(For the girl in the Spiderman costume, what happened later that night was the most humiliating experience of her life. For Jon Lovitz, it was just another champagne orgy. Photo via VegasNews)

UFC president Dana White — who, as we are legally obligated to tell you, has never bet on a UFC fight in his life, other than that friendly $100 cash wager he made on Manny Gamburyan vs. Thiago Tavares — has cut ties with The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, a longtime host-venue of TUF Finale events. In true Godfather style, it’s over an insult, related to his immense, well-documented love of gambling (which again, he’s never done on a UFC fight, except for that one time in January 2009).

Here’s the scoop, from swashbuckling shit-stirrer Norm Clarke of the Las Vegas Review Journal:

A falling-out with UFC president Dana White is the latest setback for the hard-hit Palms, sources confirmed Sunday.

The blowup occurred about six months ago when White, furious that his credit line was cut in half, pulled all UFC-related events from the Palms and has not returned…

(Say, that reminds me of a joke: What’s bloodshot, greasy, and smells like cologne?)

According to a new report from MMAJunkie, the Las Vegas District Attorney’s office has decided not to file domestic violence charges against veteran UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste. “After our review of the case, we found that there was insufficient evidence to move forward,” said Tess Driver, executive assistant to Las Vegas district attorney Steve Wolfson.

After being arrested on May 26th following an altercation at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas — and spending the entire day in jail — Celeste claimed that she was simply defending herself when her boyfriend Praveen Chandra choked her twice; Chandra denied Arianny’s version of the events, and claimed that Celeste kicked him in the nose in a limousine. But then you look at their mugshots and all you see is two tired people who should have left the club at midnight, instead of partying to the point of going “crayyyy ha hey bay bayyy.” With no visible injuries to speak of, it seems the Las Vegas authorities decided to just chalk this one up to drunk people acting stupid, or stupid people getting drunk, or both, whatever.

Requests for comment have not been answered by Chandra. Seriously, we found his e-mail address online a few weeks ago and sent him a note about this whole mess, but nothing. WE WILL NOT BE IGNORED, PRAVEEN.

(“It’s an honor to meet you, man. The Hills Have Eyes is, like, my favorite movie ever.”)

According to new reports, the UFC will hold its first Fan Expo of 2012 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas on July 6-7. The expo will be held in conjunction with a major UFC event on July 7th, likely at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. As of now, no fights have been announced for the card; we’ll keep you posted as soon as we know more.

The July 2012 UFC Fan Expo will be the first held since October 2011, when the two-day convention was tied to UFC 136 in Houston. Though we couldn’t make it out to that one, CagePotato has enjoyed a checkered history with these expos, highlighted by a crowd-pleasing punch-machine, a lifetime ban, and a drunken night in Toronto. Should we plan for another meetup in Vegas?

For the latest updates on appearances and events connected to July’s UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas, keep your eye on ufcfanexpo.com.

(“Did I mention I bought Jimmy Dean sausages and I let her use my Star Wars pillow?”)

In spite of earlier reports that Mike Whitehead had reached a plea bargain deal with prosecutors in his felony sexual assault case, it looks like the former UFC fighter will now go to trial in an attempt to refute and disprove the allegations against him.

According to court records, Whitehead’s preliminary hearing will commence on August 19 at 9:00 am in Clark County district court in Las Vegas, NV. The case will be heard by Justice Janiece Marshall.

The preliminary hearing was originally set for last September, but because of delays and an apparent plea deal that either fell through or Whitehead decided not to take, there was a nearly one-year delay in bringing the case to trial.

(Another day, another opportunity to win big on CagePotato.com. Image courtesy of TheFightAddict)

How would you like a chance to win a pair of tickets to UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida on May 23rd, as well as airfare to Las Vegas, a one-night hotel stay, and some pocket money? Ain’t no joke, player — the ultimate UFC weekend can be yours. To get a shot at this $3,000 prize package, go here to enter our UFC 98 sweepstakes, though you may want to read the FAQ first. Basically…

— You must be at least 18 years old to enter.
— If you have AT&T Wireless or Verizon Wireless cell phone service, you can enter directly on the sweepstakes main page; it’ll cost you 99 cents, but you’ll get a totally sweet CagePotato mobile wallpaper in return. Otherwise, you can do it old-school and enter via postcard.
— You can sweeten the odds by entering the sweepstakes up to ten times.
— All entries must be received by Monday, May 11th; the winner will be selected by random drawing and announced on Tuesday, May 12th.

