(Photo courtesy of twitter.com/danawhite)

Here’s another reason to pay attention to the fights this weekend: At today’s UFC 113 press conference, Dana White confirmed that the winner of the co-headlining bout between Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley will be the next challenger to Georges St. Pierre‘s welterweight belt.

I’d actually be interested to see how Koscheck does in a rematch with GSP. He has the wrestling skills to stuff a takedown here and there, and his hands are more powerful than the champ’s. As long as he doesn’t focus on taking St. Pierre down like he did during their first fight in 2007 — and failing, and failing, and failing — he could keep things competitive. But my God, if Daley wins? Be prepared for the 25-minute sequel to GSP vs. Hardy that nobody asked for. Here’s the irony: Paul Daley really does have one-punch knockout power; he’s everything that the UFC hyped up/exaggerated Dan Hardy to be. The problem is, Semtex is notoriously weak on the ground, and GSP would have no trouble putting him there. We already know how this story goes, and no amount of hyperbolic promotion is going to change the outcome.

It hasn’t been officially confirmed that the Koscheck/Daley winner will coach TUF 12 opposite GSP, but rumors are pointing in that direction, and both fighters would be open to the opportunity.

Random thought: Jake Shields‘s first match in the UFC (fingers crossed) should be Paulo Thiago, and that match should produce a title contender. Discuss.

(Koscheck came to Montreal to kick ass and chew bubblegum. Fortunately for Daley, Josh brought plenty of bubblegum.)

Either Josh Koscheck is doing his damndest to keep upcoming opponent Paul Daley guessing about his game plan for their UFC 113 meeting or he has realized that going toe-to-toe with a guy whose hands are nearly as effective at making people’s heads spin and putting them to sleep as a Brent Brookhouse editorial, is not the best idea in the world.

Less than a week away from the May 8 bout in Montreal and Kos is giving ostensibly different answers when asked how he is planning to face "Semtex."

(Video courtesy YouTube/UFC.com)

When it comes to trash talking, fighters typically fall under one of three categories: those who rely on their pre-fight banter to make up for their inferior skill set, those who don’t necessarily need to talk smack, but do because they have the skills to back up their mouths and those who should stick to fighting and leave the posturing to the pros.

Set to lock horns at UFC 113 May 8 in Montreal are two of the sport’s smack talking idiot savants, Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley. Both definitely can sell fights without saying a word, but the entertainment value of hearing the two of them go at it verbally before either throws a punch, is nearly as good as the fight itself will likely prove to be.

(Props: MMAVIDS10)

The UFC’s next pay-per-view card goes down May 8th in Montreal, featuring the light-heavyweight title rematch between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua — both of whom haven’t competed since their first fight last October. This extended preview acknowledges the controversy about the decision, which Shogun lost despite the fact that he clearly landed more strikes. Following two fantastic knockout victories over Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans, Machida’s title reign was immediately put in question after the Shogun fight, and the long layoff hasn’t helped his stock. Once again, he’ll need to convince fans of his merits. And once again, Dana White sells a fight as a matchup between two guys who "don’t like to go to the ground." Well that’s a relief. I wouldn’t want any of that grappling stuff to distract from the kickboxing match I’m paying for.

In the co-main event, top welterweight contenders Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley do battle in what could turn out to be a #1 contender’s match. In fact, there’s a rumor floating around that the winner of this fight will coach opposite Georges St. Pierre on TUF 12. If Koscheck employs his superior wrestling against "Semtex," he’ll dictate the fight. If he lets his ego force him into a striking war with Paul Daley, he could get his fraggle-lookin’ head knocked off. Any predictions on UFC 113′s headlining fights? And what about the TUF 10 castmates match between Kimbo Slice and Matt "Meathead" Mitrione?

(photo props: CombatLifestyle.com)

Paul Daley is arguably the most dangerous striker in the welterweight class. Possessing a lethal combination of power, accuracy and speed, the Nottingham, ENG native makes up for his shortcomings on the ground with his superior stand-up skills, often making quick work of his opponents.

Of Daley’s 23 victims, 13 never made it out of the first round, and only three of those made it past the three-minute mark with the former Cage Rage welterweight champion.

