(“Someday,” Johny thought. “Someday *I’ll* be the one with all the beverages.” / Photo via Sherdog)

As confirmed in a report from Ariel Helwani on yesterday’s installment of UFC Tonight, welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre will make his long-awaited title defense against Johny Hendricks on November 16th in Las Vegas (venue TBA). The event, which is currently slated as UFC 167, will also serve as the UFC’s 20th anniversary show. The UFC had previously hoped to hold its 20th anniversary event at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, but with MMA regulation in NY shot down for another year, UFC president Dana White has respectfully moved on.

St. Pierre is on an 11-fight win streak including eight belt-defenses, and has become known (and often criticized) for his steady, methodical domination of opponents; GSP’s last six fights have gone to five-round decisions. Meanwhile, Hendricks’s six-fight win streak includes Knockout of the Night-winning beatdowns of Martin Kampmann and Jon Fitch, and he most recently outpointed Carlos Condit at UFC 158 in March. Hendricks has enough wrestling skills to avoid being ragdolled by St. Pierre for 25 minutes, and enough power in his left hand to end the fight at any moment. Basically, if Hendricks can’t beat Georges St. Pierre, no 170-pounder on Earth can.

At this point, there are no other matches tied to UFC 167, but we’re expecting big things from the UFC’s 20th anniversary show. Another title fight? A Hall of Fame induction? Teila Tuli and Gerard Gordeau as guest commentators? Dare to dream in the comments section.

(Or better yet, a San Do Three-Man Fighting superfight for the ages. Photo via Kaboom-Magazine.) 

According to a tweet sent out by UFC Central, Dana White expects Georges St. Pierre to make his next title defense against Johny Hendricks in October, although no date or venue have been determined. Similarly, UFC Tonight recently reported that Jon Jones’ camp expected the light heavyweight champion to be fully recovered from the gnarly toe injury he suffered at UFC 159 and back in action in October, preferably against #1 ranked contender Alexander Gustafsson. This, of course, can only mean one thing: DOUBLE TITLE-FIGHT SUPER-CARD.

Of course, the UFC also recently stated an interest in booking Jones against Anderson Silva at Cowboys Stadium in October, which can only mean one other possibility…

(Goood…let the cake flow through you. To honor Nikita “The Al Capone” Krylov’s debut, here are the 50 Funniest Caucasian Gangster Photos via WorldWideInterWeb.com.)

Wanderlei Silva wants Chael Sonnen for “Dream” Fight in Brazil (BleacherReport)

[VIDEO] Johny Hendricks Trains With Mike Tyson (FightDay)

Lack of Reaction to Stephan Bonnar UFC Hall of Fame Announcement Speaks Volumes (MMAFighting)

And The Most Desirable Woman of 2013 Is…(MensFitness)

Where Are They Now? Your Favorite WWE Stars of the ’80s (Complex)

Freestyle Fantasy: Hot Chicks Doing Cool Things (Break)

The 33 Most Influential Events Of The Last 10 Years: A Summary For Average Joes (DoubleViking)

Is The Scripps National Spelling Bee Evil? (Deadspin)

25 Absolutely Ridiculous Daytime Television Screenshots (EgoTV)

Weekend Movie Guide: M. Night Weiner Kids Presents ‘After Earth’ (FilmDrunk)

10 Great Metal Performances from the ’90s on American Television (MetalInjection)

(The face of pure French-Canadian evil. / Image coutesy of MMAWeekly)

By Nathan Smith

*SPOILER ALERT* Georges St. Pierre is guaranteed to lose his next big fight. He will finally meet an opponent that he can not out-wrestle for 25 minutes and his next foe will be able to trade punches with him at will. GSP will positively get his ass handed to him.  Sorry Johny Hendricks, you can stop reading now because this post has nothing to do with you.

The reigning UFC welterweight champion has been cast as a villain in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier due for release on April 4, 2014. St. Pierre will play the roll of Batroc the Leaper (aka Georges Batroc) and although I embrace my inner geek, I was never much of a comic book guy nor did I ever have a pube mustache or own a set of dice with more than six sides, so I think it would be best to let the Wikipedia link describe GSP’s character.

“Batroc has no superhuman abilities, but is in peak physical condition in every respect. He is an Olympic-level weightlifter and has extraordinary agility and reflexes. His leg muscles are particularly well developed enabling him to leap great distances equal to an Olympic athlete. He is an expert hand-to-hand combatant and specializes in savate (French-style kickboxing). He is also a skilled military tactician, having formerly been in the French Foreign Legion.

Batroc is also an experienced thief and smuggler, and can speak both French and English. Although, as a mercenary, he does not hesitate to perform any number of criminal acts for his clients, Batroc has, by his own rights, a strong sense of honor, and he will turn against any client whom he feels has unfairly deceived him into committing crimes to which he might not otherwise have agreed.”

