(Anyone else want to negotiate?)

It’s looking like current Bellator middleweight champion and world renowned can-crusher Hector Lombard may finally get his chance to make waves in the UFC. Yes, it seems the man who has vowed to “take Anderson Silva’s head off” was recently offered a contract with the UFC in light of his dispute-ridden contract with Bellator expiring earlier this month. The Cuban-born knockout artist has been out of action since steamrolling Trevor Prangley in the second round of their catchweight non-title affair back in November of 2011, and has still yet to grant season five middleweight tournament winner Alexander Shlemenko his much deserved rematch. We can likely call that one a wash at this point.

And although that sucks for Shlemenko, we’ve got to admit that we’d much rather see “Lightning” in the UFC. If you recall, Lombard was supposed to make his promotional debut way back at UFC 78 in November of 2007 against Karo Parisyan, but Visa issues forced him to withdraw after he was denied entry into the country. He was eventually replaced by Ryo Chonan, who couldn’t handle “The Heat” and was defeated by unanimous decision.

Five years and countless corpses of MMA journeyman later, we may finally see Lombard live up to his potential.

But before we start setting ourselves up for disappointment, we (and the UFC) are awaiting a move from the Bellator brass, who still have an opportunity to match the UFC’s offer. Bellator CEO told Sherdog that a “strategic decision” would determine Lombard’s future with the company, but that they wouldn’t even begin deliberation until after this weekend’s Bellator 66 event:

We’ve received the final proposed UFC agreement from Hector’s attorney, and right now we are in the process of reviewing it to determine whether we’re going to match the agreement. We’ve got the 60 pages of UFC contract that were forwarded to us by Hector’s counsel.

Out of respect for Hector, I think we will turn [the UFC contract] around very quickly. Obviously, we have a huge event coming up Friday. As soon as that is over, we will sit down with our partners and go through the UFC contract line-for-line and make a strategic decision whether we’re going to match it or pass. [If we pass, we will] wish him the best and let him go knock out everybody in the UFC.

Check out more from the interview after the jump.

(Sapp’s most recent effort attempt ”showing” against James Thompson. How do you know it’s a Bob Sapp joint? Because the introductions are twice as long as the fight.) 

In the difficult economic times that we are currently experiencing, Bob Sapp’s continual ability to stay employed as a “fighter” is nothing short of inspiring. And by inspiring, we mean infuriating. The man has fought nine times in the past three years, totaling just over fifteen minutes of ring time. There is not a doubt in any of our minds that the time he spent training for those fights was less than half of that. He has lost all but one of those contests, and word has it that the one man he defeated committed Sepukku shortly thereafter. Yet he continues to get work. He lost his last fight by submission due to (fake) leg injury, and tapped out to approximately two punches thrown by a BJJ expert in the fight before that. Yet he continues to get work.

Perhaps it is a sign, like the popularity of Jersey Shore or Nicki Minaj, that our culture has truly done a 180 in terms of what we consider worthy of our attention. Where in days past, it was a person’s abilities that brought them into the public eye, it seems now more than ever that we as a society are fixated with people who lack any discernable talent whatsoever.

Bob Sapp is living, breathing proof of this phenomenon.

Thankfully, it looks as if Sapp may finally be forced to take on a fighter who could make him reconsider his line of work altogether; someone who could possibly knock Sapp out cold before he gets the chance to call it quits. That man is none other than UFC veteran Soa Palelei, who is scheduled to take on Sapp at Cage Fighting Championships 21 on April 20th.

If there is a God, he will not allow Bob Sapp to walk away from this fight completely intact.

(Props, as always, go to our buddies over at IronForgesIron.) 