Sound good? Then head over to the UFC 98 sweepstakes page right now. Thanks for playing, and spread the word!

As you may have heard already, UFC 100 sold out in record time with all the tickets being snatched up by “UFC Fight Club” members and newsletters subscribers before the general public got so much as a whiff of them.  That’s great news for the UFC since it justifies all the effort they’ve put into making this a historic fight card.  But with the tickets selling out so fast you can’t help but wonder how much of a role scalpers played.

For instance, UFC.com says ticket prices ranged from $100 to $1,000.  But if you check out StubHub.com (the “official fan-to-fan ticket marketplace” of the UFC) right now you’ll see over 1,000 UFC 100 tickets already for sale.  The cheapest one will run you about $428, and needless to say it is not exactly Octagonside.  For that privilege you’ll pay anywhere from $2,500 to $24,000 (ed. note: you fucking kidding me?).  If you are an MMA fan with that kind of money to spend on tickets to a UFC event, then congratulations.  You are Shaquille O’Neal.

(Photo courtesy of NewMexicoBoxing.com.)

The UFC has officially announced five bouts for the supporting card of their historic UFC 100 event, which goes down July 11th at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas; tickets go on sale to the general public tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT. Here’s what the lineup looks like so far, according to UFC 100′s fight card page on UFC.com:

Main Card
Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir (for unified heavyweight championship)
Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves (for welterweight championship)
Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping (MW)
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alan Belcher (MW)

"May not be broadcast"
Jon Jones vs. Jake O’Brien (LHW)
Dong Hyun Kim vs. Jonathan Goulet (WW)
CB Dollaway vs. Tom Lawlor (MW)
Matt Grice vs. Shannon Gugerty (LW)

For some reason, the light-heavyweight match between Mark Coleman and Stephan Bonnar isn’t listed on UFC.com, even though Amir Sadollah confirmed the fight during an "Inside the Octagon" segment on Wednesday’s installment of The Ultimate Fighter. In addition, welterweights Jon Fitch and Paulo Thiago have reportedly agreed to meet at UFC 100, while a new report from MMA Weekly claims that a lightweight bout between Mac Danzig and Jim Miller will also be added to the card.

Watch MMA Fix Presents MMA Ring Girl Search 2! on RawVegas.tv

Oh, these “ring girl searches.”  Just related enough to the sport of MMA for us to have an excuse for posting them.  I really like Dave Farra’s interview style, because he manages to say things like “Maybe you should go with the ass-shaking thing again, because that worked pretty well last time,” and yet somehow he does not come off sounding like a jerk or a perv, like I would if I said that to a girl in a club.

Seriously though, why do they always ask these girls what they know about MMA?  Are we supposed to be disappointed when a wanna-be ring girl can’t even name an MMA fighter?  Because I’m not.  Nor am I surprised.  I am, however, endlessly amused by the girl who says she likes Randy Couture before blowing a kiss to him (assuming that he’s at home watching Raw Vegas videos on his computer, of course).  When Dave informs her that he’s married to a woman who can also fight a little bit, she responds, “Well then I guess I’ll have to wait.”

I’ll let you guys debate whether that woman has failed to grasp the concept of marriage, or whether she actually knows enough about Couture’s personal history for that to be a somewhat intelligent statement.

(Please just tell me there’s a dancing seminar by Gono.)

The UFC sent out an email today announcing their first ever UFC Fan Expo around UFC 100 in Las Vegas this summer.  It includes training demos, autotgraph sessions, and “keynote addresses,” possibly from Dana White and/or Lorenzo Fertitta (though details on anything are very sketchy at the moment).  Basically, a lot of fun stuff for UFC fans in the days leading up to what is supposed to be the biggest UFC event to date.  Sounds great.