Much like coaxing him into a ground fight, tying down the 27-year-old for an interview is nearly impossible, but we managed to secure one round of his time for a rapid-fire Q&A session with the brash British fighter, who is currently in the midst of his training camp for his May 8 showdown with Josh Koscheck at UFC 113.

Here’s what he had to say about a variety of topics including Kos, his lack of dedication to training jiu-jitsu, his Rough House teammates and the reasons he loves to fight:

(Fitch’s ‘post-decision sneer’ gets better every time. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

The back-and-forth between Dana White and Jon Fitch at the UFC 111 post-fight presser this weekend was the latest in a string of passive-aggressive attempts by the UFC president to promote a fight between two teammates. By suggesting that Fitch doesn’t really want a title fight badly enough, or by casually mentioning Rashad Evans as a potential future opponent for fellow Jackson camp fighter Jon Jones, White is refusing to let the topic die. Maybe you can’t put a price on friendship, but DW would sure like to find a figure that would make these guys put it on hold for fifteen minutes or so.

And so today we ask the question, is making teammates fight each other in MMA an idea that is awesome or not awesome?

(At least he’s got a sense of humor. That’s the second best thing to have in a fight with GSP. The first? Excellent takedown defense.)

At this point, we have to assume that Dan Hardy knows he won’t be the fan favorite heading into his title fight with Georges St. Pierre at UFC 111. As a 5-1 underdog, he won’t be the betting favorite either, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still have a little fun. The problem is, there’s really not that much trash you can talk to GSP. Not only are there very few evident weaknesses in his game, but as a person he’s almost painfully non-offensive (unless you happen to be B.J. Penn). So what does Hardy do? He goes after the people who say he hasn’t earned his shot at the champ. Fortunately for him, there is no shortage of them.

On his blog at ThisIsNottingham.co.uk, Hardy took aim at his critics and held absolutely nothing back.

On Mike Swick: “It’s funny Swick is now moaning that I didn’t deserve this shot. Swick should have kept his mind off me and on his last opponent, Paulo Thiago, and maybe he wouldn’t have been beaten again.”

(Images courtesy of The UG.)

Who knows what will happen when Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley mix it up at UFC 113 (May 8th, Montreal), but Semtex has scored a first-round KO in the battle of insulting pre-fight Photoshops. Peeved at Koscheck’s recent Twitter outbursts, Daley stopped by The UG earlier today to post this call to arms:

The UG’ers quickly got to work whipping up a batch of photoshop destruction, the highlights of which you can see above and after the jump. (See, we told you that forum was the shit.) Enjoy, and if you have your own Joshoshops to add, please post links in the comments section or e-mail ‘em to us…

Personally, I blame Chael "Epic Troll" Sonnen, who recently proved that even if you have a somewhat dull fighting style, MMA fans will start caring about you as soon as you accuse Anderson Silva of being an overrated punk who’s fluent in both English and Spanish. Sonnen’s recent success in playing the heel is only encouraging trash-talkers to get bolder with their call-outs, and the latest instigator is UFC welterweight contender Josh Koscheck, who has been on Twitter the last couple of days demanding that Tito Ortiz fight him. Considering that Koscheck is two weight classes smaller than Ortiz, this seems like a fight that Ortiz would actually take, although the HBBB hasn’t responded yet.

Obviously, the matchup would never be approved by the UFC or any athletic commission in this country*, even if Kos went on an all-Bojangles diet for the next three months. And in that sense, the call-out is virtually useless, outside of the fact that it gets us talking about Josh Koscheck for a few minutes one Tuesday afternoon. It’s like when somebody says "I’d kick your ass if my friends weren’t holding me back." In this analogy, the "friends" represent the 35-pound weight differential. You’re talking shit with a safety net. Yes, Josh, in the old days of the UFC, you’d occasionally see a guy like Keith Hackney beating the crap out of a guy like Emmanuel Yarborough. But I’m not sure that argument’s strong enough to convince Dana to toss out the unified rules on your behalf.

* Wait a minute. Are they just building up heat for a future headlining fight in Abu Dhabi? Oh God, no.

(‘Why, Anthony? I trusted you!’)

