(Chuck Liddell poses with ‘Taboo’, co-host of Our Time.)

We have no idea how most of these encounters came about — but we’re sure they were all fairly awkward. Here are 21 of our favorite photos of MMA fighters rubbing shoulders with reality show stars, B-list actors, and aging rock royalty. Ah, the perks of fame…

(Cain Velasquez: The meat in a douche sandwich.)

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMACanada)

When news got out last week that the hand injury that forced Jon Jones out of his planned UFC 133 meeting with disgruntled former teammate Rashad Evans did not require surgery, and that the UFC light heavyweight champ’s manager Malki Kawa intimated that his client was likely to fight another opponent before facing Rashad, our first thought was, “Damn, it looks like Bones is just doing whatever he can to screw Rashad out of his shot.”

But then we said, “Nah, it must just be a coincidence,” when we heard Jones say they consulted with three doctors before deciding to forgo surgery and that, not to worry, he will still face Rashad somewhere down the road.

Well, it’s looking like our first inclination may have been correct.

(“What has two relatively healthy thumbs and just screwed with Rashad Evans’s career? This guy!” Photo courtesy of Francis Specker.)

Well, this isn’t going to help the credibility of that swagger-jackin’ Jon Jones. Bones’s manager Malki Kawa took to twitter today with a revelation that will only give more ammunition to the haters who found it a little suspicious that the UFC light-heavyweight champion postponed a fight against Rashad Evans to fix a thumb injury that “doesn’t affect [his] punching or grappling“:

I guess its time to put out the truth. @Jonnybones suffered a tear in his thumb in 2 different spots… Every dr he saw said to have surgery. We went to meet with the surgeon on wed and after he looked at @Jonnybones he thought that surgery was a bit [invasive] and bones didn’t have To have if he didn’t want to. @Jonnybones decided against surgery, and we immediately met with dana and lorenzo the next day to get his next fight scheduled.

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

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

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

As the UFC’s new semi-official Ambassador to Women, light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones appeared on The Mo’Nique Show this week. It seemed like the only two people who knew who the hell Jones was when he walked in the room were Eddie Griffin and Mo’Nique herself, but baby, that didn’t matter. All the hungry crowd saw was a big, sexy man. Honestly, the vibe on set was downright bachelorette party-esque, and Bones did his best to play along.

It’s a pretty standard media appearance, otherwise. Jones explains his nickname for the 5,000th time, tells Mo’Nique what mixed martial arts is, etc. Luckily, Eddie Griffin is there to punch it up when the conversation gets slow. (“…and then I got hit one time, have you ever seen your own ass.”) Jones tries to show off his spinning back elbow, but instead gets served in a dance-off. Time well spent, folks.

(Weirdest part is, the Portuguese language doesn’t even have a phrase that means “dress shoes.”)

Just one of the many, many problems inherent in ranking MMA’s top “pound-for-pound” fighters – aside from the obvious fact these lists are 100 percent fantasy-based and therefore flatly ridiculous to begin with — is that a lot of people can’t even agree what the phrase “pound-for-pound” actually means. Does it simply provide a method for comparing the best fighters in the world across different classes? Does it purport to measure a fighter’s dominance relative to his size? Does it envision a bizzaro world where everyone is the same height and weight? And if so, does a 135-pound Fedor Emelianenko still have that ribbon of fat around his gut? Fuck if we know.

Fact is, pound-for-pound lists are really just a study in speculative fiction. Rather than trying to rank a bunch of fighters who will never actually fight we’d probably be better off writing a sprawling, dystopian novel presupposing that the Nazis won WWII, Custer didn’t die at the Little Bighorn and that during the summer of 1985 a 27-year-old Dan Severn accidentally stepped on a butterfly during his morning jog through Ann Arbor, setting off a chain reaction that caused Jon Jones never to be born at all. I guess what we’re trying to say is, things are about to get real theoretical up in this bitch. Like, comically subjective and shit.

Still, even if we can’t claim to know exactly what these rankings are trying to achieve, we do know one thing: Our carefully cultivated demographic information tells us you motherfuckers loves you some lists. And in that, we must oblige …

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMADigest)

Rashad Evans was in Toronto over the weekend to watch his friend and former training partner Georges St-Pierre’s UFC 129 bout against Jake Shields Saturday night at Rogers Centre.

The night before the event, Evans spoke to MMADigest at a pre-party at Muzik nightclub and touched on his recent break from Team Jackson as a result of Jon Jones becoming UFC light heavyweight champ.