(Props: MSN.FoxSports.com)

In case you missed the fights on Saturday, check out these UFC 158 highlight clips from FOX Sports, which recap Georges St-Pierre‘s steady domination of Nick Diaz, Johny Hendricks‘s three-round war against Carlos Condit, and Jake Ellenberger‘s savage first-round KO of Nate Marquardt. Hendricks and Condit both picked up $50,000 Fight of the Night bonuses for their performance, while Ellenberger took home the same amount for Knockout of the Night; there were no submissions on the card. Though GSP didn’t win any bonus-money this time, he did earn a new UFC record: Most title defenses for a welterweight champion (8), surpassing Matt Hughes‘s career total of 7.

The UFC 158 highlight videos continue after the jump…

(I don’t always get so excited about a fight that I quote Tito Ortiz, but when I do, I say July 4th…has come early. Photo courtesy of MMAMania)

GSP. Diaz. The Bell Centre in Montreal. That’s right, Potato Nation, it’s finally time for UFC 158. If I need to say literally anything else to get you excited about this card, there is no hope for you at this point. Please show yourself out quietly, and no, we don’t care how exciting you think spring league baseball nonsense is.

But Georges St. Pierre vs. Nick Diaz isn’t the only great welterweight fight we have to look forward to tonight. Elsewhere on the card, Johny Hendricks battles Carlos Condit, and Jake Ellenberger welcomes Nate Marquardt back to the big leagues. Plus: A middleweight tilt between Nick Ring and Chris Camozzi, as well as a lightweight bout between TUF finalists Mike Ricci and Colin Fletcher, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Handling tonight’s liveblog will be none other than Aaron Mandel, who will diligently record every punch, kick, and Stockton Heybuddy thrown in the cage after the jump, beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and toss your own observations into the comments section. Let’s do it…

(One day left to wait, folks. Just one day. Photo courtesy of MMAMania.)

The UFC 158 weigh-ins have just finished wrapping up from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. And since we’ve…you know, recently been inspired to cut through the bullshit for once in our lives, we’ll skip the bullshit introduction or whatever and get right to the bullshitty video and pampered, bullshit results, which await you after the jump. WHERE YOU AT, GEORGES?!

(Talk about mental warfare, Diaz has gotten so far inside GSP’s head that the champ has apparently forgotten how to hold his hands during a staredown. Look at him, he looks like he’s trying to restrain his excitement while watching a cheerleading competition.) 

The Nick Diaz crazy train continues to roll on, Potato Nation, and was on full display during today’s UFC 158: St. Pierre vs. Diaz pre-fight presser. First, when addressing why he had missed the open workouts — something Nick originally attributed to the UFC’s…I don’t know, flight scheduling? — Diaz claimed that he needed his sleep and that “it was either I miss yesterday’s open workout or I miss this.” Then, when questioned on whether or not he would pass his drug test this time around, Diaz dropped this gem:

I think [at UFC 143] I tested for a metabolite or a nanogram, it was hardly [a trace] so I just did a little more than I did last time so, sorry if I don’t pass the test, but I think it should work out. I’ve passed plenty of them before, unless they just weren’t testing me. I wonder how much they test people around here (glancing at St. Pierre). 

Seriously, this guy is like Sir Smoke-A-Lot, Burt Gummer, and the main character from Pi rolled into one tight, angel dust-laced doober. Are you still questioning whether or not Diaz is the antihero the MMA world so desperately needs?

Check out the full video of the pre-fight presser after the jump for all of these highlights and more, and make sure to swing by our liveblog of UFC 158 on Saturday starting at 10 p.m. EST.

(“Yeah homie, I’m looking at your cup. Really? Seriously bro? You are super rich, you’re pampered, you’re in all the magazines AND you’re hung like a horse! This sh*t ain’t fair and I’m callin’ total bullsh*t bro!” Photo via CagedInsider.)

By Nathan Smith

I can’t believe I am about to type this: A Nick Diaz victory over Georges St. Pierre would be the best thing for the UFC Welterweight division. As an unabashed, almost stalkerish fanboy of GSP, I should not have to tell you how difficult that was to write. But God Damn, that was not easy to write.

With the exception of the 378 days that were the Matt Serra Era (or the Matt Serra Terror Era), GSP has ruled the welterweight division dating back to November of 2006. Let that sink in for just a second. Serra’s reign withstanding, St. Pierre has been the champ since Borat was in theaters and Justin Timberlake was on the top of the Billboard charts. Let me put it another way: In November of 2006, Tim “The Diet Machine” Sylvia was the Heavyweight Champion and Sean Sherk was the lightweight title holder. Are those guys even still alive? There is no way of knowing. Needless to say, St. Pierre has had a pretty damn good run thus far and it might be time for a temporary change of pace, even though he has been an excellent ambassador for the sport of MMA.