The trouble is, you have to buy a ticket, and they aren’t cheap.  You can get a two-day pass for $50 if you buy in advance, or a one-day pass for $30.  This way the UFC gets you to pay for the fights, whether you watch them live or on pay-per-view, and also gets you to pay for some idle entertainment before the fights, like watching Matt Hughes demonstrate how he choked out Frank Trigg’s pompous ass, or listening to Dana White swear his way through a speech about professionalism and ethics in business. 

Okay, those things would both be worth paying for.

If you’re headed to Vegas for UFC 100 you should a) put aside some money to buy me a beer at the Hofbrauhaus, and b) keep an eye on this website for Expo information.  It doesn’t offer much help at the moment since they just announced it, but the last question on the Frequently Asked Questions list is worth a chuckle:

(Props: Japan-MMA.com)

With DREAM’s next set of tournaments just around the corner — the featherweight GP starts March 8th, and the welterweight GP starts April 5th — highlight video maestro Genghis Con teamed up with "Bestrafer7" to create this hot-to-death tribute to DREAM’s 2008 lightweight and middleweight brackets. We don’t know much about this Bestrafer character, but judging from his bizarre J-Pop rap video-themed compilation of Kotetsu Boku, he’s got a style all his own. Below: Wanderlei Silva shows off his new gym in Las Vegas. ("Yeah, welcome!") Looks like a great space, though maybe he should have hired a native English speaker to handle the talking. And will somebody please shut that kid up?

(Props: MMA Mania)

(Fuck a body-cavity search. Props to TMZ.)

More details about War "Jon Koppenhaver" Machine’s weekend arrest, from everybody’s favorite online gossip rag that occasionally covers UFC fighters, TMZ:

Perhaps the club was a little too straight-friendly. (Or not friendly enough?) Who knows. What you should really be concerned about is the fact that he had access to a computer the day after his arrest. After the jump, Machine turns to his trusty blog — perhaps the only constant in his life — to give us a little insight on what might have set him off in the first place.

(Shit’s about to get real, son.  Real bad.)

Five Ounces of Pain is passing along a report that everyone’s favorite MMA screw-up, War Machine, was arrested in Las Vegas for battery early Saturday morning.  That’s right, the same guy who recently lost a job opportunity with Bellator for his comments about President Obama, which came after he was kicked out of the UFC for his comments about Evan Tanner/refusal to fight Brandon Wolff.  

To make matters worse, this was apparently a citizen’s arrest, meaning some guy (or woman, we don’t know) on the street grabbed War Machine after he battered someone and then held him there for the cops.  Or, more likely, it happened in a club or casino and security detained him, though I like the first explanation better for the visual imagery it conjures up.

War Machine was already on probation in California for beating up someone outside a gym, so unless he can prove his innocence in this case – and let’s be honest, you knew when you saw the headline that he was guilty – he’s probably going to do some time.

As much as we like mocking those who have aggressively proved themselves deserving of such mockery, War Machine’s life has recently moved beyond pure schadenfreude and into the realm of the genuinely depressing.  Though he did bring it on himself (repeatedly) while demonstrating a complete unwillingness to learn from his past mistakes.  You know where he could make friends who share those fun little traits?  Prison.

(Gono‘s Afro wig gives Fitch much happiness.  Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

The MGM Grand Garden Arena is sold out for tonight’s event, leaving lonely men to wander the casino floor and mutter hopeless pleas for spare tickets.  But you, you lucky bastards, have this liveblog.  It’s as elusive as Lyoto Machida, as much of a chick magnet as Georges St. Pierre, and as steeped in straight-up, gangsta realness as Nate Diaz.

We’re going to get started with the prelims at about 5 pm PST, so if you don’t want to ruin the undercard results for yourself, tread carefully.  Otherwise, hop on and enjoy the ride.  Remember to hit refresh often.  But before we get started, how about helping us out with a Digg.  Thanks.  You’re the best.

(Just try and ignore it, passing motorists.)

Today is my lucky day, Potato Nation.  Here I am in Vegas for UFC 94, and it’s the grand opening of the Tito Ortiz Punishment MMA Store.  What are the odds!?  Even better, the store is conveniently located inside the Hooters Hotel and Casino across from the MGM Grand, where the fights will take place tomorrow night, so naturally I had to drop in and see what kind of sweet Team Punishment gear I could pick up.