For those of you who can’t watch the video at work, the meat and potatoes of the interview are transcribed after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

- UFC to stream its events on Ustream (BusinessInsider)

- Punch-drunk greed: UFC and the new Fight Network (DailyXY)

- UFC Launches “UFC Latino” (TuVez)

- 10 reasons why you can’t miss UFC 129 (TheRugged)

- Made Babe Stacey Kiebler (MadeMan)

- Brock Lesnar and the 15 worst tattoos in MMA (BleacherReport/MMA)

- UFC set to introduce five-round non-title fights (MMAFix)

- Mike Tyson’s facial tattoo artist is trying to block ‘Hangover 2″ release (ScreenJunkies)

- Belfort clear from Hep ‘A’ infection (FightersOnly)

- The most Bizarre Will Ferrell video ever (AskMen)

- Jon Jones says he’s not a swagger-jacker (CageWriter)

- 2011 NFL draft: 5 first-round surprises (TheScoresReport)

- I envision one of these in every home by 2013 (HolyTaco)

(Pic: Affliction)

OK, before we all start dumping Haterade on Randy Couture, let us state for the record that in the following new video interview with Steve Cofield he still sounds pretty certain he’ll be retiring after UFC 129. In fact, Couture seems a little bit pissed off at this point that people keep asking him about it. Chalk it up to run-of-the-mill fight-week orneriness maybe, but we think we detect a slight edge creeping into “The Natural’s” voice when Cofield claims “one of his media buddies” got a text from Dana White that sums up Couture’s plan to call it quits after this weekend’s fight with Lyoto Machida by saying: “Retire? Not if he wins.”

“It doesn’t matter if I win or not,” Couture sort of snaps. “I know them, I know Dana. He’s got plans already and it doesn’t matter to me. He’s going to really have to step up if he thinks I’m going to come back out (of retirement). I don’t think that’s going to happen. There’s a lot of younger guys … Jon Jones is the perfect example. They offered me that fight in the fall. Nobody wants to fight that cat right now. I don’t see that battle in my future.”

Huh. Very interesting. Indeed, Couture is still adamant he’ll be walking away (again) after this weekend. Yet considering what we know about his past, even that tiny little hint that the UFC could coax him back into the Octagon if it unloads a dump truck of money in his driveway makes us hear echoes of Lloyd Christmas deep in the recesses of our cynical little mindbrains: “So, you’re telling me there’s a chance.” The vid itself, which is full of interesting tidbits, is after the jump.

(If Rashad tests positive for anything after this fight it will likely be Prozac.)

A torn tendon in his hand that he suffered in his UFC 128 light heavyweight championship win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua has forced Jon Jones to bow out of his August UFC 133 grudge match against former training partner Rashad Evans. Stepping in for the injured champion in the bout will be Phil Davis.

The news was first reported this morning by Neil Davidson of The Canadian Press and was later announced by the UFC.

It seems like Rashad can’t get a break these days.

(At that moment, Bader’s whole life flashed before his eyes, and the part about fighting Tito Ortiz at UFC 132 made him say, “No way, you gotta be shittin’ me!”)

Guess you have to give Ryan Bader partial credit for admitting to MMA Weekly on Friday that one of the reasons he wanted to fight Tito Ortiz was to erase from his mind the nightmarish memories of his UFC 126 fight with Jon Jones. On the other hand, we have to kinda call disingenuousness (aka bullshit) on the way Bader sort of tries to make it sound like this bout just fell into his lap (as we recall, he specifically called Ortiz out) and saying that he took the fight because he’s “an MMA fan” who just wanted to take on a legend. Check it out:

“Although it’s a step down in competition from Jon Jones and (Antonio Rogerio) Nogueira, I got a chance fight a guy like Tito, a legend of the sport, and we took it,” Bader said. “It’s almost like a novelty fight for me going in there and (fighting) a guy I grew up watching. I’m a fan and a fighter. I want to be a part of his legacy and vice versa. I want to have Tito Ortiz in my win column.”

(“Bones is like a brother to me —  dangerous brother with crazy elbows and knees.”)

If you were holding your breath for an eventual Anderson Silva-Jon Jones showdown, you might want to stop before you pass out because it isn’t going to happen.

In a recent interview with the Brazilian website esportes.r7, “The Spider” said that he wouldn’t fight Jones and all but refuted the recent claim by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira that Silva would likely jump up to 205 after his fight with Yushin Okami in Rio in August.