There are two kinds of fighters in this world; those who take their sweet time in between fights, either to mend their wounds or simply because everyone is afraid to fight them, and then there are those like Alexander Shlemenko, who, after handling Vitor Vianna just a month ago at Bellator Fighting Championships 57 and earning a rematch with Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard, decided not to wait around for our puny brained American system to determine a rematch date. Instead, Alex risked life and limb to take on UFC vet Julio Paulino last night in Mother Russia under possibly the longest named promotion of all time, Far Eastern Federation of Modern Pankration, the result of which we can only spoil if you join us after the jump…

We’d tell you how we can do this to that poor girl, but it’s already been asked.

We’re back with yet another installment of Ask the Potato. You know the drill by now. You ask us somewhat serious questions. We give you bitter, sarcastic responses. Those Black Friday discounts we got yesterday have us feeling pretty stoked, so we’re not going to be nearly as facetious as usual. Sarcasm? Only one way to find out…

RSparrow asks: Who’s the black guy that’s always at the weigh ins? Like some kinda hype man, wtf?

(Video: Youtube/BellatorMMA)

The UFC may be the brand name of MMA, but it doesn’t have exclusive rights to action packed bouts. While the UFC 139 pay-per-view was just getting warmed up, the evening’s “other” war and ‘fight of the year’ candidate was breaking out on MTV 2. If you didn’t catch it, I suggest you watch it in full up above.

Season 4 Lightweight Tournament winner Michael Chandler was all over Eddie Alvarez from the opening bell, driving forward and swinging for the fences. Within the first fifteen seconds he had dropped the champion twice and was only moments away from snatching the belt, but once again Alvarez proved difficult to put away. Chandler’s pressure wilted halfway through the second frame, allowing Alvarez to steal the round with a series of effective combinations. By round three Chandler’s fatigue was visible and the champ pounced, battering him across the cage. Though tired and hurt, Chandler continued to look for the big shot that would take Alvarez out. Answering the bell in the fourth, Chandler looked renewed and eager to throw. His hands found their mark, wobbling Alvarez before a big right hand dropped him. Chandler followed him down and mounted him, locking in the rear naked choke as Alvarez turned his back.

(The Bellator catchweight champ will be looking to extend his unbeaten streak to 25 fights with a win over Prangley.)

Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that its current middleweight champion, Hector Lombard (32-1-1, 1 NC) will square off with UFC and Strikeforce vet Trevor Prangley (23-8-1) in a non-title catchweight affair at Bellator 58 on November 19 at the  Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fl.

I guess talks with Babalu went South for the time being.

The bout, which will be contested at 195 lbs for unknown reasons will be the second non-title bout in a row for Lombard, who won the Bellator strap in June 2009 and has only defended it once since, when he defeated Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 34 last October.

(“Publicity stunt, you say? What’s that?”)

Apparently Renato “Babalu” Sobral is a free agent. Otherwise, Bellator wouldn’t be talking to the former UFC light heavyweight contender about possibly facing its middleweight champ, Hector Lombard.

According to Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, his promotion has been involved in talks with Sobral’s camp to sign the 36-9  submission specialist for a non-title bout with Lombard (30-2-1, 1 NC) at Bellator 58 on November 19, but nothing is set in stone. Strangely, the promoter still announced that the bout was in the works, which could simply be a tactic to pressure Babalu, who has only fought twice in the past two years, into signing on the dotted line.

“I’ve been a big ‘Babalu’ fan for a lot of years,” Rebney told MMAJunkie. “They weren’t really on our radar, but then they reached out to us and opened the door and asked for a few things. We agreed to all of them. … But now we’re siting back and waiting. We haven’t heard anything back from them in three or four days.”

We know Hector, Anderson’s voice is nothing short of heavenly.

For all the crap the UFC has gotten for their purchase of Strikeforce back in March, this week’s events have surely helped prove that a small, upstart promotion, though unable to compete with the UFC, can still put on a successful show. On Saturday, the second installment of the Australian Fighting Championships went down. Despite the fact that that the card was full of relatively unknown fighters, it managed to be incredibly entertaining none the less.