A sign informed me that Justin “The Insane 1” McCully and Tiki Ghosn would be signing autographs tomorrow afternoon, thus completing what is perhaps MMA’s greatest D-list event.

The store itself is tiny, and filled with exactly the kinds of clothes you’d expect.  Almost every t-shirt featured either a fist or chains, sometimes a combination of both.  Despite today being the grand opening, however, I was the only person in the store.  Well, aside from the three teenage girls working there, who were all fairly brimming with excitement (see below).

(Looks like cell block C is getting a new Santa for their annual Christmas party.)

A Las Vegas man went to extreme measures to ensure that his teenage daughter, an aspiring MMA fighter, stayed within her fighting weight.  Robert Blue chained his fifteen-year-old daughter to her bed to keep her from eating after he discovered she had gained weight and was sneaking food – canned peas and corn, of all things – and only released her to eat small meals and train with renowned Muay Thai coach Master Toddy.

According to a local news station the girl is a promising athlete, but suffered from having a moronic, overbearing father:

She holds world records for youth power lifting. She was vicious in the mixed marital arts ring. And her trainer Master Toddy says she has character.

"She has a heart. If she wants to be a fighter, she can be," Master Toddy said.

Blue also kicked his daughter, hit her with a stick and a weight belt, all, presumably, to help her become a champion fighter.  Just goes to show you that stage parents exist even in the sporting world, and are equally as disgusting.  But wait, it gets weirder and sicker:

(Props: MMA Payout)

According to a press release sent out earlier this afternoon, UFC 94 in Las Vegas on January 31 is officially sold out.  Sorry, suckers.  But what did you expect with this much hype?  

As if the “UFC Primetime” series on Spike TV wasn’t enough to help push interest in the Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn fight to an all-time high, the UFC has also managed to get GSP on the cover of the next Men’s Fitness.  Look at him up there, looking all suave and airbrushed, helping us all get rid of our holiday guts.  Whoever the son of a bitch is who stole the buttons off his shirt is sure in for an ass-whippin’ though.  Wouldn’t want to be that guy. 

(Is that an Under Armour coat?  Wouldn’t that be more like Outer Armour?  Or just Armour?  I’m confused.)

According to his official website, Matt Hughes has spoken with UFC matchmaker Joe Silva and agreed to a May 23 fight with rival Matt Serra in Las Vegas. 

Hughes stresses that the bout isn’t "100% confirmed" yet, but he’s up for it and as long as Serra can work off his pasta weight without reinjuring his back there’s no reason they can’t finally settle this feud.  And honestly, it’s about time.  There’s only so long you can put something like this off until everyone, including the fighters, forgets why there was so much animosity to begin with.

Hold on, you thinking what I’m thinking?  Maybe Spike TV could run a special reality series that follows Hughes and Serra as they share a studio apartment together somewhere off the Vegas strip in the weeks before the fight.  Just imagine the hilarity.  Hughes is trying to read his Bible in peace at the end of a long day of training, but Serra is in the kitchen blasting Frank Sinatra and making a pizza pie in his underwear.  And just think of what will happen when Hughes discovers that Serra has been squeezing the toothpaste from the middle of the tube!  Oh, these two will never get along.  At least that show couldn’t be any worse than Double Shot at Love.  It just couldn’t.

(Odds on that dog doing something adorable: very, very good.)

Though we’ve debated the topic nearly to death over the last few days, there’s still no online betting establishment giving odds on whether UFC 91 will really sell 1.2 million pay-per-views, as Dana White claims. What a shame. Knowing absolutely nothing about oddsmaking and even less about basic math, I’d put the line at +900. For all you ‘tards out there, that means I don’t think it will happen. The line on us seeing both Mandy Moore and Laura Prepon during the broadcast? -230. The line on the two of them fighting it out over the last Cosmo at the after-party? +15000. That’s not because they wouldn’t do it, but because the Cosmos never run dry when you hang with Dana White. Never.