Today many people agreed to fight many other people for money at a later date, and as tedious as it is to run through all the fights that you’ll eventually learn about one way or another anyway, we might as well drag ourselves through it one more time:

– Josh Koscheck announced via Twitter today that he will fight Paul "Semtex" Daley in a "co main event" bout at UFC 113 on May 1st.  Daley has been grumbling about wanting a crack at Koscheck lately, and Koscheck responded by tweeting, "[t]his kid is going 2 get what he’s asking 4. XOXO"  Wait a minute, are we sure Koscheck’s Twitter wasn’t hacked by a fourteen year-old girl?

(Photo courtesy of TheSun)

From a recent post on Brock Lesnar‘s official Facebook page:

NEW UPDATE!! Brock has had more problems (we can’t say what they are) and he could be out all of this year if things don’t get better. Brock wants to thank all of his fans for their support and for the nice messages so thanks guys.

Though we’ve yet to see the official update that we were promised this week, let this be your advance warning that Lesnar won’t be returning this summer. In other unconfirmed news…

— SI’s Josh Gross hears that Frankie Edgar will get the next shot at BJ Penn’s lightweight belt in April, regardless of Gray Maynard‘s performance against Nate Diaz at UFC Fight Night 20 on Monday. Edgar (11-1, 6-1 UFC), most recently submitted Matt Veach at the TUF 10 finale, holds wins over Sean Sherk, Hermes Franca, and Tyson Griffin, and previously lost a decision to Maynard in April 2008.

— According to MMA Live host Jon Anik, a match between knockout artist Paul Daley and perennial top contender Josh Koscheck is being discussed for May or June. Between Daley’s recent destructions of Martin Kampmann and Dustin Hazelett, and Koscheck’s wins over Frank Trigg and Anthony Johnson, both guys have a lot of heat behind them right now. Feels like a #1 welterweight contender fight to us…

(Koscheck’s hair used to be straight before that punch. Nah, just messin’ with you guys. Photo courtesy of Josh Hedges/UFC)

Due to an undisclosed injury, Josh Koscheck has pulled out of his scheduled rematch with Paulo Thiago at UFC 109 (February 6th, Las Vegas). Koscheck confirmed the news on Twitter, writing "I will be good to go back to training in a couple weeks I hope!!…It’s all good & I’ll get my body rested & back to the top real soon." Koscheck and Thiago previously met at UFC 95 in February, where Thiago pulled off a shock upset via first-round KO. Since then, the Brazilian supercop has dropped a decision to Jon Fitch and won a decision over Jacob Volkmann.

Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long for a replacement opponent. According to MMA Fighting, Koscheck’s teammate Mike Swick has already stepped up to face Thiago. Swick is coming off his unanimous decision loss to Dan Hardy, which was his first defeat at welterweight. This will be the third American Kickboxing Academy fighter that Thiago will throw down with. So, the AKA guys know him well, but he knows them too, and they know he knows, dig? UFC 109′s lineup is after the jump. Let’s hope this isn’t the beginning of another curse…

(When the going gets tough, the tough go on a massive Pedialyte bender. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

For a card that was already struggling to book big fights in the wake of a heavyweight-targeting staph-outbreak, this is the last thing that UFC 108 needed. The January 2nd show has been struck down yet again, as Carlos Condit has been forced to withdraw from his fight against Paul Daley due to a hand injury suffered in training. The Condit/Daley scrap was slated to be UFC 108′s co-headliner. As things stand now, the only fights locked down for the main card are Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva, Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout, and Tyson Griffin vs. Jim Miller — and the event is less than a month away. Not exactly worthy of "New Year’s" card status, if you ask us. Can we move this one to Arbor Day?

As you can imagine, Paul Daley is upset, and when Paul gets upset he gets personal. "Condit is a big pussy IMO, I have inside information on that dude," Daley wrote on the Underground Forum. But after venting a bit, Semtex was in solution-mode: "It’s all good as long as I fight…Koscheck is a tough motherfucker, but I accept the challenge. Hazelett has sick subs, and is dangerous, but I accept that fight too. Any top level fighter in 170lbs with a winning record. Joe [Silva] make it happen.”

Unfortunately, Josh Koscheck is already scheduled to take on Paulo Thiago in February — but then again, you don’t fight 12 times a year unless you can fill every gap in every card. Out of curiosity, how bad do things have to get before the UFC just says "eff it" and cancels an event?