The main event featured a couple of familiar faces in Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard and TUF 7 finalist Jesse Taylor. Though the fight did not end via Lombard’s typically brutal KO, it saw the Cuban-born Aussie fend off most of “JT Money’s” takedowns in the first round and answer with a brutal onslaught of elbows. The end came shortly into the second round. On a reversal of a Taylor single leg, Lombard secured a heel hook, forcing the TUF alum to tap and halting his five fight win streak. When asked the inevitable question regarding Anderson Silva in his post fight interview, Lombard was rather frank about how the fight would go down. “I wouldn’t be frightened of him,” he stated, “I would go in there to take the head off.” Reports have yet to confirm whether or not Lombard has been spending time at the Frank Mir School of Trash Talk.

But Lombard’s finish was not even the most impressive heel hook of the night, which went to Polish up and comer Marcin Held. Held managed to pull off a spinning inside heel hook on Hawaiian Kaleo Kwan within the opening minute of the fight. Also on the card, former UFC and Pride heavyweight Soa Palelei scored a quick knockout of Son Hai Suk just 28 seconds into the bout. Palelei is perhaps best known for his epic brawl with Eddie Sanches back at UFC 79, which he has gone 4-1 since.

Full results–and a video from the fight–are after the jump.

(All in favor of seeing Anderson attempt to improve his moneyweight record, say ‘I.’”)

Since Anderson Silva has effectively cleared out the UFC’s middleweight division and will likely eventually start a string of rematches against the likes of Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort and Dan Henderson, we figured why not come up with a list of fights he could take in the interim that stoke the fires of fans.

Check them out, in no particular order after the jump.

Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson went down 3 years ago.

Why it matters:

• Bobby Southworth retained his Strikeforce light heavyweight strap by defeating Anthony Ruiz via unanimous decision. Ruiz beat B-South in their previous bout the previous november, but it wasn’t a title fight. Neither was Southworth’s fight that September against Bill Mahood at the Playboy mansion. It didn’t matter though since he won that fight by verbal submission when Mahood (who later tested positive for steroids) injured his ribs. Southworth, who held the strap longer than any other fighter would lose the belt in his next fight with Renato Sobral. Since then, it has changed hands four times.

• Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez (who won the title by defeating then-champion Clay Guida) lost his title to Strikeforce U.S. lightweight champion Josh Thompson in his second title defense via unanimous decision. After defending the newly-unified title once, Thomson would lose the belt in the rematch the following April. Melendez hasn’t lost since.

• Strikeforce women’s welterweight tournament winner Miesha Tate made her promotional debut.

(Legal Disclaimer: Actual Bud Light contest winners will not be nearly as attractive as the people featured in this commercial. Props: officialbudlight)

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…

- Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza to Defend Strikeforce Title Against Luke Rockhold (5thRound)

- UFC 131 Tickets ‘Cannibalized’ by Vancouver Canucks NHL Finals Run and More (MMA Mania)

- Shane Carwin on Dos Santos: I’m Going to Knock Him Out or Tap Him Out and Feel No Remorse For It (LowKick)

- UFC 131 ‘Dos Santos vs. Carwin’ Pre-Fight Interview: Kenny Florian (MMA Convert)

- The 13 Strangest Fighting Styles to Ever Grace UFC’s Octagon (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Five Lessons: ‘TUF 13′ (NBC Sports MMA)

- Downes, Cope, and Kingsbury Top TUF 13 Finale Medical Suspensions (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Fight Journal: ‘Mayhem’ Miller Edition (MMA Fighting)

- Now You Can Watch Hector Lombard Give Joe Doerksen a Harry Potter Scar (MiddleEasy)

- “Combate Extremo” CEO Michael Shoffner talks about MMA in Mexico (TheFightNerd)

(The UFC Fighter Summit has a storybook ending. Congrats, Janitor.)

