(In the main event, actor Ryan Reynolds defends his belt against a 100% Asian version of Ben Henderson. Plus, Rampage Jackson faces off against a prime Wes Sims. The referee for this evening will be Dan Miragliotta.)

The UFC’s return to Japan this weekend features plenty of attractive opportunities to earn money without working for it. So where do the edges lie? How much better will the UFC’s Japanese stars look on their home turf? And should you really be betting money with tax season coming up? (Just kidding, that one was a trick question.) Complete UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson odds are below, via BestFightOdds, followed by our occasionally-helpful betting advice. Check it out, and be sure to come back to CagePotato Saturday night for our liveblog of the fights, starting with the FX prelims broadcast at 8 p.m. ET.

MAIN CARD
Frankie Edgar (-125) vs. Ben Henderson (+115)
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (-237) vs. Ryan Bader (+220)
Cheick Kongo (-270) vs. Mark Hunt (+270)
Jake Shields (-300) vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama (+269)
Yushin Okami (-331) vs. Tim Boetsch (+300)
Hatsu Hioki (-167) vs. Bart Palaszewski (+155)
Anthony Pettis (-220) vs. Joe Lauzon (+220)

PRELIMINARY CARD (FX)
Takanori Gomi (-200) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (+175)
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (-288) vs. Vaughan Lee (+275)
Riki Fukuda (-300) vs. Steve Cantwell (+258)
Takeya Mizugaki (-200) vs. Chris Cariaso (+172)

PRELIMINARY BOUT (Facebook)
Tiequan Zhang (-250) vs. Issei Tamura (+250)

(Video courtesy of Sapo/IronForgesIron)

If your cable provider doesn’t offer Fuel and you missed the UFC 144 countdown show last night, not to worry, we got you covered again.

It’s been a quiet week media-wise for the event, mostly because the majority of the fighters on the card and the few reporters planning on attending the show have been travelling to Japan. It seems like more focus of MMA news this week has been on the upcoming Strikeforce card, which is curious considering Saturday night’s event is a decent one.

Enjoy it. After this event and UFC: Alves vs. Kampmann on March 2, there won’t be another show until UFC: Sweden on April 14. That’s a six week stretch without a UFC show. At least our wives will be happy.

Anyway, this countdown show was a decent one. It’s interesting to hear guys like ‘Rampage’ and Akiyama talk about the difference between the North American and Japanese crowds, especially when it was like comparing apples to oranges between PRIDE and the UFC. Now we’ll finally get to see the disparity first hand.

I think I was most impressed with the level of respect Akiyama showed his opponent, Jake Shields, whom he praised for his skill level and fight smarts. It’s rare to see that in a pre-fight interview. He even found a way to make boring and conservative sound better by saying that Jake “isn’t explosive.” ’Sexyama’ could sell a Kia to a BMW enthusiast.

Check out part two after the jump.

(Guillard is relishing the opportunity to bounce back from his disappointing loss to Joe Lauzon by beating Jim Miller Saturday night.)

We caught up with Melvin Guillard last month in Toronto at the MMA Expo and we had the opportunity to speak with “The Young Assassin” about a variety of topics, including his insane amount of fights, his loss to Joe Lauzon and his upcoming fight this weekend against Jim Miller at UFC on FX 1.

As always, Melvin had a lot to say, but it’s obvious that he has become a much more mature and humble fighter the past few years thanks to the support of his former coaches and teammates at Jackson’s MMA. The newest member of Imperial Athletics’ “Blackzilian” team is confident that he’ll one day be the UFC lightweight champ and he foresees himself being a coach on one of the upcoming seasons of The Ultimate Fighter.

Check out the video interview after the jump.

(Props to ShockBlastMedia for the vid. KO comes at 1:36) 

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Dan Lauzon; his last run in the UFC saw him get Toby-Imada’d by Cole Miller and outpointed in a snoozefest by TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero. All of this came amidst a falling out with his older brother, UFC lightweight contender Joe Lauzon, who spoke out about Dan’s lack of motivation and desire to train. Well, it seems that Dan has finally begun to heed the advice of his big bro, because he’s rattled off four consecutive wins, all by stoppage, since being released by Zuffa over a year ago. Or, it could just be that he’s fighting people way, way below his level, as is the case in the above video.

