Mark Cuban

(Andrei looks ripped.  Fedor looks chubby.  Yep, everything went as expected at the Affliction weigh-ins.)

- Oh yeah, Fedor knows how to fight a good striker.  (USA Today)

- Donald Trump Jr. talks Dana White, UFC.  (MMA Payout)

- Mike Chiappetta tells MMA fans, 'Yes, we can.'  (NBC Sports)

- One last look at Arlovski's boxing skillz.  (MMA Fanhouse)

- Brit boxers don't sweat the UFC, or so they say.  (The Sun)

- The New York Times goes from covering to lambasting MMA.  (NYT)

- Foot injury sidelines Mike Swick for at least three months.  (Five Ounces)

- "Fighting Chance" promises to be the oddest MMA movie yet.  (Al.com)

- Top 5 MMA spectator brawls.  (MMA Journalist)

- Who's afraid of Mark Cuban?  Major League Baseball.  (Scores Report)

- "Notorious" is just aiiiight.  (Bullz-Eye.com)

- Inside the Taco: New Employees.  (Holy Taco)

- 13 insanely horrible local TV ads.  (Screen Junkies)

- Cop knocks protester out cold.  (Nothing Toxic)

The good people at famed gentleman's magazine Playboy have an interview with UFC prez Dana White in their September issue (which drops Friday, August 15) and one of the more interesting nuggets to come out of it are White's remarks on what torpedoed the HBO deal:

“I pulled the plug at the 23rd hour. HBO was pi**ed off… I would have had to sell out, literally. They would have owned the UFC… I took meetings with HBO’s boxing guys. I’ll tell you, if I had to hear one more time about how many fu**ing Emmys they had won, I was going to dive out the window. I said ‘You won a bunch of Emmys, but I’m kicking your a** on pay-per-view."

Awesome. Do I believe Dana White actually said that to HBO executives? Not really, but it's still a good story. As much as people criticized him for not making the HBO deal happen, you have to respect his desire to maintain his autonomy, even if it means not blowing up big time with HBO's Emmy factory.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Dana White interview if he didn't bash Tito Ortiz:

FIGHT! Magazine’s June issue hits newsstands this week, containing articles on Jens Pulver and Lyoto Machida, as well as the following piece on the current state of competition in the MMA industry. Provided exclusively to CagePotato.com by FIGHT!, "Brave New World" features EliteXC's Gary Shaw, Strikeforce's Michael Afromowitz, and HDNet's Mark Cuban weighing in on how they plan to survive and succeed in the vast shadow of the Octagon.

***

By Matthew Ross

First it was Royce vs. Ken on closed-circuit pay-per-view. Then came Forrest vs. Stephan on basic cable. Now? It’s the UFC vs. everybody else, coming to you live on enough channels to give your TiVo a nervous breakdown.

Welcome to a new era of MMA.

First, a recap. In 2005, Dana White and Spike TV revolutionized mixed martial arts with the advent of The Ultimate Fighter reality series, which introduced the channel’s historically frat boy-esque demographic to the world of organized ass-kicking. The results were rapid and dramatic. TUF skyrocketed up the Nielsen charts and Spike began airing live, high-quality UFC cards. What had once been a fringe sub-culture whose following in the U.S. consisted of fighters and a small but dedicated army of diehard fans had now become a mainstream attraction. New gyms began popping up in strip malls all over America. Guys like Chuck, Tito, and Randy became household names, and dudes could throw out terms like rear-naked choke and Thai clinch around their girlfriends without getting slapped in the face.

By the end of 2007, UFC championship bouts were regularly covered by the national news outlets, and the brightest stars had graced the covers of ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Men’s Fitness. As Dana White would tell any reporter who’d listen: “We’ve arrived.” Not since Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta, and the rest of the Dogtown Z-Boys showed the world how to catch air with a piece of plywood and some polyurethane wheels had any sport ever gotten so big, so fast.

Not surprisingly, fans and journalists weren’t the only ones who caught wind of what was going down. Spike and the UFC may have gotten the ball rolling, but a bevy of broadcasters have teamed up with one or more of the savvy new MMA promotions to get a piece of the pie. While the empire created by Dana White and the Fertitta family shows no sign of ceding its title to any of the young upstarts, it’s impossible to deny that the UFC is no longer the only game in town. They may have the best overall roster of fighters and biggest brand recognition in the game, but things are about to get interesting.

(Partnering with the WWE for MMA events is not something to cheer about, Dude.)

In an e-mail exchange with Mark Cuban on Thursday, The Edmonton Sun posed some questions regarding the 49-year-old gazillionaire's involvement in MMA and where HDNet's participation in the sport was headed. Cuban's HDNet most recently broadcast MFC 15: Rags to Riches last Friday, where Pete Spratt was choked out by Ryan Ford. The channel has been partnering with several organizations this year to become the MMA broadcast king - including showing their own HDNet Fights.

Q: Why did you decide to carry so much MMA content on HDNet? (The channel has created the HDNet Fights brand.)
A: "We think MMA is just starting to take off. It's a great sport that combines athleticism and strategy and of course toughness that is just starting to go mainstream.

"It's a great opportunity for HDNet to gain viewers in the U.S. and Canada."

Cuban goes on to speak of his love for MMA and his plans to attend scores of live events in the near future. And he plans on keeping HDNet on track to get MMA in every house.