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…

- BJ Penn and Jake Shields Want to Fight Each Other (LowKick)

- Shane Carwin’s Cardio Under Microscope at UFC 131 (NBC Sports MMA)

- Rashad Evans Explains His Nightclub Altercation With Jon Jones; Insists ‘Bones’ Ducked Him (MMA Mania)

- Mac Danzig Out of Next Month’s Anticipated Clash With Donald Cerrone, Vagner Rocha to Replace (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Matt Mitrione: If Ortiz Is Still Upset After Confrontation, ‘Then We Can Scrap’ (MMA Fighting)

- Your Favorite Hooters Girl to Serve Ring Cards at ‘UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber II’ (5thRound)

- This Will Be the Strangest Seven-Second Knockout You Will See This Year (MiddleEasy)

- Mark Coleman ‘Would Drop Everything’ To Fight Herschel Walker (MMA Convert)

- Video: Hector Lombard Gets Pissed at Reporter After Bellator 44 (TheFightNerd)

- Going Medieval: MMA’s 20 Worst Beatdowns (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

(Props: BellatorMMA)

Unfortunately, ReX was unable to provide us with one of his famous Bellator reports this week, so you’ll have to settle for this quick-n-dirty recap of Bellator 44, which went down Saturday night in Atlantic City. First, we’ll direct you to the video above: Hector Lombard earned his 18th-straight victory (!) in a non-title bout against Falaniko Vitale, crushing Niko to the mat with a right hook in the third frame after a surprisingly dull first two rounds. Lombard’s latest performance follows such previous classics as “Six Second Prison Rape” and “A Corpse Named ‘Whisper’.”

Headlining the card, Xtreme Couture’s Michael Chandler scored an upset decision win over the highly-touted Patricky Freire in the Season Four Lightweight Tournament final, outworking the Pitbull in all three rounds; Chandler was docked a point in the third for groin-kicks. The victory netted him a $100,00 check and a future shot at Eddie Alvarez’s belt. In non-tournament action, Alexander Shlemenko spun circles around Brett Cooper, picking up his own UD victory, while Giedrius Karavackas battled back from an early ass-kicking to submit Sam Oropeza by scarf-hold armlock. Full results and video of the Karavackas/Oropeza stoppage are after the jump.

(Props: sxboxer)

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…

- Chael Sonnen’s Court Sentencing Postponed, Further Delaying UFC Return (MMA Fighting)

- UFC Fight Night 24 Results: 10 Best Moments From Nogueira vs. Davis Fight Card (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Brock Lesnar on ‘SportsCenter’: Look Out Junior, Here I Come (5thRound)

- Watch Every Fedor Emelianenko Action Scene From ‘The Salamander Key’ (MiddleEasy)

- Michael Bisping Labels Nate Marquardt as a “Steroid Cheat” and “Absolute Hypocrite” (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Submissions in the UFC: A Fond Look Back (MMA Convert)

- Mirko Cro Cop: A Career Retrospective (LowKick)

- Roufusport Voted America’s Top MMA Gym (Versus MMA Beat)

- Hector Lombard Scalps Joe Doerksen To Retain Title Belt at CFC 16 (Fight Magazine)

- Junior Dos Santos has Rock Climbing Skills (MMA-Scraps)

Rather than sit out for seven months waiting for his May 14 non-title bout against Falaniko Vitale, Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard will look to defend his other strap later this month in Australia. The highly-touted 27-2 middleweight fighter, will defend his Cage Fighting Championship 185-pound title against UFC and WEC veteran Joe Doerksen Down Under at CFC 16 at Big Top Luna Park in Sydney March 25.

Born in Cuba, Lombard resided in Australia for several years after defecting from the communist country following the 2000 Sydney Olympics. 20 of his 27 wins have come by finish including his record-setting six-second knockout of Jay Silva that earned him the fastest KO in Bellator history. The ATT-trained fighter has not lost since 2006 when he dropped a unanimous decision to Gegard Mousasi at PRIDE Bushido 13 and has never lost a fight in Australia. The closest he came was a draw to Kyle Noke in the inaugural CFC show in 2007. Soon after the fight with Noke, Lombard, who was then a welterweight, was signed by the UFC and was slated to take on Karo Parisyan at UFC 78. Visa issues forced Lombard off the card and prompted the UFC to tear up his contract.