 
(A classic battle of style vs. SUBstance.)

Fresh off his upset Submission of the Night victory over Melvin Guillard at UFC 136, Joe Lauzon was quick to respond when called out by former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, who scored a decision victory over Jeremy Stephens at the same event. Well it looks like “Showtime” will be getting his wish, as the two have been booked to lock horns at UFC 144, in what could easily be a Fight of the Night match-up. Prior to their 136 victories, Lauzon scored a quick and nasty kimura victory over Kurt Warburton at UFC Live 4 whereas Pettis was wrestlefucked into oblivion by Clay Guida at the TUF 13 Finale in June. This is the point where I’d normally say that a victory here would rocket either man near the top of the lightweight ladder, but considering that the division is currently more crowded than a So-Cal Quinceanera, let’s just say that a victory here will keep either man…from losing.

(Yeah…whatever happened to that guy, anyway?)

Carlos Condit is going to have to re-earn his title shot the hard way. After his slated fight against George St. Pierre went up in smoke as quickly as it was handed to him, Condit is now likely to return at UFC 143: St. Pierre vs. Diaz (February 4th, Las Vegas) against perennial welterweight contender Josh Koscheck. UFC president Dana White discussed the matchup at the Leben vs. Munoz post-event press conference:

“Right now, Carlos wants to fight. He wants to fight on the same card as GSP and Diaz, so we’ll see what happens. Koscheck has been offered (the fight).”

Dana White’s video blogs, though sporadic, have taken an increasingly interesting turn in that they are now largely made up of post-fight footage from UFC events rather than the day-to-day extravagance that is “The Baldfather’s” life. As with his UFC 136 vlog, Dana gives us a brief introduction and wishes us a happy Halloween before throwing us behind the scenes of UFC 136 to witness the agony of defeat firsthand.

Particularly tough to watch is that of Melvin Guillard, who, after having his lightweight title aspirations choked out of him by Joe Lauzon, completely loses his shit backstage, throwing a chair across the room before breaking down on his hands and knees as the doctor’s try to attend to him. Even Joe Warren had to look away.

Join us after the jump for some other musings from this week’s vlog:

(If Jesse Ventura ever sees this, someone out there is going to get sued. / Props to MMAFighting.)  

As a long time UFC fan, I’ve recently noticed that their marketing team has seemingly taken a break from using corny phrases to label their events. In fact, the last UFC pay-per-view to not be named after the fighters in the main event was back at UFC 125: Resolution, which featured the eventual draw between, you guessed it, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. You just don’t see that kind of irony everyday.

UFC 136 was actually able to provide us with closure, however — more closure in fact than any card in quite a while. Not only did Edgar vindicate himself in triumphant fashion, but Jose Aldo proved to many of his critics that his gas tank is not an issue, Kenny Florian proved that he will never, ever, win a title fight, and Chael Sonnen proved that ring rust is for the weak. But now, we look to the future, and more importantly, try to predict it for the weekend’s big winners. So if you think our future match-ups are garbage, be sure to let us know in the comments section below.

(Punch-face: Where ‘herp’ meets ‘derp’. Photo via Cagewriter.)

Of the 11 bouts hosted at UFC 136, eight went to the judges — which made the other three seem even more special by comparison. In case you missed ‘em on Saturday, take a look back at the two dramatic submissions and one classic knockout from “Edgar vs. Maynard III.”

GIFs are after the jump, via IronForgesIron.

(Stock-trader vs. Wall Street protester — who ya got? Photo via MMA Mania)

Want to make some real money this weekend? Then come over to my place on Saturday afternoon and be prepared to clean some toilets. Want to make some hypothetical, for-entertainment-purposes-only money this weekend? Then check out the latest UFC 136 betting lines (via BestFightOdds) and read our gambling advice after the jump.