(‘Have I won yet?’ Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

Despite his belief that he is the "number one freaking contender" in the UFC’s welterweight division, Josh Koscheck is going to have to wait until Georges St. Pierre and Dan Hardy do their thing in March before he’ll get a chance to act on it.  Koscheck wants to fight once a month in 2010, so odds are he’s not going to be content with just sitting around and working on his memoir (tentatively titled, What Are You Looking At, Geek?) until then.  In the meantime, a rematch between Koscheck and Brazilian police commando Paulo Thiago seems to be in the works for UFC 109 in February. 

It makes sense.  The first time they met Kos seemed to be in control until a surprise uppercut from Thiago floored him, leaving him complaining about an early stoppage and thus generating our very own ‘WTF is your problem?’ rule.  Thiago looked competent, though not spectacular against Jacob "Christmas" Volkmann at UFC 106, so why not see if his win over Koscheck was just a beautiful fluke?  Of course, this isn’t without its risks for our bleached blonde friend.

(‘Just great, Anthony. Because of you, now Josh is squinting.  Do you hear me?  Squinting!’)

As usual, Fight Magazine has a ton of awesome photos from UFC 106, including this moment of sober reflection where Anthony Johnson gets glared at by Mario Yamasaki before being sent to a neutral corner to think about what he’s done.  Johnson appeared to be pretty angry at himself for kneeing Josh Koscheck while he was down, and then he saw the replay on the big screen.  That’s when his remorse turned into indignation.  Little did he know that his own eyeball would get skewered just moments later.

To see the full gallery, go here.  To see the winner of the Punch-Face of the Night award, continue on after the jump. 

(If you ask us, that’s worth 50 grand right there. Photo courtesy of the Toronto Sun via Fightlinker.)

We’ve already passed along the headliners’ payouts from UFC 106, but now the complete salary list has been released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, so we figured hey, why not share them with you people? The UFC paid out $1,301,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses, with 57% of that total going to Forrest Griffin, Tito Ortiz, and Josh Koscheck. Check out the pay scale below, and keep in mind that the figures don’t include income from sponsorships, undisclosed "locker-room bonuses," and cuts of the pay-per-view, or deductions for taxes, insurance, licensing fees, and tanning salon memberships.

– Forrest Griffin: $250,000 (includes $150,000 win bonus)

– Tito Ortiz: $250,000

– Josh Koscheck: $246,000 (includes $53,000 win bonus, $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $70,000 Submission of the Night bonus)

– Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: $170,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus, $70,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)

(Tito Ortiz complains about not getting UFC 106‘s Fight of the Night bonus, and disputes the scoring of his match against Forrest Griffin. Koscheck’s expression at 2:34-2:36 pretty much sums it up. Props: Cagewriter)

— Though Josh Koscheck and Dana White have reportedly butted heads in the past, it’s clear that Kos is back on DW’s good side. For his second-round submission of Anthony Johnson at UFC 106 last night, Koscheck picked up both the $70,000 Submission of the Night bonus, and a $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus (which Johnson also received). As Dana White explained, "I have to publicly say that [Koscheck] always steps up, always wants to fight, fights the best in the world, and I’m blown away with his performance tonight." Still, is that enough justification to reward the chaotic mess that Koscheck vs. Johnson turned out to be?

Koscheck’s $140,000 bonus take adds to the $106,000 in show/win money he earned from the fight, meaning he came up just short of headliners Ortiz and Griffin, who were paid $250,000 in disclosed salary. UFC 106′s Knockout of the Night bonus went to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who needed just under two minutes to run over Luis Cane.

(Bruce Buffer is fairly confident that Griffin will outstrike Ortiz to a unanimous decision. Joe Rogan is peaking on a DMT trip and is desperately trying to keep his shit together as Tito’s head explodes into a screaming ball of golden phosphorescence. / Photo courtesy of the UFC 106: Weigh In Pics set on CombatLifestyle.com.)

After an ancient curse claimed Brock Lesnar, Mark Coleman, Ricardo Almeida, and Karo Parisyan — and even threatened the velvet voice of Mike Goldberg — we’ve finally arrived at tonight’s bedraggled UFC event, which will be headlined by a do-over between Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin. Guiding us through the action this evening is special guest liveblogger Chad Dundas; please make him feel welcome. Round-by-round results from the UFC 106 pay-per-view broadcast are after the jump, beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and say a little prayer that Josh Koscheck doesn’t accidentally gouge his eye out in the locker room while putting on his cup.