(“I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen.” Pic: ESPN)

During the four years, four months and 16 days that Anderson Silva has had the middleweight title on lockdown, the UFC’s light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions have combined to produce 10 different champions. Think of it this way: Silva won the title by pulverizing Rich Franklin at freakin’ UFC 64, the same event where Sean Sherk defeated Kenny Florian to become the first lightweight champion since 2003. It was also just a few months after Michael Bisping defeated Josh Haynes to win season three of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Kinda seems like a lot has happened since then, huh?

Well, not at middleweight. Middleweight has been a rock – an unchanging, unshakable rock that sometimes seems so maddeningly bored with its own immovability that it just sits there and stares at its opponents for five tedious rounds. Silva’s dominance has been so thorough that it alone kind of makes ranking MMA’s top five 185-pounders an exercise in futility. Half the guys in the Top 10 have already been defeated by the current champ and lot of the other guys either don’t seem worthy or fight in other organizations. Still, we ranked ’em. Why? Because they were there, son, because they were there …

(Eddie Jackson shows you how to end a fight with one punch. Props: MadeMan.com)

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…

- Does Jon Fitch really need the UFC Welterweight Title to be considered an MMA legend? (LowKick)

- Siver Seeks to Spoil Sotiropoulos’ Contender Status at UFC 127 (Versus MMA Beat)

- Aussie Gold: The Top MMA Fighters Down Under (FightMagazine)

- Former Power Ranger Gets Into a Backstage Fight at an MMA Event (MiddleEasy)

- Black House Has a YouTube Channel and It’s Great (MMA-Scraps)

- Cain Velasquez Offers Simple Solution to Great Heavyweight Debate (5thRound)

- Hector Lombard Likely Facing Niko Vitale in Non-Title Bout at Bellator 44 (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Now Jorge Santiago Says He Signed With The UFC, Meets Brian Stann At UFC 130 (MMA Convert)

- Karlos Vemola Out of UFC 128, Luiz Cane In Need of New Opponent (MMA Fighting)

Some highlights from Thursday’s Bellator season finale at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, courtesy of John Sluder.

Part 1, below: Hector Lombard def. Alexander Shlemenko via unanimous decision.
Continue to Bellator 34 photo gallery pt. 2 (Frausto vs. Fujii)
Continue to Bellator 34 photo gallery pt. 3 (The best of the rest)

(Hector Lombard takes Alexander Shlemenko way out of his game, and Zoila Frausto doesn’t look like a woman who just won a fight. Photos courtesy of our own John Sluder. Full gallery coming soon!)

By ReX “Unnecessary Literary Reference” Richardson

Bellator Fighting Championships slouched toward Bethlehem last night, returning to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida for the last show of the third season. Anticipation for this last show has been running high, and Bellator held back some exciting fighters for the finale, trying to put some asses in the seats. The women’s featherweight tournament concluded with monster featherweight Zoila Frausto versus undefeated phenom Megumi Fujii, and middleweight champ Hector Lombard putting his title on the line against eternal scrapper Alexander Shlemenko. Also on the broadcast was Serbian next big thing Dragan Tesanovic — who brought an undefeated record from the European circuit for his first fight in the US — as well as King of the Cage moneyweight Tony Lopez arriving in Bellator, presumably hoping they’ll establish a light heavyweight title for him to collect.

I’m not gonna lie to you: I wish the season had ended last week. Only three fights made the broadcast because decisions were the order of the night. Make that controversial decisions, since fans were already debating what kind of drugs the judges were on before the televised event was finished. Come on in past the jump, and I’ll recap the action for you and possibly bitch about judging a bit. I’m not even going to tease you with anything this time, because that’s just the kind of guy I am.