As for the odds on actual fights that will actually happen, BestFightOdds.com has done all the leg work for us, and here are the best lines for UFC 91:

Brock Lesnar (-121) vs. Randy Couture (+111)
Kenny Florian (-174) vs. Joe Stevenson (+164)
Demian Maia (-200) vs. Nate Quarry (+195)
Dustin Hazelett (-150) vs. Tamdan McCrory (+175)
Gabriel Gonzaga (-370) vs. Josh Hendricks (+371)
Mark Bocek (-105) vs. Alvin Robinson (+110)
Jeremy Stephens (-115) vs. Rafael Dos Anjos (+117)
Jorge Gurgel (-115) vs. Aaron Riley (+126)
Matt Brown (-185) vs. Ryan Thomas (+190)

Thoughts…

(If Dana is right, Jack Link’s Beef Jerky is about to get their money’s worth.)

UFC president Dana White appeared on ESPN First Take today (thanks to our friends at MMA Fanhouse for the heads up) to talk UFC 91, and it seems he isn’t backing down from his earlier prediction that this event would do over a million pay-per-view buys. This time White got even more specific with his figures:

“We think it’s going to be the biggest pay-per-view draw in UFC history,” White said. “We think we’re going to do 1.2 million buys on this fight. It’s a big fight, the WWE cross-over for this fight, a lot of WWE fans are going to tune in to see if their former wrestling champion can win in a real fight. Vince McMahon might even buy this fight.”

One hopes that White is relying on some kind of consumer research, as he has claimed in the past, and not just spouting off a number. But 1.2 million buys, in the midst of a recession? That’s the kind of claim that makes me want to call ‘shenanigans,’ as the kids say.

The shakiest part of this logic is the dependence on the curiosity of the WWE crossover audience, especially the portion of that audience that typically passes on buying UFC events. This is Brock Lesnar‘s third UFC fight. Granted, it’s his biggest one yet, but only fans who follow the UFC enough to realize the importance of Randy Couture appreciate that.

To the casual WWE fan that White is depending on, isn’t this just another Brock Lesnar fight? And if these WWE fans are so eager to see Lesnar in a real fight, wouldn’t they have been just as willing to pay for his first big fight against Frank Mir?

(TUF 3 castmember Josh Haynes finishes off Sean Salmon with a leglock at “Night of Combat II.” Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Revenue numbers are in for last Saturday’s “Night of Combat II” show in Las Vegas, and it looks like Superfights MMA and KC Concepts took a bath on it. Only 1,063 tickets were sold at the 9,000-seat Thomas & Mack arena, bringing in a live gate of $32,405 — which didn’t come close to covering the disclosed payroll of $160,500. (Comped tickets brought the total attendance up to 1,735 spectators.) Here’s what the fighters took home:

— Hector Ramirez ($20,000, including $5,000 win bonus) def. Rick Roufus ($15,000)
— Jay Hieron ($20,000) def. Chris Kennedy ($8,500)
— Mike Pyle ($20,000) def. Brian Gassaway ($15,000)
— John Alessio ($15,000) def. Gideon Ray ($15,000)
— Josh Haynes ($10,000, including $5,000 win bonus) def. Sean Salmon ($7,000)
— Jonathan Mix ($3,000) def. John Halverson ($3,000)
— Patrick Gonsalves ($1,500) def. Shawn David ($1,500)
— Elena Reid ($1,500) def. Stephanie Palmer ($1,500)
— Ryan Hess ($1,500) def. Ian Omalza ($1,500)

“I know the house wasn’t full,” co-promoter Kim Couture told MMA Mania. “But I put this on for the guys and as long as they had fun it was worth it. I’d like to think we’re going to do more shows.”

(Jay Hieron batters the outmatched Chris Kennedy. Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

From the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on Saturday night…

Hector Ramirez def. Rick Roufus via unanimous decision
Jay Hieron def. Chris Kennedy via unanimous decision
Mike Pyle def. Brian Gassaway via submission (armbar), 4:21 of round 1
John Alessio def. Gideon Ray via TKO, 0:45 of round 1
Josh Haynes def. Sean Salmon via submission (achilles lock), 2:49 of round 2
Jonathan Mix def. John Halverson via TKO, 4:25 of round 1
Patrick Gonsalves def. Shawn David via submission (kimura), 3:51 of round 2
Elena Reid def. Stephanie Palmer via TKO, 0:53 of round 1
Ryan Hass def. Ian Omalza via submission (armbar), 3:09 of round 1

Notes
— Jay Hieron’s original opponent (6-13 jobber Bryson Kamaka) was pulled from the event on Friday after testing positive for marijuana, and was replaced by Chris Kennedy. Hieron dominated Kennedy for three rounds with slams and ground-and-pound, but was unable to finish him. Kennedy left the fight with a golf-ball sized welt on his forehead.