PPV Main Card
Frankie Edgar (-125) vs. Gray Maynard (+120)
Jose Aldo (-320) vs. Kenny Florian (+301)
Chael Sonnen (-255) vs. Brian Stann (+227)
Nam Phan (-210) vs. Leonard Garcia (+208)
Melvin Guillard (-312) vs. Joe Lauzon (+310)

Spike TV Prelims
Demian Maia (-275) vs. Jorge Santiago (+245)
Anthony Pettis (-277) vs. Jeremy Stephens (+250)

Facebook Prelims
Joey Beltran (+190) vs. Stipe Miocic (-210)
Tiequan Zhang (-120) vs. Darren Elkins (+115)
Aaron Simpson (-313) vs. Eric Schafer (+300)
Steve Cantwell (-135) vs. Mike Massenzio (+130)

We’ll begin…at the beginning:

You know, if everyone stopped hating on Eddie Bravo and Joe Hogan for their personal beliefs related to “the heefer,” they might be able to learn a thing or two when it comes to Jiu-Jistu. But here at Cagepotato, we are all about putting judgments aside for the sake of the sport. In the above video, Bravo demonstrates a beautiful bait-and-switch submission on Joanne of MMAGirls.net, and though he may not be up to par on his English (it’s sunk, Eddie) there is no denying the man’s abilities to pull off some brilliant transitions on the ground.

“Me? Fight at 145? Sure thing, chief. I’ll get right on that.”

In keeping with the mantra “everything’s bigger in Texas”, Zuffa announced last night that the increasingly awesome card for UFC 136 has just gotten awesomer. In addition to the Lightweight Championship do-over between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, Jose Aldo will be putting his gold on the line against Featherweight newcomer Kenny Florian on October 8^th.

After a shaky first bid at 145lbs that saw Florian score a decision victory over Diego Nunes, some wise souls had recommended one more warm-up bout for KenFlo before he challenge for the belt, but the fates had other plans. A title defense against Chad Mendes was scrapped so Aldo could nurse lingering injuries, and rather than ‘Rashad’ himself on the shelf Mendes opted to take another bout in the meantime. Now recovered, Aldo will look to redeem himself from the sluggish, illness-inspired decision beatdown he put on Homminick with a return to violent form.

Another exciting addition to the card is after the jump.

If you missed Keyboard Warriors Monday, hey thanks. Nice to know someone actually appreciates all I do to entertain you jerkfaces. For the rest of you: hey guess what i did?

Yup, prepare yourselves for KBW #3! In the aftermath of the weekend’s Strikeforce action, Dana takes the time to address the heavyweights, evaluate their performances, and fill them in on his short terms plans. And his long term plans. Say what you will, but Big Daddy White dreams big, son.

If you are interested in 100% made up conversations between characters that are mostly fabrications, come on in and enjoy. Feel free to comment your little hands off. If you don’t like comedy … well, i’ve got nothing for you.

Why do you keep coming here again?

As always, thanks to Christopher and those jokers at WithLeather.

[RX]

Happy Monday, Nation. We hope you had a good weekend. No, really, we hope you’re in a good mood, since we’re presenting the second installment of Keyboard Warrior. Hopefully everyone had naked funtime last night, slept like a baby, and had a great breakfast this morning. Otherwise, we imagine there will be lots of very not-nice things in the comments.

We’ve changed up the appearance of KBW, making it look more like a typical MMA forum, complete with the kind of critical information any Keyboard Warrior should have for important discussion, like join date and number of posts. Maybe now it won’t seem like we’re blatantly ripping off other peoples’ ideas.

You can read the first episode here (all two pages of it), check out number two, and then you’re welcome to leave suggestions, ideas, and odes to our greatness below.

Thanks again to WithLeather and @MrBrandonStroud for letting us blatantly rip off their ideas.

[RX]

(And if they touch chins? Forget it, bro. Total chaos.)

