for you." And GSP guarantees a stoppage victory. "Get in, get out, and leave," he says. "That’s what the crowd wanna see, and that’s what I wanna do."

("…and your breath smells like poutine and maple syrup.")

Sometimes it just seems like Josh Koscheck throws insults like darts at a dartboard hoping that one will hit its mark. 

In a recent interview with Fighters Only, the brash American Kickboxing Academy product lobbed another salvo at upcoming UFC 124 opponent, UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre.

When asked by FightersOnly.com editor John Joe O’Regan about whether or not GSP is guilty of playing it safe like his much-maligned AKA teammate Jon Fitch has been criticized of doing for the majority of his fights, Koscheck said that he is and that the reason why is the same as what people have been pointing as being Brock Lesnar most glaring weakness: he doesn’t like getting hit.

"If you look at when little Matt Serra was on top of him pounding him, he tapped out. So I believe that Georges has quit in him and you just have to take him to that point," Koscheck explained. "Nobody has been able to do it since those two but I plan on doing it on December 11th.I believe he hasn’t been hit since Matt Serra. That was a good crack. His chin hasn’t been tested and I think Georges has quit in him. If you look at the first Matt Hughes fight where he arm barred him, he was tapping before it was even tight."

(The UFC’s newest Octagon Girl looks very familiar. GSP, as usual, is not impressed. Props: Twitter.com/BrittneyPalmer)

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…

– ‘WEC 52: Faber vs. Mizugaki’ Open Workout Highlights (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Vazquez, Mendes Look to Settle Differences at WEC 52 (Versus MMA Beat)

– Rodriguez, Monson, Trigg, Sokoudjou Score Wins at Israel FC; Shonie Carter Might Retire After Loss (MMA Fighting)

– According to the Rumor Mill, Bellator May Be in Deep, Deep Doo-Doo (MiddleEasy)

– Jose Aldo’s Coach Turned Down Kenny Florian Fight Because It Wasn’t ‘Interesting’ (MMA Convert)

– Scott Carson Lashes Out at the ‘Keyboard Warriors’ Who Are Writing Him Off Against Herschel Walker (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Rashad Evans Explains ‘Conflicting Stories’ Are His Source of Frustration (LowKick)

– Thales Leites Back On The Winning Track At Superior Challenge 6 (FightMagazine)

– Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller Beats the Crap Out of MTV Bully (MMA Scraps)

– Urijah Faber Looking To Make a Statement at WEC 52 vs. Takeya Mizugaki (SBNation.com/MMA)

Cain Velasquez on CP24 BreakfastTV – Watch more Funny Videos

While in Toronto for a media tour Thursday, UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez made some interesting and revealing roundabout comments regarding his American Kickboxing Academy teammate Josh Koscheck’s chances against the promotion’s welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre next month when the pair meet for the second time at UFC 124 in Montreal.

"[GSP is] one of the best out there. His style of fighting is strong and I think he is going to be the champion for a long time," Velasquez told the hosts of CP24 Breakfast. "But guys are always coming after him."

In Cain’s defense, he likely didn’t think Kos would see the show considering the interview took place at 4:00 am California time and it was aired by a local station in Ontario that doesn’t broadcast to the U.S.

Or maybe he’s been watching Josh crank the heel volume up to 11 on this season of TUF and is rooting for the French Canadian to teach his brash teammate some humility.

("Fitch in February for a shot at St-Pierre? Nah, I think I’ll wait for GSP clear out the division and move up to middleweight.")

Carlos Condit may have cost himself a huge opportunity.

The UFC welterweight reveals that he turned down a Super Bowl weekend fight with perennial number one contender Jon Fitch at UFC 126. Instead, Fitch will face Jake Ellenberger and the winner of the bout will wait patiently until the end of the year to face the winner of the winner of the Josh Koscheck-Georges St-Pierre UFC 124 showdown and a subsequent Jake Shields match-up in the spring.

Simply put, he’s giving up an opportunity to fight teammate Georges St-Pierre for the belt in late 2011.

Condit told MMAJunkie that the timing wasn’t right for the fight.

"It just didn’t work out as far as timing went," he told MMAjunkie. "I didn’t think I was going to be able to get a long enough camp in for Fitch for the time period that they were wanting me to fight."