You know how some people have this magnetic quality to them that makes you want to like them, no matter what they might be saying or doing?  Guys like Jack Nicholson, or that Australian kid who threw the crazy party and refused to take off his sunglasses.  Even when they behave poorly, there’s still something about them that makes it impossible not to be on their side.  Josh Koscheck is the complete opposite of that, and he displays it perfectly in this video interview with Fight Magazine.  Here he talks ever so smugly about how Anthony Johnson doesn’t want to fight him, how he’d love to take 20% of his purse and then beat him up anyway, and how he fully intends to punish "Rumble" like the UFC wants him to.  It’s the high school bully act, and Koscheck fits into the role so easily it’s like he was born to do it.

As a contrast, Johnson couldn’t find anything bad to say about Koscheck at all.  In fact, he called Koscheck an "entertaining" fighter and said he was "really respectable as a human being."  He said those things before this video of Koscheck smirking into the camera was posted to the internet.  Hopefully someone shows it to him before the fight tomorrow night.  He should at least go into it with a clear idea of the level of jerkitude that he’s dealing with.

In their scramble to shore up UFC 106‘s lineup after the loss of Brock Lesnar, the UFC has booked a welterweight scrap between Josh Koscheck and Anthony Johnson for the November 21st event. Koscheck first announced via Twitter that he would be co-headlining the card, and Sherdog later confirmed his opponent.

It’ll be just a four-week turnaround for Johnson, who picked up his third straight win on Saturday night with a devastating 41-second TKO of Yoshiyuki Yoshida. (Our advice: Start cutting weight now.) Koscheck is coming off a first-round TKO of Frank Trigg at UFC 103 last month, and scored his own thunderous KO of Yoshiyuki Yoshida last December. Maybe it’s not worthy of co-main status, but at least Koscheck vs. Johnson will probably end with a highlight-reel knockout. Your predictions?

(Props: The Sun)

The UFC is reportedly making its first visit to Virginia for UFC Fight Night 20 (January 11th; Fairfax), and the lineup is starting to come together. Here’s what we’re hearing:

— Josh Koscheck (13-4), fresh off his first-round TKO over Frank Trigg at UFC 103, will be taking on Mike Pierce (9-1), who most recently scored a big upset over Brock Larson in his Octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 19. Koscheck is under the impression that he’ll be getting Georges St. Pierre soon, though he’s probably still in line after his teammate Mike Swick.

— TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero (12-0) and Nik Lentz (17-3-1) have agreed to meet each other in a lightweight bout. Escudero’s last win was a first-round TKO over Cole Miller at UFC 103, while Lentz defeated Rafaello Oliveira by decision at the same event. Not exactly a step up the ladder for Escudero, but the UFC has a way of building up their TUF winners slowly.

(Whaddaya say, Royce. Wanna do it again?)

Matt Hughes may not know exactly what he wants to do with the new four-fight contract that he signed with the UFC, but he definitely knows what he doesn’t want to do.  Fights with young welterweight up-and-comers like Josh Koscheck and Mike Swick?  Not interested.  A third chance at getting his first victory over Denis Hallman?  No thanks.  How about simply completing the entire four-fight deal?  No guarantees there, either.  So what the hell does Hughes want to do with the remainder of his career?  I don’t know, you got any more washed-up legends laying around?

As far as who I fight next? You know, looking at these younger kids who are wanting to come in and be the next world champion or be the next contender, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know if I’ll take on those guys.  There are plenty of older guys out there with big names who can fight, too. I like to take fights where I’ve got something to win. If I take a fight against Mike Swick or Josh Kosheck, I’ve really got nothing to gain from that fight besides a paycheck and beating somebody up. They’ve got more to win than I do. Those aren’t the kinds of fights that interest me.

Royce Gracie was a big fight, you know? It was a huge name, a guy that had won the old tournaments in the beginning. Those are the fights I like, the ones I can really get revved up for and get motivated. Those are the kinds of fights that gets me into the gym ready to train and work.