“No way. [Jones] is in another weight class,” Silva explained. “We’re friends and we will not face each other.”

If you’ve ever trained in an MMA gym, you know that much like Fight Club, the first rule of sparring, is you don’t talk about sparring. Talking about how you tapped out or knocked out a sparring partner in practice is considered bad etiquette and in some cases, it could get your ass beat.

In a recent interview with ESPN’s Josh Gross, UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones touched on the taboo subject of who handled whom when he and former training partner Rashad Evans rolled and sparred at Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque.

(“I’m sorry, Chael’s not here right now. I’m his protector personality, Buck the beer-swilling Vietnam vet. Pic: ProMMANow)

Admit it, you missed this crazy son of a bitch. Fresh from his sentencing in federal court in Oregon last week and a few days further removed from what sounded like a contentious initial meeting with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Chael Sonnen made his first extended public appearance in recent memory on Monday on the MMA Hour over at MMA Fighting. Sonnen’s nearly 40-minute discussion with Ariel Helwani centered mostly on his continued efforts to reapply for a license to fight in Las Vegas, but also touched on many things UFC.

Listing back and forth between his two dominant personalities — sober, straight-talking manly-man and over-the-top middleweight contender — Sonnen admitted his main focus hasn’t been on fighting these last few months, but said he hopes to return to the Octagon sooner than later. The more human side of Sonnen admitted he still needs to “clear the air” with NSAC before moving forward with his athletic career, while his batshit crazy side couldn’t resist simultaneously tossing a few verbal barbs at most of the rest of the UFC roster. It’s not a mystery which quotes we’ll hit you with first after the jump …

(At least he’s done his research. Pic: ESPN)

Uh-oh, we bet somebody is going to get their Twitter in a bunch over this: Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal spoke with Five Knuckles over the weekend, breaking down the current Jon Jones-Rashad Evans beef with the kind of simple analogy any pimp could understand. Lawal said that in going back on his original oath never to fight a friend and training partner, Jones displayed the personality traits of a common street prostitute and now “Bones” – ahem – should be treated like one.

“I think it broadsided (Evans), because they both made an agreement (not to fight) and all of a sudden someone reneges,” Lawal said. “I would never fight Daniel (Cormier) definitely, and he would never fight me. Then all of a sudden if he went behind my back and said, ‘I’ll fight Mo on TV’ … that’s a ho move and a ho move deserves an ass whipping. I know none of my training partners that are my brothers would ever pull a ho move like that. If I say I ain’t going to fight my brother, I ain’t going to fight my brother.”

(The Authentic Sports Management Christmas party might be a bit awkward this year if all of the firm’s fighters attend.)

Jen Wenk, the ex-UFC director of public relations announced today that her new firm, StarPR™ Las Vegas, will be taking over the public relations duties for Authentic Sports Management, the agency representing several MMA fighters including UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and number one contender Rashad Evans.

“I am honored to have worked for the UFC and with owners and visionaries Lorenzo J. Fertitta and Dana White for the last six years,” Wenk said via press release. “I only hope to continue my good public relations work in representing this dynamic new management company and many of the organization’s top fighters, including the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon “Bones” Jones, former UFC champion Rashad Evans and more. “

(Pic: Flickr)

By 420fighteXXXpert69, Freelance Contributor

As the world’s foremost authority on mixed martial arts, 420fighteXXXpert69 has been trolling comment sections and lurking chat rooms since dropping out of high school back in 2005. After earning his GED, he’s now pretty sure he owns the most impressive collection of MMA T-shirts at his online community college. Seriously, ask him fucking anything, you fucking noobs …

What’s up, fags?!?! Welcome to another cacophony of fistic entertainment known to you fuckin’ cock gobblers as “Ask the Internet Comment Section Fight Expert.” Once again I’d like to thank CagePotato.com for letting me write this shit (Except for the edits! Fuck those!) and for paying me only in free MMA schwag. Except last week when they mailed me a fucking book! I did not read that shit … because I don’t suddenly want to start feeling hungry for dicks!!!

All eight of my Twitter followers have been straight BLOWIN ME UP this week with questions about everything UFC, so I better drop a knowledge bomb on your fucking lardasses before you get your panties in a wad and start a flame war YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO FINISH! Remember, if you have a question for future articles hit me up on Twitter, cuz my cell phone is shut off right now (Fuck you, Verizon!). Or you can call the house, but you have to speak slow cuz my grandmother is part Korean. OK, let’s see what you morons want to know this week …

(“Why yes, I *am* getting too old for this shit. Thanks for asking!”)