(If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t trying…)

The problem with GSP picking favorable matchups all season is that he’s eventually going to be stuck with one that isn’t so favorable. For the last match in the round-of-14, his #7 draft Dane Sayers will automatically be fed to Sako "Psycho" Chivitchian, a crazy Armenian with world-class judo skills. St. Pierre says he wanted Dane to fight last so they’d have more time to work with him. A few weeks might not be enough; Sayers snuck through the elimination round thanks to his heart, but didn’t show a whole lot of skills.

Two lucky losers will soon be getting picked for the wild card fight, and everybody’s jockeying for it, except for Spencer Paige, who’s out of action for three months with a broken hand. Bummer, brah. Aaron Wilkinson is all banged up from his war with Michael Johnson, but he still wants it, and he’s clearly the most deserving. Wilkinson doesn’t think Jeff "Waster" Lentz should get a second chance, since he’s just been sitting around drinking and chewing tobacco. Jeff vows to piss on Aaron’s bed.

Our hero J.C. Skarbowsky returns to advise Dane, "Good is not enough, you have to be perfect." Everybody is calling Dane "Red Horse" this episode. Red Horse is his Indian name; he’s part Blackfoot and Chippewa. (On his mother’s side, we would assume.) Says Skarbowsky: "Koscheck’s not from the States, [Dane's] from the States. Koscheck needs your permission to come here."

(The Stevens vs. McKenzie "fight," if you can call it that. Props: TheMMAResource)

Still giddy from his squad’s first victory, Josh Koscheck starts picking on Team GSP’s Michael Johnson, telling him he looks heavy, he gassed out in his fight against Aaron Wilkinson, and he would have lost if not for that beast-like surge at the end. Kos’s entire team is equally assholish, continuing their celebration into the night, screaming in the house like complete jackasses. Koscheck shows up with burgers and Johnson asks him why he has to be such a dick. Josh denies he’s a dick; he just loves yellow. You can’t really fault a man for that.

Koscheck also loves being in the power-position for the first time in the season. He finally has control of the matchups, and during a team discussion, the idea of Marc Stevens (his #1 pick) vs. Cody McKenzie (GSP’s #6 pick) is floated. They figure that as long as they stay away from Cody’s famous guillotine choke, it’s a good matchup for them. Since this is one of those two-fight episodes, we know that whatever happens, it’s not gonna last long.

Kos announces Stevens vs. McKenzie as his match selection, and the two lightweights face off for the first time. "You don’t have to puff your chest out like that," Stevens says to McKenzie. "Exhale…it’s not very friendly." Cody mean-mugs Stevens, but then grins and chin-checks Koscheck again before walking off, just like he did last episode. Koscheck has to be reminded that this should piss him off. "Cut his fingers off the next time he does that to you," Sako says. "We can’t even understand you," Cody deadpans to the Armenian. It’s personal now. Yellow doesn’t like Cody McKenzie, no sir.

(Hick-Jitsu is no match for Drunken French Muay Thai.)

Alex Caceres has gone full heel. For some reason, he decides to put bleach in Nam Phan‘s fabric softener. Michael Johnson borrows it to do a load of delicates, and freaks out when he learns the truth. "Why would you run the risk of fuckin’ up someone’s whole wardrobe like that?" he asks. Caceres explains that it was meant for Nam, which begs the question — what the hell did Nam Phan ever do to you, bro? "I got a love/hate personality," Caceres says later. "That’s why I don’t have many friends." 

As Team GSP rides to practice, Cody McKenzie spits dip-juice into an empty Red Bull can. It’s the most country thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

GSP brings in another special guest for his guys. Very special. Jean Charles Skarbowsky is a French kickboxing savant who sleeps three hours a night and gets drunk before every practice. Georges advises the guys that if you respect him, he’ll respect you; if you go hard to prove a point, he’ll kill you. "Please be careful, he had a long ride from Paris to get here," GSP says. Hmm, he doesn’t look like much. But there he is, tossing around the entire team and dropping everybody with liver shots. "You cannot have the same lifestyle as Jean Charles and be an MMA fighter. In Thailand they smoke and drink and fight every day." And let’s not even get into the transsexual thing…

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMANews.com)

If Jon Fitch has any clout left with the UFC since being fired and re-hired by the organization because of a dispute over signing over his likeness rights to the UFC Undisputed video game franchise, the American Kickboxing Academy fighter may get the winner of the UFC 121 welterweight tilt between Martin Kampmann and Jake Shields.