— There was a minor altercation after the Alessio/Ray fight, when Ray threw his mouthpiece at Alessio’s sister, who wouldn’t stop cheering after the match was over. The mouthpiece missed her and struck the dude sitting next to her. Arena security quickly prevented the situation from escalating.

— The event will be broadcast on HDNet on October 17th at 10 p.m.

(If you look up “pwned” in the dictionary, you’ll see this picture.)

Dana White has revealed to Yahoo! Sports’s Kevin Iole that in addition to the interim heavyweight title match between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir, UFC 92 will also feature Forrest Griffin defending his light-heavyweight belt against Rashad Evans, and the third battle between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei Silva; the event will go down on December 27th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Other likely fights include…

Yushin Okami vs. Dean Lister
Cheick Kongo vs. Mustafa Al-Turk
C.B. Dollaway vs. Jorge Rivera
Ryo Chonan vs. Brad Blackburn

Not too shabby so far, though we can’t shake the feeling that it’s still a bit too early for Rampage to be stepping into the cage with his arch-nemesis. That being said, Big Nog by submission in the championship rounds, Griffin by decision, and Silva by TKO in round 2. Feel free to throw in your own early predictions in the comments section…

(Kim Couture at the first “Night of Combat” show in June; thankfully, she’ll be behind the scenes this time. Photo courtesy of Mike Responts via MMA Junkie.)

With Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” card postponed, the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas was left with an open spot on its event schedule — which has been filled by a new MMA card, thanks to none other than Kim “Sugar Free” Couture. According to MMA Weekly, KC Concepts (a shadowy outfit headed up by Randy’s wife) in partnership with boxing promoter Skip Kelp’s Superfights MMA have snatched up the October 11th spot at Thomas & Mack. Two Xtreme Couture fighters who were slated to fight at “Day of Reckoning” — Jay Hieron and Mike Pyle — will now compete at “A Night of Combat II,” as well as a host of other mid-level names. Tickets are available now, and the lineup is looking like this:

1. Mike Whitehead vs. Alan Goes (205)
2. Jay Hieron vs Bryson Kamaka (170)
3. Mike Pyle vs. Brian Gassaway (170)
4. John Alessio vs. Gideon Ray (167)
5. Josh Haynes vs. Steve Byrnes (185)
6. JJ Mix vs. John Halverson (155)
7. Mike Dizak vs. Erick Uresk (155)
8. Patrick “Kui” Gonzalves vs. Ryan Lamareaux (145)
9. Ian Omalza vs Ryan Hass (135)
10. Elana Reed vs Stephanie Palmer (115) swing

Not too bad, considering the most expensive ticket is $53. I wonder if Ozzy will still show up…

Related: “Day of Reckoning” headliner Josh Barnett is also moving on with his life. He will reportedly fight at Sengoku 6 (November 1st; Saitama, Japan) against an opponent to be named later. The event will be co-headlined by the semi-finals and finals of Sengoku’s lightweight grand prix, featuring Satoru Kitaoka, Eiji Mitsuoka, Kazunori Yokota, and Mizuto Hirota.

(Is Golden Boy ready to get in the game?)

The trouble with announcing that you’re about to make a big announcement is that people start chipping away at it, trying to spoil your surprise. It’s been less than twenty-four hours since Affliction “rescheduled” its October 11 event, and the rumors are flying. COO Michael Cohen told NBC Sports that he expected Fedor Emelianenko to be added to the event, now back at the Honda Center in January, but who would he face?

Reached for comment earlier today, Cohen told me he wasn’t sure yet whether Fedor would face “Andrei Arlovski or someone else.” When asked where that left Josh Barnett, he replied, “or Josh Barnett.”