Some say that “Rush’s” style is the epitome of dominance while others say he is a lay-n-pray specialist. Is GSP careful to a fault in his fights? Probably, but he has only lost 2 of the 41 rounds he has fought during his current 10-fight win streak. That is fucking insane. Even the almighty Anderson Silva lost 5 rounds to Chael Sonnen in their two meetings, and Anderson Silva once beat Mars in a game of Risk. GSP is athletic as hell and imposes his will with technique and tremendous cardio, but for the very first time in his career, he is fighting a guy with a gas tank better than his own. Diaz is a machine (<– follow this link for immediate proof) when it comes to his cardio and frequently competes in triathlons, which makes him an absolute freak even when compared to that of his fellow athletes.

But this post isn’t about the stylistic differences between Diaz and St. Pierre. It isn’t a breakdown of the fight or a tale of the tape. It’s about the fact that a Nick Diaz victory on Saturday night would be the greatest thing the UFC could possibly ask for. Here are three scenarios explaining why. I’m going to go throw up.

By Dan “Get Off Me” George

Thus far, 2013 has been kind to Zuffa, with PPV’s and TV broadcasts delivering, whether or not this will be the case after this Saturday night is yet to be determined. Will Dana pull Nick from the main event…again? Will GSP unleash the dark side of his personality on Diaz as promised if the Stocktonian does manage to make it to the ring? Or are these fights all fixed and full of cheaters just trying to help out the economy like Don Frye would have us believe?

Buckle up as we head to the great white north and highlight some of the undercard bouts as well as all the main card bouts for UFC 158 in the hopes of cashing in big and possibly helping contribute to the “Save Danga’s Legs” fund.

Undercard bouts (all betting lines courtesy of BestFightOdds):

Reuben Duran (-140) vs. George Roop (+120)

Roop is a slight underdog against Duran, who is looking to bring his UFC record to .500 in this fight. The 6’1″ Roop is making his bantamweight debut and I think his considerable size advantage in this fight may be worth the bet. Duran has proven he can be out grappled (vs. Mizugaki at UFC Live 3 ) and KO’d (vs. Viana at the TUF 16 Finale) by opponents of lower caliber than Roop, so the TUF 8 alum should be able to use his considerable reach advantage to keep Duran on his feet and possibly finish the BJJ specialist. A quick look at Roop’s record shows losses to current and former top contenders, whereas Duran has simply not fought the same level of competition. This fight may be too steep a step up for him right now.

Because either Nick “The Anti-Bullshit Superhero” Diaz has been busy blowing off documentary film crews or Dana White has been lying about Diaz supposedly doing so, we’re not getting a UFC 158 Primetime special. That sucks, especially given the comedy gold Diaz was able to churn out during last week’s media call. Further adding insult to injury is the fact that the crew who brought us past Primetime documentaries is the same that has put together the Emmy award-winning, 24/7 ones for HBO.

Luckily, we still have a lil some’ some’ from the UFC to give us taste of welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre and challenger Nick Diaz’s training camps – a ten minute preview video, complete with analysis from Kenny Florian and bonus footage of Carlos Condit and Johny Hendricks promising to beat the heck out of each other in the night’s co-headlining, #1 contender matchup. Does anyone else foresee a memorable post-fight cage confrontation headed our way?

The correct answer to that question is “yes.” Unless Diaz loses of course, in which case we will be treated to another half-assed pseudo retirement tirade. Should be fun.

It ain’t Primetime, but this video gave us our fix for the day. Besides, Countdown to UFC 158 will premiere on Fuel TV at 11 p.m EST tonight, so if this snippet ain’t doing it for you, the full special surely will.

- Elias Cepeda

(Photo courtesy of Esther Lin/Getty Images)

In the wake of Rory MacDonald‘s UFC 158 injury withdrawal — which is now confirmed to be a “severe neck and back strain” that will sideline him for three to four weeks — the UFC has shifted some talent around to make sure all the welterweights on the “St. Pierre vs. Diaz” supporting card still have dance partners.

As previously reported, MacDonald’s scheduled opponent Carlos Condit will face top 170-pound contender Johny Hendricks, who was originally supposed to face Jake Ellenberger. (The UFC first offered the Condit fight to Tarec Saffiedine, who reportedly declined.)