"The next time a title shot is coming around is probably going to be a while, so I’m kinda thinking I might wanna fight again before the title shot. The winner of Kampmann-Shields would be a perfect match-up. I’ve known Jake [Shields] for a long time. He’s a good friend of mine. I’m all about fighting the best guys in the world and we’ve known for a long time that this day would probably come where we’d have to fight. So be it."

If you recall, Fitch was supposed to get next dibs at the winner of the UFC 124 Kos-GSP showdown, but after his lacklustre win over Thiago Alves at UFC 117, Dana White reneged on giving him the next title shot, saying, "We’ll see," when pressed about it at the post-fight press conference.

(…Only I didn’t say "fudge." I said the word. The big one. The queen mother of dirty words. The f-dash-dash-dash word…) 

Team GSP is basking in Michael Johnson’s victory, and Mike Tyson is in a reflective mood. Iron Mike says the fight game is about who’s smarter. "Confidence breeds success, and success breeds confidence…confidence applied properly surpasses genius." Also, how you conduct yourself in the cage reflects on how you conduct yourself in life. Between him, Greg Jackson, and John Danaher, the team is stacked with philosophers.

After two losses, Team Koscheck is fired up to get revenge on Team GSP. "The harder you work now, the later you get rewarded," Josh Koscheck says, probably meaning to say "the more you get rewarded later." He also pronounces "especially" as "ekspecially" at one point. We’ll see if these Titoisms become a trend. 

During the Johnson/Wilkinson fight, Alex "Bruce Leroy" Caceres was a little too supportive in the bleachers, screaming "Beat the shit out of him! Fuck him up!" to MJ. Some of the guys don’t like how Caceres seemed to wish harm upon one of his housemates. I mean, they’re all in this together, right? They all came to the house to make friends? Anyway, the guys have a little shit-talking session about it. "That’s disrespectful, bro," says Sevak "The Armenian Stereotype" Magakian. "He’s a stupid, ignorant kid," Jeff Lentz says, bitterly.

(Crappy, TV-shot video of the Alex Caceres vs. Jeff Lentz fight, courtesy of TheMMAResource.)

After last week’s trial by fire, it’s time for the 14 UFC hopefuls to move into the house and get comfy. And boy is the new TUF house classy. The dining room has a chandelier in it and everything.

Alex "Bruce Leroy" Caceres and Jeff Lentz down some shots right away. They’re both characters. Jeff’s a chain-smoker from Jersey with a dye-job, and says he’ll never tap, not even to an armbar. (Pay attention! This will be important later!) The guys are apprehensive about the cigs and booze that Lentz is constantly consuming, but Jeff says he’s just playing with them, and he actually has gas for days. I mean, he’s clearly a nicotine addict and probably has a drinking problem on top of that, but it’s all just a persona, y’know? As for Alex, he can play the harmonica, he once killed a gator with his bare hands, and he nearly murdered a deer, too. But as they say, man is the most dangerous game.

In advance of the team selections, Coach Josh Koscheck has every guy in the house ranked, 1-14. He’s got Michael Johnson at #1, Marc Stevens at #2, Sako "Psycho" Chivitchian and Sevak Magakian at 3 and 4. Koscheck loves those Armenians, bro.

Greg Jackson has been here before with Rashad Evans on TUF 10, and now he’s Georges St. Pierre‘s consigliere. He advises Georges to go after the first matchup rather than the first fighter, if possible. GSP knows that Koscheck likes Michael Johnson, so he gets an idea to try a little gamesmanship. "We’ll see if he’s smart," GSP says. Koscheck, as it turns out, is not smart.