In other words, Fedor will fight the always-formidable ‘TBA’ for Affliction in January, but that’s obviously not the big announcement. Rumor has it that it more likely involves a partnership of some sort with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. You may recall that Golden Boy was said to be on board back in the beginning, but supposedly dropped out after the announcement was made prematurely before issues of control were completely ironed out.

Affliction isn’t making that mistake again. When asked about a potential Golden Boy partnership or co-promotion, Cohen said he could not “confirm or deny” those rumors. He offered the same response when asked whether this might open the door for them to land a deal with HBO, although HBO seems to be rejecting that notion outright, according to Director of Media Relations, Kevin Flaherty:

“HBO is not in discussions with any MMA organization presently. Our sports programming plate is full.”

For now Golden Boy seems like the frontrunner for this big announcement, but what will that mean for Affliction? A possible MMA/boxing venture, or just some promotional and financial aid? Affliction is tight-lipped for the moment, not wanting to ruin the surprise, but Cohen assured us, ““When we make the announcement the reasons for this will all be self-evident.”

MMA fans have heard that one before, as Cohen acknowledged.

“The difference is,” he said, “we’re not just announcing a toy line.”

(Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

In an attempt to make Affliction’s decision to, let’s just say not go through with their planned October 11 event in Las Vegas, company VP Tom Atencio is getting specific about the semantics involved. You see, they aren’t canceling their event. Everyone knows that’s a bad sign for an MMA company. And they aren’t postponing it, either. Again, another bad sign. No, it’s nothing like that.

Atencio explains it all to MMA Weekly:

“We’re not canceling it, we’re not postponing it, we’re rescheduling it completely,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to do it where we wanted to do it, it’s a positive.”

[...]

“It was a business decision. We came out strong, and we want to continue with that momentum and continue strong. We don’t want to come out and be weak and have to give tickets away. We want to continue to be a force in this industry.”

[...]

“From a business standpoint, we don’t want to lose money,” he said. “We want to be here long term. It’s a wise choice. This is definitely a positive.”

So they scheduled an event, paid for a Nascar sponsorship and a Times Square billboard touting the date, then couldn’t sell any tickets. So what did they do? They scheduled it again, for a different time and place. They re-scheduled it. Completely different than postponing or canceling.

Atencio also said there would be an announcement about the company’s future during the Marquez-Casamayor boxing match this Saturday, while Affliction COO Michael Cohen has been more vague, promising an announcement “within two weeks” and saying a press conference would take place at Trump Towers in New York City.

Could this big announcement have something to do with a boxing co-promotion? Or absolutely nothing to do with boxing? Will we continue to play this guessing game until someone comes up with some answers? Where’s Waldo!? Who’s on first?!? Gaaah!

Aw hell naw. The Nevada State Athletic Commission has confirmed to Sherdog that Affliction’s second MMA event — which was scheduled to go down October 11th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas — has been postponed to 2009:

Affliction contacted Kizer on Wednesday morning to inform him that the event would be moved to a January date at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

We already knew that the UFC was (allegedly) making things very unpleasant for Affliction in Las Vegas, and it looks like the pressure might have been too much. Unfortunately, they now take a bath on the money they shelled out on advertising for the event — which didn’t appear to be much, granted, although billboards in Times Square aren’t cheap. More importantly, their momentum is totally dead at this point. Six months between events is an eternity if you’re trying to build an MMA organization. I’d say the silver lining to this poop-cloud is that at least Fedor Emelianenko will be healthy enough to compete by January — unless of course he breaks his hand again during his annual New Year’s Eve freak show fight in Japan. More details to come…

Update: MMA Rated is floating the rumor that as few as 700 tickets had been sold for “Day of Affliction.” For ring events, the Thomas & Mack Center can hold 19,522 spectators.

(Times Square, meet “The Pitbull” and “The Baby-Faced Assassin.”)

The dispute between the UFC and Randy Couture may be over, but the one between the UFC and Affliction still rages on. After telling reporters that he would be “fucking horrified” to see Affliction still in business in 2009, Dana White may be trying to speed their demise as Affliction heads to Las Vegas for its October 11 event. According to VP Tom Atencio, Affliction is being hindered by the UFC in their Sin City efforts:

“They’ve been messing with me every step of the way,” Atencio said. “There have been issues that I’ve been dealing with. So I can’t say it’s them, but there’s been things we’ve been dealing with that have never happened before, so I guess that’s why.”