(Paul Daley shows off a completely different kind of punch face.)

There was a time when fighting Matt Hughes meant signing up to get slammed through the mat before being mercilessly pounded on and dominated in a way that makes even tough guys want to go cry in the shower.  Now, instead of being a feared force in the UFC’s welterweight division, he’s the guy everyone wants to fight, preferably soon, before anyone else has a chance to put a beating on him and claim whatever is left of the Hughes luster.  It’s not enough of an indignity for a former champ to have every 170-pounder at AKA putting his name in the streets, now Paul Daley is doing it too:

“I want to fight Hughes, firstly because he’s a legend and second he’s former welterweight champion. He has a win over the current welterweight champion, and he has all the skills to exploit my weaknesses that the media and my ‘fans’ so often talk about. …I want Hughes, I don’t see why he wouldn’t want to fight me, unless he thinks he’s gonna lose.”

First of all, Daley’s two reasons for wanting a fight with Hughes are really one reason: Matt Hughes has a big name.  But he does have a point when he says that Hughes has the tools to help us find out if Daley’s ground game is truly as weak as advertised.  At least, the old Hughes had those tools. 

Sources have confirmed to MMA Junkie that the rumored bout between returning welterweight contender Frank Trigg and perennial threat Josh Koscheck will indeed take place at UFC 103 (September 19th, Dallas); bout agreements have been sent out are expected to be signed shortly. Though his last two UFC appearances resulted in first-round rear-naked choke losses to Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre, Trigg is now on a four-fight win streak, including wins over Edwin Dewees and Falaniko Vitale. Koscheck is coming off an upset knockout loss against Paulo Thiago to UFC 95 in February, and needs a win to still be considered one of the best 170-pounders in the division.

UFC 103 will come just three days after UFC Fight Night 19 (September 16th, Oklahoma City), which will serve as a lead-in to the season premiere of For the Love of Kimbo.

In other fight-booking news…

(Props: YouTube.com/TRIGGZINC via TheGarv)

When it was announced that Triggonomics brand-manager Frank Trigg was returning to the UFC after a four-year absence, we had a lot of questions — like who his first opponent would be, and when exactly he’d be fighting, and had he picked out his next weigh-in outfit yet. Well, we still don’t have specifics, but in this enlightening video blog recorded Sunday, Twinkle Toes tells us the following:

— He’d rather crash and burn against top-ranked opponents then face lesser-known guys, and he decided to return to the UFC because every top welterweight other than Jake Shields fights there.

(Does Houston’s abdomen remind anybody else of Kuato? Photo courtesy of jhiner.)

Bad news for fans who wanted to see Houston Alexander‘s do-or-die, for-real-this-time fight against Andre Gusmao at UFC 98 (May 23rd, Las Vegas). As confirmed on UFC.com, the Assassin has suffered a broken hand and has withdrawn from the match, making him the sixth big-name fighter to be scratched from the event. According to Fightlinker’s records, "Evans vs. Machida" is just one injury away from tying the all-time UFC record for unfortunate pull-outs, which is currently held by UFC 85. To recap the black cloud that has been hanging over UFC 98…

(Lesnar’s fighting style is truly an inspiration to asshole big brothers everywhere.)

Gather round, Potato Nation.  It’s time to sort through the latest batch of your Ask the Potato questions and see what kind of pointless queries have been bouncing around in your precious little heads.  If you  have a question of your own, by all means, let us know in the forums.  If you already asked a question and we still haven’t answered it, we’re probably not going to.  Ask a better question.

Which fighter as of right now has the most drawing power, and why?? – Rokabee

The difficult part about answering this question is correlation vs. causation.  How do we know it’s any one guy drawing huge numbers, and not the timing or the overall card?  The best we can do is look at the highest performing pay-per-views and sell-out events and try to figure out which fighter consistently shows up on those cards.  When we do it that way over the short term, the answer is Brock Lesnar.  Every pay-per-view he’s on does better than the last one.  Thing is, he’s only been on three so far.  If we were fucking doctors or scientists or something, we’d probably say that was too small a sample size.  But we’re not, and you did say, “as of right now,” so there’s your answer.  His pro wrestling fanbase, the sheer curiosity as to what he might become in MMA, plus his volatility make Lesnar a consistent draw.