Now, Ellenberger’s replacement opponent at the March 16th event in Montreal will be none other than Nate Marquardt. The fight will be Marquardt’s first appearance in the Octagon since he was fired from the UFC in 2011 due to a testosterone-related misunderstanding, then reappeared in Strikeforce as a welterweight, KO’d Tyron Woodley to win the promotion’s vacant welterweight title, and lost it last month in a painful decision loss to…Tarec Saffiedine. See? It’s all connected, man. [*Huffs more keyboard duster*]

And there’s one more element that makes this story even more confusing…

(“Progidy.” “The 30-something Randy Couture of the 40-something crowd.” “I don’t speak-a the Portuguesa.” “Leg kick to the midsection.” All the classics are here. / Props: zombie00713 via MiddleEasy)

Thiago Tavares ‘Surprised’ By Recent Failed Drug Test Following UFC On FX 7 (Fightline)

‘Bigfoot’ Silva’s Manager: Cain Velasquez Rematch Possible, but Slower Path to Title Preferred (MMAFighting)

Johny Hendricks Calls Georges St. Pierre an ‘Idiot’ for Thinking Nick Diaz Deserves a Title Shot Over Him (MMA Mania)

Anthony “Showtime” Pettis and the Evolution of Mixed Martial Arts (BleacherReport)

If Condit Gets Hurt, Tyron Woodley Wants to Fight Rory MacDonald at UFC 158 (MMAConvert)

Jack Slack’s Greatest Strikers: A Brief Look At Giorgio Petrosyan (BloodyElbow)

Pictures: Joe Lauzon Competes In Food Decathlon (FightDay)

Steven Seagal and Joe Arpaio Are Training a ‘Posse’ of School Shooting First Responders (FilmDrunk)

The 40 Softest Athletes in Sports History (Complex)

2013 Valentine’s Day Gift Guide (MensHealth)

7 Must-See Photos That Haven’t Been Photoshopped (DoubleViking)

Everyone Is Doing the Harlem Shake Right Now (Break)

50 Horrible Photos Taken By Horribly Professional Photographers (WorldWideInterweb)

Nick Diaz fans, it’s time to put your money where your stinkin’ mouths are. MMAFighting gives us the heads-up that UFC 158‘s main event just opened up with Georges St. Pierre as a -430 favorite, and Diaz as a +310 underdog. In other words, a $100 bet on Diaz would net you a $310 profit should the challenger win on March 16th, enough to buy you some of that good weed.

The only other UFC 158 fight that currently has odds attached to it is the co-main event between Carlos Condit and Rory MacDonald, in which Condit is listed as a slight underdog — you can find him as high as +145 — despite the fact that he won their first meeting by late TKO in June 2010. Maybe the oddsmakers got a little too excited about MacDonald’s stomping of a past-his-prime BJ Penn when they set the line. Sure, Condit was taking a beating before his comeback knockout of Rory, but he’s certainly capable of doing the same thing again. Your thoughts, please.

But back to the main event — I feel like some of these betting sites should offer wagers on if Diaz will actually make it to the fight without anything stupid happening. And speaking of which, it seems like the booking of Hendricks vs. Ellenberger on the same card as GSP vs. Diaz is the UFC’s insurance policy against just such an occurance. As Dana White explained:

About a month ago, the UFC’s welterweight title picture cleared up after nearly two years of confusion. Champion Georges St. Pierre returned after a long injury-induced lay off to face and beat interim champion Carlos Condit and Johny Hendricks stopped Martin Kampmann to establish himself as the clear number one contender to the St. Pierre’s belt.

Despite this, St. Pierre lobbied to face the suspended Nick Diaz, who had a shot against St. Pierre but then gave it because of, you know, reasons, lost to Carlos Condit and then tested positive for marijuana metabolites. Diaz will indeed get another crack at St. Pierre on March 16th in Montreal, assuming he decides to pick up a phone for media conference calls and make all his flights, and Hendricks will risk his earned #1 contender status against Jake Ellenberger on the same night.

Speaking to MMA Fighting this weekend, Hendricks said that the UFC made him take the Ellenberger fight and stuck to his “Georges is running scared,” line. “Man, he’s scared,” Hendricks said.

(Highly advanced photo-simulation via CagedInsider. We’re living in the future, people.)

Despite Johny Hendricks seemingly clinching his position as the UFC’s #1 welterweight contender with his recent knockout of Martin Kampmann, Georges St. Pierre will next defend his title against a guy coming off a loss and a year-long suspension — and the champion actually wants it that way. Ariel Helwani was first to break news (via twitter) that GSP’s next opponent will be Nick Diaz, on word from Dana White himself:

Dana just said GSP told him I want Nick Diaz. Dana said that’s probably the fight we’ll make. Dana said that GSP doesn’t ask for much, so he feels like he has to do it. Silva and Hendricks will have to wait.