(Video courtesy of YouTube.com/asylumchannel)

Props to our buds at Asylum.com for putting Georges St. Pierre to good use when he stopped by their offices the other day. To recap, GSP is not impressed by your work, not impressed by Matt Hughes, not impressed by Taylor Swift, and somewhat impressed with that orange. Hopefully GSP keeps the running gag going and delivers his catchphrase to every losing fighter in tomorrow night’s TUF 12 elimination round.

The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck could turn out to be very entertaining, but in general, we’re not expecting any surprises. The coaches already have their roles sorted out, and won’t be straying from them: Georges St. Pierre is the nice-guy champion who doesn’t let his opponents get under his skin, and Josh Koscheck is the trash-talking contender who gave up on being liked a long time ago. At this point, there’s no reason to think St. Pierre won’t dominate Koscheck in December like he did during their first meeting in 2007. But maybe Kos can take a page out of the Chael Sonnen playbook and force you to care about the rematch through the sheer power of his assholishness.

So anyway, here’s the first five minutes of next week’s TUF 12 premiere, courtesy of Spike. Koscheck vows to whip GSP’s fake ass. Dana White is so excited that he’s sweated through his Bruce Lee t-shirt. (Too early for gray, buddy.) It’ll be another "wild card" season — the setup that allowed finalist Kris McCray to fight five times in six weeks last season. Dana pumps up the cast with his usual arsenal of F-bombs. We meet the first two preliminary round fighters. And that’s pretty much it. No word on if any doors are destroyed this season, or if any raw fish is beaten off into. Okay, fine, maybe there will be a few surprises…

The Ultimate Fighter 12 Exclusive Promo – Watch more Sports Videos

Now that we’ve met TUF 12‘s lightweight contestants, it’s time to start building some hype for the rival coaches. SPIKE has provided CagePotato.com with this exclusive promo for The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck, in which St. Pierre and Kos face off during a pretty nasty-looking storm. Personally, we’d be huddled in a basement somewhere, but you know how these fighters are — you can’t tell them anything. TUF 12 premieres Wednesday, September 15th, at 10pm/9c, directly following UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares.

(Got a half-hour to spare? Then watch this Bloodsport-themed tribute to Georges St. Pierre’s UFC career, courtesy of lookoutawhale. Too nasty.)

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…

– The Anderson Silva flowchart everyone should print and hang on their wall (MiddleEasy)

– Options: What’s next for the winners of "Jones vs. Matyushenko"? (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Demian Maia bumped to UFC 118, will face Mario Miranda (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Dana White Talks Jones’ Future, Japanese MMA Revival, Anderson Silva’s Job Security (Versus MMA Beat)

– Roy Nelson More Impressed with dos Santos Than Carwin or Lesnar (MMA Fighting)

– Inside the Fights: The Face Melting Power of Marlon Sandro (MMA Scraps)

– UFC marketing team striking out this coming Saturday at UFC 117 (Watch Kalib Run)

– Roy Jones Jr.’s Square Ring Sues Zuffa & Roy Nelson Over Alleged Contractual Interference (MMA Convert)

– Vadim Finkelstein: Fedor Emelianenko is still the best Pound for Pound fighter in the World (LowKick)

– Brian Stann discusses his successful middleweight debut, and fighting in front of "thousands of our heroes." (FIGHT! Magazine)

(Props: V4YDEN via MMA Scraps)

October 2002, Montreal. With first-round stoppages against Ivan Menjivar and Justin Bruckmann under his belt, Georges St. Pierre (2-0) was already the welterweight champion of the Canada-based Universal Combat Challenge when he stepped into the ring against Edmonton native Travis Galbraith, who was a slightly-more-seasoned 5-1 at the time. It took St. Pierre all of four seconds to score the double-leg takedown — Rush was already a natural at age 21 — and aside from an armlock attempt, Galbraith didn’t have much to offer on the ground.

The real reason to check out this fight if you’ve never seen it before is the unique finish, which starts around 3:23. With Galbriath’s arms locked around GSP’s arm and neck, St. Pierre pulls up and drives Galbriath’s head against the mat a couple times. After throwing in a couple of conventional strikes, GSP goes back to the brutal short-slams until his opponent is dazed and the ref stops the fight. After two more wins in Canada, St. Pierre earned his ticket to the UFC. And hopefully we’ll see this finishing move again someday…