(Video courtesy YouTube/FightHubTV)

At last week’s Bellator show, middleweight Hector Lombard raised a few eyebrows when he said he wanted to face recently-signed Strikeforce heavyweight Josh Barnett in his next bout.

It turns out that the pair have a beef between them that can be traced back to a particular sparring session in 2008.

According to Lombard’s former and Barnett’s current trainer from Combat Submission Wrestling, Erik Paulson, a day or two after a bloody 30-minute boxing match between the duo at the gym, "The Babyfaced Assassin" dragged Lombard into the cage and used his weight advantage to hold him on the canvas and humiliate the Cuban judoka in front of his teammates.

Paulson revealed that the incident was the reason Lombard walked away from the gym to join American Top Team and said he’s surprised that he’s still upset over it.

(Run and tell *that*, homeboy. Props: YouTube.com/BellatorMMA)

By DL “Friday the ReX13th” Richardson

Look, you know me, and you know what I’m going to say about the Bellator Fighting Championships: when it comes to MMA, they’re doing it right. Bellator does away with traditional ranking and matchmaking for their main events; they instead sign an eight-person field and let the fighters decide amongst themselves. It’s a format that appeals to fans and fighters alike, and it’s produced some exciting fights and amazing finishes. When some promotions go after a high-visibility free agent, they try to feed them impressive victories and pave the way toward championships. Bellator just drops them in the quarterfinals like everyone else. Upsets happen (see: Huerta, Roger). Cinderella stories happen (see: Curran, Pat). But it feels much more legitimate seeing champions develop organically like this while some promotions throw title fights to guys coming off of losses.

Never mind if injuries throw things off (Curran out versus Eddie Alvarez due to shoulder injury), or if those high visibility free agents get a shot at the champ anyway (Huerta in versus Alvarez, albeit in a non-title bout) or speculations that Bellator is on the verge of financial insolvency — they’re putting on good shows and the fighters are hungry. There’s entertainment in them there FSN channels.

If you’ve missed Bellator like I’ve missed Bellator (or if you’ve just missed me, for whatever reason), come along and I’ll tell you about the first event of Bellator’s third season. We’ll talk about the minor leagues of heavyweights, and the elite picture of the women’s featherweight field. Plus we might talk about how catchy that Bed Intruder Song is…

(Can Miesha Tate smash through two fighters in the same night? Photo courtesy of Strikeforce.)

Look, we could talk about Silva and Sonnen all day, but there’s new business to attend to — namely, this is a huge week for women’s MMA. Thursday marks the premiere of Bellator’s third season, which will go down at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. In addition to appearances by Hector Lombard, Eddie Sanchez, and Yves Edwards, Bellator 24 will host two opening-round fights from their 115-pound women’s tournament: Megumi Fujii against late replacement Carla Esparza, and Jessica Aguilar vs. Lynn Alvarez. 

The following night, Strikeforce Challengers comes to the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, featuring Miesha Tate, Carina Damm, Hitomi Akano, and Maiju Kujala in a one-night 135-pound tournament; first-round matchups will be determined at Thursday’s weigh-ins. If you’d like to enter some MMA FightPicker pools, please make it happen by tomorrow at fightpicker.cagepotato.com or apps.facebook.com/fightpicker. The full list of this week’s questions is after the jump…

(Hector Lombard produces the fastest K.O. in Bellator history. What, you thought Jay Silva was going to shock the world? Props: YouTube.com/BellatorMMA.)