Despite an official 4-0 record in the Octagon, TUF 10 vet Matt Mitrione won’t be getting a big step up for his next bout. The UFC confirmed yesterday that ‘Meathead’ will be taking on fellow heavyweight Christian Morecraft at UFC on Versus 4 (June 26th, Pittsburgh). Morecraft tasted victory last month with a technical submission over Sean McCorkle, but was knocked out by Stefan Struve in his UFC debut last August. Mitrione last competed at ‘Fight for the Troops 2′ in Janaury, where he scored a first-round TKO over Tim Hague, but injured his left hand during the fight.

Also announced for the UFC on Versus 4 card was the return of Joe Lauzon, who will be trying to bounce back from his kimura loss to George Sotiropoulos at UFC 123. J-Lau will face British lightweight prospect Curt Warburton, who recently outpointed Maciej Jewtuszko at UFC 127, following a decision loss to Spencer Fisher in his debut. The current list of matchups for the UFC’s first trip to Pittsburgh is after the jump…

(Video courtesy of YouTube/WoodysGamerTag)

The Internet would be clogged up with a lot less bullshit if commenters and trolls had to eventually meet the guys they talk trash about, especially if the subject of their vitriol were a professional fighter.

The dude above is lucky that he called out Joe Lauzon and not Josh Koscheck, or he might be in a bit more pain. Koscheck once posted a message on his MS page that if anyone talking smack about his fighting prowess wanted to see how good he was, they could come into his American Kickboxing Academy satellite gym and find out.

Here’s a video of a guy who thought he could take the UFC welterweight.

Josh Koscheck Fights a Fan by BaDaBooM80

Kos and J-Lau aren’t the only guys who have answered an Internet challenge.

(Not a good day for the brothers Lauzon.)

UFC vet Dany Lauzon was stabbed outside a Bridgewater, Mass. pub early this morning during a fight involving a group in the parking lot of the establishment they had been drinking in. EnterpriseNews.com is reporting that Lauzon was stabbed in the shoulder and sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Dany’s brother, Joe was also indirectly injured as a result of the incident.

(Seriously, who let that mouse into the Octagon? Props: UFC.com)

Here’s what we know: BJ Penn and George Sotiropoulos already have dates at UFC 127 in Australia. Karo Parisyan has been fired (again), and Matt Brown will surely be let go as well after suffering his third-consecutive submission loss. (Tyson Griffin also lost his third-straight on Saturday, but will remain in the promotion, as the judges’ decision in his fight against Nik Lentz was utter horseshit.) So where do UFC 123‘s other winners and losers go from here? As usual, we have a few suggestions…

Quinton Jackson: This one’s fairly obvious, assuming that nobody really wants to see an immediate rematch between Jackson and Machida. Rampage should get the winner of Jon Jones vs. Ryan Bader at UFC 126. The winner of that fight gets a title shot. Bada-bing, bada-boom.

Lyoto Machida: Once an unstoppable force in the light-heavyweight division, it’s now been a year and a half since the Dragon has put on a dominant performance against anybody. At this point, the UFC needs to re-build Machida against a mid-level contender. Give him Matt Hamill, who deserves a step up after handling Keith Jardine and Tito Ortiz. Alternately, you could throw Machida in against Randy Couture, and see if the Natural’s gift for game-planning can carry him through against the Dragon. Of course, that matchup might not be pointless enough for Randy, so don’t get your hopes up.

(Sotiropoulos using his knee and ankle supports to allow Joe Stevenson to get a better grip on his leg.)

A popular topic of debate surrounding next weekend’s UFC 123 event in Auburn Hills, Michigan has focused on the legality of the in-Octagon apparel worn by one of the card’s participants.

Fans and pundits alike seem split about whether or not the compression short-ankle and knee support combination worn by lightweight George Sotiropoulos are legal under the Unified Rules of mixed martial arts.

Even G-Sot’s opponent, Joe Lauzon has labeled the Australian fighter a cheater because of his in-Octagon apparel.