Diaz’s last Octagon appearance resulted in a somewhat controversial decision loss to Carlos Condit during their interim welterweight title fight in February. Afterwards, Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites in a post-fight drug test, and caught a year-long time-out. Diaz has been on the sidelines ever since, waiting, planning, talking mad shit. And now his big opportunity has arrived again, which he hopefully won’t blow this time. Meanwhile another contender has spent the last 12 months actually fighting people and winning — LOL, what a sucker! — beating three of the UFC’s toughest welterweight contenders in the process.

As you can imagine, Hendricks isn’t too happy with all of this…

(Ain’t no tantrum like a Big Rigg tantrum)

In the whole welterweight/middleweight title/super-fight mess of excitment and speculation going on right now, number one 170 pound contender Johny Hendricks is one of the few people giving real talk. “I’m not going to fight unless it’s for a belt,” Hendricks told MMAJunkie Radio Friday.

The former NCAA Division I wrestling national champion solidified himself as the number one contender to Georges St. Pierre’s welterweight crown with five straight wins, his last three against Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and Martin Kampmann. Despite earning his shot, Hendricks is far from a lock to be the next one to fight St. Pierre.

Middleweight champion Anderson Silva is chasing a super fight with the Canadian and St. Pierre surrogates are lobbying for his next fight to be against his rival Nick Diaz. Diaz is currently serving a suspension for testing positive for marijuana metabolites before his last fight, a loss to Carlos Condit.

(Destroys some of the UFC’s toughest welterweight contenders; still afraid of spiders. / Photo via Esther Lin of MMA Fighting)

By Jason Moles

At the end of 2011, UFC Magazine (now known as UFC 360) released their Complete Fighter and Event Guide for 2012, highlighting who they thought were the movers and shakers in each division. Surprisingly absent from the list was welterweight wrestler-turned-knockout-specialist Johny Hendricks. Fast forward a year and he’s next in line to face Georges St. Pierre for the gold. After his 46-second KO of Martin Kampmann at UFC 154, Hendricks’ emergence as a legitimate threat to and rise to the top of the 170lb. division is undeniable.

Although this past year has seen the Oklahoma native’s stock price triple — thanks in large part to his powerful left hand — he was anything but an overnight success story. To hear Hendricks’ diehard supporters tell it, he’s always been this good; we’re just now noticing it. One quick Google search is all it takes to confirm; the two-time NCAA Division I National Champion (2005, 2006) has been just as dominant in the cage as he was on the mats, though he no longer seems to be interested in playing the bad guy.

Starting his professional MMA career in 2007, Hendricks only competed on regional cards in Oklahoma at first, racking up a 3-0 record with all wins by stoppage. That was until he signed a multi-fight deal with the now-defunct World Extreme Cagefighting where he continued his winning streak against Justin Haskins by TKO in December 2008. Three months later at WEC 39, Hendricks was featured in the last welterweight bout in company history, defeating Alex Serdyukov in a Fight of the Night performance. After Reed Harris and company announced their intentions to focus solely on the lighter weight classes, Johny Hendricks was in need of a new home. Although his fights in the blue cage were few, they were the perfect appetizer for the next stage of his slow-cooking career.

(“First off, I’d like to thank my brother, Thor, for if he hadn’t transmitted the power of his hammer into my left hand, none of this would have been possible.” Photo courtesy of Getty Images.) 

The UFC has never been an organization that takes pride in its subtlety. The same can be said about Dana White. So when they forced one of their cameramen to spend the entirety of the incredible GSP/Condit fight shooting Anderson Silva’s reactions (and Lyoto’s pedostache), you’d have to be pretty thick-skulled to not realize what they were angling at. However, GSP’s hesitance to commit to the fight, combined with Johny Hendricks’s brutal declaration of #1 contendership, have seemingly put a halt on these superfight rumors, if only temporarily.

In either case, we figured we would dedicate one post as the official battlegrounds for this debate, with you, the most distinguished and intelligent audience an MMA blog could ever ask for. So join us after the jump to vote on the poll that dares to ask: Who should Georges St. Pierre fight next now that he has successfully put the kibosh on this whole interim champ/actual champ nonsense? After you’ve finished voting, make your case in the comments section, using as much profane language, personal attacks, and outright trolling attempts as possible. Seriously, we kind of miss that stuff, so don’t get soft on us Taters.