By DL “Potential Sociopath” Richardson

Say you live in Louisiana. Not the cool part where people party their asses off every day. I’m talking about inland, where you still get the humidity, but no one dresses up before Ash Wednesday, and you can never find a place to sell you a to-go alcoholic beverage. Say you live in Monroe. What do you do for fun? Well, you could go hang out at the Pecanland Mall and hit on that cute girl at Yummy Japan, but if you have any damn sense, you catch the Bellator Fighting Championships whenever they come into town. Last night, Bellator visited the Monroe Civic Center for the semifinal round of this season’s featherweight tournament, and as usual, they put on a show. Full results and recap after the jump…

(Jay Silva and Chris Leben show off their top-of-the-food-chain striking at UFC Fight Night 20. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

By DL “It’s Latin for Warrior” Richardson

After news broke Friday that former top-10 middleweight Paulo Filho was possibly flaking out on his Bellator 18 fight against Hector Lombard, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney replied that his people were in contact with Filho’s people and everyone’s duckies were in a row. Filho’s story had been that he would not receive a visa in time to travel to the US for the event, and indicated that the problem was either with Bellator officials or his own management, but had nothing to do with him. He was actually kinda bummed about it, poor guy, telling GracieMag: “I’m really upset because I’ve been training a lot. I did everything just right; I don’t know what to say.”

Despite Bellator’s official line that everything is fine, and everyone should just be cool, like a couple of little Fonzies, rumors are circulating that Paulo will be replaced by 5-3 fellow Brazilian Jay Silva. Silva, who went 0-2 in the UFC against CB Dollaway and Chris Leben, was apparently Bellator’s backup just in case something happened. Like a volcano. Or Filho going all batshit crazy.

Bellator’s press agents were not immediately available for comment.

UPDATE, 12:48 p.m. ET: Rebney has confirmed the news. And so, Bellator 18′s "SuperFight" is downgraded to an "OkayFight." At least we still have the featherweight semis to look forward to.

(The best part of having a million dollar bill on your person at all times? No more ATM fees.)

By DL Richardson

File it under “W” for “We Knew This Shit Would Happen”: GracieMag.com is reporting that Pride standout turned crazy man Paulo Filho will not be able to compete at next week’s Bellator 18 show. Filho was scheduled to face current Bellator middleweight champ Hector Lombard in a non-title SuperFight, which was, on paper at least, an intriguing matchup — much more compelling than last night’s Alvarez-Neer spanking. Filho, who lists his turn-ons as “Pitbulls, tattoos, and tattoos of pitbulls,” told GracieMag that some kind of administrative snafu was to blame for his failure to secure a visa: “It seems the event took too long in sending out the letter I needed to present at the consulate and I’m not sure but it could be there was some kind of failure on the part of my managers. So, I won’t get my visa in time.”

Now, the Bellator guys have done a remarkable job of reacting to fighter travel problems once already this season: When the Icelandic volcano apocalypse prevented welterweight “Judo” Jim Wallhead from traveling to the US to participate in the tournament, Rebney quickly substituted Ryan Thomas, who’d lost by a controversial referee stoppage to Ben Askren. Ryan Thomas won, setting up a rematch with Askren in the semifinals. Whether they’ll be able to work similar magic this quickly remains to be seen, but if they manage to pull a good replacement out of their asses, it will rival anything Toby Imada does for “Submission of the Year.”

(Paulo could not sleep that night, as he was worried sick about what people would think about his new moustache)

Paulo Filho sat down for an interview with Tatame recently and the normally reserved  31-year-old embattled Brazilian had a lot to say about a lot of things including his May 13 Bellator match-up with Hector Lombard, his future in the sport and the MMA industry in general.

For those unfamiliar with him outside of the bizarre things he has done as of late like talking to ghosts during his fight with Chael Sonnen and tattooing his face like Mike Tyson, Filho used to be an absolute juggernaut when he fought for PRIDE and it sounds like he is trying to put a lid on some of his demons and doing what he needs to do to get things straightened out. Hopefully he can get back to form and we can see him on a bigger stage before long.

(Remember the good old days when Filho’s crazy tattoos stayed below the neck?)