"I don’t see how you can wear your regular fight shorts, compression shorts under that that go to your knee, then wear knee pads on both sides that go halfway down your leg, then ankle supports that go halfway up your leg and down to your toes," Lauzon explained to Ariel Helwani during a recent episode of MMAFighting’s The MMA Hour. "I don’t know what the deal is with the commission, if he’ll be allowed to wear those or not, but we’re prepared for him either way. I don’t really understand how he gets away with them. We’re definitely going to look into it a little bit."

(G-Sot chose to forgo wearing his knee braces at UFC 116 in July after opponent Kurt Pellegrino called him a cheater for wearing them.)

Lauzon may be wasting his time.

According to reputable officials we conferred with from the Nevada State Athletic Commission and New Jersey State Athletic Control Board – two of the main regulatory bodies responsible for helping develop the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts as we know them today – Sotiropoulos’s choice of legwear is perfectly legal under their jurisdictions, but ultimately, the final call goes to the commission overseeing each event.

According to a Sherdog report published yesterday, UFC lightweight contenders George Sotiropoulos (13-2, 6-0 UFC) and Joe Lauzon (19-5, 6-2 UFC) will meet in a pivotal matchup at UFC 123 (November 20th, Auburn Hills). Riding a six-fight win streak including decision victories this year over Kurt Pellegrino and Joe Stevenson, Sotiropoulos would move very close to title contention with an impressive win over Lauzon. The fight would come less than three months after Lauzon’s recent destruction of Gabe Ruediger at UFC 118, which helped him rebound from a lopsided decision loss against Sam Stout at UFC 108.

The Sotiropoulos/Lauzon matchup contradicts an optimistic report in the Sydney Morning Herald that had George taking on BJ Penn or Kenny Florian in his next outing. Though the UFC could have been considering a matchup with Florian, Ken-Flo plans on sharpening his wreslting until the spring.

Related: Tyson Griffin vs. Nik Lentz is also being targeted for UFC 123, and Clay Guida has his next opponent set; he isn’t naming names, but it’s a "big one" against a guy with "ALOT of power in his hands."

(Fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke. PicProps: MMA Weekly)

You know how it goes in MMA circles: When two guys have beef they settle it with a 15-minute therapy session inside the cage. Next thing you know, problem solved. Hugs and high-fives all around. It’s pretty much the best formula we know of for conflict resolution that doesn’t involve some bullshit like talking or mutual understanding or compromise. Hence, those terrible “Fighting Solves Everything” T-shirts you see around sometimes.

Not so with the ongoing Joe Lauzon vs. Gabe Ruediger kerfuffle, however.

(Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly)

By CagePotato.com contributor Elias Cepeda

Gabe Ruediger (17-5) spent years developing a solid reputation as a talented submission fighter, racking up an impressive record and finally reaching the UFC. Then, with a loss in his debut and an embarrassing short-lived stint on The Ultimate Fighter 5, which saw him get KO’d by a scale and not an opponent, he saw it disintegrate in just a few months’ time.

That was in 2006. Since that time, Ruediger has had neck surgery, switched up teams, won and finished his last six fights, and has now found himself back in the UFC as he steps in for an injured Terry Etim to face another TUF 5 vet, Joe Lauzon. Gabe talks with CagePotato about how he survived becoming a laughing-stock and why he thinks Joe Lauzon is a “good kid,” but still wants to kick his ass.

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Gabe, you are filling in on short notice for Terry Etim to fight Joe Lauzon. The two of you, as well as his younger brother Dan, have been talking back and forth with each other for years. How did this fight finally come about?
GABE RUEDIGER: [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva approached us after my last fight and said that he wanted to bring me back but that it was hard to find a proper place for me with the lightweight division being so deep. They were unsure of what to do with me and wanted to give me a fight if they could find a really good matchup for me in terms of it being compelling. But I was in a good position at that time because all the major organizations were interested in me so I understood and was fine with that. When Terry Etim had to pull out of the fight with Joe and they called me I was more than thrilled and I think Joe was more than thrilled. The fight has a good back story to it.

(Sakara and Etim, the latest victims of the UFC’s brand-new curse.)