During his 14-year MMA career, Randy Couture has ditched the UFC no less than three times — once in 1998 to pursue opportunities in Japan, the second time due to a short-lived retirement in 2006 following his second knockout loss to Chuck Liddell, and finally in 2007 due to a money disputes and a perceived lack of respect. Each time, the lure of competition has brought him back to his home in the Octagon. But there’s only so much a 47-year-old can take, and after a series of vague hints in recent months, it seems like Randy is preparing us for his final departure, seriously, for real this time.

During an appearance on the ESPN UFC podcast, Couture stated that his upcoming UFC 129 fight against Lyoto Machida will very likely be his last, win or lose. As he put it:

Future champ? Pffff…Davis didn’t even have the courage to challenge a teammate after his victory.

Oh, fans, why do we do this to ourselves? We’ve been here so many times before, yet we never learn our lesson. We’ve declared the Brock Era, the Machida Era, and the Bones Era, but the only era we’re really in is one of unrealistic expectations. With his win over Lil’ Nog last night, Phil Davis extends his record to a perfect 9-0, with five of those victories coming in the past thirteen months, but it isn’t enough, is it? No, not when some of the most recognizable faces in the sport are created in 12 short episodes of reality tv. Not when Jon Jones violently takes the belt at the age of 23. Last night Phil Davis struggled with his takedowns. His standup still needs work. He failed to rag doll Nogueira and put him away with a freshly minted submission. He looked {gasp} like an evolving fighter.

Not long ago it would have been enough for an up and coming prospect just over two years into his career to take out a highly respected MMA veteran on the sport’s biggest stage, but that’s not the world we live in. Maybe there were just too many similarities between Davis and Jones to let the comparisons slide. They’re both young fighters with very impressive wrestling. They were both undefeated (yeah, screw that Hamill thing) headed into their last fight on short notice against a far more experienced Brazilian legend. Yeah, they even kind of look alike too. What we saw last night is that there’s only one Jon Jones, but that doesn’t mean “Mr. Wonderful” didn’t display the qualities that make a champion.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/kimurasweden)

- 25 sensitive moments in the NCAA (HolyTaco)

- What will Jones-Evans mean for gym-based loyalties in MMA? (Sports Illustrated)

- Your Highness Red Band trailer is GOLD! (TheRugged)

- Tasty footage of UFN 24 open workouts. (Middle Easy)

- Sly Stallone to release menswear line based on Rock and Rambo (Clutch.MTV)

- Brendan Schaub wishes he didn’t land the last shot on Mirko Cro Cop (MMAWeekly)

- How to make Killer grilled cheese (MadeMan)

- Jon Jones’ BJJ coach says he’d be a white belt in a gi (Tatame)

- Charlie Sheen admits he’s Latino (Tu-Vez)

- First eyeballs on Will Ferrell’s ‘Office” guest appearance (ScreenJunkies)

- Check out John Brockman’s assortment of trick shots (ScoresReport)

(“Your numbers are a little weak in the swing states, Jon. We’d like you to consider wearing this American flag pin.” Pic: ESPN)

Even as MMA hardcores continue to cream their collective jeans over the unbelievable awesomeness of new light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, early estimates indicate UFC 128 didn’t quite live up to expectations in the sales department. Stalwart fight journalist (and the kind of dude who keeps track of this stuff) Dave Meltzer reports his numbers show Saturday night’s pay-per-view notching between 415,000-470,000 buys, which puts it pretty much exactly on the nose of the UFC’s “average” buy rate of 445K. What’s that mean exactly? Well, to borrow a phrase from Scott Coker, it means UFC 128 didn’t really “move the needle” with casual fans.

Naturally, some of the people who get paid to have opinions about this kind of thing (dudes like us) will see this as a failure on the part of Jones himself. After all, the UFC did everything it could to market this PPV behind the 23-year-old phenom, including both a “Countdown” special and the heretofore unseen “In the Moment” documentary on SpikeTV. To this notion, we’d like to say: Not so fast. Even as a website that’s occasionally been quasi-critical of the sport’s new Christ figure, we think it’s pretty unfair to hang this particular PPV’s disappointing showing on Jones. Don’t forget that he didn’t become a full-on breakout superstar until AFTER he crushed Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to win the strap, you guys.