Bellator sent out a press release last night announcing that troubled Brazilian fighter Paulo Filho would be emerging from his top secret compound in Crazytown to take on current Bellator middleweight champ Hector Lombard on May 13th in a non-title superfight to be televised live on Fox Sports Net. Okay, so maybe we added the part about the Crazytown compound, but this is the same guy once seen communicating with the spirit world during a fight.

Filho, who has racked up a nice little three-fight win streak of late with victories over Melvin Manhoef and Alex Schoenauer, has seemed at times like a guy on the verge of getting his act together once again, only to later erase that perception by no-showing for events or getting a tattoo on his face. But a bout with Lombard, who seems promising even though he’s yet to beat a truly notable opponent? Now that’s a really intriguing fight right there.

(An impressive win over Semerzier could earn Fabiano a shot at 0-0 featherweight prospect Spencer Pratt. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Unfortunately, not every fight can be as competitive as Tank Abbott vs. Butterbean. Two matchups came down the pipe yesterday that probably wouldn’t get approved if we were the ones holding the rubber stamps. First up…

— Wagnney Fabiano vs. Mackens Semerzier: Top-five featherweight Fabiano was originally supposed to face Erik Koch at WEC 43 (October 10th, San Antonio), and even then we were like WTF, can this guy get an opponent that’s at least near the top 20? But Koch suffered an injury in training, and coming in to replace him on two weeks notice will be Mackens Semerzier, a 28-year-old U.S. Marine and Miguel Torres student who currently has an MMA record of 3-0; two of his opponents were making their pro debuts when he faced them, and the other had a record of 1-0. In other words, this is about as big a leap in competition as theoretically possible. Could Semerzier shock the world next month? No, absolutely not — his arms are going to end up where his legs used to be. On the bright side, maybe Fabiano can finally score a quick stoppage in the WEC and start earning the fan-respect that he deserves. And speaking of top-ten fighters being given sacrificial lambs…

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

In the wake of UFC 100 — and UFC 99, the TUF 9 finale, the Bellator finals, and the last Strikeforce show — we’ve updated the heavyweight, light-heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, and pound-for-pound lists in our Power Rankings section. Some notable changes:

— Due to recent accomplishments, Georges St. Pierre supplants Fedor Emelianenko as the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Over the last two years, GSP has taken out Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, Jon Fitch, BJ Penn, and Thiago Alves. In the same time frame, Fedor has beaten Matt Lindland (middleweight), Hong Man Choi (freak), Tim Sylvia (fat slob), and Andrei Arlovski (glass chin).

— Urijah Faber and Thiago Alves fall out of the P4P top ten, while Jake Shields and Dan Henderson come in. I’d still give the #11 spot to Faber, with Gegard Mousasi directly behind him.

— Diego Sanchez, Rich Franklin, Hector Lombard, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Nick Diaz enter the rankings, either for the first time or in new weight-classes. You’re welcome, guys.

Give ‘em a look and let us know what you think.
(BG)

(Props: youtube.com/BellatorMMA)

Bellator’s inaugural season came to a close on Friday night, with the finals of their middleweight and lightweight brackets. In the 185-pound title fight, Hector Lombard used his striking and ground-and-pound to open up some nasty cuts on the head of his opponent, Jared Hess; the fight was eventually stopped in the fourth round after Hess lost a few gallons of blood. Directly after, 155-pound favorite Eddie Alvarez completed his sweep of the lightweight tourney by knocking Toby Imada out of his jock with a big right hook early in the second round, then sinking in a rear-naked choke. Lombard and Alvarez collected $100,000 checks for their efforts.

In non-tournament action, Jorge Masvidal submitted Eric Reynolds via third-round rear-naked choke, Bodog/ShoXC vet Rosi Sexton submitted Valerie Coolbaugh via first-round armbar, and Stephanie Guimaraes became Bellator’s latest YouTube star with her 49-second knee-knockout of Yvonne Reis. The Guimaraes knockout is above; highlights from the Lombard/Hess and Alvarez/Imada fights are after the jump.