After losing Phil Baroni and Jorge Rivera due to injuries, UFC 118 (August 28, Boston) is inching towards "cursed" status with another pair of late withdrawals that have completely re-arranged the Spike TV prelim broadcast. First off, Alessio Sakara has been forced out of his fight against Gerald Harris due to a knee injury. Harris, who was originally a replacement for Rivera, will now face the returning Joe Vedepo, who has won four straight fights by stoppage outside of the UFC since being released in April 2009. Unfortunately, the fight is no longer slated for the Spike broadcast, meaning that Harris will need another dramatic stoppage to get some TV time. At this point, it hasn’t been confirmed which fight will move up to the prelim broadcast in its place.

The injury fairy also paid a visit to Terry Etim, who bows out of his UFC 118 fight against Joe Lauzon due to a broken rib. Lauzon will instead meet — get this — Gabe "Godzilla" Ruediger, the TUF 5 contestant who became a national punchline due to his love of colonics and ice cream cake, and was eventually dismissed from the show for not making weight. More recently, Ruediger has built up a six-fight win streak competing in California, picked up the Tachi Palace Fights lightweight title, and has helped turn Paris Hilton into a killing machine.

We’ll let you know as soon as UFC 118′s lineup is finalized.

(Joe Lauzon, Dan Lauzon, and Narcoleptic Larry pose for a picture before Affliction: Day of Reckoning. Photo courtesy of JoeLauzon.com.)

When Dan Lauzon steps into the Octagon at UFC 114 on May 29th — where he’s scheduled to face TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero — he will do so without three longtime coaches in his corner. Due to a dispute over Dan’s commitment to training, his brother Joe as well as his trainers Joe Pomfret and Steve Maze will not be traveling to the fight in Las Vegas from their home base in Bridgewater. As the story goes, Dan was given an ultimatum a month ago to shape up and start training 10-11 times per week; when he didn’t, his team broke ties with him. Dan first went public with the story earlier this week, telling the Boston Herald:

("The creepy guy behind the ring? Don’t worry Rachelle, that’s just James McSweeney. He’ll probably ask you for a lock of your hair before you leave, but he’s cool." / Photo courtesy of twitter.com/nathanmarquardt)

– Though Nate Marquardt and Alessio Sakara were slated to meet at UFC 116 in July, Sakara has postponed his Octagon return due to the recent death of his father. So, the UFC did some re-shuffling and came up with the following: Sakara will now compete at UFC 118 (August 28th, Boston) against Jorge Rivera, who picked up his third-straight win in March when he wrecked Nate Quarry. As for Marquardt, he will also likely return in August (either UFC 118 or UFC 117), against Rousimar Palhares, who you may know as the asshole who holds his submissions for too long.

– Speaking of the UFC’s Boston show, hometown kid Joe Lauzon will try to rebound from his lopsided decision loss against Sam Stout when he meets up with British contender Terry Etim. Etim had a four-fight UFC win-streak snapped last month in Abu Dhabi when he fell to an armbar submission against Rafael Dos Anjos.

(And he makes it look so easy…)

Chris Lytle‘s $50,000 Submission of the Night bonus at UFC 110 represented his seventh UFC performance bonus in his last eight fights, which made us wonder: Does that make him the #1 bonus-collector on the UFC’s roster? And who else is in the running? So, with the help of the UG and Wikipedia, we compiled a ranking of the UFC’s top performance bonus leaders, based on available information. When possible, we added up the grand totals of the fighters’ pay-bumps, though the amounts of these bonuses weren’t consistently reported before UFC 70.

Fighters With Twelve Bonuses
Joe Lauzon*: 6 Submission of the Night bonuses, 5 Fight of the Night bonuses, 1 Knockout of the Night bonus
Anderson Silva: 7 KOTN, 3 FOTN, 2 SOTN

Fighters With Ten Bonuses
Chris Lytle: 6 FOTN bonuses, 3 SOTN bonuses, 1 KOTN bonus; $515,000 total (Note: Lytle retired from the UFC after his victory over Dan Hardy at UFC on Versus 5, which scored him a Fight of the Night and a Submission of the Night bonus.)