(The lumpy, discolored face of victory. / Photo via Esther Lin @ MMAFighting)

By George Shunick

UFC 154 wasn’t the first time I’ve attended a UFC event. It wasn’t even the first time I’ve attended one at the Bell Centre. (That would be UFC 113, when Mauricio “Shogun” Rua emphatically put an end to the Machida Era.) But with Georges St. Pierre fighting — returning from a serious knee injury, no less — this card was a special experience. Not to say it didn’t have its flaws — the decisions got to be a bit much after a while, Alessio Sakara managed to get himself disqualified, and Tom Lawlor managed to get himself robbed. Still, the atmosphere of the crowd, Johny Hendricks’ knockout of Martin Kampmann and the finale, in which St. Pierre withstood the most adversity he’s faced in years, more than made up for it.

I was seated a few rows above the exit ramp, where the fighters made their way backstage following their fights. It provided me a great view of the action, the fighters as they walked by, and Dan Hardy’s mohawk. Hardy was in attendance, and made frequent trips back and forth between cageside and backstage. So, consider it official: Dan Hardy pees a lot. Maybe. Also seen frequenting the backstage area were Brittney Palmer and Arianny Celeste, both of whom are (quickly) escorted out after the third round commences in each fight, and Bruce Buffer, who was rather short. I also managed to catch Ben Fowlkes walking down towards cageside and yelled after him, but whether my voice was lost in the din of the crowd or Fowlkes is just terrified of being associated with CagePotato yet again, I cannot say. (It’s definitely the latter.)

The Canadian crowd was pretty solid throughout. They’re not quite as partisan as the Brazilian crowds, but damn if they don’t cheer their fighters on — even if they don’t know who those fighters are. I suspect no one there knew who Ontario’s own Antonio Carvalho was. (I also suspect I was part of this group.) They occasionally boo too early, but in general they seemed fairly knowledgeable. Unfortunately, that generalization did not apply to the group sitting directly behind me, who complained that Chad Griggs was matched up unfairly with Cyrille Diabate — he was, but not because he was “tiny” — and were under the impression that an armbar was “a wrestling move.”

(Props: Fox Sports/FUEL TV)

For those who missed the fights on Saturday, here’s another look at Johny Hendricks‘s devastating knockout of Martin Kampmann, which earned “Bigg Rigg” a $70,000 Knockout of the Night check, cemented him as the likely #1 contender in the UFC welterweight division, and saved the UFC 154 main card from a long night of decisions. The 46-second KO increased Hendricks’s win streak to five, with his last three victories coming against Jon Fitch (via 12-second KO), Josh Koscheck (via split-decision), and now this smash-up of Martin Kampmann.

On yesterday’s edition of the Verbal Submission radio show, Hendricks stated that he won’t take another fight before getting his title shot, even if reigning champion Georges St. Pierre decides to fight Anderson Silva in his next appearance. Judging from GSP’s non-committal post-fight interview with Joe Rogan on Saturday, squaring off against the Spider doesn’t really seem to be a priority for him. UFC fans may want to see GSP in a champion vs. champion catchweight superfight against Silva, but if St. Pierre decides to remain in his division for now, there’s at least one challenger who could give him a hell of a match. (Hint: It’s the bearded dude with the magical death-fists.)

After every UFC event, there is a press conference where some of the main fighters are brought out to field questions from the media in attendance. While over the course of a presser you are bound to get many of the same questions repeated in slightly different ways by media members, they are always still interesting to watch if only because of the unique moment and that there are usually at least a few insightful comments given.

For example, in last night’s UFC 154 post presser we hear from and see a bruised, cut and battered Georges St. Pierre talk about how he feels just a few minutes after a successful long-awaited return bout that he once feared would never happen. We also see his beaten opponent, Carlos Condit, still eloquent though despondent after coming so close to realizing his professional dream only to have it violently taken from him by the returning champion.

Above we bring you just about the full presser from last night (it cuts out after about two minutes. When it does, go ahead and fast forward to about the 7:30 mark and it picks back up). Dana White and a few other fighters are also in attendance.

GSP discusses not finishing fights, ring rust, Anderson Silva and Johny Hendricks. Condit says how close he feels he was to beating St. Pierre in the third round and about making another title run in the future.

For those that like their information less complete and quicker, check out an additional video with highlights of St. Pierre and Condit’s comments after the jump.

(Anderson Silva will be watching this one with great interest. / Photo via MMAJunkie)

Georges St. Pierre‘s 19-month hiatus from the Octagon is one of the reasons why MMA kind of sucked this year. But the UFC welterweight champion is back in the saddle tonight in Montreal against interim champ Carlos Condit, so come a little bit closer baby, get it on, get on, ’cause tonight is the night when two belts become one.

In the co-main event, Martin Kampmann battles Johny Hendricks for a potential title shot against the winner of St. Pierre vs. Condit. Plus: This clown, that weirdo, and Mark Hominick‘s must-win featherweight scrap against Pablo Garza. [Note: Nick Ring was supposed to fight Constantinos Philippou on the main card, but fell ill today and wasn't cleared to compete. Mark Bocek vs. Rafael Dos Anjos was promoted to the main card from the prelims.]