Are knees to the body on the ground the single most destructive and under-used strike in MMA? You wouldn’t figure it would take too many well planted knees to just ruin an opponent, but you don’t see many guys in side control try it. Wassup wit dat!!! – Dmonicideals

(Better get the next ice-pack ready. Photo courtesy of Yardbarker.)

Alright, let’s get to it…

— After an injury forced Josh Thomson to drop out of his Strikeforce rematch with Gilbert Melendez, a replacement has reportedly been found, according to The Fight Network. Taking on Melendez at Saturday’s "Shamrock vs. Diaz" event will be Rodrigo Damm, an 8-2 veteran of Bodog Fight and Sengoku. Damm hasn’t competed since last August, when he was choked out by Eiji Mitsuoka at Sengoku Fourth Battle.

— Winless since his WEC debut against Cub Swanson in December 2007, Jens Pulver will be given another chance to score a victory at WEC 41 (June 7th, Sacramento). Lil’ Evil will be facing 20-year-old up-and-comer Josh "The Fluke" Grispi (12-1), who has gone 2-0 in the WEC with first-round stoppages over Mark Hominick and Micah Miller. WEC 41 will be headlined by the rematch between Urijah Faber and Mike Brown.

— TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah has an opponent for his much-delayed return at UFC 101 (August 8th, Philadelphia). MMA Weekly confirms that Sadollah’s welterweight debut will come against Johny Hendricks, a 5-0 transfer from the WEC’s defunct 170-pound division who won a unanimous decision over Alex Serdyukov at WEC 39 last month. Also on the card will be another welterweight bout between Tamdan McCrory (who’s coming off a submission victory over Ryan Madigan at UFC 96 in March) and John Howard (who most recently won a Fight of the Night bonus for his split-decision victory over Chris Wilson at UFC 94 in January). UFC 101 will be headlined by the lightweight title scrap between BJ Penn and Kenny Florian.

(Shane Carwin — one of the ten best heavyweights in the world. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

In the wake of UFC 95, WEC 39, and UFC 96, we’ve tidied up the heavyweight, light-heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, and featherweight top ten lists in our Power Rankings section. Some notable changes…

— Shane Carwin enters the heavyweight list at #9 after taking out his first Top 20 opponent in 69 seconds.

— Keith Jardine leaves the light-heavyweight list (temporarily, at least) after his loss to Quinton Jackson on Saturday. He may have beaten a post-peak Chuck Liddell and a pre-peak Forrest Griffin, but it’s unclear if he has what it takes to beat a high-level opponent when they’re at their best.

— Robbie Lawler and Jake Shields drop a spot due to inactivity. Not their fault, but whaddya gonna do. Luckily, their stints in Strikeforce begin soon.

— Josh Koscheck falls to #8 on the welterweight list after being upset by Paulo Thiago. Kos definitely still has the talent of a top-ten fighter — he’s just made some unfortunate choices.

— Jose Aldo ascends to #6 on the featherweight list after his fourth brutal stoppage win in the WEC.

Check ‘em out and let us know if you see things differently.

Unrelated, but important: Thanks so much for all your awesome nominations in our Best MMA Bars forum thread. We’re going to start compiling our list soon, so if you have any others to share, please let us know!

Josh Koscheck isn’t letting a shocking upset slow down his brisk competition schedule. MMA Mania reports that the UFC welterweight sorta-contender will attempt to rebound from his knockout loss against Paulo "Seriously?" Thiago at UFC 98 (May 23rd, Las Vegas), where he’s scheduled to take on Team Quest fighter Chris Wilson; it will be Kos’s fourth fight in six months.

A veteran of the IFL and the Oregon-based SportFight league, Wilson has gone 1-2 since entering the UFC in 2008 and likely needs a win to keep his contract. Wilson lost his Octagon debut against Jon Fitch last March (where he was a short-notice replacement for Akihiro Gono), then won a unanimous decision over Steve Bruno in August, and most recently dropped a split-decision to John Howard in UFC 94′s "Fight of the Night." Six of Wilson’s last eight fights have gone to the judges.

As for Koscheck, he’d better do his research this time. And bringing back some of the wrestling that used to work so well for him in the past wouldn’t be such a terrible idea either.