(A picture says a thousand words…like, “Why is there a SPIKE TV camera man’s reflection in the windshield of that car?”)

When Jon Jones unbelievable story of chasing down and capturing a thief in the hours prior to his UFC 128 championship bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua made the rounds, it seemed like an unbelievable story. Well, at least one source claims that the incident was a staged PR move to designed to get the UFC light heavyweight and the sport of MMA more mainstream press.

Mission accomplished.

Thanks to the Zuffa creative team, who are said to have cooked up the plot to the fake robbery that took place Saturday afternoon outside of in New Jersey park, Jones was invited to appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night to talk about his incredible crime fighting tale.

Via IronForgesIron.com, here’s the video of Jon Jones‘s appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno last night. The segment began with the UFC light-heavyweight champ handing Jay his belt as the Rickey Minor Band gamely worked its way through the Ultimate Fighter theme music. (“Time to end this suffering,” indeed.) Bones handed himself well. While fending off the advances of a very-smitten Kirstie Alley, Jones told the full story of his robber-apprehension in New Jersey before UFC 128, explained MMA to the old folks in the crowd, revealed how his mom beat him and his brothers twice a day (you know, because he grew up in such a strong Christian home), and then plugged his next fight against Rashad Evans, date still TBA. Your move, Brock. What did you guys think?

After the jump: Photos of Jonny Bones choking out Jay Leno and getting comfortable with Kirstie Alley.

(He never would’ve agreed to this if he knew it required putting on a shirt. Pic: Headblitz.com)

Just a programming reminder: New UFC light heavyweight champion and recently appointed king shit of fuck mountain Jon Jones will appear on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno this evening. It should be a good opportunity for the UFC to finally introduce Jones to the coveted grandparents demographic while simultaneously drawing a few eyeballs under the age of 60 to Leno’s show. In other words, a real mutual back-scratching situation if there ever was one. We can’t wait to get a long, rambling voicemail from our grandma on Friday morning explaining that “that black fellow who fights UFC really did seem like a nice young man.” God, our grandma is such a racist.

Not to be outdone – and, ahem, speaking of racists. Ha! Just joking, big fella … – Brock Lesnar will emerge from the sensory deprivation chamber that was filming the new season of “The Ultimate Fighter” to go on “Late Night” with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, according to UFC.com. So that should be awkward. Plucky little Jimmy Fallon wearing one of his “Mad Men” suits and just trying to coast through the interview portion of the show to get to the prerecorded skits, while enormous (and whatever the opposite of “plucky”is) Brock Lesnar sits there in one of his stone-washed “DeathClutch” dress shirts grunting monosyllabic answers. Meanwhile, Dana White huddles at home with his eyes pinched shut mumbling, “Don’t say faggot on national TV, don’t say faggot on national TV” over and over.

Other guests on Fallon’s show that night? The dude who played Ross on “Friends” and funk legends Vanilla Fudge (Carmine Appice FTW!). Some other weird things we noticed after the jump …

(“So, we can put you down for two boxes of Thin Mints, one box of Samoas and one box of Thank U Berry Much, then?” Pic: SB Nation)

Have a conversation with any of the top trainers in mixed martial arts – say, a Bob Cook, Trevor Wittman, or even Cesar Gracie – and it’s almost guaranteed that you will walk away struck by their incredible levelheadedness and otherworldly patience. Nowhere is that commitment to sanity and likability more evident than in Greg Jackson who – let’s face it – must be a goddamned saint to put up with everybody else in this sport’s crazy bullshit on day-to-day basis. Seriously, this dude seems far too reasonable to even be involved in MMA.

In fact, if there’s a real tragedy in Jon Jones’ and Rashad Evans’ lightning quick transition from bros to foes these last few weeks, it’s that Jackson is caught in the middle of it. The renowned trainer reiterated his resolve to stay neutral during an interview with MMA Fighting published on Wednesday, in the end essentially saying he feels both Jones and Evans are in the wrong here: Jones for capitulating to public pressure to fight Evans and then Evans for totally freaking the fuck out and decamping for Florida when he found out about it. Jackson’s entirely too sensible take on the situation is after the jump …

(Well sure, if you need advice on how to beat up an overhyped light-heavyweight, Antonio Silva’s definitely your man. Kidding! Only kidding! / Props: twitter.com/SUGARASHADEVANS via MiddleEasy)