Fighters With Nine Bonuses:
Nate Diaz: 5 FOTN, 4 SOTN; $445,000 total

(Come on, Dan — how many times did we go over the inverted-Colemura escape in training? Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Not only did Rashad Evans‘s $375,000 paycheck from UFC 108 eat up a hefty 36% of the event’s total disclosed payroll — $1,043,000, including end-of-night bonuses — Sugar was also the only fighter to earn six figures on Saturday night. Considering there were no other major UFC stars on the card due to The Curse of ’09, it makes sense; hopefully Evans bought at least one round at the afterparty. Full UFC 108 salary figures are below, courtesy of MMA Junkie:

Rashad Evans: $375,000 (includes $175,000 win bonus)
def. Thiago Silva: $55,000

Paul Daley: $84,200* (includes $18,000 win bonus, $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
def. Dustin Hazelett: $19,800*

Sam Stout: $74,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Joe Lauzon: $62,000 (includes $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Jim Miller: $30,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus)
def. Duane "Bang" Ludwig: $12,000

Junior Dos Santos: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Gilbert Yvel: $30,000

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Though UFC 108 had a lot of great finishes and battles to choose from, the recipients of the traditional end-of-night bonuses should come as no suprise. Picking up the $50,000 bumps are:

– Knockout of the Night: Paul "Semtex" Daley, for the IED he detonated on Dustin Hazelett.

– Submission of the Night: Cole Miller, for his inverted triangle on Dan Lauzon; I know it’s early, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing that one on "Best of 2010" lists.

– Fight of the Night: Sam Stout and Joe Lauzon. After suffering through Lauzon’s takedowns and elbows in the opening minutes, Stout put on the striking performance of his life en route to a lopsided decision.

Other notes on the evening…

By Elias Cepeda for CagePotato

Joe Lauzon (17-4) has held many roles throughout his 25 years — college student, 9-5er, web designer, coach, business owner — but above all else, he’s always been a fighter at heart. So when doctors told Joe he would have to sit out for at least a year after a surgery to repair a torn ACL, he took on the challenge the same way he approaches every endeavor — he trained for a fight.

“In training camp I’m absolutely miserable between doing all our rounds of sparring and cardio and I focused on my knee rehab the same way," explained the rising UFC lightweight, who has won five of his six official Octagon appearances.

"The place I did my rehab had a mix of people, young and old, and most just go through their exercises and don’t work up a sweat. I had to change my shirt just to drive home because I was soaking wet from pushing it. The place where I did my therapy was also in a gym so there were people there for other reasons than to rehab. My great physical therapist, Chris, pushed me and I progressed so fast that it got to the point where people were coming in thinking that I was in there for something else, like I was already in training camp for a fight, not knowing I had just had ACL reconstruction. I could have taken an easier approach to it but doing it that way really made a difference.”

It certainly appears that way. Based on what his doctors initially told him, Lauzon had planned for a March 2010 return to the cage, but he’s a few months ahead of schedule, fighting Sam Stout (15-5-1) Saturday night at UFC 108.

(There’s gotta be an easier way to earn five grand. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

$424,000 in official salaries and bonuses were paid out to the fighters who competed at Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night event in Tampa, Florida — a pittance compared to what the guys on pay-per-view cards tend to get, but when you consider that the live gate was only $428,000 it seems downright charitable. The numbers are below. Keep in mind that these figures don’t include income from sponsorships or undisclosed "locker room bonuses."

Cain Velasquez: $60,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus and $30,000 “Knockout of the Night” bonus)
Joe Lauzon: $50,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus and $30,000 “Submission of the Night” bonus)
Josh Neer: $48,000 (includes $9,000 win bonus and $30,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus)
Mac Danzig: $45,000 (includes $30,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus)
Kurt Pellegrino: $32,000 (includes $16,000 win bonus)
Anthony Johnson: $26,000 (includes $13,000 win bonus)
Gleison Tibau: $26,000 (includes $13,000 win bonus)
Rich Clementi: $23,000
Dan Miller: $18,000 (includes $9,000 win bonus)
Matthew Riddle: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)