Guiding us through the proceedings is liveblogger-supreme Aaron Mandel Ben Goldstein!, who will be throwin’ down round-by-round results from the UFC 154 pay-per-view main card beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and let your voices be heard loudly and proudly in the comments section.

(Martin Kampmann: He’s nice, until it’s time to *not* be nice. / Photo via fighthubtv.com)

By Elias Cepeda

Leading up to this Saturday’s UFC 154, it has, at times, seemed as if co-main event opponents Martin Kampmann and Johny Hendricks have had to field more questions about past and possible future opponents than one another. The two welterweights square off in what should be a #1 contender’s fight in Montreal for the right to face the winner of the headliner between champion Georges St. Pierre and interim champ Carlos Condit.

There’s good reason that the Dane is getting lots of questions about his past and future even though he’s got Hendricks in front of him. Kampmann, like Hendricks, is on a tear in the welterweight division and also owns a win over Condit.

“It doesn’t matter what fight it is,” Kampmann tells CagePotato. “Everybody tries to be like, ‘you beat this guy,’ ‘what are you going to do after this fight?’ My main thing right now is Johny Hendricks. That’s what I’m training hard for.”

And it’s the training that keeps Martin focused throughout all the potentially distracting media attention and questions he’s fielded over the past few months.

“This started as a hobby for me so I like the grind,” Kampmann explains. “I like to get in the gym. When you have a fight you have to get in the gym a lot but I still enjoy it. Of course some days you want to be in the gym more than others, but overall my motivation is really good. Even when I don’t have a fight I’m in the gym training because I love to train. I enjoy training and I have fun doing it.”

(So there we were, about to face off at the UFC 154 press conference when Georges finally decided to POP THE QUESTION!! ERMAGERD!!)

A fortune cookie wise man once told me that the frustrating thing about questions is that they do not always have answers. This Saturday night, Zuffa’s globetrotting MMA organization returns to the province of Quebec — the birthplace of the UFC in Canada — to answer the burning question: Who is the undisputed king of the 170 lbs division? GSP may be the PPV king of the UFC, but during his 20 month layoff due to reconstructive knee surgery, Carlos Condit has quietly and somewhat controversially asserted himself as the welterweight division’s top dog.

With a current record of 3-2 over the past 5 UFC PPV’s, the GAE’s back is against the wall and in need of another profitable evening if it is to be still considered as the champion of the odds breakers, bloggers and “professional gamblers” of the mixed martial arts world (which it totally is). So follow us after the jump as we highlight select bouts from the undercard and all contests on the main card in an attempt to save those who laid 1600 bucks on a Franklin to beat Le ticket from the man in the black trench coat. All odds courtesy of BestFightOdds.com.

On November 17th in Montreal, Georges St. Pierre returns to the Octagon from his year-and-a-half layoff, and honestly, it couldn’t come soon enough. When St. Pierre and Carlos Condit meet for the UFC welterweight belt at UFC 154, it will have been a full three months since the last time the UFC put on a title fight that wasn’t a total mismatch. That drought of superfights has been one of the reasons why MMA has simply felt less exciting lately, but finally, things are picking up again, and I can’t freakin’ wait.

We’ve been thinking about GSP vs. Condit for a hell of a long time, and the anticipation has reached that saturation point where we just want this damn thing to be over by now. St. Pierre says his knee isn’t a weak link anymore, he’s 100%, he’s “back better than ever.” And it’s never a good idea to doubt such a fantastic and disciplined athlete. But still…a hungry and motivated Carlos Condit is the last guy you want to face when you’ve been out of the game so long.

Speaking of welterweights, Johny Hendricks and Martin Kampmann will be squaring off in the co-main event. (Kampmann scores the best point in the promo interview by promising to kick Hendricks in the beard.) Could an impressive performance put one of these guys next in line? And who will come out on top? Check out the extended trailer above and let us know what you think.

(“OK guys, the winner gets an interim belt, the loser has to purchase a replica from Wal-Mart. I assure you that they both carry the exact same value.”) 

In a recent interview with Latin American online news network, UOL, bantamweight interim champion Renan Barao‘s coach, Andre Pederneiras, declared that Barao would not be defending his interim strap and instead would wait for Dominick Cruz to recover from the ACL injury that set up Barao vs. Urijah Faber at UFC 149. And before the MMA media could even begin to make the comparison to Carlos Condit, Pederneiras did it for us, stating:

[Barao] just won the title, he just fought. We will wait. Look how long the wait was for Condit and GSP to unify the belt?