Don’t know about y’all, but I already miss the days when the Rashad Evans/Jon Jones situation was merely awkward, and not openly hostile. The gloves finally came off yesterday when Evans gave an interview to BloodyElbow in which he told everyone what he really thinks about the new UFC light-heavyweight champion, and reveals that he never wanted to train with Jones in the first place. Some highlights…

On Jones’s change of heart before the Shogun fight: “I mean it’s one thing to say something in an interview but the least you could have picked up the phone and been like, ‘man I did an interview today and they kind of put me on the spot with a rough question and I answered it this way.’ At least give me the heads up so that way I know and not look at it if he’s Judas or something. You know who Judas is? That interview was some backstabbing s**t but now it’s like whatever because now I know the game he is playing. Then for Greg to sit back and say he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it….why not? You f**kin’ created the situation. Be his coach and be in his corner. That’s what you want so do it. I don’t care if he coaches against me. It doesn’t even matter.”

[Ed. note: Yeah, I think a guy with a New Testament scripture inked on his chest is pretty familiar with Judas. In all of the verbal-trash that will be slung around in the lead-up to this fight, this is probably the line that will stick with — and motivate — Jones the most.]

(Awwwwww! Props: Chad S., Facebook.com/CagePotato)

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…

- UFC 128: Is Jon Jones a Dream Come True for Dana White and the UFC? (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- ‘UFC Primetime’ Returns for St. Pierre vs. Shields (MMA-Scraps)

- Frank Shamrock: I Did Not Offer to Take a Dive Against Kimbo Slice (MMA Fighting)

- Crazy Talk? Dan Henderson Could Give Jon Jones a Fight (MMA Convert)

- Exclusive Interview: Brian Ebersole Talks About Eating Marijuana Cookies and Being ‘The White Anderson Silva’ (MiddleEasy)

- Kendall Grove Facing Tim Boetsch at UFC 130 (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Anderson Silva Says Jon Jones’ Performance Was “Amazing”; Not Ruling out a Return to 205 (LowKick)

- Dana White “Worried” for UFC Champ Jon Jones (5thRound)

- Five Lessons: UFC 128 (Versus MMA Beat)

- Guida (#6) vs. Pettis (#9) Headlines Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale (Fight Magazine)

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

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMAScrapsRadio)

What a difference a year makes.

Less than 365 days ago, newly-crowned UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones appeared on MMAScraps Radio and told  Pat Barry, who was then the co-host of the show, that there was no way, no how he would ever fight a teammate, especially not “his brother Rashad Evans.”

Jones’ change of heart has caused a rift in Albuquerque which caused Evans to move his camp from Team Jackson to Imperial Athletics in Boca Raton Florida, where he will train with displaced former members of American Top Team who have set up shop there including Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante, Jorge Santiago and the Villefort brothers.

In the interview, Jones backed Evans recent revelation that he had to agree to never fight any of his Jackson teammates as a condition of joining the revered fight team — a clause he later publicly reneged on prompting the former champ to accept the offer to face his heir apparent and former training partner. Interestingly, even when Barry tried at length to convince Jones that fighting a teammate wasn’t a big deal, “Bones” didn’t waver in his stance that it simply wouldn’t happen. He even went so far as to say that if pressed by the UFC to fight Evans or Keith Jardine, he would find a way out of the bout even if it meant faking an injury.

Check out the transcript of the interview after the jump.

(I guess that would make Anderson Silva the other joker, and Randy Couture the “Rules of Poker” instructional card that always gets lost.)

By Anton Gurevich

After just three years of MMA competition, Jon “Bones” Jones became the youngest champion in the UFC’s history. Jones defeated the PRIDE legend Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in an impressive fashion to become the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, proving to everyone once again that “the hype is real.”

The Greg Jackson product is currently 7-1 in his Ultimate Fighting Championship campaign, defeating Andre Gusmao, Stephan Bonnar, Jake O’Brien, Brandon Vera, Vladimir Matyushenko and Ryan Bader on his way to the triumph against Shogun Rua at UFC 128. His only defeat came via DQ (“12-6 elbows”) against Matt Hamill at the TUF 10 Finale event on Dec. 5th, 2009.

And since the majority of Jacks, Queens and Kings of the UFC Light Heavyweight division are behind him, here’s the list of four aces who may be on their way to challenging “The Joker” Jon Jones for his belt…

Continue reading on Lowkick.com