Atencio didn’t specifically list how the UFC was messing with him, but when the IFL attempted to break into the Vegas market, they faced radio stations that wouldn’t air their ads and marketing groups who refused to work with them. The rumor was that the UFC had threatened any ad networks or radio stations who cooperated with their competition, suggesting that they’d lose out on much greater business in the future from the UFC.

Affliction could be facing some of those same problems, or worse, as they try to drum up interest in their live event. Ticket sales were a major boon for their first show, but if they can’t get that same level of fan support for this effort they’ll be forced to rely on pay-per-view revenue, which could very well be weaker than their first show due to the lack of Fedor Emelianenko‘s star power. That may be why they’re shelling out the dough for a Times Square billboard, hoping that PPV buys will save them even if no one shows up to the live event.

(Props: Steve Cofield)

(Dueling highlights, via MMA Scraps. And yeah, there’s some WWE action in there.)

Ever since yesterday’s announcement that Randy Couture would be facing Brock Lesnar in his return to the UFC, you’ve been wondering: Okay, okay, but what does Kim Couture have to say about this? Fortunately, she didn’t keep us in suspense for long. “Sugar Free” went on ESPN radio with Steve Cofield to talk about the match-up and express her deepest sympathies for poor, poor Brock Lesnar:

“It’s surprising to me, shocking that they’d throw a guy in there with only three fights. I kind of feel sorry for the guy. He poses some interesting problems but that’s what Randy is good at, is taking care of those problems. He’s no bigger or tougher than (Gabe) Gonzaga or Tim Sylvia.”

‘Sup, Sable? You going to let her talk about your man that way? Better represent.

Couture seems to be parroting a line that’s already been worn out in the less-than twenty-four hours since this fight has been official. That is, how does a guy with only three fights expect to hang with “The Natural”? Of course, perusing message-boards and MMA websites yields no shortage of people wondering how a 225-pound, forty-five-year-old man can hang with a physical monstrosity like Lesnar, who knows a thing or two about wrestling himself.

In other words, there’s more than one angle to come at this fight from, which means Dana White probably knew what he was talking about when he predicted over a million pay-per-view buys. The UFC has taken some heat for a lackluster heavyweight division since the departure of Couture, but to quote Dana White from yesterday’s conference call: “Our heavyweight division looks pretty damn good now, doesn’t it?”

Point taken.

They say if you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it will beat up Brock Lesnar. If it doesn’t, it will be tied up in court battles for the rest of its viable career. At least I think that’s what they say. I don’t listen very well. Regardless, today’s announcement that Randy Couture will return to the UFC to defend his heavyweight title in November has us all a little amped. So amped, in fact, that it’s hard to focus on any other MMA-related stories right now. So let’s just enjoy a look at some of Captain America’s greatest moments and consider what the future might hold. After the jump, a nice training montage with a soundtrack that will really get your heart pumping. Turn up the volume now and thank us later.

(Guess who’s coming to UFC 91.)

Captain America is back in the UFC, and he and Dana White are best buds once again. At least, that was the story from White’s end on today’s UFC conference call. You could practically hear the smile on his face as the UFC president announced that his heavyweight champ was back and would face Brock Lesnar in a five-round title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on November 15. While White said the organization still plans to go to Portland, Oregon eventually — the rumored site of UFC 91 — he played down any notion that the event was ever really headed there. As for the intense legal battle with Couture, that’s all water under the bridge now, as far as White’s concerned, and there is no bad blood between them.

“Through this whole thing I never said anything really bad about Randy,” White said. “I think the worst thing I said about him was that he was confused. I like Randy. I always have.”

While both White and Couture repeatedly said they were thankful to have the legal dispute over, Couture sounded a slightly different note, suggesting at times that he’d simply been worn down by the lengthy process.

He described himself as “frustrated by our legal system” and said he was “tired of throwing money around with no end in sight.” He also seemed to have been persuaded by the fact of his own age and the prospect that he might not get to fight any time in the near future if not in the UFC.

“I’m forty-five, and I can’t sit around in courtrooms much longer,” said Couture.