Where Pederneiras was attempting to use the Condit comparison as a justification for Barao’s decision to essentially put the bantamweight division on hold for the time being, he unknowingly summed up the inherent pointlessness of the interim title in the first place.

As you are all aware, the interim title essentially serves as a placeholder for the division’s number one contender (at the time) in the absence of a champion. The problem being that, by declaring the number one contender to be “a champion” when they are anything but — and I mean this with all due respect to Condit and Barao — you are basically giving a contender a power that they have not rightfully earned: the power to pick and choose who they fight.

(Earning red wings: It is a messier right of passage for some than for others.) 

If the name hadn’t already been used for UFC 125, Resolution would be the perfect title for UFC 154, which promises to finally clear up the traffic jam that has clogged the welterweight division for what has felt like an eternity. Not only will it feature the potential return of Georges St. Pierre, who will in turn battle interim champ Carlos Condit for the bragging rights of a division that has long been missing them, but now it appears that the winner of that bout (ruling out any horrific decisions or immediate rematches) will have his next (or first) challenger already lined up.

Word has it that Martin Kampmann, fresh off yet another come-from-behind victory over Jake Ellenberger at the TUF 15 Finale will be facing hard hitting Johny Hendricks at the same event to determine the true number one contender at 170 lbs. This sounds all too familiar for Hendricks, who was promised the next title shot if he were to beat Josh Koscheck at UFC on FOX 3 last month. He did, and was promptly denied in favor of a Condit/GSP showdown. “Bigg Rigg” was rather blunt about his disappointment in a recent interview with MMAFighting, but stated that it wasn’t going to peeve him for too long.

Hear what Hendricks had to say after the jump. 

(Nothing that a little super-glue and duct tape won’t fix… / Photo via @MartinKampmann)

By Elias Cepeda

At this point, fight fans are wondering how Martin Kampmann can keep pulling dramatic victories out from the jaws of defeat. In March, the UFC welterweight contender was being soundly beaten for fourteen minutes by Thiago Alves on the feet before forcing him to tap out to a guillotine choke with seconds left in the fight.

Less than two weeks ago, Kampmann did it again, this time against Jake Ellenberger. Ellenberger connected with a monster left hook to the dome of Kampmann at the start of their TUF 15 Finale main event bout. Kampmann went down hard and looked to be moments away from losing and letting the division’s number one contender spot to the interim title — or whatever these poor guys are competing for at this point, in Georges St. Pierre’s absence — go to his opponent.

Instead, Kampmann somehow survived the round. Less than two minutes into the second, he landed his own punches and one huge knee to the head, putting Ellenberger down and out, and scoring his second come-from-behind stoppage win of 2012.

But good luck trying to figure out what, exactly, was going on in Kampmann’s mind at those moments of in-cage crisis before he turned the tide. “I kind of go on autopilot when I’m in there and try not to think too much,” Kampmann tells CagePotato.com.

Thinking is for training, for strategy, for figuring out how to prepare for the fight. In the heat of battle itself, a fighter needs his training to pay off with dividends of pure reaction. Punches, kicks, feints, and even submission holds need to be instinctual at that point.

“The more I think, the worse I do,” Kampmann explains.

(We know, Carlos, we didn’t believe it was Arianny in that mugshot either.) 

We haven’t heard much from Carlos Condit since his controversial, interim title-earning decision over Nick Diaz at UFC 143, even though the man he beat out for said title has given him plenty to talk about. No, all we’ve heard from “The Natural Born Killer” is that he plans to spend the rest of 2012 on the shelf in order to finally get his much deserved shot against Georges St. Pierre, who is no stranger to life on the sidelines.

Well now it seems that the fighting bug is starting to get to Condit, who recently told HDNet’s Inside MMA that he would be open to the idea of defending his interim title, were GSP’s absence to be prolonged, that is. How you can defend a title that isn’t, you know, an actual title, is beyond us, but regardless of what we think, Condit said that he’d like to face none other than the man responsible for his sole loss in the UFC given the opportunity:

If it turns out Georges can’t fight in November, most likely, I will fight somebody else. I really wanna fight Georges. I really wanna unify the belts, but there’s also some other guys that I would like to fight as well. You know, Martin Kampmann‘s the only guy that I’ve lost to in the UFC, the only guy I’ve lost to in about the last six years, so I would definitely like to avenge that loss.

Few can forget the pair’s initial meeting, which took place back in April of 2009 at Fight Night 18 and saw Kampmann emerge victorious by way of split decision in what was a hell of a three round affair.

And while we agree that it would be nice to see any fight in the welterweight division that has some kind of title implications behind it, it appears that the chances of Condit/Kampmann II going down anytime soon are somehow less likely than that of Condit/GSP. Here’s why.